East Meets Middle with Stir Fry and Kebabs

Tonight was bittersweet in that it was our last night of production in the Culinary Foundations III class, and the last night of a Chef Dan demo (which we have all enjoyed so much these past few weeks!). We have all shared a lot of laughs, and learned so much. I am certainly going to miss a lot about this class...the cooking nights, the class discussions, the stories, jokes, and dance moves of Chef Dan. It's been such a wonderful experience in so many ways. As we move into Baking and Pastry for our next class, I do not think we will be cooking in the manner as we have been. Though I do love baking, and I am really excited to learn about breads and muffins and chocolate, I feel I might miss the cooking of savories, and yummy sides....but there will be breads and muffins and chocolate so I think I will manage ok!

And tonight we had some really yummy sides, although I was a little too focused on one of them. We had couscous on the menu, and I love me some couscous! I decided to make an Israeli Couscous, since we had some in the kitchen, and I had never made that kind before. So I really wanted to cook it right, and wanted it to be really yummy. But I was having a hard time deciding how to season it. So I spent a little too much time babying my couscous, that I got a bit of a late start for my second dish. But that was a stir fry so I figured it would come together quickly. I plated both dishes on time, but I did miss on a few marks. Chef was happy with my pet couscous, and the ratatouille was pretty delicious, the lamb kebab was cooked well, (although slightly over spiced from my dry rub, ooops!), but I just needed to add a pinch of salt to the cucumber raita.... always the salt!

Our second dish was a stir fry with fried calamari and shrimp, an asian sauce with soy sauce, ginger, sriracha and other yummies, and some very unfortunate white rice. I did get my rice on a little late in the game, and it just wasn't done by the time I had to plate. Ah well! I was still just really happy that my couscous came out pretty :)


Plate 1 - Grilled Lamb Kebab, Israeli Couscous, Ratatouille, Cucumber Raita. Plate 2 - Fried Calamari and Shrimp, Vegetable Stir Fry with Tempura Sauce and White Rice. Enjoy!