Convenience Food

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Last night, I sent myself a text with the following:

Argh! There's a gal at my work whose making a simple recipe but going with all premade stuff. Cause it's easier, "it has chicken in it, that's healthy" (canned, RIGHT)

I get so frustrated with people.  They either do not cook at all or they take short cuts.  Short cuts in and of themselves can be good.  But be careful taking short cuts are they worth the trade offs, are they stuffed with sodium, fillers, and/or unhealthy fats?


Anymore, I am becoming more mindful of these things.  Especially when it comes to "Light", "Healthy", etc...  When fats are removed, something else has to be added to make something "tasty"...  Just what is added! Salt and other things that we do not need extra of.


The day before this I found a grocery list floating along the ground with the following: Bread, Meat, & Milk.  Why is it we are trying to simplify what we cook and consume?  We either simplify with buying convenience foods filled with God knows what or we just do "bread, meat, and eggs."   Why do we do this?  Excuse readily heard is: : "It takes to much time to cook" or "cooking is so hard."


Come on: Yes it does take time to cook good and healthy food but not really as long as you think and with anything you spend time on, it can be hard.  But just like a person preparing to run a race or play a game in a sporting event.  Practice, practice, practice....


You say, "how do I practice for cooking?"  Work on preparing vegetables and fruits for other recipes and in making quick convenience food grab bags to use instead of grabbing a bag of chips.
Unless you are cooking for more than 4-6 people, it does not take as long as one thinks to cook a simple and healthy meal from scratch.


Steps in preparing a meal:

1. Plan meal/menu...
2. Gather ingredients (this may entail your weekly shopping)
3. Gather tools needed.
4. Dice/Cut and/or clean any vegetables or fruits needed.
5. Prepare food.
6. Serve

Those simple six steps could take as short a time as 20 minutes and as longs as an hour or a little over, depending on what it is you are fixing.

Think about it, how does a restaurant serve you in 10-20 minutes?  It is all in the preparation!  They have their menu, shop/order the needed ingredients, have the tools available, prepare all ingredients (for quick assembly), prepare the assembled ingredients - cooking as called for and serve to you steaming hot on your table.
Okay, you say, they do a lot of the prep work way before I order my meal.  Yes but they are preparing for 100's of dishes and you are preparing for 2-6 meals/people.  Rarely, will you cooking something that will take hours of cooking, especially when it is just for a mid-week evening meal with no guest.

Remember we said a simple meal!  Please quit thing in terms of simple as canned, boxed, or fast food drive thru!

Scandinavian Cuisine

Harrison Graden

Global Cuisine M/T

Chef Elkin

In all I read it seems Scandinavian Cuisine is in common that it has a commonality of primarily being smoked, dried, or pickled with a lot of it coming from the water, hunted, or grown in the ground and preserved or canned.

Scandinavian food is at its best in simplicity, with breakfast not seen as important and lunch being seen as a little more so, with dinner being the primary meal of the day and always served hot.  In the Scandinavian Peninsula they take tea as in England around 2-3pm with bread, biscuits, cookies, pastries, and coffee.  The primary beverages of the Scandinavian area are beer, snap (a strong alcoholic drink), or dry sherry.

The cuisines of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are held somewhat in common due to the common leadership of Queen of 1389 who ruled over all three countries at the same time.  While this is no longer the case, this influences their cuisine.  That and their pride in ancestry of the Vikings, who were fond of oysters and mussels, along with mutton, cheese, cabbage, apples, onions, berries and nuts, and all these continue to be staples of the Scandinavian diet. 

While Scandinavian Cuisine may be considered bland by some, it was what was needed to survive the long, hard, dark winters.  It has been called salty with the curing and smoking of the meats.  Modern day chefs have taken creative measures to improve the taste and texture of the traditional foods.  One common tradition is the special or holiday meals which are enjoyed by all, young and old.  With the simplicity of the foods, it is important to present foods in an attractive manner.

Simplicity by nature and necessity.

MORBRAD MED SVEDSKLER OG AEBLER (Denmark)

Pork Loin Stuffed with Prunes and Apples

Yield: 5 servings

Serving Size: 6 oz

Cooking Method: Bake

INGREDIENTS:

            2 ½ lb              Pork loin, center cut, boned, fat trimmed

            3 oz                 Prunes, pitted

            4 oz                 Apple, tart, peeled, cored, diced into 1-inch cubes

            As needed       Lemon juice

            1 tblsp             Butter

            1 tblsp             Oil

            3 oz                 Dry white wine

            3 oz                 Heavy cream

            1 oz                 Red currant jelly

            To taste           Salt

            To taste           Black pepper, ground

           

METHOD:

1. Place prunes in saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil.  Remove from heat, let prunes soak in water for 30 minutes.  Drain well, cut prunes in half.
2. Sprinkle apple with a little lemon juice to prevent discoloring, mix apples with prunes.
3. With knife, make opening about ½- to 1- inch in diameter through center of pork.  Either make whole opening with knife or start with knife and then use sharpening steel to push through meat to form cavity.  Be careful not to break through meat.
4. Stuff fruits tightly into cavity.  If meat must be held together, tie pork with string at 1- inch intervals to keep shape while cooking.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Melt butter and oil over moderate heat in pan just large enough to hold pork.  Sauté pork until brown on all sides.  Remove pork until brown on all sides.  Remove pork from pan.
7. Remove fat from pan.  Deglaze with wine, then whisk in heavy cream, bring to simmer, then add pork.
8. Cover pan, cook in center of the oven for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, until meat is correct internal temperature with meat thermometer.