Cooking Class Series Part 2

I went to the second part of my cooking class. We made three dishes. The first dish was pea, prosciutto, and Parmesan risotto. The second dish was blanched green beans with Dijon vinaigrette. The third dish was pan seared scallops with a citrus-thyme gastric. And, the final dish was blackberry croustade with flaky pie dough and homemade whipped cream. Spoiler alert; everything was yummy. Let's start at the beginning.

The first dish we made was risotto. It was super simple especially because all the ingredients were prepped and ready. Many chefs use this technique called mis en place. This is a French term that translates to "put in place."  After prepping and measuring all the ingredients for the recipe.  Warm 6-8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth. We coated a large saucepan with oil. When the oil shimmers, add shallots. Cook shallots until translucent. Add wine. Then, it's time to start the rice.

We used Arborio rice, and toasted the rice in the oil. Then, gradually add chicken broth broth 1/2 - 1 cup at a time. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the broth is absorbed. The broth and rice should be simmering. Repeat adding the rice while stirring. One of my fellow students had made risotto before. She shared a helpful tip; if the pan is sizzling, it's time to add more liquid. Taste the risotto. When the risotto is creamy but still has bite, you're done adding liquid . . . and almost done stirring. Turn of the heat. Then, we add the finishing touches: prosciutto, peas, and Parmesan. Taste and see if it needs anything else. We added salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

This is the risotto after adding stock twice. It's not really creamy. The chef encouraged us to taste at this point. I would not recommend it. The rice was crunchy and stuck to our teeth. It was definitely not done.

This picture shows the risotto after we added the last of our chicken stock. We were finishing simmering until the liquid evaporated. At this stage, the risotto was al dente and creamy. It's almost done!

Add your flavorings. We add peas, prosciutto, Parmesan cheese, and butter to flavor our risotto. It was creamy and tender. The peas added a fresh pop. The Parmesan and prosciutto added a salty bite. So, good! 

The second dish was blanched green beans with Dijon vinaigrette. I've used the blanching technique before with broccoli and green beans. Blanching is submerging a food, like green beans, in boiling water for a few minutes. Then, you shock the food by submerging it in ice cold water. This stops the cooking and locks in the bright green color. 

Adding a vinaigrette was a new way to prepare green beans. I loved the acidity of the lemon, Dijon vinaigrette. The herbs in the vinaigrette were fresh and brightened the flavor. The green beans were crisp, and the roasted hazelnuts were rich and crunchy. So good! 

The third dish was pan seared scallops with a citrus-thyme gastric. As a Louisiana girl, I love seafood. Scallops are sweet, tender, and a little sweet. Scallops cook quickly, so it's a great, quick protein to make. Look for dry-packed scallops and make sure you remove the adductor muscle. We seasoned the scales with salt and pepper, and seared the scallops in canola oil for about 2-3 minutes per side.

We made a citrus-thyme gastrique. Gastrique sounds like a fancy, complex term. But, it is a simple a vinegar-based sauce with caramelized sugar. I tasted the scallop without the sauce, and it was good. Then, I added the gastrique, and it was phenomenal! The gastric add a punchy, bright citrus element from the orange and the sweetness of the sugar complemented the slight sweet scallops.

The final dish was blackberry croustade with flaky pie dough and homemade whipped cream. We made the dough in a food processor. It was super easy and flaky!

We prepped the filling with blackberries, lemon zest, sugar, cornstarch, almond extract, and lemon juice. The almond extract was a delicious addition!

Then you poor the filling into the dough on a baking sheet lines with parchment.

Tip, use the parchment to fold the dough over.

We topped the croustade with whipped cream.

I encourage you to try something new. Invite a friend. Learn something new. Don't be afraid to try a new recipe, and taste something new! That's it for cooking with class part two.

For more recipes, encouragement, and tips for healthy eating, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy:

Cooking Class Part 1

My First Cooking Class

Summer Pasta Class

Cooking Class Part 3

Cooking Class Series: Part 1

I took my third cooking class this weekend. It is a three-part series, so stay tune for the other two classes. Today, we made three dishes. The first dish was a Summer vegetable ratatouille. The second dish was a vanilla bean soufflé with strawberry sauce. The third dish was pan-roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary. All the dishes were scrumptious. Let's start at the beginning.

The first dish we made was Summer vegetable ratatouille. We practiced our knife skills and proper hold of the knife to prepare all the veggies in the dish. We learned to make things the are spherical flat first. Then, you make sticks. Then, cut the opposite direction to make cubes. This technique was super helpful to get all the vegetables about the same size. Having food cut to the same size helps everything cook at similar rates, so the vegetables are done at the same time. Our group divided and conquered dicing eggplant, onion, red bell pepper, zucchini, tomatoes. We mince garlic cloves and chiffonade the basil.

Start by heating your Dutch oven with oil until shimmery. Sauté all the vegetables, starting with the vegetable that takes the longest to cook. In our case, that is the eggplant. Sauté all veggies until browned. Let everything stew while you're preparing the rest of the meal.

Top with Parmesan cheese before serving and enjoy!

The second dish was la vanilla bean shuffle with strawberry sauce.  I was especially excited to try this dish because it seems a bit intimidating. Ours was delicious!

Start by getting all your ingredients measured and assembled. This is also know as mis en place. Then, separate your egg whites from egg yolks. We used the three-bowl technique for separating eggs. It's a little messy, but it's cheap and easy. 

You start with three empty containers. Crack the egg into bowl 1. Use your hand to grab the yolk. Let the white run through you fingers. Put the egg yolk in bowl 2. Pour the egg whites in bowl 3. Begin the process again until you've separated all the eggs.

Heat butter, flour and milk in a saucepan. It's like making a roux. You melt the butter, whisk in flour and slowly add milk. Then, flavor your soufflé base. We used sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Let the mixture you before whisking in yolks. Let mixture cool.

Next, whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer to get stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the soufflé base.  Start with 1/3 of the egg whites. Fold in the remainder of the egg whites in 2 batches. You're almost there!

Prepare ramekins for the batter by greasing with butter and dusting with granulated sugar. Pour a little sugar into the dish and rotated around until it is covered with sugar. Poor off the excess.

Scoop the batter into ramekins.  I like to use an ice cream scoop to help portion. It's neater and more precise than using a kitchen spoon. Then, level the soufflé with a spatula. Run your finger around the edge of the ramekin to chat a moat around the edge. This helps the soufflé rise. 

Place the soufflé in the oven until full risen and golden brown.

We prepared a strawberry sauce to top the soufflé. I preferred the soufflé on it's own; you can really taste the vanilla bean.

The third dish was pan-roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary.  We made the entree while the soufflé were cooking. Prepare your ingredients. Mince shallot, garlic clove, and rosemary. Zest a lemon and juice it. Set butter out. Measure whine and low sodium chicken broth.

Bring chicken to room temperature while still maintaining food safety. Dry the chicken. Start by heating your pan with oil until shimmery. This turns the pan into more of a nonstick pan.

Brown the on both sides. Then, finish the chicken in the oven on a sheet tray topped with an oven-safe baking rack. How do we know when the chicken is cooked?

Insert oven-safe thermometer. Set to 180*F.  When the thermometer reaches 180*F, the chicken is fully cooked. Tent the chicken with aluminum foil and let rest while you prepare the pan sauce. 

Drain the majority of oil from the pan that you seared the chicken in. Don't wash it out! We want to make use of the fond. Fond, what's that? Fond is the culinary term for the caramelized brown bits on the bottom of the pan. It's french for 'background, depth, or bottom." You can think of it as the basis for our pan sauce. 

To make the pan sauce, turn the heat to medium and add butter. Sauté garlic and butter until softened. Deglaze the pan with wine. Let the liquid concentrate by reducing by half. Add chicken broth and flavorings. We used rosemary and lemon zest. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the fond or caramelized bits off the bottom of the pan. Turn of the heat. Add remaining butter. This is called "mounting" a sauce. Mounting a sauce is adding chilled butter. Slowly add the butter and stir to emulsify the sauce. 

All the recipes were super simple to make because all the ingredients were prepped and ready. Many chefs use this technique called mis en place. This is a french term that translates to "put in place."  We measured all the ingredients for each dish and had them ready to go before we started the cooking process. Preparing your mis en place is something every cook can do to make cooking easier. Prepare you meal like the recipe reads. You measure and chop, dice, slice all the ingredients. Preheat ovens or pans. After the preparation is done, now it's time to cook. Try this technique at home to make cooking easier!

I highly recommend taking a cooking class if you want to learn a new skill or try a new recipe. My favorite aspects of this cooking class were:

1) Getting hands-on experience learning a new skill.

2) Recipe preparation and clean up was completed by the staff. No dishes! 

3) Tasting new recipes and trying new foods.

I encourage you to try something new. I don't know if I would have tried to make a soufflé by myself. But, it was simple and successful in class with the help of the chef and sous chefs. Don't be afraid to try a new recipe, and taste something new!

For more recipes, encouragement, and tips for healthy eating, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy:

My First Cooking Class

My First Cake Decorating Class

Cooking Class: Part 2

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Summer Pasta Class

I took my second cooking class this weekend. We made fresh pasta dough and two dishes. The first dish was goat cheese tortellini with charred red pepper pesto and olives. The second dish was linguine with shrimp, Summer vegetables and fresh mint. Both were yummy. Let's start at the beginning.

Our chef instructor prepared the pasta dough ahead of time because it needs to rest. Then, we worked as a team of four to roll the pasta out by using the hand roller. We started at setting "zero," which is the largest opening. Then, we folded the pasta in thirds, then in half. Then we rolled each sheet through the attachment. We at started at setting 1 and progressing through each setting until we reached setting 6. We had fairly thin sheets of pasta that were ready to use for both dishes.

The first dish we made was goat cheese tortellini with charred red pepper pesto and olives. I helped make the pesto for the class. It was super simple especially because all the ingredients were prepped and ready. May chefs use this technique called mise en place. This is a french term that translates to "put in place."  I blended the ingredients for the pesto together in the food processor until there are no large pieces of ingredients and everything is well blended.

Then, we moved to making the pasta dough into tortellini. We cut out 3-inch pasta rounds with a cookie cutter. Placed 1 teaspoon of filling into the pasta round. Dampen the edges of the pasta with water. Fold the pasta in half to make a half-moon shape. Please out all the air bubbles from the inside (by the filling) out. Place a drop of water on the edge of the pasta and loop the two corners behind the pasta to make the tortellini shape. Place tortellini on a floured half-sheet pan and continue forming the tortellini until done.

Boil the fresh pasta for 3-4 minutes until tender, and the pasta rises to the top of the pot. Toss warm pasta with your fresh, Summer pesto, and enjoy!

The second dish was linguine with shrimp, Summer vegetables and fresh mint.

This was the first time I used a pasta cutter. The pasta machine has a cutting attachment you can see in the picture below. It was super simple. After you roll out the pasta to the desired thinness, you feed the pasta sheets through the cutting attachment. And, out comes linguine! You flour the pasta and lay it in flat nests on a baking sheet until you're ready to cook it.

Next, it's time to make the sauce. The ingredients are all out on a sheet tray ready to chop and finish the mise en place. 

Then, you cook the shrimp in a little oil. Add the onion and garlic. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Add the veggies. Cook until tender. Add the herbs. The chef cooked the pasta while we prepared the sauce. Toss everything together and enjoy!

Y'all. I really loved taking these classes. One of my friends came to this class with me, which was extra fun! Learning to make pasta in a class setting was a great experience for me. There was a chef to help coach you. And, there were the chef's helpers who helped clean up the mess. There was quite a bit of flour . . . on everything and everyone in the class. Whoopsies! 

I encourage you to try something new. Invite a friend. Learn something new. Don't be afraid to try a new recipe, and taste something new!

For more recipes, encouragement, and tips for healthy eating, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy:

My First Cooking Class

My First Cake Decorating Class