Recipes and feedback of food

Feedback: Today I made Alfahores Argentinian style and made Chimichurri Argentinian sauce with some steak on the side. Here is most of the feedback comments from my class:
- I really liked the Argentinian food! You did so good making it! The steak really good and the sauce added an extra flavorful taste to it. The cookie was good too! I'm not a fan of coconut but it tasted good with the other flavors. Can't wait till you bring in other great foods!!
- I need those recipes! Great food can't wait to have some more!
- Incredible! The taste was awesome. Very creative. I loved it!
- Naomi, your sauce and steak was amazing!!! I've made sauce like that before with my family. Because of my Spanish and Brazilian/ Portuguese backgrounds the taste was very appealing. I enjoyed your cookies as well. Thanks for the seconds! Keep cooking :)
- I liked the food a lot! I think if the steak was a little warmer it would give a better taste, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe also try to find a way to get  the dip less spicy, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. The cookies were also really really good!
- IGN rates 10/10! Tastes amazing. The food was legend wait for it, legendary.
- It was really good! I liked the steak a lot. Especially the sauce. Also the cookies were really good.
-The sauce was really good. The kick of the red pepper flakes are nicely balanced so it doesn't overpower the herbs. I do not like coconut(sorry) but the cookie was really good and the caramel was at a great consistency.



Recipes:
Chimichurri Sauce:
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped or more to taste
- 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
- 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1/2 a cup of fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup of fresh oregano
- 1 bunch of flat leaf Italian parsley, stems removed
     Combine all ingredients in a blender and continue blending until it is like a sauce.


Alfajores Argentinean Style
- 1 2/3 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups of cornstarch (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 cup of unsalted butter, salted
- 3/4 cup of white sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla rum
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract
- 2 teaspoons of lemon zest
- 1 (ll.5 ounce) jar of dulce de leche (if you cannot find it you can buy condensed milk, take of the paper around it and boil it in a pot for 3-4 hours when it will be brown)
- 1/2 cup of unsweetened (or sweetened) shredded coconut
 
     1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.(You can preheat the oven when your dough is chilled and you are cutting out your cookies from the dough. Step 3) Whisk together in a separate bowl the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and baking powder and set it aside.
     2) In a large bowl beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add each egg yolk one at a time, allowing each yolk to blend in the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla rum, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon zest along with the last egg yolk. Gently fold the flour mixture in the butter mixture with a spoon, making a dough. When the dough becomes cohesive enough, roll it into a ball with your hands and wrap it in plastic. Chill from 30 minutes to an hour.
     3) Roll out the dough using only as much flour as you need, about a 1/4 thick. The dough might have an unusual consistency. Cut with a small round cookie cutter. Continue pressing he dough and rolling it out until you have used it all. Place the cookies 1/2 an inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
     4) Bake in the oven until set not brown, about 7-10 minutes. Remove the cookies to cool.
     5) Spread the dulce de leche on top then add the coconut.
     6) Enjoy!

Argentina's Background

     The next country I plan on doing is Argentina. The capital city of Argentina is Buenos Aires and the country itself is surrounded by the countries Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. It has a population of about 36 million and about half of the population lives in Buenos Aires. The official language is Spanish and the currency is Peso.  Some of the things that they produce are leather goods, woven and knitted garments, silverware and wine. Due to the fact that Argentina is in the Southern hemisphere they have winter in the opposite months in which we have summer and with a vast land range, there is always someplace to be at any time of year. Between 1870s and 1920s Argentina boosted up economically. The sheep industry flourished giving landowner's a fortune through the export of wool and meat. Through the 1920s Argentina was know as "the breadbasket of the world" and was the sixth richest nation. Everything changed when the Crash of 1929 came. In 1976, 30,000 people were killed and or disappeared during the "Dirty War". The country was left with its economy in ruins in the 1980s.

This is Argentina's flag. The blue white and blue colors represent the blue sky parting to reveal white clouds.

Italy part 2

Feedback:
Today I served food to the class and asked for feed back from all of my classmates so that I can improve my cooking skills (one part of my essential question). I asked everyone to put on index card what they thought of the two dishes I prepared of which were traditional meatballs and some Italian cookies. I will type some of the comments below:
1. The meatball was very good and remind(ed) me of my Grandma's cooking, I had seconds. The cookie was really good too it reminded me of something I couldn't figure out.
2.The food was very good. 9.8 out of 10 for meatball, 9.1 cookie.
3. Your meatballs were delectable(.)I hate beef but they tasted amazing. The sauce and flavors together were great. The cookies also had a great texture and was sweet but not to sweet. Great job!
4.Amazing meatballs and cookies! Reminds me of what my family makes! Delicious!
5. Cookie- bit dry but understandable since it is not fresh out of the oven.
Meatballs- I recommend marinating the meat, the sauce was good (very creamy) but a bit to oily.      3 1/4   stars.

     The hardest thing in the cooking portion I would say is the timing on the cookies. When I was baking the first batch of cookies they came out good however the top was the normal color o the cookies whereas the bottom was a very dark brown and did not have the same texture as the rest of the cookie. The second and third batch I made after that I decided to flip the cookies when the bottom turned golden so that both sides would be golden brown as opposed to a deep brown on one side with a different feel than the rest of the cookie.