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.

When I'm not tangling...

If you've read my blog before, you'll know that one of my favorite things to do while on Hilton Head is to take one or more of the cooking classes at Michael Anthony's Cucina Italiana. I've been doing this for several years now, and it has completely changed how I cook. Last April I took two of them and reported on it in this blog entry, and in this one.

There are two types of classes - Hands-on and Demo. The Hands-on classes are my favorite, since you get to prepare each dish yourself (sometimes with a partner).  But they also take longer - up to 4 hours if you get lucky in your partner! Plus, you don't sit down for the lunch you've prepared until everything is done. That means a late, heavy lunch, which puts a damper on dinner plans.

The Demo classes, where Executive Chef Chris Johnson prepares the dishes while you watch and take notes, only takes 2 hours, and you taste the dishes as he finishes each one. Easier on the time, and you eat early enough that you can still enjoy dinner.. So I signed up for two of the Demo classes this time - the first was today. The handout has all the recipes that Chef Chris prepares in the class, and as you arrive you are given that, plus a nice glass of Prosecco.

Here is the layout and kitchen for the class. Get there early enough to get a seat where you can see every detail without resorting to the TV screen! I got there first, so I snagged the second seat from the right, where my nose was practically on the cutting board!

The kitchen

One of the things that slows down the Hands-on class is assembling the mise-en-place, all your ingredients, measured out before you begin and in some rough order of their use. For the Demo classes, this is all done ahead of time (it's good to be Chef).

The mise-en-place. Note the heavy Italian pounder in front, used for preparing the pork scallopine.

 Lunch includes wine, red or white, Prosecco in the center. 

 The first dish was Italian Wedding Soup, which we were told is not Italian, but Italian-American. The inspiration for this soup is a dish from the Campania and Lazio regions of Italy called "marriage soup," which originally referred not to nuptials but to the "marriage" of meat and greens. Whatever its origin, this recipe is so-o-o much better than the insipid Italian Wedding Soups I've had in the past. I can hardly wait to make it at home!

 Italian Wedding Soup 

Second dish - Occhi di Lupo alla Sardignola. Occhi di Lupo means "Eye of the Wolf" and refers to the pasta which is traditionally used in this Sardinian dish. We used a similar pasta - a mezzi rigatoni. This light and really satisfying dish has pasta, mild Italian sausage, and arugula, served in a light Pomodoro sauce.

Mezzi Occhi di Lupo

Occhi di Lupo alla Sardignola

The final dish was Scallopine di Maiale con Balsamico (Pork scallopine in a balsamic reduction). In the recipe was a pepper that I had never heard of before, but will certainly use - peppadew. It actually from Africa, and has an intensely sweet taste, but with a kick at the end. Absolutely delicious. Served here with sauteed spinach (which was actually green)

Scallopine di Maiale con Balsamico

There was a little down time between courses, so to keep myself from guzzling wine, I tangled on the only piece of paper available. It might only have been lunch, but I still had to drive home. Fortunately, I am never without my Micron pens!

The second entry in Diva Challenge #236: Freeform Aquafleur, Curly Bracket Feather, Fescu, Mooka
Fern
Cadent, Poke Leaf, and Poke Root

A good time was had by all, Especially me. I've signed up for another one next week!

The Joy of Cooking [Seafood]

Wednesday was the second of the two cooking classes I’ve taken at Michael Anthony’s this trip. The Focus was on “Spring Seafood,” and I was excited (and as usual a little apprehensive) because I am not very experienced at cooking seafood.

The menu was as follows:

Warm Shrimp and Cannelini Bean Salad

Crab Cakes with a Lemon and Caper Remoulade

Pistachio-encrusted Scottish Salmon with a Dijon Aioli

My partner this time was Marie, a Quebecois who now resides in Vancouver. Fascinating woman, very tall, who was a professional volleyball player in her younger days. She spoke English with a decided French accent. Well, technically a Quebecois accent, though it sounded very French to me. We were a good team, and the nice thing about working with a partner instead of doing all the prep and cooking yourself is that you have time for pictures.

Lessons in slicing onions

Mixing the shrimp in the marinade

Searing the salmon, Marie in the foreground

We were generously supplied with wine, a nice Alverde Pinot Grigio. The wine did not appear until after the heavy slicing and dicing was done, good planning on their part.

After everything was prepared, we sat and feasted on the results of our lesson, along with more wine, of course. The crab cakes, in particular, were unique (and I am somewhat obsessed with crab cakes). Chris uses jumbo lump crab baked in a soufflé-like matrix  rather than ground up crab in a fried cake. It’s wonderful! Both the salad and crab will become part of my repertoire for sure.

Toasting at lunch, the warm shrimp salad on the table.

One thing they have added to the classes given this year is a talk on wine parings given by PJ, the head sommelier at Michael Anthony’s. Excellent, with some surprising (to me) recommendations, like pairing savory Salmon dishes with a light red wine, like a Willamette Valley (Oregon) Pinot Noir, or with a Sicilian Nero d’Avola. 

He also recommended the “perfect” wine for the shrimp salad (which was amazing): a Grillo, also from Sicily. They sell a Furedo Maccari Grillo in the Italian food shop in the restaurant, so I bought two bottles of that plus a jar of taggiasche olives from the Ligurian region of Italy, that Chris used in the warm shrimp salad. .

So, another informative and enjoyable cooking class. Learned a lot. Highly recommend it if you are every on the Island with time on your hands.

Cooking Classes

One of our favorite restaurants on the Island, Michael Anthony’s, offers hands-on cooking classes. I try to take one or two whenever we are here. This year Executive Chef Chris Johnson is teaching two classes, and I signed up for both. Thursday was “Scaloppine! Scaloppine!”  

Chef Chris started by showing us how to trim out a top round of veal, a pork tenderloin, and a whole chicken. I love these classes not because of the recipes, but because of the techniques. And this one was really helpful, or at least will be if I can ever find a whole top round of Veal!

Executive Chef Chris Johnson with a whole pork tenderloin

A top round of veal, aka The Holy Grail

Three scaloppini - veal, pork, chicken, all pounded, ready to cook

We started with Pork Marsala. I've fixed the Chicken version before, but not pork. The best thing that came out of this for me was that you could cook the dish in about 5 minutes, once you have your mise en place done. When I fix scaloppine at home (and I do that about once a week), it takes me about 15 minutes, with hungry husband chomping at the bit the whole time.

The kitchen, donated by Thermidor. 

My Veal a la Voldestana

 

Next Wednesday is the Spring Seafood class, with Warm Shrimp salad with Canellini beans , Crab cakes with Red Onion and Caper sauce, and Pistachio-Encrusted Salmon. I’m excited.

Ruminations on a snowy day

After a week of being held captive in the house by a winter storm, it's time to stop procrastinating and start blogging. I've been thinking for awhile now that I should start a personal blog as a kind of journal. More efficient than writing in a book, prettier, too.

It will primarily be a place to share the art that I'm passionate about (Zentangle and pottery) plus a way to record experiences and feelings about cooking, gardening, Tai Chi, knitting, and life as an almost-70-yr-old retired fat lady.

Why Reluctant Rational? A while back, my niece posted a quiz on Facebook to determine which Keirsey Personality type you are. I so desperately wanted to be an Artisan. I've longed to be an Artisan most of my adult life, even though I was raised to value making money over making art. But alas, I'm a Rational. I'm too sensible to be spontaneous and creative and artistic. My mother's art genes went to my sister; My mother's music genes went to my brother. I was gifted with my father's tight-ass, rule-following, sensible genes.

Since I haven't tangled today, here are some shots of one of my knitted shawls, Come September:

 The completed shawl.

 I made the shawl to wear on our annual September vacation on Hilton Head Island. It's from a pattern by Boo-Knits called Ocean Breeze, knitted in Lichtfaden's Pure Silk Lace and Silk Halo, colorway "Promenade." Beads were added - Miyuki 6/0 Round, Pearl Ceylon, #6-591.

Come September draped over a chair in our condo.

Detail of the lace and beads.