Cooking in France

Until recently, I was not making any real meals in my apartment. I’d have cereal and fruit for breakfast (petit dejeuner), a sandwich or hummus and crackers, and fruit or perhaps a pastry for lunch (dejeuner). Supper/dinner (dîner) was cheese and crackers or something prepackaged heated in the microwave. And this being France, this wasn't so bad. The sandwiches were made with a fresh baguette, the pastries were always delicious, the cheeses were marvelous and the microwave dinners more than passable. Despite that, I finally had to make a real dinner. I was craving among other things, broccoli salad, pan seared salmon and a piece of real chicken

My little kitchenette has a two-burner hotplate, a small refrigerator with no freezer to speak of (what's there  keeps my ice packs cold for lunches) and a small sink. Not a lot of room to work. Yet I managed to make all three of those dishes – although not all at once.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I knew that while I was here I wanted to do some French cooking, so I signed up for a class to make different kinds of pastry. The place is called “Faite-le vous-même” (“Make it yourself") and it offers different 3 hour workshops each day Monday to Saturday.  

I signed up for two workshops on Saturday. The first was making different kinds of pastry dough – for quiches/savoury dishes, short crust pastry, and a sweeter version for different types of tarts. Arnaud Houley was the chef and he walked us through the ingredients and recipes and then directed us through the process. I took notes as I worked.

One thing they do is weigh everything. There are no liquid or dry measurements, only weight. Even the salt is weighed. He said a good electronic scale is essential. You measure everything out before you start.

Dough is made on the counter – no bowls needed. Dry ingredients are mounted, a well is made, and between a plastic dough scraper and your hands, the butter (no shortening in these recipes) and liquid ingredients are worked in. You use the heel of your hand to scrape the dough across the counter a little bit at a time until all the dough is formed. I was always taught that you can’t work the dough too much or it would be hard. Here we worked it quite a bit. Then you wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it until firm.

He also had a different way of doing puff pastry which was quite simple. I will definitely try it at home.

The afternoon class was with David Le Patissier (apt name) and we created a “fraisier” a strawberry dessert that had a lot of different steps to it.

 

One step included the use of a blow-torch. Not really necessary - but if your cake freezes to the side of the ring and you don't have a few minutes to wait for it to thaw slightly, you can hurry the process along a tad..

 The end result was delicious. 

I’m glad I took this picture before I left because the cake took a bit of a beating on the walk home. I will definitely sign up for another class or two.

The school hosted a series of workshops this week on Japanese culture. Several of the students took park offering and taking the workshops.

Calligraphy:

Origami:

Wa-jutsu

There was also a workshop on basic words and customs as well as a few tasty treats to try:

There is also an activity that is quite popular in Japan called cosplay. People re-create fictional characters that they like from history, video games or super-characters. Some of the costumes are quite elaborate.

I stayed a little longer than planned because a huge downpour started and I had lost my umbrella somewhere along the way this week. We had hail in town last night was well.

With the long weekend last weekend, we had 4 days of class, but we make up the time by going longer each day. I have been spending extra time on my pronunciation and oral comprehension. I wish it would stick. It does slowly, but it will take more practice.

Next weekend I have booked two nights in at Arras, north east of Rouen. I want to go to Vimy Ridge on Saturday and it is just outside the town. Also I have booked off the week of August 4-8 to go to the WWII sites and a celtic festival.