Another Ambitious Menu: Cooking Lamb for 40+

Greetings, "Learning through Food" readers! I feel an apology is in order (if not for you, at least for me), regarding my recent pause on keeping up with this blog. The semester is quickly winding down here on campus, meaning my available free time to write is becoming much more limited by the day. This said, it's events such as the one I'm about to share with you that help me get centered, to take a break from the academics and take on an intellectual experience of a different sort. The challenge--had I chosen to accept it--was not to recreate as close as possible the first initiatory banquet menu (1906) of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (1,2). Rather, it was to do so with a low-cost budget for an unspecified number of guests (though we were aiming for somewhere in the 40-person range), bearing in mind lack of on-site kitchen facilities and the main protein being lamb. Thankfully, I received the call about two weeks in advance and the dinner itself would take place during spring break. And so, challenge accepted. On the menu of which I was responsible: 1st course: selected cheese and crackers; 2nd course: creamy tomato soup, with salted wafers; 3rd course: shrimp salad on endive lettuce and broiled lamb chops, with wild apple jelly, green peas, mashed potatoes and dinner rolls; 4th course: chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache; and 5th course: Neapolitan ice cream with lady fingers.

Restaurant Review: Two Pre-Movie Visits to Melt

It's not quite summer here in central Ohio. But with the recent releases (and definite favourites of mine) of Catching Fire (trailer) and Frozen (trailer) the dynamism between heat and the wintry weather can coincidentally be felt in Columbus's Short North at the newly installed (1,2), Cleveland-based Melt Bar and Grilled (840 North High St.). Unintentionally, though nevertheless prior to my first viewing of Catching Fire and third viewing of Frozen, I headed over to check out Melt's offerings on two different occasions, with some of my classmates. With the fall term officially ended, I now have the time to share my composite review below.

Living a Foodie Kind of Life: Boston, Friday (3/22)

Following a very full day on Thursday, I woke up Friday with a rush of enthusiasm for the even fuller day ahead. The Eastern Sociological Society's first ever Mini Conference on Food Studies--a testament, in my opinion, to the growing recognition and acceptance of food studies as a viable and relevant field in academia--had finally arrived. Without going into too much detail here, this mini conference (organised by Barbara Katz Rothman and Alexandrea Ravenelle from City University of New York) was divided into four back-to-back sessions, each focusing on a different intersection with food. I was part of the first panel which addressed food as a tool for learning and teaching, specifically from the angles of ethnography (Richard Ocejo and Connor Fitzmaurice) and pedagogy (me and Helaine Harris). My paper focused on the food and culture programs and research I have led over the last year and a half or so at Denison, leading up to our Food and Culture Colloquium. Subsequent sessions focused on food as a tool for social control, as a tool for constructing ethnic identity, and as a tool for media representations. To have been fortunate to dream up and construct my own understanding of food identity, and to create a tangible mechanism for seeking to understand the connection between food and culture, continues to be an important highlight of my professional journey to date. To have been fortunate to engage with others who are going through similar processes has helped me in this orientation, to further recognise that we're all still learning through and with food. Now, after a full day of this (14 presentations within a span of 7 hours), and with a quick snack run to Au Bon Pain, I was ready to take it easy for the evening. For me, of course that more often than not involves cooking and the consumption of food.

Coooki(e)ng!

Following the start of yesterday's Food and Culture Colloquium, my food ventures continued as I grocery shopped and began preparations for the first multi-course group dinner of the academic year coming from my house on Mulberry. An annual dinner meeting for our Paving the Way Ambassadors, this year's menu included: mixed greens with berries, toasted walnuts and crumbled goat cheese; baked vegetables; Italian herb chicken with long grain and wild rice; mint lemonade granita; and dark chocolate salted caramel bacon brownies.

From Scratch and Supporting Local Sustainability: World Food Day Weekend, Part II

As I've noted over the past few days, yesterday was World Food Day; in the U.S. alone, 300 events marked this day which, since 1979, is meant "to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty." While food concerns are certainly rampant throughout the world, the inequity, mistreatment, and mismanagement of food does not help to alleviate very glocal issues. We don't need to be Goodwill Ambassadors to initiate and bring about change in our communities; for those who are fortunate to be part of the food market (as producers and consumers), we have an obligation to give back, learn from, and support to the extent we can, local food, global and regional influences, and each other. On day two of my celebration of World Food Day weekend, I focused on preparing homemade food, with a common (and local) autumnal ingredient: butternut squash. On yesterday's menu: Monterey Jack and Roasted Squash Tomato Ravioli with Nutmeg and Brown Buttered Almonds.

National Taco Day and National Frappe Day, In Celebration of

Alongside maintaining this blog, there's one other publication that I maintain on a regular (weekly) basis: "Diversity @Denison." This online newsletter is a central hub for information regarding diversity efforts on campus, as well as a medium for conveying issues regarding diversity in its varied identities and cultures. This year, I added a special section on food and cultures; just as there exists national holidays to celebrate specific cultures, so too do there exist ones to celebrate the gastronomic world. One resource I turn to each week is the online food magazine about specialty foods, The Nibble. If you navigate via the attached link and get to October, you can see that this past Tuesday and Friday were National Taco Day and National Frappe Day, respectively. Both of these were on my list to celebrate this year, and we (my colleagues and I) did just that.

Couscous and Cake: Cooking in the College Kitchen

Prior to the Easter weekend, I joined a group of students in dancing/performing a traditional and "modern" version of one of the Philippines' most popular dances--tinikling--at the Cherry Blossom Festival held on campus and sponsored by Asian Culture Club, one of the campus's multi-cultural student groups. As promised to the group, I cooked a dinner and timed it to coincide with last week's 90-minute episode of "Glee." And as suggested by the above photo, the meal overall was rather dessert heavy... not that any of us were complaining.

Catching up on the Cooking: Good Friday's Good Food

When thinking of Good Friday, the typical theme is fasting. And indeed, among other reasons, I certainly fasted last Friday and thus felt justified in preparing a not-so-typical meal for dinner when I visited home last weekend. Still keeping with the no meat rule, I cooked a cheese encrusted pan-seared salmon, and spaghetti with asparagus and mushroom. Of note, this time of the year beckons such simple ingredients as those needed for these particular dishes, while also providing much leeway in terms of adjusting for the ingredients you already have in your kitchen.

An Early Afternoon at The North Market & "A French Menu"

After months of waiting, the time had finally come for me to attend my first cooking demo at The Columbus Dispatch Kitchen in The North Market, one of my favourite weekend locations in the Columbus area. A centralised collection of specialty tastes--from a wide array of cheeses to fresh poultry, breads baked daily to freshly squeezed juice, soul food to Indian flare--The North Market is my go-to locale for a taste of the international...in Ohio. 

As for the cooking demo itself, today's instructor was Columbus Dispatch food editor Robin Davis. Alongside more than a dozen folks, we gathered on the second floor of The North Market to join Robin in her studio kitchen as she harnessed northern and central French flavours using "grocery store" ingredients.

Three Great Days of Cooking (and Eating)

Well, hello, dear Reader... long time no write! If you've been following my culinary journey as of late via Facebook, you'll certainly be much more prepared for the next set of posts. Indeed, I hope I can catch you up on my cooking before this Sunday, when I'm scheduled to take a cooking class in Columbus (French themed!). In any case, it's hard to be believe that it was just this past weekend that my family came down to visit me, and my sister stayed through the weekend until mid-week. In that time, we/I did quite a bit of cooking (and subsequently, eating, of course). From favourites in my growing repertoire of recipes to on-the-spot adaptations, what follows in this post are meals that may or may not induce some kind of food coma.

I Didn't Have Any Milk, So I Used Butter

This past October, I wrote up a recipe for tortillas which called for the addition of warm milk. However, with no milk in the fridge and quite a few recipes out there calling for lard, I decided to re-write my recipe so I could use butter instead. In contrast to October's recipe, this March one yielded a more pliable dough and a richer tortilla. (I mean, I did use butter...)

Stuffed Thin Crust Cheese and Bacon Pan Pizza

About two weeks ago, I made my own pizza dough and had yet to use up the remaining half of it. And with bacon, cheese, and a slew of other ingredients that aren't necessarily the healthiest, I set out to make a stuffed thin crust cheese and bacon pan pizza... just because.

Fried Ravioli with Garlic-Enhanced Pasta Sauce

Greetings fellow Foodies!

Today in the world of food blog posts, I add to the collection my handmade ravioli stuffed with three cheeses and pan-fried. Admittedly, I had cooked these three days ago during the Oscars, but an essay exam for the class I'm auditing had taken much of my attention in the interim. Alas, with the exam now turned in, and after a first failed attempt at making my own dough, I present this experience to you all. Now, while you could certainly use store-bought or defrosted ravioli for the fried component of this recipe, why not give your forearms a workout and make your own?

Personal Pan-Size Four-cheese Italian-style Thin-crust Pizza... with Fresh Basil

When it comes to making pizza dough from scratch, there are two pretty big hurdles to pass in particular, so as not to end up with a very doughy, and a not-so-very-good crust. The first major hurdle is working with the yeast itself: too cold and the yeast won't activate, whereas too hot actually "kills" it. As could be gleaned from my yeast packet, if the water itself is far too hot but not hot enough to kill the yeast, it's best to mix the yeast into the flour; otherwise, it could be dissolved straight into the liquid. (By the way, for more fun reading on this particular fungi, click here.) The second hurdle is overworking the dough to the point where it will never rise; just think "elastic" and "springy" as adjectives you want your dough to be described as.

I acknowledge I've never actually made pizza dough before and have once again (this time, with much inspiration from this site) come up with a few techniques that yielded a result far better than my own expectations, especially as I don't have a cooking thermometer nor have had much luck with doughs in the past (though I am getting better).

Today's Sunday Brunch Dish: White Wine Bacon Orzo with Green Beans and Mushrooms

Of the many things that signify breakfast, if not at the very least brunch, bacon is perhaps the most recognisable. And cognisant of the leftovers still in my fridge from Wednesday's six course extravaganza, I needed to make something that combined these together. With the help of some white wine and a handful of orzo, I came up with a great brunch dish for two (or one... if you're either really hungry or think it's as good as I think it is).

Oh, and I had thought I was being very original with this particular dish, but it turns out I'm not the only one who thinks bacon and pasta go well together. :)

Six Courses for Six (or More)

Greetings, dear Reader. As I'm sure you can tell from the timing of this post, I've continued the tradition of late night blogging. One thing I've recently noticed about my blog, and have had confirmed earlier tonight, is that none of the dishes I have prepared and posted on-line have not been traditionally laid out as you'll find on other blogs and websites. Indeed, my approach is to guide you step by step through the process of multi-tasking a variety of dishes; however, in situations such as tonight's dinner, whereby chronological detail would get too involved and not accurately convey simplicity without me showing you in person, I have grouped my notes as closely together as possible.

Tonight, I had five guests over in celebration of two birthdays, as well as for our post-Valentine's Day get-together. In actuality, if I served smaller portions, I think I could have served at least twice as many... but then again, I've built up a reputation from my study abroad days in France that in order to get through one of my multi-course meals, the best advice is to eat as little as possible beforehand (if not to fast completely).

Cold Weather Cooking and Comfort Food

After finishing up my last blog post, imagine my surprise when I got a message a few hours later from the college saying campus was closed. Well, that meant two things for me: more time to catch up on sleep and an early afternoon of cooking ahead. After making the gnocchi a few days ago, I had to think of something I could make to use up more of my stored mini redskin potatoes. Being able to finish up the remaining chicken stock sitting in my fridge since the pupusa night would also be a plus. Thankfully, two recipes took up much of the potatoes and got the stock out of the fridge. Let's take a trip to Québec for some poutine and return back to the Midwest for some bacon cheddar potato soup.

An El Salvadorian Dinner and a "Rustic" Dessert

Tonight, more than any other night here at Denison, served as a reminder why I enjoy cooking with others. And despite the hours of searching for recipes, perfection and understanding only arrive upon trial and error.

Yesterday, I was talking to one of the student workers and explained to him that I had been thinking about what to cook next this weekend. After some convincing, I took on the challenge of making pupusas. Little did I know until last night's research that what I had signed onto was actually making a staple dish of El Salvador. I had agreed to attempt to cook something that he, and the rest of El Salvador it seems, holds very dear and true to his heritage.

Béchamel, Attempt 2 (Successful); Meringue, Attempt 1 (Not so much)

It's a bit difficult to spend time plating and taking photos while having hungry guests, so this was all tastier than this photo leads you to believe...

This evening, I set out to master my béchamel/Mornay sauce and came across an astounding revelation. Okay, it wasn't exactly astounding, but I was certainly geeked about it: the proportional ratio for this sauce is 1:1, 1:1, 1:1. For the roux, for every tablespoon of butter you melt, incorporate a tablespoon of flour. And for every tablespoon, you need an equivalent cup. For every cup of milk you mix into the roux, add a cup of cheese off the heat. Also add a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of ground black pepper, to taste, off the heat as well. You can finish the sauce off with a touch of nutmeg or for the recipe below, paprika. So, all of that said, two of the guys in the res hall I live in joined me for tonight's culinary tasting lab, or rather "dinner." Tonight's menu included empanadas, mac 'n cheese (with béchamel and bacon, and a side of broccoli), and nectarine blueberry meringue pie. In addition to my overjoy when it came to this whole ratio deal, I should also note that the majority of this meal was Food Network chef guided and inspired.

Béchamel, Attempt 1 (Successful): Croque Monsieur

And so, I caught the end of the week and have restarted the culinary journey in written form.

For those of you who are reading this and don't know by now, I'm working at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, which itself is anywhere from 20-45 minutes from some part of Columbus. I'm on a meal plan here, but as I'm sure some can attest to, that hasn't stopped me from cooking... entirely. It's certainly slowed me down, but that's where this year's challenge comes in.

As best I can, my aim is to photograph my culinary journey and reflect on what I learned in the process, sharing recipes and such along the way. In contrast to my previous blog and challenge, which set forth benchmarks of basic technique that I thought I had to master within a short period of time, this particular challenge has no time frame and aims at referencing what I've "sensed" before, and without breaking down each technique in checklist form (for example). For ye who may be thinking "what in the world does he mean by 'sensed'?" I mean food I've "heard of, seen on tv before, perhaps made and thought went awry or perfectly," and so on, and so on. Okay, feeble attempt at explaining what I'm trying to do aside, let's begin.