Yesterday I taught the first cooking class of Vegout Gourmet in my kitchen. I believe the ladies who attended had a great time and learned a lot. Instead of doing my scheduled Cooking with Grains class, the ladies requested a full dinner party menu so we could invite our spouses at the end and serve them a full 4-course meal. Yes, at times I do cook and eat seafood as demonstrated by the smoked trout salad we concocted. We worked hard for four hours beginning with the basics of making vegetable stock and ending with a delicious barley risotto. One of our biggest surprises was how delicious the smoked trout skin was after we crisped it in the oven. It was like sprinkling bacon bits on top of the salad.  The complete menu was as follows:

Fun with Risotto

• Tomato, Basil and Goat Cheese Bruschetta

• Smoked Trout, Avocado and Grapefruit Salad

• Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto

• Steamed Broccoli with Garlic, Walnut, Browned Butter Sauce

• Pear and Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Biscuit Topping

Look for all of these recipes posted on the site.

Trout Salad Accomplished

The ladies were particularly happy with the salad because it is a very complex salad in terms of flavors yet easy to make. It would be great even as a main course salad in the summer. I stressed the importance and ease of making homemade vegetable stock. It really is the key ingredient to a great risotto or soup. The great part is we made a lot and then I froze 3 containers of it for future use. One of the students said she liked making the biscuit topping for the cobbler because she can apply that skill to making scones or other types of biscuits. We learned about browning butter which adds a whole new flavor dimension to dishes containing butter. Most importantly, we spent a lot of time learning how to use a knife properly; the most important skill a chef can have. I taught them proper techniques for mincing, slicing and even chopping an onion. They all improved dramatically and left with all ten fingers still attached. (Just kidding.)

We were all happily exhausted by the end and our stomachs were full. What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Thank you to all my first students for attending. I look forward to many more classes in the future. I will post all these recipes on the site so give them a try.