French Country Cooking

The chef for the French Country Cooking Course was Peter Berley who wrote Modern Vegetarian Kitchen and Fresh Food Fast and his latest is The Flexitarian Table. I took a look at the newest one, and it really spoke to me. I will be ordering when I get home.Thats him on the right.

We did a bunch of cooking. Because of the time constraints I simmered cod (then flaked it), boiled potatoes, fried bacon, stirred sauces, fried onions and kept the workplace clean. (my work partners all had specific things they wanted to do.) Our team of 5 did a mousse, a gratin parmentier (like a shepherd's pie, but french), and a fish salad. The other teams did French empanadas with fennel sausage, a chocolate mousse, a veal stew, a cheese quiche and a soup. The soup sounded very strange (lettuce in a soup?), but it was terrific.
The one day only classes are more social than the 5 day courses, but I am still learning stuff. A good example for today was about the potatoes ... boiling them with the jackets on keeps them from getting water logged. We used Idaho russet potatoes where as in the past I would have used red potatoes.
As usual I took more pictures that these, and the rest are here.