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Community center class: Yes, You Can Actually Cook
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vdistinctiveThe classroom was quite cold when the students entered, today, the A/C on full blast. Eliot had thrown on an extra flannel to his layers, and a pair of fingerless gloves. The usual stock of vegetables was slightly smaller than usual, making room for sacks of flour and baskets of fresh, speckled eggs.
"So summer ain't typically the time of year most people are thinkin' about roasts," Eliot said when class had begun. "And it ain't usually the time of year you really want to be hoverin' over a hot oven. There's a reason why most of the cookie holidays are in the winter. But the oven is a pretty important piece of equipment in the kitchen, and it'd be a bit weird if we never covered it at all. If you're cold now, wait 'til we get goin'. Things'll warm right up.
"Now, when most people think of baking, they're thinking breads and pastries. Cookies and cakes and croissants and all those things. I'll tell ya up front, that ain't my forte. I'm an improvisational cook -- I like to experiment. And I ain't got a good enough handle yet on the chemical reactions that go on in that kind of cookin' to mess around with it. Makin' a chili, grillin' a burger? Those things you can play around with. Taste as you go. Throw a little bit of this and that, see pretty quick how it'll change your flavors and textures. Bakin' anything other than a chicken? You gotta be a bit more precise." He hit a button on the remote for the projector, calling up a chart on the screen at the front of the class. "Here's an example. See how the small changes in ingredients -- the type of flour or sugar, the temperature of butter or dough -- changes even just the look of a cookie, much less its flavor or texture." He took a moment to just look at the chart and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm still learnin' all that stuff, myself. I'm an entree man. But I'm told I'll get it down eventually."
Ada always looked at him funny when he wasn't a master at freakin' French desserts, already.
"'Course, ovens ain't just for the sweet stuff. You can bake chicken, like I said before, or do yourself a nice baked potato. Roast up some vegetables -- roasting and baking are pretty much the same, just one uses more oil -- and I even had some decent baked tofu. I got ingredients for all of those set for you. If you want somethin' real easy, you can grab somethin' pre-baked, top it, and do yourself a pizza. We ain't got time to make the dough from scratch today, but I can get you recipes if that's somethin' you'd be interested in trying. Only limits here are time, your imagination -- and, you know, chemistry. So have at it."
"So summer ain't typically the time of year most people are thinkin' about roasts," Eliot said when class had begun. "And it ain't usually the time of year you really want to be hoverin' over a hot oven. There's a reason why most of the cookie holidays are in the winter. But the oven is a pretty important piece of equipment in the kitchen, and it'd be a bit weird if we never covered it at all. If you're cold now, wait 'til we get goin'. Things'll warm right up.
"Now, when most people think of baking, they're thinking breads and pastries. Cookies and cakes and croissants and all those things. I'll tell ya up front, that ain't my forte. I'm an improvisational cook -- I like to experiment. And I ain't got a good enough handle yet on the chemical reactions that go on in that kind of cookin' to mess around with it. Makin' a chili, grillin' a burger? Those things you can play around with. Taste as you go. Throw a little bit of this and that, see pretty quick how it'll change your flavors and textures. Bakin' anything other than a chicken? You gotta be a bit more precise." He hit a button on the remote for the projector, calling up a chart on the screen at the front of the class. "Here's an example. See how the small changes in ingredients -- the type of flour or sugar, the temperature of butter or dough -- changes even just the look of a cookie, much less its flavor or texture." He took a moment to just look at the chart and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm still learnin' all that stuff, myself. I'm an entree man. But I'm told I'll get it down eventually."
Ada always looked at him funny when he wasn't a master at freakin' French desserts, already.
"'Course, ovens ain't just for the sweet stuff. You can bake chicken, like I said before, or do yourself a nice baked potato. Roast up some vegetables -- roasting and baking are pretty much the same, just one uses more oil -- and I even had some decent baked tofu. I got ingredients for all of those set for you. If you want somethin' real easy, you can grab somethin' pre-baked, top it, and do yourself a pizza. We ain't got time to make the dough from scratch today, but I can get you recipes if that's somethin' you'd be interested in trying. Only limits here are time, your imagination -- and, you know, chemistry. So have at it."