Chefs quenelle lots of things, and for good reason.
Because you deserve it.
Even if dessert is served at the coffee table, I still want it to look enticing.
With a couple rounds of practice you might accomplish this fine dining technique in your home kitchen.
(Or just use the cheaters method.)
To clarify: The quenelle is a shape that looks like an elongated egg.
Its three dimensional and round, with one tapered end and a slightly rounder end.
you could make a quenelle of ice cream, or of whitefish salad.
(And sometimes a girl likes to nerd-out with culinary techniques.)
Achieving this shape is only tricky because the hand motion takes some getting used to.
Its probably not a motion you do with anything else when youre cooking.
There are three ways to scoop a quenelle.
Try them out and see which one works for you.
I used a pint of mango sorbet.
The small tub made it a little harder to maneuver, but it still worked.
Take the spoon out of the water and tap off the excess.
Press down into the ice cream, scooping toward your body.
Then make a turn and tilt the spoon toward the center of your body.
Lower the spoon into the food and scrape down and away from you.
In the pictures, I was using whipped cream.
You need two equally sized two spoons, one in each hand.
Spoon A is facing up, and B is facing you.
Theyre about to actually spoon each other.
Scrape spoon B down along inside Spoon A, essentially replacing it.
Now Spoon B is holding the ice cream and Spoon A is free.
The area where Spoon A was is now flat and smooth.
Repeat this pattern a few times until you get a rounded, slightly three-sided quenelle.
