Occasionally, we at Chez Venza like to attend a cooking class (we didn’t get to be this awesome all on our own… j/k of course we did!). Living in Austin, we’re blessed with both Central Market and Whole Foods, both of which have nice consumer-grade cooking schools.
Now, we only do this occasionally for two reasons: 1) They tend to be pricey and 2) most of the classes offered are unappealing. The second reason is really the prevalent obstacle to our attendance. It’s pretty easy to get past the price ($50-65 a head) because (at least at Central Market), this includes two glasses of wine, an enormous amount of gourmet food, an evening’s entertainment, and did I mention two glasses of wine. If you find a course that interests you, we really recommend it!
While some of these classes are hands-on (which we prefer) most (like this one) merely involve observation and eating… so there’s totally no pressure!
This Friday night, we were very fortunate. We’d been stood up on our dinner plans because the other couple discovered they had plans to see the new Twilight film. And we thought we were nerds.
Anyhow, we managed, at the last minute to get into Central Market’s Crab Class. It’s always a good sign when the lady whose taking your money says: “It’s incredible how much crab you’re going to get for your money.” Now, we like crab… but we almost never buy it outside of restaurants. Here’s what we learned how to make/ gorged ourselves on:
Crab Claw Cocktail. A delightful amuse bouche.
King Crab Rolls with Slaw (A riff on a New England Lobster Roll)
Mayo was a definite theme in a lot of the dishes. Not our favorite, but possibly a necessary evil for deliciousness. Led to a lot of richness.
Dungeness Crab Cakes with Spaghetti Squash Slaw
(we are definitely intrigued by spaghetti squash at this point.)
Cioppino with King Crab (and mussels and clams)
A very flavorful seafood stew. Nice spicy heat and briny awesomeness from the seafood. We definitely had to roll up our sleeves to crack into the crab.
Blue Crab Imperial with Red Quinoa and Asparagus roasted with Gremolata.
The “imperial” is basically a crab/mayo/spice mixture coated in panko and baked. Rich, but tasty. The gremolata is a mix of garlic, lemon zest, parsley, olive oil, salt, and bread crumbs.
Quinoa is a type of whole grain. It’s apparently quite good for you. This preparation was just quinoa cooked in chicken stock. It was fine, but the instructor mentioned a recipe for quinoa tossed in pesto… now that sounds like a winner!
Usually, these courses include a dessert, but we were informed they’d blown the entire course budget on crab. No kidding! We practically needed wheel barrows to get us to our car!
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