A day at The Bertinet Kitchen (pic heavy!)
Discussion
Mrs. Miniman bought me a gift voucher for a session at The Bertinet Kitchen so I chose the Classic Bistro Cooking course and headed off into Bath this morning. I'm ashamed to say I took the park and ride to save money on parking. Anyway, here's how the day went. Apologies in advance for the shoddy iPhone snaps.
The Bertinet Kitchen by binaryimage, on Flickr
We had a quick breakfast of coffee and toast and an intro from Richard Bertinet, who is a splendidly pleasant French chap, and divided up into groups to crack into our tasks for the day which were:
- Mushrooms on toast (obviously much posher than it sounds!)
- Caramelised onion tarts
- Herb crusted rack of lamb
- Dauphinoise potatoes
- Green beans
- Creme Caramel
Initially I was a little disappointed as there's nothing on that list that I hadn't cooked before, however there were huge numbers of tips and tricks to pick up.
Ready to cook by binaryimage, on Flickr
We started with the Creme Caramel, melting the sugar and a squeeze of lemon and adding to buttered ramekins
Caramel by binaryimage, on Flickr
then moved onto the custard
Custard by binaryimage, on Flickr
This went into a low (160) oven in a bain marie for 15 or so minutes.
Next we prepped a load of onions, shallots, garlic and green beans ready for later. This included a very neat trick for preparing "sliced" onions that doesn't involve slicing. I will try to do a step-by-step later.
Prep the beans by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then we all had a go at a proper mandolin to slice up some spuds.
Mandolin by binaryimage, on Flickr
This is where my previous approach to Dauphinoise went out of the window and I can report that Richard's method is so much easier, and tastier. First we heated some fantastically tasty local rape seed oil until properly smoking.
Hot pan by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then slung in the spuds and cooked for a while before adding onions, shallots and garlic. Next a small slug (pint and a half or so) of double cream.
Add cream by binaryimage, on Flickr
After cooking for a few minutes, in went some parsley and the whole lot is decanted into a couple of dishes, then into the oven for 20 minutes or so, which is much less time than I'd normally expect to cook Dauphinoise for, due to the pre-cooking. Once done, they were left to stand, covered with foil, for a good 2 hours before we ate them, and they were plenty hot enough after that time.
Next a lesson in prepping some really nice racks of lamb which were already french trimmed, but we took off all excess fat and cleaned up the bones a little.
Trim by binaryimage, on Flickr
Plenty of lamb by binaryimage, on Flickr
Now onto the mushrooms. This was finely sliced bog standard mushrooms, sauteed with some shallots, garlic and thyme. They were then flamed with brandy before adding a couple of tubs of cream (did I mention we ate a LOT of cream today?!).
Flambee by binaryimage, on Flickr
Ready to serve by binaryimage, on Flickr
This then went onto some toasted sourdough bread (really shoddy picture here, sorry).
Mushrooms on toast by binaryimage, on Flickr
Considering the basic raw ingredients, this was absolutely delicious and can apparently be used with beef, chicken, pork, pasta, rice and God knows how many other things. Certainly made for an excellent pre-lunch.
Now, back to the lamb, searing in a couple of batches
Sear by binaryimage, on Flickr
before coating with a herb crust.
Herb crust on top by binaryimage, on Flickr
The crust was various herbs (parsley, thyme, mint I think, rosemary), hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, Dijon mustard and (you guessed it) double cream, all blitzed together in to a fairly dry mixture.
Onto the mussels.
Moules by binaryimage, on Flickr
We started with a lesson in identifying bad mussels, which we got stuck into
Quality control by binaryimage, on Flickr
Richard then checked through all our rejects and put about 80% of them into the "ok" pile
Cooking liquor was onions, shallots, garlic and a small splash of white wine.
Small splash of wine by binaryimage, on Flickr
Whilst the mussels were cooking, we made up what Richard referred to as "tarts" but were basically caramelised onions, olive and emmenthal on very thinly sliced sourdough bread (which interestingly was a week old).
Caramelised onions, Emmenthal, Olive by binaryimage, on Flickr
Into the oven for a few minutes and out again to make a nice amuse bouche.
Back to the mussels - parsley goes in then they are tossed (NOT stirred) to mix it all in.
Shake by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then served with some more delicious bread whilst the lamb went into the oven for about 10 minutes.
Moules Marinières by binaryimage, on Flickr
All served up
Tuck in by binaryimage, on Flickr
and bloody lovely it was too.
Rack of Lamb, Dauphinoise Potatoes & Beans by binaryimage, on Flickr
Finally, out with the Creme Caramels which were superb.
Creme Caramel by binaryimage, on Flickr
Not sure whether it was a good or bad thing that I was driving and so couldn't get stuck into the excellent wine.
Overall a really enjoyable day, as much for the banter and scoffing as the cooking itself, would recommend it highly.
The Bertinet Kitchen by binaryimage, on Flickr
We had a quick breakfast of coffee and toast and an intro from Richard Bertinet, who is a splendidly pleasant French chap, and divided up into groups to crack into our tasks for the day which were:
- Mushrooms on toast (obviously much posher than it sounds!)
- Caramelised onion tarts
- Herb crusted rack of lamb
- Dauphinoise potatoes
- Green beans
- Creme Caramel
Initially I was a little disappointed as there's nothing on that list that I hadn't cooked before, however there were huge numbers of tips and tricks to pick up.
Ready to cook by binaryimage, on Flickr
We started with the Creme Caramel, melting the sugar and a squeeze of lemon and adding to buttered ramekins
Caramel by binaryimage, on Flickr
then moved onto the custard
Custard by binaryimage, on Flickr
This went into a low (160) oven in a bain marie for 15 or so minutes.
Next we prepped a load of onions, shallots, garlic and green beans ready for later. This included a very neat trick for preparing "sliced" onions that doesn't involve slicing. I will try to do a step-by-step later.
Prep the beans by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then we all had a go at a proper mandolin to slice up some spuds.
Mandolin by binaryimage, on Flickr
This is where my previous approach to Dauphinoise went out of the window and I can report that Richard's method is so much easier, and tastier. First we heated some fantastically tasty local rape seed oil until properly smoking.
Hot pan by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then slung in the spuds and cooked for a while before adding onions, shallots and garlic. Next a small slug (pint and a half or so) of double cream.
Add cream by binaryimage, on Flickr
After cooking for a few minutes, in went some parsley and the whole lot is decanted into a couple of dishes, then into the oven for 20 minutes or so, which is much less time than I'd normally expect to cook Dauphinoise for, due to the pre-cooking. Once done, they were left to stand, covered with foil, for a good 2 hours before we ate them, and they were plenty hot enough after that time.
Next a lesson in prepping some really nice racks of lamb which were already french trimmed, but we took off all excess fat and cleaned up the bones a little.
Trim by binaryimage, on Flickr
Plenty of lamb by binaryimage, on Flickr
Now onto the mushrooms. This was finely sliced bog standard mushrooms, sauteed with some shallots, garlic and thyme. They were then flamed with brandy before adding a couple of tubs of cream (did I mention we ate a LOT of cream today?!).
Flambee by binaryimage, on Flickr
Ready to serve by binaryimage, on Flickr
This then went onto some toasted sourdough bread (really shoddy picture here, sorry).
Mushrooms on toast by binaryimage, on Flickr
Considering the basic raw ingredients, this was absolutely delicious and can apparently be used with beef, chicken, pork, pasta, rice and God knows how many other things. Certainly made for an excellent pre-lunch.
Now, back to the lamb, searing in a couple of batches
Sear by binaryimage, on Flickr
before coating with a herb crust.
Herb crust on top by binaryimage, on Flickr
The crust was various herbs (parsley, thyme, mint I think, rosemary), hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, Dijon mustard and (you guessed it) double cream, all blitzed together in to a fairly dry mixture.
Onto the mussels.
Moules by binaryimage, on Flickr
We started with a lesson in identifying bad mussels, which we got stuck into
Quality control by binaryimage, on Flickr
Richard then checked through all our rejects and put about 80% of them into the "ok" pile
Cooking liquor was onions, shallots, garlic and a small splash of white wine.
Small splash of wine by binaryimage, on Flickr
Whilst the mussels were cooking, we made up what Richard referred to as "tarts" but were basically caramelised onions, olive and emmenthal on very thinly sliced sourdough bread (which interestingly was a week old).
Caramelised onions, Emmenthal, Olive by binaryimage, on Flickr
Into the oven for a few minutes and out again to make a nice amuse bouche.
Back to the mussels - parsley goes in then they are tossed (NOT stirred) to mix it all in.
Shake by binaryimage, on Flickr
Then served with some more delicious bread whilst the lamb went into the oven for about 10 minutes.
Moules Marinières by binaryimage, on Flickr
All served up
Tuck in by binaryimage, on Flickr
and bloody lovely it was too.
Rack of Lamb, Dauphinoise Potatoes & Beans by binaryimage, on Flickr
Finally, out with the Creme Caramels which were superb.
Creme Caramel by binaryimage, on Flickr
Not sure whether it was a good or bad thing that I was driving and so couldn't get stuck into the excellent wine.
Overall a really enjoyable day, as much for the banter and scoffing as the cooking itself, would recommend it highly.
It was about £180 IIRC, quite pricey but given the cost of the ingredients we got through not too bad. There was plenty of hands-on - we were split into three groups of four people and everyone got to try all the different techniques which was nice.
The onion slicing thing is a little hard to describe. Imagine you're going to dice an onion. Halve it down the middle, peel the two halves, then horizontally slice through each half, stopping short of the root to keep the whole thing together. Then cut vertically through it so you end up with a kind of fan of onion. If you were dicing, you would then slice through at 90 degrees to the vertical cuts. However to do the slice thing, you just cut off the root at an angle and then spread out the slices.
Hard to visualise. I will try to do a photo how-to.
The onion slicing thing is a little hard to describe. Imagine you're going to dice an onion. Halve it down the middle, peel the two halves, then horizontally slice through each half, stopping short of the root to keep the whole thing together. Then cut vertically through it so you end up with a kind of fan of onion. If you were dicing, you would then slice through at 90 degrees to the vertical cuts. However to do the slice thing, you just cut off the root at an angle and then spread out the slices.
Hard to visualise. I will try to do a photo how-to.
Cotty said:
The onion chopping sounds a bit like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwGBt3V0yvc
It's pretty much like that - it's for slicing though, so you omit Gordon's last step (cutting vertically to create the dice) and instead just diagonally cut off the root, giving nice slices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwGBt3V0yvc
It's expensive but then so is a track day if you just reduce it to what you actually do. But it is the overall experience that matters and with this it seems you got pointers like a professional driver teaching at a track day.
Top notch!
Can I swap Mrs Minniman for Mrs zakelwe? I only get socks
Andy
Top notch!
Can I swap Mrs Minniman for Mrs zakelwe? I only get socks
Andy
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