Cooking class at Selah

As part of the Sydney International Food Festival, my friend and I attended a cooking class at Selah (near Circular Quay). Having only been to one other cooking class at the Sydney Fish Markets, I didn’t know what to expect. To my absolute delight, the class consisted of 8 other lovely people and we got to cook in a commercial kitchen!

The owner Sam, took orders for coffees and gave us the recipes for the day. Entree – King Prawns, tomato concasse, muscatels, gnocchi with burnt butter. Main – Spiced lamb backstrap, eggplant, witlof and roasted capsicum salad. Dessert – Toffee pannacotta with gingerbread, praline wafers, orange compote and candied orange. I was pleasantly surprised, I expected something simple (steak with mash etc.). The chef, Gavin, introduced himself, explained the day and took us into the kitchen where we also met Frankie one of the apprentice.

We toured the kitchen, Gavin explained to us how they work and we stood where all the action was about to begin. We began with the dessert because the pannacotta and gingerbread needed to set and bake. I’ve always wanted to make candied orange and didn’t realised how easy it was.

Then we moved onto the entree, Gavin gave us tips on making gnocchi. You bake the potatoes on rock salt. The rock salt draws out the moisture (you can reuse the rock salt) or you can boil them but leave the skin on and scope out the flesh afterwards. If you peel the skin first, the potatoes will absorb water and the gnocchi will more wet. Push the potatoes through a ricer or you can mash but never put it in the food processor - it will make it gluey. Then cool to room temp before you add the flour and egg. The muscatels went amazing well with the dish.

I learnt the lamb back strap doesn’t have that lamb taste because it’s a leaner cut, less fat (the fat gives the taste). I never knew and it’s the only cut of lamb I buy (easy to cook). The eggplant was roasted and made it into a ‘dip’ to sit under the salad, which was under the lamb (I will definitely be making it again as a dip) with garlic and parsley.

It was fantastic watching a chef work and understanding why they do things a certain way. We were stuffed after the entree but I managed to eat every bite of the main and dessert. All the dishes were do-able at home, so I will definitely make them again. I forgot to take my camera, silly me, so I’ve asked one of the participants to send me their pics. I will post it up when I received them.