My Autobiography: David Balleza K(C)atague: My Two Favorite Recipes for Smoked Salmon-One of My Christmas Gift This Year

Monday, December 27, 2021

My Two Favorite Recipes for Smoked Salmon-One of My Christmas Gift This Year

Spaghetti and Smoked Salmon in Mushroom Sauce

The other day, Dinah gave me two boxes of smoked salmon as one of her Christmas gifts. I have never cooked smoked salmon before, so I started reading recipes using smoked salmon in pasta in the Web. I found hundreds of recipes of pasta and smoked salmon in various sauces.

I was looking for a recipe that is easy and simple. The following two recipes are my own creation inspired by the availability and abundance of fresh mushrooms in our local grocery store and the can of cream of mushroom soup and spaghetti pasta that I found in our pantry. Other kinds of pasta may be used. Garnishing with chopped green onions or parsley is optional.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2/3 cup (160ml) dry white wine or vermouth
1/4 cup jicama (Mexican turnips or sincamas) finely chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup diluted in 1 cup of water
4 big fresh white mushrooms chopped to about 1/4 inch
8-10oz (250-300g) smoked salmon, cut in 1/2-inch (1cm) pieces
garlic salt, to taste
1/4 lb. spaghetti( or other pasta such as linguine, farfalle etc)
parsley or green onions for garnishing (optional)

Procedure

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the onions until golden and starting to caramelize, about 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté just until it loses its raw edge, about one minute more. Then add the chopped jicama. Saute until cooked (5 minutes). Add the chopped fresh mushrooms. Saute for 5 minutes. Then add the can of cream of mushrooms soup diluted with 1 cup of hot water. Pour in the wine and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat slightly and stir in the smoked salmon. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 more minutes, until the sauce is quite thick. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the spaghetti in the boiling salted water until just al dente. Drain the spaghetti and let it cool. Pour the sauce into the spaghetti and served immediately.
Garnished, if you like, with parsley or chopped green onions. Delicious and savory!

My Own Recipe-Ampalaya with Smoked Salmon

One of the most healthy Filipino dish if you are a diabetic is the Ampalaya or bitter melon with shrimps. In the Philippines a variation of the dish is to use pork instead of the shrimps. In some recipes both shrimps and pork are used in equal proportions. This recipe is almost a weekly fare in our menu when we are in the Philippines because of the abundance of the bitter melon.

As a personal variation to the recipe, I have created my own recipe using smoked salmon instead of prawns, shrimps and/or pork. The recipe was inspired by a smoked salmon -one of my Christmas gift this year. I shredded the smoked salmon prior to adding it to the sauteed ampalaya dish mixture.

Ingredients

4 medium ampalaya or bitter melon (cut lengthwise)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 lb smoked salmon, shredded
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup water
6 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
soy sauce or fish sauce(patis)optional) to taste. I do not like patis since I am not a true-blooded Tagalog but an Ilonggo.

Procedure

1. Cut ampalaya lengthwise and scrape off seeds and white pith. Slice thinly and place in a bowl, covered in cold water with a little salt* until needed.

2. In a wide skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring regularly, until tender. Add in tomatoes and cook until softened, regularly mashing with back of spoon.

3.* Add the squeezed and debittered ampalaya* to pan and gently mix it into the dish. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes or until tender yet crisp.

4. Add the smoked salmon and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until salmon is thoroughly incorporated in the dish.(The soy sauce or patis could be added at this point(optional in my recipe).

5. In a thin stream, add the beaten eggs and gently stir to distribute. Continue to cook for about 1 minute or until eggs have set. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

* Ampalaya is very bitter. To remove most of its bitterness, the slice melon is soak in cold salted water for at least 30 minutes and then drained prior to cooking. This soaking and draining process may be repeated if you want to remove most of the bitterness in the ampalaya. I personally drained my ampalaya 3 times before I used it in my recipe above.

Thank you, Dinah for your Christmas Gift this Year! Love You, Dad

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Highlights of My Professional Career

In my more than 40 years of professional career, I have experienced both working rank and file, as well as supervising the work of subordinates. I have worked in four private firms and the Federal Government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where I retired. I enjoyed the challenges and difficulties of both types of job situations. This is the highlights of my work experience story.

My first job after completing my doctorate degree was a Chemist for Chemagro Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a subsidiary of Bayer Corporation, a German conglomerate. I worked for the analytical chemistry department comprised of about fifty people; half that number was either chemists or biologists. My specific task was to develop analytical methods for the detection of pesticide residues in plant and animal tissues. I worked on my own, similar to six other bench chemists, and we all reported to the same supervisor.

The firm sponsored my visa conversion from a student to a permanent resident, and I was able to legally work and reside in the United States with my family. The company generously took care of its employees. At the end of each successful year, everyone received a 13th month salary bonus. The employees and their families celebrated wonderful annual Christmas parties in a downtown Kansas City hotel, with dancing and free drinks for the whole night.

Inasmuch as I enjoyed and loved working for Chemagro for five years, I found a new job which offered a substantially higher pay. Due to my exemplary work performance, my supervisor preferred and lobbied for me to stay with the company. I had to turn him down because they could not match the package presented by my new employer. It was also a chance for me and my family to move and live in the US west coast, where the mild winter climate is bearable compared to the Midwest.

My next job was at the agricultural research division of Shell Development Company in Modesto, California. I was a Research Chemist, and again I worked individually, same as five other chemists who all reported to a supervisor. My specific duty was similar to my previous job. I worked for them for five years, until the company decided to get out of the pesticide business. They closed their research facility affecting the jobs of more than 200 employees.

My third industrial job was with the agricultural research division of Stauffer chemical company, located in Richmond, California. I was a Senior Research Chemist doing the same project as my two previous jobs. I worked for twelve continuous years for the company, with outstanding annual job performance. I became a Principal Research Chemist, the highest attainable non-supervisory position.

One day in 1986, my supervisor informed me that my job had been eliminated, and I had one day to vacate the facility. It was the most dreadful lay off experience in my life. I felt anger, sadness and humiliation to be dismissed from work with one day notice, after all the years of hard work invested for the company. This was an unforgettable incident and was the gloomiest point in my professional career.
The company terminated sixty research employees, who were upset of the bad news.

One of the chemists was distressed and expressed his outrageous anger by threatening the company and its workers. He told his supervisor of his intention to bomb and burn down the laboratory. He was immediately escorted by the security staff out of the building and into his car. He was informed to leave behind his personal belongings; they will be mailed to his residence. He was warned never to show up again near the company premises or risk getting arrested.

My supervisor was kind and allowed me to take my time to pack up my belongings. It took me two days to clear up my workplace, after toiling for a long period in the same jobsite. We were provided clerical help and office space, in preparation to look for another job, such as updating our resumes, and using the computer and copy machine. We were given six weeks of separation pay plus benefits.

Fortunately, with the help of a friend who is a Church parishioner, I found another job thirty days after leaving Stauffer chemical company. He hired me as a senior research chemist and as a group leader with two technicians to supervise. It was in the same field as my expertise in my previous three jobs spanning the last twenty one years. My new employer was Chevron Chemical Company, and which was located in the same area as my former employer.

This job gave me the introduction and basic knowledge of managing the work of subordinates. I worked for Chevron Company for four and a half years. The company decided to consolidate their research facilities in Texas, and lay off all its research employees. This time I had enough distress and agony from working, and eventually getting laid off from several private companies. To avoid going through any more miserable layoffs, I made a vow that I would never again work for a private company.

In my work experiences, there were noticeable and unavoidable jobsite occurrences. One can never miss the office romantic relationships between co-workers, both illicit and permitted. Though it was frowned upon, there was a boss and staff relationship, which was used as a ploy to get ahead in the company. Some relationships had chemistry, no pun intended, but some never worked out. Oftentimes, there was a sense of distrust among bench chemists for some workers who unjustly obtained preferred work assignments.

Some employees resorted to bribing superiors to get special privileges, such as being able to attend choice conferences and meetings in exciting venues or locations. Likewise, politics was always present at the worksites. It was during an era when various forms of harassment, equal opportunity and discrimination laws were not yet enforced in the workplace. Occasionally, an unexpected chemical explosion happens in a laboratory setting, where luckily no one got seriously hurt.

In the three private companies I worked for, I was able to publish scientific journals for some of the research studies and analytical methods which I developed for the respective companies of Chemagro, Shell Development and Stauffer.

After deciding and making a vow to avoid working in the private sector, I made my new goal which was either to work for the state of California, or the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Four months after I lost my job in Chevron, I was lucky and joyful to be hired by the Food and Drug Administration as a review chemist in the fall of 1990.

In 1994 I was promoted as an Expert Research Chemist with a GS-14 rating. My expertise was on Anti-malarial and Anti-parasitic drug products. In 1997, I was again deservingly promoted to Chemistry team leader, supervising the work of six Chemistry reviewers including five with doctorate degrees.

As team leader, I was responsible for prioritizing, assigning, and assuring the technical accuracy of all chemistry, manufacturing and control issues for all new drug applications submitted to the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Center of New Drugs.

It was part of my responsibility to give advice, instruct and promote high morale and teamwork in my group. My work in the FDA is confidential, until the drug patent on the products I worked on has expired. There are manufacturing supplements that I have approved that are now open for the public in the Internet.

In 1998, I won the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Award. The citation reads, “For outstanding accomplishments in fostering the objectives of the EEO Program by hiring minorities and encouraging their professional growth while providing excellent leadership.” I have received numerous certificates of appreciation, awards in leadership and communications, commendation for teamwork and excellence in the accomplishment of the FDA mission. I have also received several letters of appreciation from private industry for my review work.

There are many good things working as rank and file while enjoying doing one’s job individually. It is a humbling, satisfying and productive experience, if one can work in harmony with one’s immediate supervisor. Working individually develops one’s skills in goal setting and scheduling. But in general, the financial rewards are less than a person who has supervisory responsibilities.

Managing the work of others has its challenges. Moreover, it develops one’s skill in handling and developing people, and the compensation rewards and benefits are better. Due to additional duties, responsibilities and leadership, supervisory work can be more stressful than working as a subordinate. However, supervisory jobs give one more personal growth and satisfaction, based on my personal experience. My work in FDA as a team leader managing the work of six scientists had been the happiest and rewarding work experience in my career in Chemistry. You might also like:

Monday, December 27, 2021

My Two Favorite Recipes for Smoked Salmon-One of My Christmas Gift This Year

Spaghetti and Smoked Salmon in Mushroom Sauce

My Own Recipe-Ampalaya with Smoked Salmon

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