Whenever we can, we at Stone House Vineyard love getting together as a team outside of work to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Last night we had the fortunate opportunity to attend a cooking class by one of our favorite chef’s Dzintra Dzenis at her restaurant, Plate by Dzintra.
Dzintra is such a fantastic instructor. She shows us step-by-step how she creates and puts the meal together. She also answers any and all questions – no stupid questions when it comes to cooking! And she always makes it seem very doable and not intimidating, which we all really appreciate. If the meal is actually easy to make, we’ll find out for ourselves when we try it at home. We’re guessing it’s probably not as simple as it looks. But that’s okay – the fun is in trying!
Up first was an amazing Roasted Goat Cheese Salad folded with a tangy apple vinaigrette layered with grapes and brown sugar roasted pecans. We’ll be making those delicious pecans whether we need them in a salad or just as a snack!
The main course was equally fantastic. Above is a picture of the beginning of what would become a Pineapple-Orange chutney, before we gave it time to reduce by 70%.
Once it was done, Dzintra drizzled it over a perfectly pan-roasted pork tenderloin and served it with creamy polenta and roasted asparagus.
After those stunning courses, which we all left little to none of behind on our plates, she had to twist our arm into having some dessert. Hardly!
We all watched as she put together a fresh blueberry and blackberry compote, the aroma of which truly made our mouths water. Dzintra followed that with the best part of the entire evening’s cooking demonstration – how to flip a crepe!
We were all endlessly impressed by this, trying hard to catch the feat on camera. The only possible thing that could upstage the crepe-flipping lesson was the dessert itself – and it definitely did! We finished the night with the compote, crepes, and vanilla ice cream.
It was a fantastic evening, filled with great wine, company, and, of course, food! Thank you so much to our host and teacher, Dzintra, and to our fearless leader Angela for organizing the class. Can’t wait to do it again!
This post first appeared at www.StoneHouseVineyards.com.