Eggs florentine

Today we made eggs florentine. This is a dish where you put a piece of toast on a plate, on top of that creme spinach, then a poached egg on that, and then lastly cheese to finish it of.
Creme spinach:
Bechamel (white sauce) :
Melt 100g butter and mix it with 100g flour to form a roux (soft ball)
Boil milk with a onion with cloves in.
Add it to the roux and whisk till the roux is desolved and the consistency is thick.
Blanched spinach
Put water in a pot and let it boil.
Cut the white pieces out of the spinach and rinse it.
Put the spinach in the boiling water for 3-5 min.
Saute onions:
Brunoise the onion and fry it in a pan.
Mix all of the above.
Poach egg:
Put water in a pan, and let it simmer.
Put vinegar into the water just enough to taste it. 
Stir the water then brake the egg into the water.
Take the egg out when it is still soft.
When all these things are on the plate put it under a grill, so the cheese will melt.

Mayonaise and meringues

Today we made mayonnaise, You whisk egg yolks and add oil and vinegar slowly while whisking vigorously. We used that to put into the chicken mayonnaise.
After we did that we had egg whites left over, and what better to make meringues with that. When making meringues you whisk the egg whites till it makes soft points, then add icing sugar and mezina slowly by the mixture, while still whisking. The meringues must be put into an preheated oven at 100'C, It must be baked till hard and may not be brown.  This is really easy and fun to make!

Knife skills

Today we learnt knife skills. There are two cutting methods, chopping and slicing. we sliced lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. That is part of the mice on place for the toasted sandwiches and side salads. In the morning all the bowls must be filled up so you can easily make the sandwiches when it is ordered. There are different colored chopping boards for the different types of thing you cut, to prevent cross contamination.

First day of chef

Today I started with the chef course. After we got our uniform, we washed and dried cutlery, plates cups ext. We also washed all the pots and pans. It was interesting to see how everything works in the kitchen.  We learnt the right way to cut and I tried it once... lets just say this might take a while, but practice makes perfect. I think and hope I will enjoy this course a lot!

Last day at RG

Today was the last day of RG, the last day my work will be in the bush veld for this year. We worked hard, but is was great fun! There were days we were covered in mud other days in sickle bush. We learnt a lot not just about nature and how to conserve it, but we allso learnt a lot of life lessons that I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. Thanx to every one that made this 6 months some of the best months I've had!

poaching

On Sunday morning guests reported that there has been poaching. We went to see what was going on. We saw where the animal (we suspect it was a blue wildebeest) Was shot, there was blood on a lot of places. We saw the place where it was dragged on the grass to the fence. The fence was cut so they can come in easily. We saw the tire tracks of the vehicle where it reversed to come closer to pick it up. before they loaded the wildebeest they removed the stomach so it is lighter. One things for sure these people had a lovely Sunday lunch...Bastards!

Compost

Today we sifted compost from the compost heap. we threw the compost through a sift and put it in bags. We sifted this, because it looks neater and the big parts still needs to decompose before it can be used. We took this sifted compost to the wild life center and spread it in the avery to make that soil richer and that the plants can grow better there.

Erosion project

We are doing a erosion project at the springbok flats. we took a open patch and surrounded it with sickle bush. in the middle we put a lot of grass and cut sweat bush, after we made holes in the ground with a spitfork. This will help put some nutrients back into the soil. We are going to cover this patch with sickle bush, so the grasses won't blow away. There was a midden (a place where antelope mark their territory) in that area, so we didn't cover it. I hope in time that this piece will fully recover.