Thursday, May 3, 2007

Chef Jeff Ratcliff-Nelson

We had an exceptional appetizer class taught by Chef Jeff recently, with the first dish being Vegetable Strudel with Roast Red Pepper Cream sauce.

The vegetables get sauteed to go into a puff pastry shell mixed with savory rice.

It is important to have the pastry shell not too cold but not at room temperature either.


When the shell is stuffed, it's time to move onto starting the Buerre Blanc sauce that will be used to create the Red Pepper sauce.

Out of the oven they come, and they look beautiful! They taste even better.


Thanks to Amy who is our hostess this evening.

Next comes the Stuffed Mushrooms which are filled with cream cheese, fresh rosemary, garlic and chives...yummy! We get some help mixing the filling....

...and some help with stuffing the mushrooms when our mixture is ready.

They get baked, come out of the oven and are served with Buerre Blanc sauce and get garnished. Beautiful and elegant presentation, anyone would be proud to have this as one of their featured appetizers.

Now for a little bit of spice. Chef Jeff demonstrates one of his favorites, Shrimp Diablo on Parmesan Toast Points.

The bread is browned to perfection.

The shrimp mixture is prepared and heated...

plated....

...and then served. Another winner.

The final preparation can be used as an appetizer, or served as a main entree.

This is Smoked Duck in a Pineapple and Pear Reduction sauce.

The favors are heavenly and again, the plating is superb!

Chef Jeff will be back this summer to do a What's For Lunch class. Don't miss out on his wonderful techniques and presentation!

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