Millennium Spring Cooking Class 2010

Classmate Sekhar got the glory for making these delicious Pea and Cilantro Puree-Stuffed Fried Yuba Ravioli with sesame seeds at yesterday's Spring Cooking Class at Millennium taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker. Of course, the recipe was Eric's great idea and I think Sekhar got some help from classmates, but the most important thing is that they tasted totally fabulous! The yuba, a.k.a tofu skin, were purchased from Hodo Soy at the Saturday San Francisco Farmers Market. Highly perishable, you need to plan your yuba dish in advance, but this one was really awesome!

A variant on this recipe involved a Korean Chili Broth, with maitake mushrooms and peas:


with the same Pea-Cilantro puree added to crispy risotto-style rice cakes:


A plated close-up of this dish:

Shiso , or Perilla, is a member of the mint family:

We garnished a thickened up version of the broth with shiso and used it as a sauce:

Simple and delicious Daikon pancakes with scallions were a hit with a garnish of pickled cucumber:


A plated close up of this dish:


A fresh Fava Bean and Grilled Spring Onion Salad provided a fresh side salad. Eric's view: don't mess too much with fava beans. These were peeled and blanched and their freshness shone through.


Terrines are a nice Spring item and we did two versions - Mushroom and Walnut Terrines with marinated maitake and portabello mushrooms:

and adjusting for a mushroom-free classmate, a roasted carrot and walnut terrine (the sweeter version):

Also acquired at the SF Farmers Market, freshly milled flour from Eat Well Farm. Two of their fresh flours were used to make flatbreads - whole wheat and Triticale, a lower-gluten flour:

Here's a close-up of the grilled flatbread with a Sundried Tomato-Spring Garlic Butter and the mushroom terrine:


My photos of the incredible Kale & Bean Salad do no justice to this amazing dish. The dinosaur kale was blanched, marinated with balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper and grilled. The number one thing I learned is this class is that grilling kale gives it an incredible smokey, meaty taste:



And, although I'm no sweet tooth, I always eat dessert at Millennium. Are you ready? Cashew Crust Tartlets filled with Black Pepper Vanilla Cream (made with Spectrum palm shortening), topped with Grand Marnier Marinated Strawberries and Thyme Ice Cream:



Worth a second gloriously indulgent picture, don't you think?


Thanks, as always, to Eric, Ann, Veronica, and Thomas for creating another fabulous Sunday Cooking Class at Millennium. Also thanks to my classmates for making this another entertaining, friendly, and fascinating class.

Here's links to the previous 13 classes:

Chiles Cooking Class 2009

July Cooking Class 2009

June Cooking Class 2009

Spring Cooking Class 2009

Mushroom Cooking Class

Holiday Cooking Class

Fall Harvest 2008

Indian Summer

Southern Comfort Cooking Class

Spring Cooking Class

Fall Harvest Cooking Class

Chiles Class

Tomato Class

We chatted about favorite dishes in the class so, as promised, here's a couple of links to one of my favorite dishes: Edamame Gnocchi with Shiso Aioli:

Dining at Millennium

Making the dish in the June 2009 class