Professor Shalmanese's 2 week cooking school

[Shalmanese]

I have an old high school friend who I've been keeping in sporadic contact with over the years and I regularly send him tantalising photographs of my cooking. He's expressed interest in learning how to cook "properly" and I've been giving him hints and tips about a few basic things. This year, I've convinced him to come hang out with my over the Christmas break and we're going to catch up, see some of the sights and cook up a storm. He's coming down on the 23rd of December and leaving on the 4th of January so that gives me about 13 days to teach him everything I know about food. It's going to be pretty intense, I want at least a soup, salad, main and dessert every night, maybe an appetiser. As well as at least a single light course for breakfast and lunch.

I think the emphasis is going to be mainly on things he has a realistic chance of preparing when he gets back home but I'm not going to dumb anything down for his sake. The food I want him to get cooking in the end is going to be complex, multi-component, and with an eye towards presentation. Even though he might rarely ever produce a meal like that again, I think the lessons learnt are valuable ones for much simpler foods.

In the end, IMHO at least, probably the most valuable thing I can teach him is to develop his palate; how to season and spice, what good and mediocre food tastes like, how to tell when something is done, underdone or overdone and how to combine flavours in your head and figure out if something works or not. However, 13 days is not long and I want to maximise the things I can teach him in such a short period of time.

Right now, he has some basic knife skills, can make a roux, some simple sauces, can cook pasta, steak and could probably follow a relatively simple recipe.

My plan so far is this:

Day 1:

Go shopping, teach him how to select produce, teach him what some of the more obscure vegtables smell and taste like and how to prepare them. Buy supplies for the next 2 weeks. Make a chicken stock, brown beef bones in the oven for a beef stock, make some "base" ingredients for the coming days like onion confit, roasted bell peppers, roasted garlic, garlic oil, basil/herb oil, onion confit, duxelles, simple syrup etc. Make a simple garden salad with standard vinagrette, a soup that's light and straight from that days stock & chicken parts, something simple for a main and probably just fresh fruit for dessert.

Day 2:

Make beef stock, start cooking proper

Day 3:

Take him to the farmers market, buy yet more food. start winging it from there.

Stuff that I've thought of that I want him to make include:

soups

Seafood Bisque

Clam Chowder

Vichysoisse

Pea Soup

Asparagus Soup

Miso Soup

Salads

Ceaser

An Asian inspired salad

???

Mains

Risotto

Fresh Pasta

Ravioli

gnocci

Some sort of roast

Seared Fish of some sort

A Braise (osso buco?)

Pork belly

A ceviche

Slow cooked bolognese

duck confit

Something to do with duck breasts

Curry?

offal?

Misc

Fresh Bread

Roast vegtables

Lemonade

mashed potatos

rice

Chicken/Beef stock

Dessert:

Sorbet

Poached fruit

Chocolate Mousse

Flan/Custard

Pie

Truffles

Cookies

Does anyone else have any ideas? I'm really trying to cover as many bases at once here. Keep in mind that it's summer over here and theres a lot of fantastic produce in the markets that I want to take advantage of. My god, it's going to be a lot of hard work but we'll eat like kings!

[Lori in PA]

I teach kids' cooking classes at my home each summer and I don't dumb it down for them either. The most effective method of planning I've found is to think first about the various skills one needs to be able to follow the average recipe:

saute

fry

simmer

deglaze

fold

knead

You get the idea. I plan recipes that include as much practice as possible for the skills I'm focusing on in that class. You may totally ignore bread-making over xmas, so you won't worry about "knead," "proof," or "let rise until doubled in bulk," but you may spend a lot of time on egg skills or saute/pan sauce skills or whatever.

Two other thoughts:

1. I doubt you can give enough instruction or practice on knife skills. If he doesn't own a good knife, get him one as a graduation gift!

2. Keep in mind the kitchen equipment he has when you are working together. If he has a good food processor or mixer, fine, use yours to teach him, but if not, show him how to work with what he'll have when he leaves your house. Resist the temptation when you are doing this to constantly say, "Oh, if only you had a decent food processor -- this would take a fraction of the time..." :-)

[Malawry]

You may find this recent thread of interest. I hope you document what you end up doing here in detail, if possible. I'm very interested to see how it goes.

[godito]

Malawry's thread is a good source for ideas... and I also like Lori's suggestion. Do teach him specific recipes, but concentrate on cooking techniques. This is the way I would handle it:

part 1: Product ID and how to buy stuff

part 2: Equipment buying and maintaining (including sharpening knifes... stress the importance of a good set of really sharp knifes)

part 3: stocks, soups and sauces (just the basics, so he can adapt later to his own needs)

part 4: Cooking Methods: from poaching to simmering to roasting to sauteing to braising to frying, etc

part 5: specifics, like pasta making, bread and/or vinaigrettes (or emulsions... like mayo and hollaindaise)

also, always talk about proper knife cuts (for presentation and even cooking), plate presentation, menu planning, seasoning, etc.

And always expand your explanations. For instance, you can teach him to make duck confit, but make sure he knows this is a way to preserve meat and that you can make a "confit" of anything, once you know the basics. "Confit" of salmon (cooked in olive oil)

Then, move into pastry and baking.

2 weeks is not a lot of time, but if you concentrate on the technichalities of cooking, then he will have a good idea of what to do with his new knowledge once he's back home.

good luck!

[Shalmanese]

This is not going to really be a cooking class in the conventional sense. A couple of things to keep in mind:

We will be eating what we cook, therefore, it's not really possible to do a systematic progression from easy to hard. I pretty much expect to throw him into the deep end.

We're both fairly nerdy, academic types. As much as I can, I'll rely on merely describing something to him rather than going through the hands on since our time is limited. For example, I don't see anything particularly hard about deep frying that needed demonstration. I might touch briefly on breading, how to keep foods crisp and timing/safety issues.

I'm more interested in teaching him a philosophy of cooking. How to taste, how to think and how to learn more. A good stock is more about patience than anything else. Half the joy of bread baking comes from the manipulation of this almost alive piece of dough. Sometimes flavours can surprise you with their intensity if you just treat them simply and with respect. That sort of stuff.

Perhaps I've understated his competence a bit, he does know how to simmer, saute and deglaze (and probably conceptually knows how to fry and roast even if he's never done them).

[JAZ]

If he's the type who likes to read about cooking, he might want to read through some of the eGCI courses before he gets to your house. (eGCI)

[Lori in PA]

A fun exercise is to go the market or grocery store and select a set of ingredients and then brainstorm how many different dishes you can come us with using them. That is eye-opening to many who are at the stage of relying on printed recipes for all their cooking. I'm sure you know what I mean -- how a chicken, some veggies, herbs, stock, and cream could become a pasta dish, a braise, a saute, a salad, a stir-fry (nix the cream), a roast with pan gravy, etc. This conversation is a great opener to exploring how to match time available for cooking, season, product freshness, mood, etc. with cooking method and presentation. Then more talk about flexibility in choosing ingredients, cooking method, and more.

[Shalmanese]

Okay, we've been planning the whole thing out a bit more. He's coming at 5pm and, for the first night, he wants to get his knife skills back up to speed. Any suggestions about a relatively quick dish to make that involves lots of varied chopping of different types of objects?

Also planned for this week:

I'm getting him to bring up a bottle of Melbourne tap water and compare it to Sydney tap water in making two loaves of bread. I'm unconvinced the water quality will have a significant effect on the taste of the loaves but we'll see.

Near the end of the stay, I want to do a kind of market garden challenge where I pick say, 10 ingredients and he has to craft a meal around as many of them as possible.

We hope to document as much of this as possible and keep a running progression. I'm relying on your guys advice to keep this running smoothly.

Game day is in 68 hours.

[Lori in PA]

I've been wondering about your project, Shalmanese -- great to hear an update. For tonight, how about doing a stir-fry and challenge yourselves to cut each veggie differently, but keep them the same relative size for even cooking? A salad will give more knife work. A fruit tart or something for dessert can give even more...

Love the market challenge idea. I know you'll be busy, but it would be so cool if you could give us daily progress reports -- I'm sure I'd get ideas for my own cooking classes with kiddoes, some of whom are turning into quite respectable cooks who need challenges.

[godito]

Any suggestions about a relatively quick dish to make that involves lots of varied chopping of different types of objects?

Things I make that take a lot of cutting and chopping:

1. salsa. you can get complex with that and add fruits, tomatoes, onion, chillis, etc. Maybe you can do a cebiche with different veggies, instead.

2. Sti fry: everything julienne.

3. Ratatouille works, too.

You can just get him to chop nice brunoise garnishes for soups... even for stocks

Make sure he has sharp knifes. If he doesn't, teach him how to do it.

[Shalmanese]

It has begun!

Tonight, was a simple stirfry incorporating lots of different vegtables cut in lots of different ways. Served with white rice and garnished with some toasted sesame seeds.

Tomorrow, we're doing chicken stock, lots of little stuff, a whole bunch of shopping and we're going to pick up some seafood for dinner. Nothing solid planned, going to let the market inspire us. Any suggestions?

[Lori in PA]

Sounds great. No ideas for tonight. What do you have planned for Christmas dinner? Will it be part of the "cooking school" or will you be doing it on your own?

[origamicrane]

I think a lot of newbies have a preconception about the time Vs effort ratio of cooking.

When I attended a french cooking course the most eye opening thing I made was a jus.

The lecturer told us that we were going to spend the next 6-8 hours making a few litres of stock and check it ever 15 minutes to skim and depouiller and then we were going to reduce it down to just a fuew tablespoons to make a jus.

my initial reaction was there is no way that spending 6-8 hours making a stock and then reduce it down to a jus would be worth it.

how wrong I was!

it was one of those, it tastes so good you are speechless moments!

I think in every kind of learning you should be shown something that makes you go Wow!

have fun!

[Shalmanese]

Well, today is Christmas Eve here and we're just going to be too busy doing other stuff do manage a Christmas dinner tonight but I have picked up a turkey and we're going to roast it tomorrow, probably with all the "traditional" fixings. Then, I'm going to teach carcass management. Sandwichs, turkey soup, turkey salad etc.

[Shalmanese]

Day 2

Sourdough Pancakes for breakfast with Banana and Maple Syrup:

Also had a bowl of yogurt (not pictured)

The chicken stock has started simmering:

Turkey is in a 5% Salt Brine with some sour Cherry Syrup:

Going to head off shopping now. First stop, a wholesale meat place to see if we can pick up some cheap, good quality meats, then the Sydney Fish Markets, going to grab a dozen oysters to eat there as a snack, some clams, mussels, sashimi grade tuna and whatever looks good. Then off the Paddys Market which is a massive produce market, then finally to the supermarket.

Lunch today is set to be steamed mussels in white wine, and some sort of ceviche. Dinner is going to be Clam Chowder, garden salad and some sort of fish dish. Pomegranite Sorbet for dessert.

I'm heading off now!

[Shalmanese]

Phew! What a day. We're really ramping it on up.

First off was a visit to a meat wholesaler who also does retail business. We picked up a nice deal on Leg of Lamb ($6AUD/Kg or $2 USD/lb), A variety pack of Lamb ($6AUD/Kg or $2 USD/lb) which included some really nice cuts, some bacon ($12AUD/Kg or $4 USD/lb) and a big box of beef bones for stock ($2 AUD/Kg or 0.60USD/lb).

Next on up, we visited the Sydney Fish markets to pick up some seafood for tonight. After an improptu meal of a dozen oysters eaten in the car:

We got some mussels, some pippies which are a type of clam, a baby red snapper and some sashimi grade kingfish.

After that, we headed off to Paddys Market which is a massive produce market in the heart of Sydney:

And at the asian butcher nearby we picked up 2 ducks and some pork belly.

Finally, we headed to a supermarket to buy some prepared goods before heading home. The emphasis on this trip was to find very decent food for a very reasonable price. How to choose produce, how to spot a bargain, what can be bought in bulk and kept for ages, how to portion meat to save money.

Here is the final swag:

From left to right: 2 ducks, a chicken, leg of lamb, bacon, huge mound of lamb, 2 packs of frozen corn, 1 tub of yogurt, milk powder (for home-made yogurt), some cream (hard to see), some cheap balsamic vinegar (to make balsamic glaze), spelt flour, panko bread crumbs, kombu dashi (hard to see), sunflour seeds, milk, tomato paste, artichoke hearts, yogurt (for the cultures), bonito powder, roasted peanuts, 2 bottles of orange juice, mirin, bread flour, sambal (hard to see), 4 bottles of beer (Bluetounge, Chimay, James Squire Strong Ale and Grolsch), a bottle of japanese soy (hard to see), goats cheese, nori sheets, some cheddar and some jarlsberg cheese...

But thats not all:

Potatos, yellow onions, a red onion, LOTS of cherry tomatos (1 AUD/Kg, 0.3USD/lb!), some red bell peppers, butternut squash, garlic, ginger (hard to see), galangal (hard to see), tomatos, parsely, basil, mint, cilantro, cucumbers, lettuce, avacado, lemongrass, leeks, green beans (hard to see), shallots, potatos, sweet corn...

wait for it...

2 types of apples, cherries, 4 types of peaches,oranges, lemons, a mango, 2 types of grapes, a pineapple, baby red snapper, sashimi grade kingfish, mussels, pippies.

Whew...

Well, shopping ended up taking slightly longer than anticipated which meant lunch was delayed.

We marinated the Kingfish in the juice of 1/2 a lemon and 1 1/2 limes, some shallots, sambal and cilantro:

So, one thing lead to another and lunch ended gradually being pushed into dinner. What was planned for dinner tonight is going to become lunch tomorrow.

Dinner - Day 2:

Ceviche of Kingfish with Shallots and Coriander

Mussels steamed with White Wine, Shallots, Cherry Tomatos and Cream, served with a Ciabatta Loaf

It seemed a shame to waste the marinating liquid from the cervice so we cut up some orange segments and used it up:

We ate this, on the patio watching the sun set:

[Lori in PA]

Mmm, lovely to see summer produce -- I will not be jealous, I will not be jealous...

[BryanZ]

That's a hell of a shopping day. Your friend seems to be learning from a good teacher.

[Shalmanese]

We did some hard cooking today and appear to be almost back on track.

We started off with the rest of the seafood we picked up yesterday. Made a Clam Chowder with some corn and sundried tomatos:

Then, we decided to filet the baby snapper and grill it. We placed it on a bed of mushroom & brown rice which was cooked with the fish stock from the snapper and then topped it with a tomato chilli jam which was flavoured with ginger and fish sauce:

Lunch being disposed off, we started prepping the turkey for dinner. We were pretty pooped at that stage so we decided to keep things fairly simple and classical. We got the turket out of the cherry brine and dried it off, rubbed it with some butter and pepper and let it come to room temp. Placed it on a bed of carrots, onions, turkey trimmings and roasted it until the thigh hit 75C/170F and then took it out to rest. Made some mashed potatos, reduced the pan drippings and threw in some mustard and red wine. Made a cranberry sauce just with some jarred cranberries (can't get fresh or frozen here ) and made a simple garden salad:

Salad

The turkey with mashed potatos, cranberry sauce, pan gravy and roasted vegtables

We didn't bother with fancy plating for this.

We served it with a Grolsch which is a Dutch Lager:

Finally, for dessert, we had some pomegranite sorbet we made yesterday. I can't stop raving about how good pomegranite sorbet is, it's a major pain in the ass but SO worth it:

Then, as a midnight snack, we toasted some ciabatta and used up some more of that tomato-chilli jam. Just had some Jarlsberg and some Muscatel grapes to go with it.

We also managed to finish cooking the chicken stock (no picture), we started on the beef stock:

And we also confiting the duck legs overnight as well as making some duck hams according to Paula Wolferts recipe. We're going to crack two of those duck legs open near the end of this whole cooking lesson and I'm saving 2 for cassoulet in winter.

Tomorrow: We're going to finish off the chowder, make some turkey sandwiches for lunch. Then, we're going to go out and hit a couple of liqour stores for boxing day sales. For dinner, we're going to do a thai turkey soup from the carcass, a ceaser salad with turkey and asparagus for the salad and then a cottage pie using the beef from the stock for a main. Haven't decided on a dessert but I think it might be a zabligione from The Cooks Book which looks phenomenal. The pineapple we got is phenomnal so I want to feature that for dessert.

Phew, I'm off to bed, big day ahead tomorrow!

Edited December 25, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[racheld]

These compositions are like eye-music. And there's porch peeking in from the side.

[Shalmanese]

Day 4 is over and done with. Todays theme was dealing with leftovers and scraps.

For lunch, we started out with some left over Clam Chowder:

as well as making a mega-sandwich from the leftover turkey breasts, some cranberry sauce, some blue cheese, lettuce and sundried tomatos:

Finally, we finished off the last of the Pomegranite Sorbet:

Then, went headed out to buy some liquor:

From left to right, we have:

Cookoothama, An Australian Riesling

Bluetounge Pilsner, An Australian Pilsner

Dog Point Sav Blanc, A NZ Sav made by some winemakers who left fog creek.

Monteiths, an Irish Red Beer

Nivola, A Italian Moscato d'Asti dessert wine

Lucky, an Australian, hippy organic beer

Riverby Estates, a NZ Pinot

Trumper Pilsner, don't know much about this one

Elian Da Rasa, a French semi-Burgandy

Cristal, a Cuban Beer

and Santa Cristina, a Tuscan Red.

With the stash safely packed away, we got to making a thai chicken soup from the Cooks Book except we subbed in the turkey carcass for chicken:

This was really fantastic and amazingly simple. Cheap too. We served this with the Riesling which was very acidic which played off the lime juice in the soup very well. I've always found it hard to pair wine with SE Asian food but this seemed to be assertive enough to handle it.

We moved out onto the porch just in time for sunset:

We had a Ceaser Salad on the porch with some more Turkey Breast, some avocados and anchovies:

This was served with the Italian Red which we also continued with on the Shepards Pie:

Finally, for dessert, we made the Moscati-Pineapple Zabligione from the Cooks Book, served with the Moscati:

Oh.. My... God... This was so AMAZINGLY good and the wine was just mindblowingly good. Very expensive (30AUD/20USD for a half bottle) but a little bit was enough to elevate the experience entirely. This was simply a fantastic dessert, almost mousse-like but intensely eggy and the pineapple was at the peak of ripeness and really cut through the sweetness with a bit of acid. Mmm... We ended up making enough for 6 people but ate it all by ourselves in one sitting .

Tomorrow... I don't really know yet. I might start on a bread in the morning and bake it that night, Probably an Osso Bucco for dinner. I was planning to start trying to improvise from here on in but my friend still isn't quite comfortable enough with his palate to move onto that step yet. We're still getting through the mechanics which I suppose is interesting enough but not my end goal. Oh well.

Wednesday, we're planning on making some fresh pasta in the morning, hitting the farmers market and picking up some wagyu and some truffle pecorino. I'm going to make a steak & chips as well as my signature tagliatele with truffles... luxury . Then, we'll turn the rest of the fresh pastas into raviolis with leftover osso bucco and freeze it. Still no idea for soups or salads. If anyone has anything original that has some unique component, feel free to chime in.

Edited December 26, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[misgabi]

Shalamanese, looks amazing - I suppose that is one reason to be grateful for a warm weather Christmas, all the fabulous produce.

Just wanted to add, can your friend make a basic white sauce, and understand the applications. I am always horrified by people who cannot do anything so basic (and actually open up one of those packet ones). I had to talk by mother-in-law through "that thing you did when we visited last" which was cauliflower in cheese sauce that they had never heard of.

Looking forward to the rest of your posts.

[Shalmanese]

Today, we decided to take it relatively easy after 4 days of fairly intense cooking. We are still finishing off the soup and shepards pie from yesterday:

I still need to work a lot on portioning. I find I always end up cooking way too much or way too little.

For dinner, we made a green bean & brown rice salad with bacon & red onions:

An Osso Bucco with polenta and some gremolata on top:

And we finished off with a lemon-mint sorbet with dark chocolate:

This was particularly good. You would get an intense hit of lime flavour from the sorbet and then, as the sorbet melted, the chocolate flavour would start rushing in. A big one-two hit of sharp fruitiness and then rich earthiness. So simple yet so elegant.

We had a bit of left over melted chocolate so we made just a little digestif of hot chocolate with some rum:

We also made some homemade yogurt and started on some sourdough bread. The bread is in the fridge right now and we're going to bake it for breakfast. Then, Wagyu steak, truffled pecorino and probably some other goodies from the farmers market for lunch... really looking forward to that. Probably going to pick up some olives and nice cheeses from the farmers market, start out with an antipasta platter for dinner with the fresh baked bread. Then make a tomato-mozarella salad and continue on to a pork belly. Might finish off with a creme caramel for dessert. Today was the "holiday", tomorrow, back to hardcore cooking!

Edited December 27, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[racheld]

And we finished off with a lemon-mint sorbet with dark chocolate:

This was particularly good. You would get an intense hit of lime flavour from the sorbet and then, as the sorbet melted, the chocolate flavour would start rushing in. A big one-two hit of sharp fruitiness and then rich earthiness. So simple yet so elegant.

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If you had never posted all those rich, wonderful dishes, if you never posted again, this would be enough. This picture and description win the Best in Show, and will remain in our minds for a long time.

Tongue-curling, eye-filling perfection on a plate.

[Teri Everitt]

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