“Extremely Slow Cooking Movement”

Jonathan and I went on a Caribbean cruise for our Honeymoon back in July of 2007.  Our cruise disembarked from Puerto Rico.  Upon going there, Gerardo printed us a map and numbered all the places in San Juan that we had to visit and eat at!  He recommended that we eat at La Bombonera.  I remember ordering a Pina Colada and Arroz Con Pollo.  Jonathan ordered a steak omelet.  The chicken and rice was delicious and I have been craving it for the past year!   The restaurant made the chicken and rice dish with little chicken wings.   They served the dish with all the chicken hidden under the rice.  I just remembered how delicious it was and how little chicken there was.  I kept digging into the rice trying to find more chicken.

Gerardo finished remodeling his gourmet kitchen so he was able to hold his first cooking class (many more to come I hope!).  This cooking class is dedicated to his mother who lives in Puerto Rico - doña Carmen, a lifetime member of the traditionist, extremely slow cooking movement.

His friend sent him some avocados a few weeks ago from her garden in Puerto Rico.  Gerardo made sure that this one ripens just in time for our cooking session.  The avocados are huge!  The best I’ve ever eaten too!
 

 

 

This cooking class was about 4 hours long.  (This does not include the hours Gerardo spent pre-boiling the beans, ham hock, and salt.) The results were definitely worth the time!

 

The class started out with a lesson on “Sofrito”, basic Puerto Rican base for stews.   The sofrito was the base for the Habichuelas Coloradas Guisadas.  Carmen made this for Gerardo back in December of 2002.  It consists of mainly pumpkin, smoked ham hock, beans, onions, green bell peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic.

  

We then moved on to the chicken rice dish.  I couldn’t believe all the ingredients that went into it.  Olives, oregano, cumin, paprika, apple cider vinegar, pimientos, onions, green bell peppers…(the list goes on).  The flavors were sautéed wonderfully together.

 

 

 Here is the final product:

Arroz Con Pollo y Habichuelas Coloradas Guisadas

 

Close-up of the rice…

 

Pegao – The crispy rice at the bottom of the pan.  Supposedly people fight over this part.

 

 

Muy delicioso! 

Malee’s Thai Bistro: Cooking class

My good friend Gerardo is spending three weeks in Italy right now and have asked me to attend Malee’s Cooking Class in Scottsdale this past weekend. I received a text from him in Italy on Tuesday reminding me to sign up! Along with teasing me with the fabulous foods he is enjoying! Grrrr…

Honestly I’ve never eaten here before, but all my co-workers and friends say that this place is delicious! Normally the class sizes are about 30, but since there was such a high demand for this class, they opened up another 20 seats!!! At the beginning of class they handed out the recipes so we could take notes as we watched the demonstration.



The class started off with Champagne/Mimosas and an introduction to key ingredients used in Thai cooking by Deirdre and Kris. I was very familiar with all the ingredients they presented. But I wrote down the brand names for Gerardo anyways. (I was told to take good notes!) I liked how Deirdre touched upon the “balance” of flavors: Sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. (Pretty basic, but the way she described it was so philosophical.) If you taste sweetness in your first sample, then your dish is not balance. (I guess this really depends on the type of dish you make, but I understand what she means.) I guess the way I would summarize it is: A perfect state of balance where your taste buds says “WOW-YUMMY!” as your first reaction … not “oh wow, does this have sugar in it?!?”

The Chili reduction sauce is their “secret” recipe that is used in a variety of dishes that they offer on the menu. Due to time constraints, they did not demonstrate this. However, Gerardo took that class a couple of months ago. This sauce was used in their first dish – Tom Ka Gai Soup. Delicious! I can’t wait to make this myself!



The second dish was the Thai Chicken Wrap. As Deirdre says “This is not P.F. Chang's!”. So don’t expect the same flavors! I actually prefer this Thai Chicken wrap than the sugary Chinese Chicken wrap.


The third dish was Chicken Pad Thai. I always have to try this dish and red curry at a new Thai restaurant. It was good, but my taste buds were not going crazy. The flavor was mild (not referring to spicy level). It needed a tad more egg and fish sauce… I will have to try this dish again (an excuse to go back to Malee’s). I didn’t drink the wine so I still had the strong and tasty Tom Ka Gai coconut milk in my mouth… OR I don’t know…maybe because I rather eat the Crispy Pla…



The fourth dish was Crispy Pla. This dish was originally made with flounder. However, the restaurant used catfish. She said this was one of her “Thai-Spy” dishes. Deirdre does quite a bit of traveling and found this dish somewhere (I wasn’t paying close attention because I was staring at the food :-x )…froze it and brought it back to AZ so her Chefs could re-create it. Excellent - this and the soup was my favorite!!! The deep fryer they had on the demonstration table was not working properly so they had to take it to the kitchen to fry it. I would have loved to see it fried in the machine…I am on a quest to find a good deep fryer. The basic sweet and sour recipe (clear sauce) used in the Crispy Pla sauce is also used in cucumber salad. At Thai restaurants when you order Chicken Satay and it comes with a little side of sweet & sour cucumber salad…this sauce is it! Super easy to make! As a child, my mom would make me sweet and sour pork with this similar clear sauce. She would dice in cucumbers, green/red bell peppers, onions, and sliced fresh chili peppers. Delicious!



The demonstration was followed by a wine-paired luncheon. Unfortunately I don’t drink – I honestly try and try, but I just get sick to my stomach afterwords so I just avoid it in a glass...using it in cooking and desserts on the other hand…


We also got dessert! Fresh sliced mangos and sweet sticky rice. This reminds of the red and green sweet sticky rice my family makes - a Vietnamese dessert with added food coloring.



All in all, I enjoyed my first official Thai cooking class. For $60, I got 4 (+1 chili reduction recipe) restaurant recipes, lunch, meet new people, and a goodie bag. The goodie bag had a small bottle of fish sauce, can of red curry paste, and also a small can of coconut milk. Of course I could have spent the money towards weekly groceries, but it was a good experience! Something different to do in Arizona. The one thing they could have done was have everyone test the food that they cooked in front of us. (I think Gerardo said they did this for the class he took before...) Except they had samples prepped from the kitchen. I don’t plan on posting the exact recipes that I got from class because that wouldn’t be fair to the restaurant. However, I do plan on making the dishes with my special touches and posting it here for you all! Wish me luck!!!