Well,
it looks like the spring weather is here to stay, complete with April showers. Pretty soon it will be time to take the basil
plants outside to my new garden. I hope
everyone has a successful growing season.
Cooking Basics 101
begins at Lake Braddock This Weekend
Caprese Salad and Chicken Italiano with Blanched Broccoli
This
3 session class begins this Saturday morning, April 8, at 10:00 AM at Lake
Braddock Secondary School. In our first
session we will be making a Caprese Salad, Blanched Broccoli, Pan Fried Chicken
Italiano, and a no-bake Blueberry Ricotta Parfait for our dessert. We will also be discussing knife skills, safe
food handling techniques, and proper cooking temperatures. Additional recipes will be given out to try
at home.
Steaming Salon in
the Oven
I
found this technique discussed in a recent New York Times Wednesday food
section article, so I decided to try it.
Link to the article is below. To
make an analogy with traditional steaming methods, in this case the entire oven
serves as your pot. For the actual cooking, you use the upper and lower levels
of your oven. On the lower level you
place a pan of water you have just boiled.
The pan with your salmon goes on the upper level. The recommended cooking temperature is
relatively low, between 225 and 275, according to the recipe. I went with the high number, 275. I cooked 3 x 5 ounce filets; it took 25
minutes.
Japanese Dinner –
Yakitori
Continuing
my foray into Japanese cooking, this past week I made Yakitori, chicken cubes
on skewers with green onion. I consulted
several recipes, including the cookbook My
Japanese Table by Debra Samuels (Tuttle Publishing, Tokyo), www.japanesecooking101.com, and
the food section of the NHK website, Japanese Public Broadcasting. Most recipes call for chicken thighs, but I
used skinless boneless breasts and cooked them on a counter top griddle instead
of over charcoal. For a vegetable, I
blanched some Broccoli then placed it in an ice bath. Just before the Yakitori
was done, I drained the Broccoli and arranged it on the griddle around the
skewers to heat it up before serving.
This will be a nice dish to do outside on a grill when the weather gets
warmer.
Here
is the link to the NHK version:
Reminder – Instagam
Follow
me on Instagram at #senseichef. I look
forward to your comments on my posts, culinary and otherwise.
Upcoming Classes
Here
are my classes for the spring term. Summer
catalogue will be out soon.
April
8, 22, and 29 – Saturday Morning – Cooking Basics 101 – Lake Braddock Secondary
School
May
4 – Thursday Evening – Introduction to Middle Eastern Cooking – Plum Center
May
31 – Wednesday Evening – Stuffed Jumbo Shells – Plum Center
June
3 – Saturday Morning – Beach House Brunch v2.0 – Plum Center
To
register for these classes, or any ACE cooking classes, please go to:
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
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