Date Night Fave: Caesar Salad

The ladies (and the gents too!) love a good Caesar Salad. We share with you our best recipe for a special evening first course with your special someone.

Ingredients:

2 ea. Hearts of Romaine lettuce
1 ea. whole egg
1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
5 large cloves garlic, finely minced
3 ea. Anchovies filets
½ fresh squeezed lemon
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
to taste Reggianno Parmesan grated
to taste ground black pepper
White (or Sourdough) bread for croutons

Procedure:

Cut the Romaine lettuce into 1 ½ inch squares and wash well. Spin dry. Cover and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 325.

Bring a small sauce pan of water to a boil.

Trim bread crust and cut bread into small dice. Place on cookie sheet. Place cookie sheet in hot oven for 5-10 minutes until bread is lightly toasted. Remove from oven. Drizzle croutons with ¼ cup olive oil and 3 cloves of chopped garlic.

Replace in oven and continue toasting until garlic is golden brown. DO NOT BURN GARLIC! Reserve the croutons.

Place one raw egg in a small bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave to coddle for 60 seconds. Remove egg and reserve.

In a large wooden salad bowl finely smash garlic and anchovies. (Two serving forks work well). Work garlic and anchovies around entire surface of bowl to coat. Add mustard and mix. Add lettuce, and break the coddled egg over the Romaine and add all other ingredients except croutons. Toss well to coat.

Serve on cold plates. Garnish with croutons. Serve immediately.

Rabbi BLECH METHOD: Make the dressing in a food processor . Place the egg, anchovies, garlic, Wortershire, lemon, mustard,vinegar and pepper in a food processor. While running the machine slowly add the oil. Save for up to 48 hours, then discard as the dressing has raw eggs, which can spoil, in it.

Plan Your Summer at CKCA: Full Summer Recreational Class Listings!

The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts summer class listings are online and starting to fill up! Now's the time to reserve your spots in the new and exciting classes being offered at CKCA as well as our tried and true classic recreational culinary classes! Visit the CKCA Website at http://www.kosherculinaryarts.com for full class listings and descriptions. Below is a listing of all the classes and dates being offered:

Father's Day BBQ Class -- June 19

Steak Night -- June 23

Melon Carving with Chef James Parker -- June 26

Master Class in Miniature Decorative Pastries -- June 20, 21, 27 and 28

Intro to Cake Decoration -- four Tuesday evenings, beginning July 15

Cake Decoration: Fondant -- four Monday evenings, beginning August 1

Cake Decoration: Flowers -- two Sundays, beginning July 10

Date Night: Summer Feast -- Choice of three Wednesdays: July 13, Aug 10, 17

Date Night: Cocktail Party -- Choice of three Wednesdays: July 6, Aug 3, 24

Date Night: Couples Competition -- July 27

Culinary Boot Camp -- 5 Thursday nights, July 7, 14, 21, 28, Aug 4

The Main Course -- 3 Thursday nights, Aug 18, Aug 25, Sep 1

Classic French Pastry --5 Sunday mornings, July 31, Aug 7, 14, 21, 28

Taste of Asia -- July 11

Cuisine of India -- July 18

Knife Skills -- July 25

Summer Pies & Tarts -- July 24

Cuisine of Mexico -- August 11

Summer BBQ -- August 16

Sephardi Party --August 23

Summer Fun at June Recreational Classes!

Father's Day BBQ Workshop (Sunday June 19, 10:30-1:30)

Father’s Day means BBQ at CKCA. Join Chef Avram Wiseman for this exciting hands-on class in which we learn how to create mouth watering BBQ style dishes both inside and outdoors. Topics covered include, bbq technique, indoor smoking with woodchips, stovetop grilling, outdoor bbq, slow cooking meat, classic bbq sides and sauces, and more. Father and sons (or daughters) are welcome as well as anyone else interested in learning how to make great BBQ.

$75 – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

Steak Night (Thursday, June 23, 6:30-10:30)

Chef Avram Wiseman teaches the secrets to a truly great, homemade steak dinner. He’ll start off by showing you what you don’t see at the supermarket—an entire rib section of beef—and butcher it down to something more familiar—a juicy rib-eye steak. Then you’ll learn the best way to cook it at home, along with the all the traditional sides: crispy roast potatoes, “creamed spinach”, beer-battered, thick-cut onion rings, Caesar salad and more. This is a serious class for serious meat eaters!

$75 -- CALL TO REGISTER -- 718.758.1339

Melon Carving with Chef James Parker (Sunday, June 26, 9:00am-1pm)

Take your fruit carving skills to the next level! Guest instructor James Parker (veggyart.com) is an award-winning, nationally renowned chef who travels the world teaching the subject of fruit & vegetable garnishing to the novice and expert alike. In this class he will teach the art of carving melons and fruit, and presenting them on decorative platters. Learn these advanced techniques and take home your very own exquisite creations.

$200 – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

Master Class in Miniature Decorative Pastries (Mondays and Tuesdays, June 20, 21, 27, 28, 6:30–10:30 pm)

Miniature decorative pastries have the dessert of choice at parties and events large and small. Few desserts make for a better presentation than a tidy arrangement of carefully constructed miniatures. In the language of classic culinary arts they are known as petit fours and include any small cake or pastry item small enough to be eaten in one or two bites. Most petit fours are comprised of many distinct components and require a steady hand and sharp eye for detailed decoration.

In this four-day hands-on workshop, classically trained French pastry chef Philippe Kaemmerle will teach the class to make all the components of a variety of petit fours.

$375 – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

This Summer: Seven Nights of Date Night!

Before you start making plans this summer, make sure that you reserve spots in one of our sell-out summer Date Nights! We have three series' going on, all of which are fun and interesting in different ways. Culinary Date Nights are a great night out and they make a wonderful birthday or anniversary gift to your special someone.

Choose from three different classes: Summer Feast, Cocktail Party, and Couples Competition. The classes and dates are described below. All classes are on Wednesdays, from 7:30pm-10:30pm.

DATE NIGHT: Summer Feast

Choice of three dates: July 13, Aug 10, 17

Work together with that special someone to create a delicious, 4-course, upscale dinner. Special attention will be paid to teaching how to plate and present each course so that they appeal to the eye as well as to the palate. At the end of the evening we will sit down to enjoy the fruits of our labors, complete with wine and all the other trimmings of a meal to remember. New menu for summer.

$150 PER COUPLE – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

DATE NIGHT: Cocktail Party

Choice of three dates: July 6, Aug 3, 24

Join us for a festive evening of creative cocktails, finger foods and fun! Couples will cook together to create a cocktail hour inspired menu that will include a special selection of tasty bites and signature drinks.

$150 PER COUPLE – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

DATE NIGHT: Couples Competition

July 27

Calling all competitive couples, show us what you’re made of! Six couples will be given an identical basket of secret ingredients and 2 hours to work together to create an entrée and two sides. The most appealing dish, as judged by a CKCA panel of judges, will win a gift certificate of $150 towards classes at CKCA. Let the games begin!

$150 PER COUPLE – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339

Heavenly Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

CKCA Senior Chef Instructor and Dean of Student Avram Wiseman acts as a Pesach chef each year at a hotel. He cooks, bakes and thinks Pesach for weeks ahead of time, developing recipes with potato starch and all the different kinds of ingredients one must use on Pesach, being mindful of the restrictions. One of the widespread Eastern European restrictions is the use of rice or rice flour, because it looks similar to wheat or the other restricted seven grains. With that in mind, Chef Avram shares with us a delicious fried rice recipe this week, now that we are free to utillize this fine ingredient once again in our cooking.

Thai Heavenly Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredients: SERVES: 4

1 whole pineapple
3 cups cooked rice
3-4 Tbsp. chicken stock
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1 red or green chili, thinly sliced
1 egg
½ cup frozen peas
1 Tbsp. currants
½ cup peanuts
3 spring onions finely sliced
1/3 cup fresh coriander (cilantro)

STIR-FRY SAUCE:

2 Tbsp fish sauce, OR 3 Tbps. soy sauce
2 tsp. curry powder


Procedure:

Cut pineapple in half, Scoop out the flesh and cut into 1 inch dice.

Mix 1 Tbsp. oil with the rice, using your fingers to separate any chunks into grains. Set aside.

In a cup, stir the soy sauce/fish sauce together with the curry powder.

Drizzle 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok/large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, garlic, and chili, stir-frying until fragrant (1 minute). Whenever the wok/pan becomes dry, add a little stock (1/2 to 1 Tbsp. at a time to keep the pan sizzling).

Crack the egg into wok and stir quickly to cook (like making scrambled eggs). Add the peas and cashews. Stir-fry 1 minute in the same way, adding more stock if needed.

Now add the rice, pineapple chunks, and currents. Drizzle the fish/soy sauce mixed with curry powder over and gently stir-fry to combine over medium-high to high heat until the rice "dances" (begins to make popping sounds) - about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Do a taste-test for saltiness, adding a few shakes of salt or up to 2 Tbsp. more fish sauce or soy sauce, as needed.

To serve, scoop rice onto a serving platter or serve into the pineapple shell, hollowed out. Top with spring onions and fresh coriander.

Evening Culinary Boot Camp Starts May 10th!

CULINARY BOOTCAMP
EVENING: 5 Tuesday nights, May 10, 17, 24, 31 June 14, 6:30 – 9:30 pm

An intensive culinary experience designed for everyone from the frustrated home cook who finally wants to learn to “really cook,” to the budding chef looking to take his or her kitchen prowess to the next level. Learn some of the same basic culinary fundamental skills taught to chefs in the finest cooking schools. Topics covered include: knife skills, principles and application of all the major cooking methods, how to cook poultry, meat & fish, plating & presentation, and more. This program is a must for anyone who is tired of ruining dinner or conversely, dares to call him or herself a good cook!

$375 -- CALL TO REGISTER -- 718.758.1339

A Great Mother's Day Gift! Bring Your Mom to Mother's Day Brunch!

CKCA is hosting an awesome Mother's Day Brunch class on Sunday, May 9th. This class makes a great mother's day gift.

Sunday, May 8, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm


Join us this mother's day for a very special mother/daughter (mother/son) brunch menu. Chef Avram Wiseman, Dean of Students at CKCA will lead us through a full menu of classic breakfast and brunch dishes.

Moms and kids of all ages welcome!

$75 per person – CALL TO REGISTER – 718.758.1339