I'm pretty sure Obama is going to win. I know this because things have been going bad for me this week, and therefore must go better (Obama winning) next week.
Both misfortunes have at least been partially brought on by my own doing. The first deals with my kitchen stove. A few nights ago I decided to cook the turkey dumplings which Lori had given me a while ago. Don't worry, they were still excellent and had stayed frozen the whole time. However, I don't have a ton of meat pots or pans, so I used a shallow pan to boil water and cook the dumplings. In this process I spilled water onto the dials for adjusting the amount of gas. No biggy... well, later that night the gas wouldn't spark. Usually when you turn the dial, it sparks and you get fire, but no such luck. Miraculously the next day, the stove sparked again. However, last night I realized that one of the dials wouldn't turn. Apparently the spilled water had caused it to become sticky and hence it got stuck. I started cooking on the other burners anyway, and tried to clean the stuck dial. All this achieved was to short out the sparking mechanism again. In the process I turned the gas on with the stuck dial. What sucked was that the dial became stuck in the ON position, and gas started to rush out of the burner, without being lit. I immediately turned off the other flame and opened the window, plus turned on a fan. But still gas was pouring into the kitchen and I couldn't turn off the dial. Now, I like to think I am good at acting in tough positions. However, time and time again when confronted with a situation which requires decisive action, I take decisive, yet much more damaging action.
So, in this spirit, I decided to get my vice grips and, by removing the dial, try to manually turn the screw off (the dial was on a screw of sorts). I ran and got them, plus my cell phone to call my super. The vice grips turned out to be a horrible idea, since all I achieved was to crush the screw. Gas kept rushing.
Getting my super on the other line, I explained the situation and he gave me the advice I would have never thought of --- turn off the gas at the back of the stove. Problem solve. Well... I still need him to fix the stove, but no gas or massive fire risk.
Without a stove I had a new problem --- what to eat for dinner. I had been boiling water for pasta, and had already opened two cans of chickpeas, and chopped some garlic and pepper. So I just threw it all into the hot water, added a bunch of chopped cabbage, and heated in the microwave some soup mix to add to the pot. Not a bad soup for having been made only using the residual heat of boiling water. Oh.. I also crumbled some romano cheese into it.
Ok. second misfortune was this morning. I decided to get a bagel with lox cream cheese from a deli on the way to school. The cream cheese was horribly rancid (I still ate the bagel). I did what I think was my duty and called 311 to report a health code violate. As it turns out, I didn't even need to get a bagel, because I totally forgot that courant gets bagels every wednesday for the grad students. Stupid stupid stupid.
Anyway, in my opinion there is nothing worse than expecting the wonderful salty, oiling, creamy goodness of a bagel and lox, but instead getting bad cream cheese- YUCK.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My application video and questions to you
I've been planning out my application video and was intending to tape it today, but it is raining so it will need to wait until tomorrow. The general idea will be that I will interview the Dosa Cart man who serves up lunches at the south west corner of Washington Square park. After learning about his experiences making Dosas, I will ask him to give a short lesson on Dosa making. Following this I will make them myself, showing the major steps in the preparation. The end of the video will be a critique of the success of my homemade Dosas. The video can not exceed 3 minutes.
I'm curious what people have thought about my application answers. On anonymous person seemed to think that America was not prime for a show on authentic ethnic cuisine. What are other peoples thoughts? Also, what sorts of dishes do you think I should have in mind to cover on the show?
I'm curious what people have thought about my application answers. On anonymous person seemed to think that America was not prime for a show on authentic ethnic cuisine. What are other peoples thoughts? Also, what sorts of dishes do you think I should have in mind to cover on the show?
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Application with significant changes and completed sections
Show Name: Food Deja Vu
Tag line: Hi. I'm Ivan Corwin and I want to welcome you to Food Deja Vu (or other title) -- the show where we rediscover the foods of our past which have not made their way into the mainstream american food culture. These are the foods of our parents and grandparents, foods on which we once lived and now foods which we are dying to have again. Come with me as we learn and explore the rich stories, recipes and cooking techniques which once ruled our kitchens.
Structure: Each week select a new authentic vegetarian dish which has not found its way into the mass american food scene.
1. Give a short historical sketch of the food and its significance.
2. Discuss how, if in any way, it has found its way into popular cuisine.
3. Find an expert at making it and have them give me a cooking lesson, also have them relate their memories and thoughts about the food.
4. Take it back to my kitchen and try to follow and translate their lesson. Talk about how the implications of their techniques and their choice of ingredients and why they developed as they did.
5. Experiment with alternative methods which might be more suitable for working people --- premade mixes, substitutions, healthier ingredients.
6. Solicit people who have or know someone who has a great, authentic dish, or story about dishes of days past.
1. Why do you want your own Food Network Show?
Americans are more interested in diverse, ethnic foods now than ever. To attract this new market interest, purveyors of ethnic cuisine have modified and refocused much of their menus towards dishes heavy on meats and cheese, and have overlooked many vegetarian options. The result is a mainstream culture of often inauthentic food which grossly neglects the rich heritage and colorful histories of ingenious cooking techniques and flavorful recipes from traditions spanning the globe. I keep a kosher kitchen. Some may see that as a disadvantage to exploring ethnic cuisine, but I feel that it has given me an opportunity. I look past marquee meat dishes --- the meatballs and chicken tika masala --- and in their place I see homemade pastas and Dosas, I see principles of fermentation and methods of dough creation, I see stories of culture and of history. This opportunity and these sights are what I want to share with my audience.
2. Do you have any formal/profession cooking training? If so, please describe. Did you graduate from cooking schoool?
No.
3. If you did not go to cooking school, how did you learn to cook?
I watched and listened to family, friends and food network. I asked questions to my Bubbee (grandmother) and mother about my own Jewish cooking traditions.
4. What is the greatest lesson you've learned about cooking?
To open myself up to every smell, taste and sight around me. In particular I have learned the most from watching people like my Bubbee, or the mother of my former Indian roommate, or the Bangladeshi fiance of another of my roommates make the foods which they love. By trying to reproduce or at least approximate the dishes I watch them prepare, I gain a better perspective about the ways of their respective cuisines.
5. What do you feel you can teach someone about food, or cooking? Please make something specific to you -- not about "having fun in the kitchen" or similar.
I can teach people to embrace thousands of years of knowledge and tradition which has created excellent dishes. People have learned to appreciate diverse cuisines but often stop short of exploring beyond the one or two dishes they feel save with. I will show my audience the gems of culinary experience which are found in cultures the world over.
6. Who was the greatest influence on your cooking, and why?
Before I began to delve into the culinary heritage of other cultures, I looked deep into my own. This culinary introspection was prompted by memories, both mine and my families, of the delicacies and baked goods of my great-grandmother, Bubbee Kerlin. Her nearly 100 years of cooking traditional Jewish food gave me a sense of longing to experience and understand the cuisine of my family. And now I look to experience and understand the cuisine of those around me.
7. In addition to any cooking jobs listed above, list any other culinary experience:
None aside from preparing meals for friends and family.
8. What is the largest number of people you have ever cooked for? Please explain.
At my apartment, or during family vacations I have prepared meals for upwards of 10 people. While in college I volunteered at a homeless shelter and on a few occasions I prepared basic food for a larger population.
9. What makes you different from anyone else on food television?
Everyone wants to teach others how to cook. I want to learn alongside the audience as real greats, people who have been cooking for upwards of a century, teach their many lessons.
10. Briefly sum up your unique "Culinary Point of View." That us, what specifically makes you and your food different from everyone else's (not just "I cook with fresh ingredients."); what is special about what you can teach Food Network viewers?
Diverse environmental, social and religious factors have influenced the cuisine of different regions. Over thousands of years and usually driven by necessity, equally diverse cuisines and methods of cooking have developed. In America today we are free of many of the limiting factors in determining what we can eat. However, without these external constraints, many culinary traditions have begun to fade away. In their place stand mainstream menus claiming to be Indian, or Italian or Chinese, but sharing non of the distinctive traits or histories of the true cuisine. My approach to cooking, which has been driven in part by my own constraint of being kosher, is to look past the mainstream ethnic foods and to try to understand and recreate foods which have been developed and tested over thousands of years, by millions of families --- not foods developed in the last 25 years for quick service. There are many lessons to be learned from the evolution and ultimate product of cultural cuisine. People will jump at the chance to learn these lessons, discover their history and look past the takeout menu.
11. Complete this sentence: "If I were an ingredient, I would be _______________." Why would you be that ingredient?
If I were an ingredient, I would be the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Well seasoned cast iron (the only choice of our ancestors) has many layers built up over time to create a wonderful surface on which to cook. Every meal adds a layer to the pan, and every meal draws from the flavors and oils of the layers below it. In this way, every time I cook with my cast iron, I am connecting to all of my previous cooking experiences. In my show I will seek to establish this physical connection to our culinary history through interviews with and tutorials from people whose own cast iron (be it literal or figurative) has many more layers than mine.
12. Tell us 3 things about food, or ingredients, that demonstrate your food knowledge.
1. In south east Asian cuisine fermentation plays a very natural and positive role. The warm and wet climate prevented dry storage of foods and accelerated the process of fermentation and molding. Indigenous cuisine learned to use and control this. For instance, lentils and rice could be soaked together and fermented and then ground into a paste which would only take a few minutes to cook. Compared to the hours of cooking to make lentils without fermentation, this was a godsend.
2. Oil is an excellent vehicle for holding and preserving spices in foods. Rather than adding spices to a final product, consider adding them to the hot oil before other ingredients. Adding spices at the end of cooking results in the spice's flavor being localized to the spice itself. By heating the spices directly, their aromatic oils are expelled and mixed into the other oil. This oil mixture is then evenly distributed throughout the food, resulting in a more intense flavor without hot spots of spice.
3. The principle of spicing foods cooked in a slow cooker is different though. The only spices which should be in the slow cooker are large solid spices - onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, peppers, bay leaves, etc. The long heat will slowly pull the flavorful oils from these large spices. Small powder spices will become over powdered during the long cooking and should only be added in the end in the manner described in question 15 part 4.
13. Do you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies? Are there any foods you cannot or will not eat? Please give complete details.
I keep kosher. For me, this means that I will no eat any meat or fish which is not kosher, or anything with these ingredients. I will also not cook with unkosher meat or fish, nor will I mix meat and milk in my cooking. For ingredients which are not meat or fish I do not require them, however, to be explicitly kosher and will eat at a restaurant which serves both meat and vegetarian (though I will only eat vegetarian).
14. Clearly describe 3 of your "signature dishes" that best represent you and/or are most popular with your friends/family. Tell us why they represent you so well.
1. Flour Paposas. A flour and baking powder dough stuffed with cheese, chilis and beans and then pan fried with just a little oil in a cast iron pan until golden. This is my adaptation of the dish I had while staying in El Salvador, and then again at the Red Hook sports field food stands.
2. Dal and Rice porridge. A simple Indian porridge spiced with freshly roasted cumin seeds, including Dal, rice and a small amount of peas, carrots and potatoes. I learned this by watching the Indian mother of my former roommate prepare it at our apartment. During this lesson in Indian cooking she taught me about roasting Dal for a minute or two before adding liquid, and also about the order of Indian spicing. The dish, to me, epitomizes simple, wholesome foods which are nowhere to be found in popular Indian cuisine.
3. Sweet, sour and spicy green beans. A base of ginger, garlic, pepper and curry powder cooked with green beans and then tossed with honey, balsamic vinegar and pre-roasted almond shards. This dish, which I sometimes eat as a whole meal, comes from two sources. The first was is a childhood memory of eating something like this at the table of the Indian mother of an elementary school friend. The second is from lessons I learned from the Bangladeshi fiance of a former roomate. She taught me that, as opposed to Indian foods, Bangladeshi foods are often sweeter and also more sour. She would commonly use vinegar and honey in her curries. I likely would have never thought to do this to curries, yet by drawing on her knowledge of traditional cooking, I learned a very interesting and scrumptious lesson which I now apply to other dishes.
15. What are your top 5 original cooking tips? (Be specific, Give us information; teach us something. This is a chance to show us your technique and your culinary knowledge)
1. To make tofu with a firm, crunchy skin, without much oil use honey. After marinating remove the tofu and squeeze a little honey onto the precut pieces. Use a large cast iron skillet with oil to coat the bottom and pan fry for five minutes on each side, or until browned and firm. The honey coating locks in the flavor the tofu absorbed, so even when mixed with vegetables in a sauce, the tofu keeps its own flavor and firmness.
2. When making matzoballs, replace the water with seltzer. This creates fluffier balls which are easier to eat and have a nicer texture.
3. When making Risotto with a vegetable, precook the vegetable in large pieces. Then leave enough time for the vegetable to cool before cutting and adding to the Risotto at the end of cooking. Cooking large pieces and cutting when cool keeps more of the flavor in the vegetable, and adding when cool helps keep a distinct flavor separate from that of the rice.
4. If a soup or porridge like dish is lacking in flavor, rather than adding spices directly into it, consider using the Indian method of flavoring Dal. Take a small pan and heat oil. Add in the desired spices, with large spices or onion, garlic, ginger etc, going first followed by powdered spices. When spices have cooked, pour the oil directly into your pot and then stir to distribute.
5. When ever possible use cast iron. Of course there are many benefits to cast iron including its heat distribution, safe non-stick properties, and affordability. However, I encourage cast iron use also for the joy of creating and enhancing the seasoning of your pan. A cast iron pan which is well seasoned carries with it the stories and flavors of everything which has been cooked on it. Pass it on to other family members and children so that they can recall your food when they cook theirs.
Tag line: Hi. I'm Ivan Corwin and I want to welcome you to Food Deja Vu (or other title) -- the show where we rediscover the foods of our past which have not made their way into the mainstream american food culture. These are the foods of our parents and grandparents, foods on which we once lived and now foods which we are dying to have again. Come with me as we learn and explore the rich stories, recipes and cooking techniques which once ruled our kitchens.
Structure: Each week select a new authentic vegetarian dish which has not found its way into the mass american food scene.
1. Give a short historical sketch of the food and its significance.
2. Discuss how, if in any way, it has found its way into popular cuisine.
3. Find an expert at making it and have them give me a cooking lesson, also have them relate their memories and thoughts about the food.
4. Take it back to my kitchen and try to follow and translate their lesson. Talk about how the implications of their techniques and their choice of ingredients and why they developed as they did.
5. Experiment with alternative methods which might be more suitable for working people --- premade mixes, substitutions, healthier ingredients.
6. Solicit people who have or know someone who has a great, authentic dish, or story about dishes of days past.
1. Why do you want your own Food Network Show?
Americans are more interested in diverse, ethnic foods now than ever. To attract this new market interest, purveyors of ethnic cuisine have modified and refocused much of their menus towards dishes heavy on meats and cheese, and have overlooked many vegetarian options. The result is a mainstream culture of often inauthentic food which grossly neglects the rich heritage and colorful histories of ingenious cooking techniques and flavorful recipes from traditions spanning the globe. I keep a kosher kitchen. Some may see that as a disadvantage to exploring ethnic cuisine, but I feel that it has given me an opportunity. I look past marquee meat dishes --- the meatballs and chicken tika masala --- and in their place I see homemade pastas and Dosas, I see principles of fermentation and methods of dough creation, I see stories of culture and of history. This opportunity and these sights are what I want to share with my audience.
2. Do you have any formal/profession cooking training? If so, please describe. Did you graduate from cooking schoool?
No.
3. If you did not go to cooking school, how did you learn to cook?
I watched and listened to family, friends and food network. I asked questions to my Bubbee (grandmother) and mother about my own Jewish cooking traditions.
4. What is the greatest lesson you've learned about cooking?
To open myself up to every smell, taste and sight around me. In particular I have learned the most from watching people like my Bubbee, or the mother of my former Indian roommate, or the Bangladeshi fiance of another of my roommates make the foods which they love. By trying to reproduce or at least approximate the dishes I watch them prepare, I gain a better perspective about the ways of their respective cuisines.
5. What do you feel you can teach someone about food, or cooking? Please make something specific to you -- not about "having fun in the kitchen" or similar.
I can teach people to embrace thousands of years of knowledge and tradition which has created excellent dishes. People have learned to appreciate diverse cuisines but often stop short of exploring beyond the one or two dishes they feel save with. I will show my audience the gems of culinary experience which are found in cultures the world over.
6. Who was the greatest influence on your cooking, and why?
Before I began to delve into the culinary heritage of other cultures, I looked deep into my own. This culinary introspection was prompted by memories, both mine and my families, of the delicacies and baked goods of my great-grandmother, Bubbee Kerlin. Her nearly 100 years of cooking traditional Jewish food gave me a sense of longing to experience and understand the cuisine of my family. And now I look to experience and understand the cuisine of those around me.
7. In addition to any cooking jobs listed above, list any other culinary experience:
None aside from preparing meals for friends and family.
8. What is the largest number of people you have ever cooked for? Please explain.
At my apartment, or during family vacations I have prepared meals for upwards of 10 people. While in college I volunteered at a homeless shelter and on a few occasions I prepared basic food for a larger population.
9. What makes you different from anyone else on food television?
Everyone wants to teach others how to cook. I want to learn alongside the audience as real greats, people who have been cooking for upwards of a century, teach their many lessons.
10. Briefly sum up your unique "Culinary Point of View." That us, what specifically makes you and your food different from everyone else's (not just "I cook with fresh ingredients."); what is special about what you can teach Food Network viewers?
Diverse environmental, social and religious factors have influenced the cuisine of different regions. Over thousands of years and usually driven by necessity, equally diverse cuisines and methods of cooking have developed. In America today we are free of many of the limiting factors in determining what we can eat. However, without these external constraints, many culinary traditions have begun to fade away. In their place stand mainstream menus claiming to be Indian, or Italian or Chinese, but sharing non of the distinctive traits or histories of the true cuisine. My approach to cooking, which has been driven in part by my own constraint of being kosher, is to look past the mainstream ethnic foods and to try to understand and recreate foods which have been developed and tested over thousands of years, by millions of families --- not foods developed in the last 25 years for quick service. There are many lessons to be learned from the evolution and ultimate product of cultural cuisine. People will jump at the chance to learn these lessons, discover their history and look past the takeout menu.
11. Complete this sentence: "If I were an ingredient, I would be _______________." Why would you be that ingredient?
If I were an ingredient, I would be the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Well seasoned cast iron (the only choice of our ancestors) has many layers built up over time to create a wonderful surface on which to cook. Every meal adds a layer to the pan, and every meal draws from the flavors and oils of the layers below it. In this way, every time I cook with my cast iron, I am connecting to all of my previous cooking experiences. In my show I will seek to establish this physical connection to our culinary history through interviews with and tutorials from people whose own cast iron (be it literal or figurative) has many more layers than mine.
12. Tell us 3 things about food, or ingredients, that demonstrate your food knowledge.
1. In south east Asian cuisine fermentation plays a very natural and positive role. The warm and wet climate prevented dry storage of foods and accelerated the process of fermentation and molding. Indigenous cuisine learned to use and control this. For instance, lentils and rice could be soaked together and fermented and then ground into a paste which would only take a few minutes to cook. Compared to the hours of cooking to make lentils without fermentation, this was a godsend.
2. Oil is an excellent vehicle for holding and preserving spices in foods. Rather than adding spices to a final product, consider adding them to the hot oil before other ingredients. Adding spices at the end of cooking results in the spice's flavor being localized to the spice itself. By heating the spices directly, their aromatic oils are expelled and mixed into the other oil. This oil mixture is then evenly distributed throughout the food, resulting in a more intense flavor without hot spots of spice.
3. The principle of spicing foods cooked in a slow cooker is different though. The only spices which should be in the slow cooker are large solid spices - onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, peppers, bay leaves, etc. The long heat will slowly pull the flavorful oils from these large spices. Small powder spices will become over powdered during the long cooking and should only be added in the end in the manner described in question 15 part 4.
13. Do you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies? Are there any foods you cannot or will not eat? Please give complete details.
I keep kosher. For me, this means that I will no eat any meat or fish which is not kosher, or anything with these ingredients. I will also not cook with unkosher meat or fish, nor will I mix meat and milk in my cooking. For ingredients which are not meat or fish I do not require them, however, to be explicitly kosher and will eat at a restaurant which serves both meat and vegetarian (though I will only eat vegetarian).
14. Clearly describe 3 of your "signature dishes" that best represent you and/or are most popular with your friends/family. Tell us why they represent you so well.
1. Flour Paposas. A flour and baking powder dough stuffed with cheese, chilis and beans and then pan fried with just a little oil in a cast iron pan until golden. This is my adaptation of the dish I had while staying in El Salvador, and then again at the Red Hook sports field food stands.
2. Dal and Rice porridge. A simple Indian porridge spiced with freshly roasted cumin seeds, including Dal, rice and a small amount of peas, carrots and potatoes. I learned this by watching the Indian mother of my former roommate prepare it at our apartment. During this lesson in Indian cooking she taught me about roasting Dal for a minute or two before adding liquid, and also about the order of Indian spicing. The dish, to me, epitomizes simple, wholesome foods which are nowhere to be found in popular Indian cuisine.
3. Sweet, sour and spicy green beans. A base of ginger, garlic, pepper and curry powder cooked with green beans and then tossed with honey, balsamic vinegar and pre-roasted almond shards. This dish, which I sometimes eat as a whole meal, comes from two sources. The first was is a childhood memory of eating something like this at the table of the Indian mother of an elementary school friend. The second is from lessons I learned from the Bangladeshi fiance of a former roomate. She taught me that, as opposed to Indian foods, Bangladeshi foods are often sweeter and also more sour. She would commonly use vinegar and honey in her curries. I likely would have never thought to do this to curries, yet by drawing on her knowledge of traditional cooking, I learned a very interesting and scrumptious lesson which I now apply to other dishes.
15. What are your top 5 original cooking tips? (Be specific, Give us information; teach us something. This is a chance to show us your technique and your culinary knowledge)
1. To make tofu with a firm, crunchy skin, without much oil use honey. After marinating remove the tofu and squeeze a little honey onto the precut pieces. Use a large cast iron skillet with oil to coat the bottom and pan fry for five minutes on each side, or until browned and firm. The honey coating locks in the flavor the tofu absorbed, so even when mixed with vegetables in a sauce, the tofu keeps its own flavor and firmness.
2. When making matzoballs, replace the water with seltzer. This creates fluffier balls which are easier to eat and have a nicer texture.
3. When making Risotto with a vegetable, precook the vegetable in large pieces. Then leave enough time for the vegetable to cool before cutting and adding to the Risotto at the end of cooking. Cooking large pieces and cutting when cool keeps more of the flavor in the vegetable, and adding when cool helps keep a distinct flavor separate from that of the rice.
4. If a soup or porridge like dish is lacking in flavor, rather than adding spices directly into it, consider using the Indian method of flavoring Dal. Take a small pan and heat oil. Add in the desired spices, with large spices or onion, garlic, ginger etc, going first followed by powdered spices. When spices have cooked, pour the oil directly into your pot and then stir to distribute.
5. When ever possible use cast iron. Of course there are many benefits to cast iron including its heat distribution, safe non-stick properties, and affordability. However, I encourage cast iron use also for the joy of creating and enhancing the seasoning of your pan. A cast iron pan which is well seasoned carries with it the stories and flavors of everything which has been cooked on it. Pass it on to other family members and children so that they can recall your food when they cook theirs.
Show tag line
What do you think of this as the tag line (the first few lines) of my cooking show.
Hello. I'm Ivan Corwin and I want to welcome you to Food Deja Vu (or other title) -- the show where we rediscover the foods of our past which have not made their way into the mainstream american food culture. These are the foods of our parents and grandparents, foods on which we once lived and now foods which we are dieing to have again. Come with me as we learn and explore the rich stories, recipes and cooking techniques which once ruled our kitchens.
Hello. I'm Ivan Corwin and I want to welcome you to Food Deja Vu (or other title) -- the show where we rediscover the foods of our past which have not made their way into the mainstream american food culture. These are the foods of our parents and grandparents, foods on which we once lived and now foods which we are dieing to have again. Come with me as we learn and explore the rich stories, recipes and cooking techniques which once ruled our kitchens.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Flounder and Risotto dinner
It has become a family tradition for me to cook fish during our summer vacation in Cape Cod. The impetus for this was a bet with my oldest brother. One morning, before going swimming he challenged me to eat a clove of garlic raw. In return for this he would buy fish for dinner for me to cook. While I'm pretty sure he would have done this either way, I consumed the clove. By the time I cooked dinner the rank garlic smell emanating from my every pore had subsided. Needless to say, this past year he bought the fish without a bet.
The first year I cooked a blue fish and cod. This past year I took the advice of my father and decided to cook local flounder. This is a very thin, light tasting fish which is easy to cook. Well, the dinner went well.
So when faced, this week, with the decision of what to cook for the first kitchen club meeting, flounder came to my mind. To complement it I decided to make an asparagus risotto. And to give the plate a little color, I determined to have simple roasted carrots on the side. Below I'll give the recipes, but for now I want to remark on some things I learned in my cooking last night.
First lesson: Don't try to pan fry anything with any cheese on the outside. I hadn't planned to, but on the spur of the moment I decided to put a little Romano cheese on the flounder, in addition to the herbs, before pan frying it. This resulted in a lay of burnt cheese on the bottom of the pan. Luckily this didn't really hurt the flavor or surface of the fish. It did, however make it impossible to make a good pan sauce.
Second lesson: Be a little picky about the type of wine used in making sauces. It just threw what ever wine into the already mucked up pan sauce. The wine didn't have a particularly nice flavor, and so the sauce was further worsened. In the end, I just trashed the idea of having a sauce.
Other than the sauce, I think that most of the food worked out well.
Recipes (I made this for six adults and these amounts worked very well)
Risotto:
2 cups of Arborio rice (important to use right rice)
Hard cheese, like parmesian or romano grated
Medium onion
A few garlic cloves
A bunch of asparagus
A cup or two of white wine
Vegetarian thin soup stock (chicken style)
Instructions:
Trim ends then, with a little garlic powder, pepper and grated hard cheese roast the asparagus on tin foil until tender. Reserve and when cooled some chop into one inch pieces. Chop onions and garlic. Heat olive oil in deep bottomed pan and then add in onion and garlic. Cook until onion becomes translucent but not caramelized. Add in special risotto rice (possibly with a little more
oil before hand). Cook the rice for two minutes so that the pieces become also a drop translucent around the edges. Then pour in enough wine to cover the rice and onions/garlic. From this point on you need to stir the mixture ever 5 seconds or so. Keep stirring until the wine is cooked off/ absorbed. You are looking for something close to the point where you can use your spoon to clear an area on the pans bottom, and the rice does not immediately rush back into that cleared area. Have on had warm, but not boiling, stock. Pour in a cup or so and continue this process of cooking the liquid into the rice. Keep doing this until the rice is the desired level of tender. Make sure to
let and residual liquid get absorbed by the rice. Once this is done, turn off the heat and add the cooked asparagus, plus pregrated hard cheese. Mix, add salt to taste, and let cook a little before serving. The consistency should be creamy and smooth, and the rice should be soft.
Fish:
Mixture of Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary
6 fillets Flounder
Olive oil
Butter
White Wine
Lemon
Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy bottomed skillet until melted and hot. Wash and clean flounder and pat dry. Scatter herbs onto the fish. One or two pieces at a time, place into the skillet. The fish is very thin and will not take long to cook. It will also shrink in its dimensions as it cooks. Once the edges begin to curl up, flip and finish cooking. Do not overcook. Remove from heat and place on a serving plate. Continue until all fish is cooked. Then crank up the heat. Deglaze plan with white wine (rose works too) and free up burnt particles into the mixture. Add in squeezed lemon and possibly some lemon zest. Cook until saucelike then pour onto the flounder. Reserve any extra sauce for dipping ect. Before doing this, of course, make sure the sauce tastes good --- otherwise you don't really need sauce with the fish since it should be very flavorful anyway.
Roasted carrots
Skin and cut 8 carrots at an angle so as to make elliptical shaped pieces of roughly 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut on cookie sheet or tin foil, add some olive oil and mix them up. Then add a little garlic powder and pepper and roast until tender.
These items can be prepared an hour or two early, and then just pop the fish and carrots in a warm oven for a few minutes to rewarm before serving. Risotto will keep its heat well for a while with the top on.
The first year I cooked a blue fish and cod. This past year I took the advice of my father and decided to cook local flounder. This is a very thin, light tasting fish which is easy to cook. Well, the dinner went well.
So when faced, this week, with the decision of what to cook for the first kitchen club meeting, flounder came to my mind. To complement it I decided to make an asparagus risotto. And to give the plate a little color, I determined to have simple roasted carrots on the side. Below I'll give the recipes, but for now I want to remark on some things I learned in my cooking last night.
First lesson: Don't try to pan fry anything with any cheese on the outside. I hadn't planned to, but on the spur of the moment I decided to put a little Romano cheese on the flounder, in addition to the herbs, before pan frying it. This resulted in a lay of burnt cheese on the bottom of the pan. Luckily this didn't really hurt the flavor or surface of the fish. It did, however make it impossible to make a good pan sauce.
Second lesson: Be a little picky about the type of wine used in making sauces. It just threw what ever wine into the already mucked up pan sauce. The wine didn't have a particularly nice flavor, and so the sauce was further worsened. In the end, I just trashed the idea of having a sauce.
Other than the sauce, I think that most of the food worked out well.
Recipes (I made this for six adults and these amounts worked very well)
Risotto:
2 cups of Arborio rice (important to use right rice)
Hard cheese, like parmesian or romano grated
Medium onion
A few garlic cloves
A bunch of asparagus
A cup or two of white wine
Vegetarian thin soup stock (chicken style)
Instructions:
Trim ends then, with a little garlic powder, pepper and grated hard cheese roast the asparagus on tin foil until tender. Reserve and when cooled some chop into one inch pieces. Chop onions and garlic. Heat olive oil in deep bottomed pan and then add in onion and garlic. Cook until onion becomes translucent but not caramelized. Add in special risotto rice (possibly with a little more
oil before hand). Cook the rice for two minutes so that the pieces become also a drop translucent around the edges. Then pour in enough wine to cover the rice and onions/garlic. From this point on you need to stir the mixture ever 5 seconds or so. Keep stirring until the wine is cooked off/ absorbed. You are looking for something close to the point where you can use your spoon to clear an area on the pans bottom, and the rice does not immediately rush back into that cleared area. Have on had warm, but not boiling, stock. Pour in a cup or so and continue this process of cooking the liquid into the rice. Keep doing this until the rice is the desired level of tender. Make sure to
let and residual liquid get absorbed by the rice. Once this is done, turn off the heat and add the cooked asparagus, plus pregrated hard cheese. Mix, add salt to taste, and let cook a little before serving. The consistency should be creamy and smooth, and the rice should be soft.
Fish:
Mixture of Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary
6 fillets Flounder
Olive oil
Butter
White Wine
Lemon
Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy bottomed skillet until melted and hot. Wash and clean flounder and pat dry. Scatter herbs onto the fish. One or two pieces at a time, place into the skillet. The fish is very thin and will not take long to cook. It will also shrink in its dimensions as it cooks. Once the edges begin to curl up, flip and finish cooking. Do not overcook. Remove from heat and place on a serving plate. Continue until all fish is cooked. Then crank up the heat. Deglaze plan with white wine (rose works too) and free up burnt particles into the mixture. Add in squeezed lemon and possibly some lemon zest. Cook until saucelike then pour onto the flounder. Reserve any extra sauce for dipping ect. Before doing this, of course, make sure the sauce tastes good --- otherwise you don't really need sauce with the fish since it should be very flavorful anyway.
Roasted carrots
Skin and cut 8 carrots at an angle so as to make elliptical shaped pieces of roughly 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut on cookie sheet or tin foil, add some olive oil and mix them up. Then add a little garlic powder and pepper and roast until tender.
These items can be prepared an hour or two early, and then just pop the fish and carrots in a warm oven for a few minutes to rewarm before serving. Risotto will keep its heat well for a while with the top on.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Application responses: Please help
I'm going to post the application questions and my responses. Let me know what you think.
1. Why do you want your own Food Network Show?
Recipes and techniques have evolved from rich cultural traditions. I have explored my own family's culinary heritage, now I would like to widen my horizon to encompass many other populations. Each week I hope to explore a different food, learn from masters --- grandmothers or grandfathers, chefs or cooks --- how it should be prepared, and then help guide my audience to do it themselves.
2. Do you have any formal/profession cooking training? If so, please describe. Did you graduate from cooking schoool?
No.
3. If you did not go to cooking school, how did you learn to cook?
I watched and listened to family, friends and food network. I asked questions to my Bubbee (grandmother) and mother about my own Jewish cooking traditions.
4. What is the greatest lesson you've learned about cooking?
To open myself up to every smell, taste and sight around me. In particular I have learned the most from watching people like my Bubbee, or my former Indian roommates mother, or my another roommates Bangladeshi fiance cook. By trying to reproduce or at least approximate the dishes I watch them prepare, I gain a better perspective about the ways of their respective cuisines.
5. What do you feel you can teach someone about food, or cooking? Please make something specific to you -- not about "having fun in the kitchen" or similar.
I can teach people to embrace thousands of years of knowledge and tradition which has created excellent dishes. People have learned to like diverse cuisines but too often do not have the chance to learn about or experience them prepared authentically. I will connect the audience to those people who holds these gems of culinary experience.
6. Who was the greatest influence on your cooking, and why?
Even though my great-grandmother, Bubbee Kerlin, passed away when I was young, I feel as though her nearly 100 years of cooking has lefts its mark deep on me. From my scattered memories of her apartment filled with Jewish delicacies, to her countless cooking stories and recipes I have been told, her kitchen legacy has driven my curiosity into my own heritage, and now into the heritage of others.
7. In addition to any cooking jobs listed above, list any other culinary experience:
None aside from preparing meals for friends and family.
8. What is the largest number of people you have ever cooked for? Please explain.
At my apartment, or during family vacations I have prepared meals for upwards of 10 people. While in college I volunteered at a homeless shelter and on a few occasions I prepared basic food for a larger population.
9. What makes you different from anyone else on food television?
Everyone wants to teach others how to cook. I want to be a learner alongside the audience as real greats, people who have been cooking for upwards of a century, teach their many lessons.
10. Briefly sum up your unique "Culinary Point of View." That us, what specifically makes you and your food different from everyone else's (not just "I cook with fresh ingredients."); what is special about what you can teach Food Network viewers?
Centuries of work has gone into creating many of the great recipes which our parents ate growing up and which we have only hear of. In the recent years people have become more open to diverse types of restaurants and foods and have even begun to draw on many different cultures in their food preparation. Much good has come from this. However, this trend has also contributed to many dishes being radically altered or discarded from culinary traditions. Before people learned their own kitchen traditions through fork, knife and stove. Now people learn through takeout menu. People recognize and lament their loss of culinary identity and will jump at the chance to learn about their own history and that of others.
My approach to cooking is to try to understand a recipe or a technique both at a practical level: why and how it works; and from an evolutionary perspective: why did our ancestors use the ingredients and methods they did, and why did it survive to us today?
11. Complete this sentence: "If I were an ingredient, I would be _______________." Why would you be that ingredient?
If I were an ingredient, I would be the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Well seasoned cast iron (the only choice of our ancestors) has many layers built up over time to create a wonderful surface on which to cook. Every meal adds a layer to the pan, and every meal draws from the flavors and oils of the layers below it. In this way, every time I cook with my cast iron, I am connecting to all of my previous cooking experiences. In my show I will seek to establish this physical connection to our culinary history through interviews with and tutorials from people whose own cast iron (be it literal or figurative) has many more layers than mine.
There are the four questions below remaining, but they are of a different nature so I'm going to do them later.
12. Tell us 3 things about food, or ingredients, that demonstrate your food knowledge.
13. Do you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies? Are there any foods you cannot or will not eat? Please give complete details.
14. Clearly describe 3 of your "signature dishes" that best represent you and/or are most popular with your friends/family. Tell us why they represent you so well.
15. What are your top 5 original cooking tips? (Be specific, Give us information; teach us something. This is a chance to show us your technique and your culinary knowledge)
1. Why do you want your own Food Network Show?
Recipes and techniques have evolved from rich cultural traditions. I have explored my own family's culinary heritage, now I would like to widen my horizon to encompass many other populations. Each week I hope to explore a different food, learn from masters --- grandmothers or grandfathers, chefs or cooks --- how it should be prepared, and then help guide my audience to do it themselves.
2. Do you have any formal/profession cooking training? If so, please describe. Did you graduate from cooking schoool?
No.
3. If you did not go to cooking school, how did you learn to cook?
I watched and listened to family, friends and food network. I asked questions to my Bubbee (grandmother) and mother about my own Jewish cooking traditions.
4. What is the greatest lesson you've learned about cooking?
To open myself up to every smell, taste and sight around me. In particular I have learned the most from watching people like my Bubbee, or my former Indian roommates mother, or my another roommates Bangladeshi fiance cook. By trying to reproduce or at least approximate the dishes I watch them prepare, I gain a better perspective about the ways of their respective cuisines.
5. What do you feel you can teach someone about food, or cooking? Please make something specific to you -- not about "having fun in the kitchen" or similar.
I can teach people to embrace thousands of years of knowledge and tradition which has created excellent dishes. People have learned to like diverse cuisines but too often do not have the chance to learn about or experience them prepared authentically. I will connect the audience to those people who holds these gems of culinary experience.
6. Who was the greatest influence on your cooking, and why?
Even though my great-grandmother, Bubbee Kerlin, passed away when I was young, I feel as though her nearly 100 years of cooking has lefts its mark deep on me. From my scattered memories of her apartment filled with Jewish delicacies, to her countless cooking stories and recipes I have been told, her kitchen legacy has driven my curiosity into my own heritage, and now into the heritage of others.
7. In addition to any cooking jobs listed above, list any other culinary experience:
None aside from preparing meals for friends and family.
8. What is the largest number of people you have ever cooked for? Please explain.
At my apartment, or during family vacations I have prepared meals for upwards of 10 people. While in college I volunteered at a homeless shelter and on a few occasions I prepared basic food for a larger population.
9. What makes you different from anyone else on food television?
Everyone wants to teach others how to cook. I want to be a learner alongside the audience as real greats, people who have been cooking for upwards of a century, teach their many lessons.
10. Briefly sum up your unique "Culinary Point of View." That us, what specifically makes you and your food different from everyone else's (not just "I cook with fresh ingredients."); what is special about what you can teach Food Network viewers?
Centuries of work has gone into creating many of the great recipes which our parents ate growing up and which we have only hear of. In the recent years people have become more open to diverse types of restaurants and foods and have even begun to draw on many different cultures in their food preparation. Much good has come from this. However, this trend has also contributed to many dishes being radically altered or discarded from culinary traditions. Before people learned their own kitchen traditions through fork, knife and stove. Now people learn through takeout menu. People recognize and lament their loss of culinary identity and will jump at the chance to learn about their own history and that of others.
My approach to cooking is to try to understand a recipe or a technique both at a practical level: why and how it works; and from an evolutionary perspective: why did our ancestors use the ingredients and methods they did, and why did it survive to us today?
11. Complete this sentence: "If I were an ingredient, I would be _______________." Why would you be that ingredient?
If I were an ingredient, I would be the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Well seasoned cast iron (the only choice of our ancestors) has many layers built up over time to create a wonderful surface on which to cook. Every meal adds a layer to the pan, and every meal draws from the flavors and oils of the layers below it. In this way, every time I cook with my cast iron, I am connecting to all of my previous cooking experiences. In my show I will seek to establish this physical connection to our culinary history through interviews with and tutorials from people whose own cast iron (be it literal or figurative) has many more layers than mine.
There are the four questions below remaining, but they are of a different nature so I'm going to do them later.
12. Tell us 3 things about food, or ingredients, that demonstrate your food knowledge.
13. Do you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies? Are there any foods you cannot or will not eat? Please give complete details.
14. Clearly describe 3 of your "signature dishes" that best represent you and/or are most popular with your friends/family. Tell us why they represent you so well.
15. What are your top 5 original cooking tips? (Be specific, Give us information; teach us something. This is a chance to show us your technique and your culinary knowledge)
Announcing my candidacy
My fellow food people. I have decided to announce my candidacy for the next food network star online rather than on broadcast television. Why you may ask --- well I believe that while TV is a thing of the past, we must strive now to integrate our history with the present. I am, of course, open to network interviews (if Katie Curic asks, my qualifications as a chef are essentially that I grew up in Poughkeepsie and you can basically see the Culinary Institute of America from there).
Enough banter though. I did print out the application and read over all of the rights I would be signing away. The app is about 12 pages, of which 5 or so ask meaningful questions. As I struggle with writing answers which will get me selected, I will likely post the questions here. But for now, one question piqued my interest: What ingredient are you most like, and why? My first thought, and likely my best thought, was the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Think about it --- pretty darn deep. Its not something that you necessarily consume (unless you decide to cook tomatoes in the pan and destroy the seasoning) but it is integral to having the food prepared in a particular manner. It is deeply rooted in seasoning of many years past, however every new dish cooked in the pan leaves its own flavor and lay to the seasoning. Its also my favorite kitchenware to cook on. So in these ways, it kind of captures my show idea --- I want to explore the heritage of particular foods and dishes as they have developed and been flavored by different people's own methods and techniques --- in a sense I want to understand a core sample of the seasoning of the pan of our culinary history.
Well that was pretty bad, but anyway, I'll work on it.
Enough banter though. I did print out the application and read over all of the rights I would be signing away. The app is about 12 pages, of which 5 or so ask meaningful questions. As I struggle with writing answers which will get me selected, I will likely post the questions here. But for now, one question piqued my interest: What ingredient are you most like, and why? My first thought, and likely my best thought, was the seasoning on an old cast iron pan. Think about it --- pretty darn deep. Its not something that you necessarily consume (unless you decide to cook tomatoes in the pan and destroy the seasoning) but it is integral to having the food prepared in a particular manner. It is deeply rooted in seasoning of many years past, however every new dish cooked in the pan leaves its own flavor and lay to the seasoning. Its also my favorite kitchenware to cook on. So in these ways, it kind of captures my show idea --- I want to explore the heritage of particular foods and dishes as they have developed and been flavored by different people's own methods and techniques --- in a sense I want to understand a core sample of the seasoning of the pan of our culinary history.
Well that was pretty bad, but anyway, I'll work on it.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Quick and easy Indian green beans
I was just reading my friend's cooking blog (http://themistaskitchen.blogspot.com/) and she gave a very nice recipe for roasted green beans (when you make my recipe and it turns out terrible and you are left with a pound of untarnished green beans, you should look at here recipe) prepared in an Indian, or dare I say Bangladeshi way. I, of course, can not claim that these are really authentic Indian or Bangladeshi, but I'll give my best rational for why I think they are. First, I have a vague memory of one of my close elementary school friend's (he was Indian) mother preparing a meal which included a spicy green bean dish; and second, I had a roommate last year whose fiance was Bangladeshi, and many of the recipes she made included the very nice mixture of sweetness and sourness which figures into this dish.
Well enough storytelling:
A few handfuls of green beans (if you want an exact number 87 will do)
Between a cup and half a cup of slivered almonds
A cubic inch of fresh ginger
A few cloves of garlic
Curry Powder
Honey
Balsamic Vinegar
********
Take you favorite cast iron pan and roast the almond slivers until they get a little toasted, but not burned. Let them cool (I usually let them cool on the pan). Then take you second favorite cast iron pan and heat a little olive oil, then add the ginger and garlic (which you should dice before hand). After cooking for a minute or so add the beans (make sure they are not really wet when you add them). While this cooks add in the curry powder to taste, plus some salt might help. Cook until done and then transfer to a glass bowl. Add in the now dried almonds (when you roast almonds they get a little soft, so letting them cool keeps them crunchy in the mix), and then give the mixture a few splashes of Balsamic plus a few squirts of honey. Mix thoroughly and taste.
I really like this dish and often when I make it I end up making a meal out of it. Yeah... I'm pretty lame, but it tastes good, so why not.
Well enough storytelling:
A few handfuls of green beans (if you want an exact number 87 will do)
Between a cup and half a cup of slivered almonds
A cubic inch of fresh ginger
A few cloves of garlic
Curry Powder
Honey
Balsamic Vinegar
********
Take you favorite cast iron pan and roast the almond slivers until they get a little toasted, but not burned. Let them cool (I usually let them cool on the pan). Then take you second favorite cast iron pan and heat a little olive oil, then add the ginger and garlic (which you should dice before hand). After cooking for a minute or so add the beans (make sure they are not really wet when you add them). While this cooks add in the curry powder to taste, plus some salt might help. Cook until done and then transfer to a glass bowl. Add in the now dried almonds (when you roast almonds they get a little soft, so letting them cool keeps them crunchy in the mix), and then give the mixture a few splashes of Balsamic plus a few squirts of honey. Mix thoroughly and taste.
I really like this dish and often when I make it I end up making a meal out of it. Yeah... I'm pretty lame, but it tastes good, so why not.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Granola and the worth of buying things
The jury is out in my mind, given recent events, on the question of whether it is cheaper/better to make you own food or go buy prepared food. Don't take this as my letter of resignation from the kitchen, or as a solicitation for offers on my cast iron pans. What I mean is that given some of my recent cooking adventures, I had begun to think that there are many items never worth making for your self. Take my ravioli quarter-of-a-day. Some of them break open while bowling, and the filling is nothing sensational. For the time cost (had a been tutoring for 6 hours instead) I could have bought a thousand pre-made ravioli, or gone to every little italian place in the east village and tried their ravioli.
Perhaps I exaggerate, but let me make another illustration in a slightly different vain. Yesterday I made granola (I'll give the recipe below). It didn't take 6 hours --- more like 1 hour. My question here is about cost. I used almost a bag of almond, and then a good portion of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, plus almost a whole bag of apricots and dried cranberries. Estimating the cost of ingredients, I'd say it was about $7. The yield was a big freezer bag worth. On the pro side, I was able to control the ingredients and the amount of fat/sugar. On the con side, I probably should have used more honey and my oven (like all NY ovens) was way too hot and burned some stuff. Moreover, I probably could have bought the same amount of granola from trader joes at about the same price. The jury is still out as to whether I will continue to make my own granola.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone about my attempt at making paneer --- such a waste of time, money and milk.
What these episodes have taught me is not anything profound but is worth stating. If something is labor intensive and can be bought for a reasonable price Don't Try to Make It. Things worth making combine cheap ingredients in ways which are not too complex, to make meals. Things not worth making combine expensive ingredients to complex ways to make small parts of larger dishes.
I feel now, thinking this over, that I don't actually have a great understanding of what to make and what to avoid. I guess I'll wing it, and likely, I'll be writing some time soon about another wasted evening trying to make ... oh... say homeade dosas.
Heres the granola recipe:
4 cups oatmeal (not the minute or fast stuff, just the good old fashion kind)
1 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup canola oil (i probably used less though)
honey (to taste and coat)
a splash of vanilla extract
cinnamon and nutmeg (just a little)
2 cups chopped dry apricot and cranberries
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Add oil and honey until everything is coated and sticks together a little. Spread out on cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper) and cook in oven at like 350 until a little golden. Then mix stuff to expose more uncooked area. Don't overcook or burn. When done let cool then enjoy.
Perhaps I exaggerate, but let me make another illustration in a slightly different vain. Yesterday I made granola (I'll give the recipe below). It didn't take 6 hours --- more like 1 hour. My question here is about cost. I used almost a bag of almond, and then a good portion of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, plus almost a whole bag of apricots and dried cranberries. Estimating the cost of ingredients, I'd say it was about $7. The yield was a big freezer bag worth. On the pro side, I was able to control the ingredients and the amount of fat/sugar. On the con side, I probably should have used more honey and my oven (like all NY ovens) was way too hot and burned some stuff. Moreover, I probably could have bought the same amount of granola from trader joes at about the same price. The jury is still out as to whether I will continue to make my own granola.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone about my attempt at making paneer --- such a waste of time, money and milk.
What these episodes have taught me is not anything profound but is worth stating. If something is labor intensive and can be bought for a reasonable price Don't Try to Make It. Things worth making combine cheap ingredients in ways which are not too complex, to make meals. Things not worth making combine expensive ingredients to complex ways to make small parts of larger dishes.
I feel now, thinking this over, that I don't actually have a great understanding of what to make and what to avoid. I guess I'll wing it, and likely, I'll be writing some time soon about another wasted evening trying to make ... oh... say homeade dosas.
Heres the granola recipe:
4 cups oatmeal (not the minute or fast stuff, just the good old fashion kind)
1 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup canola oil (i probably used less though)
honey (to taste and coat)
a splash of vanilla extract
cinnamon and nutmeg (just a little)
2 cups chopped dry apricot and cranberries
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Add oil and honey until everything is coated and sticks together a little. Spread out on cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper) and cook in oven at like 350 until a little golden. Then mix stuff to expose more uncooked area. Don't overcook or burn. When done let cool then enjoy.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Cooking show idea
A few weeks ago my sister emailed me and told me I should check out this link (http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-next-food-network-star/index.html) . I of course didn't have the patience to read what it would take to become the next food network star (I seldom have the patience to read more than headings). However it still got me thinking about what type of show I would have, if I did have a food network show. Would I play on my nerdy math/science side like Alton Brown, or would I try to show off my nearly non-existent cooking prowess? My idea, which I admit is not earth shaking, came to me after a 6 hour car ride back from my brother's wedding in New Hampshire. My aunt Mimi (or Ruby if you are speaking to here in Europe) and my mother were remembering all about my great grandmother's cooking habits. Mimi's favorite was taiglach, my Dad's was pletzlach. I know that the "lach" part means little, but I'm not 100% sure what "taig" and what "pletz" means. This is not the point though. My idea came from my desire, at hearing about these old traditional foods, to find out how they were made and to recreate them as authentically as possible.
In Ivan Imaginary World (IIW) I would have a TV show where each week I chose a new old food to explore. The format would essentially be that I find some old women who have been making the food for a collective 1000 years and I learn from them as much as I can about how to make it. Part of the show is devoted to their story and the story of the food, another part is me actually trying to make it myself in the style I was just taught, once I have either succeeded to failed at this I try to consider what makes their method so unique, and finally I present a version of the recipe which can be made relatively easy and with little time commitment. I'm not sure what name I would give the show. Maybe something like "The Food Treasure Hunter", or "Tasty Traditions", or "Bubbi's Kitchen".
Ideas? Thoughts? I probably won't apply for anything, but its still fun to imagine.
In Ivan Imaginary World (IIW) I would have a TV show where each week I chose a new old food to explore. The format would essentially be that I find some old women who have been making the food for a collective 1000 years and I learn from them as much as I can about how to make it. Part of the show is devoted to their story and the story of the food, another part is me actually trying to make it myself in the style I was just taught, once I have either succeeded to failed at this I try to consider what makes their method so unique, and finally I present a version of the recipe which can be made relatively easy and with little time commitment. I'm not sure what name I would give the show. Maybe something like "The Food Treasure Hunter", or "Tasty Traditions", or "Bubbi's Kitchen".
Ideas? Thoughts? I probably won't apply for anything, but its still fun to imagine.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Ravioli or my hands ache
Yesterday was a roller coaster of culinary emotion. I awoke eager to go to the William Sonoma knife demonstration with my roommate. We got there only to discover that what his coworker who invited him there really meant by 12:30pm was 11:00am. Bummed out about this we went to Wholefoods to grab a bite (I abstained having just recently eaten some of my dal stew) where I was blown away by the quantity of prepared food available. Arriving home an hour later I settled into watching the Giants trounce Seattle. I started the game late, so my DVR let me skip through commercials and timeouts. Perhaps it was missing the knife demo, or maybe it was the lack of witty banter by NFL announcers (fast-forwarded over) but when 4:30 rolled around I had an empty feeling in my stomach. The solution: make homemade pasta. This seemed like a good idea since just two hours earlier I had impulsively purchased a block of Pecirino Romano cheese at the East Village Cheese Shop.
The first steps in making fresh pasta are pretty easy. You take about two cups of flour and put it on a counter top in a pile. Sprinkle some salt on the flour and then make a well in the center. Into the well place two (jumbo) eggs. The well is supposed to contain the eggs. Of course my eggs just toppled the well and I needed to rush to save them. Work the eggs into the flour by hand. At first this will seem futile and everything will either be dry or sticky. Eventually the egg gets worked into the dough and after much kneading you end up with a solid piece of dough. The dough should really be dry, or else the pasta won't come out right. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This lets any gradient in moistness resolve itself in the dough.
Now comes the laborious part! Cut a small chunk -- like 1/5th of the dough -- and roll out flat. I don't have a pasta maker, so if you do, perhaps this part isn't as long and painful. When you've flattened out the piece as much as possible (use some flour to keep it from sticking), cut long thin strips. Each strip needs to be rolled out to make it thin enough to cook. When I did this I got about 40 pieces of pasta this way, each about 1/3rd of an inch wide and really thin. I let these dry out on a hanging rack (you want the air to circulate) and then cooked them for a few minutes in boiling water. On top of this I put some of the grated romano cheese and ample pepper, plus a little olive oil and called this Cacio E Pepe.
I was pretty content at this point --- the food had taken a little over an hour to make, but I was full and it had been yummy. Quickly, though, I realized that I had a significant amount of pasta dough in remaining in the fridge. I hate to waste, so I knew I needed to do something with it. The feeling I had was like when you decide your going to clean, you take everything out of the closets and move everything around, and then get sick of cleaning but realize that you can't leave everything scattered around the house. Well, perhaps I was obsessing a little, because I could have just thrown the baseball size ball of dough out the window and been done, but I didn't.
Instead I decided to make Ravioli. First step was to get filling. I went to the corner store to get Ricotta. Yet after seeing their packaged "fresh pasta" for 8$ I got the hell out of there. It was too depressing to see, for sale, something which probably tasted as good as the stuff I made and wouldn't require me to spent the rest of my evening working on. I went to the supermarket and, without much thinking, also bought three pears and a butternut squash, plus the ricotta and a tub of yogurt. I made two fillings for the Raviolis.
The first was a traditional filling. I cooked diced onion and garlic and then added a thing of frozen spinach. Once cooked I added in some fresh basil and other Italian spices and finally a tub of ricotta cheese and an ample amount of the Romano cheese. I put this aside.
Meanwhile, on my favorite cast iron I cook the butternut squash (cubed) and added to it some chopped rosemary and sage (yes mom - I found a use for the sage you gave me). I also added in some garlic here. When cooked I put this into a glass bowl and covered. Then, in my same pan I browned walnuts. To the bowl of squash I added two diced pears, and when the walnuts had gotten nicely cooked, I added them too. This all got nice and mashed, and then a few heaping spoonfuls of yogurt and some Romano. Everything received some salt too.
Looking at these two things of fillings I knew I had made too much. Oh well!
The prospect of rolling the raviolli shells had been looming for a while and finally I began the process of flattening small chunks, applying more flour, cutting into smaller chunks and finally flattening to paper thin pieces. Optimally I wanted pieces roughly 3" wide and 5" long. This seldom happened. I dried these out and once I had a few, I started to fill. I Wet the boundary of the pasta shell and then filled it with one of the two choices. Then I carefully folded everything together and hoped the shell would hold. Generally it did. I repeated this around 50 times before I had exhausted the dough. Using methods advanced mathematical theories on sphere packing I found enough room in my over packed freeze to chill these creations.
Washing dishes was a pleasure now, knowing that I didn't need to worry about pasta dough anymore.
The clock read past 11pm when I emerged from the kitchen, flour covered and hands aching. Even today, as I type, I grimace every time I need to hit the lower keys on the keyboard. Never had I rolled dough for so long as I did yesterday. Enjoyable - Yes, Worth it - Probably not. I haven't taste the creation yet, so who knows...
One side note: The initial creation of Cacio E Pepe comes from the eponymous restaurant three blocks north of my apartment. In retrospect I may have been better off going there, paying the 16 dollars, and then spending 6 hours begging for change on the street.
Post note: I had some of the Ravioli's tonight for dinner. They were good, but not worth 6 hours.
The first steps in making fresh pasta are pretty easy. You take about two cups of flour and put it on a counter top in a pile. Sprinkle some salt on the flour and then make a well in the center. Into the well place two (jumbo) eggs. The well is supposed to contain the eggs. Of course my eggs just toppled the well and I needed to rush to save them. Work the eggs into the flour by hand. At first this will seem futile and everything will either be dry or sticky. Eventually the egg gets worked into the dough and after much kneading you end up with a solid piece of dough. The dough should really be dry, or else the pasta won't come out right. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This lets any gradient in moistness resolve itself in the dough.
Now comes the laborious part! Cut a small chunk -- like 1/5th of the dough -- and roll out flat. I don't have a pasta maker, so if you do, perhaps this part isn't as long and painful. When you've flattened out the piece as much as possible (use some flour to keep it from sticking), cut long thin strips. Each strip needs to be rolled out to make it thin enough to cook. When I did this I got about 40 pieces of pasta this way, each about 1/3rd of an inch wide and really thin. I let these dry out on a hanging rack (you want the air to circulate) and then cooked them for a few minutes in boiling water. On top of this I put some of the grated romano cheese and ample pepper, plus a little olive oil and called this Cacio E Pepe.
I was pretty content at this point --- the food had taken a little over an hour to make, but I was full and it had been yummy. Quickly, though, I realized that I had a significant amount of pasta dough in remaining in the fridge. I hate to waste, so I knew I needed to do something with it. The feeling I had was like when you decide your going to clean, you take everything out of the closets and move everything around, and then get sick of cleaning but realize that you can't leave everything scattered around the house. Well, perhaps I was obsessing a little, because I could have just thrown the baseball size ball of dough out the window and been done, but I didn't.
Instead I decided to make Ravioli. First step was to get filling. I went to the corner store to get Ricotta. Yet after seeing their packaged "fresh pasta" for 8$ I got the hell out of there. It was too depressing to see, for sale, something which probably tasted as good as the stuff I made and wouldn't require me to spent the rest of my evening working on. I went to the supermarket and, without much thinking, also bought three pears and a butternut squash, plus the ricotta and a tub of yogurt. I made two fillings for the Raviolis.
The first was a traditional filling. I cooked diced onion and garlic and then added a thing of frozen spinach. Once cooked I added in some fresh basil and other Italian spices and finally a tub of ricotta cheese and an ample amount of the Romano cheese. I put this aside.
Meanwhile, on my favorite cast iron I cook the butternut squash (cubed) and added to it some chopped rosemary and sage (yes mom - I found a use for the sage you gave me). I also added in some garlic here. When cooked I put this into a glass bowl and covered. Then, in my same pan I browned walnuts. To the bowl of squash I added two diced pears, and when the walnuts had gotten nicely cooked, I added them too. This all got nice and mashed, and then a few heaping spoonfuls of yogurt and some Romano. Everything received some salt too.
Looking at these two things of fillings I knew I had made too much. Oh well!
The prospect of rolling the raviolli shells had been looming for a while and finally I began the process of flattening small chunks, applying more flour, cutting into smaller chunks and finally flattening to paper thin pieces. Optimally I wanted pieces roughly 3" wide and 5" long. This seldom happened. I dried these out and once I had a few, I started to fill. I Wet the boundary of the pasta shell and then filled it with one of the two choices. Then I carefully folded everything together and hoped the shell would hold. Generally it did. I repeated this around 50 times before I had exhausted the dough. Using methods advanced mathematical theories on sphere packing I found enough room in my over packed freeze to chill these creations.
Washing dishes was a pleasure now, knowing that I didn't need to worry about pasta dough anymore.
The clock read past 11pm when I emerged from the kitchen, flour covered and hands aching. Even today, as I type, I grimace every time I need to hit the lower keys on the keyboard. Never had I rolled dough for so long as I did yesterday. Enjoyable - Yes, Worth it - Probably not. I haven't taste the creation yet, so who knows...
One side note: The initial creation of Cacio E Pepe comes from the eponymous restaurant three blocks north of my apartment. In retrospect I may have been better off going there, paying the 16 dollars, and then spending 6 hours begging for change on the street.
Post note: I had some of the Ravioli's tonight for dinner. They were good, but not worth 6 hours.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Steamed Chinese Fish
Wow, I'm on a roll posting. One pastime I have is to remember or imagine the way different dishes taste. Just a moment ago a dish I cooked about two weeks ago popped into my mouth/mind. I learned this recipe from my friend Greg when I was visiting him in Berkeley this summer. Two weeks ago I remade it with my friend Leah who was just in the city for the day and helped me go Chinatown shopping. Usually when I go Chinatown shopping I am heavily laden with my purchases, but having a partner in the endeavor freed me up to purchase some fish. I've read mixed things about Chinatown fish as far as how healthy they are, so I don't cook too much with them, however they are dirt cheap. For 1$ I got a 1 lb bass, gutted and fins removed. When getting fish in Chinatown its pretty important to know what to look for in fish (since some of the fish are kind of old and probably bad). As far as I'm concerned I look at eyes, scales, firmness and proximity to ice. Eyes should not be clouded and should not be too dislodge from the socket; scales should have a nice sheen and still shine --- dull scales means bad fish; firm fish is good fish --- if it is mushy or too yielding then pass on the piece; finally common sense dictates that the fish should have a good amount of ice near it to keep it cool.
Anyway, I used bass this time, but with Greg we used a thinner fish (can't remember what though). The important thing is that the fish is not too thick and that it has a good cavity to be stuffed. Take the fish, when you get it home and wash it off and remove any excess stomach crud. Take a bunch of ginger and scallions and cut both into shoots. These go inside the cavity of the fish formed from removing the stomach. If you can open this up more, so as to butterfly the fish more, do that. Then take the stuffed fish and put it on a ceramic plate. Take a large pan and put an inch of water on the bottom and a medal cap (like the top of an apple sauce container) in the middle of the water. On this cap put the plate with the fish, making through that there is a little room on the sides of the plate. Turn on the heat and cover. The fish will be steamed nicely in anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the thickness. You can tell that its done by sticking a fork or knife inside and checking it yields easily. Near the end of this cooking heat up some sesame oil and soy sauce to just below smoking (hot). When the fish is done carefully remove the plate (use chopsticks or forks but we careful) and pour this hot oil on the fish skin to give it a little crisp. If the fish is well cooked you should be able to pull the tail through the head out along with most of the bones before eating. Still be aware that most fish will have a number of small bones, so be sure to pick them out as you eat. This is good served with rice. Also, don't feel compelled to eat the stuffing -- it was there to impart its flavor to the fish in a mild way.
When done, you should probably dump your garbage because the fish is gonna start to stink in 5,4,3,2, now.
Anyway, I used bass this time, but with Greg we used a thinner fish (can't remember what though). The important thing is that the fish is not too thick and that it has a good cavity to be stuffed. Take the fish, when you get it home and wash it off and remove any excess stomach crud. Take a bunch of ginger and scallions and cut both into shoots. These go inside the cavity of the fish formed from removing the stomach. If you can open this up more, so as to butterfly the fish more, do that. Then take the stuffed fish and put it on a ceramic plate. Take a large pan and put an inch of water on the bottom and a medal cap (like the top of an apple sauce container) in the middle of the water. On this cap put the plate with the fish, making through that there is a little room on the sides of the plate. Turn on the heat and cover. The fish will be steamed nicely in anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the thickness. You can tell that its done by sticking a fork or knife inside and checking it yields easily. Near the end of this cooking heat up some sesame oil and soy sauce to just below smoking (hot). When the fish is done carefully remove the plate (use chopsticks or forks but we careful) and pour this hot oil on the fish skin to give it a little crisp. If the fish is well cooked you should be able to pull the tail through the head out along with most of the bones before eating. Still be aware that most fish will have a number of small bones, so be sure to pick them out as you eat. This is good served with rice. Also, don't feel compelled to eat the stuffing -- it was there to impart its flavor to the fish in a mild way.
When done, you should probably dump your garbage because the fish is gonna start to stink in 5,4,3,2, now.
Quick greens, garlic and pine nut dish
I just need to mention a dish which is a perennial favorite of mine. Essentially its a wilted greens, hot pepper, garlic, raisin/craisin, and roasted pine nut dish which is really great. Well, I supposes I've shown all of my cards by revealing all of the ingredients, so I'm not gonna give a formal recipe. Essentially take some sort of green vegi (fresh or frozen spinach, any type of chard, mustard greens, Chinese broccoli) and chop it up a little, but don't dice it or anything major. If there is any stalk like in Chinese broccoli, you should chop it separately and cook it longer than the leaves. Anyway, in your favorite cast iron pan roast some pine nuts and then let them cool a little. Meanwhile in a non-cast iron pan heat some olive oil and then put into it chopped hot pepper (or pepper flakes) and garlic and let it cook a little. Then add in any stalk type pieces of your vegi, and then, once that is half cooked add in the leaves. If you are using frozen spinach you can either premelt it, or do what I do and just throw it into the pan frozen and slowly scrap off the melted pieces until its all melted. Anyway, while this is going on you should add a handful of either raisins or dried cranberries. Once everything is cooked, and any of the excess water is cooked off, put the pine nuts into the mix, season with salt and eat. I often will eat this as a meal on its own, but for those who are not content to eat just one dish, you can probably pair this with some toasted bread. Thats too fancy for my tastes though and I'll just stick with the greens.
Cumin Dal and Rice Stew
Two years ago I had a roommate, Sheel, who was Indian. We both enjoyed cooking and explored many types of food. Some of the best recipes we made, though, came from his mother. Today I remade one of those recipes --- a stew of dal, rice and vegis, spiced with cumin (and many other spices). Here's the idea:
In a small cast iron pan brown cumin seeds and once cooled grind into powder. Meanwhile heat oil (canola) in a pot then add in dry red pepper and bay leaves. After like a minute add in garlic, onion, green chili, and ginger and let the onion brown/carmilize. Then introduce the potatos and vegis (I used carrot and peas). Spice with salt, turmeric and red chill powder. After cooking for a little, push the vegis to the side and add a little more oil to the middle and add in dal (1 cup) and roast two minutes. After that add 4 cups of hot water and cook until the dal is half cooked --- it should be getting softer and separating a little. Then add in 1 cup rice and a little more hot water and cook until done. When most of the water has been absorbed, add in the ground cumin seeds.
This dish is best after its cooled down and even after its sat in the fridge for a day because the spices really meld and develop. Its pretty much a complete meal in itself (I'll probably be eating it for the next four days or so). Its also a really good dinner party food --- on two or three occasions I've made it, along with some other dishes, and its gone over really well.
In other culinary news my roommate Steve and I are going to a knife demonstration at William Sonoma tomorrow noon; my friend Jess and I have made plans to try to create a good peanut butter cheesecake (I agreed to this because I don't like peanut butter and hence won't be tempted to eat it in all its fatty goodness); my friend Mike had a great idea of starting a bi-monthly food club where we learn to cook different dishes as a group. So as far as cuisine I have my plate full (lame joke).
In a small cast iron pan brown cumin seeds and once cooled grind into powder. Meanwhile heat oil (canola) in a pot then add in dry red pepper and bay leaves. After like a minute add in garlic, onion, green chili, and ginger and let the onion brown/carmilize. Then introduce the potatos and vegis (I used carrot and peas). Spice with salt, turmeric and red chill powder. After cooking for a little, push the vegis to the side and add a little more oil to the middle and add in dal (1 cup) and roast two minutes. After that add 4 cups of hot water and cook until the dal is half cooked --- it should be getting softer and separating a little. Then add in 1 cup rice and a little more hot water and cook until done. When most of the water has been absorbed, add in the ground cumin seeds.
This dish is best after its cooled down and even after its sat in the fridge for a day because the spices really meld and develop. Its pretty much a complete meal in itself (I'll probably be eating it for the next four days or so). Its also a really good dinner party food --- on two or three occasions I've made it, along with some other dishes, and its gone over really well.
In other culinary news my roommate Steve and I are going to a knife demonstration at William Sonoma tomorrow noon; my friend Jess and I have made plans to try to create a good peanut butter cheesecake (I agreed to this because I don't like peanut butter and hence won't be tempted to eat it in all its fatty goodness); my friend Mike had a great idea of starting a bi-monthly food club where we learn to cook different dishes as a group. So as far as cuisine I have my plate full (lame joke).
Friday, October 3, 2008
Bok Choy 1
I made a vegi/tomato sauce mixture this morning to go with a bunch of Pirogies I had. As one of the components I used Bok Choy (chinese cabbage). This is an ingredient which I often include in chinese cooking, but have also used in crockpot chili. However, this was really the first time that I tasted a certain flavor in the Bok Choy. The flavor was best described as tang. An acidic, but also tangy flavor in the Bok Choy seemed to be accented by the acid of the tomatoes. I looked up online just a little while ago and in fact Boy Choy has a ton of Vitamin C so this makes complete sense. My question is how have people taken advantage of this characteristic tang? My first thought was that the Bok Choy could be utilized to create a distinctive drink. Think Lemonade -- maybe add some mint and simple syrup. Next time I got to Chinatown I'll get a bunch of Bok Choy and start to experiment with this idea. My concern with it as a drink, however, is that it might be hard to extract the flavor without the less drinkable components. Blending and boiling might do it.
Another thought is to try to use Bok Choy in cooking fish. Over the summer I made a nice flounder dish (essentially pan fry flounder with Rosemary, Thyme and some butter/olive oil mixture, when done deglaze with white wine and lemon juice and cook into a sauce). I'm thinking that rather than using the lemon juice, diced Bok Choy might meld well with the wine and lend it the desired freshness of the lemon, plus an interest additional flavor. In this capacity also the small pieces of Bok Choy would also provide a nice crunch in contrast to the softness of the fish.
Yet another idea is to employ this tang along side the only nut which loves tang --- cashews. For some reason, not yet known to me, cashews and tangy flavors meld really well. A simple mixture of cooked cashews and Bok Choy would probably rock. Probably best to chop the nuts a little, and maybe add a fresh tasting green -- cilantro? Not sure, maybe first try it with just these two ingredients. If this makes a good base, then you could make rice pilaf with these flavorings.
Well, I'd best get some Bok Choy before I loss interest and move onto another food...
Another thought is to try to use Bok Choy in cooking fish. Over the summer I made a nice flounder dish (essentially pan fry flounder with Rosemary, Thyme and some butter/olive oil mixture, when done deglaze with white wine and lemon juice and cook into a sauce). I'm thinking that rather than using the lemon juice, diced Bok Choy might meld well with the wine and lend it the desired freshness of the lemon, plus an interest additional flavor. In this capacity also the small pieces of Bok Choy would also provide a nice crunch in contrast to the softness of the fish.
Yet another idea is to employ this tang along side the only nut which loves tang --- cashews. For some reason, not yet known to me, cashews and tangy flavors meld really well. A simple mixture of cooked cashews and Bok Choy would probably rock. Probably best to chop the nuts a little, and maybe add a fresh tasting green -- cilantro? Not sure, maybe first try it with just these two ingredients. If this makes a good base, then you could make rice pilaf with these flavorings.
Well, I'd best get some Bok Choy before I loss interest and move onto another food...
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