Organic Cooking Class

You can't keep me away from the Brooklyn Brainery! I took my first cooking class (um, since home economics?) there last week. It had an organic 101 theme, so it was right up my alley. And what's not to love about a cooking class that tells you to bring tupperware? Here's what I learned and what we made...

The Basics... What is Organic Food?

"Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations..." Pretty much, organic food is better for you (and has a higher nutritional value) because most conventional pesticides are not used in growing the product. I'm not an expert, so I'll defer to the Mayo Clinic if you want to learn more about the what's and why's of organic foods.

ALWAYS buy these products organic:

Apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, nectarines (imported), grapes (imported, bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries (domestic), lettuce, kale/collared greens.

Instructor's Tip: If it's got thin skin and you plan on eating the skin, buy it organic. It's a good rule of thumb to help you make grocery store decisions. Vegetables/fruits low in pesticides include ones with thick peels: avocados, mangoes, watermelon, and cantalope.

While we learned about local and sustainable food, our instructor Cheryl got us started working on our organic guacamole. We diced onions, mashed up avocados, cut up fresh garlic, and added salt, chili powder, cumin, pepper, a little olive oil, and lots of lime, and munched on organic blue corn chips. By the time we got started on making homemade black bean burgers, my table had completely wiped out our guacamole.

For black bean burgers, we mixed together organic (drained) black beans, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, an egg and seasonings together. We flattened the mixture into patties, browned them with olive oil on a hot skillet, and ate them with lime and lemon-drizzled organic greens. Delicious! Our instructor said that greek yogurt also makes an excellent black bean burger topping. I must try it.

Our next dish was a quick "pasta all puttanesca." You can google that if you want to know what it means. Our recipe began with organic cauliflower, onions, basil...

We cooked the (chopped) cauliflower and onions in a pot until the cauliflower got a little crumbly. Then we added tomato paste and black olives. I liked it when Cheryl yelled out things like "layer in your spices!"

After the dish had cooked for a few minutes, we added sliced anchovies (not usually my thing, but the added saltiness worked well). I really liked this meal and ate my heated left-overs over brown rice.

Want to take a class at Brooklyn Brainery? Visit the website and sign up early – especially for cooking classes. They book fast.

P.S. I was bummed that I couldn't attend the Sandal Making 101 class last month. Maybe you were too. So here's Brooklyn Brainery's recap of the class with a link to a sandal making tutorial. 

Have you ever taken a cooking or baking class? What were your favorite dishes that you made, or things you learned? And is there a way to prevent my inevitable weeping that occurs when I dice onions? Help!

{iphone photos are not the best}