Back in School

I am back in school.

That sounds grander than it really is. I've only signed up to take one class, and that at our local community college. But it is for credit, it meets weekly for an entire semester, and there are EXAMS!
The class I signed up to take is called Food and Wine Seminar, and is designed especially for the food and wine hobbyist. It is taught by faculty of the Iowa Culinary Institute, but does not apply toward a degree from that well-respected institution. It was advertised in our newspaper this summer, and my daughters encouraged me to sign up for it. They were concerned that after they both went off to college, I would be at a loss for what to do with myself and an empty nest.

So I had to apply for admission and be accepted as a part time student at the college, which I thought was kind of funny. At least I didn't have to take any entrance exams! I was assigned a student ID and a campus email, which I much remind myself to check occasionally.

The first class met this past week, for 3 hours on Wednesday evening. As I expected, most of the 60 other students are of my age and station in life, with some variation on both sides in the age area. It is not a hands-on class, as we do not have the kitchen safety and sanitation prerequisites completed for actual cooking. So we sit at tables and watch the chef do his thing; this is projected onto various big screen TVs which zoom in on his hands and utensils.

Chef Robert Dowie demonstrated how to make a shrimp stock, imparting knowledge and techniques offhandedly as he went along. He talked about knives (high carbon stainless steel are best), sharpening knives, color coding your cutting boards by type of food to limit contamination (such a great idea!), and the concept of Stocks. I learned about Mirepoix, which is the base of every type of stock, consisting of half onion, and one quarter each celery and carrots. He demonstrated making a sachet for herbs and peppercorns out of cheesecloth, which will simmer with the veggies and whatever bones you decide to use. In this case, he used shrimp shells he had frozen from past shrimp recipes (how many times have I thrown those stinky things away?!) for the flavoring. Because it takes only about 30 minutes to extract the flavor from the shells, he chopped the vegetables very finely, demonstrating various types of dice, mince, julienne and other knife techniques. For a poultry or beef stock, the vegetables can stay in larger pieces because they have to simmer longer. He said sometimes they will let beef bones simmer for about 24 hours.

While the stock was simmering, another instructor, Paul Gospodarczyk, demonstrated the proper method for tasting and describing red wine. He is a Sommelier and wine scientist and directs the eonology (wine science) program at the culinary institute. His role in the class is to teach us how to pair different kinds of wine with food, based on flavor and texture. We were instructed to taste the unidentified red wine given to us, then spit it out in the accompanying "spit cup." He even showed us how to properly spit so as not to embarrass ourselves or gross out our classmates. Then he called on some of the other students who are in the wine science program to describe what they were tasting. It was impressive to listen to all the dimensions they describe when looking at and tasting a small amount of wine. Incidentally, we were tasting a 2007 Pinot Noir from Oregon.

After that flavorful venture, we were given samples of the shrimp stock, which was smelling so good by then. The chef had strained it through a cheesecloth-lined funnel shaped strainer called a chinois, which resulted in it being clear and smooth. It was fragrant, silky and subtly shrimpy.

Our homework for the first week is to write a letter to the instructors about what we want to get out of the class, to taste a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc white wine and describe what we taste, and to make a stock of some sort. We were advised to freeze some of the stock to use for future homework assignments. That's the most fun homework I've ever had assigned to me!

I'm off to roast one of the organic chickens in my freezer, in order to acquire a carcass to use for a chicken stock. Looks like we'll be having a chicken dish for dinner, along with some of the New Zealand wine I'm supposed to try. Sounds pretty good for a Friday night dinner!