Cooking class focuses on Grandma’s favorite meals
Another installment of the Farmers Market six- week cooking course meant another installment of skills and recipes for Polk County’s future chefs who learned how to cut an entire chicken, make broth out of bones, and make a tasty helping of chicken and dumplings.
Like all community cooking classes, the six- week course is held at the community kitchen inside the Silver Comet Trailhead building on Water St. and primarily uses local produce during lessons.
Farmers Market Executive Director Shonna Kirkpatrick teaches the current six-week course and has designed the lessons to build off of each other week after week. Each class begins with food story time before moving into the technicalities of cooking such as hygiene and safety and finishing with the group eating their cooking together.
For the Sept. 5 class, the story prompt revolved around the students’ “favorite dish made by grandma.” For student Zac Mccomb, the best dish from grandma was always “breakfast. Eggs, toast and ba- con. It is delicious.” Kelley Mccomb, Zac’s mother, mentioned that her grandmother’s dressing was her favorite.
No one could make it like her,” said Mccomb. “There was never any left.”
It wasn’t long before the students began taking apart the chicken, and Kirkpatrick was there to make sure hands were washed, raw meat and vegetables were separated, and that the correct cuts were made to the chicken. “You have to find the center of the joint and come through,” said Kirkpatrick while helping Zac through the chicken. The chicken quickly came apart as each class member took a piece of the chicken off, and the class was well on their way to chowing down on a big batch of chicken and dumplings.
The broth was next for the class who took the now meatless chicken bones and dumped them into a vat of hot water. “The longer you cook the bones, the more nutrients you get out,” said Kirkpatrick. “The bones will be almost pure white once most of the nutrients are out.”
Broth is used to add nutrition and flavor in dishes such as rice and soup, and the perks of broth are amplified by the class’s recipe that in- cludes celery, carrots, and simmer time in the crock pot. The broth was frozen and will be thawed for future use in the cooking classes. The class moved onwards to their goal by making dumplings. “The dumpling we’re making are the bigger, biscuit like ones,” said Kirkpatrick. Like most dumplings, the class used milk, eggs, and flour, but the group added plenty of nutritious herbs to make them healthier and unique. Combining the newly made dumplings with the chicken gave the crew the meal they had been working hard for and they were finally read to eat.
The group always ends with the class sitting down together and eating their newly made meal while continuing the conversation “just like at home.”
The community kitchen is still home to cooking classes, but it’s too late to sign up for the current six- week course. Those interested in learning the ins and outs of cooking should check www. rockmartfarmersmarket. com/ upcoming- classes for upcoming classes, and Kirkpatrick mentioned there would be future six- week cooking classes for the aspiring chefs of Polk County.