#31 - Take a Cooking Class

A few years ago, Denise gave me an IOU for a cooking for my birthday.  Last night I finally collected.

Earlier this week I registered online for a class at the Sur La Table in Carlsbad.  I elected to turn it into a sort of date night and registered Denise as well. 

The topic of last nights course was "Quick Dinners from the Italian Pantry."  The menu called for Quick Parmesan Polenta with Thyme-Scented Mushrooms - Orechiette with Chicken, Roasted Red Peppers, and Pine Nut Pesto - Peach, Prosciutto and Gorgonzola Pizza with Aged Balsamic - Roasted Green Onion and Farro Salad with Fresh Mozzarella. 

I have to say that if I learned nothing else from the class I at least learned that Italian pantries are apparently better stocked than mine.  I don't generally have things like prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and aged balsamic laying around.  I guess I will have to work on that.

The class consisted of about 13 people divided into teams of four or so.  Each team prepared all four dishes, with different team members handling different parts of the prep, chopping, grating, whisking, sauteing, and whatever.  Here we have an action shot of Denise quartering cherry tomatoes for the Farro salad.  Look at those knife skills!  She's not even bleeding.

The instructor/chef and her assistants handled some of the prep to keep things within something like the 2-hour scheduled class time.  For example, the farro was pre-cooked before the class and the pizza dough, obviously, was prepared quite a while ahead so as to have time to rise.

The menu turned out to be very tasty.



Roasted Green Onion and Farro Salad with Fresh Mozzarella



A not at all good photo of the Orechiette with Chicken, Roasted Red Peppers, and Pine Nut Pesto

Another lousy picture of the polenta and mushrooms.

Peach, Prosciutto and Gorgonzola Pizza with Aged Balsamic

Sorry, the pictures were from my phone and the quality kind of sucks...also, in most cases I forgot to take pictures before I started eating.

Although I didn't learn much of anything new in the way of technique, I did come away with some new recipes, some ingredients I haven't played with previously and an opportunity to buy a bunch of kitchen gadgets that I probably don't need.  I especially like my new Pig Molcajete.

You get the class, a four-course meal and a 10% off coupon for all your Sur La Table shopping for the fairly reasonable price of $69/head.  Dinner out would have cost at least that much - but then dinner out would also have included alcohol.  I must sneak some in for my next class - perhaps their Summer Paella Workshop.