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March 15, 2011

#19. Cook something with my husband

We can cross something off my 31 comes before 32 list!

#19. Cook something with my husband.

You might remember that Casey gifted me a “couples” cooking class this Valentine’s Day. On Friday we went to the Date Night: Parisian Bistro class at our local Sur La Table. It was great!!!  Casey learned a few major cooking basics and I got to learn how to make awesome french fries and perfect profiteroles (BTW those two items are on my 31 comes before 32 list). Watch out– I hope to bust those out soon!

The Parisian Bistro Menu Included:

  • Mussels Meuniere
  • Seared Hanger Steak with Red Wine Reduction and Watercress
  • Frites (from scratch!!)
  • Profiteroles Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

When we first arrived, they gave us a nice little snack of brie, grapes & crostini so we wouldn’t get too hungry.

Good call…cuz I totally was. There were about 3 other couples working with us and the class ran from 6:30-9:30pm.

We gathered around the kitchen and looked at the ingredients for the evening.

Everything to the right is for the mussels.

Ahh there’s the hanger steak! Such a wonderful cut of meat you can only get from a butcher.

Right next to it, you’ll see the ingredients for the red wine reduction sauce.

It had mushrooms & thyme in it. I’m drooling as I type this. It was amazing.

First we chopped shallots & garlic for the wine reduction sauce. I was really proud of Casey; he did a great job.

And then we learned how to properly cut potatoes for french fries.

Here’s Casey cutting up a potato. I learned this technique in my knife skills class. 😉

We all put our cut potatoes into a bowl of water. Then we drained them….

And dried off the potatoes by putting them in a heated oven. The moisture effects the crisp!

Then we fried them for a few minutes & set them aside. You’d better believe I tried one.

We cranked the heat back up and fried them again! This is how you get really GREAT fries.

One of our classmates cooked the steak while the wine reduction was reducing in the back.

Casey and I were in charge of the mussels. Here’s Casey pouring in the white wine.

LOOK AT THOSE MUSSELS!!  YUP! We did that!

There’s really no excuse for me not to make mussels at home now!

We also made profiteroles. Here’s the chef showing us how to make the pâte à choux.

He put 2 cups of water in instead of 1 and blamed the metric system. I giggled. Totally.

You can see him in the bottom right hand corner putting the flour in the pot. It was interesting to see how he improvised in this situation. Good notes to have since I’m going to be teaching my own cooking class soon!

And here he is teaching us how to use a pastry bag. We all got to practice our technique.

I felt like Martha. Except…Martha would have beat the yolks in by hand- NOT with a mixer.

They set the table for us to eat our dinner…. All that bread is for mussel broth dunking.

Notice how there are no wine glasses? Sigh…. That would have been awesome. Totally awesome.

And here we are digging into our mussels. They were excellent! The perfect balance of shallots, lemon & wine.

This is the point where I wish I had asked for seconds, but with a room full of strangers I felt weird.

After we polished off the mussels, we learned how to cut the hanger steak….

And then we plated it….

Added some watercress….

And then poured the wine reduction sauce on top of our steak.

Casey was excited to learn that putting butter in the reduction at the end made the sauce shiny. That’s how they do it!

And of course…the FRIES. My favorite part! I wasn’t shy this time- I asked for seconds 🙂

Here’s our dinner! Everything tasted SOOOO good. Did I mention there was NO WINE??!! Outrage!

After we finished our dinner, we got right to profiteroles!

We cut each one in half & filled them with a scoop of ice cream & topped it with the chocolate sauce we made. We then sprinkled a few toasted/slivered almonds on top!

If I wasn’t around a bunch of strangers, I would have unbuttoned my jeans! Oy.

Here we are in our aprons!

WE COOKED TOGETHER!! I never thought it was possible!!!!

I totally expect Casey to pick up some cooking duties around here. You hear that, honey??

  • Carrie Rosalind

    Yum! I’ve always wondered about the classes at Sur la Table, and now that I’ve read this post I totally want to take one!

  • Anna

    Nice work you too! We have friends who tell us they -never- cook together but even though we have the teeniest, tiniest kitchen it’s a two person operation for homemade pizza, pasta, and other dishes around here. I think it teaches kids a great lesson about team work and allows everyone to feel proud of the food they eat come dinner time. Bravo!

  • Mags

    You guys are too cute! Yeah I don’t think I’m mature enough to cook with my boyfriend. I’m way too bossy and it becomes unfun super quick. We usually stick to our strong points, I fix the dinner he picks the movie.

    • Tracy

      Good compromise! That’s usually how it works at my house….but now things might be different….

  • Dana

    SO CUTE! No wine in a cooking class is an outrage. I go through about four bottles in each of my classes – granted no one is really wielding a knife besides me, but still. You can’t have a meal like that without a big glass of white for the mussels and a big glass of red for the steak. And Muscado for the dessert. And a glass of port afterward. 🙂

  • justcooknyc

    awww. looks like fun.

  • vineelasiva

    Nice work Tracy.Treat looks fabulous.

  • julie (chefjulieyoon)

    Nice post. Very detailed pictures and descriptions on what goes on in the sur la table class. I was always curious. Their kitchens for the cooking classes are always so nice. Looks like you had fun and the food looks amazing. I want to eat french fries and steak now.

    julie

  • Casey

    Did she mention there was no wine? I would have taken a rip off the white and red we were using to cook with but they smelled awful; they did make tasty sauces though.

  • Amanda

    Sur La Table have you on their Facebook page! Nice job. Looks like such fun!

  • jujubefamily

    the food looks devine~~~ and you two are just adoooorable!!

  • cakewhiz

    Awww…. that class looks like so much fun! And all that food looks totally DELISH!

  • joy the baker

    cutest thing ever. those profiterols… those mussels… dangit!! i like this.

  • Rachel Travers

    How fun! And congrats to you for crossing another item off your list! My husband and I cook together just about every night and we love it. Here’s to wishing this class is the just the beginning of many adventures for you and Casey in your own kitchen together!

  • jessica

    This is too cute! (and rhyming names to boot!) Thanks for sharing the tips about the fries! I haven’t tried making them yet, so I’ll know where to look when I do. And omg, want profiteroles NOW.

  • Lacey Chalenor

    Great story and photos.
    Looks like a lot of fun, while learning some great cooking skills.
    Now on taking a cooking class is my list of things to do 🙂

  • Glenn

    You guys are waaay too cute.
    I don’t know if me or my boyfriend have the fortitude to be in a hot kitchen together for that long a time, but who knows?
    I have no excuse to not try my hand at French fries now, damn.
    And I need to find a place around here that has fresh vegetables like that, those greens look way too good.

    Your list is rapidly dwindling, keep it up! We love to hear about it. 🙂

  • regan

    Of course my local Sur La Tb doesn’t offer classes. Bastards!

  • Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce › shutterbean

    […] exactly what to make my mom for the special day. Profiteroles!  I learned how to make them at my Sur La Table class a few months back and Mother's Day & my 31 comes before 32 list put me to the test. #8 Make […]

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