Tuesday, October 23, 2007

More cooking school: Seafood seminars

This week, my third at my cooking school, I again started with a new class, but this time not in the kitchen.
Everyday Im in a seminar with a class of older students, learning this week about fish and seafood. Yesterday we learned about a lot of types of fish, both salt and fresh water (which they call sweet water} fish. Then we went to the learning kitchen, where at every cooking station there are 2 people. We got to cut up fillets of salmon and make a sauce using the leftover body parts, including the head. Good practice for a cheaper way to buy fish.

Today was awesome. We had a demonstation on crustaceans: lobsters, crayfish, prawns. All live and squirming in their boxes while we examined them, before tossing them into boiling hot water, with several students saying Im sorry, in German. After they were cooked (12 minutes for a 500 gram lobster] the head chef showed us how to cut them up and different ways to serve them.

After crustaceans came some more fish, this time to be used for sushi. The sushi seminar was sweet as we got to use lots of veggies and types of fish, before then tasting our creations. Mine looked damn good, and the chef said that it was the best, as it showed exactly what was in it, when cut open.

So Ill be in a new class for this week, learning more about fish. No clue what next week brings, perhaps another class, or more seminars.

And I should say Im sorry for not stopping 3 lobsters and many other creatures from dying in boiling hot, spiced water, but it was in the name of education.

1 comment:

Anne Broyles said...

I just learned more about crustaceans than I've previously learned in my life. Of course, other than viewing those crusty creatures in ocean tidepools or aquariums, I haven't had much to do with them (ate one crayfish in Sweden when I was young--did not repeat that experience. Ever).
I love your blog (but then I am slightly prejudiced).

ALB