Lesson 2 Reflection

1. For my Lesson 2 Presentation, I am most proud of my activity. I made three small snacks that I had the students try and attempt to identify the flavors in the food. I was really worried the food wouldn't taste good, because I was getting over a cold when I made them and my tastes were all out of whack so it was hard to season the food correctly. However, everyone seemed to enjoy the food and many people understood the points I was trying to get across; people commented on the sweetness in the Pico de Gallo, or how the salt on top of the s'mores brought out certain flavors. It was satisfying to see the points I was making in my presentation come out as I walked around the room during the activity.

2. a) I would give myself an AE or E on this presentation.
    b) I know I deserve at least a P on this presentation because I had no concerns with any of the criteria seen on the Lesson 2 contract; I was clear, communicated effectively, and had welcoming body language as well as eye contact, I made time perfectly, used a digital presentation, and brought in food as a prop, clearly had many sources that I cited and used examples from continuously (I even brought in my favorite piece of research, The Flavor Bible), made reference to my mentorship, and had a well planned activity to help explain my answer with clear instructions and a debrief. I deserve higher than a P because I had a lot of scientific explanations with clear pictures of examples and diagrams to help demonstrate the complicated processes and ideas. Many of my peers commented that my presentation was particularly interesting and everyone loved the activity. As stated earlier, the activity particularly made students pay attention to the tastes detected in their mouths, which is truly what the whole lesson was about. Also, aesthetically speaking, I felt my power point was top notch, and I designed it myself to match my blog (which I also designed myself) so I think that counts for something as well.

3.The things that worked for me in my Lesson 2 were my bullets on taste buds, flavor, and the five tastes. I think I could have had a better answer, but I feel I explained everything possible in the lesson. My activity definitely helped get my point across; I almost feel like I've trained some students to recognize tastes and how they interact.

4. I don't think my hook worked very well. My video did, it definitely got students interested, but the question I asked seemed to confuse people. I think next time I'll stick with the question from my Lesson 1, which was, "What is your favorite meal." If I had a time machine, I would do that but I would also debriefe more on my activity. I feel like I should have asked for volunteers to name the tastes of each ingredient in front of the class, rather than just asking students individually during the activity; that way the whole class could have heard what I had discussed with individuals.

5. My answer 2 will probably be something along the lines of, "The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to attempt to satisfy as many of the traditional five senses as possible." I would pick this answer because my definition of flavor is, "The effect food has on the senses," so if a single dish can cohesively satisfy all five senses, then theoretically, it would be enjoyable in every aspect of flavor.

Dinner Party Dessert

I don't usually make very good desserts, so I decided to use an exact recipe I found online. Pots de Creme is kind of like a chocolate-coffee mousse thing; I'm reluctant to call it pots de creme or a
mousse, however, because pots de creme is a French custard that usually requires baking, and mousse is cooked before being cooled. However, this recipe did not call for any cooking at all, only preparing and cooling.

I loved these because I very easily made them Friday night, refrigerated them, and then topped with whipped cream and served in about 2 minutes. Serving them was fun, because I placed the dessert in wine and champagne glasses. This is one recipe I intend to hang onto.

In my initial test run, I put them in tea cups, which came
out to be a really cute way of serving the dessert. 

Sides

Here is the full main course from my dinner part. The far left shows my sauteed green beans while the far right shows the roasted potatoes. The green beans are only slightly muted in color, which is right for cooked green beans, though mine may be little dark. The potatoes could be crisper on the outside, but have a decent appearance.

These sides were kind of thrown together when I realized my main course consisted only of a stuffed pork loin; I needed something else to go with it. I knew a starch and a vegetable, and two things that could be cooked either quickly or with little attention, so I settled on roasted potatoes and green beans; both simple, both fall, and both uncomplicated.

Roasted Potatoes

The recipe that inspired me can be found here. I used a recipe from the Food Network cook Ina Garten.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs red potatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Fresh ground black pepper and sea salt
• 2 tbs. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. dried thyme

Procedure

Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well until potatoes are evenly coated. Spread on baking sheet in 1 even layer and bake 45 minutes to an hour, flipping twice so that all sides can become browned.

Sautéed Green Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tbs. butter
• 2 lbs. green beans
• Salt and pepper

Procedure

Add olive oil and butter to a cold skillet and allow to heat up. When butter melts, add green beans. Saute until tender-crisp, about 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin Roast Recipe

I got the idea for making a stuffed pork loin roast when I read a delicious-sounding recipe for stuffed lamb. Then I realized it is impossible to find cheap lamb, so I thought, "Why not pork?" Pork tenderloin was the perfect choice, and I knew it'd taste good stuffed with apples; I mean, pork chops and apple sauce are a classic! I just didn't know exactly what else to stuff it with.
I knew I was going for a fall theme, one with cranberries and spinach and apple cider, so I started looking up "apple stuffed pork loin roast" recipes. I found many interesting recipes, and after a while, I settled as one as my main guide. Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin with Cider Sauce is an excellent recipe, but I made some changes after my initial trip to the grocery store.

Ingredients

This is the beginnings of the stuffing; the apples are just be-
ginning to turn gold in the picture.

• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 chopped apples
• 1 medium chopped yellow onion
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 1/2 apple cider (possibly more)
• 1 boneless pork loin roast, 2 1/2 lbs

Procedure

Stuffing: heat oil in medium sized skillet and saute apples and onion until onion is translucent and apples golden, about five minutes. Then add garlic and saute about 1 one minute, until garlic becomes aromatic. Add cranberries, thyme, and 1/2 cup of apple cider. Boil, stirring occasionally, until cider is completely absorbed. Fold in bacon and blue cheese and then remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly. You can store this stuffing overnight if needed.

This picture perfectly shows the browned outside of
the pork tenderloin; it almost began to burn, but I took it
out just as the color was deepening enough. The texture was
crisp and locked in flavor perfectly.

Next, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and make four 18 inch segments of kitchen string. Butterfly your pork tenderloin, making sure not to cut all the way through. evenly distribute stuffing to center and then tie tenderloin with string so that it returns to its original shape. You might need to push some of the stuffing back in if it falls out of the sides! Next, rub the loin roast with thyme, salt, and pepper. Place in a roasting pan with another 1/2 cup of cider and roast for about 1 hour, or until a thermometer read above 150 degree Fahrenheit. Baste every 15 minutes unless you want a dry roast! and a little more cider every time you baste until the final 1/2 cup remaining of apple cider is used.

If you aren't going to bake the tenderloin immediately, let stuffing cool about 15 minutes before stuffing the tenderloin with it.

Here was the completed main course! You can easily see the stuffing in the pork
tenderloin; especially evident are the apples and cranberries.

Some Revisions

I am editing my Independent Component!

After feeling the heat and pressure of throwing a dinner party, along with the financial responsibility that comes with it, I have made the decision to edit my Independent Component. I can’t afford another hundred dollars, nor can I devote another 25 hours of time to creating another whole party. Beyond that, when this Component was originally crafted, my essential question was about time management in a kitchen; I had been looking more into the production of food in a restaurant kitchen.  A dinner party, I reasoned, had a lot to do with this: I would be working under a time crunch, I would need to cook multiple courses, and I would have to serve a table of guests, just like in a kitchen.
Now, however, my final essential question is all about the flavor of food; I am focusing on the contribution and impact food has on the body and it's senses. This Component is no longer as helpful as it had been to my original question. Therefore, I am taking the two parts of the meal I was least satisfied with and recreating them for my family. This way, I can take the food that lacked in some area of flavor and make it better. Learning to fix previous mistakes while improving the flavor of food should help me find an answer or support to current answers for my essential question.

I will be remaking the stuffed pork tenderloin and the roasted potatoes.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the pork, but it just wasn’t as exciting or flavorful as it could have been; the meat could have been amped up farther. Therefore, I decided to take some information from the book All About Braising (book D in my WB). Though I am roasting the pork tenderloin, both braising and roasting involve letting the heat of the oven do the cooking. I think the most important thing I can take from this book, however, is the importance of searing the meat before baking it (entry 21D of my WB). According to this book, some initial searing is important because it creates a base for all other flavors to build off.

With the potatoes, I will be trying the methods described in "Really Crisp Roasted Potatoes"  (entry 40 in my WB). Originally, I made Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes, but those came out dry on the inside and only mildly crisp on the outside. I kept them in the oven until I say a pretty brown color, but that proved to be too much fro the potatoes to handle. Thanks to this article, I now have many things to change; for example, I will be using golden potatoes instead of red one; This potato has a medium starch content (good for browning) and medium moisture content (good for creamy center). I will also be slicing the potatoes rather than quartering them, which increases surface are while reducing number of flips (now 1 is needed instead of 2-3). I will also be parboiling the potatoes in simmering water for five minutes, which will bring the starches within the potato to the surface, so as to kick-start the browning process once the potatoes hit the oven.

I hope these changes will make for an even better meal! I am very proud of my mushrooms, a dish I've made many times before and even convinced one of my guests that mushrooms can be good. I also really enjoyed my salad, and the dessert was a big hit. Therefore, I will not be re-trying those dishes.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1. I'm doing my mentorship at the Avocado House in Chino.

2. Though my physical mentor is Chris Baker, my contact is Shelley Biggs, the owner of the restaurant. This is because Shelley is my boss, hired me, and agreed to take me on as a student and intern. Because she is the owner and doesn't do as much cooking as she used to, however, I do my training with Chris. The location 11618 Central Avenue, Chino, CA 91710 and phone number is (909) 627-9733. 

3. I have done approximately 108 hours and 40 minutes of work at my mentorship.

4. In all of the time, I have worked at the Avocado House, I have spent about a quarter or more of my time cracking eggs, another quarter chopping various vegetables and meats, and the last half working Saturdays. On Saturdays, I do a variety of things; a lot of time is spent making pancake batter, but I am also mostly in charge of making the waffles themselves. I also have to make sure the cook's stations are fully stocked at all times, meaning the omelette and sandwich bar is stocked, the waffle and pancake batters are in their places, and everything that needs a to be chilled is in a fresh ice bath.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1. Over the break, I worked on my senior project by tackling a form of cooking I've never truly been comfortable with: baking. Originally I had plans to bake with three friends, one of whom has been baking for three years. We were going to bake tons of pies on December 23rd, but they all ended up getting sick that day. I was sad that my plans were cancelled, but then I decided to do them on my own. I chronicle my work on these three pies in the post Happy Holidays! I also did a lot of cooking (mostly breakfast), eating, and even caught up on my research check! Sadly, the lace I do my mentorship at was completely closed, so I didn't get any hours there. However, I feel the amount of work I did do over break was an excellent amount.

2. I feel the most important thing I learned over break was that I am capable of baking on my own. Spending a day baking pies really helped show me that it's not much different from cooking, except that there are some things in which only the recipe will work. Like any recipe, all the ones I used had variables. In the case of baking, however, variables are different from regular cooking; this was broken down further when I read the Batter section of the Mike Ruhlman book Ratio. When baking, you have to use a certain ratio to create any dough or batter. When creating the fillings to the pies, it was obvious how important the amount of cornstarch and sugar cooked would completely determine the consistency of both the lemon meringue and chocolate pies. The variables, however, were the flavorings. I don't think the pies would have been hurt much if I added more lemon zest or cocoa powder; the chocolate pie didn't suffer anything flavor-wise, or even consistency-wise, once I added the coconut (though the texture was very weird). These types of additives, unless specifically a thinner or thickener, can be changed. To make this evident, the instructions for both the chocolate pie and lemon filling were extremely similar; the only big difference was one used lemon juice and zest while the other used cocoa powder. Though it wouldn't be smart if I changed how much cornstarch was used, If i switched out the lemon with chocolate, I would probably have a decent chocolate filling on my hands.

3. I think I would like to talk to either the owner of the restaurant I do my mentorship at, or a man my dad is friends with. I'd want to talk to the owner of the Avocado House because almost everything we cook there is a recipe she personally created and fine tuned the recipe for; she had to find a way to make a recipe that retained flavor and was also consistent. However, I'd most like to talk to my dad's friend. Though his name escapes me, this man used to work in a Beverely Hills restaurant. He was a head chef, which meant he created new recipes and had to experiment to get them. According to my father, his friend rose up to this position, starting as a busboy and dishwasher, slowly working up to cook. The only reason he no longer is a head chef is because he now manages a restaurant himself.