Tag Archives: cooking

Make your Cake and Eat it, Too

And by cake, I mean Russian salad, lamb and a pear dessert. I had the amazing opportunity to attend a cooking class on Monday night. It has been one of my favorite nights since we’ve been here, and I doubt I will ever have an experience as unique as this one.

We had instructions from IES to meet outside a Metro stop at 7:30 pm and wait for a man called Yves to come and pick us up in his van and take us back to his house, where we would do the cooking. … sketchy, no? Well after waiting in the dark on a park bench for 20 minutes (we were early, which never happens), Lauren and I finally saw Yves walking toward us. He came over and gave us the standard kiss on each cheek. This still takes me by surprise and I’m trying really hard to get used to it.

Eventually the first half of the group arrived and we walked with Yves to his van parked about two minutes away. As we were walking Lauren asked me, “Wait when he kissed us on both cheeks… did his face smell like sauce?”

Signs of a great chef. It was gonna be a good night.

Yves could not have been a nicer man and I am still in awe that he takes strangers into his home and allows them to cook in his personal kitchen. However, I still wasn’t 100 percent sure that I wasn’t starring in the opening scene of a horror movie, or Taken 4, until we walked into the front door. The house was absolutely beautiful. It was decorated in a way that seemed so effortless and classic with the perfect touch of quirkiness everyone wants when they try to make their home look “euro chic.”

The kitchen, in all its glory

The play area in the kitchen for the children of the house, two boys ages 4 and 2.

One of the cooking stations used to prepare the lamb and eggplant

After the rest of the group arrived, we had 12 cooks in the kitchen. We were each given a beer to kick off the night. I started off by peeling and cubing the potatoes and carrots and separating an entire bag of snap peas. The other section worked on the lamb, the pears and the eggplant.

The vegetables were put into a pot and then cooled down, as they would be making up the Russian salad. The lamb was made into a sort of stew with so many delicious spices and flavors that filled the whole house. And the pears simmered with sweet wine for dessert.

We went up to the roof of the house while everything was cooking and were treated to an amazing view of the city. The roof had an entire set up for outdoor cooking and I cannot even imagine what a night up there would be like during the summer.

When we were ready to plate everything, Yves showed us how to make homemade mayonnaise for the Russian salad’s dressing. This salad was basically a potato salad. It had potatoes, carrots, peas, egg whites, olives and tuna. Egg yolk and oil were sprinkled and drizzled on top. We each used a cutout to plate the salad, and naturally I stacked mine way too high.

We all sat down at a long table with 13 place settings and poured ourselves wine, ate our delicious bread with tomato spread and eagerly waited to dig in. We toasted to a great night and devoured our first course. Then, finally, it was time for the main course, and we were so excited.

Yves took a piece of eggplant, drizzled with a yogurt sauce made of delicious sweet spices including cinnamon on top and then put the lamb on top of that. I was the last one to be served and by the time I made it back to the table, people were already finishing up. It was that good.

At the table we got the chance to talk amongst ourselves about all of the trips we have planned and what we have seen so far. We got great tips for our trip to Madrid this weekend! It was such a nice environment and a great chance to experience an authentic Catalonian dinner, which can last for at least an hour and a half. It’s a social gathering and a meal.

Dessert

We left dinner extremely full and ready to sleep, the smells from the night already seeped into our clothes. Yves drove us back to the metro stop and we thanked him many times for such an amazing night. He taught himself to cook from the age of 9, and found a way to share his passion with people. It was an experience I will never forget.

More Pictures, Free Hugs, Culinary Experiments & Chinese New Year

First thing first, since the clock has hit midnight in my lovely hometown, Shanghai, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all!!!!!!
‘Tis the beginning of the Snake Year! May all your wishes come true; may you be prosperous in whatever endeavor you’ll embark on and I wish you a happy, healthy year.
蛇年吉祥，万事如意，恭喜发财，年年有余！祝大家新年快乐，事业成功，学业进步，健康度过每一天！

My Facebook and Twitter feeds are filled with throwback-Thursday pictures of THON 2012 and snowy State College! It’s that time of the year again! Too bad I’ll have to miss the THON weekend this time around but I will try to tune in as much as possible. I’ll be sending love and positive energy your way, Penn State! Let’s beat cancer!

Okay, back to London. Last Saturday I went to give FREE hugs at Trafalgar Square with a friend. The organizer of the event is a community group called Focallocal (in conjunction with Couch Surfers). Since everybody got creative with their recycled paper/cardboard/shopping bag signs, the event turned out to be super green too 🙂

It was great hugging everybody! It felt wonderful to break the ice, get up-close and share a moment with so many city folks. Holding up a giant sign, standing/bouncing around a town square in the cold and jamming to whoever’s iPod reminded me of THON canning trips again!!
I would love to go to another Free Hug event again when the weather becomes nicer.

Also I have been playing around with the kitchen and so far soups have worked very well for me (check out my recipe here: http://krazzykitty.tumblr.com/#42666827458).
But since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I would love to get my paws on baking as well.

I’m so excited to visit the Chinatown in London aka. the largest Chinese community outside of China tomorrow! I heard it’s GREAT!

More pictures to follow (hopefully, if I don’t slack off).

Location: London, UK

Chorizo

Since I have been in Barcelona, I have been introduced to many new types of foods and various dishes that these foods are included in. One of the most important raw ingredients that I have noticed is the Spanish sausage chorizo. In one of my classes, Food as an Expression of Culture, I did a presentation on chorizo, so I would like to share the history of this Spanish necessity with you.

Chorizo is a pork-based sausage seasoned with garlic and paprika (Spanish call it piment�n). It is known for it�s red color, which can be attributed to the piment�n. It has been a part of Spanish culture for centuries, even before the red peppers that make the piment�n were brought to Spain from the Americas. Although recipes vary, all at least contain the same basic ingredients chopped pork, salt, piment�n, garlic, and white wine.

Pork has always been an important part of Spanish cuisine. Centuries ago, each family had their own pig. In the late autumn/early winter season, the pigs would be fed until they were ripely plump, until the time of the matanza. The matanza was when village families gathered together and slaughtered their pigs to make hams, sausages and other pork products. The hams would then be salted, and the rest of the pork was chopped together and fermented with spices for one to two days. Then the meat was stuffed into casings made from the intestine of the pig, tied into links, and hung in the drying room where the cool, dry outside air could circulate through gaps in the tiles and windows and draw out excess moisture from the sausages.

Nowadays industrial production is able to replicate the conditions of these mountain drying rooms, with constant temperatures and controlled humidity, so that chorizo and hams can be produced year-round in optimum conditions, but many of the best chorizo are still produced using the age-old artisan methods and hung in the traditional drying rooms in the mountain air to cure.

The length of time that the chorizo is cured for depends on the size of the sausages, and also depends on if the meat is to be cooked or eaten sliced. Small, soft chorizo (used for cooking) needed to be cured for about a week, and larger, thicker chorizo could take a couple of months to dry out.

Variations of chorizo include dry cured, fresh or �soft�cured, and semi-cured. Dry cured is intended to be sliced, and when purchased can be eaten immediately. Fresh cured, also known as �soft�chorizo, must be cooked before consumed. Semi-cured is not as cured as the dry one, and not raw like the fresh one, but it can be either consumed immediately or used for cooking.

I see chorizo in everything here. In my dorm, they serve it at breakfast with cheese, at lunch on sandwiches, on pizza, in tomato sauce, mixed in with vegetables, and so many more ways. They even have chorizo flavored chips! I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of pork, but I really do enjoy this Spanish sausage.

Location: Barcelona, Spain

a brief update and a plant

+ I am cooking more now! It only took 6 months, but I have progressed from frozen fish and pasta to more complicated endeavors. I’m only progressing because I’m making Bertie dinner for his birthday tomorrow night. I tested my recipe/meal on my best friend here, Joe, last night and it was fabulous. For the main course I’m making chicken stuffed with mozzarella and wrapped in bacon with home made oven chips. So yummy! I was so pleased with myself when it turned out edible and delicious. For desert, I’ve attempted a panna cotta. It’s still setting so we’ll see if that actually worked in the morning.

+ I bought a basil plant to make my pastas more flavorful. And to make some awesome pesto. His name is Fred.

+ I spent last weekend in London filming a short. I am producer/co-writer/actor. Editing is going on now, but that’s Bertie’s department. I’m set to act in another short for someone this Sunday and that could be interesting. I’m also starting writing on another short for this semester and Bertie and I are brainstorming a feature film idea, too. Lots of filming stuff! I love it.

+ I tried to go to bed about an hour or so ago (it’s only 10pm, but I have a cold and a busy day here), but I was overcome with sadness about it being February. Currently, I’m thinking of going back to America the first of July, but I just don’t want to. The thought that I have to return to America at all makes me sick and sad. My life here is a million times happier than back at Penn State and my friends are better than most of people I’ve met at PSU. That sounds harsh, but oh well. It’s my blog. And I fit in better here. People are more genuine. My friend Joe is already looking at/buying plane tickets to come visit me in September while a couple of my other friends are asking parents for money to do the same. That’s incredible friendship.

And I know I’m coming back here, well, to London. I have a place to stay in London all lined up. I have friends. I have plans. I have dreams. I just don’t have a visa. I will have to jump through hoops on that. But I will come back. I will not just hang about in the States. I just don’t like getting all sad about the inevitable last semester at PSU. At least I only have one left!

Location: Leeds, UK

Blackout!

Tonight, we experienced our first “blackout!” Some background information on this problem: In European establishments, running 2 or more major appliances (i.e. oven, dishwasher, washer/dryer, hair dryer, etc.) at the same time results in the immediate loss of electricity. In order to restore power, all devices using electricity at the time of the “blackout,” must be turned off and all appliances and power chargers must be unplugged.

Midway through making our dinner this evening, my roommates and four girls who had come over for dinner, realized that we did not have any clean plates or silverware. So, we decided to run the dishwasher since we didn’t have enough space available to clean them by hand. Unfortunately, we forgot that we already had the oven running. So, immediately upon starting the dishwasher, we lost all power to the apartment. Eight of us were now standing in our now pitch-black kitchen trying to figure out how to restore power to our place while out partially cooked food sat on the stove and in the oven.

After roaming through the apartment turning switches on and off and unplugging appliances and power chargers, we were still unable to turn the power back on. Since the gas on the stove still worked, we tried to light the burners using matches (since we couldn’t create the spark otherwise without electricity), but we couldn’t get our matches to light. So, we then searched the entire building for the secondary fuse box that could turn our power back on. Reluctantly, we knocked on our neighbor’s door, even though it is considered rude to do so in the evening in Italy. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we live next to a nice, old lady who helped us find the fuse box on the ground floor of our building.

After an hour of searching for anyway to turn power back on, and even considering going and purchasing candles and eating the mostly cooked pasta by candlelight, we were able to salvage the meal (and even somehow get a cork stuck in our wine bottle!)

Location: Via P.S. Mancini, 4, Milano, Italy

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