I began my last class today. Kind of the culmination of my cooking classes. . . . . A master class in Flavor! It meets Monday - Friday this week from 12:30 - 2:30. Today was really fun. First we tasted 5 different varieties of Jelly Belly jelly beans and tried to guess what they were. It was harder than you might imagine. Especially the "spicy mango" one. One was "buttered popcorn."
Then we each had a bowl with dried cranberries, corn, and tomatoes. We tasted each and told how many different flavors or textures we experienced. There was an aroma test of 6 different smells. . . .we couldn't tell by looking what we were smelling. There was vanilla, smoked paprika ( got that one thanks to my chicken chili recipe!), almond extract, bitters (never had any experience with this), mint, and one other I can't remember.
Lastly, we tasted 5 different sweeteners and guessed which was which. . . sugar, Splenda, honey, maple syrup and corn syrup.
At the end of the class ( literally the last 10 minutes) she whipped up the greatest salad made with watermelon, feta cheese, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of olive oil, and red onions. It was superb. She didn't measure anything. . . . just threw it together. Such an interesting combination of tastes that really worked well together.
The purpose of the class is to free us up to create our own recipes while we are cooking. I'm proud to say I already do this alot. But as the week goes by we will be cooking and making up recipes. The chef for this class is Lynn Novo, of Comfort Sisters in Naples, Florida. She was the teacher for my whole foods class and my knife skills class. She is a great teacher.
Big rain storm tonight while I was in a cabaret concert at the theater. It's quite cool tonight. Great sleeping weather. Fall is in the air!
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