I cook the least in my family.
My mum is adept enough to experiment. My dad can cook about as well, but doesn't experiment1. My little brother thought he was going to be a cook when he was beginning high school, until he realised he was more technologically orientated, but he's rather practiced and at least knows that when you cook pasta you should stir it (I thought it was left on the stove until it cooked, like rice).
My cooking areas are limited-- usually I only do biscuits and muffins. That's not nothing, but just knowing how to make desserts won't sustain me when I live alone. I can make better icing than my mum, though.
The only dinner meals I can do are Asian. My specialty is stir fry, because all the instructions you need are in the title. Stir, and fry. Voila! The reasons they're all I'm interested in probably are that I like the flavours (soy, sesame, oyster etc.) and love rice (my family has a [nearly ]fool-proof rice making method using the microwave, comment if interested). Or I'm just a weeaboo. Either or.
So my latest experiment was no different: okonomiyaki, using
this recipe. Mum was interested in making them because one of the other teachers from her staffroom had brought them for everyone to taste. We collected the specialist ingredients a few weeks ago, but weren't getting around to making them. So this afternoon I thought I should just do it myself.
My first batch had shredded ham, capsicum, and dried oyster mushrooms. When it was cooking, it really smelt like a pizza. It turned out well, and covered with Kewpie mayonnaise, okonomi sauce, and bonito flakes, made it delicious. The second batch had tinned sweet chili tuna and oyster mushrooms. It didn't turn out so well. The tuna was too watery, and it spat. I ran out of plain flour and had to use self-raising, which made it puffy. It completely broke up when I was flipping it over. But the tuna was good, and after being covered with mayonnaise, sauce, and flakes, it still was delicious. Although maybe that's because of the toppings, not my cooking. Actually, it's surprising it turned out so well because I've never eaten or seen real okonomiyaki.
So that's one more step towards being self-sufficient.
My next step will be on Tuesday, when I have my driving exam. Dear God.
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1He didn't start out that way. When he started living on his own, he got the idea of making fried rice. So he took some rice, and fried it. No other steps between that. His description: crunchy. The lesson today: Fried rice =/= stir fry.