Baseball!

With baseball season within days, I haven't felt this excited in a while. I feel with all the work that most of our team mates have put in on the off-season will benefit our season. I know every time I attend the throwing nights I see my team mates giving 110% during our exercises. I know that when the season starts we will be ready and this year is going to be our year! This year we will go the distance and making it to the playoffs! A far fetched dream for some, but not for me! I know what I have seen and I feel it, a winning season for the Lions! T-minus 8 days!

Little Tuna 2/24

This is, what, my fourth time going to the Little Tuna? Today I learned the down time in the restaurant industry. Like always Darrien and I talked vocab, and to be honest I can't even repeat the words, simply because they were in french. I do recall one word that was fairly simple, Mise en Plas, which means to gather your ingredients. After that we got our hands dirty. We prepared a delicious pasta dish with a creamy cheese sauce. We also did a scrumptious fish entree, did not really catch the name, but I will surely get the name for it next time. The fish entree was very simple to make. Basically we took the fish seasoned it with blacken seasoning and seared it, and finished it in the oven, fairly simple, and the best thing is that the fish can be matched up with almost any side dish. After the cooking I got to experience the business side of the restaurant industry. Darrien had to do the weekly inventory. In this process, he checks for any shortage in supplies. For example, they count how much meat they have, clams, spices, herbs, vegetables, and any other supplies they will need, not a fun task, but necessary .

Fun weekend!

Well this weekend was a little more exciting than most for me. I got chance to get in the kitchen with a fellow Culinarian and cook side by side. Chef Jose, a friend of the family, came to visit us this weekend from Puerto Rico, and he had heard rumor of my culinary curiosity and asked me to join him in the kitchen. It was a restaurant kitchen or anything, it was my own, but we made seem professional with all of our fast movements and roaring flames coming from the skillets. We didn't make anything too fancy, we ending up making Parmesan crusted chicken with mash potatoes. This meal is very simple but if plated well can look very profession, on top of that it is delicious. To make this meal you will need boneless chicken breast, seasoned flour, egg, and of course parmesan cheese. First you take the chicken and wash it of course, then you take your chicken and roll it in seasoned flour (which all season flour is, is flour and whatever seasoning you want and mixed together) and then dip it in the bated, and finally breaded with grated parmesan. Then as your breading the others, have a skillet on the stove top just lightly drizzled with oil screaming hot, and also preheat the oven at 500 degrees. After you have a couple breaded, start dropping them into the screaming hot skillet just until the cheese has browned. Then pop them into the 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes to finish them off. The potatoes are very simple to make, you can even buy instant potatoes. But if you want to know how to make them just ask!

Shopping!

Many people go the grocery store to buy their simple day to day ingredients, but not all of us have the ease to find everything they're looking for under one roof. Since my sister has been ill all this week I had to go out to the grocery store and find all the stuff myself versus making a list for my mother. After going to Shop Rite to buy my everyday thing, I had to drive all the way to Cherry Hill to go to H-Mart, which is an Asian mart. I go there to find herbs and spices not found at your local markets. This week I came in search of fresh ginger, chili paste, sweet chili sauce, and of course their fresh seafood. Every time I go there I always stock up on salmon and tuna, which incredibly cheap and fresh!

Little Tuna- A lunch to remember!

Even though there was no school today, I decided to take advantage of my day off and go to my mentor a little a earlier and stay a little later. As soon as I walked through the back doors into the kitchen, I was thrown into the line of fire.Darrian didn't have time to pull me to the side and give his ritual vocab lesson, in fact he did his teaching as we prepped, and cooked. When I arrived the staff was in misted of serving a table of 11, I have never seen such picky eater. We served at least ten Caesar salads with D.O.S (dressing on the side) not to mention the fried calamari that also had D.O.S. One lady was even asking about the hamburger meat, and whether we grounded ourselves or it came like that. After that lunch rush slowed,Darrian and I had more time to talk food. In fact, we even had time to prepare Penne pasta with a blue cheese sauce, yum! Its actually quite easy to make. You simple take your pot, fill it with water like you would normally cook your pasta. Season the water with salt and some oil. Then, and this is very important , let the water come to a boil because you don't want to let the water sit in a pot filled with cold water. When the water in bubbling you put the pasta in and let cook for about 10 minutes or as box suggests. Cook the pasta "Al Dente " (to the bite, that basically when you can bit the pasta and its not too hard nor too soggy), simple because it will keep cooking itself with the heat and if you put any hot sauce on top it was turn soggy. If you do cook it a little to much you can "shock" it, this a process in which you put the pasta in cold water to stop itself from cooking. while the pasta is cooking you can saute the diced tomatoes and the spinach. When you finish sauteing the vegetables add a little bit of half and half to thicken it, and add the drained penne pasta to the concoction. Finally, you can add the cheeses. Jack, crumbled blue cheese, and Parmesan right into the pan with all the rest of the stuff. Feel free to try and enjoy!

Weekend!

Well this weekend was not like I excepted, but if any good came from it; it would have to be a new recipe! Saturday afternoon I went to T.G.I Fridays and I ordered the some nachos like appetizers, as a eat I could easily distinguish all the flavors that were incorporated into them. My younger brother told me that the nachos were "alright" and lacked a little more "zing" to them, at that moment I began to think of ways of taking it to the next level. At first I thought of using a richer, spicier cheese like a jack cheddar, but then I thought it might take away from the nacho. So I thought of adding the spicy cheese and some spicy salsa in between two tortilla chip, that way you can get the richness from both the cheese and the salsa while still tasting tortilla chip.

Valentines Day!

Today, Valentines day, is one of those hallmark holidays that positively effect a lot of business'. For example, couples everywhere rush out to stores to buy gifts, flowers, and chocolates for their loved ones. The one business, I must say, reigns supreme over the rest, would have to be the restaurant industry. Today I ate at least three different restaurants, and they were all crowded and the wait time ranged from 20 to a whopping 60 minutes. Restaurants make a killing off this holiday.

Little Tuna- 2/10

After a week of trial and error in the kitchen, I got a chance to crawl back into a chef's skin. Like every week Darrian, one of the chefs', starts out with our vocabulary lesson. For example, last week I learn Roux and Maitre' D, well this week I was told two words Deglaze and satuee. After my vocabulary lesson, he ask me to do something I did not think I'll be doing for a while, he asked me to cook! Exciting, I know! Well the first thing he had me prepare was Chard Asian Salmon. Which is not really hard to make, but not easy. First we told me what ingredients to put in, then I was left to the task. I oiled the skillet and waited for it to heat up because if you put the salmon on a cold skillet and wait for it to reach the temperture, the salmon will stick to the pan. When the skillet was hot enough I dropped in the salmon, and satueed it for a few minutes. Then I deglazed it, which is adding the sauces around it not exactly on top of it to. I put in chili paste, ginger soy, sweet chili sauce, and a little bit of water, the aroma that came from the pan was mismerizing. At the first whiff you can smell the spiciness, but at the same time you can catch the aroma of the sweet ginger soy and sweet chili.

Food trial 2!

Over the weekend I got the urge to go into the kitchen and try something new. At first I sat there and dazed into space, I had no inspiration. So I decided to turn to channel 231, which is the food network in my house, I started to watch "Guy's Big Bite" and on one of his off topic chats he mentioned some kind of stuffed potatoes or something of that sort. Right then and there my mind began to conjure up every possibility that I could think of. First I thought of making like a stuffed mash potato with ground beef in the middle, breaded and deep fried. After trying it, it was good but not the flavor that I wanted. So I tried took it to the next level and used rice instead of mash potato and mozzarella in substituted for the ground beef. Now there was a flavor not tasted everday.

LIttle Tuna- Day 2

Wow! wow is an injection mainly used to show an exclamation of surprise, and I have to say the kitchen is...wow! Today I finally got the chance to step into a "real" kitchen and between the cooks moving frantically about the kitchen, the 500 degree oven ,and the flames roaring from the sauteing vegatables; it can be wild, but in my opinion it was like a well organized chaos. After talking to Marcus, my sponsor, he decided I should start with the foundation; which is the plate. I learned how to properly wash the plates and the chemicals involved in the process. After getting soaked washing plates Darrien, Marcus' right hand chef, was teaching me some of the Culinary terminology that they use on a day to day basis. For example, they might use words like roux, maitre'd, au gratin, etouffe, plat du jour, and other fancy words that must be known. As a cook you must be willing to try every and any food that is made. After my terminalogy lessons I was put before about four ratakins with different food samples, and I was told to try all of them. Another lesson taught that day was, always trust our supriors they will never steer you wrong.