From Kelley C.
Jerris Corona
Well, I'm finally sitting down to write a proper review of all the wonderful things Jerris has taught my husband and I! He has been so patient waiting for me to get this done, but he did such a great job, and we had so much fun, he really deserves to have this posted.
We hired Jerris for cooking lessons, and what a great teacher he is! I am a fairly decent cook, but my husband literally would make a horrible mess just trying to boil an egg. We are retired now, and thought that taking cooking lessons together might turn what had been just a chore into something we could have fun doing together.
We began our first lesson with Jerris patiently teaching my husband some basic knife skills. I had to learn to patiently let him practice between lessons by chopping and prepping our dinner ingredients. But it did pay off. He's getting to be a real whiz with a chefs knife!
Before our first lesson, Jerris asked us what some of our favorite things are to eat. Soup is a meal we most enjoy, so he first taught us to make our own chicken stock from scratch! I had no idea that this is the base for so many different soups and stews! I now make a big pot on days when there's not much to do, and freeze it. So good!
We've continued our lessons with Jerris, with a few breaks here and there for our travels and family visits, and other "retired folk activities". I want to share through a few pictures some of our favorite dishes he's taught us. And by the way, when we started I had never even heard of many of these ingredients, or dishes!
The first is a picture of the chicken stock bubbling away during our first lesson.
The next picture is not as pretty, but is a creamy chicken soup I made at home after our lesson. It was delicious! We were very excited by this first success!
Next -- one of our absolute favorites, even though it's one of the simplest. Wilted kale with pork belly, pine nuts and cilantro pesto. Yummy! I learned how to make all kinds of pesto! I make some up with what ever looks good at the farmers market, and keep it in the fridge to add to side dishes or pasta for extra flavor. A little cooking secret Jerris taught us!
This picture has a whole grilled sea bass (we got a grill. My husband is loving it!) way in the back there (kind of hard to see), warm crushed potato "salad" dressed with torn basil. A cherry, cucumber, and chile relish, and some fresh bread. (We did not make the bread. I don't want to bake ;-]).
These were fun, because it was all, completely new! Well, not the steak. Cauliflower "tabbouleh" with baby collard greens, grilled patty pan squash and eggplant, with feta cheese on top. Mushroom conserva with smoked pimenton and basil. NY Strip Steak, perfectly medium rare!
The next one is roasted spaghetti squash (who'd of thought??) with a spicy lamb ragu, and homemade creme fraiche.
Then there is a farmers market salad with red leaf, breakfast radish, tomato, carrots and pepitas. The big baked thing is a moussaka I made with leftover lamb ragu we used the day before on the spaghetti squash!
My last picture for you is, to me, the most important-- a delicious meal made on "clean out the refrigerator day"! It is polenta with delicata squash, potatoes, beets, a little eggplant, and sausage! Learning to repurpose leftovers has been so enjoyable! Hardly anything goes to waste anymore!
Thank you Jerris for all the fun and knowledge and skills! Maybe one of these days I'll call you and finally tackle baking basics!
