If you’ve taken the Very Basic Series (and have been doing your homework!) or if you are a seasoned cook looking for new challenge, then take your skills to the next level. In this series, we will build on basic knife skills, basic sauces, and cooking techniques. Included in each component will be information on more unusual ingredients, the skill of composing meals and menus, and approaches to plating and garnishing.

Six Sessions, Wednesday Mornings.

Sesson 1. Herbs & Spices November 3
Moving beyond salt, pepper, and parsley is a sign of serious cookery. There is a world of flavor out there if you understand how to use fresh herbs versus dried, whole versus ground spices, and which herbs and spices marry well with your sweet and savory recipes.

Session 2:  Appetizers & First Courses November 10
This class will focus on a wide variety of hot and cold appetizers and first courses that will enhance both everyday and entertaining menus. Crab cakes, satays, simple pâtè, and salads with pizzazz should be in every good cooks repertoire.

Session 3:  Beyond Basics: Seafood November 17
Ready to move on from grilled salmon fillet and steamed clams? Now we will move on to selecting and preparing whole fish, oysters, calamari, and lobster.

Session 4:  Poultry December 1
This class will teach you how to bone, truss, and spatchcock poultry. We will then use our prepare chicken, duck, turkey, and Cornish hens in sautés, braises, and roasts.

Session 5: Beyond Basics: Beef, Veal, Pork, and Lamb December 8
Sharpen your knife for some more advanced meat preparation techniques. Learn to bone, butterfly, and ballotine beef, veal, and lamb and then prepare recipes using them. Rack of lamb is definitely on the menu!

Session 6: Beyond Basics: Perfect Vegetables, Interesting Sides December 15
Understanding vegetable cookery is heavily rooted in food chemistry. Use a variety of techniques to prepare new and interesting seasonal vegetables that will add interest and color to the plate. And add more interest to the plate with unique side dishes, like polenta, risotto, quinoa…

This series introduces novice cooks to classic cooking techniques that are the building blocks of fine cooking. In each class, students prepare a complete menu, from appetizer to dessert. As the series progresses, so will your confidence, especially when you use what you’ve learned in your own kitchen.

Session 1: Equipment and Knife Skills Wednesday, November 3
You’ll get to know the Culinary Underground kitchens as you learn knife skills, and use the equipment. There will be tips for stocking the pantry, an introduction to herbs and spices, and emphasis on the importance of mis en place. Sample menu:

• Potato-Leek Soup
• Shredded Carrot and Red Pepper Salad
• Apple, Fennel, and Cranberry Slaw
• CU’s Special Garlic-Herb Baguettes
• Fresh Fruit Fool

Session 2: Moist Heat Cooking Wednesday, November 10
Moist heat cooking methods include boiling, steaming, stewing and braising, blanching, scalding, and poaching. In this component, student will also learn in detail how to select skillets, sauté pans, and other equipment. Sample menu:

• Mussels Fra Diavolo
• Coq au Vin
• Classic Risotto Milanese
• Vegetarian Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings
• Poires Hélène

Session 3: Soups & Stocks Wednesday, November 17
Soups are among the most delicious and creative options for nutritious, filling, and budget conscious meals. You may not always use homemade stock in the soups you make, but after you taste it, you’ll want to. In this session you’ll learn how to make chicken, vegetable, and seafood stocks. From these beginnings you’ll move on to building soups. Sample menu:

• Basic Stocks for Busy Cooks
• Carrot with Fresh Ginger Soup
• Hearty Meatball and Orzo Soup
• New England Seafood Chowdah
• CU’s Favorite Red Lentil Soup with Herbs

Session 4: Dry Heat Cooking Wednesday, December 1
Picture this: a perfect roast chicken! You’ll learn to wash, truss, season, roast, baste, test, rest, and carve a chicken. You’ll learn how to select cuts of meat and poultry. Dry heat cooking includes methods such as pan frying, searing, dry poaching, sautéing, grilling, and stir-frying. Sample menu:

• Spanish Chorizo Bread
• Perfect Chicken Parmesan
• Pork Loin with a Pinot Noir Reduction Sauce
• Vegetable Fried Rice
• Dry-Poached Poached Salmon

Session 5: The Other Stuff Wednesday, December 8
Let’s not forget the tremendous variety that eggs, vegetables, pastas, and grains bring to the table. We’ll take the mystery out of preparing rice and grains, learn basic techniques and surprising ways with eggs dishes, and incorporate vegetables into your meals. Sample menu:

• CU’s Deviled Eggs
• Baked Ziti with Crunchy Crumbs
• Quinoa Salad with Fresh Pineapple and Cashews
• Cuban Black Beans and Rice
• Indian-spiced Potatoes
• Weeknight Frittata

Session 6: Baking Wednesday, December 15
This class is part of the series by popular demand! The variety of baking you’ll do includes both savory and sweet and will introduce you to the many ways you can produce yummy and successful baked goods.

Whoopee! It’s cookie time! Chef Linda Swift always comes up with absolutely yummy recipes. She’ll teach techniques for drop, rolled, molded, and pressed cookies, as well as decorating and packaging them for gift giving. The results are sure to be festive and tasty! We’re going to the gym now…

For the second session of our holiday appetizer class, Chef Suzanne Johnson has devised some hot and spicy offerings. We’re after some holiday sizzle, so there will be recipes to tingle the tongue as well as tidbits to intrigue the senses. Chef Suzanne will also beverage suggestions that pair well with hot and spicy food. So far, we’ve started with:

• Bacon Wrapped Habaneros
• Baby B’stillas
• Potato-Scallion Latkes with Fresh Horseradish Aioli
• Spicy Little Scones

Under Chef Linda Swift’s guidance, you and your child will work together in our kitchen to make some tasty cookies and fun memories for the holidays. On our menu so far:

• Jam Thumbprints
• Gingerbread Gnomes
• Cinnamon-Sugar Jumbles

[Price is for one parent plus one child.]

Chef Blair Cruikshank loves to bake and shares the love with you in preparing this annual treat. A buche de noel, or Yule log, is simply a jelly-roll cake with filling and frosting, but it is so much more than that! She’ll show you the secrets of meringue mushrooms and other frills as well.