Hello blogging world, this week I will be exploring food memories. I have been inspired by our work in class with food memoir and Diamond grill to pay tribute to Diamond Grill and Fred Wah by sharing a few recipes from my life that would fit into my food memoir.
Pro-D Day Sushi with Grandma
Between the grades of one and five every professional day we had at school both my brother and I would spend it cooking with my grandma. The lunch of choice for that day was always homemade sushi. Which begins with a trip to the Japanese market to get nori, fake crab and Japanese mayo. Then it was time to make the sushi. First take three cups of rice and run it under cold water to remove the starch (grandma’s special trick) then from there you place the rice in a pot and just barely cover it with water. While the rice is cooking you have time to assemble every thing else. First the rice seasoning: one half cup of rice wine vinegar, two tablespoons of sugar and two teaspoons of salt. Next comes the filling: first thinly cut cucumber, the cut long segments of avocado and finally unpackaged the crab. By this time the rice should be done and you must immediately add vinegar solution for maxim flavour. Once you can handle the rice it is time to assemble using saran wrap and an old sushi wrapping pad. No roll was ever the same in our kitchen. Mine typically had less vegetables. However, it was always the best sushi we had ever had.
Pasta Carbonara Dad’s Way
This was my dad stable dish, he always called it “the tastiest weeknight meal I can make.” First he would start by putting the pasta water on to boil he always remind me when I get older that I have to salt my pasta water. While the water starts to boil he would put me to work, while he cuts the bacon up and place it in the large pan to crisp, I had the challenge of separating three yolks from their whites. To me this was quite the challenge manage to get no shells in the bowl and not break any of the yolks. Sometimes it took four to five eggs to get the desired three yolks. By the time I was done getting the yolks ready it was time to put in the pasta. Always spaghetti the best pasta for carbonara. By now the whole kitchen smelt of bacon and it was amazing. Now while the pasta cooks we create the sauce which is where the yolks come back in. mixing the yolks with lots of parmesan cheese and black pepper with a little sauce. Now the pasta is down and it is time to finish the dish. My dad grabs the big pasta bowl and put all the pasta in, then the bacon and he secret trick is to add just a little bit of the bacon left of bacon fat for flavour of course. Next the yolk mixture which must be mixed in quickly as you don’t want scrambled egg pasta. After a few quick tosses, a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil and more pepper and cheese it ready. Cooking this meal is one of my favourite memories I have with my dad.
