My mother will be so proud
One unintended consequence of our rather thrifty lives here in Scotland is Neil and I now have a (small) repertoire of meals we cook from (practically) fresh. Aside from the occasional pizza from the supermarket chiller, and our moments of takeaway laziness, I’ve actually discovered that (letting Neil do the) cooking (while I find the recipes and do the chopping and slicing, except when the galangal is too tough and Neil has to do it too) can be quite satisfying.
We did a pretty good minestrone last Sunday — the recipe is completely vegetarian, and we are totally going to add some smoked pork sausage to up the dead animal flavour factor. I like vegetarian (they clear out the bowels, vegetarians do), but ye cannae beat the meat (torturously bad pun completely intended). Apparently, it was absolutely the best ever minestrone bar none that Neil’s sister has ever ever had in her entire existence (via Neil’s mother — who’s exaggerating here?).
Our carbonara, sadly, needs something more; more smoked sausage and cheddar, perhaps. It was a wee bit bland, although it fooled us by smelling very much like a yummy carbonara. Tricksy carbonara. When I was a kid I adored pasta alfredo in a packet, it was pretty much the only thing I’d heat on the stove (if it ain’t microwaveable, it had better be better than Campbell’s New England Clam Chowder, that was my mantra).
So, what can we do so far? Beef noodles, tom yam soup, tom kha gai, minestrone, various pastas and sauces, corned beef fried rice, ceviche (not really cooking as it doesn’t involve heat, so I can handle it), various stir-fried vegetables, grilled steak. To the more culinary among you, this may seem like complete bullshit, where’s the challenge, where’s the Masterchef-quality cuisine? Well, I couldn’t even boil an egg six months ago (I’m so sad that I had to look it up on the Internet, do you remember), so this is the serialdeviant.org(y) equivalent of John Torode and Greg Wallace telling me (after the requisite 20-second pause) I’ve won.
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One of the benefits of Xiamen life… cheap eats!
I’m changing apartments and the landlord thought I was pulling a swifty as the gas meter was exactly the same reading as it was when I moved in 2 years ago!
Gonna be tough when I move back to Aus later this year…
carbonara salah cheese lah! Use Parmesan and a dash of soya sauce will lift any dull sauces. Soya sauce gives stews a certain je nais sais quai too.
Incidentally, did you stock up on marinade pouches ala Singapore when you were back recently? I find them a life-saver (not the sweets!)
Tutu, you’re totally right there. Our gas meter barely moved in the two years we lived in Xin Long Cheng!
Jerry, are you saying pastas aren’t to have cheese? I’m trying to season it to my tastes. Soya sauce in pasta sounds rank. And I tend to make my own marinades with a few favourite ingredients, I don’t buy any (although Neil likes to).
Hah, no Andrea. You should use Parmesan cheese when making carbonara. You use a dash of soya sauce in making pasta sauces and a slug more whem making stews, sounds rank but it does work.
Wow! You got recipe for rendang marinate? I bought a whole load when I was back last year.
Er, no rendang marinade. I don’t eat rendang.
but you used to cook when we lived in the monkey flat, didn’t you?
this here is my favourite carbonara recipe, but we omit the heavy cream and tend to use either bacon or thick cut ham chunks instead of pancetta.
I don’t think my overcooking chicken breast to put on a salad should seriously count as cooking…
We use double cream AND eggs in our carbonara! I laugh (then have touble catching my breath) in the face of healthy eating.
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