Spinach Cheese Swirls

We hosted a New Year Eve party at my house. For the dinner menu I wanted more of figure foods for snacking. So I decided to get some Puff Sheets and make Spinach Cheese Swirls. This is a very easy recipe, you can prepare in advance and keep it in the fridge, throw it into the oven just as the guests arrive. 

Ingredients

1sheet Puff Pastry Sheets, thawed
1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
2tbsp onions, finely chopped
a little garlic powder
10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
salt to taste

Directions

 

   1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
   2. Line the baking pan with parchment paper.
   3. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork or whisk.
   4. Stir the Cheese, chopped onions, spinach, garlic powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl. 
   5. Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Spread the mixture on the pastry sheet. Start rolling the pastry sheet from one side like a jelly roll
   6.  Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place the slices on to the baking sheets. Brush the slices with the egg mixture
   7. Bake for 15 mins or until the pastries are golden brown.
   8. Remove the pastries from the baking sheets serve warm.

My Culinary Classes

After a lot of googling I finally managed to find culinary classes that are conducted over the weekend. This one is at the Draeger’s Cooking School in San Mateo. Downtown. They had a very well equipped kitchen. This was a class for “Chocolate Holiday Desserts” which covered a lot of chocolate recipes.

Chef. Dede Wilson was our chef for the day. She is a cookbook author, contributing editor to the Bon Appetit magazine and she gives numerous TV shows. Her book “Unforgettable Desserts” is fully loaded with mouthwatering dessert recipes. Her book is quite different from other cook books I have read, she gives a lot of details and explains it at every step. This is very needed when it comes to baking. 

We started of the class with lite snacks, were we were server Salad and Silky smooth Tomato and Orange Soup it was yummm. I really loved the soup. It was made by Chef Bill Hutton, who is also the Execute Chef at the Draeger's Cooking school. We made Florentine Bars with Candied Oranges and cherries, Blackout Cake, Spiced Pears and White Chocolate Tiramisu Trufle and Pomegranate Panna Cotta with Pomegranate Chocolate Sause. 

 In the pic: Pomegranate Panna Cotta in Chocolate Cups with Pomegranate Chocolate Sause and Florentine Bars with Candied Oranges and cherries

In the pic: Spiced Pears and White Chocolate Tiramisu Trufle

 At the end of our class we also had chocolate tasting of  Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolates.

I will soon be trying various recipes from this book and will definitely share my recipes with my experience here.

I am back :)

I am now back to my small world :) Offlate it's been bit crazy with work, commute to SF, my college work & my culinary classes which have kept me away from blogging. Now I am back and all excited to share my new recipes, cakes & my experience in the culinary classes that i have been taking.

Cooking and baking initially started as my pass time, but now it's more than just a hobby. It's a growing passion inside me. I am squeezing all my time and managing to take some culinary classes over the weekends. I am just loving it :) I will share all my skills, recipes and my experiments upcoming blogs.

I am all excited to get started, just thinking where to start from :)

-Nivu