Low Country Cooking Class

We roasted the oysters on a bed of salt.

I took another cooking class at The Pantry at Delancey last night.  It did not disappoint!  This one was on Low Country Cooking and the menu suited me to a tee.  We had roasted oysters for a starter, then South Carolina shrimp with Cheesy grits.  Our vegetable was collards with bacon and tomato---yum! Something called Angel Biscuits and Benne Wafers were the baked items.  All were delicious and every mouthful was a treat.

Our most able chef for the evening was Lisa Nakamura.  Chef Nakamura was a delight.  She's organized, her instructions were clear and specific, she has a wonderfully droll sense of humor and her food rocks.  She's cooked all over, from Orcas Island (where she owned the very successful restaurant Allium) to three years at French Laundry, Thomas Keller's famous restaurant in Yountville, California.  Needless to say, Chef has major cooking chops.  And it shows.

I love these hands on classes.  We chopped, shucked oysters, stirred, watched but most of all, we learned.  

The collard dish was the best I've ever had, and I'm a big fan of collard greens and cook them often and eat them when dining out, when I can find them.  These were very tasty and the addition of the tomato not only added flavor to the dish but really spiced up the eye appeal.

The biscuits were divine.  I thought I had a really good recipe for Southern style biscuits but these were even better.  The recipe was surprising as it called for three leaveners---baking soda, baking power and yeast!  I've never used three in one recipe before.

Our plates were soon empty and our tummies full.

The benne wafers were the perfect little sweet bite to end the meal.  I will be making this entire menu and I will be making it soon.  It was just what I was hungry for!