Advanced Cooking, Vegan Day

I was really excited about vegan day in class, I think everyone else was sort of dreading it but all the food was stellar. I used to be a vegetarian, and my biggest pet peeve is when I would get served big bowls of rissoto of pasta. Not that that stuff isn't totally delicious, but hello! vegetarian, as in the vegetables. As in please feed me some damn vegetables! Any other vegetarians out there? Super major frustrating, right?

So what did we make? Homemade Seitan, thanks to a lot of hard work from my teammate Casey.  While Casey kneaded the living day lights out of the wheat  flour Ashley and I got to work on a million different vegetables and garnishes, including crispy farro gremolata with lemon zest, basil, and fried capers, crispy fried artichoke hearts, shaved brussel sprouts sauteed with hazlenuts, sauteed zucchini, and blanched fava beans. It was madness. Ashley had a million pots going at once, it was damn impressive. I also made a super cool black olive oil; first I dehydrated the black olives in a low oven for about...forever and then I blended them into a powder and combined with some extra virgin olive oil. Cool. Vegan Success!

Blah blah blah

Here's a look at what the other groups made:

Truly tasty meal, and not just for vegan food. This was some all inclusive, good tasting eats!

Advanced Cooking, Day 3

This one is fairly overdue.

In all honestly I have a not so kind virus making itself at home in my throat right now.  I never intended to be such a great host. I'm toughing this one out in the general Boston area with a boatload of family, a couple of boxes of matzoh, and a decently sized stack of homework. Before I get to the excitement of Passover and recipes of matzoh-packed madness, I'm gonna fill you in on my cooking class.

Day four was all about the classics. Classic French of course.

Each group had to get their recipe from Georges Auguste Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, written in 1903. The book is majorly entertaining, and packed with over 2,000 recipes that are written more like simple how-tos sprinkled with some floral language. It's pretty amusing.

My group made that little bitty steak bite above.

What is it exactly? Tivoli Tornedos with Béarnaise Sauce & Soufflé Potatoes, which basically means a crostini with a mini beef filet medallion, butter cooked tomatoes, grilled mushroom, béarnaise sauce and crispy potatoes. It was pretty tasty, though the potatoes were a challenge because they were meant to puff up but our chef didn't order the right potatoes.

That being said, I really want to try these potatoes out again. They are supposed to puff up like crispy little potato pillows. I can roll with that.

Here's what the other groups made. I love tasting everyone's different meal choices.

This canape trio below was one of my favorites. Really clean crisp flavors, and pretty fun to eat too...

Bon Appetit! Happy Pesach/Easter/Weekend!

Advanced Cooking, Day 2

Ok so we've already declared that I'm back in the kitchen, day one: mystery basket success and now it's time to tell ya about day two.

The theme you ask? Childhood Memories.

The goal was to recreate a food we associate with our childhood and turn it into a restaurant quality dish. I had a hard time choosing just one dish from my childhood because, well...honestly, I ate some damn good food growing up. And while my mom can cook THE BEST chicken wings and sweet potatoes (among soooo many other things) you will ever eat in your life ever, I decided to go with my dad's vegetarian lasagna.

Both my parents are great cooks, they're the reason I love food and cooking so much.

When my dad cooks he usually is more of a recipe man while my mom is definitely more of a go with the flow, don't fuss about it kind of cook. Both are successful in their own methods.

But when it comes to my dad's lasagna, he goes with his gut and makes a day of it.

We used a variety of roasted mushrooms, made fresh spinach pasta, homemade ricotta, and a creamy béchamel sauce. We rolled the pasta super duper thin and did lots of light, small layers with the sauces and filling, then we topped it off with a fried basil leaf. We also cut it out in to circles in hope of making it a little shmancier. (here's a similar lasagna recipe)

Notes for future lasagna making: always make a bechamel and add some cheese to it, also use a simple red sauce, and do lots of very thin layers. 

Fried basil should be a more major part of my life. Fact.

It was really fun to taste everyone else's dishes too, the tasting portion of this class is awesome because we a.) get to eat tasty food and b.) people make stuff I would never think to do, and it's interesting to check out. Here are a couple shots:

Lobster & Crab Poutine with Smoked Gruyere and Foie Gras enriched Gravy

(and a view of our dining set up)

This group did a different childhood memory for each person, The Bibimbap was my favorite, and so adorable. I mean look at the quail egg on top. I loved the chili sauce on it too. Have you had bibimbap? It's a signature korean treat, and so very tasty.

There were some other dishes too and all were delicious. Next week we are doing very classic French recipes from La Guide Culinaire, Escoffier's cookbook from 1903. Should be interesting. I hope no one does poached chicken!

Advanced Cooking, day 1

You or may not know that I am in culinary school. Cool right? Mostly, yes.

You may or may not also know that I have graduated from the culinary part and now I am getting a bachelors degree in restaurant management (basically).

Well, you probably definitely (I'm pretty sure) don't know that I get to take one more cooking class, if you do are already know this than, we are probably pretty good friends or acquaintances and I totally treasure that.

Moving past that exciting intro, let me tell ya about Advanced Cooking!

In short: It was a blast.

Long version: We assembled into small groups, were given a tray of mystery ingredients, 10 minutes to come up with a dish and about 2 hours to get that baby made and plated.

You know it's going to be a good time when your Chef starts off the class with "I'm sure you all have probably heard through the grapevine that I'm an ass. Just to clarify, I'm not like that in Advanced Cooking"

And turns out that he was sarcastic and funny and gave great feedback. Score.

Our Mystery Ingredients:

1. Wellfleet Oysters (in the shell)
2. Raw Shrimp
3. Salsify (this a weird one, heres some info)
4. Tarragon
5. Oyster Mushrooms

So...what would you do?

This is what we came up with:

We called it something along the lines of "Fish & Chips" but then found out Chef does not like dishes that are "plays/takes" on other dishes. (i.e. a play on fish and chips)

We thought we were screwed but had faith in how tasty it all came out and guess what? It was a hit!

I was pleased with it. And it was a damn good time.

 So the dish included:

• Fried panko-breaded Shrimp and Oyster
• Tarragon Aioli
• Pickled Roasted Oyster Mushrooms
• Crispy Salsify Chips

It all tasted pretty awesome together.

Loved the pickled roasted oyster mushrooms. Have you had oyster mushrooms? One word: yum.

Every team got a different tray of ingredients and here's what they made:

Steamed Clams with Crispy Potatoes & Bacon with Roasted Cipolini Onions

Grilled Squab with King Trumpet Mushrooms, Demi Sauce, and a Frisee Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette and Camembert Cheese

Venison with Sunchoke & Cheddar Puree, Cranberry Beans, & Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

and

White Bean Puree, Salmon, Foie Gras Hollandaise & Crispy Salmon Skin in a Brussels Sprout Leaf

We plated up all of of our dishes and sat down to eat them with the whole class. That means 20 small plates from each group. Did I mention we get to choose wine pairings? A lovely touch.

Seriously Enjoyable. 

At the end of the class we sit around and give each other feedback and describe how we came up with our dishes and what we could do better. Sounds fun right? It is. 

Can't wait to share the dishes from our next class!