by Simone on February 20, 2011 // 21 Comments »

New cooking club!!

Shrimps with salmon, cucumber and beurre blanch

I am sure you remember we were briefly part of a cooking club that came out of one of the cooking courses we followed a year ago. No offense to the people in that group but it was never really entirely our thing. When I go cooking I want to cook and what I don’t want is for most of the food to be prepared already before we start. Plus it was never entirely our kind of people. So when Mathijs approached us end of last year with the news that he was starting a location where cooking clubs could cook, we started thinking about making our own group.

Obviously choosing who to invite and who not is not as easy as it sounds; they don’t have to be superchefs but they sure need to LIKE cooking as that is the first reason you would enter a cooking club, right? So that was our first criteria; who do we know in our circle of friends that likes to cook? And do they – in turn – maybe have friends that also like to cook?

Before we knew it we had a list of people that might like to join and it wasn’t even that long after that, that we had to say no, as the list was already growing too long. The final list consists of friends, friends of our friends, family and people we met through previous cooking courses. A nice mix!

The official opening of the new cooking studio was in January when we were in Costa Rica, so we had no chance to see the place before our first session.

But then again we’ve know Mathijs for a while now and we had all the faith in the world that it would be ok… And well, let me tell you it was!! We all arrived rather early (eager to start!!) yesterday around 6 pm and after having a glass of wine to get into things, Mathijs explained a bit about the houserules and how we were gonna be cooking and then it was time to start. We had four courses and 12 people so we divided into 3 people per course. I was doing the entree together with Charlotte and Mike, who – if you’ve paid attention – both have featured on this blog before… O and if you’re a Dutch blog reader you might know Femke too as she is the author of the blog called Excellent Eten (and also happens to be Tom’s niece)

So what did we make? Our menu of the evening was this:

Gamba with salmon and beurre blanc

Vitello Tonnato

Duck with prosciutto and spring onion served with marsala sauce, pommes duchesse and tagliatelle of black salsify (schorseneren in Dutch)

Jelly of orange with melting chocolate cake and vanilla sauce

Hungry yet? I will just give you the recipe that I made myself together with my two other chefs otherwise this will be an even lengthier post..

Save

Gamba with salmon and beurre blanc

Yield: 12

Ingredients:

36 gamba's

1 cucumber

1/2 bottle dry white wine

2 sjalots, finely chopped

2 lemons

sunfloweroil

36 slices of raw salmonfilet

4 tbsp of diced fresh tarragon

3 dl double cream or whipping cream

300 gr cold butter in cubes

lemon juice

few leaves of mint

2 cloves of garlic

olive oil

Directions:

First start chopping everything and clean the shrimp.

Sauce:

Cook the white wine together with the diced sjallots, reducing it to 1/3 of the original volume. Pass through a sieve and add the cream. Cook again until you have about 2 dl left. Put away until further use. Before serving slowly heat until about 50 C. Mix in the butter bit by bit until it becomes a thicker sauce. Add a little bit of lemonjuice to bring to taste.

Gamba's

Cut the cucumber and dice into small squares (brunoise) about 0,4 x 0,4 cm. Since the cucumber itself is bland in taste, make sure you add pepper and salt to taste and add a few very finely diced mint leaves to it. Clean the gamba's and make sure to remove the intestines from it's back (little black line). Once the gamba's are clean, add finely diced garlic, pepper and some olive oil to bring them to taste.

Bake them in a pan on or a grillplate just shortly before serving. Remember they are done quickly. Once done wrap them in a slice of salmon.

Finishing:

Finish the sauce. Put a little bit of cucumber on each plate. Add 3 gamba's to each dish and sprinkle this with a little bit of seasalt and lemonzest. Sprinkle the tarragonleaves around the gamba's and cucumber and add the sauce. Enjoy!

posted in Appetizer, Fish, Food and Drink, Kookclubbie, Recipes

21 Comments »

« Previous Post

#
1

Foodjunkie — February 20, 2011 at 19:43

Love this dish Simone! I am glad you found a new place to cook. Sounds more relaxing and definitely more creative. I am always jealous of such incentives.There are none to be found in Greece, at least not of that type.

[Reply]
#
2

lisaiscooking — February 20, 2011 at 22:13

The cooking club sounds like so much fun. And, the shrimp with salmon looks fantastic! Lovely sauce too.

[Reply]
#
3

Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul — February 20, 2011 at 23:15

I love reading about your cooking club adventures…and I look forward to reading a whole lot more now that you are at a new place. Love the first dish…it’s very summery!

[Reply]
#
4

Patty H. — February 21, 2011 at 02:55

The cooking club sounds awesome – what a great idea!

[Reply]
#
5

Joy — February 21, 2011 at 17:58

That looks lovely. It looks like you had a great time.

[Reply]
#
6

Ben — February 21, 2011 at 18:14

I love cooking with other people and the idea of a cooking club is just great. I think I’ll have to do this with my new friends down here in Mexico. Great pictures and food my friend.

[Reply]
#
7

Rosa — February 21, 2011 at 19:03

What a gorgeous menu! That starter looks so refined and delicious.

Cheers,

Rosa

[Reply]
#
8

Rosa — February 21, 2011 at 19:04

What a gorgeous menu! That starter looks so refined and delicious.

Cheers,

Rosa

[Reply]
#
9

Rachel — February 21, 2011 at 22:51

A cooking club sounds so wonderful! I wish I there was something like that near where I live.

[Reply]
#
10

Michelle — February 22, 2011 at 00:26

I love the idea of a cooking club. Sounds like wonderful fun.

[Reply]
#
11

deeba — February 22, 2011 at 10:05

Just absolutely gorgeous Simon. Love the idea of a cooking club. How therapeutic and FUN is that! You must be a great bunch of folk. Beautiful pictures too!!

[Reply]
#
12

marla Meridith — February 22, 2011 at 13:59

Looks like a fun cooking event with friends. Would love this dish with all that seafood.

[Reply]
#
13

dharson — February 22, 2011 at 21:33

This looks again like a great recipe!
The camerabag is from the brand Acme Made and I saw it on and American website.
Hahahaha sorry even in het Nederlands verder…..
Het is gelukkig ook te koop in Nederland ik heb het bij cameratools.nl aangeschaft!
Ik denk dat het voor jou te klein is, want er kan 1 camera en een lens in… en ik vermoed dat jij meer spullen hebt.

Jill-E heeft ook hele leuke vrouwen cameratassen!! Maar zijn een beetje duur en eigenlijk te groot voor mij.

Sorry erg lang!

[Reply]
#
14

A Canadian Foodie — February 23, 2011 at 05:55
What an incredible idea. Does the location owner decide the menu and buy the groceries for you and you all pay for the space and food? How does it work? Fantastic photos, Simone. I laughed, though when you said you had to “decide” who to invite. No one in my crowd cooks. Really. No one. They have all gone to the dark side. We are an older group, kind of… but, lucky for me, I have made a lot of friends who are much younger simply because they like to cook and we share that common bond. However, grouping for any party takes a lot of thought – particularly if you are committing to a monthly or bi-monthly schedule. I used to love party planning like that as I had such an eclectic group of friends and could always come up with a grand mix. But through cooking into the criteria, and it just won’t work. I wish it would. I am crazy over the idea and hope the business opens up everywhere! It is a fantastic idea.

valerie

[Reply]
- Simone (junglefrog) — February 23rd, 2011 at 08:44
  
  He Valerie! Yes, the chef, Mathijs, thinks of the menu essentially and buys all the ingredients. We all pay together for the space, the food and his services. The menu can also be decided by us, say for instance we want to do Japanese one day, then we tell Mathijs what we want and he does the rest… The same goes if we want to practice in one particular thing; let’s say cleaning a fish or cooking with chocolate in savoury dishes etc. Mathijs is a great chef and has been teaching cooking classes for a very long time, so he knows just about anything…
  
  I am just very glad we have people in our circle of friends and acquintances that love to cook too! I have a lot of none cooking friends as well, but it’s just a fun thing to share!
  
  [Reply]
#
15

Valérie — February 23, 2011 at 20:47

This really sounds like fun! It’s cool that you’re able to cook in a group. I have to confess, I have trouble with that sometimes: I enjoy it when I do it occasionally, but I also like to go solo in the kitchen. Still, I think it’s a great learning experience, to watch how other people operate.

[Reply]
#
16

Angela@spinachtiger — February 25, 2011 at 03:03
I am so jealous of your cooking club. I know if I lived in Holland you would invite me right?

[Reply]
- Simone (junglefrog) — February 28th, 2011 at 10:12
  
  Angela! You know I would!!
  
  [Reply]
#
17

bake in paris — March 1, 2011 at 09:55

I wish I could be part of this… so much fun Good luck for the next event then!

[Reply]
#
18

Sophie — March 2, 2011 at 20:20

What a great & tasty entréé, you all made!!

What a lovely cooking club!! There is a gteat atmosphere, I guess!

[Reply]