A person’s ability to recall information can vary. In school they give you all these different “study tips” that are supposed to help jog your memory. Chew gum, make up rhymes, sit where you sat in class to maximize your memory.
Yet with all these tools we were given, nothing beats a sense of smell and taste. I can’t remember half the stuff I learned in school, but smelling sesame oil transports me back into my mom’s kitchen. That is powerful stuff. In my last blog, I explain how my mother's cooking is such an inspiring force that drives me to get better at food photography and explore new things.
Recent photo of my Hello Fresh Explorations!
For the inaugural blog, I dug deep into some of the most off-the-wall snacks she used to make. The ham roll-ups were usually made for Thanksgiving morning as an appetizer or snack to have throughout the day. The problem with photographing them is that they are really sloppy! They taste great though, and are very easy to make.
Ham Roll-ups:
Cream Cheese
Scallions or Pickles
Ham
Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the ham and place the scallion or pickle on one end and roll as tightly as possible, presto!
To be honest I was just really craving the ham roll-ups, so photographing them was distant in my mind. The Green Onion Pancakes were the challenge I set my eye on. Mom made this, I think, a total of two times. She also made them into big round discs, instead of the small ones I made. If I had to change anything with the recipe, I would put more salt than the recipe calls for, they just didn't have the pizzazz that I remember.
I don’t currently have a book of my mom’s recipes, but this video was a great help in figuring the whole thing out! Shout out to my wife for teaching me about the basics of dough and how to roll out dough when all you have is a wine bottle!
After multiple tries we found the best result is to fry just enough to get a little brown on each side, they should be a little chewy but not overdone. That last three we fried, man did it take me back. The sensation of being thrown into the past with each bite is like no other feeling. I get to improve my cooking, photography, and essentially, cook a time machine.
Thank you so much for reading! Next time I will be doing some exploring of my own and cooking some Chicken Tikka Masala! Until next time,
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