Junglefrog Cooking » frankrijk http://junglefrog-cooking.com Cooking, travel and photography Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:00:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Cooking and the group process http://junglefrog-cooking.com/cooking-and-the-group-process/ http://junglefrog-cooking.com/cooking-and-the-group-process/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:36:06 +0000 Simone (junglefrog) http://junglefrog-cooking.com/?p=1953 I’m sure we all have similar experiences where you meet with a group of strangers and in the beginning you’re thinking; who are these people and they really do not seem to be nice… Then after a couple of days, you realize that they are not as bad as you thought they were and then [...]]]>

Outdoor kitchen in Ahun

I’m sure we all have similar experiences where you meet with a group of strangers and in the beginning you’re thinking; who are these people and they really do not seem to be nice… Then after a couple of days, you realize that they are not as bad as you thought they were and then finally you realize they are a wonderful group of people… I think the best example of that was when we went to Thailand 6 years ago; the first night we met with the entire group of 16 people and we went to bed that night thinking we would be having a rather horrible vacation as it was such a terrible group of people only to end up with the best vacation ever and the most fun group of people we had been with in a long while.

In fact; we are still seeing some of those people today…! So what is that?? Why is that? Is it because we tend to stick to the people we know rather then meet new faces? But then; I love meeting new people, so that just doesn’t seem right. But still it sort of happened in a small way the cooking week as well. In the beginning it was a little akward, but very quickly we ended up having a great time with a fun group of people.

Maybe it is also the activity that bonds; cooking together is almost guaranteed a quick way to get to know people. Same as travelling really. I’ve been in situations where a group of strangers felt like people we had known for a long time, after something as little as one day. Ofcourse this all only works if you want it to work. There will always be those people that should not be travelling in a group. For the simple reason that they are anti social and don’t like to spend time with other people (it always baffles me why those people would chose to go on a grouptrip anyway? What are they thinking??)

Free style Gazpacho

While our cooking group last week was made up of quite a variety of people, I do think we all got along quite well and it was sort of sad to have to say goodby after such a relatively short time.  But hey we can always go back and cook some more next year!! All in all a fantastic week. So if you want to go and cook in France or be creative in France check out the website Kookstudio Amsterdam.

And I just had to finish with one last photo of Frits… (I wrote his name wrong the first time around… it’s not Fritz.. but Frits…!)


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]]> http://junglefrog-cooking.com/cooking-and-the-group-process/feed/ 17 Markets and cooking http://junglefrog-cooking.com/markets-and-cooking/ http://junglefrog-cooking.com/markets-and-cooking/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:20:00 +0000 Simone (junglefrog) http://junglefrog-cooking.com/?p=1947 Yesterday we visited the market in Bourganeuf, which – thankfully – had a little more produce then the previous two markets. We had quite a large group so making decisions is always a little bit harder when there are 8 people with opinions… lol… But Jan-Willem was to be the chef of the day, so [...]]]>

Yesterday we visited the market in Bourganeuf, which – thankfully – had a little more produce then the previous two markets. We had quite a large group so making decisions is always a little bit harder when there are 8 people with opinions… lol… But Jan-Willem was to be the chef of the day, so he had the final say in what we were gonna buy. The idea was to check what produce was available and with a reasonable price, buy that produce and in the afternoon come up with a menu.

Busy cutting

We have a large white board where the ideas are written down and once we all agree that is what we are going to make; we create a mise en place list and tasks are being divided among whoever wants to help in the kitchen that particular day. Not everyone is cooking every day; there are other activities being offered, so there are also people who prefer to go painting some days and work in the kitchen another day. So that means that the kitchencrew varies. Which is fine but it can be a little messy and unorganized as not everyone has cooking experience, but it makes it fun at the same time.
We ended up with a menu that went something like this:
Antipasti the french way (we had rillette, baked terrine of duck, tomatoes with mozarella and basil and grilled veggies)
Salmon tartar with lemon mayonaise and a sort of pesto (I ended up making it with salad (initially the idea was to make rocketpesto, but we forgot to buy rocket)
With a piece of Conquer eel
Roasted chicken with home made french fries, fresh green peas steamed with sjallots and saladhearts
Clafoutis with strawberries and mango

The chicken was from a local farm so a really good one and ofcourse; who does not like good fries… :)
The group of people that had to be fed keeps growing as a few family members also arrived, so in total we had 16 people at the table.

I was not too impressed with the fish; really too much bones and not enough flesh. So as good as the shark was the day before, as bad as the eel was… O well, it can’t all be perfect right?

Steamed green peas with sjalots and saladhearts

Tonight there is going to be an additional 6 people that come for a table d’hote (basically it’s paying customers) which makes it kind of scary, but also fun to be cooking for “real” customers…. We’ll see how that turns out!! I’ll keep you posted!

Checking to see if the fish is fresh


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