It's been about 1 month since my last entry - have been too busy to blog. However, have attended some really nice classes since then, one of which was the special Ratatouille class organised by Palate Sensations some weeks back. This was inspired by that wonderful film & the instructor was Chef Philippe Nouzillat, from Brasserie Wolf.
Monday night found us at PS, all ready to recreate that french dish, which is essentially a vegetable stew, which was brought to our attention by the film. On the menu for the 3-course dinner was the starter of pumpkin soup, followed by the main course of roast rack of lamb with ratatouille, ending off with dessert of chocolate petit pot. I was very excited as all these were things I have not tried cooking before.
We worked in groups of about 5 to 6, and set about quickly chopping & stirring & searing, etc. Thank goodness I didn't have to cut the onions, but even though I was not doing it, we were all quickly affected by the pungent smell which brought tears to our eyes. Ah well, it was all worth the sweat & tears in the end ( thank goodness no blood was shed except for the lamb's ).
I was very proud of our pumpkin soup, which I had spent lots of effort stirring and then blending it with a stick blender ( gotta get me one of those now ! ).
The rack of lamb was also wonderful, seasoned just nice & was nicely complemented by the ratatouille, which was classic comfort food ! Now I know why Anton Ego in the film was so affected by the dish. Even though I did not grow up in the french countryside eating this, it reminded me of the comforts of home and a good home-cooked meal ! The chocolate petit pot was quite interesting, athough I think the one we were served was a bit runny & was not the one we actually prepared as they were all put together to cook & no one could quite remem
ber whose was which. However, that is a very simple dessert to prepare, almost effortless, and would be something to remember for future dinner parties.There will be other classes in future similarly based on food films ( we seem to be getting a spate of these films recently ), including 2 on "No Reservations" - one French and the other Italian. Unfortunately, I am away during those classes, so will have to do those next time. Have asked Lynette of PS to repeat those classes for my sake. :-)
Here's a picture of my group of ladies having the pumpkin soup out on the balcony of PS. Don't we all look happy & satisfied with all the stuff we made ? :-)
