Allez Cuisine!

I went to my first cooking class today, Cuisine d'Automne.  It was amazing.  The class was held in the kitchen of Chateau Belleville, right near the grocery store I get lost coming home from.  Guess what!  After class, I made it home in FOUR minutes!


There were 16 of us in the kitchen, all wearing our tabliers (aprons).  

my tablier is very cute but not very flattering

They handed us the recipes, told us what we were making and all of a sudden, we found ourselves cooking!  It was kind of crazy, everyone just jumped right in.  Peeling shallots, slicing onions, plucking feathers, it was amazing.  On the menu:


Entrée: Figues farcies au chèvre (Figs stuffed with goat cheese)
(An entrée in France is what we would call an appetizer or a starter.  What we call an entrée is actually called a plat principal.)

before

after!

Plat: Pintade aux Poires à la Sauce Ambrée (Guinea Fowl with Pears and Beer Sauce).  It was a big topic of conversation trying to figure out what we would call a "pintade" in the U.S.  Turkey?  No.  Pigeon?  No.  Pheasant?  Duck?  No.  No.  I didn't find out what it was I had eaten until I got home and looked it up on the Internet (guinea fowl).  You might be interested to know that the neck was still attached to the bird.  I tried to not pay attention to that part.

the main event

this is what I'm serving for thanksgiving

Dessert: Crumble Pommes/Poires/Raisins Secs (Rum Raisin crumble with apples and pears).  This was served with a crème anglaise and was just delicious.

before

after!

Measurements
One difference I had heard about is that in Europe, instead of measuring out ingredients like flour or sugar using measuring cups, they go by weight.  What I discovered is that in instances where a scale is not available, they have these clever measuring cups that indicate weight based on volume.  Does that make sense?  Is that even right?  Here.  The left side of this measuring cup is just for sugar.  When the sugar reaches the first line, you would have 50 grams of sugar.  In the same cup, on the right side, you measure flour.  When you reach the first line with your flour, you would have 50 grams.  Pretty clever.  The other side of this cup also measures rice and liquids.

50 grams of sugar

Instead of teaspoons and tablespoons, they measured ingredients with soup spoons.  A heaping soup spoon is called a cuill à soupe bombée.


I discovered some pretty cool new ingredients.  Like this, a coing (pronounced "kwang").  It's sort of like a cross between an apple and a pear.  They are not eaten raw, you have to cook them.  We did not eat these today, instead, we used a coing jelly, or a gelée de coing.  In fact, we used une cuill à soupe bombée of the stuff in the "stew."

a coing

gelée de coing

I discovered that the French very rarely use garlic.  Instead, they use a lot of onions and shallots in their cooking.


D'huile d'arachide is not spider oil (spider is araignée, I got confused), it's peanut oil.  I guess peanut allergies aren't a big deal, because no one asked about it before we got started.


They did not salt or pepper the bird before browning it in the pan.  I was surprised.  Someone asked me if they drink beer in America.  Isn't that funny?


We got to eat lunch in the dining room of the chateau.  One of the women, Patricia did a fantastic job of decorating the table.  I am totally stealing her ideas for Thanksgiving.  

click for a closer view

Here are some shots of the space.  You can get an idea of what a French community center looks like.  :)

peeking into the dining room

the chateau's kitchen is back there

Gauis made me buy this hoodie (not my style) 

my plate

some of the gang

A bientôt!  
note: Christopher says that for capital letters, you omit the accent, which is why I do not put the `on the A in "A bientôt."