Modernish Pad Thai

In the past, whenever I would make Pad Thai or any stir fried noodles for that matter, I would always find that it was really hard to incorporate the meats and vegetables fully into the noodles and would end up with really plain noodles with all of the good stuff at the bottom. Instead of struggling to fully incorporate everything together, I have decided to plat up the Pad Thai in a different style. This is why I refer to this as modernish because it is all of the traditional flavors and ingredients, they are all cooked in the proper fashion, but, for lack of a less gimmicky term, deconstructed.

The three things I do differently from the traditional fashion are, instead of dicing the vegetables incorporated into the, I julienne them, making them the same shape and size as the noodles, making them easier to incorporate, I cook the meat separate from the noodles and top the noodles with it and, just for the fun of it, I fry the egg sunny side up and place it on top instead of scrambling it into the mixture. What is left is a pad thai that is easier to make, while still using traditional technique and flavors, and one that looks like a piece of art, the quality of art, you be the judge...

First step is to make the sauce, this recipe makes about 1 1/4 cup of sauce which is enough for four recipes of pad thai, so you can make it in bulk and save it, refrigerated for about a month or frozen for a very long time. Some of the ingredients can be hard to find, luckily I have an asian grocery store that is about a 5 minuet walk from my apartment.

4 tablespoons of compacted tamarind paste

1 1/2 cup of water

3/4 cup of palm sugar, brown sugar is a really close sub

1/2 cup of fish sauce

1 more cup of water

Add the tamarind paste into a medium sauce pan with the 1 1/2 cup of water, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minuets

Strain the mixture in a fine sieve and press down on the pulp, that is where a lot of the flavor is concentrated. The resulting juice should look something like this.

Put that juice pack in the sauce pan along with the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 40 minuets, until at a syrupy consistency.

To get an idea of how much it should be reduced, this is all of the sauce in a 2 cup container

4 notes

1. Keep in mind, a main ingredient is fish sauce, which is concentrated fermented anchovi juice, so for about 20 minuets while the sauce is cooking, it will smell pretty rachet, I opened a window to ease the smell, so be warned.

2. My palm sugar did not come in a granulated form, it came in a 12 ounce package in 4 large chunks, in this case, 3/4 of the package would be 3/4 of a cup.

3. If tamarind is unavailable, replace it with 3/4 cup of pomegranate juice mixed with 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice.

4. For a vegan version, soy sauce can be substitute the fish sauce.

The stir fry:

1/3 pound of medium width rice stick noodles or Bahn Pho

Water for cooking

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

3 tablespoons, plus one teaspoon of canola oil, divided

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 bone in, skin on chicken thigh, precooked, skin and bone removed and thinly slice

5 tablespoons of pad thai sauce, divided

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sambal oelek, vietnamese chili paste, some sriracha will work too

3/4 cup of juliened or grated vegetables, carrots, zuchini and broccoli stems work really well

1 cup of alfalfa sprouts, plus more for garnish

1 egg per serving (this recipe makes two servings)

1/4 cup of chopped scallions or chives

1/4 cup of salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off the heat and add in the noodles, let cook for 10-15 minuets, until soft, drain, rinse with cold water and toss with the sesame oil.

In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon of oil on high heat until shimmering, add in the onion and cook until translucent and starts to brown a little bit, add in the chicken (I used a leftover piece from my Spanish chicken recipe) and cook until warmed through

Add in 1 tablespoon of the sauce and cook until to reduces, remove from the skillet and set aside.

Wipe of the skillet, add in 2 tablespoons

of the oil and heat on high, just like before. Add in the garlic and sambal, cook until the garlic just starts to turn brown.

Add in the juliened vegetables, fry until cooked through, about a minuet

Add in the alfalfa sprouts and cook until softened, it takes like 10 seconds

Toss in the noodles and scallions and cook until a color is formed, tossing so all of the ingredients get incorporated, turn off the heat.

Heat the rest of the oil in a small skillet on high heat, add in the egg(s) and reduce the heat to medium low and cook

While the egg is cooking, turn the heat under the noodles to high again and pour in 4 tablespoons of the sauce, let cook for another 2 minuets until reduced and it coats the noodles.

The egg looks done, turn off the heat under that

Time to plate...

What I did was pile some noodles to the side of the bowl, which takes up abotu 3/4 of the bowl and the rest of the bowl is the chicken/onion mixture. Sprinkle over with the peanuts and add on some more alfalfa sprouts.

Crown with the fried egg.

Last note, you can use any meat in here, not just leftover chicken, chicken breast, shrimp or pork, keep in mind when sauteing with the onions that whatever meat it is is cooked through and it will take a little longer, for a vegetarian version, along with using the soy instead of fish sauce, some seared tofu could be used.

Pad Thai Crimes

Traditional Pad Thai, I feel is easily one of my favorite foods in the world, it is the perfect balance of sweet, acidic, salty and umami. Umami is hard to explain, (I'm assuming that's a term that trips a lot of people up too,) but the best way to describe it is the taste of savoriness, but more than that. It is the taste that makes a seared or grilled piece of meat taste better than a boiled piece of meat, a roasted bell pepper compared a raw bell pepper or the difference between mild and sharp cheddar. Asian food is notorious for mastering the taste of umami, because most of their condiments; soy sauce, fish sauce, miso and sambal are all fermented which concentrates the umami flavor (also adding a lot of salt.) The reasoning for all of this fermentation and preservation in Asian cuisine is the historic need to utilize every bit of food provided by nature, the Maya did this by drying their maize, the Nortic States would do a lot of pickling, there are far more examples, but in southeast Asia they would ferment whether it be beans, chilies or fish.

When trying to master making Pad Thai, I looked through a lot of recipes and what I found is that the sauce is really the key to this unison of flavor. I saw three different types of sauce recipes, some involved boiling various dried fish and shrimp, all day as one step, letting all of the salty, fishy flavor condense into this small amount of ocean juice, then adding in the rest of the ingredients. The next type remains traditional in fashion, but replacing the dried fish with fish sauce. The last type I would find would be the completely wrong, I doubt the authors of these recipes have even had pad thai, I will explain this type in depth later. I made my recipe off of the middle technique because it yielded a flavor almost identical to the authentic pad thai I have had, made by people from Thailand, and it did not require me to purchase and handle large amounts of dried fish, which smells disgusting. The basic ingredients you want to see in a pad thai sauce recipe are simply tamarind, some form of sugar (usually palm,) and either dried fish or fish sauce.

After the sauce, the ingredients are pretty simple; rice noodles, egg, garlic, chili, protein (usually chicken, shrimp or pork,) bean sprouts,green onions and peanuts.

So earlier I mentioned the insultingly wrong recipes ingredients that you don't see in pad thai that I saw in too many “quick and easy,” recipes were soy sauce, peanut butter, balsamic and the WORST of all would have to be spaghetti. Soy sauce is really the only ingredient I would find acceptable if you are trying to make a vegan or vegetarian version. I understand the thought process that it is garnished with peanut, therefore lets incorporate peanut butter into it, but it is still wrong. By far, the worst crime I have seen in pad thai recipes would be to use spaghetti or any Italian pasta. I bought a pound of rice noodle at Publix for a buck, I have seen them at Walmart too (just dont tell my mom, none of my family is allowed there,) and I see an Asian grocer pretty much in every neighborhood in the United States, so there is no excuse whether it be availability or price, to use anything but rice noodles. Do not fall prey for these recipes, they are not real pad thai and I have done the pasta mistake before, there is a big difference in taste and texture.

Now that you know what flavor profiles work and do not, there is a lot of room for variation, any meat, tofu or julienne vegetables can be added and this can utilize leftovers to an extent.

Though my description up to this point make this dish sound super complex and complicated, it is in fact street food, so I promise you it is simple to make, just a large amount of ingredients. Making the sauce is mainly idle time and like I said before you can make a lot and save the rest for later. The actual stir fry though takes about 10 minuets at most to make once the pan hits the heat. Because of the speed of this, it is very important to have everything prepped before time so you can just throw everything in, failing to do so will lead to mushy or burnt ingredients.

After the effort that it takes to make traditional Pad Thai has been made, it will be one of the best single bites you will take. So use the right ingredients, be creative and be prepared!

Felafel and a couple of mini recipes

So now that felafel has been established on this blog as in fact an Arabic food, given that the Arab world stretches over 22 countries and many other countries with large Arab populations, it should be apparent that it varies by each country in spices, toppings, shapes and sizes. The different ingredients used to provide flavor can reflect the economy, culture and agriculture of a nation. In some areas, it is flavored with lots of herbs meanwhile in others, the flavor depends mainly on spices. In Bahrain, I have had a few variants of felafel, at a cafe near my house called lilac, the kitchen was staffed completely by a Tunisian family, their felafel was made with a large amount of parsley and cooked garlic, reflecting the French influence in Tunisian culture. Bahraini felafel is flavored almost primarily with cumin, not really my taste, this is due to the fact that Bahrain's whether cannot support the cultivation of herbs like parsley or cilantro (referred to as coriander leaves there).Lebanese felafel “the original” felafel consists of both fresh herbs and spices and tend to have a very green tint to them, this could very well reflect the Greek influence on their cuisine because generally, Lebanese cuisine contains much more herbs than the other nations in their region. My favorite felafel I have had was at a small Palestinian coffee shop, once again really close to my house called Haboota, there was such complexity in flavor, given by a mix of, if I remember correctly, 7 spices, and most uniquely, cardamom. Cardamom acts as a flavor enhancer, as a brighter spice, it contrasts with the heavy flavors of cumin and coriander and cuts through the sometimes cloying flavors of those two spices, which in fact, the addition of fresh herbs would do this as well. Palestinian cuisine tends to be very different from other traditional Arabic cuisine, mainly because of since the formation of Israel in 1948, it has experienced a large amount of isolation and economic depression, so their cuisine has developed and evolved differently from most other cuisines, out of resourcefulness rather than adoption of other cultures. So one can conclude that Palestine has had very little influence from herb using nations and the usage of herbs for flavor enhancers costs much more than spices. Therefore, somewhere along the line, cardamom was added to do the same job as cilantro and it stuck. So in this aspect, I would like to say that my felafel recipe has been adapted to resemble Palestinian felafel, but I cannot say it truly matches that of Haboota.

Felafel is usually paired with a very abrasive sauce of lemon, tahina and garlic and also is found served with hummus. I just have troubles eating and serving something made entirely out of chickpeas with a chickpea based dip, therefore, along with a basic tahina sauce recipe, I will also provide a recipe for mutabal, a dip consisting of roasted eggplant, tahina (sesame seed paste) and yogurt, they will not be as in depth as the felafel itself, but there will be a very in depth recipe coming soon purely on mutabal and Arabic bread. If you want to pair it with hummus, I would recommend the recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi, though I will probably post a recipe for hummus eventually.
Ingredients:

1 cup of dried chickpeas

1 tablespoon of ground coriander

2 teaspoons of ground cumin

2 teaspoons of ground cardamom

2 teaspoons of salt

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

½ small onion, ¼ inch dice

3 cloves of garlic peeled and minced

Oil for frying

Pita or prepared flat bread for serving (I used frozen naan)

Mutabal
1 Large eggplant, pricked with a fork
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tablespoons of tahina
2 Tablespoons of plain yogurt
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced

Tahina Sauce
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
6 tablespoons of tahina
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of cold water
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Large pinch of salt

Start off the night before by covering the chickpeas by a few inches of water and allow to soak overnight. I have seen a few recipes out there using canned pre cooked chickpeas, this is so wrong, what you will end up with is supper dense felafel with no texture if they don't fall apart. Is it really that much harder to put chickpeas in a bowl of water? It took me 30 seconds tops

Grind the chickpeas to a coarse texture, as seen below. This could be done in a food processor (what i did) or meat grinder, but not too many people own a meat grinder.

Add in the coriander, cumin, cardamom, salt, olive oil, onion and garlic, mix to combine, the bowl of my mini food processor proved to be too difficult to mix without everything falling out. Let sit for at least an hour, this does two things, allow the flavors to fully permeate the mixture and draws out moisture from the chickpeas which allows they to form a lot easier.

Some recipes will say to grind the onions and garlic with the chickpeas, but I personally like it when the onions are still in noticeable chunks, this way, i like the contrast in texture and sweetness it provides, feel free to grind the onions though.

Shape the felafel into either patties, balls or a quenelle shape as below. Some people say to do this gently, but when trying to be gentle, they will fall apart when frying, so, try to compact them. My mixture yielded about 14 pieces.

Fry at 375 degrees until golden brown. about 5 minuets. Ideally, this would be done in a large pot, however, but I did it in a smaller saucepan, so I had to do them about 4 at a time, if the oil is overcrowded, the oil temperature will change dramatically, which would be bad. The lens of my camera kinda got fogged up when taking this picture, so kinda a bad quality picture :/

Remove from the oil and set to dry on a paper towel lined plate, sprinkle with some more salt while still hot.

Mutabal

1. Roast the eggplant at 500 degrees for about 30 minuets, it should resemble a really big raisin. Let cool and peel.

2. Place in a food processor and pulse until pretty smooth and add in the rest of the ingredients, pulse for about a minuets to fully allow the mixture to emulsify.

Tahina Sauce

1. Mix together the tahina and lemon juice, if you notice, after a couple seconds of mixing, the mixture will get a lot thicker.
2. While whisking continuously, drizzle in the cold water, then the olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt.

Serve all of this with some flat bread of choice. As a street food felafel is often served within a pita as a sandwich along with tahina, various vegetables and sometimes french fries. In addition to attempting to improve my recipe writing skills, I also intend to improve my presentation skills to a more fine dining level, so yeah some of my final food pictures will look kinda odd like this one.

*Last note, if anyone out there has as much interest in the political effects on Palestinian cuisine, I would recommend the book "Gaza Kitchen" by Laila El Haddad 

Felafel, It's Arabic, Not Israeli And Most Certainly Not Greek

Felafel is the only food that I have seen that actually sparks political debate. There are people out there in this world whose job is actually to defend the name of their home country in the name of felafel.

Much like most things involving Israel and the rest of the Middle East, there has to be political feuds arising from felafel. And like pretty much anything likable involving a country within a 100 mile radius of Greece, the Greeks want to lay claim to it. Though the roots of where these fried croquettes of chickpeas and remain ambiguous, the earliest record of felafel being made was in Northern Levant, a region of the Middle East boarding Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Mediterranean, as shown below.

So it can be concluded that felafel was most likely created either in ancient Lebanon or Syria.

Firstly, I would like to address the common misconception that felafel is Greek. So, this is actually an interesting situation, felafel did not start getting associated with Greek cuisine until a Greek food trend hit the United States in the 1980s, where along with gyros and souvlaki, felafel was served just for fun, cause it goes in a pita, like those two. Since Americans seemed to enjoy it under the impression that if it looks Greek and tastes Greek it was Greek, Greek Americans stared to claim it as their own. A common argument comes up by the Greeks regarding different foods such as Baklava (Lebanon,) Kebab (Persia/Iran) and pretty much EVERYTHING TURKISH that at one point, these nations were part of the Greek empire, therefore because the Greeks were there at one point, it is officially Greek. Now, there is some influence Greek culture has had on the cultures of places like Turkey or Lebanon and vise versa don't get me wrong, but just because the Greeks owned a certian land mass at one point, it doesn’t mean that the Greek ethnic group inhabited it. To offer a couple of examples of why this argument is flawed, think about the cuisine of Puerto Rico, it is owned by the United States, but you would not then say that their cultural dishes of Mofongo or Lechon are American, because they were made by the Puerto Rican ethnic group. In the same sense, though Lebanon was owned by the Greeks at one point, the Arabic ethnic group still inhabited that area and were the ones making and eating felafel, therefore, in what sense is it Greek? As a more extreme example, look below at the map of all of the land that was at one point owned by Great Britain:

Though the Great Britain owned more than 75% of the world at one point, these countries were still inhabited by unique ethnic groups. So lets take the argument applied by the Greeks and see what happenes if the British used this logic. Chinese food? BRITISH. Argentinian food? BRITISH. American food? BRITISH. Indian food? BRITISH. If the logic of “I owned you at one point, therefore what is yours is actually mine,”were true everything Greek would in fact be British. And its funny because until felafel became popular in the United States, the Greeks did not care about felafel and, they don't even eat felafel in Greece.

I would just like to say, between scenarios that what I blog either about Greece, Israel or the rest of the Middle East does not reflect my views regarding Greek politics, Middle Eastern politics, national security or the Israeli/Palestinian tragedies.

Okay, now time for Israel, so the argument for felafel being Israeli is actually opposite of that of it being Greek, given that the State of Israel was not formed until the late 1940s, felafel had already been created and had traveled all over the Arab world. The Israeli view on felafel is that they adopted it into their culture and cuisine, therefore it is Israeli. Yes felafel is eaten widely in Israel, however it was there when they got there, the Israeli people had no input on the creation of felafel. There were no ethnic Israelis in Levant when felafel was being made either. Now, Israel does have its own unique cuisine, similar to Arabic cuisine, but with a lot of European influence, felafel just happens to be included. This has caused actual political debates as to who can technically claim it the Israelis or the Arabs, much like the Israeli Lebanese “hummus war” (look it up, its a thing.) What it all comes down to is yes, felafel is part of both cuisines, however, it was made way before the State of Israel was established, so it is not an Israeli food.

Just think, if you have not tried felafel yet just how good it is, considering how everyone wants to claim it. And one can assume from this post what my next recipe will be for, felafel

Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs With Raisin/Balsamic Sauce

In my previous post, I emphasized the necessity, when working with dark meat chicken to render out the fast beneath the skin and pair it with bold flavors, that is exactly what this recipe does. I have been using this preparation for a while now in which you sear the chicken in a smoking hot pan, letting all of the fat render out and then finishing it off in a very hot oven. The resulting dish is a piece of chicken with supper crispy skin and flavorful, moist and tender meat.

In this recipe, I pair the chicken with the Spanish influences, utilizing garlic, pimenton (smoked paprika,) extra virgin olive oil and raisins rehydrated with white balsamic. The complexity of flavors, between sweet, salt, acidic and smokey in unity provide a perfectly balanced dish.

Now, some people would have just read that in shock that I would ever consider extra virgin olive oil, grapes and balsamic Spanish, as if they are property of Italy, but I can assure you, after walking through the local markets in Barcelona and Valencia that these ingredients play just as much significance in the cuisine of Spain.

(Me and Mr. Going, a family friend from Cuba in the Mercat St. Joseph, Barcelona Spain. Look at all those spices! The only thing I don't love about this picture is how odd my hair looks, oh well)

In addition, when putting the chicken into the oven, I like to toss some broccoli in some of the rendered chicken fat and roasting it alongside the chicken, but this can work with most broad vegetables such as carrots and potatoes.

Ingredients:

Chicken

9 Cloves of garlic, peels and minced

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of pimenton, or any smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of ground coriander

4 bone in, skin on chicken thighs

Sauce

¾ cup of white balsamic, if unavailable, regular balsamic works, some port wine would be nice in this too

½ cup of golden raisins

2 tablespoons of reserved rendered fat

1 medium onion, ¼ inch dice

Large pinch of salt

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

½ cup of water

1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets, a pint of brussel sprouts cut in quarters, a large potato cut into a half inch dice or a few carrots, cut into bite sized chunks

Start with the garlic in a small bowl...

Add in the olive oil and let sit for 10 minuets or so to let the garlic infuse the oil some...

Mix in the pimenton, salt, sugar and coriander, you should be left with a deep red marinade with a very smokey, garlicky aroma...

Combine with the chicken, refrigerate and allow to marinate for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days...

Preheat oven to 475 degrees

Before you start cooking the chicken, combine the balsamic and raisins and allow to soak for at least 30 minuets...

Heat a large nonstick skillet on high heat until a drop of water instantly evaporates, scrape the marinade off the chicken and add, skin side down to the screaming hot pan...

Lower the heat to medium and sear for 10 minuets, if you notice a lot of fat will render out of the skin this is a VERY good sign...

Flip the chicken and sear the other side for 2 minuets... This is a perfect sear right here, the fat from under the skin has rendered out, leaving a golden brown (NOT BURNT) and crisp skin.

Remove from the heat and place on a baking sheet, pour some of the rendered fat over the vegetable of choice and toss to coat. Add the vegetables alongside the chicken...

Put the pan in the preheated over and cook for 20 minuets...

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5-10 minuets to allow the juices to stabilize, theres nothing worst than cooking a piece of meat that smells amazing and failing to let it rest before cutting into it, letting all of the juices to escape...

Meanwhile, when there are 10 minuets left in cooking the chicken, discard all of the remaining fat from the skillet, leaving 2 tablespoons, heat the skillet on medium heat and add the onion and pinch of salt, cook until translucent, about 10 minuets, add the garlic and cook until fragrant...

Drain the raisins, reserving ½ cup of balsamic, add the soaked raisins to the skillet, turn the heat to high stir to combine and cook for about 3 minuets. Pour in the reserved balsamic to deglaze, reduce until quite syrupy...

Add in the water and cook until reduced to a thick consistancy...

And there ya go, perfectly sear chicken, crispy skin, moist flesh and perfect sauce. Excluding idol marinating time, this takes less than 45 minuets and for two servings of chicken and broccoli, it costs around $7.

Light Meat Or Dark Meat? Lets Outsmart Economic Poultry Trends!!

There is quite a difference in price between the different cuts of chicken. The thighs are the cheapest cut of chicken, Why? Well, at least in the United States, people prefer the taste of the breast meat and are all over the health factor behind it given its low fat content. I feel however the opposite, breast meat is generally lacking in flavor in my opinion and it tends to be harder to cook properly. There are two factors that affect the flavor of chicken cuts, fat content and muscle movement, this is what separates the dark from the light meat in a variety of poultry. The breast and wing experience very little muscle movement, given that chickens tend not to do much flying, which means there is less stress on those particular muscles which result in meat that can be made tender faster with less work. The wings are the most optimal cut of chicken, they have little muscle movement which means quick, tender meat and they are surrounded by skin which protects the moisture from escaping. Because of this, they are the most expensive cut by far. The breast however does not have this advantage which means, though it gets tender fast, moisture escapes quicker. For some reason there is such a high demand for this cut though, and for those who suffered through having to take Microeconomics like me, you know that an increase in demand and no substantial increase in supply, price goes up. This ranks the chicken breast as the number two most executive cut.

Moving on to dark meat, the thigh and the leg. People generally prefer the leg or drumstick when it comes to the dark meat because of its convenient shape and size make it easiest for eating and over time has become acceptable in culinary society to eat with your hands. Because of this, there is a slightly higher demand for the leg, which makes it slightly more expensive than the thigh. The thigh, poor thigh, does not have this feature and can be seen as hard to eat. When it comes to flavor, both cuts contain the same flavor profile due to high fat contents and muscle movement, a flavor I find superior to that of light meat.

Most of the fat within a chicken is contained right underneath the skin, in the western world, you do not find to many dished containing dark meat chicken without the skin. With light meat, specifically the breast, there is a growing popularity of the skinless chicken breast, I have no honest clue why. It is like taking the most bland cut of chicken and taking away its only chance of moisture and flavor, then charging more for this removal. This is why I feel that American society should embrace the bone in, skin on chicken thigh more, it costs less, has more flavor and when cooked correctly can be just as, even more tender than the praised skinless chicken breast. Do you have to marinade it? Yes. Does it take a little bit more time to cook? Yes, but these efforts are far more worth it. Other societies have been embracing this cut for years and the answer to counteracting the fattiness and bold flavor is to render to the fat out of the skin and pair this rich cut with other bold flavors any combination combination of sweet, spicy, acetic, bitter and smokey. The combinations of flavors and ingredients are endless, while those for the skinless chicken breast run short.

In the end however, people have different tastes and which cut you pick to enjoy all depends on marginal cost verses marginal benefit. If you feel that the higher cost and risk of failure for preparing skinless chicken breasts is worth the few minuets you save and the maybe 100 less calories go for it! But I find spending an extra few flights of stairs or minuets at the gym worth the amount of money saved and flavor gained. Haha, and I thought I wouldn't remember anything from APMICRO!

The recipe I will be posting tomorrow utilizes the bold fattiness of the chicken thigh and the bold flavors of the Iberian peninsula: garlic, smoked paprika, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic and grapes (in dried form,) utilizing the rendered fat to also make a supper easy side dish. In addition, this recipe will provide 2 servings of a five star quality meal for less than $6.50, taking around 35 minuets to make so stay tuned for... Pan Seared Chicken Thighs With Raisin/Balsamic Sauce

This Blog, The Mission, The Message

 There is no doubt about it, my time consuming passion absolute favorite thing in the world is cooking and cuisine, I believe my college major of food service and beverage management would defiantly reflect this. My interest in food goes beyond just the experience of cooking and eating itself, but why certain dishes have come to be, why certain ingredients and flavors were put to use and why the foods of two countries right next to each other can be so different, yet two cuisines on opposite sides of the world can have similar flavor profiles. SOOOOO along with providing an array of recipes traditional and fusion alike, this blog would also provide analysis regarding the geographical, economic, political, philosophical and agricultural effects on cuisine and its perception. If you have ever wondered why your Puerto Rican friend went into hysterics when you mention your images of their family dinners consisting of tacos and margaritas or when you ask a Turk “But isn’t baklava Greek!?!” and they start a political rant, odds are the answers will be here soon enough.

There are enough blogs and journals educating people in the chemistry behind cooking and though I respect them 100%, and have learned a lot of useful facts from them, they tend to bore me to an extent. I feel that there is a lack of solid information out there about the social effect on food, how human itself affect the food it eats, so I feel this blog will help fill in that gap.

In regards to my recipe writing skills, I cannot promise flawlessness, usually when I write down my recipes they are just for my usage, so I am also using this blog as a way to improve my recipe writing skills. If anyone reading them has any constructive criticism that could help my recipe writing skills, do not hesitate, it will only help me as a writer.