Category: Food Studies 10

For my last “Cooking at Home” assignment I served three dishes, For my appetizer I made Sun-Dried Tomato Pâté, for the side dish I made Broccoli Red Pepper and Feta Toss, and for the main course, I made Meatball Soup. I had reasons for making each dish, the appetizer I feel represented my adventurous nature because I never have eaten or made any thing like that before. My side dish represented my family, because this dish is very similar to concoctions my mom has made before. The main course to me represented my passion for skiing, because every time my family and I go to the ski hill my ante makes that soup.

Before I started cooking the meal I imagined what each dish would be like. I wanted the meatballs in the soup to be tender and not over cooked. The broth to have a rich smell and taste, the meatballs to look round and even and the broth clear. For the salad I imagined the bell peppers to stand out in the bed of broccoli, the vinegar to add an unexpected zing to the dish, broccoli to be perfectly cooked, and the smell of the salad to be subtle. Lastly for the appetizer, I expected the spread to be colourful red, the basil to accent the strong taste of sun dried tomatoes, the baguette to be crisp and the smell of garlic to be subtle.

While making the meals, I realized that I was demonstrating important skills. One example was my knife skills which have improved greatly through out this course. I remember, for my first cooking at home assignment my slices were uneven and incredibly slow. Although I have much to learn I now know the difference between chopped, diced and minced. Another skill I demonstrated was perseverance, I worked hard throughout the dish to get the finish it in time for dinner. I also tried to be precise with my measurements.

In the end I was pleased with how the dishes turned out. The tomato spread was creamy, the flavours were perfectly balanced, the colour was a beautiful pale orange and the smell was not too powerful. For the salad the broccoli was cooked just the way I wanted, and the colour was not as vibrant as I expected but beautiful all the same, and the balsamic vinegar cut through the subtle flavors. The soup’s chewy gnocchi added a contrast to the tender meatballs, the bright yellow broth provide a cheeriness to the dish, and the taste was rich but also warming.

In conclusion my meal turned out different then expected, but not bad. The appetizer had a creamier taste then I imagined, the side dish did not look like the photograph in the cookbook, and the I completely forgot about the main dish’s gnocchi. If I made something like this again, I would make more evenly sized meatballs

For this week’s “cooking at home” assignment I decided to make my aunt’s spinach pie. This may sound disgusting for most of you, however, I remembered the flakey crust and cheesy inside of the dish.

So I started to make the crust. I am happy to say that that was probably my greatest successes of the dish. Just last week, I made a pumpkin pie, however I made a few mistakes in making the crust. This week I made sure to follow all of the instructions carefully. I made sure to cut the butter and lard to even pieces, and I was not afraid of adding to much water to the mixture.

However I did come across a few challenges in making the pie. When I was making the filling, I did not have enough fresh parsley. Fortunately, I substituted dried parsley for fresh. Another problem was I wasted time trying to work on multiple things at once, next time I think I will make a more detailed plan, so I can be more efficient.

I am most proud of the final product. The golden-brown crust contrasted the dark filling, the smell of fetta cheese drifted through the air, the flaky crust was the perfect consistency, and the biter spinach contrasted the salty Parmesan.

If I made this dish again I would make a more stylized crust.

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For this week’s “cooking at home” assignment I made pumpkin pie. I made that recipe because of the strong family tradition behind it. Every summer at my grandmother’s house, my family would have pie for dessert. Everyone would have a different favorite flavour. The next morning we would eat “breakfast pie,” from the leftover dessert. Everyone would fight over the pumpkin pie because it was always best on the second day. One of cousins told me that it was healthy because it had all the different food groups: protein from eggs, vegetables from the pumpkin, grain from the crust, and dairy from the evaporated milk.

Throughout making the dish, I made a few mistakes. One challenge was making the crust. After mixing or cutting all ingredients together, the dough was too dry and crumbly. So my mother told me that I just need to add more water to the mixture. I learned that when making crust, you do not always need to be exact.

Another mistake I made was in the baking time. I misunderstood the instructions and thought I had to pre-cook the crust then add the filling, however I should have cooked them together. I solved the problem by cooking the whole pie for longer.

Despite my mistakes, the pie still turned out okay in the end. I could smell the fall spices from the other room, the surface of the pie was glistening and the orange colour of pumpkin stood out on my plate. The crisp crust contrasted the smooth filling, and I could almost taste the individual spices.

However if I make this recipe again, I would follow the cooking instructions more carefully

For this week’s “Cooking at Home Assignment” I learned how to cook ham burgers on a barbeque. Before I started cooking my father went over some basic safety concerns, like never light the barbeque with the cover on. This is because the gasoline will build up and explode when ignited. It is also important to never leave the barbeque near a building because it could light on fire. I also learned that spiders are attracted to the smell of gasoline and the could clog up the pips if you are not carful.

If you do not have a barbeque you could use an oven instead, however you would not get the same charred flavor. Another fact is that a barbeque can cook many other thinks that burgers, such as chicken, fish, steak, corn, potatoes, bell peppers and zucchini.

Using the barbeque is surprisingly simple, you light it by opening the gas tank, then turn the burners onto high, wait three seconds, then turn a dial to light the barbeque. Unfortunately, I had trouble with that step because I did not know which way the dials turned, so my father had to intervene.

Luckily, I had success for the rest of the dish. I was concerned about flipping the burgers, because I thought they might fall apart or I might over cook them. But the experience was not any more difficult than flipping pancakes. The hamburgers did not fall apart because I put them on the grill frozen (which I learned your suppose to do) and I did not over cook the burgers because I had a timer on.

After that, I sliced some tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese and ciabatta buns. I am most proud of how the dish looked like in the end, with the bright green lettuce, against the pale ciabatta bun and dark burger. However if was to make this dish again I would have melted the cheese onto the burger.

For this week’s “Cooking at Home Assignment” I made Mediterranean Chicken Salad. I chose this recipe because I tried it before at my grandmother’s house after a long car trip.

the dish was successful because I read the instructions many times, and planed ahead on what I was making. I managed to chop the vegetables into even slices, and I carefully timed all the cooking time.

However, there were a few challenges in making the dish. I had trouble chopping the chicken evenly, and I added to much chicken to the dish.

In the end it turned out the salad was amazing. The smell of fresh herbs laced the air, the bright tomato’s stood out on the bed of pale chicken, the soft olives contrasted the tough chicken, and it had a subtle flavored of onion, and contrasted by the tart tomatoes.

For this week’s “Cooking at Home Assignment” I made split pea soup, from the leftover ham shank that was siting in the refrigerator.

There were only a few challenges in making the dish because it was very simple. One of the challenges, was figuring out the right size to chop the vegetables. The carrots pieces were a bit too large, and I had trouble cutting the onion because I was crying.

My greatest success was the deboning the ham. I has never done any thing like that before, and I successfully managed to debone the ham with only a short demostation from my mom.

I am most proud of the final product. The air was filled with the savory flavour of onions, the carrots were perfectly cooked, and the taste was rich with ham.

However if I made this dish again I would chop the vegetables into smaller and more even pieces.

For the second “cooking at home assignment” this week I chose to do “working as a team.” My mother asked me to help her cooking meals, this included: washing dishes, opening cans, measuring, and cutting ingredients, and gathering oregano. All of the tasks were relatively simple and I’ve done them before, but never so many in a row.

As I completed each task I felt glad to help my mother for once, because I rarely do. Some challenges I faced was that my mother wasn’t use to assigning me chores, and some times I had to ask her what to do next. However, there weren’t any major problems in the tasks because I was carfuly instructed.

Moving forward, I think I should do more chores around the house to be more useful to my family.

For this week’s “cooking at home assignment” I decided to make a ginger and butternut squash soup. The idea came to me when I remembered the unopened box in the closet containing an “Instant Pot.” Other people in my family have used it before, but my mother wasn’t one of them and preferred the stove and oven. So I spent almost an hour, reading the safety and instruction manual and recipe book.

From that book, I learned that the “Instant Pot” has many different uses. It can be used as a steamer, slow cooker, yogurt maker, sautéing pan, stove or pressure cooker and I also learned that there are safety regulations like “don’t open the pot unless the float valve is down” or “don’t move the pot when it’s plugged in.”

With all the long list of instruction I thought the machine would be confusing, but it wasn’t once you got used to it. However, there were a few challenges to overcome. I didn’t have fresh ginger so I had to use powdered instead. I tried to Google search for a conversion (fresh ginger to powdered ginger), but every cite suggested something different. After a short debate, I decide on an amount between all them. Another problem was the that the dish I chose to make was only a starter, not enough to serve for dinner. So I helped my mom bake chicken and make a salad on the side.

Despite the challenges, there were successes in the dish as well. I learned about parts of the onion you should remove. Even though, the “Instant Pot” made was confusing, I didn’t burn, over-cook, under-cook, or explode anything.

I am proud that with only an instruction manual I actually got the machine to work, and my family and I might use it again in the future. If, I could change anything I would have added more ginger because the soup was a bit bland.

For this week’s cooking at home assignment, I made a pasta dish. Selecting a dish was difficult for me because I had so many different recipes to chose from. I decided upon this recipe because I had most of the ingredients.. However, I did have to make a few substitutions. For example in stead of red chili I used dried hot pepper flakes. Also, I only had 100 g of conchiglie pasta, so added 250 g of bow tie pasta to get the required amount.

When I was preparing the meal, I ran into some challenges. I learned that Butternut squash is a difficult vegetable to cut (because of its shape), and I had trouble at first, dicing even pieces. Thankfully, that wasn’t too much of a problem, because I puréed the vegetable afterwards. Another problem was trying to do more than one thing at once. I stained one of the pans because I waited to long for the oil to heat up. Also, if it wasn’t for my mother’s reminder, I would have over boiled the pasta.

Lucky, there was some success in the preparation of my dish. I was exact in my measurements, and I carefully weighed out the proper amounts. In the end the meal turned out okay. The pasta was perfectly cooked, and gently coated in a creamy sauce, the smell of chili and sage, laced the air, the shells and bow ties of pasta matched the colour of the velvety sauce, and the sharp flavor of parmesan, pierced through the the rich cream.

My greatest success was probably that everyone in my family seemed to enjoy my cooking. However, if I do cook it again I would use real chili, because that flavor was lost in the mix of ingredients.