Jaime Oliver's food Revolution

So I finally caught the last episode to this series. It's been something that I've held in passing interest. Not because I didn't think the content was important, but because I hardly watch TV and I hate reality shows. However this is kind of an important show to watch. It's Basically Jaime VS a school district in West Virginia (Huntington?). He's trying to reform elementary school cafeterias to be more healthy for the kids going to school. He's trying to wage a one man war against processed foods in school lunches, shifting focus from convenience foods to conventional cooking.

The comical bit about this show is it treats junk brands like cuss words. While you can clearly make out what kinds of foods children are eating. Some of which I remember myself eating in school. I think one of the more shocking elements to the story was the fact that the school is running into a different crisis. The USDA is sending the schools he exact kinds of foods he's been trying to get rid of. The Problem is that processed foods are cheap, which is both unfortunate and a little backwards. The Fresh items should be cheaper then the processed stuff. While I don't believe that the USDA should be treated like the bad guys, I think it's just one small part of a bigger issue.

Here's Hoping Jaime's experiment is a huge success.

Salt Regulations?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/20/salt.guidelines/index.html?hpt=T2

According to this article the Institute of Medicine is trying to press the FDA to regulate salt. We are on a very slippery road folks. If we regulate Salt, next will be fat. While I like the idea that the megacorp processing plants will finally start a salt reduction (seriously have you looked at how much salt they throw into this stuff??) I'm a little worried what this kind of regulation means to restaurants. My technicality we do serve processed food. How will this kind of possible regulation effect us in the future? How will it effect large chains of restaurants? Will the regulation be the same from top to bottom? If there are limits what kind of limits will we see?

KFC's Double Down

So KFC has announced a new sandwich replacing the bun with two breaded fried chicken breasts, two pieces of cheese, bacon, and sauce. The calories for this monstrosity aren't bad, but the sodium of one sandwich is very high. I'm not certain how I feel about this "sandwich".

Though really how is it any different then some of the other sandwiches you can buy now a days? In an out burger has the 100x100 Thats 100 burger patties and 100 slices of cheese in one bun. In japan Burger king has the Windows 7, it's a burger with 7 beef patties in it weighing in at over 1 1/2 pounds of cooked meat! :\ Some of these are becoming gross just thinking about.

At what point does something become too much? At what point do we as Americans stand up for better proportioned food?

Microwaving rice

I have a challenge living campus life. I'm not allowed a hotplate or stove to cook on. So everything has to be done with a microwave. Currently I'm learning to teach myself to cook rice in the microwave only using a bowl. I've almost gotten the technique down. (This is for medium grain rice in an open bowl)
When you microwave rice you need to make sure the rice is hydrated throughout the cooking process. SO there are two stages to cooking rice: The first stage is where most of the cooking happens, this is where you follow traditional recipes of using a 2:1 water to rice ratio. This stage requires 7-9 minutes, In the microwave here I use 8 minutes. When the 8 minutes is up, remove the rice and add enough water to cover the rice. It will still be crunchy, but not burned. mix the rice lightly with water, then place back into the microwave for another 1-2 minutes. Fluff, serve, enjoy.

Talking with a friend of mine I've been making a green tea soup style rice dish. Make the rice as described(or with traditional methods if you have access to a kitchen), then brew up some green tea. After the rice is finished add: grated Daikon Radish to taste. (or 1/2-1 regular radish, but it will be slightly spicier), wasabi powder (though I'm currently using a paste) again this is to taste. After that you can top with fish flake (or soy sauce as I do currently) then pour the hot green tea over the rice mixture and enjoy.

Discussion: The health care bill and you

So Healthcare reform has become a new buzzword. Suddenly everyone is talking about it in the same hushed tones that you would describe an illicit deal. So lets cut through the tape and look at the bill.

First of all most of it doesn't kick in till 2014. Right now isn't the time for gloom and doom until the government finishes setting up the Small business Health Options Program or SHOP Exchanges. On top of the fact that the Senate and House are still amending the bill to suit their own needs, on top of the law suits against the bill, ect. Being aware of the Bill and changes being made to the Bill is a better plan of action currently.

The SHOP Exchanges will allow groups of business' to bundle together under a single plan. While it sounds like this will save business' money, the savings probably won't be worth it. With that being said, lets do a little bit of work that if there are no more changes to be made to the bill how does it effect the small business world.

"businesses with 10 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees earning less than $25,000 a year on average will be eligible for a tax credit of 35% of health insurance costs" - CNN Money

So really this means that the optimal employee size for a business healthcare plan is about 10 full time employees and maybe up to 20 part time employees. Currently the healthcare plan is what it is. As an employee I welcome this plan, working in kitchens can be a very dangerous place. It's not uncommon to see people being rushed to the hospital due to knife injuries, or other things. Kitchens can be extremely dangerous. On the other side of the coin It's a double edged sword: I'd hate having to pay the bill, but ultimately it'll become another bill on the P&L statement.

I haven't seen anything on what as an employee you have to pay on this insurance coverage. So perhaps the best way to handle it is another tax on an employee's wages that go directly to paying for the group medical coverage. This is a very sticky bill, even though it's now a law, it's still a bit of a crystal ball read. Only in 2014 will we be able to really feel the full effects of what this new law means.

Cooking manga?

Recently I've been given manga titles to look into for cook. Indeed Japan has an entire industry revolving around cooking comics. This particular page is from a comic called: "Addicted to Curry" while it has typical manga plots in there, it does talk a lot about the history and flavor of different curries. It also does recipe theories, trying to make a recipe more from a particular country while trying new ingredient ideas.

One of the new things was it talked about an traditional Indian beef curry. It explained that the population holds the cow sacred and that they wouldn't eat this, but it goes on that other religious denomination do live in India. I thought this was interesting but was left wondering how true it was about cows being sacred animals. The day after reading about how the cow is viewed in India I went to class and was taught the same thing.

It's nice to see the artist really took time to research different recipes and explain them in detail before furthering the story. I'll have to keep my eye out for good recipes from manga now! :D

Hustle and Bustle

The Kitchens were aglow today with chatter. Today was the grand opening of the culinary building. When my cost management teacher asked the class for help I instantly extended a helping hand.

WOW

I did not once regret the 3 hours of talking I had to do as a stationary tour guide in the Bistro's Kitchen. It was extremely fun explaining the kitchen, and watching people's faces light up as I explained the equipment. I don't think most of the people who came knew what the inside of a kitchen looked like. Those that did (there were some chef's coats) learned somethings about the special equipment we had in that lab. I loved taking and answering questions about the lab. It felt like an honor!

Afterward it was nice to go up and talk to the rest of the students and teachers about the night. There were some tired faces, but I highly doubt anyone of them would of given up that night for anything. Tonight was the college's night to shine, and I think we sparkled brilliantly :D

Fried Chicken in snow

Has anyone taken the time to watch the snow fall outside the windows of the kitchen in the culinary building? (probably) It was an amazing sight to behold, I just wish I had a cup of green tea!

Oh anyway on with what I've done:

The Pilaf was okay, it has a light flavor and will definitely make for some good meals. I wish I had better containers for it. Oh well. This pilaf has carrots, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower, along with the rice. I used some of the seasoning for the fried chicken in this for color and taste, all in all it's decent.

I also worked on my fried chicken homework. Producing a batch of fried chicken that had an amazing scent, and taste. I also did a basic pilaf. I didn't have money for anything special (yet).

The chicken (despite looking a little dark) came out wonderfully crisp and had a nice flavor. Good eats as it were.

Rice Dishes

So our homework for class is making fried chicken (which I messed up the temperature on in class) and a rice dish. I'm looking forward to learning more about rice dishes. I didn't want to focus on the dishes we learned about in class. Instead I'm researching other ethnic rice dishes to try here. i'm hoping I can find a good recipe that is challenging, but easy to prepare (like the dirty rice).

Living in the dorms has it's own set of challenges, so I want to try to make the rice dish two ways. One traditional style using a full kitchen with stove tops. (Still need to look up what day would be good to go to a class and do this)The other I would like to make a "Dorm style" version of the recipe using only what I have for cooking here at the on campus dorms (a microwave and maybe an outdoor grill(?)) the second part probably isn't going to be easy, and may end up with little resemblance to the original dish, however it should be a blast even if I fail.

Something like this provides it's own challenge. Not only will I learn more about the dish from trying two different styles of preparation, but I will also take away knowledge about cooking that I couldn't do with our labs.

Test

this is a test of the new blog :D