Local Turnips or a Quality Meal?

While farm to table cuisine is gaining popularity among some, it doesn't fit all.  Earlier this month Julia Moskin of the NY Times wrote an article about two acclaimed chefs, Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Adurizhave who have opted to focus on cooking with quality ingredients to produce a gastronomical experience for their patrons.  Sometimes the best oysters for a dish come from Maine, not Long Island.  That is what customers are paying for- the best.  Chefs aren't going to save the earth and we shouldn't expect them to.  Some of our favorite things come not from our backyard but from far away places- Italian wine, French cheeses, Belgian chocolates, Irish beer, Canadian whiskey, Greek yogurt, Russian dressing.  OK, the last two are pretty much made in America but you get the idea.  Why limit creative minds and palates?  Go local if you want but it's OK to order the salmon or Chilean sea bass- as long as it's wild caught. Ha!

Cape Cod Cuisine Cooking Class

Killing a lobster.

Just had my second Chef's Choice class at Johnson and Wales. Today's topic was Cape Cod Cuisine. You guessed it... lots of fish. On the menu: Quahog Clam Chowder, New England Chopped Salad, Deviled Scrod, Nantucket Flounder Roll-ups, Hyannisport Lobster Pie, Cranberry Pork Tenderloin, and Peppered Salmon with Dill-Caper Sauce.

Chef Branden Lewis taught this class as well and another chef remembered me from the last class. Today I ended up making the lobster pie with Paul who is a shellfisherman. His wife wasn't interested in killing the live lobsters so she moved to another group. haha. It was messy in close quarters. Not sure if I'd make the same lobster pie recipe. I would have liked a puff pastry crust but in New England-style it has a cracker crumb topping.

Salmon, scrod, salad, and lobster pie with a last minute fancy sauce.

Some of the food from the concurrent Texas Barbeque class.

Cooking Class

Gnocchi presentation with Chef Branden

Our veggies

My grilled steaks (despite the poor photo color)

Today I attended the "Farm to Table" recreational cooking class at Johnson & Wales University with about 15 other students  It was fun, and I learned a lot.  Chef Branden was a great instructor.  First up was a lesson on food prep safety and knife skills (yay!).  Then we returned to our work stations to tackle a course featuring local produce, meat, or seafood.  My partner Lynn and I ended up with grilled skirt steak with roasted asparagus, charred cherry tomatoes.  Lynn wanted to make something her 13 year old boys would eat so I let her choose.  I would have preferred something that I wouldn't normally cook but oh well.  Other teams were working on the following courses: carrot soup with candied ginger and coconut creme fraiche; marinated mushroom salad; pan seared cod fiddle head ferns with roasted garlic and chili; gnocchi with brussel sprouts, pancetta, and fresh herbs; lavender shortbread and honey gelato sandwiches; and cherry-apricot clafoutis with vanilla ice milk.

Somehow I ended up trimmin' and grillin' the skirt steaks and Lynn got to work on the veggie prep and marinade.  I think 4 instructors came over and told us how to trim asparagus.  Some were of the bend and snap camp, others were of the chop the ends camp.  Back to my meat.  Lemme just say, all the instructors (and some of the male students) were pretty impressed with the diamond grill marks on my steaks. When the steaks were done, one of the instructors helped me out with my knife skills since I didn't get a chance to practice while trimming the meat.  I learned how to safely chop things really small.  We were encouraged to go see what other tables were doing but that was hard for me, I got pretty focused on my own cooking.  But when my hands were clean, I walked around and asked questions.

A couple of hours later, our dishes were plated an laid out buffet style in a tasting room.  Our class and the Spanish cooking class (which was going on next door) got to taste all our dishes.  There was A LOT of food and it was all quite tasty.  Can't wait for Cape Cod Cuisine next month.

A New Garden!

Today I built a 5' x 5' x 8" garden.  It didn't take long but was quite laborious.  And, it's conveniently located right next to the compost bin! I put up a temporary "creature cover" to prevent it from becoming a giant litter box while I wait for the soil to settle.  Then I'll plant my seeds.  And if seeds don't work, I'll just stick some plants in.  Right now I'm planning for cooking herbs, radishes, spinach and beets.

Feeding the World in a Changing Climate

In a recent issue of Time Magazine, there's an article Climate Change and Farming: How not to go hungry in a warmer world.  Drought, increased rainfall, more intense storms, will have varied impacts on agriculture around the world.