Exposé Delphine & Liliane

M

y English teacher asked us to do a written presentation for our article. My friend and I chose the subject of the art of cooking. Indeed, cooking is very trendy: nowadays, it’s omnipresent in the media. So we are going to deal with that point first. And then, we are going to tell a bit about our link with cooking. And finally, we are going to report about our culinary Portuguese and Chinese habits.

F

irst of all, cooking is in since people talk about it every day in the press. Moreover, people feel more and more concerned by what they have in their plates to eat. For instance, a majority of people want to eat well-balanced menus because they worry about their health. Other people prefer using organic food which they know where it comes from. Then everyday people can read, see or hear about cooking. For example, in the daily newspaper hand out in the tube stations there is always a recipe. Besides, they are many TV shows like “petit plat en équilibre … “which attract a large audience. To conclude, cooking is rather intrusive: let’s take the instance of the TV show “Un diner Presque parfait” in which people are judged not on the meals they cooked but on their personalities.

A

s far as I’m concerned, cooking represents a primary need because each human being has to eat to grow and develop as an adult. Nevertheless, I reckon cooking is also a pleasant activity since you can daily discover new meals, flavors or even spices. What is more, it’s a real field of creativity. Finally, it is a wonderful means to share social interactions with your family or your friends.

A

s my parents were born in Portugal, I am used to eating Portuguese food. At home, I sometimes cook but most of the time, it is my mother who prepares the meals. Now, I am going to give you the famous recipe of “bacalhau”:

Ingredients for four persons:

- 500g of salted cod

- 500g of potatoes

- A bunch of flat

- Leaved parsley

- Olive oil

- Garlic

- Salt

- Pepper

Realization:

Put the salted cod soak into water during forty eight hours. Cook the potatoes and mash them with a fork. Crumble the cod and mix the mashed potatoes, the grinded garlic and the chopped parsley. Add little by little the olive oil. Season, put the “purée” in the gratin dish and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes and then enjoy your meal!

For mine, I’m not good cooker but my father it’s Cambodian and he is good cooker because my grandma is great cooker, so they give me easy recipe of "Kho Ba” we called like this but I have people called differently, this meal is caramel pork stew with eggs:

Ingredients for six persons:

- 6 big eggs

- 1 tablespoon water

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 2 more cups water

- 3 cloves

- 1 onion

- ¼ cup fish sauce

- ¼ cup sugar

- ½ teaspoon salt

- 2 cup coconut juice fresh or canned coconut juice

- 600 grs style pork fat (with skin and pork rind)

- black pepper

Realization:

- Boil the eggs in a saucepan for 15 minutes and put them in a container of cold water.

- Scrape egg shells and then book the sides

- For the caramel sauce, add a spoon of sugar and water in a pressure cooker over high heat (or other container large enough to contain any).

- Stir regularly until the sugar gets a beautiful amber color and then immediately add the 2 cups water and mix together for a strongly homogeneous liquid.

- Add the cloves stuck into the onion, fish sauce, sugar, salt and coconut juice and mix.

- Add pork and cook over low heat 40 minutes (do not hesitate to stir a little flat while cooking and remove the bubbles to the surface)

- When your meat is tender, add the boiled eggs and cook until pork is melted and separated in the filament.

- And finally sprinkle with black pepper the meal.

It is eaten with rice. Have meal very complicated but this recipe is very easy.

So, I hope you enjoy it, and good lunch.

I

n a nutshell, cooking was on interesting subject to deal with. Besides, I am proud of my Portuguese origins, therefore I am glad to have been able to write the “bacalhau” recipe for the article.

I hope we made you want to realize our meals. And thank you for visiting our blog.