chefhat

[chefhat]

Refrigeration

Probably the most important and useful technology man has ever come up with. A fridge, as you know is the use of ice to lower the temperature of to preserve food and which was created in the historic 18th century. There was a seasonal harvesting of snow and ice which is an ancient practice that started as early as 1000 B.C. Shih king (Chinese), in religious ceremonies, they filled the emptying ice cellars. The next ancient society who harvested ice were the Jews (or may have been), since the book of Proverbs reads “As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them who sent him”, and was interpreted this to mean that the Jews used ice to cool beverages rather than to preserve food. Mechanical refrigerators first came available in the 20th century.Through its long history of refrigeration, it has let humans preserve food and with it.

Refrigeration falls into the innovation technology because it’s a mechanical machine that has dated back from 18th century, that uses energy to function properly and to keep food cool. 

In 1755, a Scottish professor named William Cullen designed a small refrigerating machine which used to pump to create a partial vacuum. This was created over a container of diethyl ether and it boiled to absorb heat from the surrounding air. This experiment created a small amount of ice which had no practical application at the time. Years later, the first gas absorption refrigeration system used gaseous ammonia to dissolve water in and it was developed by Ferdinand Carre of France in 1859 and patented in 1860. It improved method of liquefying gases such as ammonia, sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride as refrigerant and they were widely used for that purpose until the late 1920s.

Refrigerators are important because they keep our food and our drinks cold. It keeps a lot of our food from spoiling especially poultry, fish, meat and dairy. It keeps a lot of our fruit from overriping because the cold inhibits the ethylene gas from being released and it also keeps drinks and various other foods cold.

[chefhat]

My Pescatarian Diet Adventure

For my dietary restriction assignment, I chose to do a Pesatarian diet this week. I don’t know how vegetarians do it, mostly vegans, that’s insane to me. I’m surrounded by meats all the time when I’m at work and it’s hard not to drool over them, especially the steaks. One of the reasons why I chose to do a pescatarian diet is because one of my friends suggested me to do it, it sounded like a good idea because I still get to eat some type of meat. 

A typical daily pescatarian diet looks like this:

Breakfast:

High fibre cereal (Weetabix, Bran Flakes, Shreddies, etc) + skimmed milk 

High Fiber oatmeal

2 hard boiled eggs

1 cup or a piece of fruit

Lunch: 

A tuna sandwich or wrap, including low fat cheese/cottage cheese, egg and light mayo, lettuce, bell peppers and onions

A mixed salad

Snack:

Cheese and Crackers

Cow cheese wedge

19 special K Crackers

Dinner:

Tofu and Broccoli over Pasta and a salmon steak

Garden Salad 

One of my favorite recipes I’ve ever done was the Honey Mustard Salmon recipe which consists of:

Salmon fillets

1 1/2 tbsp honey

1 2/3 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 cloves garlic (minced)

3 tbs olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

Salt

During the duration of my diet, I’ve noticed that I have a better appetite because I’m eating a lot better and surprisingly more healthier. This year I haven’t ate much because it seems that I’m always busy at school and at work which makes me not have tie to eat properly. I would either have two meals a day or one or three, and would eat very inconsistently which made me lose my appetite very easily when I started trying to eat properly again. The pescatarian diet made me want to eat more often because I think I now prefer seafood over processed meat such as beed, lamb and pork. This was a great dieting experience I have ever done because I usually would choose to do a vegetarian since I found it was a “easy” diet. I recently discovered what a pescatarian is and so my friend suggested me to do it as a diet. 

If you really want to stick with you’re diet you have to feel a want to do it. You definitely need to have a consistent food schedule to follow and make sure you’re eating. Not necessarily a schedule, but people who are busy tend to end up not eating sometimes which is unhealthy. Being a pescatarian isn’t too bad of a challenge because you’re still eating some meat (mostly seafood meat), and you’re eating some animal products such as egg, milk, cheese, etc. 

I would continue with this diet because it made me eat more consistently and seemed like it made my appetite better than it did before. I did more research on pescatarian diets and this diet improves your health drastically because it reduces risk of heart diseases and other diseases. It also benefits the planet because it’s not much processed food being eaton. You’re also avoiding eating animal being kills for food (which means less animal are being killed!). 

[chefhat]

Purchasing Game & Meat

This is my first time purchasing meat by myself because usually it would be my mom choosing the type of meat we eat and I end up cooking it. Today I went to Loblaws to decide which cut/type of meat I would buy and I came to a decision and chose my most favorite cut, Tenderloin. The reason why I chose tenderloin is because it’s the most tender steak and lean, pretty buttery and mild in flavour. All there needs to be done when preparing to cook it is trimming off the silver skin, gristle and fat, but when I prepare it I leave the fat on since I actually eat some of it. (It’s so tasty).

           Veal is one of the oldest animal meat of civilizations going back to 2500 BC. Veal was a luxury among the Sumerians which was consumed by those who would risk losing an animal that did work for them so they can satisfy their taste buds. They basically subdued the wild cattle were found roaming around in Mesopotamia. Nobles and priests that are wealthy ate veal and drank wine at banquets. Overall, with cattle’s, they worked until they become too old and would be killed for beef. In the European History, tender meats of young animals were passed on to the Romans which eventually turned into Emperor Alexander Severus who forbid the slaughter of young calves. There are also veal bible references which reads “When God came to inform the patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham, that he would have a son, Abraham ran to the herd and selected a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant who hurried to prepare it …and they did eat. Genesis 18:7 and 18:8.”

           The tenderloin cut has three main cuts which is the cut, the center cut and the tail. The butt end is usually good for carpaccio since the eye can be pretty big. The tenderloin is an oblong shape spanning two primal cuts; the short loin and the sirloin. The tenderloin is right beneath the ribs near the backbone. It has two ends which is the butt and the tail. The muscles do very little work so it is the most tender part of the beef. Tenderloin cuts are usually $25-$30 a pound. I purchased my meat for $26.99 The Friendly Butcher which is near Yonge and Lawrence.

           The recipe I read from to search for cooking methods are on http://www.food.com/recipe/steak-house-seared-beef-tenderloin-filets-391283. Cooking this tenderloin steak is pretty simple, I would preheat the oven, season the steak with salt and pepper then adding oil to a pan to sear the steak and once done, I would throw it into the oven to cook it medium rare. Overall, in the future, my goal is to cook a nice piece of tenderloin steak instead of going to a restaurant to eat. I can also practise cooking a steak to the perfect medium rare which can add onto my experience.

[chefhat]

Making Soup

This week, I made Cream of Mushroom Soup for the first time with a recipe I found online. (http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-cream-of-mushroom-soup-264191). I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, I love all mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, and much more, you name it.  

For my soup, I made 4 servings using 6 mushrooms, onions, 1 garlic clove minced, butter, chicken broth, cream, salt and pepper. The recipe calls for nutmeg but I personally do not like it since it’s too strong. I basically cut the mushrooms into small dices instead of slices, melted butter and fried onions, garlic and mushrooms. I blended in the flour, added chicken broth until it thickened and lastly added cream in it for the final “creme”.There was a good amount of salt added in my soup, It wasn’t sweet, sour or bitter, all there was, was a creamy flavor in my mouth and having soft bites as I bit my mushrooms. 

I got my girlfriend to try my soup which was a bad idea. She hates creamy soup and soup in general. She doesn’t like the consistency of creamy soups. All she had was a taste and that’s all. 

The challenges of making the soup was just the creamy part. Checking up on the cream a.k.a the flour mostly, isn’t hard but making sure that the cream is a good consistency is definitely very important. It was a success since the soup was thick enough and not thin. I loved the soup I made. 

[chefhat]

Sweet & Sour pickles

The raw food product that I have chosen to pickle were cucumbers and to be specific, Kirby cucumbers. I used the pickling method to make them into sweet and sour pickles. I took a look at a recipe from http://www.pickyourown.org/sweet_pickles_recipe.php..

The first step I did was sterilize my jar by washing the insides of it. I boiled the jars in a saucepan, covered with water for 15 minutes. Then that’s when I started with the pickles. I put cucumbers, onions, pickling salt, and water. I pretty much chopped the cucumbers and let them soak for 2 hours and 10 minutes and drained it afterwards. A little after I mixed vinegars, sugar, garlic and peppers into a saucepan and heated it and brought it into a boil, then let it simmer. I filled the hot sterilized mason jar with the pickle mixture which covered only half of the jar. Then, I put the the jar in a hot water bath for 20 minutes and took out the jar with tongs. I let the pickles cool and left it in the refrigerator for about a week and it came out like how it is presented in the picture:

I had a slice of a pickle once it was ready and it tasted just like sweet and sour pickles. I felt like it was missing something so I did more research on what I should’ve added. I should’ve added some more products such as yellow mustard seeds, some onions (which I forgot), and some apple cider vinegar. it was definitely a good amount of sweet and sour taste. There was a great amount of salt in there, specifically pickling salt. In my opinion, the pickles were a success.

[chefhat]

Fruit Hunter

For my “Fruit Hunting” assignment, I went to the St. Lawrence Market and explored the many different fruits. I chose to go there because it was convenient for me and because it has a variety of fruits sold there. 

I chose passion fruit as my choice. I walked around the market looking for fruit I have never tried before and as I walked downstairs I saw many exotic fruits, passion fruit was one of them. I chose this fruit because I have never had actual passion fruit itself, I’ve only had passion fruit that was in bubble tea which is very different from the actual fruit. 

Passion fruit is native to subtropical locations of South America and originated in Paraguay. “Passion fruit” was a name that the Spanish missionaries to South American as a critical aid while attempting to convert the indigenous inhabitants to Christianity. Passion fruit is grown in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Vietnam, Israel, Australia, South Korea, Hawaii, and Florida. It is part of the “passifloraceae” family. When I bought this fruit in the market, it was priced at $2. It is ranged from $10-$20 a pound which is pretty expensive for a small little fruit. This fruit prefers a non-cold climate but can take temperatures higher than 20 degrees F but also doesn’t grow well in summer heat. 

Passion Fruit has a squishy hard waxy like shell. When I cut open the fruit it was yellow inside and just the inner part of the shell was purple. The fruit had a sour sweet tropical smell (only if it is cut opened). It’s kind of pulpy like with very tiny seeds inside. The seed is edible. The fruit has a sweet/sour taste and crunchy as the seeds are being eaten. 

Personally, I really dislike cooked fruit. You can make coconut & passion fruit mini lamingtons, passion fruit souffle, a cake, curds, and etc. If I were to cook this fruit, I wouldn’t. As I did some research, passion fruit could also be used as a “topping” kind of thing or as a extra taste. A white chocolate mousse could me baked and added passion fruit pulp on the top. Recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/29291/passionfruit+and+white+chocolate+mousse

I’ve learned a lot about this fruit such as a the taste of it, where it’s grown, what you can make with it and the different bacteria’s and diseases that can occur with passion fruit an ex. Phytoplasma, bacteria's, fungal diseases and much more.   

[chefhat]

The New Taste

 I recently went to a Thompson Diner near King & Bathurst to try something new I haven’t ate before. I tried Pastrami Reuben. This sandwich consists of corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing served on caraway rye bread.

The Reuben was salty and some what sour but not spicy at all (thought some people say it is). It is very buttery, very crunchy on the outside and sour in the inside, has a taste of dill pickle. I was able to smell the sourness (which smelt fantastic), it looked like a regular sandwich to me, not much color and it felt hard until I got to the second sandwich, it was pretty soggy. The corned beef looked like bacon with cheese and bread so it just reminded me of bacon and toast in the morning. This is a pretty unique sandwich (though, all foods have their own uniqueness), the bread itself went very well with everything inside and also the melted swiss cheese.

I realized that salty and sour food don’t go that well together at least for me, I feel like it’s too much flavor for me. The first few bites was great but then it was too strong when I kept eating the sandwich. I would definitely have another first bite again but not a full sandwich, just because the sandwich is too strong for me. With cooking now, I would be careful with my salt usage even though I add a lot of salt, it never seems to be enough. Overall, it doesn’t change the way I cook much, I think every food is different and there isn’t a specific way to cook them. 

[chefhat]

I’m Fidora. Fidora Hoang. 

Creativity. Passion. Team Player. My top 3 qualities of being a good chef.

Why I want to be a chef? I want to be a chef because I want to do something in the future that I am passionate about and a career that will give me as much hands on experience as possible. Cooking hasn’t really been a huge passion for me until my culinary teacher in high school got me into it. (Gotta give a big thanks to him). I love cooking because you have some what of a recipe to follow but you could also add a little something that you want into anything you cook. 

I am currently working in Baskin Robbins/Kernels. Of course, scooping ice cream isn’t as easy as it seems, it takes quite some muscle in order to scoop ice cream. I’ve only started working here on the last week of June and this job and I’m gonna be real with you, I’m already getting tired of this job. Customer’s are alright but at the end of the day, I try my best to avoid them and by doing that, I stick to doing floor aka vacuum and mop aka me stealing your girl while I vacuum. 

Cooking has no rule. That’s my philosophy of cooking. You may need a certain amount of ingredients in your dish, but you could add anything you want into it. Like Marcel Boulestin said, “ “Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”

I hope to gain everything from my blogging experience. I want to learn about everything as the day goes by.

http://lexiscleankitchen.com/

An amazing culinary blog. It makes my mouth drool. I like this blog because it’s organized into different sections, giving people accessing the blog to find things easily. I like how clear the pictures are presented, and overall I like how the blog catches my eye.