GOU Atelier May Program is Finally Out with 2 Novelties to Discover

Dear GOU Friends,

Our unique “Cook & Dine” experience continues with growing success.
We are happy to share with you the GOU Atelier Program for the month of May 2013, in which you will discover 2 Novelties:

1- Healthy Cooking Series:

In these new classes, we make it easy to eat healthy. We teach you how to transform your eating experience into nutritious, nourishing and health building meals.
This is not your ordinary cooking class. Not only you will learn how to cook fabulous, wholesome recipes that taste great for the whole family and are easy to prepare, but you also learn about how food can answer your different health needs: Weight Loss, Better Immunity and Gluten Free Diets.

2- Kids Ateliers:

Introducing another novelty from GOU Atelier, our Kids Ateliers are developed to inspire, excite and feed the curiosity of your growing gourmet in a safe environment.

These creative workshops will make boys & girls aged 6 and up discover the pleasure of cooking and baking for them, for their parents and friends while mixing imagination, fantasy, fun and apprenticeship.


GOU Atelier is the only place in Lebanon that offers you a novel and unique program of live and interactive cooking and pastry classes. It allows you to experiment and learn, hands on, recipes and techniques in our restaurant’s professional kitchen and under the expert guidance of our Executive Chef.

Our cooking and pastry classes are available for you at various convenient times throughout the week (See below programstarting from May 6^th till May 23^rd).

Each class ends with all participants treating themselves to their own food creations enjoyed with our complimentary drinks.

Days & Times:

Cooking Classes:Monday from 18h00 to 20h30 and Saturday from 16h00 to 18h30

Pastry Classes: Wednesday from 18h00 to 20h30 and Saturday from 16h00 to 18h30

Healthy Cooking Classes: Thursday from 18h00 to 20h30

Kids Ateliers: Friday from 16h00 to 18h30

Classes can also be arranged for groups of 5 to 6 persons during the mornings if desired.

Info and Reservations:

Call us on 03-828409 or email us at gouatelier@noiyo.com for your early bookings.

Should you wish to discover some of the magic that awaits you at our GOU Atelier, we invite you to have a sneak preview of our previous classes on:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151204979290690.477614.177594705689&type=3

Join our GOU Atelier classes today for a truly unique Cook & Dine experience!

The GOU Team.

In Search of the Hottest Chili - Destination Mexico

Native to the Americas, chili pepper is a signature flavor in several of Mexico's regional cuisines, some hotter than others.

                               

Mexico is the largest producer of chiles in the United States. But in New Mexico, chiles are more than a crop. They're a culture, a way of life. It is unimaginable to New Mexicans that people eat food untouched by their state's chile.

There's even an official state question: Red or green?
And if you can't decide if you want red chile or green chile, you may answer, "Christmas," and you'll get some of both.

Green and red chiles are actually the same chiles at different life stages: either picked earlier when they're green, or later after they're left to turn red on the vine.

The best place to set out on the chili trail is Mexico City, at the heart of the country, and the best way to taste chilies is in the wide variety of salsas served in the city's taquerias, each with its own distinctive reipe for adding heat to tacos.

From the capital, travel south for increasingly piquant flavors. The pickled chipotles of Puebla can be sampled in the markets, and are an essential ingredient in the cemita, a huge meat, cheese, and avocado sandwich served on a crusty sesame roll, sold in small eateries where it is the only menu item.



Cemitas de Carne Enchilada


Farther south, the seductive, smoky flavor of Oaxaca's pasilla oaxaquena, cured on wooden racks over fire pits, is best tasted in the regional mole negro sauce, featured in the restaurants on the city's central plaza.

From here, the chili aficionanado can travel to the Yucatan, where the habanero, ranking highest on the Scoville scale used to measure capsaicin, or "chili heat factor", is used in fiery salsas. Try habanero salsa with the regional specialty, cochinita pibil (marinated roast pork).

Other fresh hot chilies include the chilaca, jalapeno, and serrano. The dried versions are found most frequently in the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Chiapas. And of course, you can find these chilies at our GOU Gourmet Shop, if it's closer to you!

Fresh and dried chilies are stuffed to make Chiles en Nogada, filled with a variety of ingredients.

Chiles en Nogada (Chilies in Walnut Sauce)

Traditionally made in Puebla to celebrate Mexican Independence Day on September 16, these chiles have a minced pork filling enhanced with chopped fruit, and a creamy walnut sauce.

Ingredients

The Picadillo:

• 2 lbs of boneless pork
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 Tbsp salt, or to taste
• 6 Tbsp of lard or the fat from the broth
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• The cooked meat (about 3 cups - note if you use more than 3 cups, you will need to increase the amounts of the other ingredients)
• A molcajete (mortar and pestle)
• 8 peppercorns
• 5 whole cloves
• 1/2 inch stick cinnamon
• 3 heaping Tbsp of raisins
• 2 Tbsp blanched and slivered almonds
• 2 heaping Tbsp acitron or candied fruit, chopped
• 2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes, peeled and seeded
• 1 pear, cored, peeled and chopped
• 1 peach, pitted, peeled and chopped

Method

1 Cut the meat into large cubes. Put them into the pan with the onion, garlic, and salt and cover with cold water. Bring the meat to a boil, lower the flame and let it simmer until just tender - about 40-45 minutes. Do not over cook. Leave the meat to cool off in the broth.
2 Strain the meat, reserving the broth, then shred or chop it finely and set it aside. Let the broth get completely cold and skim off the fat. Reserve the fat.
3 Melt the lard and cook the onion and garlic, without browning, until they are soft.
4 Add the meat and let it cook until it begins to brown.
5 Crush the spices roughly in the molcajete and add them, with the rest of the ingredients to the meat mixture. (If you don't have a molcajete, you can use the blunt end of a pestle to crush the spices in a bowl.) Cook the mixture a few moments longer.
6 Add chopped peach and pear to the mixture.

The Chilies:

• 6 poblano chiles (you MUST use this type of chile)

7 Put the poblano chiles straight into a fairly high flame or under a broiler and let the skin blister and burn. Turn the chiles from time to time so they do not get overcooked or burn right through.
8 Wrap the chiles in a damp cloth or plastic bag and leave them for about 20 minutes. The burned skin will then flake off very easily and the flesh will become a little more cooked in the steam. Make a slit in the side of each chili and carefully remove the seeds and veins. Be careful to leave the top of the chili, the part around the base of the stem, intact. (If the chilies are too hot - picante, let them soak in a mild vinegar and water solution for about 30 minutes.) Rinse the chilies and pat them dry.
9 Stuff the chilies with the picadillo until they are well filled out. Set them aside on paper towels.

The Nogada (walnut sauce)
The day before:

• 20 to 25 fresh walnuts, shelled
• cold milk

10 Remove the thin papery skin from the nuts. (Note, these are Diana Kennedy's instructions. I have found it virtually impossible to remove the skins from the fresh walnuts that come from our walnut tree. The above photo shows the sauce which includes the skins. I think it would be creamier without the skins, but what can you do? We found that blanching the walnuts did not help get the skin off. Completely cover the walnuts with cold milk and leave them to soak overnight.
On serving day:

• The soaked and drained nuts
• 1 small piece white bread without crust
• 1/4 lb queso fresco
• 1 1/2 cups thick sour creme (or creme fraiche)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• Large pinch of cinnamon

11 Blend all of the ingredients in a blender until they are smooth.
To Serve
To assemble the dish, cover the chilies in the nogada sauce and sprinkle with fresh parsley leaves and pomegranate seeds.

Taste the World- Destination Norway

When we travel, we have one goal in mind: to seek out the most delicious and inspiring places and things to eat. Whether it is a fish soup from a home cook in Norway or one of South America's most vibrant open-air markets, we love to share our discoveries. 

This blog chronicles the greatest gustatory hits of our food journeys around the world. Each one is worth going out of your way for. 

Our first destination food discoveries to reveal is Norway.

The cooking of Norway has never had the luxury of being fancy. It's a cuisine born of resourcefulness- dependent on superbly fresh ingredients above all else. More than 15,000 miles of coastline provide an abundance of salmon, halibut, shellfish, and cod, eaten fresh and also air-dried to last the cold months, which often come together in creamy fiskesuppe (fish soup) - see below for the recipe.

The pastoral life inland is just as fertile, dominated by dairy and sheep farms: Villsau sheep, descendants of an ancient breed, yield lean, tender, clean-tasting meat, and Norway is just as famous for the purity of its dairy products. Cheeses, such as pungent pultost, a caraway-flavored cow's milk cheese, and geitost, a spreadable caramelised whey cheese, are special pleasures. And you can't think of a better lunch than lefse - Norway's potato flat bread- rolled around freh goat cheese and a generous layer of smoked salmon.
The purity of the ingredients has never been a secret, but in recent years it's garnered new appreciation from chefs, who have traveled abroad and dabbled in global cuisines, only to refocus their energies on developing a uniquely Nordic one, much like in the rest of the region.A small constellation of Michelin stars has appeared in Oslo, farmers' markets have sprung up for the first time in cities, and chefs are marrying refined technique with stellar local ingredients to create the sorts of dishes you encounter at the restaurant Oslo Spiseforretning (Oslo gate 15, 74/22/626-210, oslo-spiseforretning.no) that serves an earthy mushroom soup topped with a drizzle of a bright green emulsion made from ramslok, a wild allium known as Viking garlic, which was previously a stranger to fine-dining kitchens. 

Ramslok; Viking Garlic

These days one can see chefs alongside regular folks, picking the best raspberries of summer, tiny blueberries that stain fingers indigo, lingonberries that glow like rubies, and pale-orange chanterelles that are eaten fresh and dried, destined for stews and roasts to brighten the long winter.
In Norway, foods that were once a means of survival are slowly becoming cherished for the pleasure they bring.

Fiskesuppe (Norwegian Fish Chowder)

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded chopped
• 1 small leek, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 large parsnip, peeled chopped
• 1 small celeriac, peeled chopped
• 4 medium new potatoes, peeled cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 cups fish stock
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 lbs boneless skinless fish fillets, cut into 2 inch pieces ( halibut, cod or haddock)
• 1/3 cup dill, chopped, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
• 1 lemon, juice of
• crusty bread, for serving

Directions

1. Heat butter in a 6 qt saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, celery, onions, peppers, and leeks, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Cook, stirring, until soft, 8-10 minutes. Add carrots, parsnips, celeriac, potatoes, stock, milk, cream, and Worcestershire; bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.
4. Add fish, and continue to cook, stirring gently, until fish is cooked through, 6-8 minutes. Stir in dill, parsley, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
5. Serve with bread.

Check our Ateliers Program for March 2013

Dear GOU Friends,

Our unique “Cook & Dine” experience continues with growing success.
We are happy to share with you the GOU Atelier Program for the month of March 2013.

GOU Atelier is the only place in Lebanon that offers you a novel and unique program of live and interactive cooking and pastry classes. It allows you to experiment and learn, hands on, recipes and techniques in our restaurant’s professional kitchen and under the expert guidance of our Executive Chef.

Our World Food cooking and pastry classes are available for you at various convenient times throughout the week (See below program starting from March 4^th till March 27^th).

Each class ends with all participants treating themselves to their own food creations enjoyed with our complimentary drinks.

Days & Times:

Cooking Classes:     Monday from 18h00 to 20h30 and Saturday from 16h00 to 18h30

Pastry Classes:        Wednesday from 18h00 to 20h30 and Saturday from 16h00 to 18h30

Classes can also be arranged for groups of 5 to 6 persons during the mornings if desired.

Info and Reservations:

Call us on 03-828409 (Our New Telephone Number) or email us at gouatelier@noiyo.com for your early bookings.

Should you wish to discover some of the magic that awaits you at our GOU Atelier, we invite you to have a sneak preview of our previous classes on:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10151204979290690.477614.177594705689&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.10151204979290690.477614.177594705689&type=1

Join our GOU Atelier classes today for a truly unique Cook & Dine experience!

The GOU Team.

Fabulous Article by The Daily Star on our GOU Ateliers, Enjoy!

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Lifestyle/2013/Feb-16/206643-amateur-pastry-class-reveals-nuances-of-a-perfect-eclair.ashx#axzz2L9l4xKxG

Discover our Step by Step Eclair Recipe With Photos

Sharing with you our Eclair Recipe through "The Cheesecake Diaries" Blog

GOU Atelier is Back!

Dear GOU Friends,

After the break we took in December during the busy festive period, we are now very pleased to re-open our kitchens doors and share with you the GOU Atelier Jan/Feb 2013 Program.

GOU Atelier is the only place in Lebanon that offers you a novel and unique program of live and interactive cooking and pastry classes. It allows you to experiment and learn, hands on, recipes and techniques in our restaurant’s professional kitchen and under the expert guidance of our Executive Chef.

World Food cooking and pastry classes are available for you at various convenient times throughout the week.(See below program starting from January 14^th till March 2^nd).

Each class ends with all participants treating themselves to their own food creations enjoyed with our complimentary drinks.

Days & Times:

Cooking Classes:     Monday from 18h00 to 20h30

Pastry Classes:       Wednesday from 18h00 to 20h30

                           And Saturday from 16h00 to 18h30 - New

Classes can also be arranged for groups of 5 to 6 persons during the mornings if desired.

Info and Reservations:

Call us on 76-191436 or email us at gouatelier@noiyo.com for your early bookings.

Should you wish to discover some of the magic that awaits you at our GOU Atelier, we invite you to have a sneak preview of our previous classes on:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10151204979290690.477614.177594705689&type=3

Join our GOU Atelier classes today for a truly unique Cook & Dine experience!

The GOU Team.