That was my fortune yesterday when I opened one of the many cookies the lady at China Dragon put in our bag of goodies. True words. Though my long day yesterday didn’t conclude with dinner with friends. It concluded with the best class at Ye Olde Pot & Pannery yet.
Yes, I went over time and didn’t get to all the vegetables I wanted to grill. Yes, one person left early because she had to be somewhere. Yes, I completely forgot to put the parsley on the pasta. But. But. It was a great class. Everyone asked questions. I had done my homework on why it was called al’amatriciana (in the style of Amatrice in Italy) and the swordfish, which I have to be honest and say that I don’t eat since seeing one butchered. I did taste it and it was amazing. The tomatoes, olives, onions, garlic, capers and pine nuts combined to this lovely relish on top and the swordfish held up to it and wasn’t fishy or lost.
The tiramisu was a hit with fellow employees as well as the class and the second one is in the fridge at work to be devoured today. The biggest surprises were the pasta and the frittata. I think the class was surprised at how good the Italian sausage made the egg and peppers taste and that we fed 13 people with a pound and a half of bucatini. Of course, you don’t need much when you are sampling an Italian feast as any of the items could have been a meal unto themselves with a salad. And the bucatini swells up quite a bit. A, my assistant, last night was sampling it in the kitchen and discovered that it also doesn’t slurp like spaghetti because of the hole in the middle. I’m glad she got a chance to try everything as I think I dirtied every prep bowl in the kitchen and most of the cutting boards and she had to wash it all. If I made that many dirty dishes at home, I think I would have a nervous breakdown.
Despite the successes of the food, the best thing for me was the fact that everybody had a good time and really enjoyed themselves with the group and, I am hopeful, with me. There was a woman who had taken my Sauces class and is signing up for more classes. And there were lots of people who had taken some of the more expensive classes at the Pannery before, the ones with the working chefs and personal chefs, and seemed to enjoy the different pace of my classes, too. And, not to dislocate my shoulder while patting myself on the back here, but one woman said that she enjoyed the class and that I was so pleasant and informative and that I must be getting my money’s worth out of my education and, the best part, that she would line up to buy my cookbook when it came out. That made my night because as much as feeding people, I love sharing knowledge about cooking.
Yesterday’s Advanced Baking class was a revelation for me, too. My last classroom experience with making puff pastry was somewhat unpleasant in that it didn’t do what I wanted it to do and butter oozed out everywhere and the cooler was broken so things weren’t resting and cooling properly before we were fiddling with them. I honestly thought I would never even attempt to make puff pastry again.
Yesterday was definitely a different experience. From mixing the dough through all the rolling in and folding the dough stayed cool and squared up for the folds. J and C, my partners in crime, were great and we worked together as a team really well. The blueberry turnovers that were our final product puffed up great without a butter slick around them. The blueberry did ooze out and I think it was too wet a filling for the turnover as the layers around it didn’t cook through as well and were a little doughy tasting.
I still don’t see myself spending leisurely Sunday afternoons whiling away the time making puff pastry, but it would no longer give me a sinking feeling in my stomach if I walked into work somewhere and the pastry chef said, “Raschke, make 7 pounds of puff pastry, please.” Say, 100 pounds would probably still make me think about spending some private time in the walk-in cooler screaming before I got started, but ultimately I am no longer intimidated by the puff.
Now that I have conquered my fear of laminated doughs and have successfully roasted a chicken in my crappy oven at home (thanks to ZeusZine and the discovery that my roasting pan’s side were too high), I feel invincible! Well… a little more accomplished anyway.
