Cooking class 😋😋😋

We had a slow start this morning. Rod was up from midnight to 4 - just couldn’t sleep. On the other hand, I was up and down to use the bathroom but was out each time immediately. So at least one of us had a good night!!

Our cooking class for paella and tapas started at 11 am. So at 10 we took a 15 minute taxi ride to Chef Loleo kitchen. We were 30 minutes early and since we didn’t have time for breakfast, we found a grocery store/market where we purchased bread and Iberian jambom- like prosciutto but better (as per Loleo). Then we found a table and chairs to sit and eat. Not exactly ideal but it worked :-).

Loleo greeted us with a glass of wine in her beautiful space: private dining room for 20 and her spacious white kitchen. After washing our hands, we started by making a Russian salad: basically a very good potato salad. I didn’t realize you cook potatoes with skin on to retain flavor. Also you always start cooking veggies in boiling water to retain flavor and meats/bone broth in cold water to pull out flavor and nutrients. We also added a hard boiled egg, pickled vegetables and tuna (packed in oil from a can!) it was very good! The round mold made for a very nice presentation!

Tapas gets the name from people who would put a cover or ‘lid’ on the top of a glass of wine to prevent dust and bugs from falling into it. They started to put a piece of bread with some kind of delicacy on the plate and ‘tapas’ as we now know it was born.

We made croquettes that were so creamy, it was like silk on your tongue! The trick was to continue cooking the rue until it was smooth and silky - it slides off the spatula when ready. Then when forming the croquettes, you use two spoons to make a quenelle. Then dip in eggs and rolls in crumbs. Deep fry in olive oil and there you have a delicious croquette! They can be made from seafood, oxtail, mushroom, left over chicken, beef or even turkey. 😋😋

Next, Loleo started exposing the truth about paella - a special rice - never long grain as it does not absorb liquids. Only three items: rice, vegetables, seafood or meat - finely chopped and not very much. There is a specific pan they use although it doesn’t much matter as long as the rice and broth do not come up higher than an inch or so. Once all ingredients added, paella is cooked on stove for 8 minutes, into a hot over for 8 mins, one minute on stove to get a crust on the bottom of the pan and 10 minutes resting. NEVER stir the rice. It breaks the body of the rice. A good paella has an even amount of crusty rice from the bottom and softer rice from the top.

This dish was followed by steamed cod and veggies. Cod is very tender so after veggies were cooked, the cod was placed on top of the veggies. The kernel on the toothpick was cayenne. Too hot if left in. The toothpick ensures you can pull out the pepper before eating. Fish was steamed about 10 minutes. Amazing!!

So background on cod…I’m not sure why this merchant decided cod would be a good idea, maybe a change of diet, well… the merchant didn’t understand the language of the seller well and while he thought he was ordering 10 lbs, he received 10 tonnes. As it was Lent and Catholics were not allowed meat or fish, as the story goes, the merchant went to the pope and asked that cod be allowed to be eaten plus a little $$ encouragement , the pope agreed and voila fish was allowed during lent 🐟

Loleo had been in the wine marketing industry before taking her training to be a chef in Madrid. So she has an extensive knowledge of the wine industry. The French wine industry needed more fermentation to make their wine. Spain could produce a wine with good fermentation but then the flavor was too strong. So the French would buy the Spanish wine and blend it to make a palatable wine 🍷.

Loleo gave us suggestions for great restaurants in another area of the city not so touristy. Sure to be a great gastronomy adventure! She also suggested taking the train to the south of Spain through Cordoba and Seville. Then rent a car to go along the coast….

We headed back to the hotel via metro. Stopped at a coffee shop for a croissant and figure out exactly where we were lol!

Pretty great day!

Love to all♥️Läs mer