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We were assigned one of the mother sauces known as Veloute. It is a light sauce with a mixture of butter, cream and flour with other ingredients like chicken stock (although it can vary from vegetable or fish stock) and white pepper. We first melted butter in pot to adding the flour and chicken stock while stirring. Adding the salt and white pepper to stir in and left to boil for about 15 minutes, we then added the heavy cream. A mother sauce was designed by the French of which all the other culinary sauces are made or based off of. We chose to make chicken cordon bleu with the sauce as a topping. This recipe consists of breaded chicken wrapped around ham and swiss cheese. This recipe seemed like something different and interesting to cook and one of our group members had also made it before. I think it did come out really good and I'd never had a combination of chicken, ham and cheese so it was a new flavor for me. I think the sauce came out even better though and I probably would've preferred it with a pasta because the chicken and hams flavor did overpower it. Overall, I did like how the final product came out.

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For this lab my group and I were assigned a breakfast theme using the common main ingredient, bisquick. We found a quick recipe that interested us, a pancake taco filled with an omelette. Being that we had limited time we made it easier by using scrambled eggs and cheese. We didnt really face any challenges when making this recipe although I did think the final product came out different than I expected. I didnt like the eggs with the pancake but that's just a personal preference, I'd rather eat them separately. I would probably change up the recipe by having bacon inside the pancake and have it rolled up with syrup. I wouldn't prepare the same thing because I already know what pancakes and eggs taste like and it's no different put together. I did enjoy the crapes that one of the other groups made. I would've preferred to make something sweeter.

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My group and I made a fried shrimp appetizer. We selected this because one of our group members is a pescatarian and shrimp was something we all shared a taste for. The type of event this could be served could range anywhere from a graduation to a birthday party. This could obviously be used for any occasion caribbean or "under the sea" themed but even along with occasions serving other fried foods. It can be served to people of all ages unless they happen to be allergic, of course. This lab was pretty straightforward but we had a lot of shrimp to egg, bread and fry one by one which made it a little slow. Although I and everybody else enjoyed the shrimp, the panko breading wasn't my favorite. Next time I would probably use a recipe with a different breading like maybe a flour.

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For this lab we used a common ingredient, ritz crackers, and as groups had to branch out and create our own appetizer. My group grabbed more ingredients we thought would go together well. We chose Ragu pasta sauce, pepperoni, shredded american cheese and bacon pieces. We decided to make almost a pizza dip for the crackers. The pasta sauce was mixed in with the bacon pieces, the cheese and was heated up in a pot to have the cheese melted into the mix. Once we felt it was warm and melted enough we put it into a glass bowl and topped it with pepperoni and more cheese on top. We put the bowl into the oven to have the cheese melt into the pepperoni and left it in for about 8 minutes or less. Having only 15 minutes to make our appetizers, we were actually finished before our time was up and didn't really run into any obstacles. Even coming up with the idea was pretty easy and fast being that the ingredients fit perfectly for something similar to a pizza. The last thing we did was just sprinkle a little bit of the top with parsley. Eventually, the ending result came out really good even though I felt the bacon didn't really go well with the taste of the rest of the ingredients.

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I liked this lab for the fact that although we were basically making the same food, we all as groups had to attribute our own creativity. My group decided to, in spirit of Valentine's day, make a solid milk-chocolate heart as a topping for the brownie. We made whipped cream (mixed with pink dye) as a glue to sprinkle pink sweethearts onto the heart, which we crushed to bits. This was a part that I felt my group got very unique. The original plan was to melt the middle of the brownie, like a lava cake, to stick the heart into but the heart wouldn't remain upward and started to break. So we ended up topping it with whipped cream and a Hershey kiss, having the heart laying around the brownie, instead. Even though all the brownies looked, and tasted good, presentation-wise I felt the blue lab did the best job. It was neat, looked fancy and delicious all at the same time. Although, I like my foods to look like it has a lot going on (appearance of more flavor), overall blue pulled it off with plating. Taste-wise is a whole different story. The raspberry brownie was my favorite and also a flavor I've never tasted in a brownie. The sauce was a perfect addition to it's flavor and texture, which melted in my mouth.

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My group and I decided to make the Mexican-heritage based dip, called the 7-layer (after missing the chance for the chocolate-chip cookie dough dip). I felt my group worked well together as we individually assigned each other a specific responsibility in making the dip, as well as helping one another out in setting & cleaning up. My favorite part of the dip was the sour cream mixed in with taco seasoning, it was very tangy & had the right amount of seasoning. However, there was a green vegetable that we topped the dip with, along with the olives, which made my eyes water (spicy). Our final product ended up being tasty, having various flavors (seven to be specific) but in my opinion, not the tastiest. My top favorites, being that I can't decide between the two, were the chili cheese and the pizza dip. They both were very savory and had the cheese to top it off, which happens to be a flavor I really enjoy. My least favorite was the spinach artichoke dip, although I like spinach, I've never tried artichoke & probably won't try it again. It had a fishy aftertaste and was kind of nauseating, if that's not too exaggerative. But there's a first time for everything and from this, I now know. Overall, I enjoyed the dips as well as taking part in this cooking lab.

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I did this lab at home using a homemade recipe:

Ingredients: 7 diced cleaned chicken cutlets

Seasoned with garlic powder & parsley

2 cups of extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of chopped garlic

1 cup of sofrito made with peppers, white onions, cilantro & salt

1 diced whole red onion

2 cups of mixed vegetables

The spice that I highlighted while making this chicken (sautéed) was garlic. First I put olive oil in the pan along with the seasoned (with the sofrito and garlic) chopped chicken pieces to sauté. I left the chicken cooking on a low flame for 50 minutes, then I added the red onions, veggies & sazon (from Goya) after the 50 minutes, now it sautees for another 30 minutes on a low flame. The ending product was very good. The chicken was tender and juicy while the garlic gave it a nice touch. It had a savory taste and probably wouldn't have without the garlic.

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For this weeks lab, and given the theme for St. Patrick's Day, my group and I chose to make marshmallow cream-topped cupcakes. We thought it would be a cute and quick recipe that would fit in perfectly with the theme. Except it wasn't so quick being that we made a lot of batter and decided to bake them in small increments. We also had made way too much for our class and had a lot to take with us for the "to-go". We had used cake mix and green food-coloring for the cup-cake, pot melted marshmallows for the top (however, they weren't melting fast enough for the time given and had to microwave the rest) and had Lucky Charms marshmallows to add to the cream, being a perfect attribute to the theme. With all the cupcakes we had made, we didn't make enough of the cream and had a lot of plain green cupcakes left. It was a good thing that we were cleaning throughout the whole process because if not, we definitely would've surpassed the bell. In the end, our final product did come out visually appealing and tasty, too.

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Seasoning and different cooking methods -#6

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Seasoning and different cooking methods -#6

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My group prepared tilapia, a type of fish, and we chose to panfry (sear) and bake it. We seasoned it with the butter had we made from the last lab and used olive oil to cook in the pan. We felt that the flavoring of the butter would be a good combination with the fish and decided to see what the result would taste like. Sampling both the chicken and fish from each group really exceeded my expectations. The meat and flavors from each group were tasty and I felt the breaded (fried) chicken was the best. I liked, whichever spices they used, how it's texture tasted with the bread crumbs. It was nicely cooked and crunchy too! Every groups lab did taste good and I was grateful for it being that I had lunch next, no comparison at all. Overall though I did prefer the frying method. Some were extra cooked (crunchy) on the exterior but very soft on the inside, which I liked.

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My group and I decided to make a butter spread that contained cayenne spice, garlic powder, chives and caraway seeds. At first, we had a lot of different options we could've chose from but of them, those four had the best flavor combination especially when mixed in with the butter. We wanted to make a butter with spices rather than sweets because we felt that was what would suit a butter-topped biscuit. It took a lot of taking out and adding more of certain ingredients but we found we added more cayenne pepper in the end than any, then comes the garlic powder. I felt they were all similar tasting but again, it was all butter. I didn't really like how the butter containing the mint tasted, it wasn't really a good mixture with the butter for me. It was like eating toothpaste. The chocolate spread did surprise me because I wouldn't think it was mostly made of butter, it tasted exactly like frosting. Of all the groups though I think our group tasted the best. Because of the spices in it I could see the spread being used on a broiled sirloin or maybe a salmon. Butter and salmon are my favoriteee. I did enjoy making and tasting all the different spreads with the biscuits but nothing tops Red Lobster's.