Cooking Class
Last Thursday and today, my friend Nick and I attended a sauce cooking class put on by the Laguna Culinary Arts school. Thursday’s class was sauces for meat and today’s class was sauces for fish. We had the same instructor that we had for the pasta classes we attended a while back.
All the sauces follow a basic pattern. Saute some aromatics(garlic, shallots, onions, etc.) and add wine and reduce to a syrup. Add a tasty liquid back (demi glace or stock) to the reduction, thicken with a roux to the consistency you like, add some seasonings and herbs and voila, a great sauce for your protein.
The picture shows the lobster Homardine sauce, which definitely is a show stopper from its looks, but it wasn’t my favorite sauce. For fish the Bercy white wine sauce with tomatoes was my favorite and for meat, the wild mushroom, truffle cream sauce made me very happy (followed closely by the green peppercorn sauce). I will post a few of the recipes soon.
Earlier in the week, I made a Bobby Flay inspired Habanero mango sauce and my daughter and I used for a jerked rubbed pork tenderloin and served it with some papaya salsa. Oh yum, that was one of the better meals I have prepared. Fruity, with enough spice to hold up the jerk spice rub.
As a friend of my brother once said, his favorite food was anything with a sauce. After two classes, and tasting several great sauces, I have to agree. Any bland protein can be drastically enhanced with a fully flavored great sauce.
Tagged as Cooking, Life, Recipes + Categorized as Cooking
Have to weigh in on the two sauce classes. Eight sauces and the knowledge to make any number of variations. Opens up a whole new world of cooking. Any piece of meat or fish can now be turned into a gourmet meal. Our teacher Joe is excellent with hands on savory techniques. If you can get one of his classes, you can’t go wrong.