Learning Pie Making with Sherry Yard and Evan Kleiman

Evan Kleiman started "Pie a Day" on the KCRW Good Food blog a few years ago by making a pie a day for 100 days. That took off and culminated in an annual Pie Contest where home cooks compete. Sherry Yard is one of the best pastry chefs in LA. She's put in years at Spago but is now set to open her own bakery in Culver City. The two came together to give a pie making class at Culver City's New School of Cooking recently to raise funds for KCRW.

To be precise, they're raising funds for the 5th Annual Good Food Pie Contest, which will take place on Saturday, September 7 from 2-4pm at LACMA. If you want to enter, you can sign up before September 1 on the website, and the fee is $10 per entry! There's also a Kids and Vegan category.

I don't know a thing about making pie, but I can tell you what tips I learnt from the pie class! First off, the set up is pretty nice. A glass of sparkling wine greeted us as we were seated at the tables. There's a full table setting because we're not just watching a cooking demo, but will soon be eating three delicious pies while drinking more wine!

The pie class was completely sold out, so it was a full house, but most can see what they're doing pretty clearly on the overhead mirror.

First up is Evan Kleiman making her chicken pot pie (I will post the recipe tomorrow!)

So Evan uses part butter and part duck fat for her pie dough, genius! She passed it around so we can smell it.

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Hands On Tamale Making Class at Ortega 120 (Redondo Beach)

I LOVE tamales but I have a hard time to find ones that are just right for me. I want them filled with things I like, for example I'm always looking for a blue corn tamale but the ones here are usually only filled with cheese. So, when Ortega 120 offered me to attend one of their tamale making class, I thought it sounded fun. The tamale class is only held in December since tamales are apparently a holiday tradition. The chef said that his family would always say that way you will always have something to unwrap for Christmas!

The hands-on tamale class was completely full (and they were all women, which was kind of expected)

The $40 class also includes a glass of their house margarita and food

Ortega has their own masa, made with Canola oil so it's healthier but still moist. You can buy their masa to go at the restaurant, or you can also buy traditional masa at Mexican bakeries. They had prepared the masa for us and the filling which included chicken and beef tinga, chili and cheese. They provided the recipes for these fillings, but during the class all we had to do was assemble them.

Spreading the masa on the corn husk was harder than I expected at first, since you don't want it to be too thick, though eventually I got used to it.

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Learning to Make Okonomiyaki! (Recipe)

No, I'm not talking about going to Gaja and putting the batter on the grill, but actually making okonomiyaki from scratch! It's one of the many classes that Yoko Issasi teaches in her Japanese Foodstory class. Each of her small group class takes place in a small studio downtown, around a large wooden table that she outfitted herself.

OKONOMIYAKI RECIPE
First, you have to make the flour mix, which is:
1 cup or 4 oz of weak flour, can be substituted by cake flour
1 cup dashi stock, and ..

1/2 cup yamaimo (slimy yam)

If you've never had yamaimo .. it's a yam like you've never had. When you grate the yam, you will get a bowl of slimy stuff!

In a large bowl, put weak (or cake) flour with dashi stock. Whisk well until smooth, then add grated yamaimo and mix well.

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