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!

Dixie Enjoys Life And Rosie Makes An Omelet.

Dixie loves to have her ears rubbed. Here's Youngest Hawthorne giving her a little slice of heaven. And that's Dixie moaning throughout.

Whenever Dixie comes downstairs in the morning she's always very happy to start her day. Usually this entails running to her toy basket and grabbing one of her stuffed animals to play with. I guess she decided Mr. Squirrel needed a bath this morning. Usually she puts Ducky in her water bowl.

I felt like making a nice omelet today for breakfast.

Three eggs and a little bit of cream and salt and pepper.

Venison sausage Mr. Hawthorne and I had made a few months ago. Even though we added extra fat to the sausage, it's still quite lean and needed a bit of butter.

My additions to the omelet: Serrano pepper Roasted red pepper Red onion Cilantro Whenever I open a jar of roasted peppers, I have to do a bunch of recipes using the peppers since they get mold on them quickly and I HATE wasting anything.

The additions went into the egg mixture along with some corn salsa.

And cheese.

And cilantro.

Ta daaaaa!

Help, I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up.

Thank you, Hairball, of Hairballs on the Crapet of Life for your post about old commercials. Oooh lookie. I had a typo, but I think I'll just leave it in. I remember all of them, but you left out one of my favorite commercials from years ago.

Cooking Class At The North Carolina Aquarium - The Flying Fish.

On Monday, Mr. Hawthorne, Glowria, and I headed down to Manteo and met Xmaskatie for the second in a series of cooking classes at the North Carolina Aquarium Monday's demonstration was by Chefs Steve Whitley and Rob Matis of The Flying Fish Cafe. Our first dish was Charred Raw Tuna Nachos. The yellowfin tuna was coated with freshly ground peppercorns and seared in a pan for about 30 seconds on each side. It was then set aside to cool. A Wasabi cream was made by combining heavy cream and wasabi powder. A soy sauce reduction was made by bringing soy sauce to a rolling boil, lowering the heat, and cooking until the sauce was reduced to 2/3 and had the consistency of syrup. A simple salsa completed the dish- 3/4 cup chopped fresh pineapple and 1/4 cup pickled ginger.

To assemble, top fried wontons with Seaweed salad. Now when I heard we were having Seaweed salad I thought, "Great, I've always wanted to try Seaweed salad." Now that I've tried it, I won't have to eat it again. Two slices of the tuna went on top of the seaweed, then the chef drizzled with the soy reduction and wasabi cream, finishing with the salsa.

If you notice, I got very little soy reduction and what tiny bit of wasabi was there was undiscernible. Sniff. Sniff.

The pineapple and pickled ginger was very nice and light. I'll be using that salsa in some future dish. And what, you ask, does Seaweed salad taste like? It tastes just like what you would imagine. Like seaweed with sesame oil, red chili flakes, and sesame seeds. Oh. Small voice. I don't like raw tuna. Xmaskatie and I were the only ones in the class who didn't eat their seaweed. And I love fried wontons. But didn't love these. Kind of stale tasting to me. Next up was a lovely Roasted Corn Bisque with Lump Crabmeat. Garlic and onions were sauteed in a pan with oil until browned. The frozen corn was then added and roasted for about 10 minutes. ETA (Because I just remembered.): White wine was involved. Probably to deglaze the pan here. The corn mixture was placed in a blender with a Chipotle pepper which is a smoked jalapeno. ETA (Because Xmaskatie told me to): Don't fill the blender with hot liquid. You will have a nasty mess. Just process a little bit at a time. Heavy cream and chicken stock were heated in another pot until boiling. The corn, garlic, and onion mixture was added to the cream and stock and simmered for thirty minutes. The starch from the corn will thicken the bisque. The bisque was then strained, the crab meat was added to the cups, and the hot bisque poured over top.

Wow. This was excellent. Sweet. Rich. While I'm at it, thick and delicious, too. I'll definitely be making this.

You don't have to use crab meat with this. I'll probably make it with shrimp since I have pounds of it in my freezer.

Next on the menu was Pistachio Crusted Rockfish with Honey Butter over Mixed Greens. Rockfish, also known as striped bass, was cut into fillets and dipped in buttermilk first then a mixture of ground pistachios, flour, and salt and pepper. (1 part pistachios/3 parts flour) The fish was fried in oil until golden brown. It was served with a honey butter sauce drizzled over top (1 part honey/2 parts butter) on a bed of mixed greens. Swiss chard was finely chopped and sauteed in butter, then arugula was added, and finally spinach was added. Let the greens cook down until wilted then add in some apple cider vinegar.

I have to say, they gave us nice sized portions.

My fish was perfectly cooked - moist, light, flaky. The honey over top was delicious and would have complemented the vinegar very nicely, but the chefs forgot to bring the butter, and combined the honey with oil and left out the vinegar. But I can imagine what it would taste like. I've fried pistachio-encrusted fillets before and I love the flavor. Honey and butter would have put this over the top. And I always like vinegar on my greens. Very good presentation. And really good food. Last year, I came away from Flying Fish's presentation with a wonderful dish I've made numerous times, always to rave reviews - their seared scallops sitting on a parmesan crisp atop a bed of risotto with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. and with basil pesto and caramelized onions on top. Now I have the roasted corn bisque and the pistachio rockfish with honey butter on top of mixed greens. This alone is worth it.

Mr. Hawthorne And His Snuggie.

You've all probably seen this commercial about the snuggie. Whoot! I found the whole commercial. And then I found this. It's one of the cheesier commercials I've had the pleasure to see. I love the clip of the sports fans at the big game looking like total dorks in their snuggies. Anyways, when I first saw this commercial, I immediately thought of my brother-in-law, Trouser Snake, as he likes to be called. Whenever he and Sister Hawthorne visit he spends his time here wrapped up in his winter coat with a hat on while I'm walking around comfortable in a short sleeved T shirt. So, I ordered a snuggie for Trouser Snake. And Sister Hawthorne, I'll be sending it as soon as I can. I received several snuggies and Mr. Hawthorne enjoys his very much. In fact, most evenings, you will find Mr. Hawthorne like this.