Wednesday, May 27, 2009

May Seafood class at Whole Foods

I went to my first Seafood class at Whole Foods yesterday. This was the second one for the year put on by the Seafood Team Leader, Matt Hoffmeyer. This class' theme was Alaska. Matt and some other Whole Foods folks really did get to go fishing off the coast of Alaska offered by their distributer! You can email him for any of your seafood cooking questions at matt.hoffmeyer@wholefoods.com.

This was more of a cooking class than a tasting class like all the cheese classes that I go to. Unfortunately, this means you have to wait for the item to actually be cooked! ACK! Luckily, the wine is poured while you wait and it becomes a wine pairing as well. Really, most of the food is already prepared and just needs that last part...the heat! hehe I could have done without the 20 minute oven cooking for the last course though...

Anyway, on to the food! We started out with a Chipotle Cod Cake with Lime Mustard. I didn't taste the mustard part too much because the chipotle takes over after I dipped the Cod Cake into it...it starts out as a teaser and then WHAMO...it sneaks up on you! But really, it is a great compliment to the Cod Cake. I couldn't tell it was Cod from any other fish either.

Next was the King Crab legs. Yes, they were giant...longer than my forearm and plenty meaty. Matt was nice enough to slice them for us but I still had to fight with it. Matt provided butter sauce for us to dip it in of course, and they were awesome. But I hate it when I have to struggle to eat my food. I still needed a bib! ACK!

Luckily, the next fish just laid there calmly...fresh salmon! It started out BRIGHT PINK and then was broiled for only about 6-7 minutes. Matt was wishing he could have grilled them for us but that's hard to do in a retail store! hehe The salmon just melted in my mouth...

And the last fish...(4 COURSES!)...was a Roasted Red Pepper and Ridder Stuffed Halibut Fillet. Matt came up with this with Michael's help. Michael is the cheese guy. The halibut was wrapped around the Ridder cheese. That probably could have been a meal all unto itself. So filling....

Normally I don't pay attention to the wines because that's not my area of expertise, but Michael, the specialty/cheese guy, mentioned that the Austrian Gruner Veltliner is really good to serve with asparagus or brussel sprouts. I thought this was noteworthy since those veggies can be a bit strong depending on how they are cooked. And I always try to eat my veggies when I'm at the parent's house! hehe

To top things off...as if 4 glasses of wine wasn't enough...one for each course...Whole Foods let us get a scoop of gelato from their selection...of COURSE I got the Chocolate flavor! Wow...I couldn't tell it wasn't ice cream. (Not that I really minded.)

Matt is always looking for themes and ideas for future seafood classese. We suggested sushi. Next one probably won't be until July though...but I definitely will be going back.

Certainly worth the $35!

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