Cooking Class #3 At The North Carolina Aquarium.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hawthorne drove Xmaskatie, Glowria, and me down to Manteo for another cooking class at the North Carolina Aquarium. I'm sure it was great fun for him since the ladies had all had a few drinks before heading out and he was the designated rooster driving a bunch of highly entertaining cackling hens to Manteo.

And thanks to Glowria for coming in to tell me about the sunset.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program. Our instructor last night was Chef Pok Choeichom of the Outer Banks Brewing Station. Chef Pok grew up in the restaurant business. His family owns the Thai Room restaurant in Kill Devil Hills, so he was put to work in the kitchen at a very young age. "No, you cannot go to the beach until you fill that 5 gallon bucket up with peeled shrimp," he was told. So Pok got a large bowl, turned it upside down in the bucket, peeled his shrimp in record time, then hit the beaches.

Chef Pok prepared rockfish fillets with lots of flavors. I'll just give you his recipe here: Ingredients: 4 rockfish fillets 6 red potatoes (Cooked 1/2 way ahead of time -medium boil 10-12 minutes.) 1/2 red onion (sliced) 5 artichoke hearts (cut in half) 10 asparagus spears (blanched) 1/2 cup sliced roasted red pepper 16 Kalamata olives 1/2 cup chicken broth 2 TB capers 2 TB chopped flat leaf parsley 1 tsp fresh grated lemon zest 2 TB extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper to taste Gremolata: (Make ahead of time) 2 TB chopped flat leaf parsley 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp fresh grated lemon zest Mix ingredients in small bow and set aside for later. Heat saute pan with 3 TB vegetable oil, NOT extra virgin olive oil. When slight smoke emits from pan, the oil is hot enough to sear. Season rockfish with salt and pepper and carefully place in saute pan, skin side down. When the fish is light brown and crispy, carefully flip over and reduce heat to medium low. Remove from pan. While fish finishes, heat another saute pan with oil until slight smoke emits. Brown one side of sliced potatoes. Turn potatoes over to brown the other side and add red onions, asparagus (cut into 1 inch pieces), roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives, artichokes, and salt and pepper to taste. In the fish saute pan, prepare the sauce by bringing chicken broth to a rolling boil. Then add capers, extra virgin olive oil, and the gremolata. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

I enjoyed this meal.

I liked all the different flavors and textures.

And of course, I luvs me some rockfish.

While we were eating, Chef Pok was preparing a brown butter, caper, and parsley sauce. I had already finished my fish when he came around and put a few spoonfuls on our plates. But that's fine, because I could slurp up the butter with nothing distracting me from the buttery goodness. Nothing better than a brown butter sauce.

Remember Mr. Crabbie?

Since this class was after hours at the aquarium, Mr. Crabbie was deflated. Hey ... it's a soft shell!