Okay, I’m just learning French, so my translation of “Tart with Three Chocolates” may not be exactly correct.  What I do know is that I couldn’t find chocolate graham crackers anywhere in the Twin Cities.  I even emailed the Nabisco company asking if they would direct me to a grocer that carried them.  I never heard back.  If anyone knows where one can purchase chocolate graham crackers, please let me know.

In the meantime, I used a chocolate dough recipe from Claudia Fleming’s book, The Last Course for the crust of this luscious tart.  This is another one of the six tarts that I will be teaching this Saturday at The Chef’s Gallery in Stillwater.

Here’s another tart that I will be teaching to the students who sign up for my The Art of the Tart class on Saturday, October 1.  It will be held at The Chef’s Gallery in Stillwater MN.  Check out this class and the others that  I will be teaching this fall.  I can’t wait the try some of the options about which my brother Mark, Jon and I were brainstorming while we were enjoying this one.

This tart totally reminds me of the Tarte aux Pommes in France that I have enjoyed.  They can be purchased from any number of patisserie cases in Paris, Provence and many shops in-between.

Of course I had to figure out how to make it.  If I do say so myself, it’s darn near close to the taste and texture of what I’ve enjoyed in France and so simple to make.  I will be teaching how to make this tart among others to the students who sign up for my The Art of the Tart class on Saturday, October 1.  It will be held at The Chef’s Gallery in Stillwater MN.  Check out this class and the others that  I will be teaching this fall.

Starting in January Mme Carolynn Johnson and I will be leading another six-week class for beginning students who desire to learn French in a conversational setting.  We’ve only had one 6-week course, so new students will be able to get up to speed in no time.

Each week, we’ll participate in a two hour class emphasizing what you need to know to navigate a French menu, to ask for directions, or to purchase that box of chocolate in a Parisian shop window.  You’ll also enjoy a cooking demonstration and, of course, a little something to eat during each class.  Carolynn will lead the teaching while I will take care of the cooking.  We’ll build our vocabulary, work on our pronunciation, and tackle sentence structure.

Carolynn taught high school in Roseville for nearly 35 years.  Now she travels to France as often as possible.  She also enjoys reading and biking and has been part of the same gourmet club for 32 years.  Her two grandsons attend a French Immersion School and continue to surprise her with what they are learning.

I have been teaching at Cooks of Crocus Hill for over seven years with an emphasis on French cuisine.  I travel to France every chance I get, cooking most recently at La Pitchoune, the former home of Julia Child.

This link will take you to the registration form.  Again, there are only 10 seats available, so don’t delay in securing a place at the class.

What better way to learn the beautiful language of France than to immerse yourself in the language itself?  This fall, you can do just that at Bret’s Table.  Mme Carolynn Johnson and I will be leading a six-week class for beginning students who desire to learn French in a conversational setting.

Each week, we’ll participate in a two hour class emphasizing what you need to know to navigate a French menu, to ask for directions, or to purchase that box of chocolate in a Parisian shop window.  You’ll also enjoy a cooking demonstration and, of course, a little something to eat during each class.  Carolynn will lead the teaching while I will take care of the cooking.  We’ll build our vocabulary, work on our pronunciation, and tackle sentence structure.

Carolynn taught high school in Roseville for nearly 35 years.  Now she travels to France as often as possible.  She also enjoys reading and biking and has been part of the same gourmet club for 32 years.  Her two grandsons attend a French Immersion School and continue to surprise her with what they are learning.

I have been teaching at Cooks of Crocus Hill for over seven years with an emphasis on French cuisine.  I travel to France every chance I get, cooking most recently at La Pitchoune, the former home of Julia Child.

This link will take you to the registration form.  Again, there are only 10 seats available, so don’t delay in securing a place at the class.

Umami, the flavor enhancer and fifth taste sensation after sweet, salty, sour and bitter, is now an often heard word in our culinary conversations, but it so often lacks a clear definition and a clear understanding in the cooking community. Though Umami is an attribute of many foods, not necessarily Japanese, it is in the Japanese kitchen where this attribute has been clearly recognized and incorporated into the cuisine.

Hiroko Shimbo, a chef and authority on Japanese cuisine, explores and explains Umami at a special lecture at Bret’s Table.  She will define this taste sensation, describe the food elements in which it is found, and how the concept of Umami is fundamentally related to Japanese cuisine.  With this understanding, anyone who enjoys cooking can be aware of and utilize the benefits and attributes of Umami in their own cuisine.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
$25 per person, seating limited to 15 people

Bret’s Table
3617 38th Avenue South, Minneapolis MN

For more information or to sign up for the lecture, contact Bret Bannon.

Friends Jen and Kevin spent another lovely Sunday afternoon at Bret’s Table. We cooked Boeuf Bourguignon using three different recipes. Jen followed the one from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. Kevin cooked the recipe adapted by the New York Times from the book, “I Know How to Cook“. I tackled the one from “Le Cordon Bleu at Home”.

It was a very non-scientific experiment, to the point where in the middle of cooking, we realized we should have at least used the same cut of meat and wine varietal. Jen used a top round and a Chianti and Kevin and I cubed a chuck roast and both used a burgundy. Kevin’s recipe stated that the entire time was to be on the cook-top, Jen and mine both spent the majority of the time in the oven. Kevin’s had the least number of steps, 5 to be exact. Jen’s recipe, as well as mine, had about the same number of steps but in slightly different order and definitely more than five. I liked the steps in my recipe the best, mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have to pick out the cooked lardons before the sauce was strained.

Generally, we determined that time in the oven is best as it produces fall apart beef, whether top round or chuck roast. One doesn’t have to use a Burgundy, Chianti works just fine. Any garnish that you want to include should go into the pot after the sauce is strained, not before. Kevin finished about 1/2 hour before Jen and I, as we were sauteing mushroom and pearl onions. I went on to make toasted croutons in the shape of hearts. I stopped short of dipping said croutons in the sauce, for which the recipe called, then in finely chopped parsley before arranging on the serving platter. The parsley was just sprinkled on top with a crouton alongside.

What we took away from the afternoon was that one could prepare dinner (with enough to freeze for another meal) in about 45 minutes of active time. During the 3 hours we waited for the Boeuf to cook, we shared some snacks, enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and caught up with what was happening in our lives; whether a recent biking trip in Borneo or a visit to Florida to see the parents.

We are already looking forward to our next get together, some Saturday in January. We’ll be making croissants.

Friends Jennifer, Kevin and I get together occasionally at Bret’s Table to cook, what some would say are complicated desserts. That wouldn’t be my definition. We just cook whatever looking fun and interesting. Most recently we have been testing various French Macaron recipes, some with more success than others. To date though, we haven’t found one that is a consistent winner.

We are beginning to wonder why we are having so many failures. Is it the recipe or are we baking them off during the wrong phrase of the moon? Are we beating the batter too much or too little? Given our frustration, can I just say that French Macarons are finicky little buggers! Our quest though, is due to the fact that the first time Jen and I made them they turned our perfectly. I think it’s called beginners luck! Every time since then something goes haywire; the foot doesn’t form, they’re hollow, they don’t rise, etc. They’re frustrating to be sure, but a delectable treat we have pledged to master one of these days.

In the meantime, we needed to take a break from the macaron disasters and decided to try our hand at baking a Framboise et fruits de la passion Gâteau Mousse. This is a cake that Jen learned to make while attending the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris a few years back. We got started on the cake at Bret’s Table on a recent Saturday afternoon, stopping ever so briefly to nosh on some spicy guacamole from Whole Foods and enjoy a delicious fresh heirloom tomato salad and duck rillettes while sipping a couple of glasses of wine. Okay, maybe that’s why it took upwards of 5 hours to prepare, bake and assemble the cakes.

The recipe is not quite ready for publication, as omissions were found, particularly in the “la méthode”. Actually “omissions” is an understatement as recipes at the Le Cordon Bleu, if I remember, have only the ingredient list. The students are responsible for writing the method based on what they are shown by the chef instructor. Jen was kind enough to retype the notes she had taken in class but as we discovered time away from the recipe had caused some lapses in technique. It’s nothing we couldn’t solve, but will require some tweaking of the written word when we get together to bake it again.

Regardless, I wanted to share a picture of our first attempt. I’ll post other projects as we do them. Until then, thanks for pulling up a chair at Bret’s Table.

We finished week 3 of our Charcuterie class at Saint Paul College. It’s being taught by Chef Nathan Sartain. This week, we ventured into the realm of salt-packed sheep casings. This product needs to be soaked in water and rinsed inside and out before it can be utilized.

If I thought that hog casings were easy to breach, stuffing sheep casings took some getting used to, as they are even more delicate. For all the teams, it was full steam ahead making sausages.

Some of the many varieties that we fabricated included a Lamb Merguez for which I made a harissa condiment which was added to it. Our team also finished the Moroccan Pheasant and dried Apricot sausage, and made some Squash Pickles. In addition to this, we smoked off our Portuguese Linguica. We started curing a rabbit and veal tenderloin for making a terrine next week. These were two of three products that we were given to construct an “item” as part of our final. My partner and I decided that the final “item” would be a Confit of Rabbit and Veal Terrine. We were also given a slab of pork belly which we will also confit, then sear and serve with possibly a rabbit demi glaze.

Other teams last week made a Char Siu Lop Chong. The Lop Chong is a BBQ Style Pork Sausage which is smoked for 30 minutes.

They also made a breakfast sausage and Tuscano, Toulouse, and Spanish Longaniza sausages. We enjoyed the Black Forest Ham, the Spicy Italian Sausages with grilled bell peppers and onions, and a Cajun Gumbo with the Andouille that was finished last week.

Sadly, there is only one more week of this class. I have learned so much and now have a stockpile of recipes to try this fall and winter.