The Event! Plus: It's Easy..it's tasty... it's Bruschetta!

Hey Guys!

So I was asked to cover a rather awesome event held at our college this weekend. It was put on by our events council and allowed us to cook a meal in the school kitchen with our dining center chefs! Free food…good company (an entire platoon of College Students Cook bloggers was there)… lots to learn… what’s not to like!?  This brings me to my first point:

If you like to cook, Keep Your Eyes Open for cooking events on your campus

Events, like the one mentioned above, are a bit rare but they do happen! Keep your eyes on your e-mails and you’ll probably find some cooking-related things going on at your own institution. For example, our school library also offers an annual Edible Book Festival for culinary artists.  Don’t hesitate to sign up for these events (even if they cost a couple of dollars), they are a great way to meet people and have fun doing one of your favorite things. There may also be a cooking or food related club on your campus that regularly offers such events to its members. However, if there isn’t one, don’t be disappointed…consider forming a club of your own! 

 mmm Triple Sec

So we were off to the kitchen! It is pretty cool to see so much food and fancy cooking gear in one big place. The chefs were all set up for us with knives, cutting boards, and, most importantly… food! We were to cook a four part meal consisting of appetizer (bruschetta) salad (spinach greens with caramelized almonds) main dish (pasta with sautéed veggies) and dessert (raspberry sherbet topped with sweetened berries)

We learned some things that may be useful to you:

HOW TO PROPERLY CHOP SOMETHING:

-Hold the knife however is most comfortable in your dominant hand, a lot of people like to steady the blade with their index finger on top, I like to pinch the top of blade between my thumb and index finger, right before the bolster (aka hilt).

- Use your other hand to hold the object to be chopped, taking care to curl your hand into a claw, with fingertips pointed inward

-Using your knuckles as a guide, bring the blade up and down in a gentle rocking motion. If this is your first time chopping, of if you are uncertain, go SLOWLY…nobody wants to lose a fingertip

Garlic:

Take out your anger on garlic! (It smells good too...) 

Mincing garlic is a special case. The stuff is a PAIN to de-skin if you try to peel it, and even more difficult to chop because individual cloves are small, round, sticky and slippery, so use this trick to conquer it!

1.     Place a single garlic clove on a hard, sturdy surface (cutting board on a table is good)

2.     Square the flat of your knife over the garlic clove

3.     Slam your palm into that sucker!

4.     The skin should separate, and the clove should be flattened, yay!

5.     Get rid of the skin and mince the squished clove

APPETIZER: Bruschetta

Looks fancy to your friends and tastes great, but takes almost no effort at all to make!

Gear Requirements: Oven, serrated bread knife, large knife for dicing, cutting board, small bowl, cookie sheet, basting brush

Difficulty: *  Prep Chef

Serving: 6 hungry college kids

Prep Time: 15-20 min

Blogger Note: I modified this recipe from the one we made at school, which had only tomato and olive oil…to one of my personal fave recipes. Feel free to add your own flair, but always keep the olive oil! 

Ingredients:

1 Parbaked (bread or dough that is baked to about 80%, then rapidly frozen) French or Italian baguette

5-6 Roma tomatoes (diced into small cubes)

3 cloves of garlic (minced)

1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoon of balsamic vinaigrette (I like this for the kick, but it is optional)

¼ cup of fresh basil (chiffonnade-style aka cut into thin strips, with stems removed)

¼ teaspoon of salt (kosher is best)

1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400, (or other temp as specified on the bread package, a lot of grocery stores will put heating directions on their parbaked breads, so use those for heating rather than follow my directions )

2. In a bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, ¼ cup of olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, basil, salt, and pepper

3. Put the mixture aside and let it sit for 6-10 minutes (the longer these things sit together, the stronger the flavor will be, so plan accordingly)  

4. While that is sitting, slice your bread into ¾ inch pieces. You’ll want to cut at a slight diagonal so that one side is slightly thicker than the other

5. Arrange slices in a single layer on a baking sheet

6. Fill a small bowl with another ¼ cup of olive oil and brush a thin layer on the top of each slice using the basting brush.

7. Bake for approximately 8 minutes or follow directions on the packaging, (you want your bread to be golden brown on the top and sides.)

8. Spread the tomato mixture evenly on top of the slices

9. If you are feeling adventurous… add some shredded mozzarella cheese by sprinkling it on top and baking another 2 min.

Bruchetta for the Dorm Student

You can alternatively toast slices of bread (not parbaked, but fully baked) in a toaster, or drizzle with olive oil and microwave for 30 sec, then add the toppings mentioned above. Be sure to cut down the recipe depending on how much of the bread loaf you are using. You can also use the microwave after you’ve added the toppings + cheese for a melty treat. Be forewarned that cooking in the microwave will not result in a crunchy bread.  

Thanks for reading, I'll be back with more recipes (and hopefully some pictures) later!  
-The Cat