Cooking the Books--Ruhlman's Roast 1-22-15: 7-9pm

Cooking Class + Book Club = Cooking the Books!

Join us for the first in a series of cooking classes based on cookbooks!

Led by cookbook aficionados (and LTHers) pairs4life, mbh and yours truly, we’ll be exploring a different cookbook each month, starting with Michael Ruhlman’s newest volume—How to Roast.

The class will feature:

A hands-on class preparing a meal of several of the instructors’ favorite dishes from the book.
Tips and suggestions for creative menu ideas from the book.
Sharing of great food and conversation—just like the best book clubs!

So grab a couple of friends and sign up to spend the evening learning to prepare some wonderful winter comfort food—no book purchase required!

https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50363/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?event_KEY=80459

And stay tuned for future classes, including some very special guests who will be cooking from their OWN books! Yes, GWiv, we're talking about you (and GNR recipient Big Jones' Paul Fehribach and Ina Pinkney, the Breakfast Queen).

I just did a test run of the meal mbh and I will be making for our inaugural Cooking the Books class and you won't want to miss the kickoff of this series!

Ruhlman's Roast Chicken
Duck fat roasted potatoes with rosemary and onions
Roasted cauliflower with capers, anchovies, golden raisins and pistachios
Roasted pineapple with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce.

WOW!

The class will be hands on, with lots of interesting tips and tricks that we'll share from the book. So sign up now so you won't miss it:

https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50363/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?event_KEY=80459

See you Thursday in the Kitchen!

There's a few spots left for Thursday night's class--and a little friends and family discount for LTHers--just put in PGPflyer in the discount code box for $5 off.

And the class is BYO--all beverages are encouraged but based on this menu, a nice dry full-bodied white or lighter red would be lovely!!!

Hope to see you there on Thursday!!

Thought there wasn't anything else to learn about roasting a chicken, then comes this class with valuable tips:

1. How to tie a chicken so the white meat requires the same cook time as the dark as not to dry out the lean white meat.

2. Run your finers between the meat and skin to separate them for a crispier skin, kind of like Peking Duck preparation.

3. To roast cauliflower, instead of time consuming task of cutting up florets individually, the trick is to cut up slabs of cauliflower steaks, roast them, then chop them up.

With a simple seasoning of slat on the chicken and tips above, the roasted product was beautiful and tasty, without any fuss. All the side dishes were great, as well. Everyone had a great time, and lovely dinner.

Thank you MB and Jen!

Last night's dinner was really terrific. And the chicken skin was really nice and crisp. In addition to my usual salting and refrigeration, I'll absolutely be separating the skin from the meat from now on.

Thank you BR and petite_gourmande for the lovely compliments and coming out to our class, I can't wait to learn BR's crust secrets next Tuesday. This series of classes for Peterson Garden Project have been lovely so far.

Thanks to mbh for being a great cooking/teaching partner and to PGP for the playground that is the Fearless Food Kitchen--wait til you hear the details on next month's class--PASTA!! Stay tuned!

boudreaulicious wrote:Thanks to mbh for being a great cooking/teaching partner and to PGP for the playground that is the Fearless Food Kitchen--wait til you hear the details on next month's class--PASTA!! Stay tuned!

Aww...who doesn't love good roast chicken. Looking forward to BR's crust class and feeling grateful for all the wonderful LTH friends I've met.