Aaron Vandemark, chef & owner of Pancuito in Hillsborough led the Home Fries Class on Saturday, July 17th.
Aaron gave the kids a list of ingredients and they went shopping, along with Shanna Bierman, for farm-fresh produce, herbs & cheese. When they returned, the chef showed everyone how to wash the produce, and then the Fries were assigned different kitchen tasks: slicing, grating and chopping.
For the Panzanella Salad, Aaron & the Fries first grilled focaccia bread dough, cut it into bit-sized pieces and combined it with smoked mozarella, sungold tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and red onion vinaigrette.
For the pizza, Aaron and the kids made a batch of dough in the stand mixer. It's really important when you make pizza dough to be sure to knead it or work it with the bread hook for 8 to 10 minutes. Kneading works the gluten proteins in the dough and acts as a binding agent to hold the dough together. Another reason to knead the dough is to create air pockets or bubbles inside the dough that allow the formation of carbon dioxide bubbles as the dough rises. These pockets give the dough a texture that is light and airy.
Once the dough was made, Aaron brought out a dough he had made the day before, so that it had been given a chance to rise and rest. The Fries portioned the dough out into individual pizzas and rolled them out. Each pizza was topped with whatever sounded good...there was a breakfast pizza with a local egg, arugula pizza with smoked mozzarella and even a chocolate pizza! The fun thing about pizza is that you can put anything on it that sounds good! Your imagination is the limit!
It was a delicious day at the Durham Farmers' Market!
A big thank you goes out to Chef Aaron Vandemark of Pancuito Restaurant in Hillsborough! We really appreciate that he took time out of his busy schedule to come over and teach the Home Fries Cookin' Class!
To learn more about Chef Aaron's restaurant, go to www.pancuito.com.
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