Aloha from HAWAII !!

Welcome to Hawaii! I must admit this American Regional class has turned out to be my favorite by far. I love learning about all the different styles of cuisine that make up our great nation.

I have a new found respect for calamari. We had to clean and prep the squid. I admit I was a little freaked at first but I told myself to get a grip and to have a new experience. Cleaning the squids seemed like it'd be easier because they're not that big...boy was I wrong. Needless to say, I am now grateful that I know the proper way and am able to have a better understanding and appreciation for calamari preparers : D




Here we have the Asian Pear & Macadamia Nut Won tons. These aren't tricky at all. This is obviously before we fried them and put some powdered sugar on top. They were delicious and I'm now motivated to try different varieties of won tons because they're easier than I thought.


Pineapple Fritters with Mango dipping sauce. YUMMY! Did you know pineapples aren't actually grown in Hawaii, they have to import them for Tahiti. Always love to add a little trivia for you. These were excellent as well. The acid from the pineapple along with the sweetness of the mango sauce made the dessert amazing.



Carmelized salmon w/ Japanese steamed rice, Stir-fry vegetables, a balsalmic soy glaze, lemongrass beurre blanc, and fried basil leaves for garnish. This salmon was so delicious. The glaze and the butter sauce really put this dish together nicely. I had a mishap with the steamed rice on my first try and totally scorched it. Luckily I had plenty of time to start another batch. "Sticky Rice" requires so much care and attention to make sure it's just right. Overall i thought the dish was great and one of the more healthier dishes we've made minus the lemongrass beurre blanc (butter sauce).



Sesame Seed crusted Tuna steak, vegetable tempura, Japanese steamed rice, with wasabi mayo, pickled ginger, and sweet soy sauce for garnish.

Here's where it got yummy....

I loved making this dish. It was truly amazing and turned out better than I thought (visually). I love to pay special attention to my plating. I'm lucky enough to have a chef instructor that shows us how he would plate it and then either let us copy or create our own. I'd like to say this is a healthy dish also but not with the veggie tempura and that rice. The tuna is healthy though ha ha.

Next week is finals (done individually not as a team this time) and after that i'm on to the next chapter of my journey through culinary school. Wish me luck, I will post pictures of what I end up doing for my final next week. I'm thinking of doing just a good Caesar salad and the same salmon dish but with chicken (since they obviously can't afford to have tuna or salmon as an option for finals).

Deep South

I think i've found my favorite region of cuisine. The Deep South! Pictured above is the Carolina Pulled pork sandwich w/slaw and fried green & red tomatoes w/roasted red pepper sauce. The thing about Carolina style sauce also is that it's not sweet and has more of a vinegar taste. The rub made for the pork was amazing and had a perfect kick of spice. The best word to describe this dish... "YUMMY" I absolutely loved and ate the whole plate. We fortunately had enough pork to take some home so I could share this wonderful yumminess with my parents. Two thumbs way way up!

Here's another favorite. I almost didn't want to eat it because it was so pretty but i did. This dish is called Shrimp Perloo w/ hushpuppies. I'm lucky enough to have an instructor that goes outside the box and doesn't always go with the curriculum and throws in special stuff for us to learn such as this dish. It was really easy, the typical one pot meal. I peeled the shrimp, started the rice and my favorite part was the fact that you just cook the rice til it's done and then throw the shrimp in there so that the heat from the rice cook the shrimp. So easy yet so delicious. I added a little extra red pepper flakes because i like things a little spicier and it made it so perfect. My instructor told me this dish would be perfect to make if i am put on the spot by a potential boss.

Up next week...the Hawaii region...which means sushi...which means a happy Whitney!!!

CALIFORNIA & PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Sauteed Halibut with an apple & cherry compote, mashed potatoes, and "saffron risotto balls" sorry i don't remember to correct name for them haha. We coated the halibut with rice flour. Why rice flour? There is a Japenese influence along the pacific coast. The compote was delicious. We re-hydrated some dried cherries in some apple brandy. The dish was delicious. I highly recommend it.


Mussels in Thai Coconut Broth. I was so excited for this dish. I have never had mussels before. I was never brave enough to order them when i'm out to eat because i didn't know if i'd like them. Again you see the asian influence with the Thai coconut broth. My final verdict on mussels...just okay.

I bet none of you know that the "caesar salad" originated in Mexico. Tiajuana actually. It should be pronounced as "say-sar" not the Roman ceasar. There are so many modifications on this salad, some things are better left alone. I admit we added bacon to the salad..but i mean come on, bacon makes everything that much better.

Did you know the majority of garlic is grown in this region. Here we have cream of garlic soup. Now i know what you're thinking...garlic soup? gross right? Not the case though. We roasted a head of garlic with some olive oil salt & pepper, roasting it in the oven takes down the harshness of that garlic flavor. It has onion, leeks, potatoes, heavy cream, and chicken stock. It's then pureed and garnished with chives. Yum!

Here's my pride & joy. Sauteed duck breast w/ wine reduction, saffron risotto, and creamed spinach. I have never made or eaten duck so i was very adiment about wanting to make it. I had to fabricate the duck also, i don't know why i was nervous, i've fabricated a chicken before and duck is just like a bigger chicken. So i sauteed the duck, removed some of the fat, then made that wonderful shiny sauce you see under the duck. I used 1/2 port and 1/2 red wine, shallots, duck stock, butter, and of course some seasoning. It was delicious. I consider it the best thing i've made so far. The chef instructor came around and tasted it and said, "oh my god, f&*#ing delicious" (sorry if that offended anyone but i took it as a HUGE compliment. I didn't really care for the risotto even though it had the most expensive spice in the world in it. Saffron is about $1000 per pound. We weren't allowed to touch the can of course, the instructor came around and gave us what we needed and told us not to mess it up because we wouldn't get anymore haha. The creamed spinach was good. I'm a big spinach fan.

Rocky Mountains!

Pumpkin seed crusted trout, Annatto rice with queso fresco, topped with calabacitas con maize, This was such a delicious dish to make. Fish is realy simple to cook and takes so little time. The Annatto rice with queso fresco was one of my favorite rices we have done, probably only because i love queso fresco. The calabacitas con maize is what is on top of the fish. It has onion, garlic, zucchini, corn, serrano chile, and tomato. It was ncie to have on the plate to help even out the heavy-ness of the rice and the earthy-ness of the fish. Two thumbs up from me!

Here is where i jumped for joy! This is Porrusalad Leek Soup with a piece of yummy Navajo fry bread. Porrusalad Leek Soup is a traditional Spanish Basque soup. My great grandparents on my mother's side are Spanish Basque. I always love to find out more about my culture, especially the food part haha. It has potatoes, leeks, chorizo (yum), garlic, flour, chicken stock, and some spices. I was in heaven eating this. The chorizo brought back so many memories of eating it when i was little and hearing my grandma say chorizo like "cho-di-show" ugh puts a smile on my face everytime. i miss my granmda and great-grandma. My great-grandmother spoke Basque, she died when i was 11, but i still have so many fond memories of her and the food i experienced because of her.

TEXAS WEEK!!

As you know, Texas is a region all on it's own. That's why we're so prideful here haha. Above we have Crab quesadillas with salsa (made my chef instructor). I didn't know if I'd like crab in a quesadilla but WOW. so good! Last week i made my own version of this recipe with bacon instead of crab.

How can you be a true texan and not like BBQ? Here is our wonderful brisket that we made. It smoked in this awesome smoker we have at school for a couple hours and then went in the oven for another couple hours. It was delicious. There were no leftovers to take home on this day obviously.

Our chef instructor told us we could do a potato salad or coleslaw so my team chose potato salad. This is a "healthier" version on the potato salad made by my teammate Brian. It was really delicious and it went perfectly with the brisket since it was a little lighter dish.

Did you know that the fruit of Texas is the grapefruit? A man from A&M actually came upon it when he created the hybrid fruit now known as the Ruby Red Grapefruit. The instructor gave us a bunch of fruit and said put whatever you want in it to make a fruit salad as long as it has grapefruit so i literally put in every fruit he gave us. It was delicious and i saved some for my lunch the next day. I'm a big fruit person. I could eat it everyday and allday. Rocky Mountain region coming up next.

MIDTERM!!!

Midterms time again...
This is quite a plate, that meat is a piece of chicken in case you couldn't tell haha. We liked its strange shape and thought we could display it well...looks like a flame kinda.. It's a little over the top, you can't really see the rest of the plate from this angle but with it is roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts and spaghetti squash.

Here's my pride and joy. It's a cucumber, tomato, and egg salad with a really awesome vinegarette. I tried my best to give the salad some height but with flat lettuce leaves it's kinda hard but all in all it was a good display.

Here's that famous cream of tomato and basil soup. Sorry you're seeing some of the same things but that's what we do for midterms. We got to pick what recipes we wanted to make that we had already discussed so this is what we picked. Overall we did a great job i think. we got a 96 and i am just fine with that!

Central Plains Week

For those of you that don't know the central plains region includes: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.


Here we have our lovely rack of ribs that have been smoked for a couple hours and then slathered in BBQ sauce and put in the oven to roast. Talk about fall off the bone deliciousness. We made these "Kansas city style," which means lots of molasses as a sweetener in the sauce. They had just the right amount of tangy and sweet.




Here's our delicious completed ribs with some wonderful Mac & cheese. I'll include the recipe for the mac & cheese below because it is too good not to share. Right after I took this picture i devoured the plate in probably 2 minutes. Needless to say there were no leftovers to take home....sorry mom & dad.




Deep-dish "Chicago-style" pizza. Mmmmmm this is before i went in the oven. Chicago style pizza is supposed to have sauce on top but as you can see we neglected to do that. This pizza has pretty much anything you can think of on it, cheese, Italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon, jalapenos, green onion, white onion, morel mushrooms (very expensive by the way), fresh mozzarella, and the awesome sauce my teammate brian made. It was truly to die for!



This is the corn & wild rice cake with sauteed spinach and mushrooms underneath. This makes a great vegetarian appetizer or in our case meal because there were 2 cakes. I was shocked at how good they were. We used fresh corn kernels, cooked wild rice, onion and some cream to hold the cakes together. If any of you are of have a vegetarian in the family let me know if you want the recipe. They were amazing!

On the right you have the pork medallions with port/red wine sauce, roasted potatoes, and sauteed Brussels sprouts with mushrooms & bacon (of course we have to add the bacon). Needless to say a nice and full dinner for the evening. I'm glad one of my teammates loves Brussels sprouts as much as i do.

MAC & CHEESE RECIPE (makes 6 servings)

8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni (or whatever pasta you prefer)

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup chicken stock to desired texture (we used chicken stock instead of milk because the milk will curdle)

1/4 cup butter

2 & 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 cup minced onion

2 tablespoons butter (for doting at the end)

1/2 cup bread crumbs (we used panko)

1 pinch of paprika

also: we added a pinch of cayenne and some bacon but you don't have to)

1. cook mac according to the package directions and drain.

2. in a saucepan, melt butter slowly over medium heat. Add onion and saute 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a roux. Add stock and cream to roux slowly, stirring constantly. Stir in cheese and cook over low heat until cheese is melted and the sauce is a little thick. Adjust thickness with stock if too thick. Add mac to the cheese mix and stir well.

3. Sprinkle the top of the mac & cheese with breadcrumbs. Dot with butter.

4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the mix is bubbling and the breadcrumbs are browned.