Bon Bon Chicken =

At the first FEAST class in partnership with the Schnucks Cooks Cooking School, we all got to step up to the cooking stations and give one of the night's recipes a go. One group set about making veggie and shrimp tempura, another make the plum-wine sorbet. At one station ginger was being pickled and next to that, the Bon Bon Chicken featured in August's Deconstructed Dish column was being assembled -- chicken breasts were poached and shredded, glass noodles were hydrated, that amazing peanut sauce was stirred together.

I opted to man the Japanese Christmas Cake station ... and while I have no problem following directions on most days, on this night, the flour I had carefully sifted was inadvertantly stirred into the creamy yellow yolks in my mixing bowl ... Luckily, these classes are held in a fully functioning grocery store, so there were plenty of eggs to be had, but everyone got a good laugh out of my having to redo that part of the recipe.

Once all of the dishes were complete, everyone in the class worked together to plate the dishes and we sat down to enjoy the spicy-cool Bon Bon Chicken and hot, crispy tempura paired with a great Riesling, whose sweetness offset the spice of the peanut sauce beautifully. Dessert followed. The not-at-all-sweet plum-wine sorbet was served with a glass of plum wine, which, if you've never tried it, has an aroma similar to marzipan. And then the Japanese Christmas Cake ... I actually make desserts like this all the time. An Angel Food cake, pound cake or sponge cake layered with airy whipped cream and fresh fruit. Often, I'll macerate the fruit in sugar and a liquor like Grand Mariner so that it can be drizzled on as a sauce, but either way, the Japanese Christmas Cake was a lightly sweet ending to a truly fun way to spend the evening.

Many thanks to the very knowledgeable instructors: Gabrielle DeMichelle, Lucy Schnuck and Nate Bonner. Can't wait to cook with them again next month!