Beef

Roasting peppers is very easy- all you need to do is turn your broiler on and put your peppers on a baking sheet. With some tongs, turn the peppers so that they char evenly over 75 to 80% of the skin. Roasting peppers gives them a nice earthy flavor. Roasted peppers can be used in many recipes, including sauces (like the sauce we used for our shish kebabs), hummus, as well as being used for stuffing with chicken or other meats.

Beef is very high in protein, B-vitamins, and iron. Proteins are made up of amino acids, nine of which are essential (meaning we must find them in food). Proteins contain all nine of these amino acids. These complete proteins found in beef help repair the body, form hormones and enzymes, and helps to build an immune system. B-Vitamins help to improve cognitive performance. There are quite a large amonut of B-Vitamins in beef, including B3, which promotes gealthy skin and nerves as well as aids digestion; B6, which helps the body make nonessential amino acids as well as help form red blood cells; B12 is found naturally only in animal foods and is needed for the proper functioning of body cells and the nervous system. The body needs iron to help red blood cells carry oxygen. The body can easily use heme, the kind of iron found in beef. Heme also helps the body use non-heme iron which can be found in beans, grains, and vegetables.

We used a sirloin to make our shish kebabs. This cut works well for grilling and broiling because it is a more tender cut of meat, so it doesn't have as many muscle tissues that need to be broken down by slow cooking methods. In other words, dry heat cooking methods are great ways to cook mote tender cuts of meat, and slow cooking methods are the best way to cook locomotive muscles.

The three grades of beef are prime, choice, and select. Prime beef has the most marbling, or fat that helps a cut of beef stay juicy and flavorful. It is usually not found in supermarkets, but instead in nice restaurants or very select beef stores. The cost for prime beef can be very high because it is not widely produced. Choice beef has less marbling than prime, but enough to keep the mean juicy and flavorful. Generally it doesn't cost as much as prime beef. Select beef is very lean, which means that there isn't much marbling. It is much cheaper than both choice and prime beefs, but it is also less juicy and flavorful.

Grass fed cattle are eating natural food- what nature has to give them, occasionally with some supliments. They aren't eating foods that may contain pesticides, and grass fed cows aren't given anything to help stimulate their growth. Because these cows eat grass, their meats contain omega 3 acids, just like fish. Grain fed cows are given hormones to stimulate growth, and the food that they are given isn't really high quality. These cows also aren't usually in very good living conditions. A grass fed cow is a happy cow, but a grain-fed cow isn't really very happy at all.

To cook less tender meat, you can braise it or cook it in liquid. To braise beef, slowly brown it on all sides with a small amount of oil. Eventually you'll add 1/2 to 2 cups of liquid, and then cover the beef and let it simmer until the beef becomes tender. To cook beef in liquid, gently brown it, cover the beef in liquid, and then let it simmer until it's tender.

Quisadillas & Other Things



Cheesy quesadillas. Image from examiner.com; I forgot to
take a picture of my quesadillas, unfortunately.



Tortillas are super easy to make. Not a lot of ingredients need to go into them, except for flour and some levening agents as well as something fatty like Crisco, as well as water. All of the dry ingredients (plus the Crisco) need to be mixed together, and then water will be added last. In order to make a good tortilla, you have to be sure that the ingredients are mixed together very well. When you roll them out after, they need to be rolled out very thin because they double in thickness when they're put on a skillet. Here is the very recipe that we were provided with in class, as well as some background information on tortillas and different kinds of breads from around the world.

Tenderizing chicken, and other kinds of meat, is a smart idea if you're planning on cooking a tougher piece of meat. All the meats we eat are muscle tissue, and the least expensive meats come from parts of animals that are often used- more tender cuts of meat come from parts of the body that aren't used often. To make these tougher cuts of meat more tender, pound on them! Tenderizing them breaks up the muscles fibers a little bit, making the meat "softer." Esthetically, it also makes the cut of meat seem bigger than it really is.




The parmesan chicken with pesto noodles that I made.

 

Pesto sauce is traditionally made with basil and pine nuts (here is a recipe to a traditional pesto sauce). We made our pesto sauce with peas and walnuts, as well as several other ingredients. Pesto sauce is very easy to make. All it takes is a food processor. Put the garlic, peas, and other dry ingredients inside and "process" them until they're well mixed and there isn't any large chunks left. After that, put in the oil slowly and mix it in. Lastly, put in the parmesan cheese.

Kings of Pastry was about a group of men who were entering a competition in France to obtain a special collar. This collar means that they are a MOF, or a meillure ouevre de france. Essentially, they gain the title of a "master chef." It is a very high honor if one manages to obtain it. The film followed the preparation for the MOF as well as the competition.

I didn't have any opinion on pastry chefs before the film, and I still really don't either. I'm not a fan of making pastries myself, or of baking in general, so I admire those who can. . . however, it seemed that in the film those men were making many things that I would not consider a pastry, or really related to pastries. But I suppose someone in the culinary world has to know how to make lollipops and whatnot.

Eggs and Fried Rice

It would be a good idea to learn how to cook eggs properly since (I think so, anyway) they're a staple of the American breakfast, and of breakfasts from most other places. Like other foods, eggs can contain salmonella and other diseases or sicknesses that could make you or the person eating them sick.  It wouldn't be very fun to cook breakfast for your mom or someone in an effort to be to be nice and accidentally make that person sick. Eggs are also very versatile too, though, so knowing all the different ways to cook and use them would also be a fun learning experience.



A hard boiled egg. Picture from MyPersianKitchen.com



In the kitchen yesterday, we learned how to cook eggs four different ways: fried, hard boiled, scrambled, and poached. You can eat these eggs in a variety of different ways. Personally, I always eat my fried egg on toast. I think it's really great on lightly toasted bread with maybe a little bit of butter or jelly. Other people eat them with sausages or bacon or just by themselves, which is also how some people eat their scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs can be used in several other dishes too though, such as the fried rice that we made yesterady. Poached eggs are used in making eggs benedict (which is something that my grandma happens to love). Eggs benedict is sort of like an egg McMuffin, only I imagine that it is much less nasty than what McDonald's would serve you, haha. It's made of maybe an English muffin, sausage, and a poached egg. Hollandaise sauce is added to it for some extra flavor. Hollandaise sauce is egg a mix of egg yolk and butter and is seasoned with white or cayenne pepper. (Hollandaise sauce information from here.) At home, my family uses hard boiled eggs in salads or we'll just eat them by themselves at breakfast. In Germany, they love eating hard boiled eggs for breakfast. Every house has special tiny cups for holding their eggs. They're usually eaten with bread, cheese, and sliced deli meat, which is a typical German breakfast.

Below are pictures of the three other kinds of eggs that we made. . .

A fried egg on toast. Picture from dashrecipes.com



A pair of poached eggs. Picture from the-foodist.com



Scrambled eggs. Picture stock  from despositphotos.com





Fried rice. Picture from genaw.com



Fried rice is very simple and very cheap to make. Your rice must always be precooked before you start adding in all of your goodies, so that's the first step in making the dish. You can use white or brown rice to make the recipe. After making your rice, set it aside and heat up a skillet. You'll need to add a little bit of oil, and then once it's warm enough add in your chopped onions and garlic. Now would also be the time to add in any vegetables you'd like, like carrots, peas, broccoli, etc. After that, add the rice and pour some soy sauce in, being careful not to add too much. Stir it up until the soy sauce has coated everything and your veggies have gotten soft, and then you're done! If you would like to add in some precooked meat, like chicken or beef, now would be the time to do that as well.

Here is a recipe for fried rice with duck and plum sauce that sounds absolutely delicious! Sadly, I don't even know where to buy duck around here except for at the Pacific Ocean Market, and going in there makes me feel a little bit squeamish. . . so the chances of me trying this any time soon are slim. But I can still dream, right?