Girls' Night Out at La Cucina in Reading Terminal Market

Girls' Night Out Cajun Cooking Class

“I love my job,” says Anna Florio, owner of La Cucina at the Market, the cooking school in the heart of Philly's own Reading Terminal Market.  “People are always so happy when they come here to cook..” Looking round the room at the sea of bright, smiling faces, you couldn’t disagree with her.

Sixteen ladies were joining Anna and her chef du jour, Bill Beck of the Market’s own Beck’s Cajun Cafe, to crack the secrets of Cajun cookery.

The Bourbon Street Small Plates menu looked daunting...

The Girls started out by sampling a Sazerac Spritzer comprising whiskey, Absinthe, Lemon and Bitters. 

For Chef Beck's recipe, which leaves you wanting another (and another, and another.....) click here.   For a potted history of this cocktail, see About.com cocktails.






While sipping cocktails the Girls and their guests munched away on crab claws served up with Beck's own famous Creole Mayo.  The tart spiciness of the Mayo worked perfectly with the fleshy crab claws... (Feel free to steal this idea for your own appetisers.)

Bill and Anna then called on the Girls to pitch in.  All present took it in turns being sous-chefs, manning their respective food stations in La Cucina and helping out with the food prep. 

Creole Crostini came first.  Goat cheese was whipped with heavy cream, piled onto thinly sliced and toasted baguette and this melange was then topped with a rather exciting spicy tomato jam (for recipe see http://www.beck'scajuncafe/.)

This appetiser was then followed by Bill's Garden District Salad. 

This is an easy to make, brightly colored, all year round salad consisting of salad greens (Bill used a spring mix); artichokes in oil; hearts of palm and central to the salad, freshly roasted red peppers.

Two volunteer sous-chefs gamely roasted the peppers on an open flame.

After the ingredients had been chopped into evenly sized pieces, Bill whisked up a classic Dijon vinaigrette to drizzle over the salad.  (He ameliorated this recipe by the addition of fresh snipped chives and a crushed garlic clove.)

The pinnacle of the evening was learning how to cook that New Orleans special occasion dish - a Crawfish Boil, which includes crawfish, kielbasa (a Polish spicy sausage) fresh corn on the cob, red potatoes and of course lager.  (Bill favours Yuengling for his boil.)

Beck's Devil Dust, Cayenne Pepper and Hot Sauce give this dish its bite

For many, the highlight of the menu was Bill's Mini Bread Puddings.  This dish is one of the best sellers in Beck's Cajun Cafe and for good reason.  Beck's bread pudding is more than just an eggy pudding.  The crunchy bread topping is doused in a light vanilla-infused custard which sits on a compote of sweet pears.

The attendees learned the secret of how to make this memorable New Orleans version of a traditional bread pudding.  Want to find out for yourself?  Full details to follow in a later post.

Bill shows the gals how to hold a cook's knife correctly and slice through corn cleanly.  This was just one of the inside tricks of the trade he shared with the attendees at La Cucina's Girls' Night Out



New Orleans Garden District Salad

At La Cucina's "Girls Night Out" Cajun Cooking Class, Chef Bill Beck shared his tricks of the trade

The Garden District in New Orleans is world famous as an example of Southern architecture. 

The District earned its name because of the mansions built in this spot for the wealthy plantation owners: their supersized houses initially featured glorious oversized gardens. 

As the City grew during the late 1800s, a number of the owners of these spectacular mansions sold off parcels of their land and smaller Victorian houses were built on the site of these former gardens.

Today, the Garden District is a unique melting pot of architectural styles, characterized by "a mélange of high styles gleaned from not just the Spanish and French, but also from the Italians, the British, and the “Greek Revival.” (for further info, see About.com's insightful overview on the District's lineage.)

The food emanating from New Orleans reflects the varied influences that shape and define this unique city - which is what makes the New Orleans cuisine so attractive. 

In tribute to this heritage, Chef Bill Beck of Beck's Cajun Cafe rolled out his Garden District Salad at a recent cooking class held at La Cucina in Reading Terminal Market.  The classes, designated as a "Girls' Night Out," focused on Cajun cooking with Chef Bill demonstrating a series of New Orleans small plates, including this Garden District Salad.

The salad is colorful and evocative of sunshine-laden days spent in New Orleans....

Ingredients

(This salad serves 4 people.  Scale up quantities dependent on the size of your dinner party!)

1x jar of marinated artichokes

4 stems of hearts of palm, cut into 1/2 inch rounds

1 red pepper roasted and skin removed, then cut into strips.

Spring mix salad greens

For the vinaigrette dressing

(The recipe below produces approximately 14 oz of dressing.  As the recipe includes raw egg we would not recommend storing the dressing for any length of time.  Use immediately.  If you would like to omit the egg then the dressing will keep for longer, perhaps 2-3 days, in the fridge.

2 tsps of Dijon mustardbsps olive oil

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 egg white

6oz of virgin olive oil

4oz of vegetable oil

2 tbsps of finely minced cloves

2-3 tbsps of water

1 1/2 tbsps of honey

Juice of a lemon

1 1/2 oz Apple Cider

1 1/2 oz Champagne Cider

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Mix first three ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Slowly add the two types of oil to this mix. Add approx 2oz at a time (Note the virgin olive oil provides a strong flavor.  To balance this out and ensure that the salad is not overwhelmed, Chef Bill prefers to use vegetable oil in tandem with the virgin oil.)

3. Add chives, water - to thin the dressing slightly - and the honey.

4. Add the juice of the lemon and then add the two vinegars a little at a time -- to stretch out the dressing.

5. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Toss Spring mix salad in dressing, then add in other prepared salad ingredients (artichokes, pepper, hearts of palm.)

The resulting salad has great texture and crunch.  Enjoy!