Cooking Tips from a Pro

“Timing is everything.”

That’s one of the valuable lessons I learned yesterday in a cooking class at the Rancho La Puerta resort and spa in Tecate, Mexico.

 
1. When sautéing garlic in olive oil, always add something else to the pan first. For example, throw in the chopped onions or shallots or whatever else the recipe calls for, and THEN the garlic. “Let the onion be shocked by the hot oil, not the garlic,” says  Deborah Schneider, Resident Chef of La Cocina Que Canta, the spa’s state-of-the-art cooking school.

2. To add salt to sautéing vegetables, toss the salt into the hot oil in the pan and stir BEFORE you add the vegetable. Schneider heated olive oil, threw in a few pinches of salt, then piled in a huge heap of freshly chopped Swiss chard. “The oil transfers the salt to the vegetables more efficiently and you’ll need a lot less salt,” Schneider says.

3. When toasting pumpkin seeds, place them in a heavy pan over high heat (no oil necessary) and toast until each seed starts to turn dark and puff up “like Rice Krispies.” According to Schneider, properly toasted seeds have a richer, less acidic flavor. They also can be ground into finer pieces than under-toasted seeds.

Yesterday, about 16 guests from the Ranch gathered at the cooking school for Schneider’s hands-on class. The featured recipes were from the school’s just-released cookbook "Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta."

There was Roasted Onion Soup with Chiles (made with vegetable broth instead of the traditional beef broth); Grilled Shrimp on Rosemary Branches; Eggplant Parmigiana (baked not  sautéed in oil) with Roasted  Tomato Sauce; an ingenious Vanilla Bean Flan (made without cream or egg yolks) with Agave Syrup  and Caramelized Walnuts, and several  other delicious dishes made without meat and with a minimum of fat, salt and sugar.

Founded in the early 1940s by Edmond and Deborah Szekely, the Ranch (as it is casually known) was the first spa on the North American continent. (Deborah, who went on to open the posh Golden Door Spa in Escondido, California in 1958 is widely considered to be the godmother of the American spa movement.)

 The property, located 40 miles from San Diego,  is renowned for its vast, unspoiled landscape and a low-key, guilt-free environment that is said to nurture both physical and spiritual health. Guests take a wide variety of “classes” that range from Pilates and Yoga to Sand Volleyball and “All That Dance” aerobics classes featuring salsa, hip hop and Mexican folk dance. The creative and delicious meals are primarily vegetarian (with fish served twice a week); no alcohol is served.
For more information on the spa, visit RanchoLaPuerta.com.

Here’s a recipe from yesterday’s impressive buffet. More recipes can be found in the new cookbook, “Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta” by Deborah Szekely and Deborah Schneider. It's available at Amazon.com.

CRANBERRY QUINOA SALAD
Serves 6

1 1/3 cups water or vegetable stock
1 cup quinoa
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/3 cup diced red onion
½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1/3 cup sun-dried cranberries
1/3 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in the quinoa and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes, then uncover and fluff with a chopstick or fork.
Let quinoa cool to room temperature, uncovered. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, onions, cilantro, cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Add the cooked quinoa. Toss with the salt, olive oil, orange juice and lemon juice. Let stand for 1 hour before serving. Taste and correct flavors with citrus juice.

Comments

[Master of Spa Deals]

I"m a health buff and the food at Rancho La Puerta was a health-food buff's delight. I'd really recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy a good resort.

[cooking class]

The course is a true learning experience with the purpose of satisfying every kind of demand following and sometimes predicting the new trends of the food market.
Cooking tips class teaching staff is made up of professional chefs of international fame, carefully selected and constantly in touch with national and international trends.

http://www.culinaryschoolsprograms.com/

[lolita]

Thanks for sharing! I also have my favorite cookery book - Huge collection of recipies ( http://file.sh/huge+collection+of+recipies+torrent.html ), hope you will also like and use it!