I attended a really fun cooking class in Paris yesterday! Wish I could have been there in person as La Cuisine Paris is in the Marais District, right on the Seine opposite Notre-Dame.
After a few days of camping on the Eastern Shore, it was good to get back in the kitchen with a purpose. I hadn't exactly provisioned for the class and we got home late Friday night. Saturday morning was the first time I had really looked at the read-ahead sheet! Quiche, Pâté Brisée, Chouquettes, Gourgères and Chocolate Ganache! So pretty much eggs cheese, milk, cream and butter!!! I started the mise-en-place about an hour and a half before the class.
Then I ran out of milk for the Quiche. No, there was no spare carton of milk in the fridge in the garage as it had been a couple of weeks since our last grocery pick up.
Oh well, just add a little water to heavy cream to make up the difference. Right? Right.
Oops, no Gruyère. No biggie, I had Cheddar, Parmesan and Manchego.
Oops, not enough bacon. Phew, I had some pancetta hiding in the downstairs fridge!
Multiple crises averted, I Zoomed in to the class at 10am EST.
The teacher was delightful, funny and friendly. For two hours I whizzed about the kitchen using twice as many bowls, spoons and spatulas than I needed, whisking eggs and cream and butter and flour, kneading Pâté Brisée, and messily filling a pastry bag with Choux pastry, then licking the spatula I used to make the Chocolate Ganache.
Despite issues with my shortcrust pastry (not enough water?) and my Chouquettes falling flat (did I really open the oven despite strict instructions not to?) everything turned out pretty good. I don't think I have ever been that productive in the kitchen, nor made quite that much of a mess (I really should have taken a photo of the kitchen).
In the end, this is what I had to show for the two hour mad flurry in the kitchen!
