Cooking Basics 101 Class – Session 3; Summer Desserts; Deboning Fish Videos

Post Date: 29 June 2015

Cooking Basics 101 Class – Session 3 – July 2

This week we will be doing something a little different.  Instead of a salad, we will me making a Minestrone, which will give us plenty of practice for our knife skills.  For our dessert, we will be using the oven instead of the fridge, making individual Olive Oil Lemon Pound Cakes.
Our main dish this week will be Salisbury Steak.  In the first class we prepared our main dish on the stove top and in the second we used the oven.  This week we will use both, pan searing the meat on the stove top and then finishing it off in the oven.  While finishing in the oven, we will deglaze the pan and make a reduction sauce.  To accompany the steak, we will me making Broiled Zucchini with Tomato.

 Summer Desserts – Clafouti and Strawberry Cheesecake

This past week I made a couple of desserts using fresh strawberries.  We will be making these in my Summer Desserts class in July.  The Clafouti (pictured above) is a French dessert from the Limousin region usually made with cherries, but any fresh summer fruit, like strawberries or blueberries will also work.  The berries are baked in a batter of flour, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Here is a typical recipe:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-clafouti

The Strawberry Cheesecake Pie recipe came from a June 2014 issue of Food Network Magazine (pie pictured above).  Its primary ingredients are cream cheese, plain Greek yogurt (I used non-fat) and lemon zest.  The topping is strawberries tossed with honey.  It is a no bake recipe, ideal for those hot summer days when you don’t want to turn the oven on.  Here is the link to the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/strawberry-cheesecake-pie.html

Deboning Fish

In last week’s class, I was asked if any of the knife skills videos in the handouts from the first class included deboning fish.  They did not, so I am listing below some videos on this topic.

These first two show all the steps involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi31wlBEahs

http://www.inyourkitchen.com/video_detail.php?id=MjA=

This one shows how to debone a fish you have cooked whole.

http://video.epicurious.com/watch/seafood-how-to-bone-a-cooked-fish

This one has a great tip/technique for removing the pin bones, so it can be used in conjunction with either of the first two above.

http://www.finecooking.com/item/50277/how-to-de-bone-a-fish-fillet

This video focuses on techniques to remove the skin.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/videos/a30628/skinning-and-deboning-fish-fillets-video-822993324001/

 

Upcoming Classes

Here are the upcoming classes I will be teaching for the summer term. 

July 11 – Saturday Morning – Beach House Brunch – Plum Center

July 19 and 26 – Sunday Afternoon – Summer Desserts – Plum Center

August 15 – Saturday Morning – Lunch Along the Mediterranean – Plum Center

To register for this class, or any ACE cooking classes, please go to:

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/specialinterest.shtml and scroll down to the Culinary section

While there, be sure to check out the other culinary courses offered by ACE’s excellent chef instructors.

Till next time, keep cooking.

Contact Chef Kevin at: KJBrady@fcps.edu

Cooking Basics 101 Class – Session 2; Gelato in Boston’s North End

Post Date: 16 June 2015

Cooking Basics 101 Class – Session 2 – June 18

We will be following the same format as last week, salad, main course with vegetable, and dessert.  We will be starting with a healthy take on the traditional Waldorf Salad, substituting nonfat yogurt for mayonnaise, using Bibb lettuce, and making it into a wrap so they can also be served as finger food with your appetizers.

Our main dish this week is fish; we will be baking Tilapia with Italian seasonings, and our vegetable will be sautéed broccoli.  We will be making another no bake dessert, this time using marscapone, another soft Italian cheese, with strawberries.

Gelato at Caffe Vittoria in Boston’s North End  

I visited friends in Boston this past weekend.  On Sunday we went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and after the game headed to the North End.  We went to the Caffe Vittoria on Hanover Street for gelato and it was excellent.  Pictured above is strawberry.  We also sampled the cappuccino and banana as well, all excellent.  Definitely worth a trip if you are in Boston.

 Upcoming Classes

Here are the upcoming classes I will be teaching for the summer term. 

July 11 – Saturday Morning – Beach House Brunch – Plum Center

July 19 and 26 – Sunday Afternoon – Summer Desserts – Plum Center

August 15 – Saturday Morning – Lunch Along the Mediterranean – Plum Center

 

To register for this class, or any ACE cooking classes, please go to:

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/specialinterest.shtml and scroll down to the Culinary section

While there, be sure to check out the other culinary courses offered by ACE’s excellent chef instructors.

Till next time, keep cooking.

Contact Chef Kevin at: KJBrady@fcps.edu

 

Next Cooking Basics 101 Class; Lemon Orzo with Chicken; Dining in Shepherdstown, WV

Post Date: 5 June 2015

Cooking Basics 101 Class – Session 1 – June 11

This class meets at Woodson High School, with the first class on Thursday night, June 11, at 6:30 PM.  The first session will have an Italian twist, with a Caprese Salad and Pan Fried Chicken Italiano with Asparagus.  For the first two sessions we will be making no-bake desserts featuring soft Italian cheeses (ricotta and marscapone) and fresh fruit.  In future classes we will be making fish and beef main courses.

The course is designed to build confidence in the kitchen using the P.O.F. (Preparation, Organization, Focus) method.  Recipes are easy to follow and written in a way to reinforce the P.O.F method.  In addition to the dishes made in class, participants will receive supplemental recipes to try on their own at home.  We will also be covering safe food handling and knife skills as well as essential kitchen equipment and spices.

 Lemon Orzo with Chicken

I made this dish last weekend (pictured above).  It is based on a recipe entitled “Lemon Orzo with Scallops” from the June 2015 Food Network Magazine.  Here is the location of the original recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/lemon-orzo-with-scallops.html

For our version, we substituted boneless skinless chicken breast for the scallops cut into bite sized pieces and cooked in olive oil according to the recipe.  One other substitution we made was baby spinach for the arugula, as I find it a bit too bitter for my taste.   The lemon flavor makes it an excellent spring and summer meal.

Dining in Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Last week some friends and I took a bike trip along the C & O Canal, with Shepherdstown as our home base.  While there we had 2 excellent meals, at the Rathskellar in the Bavarian Inn and at The Press Room in Shepherdstown’s historic area.  Despite its name, The Press Room has mostly Italian entrees with very large portions.  The Rathskellar, as you might expect, features German food and great German beer on tap.

While there we went across the Potomac to Sharpsburg, MD, and did the tour of the Antietam Battlefield.  The tour takes you through the town and right past a great ice cream shop, Nutter’s, on Mechanic Street and East Main Street.  The ice cream is wonderful, the portions generous, and the prices reasonable.  Inside and outside seating is provided.

Upcoming Classes

Here are the upcoming classes I will be teaching for the summer term. 

June 11, 18, and 25 – Thursday Night – Cooking Basics 101 – Woodson High School

July 11 – Saturday Morning – Beach House Brunch – Plum Center

July 19 and 26 – Sunday Afternoon – Summer Desserts – Plum Center

August 15 – Saturday Morning – Lunch Along the Mediterranean – Plum Center

To register for these classes, or any ACE cooking classes, please go to:

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/specialinterest.shtml and scroll down to the Culinary section

While there, be sure to check out the other culinary courses offered by ACE’s excellent chef instructors.

Till next time, keep cooking.

Contact Chef Kevin at: KJBrady@fcps.edu