Whipped Cream

Tonight I went to a cooking class at the Viking cooking school in Atlanta. The theme was french food. We were given a set of recipes for each course and set up in battle style- 2 teams with about 6 people on each team.

The menu consisted of goat cheese and sun-dried tomato crostini for an appetizer, mediterrian bread salad, risotto with porcini mushrooms, chicken breasts with lemon sauce and little chocolate cakes with amaretto cream for desert. The 6 of us were tasked with completing all of the dishes in about 45 minutes- so we split up into teams within our one team- each tasked with a course. I was in charge of the Mediterrian bread salad and the whipped cream topping for the deserts. The salad was no big deal- a lot of chopping veggies and mixing together the dressing... but the whipped cream turned into my master piece.

First of all, maybe this was my ignorance, but I never knew that real whipped cream (like CoolWhip) was actually literally just cream, whipped with a spoon- like actually stirred- for a long time. I had no idea. But tonight, I learned how to make the most amazing whipped cream in the entire world:

Wisk about a cup of creme (for around 10ish minutes) while adding sugar as needed (I had been drinking while cooking, so I basically just kept adding sugar). Once the creme and sugar mixture turned over to be whipped- I added a tablespoon of Amaretto (I had asked out chef for a full cup of Amaretto- once I added the tablespoon, I put the left over into a class with ice... hello amaretto on the rocks). I kept whipping and drinking my amaretto on the rocks until the mixture was light and fluffy, then put into the refrigerator to cool.

Once I pulled the whipped cream out of the refrigerator, my mind was blown. It turned out to be the most amazing whipped cream I have ever tasted- maybe it was the fact that I had been heavily drinking while whipping, but still, it rocked my world.

The other recipes turned out amazing- we all followed the directions but also added a few ingredients by taste (something that I found is not my talent). One thing I learned about myself and cooking- amazing things happen when I follow directions- but even more amazing things happen when I drink and then follow directions, as long as no open flames are involved.

peace love and learning to cook gourmet,

B