New year’s resolutions, anyone? If yours had anything to do with learning to cook so you can eat better, healthier, more flavorful food, or to lose a little weight, to get together with friends and family more often, or try new and fun activities, consider a cooking class or get-together with friends or co-workers in the kitchen! We have a fabulous roster of classes on the schedule, many with room for a group of friends or family to attend together. We are always happy to create a group event—cooking and dining together brings people closer in a marvelous way. Get a group of 12 or more together and call or email us.
Year In Review
2011 was a pretty good year, with a couple of truly spectacular high points. Our “annual upgrade” was adding air conditioning—so brilliant, I wonder how we ever got along without it for nearly eight years. It used to get hot in the kitchen when big groups cooked together! Now, we don’t have to worry about those steamy days.
Our 2011 summer camp sold out, and grandson Miles waited to arrive until a few days after camp ended. He’s now 5 months old, and an old hand in the kitchen—he even has chef’s whites to wear (thanks Alicia), and is very popular with our guests.
The rest of the activities in the kitchen centered primarily around team building groups, birthday parties (including some amazing kid’s parties), rehearsal dinners, and friend and family groups wanting to cook together. We had a marvelous chocolate event with Derek Poirier from Valrhona leading a corporate group in making chocolate holiday trees and delicious truffles (and still have one more event with Derek available).
We’ve added some new, creative game-playing scenarios to our cooking event line-up for companies looking for a challenge. Add in a few weddings and a big fundraiser here and there to cater, and the year was a big success for our little company.
2012’s annual upgrade is about to happen—our new website will debut by February 1st. I can’t wait, it’s going to be gorgeous, and afford the opportunity to work in new pictures and information with the greatest of ease.
Classes
We have a packed roster of classes for you to choose between. Take one or take a series—you’ll eat well and have fun!
We start with a series from Charlie Vollmar, called The Essentials of Better Cooking. Charlie’s a great teacher, often working in culinary schools—and this series starts this Thursday, the 5th, with a Hearty Winter Menu class. You can buy one class or all of the series. Charlie’s last series was a smash hit with his students, who came away with grounded new knowledge and lots of kitchen inspiration.
Selome is back from Ethiopia, and has an Ethiopian Cooking class on the schedule this Saturday, the 7th. I recently revisited Cafe Colucci, her family’s restaurant, and had another spectacularly flavorful meal—and Selome is a great teacher. If you want to learn how to make this vibrant, flavorful cuisine yourself, this class is a great start.
Rosetta’s classes are, as always, starting to sell out—but January 13th’s class, Winter Comfort Foods of Calabria, still has some space. The menu looks great, and is centered around the foods Rosetta grew up with.
Eric E. Weiss’s Knife Sharpening class is set for Monday evening, January 16th. Eric teaches only once each quarter, and the skills you will learn from him will help you immensely in the kitchen—there is nothing more satisfying than starting your prep tasks with a well-sharpened knife. You get expert instruction on how to keep your knives sharp, and your own sharpening stone and oil to take home.
I’ve added a class to the schedule myself. All you ‘old timer’ readers know I taught for Piedmont Adult School for 20 years, and you have probably noticed I’ve stopped teaching regularly. It’s too much, running a business, running all our group and catering events, and teaching too—but I miss it. So, I’ve decided to follow my own New Year’s Resolution, the ubiquitous desire and often futile promise to lose some weight, with a class that I know will help.
We all know, by now, the confusing litany of do’s and don’t’s for weight loss, with one pundit claiming low-carb, another no meat, and yet another, a return to the Paleo diet. I try to take it all with a grain of Celtic salt (full of minerals) and over the years, I’ve found that lots of good soups made from bone-based broths and farmer’s market vegetables, which are packed with nutrition and very satisfying, play a part in my weight loss plan. So, I’ve put a menu called Stocks, Soups, and Satisfaction together. We’ll learn how to make classic chicken and beef stocks, and create soups from each one, plus make a fish soup from whole fish. Soups will include Turkish chicken with leeks and yogurt, Minestrone (normally a 3-hour preparation, we’ll use the pressure cooker to reduce the time to nearly nothing!) and French Soupe de Poisson. We’ll round out the menu with a delicious panna cotta for dessert.
In the Market
The last few farmer’s markets have been a bit sparse, with many vendors taking a bit of time off for the holidays. Some markets were closed completely. However, stalwart Grand Lake had at least half it’s vendors New Year’s Eve, and plenty of good choices. Citrus is coming in strong, with oranges and Mandarins, early pomelos and oro blanco (sweet grapefruits) in abundance. Persimmons are ending, their season punctuated by softening fruit. Grapes, too, are at the end for the year locally, although several farmers still have a supply. I got amazing little tiny organic strawberries Christmas eve at Grand Lake, but probably these berries will also start fading to white shoulders as winter continues. Apples and pears are still strong, and Asian pears are great right now—crisp additions to a salad, not overly sweet but very refreshing, especially paired with the bitter chicories that are the mainstays of the salad market right now. A wide variety of these, from the ubiquitous radiccio to pan de zuccaro and treviso, make for salads that need to be carefully balanced—the bitterness plays off nicely against a bit of sweet and tart in the vinaigrette, and pairs well with nuts, mild goat cheese, and either the pears or some citrus. I’ve not seen quince in the farmer’s markets, but they are in the stores (at least Berkeley Bowl); these fruits are grown on some very thorny bushes; I used to have one, at a former house, and the thorns were an inch long and extremely sharp. Peel quince, remove the seedy cores, and cut into wedges. Poach them in a sweetened liquid—either water or white wine—and marvel at their subtle fragrant flavor. You can’t eat them raw, but for Christmas dessert, I made a quince tart, pairing quince poached in riesling and fresh ginger, with a quick brown sugar custard base. It got rave reviews, so I’ll reprint here as the recipe of the month.
On the vegetable front, broccoli and cauliflower are at their peak, as are the sturdy greens—collards, kales, and chard. One farmer still has good green beans, another a few peppers—poblanos are still going strong. Lettuces are getting sturdier as the weather is too cold to support delicate foliage, but some farmers still have them; baby arugula, peppery cress, and spinach are excellent. Carrots, parsnips and turnips, plus of course good potatoes and onions, are all ready for digging. Cabbage and especially red cabbage is great right now—I recently purchased three red cabbages for a catering job at the Berkeley market, and together, they weighed 14 pounds! Monster cabbage, to be sure. Winter squash are also very sweet now, so think about roasting some acorn or butternut or delicata for dinner. Try halving and roasting a Delicata, and then stuff it with spicy chorizo sauteed with onions and garlic, and pop it back in the oven with some cheese on top—the sweet plays well against the spices. I’ve also been stuffing sturdy poblano peppers with chorizo and cheese, and making rellenos, topped with a simple tomato sauce (add a tiny pinch of cinnamon and an even smaller bit of clove, along with some onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil, plus tomatoes (canned are fine) and cook for a little bit, season, and use to sauce the peppers). Remember to start by charring the pepper skin a bit, and peeling it away. Fried or baked, they are delicious.
Summer Camp
The schedule for summer will be up mid-January. Tracy is planning a really dynamic group of camps, and we’re gathering our guest chefs from as far away as Milan. We will let you know as soon as the schedule publishes, or just watch the Cook! Programs website for updates.
Recipe of the Month
The season for quince should run through February, and you can find them for sure at Berkeley Bowl. These fruit are hard, yellow-green, and like misshapen apples. You can’t eat them raw, but poached quince is just delicious. For this Quince Tart recipe, we’ll combine a simple pie crust, tucked into a tart shell, with a brown sugar custard and poached quince. Baked together, the result is a real winner—rich and satisfying. There is nothing that tastes quite like a quince—so if you’ve never given one a try, it’s worth doing.
Use the archive of recipes on the website for inspiration! The monthly recipes follow the seasons, and you can find a lot of delicious ideas for a hearty winter meal, a light lunch, a delicious dessert.