At the first class we learned to make Coq Au Vin (a French Chicken Dish), Spaetzle (German noodle side dish) and Creme Brulee. The store tries to push their ready made sauce starters (at $16/jar) as well as every kind of gadget you can imagine. Last weekend I prepared the whole meal from scratch except I cut the fat by at least half of what they did in the class, and Mike thought it was the best chicken dish he's ever had! It did taste pretty amazing, but how can it not, when you combine bacon, chicken, mushrooms, caramelized pearl onions and wine!!
Here's a picture of my creme brulee. I think this will be the desert that I make for our Christmas dinner this year, it's so easy to make and it tasted awesome :)
This past Sunday the topic was "Tough to Tender" and it covered how to make cheaper cuts of meat into some nice dishes. It was another good sales pitch for their products, include the Immersion Circulator that sells for $799, Belgian Beer and Onion Braising Base ($16/jar) and Beef Stew Braising Base (also $16/jar).
The sous vide technique demo was interesting. The beef brisket first seasoned and seared, then cooled off and then cooked in a vacuum sealed bag in a water bath at 148F for 48 hours! After that it's seared, sliced and finished in the Williams Sonoma Belgian Beer and Onion Braising Base. The argument for using the Sous Vide technique is that the food cooks in it's own juices so it's more flavorful, and because it's cooked at such low temperature the protein fibers will not break down so it'll never overcook. After the taste test, I'm not convinced, the meat was really tender, but not enough to convince me that I need this $799 Immersion Circulator.
The nice thing is that I got to try something new and was able to reproduce the Beef Stew sauce from scratch yesterday afternoon in my Dutch oven. I can say it was the best beef stew I've ever tasted! The secret was taking the time to brown the meat up front and using dark beer and using fresh locally grown root vegetables to make the sauce. Not to mention fresh herbs form my garden :) I used white, purple and sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, carrots, onions, garlic, celery and red peppers! And the best part, Mike, Ashley and Indira loved it too!
Next Sunday the class covers Breads and Spreads for the Holiday table. Can't wait, although I already have some favs that would be hard to top.
I was in a cooking mood all weekend, so in addition to the stew I also make crepes stuffed with ground beef. Here's a picture:
May be one day I can have my own business doing this for living, but for now it's just a hobby that our whole family benefits from :)
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