Fish & Seafood

“Something smells a little fishy around here…”

This week we learned about seafood! We had our choice of: Live Lobster, Mahi Mahi, Shrimp, Salmon, Tuna, or Swordfish. This is how I feel about these choices:

Mahi: Gross. No thanks.

Lobster: YUM!

Shrimp: YUM!

Salmon: Yumm!

Swordfish: Never had it.

Tuna: Meh. But it's nice in sushi. 

I originally was going to make the swordfish because I had never eaten it before. But I couldn’t decide between the two recipes he gave us. One was a recipe with a bunch of bell peppers and I am just not a fan of cooked bell peppers. The other recipe was swordfish that had a coat of sesame seeds and I’m not really into sesame seeds. No one chose to do Salmon. So I asked what the recipes were for the salmon and I wasn’t really sure about those either. I was feeling SUPER indecisive today and I didn’t know what I wanted to make, so I put all my choices in my chef hat and had my teacher pick! My teacher said "no" to two out of the three choices. So his 3^rd pick was marinated grilled salmon with a fruit salsa. I was down. I’m glad I ended up with salmon.

The salmon was marinated in soy sauce, minced ginger, and garlic. I was only supposed to marinate the fish for 15 minutes. It makes sense because if I left it in the marinade for an hour, it’d end up wayyyyyy too salty.

The fruit salsa consisted of:

Tomato that had been seeded

Papaya - diced

Pineapple - diced

Green onions - sliced

Jalapeno - minced

Garlic - minced

Lemon juice

Cilantro - chopped

And salt.

I used a whole jalapeno and it was pretty spicy. But good! I have never had papaya so that was new for me. It tastes like a melon. But kind of bland. It’s weird. But a pretty fruit for sure!

Today, we got to pick our starch. I could’ve made mashed potatoes but I didn’t want to make that. Too many dishes. We had some purple sweet potatoes and red sweet potatoes. I chose the red sweet potato. I sliced the sweet potato pretty thin because I wanted to do a sort of scalloped sweet potato but I went with what I knew. I added brown sugar, BUTTER, orange zest, and a little sage! OH MY GOD! CAN WE TALK ABOUT THESE POTATOES FOR A MINUTE?! They tasted sooooooo good! Like, heaven. Pure bliss. I loved it. They turned out perfectly. J

Kohlrabi

Red Sweet Potatoes don't even look red. 

For our vegetable, we got to choose between kohlrabi (kole-robbie) or okra. I had no idea how to cook either one. At Social, they make a kohlrabi puree that goes with the seitan (say-tan). It tastes really good! Like, broccoli. Or a radish, but without the bite. I julienned my kohlrabi and sautéed it in brown butter. I added a little bit of fresh basil and too much lemon juice. Next time I won’t add so much lemon. Or I just won’t add lemon at all. Too much lemon takes away from the flavor.

When it came time to plate, I did really well. I had good height, color, perfect grill marks, just everything. 

Last week, I did terribly. I didn’t like the vegetable we made. My scalloped potatoes didn’t turn out (don’t add orange zest to potatoes). We roasted a half of a chicken that turned out AMAZING. I just didn’t feel like blogging last week. I killed it this week! I want to either go down south for my externship or I want to go somewhere along the coast. I want to learn more about seafood. It’s ironic though because I am deathly afraid of live fish. I don’t even like little goldfish in a fish tank. I just can’t. I don’t like minnows. I don’t like big crazy salmon with teeth. If it’s alive, no way. I do think that seafood is beautiful. Food is art. Seafood is an art-form that I want to master. I definitely know how to cook salmon perfectly. (I can thank Noonan’s for that bit of experience.) I am good with seafood. And it shows whenever I cook it.

I’m just really excited that I’m learning and everything in my life is going really great for me. Today, the passion just flowed. I know this is what I want to do because I can feel it. I get so many compliments from classmates and my teacher. It feels good to finally be good at something. I got to make a chutney the other night at Social and it was all my call.  Winter pear and star anise chutney. I’m just really proud of how far I’ve come. I went to RVC. Originally I wanted to go into graphic design. Then I switched and decided that I wanted to cook. I got a job at Josef’s and I learned a lot there. I got my Assoc. of Arts and went to Blackhawk. I got my job at Noonan’s and got my experience up. Two years ago, I made it a goal to get into Social. I got it. I’m doing well in school and I’ve got everything that I want. My friends are the best of the best. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my mom, dad, and sister. I’m just extremely blessed and I feel great! Everything is coming together for me and I couldn’t have asked for my life to go any other way because everything happens for a reason!