My tryst with pasta and the Italian Cuisine World Summit

They say when you really really want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Bear with me and my melodrama please. When you know the complete story you will understand this melodrama better. Note: I used the word "understand" not appreciate or agree :)

This is a story of one lonely pasta maker. One fine day, a little more than three years ago I got home a metal contraption that I just couldn't say no to; a manual pasta maker. My reasons were solid. There is something so romantic about making pasta from scratch I thought; making that well of flour and eggs, pulling in the flour till it all comes together, kneading the dough just enough and then running it through the pasta maker. With the large chunks in one hand you pass them through the machine, flour flying in the air, with pearls around your neck was the picture I dreamt about when I bought the machine. Ofcourse a dress with a pretty apron that had lace on it completed the picture.

Pity that none of the above happened. The machine intimidated me. I don’t have the time to make it from scratch I would tell myself especially when I can get whole wheat dry pasta everywhere. Why should I spend my energy making fresh one and to be fair these days you get really good dry pasta off the shelf. But you bought this saying you will be making all those raviolis and lasagnas I would hear a little voice in my head.

The pasta maker travelled across countries when we moved from Delhi to Dubai.  In its new home too it sat ever so patiently in a box behind all the baking and cooking paraphernalia I have accumulated over these years.

Until one day last month when I was asked to make one thing that really scares me as part of the monthly challenges for Jamie Oliver’s Food revolution Ambassadors.

I loved this take on Halloween. Do one thing that scares you every day they say. What a beautiful thought to make Halloween more meaningful! You know where it is going, right? Yes, it took me straight to my past maker. Infact this had been on mind when the year began when I set out some food resolutions for myself and one of them was to finally open that box and use that pasta maker. This challenge made me conquer my fear and meet my resolution as well.

I decided to make this pumpkin goat cheese pasta. It was Halloween after all :) I struggled but in the end I did manage to put something on the table. I also wished someone would just appear and teach me how to master fresh pasta so that I could do this more often.

Looks like a little birdie heard my wish and I got invited by the ever so talented and lovely Dima to attend a masterclass (part of the Italian Cuisine World Summit) to learn fresh pasta! Told you that melodrama was required :)

The master class would be taught by Chef Walter Potenza. He would be helping me master the white magic art of flour I was told. Lasagne, tagliatelle, tagliolini, pappardelle ravioli, tortellini, agnolotti and potato gnocchi; all with the help of a pasta extrision machine.

The class was calling out my name and I wasn't disappointed. 

The class was held at the very scenic Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management which looks into the gorgeous Burj Al Arab. Sigh! What a location.

We began the session learning the fundamentals of making pasta from scratch. How to build that well of flour and egg, how you have to let the egg pull in the flour and not the other way round and should listen to the mixture and know when to stop. That Chef Walter had a great sense of humour helped. He did advice us to either go marry men who knew how to make pasta or master it ourselves. Pity his advice came ten years too late. I would have to master this I told myself.

The session was very informative and gave me the much required confidence of making pasta from scratch. Chef Walter took us through making pasta with various combinations; flour, egg and oil, flour and oil, semolina, a bit of flour and eggs. The last combination is something I am really looking forward to trying. He also mentioned that the Italian obsession of using the double zero flour was something that he didn't quite adhere to and the regular all purpose flour worked just fine. Told you he knew how to keep his students interested.

We talked about how to understand what the dough was telling us…be it allowing it to let it rest, or listen to it when it was springing back or falling apart. It was like paying attention to a friend.

We also learnt how to put together a Swiss chard and cheese ravioli, potato gnocchi and were also given a demonstration of a professional pasta maker machine which made some beautiful spaghetti in a matter of few minutes. What made the session memorable was that Chef Walter shared his experiences, his life and anecdotes about his work with everyone.

Would I recommend the course? Big Yes! Considering at the end of the sixty hours you get a professional certificate (Note: I only attended a single module) and more importantly you are learning from Master Italian Michelin Chefs, cuisine educators and experts as well as renowned food producers and also from Italian Cuisine Master Chefs with extensive experience in Italian Restaurant Management Abroad.

A big thank you to Dima for the warm invitation (run her to blog now to know everything about the summit for her blog is the official blog for the summit), the Emirates Academy for hosting it and Chef Walter and his entire team for imparting this skill to us. Now that I have made friends with my pasta maker and I know that the pasta dough is very forgiving I will be certainly getting my hands dirty often. Oops I meant dusty.

Find everything about the Italian Cuisine World Summit here and the courses offered by them here. The full course is available twice throughout November you can choose the course that best suits your schedule.

The Course fees: Originally AED 9500.00, but Dima is offering her readers a 40% discount making it for AED 5700.00 only (applicable only for the early bookings).

Leaving you with this poem that always makes me laugh out loud.

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows--up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I'm terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they're all buried).

I told them, "Bring presents." I said, "Throw confettii."

I guess they heard wrong

'Cause they all threw spaghetti!

Shel Silverstein

Want to know more about the summit,  my fellow bloggers have this to say: Ishita Unblogged at the risotto class, Kitchen In The Sand at Michelin Chef Claudio Sadler’s Masterclass; The Recipe Writer at Chef Walter Potenza’s and Lionello Cera’s Italian Main Courses Master Class

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Meeting George.

Time for full disclosure: Yes, I do go weak in the knees when I get to meet my Culinary Gods.

For some of you it may be a film star you’ve grown up watching, for another a sportsperson you NEED  to watch play live, perhaps a singer you’ve tried imitating when alone (imaginary mike included) or an author whose have every written word is in your library. For me, they are the chefs and cookbook authors who I not only watch completely awe struck on TV but who I also imagine are there with me in my kitchen each time I am looking for any kind of inspiration when it comes to food.

And this Saturday I was all smiles.

So when a little birdie told me that George was coming down to Dubai and was holding a master class and was also signing books, I was on a triple high. With me, there was an equally delirious 3 feet something who was ready to jump off the walls. So I did what all mature and sensible mothers do, requested the organizers to put Sara, Age 4 on the guest list. Ah..me too, please.

Master Chef Australia and George need no introduction and the times that he has not been a part of a particular episode, he has been missed by my little chefling, No George today, mamma? She would be really disappointed.

The show was aired weeknights back in India and my schedule was planned around it. 9’o clock movie on a weekday? You’ve got to be kidding! Thank you, but I am going to be sitting cosy in my pyjamas with a three year old sitting right there (with the entire contents of her toy kitchen on the floor and behaving as if she was one of the contestants). The poor husband had no choice but to join the duo.

So two starstruck ladies, with DH in row, who was babysitting the younger one till the time the masterclass was on, went off to meet George Calombaris.

The masterclass was lovely and George and his enthusiastic and very witty team had the audience completely engrossed. 

George spoke about food, his mum’s cooking, and ingredients he likes to work with, the two episodes that were recently shot here at Dubai and asked us to imagine Matt Preston in his three piece pink suit and a cravat which went from pink to purple in the Dubai heat in minutes! He was at his entertaining best. 

He also took questions from the audience. Truly an afternoon to remember.

We were taught a sweet and a savoury dish; sushi rice pudding (risogalo) with date puree and a short crust pastry and an almost too pretty to touch recipe comprising poached baby turnip, artichokes, golden beets with a celeriac puree and zucchini flowers. Sublime.

Ofcourse I got his cookbook signed and Sara took her little notepad for the same. 

Yes, I know I am grinning and let me tell you it stayed right there, all day. 

The little girl has a “what did you do over the weekend” kind of thing every Sunday at school and I believe she started with, “I met GEORGE!”

Her mum was saying the same words to anyone who asked her, so what did you do over the weekend, “I met GEORGE!”

David, Heston, Jamie, Nigella, Ottolenghi…are you listening? Two girls are waiting.

Images: Personal Album.While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated

Master Class at Treat, BurJuman World Food Fest 2013.

That I love bite sized food is no secret. An ideal weekend for me is the one spent with friends, fairy lights twinkling in the background and a platter full of little bites. Mini blue cheese and celery muffins, ham and date bites, barbeque cocktail sausages, caprese salad on a toothpick, lotus stem kebabs and now my new favorite. Smoked Salmon Roulade. 

That I learnt at my masterclass at Treat. The BurJuman World Food Fest 2013. This was my first time at the BurJuman Festival and I sure did come back very pleased.

The stage was all set, the tools all laid out and the ingredients looked interesting to work with.

Our lesson of the day was a Smoked Salmon Roulade taught by Chef Diyan of Radisson Blu. Now the word roulade originates from the French word "rouler" which means"to roll". Typically, a roulade is a European dish consisting of a slice of meat rolled around a filling, such as cheese, vegetables, or other meats and is secured with a toothpick or a piece of string.The roulade is then sliced into rounds and served. And Chef Diyan did a modern take on it. A roulade that was simple to put together (sometimes they are so complicated and delicate that rolling them makes me nervous), very quick and had beautiful and clean flavors. 

We were handed over our aprons and assigned our stations. There were three elements to the appetizer. The crepe, the filling and the salad to go with it.

For the crepe we took 60 gms of all purpose flour, 120 mls of milk, 1 egg and salt and pepper to taste. We also added some white sesame seeds to the mix which was a pretty interesting. And then proceeded to make crepes.

Next we put together the filling for the crepe. Some delicious and soft cream cheese, fresh chives and salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the roulade, place the pancakes on a flat surface, spread some of the cream cheese filling and top it with a big slice of smoked salmon. Now begin rolling it. After rolling, cut it into bite sized pieces at an angle (cutting at an angle will make it look prettier. Also cut the rough ends out so that all the pieces look the same and look clean). The pink salmon, the white filling and the off white crepes; the colours already look good.

While the crepes were cooling, we also made a salad and a very delicate Cheddar basket to hold it. Once again extremely easy to put together. Take some salad leaves and dress them up with some balsamic vinaigrette ( Half cup balsamic vinegar, a cup of extra virgin olive oil. two teaspoons of good mustard and salt to taste).

At this time also prepare a cocktail sauce;  half mayo and half ketchup.

For the cheese basket, take a relatively warm non stick pan, sprinkle the entire pan with a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese. The layer of the cheese should be thick enough so that it can stand the weight of the salad inside. Now for the moment when you truly feel like a chef and get ready to hear lots of wows for the neat little trick that Chef Diyan taught us. Sshh...don't share this with your guests. Just act that you know a awful lot about plating:)

Flip out this cheese pancake onto a warm ceramic bowl and press the sides gently for the pancake to take the shape of the bowl. Leave it for a minute or two and take your edible bowl off the ceramic one. There you have it; your cheese bowl. Now go impress everyone.

Now for plating like a pro. Make a swoosh on the plate with the cocktail sauce.To make a swoosh, fill up a spoon with the sauce, tilt it over the plate so that it is nearly vertical and the sauce falls on the plate. Immediately tilt the spoon at a 45 degree angle and drag the spoon across the plate to give it a little tail. 

Begin doting your swoosh with the roulade pieces, place the cheese basket with the salad in it at the other end. To finish dot the plate with some of the balsamic dressing. There you have it your pretty pro like plate.  Dig into it and enjoy.

I wish I had more snaps and better snaps to show you each step. But with a spatula in one hand and a pan in the other and my eyes on the screen I didn't get a chance to take many and better snaps. However in the days to come I am going to try and update this post with visual instructions. 

I know I am going to be making this roulade many many times in my kitchen for I loved the way the velvety salmon came together with the rich, glossy and sweet balsamic vinegar of the crunchy salad and ofcourse the sharpness of the cheddar basket which was both a visual and a gastronomic treat.

Do try this at home and let me know how it turned it out for you. Before I end this post, I have to thank some people. The very patient Chef Diyan who was flooded with questions from everyone and was still smiling, the team from BurJuman for putting together this masterclass and their PR agency, TRACCS  for inviting me.

The festival that began on the 14th of May and concludes on the 25th of this month. If you haven't had the chance to attend it there is still some time. I know you would want to after reading my experience there :)

Disclaimer: All views expressed here are my own and I wasn't asked to write any of it by either BurJuman or TRACCS. I had such a great time there that I just had to share with all of you here. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Images: Personal Album. While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated.