gurleenguava

[gurleenguava]

KOREAN KIMBAP

🥝What was your favourite part of the whole process? Why?

During this food lab it was very different since instead of being able to do it with my peers, I had to do it at home. That experience itself was very different from when we were at school since at school it was very fun and exciting being able to make mistakes learning with and from my friends and being able to cook altogether. At home it was a more comfortable atmosphere, I knew where all of my ingredients were. There was a lot less unsureness at home as I could get very hands-on help from my mom and it was very homey. It was also more peaceful, I just listened to music and there was little talking which is also nice. My favourite parts were probably the fact that the recipe was pretty simple, I had made it before and like I previously said, it was very comfortable. Another thing I really liked was the fact that I could do on-the-spot improvisations if I wanted to. At school, the teacher goes and buys exactly what we need for that specific recipe, but at home, I had various ingredients so if I wanted to customize a part of the recipe I was able to. I did this for the rice that I made. In traditional kimbap, they just season the rice with salt and sesame oil, but  I added sweet chili sauce to it as well since I’m a big fan of the taste and it was delicious. 

🥝Compare and contrast some of the food preparation practices from this lab compared to other cultures' cuisine using examples to support your response.

In this lab, I made a traditional Korean kimbap which is a roll of rice, and various vegetables wrapped in seaweed. The first part of the preparation that was very different from the Indian culture that I’m familiar with was the type of rice that was being used. In Indian culture and personally, for me I encounter basmati rice a lot, it is long-grained rice and not very glutinous, but in this recipe, they required shorter grained rice and it seemed to be more glutinous and sticky than the rice I’m used to. That also made it a lot harder to cook, and because I do not have a rice cooker, I used a saucepan. That proved to be difficult as the rice was glutinous and kept sticking to the bottom of the saucepan which was frustrating, but ultimately it was not too bad. Another part of the preparation that was different was the blanching of the spinach. In my culture, I haven’t seen it done so it was a first for me, but since it is such a simple technique it wasn’t hard and it turned out good as well. 

🥝If I were to make this again …. What would I do differently than I have now learned?  Ie. giving myself tips or feedback.

If I were to make this dish again one thing I would be more careful in doing is cooking the rice, it requires full-on supervision so next time around  I would make sure to watch it thoroughly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the saucepan which would make it easier to clean up afterwards. Another thing I would make sure to do is to make more veggies, prepare more veggies or add a type of meat to replace the crab that I didn’t have access to. I could add beef or chicken maybe so it would have more fillings. I could also prepare other veggies like cucumbers, fry up some onions, and any other veggies that could add to the filling. Other than that, there is nothing I would change other than the fact that the knife I used to cut the slices wasn’t sharp enough so I had a bit of a hard time while cutting the kimbap. Next time I would make sure that the knife is sharp for cleaner cuts. 

🥝Which assignment or class task did this food lab connect to?  How did you apply some of the concepts you learned about in your food lab?

This food lab connected specifically to our knife skills task that we did in class since I used knives a lot in this lab. I used them to cut up all the veggies, the egg, and the actual roll into the pieces. I used chopping for the veggies, I used slicing for both the egg portion and for the roll. As I mentioned before in our knife skills lesson we learned that knives should be sharp enough or you would hurt yourself while trying to apply enough pressure for a dull knife to cut. The knife I used to cut the rolls was a bit dull and it could have been a hazard but it was still sharp and I wasn’t required to put too much pressure. Before using the knife again, I would get my dad to sharpen it. I can also relate this food lab to the dumpling one as it involved lots of cutting and preparation of veggies and ingredients rather than having other complex steps. In the dumpling lab as well, we had lots of veggies to cut and it was pretty simple other than that. 

[gurleenguava]

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

🫐How can you transfer some of the concepts, skills, and procedures that you learn in this lab to new situations inside and outside the classroom?

This time around we made gingerbread houses from scratch and we decorated them as well. It’s safe to say that there were many struggles since the process was not only difficult but also took us two weeks which is a pretty long time. We started with baking which was time-consuming since there was a limit to materials and ingredients as well. Though it was hectic we planned very well and had everything prepared for the following days. We prepared our icing while we weren’t able to bake which helped us out afterwards as it was prepared in advance. This can be applied to cooking or baking at home since at home I tend to get a bit impulsive and do things at the last minute such as chopping vegetables as I’m cooking or thinking about what to make or add to the dish as I go along the process. During the decorating process, we had a lot of difficulties as well. Many of our pieces broke and we were unable to complete the final product the way we had imagined with the French design. We also ended up making 1 ½  house rather than 3 because of how some things went wrong. Improvisation is another useful skill that will always be helpful whether in the kitchen at home or at school, and even outside the kitchen. 

🫐I Liked/Didn’t Like… at home, I could alter this food product by…

I liked the fact that we were able to shape the dough and the shapes were made to be specific sizes and it was all very fun. One thing was that for our purpose the gingerbread was supposed to be hard and sturdy which worked out well, also though we didn’t eat our gingerbread my preference for it would be softer, it gets very crumbly and hard to work with sometimes when it's so hard. At home rather than decorating the gingerbread with all sorts of candy, if I was planning to eat it afterwards I would use more palette-friendly things such as icing and chocolate chips or other toppings that are more to my taste. To make it a little more fun, we could have put food colouring into the dough and baked it in different colours which could’ve been interesting. It could have looked very cool too if done correctly. Also for those that aren’t a big fan of molasses they could switch up the flavours and use honey or syrup as a substitute in the recipe as well.  

🫐If I were to make this again …. What would I do differently than I have now learned?  Ie. giving myself tips or feedback.

Since the process included lots of mistakes that ended up altering our final product there would be many places for improvement if we did this a second time. Firstly during the preparing process, we would stay more organized which would speed up the whole process. This time around we would also make sure that before baking the dough, that all of it was measured exactly to the paper cutouts we had. It would save us from the troubles we faced when building the house. The pieces were all relatively the same but not exact which ended up not working. As well as that, we could have made a bit more icing or used the batch that we had a bit more wisely. In terms of time as well, we should not underestimate the amount of time it takes to build and keep the structure of the houses so it may go smoother. We would also be more careful when handling the pieces because they are solid and hard and they can break easily and we broke some so we would be more aware of that. Overall, we had expected this to be a bit easier and less frustrating than it really was, which was a bit disappointing and discouraging. Overall we would try and fix the little mistakes and things that went a bit wrong. I do have to applaud our group because even with the hardships, we managed to have fun and it was actually really enjoyable even if it wasn’t technically smooth or perfect.

🫐How can the foods you made in this lab be modified  - to either be ‘healthier’ or to meet other food restrictions or avoidances.  Think about the individual components that were used and how they could be altered or ‘tweaked’?

In this food lab, gingerbread cookies were being made. Some of the ingredients that would commonly be substituted could be milk, flour, and molasses. Milk could be substituted for any other vegan option such as almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, skim milk, but all of these could have an effect on either the flavour or consistency of your dough. If you use skim milk, it is thinner milk so the dough may be thinner. Using nut milk can also affect the flavours of the dough. Flour could be substituted once again for any other type of vegan flour such as almond flour, coconut flour, brown rice flour, etc. Once again these depending on the type will affect a part of the original taste and texture of the cookies. Molasses is an ingredient that is pretty disliked but is a key ingredient in gingerbread cookies, but you could go for things like honey or syrup which would take away from the gingerbread aspect of the cookies but can still be great!

[gurleenguava]

JAPANESE MILK BREAD

🍓How can the foods you made in this lab be modified  - to either be ‘healthier’ or to meet other food restrictions or  avoidances.  Think about the individual components that were used and how they could be altered or ‘tweaked’.

The food that we made in this lab was Japanese milk bread and it had very basic ingredients which would mean that many of them could be altered. For example this bread was pretty neutral in terms of taste, it wasn’t too sweet or salty but you could change that if you wanted either or. For the milk too, you could have replaced it with any other type of milk and then tweaked the bake time. Some milks that could be used are soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc. One good example is almond milk. If you wanted to use it instead of whole milk, you would just let  it bake for less time since it is made up of more water than dairy milk. You could also add things to this bread to your palette such as raisins, chocolate chips, any other ingredient since it is a very basic bakery item. Even at home sometimes when baking we add extra things like chocolate chips or use substitutes when we don’t have certain ingredients but our dishes turn out pretty well in the end. 

🍓What do you think was the inspiration behind this food lab?  Was the inspiration successful? How does this connect to our course?

The inspiration behind this food lab was mainly to try making breads from different cultures. The inspiration behind this bread specifically was the fact that many of  us had previously wanted to try making this bread. I have never made bread from scratch in my life which is crazy but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so since my mom would not buy me the ingredients and let me make a mess at home. Plus this bread isn’t just any regular bread either, it is a specific kind of bread and it seems so fun to make with peers and friends so I wanted to make it. Another reason for making this bread was that I have never eaten this bread ever whereas I have eaten pretzels before as they are pretty common. 

🍓I liked/Didn’t Like… at home I could alter this food product by…

I liked how I was very nervous going into this because bread seems so hard to make and it’s very intimidating but once you have all the ingredients and you kind of know what you’re doing it honestly is not that hard to execute. I also liked how we all worked together to understand the recipe and obviously we had teacher support as well so it wasn’t scary or anything. At home I wouldn’t alter this bread too much, the main thing I would do is change the recipe by keeping at it’s normal/not doubling it or even halving it so I can give it more of a test try rather than make a huge batch of something nobody wants to eat. I would also add to this recipe by making some kind of topping or dip to eat the bread with. For me, since I like chocolate things or sweet things, I could make a chocolate sauce, or like to eat the bread with jam or use it to make a sandwich, etc. 

🍓How can you transfer some of the concepts, skills, and procedures that you learn in this lab to new situations inside and outside the classroom

For starters I have never made bread in my life so the things I learned about bread like the fact that the ingredients are pretty basic, it needs to be kneaded and set in most cases, and you can shapes and stuff with it it stuff I could use in the future if I ever decide to make bread by myself at home. I also learned that baking is very exact and there is very little room to go outside of what the recipe is telling you which is also helpful. In the past me and my cousins sometimes don’t follow the recipe exactly or something always goes wrong where the product isn’t the best so this is something I could learn from and use in the future. This lab also gave me more confidence to make things that may seem more difficult, like bread is something I never even imagined I could make at home since it seems so complicated and scary but after making it in class I feel like it’s not as overwhelming as it seems to be which gives me more confidence to make it by myself at home. 

[gurleenguava]

DUMPLING FOOD BLOG

🟠What connections can you make between this lab and what we learned in class?

In this lab we made dumplings, both pan fried and steamed. I learned that almost everything that we learn in class can be applied to some part of the lab while we are participating in it. During the lab we washed our hands multiple times, we made sure to turn the gas off when we weren’t using it, and also planned ahead and cleaned up as we did the lab so there was less work afterwards. This included everything we learned in class like the safety procedures for washing hands, when to and how to, making sure that gases were monitored, etc. Sometimes during class I also feel like the content is a bit useless, but it comes in handy during the lab. Like when we put damp paper towels underneath things like cutting boards to keep them from moving, which isn’t groundbreaking but much more efficient. It was also helpful to know cutting techniques  like chopping, slicing, paring, and how to do them and practice them during the lab.

🟠If I were to make this again …. What would I do differently that I have now learned?  Ie. giving myself tips or feedback

If I were to make this again next time I would be a lot less lost or confused about how to go about things and I would know exactly what steps to take to make the recipe, etc. This time everything was a bit new and I’ve also never made dumplings before so I was more unsure than usual and I had to learn as we went along. Next time around, we would also wait to finish cooking before eating because this time around many of us got impatient or hungry and ate as we went along which isn’t ideal for a lab in general but also for covid. Next time around we would also be more considerate and make sure the teacher tries some of our product before it’s all gone. We could also learn more about what we did wrong/right and earn feedback for labs in the future. It would be a lot more inclusive and thoughtful just like cooking with your family, etc because you make food and everyone gets together and eats and enjoys rather than eating as you and some people get left out, etc.

🟠What do you think was the inspiration behind this food lab?  Was the inspiration successful? How does this connect to our course?

I think for many of us the inspiration behind this food lab was mostly curiosity, our own personal tastes, and also wanting to try things we may not generally be able to. A lot of us were curious about not only the food but also how it’s made and if we could actually do it, which we successfully did. Many of us also have tried dumplings before and enjoy them so this was something that we wanted to do. Many of us also thought about our stomachs and wanted to eat the food so we decided to make it. Lastly, some of us can’t buy these ingredients or don’t have the tools, etc to make this recipe and food. Personally, I know that my mom would never go and buy a bunch of stuff that I’m only going to use once and only for myself. She would also be a little bit annoyed at me making a mess at home, trying to make something new and so making this at school where it is possible to do so was a great opportunity. Also some of us also took the class because we like to explore new cultures or foods and this was a great way to do that. 

🟠I liked/Didn’t Like… at home I could alter this food product by…

I actually overall enjoyed and liked the dumplings a lot and even cooking with my peers was also more enjoyable in some ways because it was less work individually and we got to socialize, etc. The only thing that I kind of disliked was the pressure to make the food taste good since everyone in our group was going to eat and also the fact that I wasn’t at home and it wasn’t only for me. I’m very used to cooking only for myself so showing my skills, whether in leadership or cooking, was a bit burdensome. But overall it did help in making sure I followed procedures such as washing my hands more frequently than I would at home, doing everything more efficiently and properly because I wasn’t just cooking for myself, etc. Those things  are less thought about when I’m at home.