Cooking Fast Food

[Athenasby Regalado]

Differentcareers need different amounts of preparation.Each O*NET career is in one of five Job Zones, which are groups of careers that need the same level of experience, education, and training.Explore more careers in Job Zone One. Find Licenses Find licenses for careers like cooks, fast food.

The dilemma that plagues me now is one that hearkens back to my days as a pre-teen on a school field trip. I have x amount of money in my possession and I am the only person entrusted with deciding how and where to spend this money.

As a pre-teen, I was usually so drunk with the power of wielding $20 in a mall food court that I spent every cent on a smorgasbord of junk food. As a 20-something, with a rent to pay and growing intolerance for lactose, I no longer have the option to allocate all of my financial resources to chicken nuggets and milkshakes.

And even though chicken nuggets are seemingly dirt cheap, in my experience taking the time to grocery shop and prepare meals saves hundreds of dollars of dollars in the long run. To break this down: My meal-of-choice at Chick-fil-A is an eight-count nugget meal with waffle fries and a Coke, which totals $7.33. However, if I were to prep my meal of choice at home, which is smoked salmon pasta with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, it equals about $5 for one serving.

Each time I go to the grocery store I am looking to fill my cart with one of three categories: ingredients, snacks and a few treats. In total, I usually spend $55-$60 dollars each time I go to the grocery store, which is typically every 10 days or so. Ten days on a $54.21 grocery trip means that I am eating three meals a day, plus some snacks and drinks for $5.42 per day.

A study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, show that people who eat unhealthy fast and processed foods end up having seven times the risk of early-life stroke (before age 45).

Prepare and cook food in a fast food restaurant with a limited menu. Duties of these cooks are limited to preparation of a few basic items and normally involve operating large-volume single-purpose cooking equipment.

Disclaimer:Sources are listed to provide additional information on related jobs, specialties, and/or industries.Links to non-DOL Internet sites are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.

In addition, the movement celebrates regional and traditional food products along with the personal history accompanying their preparation. Savoring our food, preserving old food ways and cooking methods and reflecting on how we source ingredients is at the very heart of the movement. So when I tell you that you can still march in the ranks of the Slow Food movement while accelerating cooking time, you might be a bit surprised. In this era of speed reading, speed walking, and even speed dating, you really can speed up the cooking process, yet stay true to the school of Slow Food, with an old-fashioned, ingenious piece of kitchen tech known as the pressure cooker.

Why is this old-fashioned cooking method suddenly popular again today? New models have improved with the advent of better safety-valve design, nonstick surfaces, low noise, ease of use, and even electric models. Today, these new generation, high-end pressure cookers are being exported to America. The pressure cooker of old that rattled, belched, and steamed on the stovetop is a thing of the past.

This recipe is very easy and great! I adapted a recipe that my mom made for years by substituting 1 cup of coffee for the original 1 cup boiling water (I use decaf Major Dickason's Blend) I always have these ingredients at home so if I need a quick dessert and don't want to go to the store this is it!

I love beans and the big butter beans (habas grandes) available in cans at the supermarket are well suited for these canaps. The bean mixture also makes a great first-course salad or meat accompaniment. If made up to 3 hours ahead, the bread will, for the better, soak up the juices from the beans.

Paella is arguably the national dish of Spain, and the best ones, it is said, come from Valencia in the south. Gloria and I had our best paella there in an unassuming little restaurant where the lady owner was the chef.

Although true paella is made in a shallow tin pan on an open fire and can include rabbit as well as snails or eel, I make mine with chorizo sausage and chicken thighs, adding shellfish at the last moment. I also cover the pan, which is not the traditional procedure, because this helps the mixture cook more evenly. The chicken, chorizo, mushrooms, onion, and garlic can be browned a couple of hours ahead.

Gloria's mother, originally from Puerto Rico, always rubbed lime juice on her steaks before cooking them and sprinkled lime juice liberally on the steaks after they were cooked. Her sauce included anchovies and garlic. This is a delicious interpretation of her recipe.

For an unusual cocktail accompaniment, I like to deep-fry capers. Although small capers are preferred for most recipes, the largest capers available are the best for deep-frying. Crunchy and nutty, these will surprise and delight your guests.

Conventional berry tarts are made by baking a shell of cookie dough and, when it is cold, filling it with custard, arranging berries on top, and finishing it with a glaze. However, it is easier, faster, and less caloric to make this similar recipe without the dough. The custard is spooned into individual souffl molds or small glass bowls and topped with berries glazed with seedless raspberry jam. Any small molds with about a 1/2-cup capacity that are pretty enough to serve in the dining room will work here.

I often make this recipe at home when I am in a hurry, because splitting and flattening the chicken and cutting between the joints of the leg and the shoulder reduce the cooking time by half. I use kitchen shears to split the chicken open at the back and to cut the cooked bird into serving pieces and a knife to cut between the joints.

The mustard crust can be made ahead and even spread on the chicken a day ahead, if you like. I pour the cooked chicken juices into a fat separator with a spout and serve over Fluffy Mashed Potatoes, leaving the fat behind.

Especially for dishes like tartare, ceviche, and gravlax, the fresher the fish, the better the result. For this recipe, I start with a tuna steak about 1 inch thick and cut it into 1/2-inch squares. Using larger pieces rather than finely chopped fish, the conventional choice, gives the dish a creamier feel in the mouth. Do not mix the ingredients together more than 1 to 2 hours before serving; if combined sooner, the lemon juice will discolor the tuna, turning it an opaque white.

These livers, which are poached and served in a hot sauce, are a fabulous appetizer. The sauce, which can be made ahead, is also good with steamed fish, as a seasoning for salad, or sprinkled over steamed vegetables. The livers take only about 2 minutes to cook.

The only way I ate pumpkin as a child was in a savory gratin, so the first time I had it in the United States -- sweet, in a pie -- I thought it was a mistake. I've come to love pumpkin pie and I still enjoy pumpkin in the gratin of my youth. The combination of Swiss cheese, eggs, and cream comes together into something like a smooth and creamy souffl, capturing the flavors of fall. Canned pumpkin speeds things up.

Rice papers, or spring roll wrappers, are transparent brittle disks made of rice flour. They're available at Asian markets, specialty stores, and some supermarkets. They need only 45 seconds to a minute to rehydrate in water, making them soft, pliable, and usable for quick hors d'oeuvres. They can be stuffed with shrimp, fish, meat, and vegetables, as well as cheese, ham, olives, or nuts; use whatever you have on hand.

The asparagus is dressed with a sauce of mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar and garnished with hard-cooked eggs and chives. Cook the asparagus fairly close to when you will sit down; it tastes better if it is served directly from the boiling water without being refreshed under cold water.

White beans, sausage, and broccoli are a classic Mediterranean combination. Instead of broccoli, I use broccolini, because it is more tender and the stems don't need peeling. Preparing the dish with canned cannellini beans makes it a cinch.

Gravlax is one of my favorite hors d'oeuvres, and I usually present it on buttered bread or cucumber slices. One day when I was slicing salmon, I decided to cut some of it into small cubes, quickly cure them, and serve them on toothpicks. These only take a minute to prepare. The fresher the salmon, the more outstanding the finished morsels.

Thighs are the part of the chicken that I enjoy most. When I cook them in stews or with a sauce, I remove the skin because when it is cooked with moisture, it gets rubbery and releases all its fat into the sauce.

In this recipe, I cook the thighs in a skillet skin side down, so the skin becomes crisp, dry, and beautifully browned. Make sure to use a nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid, so as the skin fries, the flesh is cooked by the steam. The portions are relatively small here, but within the context of a menu this is enough meat.

I learned how to cook bacon in a microwave oven from my wife and I now never cook it any other way. It's easy and fast and crisps the bacon uniformly. There can be variations in timing from one microwave to another, but regular bacon generally cooks in about 4 minutes and thicker slices require up to 6 minutes. Cook the thick slices for 4 minutes initially and then check them every 30 seconds or so and continue until the bacon is cooked to your liking. Choose as lean a bacon as you can find. I prefer thick-sliced bacon. Brushing the top of the slices with maple syrup or honey imparts a delicious taste.

A clafoutis is somewhere between a sweet omelet and a custard. Made with fruit, often cherries or apples, it is a classic throughout France, with small variations from region to region and, sometimes, different names. It can be called flan aux fruits or a flognarde, but most often is known as clafoutis. My recipe is made with canned apricots. Try different brands: some are much better than others. Serve the clafoutis directly from the skillet or unmold it onto a serving plate and serve in wedges.

3a8082e126