Hello, everyone. This week has started with me preparing deep fried onion rings. I made them for the Apero.  Another component of the starter are the previously mentioned marinated quail eggs. This time I made the marinate using Lennart’s recipe.

My next task was to make a chervil sorbet. I have never done a sorbet before. Preparing it was not as hard as I have imagined it before. My first try was not that good, but the second one was quite successful. We have used the sorbet for the strawberry dessert on the menu.

It was an ordinary week at the end of which there was a concert. Specially for the guests of the hotel, the executive chef organized a buffet. I was responsible for recharging the buffet but before that, I helped with preparing it. I helped for one of the desserts, which was a frozen sweet yogurt with hazelnuts crumbs.

 I also helped with decorating two of the starters. One of them was an artichoke salad with buffalo mozzarella, which I decorated with corn and lavender flowers.

 The other starter I decorated together with my colleague Manuel. We had to plate smoked trout with red radish. I don’t think decorating is my strongest skill, but still, I gave my best.

In this week video, you can see how I am cutting hazelnuts.

Thank you for reading my blog, see you next week.

Hello, everyone! This week I had a lot of emotions in the kitchen, which is exactly the reason I love this job. Every day is different and you never know what the next meal will be. At work, I had to do pretty much the same things like the previous week and still, I have a lot to tell you.
My week started with making pancakes at home. It is always nice to spoil yourself a little bit before work.

 On Thursday I had to cut cherries in thin slices, which took a lot of time and nerves but my executive chef told me that for the next day I will have to cut more cherries and I accepted the challenge. The next day I got to work only to see 5 kilograms of sour cherries waiting for me to get started. It took me a lot of time to slice them and when I finished I understood, that I did my job the slowest way possible. It was a valuable lesson for me: before acting, always think through all your options.
Except for the cherries this week I did my work very well.

Cherries

Sour cherries

The pastry chef, who was responsible for me, gave me a special task: to do everything without asking questions like “Should I?” “May I?”. Of course under his surveillance and with his help, I managed to make the onion quiche for the starter and I have also prepared the cheesecake for the pralines.

For this week video, I am going to show you how I sliced cherries.
Thank you for reading and see you next week.

Dessert time

Hello everyone. This week I got back to the kitchen of “Gutshaus Stolpe” hotel and restaurant. I started the week with preparing the starter, which included onion quiche, homemade mayonnaise, tartar sauce, all is prepared by Lennart, beef jerky, and the other component includes radishes seasoned with salt pepper, chives, on which is placed smoked cream cheese, crisp bread and marinated quail egg. The decoration came entirely from our garden.

My week continued with wild salmon that I had to filet. Unfortunately I didn’t do it so well, but the next time I will do it better. 

On Friday we had a buffet and I worked in the pastry section. I helped Lennart to prepare and decorate the desserts. At first I squeezed some lemons for the lemon tart, which later we decorated with sweet crumbs, red berries and cloverleaf. There was also sweet yogurt with fresh strawberries and homemade muesli. We also served chocolate cake, decorated with nuts and berries. 

Lemon tart

Yogurt

Chocolate cake

On Saturday we had a wedding celebration. As an afternoon meal before the dinner we served finger food, which included: wild salmon, watercress, sour cream, which I prepared, pumpernickel; rabbit with buttermilk and fennel; leek quiche, sour cream and herbs from our garden; veal ragout potatoes espuma and beech-wooden mushrooms. 

On the buffet for dinner i helped with the pastry and we made rhubarb tart decorated with sweet crumbs and berries. The other dessert was chocolate mousse with preserved plums, I cutter in dices the plums, this you can see in my week video, and I prepared the crumbs, which my executive chef liked. The third dessert was crème Brule decorated also with berries.  

Rhubarb tart

 

Chocolate mousse

Crumbs

crème Brule

Thank you for reading and see you next week.

Hello everyone. This was my last week in “Stolper Fährkrug”. My last days here started with potatoes puree, which we needed for three of our dishes. The first dish is in the kids menu and it’s a schnitzel.  The second dish is pork cheeks, which you can see on the photo below. The other garnish, for this dish, is green beans with bacon and onions. The third of our dishes is duck’s liver, which we served with caramelized apples and onions.

Pork cheeks

Duck’s liver

This week I had to make Bolognese sauce that we have also used for the kids menu. I stewed onions and carrots, and then I added the tomato puree. In another pan I closed the minced meat and later I added it to the tomatoes. My colleagues said they like the result.

At the end of the week I prepared something favorite from my mother’s kitchen and that is quick banitsa. Here is the place to say that I nailed it. It had the exact same taste and consistency as my mom’s.

I want to apologize, but this week I don’t have a video for the blog. The reason is that I had a little accident and my week finished a few days earlier.

Turned out it is not so bad, how it looks like.

I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week.

Hello everyone! At the start of this work week in the restaurant there was an event. As a main course we served to the people catfish fillets with mixture of vegetables and eggs on the top. The garnish was my responsibility. I had to cut and to stew leek with butter, a bit water, salt, pepper and nutmeg. The fish sauce made like foam.

I am very excited to say, that I had to prepare the staff meal. I had to use cabbage. Then I got the idea to cook one of my favourite dishes from my childhood. Rise with cabbage. It wasn’t something really special, but my colleagues really liked it and asked for more of the Bulgarian kitchen.

At the end of the week my chef and I, we made boar meatballs. I boned the boar leg.

 We minced the meat by adding 30% fat. We added onions and spices. Then we made the meatballs, which you can see in this week video.

After forming them we baked them in the oven for sixteen minutes on hundred and forty-five degrees with sixty-five percent humidity.

 Before serving we wrapped them in bacon and we closed the bacon from both sides, the garnish consisted of wedges potatoes and salad from wild herbs.

Thank you for reading, see you next week.

Hello, everyone! The half of the month is already gone. My week started with an event on which we served pork fillet with bacon, mushroom mix and young potatoes.

For the mushroom mix we used oyster mushrooms, chanterelles and white mushrooms. I took care of preparing the mushroom mix and that you can be seen in this week video.

For dessert we served mango and blackberry mousse with orange lemon ice cream, elderberry espuma, chocolate stick and mint for decoration.

On Wednesday I prepared the orange yoghurt dressing, which we usually use for most of our salads. I mixed the yoghurt with fresh orange juice, after that I seasoned it with salt, pepper and sugar. At the end I added minced parsley leaves.

The week continued excitingly for me, because I was working in the cold and the hot sections. But the biggest challenge for this week was the new menu. The pressure was a lot, but I liked it. Two of the dishes, that I prepared, were pike perch fillet with spinach and young potatoes and red mullet filet. The mullet fillet is served on potatoes thatch, and turnips. I found the colour of the fish very interesting. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to taste it.

Pike perch fillet 

Red mullet fillets 

Thank you for reading, see you next week.

Hello everyone. This week I got back in the kitchen of “Stolper Fährkrug” restaurant. My working day has always been starting with preparing all vegetables needed for the cold section. It is nice to start the day with something fresh and green. In this week video you can see how I am cutting radishes for the salads.

My week continued with discovering some qualities of the elderberry. I have seen the flowers in Bulgaria so many times and my father is making juice with them, but my chef showed me how I can prepare the flowers. He is making a special paste batter with elderberry juice.  After that he dips the flowers inside and then he is deep frying them. We served them with the dessert, which consisted of vanilla ice cream, strawberries and sugar powder.

At the end of the work week I had to trim a pork tenderloin, which we use when we make schnitzel. After the trimming the meat is being sliced in pieces which are around 1cm thick, then it is thinned by pounding with meat tenderizer, and at the end we season it with salt and  pepper. Then it is fried in flour, eggs and bread crumbs. We serve it with sunny side up eggs and Bratkartoffel.

Thank you for reading, see you next week.