Fun in Class

My recent cooking classes have all been a lot of fun. So much fun in fact, that I can’t help but think about culinary school as a future option. It’s really enjoybale learning more about something I like. Cooking class never seems tedious (unlike several college classes I’ve taken) and can be incredibly eye opening at times. It’s always fun and interesting to me to be introduced to new ways of manipulating many of the foods we think we are so familiar with, and finding combinations that are both comforting and brand new at the same time.

I took a class on “steak and eggs” this past Saturday with the Ideas in Food team and really had an amazing time. Not only was it a very small class (only four people) but it was very hands on. We also were exposed to a lot of different techniques that we normally wouldn’t be able to employ in our home kitchens. While a lot of amateur classes taken through cooking schools are for people who might be interested in cooking and would like to have some recipes, this class was more about exchanging ideas and inspiring the students to be able to create on their own. It was really a treat.

For more on the cooking class, including pictures, please click HERE (Please click on the link.) They also provide a run down of everything we cooked and ate during the class. By the time I headed back to Manhattan I was so happy and full that I passed out on the train for the first time since High School. The pork and apples is as good as it looks in the picture. I look forward to the pasta class I’m taking with them next month.

Grilling

I spent the second half of my weekend visiting my friend in medical
school in Philadelphia. While part of the reason I went down was to see
my friend, the other part was that he had a grill and I would have the
opportunity to do some cooking. I love grilling, but living in
Manhattan, the opportunities to BBQ are few and far between. Whenever
someone mentions the word grilling to me I start to salivate and
instantly make plans to be wherever it is said grill might be. I even
got on the Amtrak train this past Friday with a backpack full of frozen
meat and zucchini purchased at the Union Square farmer’s market

Our medical school BBQ included one farmer’s market porterhouse, a pack of bacon, one pack of green onion sausages, one pack of beef sausages, two packs of hot dogs, 3 kinds of zucchini, grilled corn, and hand made hamburgers.


Here are some pictures of the porterhouse I
bought at the farmer’s market. I coated it generously with salt and
pepper and grilled it over high heat for 6-7 minutes until it was
slightly charred on both sides and let sit for another 8-10 minutes so
that it could cook a little more. The result was a perfectly medium
rare steak that went fantastically well with our Columbia Valley
Cabernet.

I have also noticed that people at the last couple of barbeques I’ve been at really enjoy my burgers so I thought I’d provide an outline of how I go about making them.

Ingredients:

Worcestershire sauce
Coarse grain mustard
A little ketchup
Onion chopped very fine
Garlic chopped very fine
A little bit of Jack Daniels

I dip lumps of meat in the marinade then form the burgers and let them
sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before throwing them on the
grill so that they are less likely to fall apart. You can vary the
proportions of ingredients however you want but definitely do not add
too much whiskey. I once made that mistake and had burgers that tasted
like JD they were not enjoyable. Happy eating!