Yesterday I attended my first cooking class at Kathryn Joel‘s Get Cooking Edmonton. Located in the Grant MacEwan University residence, conveniently across the street from my home, Kathryn has been hosting cooking classes in Get Cooking Edmonton’s new commercial location since September 2014. For information on upcoming classes check out this link.
For my first class I decided on Spanish from the Basque region with guest chef David Leeder.
A native of Edmonton, Chef Leeder first trained at NAIT’s Culinary Arts program. He worked in both Edmonton and Calgary before his culinary journey took him abroad to train at a number of distinguished restaurants including Martin Berasategui in Spain. Chef Leeder had an opportunity to learn from the best; Berasategui, a chef from the Basque region in northern Spain, has more Michelin stars than any other Spanish chef.
Since Spain is famous for its Spanish pigs and delicious pork products I was eager to attend his class. Chef Leeders menu included squid cooked in its own ink, cod with wild garlic & clams, salt crusted steak with Romesco, and of course a little bit of chorizo.
Chef Leeder shared a delightful tapas recipe for Chorizo & Artichokes. You’ll have to skip the jar of artichokes hearts for this dish – for a quick tutorial on how to clean an artichoke – check out this video. If you live in Edmonton, visit The Salt Room at Mother’s Market for locally produced chorizo made with Irving Farms Alberta Pork.
Chorizo & Artichokes
Recipe courtesy of Chef David Leeder for Get Cooking Edmonton
Artichoke (0.5 – 1 whole per person)
lemon juice
chorizo sausage
salt
white wine
olive oil
black pepper
Sauce
artichoke 3 whole
onion 1 whole
shallot 2
white wine 1 cup
chicken stock 1.5 cups
butter 50g
heavy cream 1 tbsp
saffron 2 pinches
olive oil
parsley
Begin by peeling the outer leaves off the artichoke until you find the white inner leaves, cut the top of the leaves off exposing the inner choke, scoop out the inner choke with a spoon.
Once the choke is removed take a pairing knife or vegetable peeler and peel back the stem until the fibrous layer is removed. once the artichoke has been cleaned, run lightly in lemon juice so it does not oxidize before cooking. Cut chokes in half right before cooking.
Heat a large pan, placing 2 tbs of oil in the pain until it smokes lightly, the place the halved artichokes in the pan flat side down and let sear until they develop a deep carmelization.
Flip the chokes over, deglazing the pan with 100ml of white wine and reduce until dry.
Turn down the heat and add in diced chorizo sausage, letting chorizo fat render out of the sausage, basting the artichokes in chorizo fat until tender.
Season with salt, lemon and black pepper, then finish with good Spanish olive oil.
Sauce
Sweat the onions and shallots in a pan until translucent.
Once they are tender add in the artichokes and saffron and cook gently for 1-2 minutes. Turn the heat up on the pan slightly to get it hot, without colouring the onions (be quick).
Once the pan is hot enough, deglaze the pan with white wine and let it reduce until almost completely evaporated.
Once the wine has reduced, add in the chicken stock and reduce by half. Check the tenderness of the artichokes – if they are not cooked enough, the sauce will have a bad texture.
Once the artichokes are cooked through, add in the cream and cook for 30 seconds.
Pour the entire sauce base into a blender and begin to blend on low speed, gradually building up the speed on the blender, then add in the diced butter two cubes at a time until it creates a smooth velvety puree. Pass through a strainer and serve.
To Serve:
Start with a bed of artichokes and saffron sauce.
Place the charred artichokes in the sauce and spoon over cooked chorizo.
Garnish with parsley and drizzle of olive oil.
