Apron Strings is also home to an elementary school on Guerrero between 25th and 26th streets.
Bless my mother’s heart: She has tried to encourage me to cook more often in order to save money and cut back on my calorie intake. And while I’ve tried to adhere to her advice, it just hasn’t been something I make a habit of enough. You’ll often see me tweeting the line “it’s always more fun with friends.” This concept not only rings true when it comes to exercising more often, but cooking falls under this category as well. When my friend Melanie forwarded an e-mail from Joffer, an online service that offers discounted deals (granted enough people opt-in to said promotion), advertising a cooking class for 50% off the regular price, I thought it was an opportune time to learn some of the basics of preparing a decent meal from start to finish.
What a fun atmosphere. If I had kids, I would send them to this school.
What made this class especially exceptional was the fact that it taught us that it’s relatively easy to make a full meal worthy of serving to guests in a cost-effective and timely manner. Thus, we successfully prepared minestrone soup, focaccia bread, cornmeal biscotti, and fettuccini with mushroom cream sauce for under $50 in less than an hour-and-a-half’s time. The takeaway info we received at the end of the class included a list of essential ingredients, dried goods, and non-perishables you should have on hand so you’re always able to prepare dishes based on existing recipes as well as invent new ones.
Some other helpful tips include the following:
- Sugar is heavier than flour. Mix it in with butter, instead, for even distribution. Otherwise it’ll sink to the bottom and not be distributed evenly.
- Canned beans are just as good as the natural ones you soak all day. Just be sure to rinse off the salt and residue and you’re ready to go.
- Buy nice knives if you want a clean cut. (Goodbye IKEA knife set.)
- You can always add water in when mixing but you can’t take it out. Add water gradually.
- Make a bear claw with your hand when cutting to avoid contact with your fingers. Also, the knife never leaves the table when chopping.
BrokeAss Gourmet's Gabi Moskowitz knows how to make great food without breaking the bank. Check out brokeassgourmet.com.
Every kitchen needs a good mixer. When making dough, you'll know it's done because the texture will resemble skin.
Some ingredients, like sugar, need to be mixed in before others. An ingredient's density determines when it's added to maximize flavor.
All together now: Rolling up the biscotti.
When weilding a knife in the kitchen, choke up on the handle (much like a baseball bat, bad analogy, I know), use only two fingers to hold the blade, and make sure the tip never leaves the table.
Scrapers, which can be found on cooking supply sites online, are an essential tool for scraping up ingredients to add into the recipe as well as keeping surfaces tidy.
Fresh pasta is always nice but dry works just as well. Plus, it's much less expensive and can be stored for ages.
All it took was two small quarts of cream from Trader Joe's to get this texture. Also, salt the water first before putting the pasta in. It's the only way it'll absorb the flavor.
Vegetables with the highest water content, including zucchini, cabbage, and cale, go in last because they cook the fastest. How do you know when soup is done? Taste test the potatoes and carrots as they take the longest to cook.
Focaccia bread is easy to make. Take away a tbsp. of olive oil from the recipe and, voila, you have pizza crust.
Real biscotti doesn't need to be dipped in chocolate. Use a serrated knife to cut it up before baking it again (it's a twice-baked cookie, essentially).
I highly recommend attending this class. The women were friendly, engaging, and shared a lot of practical, common sense advice for staying safe while cooking. More information can be found on Apron Strings’ main site. I’ll leave you with one recipe I was granted permission to share:
Cornmeal & Anise Biscotti
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups toasted almonds ($4 for 12 oz.)
1/2 cup butter ($1 for a stick)
1 cup sugar (you should have this in your pantry, hint hint)
1 tbsp. anise liquer ($8 for 4 oz.)
2 1/2 cups of flour (another staple you should already have in your pantry)
1/2 cup cornmeal ($2 for 16 oz.)
1 1/2 tbsp. anise seed ($1.50 for 1 oz.)
Total Cost of Ingredients: $16.50
Directions
Cream butter and sugar just until combined. Beat in eggs, liquer, baking powder, and salt. Stir in 2 cups of flour, cornmeal, almonds, and anise seed. If dough is sticky, add remaining flour. Shape dough into four 2″ wide and 1/4″ thick logs and place on baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees F until lightly browned on edges, about 35 minutes. Remove and cool. Cut logs on diagonal into 1/2″ slices, bake again until browned (approximately 10 minutes). Let cool.
Serves 6-8
As I mentioned before, check out BrokeAss Gourmet for affordable, tasty recipes and ideas.
Tags: apron strings, biscott, brokeass gourmet, cooking class, focaccia bread, joffer, minestrone soup, pasta, san francisco, sf, the mission
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Um, I love cupcakes! But they don’t love my booty!