I love fish and seafood, so this class could have been designed with me and my peeps in mind. And I felt very privileged to have Marge Perry as the instructor. I was thrilled when she started the class by talking about the Monterrey Aquarium list of acceptable (in terms of ecology)fish. She couldn't have known I have one of these in my wallet and consult it every time I shop for seafood. We got great tips like yes, you can freeze salmon and catfish, you bring fish home from the store, wash it, dry it, and re-wrap it. Another treat for the class was that Lee and Pablo were the assistants.
I liked this class because of the seafood and that our team got to do two dishes. Our team, Jennifer, Lena, Sal and myself did blackened swordfish (with remoulade) and Spanish catfish.
The recipe that I was most interested in was the salmon. It was served with Moroccan Tomato Relish. The dusting of the fish with the tiniest bit of flour before sauteing was a great tip. Also the tip about the tiniest amount of oil needed to fry fish was important and so obvious once we cooked the fish.
Ms Perry demoed every step of the way, explaining, in this picture, that salmon has different thicknesses and how to cook it evenly (fold the skinny end over on itself). She also helped when one of our team was too enthusiastic with ground clove, showing how to fix boo-boos.
The best dish was the scallop dish ...I am a big fan of hoisin sauce. And I am not that crazy about scallops. Marge explained about "dry" scallops versus others, which have been injected with a saline solution to 'plump' them up. the scallop dish was done with noodles and veggies.
The other exciting dish was the "quick and easy" paella. It took a short time and seemed foolproof. Our instructor, Marge Perry, also made sure that we had help with suggestions about plating.
As usual I took many pictures. They are
here. I haven't put up the comments on those pictures, yet, but they will be coming.
