By Juliet Wittman – Farm to Fork Student

I knew how to make pastry dough—savory and sweet—before attending the first Farm to Fork class. And I’d cooked with fruit. So I was fairly blasé about the dessert listed in our book: peach and cherry galettes with rosemary cream. What I didn’t know was how bright sour cherries and sweet peaches tasted together, and how delicious when combined with lemon zest and a touch of sugar. As for the crust: it was a revelation—flaky, tender, sprinkled with sugar crystals, it could have served as dessert all on its own. The rosemary cream added a deeper, unexpectedly woodsy note. None of this was accidental: a combination of simplicity and sophistication defines Chef Michael Montgomery’s (the Farm to Fork Chef Instructor) approach to food and teaching.

Then there was the cultured butter. I’d read about cultured butter, but I didn’t really know how it differed from any other butter, and I couldn’t figure out why Chef Michael was so enthusiastic about it. We began the morning by passing two large jars of cream around the table, shaking them until the solids and buttermilk separated, kneading the solids with our hands. The feeling was wonderfully primal, and the taste amazing.
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Here’s what CSR has learned from our first Win a Date contest we held last week: LOTS of our home cooks need a night out with their honey. After reading all of the comments that came in about why YOU need a Dinner Date Cooking Class for two, we have chosen the winner to be Deborah! In Deborah’s entry she wrote, “After a quick evening of throwing together dinner, baths, practicing school work, walking the dog, feeding the cats, brushing teeth and convincing our two year old that he really does need to sleep tonight…we’re spent. We need to re-connect, but the only time left that we have would be best spent sleeping so we can re-energize for another day full of rushing out the door in the morning, to get to work, to get home, to start again.”

Thanks to all of our fans and readers who entered in our Win a Date Contest! All of your comments were deserving of a date – and it was hard to pick just one winner. Between your careers, kids, yard work, wedding planning, and pets – CSR now knows how busy your lives are. Thanks for sharing a snippet of your life with CSR. Hopefully, we’ll have the chance to see all of you the kitchen soon. Congratulations to Deborah on winning a hands-on cooking night out with her hubby this Friday!

We have some very exciting news to share! CSR is delighted to announce it has new ownership. We have been purchased by Triumph Higher Education Group. This change in ownership positions CSR for growth while offering greater level of services, education and support for our students and customers.

Karen Barela, COO, will remain at the helm and is looking forward to leading CSR into a new era. CSR’s founder, Joan Brett, will remain involved as a consultant. Triumph’s mission, aided by Brett, will be to use CSR as a model for Triumph’s acquisition and development of other culinary schools nationwide.

As always, we are committed to the continuous support and education of our students. We will continue to offer the same cooking classes on a regular basis, honor gift certificates, and blog about exciting news in the kitchen. You’ll continue to see Sharon Halkovics, Director of Home Cook Classes around the school, as well the same friendly faces at CSR. We’re excited about this new transition – and can’t wait to see where it takes us.

To read more about the acquisition, click here.

What better way to spend a Friday night than with friends? The only thing that would make it better is cooking with friends. Register for CSR’s Girls Night Out cooking class, Friday, June 4^th, and enjoy the night roasting, chopping, and churning your way to a delicious meal shared with the ‘gals’.  At night’s end you’ll enjoy your meal with a glass of wine and whisk yourself out with door without a thought of clean up (we do it for you). Here’s a peek at the menu: Creamy Carrot Soup with Dill Pesto, Roasted Beet Panzanella, Grilled Chicken with Smoked Tomato Salsa, and Strawberry Sorbet with Lavender Shortbread.

Register with a friend and receive a 15% discount ($55 pp when registering more than 1).

Call today to reserve your spaces or register online. 303.494.7988.

Look forward to seeing you for some Friday night fun!

If you find yourself drooling over cupcakes and soufflés and day-dreaming about caramels and truffles, CSR has the perfect class for you. Pastry Skills! In just over a week, we’ll be starting our most advanced and in-depth pastry class. In Pastry Skills you’ll learn to master over one-hundred tricks and techniques under the guidance and instruction of award-winning Pastry Chef, Amy DeWitt. Chef Amy will share her humor, art, and pastry wisdom with you as you create edible masterpieces from croissants to candies. Pastry Skills is only offered ONCE A YEAR, so don’t miss out on this chance to be a part of the sweetest class CSR offers.

Pastry Skills – 10 Sessions
Mondays & Tuesdays, March 22 – April 20, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Hands-On. Cost $1,185

Please call our office at 303.494.7988 to register or to find out if this class is right for you. Happy baking!

Join us in our kitchen and learn all the basics about making delicious sushi at home.  Chef Curtis will discuss how to buy Asian ingredients and fresh fish, along with how to properly prepare and cut fresh fish for use in your own handmade rolls.  You will learn how to make traditional sushi rice, a variety of rolls (nori), sushi on rice (nigiri), spicy sushi, barbequed eel, and how to make inside-out rolls.  Learn the creative art of sushi making and start throwing sushi parties for your family and friends. Register today. Kampai!

After more then 16 years of living with our cream colored, work-horse fridge in the home cook kitchen, we finally have decided to part ways and upgrade. The news was announced Thursday afternoon that we found a new refrigerator to build a future with. With a borrowed trailer in tow, Luke and the purchasing crew embarked on a mission to pick our purchase up. Moving the fridge into its new home looked like back breaking work, but it is finally here. What a beauty . . . with two doors, shelves galore, and bright shiny front.

This delectable dessert would make a fantastic Valentine’s Day treat for someone special. Melt your loved one’s heart with this sinfully delicious molten chocolate cake.

Makes 10 individual cakes

Ingredients:

14 oz. Semisweet chocolate
2 oz. Unsweetened chocolate or 1 lb. Bittersweet chocolate
2 tsp. Instant powdered coffee
¼ cup Hot water
¼ cup Dark rum
6 Eggs
½ cup Sugar
1 cup Heavy cream
2 tsp. Vanilla
8 oz. Semi sweet chocolate in small chunks

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Butter ten 6-ounce ramekins. Cut parchment to line the bottoms. Butter the parchment and flour the entire ramekin to ensure the cakes come out. Set the ramekins in one or two roasting pans large enough to hold them in a water bath. Boil a pot of water. Chill a bowl and a whisk and set aside for later.
3. Melt the chocolates together in a double boiler with the instant coffee, ¼ cup hot water, and rum. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool.
4. In the chilled bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks and add the vanilla. Refrigerate the whipped cream.
5. Put eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix on high until very pale, thick and creamy. Immediately pour mixture into bowl with the chocolate then carefully fold the dense chocolate up and over the egg mixture with large deliberate strokes. Before the chocolate is fully folded into the eggs, add the whipped cream and fold everything together until no white streaks remain.
6. Pour into prepared ramekins. Do not fill more than 2/3 full. Divide the remaining chocolate chunks between the ramekins, burying them about ½” deep into the center of the chocolate batter.
7. Place the roasting pan full of ramekins into the oven and pour the boiling water from step 2 into the bottom of the pan to come half way up the sides of the ramekins (be careful not to pour or splatter water into your ramekins). Bake for 25 minutes, then turn off oven and let ramekins sit with a wooden spoon propped in the door for another 15 minutes.
8. Remove pan from oven and remove ramekins from water bath. Let cool for 15 minutes before unmolding.

We post new recipes on our website every week.
For more recipes, visit the recipe section of our website!

Posted by Sharon Halkovics, Director of Home Cook & Corporate Kitchen

It seems as though I just woke up, and without warning, startlingly discovered that it’s August. This has somewhat lead to a sense of panic in that I have not created nearly enough homemade dishes utilizing all the goodness that summer brings. Though I tested various recipes over the weekend and even threw together a delicious peach chipotle salsa to accompany perfectly seared tuna, I’d most like to rave about and recommend this Lemon Kefir Ice Cream recipe I found on the Chocolate and Zucchini website. Runner-up goes to the wonderfully aromatic, fresh-from-the-Cuisinart basil pesto dolloped atop a plate of pasta.

Lemon Kefir Ice Cream (from the Chocolate & Zucchini website)

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