Dinner and a Cooking Class

I’ve never seen anyone prepare so many dishes in an hour. But then, professional chefs  can do that sort of thing.

The chef in this case was Michael Smith, who recently relocated to Los Angeles from Baltimore. Trained in classical French cuisine, but experienced in anything to do with cooking, Smith offered to organize dinner for six and teach the group how to prepare each dish.

Because the guests, including Smith’s wife Lisa, arrived hungry from work, he quickly produced an appetizer--squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta cheese and sour cream, coated with a light batter and fried. These disappeared quickly as we sipped our drinks.

Then we gathered around as Smith effortlessly put together three main dishes, two vegetables and a salad, chopping, sautéing, mixing and baking, revealing tricks of the  trade and demonstrating knife techniques.

He kept things simple rather than intimidating us with showy chef dishes. Because the hostess wanted fish recipes, he walked us through breaded flounder with a lemony butter sauce, blackened cod topped with crayfish tails and salmon with homemade pesto.

Meanwhile, he cooked a panful of fingerling potatoes seasoned with homemade stock, garlic and shallots and assembled a yellow squash dish so beautiful it could have been a painting.

For the salad, Smith combined his own homegrown arugula with dandelion greens, radishes, teardrop tomatoes and green onions, adding a sweet balsamic dressing to balance the spiciness of the greens and radishes. The effect was rich and meaty, as if the salad had included bacon.

And there was still more, an eggplant salad that he brought from home, a high rising loaf of fresh bread and, for dessert, angel food cake with sliced fresh fruit.

Aside from the seafood and his homegrown produce, Smith used only top quality farmers market ingredients.

Following suit, I dashed off to a farmers market that weekend to collect ingredients for his recipes. The first I tried was squash provencal, so handsome that it’s on my list of top dishes for dinner parties.

MICHAEL SMITH’S SQUASH PROVENCAL

1 ½ pounds yellow pattypan squash
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
12 kalamata olives
3 small tomatoes, about 10 ounces, chopped
½ cup basil leaves and a few leaves Italian parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Basil sprigs for garnish

Trim the squash and cut in quarters. Cut the shallot in quarters lengthwise, then crosswise in thin slices. Combine the shallot and garlic and set aside.

Remove the seeds from the olives. Prepare the tomatoes and set aside. Cut the basil and parsley leaves crosswise in fine slices.

Heat the oils in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the squash and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the shallot and garlic and cook 5 minutes.

Add the olives and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook 3 minutes.
Add the basil and parsley and stir to mix. Turn into a serving dish and garnish with basil sprigs.

Makes 4 servings.

Comments

[Teresa]

That sounds like one of the best recipes for squash ever! and we LOVE pattypan squash, too, but don't see many recipes for it. what a special evening you all had with chef Michael! this "hon'" from the old line state can't wait to try this recipe! thanks for posting it!

teresa