Thanksgiving Fund Raiser

I worked with my Hot Cuisine Club members last night to put out a fundraising dinner at St. Patrick High School. Funds we raised will help us pay for our trip to California next March break. This is the menu we went with:

Arugula Salad with Roasted Beets, 

Goat Cheese and Toasted Pecans

Squash Ricotta Ravioli with 

Green Kale and Sage Cream

Turkey Confit topped with

Turkey Breast stuffed with 

Turkey Apple Sausage

Sage Jus

Sweet Potato Risotto

Braised Red Cabbage

Honey Glazed Carrots

Cranberry and White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Peaches and Cream Corn Ice Cream

Toasty Pecan Streusel

Honey Carrot Sauce

 I love beets (see my last post below) so it was only fitting that we start with a salad that had roasted beets in it. There was also a beet vinaigrette on the bottom of the plate to add to the flavour of the greens that were lightly tossed with blood orange olive oil and uzu vinegar. A little goat cheese crumbled on top completed the dish.

Cody and Harrison make the pasta

The pasta dish was made in the class using a technique for combining 2 flavours of pasta to create a striped sheet. This was then stuffed with a butternut squash filling and served with a sage and green kale cream sauce. 

The main course was a traditional turkey dinner prepared a bit differently. The turkey was first broken down to create 3 different components. Some of the thigh meat was used to make a turkey sausage mix that was then stuffed under the skin of the boneless turkey breast. These little roasts were then cooked right before service, giving us a nice moist and juicy turkey, not dried out as might happen with a normal roast turkey. The legs were first cured in salt, onions, thyme, pepper and juniper berries for 2 days, then cooked slowly in a bath of turkey fat. This slow process makes for moist and tender fall-off-the-bone turkey. Top it off with some sage jus for a great turkey taste.

The potato risoto wasn't a rice dish but rather potatoes and sweet potatoes cut into small cubes and then cooked like you would make a risotto. The result is a kind of chunky smashed potato with a kind of gravy flavour built right in. The carrots were ruby red carrots (thanks Lone!) that were cooked sous vide. They were vac packed with honey and butter and cooked very slowly in hot water, then reheated for service. Great way to preserve and intensify the flavour of the carrot.

 

The dessert was a traditional bread pudding with a bit of a twist. We tried a carrot sauce thickened with agar, topped the pudding with a spoon of white chocolate ganache and added a peach sphere on top of that! Playing with a little molecular gastronomy, the sphere was created using sodium alginate and calcium lactate. It looked like an egg yolk and behaved in the same way, oozing out over the dessert when poked with a fork. The flavour of the peach sphere matched the ice cream with, made with peaches, corn and white chocolate.

This was a great opportunity for these kids, some of whom have never seen, prepared or eaten food like this before. They're anxious to do it again though so watch for the next dinner coming up soon!