My Culinary Journey
by
Gabriel Blake
(age 15)
Hello fellow reader, my name is Gabriel, and from a very young age, before I can remember, I have always been able to cook. I could make a bowl of cereal along with toast, microwaved eggs, coffee, and a simple sandwich. I learned my very first real meal when I was eight, that meal is tacos
Tacos
The Ingredients
Two teaspoons of cumin
One tablespoon of paprika
One tablespoon of chili powder
One tablespoon of dried oregano (if you wanted to use fresh you would need to adjust accordingly
As much red pepper flakes as you desire
One chopped onion
One chopped jalapeno
One can of black beans
One can of corn
Two spoons of minced garlic
Two pounds of ground meat.
On the side/Toppings
Two cups of rice
Tomato
Pickles
Cilantro
Cheese
Avocado
Lettuce
Salsa
To cook, put in your minced garlic and chopped onions into a pan and saute until the onions are cooked. You will then proceed to add the ground meat and jalapenos.
Once the ground meat is almost done add the can of black beans and corn.
I would suggest you serve this meal on a plate or bowl.
I first started to make tacos in 2017, and this meal set me on a path that would greatly alter the way I eat food.
In 2018 our family built a small fire pizza oven in our backyard. The cooking area was no larger than a foot and a half wide. After enjoying the fire baked pizza I just knew I needed to learn how to make pizza dough, because I was nine, and pizza once a week just wasn’t going to cut it.
Bread Dough
One and a half cups of lukewarm water,
Four to five cups flour,
One tablespoon of yeast,
One or two tablespoons of olive or avocado oil
And as much salt as you want.
Whisk the yeast and lukewarm water, then let sit for five to ten minutes.
Add the salt to the water mixture then gently stir until the salt is evenly incorporated into the mixture. Dump in the flour and knead for about ten minutes or until the dough is soft to the touch. Gently rub the dough with oil, then transfer the dough to a container and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for about an hour before baking.
This recipe makes two sixteen inch pizzas or one loaf of bread.
A couple years later ,in 2022, when I was thirteen, my cooking career really started to take off because I decided to make dinner five days a week. I won’t lie. At first we ate tacos every week until I decided to buy a couple of cookbooks and I really liked this one Asian cookbook in particular “101 Asian Dishes You Need to Try Before You Die” by Jet Tila. My favorite meal from the book is “Drunken Noodles.”
Drunken Noodles
Three tablespoons of oil
2-3 garlic cloves minced
2 eggs
2-4 jalapeno peppers chopped
As much shrimp as you like
Half an onion chopped
Egg noodles
Half a cup of grape tomatoes, halved
One cup of basil
Sauce
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 and a half tablespoons of fish oil
1 teaspoon sugar
6-8 basil leaves finely chopped
For making this meal I would recommend a wok, for two reasons, A, it is the authentic cookware in asian culture, B, in my opinion the wok is the most versatile pot or pan.
Start by boiling your pasta water. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta. Then on a separate burner preheat your wok on the stove with the oil on high heat until you see a wisp of smoke or you get impatient. Side note. From my experience some types of oil don’t smoke until they are very very hot so you might just need to guess. Next add your onion, jalapenos, and garlic. Saute until the onion is almost cooked. Once the onion is almost cooked lower to medium heat then add the egg and shrimp. Remember to stir frequently and make sure to flip the shrimp over so that you cook both sides.
Once the shrimp is cooked and the basil, pasta, and the sauce. Change to low heat, mix everything well and let sit with a lid for a minute before serving.
My cooking skills continue to increase and I am actively looking for new recipes to add to my collection.
I started where I was comfortable and got a Mexican cuisine cookbook. I made two meals a week from that book every week faithfully for a month. After that I was hungry for more. Over the next couple of months and years I accumulated several cookbooks of different cultures or styles, Asian, Italian, Harry Potter, crock-pot meals, and a book solely on bread.
Now I have my eye set on another culture, Mediterranean. I now would say I have a fairly large “vocabulary” of meals and each culture seems to find a way to seep into the meals I make every day. I can only hope that my desire for exploration in the world of food never dies, and that my library of meals grows ever larger.
To be continued . . .
