We received our new knives on Monday. Personally I find them quite scary. It is only after using a really sharp knife you realise how blunt your old ones are. A sharp knife cuts through vegetables as if cutting through butter. My old knives feel as if you are hacking through ice.
The knives were soon put to good use chopping through piles of vegetables, turning them into mounds of thinly sliced and finely chopped onions, julienned carrots, finely chopped herbs and shredded silverbeet. The sliced onions were caramelised for use later in the week. The rest of the vegetables destined for stocks and braises in the coming days.
Stock is an incredibly nourishing addition to any meal. On Tuesday we made large pots of vegetable stock, chicken stock and a vat of beef bone broth for use in cooking throughout the rest of the week. Each group then made a stir fry to experience the effects of high heat cooking. Six different groups. Six very different stir fries.
Thursday and Friday were devoted to the identification, correct preparation and cooking of grains. In a perfect world, grains should be soaked overnight to deactivate the phytic acid. Phytic acid limits our ability to absorb vitamins and minerals in the grain. Soaking makes the grains more digestible. You can cook grains without soaking, but pre-soaking will significantly decrease cooking time.
On Thursday we covered breakfast dishes: toasted, gluten free and basic muesli, rolled oat porridge, whole oat porridge, Bircher muesli and an assortment of fruit compotes to serve with these dishes. Breakfast at the end of the day was unusual.
We cooked all day Friday, preparing a vast array of dishes incorporating grains. Rice balls, millet balls, Greek barley salad, Quinoa salad, Polenta pizza, Socca (made from chickpea flour), buckwheat pilaf to name but a few. The table groaned under our offerings, as did our stomachs. The soups had to be held over till Monday because none of us could face more food.
We were warned the course would be intense. I presumed that this was mentally intense, not hard on the digestion. If I manage to complete this course without putting on vast amounts of weight it will be a miracle.
This has reminded me that I really should sharpen my knives – they used to have that lovely through butter quality even when dealing with the toughest of veg but now – not so much….
I left my knives at the course over the weekend inadvertently, so had to resort to my old one. It is blunter than I thought 🙂