Ever wonder how to make prosciutto? Or what exactly a rillette is? Wonder no more, because Patina's Cafe Pinot in downtown Los Angeles is holding a monthly charcuterie class with their chef, Joe Vasiloff. Every month's class is different and I attended the one in February where we made duck breast prosciutto and duck rillette.
Making charcuterie means curing meat. And curing means you need curing salt. Vasiloff uses this salt recipe full of herbs that he learned from Chef Thomas Keller when he worked at Bouchon in Las Vegas and Beverly Hills.
Duck legs are cured in the salt for hours then confit-ed for the duck rillette. This is a hands-on class where you'd have to trim duck fat and learn how to wrap meats for hanging.
We all got to take home a jar of duck rillette (made with duck confit that he'd prepared the day before, of course, because the class doesn't last overnight :P ). I will post the full recipe for the duck rillette tomorrow, so come back to check if you want to try it at home!
You get to take something home from each class, but since each class teaches a different charcuterie, the take-away varies as well.
Salting duck breast for the prosciutto:
After the class, we came up to the restaurant to have some cheeses and the charcuterie we made. Well, the same charcuterie we were making but that they had prepared beforehand. The duck breast prosciutto was really good!
Along with the cheeses and charcuterie, each attendee also partakes in a wine tasting.
Cafe Pinot's general manager will walk you through the tasting. We tasted 5-6 of some nice wines, a nice way to end a cooking class, for sure.
This particular dessert wine paired really well with the blue cheese we were having.
The classes are $75 per person and as you can see, after the class you'll get a take-away product and indulge in cheese, charcuterie, and a wine tasting.
The class on March 7 will be pork terrines and April 7 will be sausages (rabbit & chicken liver, beef heart & squab). You can get the sign up form
here.
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