“Any fool can make a roast ….”
Josephine Araldo used to say, “but it takes a genius to know how to use leftovers.” What she meant was that the skill of cooking is based in one part on resourcefulness -knowing how to make use of ingredients – and secondly in applying good cooking skills.
I offer two courses starting next week that give insights into the genius of cooking, and are designed to help you get food to the table. There are a couple of seats still available in each (and you can imagine how I feel about that!)
In one course, called “Course by Course,” we learn to prepare a number of dishes in each of the categories of a menu – Starters, first courses, pastas, meat cooking, sauces, desserts. There are six sessions meant to help you think about food in a way that should serve you. Each offers methods and techniques to back you up. We’ll give you a glass of wine in case you start to forget that it’s fun.
Another course, entitled “How to get food to the table” will help get you to think on your feet. You’re standing in front of the refrigerator, door open, with a look like a deer in the headlights. Or, you’re at the market, and you have the same expression. I designed this course to present simple ideas that extend out – learn one idea, method, technique, and we’ll help you figure out how to apply it to other dishes. You have one skill, I’ll show you that you have more.
When I had students in France I used to play a game with them. We’d return to the house from the market around 12.30 or 1 o’clock. We had to eat. As they unpacked the bags of things we’d purchased, I’d set some aside. I’d add leftovers, and tell them they had half an hour to put food on the table. It was a good exercise; it stretched their thinking and made them feel self possessed, and resourceful.
Yesterday when preparing a salmon for a dinner for 20, I filleted the fish, and slipped the flesh from the skin. I scraped any flesh I missed, which amounted to about 1 cup. I build the following pasta dish from that meat, but you could as easily use any salmon trimmings, or leftover fish from last nights’ supper.
PASTA WITH MUSTARD CREAM, SALMON AND CAPERS
Dry fettucini for 4 to 6
1 cup heavy cream
1or 2 tablespoons crème fraiche
½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1/4 cup chopped herbs - parsley, chives, tarragon in any combination
½ to 1 cup leftover salmon (cooked or raw)
salt
Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt to it until you can taste the salt, toss in the fettucini and cook according to the maker’s instructions.
While the pasta cooks, reduce the cream in a saucepan by ½ to 2/3rd’s. Whisk in the crème fraiche. Season to taste with salt and keep on reserve.
While the cream reduces, chop the capers and herbs coarsely. Chop the salmon coarsely then mix it with the herbs, chopping a few additional times.
Drain the pasta and put it in a warm bowl. Add the mustard to the hot cream, along with the salmon and herbs. Mix everything well. The heat in the pan will cook the salmon. Use this as a sauce for the noodles. Drink an Alsatian white to accompany the dish.
Follow the pasta course with a salad. And, for dessert, a perfect peach, dropped into boiling water for 1 minute, then halved, peeled, and sliced. Scatter perfect raspberries over the peaches. Put a bowl of sugar on the table, and cream (if you’re inclined) and let each person take charge of their own pleasures. Don’t forget to finish that white wine.
For information on the evening courses, or daytime courses that can be taken 1 day to … as many as you would like, visit the website www.thechefstudio.com
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