Bon Appétit: Cooking for two

As my love for food increases, so does my love for discovering new things and conquering fears in the kitchen. Learning how to properly hold a knife, dice an onion, or saute vegetables seems so easy, but it took me a while to master. Last night I took a cooking class with my mom at Sur La Table with Chef Beth, and I have never walked out of that place so happy.

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The menu consisted of the following:

1. Grilled Salt Block Scallops with Harissa

2. Grilled Shrimp Salad with homemade vinaigrette and grilled avocados

3. Grilled Salmon with Herb Pesto

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The class was about 2 hours long, and I learned some crazy tricks that I never knew. We learned how to correctly grill scallops, and how to know when they are done (this is always tricky), and how to de-vein shrimp correctly, and how to make a salmon look better with criss-cross grill lines. I really enjoyed making the sauces, and learning about the different ingredients, and what you can do to change up the recipe. I am a HUGE fan of pesto, which is normally a few simple ingredients; pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, oil, basil. We added mint and lemon to our recipe, and of course finished with salt and pepper, and oh my gosh was it amazing. Add bell peppers or sun dried tomato too (this is my next task) for some additional flavor.

The Salt Block! What is a salt block? A very large piece of Himalayan salt to mock a cast iron skillet. Be careful if you use one, as you have to heat it very slowly. Heating quickly can cause the salt to crack! We waited until hot, very hot, and put our scallops (washed and dried very thoroughly) on to the salt block. You should hear a sizzle, if not, it is not hot enough. We decided to cook Scallops on it, using the salt block for the initial cook and then using a non-stick pan for the final sear. AMAZING!

I could probably go on for hours, but the point of this post is to encourage you all to attend a class. They can get pricey, so be on the lookout for their 50% off sales. I attended the class in Carlsbad, at Forum, and the staff was so friendly and so nice and really gave us the opportunity to learn and be hands on with our cooking. You get to keep a recipe book at the end, and you even get a coupon that day to purchase something in the store. I bought a Breville mixer, and i am so excited to puree and make sauces for everything! They have a ton of themed cooking classes, and have locations all over. I think my next class is going to be Mexican inspired.

http://www.surlatable.com/browse/storeCalendar.jsp?storeId=046