Knife Wielding Dominion

This summer we've been focusing on knife skills in our cooking classes, trying to offer students knife wielding dominion in the kitchen. Our August class focused on basic knife skills, where students learned how to cut, chop, julienne, chiffonade, and brunoise with the best of them. Each recipe built on a skill we learned in the previous recipe….we made roasted potatoes, chicken picatta, ratatouille, a chopped salad, then made strawberry fans to go with our frozen caramel-vanilla bean whipped cream dessert.

Below is Rachel's recipe for the ultimate chopped salad - not only does it taste delicious and look pretty, but it's also the ultimate way to practice all your knife skills. As for the dessert recipe...when you don’t have an ice cream freezer or churner, have no fear! You can whip cream and then freeze it, as we are doing in this recipe. It is delicious when it is icy cold but not quite set. Serve it with fruit, or strawberry fans if you fancy. And if you missed our August class, there's still time to sign up for our September 14th class, where our chefs will show you the art and science of home meat butchery. Give us a call at 658-8900 to sign up.

Chiffonade & Chopped Salad

Serves 10

6 hand fulls of romaine lettuce, chiffonade

½ of an onion or red onion, finely sliced (fine julienne)

3 large tomatoes, diamond cut

4 green onions, bias cut

3 avocados, cut in quarters and fan cut

1/2 cup kalamata olives, finely sliced

1 handful of basil, chiffonade

2 red bell peppers, fillet and then brunoise

1 large carrot, fine julienne

1 cup croutons

¼ cup preserved meyer lemon vinaigrette

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, toss to coat in dressing. Enjoy!

Frozen Caramel-Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

Serves about 10

½ cup sugar

1 vanilla bean

3 cups heavy whipping cream

¾ cup caramel sauce, thin

5 cups strawberries, washed and dried

Cut the vanilla bean in half length-wise, and using the back of your knife or the back of your fingernail, scrape the vanilla seeds into the sugar. Squeeze the vanilla beans into the sugar, being sure to evenly distribute the seeds throughout the sugar.

Put the vanilla sugar and the heavy cream into the bowl of an electric mixer, and beat on medium-high speed until the cream is as soft peaks.

Add the caramel sauce in a thin stream, and continue to beat the cream until it reaches stiff peaks. Transfer to a freezer, safe bowl (or keep it in that one), and freeze for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, brunoise half of the strawberries, and the other strawberries make into fans (or just slice them if you like). To serve, scoop ice cream into 10 bowls, sprinkle with the brunoise strawberries, and place a strawberry fan on top of each scoop of cream.