Dave was so clever to do this for me. I absolutely love cooking and trying new foods. Although I've had tapas before, learning to cook them has always been right up there with Vietnamese and Thai for future cooking courses.
We arrived in front of the building at 10:55am on Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. The confirmation email insisted we be on time for the 11am class. There were about 40 people waiting consisting of couples, friends and interestingly enough....single females.
The doors unlocked promptly at 11am and we walked through headed for the elevator. When the elevator doors opened we heard loud Spanish music playing. We followed the music into an open orange painted room with walls adorned with food adages on canvas. We checked in and we were given a chef's hat, a few promotional fliers and a flute of champagne. Walking further into the room, a large kitchen lay before us with two large prep tables filled with kitchen utensils, vegetables and seasonings.
Once everyone was signed in, we were given an overview to the three hour course, which included knife skills, cooking and of course eating.
Cheeky Food Group Entrance
Getting Warmed Up and Prepared
Chef's Hat & Champagne
The Cheeky Food Group Kitchen
Prep Stations
My station was led by the other chef in the room, a very animated, yet direct woman. She showed us proper knife skills - like doing a 'wave' motion when cutting. It was good to hear how it's supposed to be done, but I feel like a cut is a cut, you just have to have the right knife. Dave and I bought our knives at Kmart. Using nice and sharp $100+ knives was a nice feeling.
One interesting knife technique I learned was how to make garlic paste. After mincing the garlic, you sprinkle sea salt on the garlic, then turn your knife to the flat side and push down and move your knife back like you're working with mortar. Worked a treat! - as my British friends would say.
After knife skills demonstration and practice, we broke off into groups of four. Perfect for Dave and I, we were standing next to another young couple. After introducing ourselves my first questions were, "Do you like chili?" and "Do you like garlic?" Thank goodness they said yes because we were going to double up on those ingredients if I had anything to do with it.
Head Chef and Assistant Chef
Hats On Ready to Cook
Knife Skills on Green Onion & Produce for the Day
Dave's Really Getting Into It
Fortunately, we had print outs of the recipes next to us, so we could manage on our own. To be honest, I never talked to our instructor, nor did she come up to us to correct us or give us advice. Oh well. We were equipped and going to make delicious tapas.
Our first dish was a mushroom and tomato salad with a homemade vinaigrette. Next, we made meatballs in a tomato sauce. Our third dish was fresh clams with pistachio dressing. Our last dish was mussels and potatoes stew. Did you know clams have a beard? You need to pull it out before cooking. The dish wasn't very good except for all the saffron we got to use. Fun fact: Saffron is the more expensive than gold.
Prepping and cooking was fine except for the other couple or should I say the controlling woman. At one instance, I had created garlic paste and placed it into the mixing bowl. She had one look and started scooping out the garlic and smashed it further without even acknowledging me. Her husband of one year (this was an anniversary present to each other) doted on her every move and I wanted to throw up. Dave and I are always ones to avoid conflict unless it's pure rudeness. Dave let it go and I dumped more chili and garlic into the mix and gave her the onion to cut.
The flambe technique was a big highlight that day. Having a bad previous experience with fire and shots when I was a bartender, I decided to take pictures of Dave instead of practising. He had a blast! All you need is a little sherry wine in your hot pan. Then slightly tilt the pan into the fire of a gas burner and voila! Flambe!
Get Ready. Set. Flambe!
Don't Torch Your Eyebrows!
Removing the Mussel's Beard
Gorgeous Clams
Mushroom & Tomato Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette
Clams with Pistachio Vinaigrette
Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Mussels and Potato Saffron Stew
The Four Tapas Dishes of the Day
Enjoying Our Trip to 'Spain'
Couples Ready to Dig Into the Tapas
By 1pm, we finished all the cooking, plated and dressed the tapas, cleaned and finally sat down with a glass of wine. We ate our banquet while Spanish music filled the room. We ate like judges on a cooking show detecting each ingredient while discriminating the dishes.
"Can you taste the saffron?"
"I love the tangyness of the vinaigrette."
"I don't really care for the mussels potato one."
Too bad we ran out of wine. Dave was even drinking the cooking wine! For a three hour cooking course, it wasn't bad. My favourite dishes were the chorizo and almonds...of course cooked by the head chef. I'll probably never make tapas at home, but this was a great hands-on experience I got to share with my favourite person to travel with. My other good travel buddy Marco is moving to Spain this year. We'll have to go visit him and have authentic tapas prepared for us in style.
1 comment:
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