Mexican Grille

Last night, June 3, was the official launch of the cooking school in our new location. We had to ask tolerance as we introduced paper plates and plastic cups in lieu of our Buffalo China tasting plates and stemmed wine glasses. Our clean up kitchen is still not up and running so we are doing dishes by hand and as classes can generate bus pans full of dishes, utensils, appliance parts, it was best to keep them to a minimum. No one seemed to mind.

Now about the food; the theme of the class was Mexican Grille. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of fresh homemade corn tortillas, grilled fish with smoked chipotle seasoning, black beans with cumin and fresh cut vegetables for making the various salsas.
Students were greeted with glasses of white wine sangria. Chef Jessica’s signature drink for this class. This delightful libation is infused with peaches, basil and simple syrup.

Chef Jessica presented the ingredients used in the class, most of which came from a local Mexican food store, some from Kroger and some from Culina. The salts and spices all came from Culina. As usual, Victoria Gourmet came through for us with her outstanding spices. We also introduced a new salt line from “Nothing but Salt”. The Lime Sea Salt was used to season the homemade tortilla chips. One of our students commented that her husband could eat it with a spoon! Me too.

We only had one hiccup, Chef Jessica’s assistant “me” was so involved making home made tortilla chips with lime salt that I forgot to make the tortillas and have them ready for wrapping the fish when it was done. She fired me three times last night but rehired me because there was no one else. We recovered quickly because corn tortillas are so easy and quick to make that we had served up a dozen fish tacos plated with salsas and cumin black beans within minutes. I solicited a little help from a student to get the assembly line moving. While everyone was eating and making Mmmmm good, Yum, Delicious noises, I threw together another batch of tortillas to ready for seconds just in case. Well, most had another round of tacos, salsa and sangria.

One comment from the cooks: No household should be without a pressure cooker. Why wait four hours to cook a pot of beans that can be cooked in less than two hours? It doesn’t make sense. One student figured that out and took advantage of her discount to invest in one of the most useful and efficient cooking vessels she will ever own.

Our next class is Tuscan Tenderloin and we cannot wait. Happy Cooking Everyone.