Free One Thousand Dollar Cooking Lesson

I am inviting you to share one of the most useful skills I learned at an exclusive French Cooking School. Please relax in the warmth and comfort of your home and share what I consider is a “priceless” lesson.

By Airbus, by bullet train, six of us, three couples, traveled to France paying several thousand Euros to learn the secrets of French cooking. It was a bitter cold January and we were on a mission to learn. Our journey into the art and science of culinary expertise led us to the Walnut Grove Cooking School. The estate was within walking distant of Laval, France, a quiet French village with a church dating back to 1632.

French style cooking was the backbone of the course. However, it was the stunning showmanship of presentation, spoon-fed to us by two exceptional master chefs that highlighted our vacation with a purpose. Along with a case of local Bordeaux wines, we brought home knowledge as a prized souvenir. The simple skills of using a kitchen knife will stay with me longer than the Chocolates purchased on the Champs Elysee in Paris.

In the first class session we stood, knives in hand with a cutting board at the ready and at full attention. A staple of international cuisine, the onion, was waiting to go under the knife. As Julia Child once said, “It’s hard to imagine a civilization without onions”. Onions are one of the four pillars in the Bouquet Garni used throughout the course. Internationally, onions are stars of savory cuisine, used in abundance is almost every style of cuisine: Italian, French, Thai, Mexican, etc.

Before we could begin our assault on the onion, we were instructed in the basics of knife skills. Over the next five days we learned how wielding a knife plays an important part in crafting memorable meals. Knife skills impacted the appearance of the food we prepared and how evenly recipes cooked.

The basics are:

1. Use a sharp knife. Trying to force a dull knife is a recipe for injury. A dull knife will mash and bruise an onion.
2. Hold the knife down at your side if you must take it for a stroll.
3. Match the type of knife to the task. One does not butcher a chicken with a paring knife.
4. 90% of the time you will use a chef’s knife. It is perfect for cutting onions.
5. Chop slowly, and carefully.
6. Chop away from your body.
7. Work on a non-slip surface. By placing a damp kitchen cloth under your cutting board it transforms a movable board into a secure cutting surface.
8. The fingers of the hand holding the food need to be curled under. This increases your safety and lowers the odds of you cutting yourself.
9. Pay attention; always watch what you are doing.
10. Never let the forward portion and tip of the knife leave the cutting board.
11. Hold the knife firmly in your dominant hand, using a rocking motion cut through the food.
12. Like the midway shell game, keep your eye on the knife blade and do not let it leave the cutting board surface.

Lesson Number One that launched our cooking course, “How to Dice an Onion”

1. Remove any of the little papery husks from the onion. It is handy to have a bowl nearby to discard scraps and trimming. These can be saved and added when making Stock. The brown-colored onion skins add richness to the color of the stock.

2. Trim the stem so you can stand the onion upright on your board. Then cut the onion in half. It the onion was a model of the earth you would cut from North Pole to South Pole. You are cutting from the root end straight through to the top end. Remember to use a sharp knife and grip the onion with the fingertips curved. You are splitting the onion into two equal halves. It is important to leave the root end attached.

3. Peel away the onion outer skin, the tough layers of onion flesh. Now trim away the top end of the onion. Save the discarded layers and top for making stock.

4. Dicing the onion is the act of making a series of cuts that crisscross producing a nice attractive uniform square of onion. Before making your first cut decide what size squares you want. Using an average onion about three inches across you can make three to four parallel cuts. Grip the onion half firmly CURVING your fingers and slice about a half inch above the board for medium-sized diced pieces. Make another parallel cut another half inch above the first cut. Slice evenly making parallel cuts from one side to the other. The size of your diced pieces will be determined by the thickness of your parallel slices.You are making incisions rather than cutting each layer, and severing it from the other.

5. After making the parallel slices grip the onion, ALWAYS keeping your fingers curved and slice across the onion in parallel cuts. When it becomes difficult to hold the onion turn the remaining portion face down and continue to cut.

6. Now repeat with the second half of the onion.

Now that one has learned how to cut onions, one must learn to cook onions. One legionary recipe featuring onions you may wish to try is Walnut Grove’s recipe for French Onion Soup. Bon Appetit.

http://www.walnutgrovecookery.com/recipes_french_onion_soup.htm

French Onion Soup with a Goats Cheese Croute
Serves 4 to 6 portions

10 onions
2 tsp brown sugar
2 bunches of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 litre beef stock
½ litre chicken stock
1 bulb of garlic
4 slices of baguette bread or crusty hard rolls
goats cheese
25g butter
3 tbs olive oil
black pepper
100g smoked bacon
200ml red wine

Method

1. Slice onions finely and evenly, heat a large heavy based saucepan until hot, add oil and onions and sugar, cook for a couple of minutes, add sliced bacon lardons (matchsticks), and sauté until golden brown and caramelized. Peel and finely slice the garlic cloves.

2. Add butter, rosemary, thyme (removed from the stalk) and garlic, and mix into onions and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.

3. De-glaze the pan with the red wine, bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the chicken and beef stock, bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper, sometimes if your stock is not very strong, you can add a little chicken bouillon cube to bring up the flavour.

5. For the goats cheese croute, take the slices of baguette (around 2cm thick) and fry in a frying pan with a little butter on both sides until golden brown. Remove from the pan, and generously top with your favorite goats cheese, and grill until bubbling and coloured.

6. Carefully ladle soup into warm bowls, place the croute on top, and enjoy!

This is good either as a starter or served as a larger portion and makes a lovely winter lunch.

This soup can be made a couple of days in advance; in fact it improves after a day or so because the flavours intensify. The goats cheese croute needs to be made just before you want to serve it.