Cooking over Easter Break!

7 April 2012 Dinner

garlic, onion, green onion, ginger, red chili pepper, red bell pepper, cabbage, 豆干/dòugān (dry tofu?), mirin

I was loosely following a recipe I found in a Chinese vegetarian cookbook. I like the nice, bright colors! (Or is that because of my camera?)


8 April 2012 Lunch

egg, onion, green onion

sweet potato, cilantro

The onion and green onion added to the fried egg was a nice touch! (Would this be considered an omelet?) So was the cilantro added to the steamed sweet potatoes! Yay for spices!

8 April 2012 Dinner

red curry paste (shallot, garlic, galangal, lime juice, lemongrass, cilantro seeds, cumin seeds, kaffir lime leaf, red chilli pepper, olive oil), coconut milk, green bean, broccoli, baby corn cob, cilantro, basil, Japanese ramen noodle (I'm typing this list from memory. I have a feeling I forgot something!)

In the morning, I decided I would try a recipe I found for "red curry with cashews" for dinner, so I went out to the Queen Victoria Market to gather all the ingredients. (I couldn't find some, so I left them out.)

The recipe didn't look so bad, at first. But making it took forever! First, I had to make the red curry paste, which involved a lot of chopping. Then I had to do more chopping. And I cooked some Japanese ramen noodles on the side while doing all the other preparation. This was a bad idea because I couldn't keep track of everything.

Finally, I had everything ready for stir-frying except the coconut milk. So I took the can of coconut milk and a can opener, and proceeded to open the can. Except I couldn't figure out how to use the can opener! After 10 or so minutes, I realized I was working with the wrong end of the can. So I turned the can upside down and spent another 5 minutes before I figured out the proper angle to hold the can opener. Sigh...

But everything worked out after that! And I think it turned out well! There were so many different flavors coming from all those ingredients!

Making the dish took me well over 2 hours! I was super exhausted by the end. I think I need a break from trying out new dishes. Especially if they are all this tiring!

9 April 2012 Dinner

garlic, green onion, broccoli stalk, carrot, dou gan, cabbage, basil, egg

Like I said yesterday, I needed a break after that super complicated recipe. Nothing exciting tonight. I'm just trying to get clear out the refrigerator.

10 April 2012 Dinner

I'm still in the process of clearing out the refrigerator! I was thinking earlier about what I could do with all the vegetables, and one thing I thought of was: pasta! Except I didn't want to use pre-made tomato sauce, so I attempted to make my own sauce with absolutely no idea how to proceed. What I ended up doing was using a can of tomato paste. The result was nice, but nothing like tomato sauce that I am used to.

12 April 2012 Dinner

More tomatoes! This time, I used a can of diced tomatoes instead. And I added a bunch of spices in an attempt to make a tomato and egg curry.

15 April 2012 Lunch

Before break started, I was looking online one day for ideas with fried rice, and found one that used pineapple! When I saw the pictures, I knew I had to try something like that, so I'm glad I was able to get to it on the last day of my break.

I even did the whole pineapple-bowl thing, which was lots of fun!

The dish turned out super sweet!

15 April 2012 Dinner

Some fried quinoa here. Nothing super exciting really; I'm just trying to clear out the refrigerator some more. I had some leftover "red curry paste" (in quotes, because I don't think it turned out correctly!) which I had made for an earlier dish, so I decided to throw some of that in.

And that ends my Easter break cooking spree. I wish the ending was a bit more exciting.