who am I ? (my very own cook book project)

"To the ruler, the people are heaven; to the people, food is heaven."
(Ancient Chinese proverb)


P R E F A C E



WHY WE SHOULD COOK, WHY WE SHOULD EAT

The ape into human transformation began roughly 9 million years ago, after our mother: earth slowing down her shifting our climate changed dramatically, tropical areas became reasonable, jungles turn into woodland and most importantly plant life became seasonal, and our ape looking ancestors start eating different vegetables in different season, of their year-round supply of generally fruits and nuts .As a strong instinct, of course they start eating gecko, mouse, and squirrels too
Long story short pretty much history of man kind begun, also food, start to be a fire starter our succeeding growth.

When we came down of the trees to the land, we made some small alteration for our new environment, we learned to hunt, we start to use two legs instead of four, our brain gets bigger and parallel to our brain size we got more intelligent and we start to be ruler of land,
Probably around 2 million years ago our hominid ancestors, (more ape than man) had developed to Homo Erectus ,recognizable human, several anthropologists found their fossils, pick name for them (most famous ones are Peking Man and Lucy) made possible outlook with computers.
we all know right now they were exist and they are our ancestors but how did they live,
may be this is the most controversial part of this magnificent puzzle, the practical science turns into the theorycal science
Our five feet tall ape ancestor or to some extent mongoloid looking forerunner Peking man also the first early human look ape use fire, probably not controlled one, but there is no evidence how he managed to start fire,
Using controlled fire came some years possibly long years later

When we look at our olden times Fear of being hungry always was dominant over fear of being death ,hunger its not an only humanly instinct, all animals has same instinct and all of them hunts for food ,however only human establish eating habits pretty much with hunting, cooking, serving etc…
very imperfect and prehistoric weapons in our hands and we started to trace 5000 pounds beast all around tundra ,of course there was a massive amount risk involved this activity but who cares we were starving and we have to had eat, but our first encounter with food as I told before was limited with plants and fruits but when the holly moments arrived and first time we taste animal protein story changed forever.

For being a good hunter, mankind need to make good weapon for weapon development, we had to think systematically, this very small but important logic makes us complex, social and intelligent life form, again long story short because our fear of being hungry created our relatively harmonious civilization.
Any way we start hunting we learn cultivating crops but most importantly almost always we share our goods with others, sometimes religious reasons sometimes social pressure but mostly just because we realized sharing and eating together much more fun than eating alone
According to early Greek storytellers, humans be obligated the ability to cultivate crops to the generosity of a goddess. Legend has it that in a proof of kindness, they were donating part of their wheat seeds to Demeter, goddess of crops, via trusted priest.
The Antique Greek people shaped their culture by their food supply - olives, wheat and barley, the vine, fish, olive oil and all kind of typical basics of the Mediterranean diet, their food was a big part of their social life also.
Most of these elements also were very important part of their intellectual life particularly olive and olive oil. For modern human olive may be just pizza toping or our nicely made dry martinis garnish but for them it’s a part of their daily life, sign of peace, sign of wealth, their definitely harmonious civilization, even sign of their polytheist religion.

History of ancient Rome is more reachable to us than history of Greece;. Let us be honest in dining and sophisticated eating, the Romans were largely copied of the Greeks, used Greek chefs [[being a chef was very important and job during Antique period this chefs has no Blogs They were not running their own restaurant they never published cook books ,( Except Apicius :,He born about 25AD he is reputed to have written a book of recipes called ‘de re conquinaria libri decem’ (Cuisine in ten books He was celebrity in his age for his expensive taste and extravagance))
) but they were famous and they made significant amount money)]

And Greek terminology, just as we develop much from France. and Italy Many Romans managed to pay no attention to complicated Greek cooking in southern Italy for up to 500 years, and traditionalists continued to fight rearguard actions when it did become fashionable

There is some taboos in our eating habits too. All cultures go to considerable lengths to obtain preferred foods, and often ignore valuable food sources close at hand. The English do not eat horse and dog; Muslims refuse pork; Jews (that is a whole another story) have a whole litany of forbidden foods Americans despise internal organs(but in this case offal it is not a taboo for Americans) Hindus taboo beef . and so on. People will not just eat anything, whatever the circumstances. Expect Chinese they are indeed thought by their more fastidious neighbors to eat anything.


We have to eat; we like eating; eating makes us feel good; In many case more important Than sex. To make certain genetic survival the sex recommended only a few Times in a lifetime; the hunger urge must be satisfied every day. It is also a profoundly social urge. Food is almost always shared; people eat Together; mealtimes are events when the whole family or settlement sometimes whole village comes together.

All animals eat, but we are the only social animal that cooks. So cooking becomes more than a necessity, also becomes a one of the most important symbol of our humanity, what marks us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Mean time food also becomes a focus of symbolic activity about sociality and our place in the social order. what we eat becomes a most powerful symbol of Who we are,
Since everyone must eat, someone has to cook too.


The word of cooking means a vast range of methods, tools and grouping of ingredients to improvement the flavor or make the food more edible. Cooking technique known as culinary art. Cooking requires applying heat to a food usually, but not always, some cultures eat chemically transforms it ,(preserving, salting) this process changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties and was practiced at least since the 10th millennium BC with the introduction of pottery. But the real story of cooking began when fire and food united. This mishmash created one of the most unique aspects of our social life. Eating, cooking and gathering around the dinner table. This odd human process all started more than 150.000 years ago.


Why we are cooking? Sure that is a tough question to answer. Cooking is not just about preparing meals, but also about our communal society and sharing tasty gastronomical pleasures with others. Besides needing for nutritional reasons.(and of course the stomach is our most vital internal organ and it needs lots of yum yums),we cook to impress our self and our guest, and a small minority of us even make a considerable amount of money from this odd social process(I am not included in this minority).
I have been cooking…cooking for my self cooking for my girl friend, cooking for my friends even our two cats and one dog, long story short I have been cooking almost twelve years everyday non-stop and not make single penny (I am sure, you guys think what a waste of time) Most of my friends telling me that I am not a normal human being, because I am obsessed for food and culinary idea ,especially as a man. May be they are right, but talking food, eating food, making food; let’s say anything about food and related subjects make a extremely happy man.
I have a some simple reason why I start cooking; 12 years ago when I first time to come USA I just realized there is nobody here to cook for me sure that was an harsh reality. I should eat, but I was not crave for fast-food I have to had nicely prepared, food not crab cake or sashimi I am talking about , I just wanted to eat nice delicious comfort food and I prepare my very first dish in America ever, a western omelets ,it was really hard to see a western part inside my miserable omelets but it was an omelets anyway,., there was egg inside and taste like an omelets unfortunately it was my mom style omelets, crepe looking and dry
But I wasn’t totally clueless about cooking I had kind of home education about kitchen by my mom, since I was 12 I watched every single action by her and she thought me the fundamentals of cooking. While during my age of 14 I was able to make home made bread



Anyway of course like any other first comers my first job in USA was a restaurant job, and I start being dish washer , my relations with restaurant was just as a customer in my country which was limited to third rate kabob place and diners and I was so sure somebody in back was cleaning the dishes with hand not with sophisticated machine like American does, when I realized I have actually machine for this job and I don t have to use my beautiful hands I was an happiest man. When I reached the summer as a dishwasher happiest gone and horror came, 125 Fahrenheit and I was working just with my boxer.



Year after year I promoted as a bus boy ,waiter, bartender and manager, I came to this country for being a student in Art School and I found my self right middle of the restaurant business, but I never regret what I did I really enjoyed every single moment.
There was one missing part about my multi task job, I still had no idea about kitchen and restaurant fundamentals and I start cook for my self but this time not western omelets I try to prepare very challenging recipes out of my out dated cook books, and start sharing my dishes with my friends.
First reaction wasn’t so spectacular but later on people start making compliments to dishes (this is a really great feeling).




But nobody encouraged me to write a cook book and share my personal ideas and knowledge with others, but who cares.
Last twelve years of my self education I learned one thing that is “cooking is fun thing to do”. Of course we have some rules to obey, trust me if you obey these rules everything will be much better.


What are those rules, let look at it?


First rule there is no substitute for butter especially for baking do not attempt to change butter into olive oil or margarine Baking almost with butter, and do not forget fats are one of the most important taste bud pokers after onion and salt, another rule in this book liquid oil means is EVOO(extra virgin olive oil, thanks to Rachael ray for this catchy acronym)after olive oil grape seed oil is our second choice but when you fry something you don not need EVOO you can use light olive oil that will work too,

If you are a vegetarian please do not waste your time to read this pointless book, because I provide very limited vegetarian recipe in this book, and I still don’t understand how a human being feed yourself with just cucumber and lettuce forever, I respect them but simply I don’t understand their brain functions. Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Rule number three is, use kosher salt there is no scientific reason for this rule just makes you feel like a professional chef,

Don t ever forget when you squirt some lemon juice to your oyster you start to challenge to change the texture to change the taste
And your cooking experience has begun

Rules are clear, life is good, and cooking is fun

Let’s cook