western basics, class 8

Last class in the Western Basics series at Palate Sensations! Extremely indulgent desserts.

Butter (a lot), eggs (a ton), cream (a grip). Are you wearing pants with an elastic waistband? You should be.

Join me in growing horizontally.

western basics, class 7

Awww it’s the second to the last Palate Sensations Western Basics class!

Having been to other cooking schools I appreciate the kitchen at PS even more these days. It’s so organized, homey, and well stocked. You feel like you can really cook anything in there. It’s fun puttering around the kitchen all day especially when you don’t have to do the dishes (thanks Loretta!).

The last 2 classes are all about desserts and this lesson we covered cakes and tarts. Two words for you today: sugar headache.

Two other words: worth it.

western basics, class 6

Filleting a fish is not easy  kids. There are sharp knives and bones and fins and a few scales involved.

Sigh, I’m gonna miss spending my Saturdays in the PS kitchen. Here fishy fishy fishy…

western basics, class 5

Guess what we learned in Week 5? You got it right lurkers (I see you lurkers, all 150 or so of you who visit everyday but don’t say a word), it’s PASTA TIME.

Another day, another dough ball sistas and mistas.

breadmaking asian style

I told you I was on a cooking class kick.

I had 8 hours of cooking class this weekend. First, of course, was my weekly basics course at Palate Sensations followed by a breadmaking class at Creative Culinaire on Sunday. This was my first class at CC although I had heard great things about Chef Judy Kho who runs the school and the adjacent cafe. She is nothing if not passionate for baking. She is also super nice and super patient and while 5 hours of baking seem crazy long it goes by in a flash.

Hello there, little dough ball. I like you and all of your friends.

western basics, class 4

Bleh. I can barely look at these pictures without being a little bit queasy. We had so many eggs this past Saturday! My cholesterol must be outta control.

Learning how to cook eggs is important though. It’s a basic skill that any home chef should have. Also, eggs are good. It’s only around number 3 where you start feeling kinda gross.

Chef Francois shows us how an omelet is done.

western basics, class 3

My Dublin adventures (to be continued) meant that I missed my second Western Basics class at Palate Sensations. I’ll make it up sometime next January. Although, if my schedule contines with its present madness I’ll be in, like, Inner Mongolia around that time.

Class 3 was all about meat braising and savoury tarts. It involved bacon, red wine, and fire. [Cue Beavis and Butthead impersonation.]

Look at all that bacon. Don’t miss the butter right up next to it either. Full cream butter, the kind for winners.

western basics, class 1

The breadmaking class I took a few weeks ago gave me the cooking class bug. I took the plunge and signed up for the Western Basics series which is 8 3-hour sessions. I figured this would be a good way to get some fundamentals that I can build on later and will come in handy for any future dinner parties that I feel like throwing.

The first class is all about basic knife skills. There were only 2 casualties that day (neither of them mine, although I’m sure my time will come).

breadmaking at palate sensations

Wake up and smell the freshly baked bread.

I’m usually a sleep in and see ya later kind of girl on the weekend but yesterday I rolled myself outta bed a smidge earlier to trek on down to Palate Sensations in Portsdown (where the hell is Portsdown?). If you’re smart, you will check out the PS page on Facebook where they have plenty of pictures of the building they’re in. That way you don’t get dropped off by the taxi in absolute confuzzlement.

We spent the morning with Chef Chris making raisin walnut bread, sweet brioche, and rosemary foccacia. In between risings we also churned out some hummus and guacamole (this is random, I know, but they tasted good so I’m not complaining).

mooncake madness

I am all rusty with the blogging. I’ve started this post about 4 times. I refuse to use the backspace again. I will soldier on with whatever word vomit decides to spillover.

I went to a mooncake making class with Pat and Ruth today. It’s nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival again (yes, again – I’ve been living here for a year!) which means mooncakes are coming out all over the island. There are several different types of mooncake. The most common are baked to a shiny brown with thin skins and a heavy, sweet filling of red bean, lotus, or yam paste. The class, which we took at Jialei Confectionary and Training Center, covered Shanghai style lotus paste mooncakes, flaky yam paste mooncakes, and also a quick lesson on how to make the yam paste from scratch.

Golden flaky mooncakes with lotus paste and walnuts for decoration. These were nice and warm outta the oven.