A few months ago I started taking classes at Hipcooks in the Brewery art colony. It was part of a general order from the head shrinker that I both put myself in the position of student or newbie to someone else’s experience *and* do something outside of my comfort level. Before that first cooking class, I was more of a Food Network passive junkie who bought cookware and chef’s gadgets and just let them pile up in my space-cramped kitchen. Perhaps it was that joke on SNL in the There Will Be Blood skit when the narrator says “Food Network – porn for fat people” that also helped me get off my butt and start using all my kitchen junk. If Crate and Barrel insists on being irresistible to me on paycheck Fridays, I better put it all to good use. And if I’m gonna do all this damn cooking and wine guzzling, I better blog about it too, eh? So here’s part one in a series about ‘not being a lazy fat-ass who just watches bobble-headed people making food whilst eating Doritos’.
Here’s my latest effort. The recipe is from the last Hipcooks class I took, “Healthy, Fresh and Zingy 3″ – a goat cheese tart.
I was slightly intimidated to give this a shot because of the crust making. Who the hell wants to take the time to make a crust? Crust making sounds like something John McCain does naturally, in his sleep! And to top off my general paranoia, in class when this was demo-ed to us, our instructor whipped out a pre-made crust, par-baked and light golden so we never actually saw the labor involved in person. But like most things in life, if you just follow the damn instructions you’re going to be okay! So for once, instead of being impatient, I really let the dough sit for an hour in the fridge as instructed! I rolled it out between plastic wrap as instructed! Wow, so this is how baking works! My only major screw up was not having enough flour and using whole wheat flour as a substitute. Despite this tweak, I think it came out pretty damn good. My major proof in support of its damn goodness is the fact that I baked this on Saturday and come Monday morning, exactly one quarter of it was left. Yes, we ate it all. It’s like a fancy pants cheesecake – half goat cheese, half cream cheese, spiked with lemon zest both in the crust and in the filling, and topped with slivered almonds. We did not pare it with any specific beverage, although damn. I bet it would be good with cool, crisp proseccoto cut that creaminess, but not too acidic to kill its light citrusy, vanilla subtleties. Mmmm, **Homer voice** citrusy, vanilla subtleties…
