Maira Toretti @mairatoretti-blog - Tumblr Blog

Mixer and Its Attachments

According to the Cambridge dictionary, a mixer is a machine in which you mix things together. My goal here is to talk about some items that are now sold together with the mixer and that make it possible to cook and bake various recipes at home that without the mixer would take much more time and physical effort to make.

It seems that the first mixer was created in 1856 and patented in the USA. But these three items began to be sold more recently in 1930, when Kitchenaid developed its K model: "Every KitchenAid mixer since the introduction of the Model" K "has allowed for cross-generational attachment compatibility, meaning that attachments from the 1930s can be used on modern mixers, and vice versa. "

I think the mixer with more utensils allowed people who like to cook at home to develop recipes that previously were only possible in restaurants. I find it very interesting to be able to make bread and cake among other baking goods at home.

In a few words, a paddle is an attachment to use for making cake and cookie dough, a whisk is for items like meringues and whipped cream and the dough hook is for kneading the dough.

And besides these 3 attachments nowadays it is possible to find many others that allow to make pasta, to grind meat so that one can venture into the kitchen more and more.

(www.kitchenaid.ca; https://www.nigella.com/ask/cakes-in-a-free-standing-mixer)

Many people are allergic to gluten or lactose nowadays. I decided to follow this Gluten and Lactose - Free Diet for one week to understand what are the challenges and also because I read in some blogs and magazines that some people feel better and more active without gluten in their diets.

As we learned in class, gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye (sometimes in oats due to cross-contamination) and people intolerant to gluten have what we call as celiac disease. Lactose is a sugar found in milk (dairy products).

I tried this recipe of a cake made with rice flour. The ingredients are in the picture above and the preparation is right here:

Pulse the eggs in the blender with the cinnamon and the vanilla extract for 2 minutes. Add the bananas, sugar, coconut oil, salt and almond milk and pulse until creamy. Pour the contents into a bowl and add the flour gradually. Add the yeast last. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick spray and rice flour and bake in preheated oven at 180ºC for 35 min.

This is a typical menu for 3 days with no gluten and no lactose:

I started this diet last Sunday and I am still doing it (6 days). First challenge: I am having baking classes at school and I couldn’t try the bread I made this week. Someone allergic to gluten probably won’t be able to be in a bakery class like this one, there is flour everywhere. Reading all the labels and menus before deciding what to eat has also been a challenge, sometimes it is necessary to ask the waiter about the ingredients because they are not listed on menus.

I will try to keep this diet for a longer period once I am feeling better, more active and I think I lost a pound, maybe two, what I was willing for. It is easy to find products gluten and lactose-free in the grocery store, but not all products are healthier than the “normal” ones. In my opinion following some rules from a Mediterranean diet, with lots of vegetables, fish, oils and not eating gluten or lactose every day is a good diet to follow and I should try to eat like this in my life.

Since I'm not allergic I do not think it's necessary to cut these ingredients out of my life, but reducing them is a good idea. I can also test new recipes so that allergy sufferers may have more and more options when they visit my future restaurant.

INNISKILLIN is a winery located in the city of Niagara-on-the-lake, very close to the Niagara River. The most famous wine they produce is the ice wine. Their farming method is a monoculture, once they are only interested in produce grapes. The Inniskillin winery is present in Ontario for over 35 years and beyond the Icewine, they also produce table wines crafted by artisanal winemakers. I decided to visit this place because it is easy to arrive there, I went during the intersection week and it was really cold, so most of my pictures are from the interior. Even though I couldn’t see the grapes it was a good experience and during the tour, they explain a lot about the way they make the wines. Inniskillin exports wine to many countries all around the world. Their website has a nice timeline (http://www.inniskillin.com/Niagara/About-Us/Timeline) where we can read all about their history. The founder Donald Ziraldo started planting his first vinifera in 1974 and never stops. In 1991 the winery received the most prestigious award in the wine world at Vin Expo, France and in 2013 the “Drinks International Magazine” listed Inniskillin the Top ten winery in North America (#3). I didn’t try the table wines but I tried the Riesling Icewine and I really enjoyed it. It is sweeter than I am used to, but it is really tasteful and according to their website it’s tropical and citrus aromas and flavors offer an elegance that is defined by its naturally high acidity. To make the Icewine it is necessary the temperatures drop below minus eight degrees Celsius for a sustained period of time, that is why the Canadian winter season is really good and it is forbidden to artificial freezing the grapes. The prices are quite good, they have better prices if you buy their products there, in the winery. If you go to an LCBO to purchase the same wine, it will be a little bit more expensive.

For the meat and game blog I decided to go to a butcher shop called Nosso Talho (www.nossotalho.com.br). Although the place is Portuguese, it is possible to find a lot of Brazilian products there. I chose to cook a cut of beef very common in South America, Picanha. Since I came to Toronto I realized that this cut is divided among other cuts like the round and the loin here. In the picture below you can see how we butcher a beef in Brazil, picanha is number 8.

In English, it can be called cap of rump. A soft, marbled part with a fat cover, it has a pronounced flavor. It is easy to prepare and very juicy. In Brazil we eat picanha for barbecues, which can be roasted whole or on the skewers (like the picture above) or on the grill. It is good for roasts, steaks or panela. It is important to prepare it with the fat so that the flavour and tenderness become more accentuated and can be withdrawn at the time of consumption. I decided to roast my picanha in the oven since the weather is not very good for a barbecue, keep reading to see the result.

I payed $13.18 for 2.2 lb (approximately 1kg) of picanha. It is difficult to find picanha in restaurants in North America, here in Toronto you can find at Copacabana (www.thecopa.ca). It is a “rodizio” restaurant, where you pay a fixed price to taste various selections from the menu. The price is around $50.00.

I also find picanha in a restaurant called “Sabor Brasil”, at St Clair Ave West. Its menu has an option called Grilled Cap of Rump Steak: served with rice, beans, toasted manioc flour, and your choice of a side. The price is $25.00. The picanha I bought would give me 4 steaks: $13.18 / 4 = $ 3.30 per unit add $4.00 for garnishes, which would be $7.30 with a food cost of 35% you would sell the picanha for about $20.85. So, picanha would be a good choice on a menu!

Recipe:

1.2 Kg Picanha 1 Kg Coarse Salt 4 Egg whites 1/2 cup Flour 1/2 bunch Fresh Thyme

Method:

* Preheat the oven 220 °C. * In a bowl add coarse salt, flour and egg white, mix with a spatula. * In a baking tray, place ⅓ of the coarse salt mixture and spread by hand pressing to obtain a thin layer. Arrange the thyme sprigs over the coarse salt. * Place the picanha on the salt layer, with the fat on top. Wrap the whole picanha with the rest of the salt mixture, press with your hands to make it stand firm. * Take the picanha to the oven and lower the temperature to 200°C. * Let it roast for 45 minutes to serve the meat.

This is the final result of my Picanha. I really enjoy doing this blog, because last weekend was carnival in Brazil and sometimes I miss my country!

I choose Cranberries for my preservation blog. I preserved cranberries by making a jelly. Fruits can be preserved indefinitely by killing the living tissue and inactivating its enzymes, making it inhospitable to microbes. Jellies are sugar preserves. I used the usual proportion by weight of added sugar to the fruit which is about 55 to 45, with sugar accounting for nearly two-thirds of the final cooked mixture. I added some lemon juice because of the Pectin. Berries have less pectin than citrus fruits, and pectin is essential to give a good consistency for my jelly.

Recipe

Ingredients:

300 g Cranberries + 367 g Sugar + 1/2 cup of Lemon Juice

Procedure:

Place cranberries in a large saucepan, add sugar and lemon juice and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When it is ready pour immediately into warm sterilized jars and let stand in room temperature until set.

As I told in my last post, I tried fresh cranberries and I didn’t really enjoy them. Definitively, I prefer the jelly instead of the fresh fruit. The jelly is sweet, it is soft and the perfect consistency. I will do this recipe again, my family really enjoyed eating the jelly I made. I can put my jelly in a nice jar and give as a gift for some friends.

It may seem a little bit different, but I am from a tropical country and I have never tried fresh cranberries before, only the dried ones.

Fresh cranberries are very sour. Because I have tried dried cranberries as well as jelly cranberry before, I was expecting something sweet, but they aren’t.

The fresh ones do not have a strong smell, the appearance (sight) is beautiful, they are colourful and the skin is shine. For a fruit, they are a little crunch, so you can hear something when you bite one. When you touch them, they seem hard, but in the middle they are a little more soft and, for a fruit, I thing they are dry.

When I ate them, I remember of Acerola (Barbados cherry), a tropical fruit that is common in my country. Probably because Acerola is sour and has a red skin (but in the middle they are completely different).

This food is a berry, but it is complete different from the others berries I have tried since I came to Canada. Berries are less sour and a little sweet, this one is unique, because it it TO SOUR.

This experience makes me learn that my palate really prefers sweet fruits. Sincerely, I didn't like cranberries. Now I need to cook something with them, I have 340g of cranberries at home, I am thinking about a jelly. I not very interested in eating them fresh again.

This was a challenge experience, I love taste new food and from now on I will observe with more knowledge the tastes, appearances, aromas, textures, etc.. I also realized that it is completely possible to love dried cranberries, enjoy jelly cranberries and rate the fresh ones. It should happen with many other kinds of foods.

Image: https://premier.shutterstock.com

Plant Based versus Animal Based Diets

A plant-based diet is based in plant foods. A variety of fruits and vegetables like beans, legumes, seeds, nuts, and whole grains are included and very few animal products are used. Some people decide not to include any animal products, they are called Vegan.

Lower risks of heart diseases, diabetes and cancer are some health benefits of following a plant-based diet, besides lower body weight and the possibility of replace some medications for health eating. Less environmental impact is also associated to a plant-based diet when compared with a diet including meat and poultry. Some people choose to follow a plant-based diet for religious beliefs or for ethical reasons. There are plenty of documentaries on the internet reporting all the process until the meat or poultry arrives in our kitchens. It’s shocking.

In my opinion every restaurant should have a plant-based option on their menu due to the increase of customers adopting this life style and due to the concern about the environment. So, for sure, in my future culinary profession I see myself incorporating plant-based foods on my menus.

It was really easy finding all the ingredients. I went to a supermarket in front of my house and everything was there. I have tried this kind of food before, in some middle eastern restaurant in my country, but usually the main course is meat or chicken served with “Mujadara rice” or Homus. While researching for this post I realized that the protein from the meat is not necessary in this case, mixing rice and lentil as well as sesame paste and chick peas, is a complete protein for us. Caramelizing the onions were the most challenge part, it was difficult to control the temperature and patience is necessary because it takes some time. After cooking this I learned in my nutrition class the some vinegar added to the onions would accelerate the process of caramelization. Definitely I will cook this recipe again!

Gisslen, W. Professional Cooking for Canadian Chefs. (8th Ed.) Textidium Online Database. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/

I used to eat “Caldo Verde” at my grandmother’s house when I was a kid. After that, my mother used to cook it at least once a week, in my country chouriço sausage and kale are very common.

Thinking about the basic tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami, this soup is salty and a little bitter. The smell was very good, specially while the sausage was baking. I tried to make the appearance pleasant, the texture ideal for a puree soup and served it in a hot temperature.

After cooking for my blog I served this “Caldo Verde” for dinner. My husband said that it was very tasteful and very similar to the one my mother’s does. The ingredients here in Toronto are a bit different, he prefers the kale here and the sausage from Brazil (me too).

Finding the ingredients was one of my challenges. Potatoes and kale are easy to find, but I bought a smoked and fully cooked pork sausage, because I couldn’t find the same sausages I used to eat in my country here. Even though I really enjoyed my puree soup, it was very tasteful and I will definitely cook it again.

With this experience I learned that no matter where you are, you always can try to cook your favourite food. Sometimes the ingredients are not exactly the same, and you feel afraid to try, but the results can surprise you. So, I will not be afraid in my future culinary endeavours!

Gisslen, W. Professional Cooking for Canadian Chefs. (8th Ed.) Textidium Online Database.

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/sheet.aspx?siteId=19§ionId=83&contentId=308

I realized that I want to be a Chef when I finally accepted that I think about food 100% of time. Also, I am a very active person and this energy is indispensable at the kitchen.

I am not working at the Food Industry yet. I am from Brazil, where I graduated in marketing, in 2010. After that I worked in a bank for 7 years. I wasn’t happy enough, so I decided to change and follow my passions.

My personal philosophy of cooking is about having fun and enjoy what I am cooking and make people happy while eating, of course. I am better with bakery and pastry, but I am very interested in health food as well. I think people should try to eat as healthy as possible, but it is also important to have pleasure and experiment, even when it is not the best ingredient for your health. I am willing to learn a lot and improve my abilities during those two year course.

With this Blogging experience I hope I will improve my writing skills, my culinary skills (while cooking the recipes and preparing pictures for my blog) and also my creativity. Furthermore, with the questions I need to answer for my blog, I will probably feel much more confident about the way I would like to follow in the food industry. For example, I have never though about my personal philosophy of cooking, and today I realized that I have one.

I found this great culinary blog: https://www.justataste.com. There are some reasons I liked this blog, the first one is the quality of the pictures. The images are awesome, and the author is very professional about them, I feel like I want to taste that food. The second reason is the way she writes. The recipes are easy to understand, but I am talking also about what she writes before the recipes. She is creative and keeps my attention, also she explains some reasons why the recipes follow some rules, for example: she prefers brown sugar because it makes the dough super soft. I think it is important to know what the difference between using one ingredient instead of other, and most of the time she explains that. Also the site is very easy to navigate and she posts in different social networks, like Instagram and Facebook, making it easy to stay aware of the site updates.

#gbcchca

I’ve just arrived in Toronto, still looking for nice and student affordable restaurants to visit. I’m from Brazil.

As I said, I think about food all the time. What’s for breakfast? How can I eat something health for lunch if I won’t have time to cook today? What’s better in the middle of the afternoon a cereal bar or a fruit?

I am very interested in health food and how can I combine the ingredients to take advantage of the nutrients that they can offer.

I would like to learn more about a Plant Based Diet and the proper way to have all the proteins a person need, without the animal source. I still eat meet, but when I think about the industry and how the animals are treated and all the problems that it causes to the environment, I tend to change my mind about eating animals.

In 5 years I see myself working as a Chef in one of the amazings restaurants here in downtown Toronto. I tend to be a Pastry Chef, I am passionate about desserts. Even tough, I am very interested in health food. Maybe I will discover a perfect way of combine pastry and health ingredients during my two years course at George Brown College, don’t you think it’s a brilliant idea?

Nutrition importance has increased, and in the future, it will be more and more fundamental in the culinary industry. Most people have already realized the importance of eating well, the benefits that it can bring for you and also the diseases that you can avoid by eating properly. Media influence, government actions and even laws will make nutrition paramount in the food industry.

I choose the site Dietitians of Canada and compared with http://www.skinnytaste.com to compare the ways to determine the credibility of a website.

The first one always shows the resource, the name and qualifications of the author. The information is based on scientific evidences and there are experiments to prove and support the data.

The second one is about a photographer who likes cooking, and decided to make a blog with recipes and information about eating health. In the ‘ABOUT ME’ page of the website (http://www.skinnytaste.com/about/) she says that she teamed up with some nutritionist to help her ask some question, but that’s all, no more resource information. Also some posts are sponsored, which makes it even more difficult to know if the blog author really believe in that product, or if she is only receiving money to say that.

Image: https://premier.shutterstock.com

#gbcchca

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