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By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
Farms have always been a place of entertainment. Children love to come see the animals, and adults love the fresh produce. But Powisset Farm offers an added bonus: it hosts cooking classes.
Four to five times a month, Powisset invites a chef to teach people how to cook. Community members have been eager to sign up and learn how to cook new foods. This week was no different, as the Powisset kitchen hosted ten people for a Vietnamese cooking class.
The attendees stood in front of the countertop, name tags stuck to their aprons, committed to learning all about Vietnamese food. The kitchen was ready for them, with a cutting board placed along the counter, along with knives, measuring cups and spoons, and ingredients. Chef Roberta Hing was the teacher for the day. She gave each of the students recipes for what they would be cooking: Vietnamese fresh summer rolls, Vietnamese crispy spring rolls, and lemongrass chicken.
The group began by tackling the fresh summer rolls, which are considered a snack in Vietnam. Chef Hing broke the student cooks down into different teams, each assigned to handle a different step of the recipe. One group was given the task of cutting the shrimp. Another group was tasked with slicing up the vegetables for the recipe. Another group was asked to make the dipping sauce.
“Does everyone like spice?” asked one person in the sauce team. Everyone agreed.
“Should we do one with chili flakes and chili paste?” asked another person from the same group. Once again, everyone agreed.
Events Program Coordinator Jamie Pickard helps organize these popular cooking classes. “The class gives people the chance to experience making food you might not be comfortable making on your own,” says Pickard, who always prints out extra recipes for the participants to take home with them, knowing that many of them will end up wanting to make the food they made at class again.
Students Brooke and Susy try their hand at cooking lemongrass chicken.
After completing their assigned tasks, each person was given a bowl of noodles and three raw shrimp. “Cut them in half the long way,” instructed Hing. Next, Hing had each person take a fresh green lettuce leaf and cut it in half. Afterwards, Hing instructed each person take some of their noodles and place them on the lettuce leaf. “Always take more than you think,” she explained. She then asked each student add their veggies and spices - carrots, cucumbers, bean sprouts, basil, and cilantro - to the mix.
Brooke, one of Thursday’s students, was one of the many people who have returned to the Powisset kitchen. She’s made several of the dishes she made in previous classes. “I’ve already signed up for another one,” she added.
Chef Hing then instructed each group take a shallow pan of warm water and dip their rice paper wrappers in - each wrapper, the chef explained, has to be pliable so that it can fold over the lettuce leaf. As soon as the rice paper was ready, the students lay their rice paper on a kitchen towel. Students carefully placed three shrimp halves on the wrapper, with a couple of mint leaves on the side. Afterwards, they placed the lettuce onto the rice wrapper and carefully rolled them together to make one delicious snack. “It doesn’t have to look perfect,” said Hing as she assembled her own.
With everyone's summer rolls plated, Hing made the announcement everyone was waiting for: “So, you can eat them now as an appetizer.”
Cooking students at Powisset Farm meticulously chop and stir the ingredients to summer rolls.
Everyone delighted in noshing on delicious the snack.
“The dipping sauce has a nice spice,” said Don, one of the students for Thursday’s class.
After finishing their summer rolls, Hing continued to instruct her students on how make crispy spring rolls and lemongrass chicken. Both recipes were big hits with the group.
The end result?
Powisset Farm organized yet another successful cooking class that is sure to have these students coming back for more cooking.
