Imagine going to your favorite restaurant for dinner except you get to sit in the kitchen and watch the chef at work. That's what his classes are like.
This course was all about regional Spanish cuisine and the focus was on southern Spain - Sevilla, Malaga and the Andalucia coastal area. Lots of green olives, Pimenton (smoked paprika), garlic, and fresh ingredients.
Here's the first course....a lovely gazpacho. Jack mentioned that one should make it at least 12 hours in advance. However, for the class he made a small batch to demonstrate using green and red peppers, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, Snappy Tom tomato juice, sherry vinegar, Pimenton, and red onion. He whirred everything together in the food processor to liquify. Then he served it alongside a nice spicy Piquillo Pepper Sauce and garnished with chopped cucumber, sweet onion, and green and red peppers. Before anyone had a chance to get up and grab a bowl of this lovely and colorful soup, he also presented a larger bowl of the batch he had made the day before. I took mostly the older batch but a small amount of the newest as well. What a difference! The newest batch had a brighter color but was flavorless compared to the previous days' offering.
 |
| Gazpacho - Mostly the batch made the day before but there is a small spoonful (a little bit brighter in color) in the foreground with a dab of a Piqillo Pepper sauce on top. |
Next up was an Avocado and Orange Salad. Beautiful oranges had already been cleaned, sliced and laid on the plate followed by a layer of sweet onion, cut into rings. Jack then made a dressing using olive oil, lemon juice, fresh parsley, salt and pepper. This was all whisked together just to blend, not to emulsify. The onions were topped with a layer of fresh tomatoes that had been peeled, seeded and chopped. Now here is why I love Jack's classes:
He pulled a bag of avocado halves from the fridge and says he purchased this bag at Cash and Carry for about $8. The bags are in the frozen food section and contain approximately 14 cleaned and pitted halves. That's just over $1 per avocado! And you don't have to worry about dark spots, whether they are ripe or not, and all the other pitfalls of purchasing fresh. These would be great for guacamole or some other recipe where everything is mashed together. Even in this salad they were pretty great, though there was a tiny textural difference from the freezing.
After including the rough chopped avocado to the salad, he added Moroccan black olives and topped with toasted almond slices, then drizzled with the dressing and sprinkled with chopped parsley. So colorful and absolutely delicious.
 |
| Avocado and Orange Salad - a delicious light salad that would be perfect in the summer. |
The next course was a succulent and juicy chicken dish called Pollo A La Espanola. Chicken thighs had been seasoned with Pimenton and salt then fried skin side down in a hot pan using olive oil. The thighs were removed to a baking pan and put in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour, covered. Jack then made a sauce of smoked ham lardons, onion, garlic, red and green peppers, canned diced tomatoes, sliced green olives, and chopped parsley. He smothered the chicken with this gorgeous sauce, covered with foil and placed back in the oven for another 30 minutes. This was served over white rice and was my favorite dish of the evening.
 |
| Pollo A La Espanola w/rice - this was my favorite dish all night. |
The last course of the evening was Chili Shrimp with Garlic and Patatas Brava. The shrimp was a really quick dish of shrimp sauteed in olive oil and butter then topped with lemon juice, wine, Pimenton, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cooked until the shrimp were pink and completely cooked. The pan was shaken during the cooking process to emulsify the sauce. Again, Jack offered another nugget of wisdom when he tells us shrimp should be cooked just until they turn pink, then removed from heat. The shrimp will continue to cook so better to err on removing from the heat early rather than later. If the top of the shrimp touches the tail, they are overcooked. The flavor will still be delicious but the texture a bit rubbery. Due to health regulations, most restaurants typically serve overcooked shrimp.
 |
| Chili Shrimp with Garlic - fresh and juicy shrimp with just the right amount of heat. |
Jack began the potato dish (a favorite tapas dish in Spain) by par-boiling the small whole potatoes and draining. He then added to a hot pan of olive oil and included garlic, serrano and pasilla peppers, cumin, Pimenton, sherry vinegar, and chopped green and red pepper. This pan of deliciousness was shirred (slowly moved forward and backward) on the burner to prevent the ingredients from burning. Using a spoon or other such implement to turn may have resulted in piercing the tender skin of the potatoes. Upon serving, he sprinkled with sea salt and said this dish could be served hot or a room temperature.
 |
| Patatas Brava - literally fierce (spicy) potatoes. is dish contained yukon, red and purple potatoes, peppers, onions, |
Each class Jack draws a student's name from a bucket and that person wins a cookbook featuring the cuisine of the evening. Now I've been to at least 20 of his classes and had not won a book yet. This night he offered two different books, one from the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) featuring the dishes of Spain and the other was a book on Tapas, or small plates. He also had a lovely bottle of Spanish olive oil for the drawing as well.
Kevin's friend Donna was taking the class with us and wouldn't you know...she won the cookbook. She immediately said, "Which one should I get?" so I told her she should pick the one from the CIA. Jack handed her the book and she turned to me and said, "Here. You take this. I know you will get more use out of it than I will." I had never met this lady before that night and she gave me her cookbook! I was so touched. I still didn't win my cookbook but at least I got to go home with something from the evening besides a full belly.
No comments:
Post a Comment