On Food & Culture
This morning I made this new recipe for Dulce de Leche Quemada. I used pecans because they are native to Texas and Northern Mexico so it makes the caramelized milk and sugar candy more Tejano. I think this is the recipe that I will use …
this was last night’s dinner. Roasted poblano peppers and onions gave a robust twang to the sauteed cube steak that I finished with a sauce made from deglazing and buerre monté. I threw in the green beans to soften the overall taste.
Here’s the link to the art exhibit in which food, candy in particular, is not just served at the exhibit but is actually the art. “The Candy Shop” features three visual artists and myself as chef exploring issues surrounding the manufacture, commercialization, advertising and transporting …
Notes on cooking my candy for an upcoming art show, “The Candy Shop” Eating candy is an artful experience, both visual and flavorful. When biting into Latin American candy the moment is imbued with a long history of cultural encounter between Latin American and European …
Today’s lecture notes dealing with Tex-Mex cuisine has this astounding sentence in the description of our cusine: “Basically, Tex-Mex food consists of bastardized Mexican foods. Burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and quesadillas are a few.” I believe we’ll be discussing this attitude tomorrow morning and it will …
Today we studied “Cuisines of the Americas,” cuisines that recent European immigrants (1600’s) developed in New England. Forced to use local ingredients, they adapted their knowledge of European cooking and, with the help of the locals, developed intersting stuff. We cooked clam chowder and Yankee …
Today I’m starting to blog again. It’s been a long, long, long, sad absence, indeed, but this morning’s cooking class conversation about vegetarian cooking made me smile. At 7 AM we discussed complementary proteins, those that served together provide a higher quality protein or a …
This is the meal that I cooked during class at the Culinary Arts Institute last Friday. Braised beef with soft polenta, roasted vegetables and asparagus.View image I couldn’t eat that much meat but the polenta, the roasted vegetables and asparagus were deeeelicious. Coincidentally, I read …
Being a student at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) is a gift in my life for which I’m enormously grateful. It has re-founded my perspectives and my gusto for life. One of the things I’ve realized is how central to community are media like …
Commenting on the post about Rachel Carson, Mary told me about Sandra Steingraber’s writings. Her book, “Living Downstream,” is now a film. The 90-minute HD documentary is just now released and beginning to play in festivals and community venues. I’ll explore when it’s in San …