The Cookshop & Cookschool in City Square caught our eyes with their 3 for the price of 2 promotion. We chose to attend the “Passport to Italy: Rome” class on Friday. This class featured a few recipes commonly found in or around Lazio (Rome), Italy. That evening was a Full House! The school’s kitchen was filled with hungry students, Tuscan tunes and the aroma of lemons and herbs.

On the menu:

• Fettucine alla carbonara – the classic pasta sauce with cream, proscuitto, egg, pecorino romano
  
• Fava beans and escarole salad, with pancetta, artichoke hearts, peas, onions, olive oil
  
• Roman-style leg of lamb, cooked with orange and olives
  
• Chicken scaloppini al limone – chicken slices with lemon and white wine
  
• Lazio dolce al limone – lemon cake

Chef Pepe started off with the preparation of the Roman-style leg of Lamb, while the lamb was in the oven he continued on with the Fava Bean and Escarole Salad followed by Fettucine Alla Carbonara. After intermission, the leg of lamb was ready and served, while we enjoyed your zesty lamb, Chef Pepe moved on the the Chicken Scaloppini Al Limone and Lazio Dolce Al Limone.

Some things I learned from Chef Pepe:

• Pasta time saver tip: You can pre-cook pasta 1/2 way, rinse through cold water, separate into portions, refrigerate portions. When you are ready for dinner, reboil the 1/2 cooked pasta add sauce and serve.
  
• Don’t add salt to pasta water when it’s cold… add salt to water when it’s boiling. Why?? heating the salt at the bottom of the pot may cause corrosion and you’ll go through pasta pots a lot quicker.
  
• SING! sing to your food! While Chef Pepe cooks be serenades his cooking with song. If this whole chef and catering business doesn’t workout for him, he should definitely try Canadian Idol… Pavarotti better watch out.
  

My personal favorites were:

Fava Beans and Escarole Salad, Chicken Scaloppini and of course… DESSERT! Lazio Dolce Al Limone (Sorry no photo of the dessert…I ate it too fast!)

Since I was a little piggish with the Dolce Al Limone (lemon tiramisu) below is the recipe that was given to us.

Dolce Al Limone

Serves 8

Ingredients:

3 layers of sponge cake
1lbs of Mascarpone Cheese
250g Sugar
4 eggs
5 Lemons
50g White Chocolate
1/2 cup Water

Method:
Zest one lemon and put aside. Juice all the lemons and strain through sieve, the yield should be 3/4 cup.
In a small pot, combine lemon juice, 100g sugar and water.
Bring to a boil and reduce to low heat and let cool.

Separate egg yolks and whites, beat yolks with remaining sugar for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer
Add the mascarpone a little at a time while mixing on low speed until creamy. DO NOT Over Mix
Add zest and white chocolate in small pieces. Blend well.
Place layer of sponge cake and brush with lemon syrup. Spread cream over cake and repeat to form layers.
Cover cake wit remaining cream.
Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving (at least 8 hours)

There are many types of cooking lessons the Cookshop offers and other Italian cooking sessions with Chef Pepe.
I’m already scoping out their December schedule!

As you can see, I’ve had my Timmy fix this morning. All charged and ready to go.

It’s a rarity that I have time for a  Tim Hortons run in the morning. I’m usually too much in a rush to just get out the door, or I wake up too late to catch breakfast. As for today! I was an early bird (another rarity)

Stopped by my local Timmy Ho’s grabbed my all time FAVE, the Bagel B.E.L.T. combo

Bagel B.E.L.T

It’s five fresh layers of breakfast- in one. Freshly prepared for you with two strips of crisp bacon, a seasoned egg patty, fresh lettuce, ripe tomato and processed cheese.  Enjoy it on your choice of any toasted Always Fresh Bagel. To increase your fibre intake enjoy a Bagel BELT on a 12 grain bagel*.

*12 grain bagel contains 6g fibre per 113g serving.

The B.E.L.T. combo is the best! You get your coffee (a large double-double of course) and a homestyle hash brown patty. I just found out the Tim’s has hash browns, which could be a little deadly for me. I have a slight obsession with food made out of potatoes. These patties have a little bit of herbs incorporated into each bite. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside… yum yum!

To complete the meal, a classic cup of Tim Horton’s 20 min fresh coffee! A simple blend, but addictive blend.

This breakfast was so good… I had to talk about it.

Who knew Thai Dinner was so simple to make.

My girlfriends and I decided we should have dinner together one night. One thing lead to another and we made it a themed dinner. THAI FOOD! Right off the top of our heads was Pad Thai and Tom Yum Soup. We were very lucky to have a personal Southeast Asian “iron chef” to guide us through the process. My girlfriend’s hubby is Malaysian and has strong influences from his parent’s cooking. He offered to make the Pad Thai and Tom Yum.

Danny and I have been currently trying to perfect our Thai inspired chicken marinade, so I offered to contribute chicken to the dinner. We were still missing something. Since my girlfriend is a little prego at the moment… she had HUGE cravings for green curry and eggplant. Personally, I’m not a fan of eggplant or green curry, but I know better; don’t stand in the way of a pregnant women’s cravings. Our fourth dish was Green Curry with Eggplant, Green Beans, Prawns and Potatotes.

This was the first time I made my own (with help) curry paste from scratch and it was delicious! AND the curry tasted SO amazing that I even ate the eggplants. My girlfriend forwarded the Green Curry recipe to me. It looks like a lot of ingredients but to my surprise it was quite easy to pick everything up at our local T&T Supermarket I thought I would have to search high and low for some of the items needed. Like… what’s Galangal? Thank goodness for Wiki… it’s some type of ginger root like thing that’s often used in Southeast Asian cuisines. You learn something new everyday.

Here’s the recipe for the Thai Chicken marinade. We used chicken breast and baked it this time, but it tastes so much better with chicken thigh and barbecued.
Danny gave me this recipe, so I don’t know where the recipe is sourced from.

# SERVES 2 (Double the recipe for 4 or more people)
# 1/2 fresh chicken, chopped into small parts, OR 4-8 fresh chicken thighs

# MARINADE:
# 2 Tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
# 1 tsp. dark soy sauce (or 1 more Tbsp. tamari)
# 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
# 3 Tbsp. sherry (cooking sherry works well too)
# 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
# 1 Tbsp. black peppercorns, lightly crushed with pestle & mortar, OR lightly ground with coffee grinder
# 10 cloves garlic, minced

* DIPPING SAUCE or GLAZE:
* 1/2 cup rice vinegar OR white wine vinegar (or substitute 1/3 cup white vinegar)
* 1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1-2 fresh red chillies, minced OR 1-2 tsp. Thai red chilli sauce
* 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
* 1 Tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
* GARNISH: (optional)
* a few sprigs of fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley

Preparation:

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir well to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add chicken parts or thighs, turning several times to ensure the chicken is covered with marinade.
3. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate while you heat up the grill and prepare the dipping sauce. OR allow chicken to marinate overnight, or up to 24 hours.
4. To make the dipping sauce/glaze, place all the dipping sauce/glaze ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to medium-low. Allow sauce to simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken as it cooks and become tangy – a mixture of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy.
6. Tip: this sauce can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold, so you can easily make it ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator until needed.
7. Brush your grill with a little vegetable oil, then grill the chicken, turning occasionally. Brush the chicken with the leftover marinade for the first 10 minutes or so, then discard marinade.

To Cook Chicken in Your Oven: Place chicken pieces on a grill pan or on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until chicken is nearly done (thicker pieces may need slightly longer, while small or thin pieces may cook faster).

8. Now turn your oven to the “broil” setting (on “high” if you have a choice), and move chicken to one of the upper racks of your oven. Baste both sides of chicken with the leftover marinade, or with a little of the dipping sauce, then broil 3-5 minutes per side, or until fully cooked. Tip: Stay near the oven for this process, or chicken may burn.
9. Serve with the dipping sauce on the side, OR spoon a little sauce over each piece of chicken as a glaze before serving. This dish goes well with a salad (if you’re watching your carbs), or serve with rice. ENJOY!

I don’t know what’s in the Pad Thai and Tom Yum, that might be the “iron chef’s” family secret which I may never know! But if I ever find out, I will keep you guys posted.

Hope you guys enjoy the Green Curry and Chicken Marinade as much as my girlfriends and I.