My best homework assignment ever

So here at UCSD, we've got a series of classes called the Synthesis series. This quarter, I took Syn 1. The class is basically a writing class in which the topics they cover are all about global warming and environmental justice. One of the submissions is a piece (can be writing, can be anything you think tells a story) that deals with climate change, and here's what I made. 

There are 4 courses below, each of which deals with one season. The idea behind the dishes was that at this rate, global temperatures will have increased by 3°C in the year 2100, which would cause many ingredients and spices to go extinct (or become way more expensive to grow). So I made a 4-course meal which highlighted those ingredients, just to understand what we stand to lose...and realistically to have an excuse to cook good food. Shoutout to Carly Carbery, she's a hell of a cook and helped me make all 4 of these.

And just cause we could, we turned it into a magazine.

With a bit more time it could've looked better (the magazine I mean...the food was so good) but I really didn't feel like doing any more work (I just got done packing, so am literally on my last legs before I crash for the night). Anyway, lemme break this down. 

The winter salad had kale, which we tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. It also had macerated peaches (peaches that were cubed and then tossed in some lemon juice and sugar to make them slightly sweeter), gingerbread roasted hazelnuts (These are FIRE, definitely a shout) and some Burrata on top. The spring main course was a bell pepper Romesco sauce (it is made with garlic, paprika, vinegar, nuts and peppers) on top of which I crushed some more of those gingerbread hazelnuts, and then it has some simple green beans and a piece of pan seared salmon. 

PAUSE. So what exactly is not going to exist? Which of the ingredients won't be there in the future? Well, everything I've mentioned so far actually. When it comes to cheeses, any cheese that's not salted early in the process will become harder to produce as the enzymes stop working correctly, which gets rid of a lot of soft cheeses: for example, Burrata. Citrus fruits will always grow, but at higher temperatures, they lose their acidity completely. As for the kale, peaches and nuts, they just wouldn't grow, and the same is true for the bell peppers and green beans. Salmon wouldn't survive in hot water, so that's gone too. And I'll foreshadow the rest a bit...Sugarcane takes a lot of water to grow so that'll be more expensive (which means all sugar will be expensive), chickens don't have sweat glands which means at temps above 29°C, they stand a very high chance of heatstroke, which would make eggs way more expensive, and at higher temperatures, flowers don't grow as well and produce more bitter honey. 

So the summer dessert was a simple key lime tart with a pistachio sable as its crust and meringues on top. By the way, the sable was beautiful as a pie crust but they took way too much work...still recommend making anyway. And the cheese board was our way of ending the meal, with simple flavours, the dill havarti was beautiful and I loved the jam and crostinis on their own. 

It was a good meal. And I'm supremely proud of how well we pulled this off in a semi-functional college dorm room kitchen. 

If you're interested in making these, DM me @vedantrao73 on insta for the recipes (IDK if anyone really looks at this part of my blog so if you want to know, text me and I'll send them to you) 

And YEAH! I'm going to try to post more now that I got done with exams 

*Note: I don't know how much time I'm going to have this summer but I'll try to maximise the break and maybe get a post in every week/every other week. Wishful thinking but next year I'll probably have to cook a lot more food, so you might end up seeing more of me after all!