A Cook's Garden

In a perfect world every cook/chef should have his/her own garden. It's been years since I planted a garden. I have delayed, procrastinated, and at times been unable to plant a garden. I finally decided that another year lost would be simply unacceptable. I finally put in a garden this year. There is nothing more satisfying and calming as walking through my little patch each morning, inspecting, picking, and taking in the aromas of my own vegetables and herbs. As a cook, it's really gratifying to be able to select flavors from my own garden.

I am fortunate to have some space to plant a garden with decent variety, but you really don't need much space to plant herbs, or a tomato for example. In fact, you only need a couple of pots to plant your favorite herbs. I have always been irked when a recipe required me to buy a whole bunch of an herb for only 1 TBS. The waste! With a garden, I have the luxury to pick only what's needed.

Here, I have planted marjoram, oregano, spearmint, savory, basil, and cilantro all in the same pot.

If you cook, I really encourage you to plant a small garden or a minimum of a few pots outside your window filled with herbs. Basil, parsley, mint, and thyme are examples of herbs that are really simple to grow and require minimum care. You won't regret it.

Mortadella

The Charcutepalooza challenge this month is to make emulsified sausage. In short, this is the type of sausage that has a smooth paste texture like a hot dog. I did some research on the subject and have decided to make mortadella. Mortadella is an Italian sausage that hails from bologna. We have all seen it in the deli (I took the picture above from google image search.) In it's most traditional form it has a cross-section that shows a pinkish color, dotted with fat and pistachios. However, variations of the traditional can be made by replacing the pistachios with olives, or not using either. The meat is pork shoulder mixed with fat. I'll write more about the process when I make it in the upcoming week. Any suggestions are welcome!

Charcutepalooza

I recently following a "movement" called Charcutepalooza. It's a celebration of sorts. A celebration of curing, salting, and smoking meat. It's about reconnecting with how our ancestors approached meat before refrigeration. It's also a means to pass on the humane treatment of animals by learning to maximize the use of the animal to prevent a wasteful death, learning techniques of enhancing flavors, and generally reacquainting ourselves with a lost art. The group is comprised of food bloggers who are given a monthly challenge to prepare something using the above techniques and then writing about it by the 15th of the following month. As it turns out, I recently wrote about making sausage and curing duck to make duck prosciutto which coincidentally were two of the past challenges. The challenges are posted on Mrs Wheelbarrows Kitchen.
   
I invite you to join in or follow along and make any comments or suggestion to enhance my challenges. July's challenge is sausage emulsification which is the process that transforms a sausage into a smooth textured sausage as in a hot dog or bratwurst. I have never done this process, so it'll be fun for me to learn a new technique.

Le Cordon Bleu London

I was in London last week, so naturally I decided to pay a visit to the London campus of Le Cordon Bleu. Similar to the Paris school, it is located on a narrow side street in a humble non-descript building. It looked even smaller than the Paris LCB if that's possible. For some reason I  had expected this school to be bigger. Upon entering I went to the receptionsist to ask a few questions. I told her that I had attended LCB in Paris, and asked if it was possible for me to either tour the school or, even better, sit in on a demo. She wasn't impressed with my alumni status. In fact, she was kind of a snotty young girl with an attitude and seemed to be annoyed that I was bothering her. Not that I expected the red carpet, but come on! At least be a little polite.

I asked about the number of kitchens. Three plus a pastry kitchen and a boulangerie. One of the demo rooms was visible directly from the reception office. It was packed with students and looked very cramped. Not sure why LCB does not invest in more spacious facilities.

The receptionist did give me the card for the sales and marketing administrator to make my special request. They do provide tours, but they must be arranged in advance. However, unlike the Paris LCB where anyone can pay to sit in on a demo, the London campus does not allow it. I'm coming back next week, maybe I'll try again. It would be nice to see one of their Intermediate demos to compare the quality and style of instruction with that of the Paris school.