Heavenly Chocolate, Cod with Beer Sauce

Yesterday was a very long but rewarding day.  First in cuisine practical, we pan fried cod (with the skin on) and served it with braised cabbage and onions and a beer jus vinaigrette.  When blanching purple cabbage, you have to add vinegar to the water or it will turn blue, something I didn't know before this class.  The cod was a little difficult; it had a tendency to break apart when I tried to flip it in the pan, but one of my little portions turned out ok.  We also got to use the deep fryer to make some tiny onion rings.  Unfortunately, we all shared flour and milk for battering, so I couldn't use any tricks like beer batter or seasoned flour.  

In pastry, we made the "Heavenly Chocolate" which is a daquoise biscuit cake, topped with a crunchy chocolate hazelnut paste, then alternating layers of milk chocolate discs and milk chocolate mousse.  We used a new technique to make mousse; just making a light ganache then whipping it up, putting it on an ice bath for 20 second intervals.  The chocolate discs required a lot of patient tempering.   I finished my cake a little early so I had a lot of time to play around with decorations and even snuck in a little white chocolate drizzling.  

After 2 practicals, we had a demo for braised rooster, marinated in wine and served with a sauce that is thickened with blood....