Sherry and I both enjoy cooking. This week, we attended two ethnic cooking classes taught by instructors who learned their craft in their Mother’s kitchens. Although we frequently integrate culinary classes into our vacations, these two took place here in Westchester. Sometimes we learn new techniques. Often we are exposed to new flavors and recipes. Always, the classes are an exercise in teamwork, connecting us with our fellow chefs-in-training, challenging all of us to work together as a group, usually for the first time.
Italian Cooking with Ann at WJC
On Sunday night, we grabbed our aprons and headed to the newly renovated dairy kitchen at WJC (Westchester Jewish Center). Ann, WJC’s Early Childhood Director, led an Italian cooking class as part of a “sign-up party”, a fund-raiser which was part of our annual gala last spring.
Our evening was spent drinking wine and making ravioli by hand. My role began at the front of the process, mixing the dough and kneading it for what seemed like an eternity until it popped back when I poked it. Others in our team then rolled out the dough until it was translucent, cut it into squares (and other cool shapes like hearts and pumpkins), while others prepared the cheese filling. It was great to see the whole assembly line come together. Final assembly was fun and we quickly learned to texture the edges with forks before plopping the ravioli into the boiling water.
Cooking really is a team sport, and I enjoyed the activity with this group, which included some of our very favorite people and others who we know, but may have not spent much time with before. Ann was a great teacher, organized and thoughtful. We topped the finished ravioli with a choice of marinara or alfredo sauce. Delicious!
Thai Cooking at MHS with Amy
Three days later, we rolled up our aprons again and headed off to Mamaroneck High School, the school that both of our girls attended. We had not been back in the building since Cam’s Senior year in early 2020. MHS also has a brand new, large and stunningly beautiful cooking facility. Clearly they are making a serious commitment to teaching the culinary arts.
This course was sponsored by the Mamaroneck Continuing Ed program and taught by Amy (Cooking by Design, Instagram: CookingCoach_AmyR) who had our group of twelve preparing three dishes: Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, and Chicken Lettuce Wraps. There was a bit of a delay trying to get the stoves lit, but once it was figured it out, we got started.
Before I knew it we were chopping and dicing like mad, stir-frying and seemingly doing everything, everywhere all at once (hey, that sounds like a good name for a film!). Unlike the organized assembly line process in the Italian class, this was sheer chaos, at one point three dishes were being prepared simultaneously.
We were surprised to see that two friends, Melanie and Michael, were also attending the class and it was really great to catch up with them after several years.
The dishes came out well, and I especially enjoyed the sauce for the spring rolls and learning some new knife skills.
Using What We Learned
Yesterday was our annual “Friendsgiving” with our camping trip friends from New Jersey. Yes, I know what you are thinking, but it really is okay to have friends on the other side of the Hudson river. It was a pot-luck dinner and Sherry and I decided to make the Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Laab Gai) we learned at the Thai class this week.
Since it was a Friendsgiving activity, we chose chopped turkey instead of chicken as our base. We spent yesterday afternoon finely chopping carrots, celery, scallions, water chestnuts, ginger, lemon grass, coriander and mint. Sherry then stir-fried all of that with the turkey, while I hand rinsed sixty lettuce leaves. Our kitchen is set up nicely to allow the two of us to cook together, and it felt great to be cooking as part of yet another team. This time, without the chaos.
Yet Another Team Effort
There were seventeen of us at the dinner, eighteen if you include Ollie the dog. It was loud, fun and energetic. That also meant more than twenty distinct dishes to heat up, setup, and serve. Blood orange martinis, red and white wine were flowing. It was a feast! Yet the night proceeded smoothly with everyone contributing. There were a couple of new comers, and it was great getting to know them and catching up with old friends.
It was over way too fast.
