Recap: Mad About Mushrooms Cooking Class at The Chubby Cook

In January, I blogged about the fantastic raw foods class I took at The Chubby Cook in Beachwood.  I have been traveling like a maniac for work and have missed out on quite a few other classes I would have liked to sign up for, but this past Monday, I had the opportunity to take another class.  It was called Mad About Mushrooms and featured a smorgasbord of mushroomy dishes. 

My prep station

I realize that not everyone likes mushrooms.  Which, as a girl who can eat an entire container of sliced mushrooms in one sitting, seems crazy to me.  But I know that we all have our own tastes.  I've learned over time to ask people if they enjoy eating mushrooms when I have them over for dinner, because more than a couple people have turned their noses up at what I consider to be the best recipe I've ever made - Heather's Mushroom Gnocchi.

The fruits of our labor. And what we had for dinner.

In this hands on class, we all got to try our hands at making a variety of mushroom dishes - everything from Caesar salad with grilled mushrooms (minus the Worchestire sauce, obviously), to polenta with mushrooms in a fig and port wine sauce, to mushroom Bolognaise (which I plan on making for Sunday dinner this week), and baked mushrooms in a rich gravy.  I got a bunch of great recipes to take home and I learned two very important things - 1. I should never use a normal sized Santoku knife because I will probably lose a finger and 2. you shouldn't scrub mushrooms - just lightly wipe them off with a damp towel.  Why a damp towel, you ask?  Because they absorb lots of water (which can make them rubbery when you cook them) and the dirt they is on them really isn't "bad" dirt.  Mushrooms are grown in a sterile environment, so even if you don't get every particle of dirt off, it's not going to hurt you.  This was a life changing revelation for me and my mom.  She's made fried mushrooms for holidays for as long as I can remember, and collectively, we've spent hours peeling and washing mushrooms to get the dirt off.  D'oh!



I think they need bigger plates. I could have eaten so much more. Oh wait, I did.

If you're not familiar with The Chubby Cook, it's an excellent cooking school/catering company/homestyle meal provider in Beachwood.  There are always vegan and vegetarian cooking classes on the schedule, as well as some more traditional, meat based classes.  I know this bothers some vegans and vegetarians, but it doesn't bother me.  And although you might not agree with me, I think it's a little ridiculous to not attend a class at a school that doesn't exclusively offer vegan and vegetarian classes.  (Although if you are looking for something like that, check out Foodgazi.)   The Chubby Cook himself, Scott, has been nothing but supportive of the vegan and vegetarian community in Cleveland.  But to expect him to try and run a profitable business offering only vegan and vegetarian classes in meat and potatoes Cleveland right now seems unreasonable right now.  But that's just my $.02.  I like to put my money where my mouth is, and I will continue to take classes at The Chubby Cook, and I will encourage my vegan and vegetarian friends to do the same.  Change doesn't come overnight.  Cleveland will probably never be an all vegan or vegetarian city, but we need to support the people who are helping our cause and encouraging people to be more open minded about eating plant meat based meals.

Keepin it Raw at The Chubby Cook

What a weekend!  Despite still recovering from the bubonic plague, or a sinus infection and bronchitis, I was able to get out of the house on Saturday to attend a cooking class at The Chubby Cook in Beachwood.  I'm a reformed microwave gourmet, and I love learning new cooking tips and techniques. 



Making raw food is fun



                                                                                           

Although I'm a vegetarian, I'd say that 75% of what I eat is vegan.  (I hope to make the switch someday)  I love raw foods, and when I saw that The Chubby Cook is offering multiple vegan and raw classes in the coming months, I immediately signed up for a raw foods class.  (and Mad About Mushrooms, but that's a vegetarian class and it's not until February)  My friend Lucia went along with me.  We're co-workers and travel together pretty often and always try to find vegan or raw restaurants. (our favorite raw restaurant to date is Cafe Manna in a Milwaukee suburb - you can find raw food in the darndest places these days)

I've taken plenty of cooking classes over the years, but I can't say that I've enjoyed them nearly as much as the class I took at The Chubby Cook.  Why?  Well, it was completely hands on.  When it comes to cooking, I feel like I need to actually practice something in order to "get" it.  Chef Lauren (formerly of Whole Foods and currently working at Trader Joe's), the main instructor, was extremely knowledgeable.  The Chubby Cook himself (Scott) was assisting her in the class, and they made a great team.  He was able to share all sorts of neat chef tips and tricks and was really knowledgeable about everything from how to chop garlic to dinosaur kale.  Another added bonus was that the class was held in The Chubby Cook's commercial kitchen.  Picture what you'd see on Top Chef but on a smaller scale.  I got to use an amazing ceramic knife (that I ended up buying - more on that in a future post) and "real" kitchen equipment. (considering how much I cook, it's embarrassing to see what I have in my kitchen - or rather, what I don't have)

Raw sushi that I rolled myself - look what I can do!

My favorite part of the class was making raw sushi.  No rice required here!  We made our own "rice" out of parsnips, garlic, and aminos.  And because this was a hands on process, I think that I could actually make raw sushi again at home. (I may give it a try this weekend.  I'll report back.)

In addition to the sushi, we made a whole bunch of other raw dishes - everything from zucchini pasta with a raw mushroom sauce, to mushroom "steaks", to kale salad, and mali kofta. 

A hodge podge of rawness

If one of your goals is to learn how to cook better, or eat better, or even if you're just looking for something fun to do with a friend, you should look into taking a class at The Chubby Cook.  They have classes that appeal to just about everyone - everything from wine tastings to cooking with beer to a class all about bacon. (clearly not my cup of tea, but...)

Raw Food Cooking Classes in Beachwood

Everywhere I turn these days, I keep learning about new restaurants offering vegan food, or vegan bakesales, or vegan cooking classes.  It's kind of amazing to me to see how Cleveland has suddenly sprung into vegan action!

While perusing through a community book for SELREC (South Euclid Lyndhurst Recreation), I noticed a few listings for vegan cooking classes.  RAW vegan cooking classes!  In Beachwood, no less!  Hosted by Foodgazi, one of Cleveland's up and coming vegan cooking instruction/catering companies, this series of classes covers everything from raw food basics to raw food desserts.  (and boy, do I love me some raw vegan desserts!  I stopped by Good 'N Raw in Lakewood the other day just to get a raw brownie.  And some amazing kale chips!)  Each class in the series costs $27 with a $12 food fee payable the day of class, which is a bargain considering Foodgazi's other cooking classes normally cost $65!  Such a deal!  And for me, close to home!  All classes are being held in Beachwood Middle School's home ec lab.  (When was the last time you were in a school, let alone a home ec lab?)  It's a neat experience to take a class in a school setting.  I haven't taken a Foodgazi class at a school, but I have taken other vegetarian cooking classes through SELREC and I've learned quite a bit.  (And I've taken a Foodgazi class - words can't express how much fun it was!)

Here's the raw foods course schedule:

• 4/21 - Intro to Raw Foods
• 5/5 - Raw Main Dishes
• 5/19 - Raw Soups and Salads
• 6/2 - Raw Desserts

For full course information, including registration information, visit the SELREC site.  Like most vegetarian and/or vegan cooking courses, the more people that register, the more likely it is that courses will be held in the future...

Tuesday Tidbits - Vegan Cooking Classes, Cookie Invaders, and Ghosts

Ah, Tuesday.  My least favorite day of the week.  I can't quite explain why it's my least favorite day of the week.  Maybe because all of the sleepiness that should have hit me on Monday waits until Tuesday?

In honor of Terrible Tuesday, here are some random tidbits:

Whole Foods (Cedar Center Location) will be hosting a Vegan Thanksgiving cooking class on November 10 from 7:00 - 8:00 pm.  The class promises to focus on sides dishes.  I'm generally a fan of vegan side dishes, so I'm interested to see what they whip up.

I ordered the new cookbook from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero - Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar - From Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe over the weekend and got my book late last night.  (how that happened, I don't know...thanks to my neighbor who must have gotten the book by mistake and didn't decide to keep it)  Most major retailers aren't selling it yet, so I'm excited to have gotten my hands on an early copy.  (I'd definitely place an order from Cosmo's in the future since shipping was lightning fast) If you like cookies and are interested in learning about vegan cookie baking, this is the book for you.  It has lots of helpful advice for amateur bakers like me as well as beautiful pictures of the finished products.  I hope to try out a recipe or two sometime this week...

Being a lifelong vegetarian, I've never knowingly eaten a marshmallow, so I decided to place an order with Sweet & Sara over the weekend.  (I'd tried t buy vegan marshmallows at Whole Foods, but they don't carry any?  can you believe that?)  They have the cutest looking marshmallow ghosts available right now.  I'm excited to get to try a marshmallow, since it seems like everyone likes them.  I hope I won't be disappointed.

P.S. Special thanks to Cleveland Magazine for taking the time to at least mention a couple vegetarian "cheap eats" in this month's feature story about cheap eats around Cleveland.  

Upcoming Vegan and Vegetarian Happenings

Although I'm not a vegan, I still like to support vegan friendly events when I can. Heck, I try to eat vegan food as much as I can, too, but I just haven't been able to make a complete transition to a vegan lifestyle. Hopefully one of the upcoming cooking classes at Chagrin Whole Foods will help me find my inner vegan chef. Or at least my inner vegetarian chef, for FREE, no less.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - 6:30 - 8:00 pm - Vegan Baking - The course description promises to teach attendees how to make "tried and true" vegan baked goods. There are also free samples of everything made during the class.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 7:00-8:00 pm - Vegetarian Cooking with Khrmyn and Liz - This course is listed as a "global tour of delicious vegetarian cuisine" designed to satisfy your cool-weather cravings.

If you're more into having other people cook for you, like I normally am, you might want to check out the September meetup-up of the Cleveland Veganz, being held next Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 8 pm at Bar Cento. (Apparently Bar Cento just added a vegan pizza to their menu - hooray!) There will be delicious vegan pizza and some other vegan grub to nosh on, so if you plan on attending, you'll need to RSVP to the folks at Cleveland Veganz no later than September 23 so that there will be enough food and seating for everyone.

Viva Vegan!

Tonight I'm headed to what seems like a really interesting class at the Cedar Center Whole Foods. It's called "Viva Vegan" and is being hosted by Whole Foods' resident vegan/raw foods "expert." The class costs $5 and includes samples of whatever the facilitator decides to whip up. I went to a similar class at the other Woodmere Whole Foods location a few months ago and learned a lot about raw foods and hope to have the same experience tonight.

If you're interested in signing up for this class, being held from 7:00-8:00 pm tonight - September 8, 2009 - call 216-932-3918.

Vegan and raw cooking class at Woodmere Whole Foods

The other night, my mother and I spent a lovely evening together - having dinner at Bangkok Thai (more on that at a later date) - followed by one of the best cooking classes I've ever been to at the Woodmere Whole Foods. It was called Vegan and Raw and featured three different summer bean salads. Now, I'm a lifelong vegetarian, and despite the fact that they're one of my food staples, the thought of beans isn't normally all that exciting to me. But after taking this cooking class, I'll never feel the same way about them again.

We arrived at the store to learn that we were the only two people signed up for the class. It surprised me since the classes at the Cedar Center store, where I normally shop, tend to sell out so quickly. But we were still excited to be there, but a little hesitant about being the only two people in the class. Once we met the instructor - David Moss - and his assistant - Nadine - all that changed. From the instant we said "hello" David and Nadine were so personable and knowledgeable. I knew it was going to be a great class.

The class started out with a garbanzo bean salad, made with celery, tomato, red pepper, yellow pepper, and green pepper. It was tossed with an extremely simple dressing made out of flax seed oil, lemon juice, olive oil, and a little bit of salt and pepper.

Obviously, since this was a raw salad, everything was fresh and flavorful, but despite the simplicity of the dish, it popped with so many flavors.

The next dish - my favorite of the evening - was an edamame salad, made with corn, red pepper, green onion, red onion, Italian parsley, and oregano. It was tossed with a dressing made of lemon juice, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

I'd honestly never thought to put Dijon mustard with edamame, and I really couldn't believe how well all of the flavors worked together.

The final salad of the evening was a black bean salad. Again, it was made with simple ingredients - beans, tomatoes, serrano chile peppers, red bell pepper, cilantro, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt - but had such a complex flavor.

As my mother said, this, or any of the other salads could be used in so many ways - in their salad form, or in a wrap, in pita...the list could go on and on.

This class has made me want to seriously look into finding other vegan and raw recipes to try out at home. I didn't really realize how simple (and delicious) raw cooking can be.

If you're interested in learning more about vegan or vegetarian cooking, the Woodmere Whole Foods holds a class monthly featuring different vegan or vegetarian dishes. The next class is scheduled for Wednesday, August 26, at 7:00 pm. There's a nominal fee to take the class - $5 - but for the samples you get and the knowledge that the instructors have, it's completely worth it.

The Cedar Center Whole Foods store also has a neat series called Quest For Cooking - where different local chefs come into Whole Foods, purchase various ingredients, and then whip up a meal before your very eyes. Although not specifically vegetarian or vegan, these classes seem great for anyone interested in the Cleveland food scene.