THE FARM DINNER IS SOLD OUT!!!!
to join the waitlist email me at: helenehenderson@ymail.com
A few weeks ago we went crazy for coconuts, which aren’t nuts, but drupes,
then we moved on to peanut, which also is not a nut, but a legume. It’s all pretty nuts.
Team #1, aka Team Megan, sprinted out of the gate, first we started our morning with a celery/strawberry/peanut smoothie, yeah, because what’s better than a green smoothie on a sunny ‘bu day?
Then on to, shrimp wraps, and peas please, pad thai, and yellow mellow tofu satay, broccoli mash was a smash, mango tango salad, hemp kale chips, orange you glad i said eggplant, and a crazy peanut dessert by Trevor, that I have no idea of how to make.
The measurements in this smoothie really doesn’t matter
handful of frozen fruit, such as strawberries or blackberries
equal amount of celery leaves or stalks
2 tablespoons of nuts, such as almonds, or peanuts or any nut for that matter
1/2 cup of soymilk, optional
agave to taste, optional
water to cover
Whirl me in the blender go go go. I like it a little chunky with the bits of nuts in there, if you want a smoother smoothie, you will need a vita mix.
Alright, you could make a lettuce wrap really with anything. You could make it mexican style by adding salsa and guacamole, and seasoning it with lime juice and garlic instead of soy.
Shrimp, chopped (or salmon, or chicken, or beef)
chicken sausages, casing removed (or chorizo, or bacon)
shredded vegetables, such as, carrot, cucumber, radish, tossed with sea salt and rice vinegar
peanuts
lettuce leaves (or corn tortillas) to wrap
dressing:
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
(because when we do a soy rice vinegar mix, we always want, MORE vinegar than soy)
squeeze of agave
juice from one lime
2 inch lemongrass stalk, sliced fine
1 grated garlic clove, and some grated ginger
Stir together all dressing ingredients
mayo mama mia:
1/4 cup mayo
2 tablespoons (or to taste) schiracha or other hot sauce
Stir together mayo and hot sauce
ALRIGHT, let’s start by sauteing the sausage in a little oil (or chorizo or bacon or prosciutto), when almost done add the raw shrimp (or salmon, or chicken, or beef), then when it is cooked we will pour over the dressing. Stir in peanuts to taste for a little crunch.
TO SERVE: we will have our marinated vegetables, cooked shrimp mixture, lettuce leaves and the mayo mama mia to make it spicy. You could also use corn tortillas instead of the lettuce, and then its an ASIAN FUSION TACO.
I don’t really like mashed potatoes, that much. But I have always had a liking to them with soy sauce dishes. Because rice with a soy dish, is really toooooo obvious. Now if, I am actually making mashed potatoes, I am not going to use chicken stock because that is GROSS, if I am actually going to eat mashed potatoes, they will have butter and cream.
YEAH.
But, I will make it 50/50 veggie mash with my potato smash. Which could be anything you like, broccoli, spinach, peas, carrots (make em orange) beets (make em purple), go ahead, color up, them taters.
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
same amount broccoli
1 stick butter, yeah yeah, cry me a river
1 cup heavy cream (because have i not already told you all, that nothing makes you fatter than eating fat-free?!)
Cook your potatoes in boiling salted water until just soft. It’s important to properly salt the water. If you don’t, the potatoes will taste really bland and you will need to add twice the salt later on.
Drain, and say after me, mashed potato 101:
you must dry your mash or it shall taste like trash,
so return the drained potatoes to the hot pan, and stir over the heat until all liquid has evaporated. Then push through a ricer, into a standing mixer. Never use a food processor or blender for mashed potatoes, because the texture will be gag inducing.
And we don’t want that.
With the whisk attachment, blend in the stick of butter and half a cup of cream, season to taste with salt and pepper. Blanch, boil or steam your broccoli, until just done, but still bright green, try not to over cook it. Drain and, this will go into the food processor, with the remaining half cup cream, until finely chopped. Stir all together, season to taste with salt and pepper.
Mashed potatoes+ smashed broccoli= broccoli mash is a smash
1 ripe and juice mango
1 ripe and yummie avocado
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 red onion
3 handfuls of baby arugula, or lettuce of choice
1/4 cup peanuts, or nuts of choice
black sesame seeds
dressing:
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce or fish sauce (because again we will use MORE lime – or vinegar – than soy)
nice squeeze of agave, don’t be shy, let’s call it 2 tablespoons
sprinkling of red chili flakes
1/8 cup of toasted sesame seed oil
Cut mango, avocado, and cherry tomatoes in any shape you like, i personally prefer equal size shapes, then cut the red onions into a pretty small dice.
Whisk together your dressing ingredients, taste, ask yourself, does it need a sprinkling of good salt or more lime juice?
Then pour the dressing over the chopped fruit/s, place your arugula on a plate, pour dressed fruits over, garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds. Don’t be shy.
Mellow yellow Tofu satay with peanut dip
I like to simplify my life. So first we will make the marinade in the blender (my favorite kitchen tool, who can guess my least favorite?
ANSWER: measuring equipment, cause i don’t care to measure, the only measurement, i care for is: more or less.
ANYWAY, we will make the marinade in the blender, then we will pour half of it, over what we are trying to marinate, and the rest we will simply add chopped peanuts to and chili sauce, and voila, marinade and dip, as easy as one, two, three.
You can use this marinade on chicken, fish or tofu.
1/2 can coconut milk
1 small shallot, or 2 tablespoons red onion
2 cloves garlic
small thumb size of ginger
2 inch piece of lemon grass
1/2 teaspoon turmeric, splash of fennel, and cumin seeds
2 tablespoons agave and soy sauce
juice from 2 limes
Throw me in the blender. Ask yourself, does it need more soy or a splash of salt?
Pour HALF of the marinade over whatever you are trying to marinade for 30 minutes, or longer.
Then either grill on a bbq, or if it’s tofu, it is going to be easier to saute in a hot skillet.
Now put the remaining half of the marinade in a small skillet, and add:
1/2 cup roughly chopped peanuts
1 tablespoon chili sauce
Gently heat. And voila! There is your dipping sauce.
So the lesson here is, always save some of your marinade and then ask yourself, can you add something to it, and turn it into a dipping sauce?
Orange you glad I said eggplant?
So let’s see what have we learned lately?
Rice vinegar + soy = yum yum.
Today we will use our leftover, back in the fridge for a few months, marmalade, and we will dilute it with soy sauce.
How easy is that?
anything !!! we used, eggplant, mushrooms, and onions
but really, could be any vegetable, or chopped chicken and veggies
Cut your item into equal size chunks of your choice. Cook over hight heat, in batches, never crowd your pan, because then you are going to steam it, and we don’t want that,
anyway, high heat in olive oil, until nice and brown and cooked through.
Toss with orange soy mix. Sprinkle with peanuts and parsley.
Orange soy mixture
1 part orange (or other) marmalade, thinned with enough soy sauce to make a thick sauce. At least ratio 4:1. You can add some grated garlic and ginger too (optional).
Take some dry kale, toss with olive oil, sea salt and tons of hemp seeds (loooove em) and bake in a 350 degree oven until nice and crispy, about 15 minutes. You may need to turn them a few times.
Peas Plea
se Pad Thai
I know, you guys think this was a lot of steps. It’s not. All you are going to do is: cook some noodles, scramble and egg, toss in some veggies, and pour the dressing on top.
You can make it vegetarian, or add chicken and tofu. We had chicken in some of the classes which we cooked separately, it was in a marinade (below), first browned stove top, then finished in the oven.
Simple marinade number 2 of today:
50/50 blend soy+agave+ginger+garlic = quick easy marinade.
Brown Rice pad thai noodles, cook until soft, rinsed in cold water, set aside
Vegetables of your choice, cut into pieces such as:
sugar snaps, asparagus, green beans, sprouts, bell peppers, etc
chopped peanuts
eggs
sesame seed oil
Dressing:
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons agave
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
grated garlic and ginger,
yeah, yeah, how much?
i always stop with the ginger when i feel tired from grating, which is probably about 3 seconds, and i am going to call that 1 generous tablespoon. And 2 cloves garlic.
Ok, we got the ingredients, so we are going to
1. Saute the veggies in a little oil, just for a few seconds, because we like a crunch. We will pour a small amount of the dressing on the veggies
2. Saute the cooked noodles in a little oil, then we will push them to the side, add a little sesame oil, and we will scramble the egg.
3. Toss in some of the cooked vegetables, and the noodles, and the eggs, together, then pour in the rest of the dressing.
Transfer to a platter, and garnish with the cooked, but still crunchy veggies. You could also garnish with raw carrots, and cucumbers. Add shredded cooked chicken, shrimp, beef or cubed tofu if desired. Garnish with peanuts.
Trevor’s totally awesome Chocolate caramel tarts
Step 1: tart shells
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft
1/2 cup+ 1 tbsp confectioners sugar
cream butter and sugar, about 1 min. then add:
1 large egg yolk and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla, beat until smooth.
finally stir in:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
Beat until just combined. Form into disk. Wrap in plastic wrap, chill until firm. Up to 3 days.
Ok, you got the dough, now you’ve got to bake these babies.
So roll out the tart dough on a floured surface until 3/16 thick. Use a cookie cutter, to cut out appropriately sized rounds for tart shells using. Press the dough into the shells, and trim away excess dough. Prick the dough all over with a fork, chill for 20 minutes. Line with foil or parchment paper, and fill with pie weights (or rice or beans), bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven. Remove foil and weights and bake for 5 to 10 minutes more, until pastry looks dry and set.
STEP 2 : Caramel filling
In a pan, combine 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 1/4 cup corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, swirling the pan every now and then, until dark amber caramel, about 10 minutes. Remember it goes from yum to burnt in one second flat. No texting. No internet cruising. Also, caramel is super hot, so no tasting or sticking your fingers in it. Not yet, at least.
Now quickly stir into the hot caramel:
1 stick unsalted butter, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons creme fraiche. Whisk until smooth.
You can also use the regular caramel recipe you have practiced in class.
Step 2 B, ok, almost at the finish line!!
Stay with me. You got the shells, made, very good.
This was a peanut class, so we put some peanuts in the bottom of the shells, but I guess you can put any sort of nut in there, if you like. OK, now you are going to pour the caramel into the tart shells, on top of the peanuts (if using). If the caramel get’s too cold, it will be hard to pour, in which case you can microwave it for a few seconds.
Let the tartlets sit until the caramel is set. Forty five minutes.
HOME STRETCH
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
Ok, this step is easy!!!
Chop chocolate into small pieces, place in bowl, bring cream to boil in a small saucepan and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 30 seconds, then quickly whisk together until smooth and shiny. Pour warm Ganache over the set caramel.
Now if you really want to be cool you can garnish with some coarse sea salt.
Now if you are uber cool, aka Trevor at Deuce Events Catering, then you would
spread some isomalt sugar on a parchment covered sheet pan, add some peanuts or other garnish if you like, then top with parchment paper and a sheet pan, then bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until the isomalt sugar has melted.
And now you’ve got clear brittle!!!!! With peanuts suspended from the air!!!!
Who knew you could do that?
2 Baking classes are SOLD OUT, just a few remaining spaces available for APRIL 28
To join email me at: helenehenderson@ymail.com
