Let there be pie!!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on my blog or not but I just took a basic cooking/canning class with Brooke. It was 6 classes that were held every other week, I really enjoyed them, enjoyed getting away for the evening and enjoyed learning a few new things. I learned how to can, we canned bread and butter pickles, sweet and hot peppers and some absurdly delicious stuff called tomato jam. We also learnt how to make the perfect biscuits, a Thai chicken curry, a delicious chopped salad, salad dressing, cranberry sauce, clafouti, how to poach the perfect egg and finally how to make a pie crust. It was a great class and the teacher Paul is a great cook, seriously we kicked off on the first night and one of our discussions was about salt, the different types etc etc anyway we conclude with this dessert that was just from heaven, it was this butterscotch stuff that was delectable and it went with the salt as there was a sprinkling of salt on top. O.K. so pretty much we would always have something delightful to eat at the class, usually something we had learned to make, one night Paul (who had previously taught us how to poach an egg and sent us home to practice poaching for the week) had us poach eggs in class, then he showed us how to make the perfect biscuit, then he served us our poached eggs on top of his perfect biscuits and well, it was truly delicious. I can still taste the clafouti and red Thai chicken curry, uummm! So hopefully you get the gist, we watch, we help make, we help eat. Our final class - we are covering dessert, we begin by talking about cheese and a cheese plate as a dessert course and as usual we sample, they we go onto making a pie crust, we watch, one of us helps make and then as its going into the oven we are told that the delicious berry pie filled with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries that we would have to endure the fragrance of as it slowly cooks for the next hour we would not be getting to taste, it was not for us. We wailed, we cried, we moaned about our terrible fate and Paul brought out one of his favourite desserts to quiet us with, he placed a bowl of frozen berries in front of us and then brought around a large jug filled with hot melted white chocolate and heavy cream and poured it directly over the berries. I have to say, it was good but it wasn't pie!!

Class of 2007! Brooke, Paul, Cheryl, Gabrielle, Tara (check out her blog and version of the events here) and Rick. So fun to get to know, I will miss those fun evenings we have spent together.

This is Paul, amazing cook, this is the type of stuff he makes - Short Ribs braised in red wine sauce, with homemade gnocchi, Parmesan and a chiffonade of red shiso, I don't think you'd find that on allrecipes!! Also a picture of the cheese plate, everything was fancy and beautifully finished, and tasted oh! so good at Paul's house.

DENIED! Can you guess which pie we were denied and which pie I made? Maybe Kate's little pastry creations will give my pie away!! I have to say in Paul's defense he must have known that I would rather have the pie as we made 2 pie crusts that evening, one he made by hand, the other he showed us how to make in a food processor. The latter he so kindly gave to me to take home, and the next day I used that pie crust and made myself an apple, pear and cranberry pie, it was quite tasty, I made my pie and I ate it too!!