Knives

Paring knife- is a thin bladed-knife intended for coring and paring (peeling) fruit such as apples as well as slicing small ingredient it is majorly used for detailed and controlled cutting.

Chefs knife - the chef's knife also known as the cook's knife is used to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. 

Turning knife- turning knife is a curved blade that makes for easy turning of vegetables that is cutting into barrel shapes. 

Boning knife - it is a type of knife with a sharp point and a narrow blade. It is used in food preparation for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish.

Carving knife - it is a knife with a long blade used for carving cooked meat into slices

Filleting knife - it is a kitchen knife used for filleting. It is a knife consisting of a thin flexible blade.

Bread knife - bread knife is generally has a sharp edge that has saw-like notches or teeth which is referred to as a serrated edge. The serrated edge of the knife is very useful to those foods that are hard on the outside and soft on the inside like the hard crusts of the bread.

Importance of having different cutting boards

When it comes to board area there is a different color for each food type.
Green board: is for fruit and vegetables

Red board: is for raw meats
Yellow board: is for raw poultry
Whiteboard: is for a dairy product like cheese, flour, butter, and others.
These different types of cutting boards for each food that uses every food preparation, we are avoiding food contamination by using different boards. If we used one cutting board for every food types we get food contamination by getting food juices(from meat and chicken) to other foods that lead to food contamination.
As we are put into a group of four for our practical cooking we set up our station by first whipping the table with a clean cloth and an anti-bacterial spray, then set up the cutting boards needed for each ingredient and get the proper knives like on what we did for the cutting boards. Getting the proper knives is about getting the same color as the cutting board eg, red cutting board with a red knife(for raw meats).

Sharpening of Knives
There are two processes of sharpening knives the grinding and honing. Grinding is simply the removal of metal, and honing is a precision abrasion process in which a relatively small amount of material is removed from the surface by the means of abrasive stones. We sharpen our knives with steel to align the edge of the knife. Maintaining our knives sharp because keeping a sharp edge on the blade is important for our own safety.

The importance of knife storage

Storing of Knives
In our work area, we stored our knives in a cabin with a magnet strip on the cabin for the knives to stick. With our storage of knives, we are ensuring that we are preventing the knives from getting blunt. Because by just washing knives with detergent the sharp edge is being taken off due to the
detergent, that's why in our work area we used hands with soap and water in the sink to wash the knives then drying the knife with a towel to prevent getting irons in the knife if we store it wet then stick on the magnet.

Cleanliness of Knives
Keeping our knives clean to prevent contamination, as soon as we have done using the knives. If we just leave the knives on the cutting board or in the sink after we used it might create injuries to others accidentally and will get contaminated.
Tips for cleaning knives:
Other knives are not safe in the dishwasher in order to retain their precise edge. Just ensure that the knives are sanitized thoroughly to maintain its durability.

One example of usage of a knife
Because we have different colors of knives in our workplace. The green knife is for vegetables, the knife is for raw meats, yellow is for raw poultry, red is for raw meats and black is for cooked foods that needed to slice like fish.

As for my example of usage of a knife, we cooked stir fry prawn with vegetables. One of the best knives to use for cutting vegetables is a bread knife/serrated knife they are a knife with a scalloped edge which gives a smooth clean slice.
For the vegetables that we used we need to look for good quality of foods.
The carrot needs to be firm with a bright orange color and smooth skin. Avoid carrots if they are limp or black near tops.
Looking for broccoli with a bright green head, choose broccoli with a firm, strong stems, and stalks. Avoid getting broccoli with yellow flowers
And for the prawns, they should be moist, medium-firm flesh and a rich flavor. Its tails end need to be bright blue when it's raw.

Looking at this photo the cut the I did for the carrot is julienne cut, this type of cut is used because it allows the vegetable to cook rapidly and evenly, and blend well into a mix of other ingredients as well with the sauce.
The knife that can be used to cut the vegetables is turning knife and paring knife because of the turning knife is designed for trimming and peeling vegetables, as well as the paring knife, it is designed to slice small ingredients to a majority and controls cutting.

This food can be accompanied by fried rice/steamed rice. It combines with a teriyaki which stands as it's garnished that adds a new flavor to the dish.

Poaching

Poaching

Poaching is a method used in cooking which food is placed in liquid, it is a cooking technique that involves cooking by submerging food in liquid like water, wine, stock or in a tray. The ideal temperature of the water for poaching is around 160-185°F(71-85°C), foods that usually used in poaching are fruits, fish, egg, and white meat chicken. 

Eggs Benedict

When it comes to cooking we usually look for fresh and have a good quality of foods before cooking. Looking for the best quality of the egg, its should be well-shape, and the shell shouldn't have cracks. When you want to ensure that you have a good egg the best way to check it is to put it in cold water, if it sinks then the egg is fresh, but when it floats the egg is maybe up to a week old. 

There are 3 methods to do to have a perfect poached egg.

The first one to put the egg in the bowl then drop it in the water and wait for 3 minutes till done. The second one is the glad wrap wherein you will put the egg in a glad wrap with oil around it and lock it without too much air inside to cook it properly, then wait for more than 1 minute to cook. The last one is when you will swirl the water then tip the egg to have a perfect circle of the egg.

As for our Egg benedict, we picked 4 eggs (2 eggs per person) then my partner rinses it to ensure that it is free from chickens feather to prevent contamination in case we drop some eggshell while we are trying to beat the egg.

This method was the one that we used when we poached our eggs. My partner did the glad wrap method, while I did the normal one to put the egg in the bowl then tip it. As my partner did the glad wrap she tied it with air inside the egg which causes the egg to float inside the pot that result of cooking the egg white too much while the yolk is not being cooked. We know that the poached egg is already cooked for 3 minutes which is really soft.

This picture is the result of our practical last Wednesday. We dress it with sauce on the side because people might don't like presenting it with the sauce is already on top.  Hollandaise sauce is what we use which is the common sauce for egg benedict.







Vanilla poached pears

After the egg benedict, we made the poached pear with the taste of vanilla.
As for this practice, we get (1 pear per person), carefully holding the pear to not break its stem for the presentation. 
We peel our pears and squished some lemon juice for it not to turn brown while being peeled. We've looked around our pears and check if there are blemishes, and bruises to remove for a good presentation. 
Vanilla bean is one of the other ingredients that we used which we put in the water when boiling with sugar stir it until it dissolves and turns the water into syrup. 

For this picture, we've already done adding the pear which then made us do the next step of adding a baking paper on top of the saucepan for 15-20 minutes till the pear is done. We know that the pear is cooked if we check it with a pointed knife. If the knife slips through the pear easily and feels its softness then the pear is already cooked, but when the knife touches the pear and it's steel hard then the pear needs to be cooked for another 5 minutes. In this process, we would know if the pear is cooked or uncooked.

Presenting our product with little sauce of vanilla around it, with the touch of the vanilla bean. As for this picture, their are some small blemishes around the pear which I think I missed while removing other blemishes. This pear has little vanilla water around the bottom of the pear,  which stands as it's sauce to taste it with vanilla flavor. 

Thai pollock Curry with egg noodles

This menu that we made yesterday is a dish that contains the shallow style of poaching of fish wherein we add the pollock to the sauce after we simmer it down, and let the fish combined with the sauce to have preserved moisture and adds the flavor without adding fats. 

For our recipe that is in the picture, we halved the ingredients due to the servings will be for more than two people. In my group theirs only two of us that's why we half the ingredients to get the right amount of servings we need just for two. As we get all the ingredients looking at the quality of the food needed.
For the quality of the fish for poaching, the skin needs to be shinny and if it's not that shiny then it is stored for more than a week and it's lacking the brightness color for the appearance. When it comes to fish gills and fins it should be moist because in old fish they will be dry and covered in sticky slime, grayish-brown and will be smelly. The skin needs to have a naturally metallic glow. This quality is needed as follow to have a good quality fish.

Picture shown is when we are boiling the noodles for almost 3 minutes until the egg noodles are firm when it bites. Knowing that noodles are cooked when the pasta is a bit firm when you get a strand of noodles and bites. Because we want to avoid our noodles to be overcooked wherein it is soggy and is not good to use because when the noodles are soggy then it is too soft and will break easily if touch.

Adding all the remaining condiments(stock, fish sauce, coconut milk, brown sugar) and let it simmer to stand as the sauce of the noodles. This will stands as the sauce of the noodles around with the fish pollack.












Looking at our presentation we used the egg noodles as the accompaniment and the Thai red curry for the sauce of our poached pollock. Also as seen in the picture that there are two limes it's because to add sourness flavor to our curry. I and my partner didn't squish all the lime but just add a small amount for the flavor due to those people might don't like the pasta being sour. As well as the coriander on top of pasta for the presentation.