More Asian food

December 12, 2020 10:24 PM

Just showing you the two things I cooked this past week.

First, Thai Green Curry Chicken. This is the second time I've made this recipe, and it's very flavorful. Preparing the veggies takes a bit of time, but I'm just slow at cutting things, so it's really easy to make.

Also, this made a huge batch, so I'm probably going to freeze some of this.

Later in the week, I made Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage. Did you know I used to hate Chinese sausage 腊肠? I was a really picky kid, but my tastes have evolved a lot since then.

I did use sweet rice in this, which worked out really well. This is the first time I've ever cooked sticky rice and it was pretty easy. The combination of sticky rice, shiitake mushrooms, and Chinese sausage was great.

I even attempted to form this in an upside down bowl shape. But I was being lazy and didn't pack it very well, so I had to quickly take this picture as it was slowly falling apart.

Everything was delicious.

Pad Kra Pao

December 15, 2020 9:38 PM

Last week I had bought Thai basil so I could put it in my green curry. In hindsight, I should have either put all of it in the curry, or just not bought it at all. Because what that left me with was some basil that was starting to look kinda sad. But that's okay! I can just put it in another stir fry! A bunch of leaves were getting really dark, so I did throw some out, but it still smelled fine, which is the the important part.

I decided to make Pad Kra Pao (Ground pork and basil stir fry) since it looked easy. And it was, but I realized I deviated a lot from the recipe:

• I added a bell pepper, since I had one that I needed to use up.
• The recipe called for two shallots, and to me, shallots are just expensive tiny red onions. I didn't even have those, so I just substituted it with half a yellow onion.
• Holy crap, this called for 7 cloves of garlic! If I had known that, I would have bought more garlic two days ago. I only used 5 cloves because I needed to save some for a different dish.
• I didn't add the chicken broth/water since it didn't seem necessary.
• I used Thai basil, not Holy basil. Obviously.

As I was just about done cooking this, I had a realization. I didn't make rice yet! So, there I was, frantically getting rice, washing it, and then putting it in the rice cooker. And then I figured I should cut up a green onion to garnish this dish. I was getting really impatient, and right as the rice cooker clicked to "Warm" I took some rice out.

I don't know if other people's rice cookers function like mine, but you pretty much always have to wait 5 or 10 more minutes after it claims to be done cooking before it's actually done cooking. So the rice was a little on the hard side.

Slightly undercooked rice aside, this was very good.

Meal Plan: 12/12 - 12/18

December 18, 2020 7:54 PM

It's almost the end of 2020! And I'm going to be visiting family soon, so this week's meal planning was a little different. I had originally intended on making noodle soup, but when I looked at my whiteboard, I realized there were some foods that I really needed to use up before my vacation started.

Look! I finally threw out my half and half! I was about to pour some more in my coffee and I smelled it, and I decided that it was time to get rid of it. Since I did that, I smelled my milk as well, and while it wasn't quite bad yet, I could tell it would get there soon, so I marked that as something that I needed to use up. I also had a random assortment of vegetables that I didn't quite use up in the previous week's dishes. I checked Budget Bytes for recipes that use milk, and I saw Broccoli Cheddar Soup. I had pretty much everything it needed (broccoli, carrots, and onion) except cheddar.

I also had some Thai basil that was starting to look a little sad, and as you know, I made Pad kra pao with it. I went with that dish since I had ground pork in the freezer already. And I figured this was a good place to throw my last bell pepper.

Oh! And the cabbage! The cabbage that seems impossible for me to use up. I didn't have quite enough to make it the star of another dish, so where did my mind go? TACOS. I checked Pinch of Yum for some taco recipes and I saw a recipe for some Spicy Shrimp Tacos. Perfect. I actually have cooked shrimp in the freezer, which isn't really ideal, but I'm gonna use what I have. It'll also let me make use of the cilantro, scallions, limes, and even the peach yogurt since this calls for yogurt or sour cream. If I go and buy a new container of sour cream or plan greek yogurt, it'll be way too large of a container. The snack size is actually perfect.

And that's everything that I marked, and then some. I'll have to hold off on the noodle soup til next year. Everything I need for that is frozen or dried so it works out.

Really quick grocery trip this time. I had to restock on salt of course. Apparently I also had to restock on flour. Somehow I have spelt flour, whole wheat flour, self rising flour, but no all purpose. I don't want to waste this extra flour, but I have no idea how to use it, and I wish my sister were here to be able to do something fun with it.

Also I bought an avocado because they were on sale. Plus I used it in my tacos.

Wow, I just realized I didn't eat breakfast today. That means I was stressed out. But I have a lot of food left over still. I went and threw my curry in the freezer. I might throw all my other leftovers in the freezer as well.

I'll talk a little about the broccoli cheddar soup I made. It was actually pretty good, and it tasted just like mac n cheese, except instead of mac, it's vegetables. It actually reminded me of Nacho Cheese Easy Mac which was amazing, but is unfortunately discontinued. Maybe I can recreate it now.

Happy holidays

December 20, 2020 8:42 AM

I finally used up the rest of my cabbage, and I used it to make some delicious shrimp tacos.

Even though I used already cooked shrimp and just reheated it in the pan with the spice mix, it still turned out really well. I'd make one adjustment for the future though. The recipe calls for 1 tsp of coarse salt for the spice mix, so I used 1/2 tsp of table salt, and I think I should have cut that down to 1/4 tsp instead.

On an unrelated note, that day I happened to accidentally shoot food into my eyes twice. First, I was squeezing limes for the garlic cilantro lime sauce, and I squirted lime into my eye. Later that day, I was peeling ginger, and somehow I flung a piece of ginger into my other eye!

It's alright. My eyes seem fine now. The tacos were not impacted in any way by this.

I'm on my holiday vacation now, so I'll be taking a mini break from new blog posts. I'll be back some time in January!

I cooked for my dad

January 17, 2021 5:15 PM

Today I cooked lunch for my dad. I'll be honest, this stressed me out. My aunt told me I should make something for him, but I had no idea what to cook. I honestly don't know what my dad likes to eat besides burgers, noodles, and coconut macaroons. Work has exhausted me and stressed me out, and I didn't want to think about making a meal. But I had to.

So I went through my food blog. My whole food blog. And I settled on a couple of stir fry dishes: Thai Basil Chicken and Sauteed Green Beans and Eggplant. I made a grocery list and we went to the Korean store. And you know what happened? They were completely out of basil and green beans! So I was freaking out, trying to think of a Plan B, but then my dad said we could stop at a different Asian grocery store.

Okay, so it's already past 1pm, and I'm starting to prep for lunch. I've gotta chop up green beans, eggplant, bell pepper, garlic, onion, ginger, and chicken. I'm really slow. I don't think I actually started cooking until after 2pm. But if my 大姑 (dua go) were here she'd say "Oh, it must be snowing!" because I never cook around my dad's family and they live in the south.

It's one thing to cook in your own kitchen. It's another thing to cook in a kitchen you're unfamiliar with. I know, it's my dad's kitchen. I should be more familiar with it. But neither his stove nor his oven have any numbers on them! I have no idea where "medium heat" is. I couldn't even really use measuring spoons.

But, I made it work. I'm happy. My dad liked the food.