french cooking for all

there is seriously too much fat in a french meal. just imagine two pots of sauce on the table for you to dress carrots and eggs - one full of cream, the other full of butter. i was almost eating the sauces with wild abandon, but now i'm feeling the after effects.
the menu:
cream of water cress soup
sautéed chicken with brown deglazing sauce
carrots braised in butter with cream sauce
poached eggs with hollandaise sauce
tarte tatin

the water cress soup's failure was that it was not creamy, and the vegetables were just swimming around; it was only after i got home that i realised that i completely missed out the step to purée the soup. the chicken's failure was that it was too tough, though tasty. the carrots' failure was that they were too sweet. the poached eggs' failure was that they weren't done right, and the hollandaise sauce was just not appreciable.

but the tarte tatin did not fail. you just have to taste it to love it. the sweet short paste was proudly made by weiyang, who, under julia's instructions, put his fingers into the dough to get the feel. so he quickly rubbed in the butter, tossed with ice water, and did the fraisage for the final blending of the flour and butter. i think the crust turned out really well, because no time was wasted to allow the butter to soften. the apples for the tart were sliced by beejuan, who made them all so paper-thin that they readily-absorbed the caramelised juices eventually. after lining the tart pan with the apples, layered with sugar and butter, they topped it with the crust. after baking, the tart unmolded easily onto the plate in one piece, to reveal a perfectly browned and caramelised tarte tatin. and after slicing, it was just a sweet ending, with a perfect crust.