What we learned in culinary school this week: Week 13

We're shifting from technique to different ethnicities of food this week. Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was a review, but the rest of the week was Mediterranean week!

We went over common Mediterranean ingredients: vegetables, cheeses, rice, nuts, fruit, spices and herbs. It's a long list. We also discussed the mezze style of eating, which is a family style of eating, which is how lunch was served on Friday.

I'm not the biggest fan of Mediterranean food, but it was interesting. We made sour cherry and almond baklava in teams. It turned out really good, although one group's turned out really, really salty. Turns out they used salt when they should have used sugar. It was really salty.

We also made a dish that I've had in the past at a Persian restaurant in West Los Angeles. It's the well-cooked layer at the bottom of a pan of rice; it's crunchy, not burned and I've been looking for a recipe for it for years. It didn't help that I couldn't remember the Persian name; in class it was just referred to as Persian rice.

Top layer.

Cooked and flipped. There's the crunchy layer!

Hummus.

Stuffed Grape Leaves.

Egyptian cheese turnovers.

Baba Ganoush.

Baklava.

Baklava, up close and personal.

Fattoush salad.

Lunch is served!