It's Slaw-some

Last night I took a knife skills class! I know that I could get a lot more efficient/better in my slicing and dicing so I decided it was time to take a class (rather than relying on YouTube videos). I failed yet again at food blogging as I did not take any pictures. But it would have been awkward as it was an intimate setting. So there.

I found Helen's Kitchen Cooking School run by Helen Rennie out of her house in Natick. The class was to be from 6 to 9. Upon arrival, she had aprons for everyone and I helped her assemble crostini with garlic yogurt and roasted brussel sprouts on top as a snack for all. Then, Helen took us through different kinds of knives and how to care for them. The best knife for all jobs is a Chef's Knife, preferably 8 inch. I personally own a Henckels 8 inch Chef's Knife and we used this type of knife nearly the whole night.

After that we got to chopping, slicing, and dicing. She would show us step-by-step how to attack the vegetables then we would get a chance to practice. I obviously had always held my knife incorrectly so she kept telling me to fix it to the "pinch grip." We chopped up carrots, celery, onions, garlic, herbs, radishes, and some other things. A lot of the vegetables contributed to a salad with quinoa and a lime soy dressing. We sliced onions that she made into caramelized onions. She put those into a grilled cheese with apples and cheddar. So good!

Overall the class was definitely worth it and tonight I found myself being very conscious of the correct technique. She has created videos on how to slice all kinds of vegetables and using different types of knives. She emailed us immediately after the class to send us resources which was really cool.

Tonight's meal was a salmon filet with a jicama and mango slaw and mashed sweet potatoes. Yes, jicama. WTF is jicama? Well, it looks like this:

Kind of ugly. White on the inside. According to that label, it says that jicama is the "Mexican potato." It is crunchy, juicy, and refreshing. It almost has the texture of a watermelon except with more crunch according to my husband. It has a fairly neutral taste so it just soaked up the lime juice in the slaw.

 I just cooked the salmon fillets in a pan with salt, pepper, and a teeny bit of brown sugar.

It was totally slaw-some.