Conversions for Cooks

Good morning!
On my last exam there were a few people who mentioned they had trouble with the math conversions. While there are definitely days when I'm disgruntled with my seemingly unhelpful engineering degree, on occasion it does have its advantages. Here is how to do math conversions like a pro.

First off, for cooking there are only 6 basic SI (Système Internationale or International System - how very French) conversions that you HAVE to remember. In the mathematical world these conversions are called identity factors (more on this in a bit). The factors you should remember are as follows:

Remember, at three, tea is served on the table:

3 teaspoons
--------------
1 tablespoon


Both of these conversions are 16 ounces per a "p" unit:

16 ounces
------------
1 pound

and

16 ounces
------------
1 pint

Next, I use a stick of butter to remember that:

8 tablespoons                     1 stick of butter
---------------       or      ---------------
1/2 cup                                    4 ounces

But you can also just remember that there are:

16 tablespoons
-----------------
1 cup

These last three conversion factors are related. Just remember that 2+2=4 and start small:

2 cups                      2 pints                  4 quarts
--------                       --------                   ---------
1 pint                        1 quart                  1 gallon


Now, aside from metric units or unusual conversions (such as number of large eggs in a cup or something wonky like that) these should be all you would need to know off the top of your head.

The important thing to remember about all conversions is that you are working with different variations of the number 1. Many people will remember the identity property from high school math that basically says when you divide anything by itself, the answer is 1. It follows that anything multiplied by 1 is itself. In other words:

a * 1 = a

And

a
-- = 1
a

All of our conversions equal 1. Two cups is the same thing as one pint. When you divide something by itself, you get 1. Therefore:

2 cups        1 pint
-------    =    -------    =   1
1 pint          2 cups

Basically, all of the conversions given above are still true if you invert them and they are equal to one in every case. That said, the moment you don't write down the units, the statement is no longer true. Always write down the units.

The fun thing about math is that if it's true for numbers it's also true for random words meaning that units cancel just the same as numbers do. So if I want to cancel words on the diagonal of a multiplication problem, there is nothing to stop me. That said, just because I've cancelled the words doesn't mean I can cancel the numbers. Let us ask the question how many cups are in a gallon. You probably already know the answer but it's a good simple problem to start with.

1 gallon = ? cups

What happens when we multiply something by 1? It stays the same so let's multiply it by 1 a bunch of times do we can cancel the units. This is also called multiplying by an identity factor (a fancy word for the number 1 which includes units in the numerator and denominator). We want to choose our identity factors such that our ending unit does not cancel but our original unit does. We can use multiple identity factors such that we can cancel as many times as necessary to leave only the desired units:

                          2 cups           2 pints           4 quarts
1 gallon    *        -------     *      ---------     *  ----------  = ? cups
                          1 pint             1 quart          1 gallon

Cancel on the multiplication diagonals and calculate!
                         
                         2 cups           2 pints                 4 quarts
1 gallon      *      -------      *      -------      *     --------  =  1 * 2 cups * 2 * 4 =16 cups
                         1 pint             1 quart                 1 gallon

I don't want to get too terribly long and boring here but I have two more problems to show. Let's say we need to determine the number of gallons there are in something outlandish like 2048 ounces of fluid (2048 is a phenomenally addictive game by the way; I highly recommend it). Then we will take it a step further and ask how many whole large (2 oz) eggs we would need to make that number of gallons of fluid.

Always write out the question of course:

2048 ounces = ? gallons

Multiply by one or several identity factors:

                                     1 pint                     1 quart           1 gallon    
2048 ounces      x         -----------      x         ---------     x     -------- = ? gallons
                                   16 ounces                 2 pints           4 quarts

Then cancel what cancels and run the multiplication and division problem:

                                       1 pint                    1 quart            1 gallon           2048 * 1 * 1 * 1 gallon
2048 ounces       x        -----------     x          ----------   x      ----------   =   ------------------------------
                                    16 ounces                 2 pints           4 quarts                               16


 2048 * 1 * 1 * 1 gallon                                   2048 gallon
------------------------------      =     ------------------- =   8 gallons
         16 * 2 * 4                                                 256

TA DA!

Now for the egg-y bit. Yes, if your eggs are 2 ounces, then why not just do the math the easy way and divide the original 2048 ounces by 2 ounces? You get 1024 eggs." True, but say you don't happen to remember how many ounces an egg is but you do happen to know that there are 4 large eggs in a cup.

Ask the question:

2048 ounces = ? eggs

Multiply the given amount by the identity factors:

                               1 cup               4 eggs
2048 ounces     *    -----------    *    ---------- = ? eggs
                             8 ounces             1 cup

Cancel appropriate units then multiply and divide. Do not forget to leave any units that were not cancelled (in our case we wanted to leave eggs for our final unit so we choose our identity factors such that everything but "eggs" cancel)!

                               1 cup               4 eggs        2048*4 eggs
2048 ounces     *    -----------    *    ---------- =  ----------------    = 1024 eggs
                             8 ounces             1 cup               8

So yes, you were right! The point is that you can convert almost anything if you know the basic steps and the basic identity factors. Let's try this with sticks of butter, shall we? How many sticks of butter is in 2048 ounces of butter?

State the question:
                         
2048 ounces =  ? sticks


Multiply by an identity factor:

                               1 sticks      
2048 ounces * ----------------- = ? sticks
                               4 ounces      

Cancel, compute and voila; more butter more better!

                           1 stick                        1 * 2048 sticks
2048 ounces * ----------------- =   --------------   =   512 sticks
                          4 ounces                              4


Alrighty, please feel free to comment if you have any questions. I think I covered everything but I am more than happy to add-on or explain further. :-)

Enjoy!

Updates! ALL OF THEM... well, most of them. Alright, fine. Just some. And a little bit.

Whoa... today was the last day of my first quarter in culinary school. I'm reeling a little bit. The practical for my class felt as intense as any academic test I've ever taken (although I hear it only gets better from here!). Grades were great, but as Bev put it when I spoke to Dad over the phone, "that's wonderful, although not at all surprising." I do feel like I've learned more in the last few weeks than I did in the ENTIRE TIME I attended Purdue. I don't know if this is just because I'm so much more interested in cooking relative to engineering or if it's because the subject matter is just so different from anything I've ever looked at before. The engineering (and my previous work experiences as a crew leader at DOW) have helped in some respects though. Organization, team-leading, and logical skills help no matter whether you work on a factory floor, in a field of soybeans, or in the kitchen. Even being mechanically inclined helped me set up the stripped pasta machines in record time. Yay static mechanics! What I did find hilarious is that I actually did super well on my practical because I was working alone. *groan* I'm such a ridiculous introvert. This is one aspect of myself that I've been working on for years. Obviously, it will have to continue to be addressed because thus far I've found that most work/life-skills are collaborative even if I prefer working independently.

The worst part about the quarter being over is that I'm not sure what to do with my "three weeks off." I don't particularly want that much time to sit around forgetting everything we've learned... There is a plan in the making for visiting Jungle Jim's in Ohio sometime next week which will at least take 1 day. There are 3 Farmer's Markets (so 3 Saturday mornings). I also bought myself a pool pass so I can swim each day. This unfortunately has been hindered by the seemingly constant lightning storms that have been in the area recently, particularly around 5 o'clock when I'm walking out the door. I've also been walking up a storm which has been good (although arguably not good if I want to swim) for me. *ALL PUNS INTENDED*

I never did update the blog on my market activities. It's a long story, but essentially I ended up being the Market Master for the downtown Farmer's Market instead of having a booth there. The booth would have been an expensive startup since any kind of juice would have required a commercial kitchen or a huge amount of space, cleaning supplies and man-power at the market itself. I wound up going to the Chamber of Commerce to ask for some pointers of the Market Master as per the Health Department's recommendation. I walked in the door and asked for said Market Master and wound up speaking to the Market Coordinator instead who told me that the position was open and asked if I was interested. At first I was hesitant, but my family unanimously thought that being the Market Master would open more doors in the long run and would be a better option. Needless to say, I applied, interviewed and was offered the job which I was offered the Monday of my first day of school (oof, I need to update more often apparently).  It's been a blast so far and I love the vendors. The worst aspect of the job is having to kick out all the pets that people bring to the market. It's a shame, but there's really nothing we can do about it. On the other hand, the reason for not allowing dogs is that some folks don't have well trained dogs which makes it a pain for the folks who do. Ugh, I had to kick out a cat-owner the first day! Talk about heart wrenching!  Everything else has been great. It does require waking up at a ridiculous hour of the morning on Saturdays but I'm usually up so early for school that it's basically just any other day. I get up, I go to (fill in the blank: school, the store, work), I come home, I nap, I teach piano, I make awesome food, I swim and/or walk, occasionally I watch ridiculous amounts of tv on the interenet, I chill with Taffy, I go to bed. Seriously, I have the coolest life right now.

Anyway, my current plan is to write a "beginners piano book of country music" over the next 3 weks since I have so many students that have been begging me for more modern country music. I heard Lady Antebellum's "Compass" for the first time and I'm in love with it. I've started working out a simple version on the piano which I will hopefully have a chance to write down tomorrow or Saturday (or tonight if I can't sleep). Good Directions and Long Black Train are also on the list of songs to try. I have 26 days to get a book together. It shouldn't be that difficult to do if I'm dedicated. Only problem would be if I actually DO get everything together, I might only be able to use it for my students and I probably couldn't have them perform anywhere more public than a small recital unless I wrote for special permissions from the artists. Oh well, we can cross that bridge when I get to it.

Speaking of piano, I did hold a recital for my students on June 1st at the WLPL. It was a huge success. If I can upload the video on here, I will. Otherwise, I'll put it up on my youtube account and link it here a bit later. I do need to make the DVDs I promised the parents of my students and send them out before the next quarter starts.

Well, I'm essentially just writing a to-do list now. I didn't even get to talking about the trip taking Sasha down to Florida but that can wait until next time. I hope everyone is having a most excellent evening!

Vegetarian French Onion Soup

It's been another amazing week in culinary school. One of the multitude of things that we did this week was make French Onion Soup. Traditionally, French Onion Soup is made with beef broth. That said, a fair number of the folks that I know are vegetarian or vegan so I made it my goal to find a way to make the French Onion Soup vegetarian. (The milk products were clarified butter and cheese for the topping but if I had decided to make it vegan I would have used Coconut Oil instead of the butter). I was very happy with the result! Here's the recipe in case anyone would like to give it a whirl. I also found out that using an electric stove to caramelize onions takes FOREVER. I don't know how long it took as compared to when we caramelized onions in class over a gas stove, but it seriously took over an hour. Here's the final soup though, in all of it's onion-y vegetarian glory:

First I made a vegetable broth following the recipe for ingredients but instead of sweating the vegetables I caramelized them and then pinceed them with tomato paste before simmering for 1 hour. Anyway, here's the whole recipe: 

1) The following ingredients were caramelized in 2 oz vegetable oil: 

- 1 lb mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery)

- 4 oz leeks

- 4 peeled garlic cloves

- 4 oz fennel

- 2 oz turnip

- 2 oz tomato

2) After these were caramelized, I added a small can of tomato paste and pincee'd everything.
3) I put in 1 gallon of cold water, 1 cup chablis table wine, and added a sachet d'epice which contained basil, peppercorns, thyme, and a bayleaf.
4) I simmered for an hour then strained it multiple times through a cheesecloth and placed the pot in an icebath while I started on the caramelized onions. Well, it was sort of an ice bath. I used ice packs but they're not as effective as real ice would have been. Unfortunately, I don't have ice on hand so I made do.
5) I caramelized around 3 lbs of yellow onions in a couple ounces of ghee butter (I know I should practice clarifying butter but the ghee is just so convenient!). This step took a LONG TIME.
6) I added 3/4 cup of red wine and reduced it until the onions looked like they were sitting in a red-ish sauce.
7) I added rosemary and all of the cooled vegetable broth. I brought it to a boil and reduced it to a simmer.
8) Simmer for an hour and a half.
9) Season with salt and pepper to taste
10) Serve with toasted bread and cheese broiled over the top of the soup.

Banana chips were an awesome dessert.

And finally here's a picture of an apple, cream cheese, onion, and honey panini I made earlier this week to try out my panini pan. I thought it was pretty. Enjoy!

Vegan or not-so-vegan yellow curry!

Whenever I say "1 can" it's usually a 12-15 oz can. The curry paste and water chestnuts were exceptions though since they are smaller.

Start: 

6-8 cups (or about 1/3 of a large stock pot) water  + vegetable bullion or whatever kind of stock you like (I used 2 spoonfuls of vegetable flavored "Better than Bullion" + water)

2 peeled and chunked sweet potatoes

6 peeled and chunked carrots

****Boil all of the ingredients up to here for 10 minutes or so to get the potatoes and carrots cooking. Then continue down this list leaving the heat on on high while adding stuff (see next note). Meanwhile, start the rice****

2-3 cans coconut milk and or coconut "gata"

1 can yellow curry paste (I buy Maesri brand curry paste at the ASIA store off of Yeager road but I suspect any curry paste would be tasty)

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can pumpkin

****As soon as all this starts to boil turn the heat down to a simmer.****

2 tablespoons-ish of ginger (paste is best but chopped or grated is nice too)

1 can water chestnuts

1 can sliced bamboo shoots

2-4 tablespoons or so of sugar

1/2 cup (or to taste AFTER the sugar) of your favorite kind of vinegar (I generally use a seasoned rice vinegar)

garlic, salt and pepper to taste. 

In another pan, fry up 1 onion and 1 block of tried tofu or paneer in oil. If you would like chicken, remove the onions/tofu/paneer from the pan (put it directly in the curry) when they're done and use the remaining oil (or add some more) to stir-fry the chicken with a little bit of flour Sometimes I like to also add pineapple. When the chicken is done, put it in the curry as well and simmer until people start looking like they may be related to vultures. Or at least until the rice is done. 

When you're near serving time, cut up a baby bok choi (sometimes called Shanghai Baby Bok Choi) and add to the curry. It only takes a few minutes but make sure the green parts of the leaves look a little like cooked spinach before serving. 

If you want this spicier (which is AMAZING if you like spicy food), add the Sriracha sauce or use Red Curry paste instead of yellow.

This picture is of the largest batch of curry I've ever made. It was for the Impromptu Restaurant last year.

Enjoy!!

Cauliflower Fractals and Peanut Sauce

As per a friend of mine's special request, I am posting the recipe to the Thai Peanut Sauce that I make on a fairly regular basis. Today I made a roast cauliflower and "served it" (ermm... took a picture of it and ate a small amount) on a bed of rice and surrounded it with the peanut sauce.

Roast CauliflowerThe cauliflower was simply a head of cauliflower on which I put a generous coat of Greek Gods Honey and Vanilla flavored yogurt, then sprinkled powdered ginger, garlic and cumin on top. I put about a half inch of water in the bottom of the pan, then put in the oven at 300-325 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour or so.

Thai Peanut Sauce
You will need:
2 cans regular coconut milk
1/2 to 1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 to 1 cup chunky peanut butter (smooth can be used instead, I just prefer a little crunch)
2 teaspoons ginger paste
1 - 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (I use seasoned rice vinegar but you can add a couple tablespoons of sugar and a little salt if you prefer un-seasaoned rice vinegar)
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons thai style red curry paste (optional - use only if you want it to have a little bit of FIRE)

For the Thai peanut sauce I put all the ingredients in a large saucepan on low heat and stir until well blended together. The longer it cooks the thicker the sauce gets, but also the nicer the flavors blend together. Make sure to stir frequently in order to make sure that the bottom doesn't burn and that the top doesn't crust over too much.

Cauliflower Fractals! 

Piano and Cooking and Everything OH MY!

As I knew it would, I have more ideas and plans than I can possibly keep up with. The problem is give me 6 hours of effective work time and I'll make loads of progress. You would think that since leaving work, this wouldn't be too difficult. Not so. Unfortunately, my work-effectiveness seems to be DIRECTLY related to whether the sun is shining.

Right now I'm working on putting together a syllabus for my Noteworthy "Bass-ics" course. ( www.mayaspianolessons.com/noteworthy.html )I'm designing it to be similar to a Kindermusik class but for a very small class size (3-5 students) that emphasizes basic music skills such as concepts of high and low notes (pitch matching and ear training), beats, dynamics, different "instruments" through various musical games. Thing is, I'm wondering if I'm being a little too flexible with it. So far I've had two trial classes which are just absolutely loads of fun. I generally start out with an idea of games that we can play but the class has been mostly improvisational. Some things just flow better from one activity to the next with the openings that show up! Last week we did a lot of work with dynamics and the week before we learned about imitating beats with instruments "in the world around you" (mostly kitchen stuff). With the kids, flexibility is extremely helpful since dissolving into piles of giggles is a fairly common occurance. On the other hand, I feel bad for parents because I've said on my website that I'm going to have a syllabus. With the two-month class officially starting tonight (though the one for tonight is as full as I'm allowing it to be) I feel like I reallllllllly need to put that up.

Regular piano lessons in the meantime are picking up steam and I'm absolutely loving it. It seems that I have stumbled upon a very effective method of engaging beginning students which I wish I had found earlier. I teach most evenings now and it doesn't bother me at all like it used to. I have a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of the positive feedback that I've been receiving is because kids can pick up on the amount of energy that I'm bringing to lessons. With work out of the way, piano is getting practically all of my attention. My main concern now is to make sure that I don't inadvertently over-stretch myself once school starts. Hopefully, I will enjoy cooking so much that I never have to "work" another day in my life. That's my goal. If it's at all like music, the goal will not be difficult to reach.

Singing is also something that I've taken off with recently. After the Dickens of a Christmas event in December, I was invited to go caroling with the same group around town. One of the carolers invited me to the All Campus & Community Chorale (AC3) for which I had to rearrange my Tuesday lessons to join but it was totally worth it. The person in charge of it, Sarah, is funny and motivating and she has a Master's Degree in piano performance (at least I think that is what she said, although I don't swear to it). To top it off, she teaches piano too so she had me instantly interested! Singing with them has been wonderful and I look forward to it all week. I'm hopefully also going to be learning Song of the Dragonborn with a subgroup of AC3 for the friends and family performance. The AC3 group happens to perfectly coincide with starting school - our spring performance is on April 6th and classes at the Art Institute of Indianapolis start on the 7th. I'm continuing to sing with Jan's church choir as well. Last week, Nadya had to transform us into an all-women's choir since we were down to only two men available for singing on Sunday. The song we sang was an absolute ear-worm and I loved the alto part to it. Majestic Holy One was the name of it, if I remember right.

Last week I started the ball rolling for getting a juicing booth going at the West Lafayette Farmer's Market this summer. I'm supposed to wait just a little longer to look at the requirements because they haven't been solidified just yet for the West Lafayette Farmer's Market. There are a couple more phone calls I need to make and I don't know if I should go for the Lafayette Farmer's Market as well or not. :-/ It's quite a bit more expensive since there are potentially 3 markets associated with the fee. Today I spoke to the person in charge of teaching the local 1-day ServSafe course and she gave me some information on how to sign up and what sort of course materials I needed. The course is on February 19th and lasts all day which is coming right up! I'm excited. That said, if I throw the money for everything into this I really need to be sure that I'm going to do well. I need to buff up my recipes and start looking for deals on a commercial juicer and making a strict weekly budget for kitchen rental and food. The up-front cost is the worst of it, but each week I'll need to make sure I have the time and ability to get and prepare fruits and vegetables to juice. I think this idea really has some potential though there is a significant amount of work yet to go into it. What's nice about the ServSafe course is that if I do well, I won't have to retake the test when I'm in school. Also, I'll have a leg up and could start the catering business sooner rather than later. I still need to figure out what to do about a commercial kitchen but that's on the docket for another day. There is apparently a chance that the Farmer's Market may or may not require that the food be prepared in a commercial kitchen this year. Apparently though, the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds has a Commercial Kitchen that they rent out which is more than I knew a month ago. It's not the best option since it's all the way across town, but since 231 was put in, it's a lot closer than it was.

Aside from that I've been trying to help my Dad on the house recently with some success. It's somewhat inconsistent because our bad days tend to coincide which tends to make the bad days VERY bad. Good days can be pretty good though. I think I've been helpful although I still don't work well with Ari when we're trying to work with Dad. I'm aware it's my own fault and it probably doesn't bother anyone else but I just don't like the feeling that I'm extraneous or that I could be more efficient with my time at home. Dad is also pretty frustrated with the books and stuff that is "being stored" in the house. Sometimes he just walks between the different rooms working himself up. I know he's desperate to get them out of the house. My problem is that my apartment just can't hold too many more books. I don't want to get rid of the books that I have at home, but there really are a lot of them and Dad's right, most of them will never be read again. It's a very intimidating project and isn't something I can do with anyone standing over my shoulder. Ironically, it's probably something Ari and I could do fairly well together because we're both of the mind-set to send the books on.

The one thing that has been lower on the list recently has been cooking, in part because I spend so much time at Dad's that I don't have a chance to cook anything on my own. I did make a really nice stir-fry yesterday and a chili a couple days before that. Not my best attempt, but not bad either. I had so much of it that I had to put a bunch in the freezer for another day. I have all the things for making juice in my refrigerator but cleaning the machine even once a day is a huge pain.

My idea of teaching English to Spanish speakers seems to have currently fallen off of the wagon. I did have a couple of classes lined up but none of the people who were initially interested got back to me. It's not the end of the world although I was hoping to keep my Spanish speaking abilities up to par. Instead, I decided to volunteer at LARA twice a week in the mornings which has been educational and eye-opening although I don't get to use my Spanish nearly as much as I thought I would. The main issue with the ESL class at LARA is that when you are trying to teach people of multiple ethnicities simultaneously, you cannot really use the native languages for the individuals. Spanish speaking volunteers can speak to each person one-on-one but it doesn't help explain the intricacies of the language. Mostly there explanations are given in English or by using a picture dictionary. It might be interesting to volunteer in one of the more advanced classes. LARA is an amazing community with such generous people. What are their options though for teaching language specific ESL classes? I'm not sure if it would be possible or fair to have a Spanish speaking only classroom. I wish I had the option of volunteering at one of the evening classes. I can't because of my piano teaching schedule but it would be an interesting experience to see how the classes differ when the majority of the class only speaks Spanish.