For about the last year I've been trying to learn to cook, and so this spring I took a cooking class that ended up being a ton of fun, and I learned a lot and cooked some amazing food. It was a small class, only five or six people depending on how many showed up, and more women than men (which is always a plus.) All of the other classes at the school were two or three times that size, so I really lucked out.
We would meet every Friday in this huge kitchen area and the teacher, who was an amazing woman that was a talented chef who had never actually worked in a restaurant. Instead she spent all of her free time volunteering at like homeless shelters and a summer camp for disabled adults. So at the start of the class she would give a lecture on whatever food we were preparing that week. Then we would go over all the possible recipes for the topic and everyone would pick one. Then all hell would break loose while all these unskilled people careened around the kitchen trying to get things done and asking insane questions like "Is this thyme or paprika?" and "What does a shallot look like??" Then we would gather in a small dining room and eat all the food. 😎
My first dish, and by far the most complicated thing I had ever cooked until then, was a vegetarian antipasti with roasted squash rings, garlic greens, and saffron roasted red peppers.
The squash rings were delicata squash sliced into rings and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, then roasted. Then I drizzled pomegranate molasses onto them, which didn't sound like it made sense, but ended up tasting really good.
For the greens I used kale, chard, and dandelion greens (which are VERY bitter tasting, but not terrible if you don't mind bitter flavors.) First I blanched the greens (which is boiling a vegetable just long enough to bring out the color, then immersing it in an ice bath to immediately stop the cooking process.) Then I sauteed them in oil and garlic, with salt and red pepper flakes.
The red peppers first got a weird kind of roasting that I had never done before, where I laid them bare across the flame of the stove, until the skin turned completely black, then peeled them. Then I sliced the flesh of the peppers into strips and sauteed them with onions in oil and garlic with red pepper flakes, paprika, saffron and sherry vinegar.
The teacher always made us present the food ourselves, so when we were done cooking we had to figure out how to arrange it so it would look appetizing. I think I did a good job here, and although I'm not a vegetarian and never will be, this tasted really good.
The next week was meat, which is much more my speed. 😎 I picked the herb crusted rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and saute of Swiss chard. I had to assure Amanda that these were vicious, man-eating lambs, not cute cuddly sheep 🙂
First I had to french the lamb rack, which is a time-consuming pain in the ass that involves very carefully skinning it because the lamb has a covering of skin like a sausage casing.
Then I briefly seared the lamb to brown it and brushed it with golden mustard so that I could stick a crust of bread crumbs with garlic, parsley, thyme and lemon zest, onto it. Then I roasted the entire racks for a half hour. It came out perfect, pink in the middle but not too rare.
While that was happening, I made a sauce out of chicken stock, demi glace and port. I cooked it until it was heavily reduced and kind of syrupy.
Then for the mashed potatoes, I roasted whole garlic heads, cut in half and wrapped in tinfoil, until they were soft enough to mush in my fingers. I used a ricer to mash the potatoes, and mixed in the garlic with milk, butter, salt and pepper, sour cream, parsley and chives.
Finally, I blanched some Swiss chard and cooked it in oil with currants, garlic and pine nuts.
The best and most delicious thing I cooked was the meal I prepared for our last class, which was themed as a party, like if you were hosting a large dinner. We made appetizers, entrees, and deserts, though our class was so small that we had to divide it up among ourselves instead of each doing one.
For mine I chose lobster, which I absolutely love, and made Homard L'americaine.
Warning: This part is sort of graphic and if you're squeamish you may want to just stop now.
Normally when you cook lobster, you boil it live, which is gruesome enough, but for this recipe the lobster had to be butchered raw. I had to hold down a lobster and position my butcher knife over the center of its head. Then in one swift move, drive the knife straight through, and slice downward to cut the brain in half and kill it. Then I chopped off the tail and claws, while the poor thing was still basically thrashing. It was not fun.
I put the tamale aside (which is the green goop inside a lobster) for use in the butter sauce.
First I sauteed the lobster pieces until they were red, removed them, and diced in some carrots and onions.
Then I returned the lobster to the skillet and poured in some cognac and ignited it, which was fun. There's a huge colorful flame that explodes upwards. 😎
I mixed in some shallots and garlic, stirred in some tomatoes, parsley and tarragon, and added wine and clam juice. That simmered for about ten minutes, and then I put it on a warmer because the juices in the pan are used to make the butter sauce.
I reduced that down to a thicker concoction, and added butter, parsley, tarragon, lemon juice, and the tamale from the butchering, and cooked it all together with the lobster pieces to add the flavor.
I served it with a basic rice pilaf. The presentation wasn't really something I could do much with, because its just a bunch of chopped up lobster drenched in sauce, but it tasted absolutely amazing.
