First Class Cooking: Fuss-free French

For my birthday, John bought me a cooking class with Emily of First Class Cooking in Soma. We finally chose a class from her latest schedule (apparently she books each month within days of scheduling a new month!): Fuss-free French. There were so many great classes to choose from but this one seemed like it would teach some basics, like soufflé and coq au vin.
Emily's loft in Soma was incredible with a view looking northwest back at beautiful downtown SF. Very festive! She kicked things off with dessert, knowing we'd be making good use of both ovens over the course of the rest of the meal prep. We learned to vigorously stir flour into melted butter and water so that the gluten would actually change its structure. After, we used a hand mixer to mix in one already-beaten egg (off the stove of course). As soon as that single egg was absorbed, we mixed in another 3 eggs (also already beaten) and the pastry batter was ready to be scooped onto a baking sheet and baked.

Next, we moved on to the coq au vin or chicken stew. We first fried thick, hearty strips of bacon in the bottom of a giant dutch oven. When they were browned, we removed them and threw about 20 thickly-sliced mushrooms in to slowly soften. Apparently, because of the amount of water in mushrooms, the ideal way to sautee them is slowly and for at least 10 minutes, which, as someone who typically turns up the heat to get things done quicker, was interested to learn. After 10 minutes, we also removed the mushrooms and readied 15 chicken breasts and thighs with skin on. Just before placing them into the dutch oven, we salted each chicken piece, a trick having to do with the proteins and the way the chicken cooks. Skin side down, each piece was seared for about 5 minutes per side, then removed to make room for the next batch. Her gi-normous pot could fry up 6 pieces at a time!

When all of the chicken was browned, we threw a miripoix (finely chopped onion, carrot and celery) into the pot. After just a couple minutes, we added flour and tomato paste, then deglazed the bottom of the dutch oven with brandy and added a bottle of Burgundy wine and chicken stock. Bay leaves, herbs de Provence, salt, pepper, and the chicken (stacked nicely and submerged) went into the stew to begin boiling for the next hour.
With the stew boiling and the puff pastries in the oven, we moved on to stirring up a new roux, this time adding milk and green garlic with the intent of creating a spring-flavored souffle. John's hands were free at the moment Emily needed someone to go at the flour with a strong arm, so he stepped up and impressed us all! Once the egg yolks were beaten in, we stirred in finely grated parmesan and more raw green garlic. Meanwhile, Emily's Kitchenaid Stand Mixer was slowly beating egg whites. Again, typically someone who cranks up the mixer to top speed to whip egg whites as quickly as possible, I had to ask why it was important to slow down. Her answer was that it's only too easy to over-beat egg whites and that this was a good bet against it. I'll take that. We watched as Emily folded the yolk and green garlic concoction into the egg whites because none of us were bold enough to take a stab at it! She poured the souffle into two dishes, both sprayed with Pam and coated with bread crumbs mixed with parmesan cheese. Before she plopped them in the oven, she took a finger and wiped off a ring around the dishes just at the top of where the batter sat in the pan. This was to ensure the souffles would rise straight up from the center instead of from the outside in.

Puff pastries now cooling on the counter and a free oven for us, we began quartering colorful pink and magenta radishes. We retained the radish leaves but set them aside while the quartered radishes were tossed in olive oil and heated up on the stove. She had a pan she could then move to the oven so the radishes could blister and brown slightly. While those were in the oven, we blanched asparagus spears in boiling water ever so briefly, then chopped them into bite-sized pieces. (At this point we also removed the lid from the stew so that it could boil off some of its liquid) When the radishes were sufficiently roasted, we pulled the pan out of the oven and added in the asparagus spears and radish leaves. The leaves cooked down like spinach does when it begins to steam. As it was tossed, we added gray sea salt to the colorful salad.

Noticing that the first round of puff pastries had turned out small and a little rough, she had us attempt one more batch before dinner. This time, when we mixed the first egg into the gluten, we only used the hand mixer for 5 seconds, until the egg was literally just barely absorbed. Then we added in the next 3 eggs. When we scooped this batch of batter onto the baking sheets, we could tell it was a different, more velvety consistency. Sure enough, when we pulled the second batch out of the oven, they were perfectly round, soft and puffy. It was actually pretty cool this happened so we could learn the lesson!

We sat down to eat as soon as the souffles came out of the oven. By this point, the stew had cooked down to thick gravy and we crumbled the bacon, adding it and the mushrooms back in. We transferred the chicken pieces onto a deep platter then scooped generous amounts of stew and mushrooms to cover them. The souffles were deliciously fluffy with a garlic flavor that lacked the usual spicy kick in a good way. The radishes became sweet and tender in the oven, almost like beets, which I have to imagine are related to their root vegetable neighbor. The salt was just enough to heighten the spring flavors and the asparagus was delightfully al dente.
When we finished dinner, Emily jumped up to begin stuffing puff pastry shells with ice cream. She drizzled fresh chocolate sauce, made from chopped bittersweet chocolate, cream, corn syrup and butter, generously over the top of each profiterole. They were delicious, just the right amount of sweet and texture. We had added a pinch of salt to the pastry shells, so they weren't sweet at all, a nice touch I thought. In all, the meal was a lovely Spring menu—not too heavy yet still soul-warming with the stew.

So of course I was going to have to attempt a recreation of the entire meal, and when better to do it than the very next day? We invited John and Julie McDon-baum to enjoy it with us and I spent about 20 minutes working out the logistics of only having one oven, one mixer and a finite number of mixing bowls to use to create the feast Emily cooked with 14 helpers and a never-ending supply of utensils! Results are below. Success!!