Cooking with CT Session 2

CT's Octopus, Prawn and Mussel Pasta

I will regret my friends from the cookery club when I leave. It's not easy finding a group of funny, interesting people who are intelligent and who can cook; Who come from different parts of the world yet speak the same language. I can go on, but I do not have much time sfortunatamente, there is still a mountain of sorting out to do...

Raw octopus

CT did his second cookery lesson for the club last Monday. He had been dying to show us how to prepare octopus, so after having to wait a few months for his turn to cook, we weren't about to deprive him of this opportunity to do so. Very kind of JW to let him "kill" and cook the octopus for the group since she had never eaten one before that. If my stomach were bigger (than it already is) I would have eaten up her share for her.

CT removing the teeth of the octopus

Do you know how easy it is to prepare octopus? If you don't, we may consider selling the recipe for something exciting that the group could do together. Anyway, CT's method produced an octopus that was amazingly tender and tasty, none of the chewy, rubbery stuff that you usually get from the shops and even some of the restaurants.

Cooked octopus

We also got to taste some of his famous Feijoada...And he kindly shared some delicious ricotta and parmesan cheese that he bought from a farm on the way to Pavullo - together with a few drops of a family-made (not his family) balsamic vinegar. That was my first taste of such balsamic vinegar, nobody has thought to offer me their family vinegar - boo hoo.

CT's famous Feijoada

Dessert was provided by JW and LY - sweet things not being CT's point fort. I'm sure that we manage to find balance this way in the group, as we have a few members who are strong bakers. Don't you just love how nicely the group manages to come together?

If we had more time, we would have remembered to leaf through CT's amazing collection of work that he'd done over the years (you may remember that he's a professional photographer) - while he plays some music on the harmonica. Sigh, please record that for me, girls, when it finally happens...