French Bistro Cooking!

A friend and I had been talking about taking a cooking class together for over a year, and last night, we finally did! I’ve immensely enjoyed the Sur La Table cooking classes I’ve taken and their French Bistro Cooking class didn’t disappoint.

Classes are always a mixture of learning to cook great recipes, getting to know the Chef, drinking wine (BYOB), eating far too much and swapping foodie adventures with your classmates. An excellent time!

Sur le menu pour la nuit: Soupe a l'Oignon au Fromage, Soufflé de Fromage, Boeuf Bourguignon & Crème Brûlée!

We started out making the Soupe a l'Oignon au Fromage, my favorite recipe of the class. Dan Burns, the Chef, had caramelized some onions earlier in the day, which smelled, and tasted, amazing. I don't get people that don't eat onions. They are heavenly!

Once we had made fresh croutons and the stock, it was time to prepare the bowls...

We added Provolone, Mozzarella and Gruyere cheeses...

And... ta da... heaven!

Since Crème Brûlée takes awhile to make, the custard had already been made, but we had the fun job of caramelizing the sugar!

Typically not a Crème Brûlée fan, since I had a part in making it, I had to try it... let's just say I'm now a fan.

We prepped the soufflé dishes with butter, parmesan cheese and bread crumbs for the Soufflé de Fromage.

And... voilà!

To accompany the Boeuf Bourguignon, Chef Dan baked some potatoes in way I'd never seen. We bathed the potatoes in egg whites and then drenched them in Kosher salt, before baking. If you are a salt connoisseur, leave the salt on after baking and eat as is. Otherwise, rub all, or most of it off. Tender with a nice salty taste!

So after seeing Julie & Julia, I thought Boeuf Bourguignon was an extremely difficult dish to make and it would take me multiple attempts to get it right. No, it's not. And no, it didn't. It's glorified beef stew. But who doesn't love beef stew?!?! It's delicious and impressive to make as I think most who saw that movie had the same takeaway. Add it to your next dinner party menu!

After enjoying a bottle of wine, good convo with new friends and exchanging our favorite Sur La Table cooking classes, it was time to whisk our full bellies back to the Westside. The dishes were done.

Check out all my French Bistro Class pics.

Learn about Sur La Table's Cooking Classes.