Episode 099 - Know How To Cook!

WIth Thanksgiving coming up, you’ll be around a lot of food.  Not only that, you may be the one cooking.  Cooking for your family is great!  Now, imagine cooking for a large group of loud, boisterous, and very opinionated firefighters. As a firefighter, you may even be on duty during holidays like Thanksgiving where the saving grace of working on these holidays and being away from your family is sitting down with your fire department family and sharing a great meal. A lot of important conversations happen around our dinner tables whether at home or on duty, you don’t want one of those conversations to be how gross the food is that you’ve prepared. In today’s episode I will share my thoughts on the standards you should have when cooking a meal at the firehouse and I will give you some tips and tricks you can adopt to make sure that you aren’t just a one-trick pony and your reputation as a good cook stands the test of time.  And at the very end, I will share one of my personal firehouse recipes! -- Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” IGNITEd Recruit Academy Dijion Glazed Salmon Recipe: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees I typically use about two pounds of fresh atlantic salmon (¼ lb per person) I dash a small amount of salt and pepper on the filet and put it on a cooking sheet that I’ve covered in aluminum foil I put it in the oven and cook it for about 20 minutes During this time I prep the glaze which consists of about 3 tbsp of dijon mustard and ¼ cup of brown sugar.  Stir the mixture until it turns into a thick consistency. Then, I take the salmon out and turn the broiler on HIGH.  While that’s heating up, I spread the glaze on top of the salmon with a fork. Once the broiler has heated up to the right temperature, I put the salmon back in for about 3 minutes.  Be careful not to burn the sugar, it will smoke the kitchen up pretty good if you do.  Ideally you want a nice crisp on the salmon. Make sure you serve each meal with a carb and a veggie.  It’s important to eat a balanced meal and not just serve up ONE thing on a plate.  For reference on portion size, take a look at this infographic from Precision Nutrition.