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September 04, 2007

Adventures in Cooking, or How to Burn Water

Before you get worried at the thought of Sunny in the kitchen, let me assure you that no trips have been to the emergency room yet.

There were some very generous people who gave excellent Calphalon cookware for Sherrie Ann and my wedding (thank you!). Having done little cooking in my life beyond instant ramen, pasta or the occasional Mexican rice, I was wary about stepping out of the relative comfort of the frying pan into the raw, unrelenting fire that is kitchen ballet. I will chronicle my first steps in cooking calisthenics. And by chronicle, I mean I'll keep it short.

After figuring out what each utensil, device, container, pot and pan was and it's core intended use, it was time to set the flames upon something.

Attempt 1: Instant Stir Fry

Dish: Frozen, pre-packaged stir fry with radiatori noodles and a cream sauce.

Preparation: This is a simple throw it all in a pan to heat everything up and serve.

Summary: I wanted to use the wok, to see what all the hubub was about. It was cool, but I overcooked everything.

Outcome: Edible.

Attempt 2: Fried Steamed Tofu

Dish: Sweet pan fried tofu with furikake.

Preparation: Limited to (AKA, inspired by) random and sparse fridge pickings, I selected firm tofu cut into 1in. by 2in. by 3in. blocks, marinated in soba tsuyu for a couple of minutes while the pan heated. Add furikake to the mix, and place the tofu in pan with all the sauce and some water. Cover and steam for a couple minutes. Remove the cover and cook until most of the water/sauce is gone (a minute or so). Add a dash or two of extra virgin olive oil and fry both sides of the tofu block for less than a minute each.

Summary: The different phases of cooking go pretty fast, but it's hard to overcook firm tofu.

Outcome: Actually, quite good!

Attempt 3: Hash Browns

Dish: One of the classic breakfast staples, hash browns.

Preparation: While at the store buying hurricane supplies in case Flosie hit us hard, we picked up a bag of regular brown potatoes (none much larger than fist-sized). A quick Google search came up with the recipe and a key element to the preparation. First, mostly peel the potatoes and grate them. Next, and importantly, dry them with a towel. Chop some onions and mix into the potatoes. Drop a slice of butter in a pan for coloring and pour in the potato onion mixture. Cook each side (re-butter before flipping) for 5-7 minutes and serve.

Summary: Such a simple and easy dish, there was very little opportunity to mess up.

Outcome: Yummy.

At this point, we consulted with a couple of kitchen veterans (Jan and Shelly) as to what every kitchen should have as core ingredients. We went shopping and stocked up on a lot of spices, sauces, oils, herbs, veggies and other core ingredients. Now it's time to make something for real.

Attempt 4: Asparagus and Tofu in Balsamic Vinegar

Dish: Fresh asparagus and firm tofu cooked in a balsamic vinegar and butter sauce. Taken from a cookbook: New Food Fast, by Donna Hay.

Preparation: Start with butter and balsamic vinegar and gradually add a few things including halved asparagus and finally tofu. It's a very simply prepared dish, which seems to be the point of most of the recipes in that cookbook.

Summary: I made a couple of mistakes with this dish. First, Sherrie Ann was excited to use our asparagus pot and pre-cooked the asparagus. Second, we made an entire batch of asparagus, which while good, was way too much. Third, although the recipe didn't call for it, the tofu should have been marinated.

Outcome: Overcooked asparagus, under-flavored tofu, and the late addition of thyme couldn't be saved by the wonderous balsamic butter sauce taste. Call this one a failure but worth another try. The gas it gave us was rather pungent too.

Attempt 5: Classic Stir Fry

Dish: A classic, simple, vegetable stir fry.

Preparation: Armed with a stocked fridge, including a package of pre-cut stir fry vegetables from the market (and some additional fresh veggies), this should have been a very easy concoction, even without following any recipe.

Summary: Slightly discouraged by my first attempt, and too lazy to dig out the wok again, I cooked this in a large pan. Mistake #1. I started with a little sesame oil and dropped in raw broccoli which was a good start since it was the thickest and needed longest to cook. Mistake #2 -- I didn't use enough oil so the cooking on the broccoli wasn't even. I then added snow peas (so delicious!) and cooked a little more, but added a little water for a more even cooking. I covered the pan to get a little steaming action for a short time. Adding the package of pre-cut veggies and a couple dashes of shoyu, I steamed and cooked a bit longer. Tasting proved mistake #3. I didn't rinse the pre-cut veggies so they had a vinegary taste which I overcompensated with by adding too much shoyu. I also added a few squirts of the classic Thai hot sauce with the green cap. I finished by adding sesame sticks and served.

Outcome: I really should have used the wok. I overcooked everything again, trying to get out the vinegary taste and added way too much shoyu. I also could have used a little less hot sauce. The dish was far too salty. Adding some unsalted peanut butter helped quite a bit but in the end we couldn't finish our servings, me because it was too salty and Sherrie Ann because it was too spicy. Another failure.

Attempt 6: Something with Anaheim Chiles

Dish: I didn't know what I wanted to make, but I know I wanted Anaheim chiles. It turned out to be a scrambled omelet.

Preparation: I was thinking of stuffing the chile but read about roasting them over an open flame in The Joy of Cooking and being the fire bug I am, knew I had to try that. I roasted the chile in the gas stove flame for a couple of minutes and scraped off the skin. Slicing, cleaning and dicing the chiles, I diced an amount of onion to match and chopped up a fair amount of fresh parsley. I added butter in a pan and caramelized the onions and added the chiles while I beat three eggs with the parsley and a handful of mild cheddar cheese. Pouring in the egg mixture, I folded and mixed the onions and chiles and tried to make an omelet. It broke when I folded so it ended up being more of a scrambled egg style dish. I served with about a teaspoon of capers.

Summary: Again an off-the-cuff dish that turned out well. No real mistakes and roasting the chiles was both fun and very tasty.

Outcome: Really quite good. The roasted chiles were awesome and the capers added the needed touch of salt and a counter of sweet. The caramelized onions didn't add any flavor but gave body and the fresh parsley was a great background taste.

What will the next dish be? I don't know, but I now know that a very good large chopping knife is next on the shopping list! I also know that this is just the beginning of a very interesting and fun chapter in my life.

Posted at 07:00 PM | Life and Work | Comments (1)