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Article published Nov 28, 2007 Taking it slow: School offers alternatives to fast food
By Melanie Tucker of The Daily Times Staff
As the leftover vegetables simmered on the stove and a big-as-your-oven pumpkin served as baking pot for some hearty risotto, 14 cooking school attendees got the incentives they need to join the slow food movement.
On a recent Saturday morning, Sheri and Russell Liles opened their farmhouse on Tuckaleechee Pike to community members who wanted some new ideas for dinner or were interested in the Liles’ organic farm. Or maybe they just wanted to know where to buy local peanuts or cheese.
“We are doing this cooking school quarterly to promote the slow food movement as opposed to fast food,” Liles explained. “It came to me one day that we could encourage people to buy locally grown food and eat seasonally if we could teach them how to make dishes they don’t normally think of. I figured out I needed a cooking school.”
Liles publicized her idea throughout the Maryville Farmers Market, which just completed a successful season in downtown Maryville. She convinced some of Blount County’s best chefs to join her.
The cooks on this day were Nan Taylor, who operated the popular Morningside Inn restaurant in the Maryville College woods for years; Vandy Kemp, former principal at Heritage High School and now vice president and dean of students at Maryville College; Shannon Walker, former employee of Blackberry Farm and Tomato Head and now chef at Miss Lily’s Cafe in Townsend; and Katie Wilkinson, of the Great Smokies Institute at Tremont.Lesson plan
At a cost of $40, the cooking school students got the opportunity to learn how to toast pumpkin seeds, how to use fresh dill in dips and breads, how to bake a vegetarian risotto in a pumpkin, tips for making rues, cookbook favorites, what to do with leftover cake batter, which vegetables can be ‘recycled’ to make vegetable broth and even how to make peanut butter.
“Vegetable stock is really like taking your garbage and simmering it in a pot,” Taylor told the students. She said peelings from potatoes can be frozen and used later for broth. Carrots, onions, celery and scallions are great ingredients to use, Taylor explained. But no broccoli or cabbage — they change flavor during boiling. Turnips aren’t a good idea for broth, either.
Kemp gave a quick lesson on making your own peanut butter, using peanuts she purchased at Amburn’s Market in Maryville, and olive oil. That fresh peanut butter could then be used in her recipe for King’s Arm Tavern Cream of Peanut Soup.
“Things to do with cabbage” was one of Kemp’s teaching segments. She recalled watching her mother cook it when she was just a child.
“We are going to raise cabbage to new heights,” she reassured the cooking school participants. “I think cabbage is much maligned because my mother boiled cabbage. Do you guys know the relationship between flies on your back porch and cabbage? Mother would boil cabbage and the flies would come to the screens and just hang there. To an 8-year-old, that was a sure sign that cabbage could not be a good thing.”
Kemp suggested sauteing the cabbage in a tiny bit of olive oil and water and provided a list of recipe ideas.
A second kitchen at the home of Lisa Cameron was used for another cooking session. Walker and Wilkinson shared their recipes for a salad using radicchio, beets and toasted pecans, (Walker) as well as a blackberry jam cake and caramel icing (Wilkinson). Both give credit to their grandmothers for stirring a passion for cooking inside them.
All of the featured recipes were then served up at a sit-down gourmet lunch.A farm life
Sheri and Russell have owned their farm for about 15 years. They have been developing it as an organic farm for the past five years and have been selling organic produce for three years. They raise chickens, sell the eggs, maintain an orchard, raise llamas and spin the wool, sell honey from their hives and garden all year long.
Sheri said she had more people interested in this cooking school, held earlier in the month, than she had room for. The next one is planned for February.
“I kind of like the idea of doing it in a home instead of a big commercial kitchen,” she said. “This is somebody’s home. You can cook in a kitchen like this so this is something you ought to be able to do.”
Participant Cathy Rhodes was anxious to use some of the tips she learned. She said she wanted some new ideas and is interested in the organic way of gardening. “It was the combination of eating and cooking,” she said.
Her retirement plan may include establishing a pick-your-own berry business, so Rhodes was going to pay close attention during the farm tour. And the blackberry jam cake presented by Wilkinson was going to be on Rhodes’ Thanksgiving menu.
Liles was pleased with the turn out for this cooking school and said she hopes to offer one every three months. The featured recipes will be compiled into a cookbook to raise money for the Maryville Farmers Market.
People need to think about how far their food has traveled and what alternatives are out there, Liles said. “We really want people to buy local produce.”
For those wanting to try a featured recipe, here’s Vandy Kemp’s instructions for homemade peanut butter:Homemade Peanut Butter
4 cups of roasted peanuts 2 tablespoons of peanut or vegetable oil (Use a little less oil if you are using oilier peanuts — like Spanish peanuts) 1/2 teaspoon salt (Adjust this to taste. Use less with salted nuts.)
Dump the ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. You can produce crunchy peanut butter by reserving a half cup of the nuts and adding at the end. Keep the finished product refrigerated.