March 2022 – Anthony's ePortfolio

March 30, 2022

Blog Post 3/30/2022 – Cheesecake!

Hey, yall!

Today we will be starting and finishing a recipe that I hold dear to my heart, as cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts of all time! I can’t wait to share this amazing recipe published by Bon Appetit, a food news and journalism company that I follow for their amazing and easy-to-follow desserts, entrees, and appetizers.

Notes: Before we begin this recipe, know you will need a springform pan for this recipe – so grab one if you dont have one! These pans yield a adjustable exterior of a pan, so that when you finish the cheesecake the exterior pan is removable and the cake is easier to cut and store. Another note, the following ingredients are best utilized if room temperature, as this ensures a smoother and cremier consistency to the final cake. This being said, take your ingredients out of the fridge around 2 hours before using them.

Ingredients

Crust

9 ounces graham crackers
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) unsalted butter

Cheesecake / Assembly

20 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cups sour cream
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
2 large eggs

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 325˚
Pulse or smash graham crackers into a fine crumb.
Add sugar, salt, and butter and stir until the crumb reaches the consistency of wet sand.
Transfer crumb to springform pan and use the bottom of a glass to pack it down and spread it evenly around the surface and 2″ up the sides of the pan’s interior.

Cheesecake / Assembly

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer, food processor, or by hand until smooth.
Add vanilla, sour cream, and lemon zest, then mix until smooth.
Add eggs and quicky mix to combine, then scrape mix into the crust shell.
Bake cheesecake for 35-40 minutes until the edges are set but the center is wobbly.
Chill until firm, about 2 hours.
Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks’ quick and simple cheesecake recipe inspired by one of my favorite food journals! Check out the original recipe below for exact ingredients – as I changed a few to make it more attainable. Stay posted for next weeks’ recipe on macarons!

BA’s Best Cheesecake

March 23, 2022March 24, 2022

Blog Post 3/23/2022 – A Sweet Time!

Hey!

Today’s post marks the start of our baking and dessert unit! We’re going to start with some ingredients, types of desserts, and materials you may need to get started! So this first post will be mostly informational, with actual recipes starting next week. We’re starting with cheesecake, then moving to macarons, then finishing with mochi (a popular Japanese dessert).

Note: The tools mentioned in the following text are ignoring many common kitchen tools such as large spoons, mixing bowls, and some mixing spatulas. Make sure you have the basics to continue!

Cheesecake

Cheesecake is an American favorite dessert and one of mine personally as well. While it’s rich and not efficient calorically, the flavor definitely compensates – as with most comfort foods! It’s a little different than most cakes, with cream-cheese-based batter filling up a usual graham cracker or cookie-based crust. Cheesecake is fairly simple to make but can be endlessly customized, with many fruit variations also popular. Tools you will need to make the cake include an oven, springform pan, and spatula to serve. Ingredients will be addressed in the recipe post for this food.

Macarons

Macarons are an Italian and French cookie variation that has become another American favorite over the years. The outside shells of the cookie are made out of meringue (whipped egg whites with sugar), and they are often filled with buttercream frosting or ganache. The perfect consistency is difficult to nail, but with practice, it’s fairly easy to get the hang of making macarons – and the pay-off is worth it. Tools you’ll need to make these delicious and delicate cookies include an oven, baking pan/ cookie sheet, parchment paper, a stand mixer/ whisk, and a piping bag. Ingredients will be addressed in the recipe post for this food.

Mochi

Mochi is yet another Japanese dessert that has taken the United States by storm in recent years, often appearing at Japanese Restaurants and Sushi Bars. mochi is a gelatinous rice cake created with short-grain glutinous rice flour, being soft, bouncy, and neutral in nature. The snack is often flavored with ice cream and other natural flavorings to make it more interesting! Mochi is a somewhat easy dessert to make as it requires somewhat simple ingredients, with the process being a majority of the work. Tools you will need only include a silicone baking mat, as the mochi can get pretty sticky. Ingredients will be addressed in the recipe post for this food.

I hope you enjoyed this information dump on the desserts we will be covering in the next few weeks, and I hope you stay tuned for the next post when we start making cheesecake!

Article by Bon Appetit on Mochi

Article by Preppy Kitchen on Macarons

March 9, 2022March 10, 2022

Blog Post 3/9/2022 – Rolling it Up!

Hello again!

In this week’s blog post we will be finishing up our sushi unit with some techniques on rolling and forming sushi! This will be using the ingredients mentioned in the last post(s), so be sure you check those out first. We’re going to first go over the preparation of the ingredients than the actual steps on how to form your sushi.

Preparing Ingredients

Cucumber – Peel if desired, then slice thinly into strips until the cucumber resembles a “matchstick” consistency. Keep in icy water to preserve crispness while you prepare other ingredients.

Avocado – Cut in half, around the pit. Twist the two halves opposite rotations and gently pull them apart to separate halves. Carefully, while firmly holding the non-pitted half in your palm, tap your knife quickly into the pit until it slices only a little in – it doesn’t take that much force! With your knife partially stuck in the pit, twist clockwise until the pit spins and releases from the avocado. Holding the avocado half, slice gently away from you into thin strips, as to not pierce the outside skin. Take a spoon and generously scoop your sliced avocado flesh out of the skin onto a plate, and cover if desired until needed.

Fish – Slice thin, long, pieces against the grain of the fish, removing skin if needed. These pieces should almost look like extra-long rectangles of raw fish, slice them just large enough to fit in your rolls. Refrigerate until needed.

Nori – Slice a couple of inches of the seaweed sheet off so instead of a perfect square it’s a more manageable rectangle. Place it flat onto your bamboo rolling mat with the rough side facing you, and the glossy side facing the table.

Rolling and Preparing the Sushi

Note: To avoid the sticky rice sticking to your fingers instead of the seaweed, I recommend using a bowl of bold water to dip your fingers in before touching the rice. This keeps your fingers from sticking to the rice and makes the process much quicker and more comfortable. Also regarding the rolling mat, make sure the pieces of bamboo are horizontally facing you, to allow it to roll smoothly.

With wet hands, grab a small handfull of rice and spread it across your nori sheet on top of the rolling mat, with a centimeter of seaweed peeking out on each end.
In a line horizontal to you, lay out your cucumber, avocado, and fish pieces. Be conservative with this step as its super easy to over-stuff your sushi roll.
Once your fillings and rice are in place, its time to roll.
Just like the picture above, use your fingertips to slowly lift the edge of the mat and curl it into the center of the roll. Continue this, lifting your bamboo mat if it threatens to go into the roll, continuing the fluid motion until the two ends of seaweed meet.
Now, use the mat to shape your roll, laying it down on top of the roll and firmly pressing on every side of the sushi to compress it and ensure its glued together properly.
Using a sharp, wet knife, cut the roll evenly down the middle, then evenly down the middle of the halves, and so fourth until you have 8 even pieces of sushi.
Serve with soy sauce, pickled ginger, and wasabi if desired.

And with that, we finish our sushi-making unit. I hope you found this short but action-packed post useful in utilizing the ingredients we mentioned the prior weeks to create some delicious sushi. I will include two links below on creating nigiri, the more traditional sushi type using just fish and rice, and another link on rolling in case you’re a visual learner and need some extra help. As always happy cooking, and I’ll see you next week!

Here’s a straightforward tutorial by WikiHow, a free information hub for almost any topic.

Here’s a different tutorial on making at-home nigiri with simple ingredients.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

March 2, 2022March 3, 2022

Blog Post 3/2/22 Sushi Fish & Ingredients

Hello!

For this week’s blog post we will be going over “Sushi Grade” fish, how to prepare it, and other ingredients needed to make delicious sushi!

What is Sushi Grade?

“Sushi Grade” is a classification and regulation given to fish that is utilized and prepared in many forms for sushi. It essentially requires the fish to be edible when consumed raw, with different fish needing different preparation. The most common sushi fish types are salmon and tuna, both having their own traits.

Salmon – Develops parasites very easily and early in their shelf life, and the fish often have them after being caught. This is why salmon is often frozen after being caught to kill any parasites living in the fish. Cooking also achieves this, however, we’re talking about sushi after all. Work quickly when using salmon because parasites can develop after it being unrefrigerated for only a couple of hours!

Tuna – Is often called “chicken of the sea” because it’s common, easy to catch and eat, and readily available at most supermarkets. Tuna, unlike salmon, don’t naturally carry any parasites! This means you could catch a tuna, kill it, and consume it safely right then and there. If you’ve ever seen or read The Life of Pi, this is why they are able to eat a tuna right out of the water when surviving on a boat.

Important Ingredients

Soy Sauce
Pickled Ginger
Wasabi

The ingredients above are commonly used as garnishes or are served with sushi. Soy sauce is traditionally used to dip your sushi into, to add some extra salinity. Ginger is eaten in between bites of different sushi and acts as a palette cleanser, however, it’s common in America to eat the ginger with the sushi. Wasabi is a spicy root vegetable that is traditionally added to sushi pieces in order to give a little kick spice-wise.

Nori Seaweed
Toasted Sesame Seeds
Avocado
Cucumber

The ingredients above are traditionally found in sushi. In maki rolls, nori seaweed is used to package all of the rice and fillings, like wrapping paper. Sesame seeds are added to the exterior of uramaki (a maki roll where the rice is on the outside), for flavor and texture. Avocado and cucumber are commonly used as filling with fish for rolls and will be used in our example coming week 3.

Note: To make rolling the sushi easier, I recommend a bamboo rolling mat (I’ll include a link below to buy one). They allow you to uniformly rolly your sushi tightly and are recommended for beginners instead of using your hands!

Sushi Starter Kit

I hope you enjoyed this quick briefing on what ingredients we will be using during our assembly and preparation process next week! Stay tuned for my following post on making Maki, Sashimi, and Nigiri. As always, happy cooking, and I’ll see you next week!