Creativity Aspect of CAS – Quarantine Cuisine

Initial Activity 

In order to fulfill the creativity portion of my CAS journey I have decided to take up home cooking. Originally I had planned to take an activity such as meditative coloring or yearbook but due to COVID 19 measures I was forced to adapt my plan. Cooking is a skill which I am not particularly experienced in however my goal for this activity is to improve my skills while engaging my creativity. One of my favorite  things to watch in my free time are youtube cooking shows.  Binging with Babish, Adam Ragusea, J.Kenji Lopez and Calfreezy have all been figures that have taught me throughout this process and more so inspired me to do it in the first place. By watching these videos for years it has taught me a lot about food preparation and recipes even though I never end up making the actual meal the process shown in the video I have always found interesting.

Progress 

I have decided to try and replicate this method of entertainment in my own style. Obviously I do not have much experience in the culinary world so a lot of this will be a learning process in both the video making and the cooking aspects. I started off my process today by buying some basic ingredients. It is important to me that I make food I actually enjoy as this will be one of the meal which I eat throughout the day. I decided to first improve my general cooking skills before I participate in any video aspects. To do this I had to understand how to make basic meals. The meal which I attempted was a chicken Alfredo. With the help of my maid I managed to accomplish this relatively easily. It came down to simple preparation of sauce, boiling pasta. and cooking chicken. This was a good test of seeing where my culinary skills were and what I needed to improve in.

Learning/Improvements

One of the main things which I had learnt through the first attempt was that I needed to be more aware of the steps that coincide with each other. I have a tendency to separate the steps and even though I did do them properly I need to learn to multitask my tasks better. I was fine this time because I did have help however this is something I need to work on developing because it will come crucial when I proceed to make more complex dishes which require more attention. Other than that I need to improve my general feel around the kitchen and my instincts when it comes to cooking but this is something that will only come to me with with more experience and time spent in the kitchen. Overall I believe I did a good job this time and I am comfortable with making this dish again in front of a camera if I need to.

Next steps

Since I attempted a savory meal this time I hope to try and bake a desert for my next dish. I hope to incorporate both meals and deserts so it is vital for me to practice in both of these areas. I do have more experience here so it is something that I will find easier to accomplish than the Alfredo especially if I am baking something that I have made before. I will most likely go for a brownie or cookie just to play it safe and go further and try new recipes in my upcoming attempts. After I know two things which I can make confidently without any assistance. I will start the video process. My goal now is to improve my culinary skills and to brainstorm ideas for my first cooking video.