Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I got tired of burning the meringue...

So I decided to take a cooking class!! At first I was looking at all the culinary institutes, like French Culinary Institute, and they seemed to require more a long term commitment for classes. I just wanted one class for one night where I could learn and try a few recipes (with a professional watching) lol just to make sure I was doing everything right. Oh and I wanted a BIG kitchen, one where I could move around and not worry about elbowing someone else, basically bigger than our kitchen at home. I found out about ICE, the Institute of Culinary Education, and signed up with a friend at work for a 4 hour one time class on cooking with Nuts and Seeds. The price came to about 110$ for the whole night.  Our teacher was a amazing, her name is Andrea Tutunjian and she is coming out with a book all about cooking and recipes with Nuts and Seeds. This book is amazing and the recipes are so precise and detailed, it was hard for me to get it wrong! (that means you will breeze through it lol) First we all sat at a long table and were given water, grapes and cheese to snack on. Then we were told that we would each split up into 3 groups and each take a dessert, a main course, an appetizer and a soup. Afterwards we would all sit down and try out all of the food. At the end they set up the table so nice, with wine glasses and wine, and plates...it looked so pretty! For some reason also, after cooking and doing all that hard work (and it was, I was pretty tired after!!) seeing the table all nice and read made me feel accomplished and complimented. I think I'll have to talk to Martin about doing that while I cook...:) So we got to work and made and mixed and boiled and chopped, I've realized that I love love LOVE chopping. I chopped chestnuts, lots of chocolate, onion, peppers carrots, and it was so fun! I don't understand why I don't like chopping so much at home. Maybe because my knife isn't as good as this one or because I don't have as big of a cutting board, but I intend to get a - a larger knife and b- a bigger cutting board  to make the experince more enjoyful for me. We had about 2 1/2 -3 hours to cook everything, with a huge pile of ingredients to work with for our recipes.  I kinda felt like a I was on Iron Chef...without the Iron. :

Our group was in charge of these:
1- chocolate chestnut cake. I made the homemade icing myself! I'm kind of glad I didn't do that at home or else it might've not have made it to the cake.
**sorry no pics, by dessert time we were too tired to take pics...and our mouths were too full to remember to!
2- brazil nut chicken soup. This soup was outta this world. We added things like onions, diced tomatos, carrots, ginger and garlic.mmmmmm It was yummy.


3- jicama salad with apples and carrots. I've never heard of jicama before but its a root that is kind of like the consistancy of a crunchy apple.

4- Black Bean and pumpkin seed cakes with a spicy salsa on top. Yummy, this was pretty amazing. Kind of like an alternative to a meat burger.


It was a great investment. If you are looking for a great cooking class I definetly recommend them. Martin has a whole load of leftovers in the fridge to try when he gets home tonight so I'll see how he likes them, and I have a whole load of recipes to try over the next few weeks and share with you now!! Stay tuned for some interesting cooking adventures in my little kitchen:)
-Nikki


I ended up getting home at around midnight...tired from a long night of cooking! I honestly don't know how real chefs do it.

6 comments:

  1. Awesome Nik Nik!!! That looks really great! How did you like the jicama? I see it at the store...but dont know if I'd like the taste!! Do tell!!

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  2. oooo the taste is really good! there is a great recipe for a mustard sauce that goes on top that I think makes the whole thing taste really nice. I'll pick some up tonight and make and post the recipe with pics tomorrow for you!!

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  3. all that food looks amazing! how fun, I would love to do a class like that!

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  4. I would have loved to have done that, looks like a great event. Thanks Nikki.

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  5. I would love to take a cooking class. I like to think I am a good cook, and my family tells me I am, but I think it would be fun to make the fancy stuff!

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  6. Sooo jealous I wanna come with you!!!

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