Occasionally we have the opportunity to attend workshops at school to gain a little more knowledge about the foods we are cooking. On Saturday November 23, Chef Craig hosted the workshop. Well, it was a lucky day for me! I wound up having a personal cooking lesson. Yep I was the only one to attend. I had a great time. Chef started by making Thai tea and then we made Tom Ka (soup). Since I have only had both of those in a resturant, it was fun to make them.
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I thought this week would be a repeat of last week. I was happy to be wrong. We made a poblano & corn soup, achiote rice, tres leche cake, lemon chess pie, lamb with cilantro pesto and jalapeno preserves, empanadas (pork) and gazpacho. My favorite dish was the lamb. I was supposed to be filled with the cilantro pesto. However by the time I removed the big fat pockets, it was not suitable for pounding and rolling. Instead, I cut it into cubes and marinated it in the spice blend. I served it with the two sauces on the side. WOW, it was so good! The spice in the lamb worked perfectly with the sweetness of the jalapeno preserves and the saltiness of the pesto. My chess pie did not have time to set-up properly, but it was fantastic. We were missing a few people this week, so Chef Craig jumped in and made the calabacitas con maize. Roasted in the oven, they were perfect.
This week was all about flavor! I have eaten almost all of these dishes, but I have never made any of them. The standouts were: LBJ Pedernales Chili, Crab Quesadillas with green chili chutney and pork flautas. The green chili chutney was the most interesting. It contained an entire cup of sugar. As a result it got hard like candy. It was delicious! I am not a big fan of crab, but the quesadillas were really good. Because of the dough, there were more like an empanada. On the second day I made Caldo De Res-a beef soup garnished with corn on the cob. It seemed strange, but was not only good but beautiful. One last thing, the rub for the pork was really good. It gave the pork a great, rich deep red color to the pork.
This was a really great week! We made some great salads and side dishes. The standouts were the oven smoked ribs, steak fries (oven "fried"), 2 types of oven roasted green beans, and 2 types of chocolate pudding cake. The fries really tasted as if they had been deep fried. The ribs were super spicy, possibly to spicy for the average person. But I really like them. We only had one bean dish to make, but Chef Craig had some Chinese long beans and he had me roast them as well. MMMMM!! Then Chef had me make two versions of the pudding cake. One followed the menu, the other Chef had me adjust the flour and add nuts. It tasted like the richest brownie ever. That is one of the things I really like about Chef Craig, he always encourages us to find our own way. Great week!
Sadly, this week was a bust. The hoods in kitchen were not functioning. We could not cook anything.
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AuthorKimberly-baker and food history enthusiast! Archives
March 2015
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