5 Cool Cooking Techniques to Learn (Taught by Gordon Ramsay)

As for me culinary school was not an option, as it can be very expensive. It is an interesting way to learn the tricks of the trade on cooking professionally. Many famous chefs have graduated from culinary schools across the world, but many have also not. Many people think that the only way to learn to cook is to go to culinary school or take classes. The answer to that is no. With YouTube being a viable option I have learned some recipes and techniques from just simply watching videos. YouTube is a wonderful resource on finding ways to cook and execute certain dishes. This video in particular is very helpful because it hits different aspects your will experience while cooking at home. Explained by Gordon Ramsay. The chef of many restaurants around the world and profanity superstar shows the audience how to cook rice perfectly, dice an onion, and other actions that could be tricky while dealing with food and ingredients.

The video  is under 10 minutes long and can provide some insight. Take a look, learn, and go into your kitchen and try these techniques out. Even though they won't be perfect the first time, the more you practice the better. Both YouTube and Google are tools one can use to improve their skills in all ways of the kitchen.

Post Spring Break Concoction

Spring Break just passed and we are hoping everyone had the best Spring Break they could possibly have. For our house, five of us went to Cabo San Lucas for Spring Break to endure some beach relief from our high tides of school work and projects. In Mexico we enjoyed traditional street tacos at Taco Gus, and delicious steak and shrimp at Maro's. Spring Break flew by fast as usual, so when we arrived back home at about 7:30, we were glad to be out of the plane, but more importantly we were hungry. We get home and look into the fridge. Little did we know we cleaned out our fridge before Spring Break, so what did we do, you ask. The intuitive college students we are, we improvised. We looked at what we had and we worked with it. This recipe is a little different just because we worked with what we had. In esscence we pumped out a communal pasta meal that was able to do the trick and feed about four people.

Scavenged Items:
2 packages Spaghetti
1 large jar of crushed tomatoes
1/2 jar of pasta sauce
1 jar Kalamatta olives
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
2 cloves of garlic

Step 1: Bring your water to a rolling boil, add salt pepper, and olive oil to the water and insert your pasta.

Step 2: Chop your garlic, once the pasta is halfway done cooking get started on your sauce. Get a pan and pour in some olive oil and the jar of crushed tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and add the garlic. Cut the kalamatta olives in half and throw into the tomatoes. After that pour in your pasta sauce. Reduce the heat and let simmer.

Step 3: Strain your pasta and throw your noodles back in the pot. Make sure to keep some pasta water. 

Step 4: Mix the sauce and the pasta together. Serve & eat. (If you happen to have some basil or terragon garnish with that or just add to the dish).

Even though it was simple it was a fun way to feed ourselves after a long day of travelling and dealing with customs.

Assab Eritrean Cuisine

Assab Eritrean Cuisine

Assab Eritrean Cuisine is a quaint restaruant located on the corner of Geary & Collins in the Inner Richmond. This restaurant's exterior stands out due to the large sign portraying the African continent and the green awning outside their restaurant. The proximity from USF is very close, and the prices are not that bad. The food, the atmosphere, and the service all relate back to the idea of giving the customer some love. The owners of the place are a married couple. Matheos Yohannes is one of the owners and is a very down to Earth man. He immigrated from Eritrea with his wife in order to escape the war torn African country. The food is traditional and delicious. The menu is quite large, and supplies delicious beef, chicken, and lamb dishes, but there are just as many vegetarian options. I highly recomend taking a visit because this place offers quality homemade, TRADITIONAL Eritrean food. This power couple has been serving up the food from their homeland for years and years. With the amount of gentrification and loss of mom and pop restaurants like this one, it is important that we cherish and support these establishments that are serving up proper African food, with fat portions for a reliable price.

*I recomend getting the meat sambusa and the beef kelwa*

The website of the restaurant has the full menu and the awards Assab has earned over the years.

Green Chile Kitchen

Green Chile Kitchen

Located at 1801 McAlister Street, Green Chile Kitchen is only a few blocks away from USF and serves great New Mexican dishes with their signature chili and peppers.  According to their website, they opened up in 2006 and have a few locations.  The owners of Green Chile Kitchen also own Chile Pie which has a location on McAlister as well.  I have been going to Green Chile Kitchen since freshman year and it’s a great place for students to just walk to from campus and just get a casual affordable meal that’s great for lunch or dinner.  The lunch prices at Green Chile Kitchen are obviously a little cheaper than the dinner prices and I recommend this place for either time.  On a college students budget, the lunch prices might be a better option.  But if you want to bring your girlfriend or boyfriend on a nice dinner date, this restaurant has the kind of atmosphere and food that is great for that as well.  My favorite thing to get when I go to Green Chile Kitchen would definitely have to be their roasted chicken.  You can order a quarter or a half chicken if you want and the dish also comes with tortilla so I love making little tacos as well.  Rice and black beans usually come with most dishes.  The black beans are a must at Green Chile Kitchen, definitely one of the favorites for a lot of the customers who frequent here.  This restaurant also offers many healthy options such as their grains and greens salad and ta few vegan options.  With many healthy and affordable options, and only being a few blocks away from USF, this is a great option for USF students who want to maybe take a break from cafeteria food and get off campus. 

About Jank But Dank & Submissions

Jank But Dank was started as a class project, but we plan to expand it even more branching to college students around the world in regards to food, and cooking in specifics. Today, only about 50% of the population of the United States regularly cooks at home. We are sure that a fat percentage of that is due to college students who dont have the time, knowledge, or resources to cook a hearty, yet healthy meal at home. To those college students there is always some time we have to spend in the kitchen. Even if it is less than half an hour, the feeling of being in the kitchen can help ease your mind from the stresses of the school day. As for the lack of knowledge, cooking is about trial and error. If you make a mistake, it could end up being a masterpiece. Now for the resources. We can directly connect with you guys on that. We live in a house with four other guys. Six college guys in an 800 square feet house, you can bet that our kitchen does NOT compare to that of Acquerello (one of many Michelin starred restaruants in San Francisco). In fact our kitchen is usually dirty, cluttered, and the appliances are older than the people who live there. Our goal is to create delicious, healthy meals in the classic college student house kitchen. The website focuses on cooking at home, concoctions made by college students for late night snacking, or meals throughout the day. We like food ALOT here so we open the website for discussion, questions, recipes, funny experiences in kitchens. Although we emphasize on cooking at home mainly, conversations about restaurants that are worth a visit is also encourgaed on the page. We take submissions for the site through the email below. A survival guide for eating college style is coming soon also, so stay posted for more information. Food is a need for all humans, but it is also a great catalyzer for conversation. 

Submissions: JankbutDank@gmail.com

About the Authors

Quinlan Berger 

I am a junior and, originally from New Jersey.  I have always been a very pick eater throughout my whole life.  I have never really been able to understand why because my mom who is originally from Southern California would always cook Mexican food and all different types of dishes while I was growing up.  But I would always be the one in the family eating fries or some other “basic” food while the rest of the family members were feasting on healthy vegetables and maybe pork.  My parents at first really tried to get me to branch out and try new foods but eventually I think they in a way gave up because I was always so stubborn about it.  My dads interest in Cajun food however after a business trip to New Orleans peaked my curiosity and for the first time I really wanted to branch out and try something new.  After trying alligator for the first time, I realized that I had to be a little more open in the foods that I try.  I never would have thought that I would enjoy alligator which I still eat quite frequently to this day.  This was when I was a junior in high school I believe and ever since that I have definitely been a lot more willing to be more adventurous with the food I try.  But this also helped me change my diet because I was willing to try healthier foods as well which I should have been eating all along.  I hardly ate spinach or salad to be quite honest but after eating the alligator, I knew I had to branch out for the sake of my health.  To this day, I still consider myself a picky eater but a rather more adventurous picky eater than before.  I thought it would be great to create a project which offers recipes for fast meals that a college student like me can prepare even with our busy schedules.  Eventually it would be great if our project could possibly be turned in a cooking book that would pretty much be a freshman food survival guide to college.  I wish my parents had given me a little book about what meals to prepare especially on a college students budget, it would have been a life safer. 

Kevin Dehbozorgi 

I am originally from Yorba Linda, California, and a junior Media Studies (focus in journalism) major at the University of San Francisco. Throughout my life food has been incorporated into my mind by several factors. My cultural background, my dad, and my personal interests all drove my passion for food. I come from a Persian family and meals are a huge part of Persian traditions. At least once a week my family would get together and enjoy a meal with several classic Persian dishes. There is a Persian saying that says, "The best Persian food will be found in the home". I couldn't agree more with that phrase. Delicious meals surrounded by people you love and care about, it cannot get better than that. My dad's impact on my life gastronomically started when I was a baby. My father grew up on an orchard and farm in Shiraz, Iran through his adolesence. He experienced fresh, sustainable ingredients, right in his vast backyard. By living on this farm he was able to learn to appreciate the value of plants and animals. Through this process of seeing how his food gets to his plate he understands the true quality and respect people need for their food. By experiencing this himself, he taught me the beauty that nature can offer us in order to keep our stomachs and bodies satisfied. A couple of my first memories tasting different foods has been with my dad. I tried my first strawberry and fig with my father, and both were interesting memories for my palatte. As I grew older I helped my dad cook and bake different things ranging from flatbread to steaks over an open flame. Along with cooking with my dad, during these times I was lost on what I wanted to do career wise. (Much) Later I realized that I wanted to talk about food as a career. Two people that have become my idols, and I hope to one day follow in their footsteps are Francis Mallmann and Anthony Bourdain. Cooking food is the one entity that truly differentiates us from animals. We are able to change the compounds and taste of certain foods by cooking. In order to survive we have been cooking for the past 1.9 million years. This is food's job, not only to sustain our lives physically, but to create an aura of emotion and connection with one another. 

International Dish #1: Hong Kong Style Tomato Macaroni Soup

 Ingredients:

1-Cup Elbow Pasta

3 Cups Chicken Broth

Soy Sauce

1 Can of Tomato Soup

1 Egg

Can of Spam

Salt

Pepper

Butter

“ A little history and insight to this dish dates back to World War II. While U.S. troops were fighting the Japanese in Hong Kong, often times the Hong Kongese were given food rations or had to struggle to find food. This dish is famous for putting these random ingredients together to form something delicious. Though this seems absurd, this dish is great after a night of drinking too many beverages because it’s so simple and easy to make!”

Step 1: Add the tomato soup and chicken broth to a pot, and add in the elbow noodles.

Step 2: Add a splash of soy sauce and taste. (Always taste as you cook).

Step 3: Cut pieces of spam into bit size cubes and place in the hot broth.

Step 4: Get a pan and 1 teaspoon of butter. Place egg in the pan and fry. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 5: Pour soup into bowl and place egg on top.

Step 6: Eat.

Sounds like an interesting combination, but it sure is really soothing and comforting. 

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2013/06/food-dining-hong-kong-all-day-breakfast.html

Date Steak Dinner with broccolini, mushrooms, and baked potatoes. (Recipe proportions are for 1, if cooking for 2, add 2x the ingredients)

Ingredients:

1 Piece of New York Strip Steak (cuts can vary, based on pricing and taste)

1 Shallot

3 Stalks of Broccolini

7 White Mushrooms

4 Small Yellow Potatoes

1 Head of Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Sprigs of Thyme

Sprigs of Rosemary

½ Lemon

1 Stick of Butter (DON’T WORRY YOU WONT USE THE WHOLE THING)

Before cooking leave steak out of fridge for 20 min

Step 1: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Cut the head of garlic in half. Set one half aside, and chop the other.

Step 2: Cut the white mushrooms in halves. And slice the shallot.

Step 3: Place your potatoes in a bowl and dress them with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary leaves. Roll your potatoes and mix up all the flavors.

Step 4: Once oven is preheated put your potatoes on an oven tray and drizzle with olive oil. Insert into oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Step 5: Place your broccolini on an oven tray and season with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. The broccolini cooks relatively fast so do not put in oven too early, insert at about 5-7 minutes remaining on for the potatoes

Step 6: Heat up a pan with some olive oil. Once smoking add the mushrooms and shallots. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic. Apply high heat to take out all the water that is absorbed by the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have a brown tint to them, turn the heat to medium and add 1 teaspoon of butter and let the mushrooms take in the buttery goodness.

Step 7: Get a pan for your steak and add olive oil. Wait till the pan is smoking to put your steak in. Season your steak with salt and pepper, and lay away from you in the pan. When the steak hits the pan lower the heat just a tad and shake the pan to avoid the steak from sticking. Flip the steak over every minute or two to evenly cook the steak. Remember that half head of garlic? If so, rub the steak so it becomes full of garlic, and once the steak is almost ready get about 2 teaspoons of butter, a cluster of rosemary and thyme sprigs, and throw it into the pan.

Step 8: With some tongs or fork, tilt your pan and put the fat side of the steak into the butter and rosemary and thyme, this technique is called rendering. This will make your steak a lot tastier. Depending on how you like your steak cooked the times will vary, but here is a chart that will help you:

Thickness	Doneness	First Side	Second Side
¾”	Rare Medium Well	4 min 5 min 7 min	2 min 3 min 5 min
1”	Rare Medium Well	5 min 6 min 8 min	3 min 4 min 6 min
1 ¼”	Rare Medium Well	5 min 7 min 9 min	4 min 5 min 7 min
1 ½”	Rare Medium Well	6 min 7 min 10 min	4 min 6 min 8 min
1 ¾”	Rare Medium Well	7 min 8 min 11 min	5 min 7 min 9 min

Step 9: Once your steak is done cooking take off heat and let rest. Slice thinly.

Step 10: Place your broccolini on the plate, with your mushrooms and potatoes. Put your steak slices on top of the broccolini.

Step 11: Eat.