Peruvian food

Quinoa
Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of quinoa
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 medium sized tomatoes
- 2 red potatoes
- pinch of salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 tablespoons of Avocado oil (can be any oil)
- 3 cups of water
Directions:
1) In a small pot put the oil. Chop the garlic and the onions and fry the in the pot together.
2) Then chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan.
3) Let it cook for about five minutes
4) Then add the 1/2 cup of quinoa to the pot where you fried the garlic, onion, and tomatoes.
5) Cut the potatoes into square pieces then add to the pot
6) Add the 3 cups of water
7) Cover the pot
8) Let it cook at a low temperature for about ten minutes
9) Every few minutes stir the quinoa so it won't stick to the pot

Fried Plantain
Ingredients:
- Oil (can be any kind)
- plantains
Directions:
1) Cut the plantains in kind of a thick way and slanted
2) In a pan put some oil in and fry the plantains.

Empanadas
Ingredients:
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups shortening
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup cold water
-powdered sugar (optional on top)
Meat filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium onions , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 lbs ground beef
- Aji Colorado Chile pod paste or one small can of tomato paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil, parsley or oregano
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of cumin.
Aji Colorado paste
- 10 dry California red chili pods
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 1/2 cup of water

To make the pastry: In a large bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, curry, and salt. Cut or add in the butter and shortening until the mix resembles fine crumbs. Pour water in and make a soft dough. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Chill for 1 hour.

To make the filling: In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Cook the onions and garlic until soft. Place in a small bowl and set aside. Increase the heat to high. In the same pan, cook the beef until it is no longer pink. Drain the fat and stir in the onion mix, red chili pod paste, salt, oregano, black peppers. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Divide pastry in half and roll 2 long sausage shapes. Slice each roll crosswise into roughly 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into a 6" circle. Spoon some filling into the circle. Wet the edges of the circle with a little egg yolk and fold in half, making sure the edges meet. Trim into a neat half moon shape and imprint the edges with fork prongs.


Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 28 minutes or until the pastry is lightly brown. You can also rub egg yolk on top of each empanada before the go in the oven to make it more toasted.

Interview part 2

I decided to interview my mom (because she is a chef) after I tried to get in contact with a restaurant and they didn't respond back. Below are some questions that I asked her and her responses are posted below.

1. How long has it taken you to become a chef?

2. When did you know that you wanted to be a chef?

3. Are there any role models in your life? Why?

4. Did you have any struggles along the way?

5. If you never became a chef, what would you want to be?

6. What is your favorite dish?

1. It has took me about three years to become a chef.

2. I knew when I was 18 I wanted to be a chef.

3. My father, because he used to always cook (very good) in the house when I was younger.

4. Yes, because as an immigrant to the United States I was not too familiar with the language and had little money which set me back.

5. I would have liked to continue my career as a kindergarten teacher since I was preparing myself and became one after high school.

6. My favorite dish to make are omelets because you don't have to follow any recipes, you just have to think of how you want it to be made by yourself.

Comments from the Mexican food

- I have never really gave guacamole a chance  but yours was amazing. The chicken wrap thing were amazing as well. I put the lettuce and the tomato/ onion thing on top of the wrap and it was delicious.
- The salsa for the chips went perfect. It was delicious.
- Wow Naomi! Guac. always give me a belly ache, but yours didn't. Amazing!
- The guacamole had a nice soft texture and great flavor.
- Everything was really good, the only down, was that there were no more chips when I got my guacamole.
- Amazing food, Mexican food is one of my favorites.
- It was very enjoyable, as always, I did not eat the chicken thing because of my diet, but your chips and dips were very good! I am not a huge fan of pico de galllo, but I enjoyed it very much the way you made it. Thanks for filling us with food!
- I loved the "rolls" with chicken, especially after I added cheese and sour cream to it. The coconut dessert I have made with my grandmother before, they were a little more soft everything tasted really well.
- Your food was great! I loved the variety of dips was great and I loved how original the coconut sweet was. The only thing would say is that just like you mentioned in the beginning the burrito wasn't very crispy and it got soggy really quick, but otherwise, nice job!
- I don't really like cilantro but I thought you're guacamole and salsa were heavenly.
- This is the best guacamole I've ever had, and I've been to several gourmet Mexican restaurants.
- The food was really good. It tasted like the food that you would get at some restaurants, I have never tried those types of cookies before.
- I enjoyed the Mexican food today! I had never tried guacamole before today, it was different, but I liked it. The chicken wraps weren't my favorite, I thought they were a little dry. I really liked the coconut candy things, I thought  they were REALLY good.
- I've had everytrhing that I had I ate before. It was really good.

Irish...wait...Mexican Food

So I originally planned to make Irish food. However, for certain reasons I decided to change course and make Mexican food. Here is a picture below:

I am going to skip the comments for now however will post them on the next post since I will not be cooking next week due to the fact that I am cooking the last week of genius hour. So here are the recipes for flautas, cocadas, and guacamole.

Recipes:
Flautas:
-any toppings that you desire because this is like a plain taquito.
-chicken
-tortillas
-frying oil

1) First you would cook your chicken and once that is done, start to tear the chicken apart into medium sized pieces.
2) You will then begin to place chicken on the tortilla. If the tortilla starts to break then try to heat it up on a pan then wrap it.
3) Once you finish wrap the number of tacos desired, you begin frying the flautas. Put enough oil in a frying pan so that it will end up being the height of half a flauta. Fry one side until golden then flip.
4) Now you can place any toppings that you wish.

Cocadas:
-5 cups of sweet shredded coconut
-1/2 cup of dulce de leche

1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2)In a large bowl, mix together shredded sweetened coconuts with dulce de leche until well combined.

3)Use your hands to make little balls out of the combined mixture and place then on a pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Cool completely before removing from the pan.

Guacamole:
-3(or as many as you please) avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
-1 lemon juiced
-1/2 teaspoon of salt
-1/2 medium sized red onion, diced
- 2(or less if you don't like tomatoes) sliced and diced
-1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro
-1 clove of garlic

1) Place all the ingredients in a blender and mix till thick.

Background of Ireland

As of 2011, the President of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins. In terms of agriculture, Ireland exports goods such as turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat, dairy, and beef. They also export machinery and equipment, computers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals; live animals, and animal products. With geography, Ireland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. Half the size of Arkansas, it occupies the entire island except for the six counties that make up Northern Ireland. Ireland resembles a basin—a central plain rimmed with mountains, except in the Dublin region. The mountains are low, with the highest peak, Carrantuohill in County Kerry, rising to 3,415 feet. Ireland is also home to many castles such as the one below from Dublin.

Vegan brownies

Recipe for vegan brownies:

- 2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 cups of white sugar
- 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla then mix until well blended. Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Feedback and recipes of France

Feedback: I made French macaroons and crepes for my class. The feedback came from a google form sheet so excuse the copy and paste.
- IGN rating 100 out of 10    
- It was really good! I loved both the crepes and macaroons.     
- Your food was good. It was sweet for me. The crepe was my favorite. I like that you can customize it with the toppings and fillings you like.    
- Great food, unsure about the crepes thought, really liked it, but it was my first time having them and it was really good    
- My single macaroon and whipped cream was pretty good    
- I didn't have a crepe but the macaroons were amazing.               
- It's not that the food was bad it's just that I don't like the foods.               
- Your crapes were so amazing!!!!! I didn't love that cookies but I don't like raspberry so that is why, but otherwise your food was really good!!!              
- Ign rates 10/10. Really good.              
- I thought it was so GOOD I ABSOLUTELY LOVED. The macaroon i had was a little hard to bite but someone gave me theirs which was a lot easier to bite. THE CREPES WERE INSANELY GOOD THEY WERE FLAWLESS              
- I always enjoy your food each week. My favorite was the steak we had a few weeks ago. But I only didn't enjoy two foods. The dumplings I am not a fan of, but I don't really like Chinese food. This week I didn't really like the food though. I just didn't enjoy it. Ever other week though was a 10/10, keep up the amazing work.              
- It was amazing especially because you happened to do my two favorite foods. I was fortunate enough to get both foods and they both were really great! Even though the macaroons didn't feel the way a macaroons normally do but it still tasted wonderful and I still enjoyed the texture!              
- My experience with your food was really good!  I would just recommend next time you use a little less cream.
- I really like your food. I think that as this project goes on you are progressing. I think that there is a specific way to fold crepes. If there was I wish that you would've shared that with us because mine was a little bit sloppy. Otherwise it was very delicious. I don't understand why you were so worried about the macaroons because they turned out AMAZING! I've had a few macaroons before and I think that yours was one of the best ones, honestly. It had really good flavor. The only thing I would have changed is that I would make the filling a bit more creamy. Overall today was one of your most successful food presentations in my opinion. Keep up the good work!            

Recipes:

French Macaroons:

- 3 egg whites at room temperature

- 1/4 cup of white sugar

- 2 cups of confectioners sugar

- 1 cup of almond flour

- pinch of slat

Buttercream filling:

- 1/4 cup of salted butter

- 3/4 cup of powered sugar

- 1 cup of fresh raspberries, worked through a sieve to extract 3 tablespoons of juice

1) Preheat oven to 300F degrees 

2) Beat egg whites until foamy, then add salt and white sugar for about for 8-10 minutes. Make sure that the eggs are at room temperature. Whip until they form a peak that's upright. 

3) Then add food coloring and be try to make it a shade darker as it tends to fade.

4) Sift the almond flour and powered sugar together in a separate bowl and discard the extra chunks left behind. 

5) Fold the flour/ sugar mixture in with the egg white mixture. Careful when you are mixing because they can be either under mixed or overmixed. If you under mix, your macaroons will be lumpy, cracked and when baked, will be flat with no feet.
6) Transfer the batter to the pastry bag. (If you don't have a pastry bag or a piping bag, you can use a Ziploc bag and cut a hole to the size of what you need)
7) Pipe out 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't spray anything on the parchment paper.
8) Tap the pan hard for at least 2-3 times. This will help air bubbles come out of the macaroons and when they bake won't be cracked.
9) Let them sit out for at least 20-30 minutes or until when you place your finger on the macaroon, it won't feel sticky.
10) Bake for 20 minutes. Please do not under bake. They may look ready but trust me their not. If you take them out early, they will stick to the parchment paper instead of coming off easily.
11) Meanwhile mix the buttercream filing. Whip the butter until it is light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Then slowly add sugar. Work raspberries through a sieve with a spatula until you get 3 tablespoons of juice then add to the butter and sugar mixture.
12) Whip until it combined. Transfer to a piping bag (or Ziploc bag) and cut out a small hole.
13) Reverse the cookie shells on their backs and pipe a small amount of filling. Place another cookie on top and you have yourself a macaroon.
14) If your not eating it right away then keep them refrigerated.

Crepes

- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- pinch of salt
- 2/3 cups of all- purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1) In a blender combine the eggs, milk, flour, salt, and oil.
2) Heat a skillet and butter lightly before placing 1/4 cup of batter inside. Cook for 2-5 minutes or until golden then flip over. You can use a variety of things as toppings with the crepes such as strawberries, chocolate syrup, mangos, whipped cream, any fruit really.