Essential Skills for Fall...

Cooking that is, Essential Skills for Fall Cooking. That's what our class was titled Saturday afternoon at Sur La Table. In what's now become a two year tradition, I took another cooking class this October for birthday month. And this time I got to take it with Angela, who, just as I was that first time, was blown away by how much you learn, how much you get to eat, how good everything is, and how fun it is! In fact, we're on the waitlist for another class this weekend!

So Saturday's birthday class was, in the words of Chef Colette Christian, ambitious. We had six recipes to make and we were to learn how to fabricate a whole chicken. I had no idea what that meant. Now I do.

We started with the fall vegetable bisque and Parmesan crisps. I volunteered to start the soup on the stove and Angela and our teammates worked on the crisps. I love these classes for another reason, everything is already prepped for us. There's no chopping or dicing or cleaning. There are several assistant chefs running the kitchen and they keep things hopping with laid out ingredients and keep the dishwasher humming. Also, I'm making things I never would have tried at home but that I totally now will cook at home. Because they're really not that hard! Our fall soup had pears, parsnips, potatoes, celery, and so much more and it really was as simple as assembling the ingredients and seasoning them. And we're going to try the recipe at home this weekend!

Then we moved on to the chicken. Now, I'm not saying I'm going to be abandoning my large bags of frozen chicken breasts from Costco anytime soon but I have cooked a chicken several times in the past few years, a whole one. And I like the idea that I can do that now with more authority. I like knowing how to cut it up properly and how to make the best use of the pieces of meat. It's definitely something I'll try again soon, maybe over Thanksgiving vacation. Chef Colette cut the chicken for us but showed us just what to do. And she apparently has classes online we can view to review if we need them. 

Next was herb roasting the chicken and making the red wine pan sauce which was seriously, so so easy. And the crazy part? Our group almost wanted to lick the sauce off the plate when we tried it, it was that good. And it was basically onions, garlic, wine, oil, seasonings and some butter. So so easy, and things we almost always have on hand. (I am obsessed with Trader Joe's frozen garlic cubes. We couldn't keep garlic from going bad when we weren't cooking too much during all the heat waves so we switched to this and it's amazing. Tastes like it's fresh!)

After that we moved on to the vanilla bean ice cream. We just made the base, and tasted some that had been made by an assistant chef that morning because ours wouldn't have time to freeze but I love that the evening class would get to taste ours in turn later on! Chef tried to convince us to get the $60 Cuisinart ice cream maker but we held strong. I don't think the ability to make ice cream frequently is good for me or my healthy living plan. But maybe some day...

Then we finished our class by making the apple tarte tatin. Going in I thought this would be like a pie or a cobbler but it wasn't. It was a simple one-pan dessert you can really make while you're getting ready for dinner and then cook while you're eating and then have hot out of the oven (with our ice cream).

Basically we caramelized sugar and butter in a pan. We also learned several times what not to do or how to fix mistakes (when one group burned their sugar, we learned it was best just to throw it out and start over!). And we learned some tricks from Chef Colette, like cold better works best in the sauce, or to temper the eggs in some milk before adding to the ice cream base, or when to cook on high and when to cook on low (you can cook on high sometimes, I felt vindicated! I mean I always cook on high but that's part of my charm!). Then we added apples to the pan and then put a piece of puffed pastry on top. In the oven it went and VOILA! We had this amazing dessert that looked like it came from a magazine. And tasted amazing. (My favorite was when one of the husbands in the class came over for seconds when Angela and I were plating. Always a good sign!)

All of this happened in the course of about two hours, give or take. I really can't recommend these classes enough. And now we're going to be on the lookout for classes by Chef Colette too. And if you watch the website as the day draws nearer, you can score the classes on sale (half off!) like we did.

All in all, one of my favorite new traditions, birthday month or otherwise. I love the idea of making something from pieces. Of creating something that not only sustains but delights. Of being a part of making someone's, even my own, day a bit happier, a bit more delicious. And if it doesn't turn out? Who cares! You start over. Or you improvise. Our Chef was dealing with a new shopper Saturday who didn't get several necessary ingredients for the recipes. She made do by grinding sea salt smaller and by using frozen butter they had in the deep freeze. And when she sprinkled our soup with red pepper instead of black (or the white Julia Child would insist on), she said we were branching out, going spicy. And you know what? It was delicious. Because in the words of Ms. Child, "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude." I love that!

Our cooking team - Christiane, Me, Angela, and Kristen