In case you didn’t know, we at the Insider enjoy eating. Like, a lot.
Luckily for us, we found some students and instructors at the Concord Regional Technical Center who like cooking almost as much as we like eating – but obviously not quite as much.
We dropped by last week to see what was cookin’, and we were blown away by some delicious aroma filling the kitchen. It was sweet and savory all at once, the kind of smell you dream about.
But who cares about smell? Food is meant to be eaten, not just sniffed.
So we ate stuff. Lots of stuff. Awesome stuff. Student-prepared stuff.
Confession: The incredible plates you see to the right were not actually 100 percent made by students. That was handled by guest chef Patrick Hall from the Lakes Region Community College Culinary Arts Program, who is a wizard in the kitchen. But the students prepared the ingredients for Hall, and they learned how to make the dishes themselves.
We pounded the stuff anyway.
The four plates were four out of five courses that would be served later that evening to paying customers – a mere $10 got you a top-notch five-course meal. We were lucky enough to get in there before the event and try some stuff out.
First up was butternut squash with cranberries and sage risotto. The squash had a nice sweet flavor that played nicely with the cranberries, and the herbs provided a nice little jolt. It was denser than typical squash, which is a good thing.
Next was the puff pastry chicken stuffed with Boursin cheese and spinach with a roasted red pepper coulis. Not sure what coulis means, but it was delicious. The cheese taste was strong, but not overpowering.
Next came dessert, because who waits to the end for that? The sticky toffee pudding with caramelized apples was incredible. Appley, sticky, melty sweet goodness.
Finally, we tried the braised short rib. The stuff pulled right apart with a fork, making it an ease and a pleasure to eat. So juicy, so meaty. Can we go back?
