Category: cooking project

kitchen production | green curry and garlic green beans

Back in the kitchen! Actually, I was borrowing my friends kitchen so I could cook again. So I took the initiative to invite myself and cook. Thank goodness they were so thankful for me to come over and cook. It was fun! I do apologize because there was no effort for photos for during the process. I was too deep into conversation and there was a moment where I forgot an important ingredient. -.-

The final photo

I added a couple chili peppers and man, there was a lot of heat!! I am glad I did it cause it tasted SO GOOD!!

Here is the Top view of the main course. ^_^

I added a Russet potato to get some starch, carrots, yellow bell pepper, green peas, and grilled chicken for the meat. Oh man, I’m actually excited to eat some for my lunch tomorrow.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! I gotta get my kitchen back into shape (cries internally) but I’m afraid it’s gonna be a while. I’ll update you guys about the disaster I call the kitchen.

GREEN CURRY: 👍🏼👍🏼
GARLIC STRING BEANS: 👍🏼👍🏼

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👍🏼👍🏼 – Damn tasty; definitely will make again
👍🏼 – Good; will make again, eventually
👎🏼- Eh; may not make again.. might need adjustment
👎🏼👎🏼 – Ew; don’t like and will not make again

kitchen production | arroz caldo (rice & chicken porridge)

I know when I start to get homesick and eating “healthy” just isn’t making me feel any better, I turn to what I’m used to eating. Unfortunately, having food prepared by mom hasn’t been readily available in over 10 years. So I have tried to recreate certain dishes to sate that craving. It’s a simple dish and since most people are getting sick and it’s just a very homey dish that “feeds the soul.” That dish is called Arroz Caldo (aka: rice & chicken porridge.)

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Side note: Still working on the documenting the process of cooking. Sometimes I get so caught up in the prep and I start cooking that I forget to document from the start. Anyways, it’s pretty simple, like I said. This is pretty much halfway done.

Majority of the recipe!

I didn’t quite follow the recipe to the tee, to be honest. I pretty much just adjusted it to what I wanted it to be and used my taste memory of what my parent’s cooked it like. Also it didn’t come out “soupy” because the rice ended up absorbing the liquid so I would just have a side of the “broth” (or sabaw, what we say in Tagalog) and pour it on when I was ready to eat.

Final product

I also improvised and improved the dish to my liking. It’s important as one cooks, to make a dish that YOU would like to eat.. not necessarily for others. So for me, I like texture and flavor so I’ll do my best to add what I think will meld flavors together. I fried up some turkey bacon because I like the crunchy texture, especially when it comes to something soft. I prefer turkey bacon versus actual bacon because it’s less greasy and slightly healthier. I also added a boiled egg because it’s freaking good. Heh, I’M KIDDING! Nah, it’s what I grew up eating when my parents make this. We would eat this mostly for breakfast and so it coincidently pairs well with the turkey bacon! Also, the secret ingredient… citrus. Back home, we have our version of citrus called “calamansi” or I believe they call it “calamondin” here in the States. Unfortunately, these guys aren’t easily readily available for my beckon so I used lemons. Mmm, I tell ya.. when you eat this, it’s kind of hard to stop.

FINAL PRODUCT!

ARROZ CALDO: 👍🏼👍🏼

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👍🏼👍🏼 – Damn tasty; definitely will make again
👍🏼 – Good; will make again, eventually
👎🏼- Eh; may not make again.. might need adjustment
👎🏼👎🏼 – Ew; don’t like and will not make again

kitchen production | vietnamese rice noodle salad

I got a little carried away when preparing and “cooking” (this recipe actually didn’t need much cooking) so I only have a few clips of the food.

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I had a little poll on instagram as to what to make for dinner today. The winner is..

VIETNAMESE RICE NOODLE SALAD!!

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It was great! And it was luckily an easy recipe. The interesting part was the dressing. If you’re curious as to where I’m getting this, the recipe came from “Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck.” I haven’t cooked officially in the longest time so I decided that i needed to have a purpose before starting. I told a couple friends that I wanted to start cooking but I needed some taste tester. I figured if I have a responsibility, it’ll push me to follow through. So here we are!

Pretty & simple. 🙂

I must admit, this was my first time making anything Vietnamese. I live in an area with lots of Vietnamese food so I don’t attempt to make it much but it was a nice challenge. Trying to get a sense of balance in the taste was crucial to the dish, I feel. Sadly, I have no Vietnamese friends so I can’t get any feedback from the source. (heh.) Also I’m not used to the palate of Vietnamese food. It had a lot of herbs and “refreshing” ingredients that I’m not used to eating!

Final part: Dressing!

I made some adjustment when I served it to my friend. I thought it needed some more “protein” and some spice to it so I added sausage to it. I know in some dishes, I remember them adding sausage so I thought it was appropriate for the dish.

FINAL Product! Looks & tastes great!

Overall, the dish was refreshing and tasty. I may make it again when I don’t want to eat anything heavy. I will say that I’m pretty lucky to not have to hunt for all the herbs because of the asian markets here.

VIETNAMESE RICE NOODLE SALAD: 👍🏼

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👍🏼👍🏼 – Damn tasty; definitely will make again
👍🏼 – Good; will make again, eventually
👎🏼- Eh; may not make again.. might need adjustment
👎🏼👎🏼 – Ew; don’t like and will not make again