Week 8 into my Cooking Class!

Hello Hello!

Time is flying by so fast!  It's already week 8 into my cooking class! Couple more weeks and we are done with the semester. I always look forward to my Monday class.. why? I have my cooking class on Mondays!

Well, this week, we learned about Beef! Which means, we cooked lots of food that has BEEF as it's main ingredient! (YES!) We had short ribs, steak in lettuce rolls, shepherd's pie, skirt steak, and grilled beef tenderloin! I will be posting up what our group was in charge of right below here, along with pictures of all the food we made!

Our group was in charge of making the Short Ribs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Gremolata with Polenta! (mouthful, I know!) It was such a great dish! This is a MUST TRY AT HOME dish! :) Enjoy!!

Like always, if you want to know the recipes of any of the food we made in our cooking class, shoot me an email with the name of the food and I will gladly post that up! :)

SHORT RIBS WITH TOMATOES, OLIVES AND GREMOLATA WITH POLENTA


INGREDIENTS:


6 lbs                                           Short Ribs
1/2 Cups                                    All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp                                       Olive Oil
3 Tbsp                                        Unsalted Butter
2                                                 Medium Onion, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
1                                                 Small Carrot, finely diced
1                                                 Celery Rib, finely diced
2                                                 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1 Cup                                          White Wine
1 Cup                                           Beef Broth
1                                                  28 oz can whole plum tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped
1 Cup                                           Kalamata Olives, pitted and halved
1 1/2 Tsp                                     Fresh Thyme, chopped
2                                                  Flat-leaf parsely sprigs
1                                                  Turkish Bay Leaf
2                                                  Strips of lemon zest, cut into fine julienne
1 Tsp                                            Salt, or to taste
1/2 Tsp                                        Ground black pepper, or to tase

FOR GREMOLATA:
3 Tbsp                                         Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsely
1                                                  Garlic Clove, finely minced
1 Tsp                                           Finely grated lemon zest

FOR POLENTA:
4 Cups                                        Water
to taste                                        Salt
1 Cup                                          Medium-grain yellow polenta
4 Tbsp                                         Butter
1 Cup                                          Cream Cheese

PROCEDURE:


FOR MEAT:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Pat dry short ribs and season with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, make sure to shake off excess flour, and seared in a oil/butter combination in a skillet until evenly browned. Do meat in batches, and transfer to a plate.
3. Then once meat is seared, pour off searing fat from skillet, and add remaining butter.
4. Add Sweet onions, carrot, celery, and garlic, and cook until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring.
6. Arrange short ribs in a pot in 1 layer and return to a simmer.
7. Cover pot and braise short ribs in  middle rack of oven until very tender, about 2.5 hours.

FOR GREMOLATA:
1. Stir together gremolata ingredients in a small bowl.

FOR POLENTA:
1. Heat water lightly seasoned with salt to a boil over high heat, about 5 minutes.
2. Quickly whisk in the polenta until fully incorporated.
3. Lower the heat to a low simmer, add the butter and allow the polenta to cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
4. Finish by stirring in the cream cheese and salt to taste.



I.C.A.
Ms. Piggy.

Final Product of the Short Ribs with Tomatoes, Olives and Gremolata with Polenta

In process of making the Short Ribs

Short Ribs. Short Ribs. Short Ribs.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Asparagus and Roasted Red Onion Vinaigrette

Shepherd's Pie

This was my favorite! :)

Deliciousness...

Grilled Garlic-Marinated Skirt Steak with Lime!

Same as above!

Steak in Lettuce Rolls

Short Ribs with Gremolata and Polenta!

Same as above

My Plate!

close up! :) Everything was so delicious!

Week 7 into my Cooking Class

Here we are... already into week 7!

The making of all the delicious food has yet to begun! Every week is a new week full of surprises with different food! This week, our group made the split pea soup with smoked sausages and greens! It was... honestly.. the most delicious soup I have ever tasted... :) Our group was highly satisfied with our food! We had lots of Kale left over, so we ended up sauteing the rest with a bit of minced garlic and olive oil. It was delicious!

Here is the recipe for the Split Pea Soup with Smoked Sausage and Greens! Enjoy!

I.C.A.
Ms. Piggy.

SPLIT PEA SOUP WITH SMOKED SAUSAGE AND GREENS


INGREDIENTS:
1                          16 oz bag of dried green split peas
12 oz                    fully cooked Andouille sausage
8 Cups                 low-salt chicken broth
5                          Turkish bay leaves
3 to 4 Cups          Coarsely chopped kale

PROCEDURE:
1. Combine salt peas, whole sausages, 8 cups broth, and bay leaves in a large pot.
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until peas are tender, stirring occasionally, 30 to 35 minutes.
3. Transfer sausages to cutting board. Cut lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/4 inch thick half-rounds.
4. Puree soup (including bay leaves) 1 cup at a time in a blender until smooth; return to same pot. Add sausages and greens. Thin with more broth if necessary. Simmer soup until greens soften, 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper.

Here are the pictures! :)

Making our Split Pea Soup with Smoked Sausage and Greens!

Kale...

Had lots of Kale left over so we sauteed it with a bit of oil and minced garlic!

Ta da! :) it was good! I wished I had some rice when we were eating it though.. :)

Presenting our... SPLIT PEA SOUP! :)

It tastes way better than it looks... :) 

Chickpea and Spinach Stew

Another picture

Butter Bean, Tuna, and Celery Salad

Mediterranean Salad. It was good!

Kale and Cannellini Soup

This was refreshing too! :)

Baked Pita Bread!

Looks like a sunflower!

Hummus number one.

Hummus number two

Hummus number three

DELICIOUSNESS! hahaha

My Delicious plate! like always.. full with lots of food!

Our Split Pea soup!

The Cannellini soup! 

Week 6 into my Cooking Class

Hi guys!

It's been week 6 into my cooking class and I'm enjoying it more than ever! Cooking all this different type of food is exciting! Even though cooking process takes time and effort... the end result is always satisfying! (especially to our stomachs! ;] )

This week, we made Italian food, Latin food, and French food using grain as main ingredient! Our group made Mexican Pozole! I have never tried this before so I did not know how it tasted or looked like. But my group members knew pozole especially because they make it at home, so I didn't worry too much about our end result!

All I can say is... that we all agreed that it. was. awesome! Very delicious! and I would love to share it with you guys! Try it at home and enjoy!

I.C.A.
Ms. Piggy

MEXICAN POZOLE / MEXICAN


INGREDIENTS:
1.5                                     Garlic Bulb
18 Cups                             Water
6 Cups                               Chicken broth
6 lbs                                   Country Style pork ribs with bones
1.5 Tsp                               Dried Oregano
3 oz                                    Dried New Mexico red chiles
2 1/4 Cups                          Boiling hot water
1                                         Large onion, large dice
4 1/2 Tsp                            Salt
3 (30 oz cans)                     White hominy
1                                         Dozen of corn tortillas
as needed                            Vegetable oil for frying

ACCOMPANIMENTS:
7                                     Avocado
1                                     Large cabbage, finely shredded
2                                     Large onions, finely diced
12                                   Radishes, finely sliced
9                                     Limes, quartered
as needed                        Dried oregano
as needed                        Dried red pepper flakes

PROCEDURE:
1. Peel garlic cloves, and reserve 4 cloves for chile sauce. Slice remaining garlic.
2. In a pot, bring water and broth just to a boil with sliced garlic and pork. Skim surface and add oregano. Gently simmer pork, uncovered, until tender, about 1.5 hours.
3.While pork is simmering, wearing protective gloves, discard stems of chiles and in a bowl combine with boiling-hot water. Soak chiles, turning them occasionally, 30 minutes. In a blender, puree onion with chiles and soaking liquid, along with reserved garlic cloves, and 2 teaspoon of salt until smooth.
4. Transfer pork with tongs to a cutting board and reserve both mixture. Shred pork, and discard bones. Rinse and drain hominy. Return pork to broth mixture and add chile sauce, hominy, and remaining teaspoon of salt. Simmer pozole for 30 minutes and, if necessary, season with salt.
5. While pozole is simmering, cut tortillas into 1/4 inch thick strips, and fry them in the oil until golden.
6. Serve pozole with tortilla strips and accompaniments.

Here are some pictures to look at! :)

Mexican Red Chiles.. these were super hot.

Tortillas!

Cooking the pork in chicken broth!

Radish all sliced and ready!

Hominy, drained and washed.. ready to go!

Baked tortilla chips! the healthy ones...

Fried tortilla chips! the not too healthy ones... :)

AVOCADO slices. mm.. love avocados..

Final Product! :)

Chicken with Rice / Arroz con Pollo! / LATIN

Twas good.

Coconut Corn Fritters with Cilantro Aioli

Twas good as well.

Barely Risotto! This was my favorite!

Apple Crepes with Calvados Butter!

Great way to end the meal!

Mexican Pozole! What our group made :)

What we made :)

All the food we made that day :) It was so good... Drool.

My dish full of deliciousness. haha

yum.

Coffee to eat with my food. <3