The second week of cooking class was all about understanding marinades and how to apply them to different types of meats, including fish and fowl (hands on). She wasn’t kidding about hands on! As soon as we walked into the kitchen, there were all kinds of foods, spices, measuring cups and bowls laid out on the counters. She passed out recipes to each of us and we worked together to make marinades for chicken, beef, pork, fish and even a feta marinade that would be great for parties. Like seriously, it was the best thing ever… I could have kept scarfing down the rest of it if we stayed longer.
The flavoring for the pork was a spice rub.. I’m pretty used to using spices on meats, but this one we made ourselves.. Pretty cool actually.. and you can bottle it up to use for later on any kind of meat.
1 tsp cumin or comino
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
For the chicken we used a traditional marinade and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes before roasting it. I thought it was pretty good, well-balanced as Chef Ellen calls it. There are four kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. For any recipe to be balanced it needs to have at least 2 of each taste so it can remain balanced. This is an instance where too much of a good thing is a bad thing… minus the sweets, you can never have too many sweets!
1/3 cup of lime juice for 1 &1/2 lbs of chicken tenders
4 TBL vegetable oil
3 minced garlic cloves
1 TBL worchestire sauce
1 &1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 TBL of chopped cilantro
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Last but not least–my favorite of them all–the feta marinade! I’m not a big cheese fan but this shit was delicious!! It was probably the longest one since it has to sit for about an hour and a half but WELL worth it. Next party, I’m taking this with some large croutons..
Feta
1 1/4cups extra virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot , sliced thin
1tablespoon minced fresh oregano leaves
1teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4teaspoon red pepper flakes
8ounces feta cheese , cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
1. Cook 1 cup of the oil, the shallot, oregano, lemon zest, and pepper flakes in a small saucepan over low heat until the shallot is softened, about 18 minutes.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and gently stir in the feta. Cover and let sit until the mixture reaches room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours.
3. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup oil and serve. (The mixture can be transferred to an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 1 week. Before serving, let sit at room temperature until the oil liquefies about 1 hour.)
