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September/October 2009: Appetite for Instruction |
Appetite for Instruction
Our intrepid reporters mix it up on the trail of local cooking classes
By Lisa Bramen and Niki Kourofsky
Alan Stafford prepares a Moroccan salad.
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The Adirondacks might not be known for its dining diversity, but a healthy—and growing—community of braising buffs and deglazing devotees is hiding in these hills. Hotels, arts centers and caterers around the park are nurturing the trend, providing a mouth-watering variety of cooking classes for the food obsessed, or simply curious. We visited five, from Old Forge to Wilmington, to get a taste of the action.
Out of Africa
Beyond the largest Adirondack villages, eateries—especially year-round ones—are scarce, making home cooking a necessity. Even scarcer are opportunities to sample the cuisines of other cultures. So it was no wonder that more than a dozen people gathered in Polly Fagan's Blue Mountain Lake kitchen on a sleeting April day for an African vegetarian cooking class—an impressive turnout, considering the hamlet has a population of 146.
On top of its full slate of cultural activities Adirondack Lake Center for the Arts offers occasional cooking classes, usually held in the fire department kitchen (Fagan volunteered her home when the fire department was unavailable).
The instructor for this class was Alan Stafford, a chef and Blue Mountain Lake resident who has lived in Southeast Asia, San Francisco and Zanzibar. Stafford assigned us prepping tasks—peeling butternut squash for a Moroccan tagine, or stew; seeding tangerines and slicing radishes for a salad; and crushing garlic for mchicha, a Tanzanian dish of greens stewed in coconut milk—while he chatted about his experiences in Africa, including the challenges of fixing meals at the equator with no refrigeration. Most of the students were locals who knew one another, so the atmosphere was more like a laid-back neighborhood potluck than a day at Le Cordon Bleu. The three-hour session ended with a lunch of spicy, flavorful dishes—just the thing for a wintry spring day.
Classes are $20 ($10 for members). For a schedule or to register visit www.adirondackarts.org or call (518) 352-7715.
Moroccan Orange-Radish Salad
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10 oranges or tangerines, peeled,
segmented, skinned and seeded
6 medium radishes, sliced thin
Lemon juice, to taste
Salt, to taste
Fresh mint (optional)
Mix together and serve.
Natural Selections
The gospel preached by Lake Placid's green goddesses,Wynde Kate Reese and Tammy Loewy, is to use fresh, organic and local ingredients. Aside from their natural-foods store, on Newman Road, they are fixtures at area farmers' markets, offer catering and nutritional counseling, and host periodic culinary courses, either in their small store kitchen or at Lake Placid Center for the Arts.
A class at the store last July was a double feature: First Reese, who has a background in edible landscape design, taught how to plan and grow a native herb garden for cooking, teas and medicinal purposes. She distributed a handout of recipes for natural hair dyes, insect repellant and toothpaste.
Then Loewy brought the half-dozen students into the store's closet-size kitchen to make a vegetarian meal ("If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere," she said, noting that she had once catered a 200-person wedding from this kitchen). We took turns preparing ingredients for the three courses: a salad of roasted beets and vegetables with an herbed tofu-Dijon vinaigrette, an entrée of spicy grilled potato pancakes topped with pesto and tofu sour cream, and dessert of local fruits in a mint-maple sauce.
The participants were mostly in their 20s and 30s, and a few were repeat students. Jill Kennedy, of Saranac Lake, said the classes were a good way to get new food ideas. "There's always something that makes me say, 'I would never have dreamt of doing that.' They always do something different."
Class prices vary. Call (518) 523-4676 or visit greengoddessfoods.com to learn about upcoming workshops. Register in advance.
Spicy Grilled Potato Pancakes
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6 medium potatoes, cubed
1 white onion, diced small
4 cloves garlic, diced fine
¼ fresh jalapeño pepper, diced fine
1 sprig thyme, chopped
1 sprig oregano, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1½ teaspoons salt
½ cup whole-wheat bread flour
4 tablespoons canola oil
In a medium saucepan, cover potatoes with water and ½ teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Let simmer 7 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Drain and mash while still warm.
Heat olive oil in a medium sauté pan on high. Add garlic, onions and jalapeños with ½ teaspoon salt. Turn heat down to medium. Sauté until onions are browned, about 5 minutes. Add oregano and thyme and sauté 2 more minutes.
Stir onion mixture into mashed potatoes. Add remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Mix and form into 8 patties. Dust each patty with flour on both sides.
Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil on medium high in the same sauté pan. Add 2 patties and brown on each side, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add a tablespoon of canola oil before each frying session. Serve with tofu sour cream (below) and pesto.
Tofu Sour Cream: Combine 1 pound soft tofu, 1/3 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon maple syrup, and water (start with 1/3 cup) in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Old-World Charm
Want an incredible sensory experience? Try blending potato dumplings by hand and squeezing the silky mixture through your fingers. Then watch the golf ball–size orbs pop to the top of your pot and start to roll—a sure sign the dumplings are done. That kind of hands-on fun is only part of the draw of the Adirondack Cooking School at Hohmeyer's Lake Clear Lodge.
Executive chef Cathy Hohmeyer is pursuing a PhD in holistic health and wellness, but says she learned most of her Old-World cooking skills from her mother and mother-in-law. Hohmeyer combines those long-ago lessons with her passion for unprocessed foods and nutrition-boosting methods in two- to three-hour sessions.
Hohmeyer is a slow foodie, buying local or growing her own ingredients when she can, and spending ample time on broths and sauces and cuts of meat. But she's also a working mother, with three kids and a demanding business. Her cooking has naturally evolved into a hybrid, what she calls "slow-food methods, fast-food finishes," and she shares plenty of tips for using make-ahead bases in easy weekday meals.
A workshop last June focused on traditional European dishes like rouladen, spaetzle and strudel, but also touched on fermenting vegetables for maximum health benefits and the best ways to tenderize locally raised beef (although arguably healthier and more environmentally friendly, roasts from grass-fed cows tend to be tougher).
Hohmeyer has moved her lessons from the lodge's cozy kitchen to its new 1,750-square-foot Lakeview Retreat Center, which has been fitted with individual workstations and Web cams for distance learning.
For a schedule or to register visit www.lodgeonlakeclear.com or call (518) 891-1489; workshops are $75 per session or $60 each when you register for two or more.
Apple Strudel
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1 tart, hard-fleshed apple, peeled, cored and coarsely shredded
3 tart, hard-fleshed apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup golden raisins
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
¼ cup milk
Preheat oven to 400º. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Place apples in a large bowl. Stir in brown sugar and golden raisins; set aside. Place puff pastry on baking sheet. Roll lightly with a rolling pin. Arrange apple filling down the middle of the pastry lengthwise. Fold the pastry lengthwise around the mixture. Seal pastry by using a bit of water on your fingers and rubbing the pastry edges together. Whisk egg and milk together, and brush on top of pastry.
Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until golden brown.
Canadian Exchange
Monday evening cooking classes at the Arts Center/Old Forge are social events: the sessions often start with wine, hors d'oeuvres and mingling in the center's gallery, then move to a large room lined with tables. A substantial crowd for a French-Canadian cuisine and culture lecture convened last December—the programs, which have included primers in Polish, Egyptian and Greek cuisines, as well as edible flowers and international beers, average 20 students a class.
No surprise there. For food fanatics, the gatherings are a great opportunity to learn new techniques, sample fabulous dishes and trade gastronomical memories.
The conversations around the tables that night lingered on the tourtiére, a traditional meat pie made by legions of grandmothers, with just about as many variations. Our instructor, Barbara Labbé Getty, a seasoned cook from an overflowing French-Canadian family, offered several adaptations of that classic, along with crepe-like plogues and a rich maple-sugar pie. She demonstrated old-school methods while sharing family stories and cultural tidbits. Just like a grandmother's kitchen, the vibe was warm and the food kept coming.
Call (315) 369-6411 or see http://www.artscenteroldforge.org for upcoming offerings. Participants should register in advance; sessions are $15 ($10 for members).
Tarte Au Sucre
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2 beaten eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
Mix all together. Pour into uncooked pie shell. Bake at 375º for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
Wilmington Sol Food
Part epicurean dinner party, part motivational seminar, chef Uwe Riehs's Saturday-night cooking demonstrations in his Wilmington cabin have earned him a devoted following.
Each week Riehs, the last chef at the Wawbeek resort before it closed in 2007, focuses on the foods of a different culture: one week it's Sri Lankan, the next it's Malaysian. Even when he picks a more familiar cuisine he takes it way beyond the average fare.
On Mexican night, for instance, he wowed his 10 guests (the limit for all his classes, which often sell out) with a menu that delved into the complexities of traditional Mexican flavors. The starter was an ancho chile escabeche (with pickled vegetables) stuffed with turkey chorizo and sweet potatoes, a sweet-spicy mix that set the tone for the meal. Next came chamomile-jalapeño poached chicken and charred tomatillo–goat cheese chilaquiles. Finally, dessert was a show-stopping cabernet chocolate vanilla-bean flan cake with chipotle cajeta (a spice-infused caramel).
Between courses he introduced his unusual theory of cooking, which he formulated following a near-death experience a few years ago. He believes that the thoughts and feelings of a cook are transmitted through the food to the person eating it. He teaches the art of cooking—and eating—with intention and awareness, emphasizing the point with breathing exercises.
If this was too far out for anyone, we quickly got over it—after all, the company was convivial and the food was incredible.
Classes are $35 per person. To check out the schedule or to register, visit www.gratifood.com or call (518) 524-9801.
Charred Tomatillo–Goat Cheese Chilaquiles
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2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1½ teaspoons coriander seeds, ground
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ground
1/8 teaspoon anise seeds, ground
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
8 cups unsalted or low-salt corn tortilla chips
1 cup black beans, cooked
12 tomatillos, husked and charred
2 poblano chiles, roasted, seeded and peeled
1 cup half-and-half
1½ cups fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1½ cups monterey jack, shredded
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
In a large sauce pot over high heat, add oil and sauté onions until they begin to caramelize, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add butter. Add spices and oregano, cooking until spices become fragrant.
Reduce heat to medium-high and whisk in flour until incorporated. Cook until flour begins to roast and turns blond, about 3 minutes. Stir frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Whisk in 1 cup of milk slowly until flour absorbs it. Whisk in rest of milk, being careful not to scorch.
Break up the tortilla chips and add to the milk along with the black beans. Stir until incorporated. Turn off the heat.
Puree tomatillos, poblanos, half-and-half, cilantro and lime juice in a blender on high until smooth. Stir into tortilla mixture. Mix thoroughly. Season if needed.
Combine cheeses. Grease a 3-quart ovenproof dish or roasting pan and pour in half of chilaquiles. Sprinkle half the cheese mixture evenly over the chilaquiles. Pour in rest of the chilaquiles and top with the remaining cheese. Slide into the oven and cook at 350º for 25–30 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let rest for 5–10 minutes. Serve immediately.
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