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    Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World
    Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World
    Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World

    By Denae D'Arcy

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    About this ebook

    In her second book, Denae D'Arcy takes the reader around the world through her experiences with cuisine. She tells stories about cooking lessons, including recipies of native dishes from China, Spain, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Her writing style is funny and concise, making this an easy, entertaining read. This book is written for anyone who loves to eat and for people who enjoy educational travel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDenae D'Arcy
    Release dateMar 22, 2018
    ISBN9781386695158
    Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World

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      Book preview

      Lentils, Dumplings and Bird Nests – Cooking Lessons Around the World - Denae D'Arcy

      Table of Contents

      Dedication

      Introduction

      A note about recipes

      A note about the photos

      China – Determination

      Sri Lanka – Push your boundaries

      The Seasoned Farmhouse – living food

      Sur la Table – Technique

      Chicago – Precision

      India – Garnish

      Uruguay – Food (and life) is art

      Spain – Quality ingredients

      Pie crust lesson – Fear not

      Jacques Pepin – Be happy

      Paris – Finding the joy in each season

      Epilogue

      Cook’s quiz

      About the author

      Dedication

      This book is in honor of my late great-grandmother, Fern Wise, dedicated to my grandmother, Jaqueline Crawford, in honor of my late grandmother Ruth D’Arcy, and dedicated to my mother, Deborah D’Arcy. To these strong, and intelligent women, I say, thank you for special memories and meaning surrounding food, cooking, and eating. Thank you for instilling in me a respect for fresh ingredients, homemade food, and fellowship in the kitchen and around the table. Because of you, I have sought experiences with cuisine all over the world and learned about culture and life along the way. Thank you also to my mother-in-law, Catherine Kobacker, who shares recipes, describes flavors so eloquently, and kindly compliments my dishes.

      Introduction

      I have wonderful memories of snapping green beans in my Grandma Jackie’s kitchen. Freshly picked green beans smell a bit like fresh soil and are warm from the rays of the sun.

      In my memory, we each had a Melamine bowl on our lap and my great-grandmother moved back and forth in her rocking chair as she broke up the beans: snap, rock, snap, rock. Her actions were perfectly in sync and she carried on a conversation with my grandmother and mom at the same time. These look pretty good. She smiled in my grandma’s direction, but didn’t take her eyes away from the beans. My mom nodded and we admired the vibrant green color of our treasured beans.

      I was a young girl and just catching on to the technique of snapping beans. You are supposed to snap the stems off the top and bottom of the bean, break it into three pieces (depending on how long it is) and drop them into the bowl. The stems go into another bowl to be deposited later in the compost bin. Everyone’s fingers moved so quickly. I couldn’t keep up - but I tried. We were prepping the beans to be put up or canned. I’m not sure why we didn’t can the beans whole (that’s how my mother and I serve them now) but working together, we snapped through huge piles of beans.

      When we reminisce about those Saturdays in and out of the garden, my cousin, Amanda, wrinkles her nose a bit. She reveals that she couldn’t wait to leave my grandma’s house after marathon canning sessions. I loved every minute of it and I believe that’s where my obsession for fresh ingredients and cooking grows from.

      It wasn’t just that we were physically involved in the process of preparing something to remind us of the sun in the cold winter months, the ritual of snapping beans was a vehicle for time spent together, just the ladies, sharing recipes, gardening tips, and laughs. Snap, laugh, snap.

      A note about recipes

      The recipes included in this book are my own adaptation from the recipes provided to me by instructors and chefs during the cooking lessons I attended. If available, in each instance, I have included information about the chef’s websites and cookbook(s). I encourage you to learn more about these talented people who took care to teach me their culinary traditions and culture.

      The exact recipes are not included as they were presented to me because I altered them to substitute ingredients that I could find in my local grocery stores and added steps to the instructions to make them easier for the home cook to follow. However, I acknowledge that the original recipes are born out of another’s wisdom and careful attention to detail and taste.

      A note about the photos

      I took all of the photos presented in this book and they are not to be used without permission. While they are not of professional quality, my hope is that you, my reader, could gain some sense of place through the pictures. When possible, I tried to include photos that would show you some of the ingredients that we used in the lessons, the chefs who gave their time and energy to teach me, and a look at their amazing kitchens. I also have a fascination with markets and hoped to capture the cultural aspects of the space where people gather to plan their meals and buy sustenance for friends and family.

      China – determination

      I wasn’t sure where we were going when we took a three-wheeler (peddled by a small, older man) into the old part of Beijing. My guide spoke English, but told me on the way to the cooking lesson that she’d never been to a cooking class before, so she was interested to see what goes on. I was a bit worried when she confessed this because I am serious about learning the cuisine of other cultures.

      We wandered through narrow alleyways to a door with flaking paint, under a coil of electrical wire. The guide walked in ahead of me and called out to the residents. The narrow pathway was crowded with hanging laundry, potted plants, some of which were dead, and rusty bicycles. No one answered her calls, so we traveled farther into the labyrinth. We passed windows on both sides and more doors. Finally, a man came out and called us into a room. He didn’t smile and spoke quickly to the guide in Cantonese. We were in the right place!

      As I walked into a small kitchen with a low ceiling, I realized that I was in a family home. There were photos on the wall, mismatched furniture placed around the space, and a haze of cigarette smoke. The lady of the house led us into a sitting room and gestured to the couch. The guide explained that she would bring us tea as that was the first step in welcoming someone to your house in China. We waited quietly as idle chit-chat is not practiced in this part of the world. I looked around the room and noticed a white, plastic-lace tablecloth on a rectangular dining table. Everything was neat and in its place, but the items were not opulent or excessive.

      Without looking up or smiling, the female host carried in a tray with a small teapot and two delicate cups. I poured tea for my guide and for myself. We paused for just a minute before sipping because it was extremely hot. Local people seemed to be used to the steaming liquid, but I needed to wait for it to cool down before drinking. (You don’t want to burn your mouth before a cooking lesson because you need to be able to taste for seasoning.) As I took a sip, I tasted a strong, earthy flavor. It reminded me of an exquisite mix of fine, fresh herbs. I poured a second cup to help with the jet lag of traveling, and it was time to begin the lesson.

      Our hosts regularly invite tourists into their home to eat authentic cuisine, but don’t normally provide cooking lessons. At this point in my

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