This week in Baking, we made focaccia bread and Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I have made focaccia bread before, but not using the starter method. It makes an enormous difference. There is so much more flavor. It's not harder, it just takes longer, but the hands-on time is the same. The starter needs to ferment for 12 hours. We also made a chocolate zucchini bread to practice the quick bread method. I gave this loaf to my friend for helping us with some estate planning. I didn't have any, but she assured me it was delicious. :-)

This week in Food Prep Two, we worked on braising. Braising is when you brown a whole piece of meat or vegetables and then cook slowly, covered in the oven in a significant amount of liquid. We braised vegetables in chicken stock, which turned out nice. We also made Osso Buco, which turned out amazing. I have never made Osso Buco. I didn't know exactly what Osso Buco was. We used a pork shank and braised it in an Espagnole sauce with red wine until it was fall off the bone tender. I strained the sauce and thickened it. I served the shredded pork shank and sauce over creamy polenta. It was sooooooo good! So much flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

In Garde Manger, we made a red onion Confiture. Confiture means a way of preserving fruits or vegetables. You add red wine and red wine vinegar to caramelized red onions. It's kind of like an onion jam. They are so freaking delicious. I LOVE caramelized onions, but this is like caramelized onions times ten. I am saving them to eat on brats in a couple of weeks when the weather is nice enough to grill.

That's it for this week! Next week we'll be working fruit and vegetable carvings.