Day 106

Today we began studying grains which are various members of the grass family. We produced rice pilaf with pine nuts, currants, dried apricots, garlic, shallots, onions, cinnamon, allspice, mint, and lemon zest. This is not your mom's rice pilaf - no peas, no carrots, no boring flavors.  

We also made lamb tagine which is named after the vessel it's braised in, the tagine.  Tagines are used in North African and Moroccan cuisine. Our dish was laced with olives, fresh herbs, onions, and dried stone fruits. 

We also made Tabbouleh which is a super popular Middle Eastern salad composed of Bulgar wheat, tomato, lemon juice, parsley, mint, onion, and olive oil.  Along with that we served Harsha which is a Moroccan flat bread that is made some semolina flour and pan-fried. Harsha tastes like the love child of a chunk of corn bread and an English muffin...really delicious...it was served with a bit of preserved lemon compote.

On top of everything else that was going on today, we had our first quiz which was a sort of quick-fire challenge. We had to create an amuse bouche using only items that were in our kitchen.  I made a white truffled egg (basically a super fancy deviled egg) and topped it with a white wine poached prawn and some fresh chives. It was U-Bombi ("the bomb" + "umami").