A New Cooking Class at the North Carolina Aquarium.

Today's cooking class was very enjoyable.
Tom Luzupone, director of operations at Stripers Bar and Grille,
conducted the demonstration.
The food was quite good, plus there was a lot of it so we got to bring home extras.

Our Menu:

Lobster Bisque
Stripers Tortilla Crusted Crab Cakes with Tartar Sauce
Grilled Mahi Mahi Enchilada
with
Queso Sauce, guacamole, sour cream, and Pico de Gallo
Gambas al Ajillo (sauteed shrimp)
Chocolate Mousse


First, the Lobster Bisque.

The chef started with:
1 lb. yellow onions, shredded
4 stalks celery, shredded
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
(Process in food processor.)
Melt 1/2 lb. butter and add above ingredients on medium heat until veggies are soft.
He then added 1 lb. pureed lobster meat, but when I make this
I'd prefer nice chunks of sweet lobster meat.
Actually his lobster meat comes to the restaurant already cooked and frozen in 1 pound packages, 24 to the case, and obviously quite expensive.
Stir and cook for about 10 minutes.
Next, the chef added something he calls lobster base (2 oz.), which I can buy from him at his restaurant.
I'm not exactly sure what's in it, but I gathered it was like a powdered lobster essence.
I imagine I could somewhat duplicate it when I cook my lobsters and make a lobster stock with the lobster shells and probably some shrimp shells
with some aromatic vegetables added to the mix.
3 quarts heavy cream went in next.
And 3 cups cold water. (Place one cup in each heavy cream container
and swirl to remove leftover cream.)
Then 1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature, to thicken.
He added 2 tsp. white pepper, but I like to see my pepper, so I'll use black.
And finally, 1 tsp. cayenne pepper.

Bring to a boil, stirring often, for 3 minutes.

Yield: 1 1/2 gallons

This was buttery, rich, and quite good.
Like I said before, I would have cooked my own lobster and used nice chunks of lobster meat.
And maybe I'll add a splash of sherry for good measure.

And he recommended Westminster brand oyster crackers.


Next, Stripers' Tortilla Crusted Crab Cakes

Since crab meat is out of season now, the chef used pasteurized crab meat, recommending Phillips brand. I wouldn't bother making it with pasteurized crab meat. Best to wait until crabs are in season and use fresh.

First he mixed the wet ingredients:

1 egg
2 TB mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Then he added "J.O. spice" which he described as kind of like Old Bay Seasoning.

Next, he carefully added 1 pound of crab meat to the mixture.

Finally he added 1/4 to 1/2 cup panko crab meat.

Let mixture set at least 1/2 hour in the fridge so the bread crumbs absorb the liquid and tighten the crab meat mixture up.

He then pulverized non-salted white corn tortilla chips and coated the cakes with the chips.

He sauteed some of the crab cakes in extra virgin olive oil over medium heat.
The rest, he baked with oil drizzled over them in an oiled tray for 12 minutes in a 500 degree oven, turning over 1/2 way through cooking.

These were served with his Tartar Sauce.

2 cups mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 lemon juice
1/2 sweet pickle relish
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 tsp white pepper

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate before serving.

Like I've said, I prefer to see my pepper so I use black.
The red onion was a nice touch. I usually use green onions.
And I like dill pickles with my tartar sauce.

This crabcake is the baked one.

And this is the sauteed one.
And of course I preferred the sauteed crab cake to the baked cake.

They were good, but I prefer crab cakes without the tortillas.
And yeah, Mr. Hawthorne and I make better crab cakes.

Our third dish was Grilled Mahi Mahi Enchilada with Queso suace, guacamole, sour cream, and Pico de Gallo.

The chef had already grilled the mahi at his restaurant.
He put slices of mahi inside a tortilla, sprinkled some shredded cheese on it, then rolled it up.

Queso

This recipe yields 1 gallon, so you can cut it back however you want.

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
3 pounds Velveeta
1 qt. heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
2 TB cumin
2 TB chili powder
1 TB cayenne pepper
1 TB Kosher salt
1 TB coarse grind black pepper

Place all ingredients in pot and bring to a slow melt.


Guacamole

1 container avocado pulp (2 lbs)
1/2 cup Pico de Gallo

Now, the chef gets 2 pound bags of avocado pulp in sealed vacuumed packages.
I don't know where one could find such a thing, plus I don't need 2 pounds of avocados,
so just adjust the recipe.


Pico de Gallo

1 lb. Roma tomatoes, chopped small
4 oz. red onion, chopped small
1 oz. jalapeno, chopped fine
1 oz. scallion, chopped fine
1/2 cup cilantro
1.2 cup lime juice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cracked black pepper

Yield: 1 quart.

I'll actually be buying some Velveeta to make the sauce.
It would be great for dipping.

Our fourth dish was Gambas al Ajillo, or to you and me, Sauteed Shrimp.

He started with a very hot pan, then added 1 part Extra Virgin Olive Oil to almost smoking.
Then he added 1 part unsalted butter.

Next he added minced garlic and the shrimp.

We asked him why the garlic didn't burn, because normally, I would add garlic near the end.
He said it was because his pan was the "proper temperature."

Next, he added the salt, the pepper, and red pepper flakes.
Then he deglazed the pan with Fume Blanc and served the shrimp.
He suggested serving it with a nice slice of bread to sop up the sauce with.

We really liked the shrimp. The sauce was quite good. The chef suggested if you wanted it a bit spicier to put the red pepper flakes in at the beginning when you put in the garlic.
I wanted to lick the leftover sauce off my plate, but I restrained myself.

Lastly, for dessert, we had Chocolate Mousse.

4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 oz flavoring (liquor, coffee, etc.)
12 oz. chocolate, bittersweet, melted, room temperature

Place yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl and whip until egg yolks are light in color and ribbon-like. With mixer on low speed, slowly add the melted chocolate. Fully incorporate and add any flavoring. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff. In another bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Alternate folding the egg whites and heavy cream into the chocolate mixture.

Now, if you like chocolate, you'd love this. He made it right on the spot and served it, but I think it would be better chilled.
Of course, Mr. Hawthorne had to make the comment about what it looks like, but that didn't stop him from scarfing down all of his and most of mine.

All in all, this was some good eats.
Each class has been $20 and I know of no restaurant we could have gone to and gotten everything we had to eat today for that price. Plus we got to take some home.

Now, here's the sad, sad part for Rosie.
At the end, I fought the crowd trying to fill their styrofoam cups with lobster bisque and their styrofoam containers with shrimp and mahi enchiladas. Quite proud of myself and my take of the spoils, I headed back to my table and seeing xmaskatie with no cup of soup, asked her why. She said they were out of the bisque. "No, " I say, "there's plenty up there. I was just there." Xmaskatie shook her head and looked at me sadly, like I'm the poor, pitied relation. Then she opened my cup of, not lobster bisque, which I thought I had, but Queso sauce.
I had used the last of the lobster bisque on my enchilada.
Next time, I should wear my glasses.

Oh Great. We Had To Eat Out Twice In A Row. Ugh.

This morning, Mr. Hawthorne and I took off to Manteo, to the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (tags and crap bureau - to be distinguished from the license bureau - in a totally different place - the SAME DAMN BUREAU THAT MADE ME CHANGE MY FUCKING NAME BACK IN JANUARY WHEN I WENT TO RENEW MY LICENSE EVEN THOUGH THE IRS IS COOL WITH MY NAME. Sorry, didn't mean to yell. But it just frosts my butt.)
Gee, you'd think they'd put these two offices in the same building with maybe the same phone number so that normal people could actually get them on the phone.
If you ever call either number, you get a busy signal.
If you finally get through,
you find they have lunch from 12:30-1:30 and on certain random days, from 1:00 to 3:00.

Mr. H. and I finally get to the License part of the NC-DMV. It's in a PHARMACY, and
Mr. H. is 7th in LINE.
I browse the pharmacy.
I read the latest People. Crapola.
The pharmacy has a bunch of crappy shit and shitty crap.

Finally, after waiting for what seems forever, Mr. Hawthorne gets to the head of the class.
Mr. H: "I need a license tag. Here's the Title."
Mz. DMV: "Great. I need the bill of sale."
Mr. H: "Huh? Isn't that in there?"
Mz. DMV: "NO."

Mr. H looks sadly at me, like it's my fault.
HEY, had I known what he didn't, I would have told him to bring the bill of sale.
How else do you pay the tax?
(Also, you need proof of insurance, which the lady didn't bother to tell us. Mr. H. called the DMV back and found out that little nugget. Else, we would've wasted another trip and had more bad food and still have no tags.)

So, we left Manteo, tagless.
A twenty-mile wasted trip, forty miles round trip, with gas at $3.99/gallon.
Aaaaaaaaannnnnnd ...........we decide to go to lunch.
Might as well spend some more money.


Now ... One of the best places to eat on the Outer Banks is Darrell's in Manteo.
Darrell's always has great service and consistent, wonderful food.
We love it.
The seafood is perfectly fried.
Good hush puppies and I don't generally even like hush puppies.

BUT, did we go to Darrell's?
NOOOOOO!


Stripers was one of the restaurants that came to one of the NC Aquarium Cooking Classes.
And had one of the best presentations and food.

We've been there 3 times already, and each time I had a $10 coupon. Thank God.
So, we went to Stripers.

If you recall, yesterday Mr. H. and I were up in Currituck at Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mr. H. was jonesin' for the HOUSE salad, and instead he got the SIDE salad,
and bitched and moaned for 2 hours plus about it.

So, today, we're stuck in Manteo with nothing to show, because he didn't bring the bill of sale, and it's lunchtime.
"Well, since it was so BAD yesterday,
why DON'T we REPEAT it TODAY?"
"Well, sure. LET'S!!!"

OK, the salads arrive.
They're nice to look at and quite tasty.

We both had the Chimmy-Churrie-Blue Cheese, and the Blue Cheese is good, although I don't know what the chimmy-churrie is about it. And I don't know how to spell Chimmie Churry.
I also asked to try the Tequila Lime Caesar dressing, in which I could taste no tequila nor lime, only a kind of heavy sweet flavor in the dressing which I didn't care for much at all.

Mr. Hawthorne got the soup and sandwich.
A seafood chowder and a grilled tuna fish salad sandwich.

Oh, by the way, see those croutons piled on top of the chowder, same as the ones on the salad?
They were stale.

Now, I tasted his bisque/chowder.
The flavor was sublime.
Absolutely delicious.
But, WHERE'S THE SEAFOOD?"
Way too many taters.
And the potatoes were too big.
And when I took this pic, Mr. H. had already eaten over half the taters in the cup.
Those are the uneaten taters on the side of the plate that he had picked out.

Oh. The tuna salad.
SO SALTY.
Couldn't eat it.

Now, here's my entree.

And can I just tell you?
I ALWAYS have entree envy.
Usually, I'll see somebody else in the restaurant having what I wished I'd ordered instead of what I actually did.

Oh Crappola.
I thought I ordered a Mahi Mahi Quesadilla.
I KNOW I did.

Yes. Yes. I did.
So, what is this?

Sadly, this is the mahi mahi quesadilla.

Mahi mahi, or dolphin fish, is a very delicate fish.
Why would anyone do this to it?
And those chunks of protein could be anything, hell, that could be skunk fritters in there for all I know, since the sauce overpowered whatever you could possibly put in there.


What happened to the dolphin fish was GodAwful.

It was overpowered with CRAP.

The sauce on the very top wasn't bad, just too little of it.
It was a Habanero Ranch dressing, in which I tasted no habanero but did taste a slight mustard flavor. Not bad.

The red sauce on the inside.
That was something different altogether.
Had I wanted a Hooters-style Buffalo Wings sauce (which I didn't)
I would've gone to Hooters (over my dead body).
It was very vinegary and peppery and unpalatably SALTY.
Atrocious.

Oh, the service sucked too.
Slow, inattentive, and no refills for the drinks.
Bitch never checked on us.
See the empty glasses?
And we really needed something to drink since we'd been sitting at a salt lick
for what seemed forever.

I tasted one triangle of the quesadilla, moving stuff around on my plate, trying it with the mushy tomatoes and green onions and huge mound of sour cream.
Mr. Hawthorne tried it too.
It was quite horrible.

Unfortunately, we still have one more $10 coupon, so we'll try one more time.

Remember what Mr. Hawthorne said yesterday about the chef checking every plate that came back from the tables to see whether his food was eaten or not?
Well, do you think they'd get a clue with my sending back 3/4 of my meal and Mr. Hawthorne sending back a pile of potato chunks picked out of his chowder?

While we waited interminably for the waitress to come back, Mr. H. came up with a wonderful idea. He suggested we bring little toothpicks with flags glued to them on which we can write criticisms and stick them into the food for anyone who notices to read.
"Too many GD potatoes!"
"If I'd wanted potato soup, I would've ordered it."
"This shit is too friggin' salty."
"Tastes like crap."
"Salad was good. That's why there's NONE left.

Oh, and the funniest thing:
When we finally got the waitress's attention and asked for the bill,
Mr. H. started talking to her.
We told her about the saltiness of both his tuna and my mahi mahi and about all the potatoes as fillers in his chowder and she said she'd mention it to the apparently tastebudless "chef."
Then he added, "You know, we're restaurant critics and this will be on the Internet."
I don't think she was impressed.
But it was still quite funny.
I think Mr. Hawthorne is letting my blog go to his head.

The Hawthornes Attend Cooking Class At The North Carolina Aquarium.

The Hawthornes were in Manteo last week

for another class in the seafood series

offered by the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island.

Our class was conducted by Chef Alfredo Landazuri

of Stripers Bar and Grille in Manteo.

And it was quite an enjoyable class.

Chef Landazuri is FUN!

He's from Peru,

so I was thinking we might be having guinea pigs,

but this is a seafood class.

I once watched Anthony Bourdain

eat guinea pigs in Peru,

so that's where I was coming from.

Our first dish was a shrimp scampi.

Be sure to serve it with some nice toast

to sop up every bit of that delicious sauce.

The shrimp were sautéed in oil

with diced red pepper and minced garlic and shallots.

Pull the shrimp out before they're done

to make the sauce.

Add in lemon juice and white wine

and let the mixture reduce a bit. 

Then add butter

and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add chopped parsley to sauce.

Stir in more butter.

Add some heavy cream in and more butter.

Add the shrimp back in

and serve over toast.

Luckily for me,

Mr. Hawthorne is still not eating bread,

so I got his toast too.

I didn't want to miss a drop of that sauce.

Our next dish was shrimp and grits.

This recipe serves four people.

20 shrimp, peeled (5 per person)

3/4 cup diced red pepper

4 oz. diced shallots

2 oz. minced garlic

3 oz butter

2 oz green onions

1/2 diced country ham

Kosher salt

black pepper

1/2 cup sherry

1/2 quart heavy cream

Sauté shrimp halfway in hot oil.

Pull out the shrimp and let rest while you finish the sauce.

In the same pan, add butter, red pepper, 

green onion, and ham and cook about five minutes.

Add garlic and shallots.

Deglaze with sherry and add in heavy cream.

Allow sauce to reduce on medium high heat for about ten minutes,

stirring occasionally.

When sauce is ready, add shrimp and heat through.

Serve over stone ground grits.

Chef Landazuri cooked 1 part grits in 4 parts liquid -

2 parts cream, 1 part water, and 1 part chicken stock.

Bring liquid to boil and add grits.

Cook about 30-40 minutes.

Add in Parmesan cheese and for a special nuance,

pour in a little truffle oil.

Go easy on the truffle oil.

Just a few drops - to taste.

Give it a little parsley and chive love.

Another good class with good food.
Creamy grits.
Shrimp.
Sherry.
Country ham.
It's all there.

The turtles are always happy to see me.

And I'm always happy to see the otters.

You know how I love my otters.
They're always happy to see me!

Rosie's Meals For The Past Few Days.

OK. Rosie's BACK.
With good food.

Let's Start With Breakfast.

Youngest Hawthorne likes smoothies for breakfast.

I got mangoes and kiwis on sale at Harris Teeter the other day.
YH likes pineapple too.


I added some ice, some milk, a tiny bit of sugar, did it up in the Magic Bullet and WALLAH!
A Mango/pineapple/kiwi smoothie for Thursday's breakfast.
YH loved it.

The next morning, YH wanted another smoothie.
Variation on a theme.

Mangoes, kiwis, and peaches.
And yes, they're canned.
So I semi-Ho'd it.
Shoot me.

Here's the mango/kiwi/peach smoothie for Friday's breakfast.
I just added some milk, a tiny bit of sugar, and ice.
Rev up the Magic Bullet
and there you have it.


ON TO LUNCH!

Mr. Hawthorne and I went to Harris Teeter the other day and they had whole tenderloins on sale for $8.99/lb.

So, Mr. H. started slicing.


I bought this nifty little gadget for Mr. Hawthorne's Christmas present 2 years ago.
He certainly liked it better then the toilet seat he got this past year.
We always buy all our meat on sale and in bulk,
so this vacuum packer/food saver comes in very handy.


Here's a tip: Roll up a bit of paper towel and place it in front of the meat.
When you start vacuuming, the paper towel soaks up the blood so it doesn't get into the machine.

Thusly.


So, basically, we got 14 steaks and the heel.
We saved two steaks for lunch and the heel for stir fry later.
The rest go in the deep freeze.


So here's Thursday's lunch.


I started off with sliced carrots and chopped dill.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my new stove.
I love it so much, I think I'm gonna marry it.

Carrots on the left, steaks on the right, but I guess you could figure that out.

Turned the steaks over after 3 minutes.

After sauteeing the carrots, I added some orange juice.

Add some fresh dill.


Thursday's Lunch:
Rare fillet mignon (or as Sandy calls it Flay mingnong) , dilly carrots,
and baked potato with leftover queso sauce:
Scroll way down.

Queso

This recipe yields 1 gallon, so you can cut it back however you want.

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
3 pounds Velveeta
1 qt. heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
2 TB cumin
2 TB chili powder
1 TB cayenne pepper
1 TB Kosher salt
1 TB coarse grind black pepper

Place all ingredients in pot and bring to a slow melt.

Delicious.

Now, we're shootin' for Thursday's Dinner.

This is the very first asparagus out of my garden.
Ladies and gentlemen, spring has definitely sprung!

Mr. Hawthorne thawed out flounder fillets last night.

I have my one little asparagus, some celery, cucumber, and dill.

I topped the flounder fillets with chopped celery, cucumber, dill, butter and some wine.

A few lime slices and we're good to go.

Mr. Hawthorne baked the flounder at 350 degrees about 15 minutes.
He then took the leftover lobster bisque
from the cooking class from Stripers on Tuesday and topped the flounder with it.
I know, it looks like a mess, but it tasted GOOOOOOD.
And that was Thursday's dindin.


My Friday Lunch.

My body was craving some greens and orange today, so I steamed some spinach and broccoli and sauteed some carrots.
Look at the steam wafting off.
Oh, this hit the spot.
Just every now and then, your body TELLS you what it needs. Sometimes it needs red meat, sometimes it needs heavy greens. Sometimes, it just needs some bad ass fried shit.
I listen to my body.

On To Friday's Dinner.

Here's my mise en place.

From top right on the cutting board, clockwise, I have baby corn, leftover snow peas, sliced onions, button mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, carrot, green onions, celery, and broccoli.
Bottom cutting board has the heel of the tender loin.

I decided to get another fillet out, since the heel had a lot of fat and fiber in it.
Here, I'm scraping the silver skin off of the fillet.

Now, everything is ready to pop into the wok.

I have green onions ready to be placed on top of my stir fry and the pretty sliced carrots waiting to go into the stir fry.

Tenderloin slices.

Next, throw some rice in a pot.

Throw some button mushrooms into the wok.

Add carrots and celery.



Then add in the broccoli, onions, corn, and peppers.
Oh, I forgot, I added in some sliced garlic at each step.

This is really purty.

I added a cornstarch slurry.

Then I added some beef stock in.
I love the steam.

This wok is beautiful.

Here's my finished dish. With all the wokked stuff, the rice, and the sliced green onions.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best, so I just put in all three.

I'm terribly sorry that I've neglected my readers for the past 3 days, but golly, I have a life outside of cyberspace and blogging.