One of the things I've been forced to do during the pandemic-driven quarantine is cook. I don't really cook because (1) the effort to prepare food, cook it, and wash dishes, pots, and pans after is such a pain, especially when you are just cooking for one, and (2) I'm crap at it LOL. In fact, before ECQ started, I was starting to lament the fact that I spent a lot of money on cooking equipment, cookware, knives, and cookbooks that I never really got to use. That is, until recently.
A few years ago, I bought a cookbook called QuickCook One Pot where all recipes can be cooked in just one pot. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that most of the recipes in it required an oven which I didn't have. I looked through all the recipes and the one that seemed simplest to cook was this fancy sounding French-style Chick Stew with Tarragon. As a first attempt, I was pleasantly surprised that the chicken, carrots, and potatoes were all well-cooked (I did stew them for 30 minutes or maybe more). However, I made the stupid and horrible mistake of adding 500mL of white wine when the recipe just called for 50mL!!! As such, the broth didn't taste good at all hahaha. I still ate everything but I did toss out most of the broth. :)
My next two attempts were for recipes that were also in the cookbook. There was a recipe for Chicken Saute with Peas, Lettuce, and Tarragon but there wasn't any lettuce at the supermarket so I substituted it with broccoli. This was miles better than my first cooking attempt.
I also cooked Linguine with Creamy Chicken Carbonara. This turned out quite well too.
However, I am not sure if I undercooked the chicken (I'm almost certain I didn't) or if it was the egg or the sour cream I used in the carbonara but after eating these dishes, I ended up having very bad stomach problems that forced me to go on sick leave for a couple of days. I had a couple of servings of pasta at that point but I decided to throw everything out. I also avoided cooking for a while after that.
My next cooking attempt was pork giniling. My friends shared their recipes with me. However, I badly underseasoned my first attempt. It looked very unappetizing and worse, it tasted like boiled meat hahaha.
I was so unhappy with that attempt that I decided to try and cook it again, but this time with tomato sauce. I was planning to use soy sauce but I had an extra beef cube so I decided to use that instead. My second attempt still lacked salt but it didn't look as pale but more importantly, it tasted so much better!
I also tried Cacio e Pepe. I saw Jamie Oliver prepare this on his cooking show and it had only three ingredients - spaghetti, freshyl grated Pecorino cheese, and freshly ground pepper - so I thought it would be easy to do. As it turned out, my version was not bad.
Finally, a friend of mine shared her recipe for Ragu alla Bolegnese. She told me that it took her a couple of hours to cook this sauce but since the recipe calls for red wine, she would drink some of the wine while chopping and cooking to make the experience more enjoyable. I decided to get a really good bottle of wine for this (I got the youngest Matsu) and I followed my friend's recommendation to have wine while cooking. The result: t was a tad salty - I put in two beef cubes when I should have put just one - and a bit too dry but it was really delicious and had the most complex flavor of everything I had cooked so far. I would say that this was the best dish I have cooked so far and I certainly plan to make it again soon. And my friend was right, drinking wine while preparing this slow-cooked pasta sauce made the overall cooking experience more relaxing and enjoyable. :)
I also cooked mustard pork chops, a recipe I discovered almost two decades ago, but I can't seem to cook it as well as I did when I discovered it back in around 2001. Maybe I need to use a non-stick pan or marinate the pork chops in dijon mustard a lot longer.
Aside from these dishes, I also cook breakfast almost every morning. I alternate corned beef (I often use Purefoods but I also discovered Highlands Gold which is pretty good too),
luncheon meat (Korean brand "No Brand" was sold at a promo for a while so I tried it and it tasted like Spam. Unfortunately, it isn't on promo anymore and the ones I see now are priced quite high. As such, I often get Spam with 25% less Sodium),
and bacon (I've been cooking CDO Premium uncured bacon). My first attempt was an absolute disaster because I cooked at a very high temperature and I generated so much smoke that my smoke detector was triggered (thankfully, the sprinkler didn't automatically spray water all over my unit!). My friends recommended that I cook at a medium-low heat. I've been doing this ever since and I am so much happier with the results.
My friends also suggested that when I buy lots of vegetables, I should try to blanche them as soon as possible then stick them in the freezer. When I am ready to eat them, I can just re-blanche or microwave them. This helps keep the vegetables as fresh as possible (if you keep them in the vegetable bin for a few to many days, they lose their freshness pretty quickly). My friends also suggested that I eat my blanched veggies with a drizzle of sesame oil and some salt and pepper.
I also recently discovered King Merbi Free Range Brown Eggs. They are about 50% more expensive than caged eggs but I decided to buy these because the farm they are from treat the chickens much more humanely (they are free range and not caged). Apparently, free range eggs tend to be a lot healthier than caged eggs too.
Other kitchen and food preparation experiences:
I'm still a crap cook and I still don't enjoy cooking like other people do but I have gotten marginally better at it. I've also improved my food prep and my mise en place. My next attempt to cook will be Beef with Mushrooms in Cream (a friend shared her recipe with me) and a couple of other recipes from my cook book. If I can get my hands on ground cinnamon, I will also attempt French Toast. Good luck to me!
A few years ago, I bought a cookbook called QuickCook One Pot where all recipes can be cooked in just one pot. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that most of the recipes in it required an oven which I didn't have. I looked through all the recipes and the one that seemed simplest to cook was this fancy sounding French-style Chick Stew with Tarragon. As a first attempt, I was pleasantly surprised that the chicken, carrots, and potatoes were all well-cooked (I did stew them for 30 minutes or maybe more). However, I made the stupid and horrible mistake of adding 500mL of white wine when the recipe just called for 50mL!!! As such, the broth didn't taste good at all hahaha. I still ate everything but I did toss out most of the broth. :)
My next two attempts were for recipes that were also in the cookbook. There was a recipe for Chicken Saute with Peas, Lettuce, and Tarragon but there wasn't any lettuce at the supermarket so I substituted it with broccoli. This was miles better than my first cooking attempt.
I also cooked Linguine with Creamy Chicken Carbonara. This turned out quite well too.
However, I am not sure if I undercooked the chicken (I'm almost certain I didn't) or if it was the egg or the sour cream I used in the carbonara but after eating these dishes, I ended up having very bad stomach problems that forced me to go on sick leave for a couple of days. I had a couple of servings of pasta at that point but I decided to throw everything out. I also avoided cooking for a while after that.
My next cooking attempt was pork giniling. My friends shared their recipes with me. However, I badly underseasoned my first attempt. It looked very unappetizing and worse, it tasted like boiled meat hahaha.
I was so unhappy with that attempt that I decided to try and cook it again, but this time with tomato sauce. I was planning to use soy sauce but I had an extra beef cube so I decided to use that instead. My second attempt still lacked salt but it didn't look as pale but more importantly, it tasted so much better!
I also tried Cacio e Pepe. I saw Jamie Oliver prepare this on his cooking show and it had only three ingredients - spaghetti, freshyl grated Pecorino cheese, and freshly ground pepper - so I thought it would be easy to do. As it turned out, my version was not bad.
Finally, a friend of mine shared her recipe for Ragu alla Bolegnese. She told me that it took her a couple of hours to cook this sauce but since the recipe calls for red wine, she would drink some of the wine while chopping and cooking to make the experience more enjoyable. I decided to get a really good bottle of wine for this (I got the youngest Matsu) and I followed my friend's recommendation to have wine while cooking. The result: t was a tad salty - I put in two beef cubes when I should have put just one - and a bit too dry but it was really delicious and had the most complex flavor of everything I had cooked so far. I would say that this was the best dish I have cooked so far and I certainly plan to make it again soon. And my friend was right, drinking wine while preparing this slow-cooked pasta sauce made the overall cooking experience more relaxing and enjoyable. :)
I also cooked mustard pork chops, a recipe I discovered almost two decades ago, but I can't seem to cook it as well as I did when I discovered it back in around 2001. Maybe I need to use a non-stick pan or marinate the pork chops in dijon mustard a lot longer.
Aside from these dishes, I also cook breakfast almost every morning. I alternate corned beef (I often use Purefoods but I also discovered Highlands Gold which is pretty good too),
luncheon meat (Korean brand "No Brand" was sold at a promo for a while so I tried it and it tasted like Spam. Unfortunately, it isn't on promo anymore and the ones I see now are priced quite high. As such, I often get Spam with 25% less Sodium),
and bacon (I've been cooking CDO Premium uncured bacon). My first attempt was an absolute disaster because I cooked at a very high temperature and I generated so much smoke that my smoke detector was triggered (thankfully, the sprinkler didn't automatically spray water all over my unit!). My friends recommended that I cook at a medium-low heat. I've been doing this ever since and I am so much happier with the results.
My friends also suggested that when I buy lots of vegetables, I should try to blanche them as soon as possible then stick them in the freezer. When I am ready to eat them, I can just re-blanche or microwave them. This helps keep the vegetables as fresh as possible (if you keep them in the vegetable bin for a few to many days, they lose their freshness pretty quickly). My friends also suggested that I eat my blanched veggies with a drizzle of sesame oil and some salt and pepper.
I also recently discovered King Merbi Free Range Brown Eggs. They are about 50% more expensive than caged eggs but I decided to buy these because the farm they are from treat the chickens much more humanely (they are free range and not caged). Apparently, free range eggs tend to be a lot healthier than caged eggs too.
Other kitchen and food preparation experiences:
- I've been using my previously unused oven toaster everyday now.
- I bought a wooden spoon for cooking and a cheese grater.
- For the first time since I was a kid, I cooked Knorr soups, specifically Nido and Cream of Mushroom (I gotta say, these really are good, flavorful soups that are very easy to prepare).
- I've burned fingers a couple of times.
- I'm seriously contemplating getting a non-stick pan.
- I bought an espresso maker that works on induction stoves. I bought it because coffee filters were out of stock at the supermarket for a couple of weeks so I needed a way to make coffee without filters. I've been using my espresso maker about 4-5 times a day (don't worry, I only drink one proper coffee a day; the rest of the cups I have are decaf).
I'm still a crap cook and I still don't enjoy cooking like other people do but I have gotten marginally better at it. I've also improved my food prep and my mise en place. My next attempt to cook will be Beef with Mushrooms in Cream (a friend shared her recipe with me) and a couple of other recipes from my cook book. If I can get my hands on ground cinnamon, I will also attempt French Toast. Good luck to me!
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