Cooking Class #2, and a WIP

Wednesday was the second of the two cooking classes I signed up for at Michael Anthony's this trip..

Greeted with a glass of Prosecco, as usual.

Minestrone was the soup this time, and like the Italian Wedding Soup we did last time, was totally different from versions I've had before. Vegetarian (or Vegan, I can't keep them straight), with onions, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, and Savoy cabbage. 

All the versions I've had before have included some type of pasta, which is not traditional in Italy, according to Chef Chris. Instead we used farro and Borlottis. Borlottis are dried beans, very similar to what we call Cranberry beans here, that are soaked over night and cooked til tender. They are perfect for this dish because even after cooking they retain bite and don't get mushy like other beans. Chris says the appeal of this dish is that it's not watery like a lot of Minestrones, but has what he calls "Guts." It was truly delicious, so much so that I forgot to take a picture in its pristine state, but plunged right in. Sorry!

Minestrone with"Guts"

The entree for this class was a traditional Chicken Cacciatore served on a bed of the best polenta I've ever tasted. The chicken was cooked perfectly, not dried out, not stringy, but tender and moist. If you've ever braised chicken, you know how difficult it is to get it perfect. 

This is one of the reasons I take these classes - I learn the "best" way to prepare things like polenta, risotto, chicken, etc. - straight from the Chef's mouth, so to speak. And Chef Chris is extraordinary. Many of the recipes he teaches are not on Michael Anthony's menu, but are recipes he learned from the Italian side of the family while growing up in New Jersey . 

Chicken Cacciatore with polenta

Finally we closed with a whole pear, poached in Cabernet wine and cinnamon. After the pear is cooked, it is removed from the pot and the wine reduced to a yummy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, sauce that you can smell a mile away. In this case it was served with a scoop of vanilla Gelato. Very light dessert, which was good after the two dishes that preceded it.

Cabernet-poached Pear

There was no tangling on my menus during the breaks like last week. I was seated at a table with three delightful ladies who were attending for the first time and commanded my full attention! They apparently were not aware that they needed to pace themselves, both with the wine and the food, so all three were a little buzzed and stuffed by the end of the meal. They agreed that it was a lot of fun, and that they would do it again..

I have been doing a little Zentangle-Inspired-Art (ZIA), which I will share in another post after it's finished. Here's a WIP teaser, though:

Until next time (probably from home - sigh), Aloha.

The long-awaited (NOT!) Mishima post

Mishima is a surface decorating technique for ceramics - kind of a reverse sgrafitto. You can see my post on sgrafitto here. For this technique, the design is incised (scratched) first, while the clay is leather-hard and before a thin underglaze is applied. The underglaze runs into the carved designs. After a little drying, you scrape off the excess clay using a metal rib or a razor blade. 

Darted vase at the leather-hard stage

I incised this one with a freehand version of Helen Williams' tangle, "Curly Bracket Feather." The stepout can be found here. Tangling on a curved object is a whole lot tougher than on a tile or in a journal, let me tell you!

Same vase, incised and painted with three coats of black underglaze

Closeup of the incised and painted design

After the underglaze has dried, the a metal rib is used to scrape away the excess. The underglaze that flowed into the design remains.

Partially scraped vase, with metal rib. Vase is stuffed with plastic so the inside doesn't dry faster than the outside.

Closeup

Here's the vase after scraping and firing (bisqueing) the first time.

Carved vase after bisqueing

I then painted the vase all over with thin coats of blue and yellow underglaze, and bisqued a second time. Then several coats of clear glaze was applied, and the vase put through the final firing.

The finished vase

Here are some more finished Mishima Tiles.

 

This last example is a Mishima tray (the distortion is from the photographic angle). The pattern was carved freehand, and is a variation of "Tumbleweed" by Helen Williams.

Tumbleweed Tray:  Little Loafers clay, black underglaze and clear glaze

I thought the Mishima technique  would be good for fine-lined Zentangle Art. I may end up doing that, or maybe if my sgrafitto technique improves, I will stick with that.

Aren't you glad you waited?

More Vacation Tangles and the Story of a Friend

Here are just some miscellaneous tangles I’ve done on the Island. There’s no story to them, just hours of completely absorbing work. 

That’s the other thing about being here on vacation – so much time to tangle, guilt-free.

"Redfish"

The last one actually does have a story. Many years ago we met a young sous-chef at Alexander's Restaurant. The head chef there offered to make us a special dinner, but decided to turn it over to the sous-chef. It was a wonderful, creative meal, and when the sous-chef came out to say hello afterwards, we discovered that he was born and raised on the Big Island. His name was Chaun Bescos.

So the three of us became instant friends, and he cooked for us whenever we came down here. Flash forward several years. Chaun's career advanced, first to Head Chef at Alexander's, then eventually to Executive Chef at Redfish, an upscale seafood restaurant that at the time featured mostly Cuban food. Chaun has given the place a broader menu, introducing his own Pacific Island flair to the original focus.

Chaun has continued to cook for us, at least once while we're here. We even became good friends with his Sister-in-Law, Whitney, who is now "our" server at Redfish.

So this Tuesday when we went for our special meal (which was truly special, by the way), I spent some time making him a small Thank You gift. It's called "Redfish."