New design, new recipes

At last I have a new design, one it really reflects what's cooking in my brain! :) Thanks to the Blog Fairy (http://www.theblogfairy.com/): she works well, she works fast, she reads minds and she is extraordinarily talented. Kudos!

I completed my pending classes (Vietnamese cuisine, French pastry, ravioli) and I have nothing lined up now, I will have to shake things a little bit. Vietnamese cuisine class was fascinating, but it was not that cool to prepare 3 dishes at home by myself: we are talking 3 hours of prepping here, people. Once a year, with a bunch of friends cheering at home (better if they are knife proficient) and a nice glass of wine, but not  for every day. French pastry was extremely interesting but scary: talk about the butterfly effect. If a "pages" in Catalonia pays his electricity invoice, something may get altered in the recipe you are cooking in New Jersey. Or at least, so it seems. Yet, worth to try, a very delicate and tasty science. Ravioli was as fun as one can imagine. Once you get the knack of the machine, you start churning like crazy. Now, it comes the search for pasta recipes, the right blend of spices, flours and oils.

Today Sunday, I am going to tackle another Julia Child's classic, Coq au vin. Sometimes I am puzzled when I start reading her recipes, I wonder, is it *really* necessary to do all this? can we just jump from a) to d) and skip the skimming or the changing or pots or some weird and obscure voodoo juju? Well, once you start cooking the pieces fall into place. You see why no, you should not skip a single Child's spell and how what to do influences your food. It is a pleasure to cook but also a wonderful learning experience.

More classes at Sur la Table

This month I attended two other great classes at Sur La Table: Fish 101 and Vietnamese cuisine. I was concerned about cooking fish properly; because I never liked fish very much, I felt I did not know beans about how to handle and prepare the fish. Cleaning, prepping, right temperature...we learned the whole process and some great recipes in the process. Vietnamese cuisine was also very interesting, with the mix of French and Asian ingredients, fusion long time before fusion was invented. Lemongrass and dill, fish sauce and chiles, fish and pork. We cooked a pork with lemongrass that was not of this world and we learned how to make spring rolls.

Bread!!!

Since forever, I wanted to learn to make bread, but with my poor relation with the flour, it wasn't working very well. After a few experiments and after I managed not to get completely covered in flour and spend two hours cleaning afterwards, I felt I was ready to start my bread journey. Anybody can mix the ingredients, but I heard that knead the dough was not that easy. I decided to use common sense for once and take a class. I found classes at a store called Sur La Table and off I went.  It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. Brad, the chef and teacher explained us how to go about the process in


a clear and fun way. I learned how to make sourdough bread, French baguettes and pumpernickel bread, as well as some delicious dips. I did not waste time and I started my bread experiments during the weekend. Here you have my first sourdough rolls and my first baguettes. Woooohooo! :D