Cowgirl Chef Cooking Classes in Santa Fe
Now settled into an historic 250-year-old adobe just east of the Plaza – my cowgirl boots and French flea market plates are finally here! – starting this month, I’m teaching COWGIRL CHEF COOKING CLASSES out of my tiny kitchen just like I did in Paris.
Yay!
I’m still cooking creative, fresh cuisine with a French accent using familiar ingredients in new ways, and now I’m in a sweet adobe that feels like Provence meets pueblo…
With two kiva fireplaces, vigas along 10-foot high ceilings, and saltillo tile floors, the architecture is traditional Santa Fe, whereas the décor is French flea market chic plus Cowgirl. French linens and cowhide rugs. Bistro glasses of all sizes and shapes. Shelves made from old barn wood. Turn of the century jam jars as vintage silverware holders. Café au lait bowls, well, everywhere.
We’ll eat off of mismatched blue-and-white plates I picked up at brocantes and flea markets in France and sit at my centuries’-old table from Bordeaux.
As always, the menus are designed around on what’s in season — and what I’m in the mood for — a combination of new recipes I’m developing for cookbook number deux and some from my cookbook, COWGIRL CHEF (Running Press, 2012). (If you don’t have one yet, no worries. I’ll have plenty on hand should you need a personalized copy.)
Shoot me an email (ellise@cowgirlchef.com) to find out more about the dates and menus below. If you have special dietary needs, it’s not a problem. Just let me know in advance so I can figure out something wonderful for you.
As always, I’m happy to customize a class for a group, too. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, get in touch and we’ll discuss a menu that’s right for you.
All classes are about 2 (ish) hours long and are $75.
Bonjour, Summer!
Hello, heat. Goodbye hanging out in the kitchen for hours. How to pull together a delicious, impressive meal without working up a sweat? Looky here.
Blue corn mille feuille with asparagus and avocado
Salmon over roasted yellow squash and baby heirloom tomatoes and spinach quinoa
Caramel fleur de sel pots de crème with fresh raspberries
Technique: demystifying the art of caramel-making
Saturday, July 13 at 11 a.m.
Feeling Tarty? Have a French Picnic
If you’ve never experienced le pique-nique in France, trust me, the French have elevated eating on the grass to an art form. There are tarts, always, and there are easily portable salads, which may or may not include a leaf of green.
Tarte aux tomates (the classic French tomato tart)
Trio of salades: Shrimp, avocado and cherry tomato salad/French lentils with salmon, roasted ratatouille and basil oil/Roasted eggplant, red bell pepper and quinoa salad/
Carottes rapées
Blackberry tartelettes with hazelnut shortbread cookie crust
Technique: the art of the French tart, pâte brisée, pâte sablée
Thursday, July 18 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 20 at 11 a.m.
Last-Minute Summer Dinner Party
A menu that’s as easy as it is impressive. So you can say “Oh, just a little something I threw together.” Cause you know you want to.
Green chile gougères
Pistachio-crusted lamb chops with Cowgirl chimichurri
Peach and blueberry galette with buttermilk ice cream
Technique: how to make choux pastry
Thursday, July 25 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 27 at 11 a.m.
Galettes and Crêpes
You say “pancake,” I say, ”crêpe.” Or “galette,” depending on just what flat, pancake (or in some cases, tarty) thing we’re talking about. Here’s how to make both with that ouh la la flair…oh yeah.
Spinach galettes with smoked salmon and crème fraiche
Cornmeal crêpes with roasted chicken and summer veggies with garden herb salsa
Chocolate crêpes with vanilla bean ice cream and peanut butter salty caramel sauce
Technique: how to make lacy, French-style crepes
Thursday, August 1 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, August 3 at 11 a.m.
