We still have a few openings in our upcoming Thanksgiving cooking classes.

To find all of our favorite tools for making a perfect Thanksgiving dinner.

Cranberry-Apricot Relish

2 pounds onions, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup red wine vinegar

¼ cup water

2 cups cranberries

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped dried apricots

In a large fry pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions until well-cooked, about 30 minutes. Add the sugar and garlic. Add the vinegar, water, cranberries, salt, and apricots and cook until the berries have burst. The relish will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.

Well, the wily chicken farmer fooled us when we purchased a dozen hens from him last month. First clue: they did not lay any eggs. Second clue: there is an awful lot of noise at sunrise. Third clue: they sprouted large red combs on top of their heads and a red wattle under their mouth. Fourth clue: roosters are a lot bigger than hens. We were snookered. Well, at least the few eggs we are getting are now fertilized.

What to do? Time for coq au vin. The chicken available at the grocery store is young and tender, baby chickens, actually. When birds grow large and old and tough, their meat needs to be cooked for a long time in order to tenderize the meat. Coq au vin — or rooster cooked in red wine — is a flavorful stew, which is often thickened with flour. This recipe thickens with the chicken livers stirred in at the end — which lends a wonderful, meaty, rich taste.

Coq au Vin

• 4 ounces bacon, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 8 pieces of chicken, dredged in flour
• 1/3 cup brandy
• 1 bottle (3 cups) red wine
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups diced onion
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• bay leaf and sprig of thyme
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, halved
• 1/2 pound pearl onions, peeled
• 4 chicken livers
• 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine the wine and stock in a saucepan and bring to boil and cook until reduced to 3 cups.

Cook the bacon in 2 tablespoons butter until crisp, then remove with a slotted spoon. Brown the chicken very well in the skillet and remove. Saute the onion until clear, about 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the cognac and be sure to scrape up the brown bits.

In a stockpot, combine the chicken, bacon, onion mixture, red wine-stock mixture, carrots, tomatoes, bay, and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. In a separate fry pan, heat some oil and saute the pearl onions and mushrooms and add to the coq au vin.

Puree the livers with the vinegar and butter and press through a strainer. Pour a little of the hot liquid into the liver and stir well. Remove the stew from the heat and stir into the sauce. Do not let the sauce boil.

I received my repaired knives a couple of days ago. I had mailed a 10-inch and 6-inch kitchen knives with broken black handles. I have had these knives for more than 30 years. I could not locate a repair shop till you guys.

I am SOOOO happy. Better than new. Great workmanship. Really fair price. I called twice and got the nicest lady. Both times she said, “don’t worry, Mike, we will take care of you.” She told the truth.

Thank you very much from Massachusetts.

Mike Ferguson

You are most welcome. Yes, we do sharpen knives ($3 per knife, 24-hour turn-around) and we do replace handles, both plastic and wood. Yes, we also sharpen scissors and shears ($5 each). New handles cost $25 each.

Please stop by on the day before Thanksgiving when we offer knife sharpening while you wait! Nobody wants dull knives on the biggest cooking day of the year! Bring in all your knives to be professionally sharpened on a water-cooled stone wheel. (Today, I had all of my dinner table knives sharpened — wow!)

Please welcome these new chef-instructors:

• Lauren DeSantis, who has a cooking show on TV in Washington called “Capitol Cooking,” will cook with wine on December 22.
• Chuck Friedhoff of Persimmon Woods Country Club is making his well-known and delicious pierogis on January 11.
• Jamie De Weer of Jamie Bakes is baking and decorating loads of cute cupcakes on January 17.
• Nick Miller, the chef of Harvest, is cooking on January 21, “Beyond a Reasonable Trout,” which also includes their famous bread pudding recipe. 
• The new Molly’s in Soulard, chefed by Mike Rellegert, visits on January 26.
• The new French restaurant, Brasserie by Niche, is showcased on January 31 by James Peisker.
• Christine Cradock, the chef of Big Sky, is braising a feast on February 22.
• Jim Jackson, the chef of Truffles, on March 8 is presenting four courses in ”The Jackson Four.”

What do chefs like to cook at home? We have a new series of classes featuring chefs making a home-cooked meal, “Dinner At My House.” Look for Greg Ziegenfuss of Butler’s Pantry on March 9 and Josh Galliano of Monarch on March 15.

Ruth Sparrow’s clever and funny titles are all over the newsletter, including:

• “The Voss is Back” on January 13. Yes, we are glad Jim Voss of Duff’s is back (after 4 years), especially since he is making his famous duck gumbo.
• “Greek Squad” on January 22 features Maria Sakellariou making classic Greek dishes such as spinach pie and egg-lemon soup.
• “The Scallop Poll” asks chef Bernard Pilon of Norwood Country Club about his favorite scallop dish on January 23.
• No hesistation, we love Phil Noe’s fish dishes in “Tuna Fey” on February 1.
• Don’t miss out on the rack of lamb in “Love Ewe” on February 13 (one of our ten different and sumptuous Valentine menus).
• Terry Black of Super Smokers returns with his Weber kettle and has “No Charred Feelings” on March 13.
• Crab and lobster galore in “Claw and Order” on March 19, taught by Cooking School Director Barb Nack.
• And Barb enjoys a fish fry with “TGI Fry-Day” on Friday, March 26.

With these fabulous titles, classes will fill up fast! Register Now.

Christie’s dessert menu includes pumpkin whoopie pie, chocolate-peanut butter pie, apple tarte Tatin, and sticky caramel pecan cake. We were wowed by her ice creams and sorbets, especially the pear sorbet and the caramelized-macadamia nut ice cream. But, hands-down, my favorite dessert was the “cookies and cream” — a cookie jar of cookies served with a shot of creme anglaise. She is making her own jam for the pinwheel and sandwich cookies, plus the cookie jar includes a yummy molasses cookie. She graciously shared the recipe for the buttery lemon-ginger shortbreads.

We are very fortunate that Christie continues to teach wonderful cooking classes at Kitchen Conservatory, not only on pastry, but also on some of her other favorite foods (pork, dim sum, duck confit).

Thank you to Sidney Street Cafe for a fun outing!

Sidney Street Lemon-Ginger Shortbread

• 9 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (use a microplane grater)
• 1/4 cup finely-chopped crystallized ginger

Mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix together the flours, ground ginger, salt, and zest. Fold into the butter mixture. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Press the dough into six 4.75-inch individual tart pans with removable bottoms. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and, using a fork, prick the cookies into six pie-shaped triangles. Then remove the cookies and cut into wedges while still warm.

They attended the four-part “Culinary Skills” class, which teaches how to cook restaurant-style dinners at home. Favorite dishes from the class include beef Wellington with bearnaise sauce, French onion soup, lobster bisque, seared scallops with beurre blanc, butternut squash risotto, Tuscan chicken, creme brulee, chocolate souffle, and much more.

The next session is on Tuesdays in January, starting on January 5 at 6 pm. The class is fully-participatory and limited to 12 people.

If you would like a simpler class, “The Basics of Cooking” teaches how to make quick and delicious home-cooked dinners from scratch, such as stir-fries, simple sauces, roasted meat, and homemade soups. The next session is on Thursdays in January, starting on January 7 at 6 pm. The class is fully-participatory and limited to 12 people.

To plant garlic, we separated the heads into cloves. We like the hard-neck variety of Red German. Each head has 6 to 8 cloves of differing sizes. We only plant the large cloves. So now we have a bucket of small cloves of garlic. Whole heads of garlic will keep for many months, but once the garlic is separated into cloves, the shelf-life is shorter. Time to make my favorite garlic dish! A customer once questioned me on this recipe. She said, ”surely, there is a typo, and you mean 1-2 cloves of garlic, not 12!” I answered, “I make scampi with 12 cloves of garlic, but you can use how ever many garlic cloves you want to.”

Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 12 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ pounds shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1 ½ pounds scallops, foot removed
• ½ cup white wine
• ¼ cup butter
• Bay leaf
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

In a large skillet or sauté pan, heat the oil. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and scallops, cooking for about 1 minute, just until opaque. Add the wine and season with salt and pepper. Stir in butter, then parsley. Serve with warm crusty bread.

I had the pleasure of taking your seafood and fish class last Saturday (October 17), and I wanted to thank Kitchen Conservatory for a great learning experience. I was amazed how much information was packed into one day of cooking. I learned skills and information that I will carry with me from now on, and that is very valuable to me as a novice cook. I particularly want to acknowledge and thank our instructor, Christie Saali. Her enthusiasm for cooking and teaching and her personality made the class into a truly enjoyable experience. I felt like I was in the kitchen of a friend learning how to cook. Overall, an outstanding experience, and I’m looking forward to taking additional “Day in the Kitchen” classes that you might offer in the future, such as classes covering beef, pork or grilling, to name a few. Thanks again.

Dave

Thank you, I am so glad you enjoyed the class! The five-hour “Day in the Kitchen” classes are some of our most popular and most memorable classes. Upcoming classes are “Chocolate Candies” on November 14 and “Thanksgiving IQ” on November 15.

Our Winter calender will post online on November 1 and will include these “Day in the Kitchen” classes: French Pastry, Beef, and Fish and Seafood. We will host the all-day grilling class when the weather is warmer.

Register Now.

Here is a favorite recipe from the “Fish and Seafood” class:

New Orleans-Style Barbeque Shrimp

2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons creole seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco to taste
Juice of one lemon
1/3 cup beer
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup butter

French bread for serving

Toss the shrimp with the creole seasoning. Preheat a large skillet, add the oil and sauté the garlic and rosemary briefly. Add the fish, then add the Worcestershire, Tabasco, and lemon juice. Deglaze the pan with the beer and let reduce to half of the original volume. Taste and adjust the seasonings. (Add more creole seasoning if desired.) Remove the pan from the heat. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon. Swirl in the butter. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve immediately with French bread.

For the creole seasoning:
4 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic or onion powder
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried basil

Mix together all of the ingredients. Makes ½ cup.

“Aren’t you ready to eat?”

“Yes, but the meat needs to rest!”

“It’s cooked, shouldn’t we eat it while it’s hot?”

“The meat will stay hot for a long time, but if you cut it now, you will lose the juices all over the cutting board. The meat needs to rest and relax so that the juices can retreat back into their cells.”

“But I’m hungry now!”

And so the argument goes on while I hide the knives in self-defense. Cooking a piece of meat perfectly includes allowing time for the meat to rest, which makes it easier to carve. Hot meat can only be thickly sliced, but cooler meat can be thinly sliced. Of course, the thinner the meat is sliced, the more tender it is in the mouth.

How long should meat rest? One rule is to rest for half of the cooking time (if the steak took 10 minutes to cook, it should rest for 5 minutes). Generally, I let the meat sit (placed away from the dog and other carnivores) for 5 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the roast. I always let Thanksgiving turkeys rest for 30 minutes.

The ten minutes lag time is a bonus for the cook: now you have time to make a delicious sauce for the meat. The pan in which the meat was cooked is full of flavor nuggets. Take the meat out of the pan (a hot pan will continue to cook the meat), deglaze with wine, add stock, add seasoning, and finish with a little butter and cream. Voila! A simple steak is transformed into Steak Diane.

Steak Diane

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine
8 steaks (filet, ribeye, strip, or boneless sirloin)
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup brandy
2 cups veal or beef stock
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper

Heat the oil and sauté the mushrooms on high heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Add the red wine, bring to a boil, and reduce by half. Set aside. Season the meat with salt and pepper. In another skillet, heat the oil and brown the steaks on both sides. Remove and let rest. Add the butter to the pan and saute the shallots for a minute. Add the brandy and flame. Add the stock and cook until reduced by half. Add the mushroom, mustard, and cream. Check the seasonings and serve with the steak.

Chocolate Ice Cream

• 4 cups half-and-half
• 8 egg yolks
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• ¼ cup cocoa powder (preferably Valrhona)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate

Heat the cream. Whisk together the yolks, salt, espresso powder, cocoa, and sugar until thick and ribbony. Pour a little of the hot cream into the yolk mixture to temper, whisking constantly. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the cream and cook on medium-high heat until thickened, but do not boil. (The temperature is 180). Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and chocolate. Cool. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions.