Luckily I had delicious leftovers to eat with the rice: indian food doggy bag boosted with cabbage and tomato. And I'm glad the rice did not stick to the pot.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
So, apparently I don't know how to cook rice
For tonight's dinner, I decided to make rice. I hadn't really made rice in a pot before, but I figured it shouldn't be too difficult. I followed the instructions on the package and put my pot on the burner. When my timer went off, there was a surprise waiting for me! My rice had stuck to itself to form a sort of rice cracked! And I had over-salted it, so it tasted like a rice cracker too.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Tomato-Jicama-Avocado Salad
I made a quick vinaigrette with mustard, cider vinegar, and olive oil. I chopped up three small tomatoes, and about a sixth of a jicama. I cubed half the avocado, and added some cubed cheese for good measure. With some salt and pepper, a slice of toasted bread, this was a very passable dinner. The cheese (part skim mozzarella) and the avocado did not pair very well though. A crumblier cheese like
queso fresco or feta would probably have worked better.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Goat Curry
My roommate and I share a passion for grocery stores. That's a normal interest, right? I kind of want to add "Grocery store enthusiast" to my "about me" section.
So, on our way back from work one evening, we couldn't resist exploring the grocery store that we had passed by a couple times. It seemed pretty standard, but with some slightly exotic produce such as taro and chayote. It also stocked goat meat. In a stroke of "great minds think alike", we both immediately concluded that goat curry was going to happen.
After some research to find a recipe using few different spices, we found this recipe on indiansimmer.com, which asked for cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, and bay leaves. We got these spices in ridiculously large portions for ridiculously cheap from the local international market.
The curry is pretty simple: sautée the spices in oil, add the onion garlic and ginger, add the goat meat, add the tomatoes and salt, simmer for 25 minutes.
The resulting dish was good, but not perfect. The goat meat was rather tough. We each attempted to eat with our respective favorite utensils (fork and knife for me, chopsticks for my roommate) but these quickly proved to be useless. After agreeing on a no-judgement policy, we ended up ripping meat from the bones with our hands and teeth.
Also, the meat was not at all seared and the dish was too greasy. The recipe says to sear the meat after adding the onions, but (at least in our pan) there simply isn't space to do so. So, my roommate and I thought that a way to fix both problems could be first searing the meat without oil and rendering some of its fat, and using that fat (rather than extra oil) to sautée the spices and onions.
So, on our way back from work one evening, we couldn't resist exploring the grocery store that we had passed by a couple times. It seemed pretty standard, but with some slightly exotic produce such as taro and chayote. It also stocked goat meat. In a stroke of "great minds think alike", we both immediately concluded that goat curry was going to happen.
After some research to find a recipe using few different spices, we found this recipe on indiansimmer.com, which asked for cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, and bay leaves. We got these spices in ridiculously large portions for ridiculously cheap from the local international market.
The curry is pretty simple: sautée the spices in oil, add the onion garlic and ginger, add the goat meat, add the tomatoes and salt, simmer for 25 minutes.
The resulting dish was good, but not perfect. The goat meat was rather tough. We each attempted to eat with our respective favorite utensils (fork and knife for me, chopsticks for my roommate) but these quickly proved to be useless. After agreeing on a no-judgement policy, we ended up ripping meat from the bones with our hands and teeth.
Also, the meat was not at all seared and the dish was too greasy. The recipe says to sear the meat after adding the onions, but (at least in our pan) there simply isn't space to do so. So, my roommate and I thought that a way to fix both problems could be first searing the meat without oil and rendering some of its fat, and using that fat (rather than extra oil) to sautée the spices and onions.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
New York
Duuude it's been forever. I'm in New York now. Like, New York, New York. Manhattan. In the middle. For three months. This is pretty exciting.
Living in New York City is very different from the California suburbs I'm always lived in. Cars are honking all over the place. There are regular wafts of rotting food and sewers. It rains in summer. It's hot even if the sun is gone.
What surprised me the most was the cost of food. The cheap restaurants have $7 sandwiches and $12 entrées. Most restaurants have entrées at $15-20. The food in grocery stores is also more expensive, especially the produce, all of which is imported from California.
However, I am not doomed! By the wonders of Yelp, I found a very cheap produce market: http://www.yelp.com/biz/stiles-farmers-market-new-york. Three dollars for four tomatoes and 2 bell peppers? Sounds good to me!
I was curious as to what I would end up cooking when I need to cook for myself regularly. As the kitchen obviously did not come stocked with spices, it is difficult to make anything fancy because I only have the basics in my pantry: The flavorings I have so far are salt, pepper, cinnamon, and hot sauce.
When I first got here, I made a lot of eggs. Specifically, fried eggs on toast with goat cheese and marinara sauce. Then I switched to cabbage and leek pancakes (like this, but I've actually figured a much better way of doing it). I've also made pasta with tomato/bell pepper sauce, and well as tomato/bell pepper salad.
What about New York? Well, I took some pictures!
Living in New York City is very different from the California suburbs I'm always lived in. Cars are honking all over the place. There are regular wafts of rotting food and sewers. It rains in summer. It's hot even if the sun is gone.
What surprised me the most was the cost of food. The cheap restaurants have $7 sandwiches and $12 entrées. Most restaurants have entrées at $15-20. The food in grocery stores is also more expensive, especially the produce, all of which is imported from California.
However, I am not doomed! By the wonders of Yelp, I found a very cheap produce market: http://www.yelp.com/biz/stiles-farmers-market-new-york. Three dollars for four tomatoes and 2 bell peppers? Sounds good to me!
I was curious as to what I would end up cooking when I need to cook for myself regularly. As the kitchen obviously did not come stocked with spices, it is difficult to make anything fancy because I only have the basics in my pantry: The flavorings I have so far are salt, pepper, cinnamon, and hot sauce.
When I first got here, I made a lot of eggs. Specifically, fried eggs on toast with goat cheese and marinara sauce. Then I switched to cabbage and leek pancakes (like this, but I've actually figured a much better way of doing it). I've also made pasta with tomato/bell pepper sauce, and well as tomato/bell pepper salad.
What about New York? Well, I took some pictures!
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