Atomic Nerds

So today began early and was filled with busy before it was filled with tiredness, and all because things were also filled with awesome.

Las Cosas is a cooking store in Santa Fe that also runs periodic cooking classes. The owner (at least I think he’s the owner) is a retired restaurant chef who has figured out one excellent way of getting his store’s stock moving- host classes inside the store, let the students buy the niftiest gear used in class plus whatever else they might suddenly find tickles their fancy (and discount for gear used in class)… and count on the delicious smells coming from inside the store to drag mall-browsers into the store to find out what could possibly be going on. Not that I’m unhappy in the least about this business model- I loved the class and I’m sure we’ll get great mileage out of that pie plate and that nicely marked down All-Clad skillet in just-right-for-eggs size. Also the stovetop grill we had to backorder. Yeah. That marketing model works really well.

Anyway, the reason we went down there is that unlike most of the classes, the feature of the day was the head (and I think only) chef at our favorite restaurant. We can only afford to drop so much of the “fun” budget on that dollar range of food, but when we do have anything disposable in that budget plus a reason to live it up, that’s where we go- I’m sure there are other restaurants in the city with just as good food and maybe also just as good service and even just as good atmosphere, but… with a continually updating menu and folks that know us and what we like, why would we bother? Suffice to say we are fans- so when Stingray polished off the last morsel of his brown butter berry pie the last time we ate there and proclaimed to the waiter that if he knew how to make that he’d weigh four hundred pounds and the waiter said that actually, he’d be at a class at Las Cosas in a few weeks where just that would be one of the items being instructed… well hell, we called and signed up before the listing even went live on the website.

I will confess to having been more than a little nervous about the fact that the students would be cooking, because as those of you who’ve been following along know, my kitchen skills are still pretty, um, basic. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up; I needn’t have been, the students were split into teams to tackle separate dishes, sides, and sauces, so that the burden of prepwork was evenly spread. The teaching being provided for skills that might be new, like roasting and skinning peppers, was also excellent. I stopped worrying and started having fun as soon as that portion of class began, after the rundown on everything we’d be making plus helpful information like where to actually GET some of the more exotic ingredients in Santa Fe, which was extremely helpful (Although the answer on some of it was basically “suck up the price on mail-order if you really want it”. Oh well.). Naturally, we elected to be on Team Pie, which thanks to previous conversations on the subject with a friend almost immediately became internally known as Team PAH!

Team PAH! operated like a well-oiled or at least adequately lubricated machine; drys got blended, fats got distributed, and Stingray, as the person with experience making actual pie crusts rather than purchasing them, held sway over the combining and working of the pasty dough. The pie was assembled as rapidly as chilling, cooling, and browning phases allowed, and popped into the oven to bake as the most time-intensive feature of the class. In the meantime, casting my eyes about, I learned a fair bit about grilling and julienning vegetables, how to not only wake up the palate but also give it a shiatsu massage with your seasoning, and that really fine food really is fairly simple- all you really need is good ingredients, a really developed palate, and a good working knowledge of food. By the end of class I felt like I could go home and make anything myself of what I’d seen, even the spring rolls, which I predicted I’d manage to stick to my eyebrows or something but actually managed to roll adequately without disaster or disgrace.

The pie turned out awesome, by the way. The crust was so perfect it was the inspiration for buying that pie plate- we’ve never managed to achieve that pleasing brown on the bottom crust before without risking burning the filling. Simple to make with only one slightly difficult to obtain ingredient. And no, you can’t have the recipe. Sorry.

….PAH!

Posted Food, homestead |