March 3, 207
In my second class at ICE, I learned how to make some classic dishes from New Orleans. The city is rich in history and culture, and it's reflected in the food. This class certainly renewed my appetite for a visit!
There were 3 groups in the class, and our group was assigned the Creole Chicken. First step was to butcher the chickens (we would use only the breasts for this dish).
Meanwhile, I worked on the sauce. After chopping the veggies, we had to "sweat" the holy trinity - classic Creole combo of onions, celery and peppers.
Then we added spices, chopped tomatoes and tomato sauce.
The chicken breasts were dredged in flour.
While the sauce simmered, we sauteed the chicken in oil to create a nice crisp crust.
Beautiful!
At another station, another team worked on the jambalaya. Yum!
Our next task was the Shrimp Remoulade. After we created the remoulade sauce, we made a broth of spices, celery, onion, lemons and garlic for boiling the shrimp. Again, this is a classic combo used to boil shellfish, such as crawfish and shrimp.
Ready to chill in the fridge.
Then we got an oyster shucking demo from our instructor, Chef Ann Rossi.
Put the tip of the knife into the muscle of the oyster and twist with your wrist to pop open the top of the shell (it took a little more work than that, but that's what you do).
Voila! A bright shiny oyster in a pool of briny water.
Then it was our turn. I turned out to be an expert shucker!
Our oysters were topped with a Rockefeller sauce, made with spinach, scallions, and a bechamel sauce (which I made with milk, flour and butter). We added breadcrumbs for extra color and texture before popping these under the broiler.
After we peeled and deveined the shrimp, we covered them with our remoulade and chilled for another few minutes, so the shrimp would pick up the flavors of the sauce.
Here's our team's beautiful presentation of Shrimp Remoulade. This was delicious.
When we got close to dinner time, we simmered the chicken in the Creole sauce to meld the flavors into the meat.
Our oysters sat under the broiler for a few minutes.
The third team made a simple Bourbon Street Salad.
They also made Beef Grillades with a grits soufflé. This rich dish was very tasty.
Here's the finished jambalaya. It quite quite a quick from the spicy andouille sausage and Tasso ham. This was probably the favorite dish of the night.
Our Creole Chicken was beautiful with all the colors from the veggies. I have to admit though that this wasn't as exciting as the bold flavors of the other main dishes, but it was still really good.
After our buffet dinner, it was time for dessert. Bananas Foster starts with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.
After adding the bananas and coating them in the sugar mixture, we added the rum and banana liqueur and a little flame for a dramatic flambé (watch your eyebrows!).
Pour the bananas and sauce over vanilla ice cream and enjoy! I'm not a fan of bananas, but the sauce and ice cream was delicious! We finished our meal with Café Brulot, a fragrant coffee drink made from chicory, Curacao, cognac orange, and a few spices. It was yummy, like a sweet, spiced, spiked coffee.