Why methods?
We teach techniques, not recipes – because techniques are the building blocks of great cooking. All our chefs are either trade qualified or Le Cordon Bleu trained, and we teach the way we were taught – using a ‘see it, do it’ model. This means that for most classes our chef instructors use ‘running demos’ where they show you the skill and then you copy it – with assistance from your instructor as needed. And in our express classes you will cook at the same time as the chef, following their lead. We will give you an ingredients list and a method for each class, but you do not have to use it.
Our chefs will explain patiently and walk you through each class. And if your dish doesn’t work out, that is OK – we run most classes 3 or 4 times a week so you can always come and try again! Failure is part of learning.
Use these methods below to practice at home.
Lemon Za’atar Chicken with Winter Vegies (v – Eggplant and Chickpeas)
1 x 650ml container
- 1 x 300ml container
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Cutting board with paper towel under it
- Knife
- Small saucepan
- Small baking tray
- Baking paper
- Colander or sieve
- Small bowl
Ingredients
- 1 chicken thigh fillet or bone in, skin on chicken thigh (v – 1 large eggplant and 200g chickpeas)
- 1 potato, approx. 120g
- 2 tsp za’atar
- ½ tsp sumac
- ½ tsp paprika
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ lemon
- ½ red onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5 olives
- Small handful parsley
- 1 tbsp Greek style yoghurt
- 5 cherry tomatoes
- Salt
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Heat oven to 180C (200C if not fan forced).
- Line baking tray with baking paper.
- Cut the potato into wedges. Parboil in salted water (salty like the sea) until a knife goes through them with only a little resistance.
- While potatoes are cooking, make a spice paste:
- Halve the lemon, slice one half and put into small bowl.
- Squeeze juice from the other half of the lemon into bowl.
- Mince garlic and add to bowl.
- Add oil.
- Add spices (za’atar, sumac, paprika) and a fat pinch of salt.
- Mix to combine.
- Cut red onion into chunky dice and add to bowl. (v – cut eggplant into chunky dice and add to bowl).
- Add olives to bowl.
- Drain potatoes and add to bowl.
- Toss and put into baking tray.
- Bake until vegies are golden.
- While baking, make tomato and yoghurt salad:
- Halve or dice tomatoes.
- Finely chop parsley and add to yoghurt.
- Season yoghurt.
- Plate or pack chicken. Pack salad separately.
- Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
Shakshuka
1 x 650ml container
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Frying pan
- Cutting board w paper towel
- Chef’s knife
- Spoon
Ingredients
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- ½ medium red onion, diced
- ½ red capsicum, seeded and diced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- Handful parsley leaves
- Handful coriander leaves (optional)
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp Aleppo pepper or other chilli powder/flakes
- ½ tbsp tomato paste
- ½ tin tomatoes (whole or crushed) (200g)
- 2 eggs
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Prepare vegetables and herbs:
a. Dice onion and capsicum.
b. Mince garlic
c. Chop parsley and coriander - Cook the base:
a. Heat olive oil in fry pan to medium low.
b. Sweat onion and capsicum until onion is translucent. This will take about 3 minutes.
c. Add the garlic, paprika, cumin and Aleppo pepper and cook until fragrant.
d. Add tomato paste and cook until it smells ‘toasted’.
e. Add tomatoes, season and adjust seasoning. - Add eggs:
a. When the flavour of the tomato is rounded (not too acidic), make two small ‘wells’ in the tomato mixture. Crack in the eggs.
b. Cook to your desired level of doneness. You can cover at this point, either with a lid or a sheet of foil. - Garnish and serve:
a. Put onto serving plate (or serve in the pan).
b. Sprinkle with herbs. - Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
Notes
You can add feta or goat’s cheese and can add extra starchy vegetables (like butternut pumpkin or sweet potato) to bulk this out. Green leafy vegies like spinach are also a nice addition.
Chicken Musakhan with flatbread and softened onions (v- cauliflower and brown lentils)
This recipe is based on an Ottolenghi recipe. If you are keen on Middle Eastern food, he and Sami Tamimi are the GOATs.
- 1 x 650ml container
- 1 x 100ml container
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Cutting board w paper towel
- Chef’s knife
- Frying pan
- Large bowl
- Baking tray lined w baking paper
- Thermometer
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 small chicken thigh cutlets/drumsticks (v- ½ cauliflower and ½ tin brown lentils)
- 50ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 red onion
- ½ tsp Aleppo pepper
- Fat pinch ground cinnamon
- Fat pinch ground allspice
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp sumac
- 1 pita bread or flatbread
- Small handful parsley
- 70g Greek yoghurt
- ¼ lemon
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Preheat the oven to 200C (fan forced, 220 without fan).
- Marinate chicken (v- cauliflower):
a. Put chicken (v – chopped cauliflower) in bowl with ¼ of the oil, ¼ of the cumin, half the sumac, all the cinnamon and allspice, ¼ tsp salt and pepper.
b. Mix. - Cook chicken (v- cauliflower):
a. Roast chicken for 20 minutes.
b. Check temperature(at least 74C) and add another 5/10 minutes if needed.
c. (v – Roast cauliflower until browned, and softened, about 20 minutes. Add extra oil if required).
d. Set aside, do not drain. - Prepare onion and herbs:
a. Slice onions thinly (about 2 mm thick).
b. Chop parsley and set aside. - Cook pine nuts: dry fry in a pan over medium heat and set aside:
- Cook onions (v – and lentils):
a. Heat half the olive oil in the frypan.
b. Add onions and a fat pinch of salt.
c. Cook over medium low heat, stirring often, for about 20 minutes or until soft and golden.
d. Mix through remaining sumac, cumin and some black pepper.
e. (v- add lentils)
f. Taste for seasoning, and set aside. - Assemble the dish:
a. Tear bread into quarters. Drizzle with remaining oil. Put in oven to crisp for about 4 minutes.
b. Place onto plate/in container, top with:
i. half the onions
ii. chicken and juices (v- cauliflower)
iii. remaining onion
iv. pine nuts, parsley, sumac, a little olive oil
c. Serve with yoghurt and a wedge of lemon on the side/in a separate container.
- Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
Vegetable stock and fish stock/fumet (v – vegetarian stock and mushroom stock)
2 x 650ml containers
Vegetable stock (Fond de Legumes)
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Large saucepan
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Fine mesh sieve
Ingredients
- 100g carrot
- 75g onion
- 75g leek
- 50g celery
- Small sprig thyme
- Small bay leaf
- 3 parsley stalks
- 5 peppercorns
- Cold water
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Wash and finely chop vegetables (no need to peel).
- Add to pot with herbs and peppercorns.
- Just cover with cold water (about 500ml). Water must be cold.
- Bring to a simmer on high heat, then turn down heat and simmer for 45 minutes, skimming off any scum. Do not boil.
- Strain through sieve, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible.
- Discard solids.
- If desired, reduce volume by vigorous boiling.
- Do not put salt in stock. Store in an airtight container and use within 5 days.
- Clean down benchtop and wipe over/replace cutting board and knife.
Fish stock (Fumet de Poisson) (v-Fond de Champignons or Mushroom Stock)
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Large saucepan
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Fine mesh sieve
Ingredients
- 125g onions
- Small bay leaf
- 3 parsley stalks
- 5 peppercorns
- 1 small fish carcass (v – 30g dried boletus or chantarelle or other mushrooms, 1 cup mirepoix (chef to provide))
- Cold water
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Finely slice onion.
- Place onion in saucepan with all other ingredients. (v- add mirepoi)
- Wash the fish carcass (v – hydrate the mushrooms in a little warm water)
- Add fish (v-mushrooms) to the pan.
- Cover with cold water.
- Bring to a simmer on high heat, then turn down heat and simmer for no more than 20 minutes (v- up to an hour), skimming off any scum. Do not boil.
- Strain through sieve, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible.
- Discard solids.
- If desired, reduce volume by vigorous boiling.
- Do not put salt in stock. Store in an airtight container and use within 3 days.
- Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
The Mother Sauces – Bechamel and Espagnole
2 x 650ml containers
Bechamel
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Saucepan
- Cutting board w paper towel
- Chef’s knife
- Whisk
- Jug
Ingredients
- 500ml milk
- ½ onion
- 5 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 40g butter
- 40g flour
- Fat pinch of nutmeg
- Salt
- White pepper
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Heat milk in saucepan over medium heat.
- While milk is heating, make onion cloute by peeling onion and studding with cloves. Use a clove to stick the bay leaf onto the onion.
- Pour milk into jug. Rinse saucepan.
- Make roux:
a. Melt butter in saucepan.
b. Add flour. Mix until you have a smooth paste.
c. Cook until it smells a bit toasted. - Whisk in hot milk, stirring constantly.
- Add the onion cloute.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir continually.
- Add nutmeg, salt and white pepper to taste. Remove onion cloute.
- Place sauce into container. Cover top with cling film. This will keep in the fridge for 3 days.
Note
For mornay sauce, whisk in 100g of cheese at the end of cooking and stir until melted.
Espagnole
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Saucepan
- Cutting board w paper towel
- Chef’s knife
- Whisk
- Jug
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 onion
- 1 small stalk celery
- 1 small carrot
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 500ml beef stock (v – mushroom stock)
- 2 tbsp tomato passata
- Pinch salt
- 4 whole peppercorns
- 1 small bay leaf
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Cut the vegetables:
a. Finely dice onion
b. Finely dice celery
c. Finely dice carrot - Sweat the vegetables:
a. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.
b. Sweat vegetables, stirring occasionally until soft – about 5 minutes. - Make brown roux:
a. Add flour and combine.
b. Cook over low heat until the flour is a deep caramel colour – about 10 minutes. - Cook sauce:
a. Add beef (v- mushroom) stock, passata, peppercorns, bay leaf and salt.
b. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer.
c. Cook 35 to 45 minutes (set a timer), stirring fairly constantly, until the sauce volume is reduced by about one third and the sauce has the consistency of thickened cream. - Strain the sauce through a fine metal sieve into your storage container. Discard the solids. This will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.
- Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
Note
To make demi glace, add equal parts espagnole sauce and beef stock to a pan and simmer with peppercorns, parsley stalks, a bay leaf and thyme until reduced by half. Strain and use.
Vanilla Bavarois with berry coulis
- 1 x 650ml container
- 1 x 350ml container
Bavarois is a bit like Italian pannacotta in that both are dairy based desserts made with gelatine, except that a pannacotta base is heated milk or cream and a bavarois base is crème anglaise ie a cooked custard containing eggs.
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Saucepan
- 3 bowls
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Fine mesh strainer/sieve
- 3 dariole moulds
Ingredients
- 80ml milk
- 80ml cream
¼ tsp vanilla paste - 1 egg yolk
- 50g sugar
- 2 leaves gelatine
- Spray oil
- 100g frozen berries
- ¼ lemon
- Bowl of ice
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Soak gelatine in enough cold water to cover.
- Spray dariole moulds with a bit of spray oil.
- Make crème anglaise base:
a. Put milk and vanilla paste into saucepan.
b. Heat until it starts to simmer.
c. Put egg yolk in a bowl. When milk is hot, whisk half of the sugar into the egg yolk (not before, or the sugar will cure the egg yolk and your crème anglaise will split).
d. Add a splash of hot milk to egg mix. Whisk well.
e. Add rest of hot milk to egg mix, whisking continually.
f. Rinse saucepan.
g. Add milk and egg mix back into pan, heat over low heat stirring continually with a spatula until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (or use a thermometer and stop cooking when it hits 83C).
h. Add gelatine to crème anglaise base and mix well.
i. Immediately put base of saucepan into a bowl of ice and leave to cool. - Whip cream for bavarois.
a. Whisk the cream to a medium stiff peak.
b. If doing this in summer, you can put your whisking bowl over a bowl of ice, or put your cream in the freezer for a bit before whisking to make sure it is really cold. - Fold whipped cream into crème anglaise base very gently with a spatula, trying to keep as much air in the mix as possible.
- Immediately pour the mix into dariole moulds (depending on how much air is retained in the mix, you may only need 2 moulds rather than 3).
- Place bavarois in fridge (it will need at least an hour or two to set so you will need to decant these at home. Your chef teacher will show you the method – it is also written below)
- Wash out your pan.
- Make berry coulis:
a. Put berries, the remaining half of the sugar, and a squeeze of lemon into saucepan.
b. Bring to boil then simmer over low heat until berries are soft (about 10 minutes).
c. Pass through a fine mesh sieve.
d. Taste for sweetness and acidity. You may want to add a tiny pinch of salt.
e. Pack into container. - Pack bavarois into a container.
- Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
- When bavarois is set (ie clearly no longer runny in the middle), decant it by inverting it onto a plate. To decant bavarois, use the tip of a butter knife or an offset spatula to pull the set bavarois away from the edge of the dariole mould. Squeeze the sides of the dariole mould gently until an air bubble appears and then runs up the side and across the bottom of the mould. Unmould onto the plate. Serve with berry coulis and a bit of mint if you have it.
Double Meal Prep: Hachis Parmentier (v – Puy lentils and mushrooms) and Macarona Bechamel (Egyptian pasta bake) (v – brown lentils and mushrooms)
Double Meal Prep
This class involves you preparing 2 meals to be finished in the oven at home. If you have them, please bring 2 x casserole dishes with lids – small (4 litre capacity) if you are cooking 2 serves per meal, or medium (6 to 8 litre capacity) if you are cooking 4 serves per meal. Otherwise, you can buy a ‘containers’ pack on our website for a couple of dollars.
Hachis Parmentier (v – Puy lentils and mushrooms)
This is the French version of cottage pie. Once cooked, it will store in the fridge for 5 days in an airtight container. You can reheat in the oven or microwave.
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Frypan
- Saucepan
- Potato ricer/masher
- Strainer
- Large bowl
- Jug
Ingredients
- 500g potatoes
- 1 cup beef stock (v – veg stock or mushroom stock)
- Cold water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 250g minced beef (v – 200g soaked or tinned puy lentils, 100g mushrooms, fat handful fresh parsley)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp (60ml) milk
- ½ cup grated cheese (gruyere is traditional, cheddar and mozzarella are nice)
Method
- Get all ingredients and equipment.
- Prepare potatoes:
a. Macedoine potatoes (cut into 1cm cubes).
b. Wash if necessary, peel if desired. - Cook potatoes:
a. Put potatoes into saucepan with stock plus (if needed) enough water to just cover.
b. Bring to boil then simmer until a fork goes through them easily (about 10 mins). - Prepare rest of vegies while potatoes are cooking:
a. Fine dice onions and carrots (v – and mushrooms, finely chop parsley)
b. Mince garlic. - Mash potatoes
a. Drain potatoes – reserve cooking stock in jug.
b. Put potatoes in bowl.
c. Add butter, milk, salt and pepper. Add some reserved stock if needed – potatoes should be stiff but not firm. - Cook vegies and beef (v – mushrooms and parsley):
a. In saucepan, heat olive oil.
b. Cook onions and carrots until onions are translucent and carrots start to caramelise.
c. Add garlic and tomato passata (v – and lentils), cook until most of the moisture is gone from the passata.
d. Add beef mince (v – diced mushrooms and parsley). Season to taste.
e. Fry (fairly hard) until meat (v- mushrooms) is well browned. - Build dish:
a. One layer of beef (v – mushroom) mixture.
b. One layer of mashed potato.
c. One layer of cheese. - Clean down bench. Wash all dishes and bring back to bench (you will need them for the second meal prep dish, except for the potato masher).
- At home, preheat oven to 180 degrees and cook for 45 to 60 minutes (until a skewer or knife tip inserted into the middle comes out hot).
- Serve with some bread and a green salad, if desired.
Macarona Bechamel (Egyptian pasta bake) (v – brown lentils and mushrooms)
Pasta bakes are a common dish in many Middle Eastern countries. This one is a bit different to many as it uses bechamel rather than a tomato based sauce.
Equipment
- Cooktop
- Saucepan
- Frying pan
- Strainer
- Cutting board w paper towel
- Chef’s knife
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 250g penne
- 250 g minced beef (v – 200g tinned brown lentils (about half a can) and 100g mushrooms)
- ½ onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 180ml tomato passata
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- ½ tsp Aleppo pepper or other chilli flake/powder
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- 3 tbsp butter
- 500ml milk
- ½ cup grated cheese
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Get pasta and equipment.
- Cook the pasta:
a. Cook in salted water (salty like the sea) for 2 minutes less than packet instructions.
b. Usually 9 minutes for penne – so cook for 7 minutes or until still quite al dente. - Get other ingredients together while pasta is cooking.
- Drain pasta and put into base of casserole dish, coating with half the olive oil. Rinse saucepan (you will need it for the bechamel).
- Cook onion and garlic:
a. Finely dice onion.
b. Mince garlic.
c. Add to frypan with remaining olive oil over medium low heat. Cook until translucent (about 5 minutes). Set aside. - Cook minced beef (v – lentils and mushroom) and make sauce:
a. Using the same frypan, turn heat up and fry beef (v – mushroom) until browned (not grey, you want caramelisation on the outside).
b. Add thyme, cinnamon, Aleppo pepper and tomato passata (v – and drained lentils) and simmer until reduced by about 20% (around 10 minutes).
c. Adjust for seasoning.
d. Add onions back in, taste again for seasoning, pour over pasta in casserole dish. - Make bechamel:
a. Melt butter in saucepan, add flour.
b. Add flour. Mix until you have a smooth paste.
c. Cook until it smells a bit toasted.
d. Whisk in milk, stirring constantly.
e. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir continually.
f. Add nutmeg, salt and white pepper to taste. - Finish pasta bake:
a. Pour bechamel over sauce in casserole dish.
b. Top with grated cheese. - Clean down, including sweeping floor, wiping and sanitising cooktop and benches, washing and drying up, and cleaning and sanitising knives.
- At home, preheat oven to 180 degrees and cook for 45 to 60 minutes (until a skewer or knife tip inserted into the middle comes out hot).
- Serve with steamed vegies or a green salad.