My Class at Jamie Oliver's Big Rig Kitchen

After watching the television program "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" back in June of 2011, I wrote this evaluation of local school lunches. Then one day last month, I was reading the newspaper published by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op and saw a blurb that made my heart jump. Jamie Oliver's Big Rig Kitchen, it said, was doing a tour of California cities and would be stopping in Sacramento in January and February. As a long-time fan of the chef and fan of the Food Revolution, I knew I had to sign up for a class.

 

The Big Rig Kitchen is a mobile kitchen that has been offering free classes as it has made its way through our great state, thanks to donations from the places listed below (on the side of the truck). I hopped onto the website and saw all sorts of free cooking classes being offered, with menus including fish, Mexican and Italian fare, and the one I ended up signing up for - "Fast Food Now", featuring barbecued chicken.   

 

I arrived for my class at 5:30pm on a Friday night, pulling into the parking lot of Sacramento High school, the same fortunate school that recently enjoyed a visit from Alice Waters to their edible school garden. After a few minutes of waiting outside the closed door of the Big Rig, the door opened and I was welcomed in to don a name tag and a white apron.

At the front of the mobile kitchen was a demonstration area where Everett, our demo chef, showed us the ropes. After the demo, we washed our hands and retreated to one of the three kitchen stations where we would try our best to replicate what we had just seen.

 

Our kitchen stations were well-stocked with the necessary ingredients, donated mostly by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op just down the street. (Thanks, Co-op!) Everything was ready for us to attempt to make a homemade BBQ sauce, a French-style vinaigrette dressing, and oven-baked Potato Wedges.

 

In addition to the ingredients, our kitchen station also came with a local food expert to assist us as needed. Joe helped oversee our group of four as each of us tackled one of the elements of our final meal. He was quiet at first, but once it came out that he was a certified BBQ judge, he was brimming with stories of his travels and experiences. That weekend, he confided, he was headed down to Brentwood, CA for a rib competition. A lucky man, that Joe!

 

 

With a little help from Joe, our group completed the meal in a surprisingly short amount of time - the whole meal took us maybe 20 minutes to prepare from start to finish.(To speed up the baking time on the Potato Wedges, we sliced them super-thin instead of cutting them into chunky wedges.) 

The meal we enjoyed together at the end was both healthy and tasty, and just the kind of informal, kid-friendly meal that families should be sharing nightly. If you can't spot the purple potato slices on the plate, it might be because they are camouflaged against the mixed greens!

As I ate my meal, I imagined Jamie Oliver explaining that instead of chicken nuggets every night, parents might see what their kids say to this homemade barbecued chicken. Instead of French fries, see what the kids think of the Potato Wedges. And of course, the salad was made delicious by the homemade dressing, which contained no added sugar (unlike most commercial bottled dressings). It could truly be a revolutionary meal. Our community is so fortunate to have the chance to attend free classes like these!

My one disappointment (besides, of course, the absence of the celebrity chef himself) was a difference I noted between the cooking classes portrayed on the television show and the class I attended. On the show, all of the participants were required to make a pledge to share the knowledge they gained, by teaching at least one other person how to prepare the dishes they learned to make in the class. In this way, the Food Revolution could spread throughout the community. 

In the class I took, we were not required to make such a pledge. But I still want to do my part to help the Revolution spread, by sharing the recipes from the class I took. Viva la revolution!

French Dressing:

1/4 of a clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Peel and finely chop the garlic. Put the garlic, mustard, vinegar and olive oil into a glass jar with a pinch of salt and pepper. Put the lid on the gar and shake well.

Potato Wedges (serves 4):

1/4 tsp. sea salt

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 medium (about 10 ounces) baking potatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400F. Scrub the potatoes clean and get rid of any gnarly bits. Cut the potatoes into chunk wedges (about 6 per potato). Transfer to a roasting tray and add a good lug of olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss together so all the wedges are coated in the oil, then spread out in one layer, skin-side down.

Cook in the hot oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden, crisp and cooked through. To tell if they're cooked, poke one or two with the tip of a paring knife- you should meet no resistance.

Barbecued Chicken (Serves 4):

1 orange 

1 dried chile

1 1/2 heaped teaspoons smoked paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon or English mustard

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/16 teaspoon sea salt and

freshly ground pepper

4 x 5-ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts

If you're barbecuing, light the grill now so the flames have died down and it's ready when you're ready to cook.

Finely grate the orange zest into a shallow bowl. Crumble in the dried chile. Add the paprika, mustard, honey, ketchup, and a splash of olive oil. Season with a small pinch each of the salt and pepper and mix well. Spoon out a few tablespoons of the marinade and set it aside.

Add the chicken breasts to the bowl with the remaining marinade. Turn them over in the marinade so they're well coated, cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit for 5 to 10 minutes or until the grill is ready.

If using a grill pan, put it over high heat now to get it screaming hot.

Use tongs to transfer your chicken breasts onto the grill or grill pan. For chicken breasts about 1 inch thick, cook for about 5 minutes on each side, turning every minute and basting as you go, or until golden and cooked through. Spoon a little of the reserved sauce over each breast.

The Flavors of Asia Cooking Class

Mai Pham with her cooking assistant, shown
behind her cookbook and signature sauces

I joined the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op this year, after admiring from afar for a long time and even taking a few outstanding classes there in the past. (Like this one on Pie Making, and another on Raised Bed Gardening.)

This week I got to attend a cooking class on the Flavors of Asia taught by Mai Pham, an expert in Vietnamese and Thai cuisine. Mai teaches at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, owns many restaurants all over the country, has published a cookbook, makes her own line of sauces, and is a bit of a local celebrity. She has been on Martha Stewart and kicked off her class by showing us a segment she did on the Food Network to give us a feel for the cuisine of Southeast Asia.

Mai was very professional and pleasant, and even brought her 86-year-old, very spry-looking father to the class with her. Her grandmother, she confided, lived to be 105 years old and credited her longevity to a vegetarian diet and lots of coconut milk, which the Vietnamese associate with high immunity levels.

Mai also stressed the importance of moderation in all things, confessing that she has to work hard to keep balanced. For example, if she wants to eat ice cream for dessert, her family will eat a simple, light dinner such as stir-fried vegetables and brown rice before indulging.

Mai demonstrated and let us sample several dishes during the course of the class, as well as teaching some basic techniques like assembling and rolling salad rolls, and cutting herbs and vegetables gently to avoid bruising. She showed us how to make:

* Salad Rolls with Shrimp and Pork, with a Peanut Hoisin Sauce

* Yellow Curry with Tofu and Eggplant

* Singapore Noodles Topped with Stir-Fried Asian Greens

* Caramel Pork with Egg and Daikon

My favorite dishes were the Yellow Curry and Singapore Noodles, but I enjoyed them all. Before heading home, I hopped around the corner to the Co-Op to pick up a jar of Lemongrass Kitchen brand Yellow Curry Sauce, a concentrated base which makes 3-4 batches of curry. I can't wait to try my hand at this at home!

Here is Mai Pham's recipe for the Yellow Curry with Tofu and Eggplant. It's crazy good; I've never liked a vegetarian curry so much! It also taught me one thing I've done wrong in the past - adding raw vegetables to my curry has added too much water and diluted the flavor, so that I never felt that my curries at home matched up with the restaurant versions. Blanching the vegetables ahead of time solves this problem. Also, she explained that frying the tofu ahead of time so that it gets a "skin" allows it to absorb sauces better. This recipe would be perfect for summertime, when eggplant, tomatoes, green beans and zucchini are all in season.

1/4 c. Lemongrass Kitchen Thai Yellow Curry Sauce
1.5 c. coconut milk
1/2 lb. firm tofu, pan-seared or lightly fried, cut into 2/3x2"x1/12" pieces
2 c. eggplant, Japanese preferably, halved lengthwise then cut into 1/2 " half moon pieces
3 Roma tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges
1/2 c. green beans, 1" lengths, blanched
1/2 c. zucchini, bite sized pieces, blanched
2 tsp. Thai chilies, cut on the diagonal into thin slices (optional)
1/2 c. frozen peas
10 Thai basil leaves (optional)

1. In a saucepan, combine LGK Thai Curry Sauce Concentrate with coconut milk and cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a low boil.
2. Add tofu, eggplant and tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until all vegetables start to soften, another 2-3 minutes.

Raised Bed Gardening Class

This Saturday I had the pleasure of taking a class on raised bed gardening from the Sacramento Co-op. It was held at Soil Born Farm, where the co-op offers several of their more hands-on classes.
The farm is a striking place to be, with rich dark soil, flowers and vegetables everywhere you look.
Some of the fertility no doubt comes from the excellent compost they produce on site from chickens and garden scraps and add to their beds.
Some of the raised beds are simply raised mounds of dirt, formed by scooping up the topsoil to create a row to plant in; the lower ground becomes a path to walk along. Then, there is also the option of a more traditional raised bed, which may look something like this:

Note the drip line system, which is the method our instructor Antonio recommended for watering raised beds, for 30-45 minutes every other day. He also gave us a lot of information on:

- Different common weeds and the best way to eradicate them (digging/pulling them up - surprise!)
- Helpful gardening tools (including some neat Japanese ones like the hori hori)
- The right kind of dirt to add to a raised bed (topsoil, then dust the top with compost; kelp meal to add minerals)
- Where to put your raised bed (a place with receives 6-8 hours of sunlight a day; western or southern exposure are best. If you put it on grass, at least turn the sod over before you place the raised bed on top of it.)
- Best fall crops to plant locally: garlic, kale, radishes, chard, and broccoli
- Basics of how to build a raised bed (cedar or hardwood last longest; salvaged wood is cheapest. Use screws, not nails. Or use paving stones or nothing at all like I mentioned above!)

Antonio taught us that when you're gardening the right way, the earth will improve over time as you incorporate organic matter and continue to remove the weeds. Patience is certainly a virtue to be learned by growing your own food.

What To Do With Wheat?

Last weekend, I attended a class on how to prepare wheat. Those who are interested in storing food for use in case of an emergency or disaster often rely heavily on wheat because of its nutritional value and durability. When properly stored, whole wheat (or wheat berries as they're called nowadays) can last for upwards of 30 years. But then storing it is one thing, but preparing it in a variety of interesting ways is another. So off I went, to learn the ABCs of cooking wheat.

Most obviously, wheat can be ground into flour for baking purposes. Many find freshly ground flour superior to store-bought because (as with all foods) the fresher it is, the more nutritional value it will have. On display were are a ton of different mills, grinders, flakers, etc., in all variety of price ranges and sophistication. I'll show you one of the coolest ones I saw below.

Also shown to the class were a variety of whole grains, along with several forms of wheat, including wheat berries, cracked wheat, and bulgur. Cracked wheat and bulgur can be used in cooking with ground meats to make a small amount of meat go further, because it blends right in with the meat, bulking it up without altering the taste. Wheat can also be popped like popcorn!

The demo included a bread-making session using freshly ground 100% whole-wheat flour, plus extra wheat gluten (which helps the dough rise) and dough enhancer (which extends the shelf life of the bread).

We watched a demo on how to sprout wheat. If you follow up by planting some sprouts in soil in a sunny window, you will soon have a sustainable source of wheatgrass for blender smoothies. This wheatgrass is just 10 days old and look how hardy it is already!

Here is the amazing device I mentioned before, which seamlessly combines physical fitness and food preparation. As you pedal the stationary bike, it powers the motor of the white flour mill on the floor. Just pop your wheat berries in the opening, hop on the bike for some morning exercise, and when you get off, retrieve your bowl of freshly milled whole wheat flour. I thought this was a hilarious idea!

Finally, we all left with a packet full of recipes ideas using wheat (of course!). Today, I made my first batch of wheat berries for breakfast in the slow cooker (1 cup of wheat berries+2 1/2 cups of water + pinch of salt= 2 servings of wheat berry cereal after about 8 hours. I topped mine with dried currents, honey and almond milk. The wheat berries were chewy and filling, a great breakfast dish. I will be continuing my experimentation with wheat, the staff of life!

Pie Making Class and Quiche!

My husband (also known as The Best Husband Ever) bought me a dream come true for our anniversary: A class on pie-making with local food celebrity Kira O'Donnell of Real Pies. She formerly worked at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and her pies are divine. I couldn't wait to see what she was like in real life and pick up some pointers on how to perfect my own pies. Pie is, after all, my favorite food in the world.

The class was held at a room adjoining the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op:
While we waited for the class to start, we met new friends and snacked on olives, hummus, baba ganoush and crackers...
And checked out the set up, while trying to figure out which one was Kira herself.
Turns out she's the surprisingly down-to-earth, unpretentious and nice blond. We started by discussing how to make crust, the foundation of any pie.

Kira gave us some simple tips, such as cooking pie on a pre-heated pizza stone to achieve a flaky bottom crust; keeping everything cold, even if you have to dip your own hands in ice water; and letting the dough rest at least 1 hour before working with it, or even overnight. She uses an all-butter pastry herself but was surprisingly not picky about the type of pan, flour, recipe, etc.
Her sample dough was generously dotted with chunks of butter and very sturdy yet pliable.
She made a sample pie with strawberry rhubarb filling she had frozen in July. How gorgeous those colors were,
and then look how cute her stars are!
The best part was sampling 3 varieties of her pies, starting with a vegetarian quiche. I am serious about this quiche. It is deadly good. At first I was like, "Alright, let's get this quiche over with so we can get to the sweet stuff." The quiche turned out to be my favorite.
Apple Blackberry Galette - delicious and warm, flaky and cozy.
Chocolate Cream pie, not too sweet. The crust was made from homemade cookie crumbs. (Overachiever.) :-)
I don't want to give away all of Kira's secrets, but I will share her killer recipe for quiche. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Vegetarian Quiche

Partially pre-baked pie shell (375 for 8-10 minutes until light brown)
1 c. grated cheese of your choice (Swiss, cheddar, Jack)
1/3 c. crumbled goat cheese (opt)
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned and sauteed until soft
1 bunch spinach, washed/chopped and sauteed until soft
1 head broccoli, separated into small clumps and blanched until just tender
1/2 small yellow onion, sauteed until soft
6-7 mushrooms, sliced and sauteed until soft
3 eggs
1 c. low-fat milk or soy milk
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
Pinch salt
Pinch herbs de Provence

Preheat the oven to 350.

Put the partially pre-baked pie shell on a sheet pan. Press grated cheese and goat cheese on bottom of shell. Add all cooked veggies on top of cheese, distributing evenly. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, and spices. Pour the milk mixture carefully over the veggies, then place the quiche in the oven. Bake until the custard is completely firm. (Jiggle it slightly - if it seems liquidy in the center, it's not done yet!) It may take over an hour. Don't worry if the top browns. It will taste great! Serve 4 hungry people, with an accompaniment such as soup or salad.