Beyond the Senses

            Evaluation also requires thought, reasoning and analysis.  We use our senses to obtain information and then make decisions, observations and deductions about what we have perceived.  Although we use our senses, this information is used to evaluate and analyze. 

 

Ingredients

            Evaluate the ingredients.  In order to do this you must be knowledgeable about the ingredients.  Do the ingredients appear fresh? Taste fresh? Does one ingredient overpower the other ingredients?  Are some ingredients overwhelmed by other ingredients and seasonings?

 

Cooking method

            Is each dish on the plate cooked properly? Is it under cooked or over cooked? Is the right method of cooking used for the dish and the ingredients? How is the temperature of the food?  Is there moisture?  Are the right components of the dish highlighted?

 

How does the dish fit in the meal

            There should be harmony and balance to the meal.  Do the dishes fit together?  Do they complement each other?  Do they contrast each other?   Is there balance in the flavors and textures?

 

This Week’s Challenge

Choose a cooking method with which you are unfamiliar.  This can be poaching, coddling, fricassee, smothering, braising, or some other method.  Research it and try cooking by this method more than once.  Record what you have learned.

 

Tip for this Week – Selecting Fish

            My father was a sports fisherman and I learned early the importance of fresh fish.  Ideally fish should be served from the water to the pan to the table.  But this is not often possible.  The fish should not smell fishy.  The longer the fish is dead the more intense the fishy flavor.  Even in Southern California where we have close access to the ocean, it is hard to find really fresh fish.  I usually rely on frozen fish that is not packaged by the store.  Commercially frozen fish is usually flash frozen on the fishing boats, so it is frozen when is very fresh.  Fish can be sold as fresh even if it is a few days old.  Be wary of frozen fish in Styrofoam trays.  This fish is usually frozen toward the end of its “fresh” period by the grocery store.   This is my opinion on selecting fish.  Chefs would not use frozen fish, but they have access to the fish market in the wee hours of the morning and buy directly from the fishing boats.  The home cook may not have this advantage.  Also some people may like a little fishy taste.  Shop to your preferences and those for whom you are cooking.

 

This Week in Punkin’s Kitchen

 

            Grilled Ahi with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

 

One ahi steak per person

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Grill the ahi steaks on a grill.  Ahi is traditionally served on the pink side, so grill quickly.  Place some of the creamy cilantro sauce on the plate and place the grilled ahi steak on top of the sauce.  Serve with slices of lime or lemon and more sauce on the side.

Ahi tuna on hot grill.

Cook quickly leaving some pink in the center
of the ahi steak








 

Creamy Cilantro Sauce

 

Creamy cilantro sauce

1 bunch                     Cilantro

½ med.                       Avocado

1 clove                       Garlic

1 T                               Lime juice with a little grated peel

¼ C                             Mayonnaise

Dash                          Green Tabasco sauce

Dash                          Salt

 

The ingredients

1.    Wash the cilantro and loosely chopped.

2.    Place in a small food processor with the avocado and garlic.  Process until smooth.

3.    Add the lime juice, mayonnaise, Tabasco sauce and salt. Process to blend thoroughly.

4.    Taste and adjust seasoning

Pack everything into a small food
processor and blend until smooth.

 

Seve with fish or chicken or use as a salad dressing.  Greek yogurt and be used instead of the mayo.

 

 

            Rice Medley with Mushrooms

 

This requires three kinds of rice, white, brown and wild.  All three kinds of rice require different cooking times.  The rice can be cooked separately.  I use my rice cooker.

 

¼ C     Wild rice

¼ C     Brown rice

¼ C     White long grain rice

½ C     Mushrooms, sautéed and finely chopped

¼ C     Onions, sautéed and finely chopped

1 T       Butter, melted

1 T       Parsley, finely chopped

            Salt and pepper to taste

 

The ingredients

 

 

1.    Place the wild rice in the rice cooker and add one cup of water.  Cook 20 minutes.

Wild rice and water in the rice cooker

2.    Chop the mushrooms and onions.

Chop the onion.

Slice and chop the mushrooms.
I used baby Portobello mushrooms.

Saute the onions and mushrooms in butter.

 

3.    Melt the butter in a skillet and add the mushrooms and onion.  Sauté and stir frequently.

4.    Add the brown rice on top of the wild rice and cook 10 minutes.  Add more water if needed.

Add the brown rice to the simmer wild rice.
add water if necessary

 

5.    Chop the parsley.

6.    Add the white rice and more water is needed.  Continue cooking in the rice cooker for 20 minutes or until all the rice is tender.

Add the white rice to the rice cooker.
Make sure there is enough water.

 

7.    When the mushrooms and onions are cooked, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

8.    When the rice is done, remove it from the cooker into a large serving dish.

Gently mix the mushroom mixture into the rice mixture,
The butter and seasoning from the mushrooms will
flavor the rice.

 

9.    Add the mushroom onion mixture and gently toss with the rice.

10.
 Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.

 

 

 

 

Vegetable of the week

 

            Smothered Cabbage

 



One head      Cabbage

½ med.           Onion, diced

1 t                    Vegetable or olive oil

¼ to ½ C        Water depending on the amount of cabbage used

½ t                   Caraway or celery seeds (optional)

                        Salt and pepper to taste

 

Ingredients

1.    In a large skillet or Dutch oven with a lid, heat the oil.

In a skillet with a id add the oil and heat while
the onion is chopped.

 

2.    Chop the onion and add to the skillet.  Saute the onion.

 

Chop the top of the onion off and peel the dry skin
from the onion leaving the root end,



Place the onion on the flat top and slice through
 the root cutting the onion in half vertically



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very carefully cut the horizontally leaving
the root whole.  Cut nearly to the root.

Leaving the root uncut, turn the onion and cut
perpendicularly to the last cuts.  Turn the onion back
to the last position and slice the onion. 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saute the onion until they begin to be translucent.

 

 

 



 

3.    Peal any wilted or discolored leaves from the head of cabbage.

 

Cut the leaf that you want to remove from the
core of the cabbage.

Gently pull the leave free from the head.




The wilted, discolored leaf removed and discarded.

4.    Thinly slice off the amount of cabbage needed.  Then dice the slices. Add the cabbage to onions and stir to coat the cabbage in oil.

Thinly slice the cabbage.



Chop the sliced cabbage.

 

5.    Continue cooking and stirring the cabbage for about five minutes.

Saute the cabbage until steam rises.

 

6.    Add the water, stir and place the lid on the cabbage.

Add the water and cover the cabbage to smother.

 

7.    Cook cabbage until the desired doneness is reached.  Checking to make sure the cabbage in not sticking and the water is not used up. Add more water in needed.

8.    When the cabbage is just about done and the seeds, salt and pepper.

 

Happy Cooking!

Keep a Journal

 

Record what you do and learn

            All the great chefs keep food journals.  This can be a variety of things and can be simple or complex. It can be daily, weekly or as you encounter new culinary delights.  Decide what the purpose of the journal should be and go for it.

Food Log

            A log is just a listing.  It can be a list of what you cooked and where you found the recipe.  It is good idea to record the evaluation of the recipe.  Did you like it?  Was it lacking? Could you improve it?

            Your log can just record your entertaining with the menu and the guests.  Record where you found your recipes so you can find them again. I like to include the guest so I know don’t serve the same things to the same people.

            A log can be a list of new ingredients and your first evaluation.

 Food Journal

            A Journal is more in depth.   Each entry can be a paragraph or several paragraphs on the topic.  It can be about your first encounter with an ingredient.   It can be a food wine pairing that worked really well. It can be your first attempt at making cheese.  It can be your evaluation of a new restaurant.  It can record your thoughts about a cooking class or food program.  The point is that the journal records more information about your thoughts, experiences and evaluations.  It’s helpful to title your entries so you can reference them at a later date.  Entries can be written at one setting or over several.

Food Diary

            This is a daily recording of your food encounters.  It can list what you ate at each meal, what you cooked, or what new thing you tried or encountered.  It can be both a log and a journal. It is a useful tool to help you develop evaluation techniques.

This Week’s Challenge

            If you have never tried Mexican cheeses, you are in for a treat.  Most grocery stores have a selection of small round Mexican cheese.  Cacique is the brand the Aaron Sanchez endorses.   Choose three difference cheeses and take them home for a taste test.  If you have a journal, record you findings.  If you don’t have a journal, begin one with this experiment. 

1.      Taste each cheese and record your findings.

2.      Make something with each cheese.  It can be as simple as melting the cheese on a cracker, making a quesadilla, a grilled or a toasted cheese sandwich.  Record you findings.  How did the cheese melt?  Did the taste change with melting? How would you use each cheese?  What ingredients would each cheese compliment?

3.      Evaluate each cheese for overall taste, meltablity, and uses.

4.      Test you hypotheses, by using each cheese in a dish that you think will compliment or enhance the cheese.  Record your findings.

 

Tip this Week – Melting cheese

            Have you ever had problems with melting cheese?  Some of the problem may be the size of the slice or grate you are using, the smaller the grate the more even the melting.  To prevent the fat and the milk solid from separating, a little bit of starch needs to be add when melting cheese for a sauce or dip.  This can be accomplished with a roux or dusting the grated cheese with a little flour or cornstarch before melting.

 This Week in Punkin’s Kitchen

Soft Tacos with Guacamole

            Tacos can be made out of just about anything.  I usual use leftover meat to make tacos.  Basically a taco is a tortilla filled with meat and topped with different accompaniments.  I have some left over blackened cod that I will use in this recipe, but chicken or any meat will work.

             Tortillas, flour or corn

            Meat of choice finely diced or pulled.

            Salsa that goes with the meat, red or green, or mild, medium, hot or infernal

            Toppings such as diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce or cabbage, grated cheese (select one of your test cheeses), diced onions, diced chilies, chopped olives, chopped cilantro, salsa, taco sauce, sour cream and guacamole.  Use what you have on hand.  It's not necessary to provide all the suggestions above.



Quesa Fresca ready to b crmubled

 1.      Chop, shred, grate or slice the accompaniments you plan to use.

 

 



Chopped heirloom tomatoes

2.     Cook or reheat the meat.

 

 

Diced blacken cod leftover from the night before

Heating in a non-stick skillet with salsa verde







3.      Heat a griddle or large heavy pan to hot.

4.      Place the tortilla on the griddle.  Watch them closely so they don’t scorch.  Turn the tortillas over every minute until they slightly puff up.  Take them off the heat and wrap them to keep the warm.

 

Turn the tortillas often until they begin to puff up.

5.      To assemble the tacos take a warm tortilla, place about an ounce or two of meat in the center of the tortilla.  Place the grated cheese on the meat, add the vegetable toppings of choice.  Top with sour cream, guacamole and/or salsa.

A thin slice of Quesadilla Jalapeno cheese

Top with the warm cod mixture

Top with other toppings.  I added tomatoes and crumbled quesa fresca and topped with guacamole

 This is a fun buffet for a small dinner party or family dinner.  Place the accompaniments is small bowls.  Start at one end with the tortillas and meat.  Then move through the accompaniments.  Then end with the salsas, sour cream, guacamole or other condiments.  Plan at least two tacos per person, three or four if you have big eaters.

 Serve salad, refried beans and/or Spanish rice with the tacos.

 

 

Guacamole a la Punkin

           

1-2       Avocados, they should be soft, giving slightly to the touch. 

¼    C   Chunky salsa, I prefer Picante Chunky Garden salsa.    

 

2T        Sour cream or cream cheese (optional)

Granulated garlic, salt and pepper to taste.    

 

1.      Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit and set aside.  Scoop out the avocado or peel the skin off.  Place the avocados in a small bowl.  Mash the avocados with a fork.

2.      Add the salsa and sour cream.  Thoroughly mix with the mashed avocados.

3.      Add the granulated garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

4.      Transfer the dip into a serving dish.  Add the reserved pits, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until time to serve.  The pits have an enzyme that will prevent the avocados form turning brown.  If you opt to leave out the sour cream or cream cheese, add a little lemon juice to keep the guacamole from turning brown.

5.      Serve with taco chips or corn chips.   

Avocados come in several varieties.  The Hass avocado is my favorite.  The will be dark green when unripe and turns black as they ripen.  The avocado should give a little to pressure.  The more give the riper the avocado.  The flesh should be a light avocado green, a little darker just under the skin.  Once the avocado is cut, it will begin to turn brown. Lemon or lime juice will prevent this.  Chopped tomatoes, chiles, and/or onions may also be added to the guacamole.  It can be spiced up a bit with a drop or two of hot sauce.

 

Happy cooking!