Food.
Well, here is my Salat Olivier.
It wasn't bad. I would have preferred to use ham, but I ended up using chicken breast, because I'm not supposed to have deli meats or cold cuts (and I think that includes ham). And there was no egg, but that also can't be helped, and I used Colombian yellow potatoes, which are very, very soft and basically crumbled after I boiled them (but they are soooo delicious!). The main thing I should have done differently was to cut everything a tad bit smaller. Overall, though, I consider it a success.
I didn't want to do the same thing twice in a row so a couple days later I made chicken salad - chicken breast, my homemade mayo, celery and green onions. Pretty simple, but pretty good.
I found a package of tapioca for making bubble tea last week and decided I needed to start making myself some. Two important things should be stated here before I continue:
(1) I have no self-control when it comes to bubble tea. I kept making enough tapioca for three teas, intending to have one per day and instead I'd end up having three. So I very quickly ran out of bubbles (since I had just one package). I've ordered more from amazon.com, but I don't know what I'll do when they get here, because I need to make them last. I might have to have Bill hide them from me.
(2) I'm sort of a bubble tea partisan - there are very specific ways I do and do not like bubble tea to be made. I approve of the use of tea, milk, tapioca, ice (though I really prefer it to be strained out) and some flavored syrup (but not too much, and really, no flavor but the tea and the milk is better). This is mainly because that's how they were when I first tried them in China. I do not like jelly candies added, I do not like them frapped, and I don't like nasty flavored powders that collect around the waterline in the cup. I suppose there's nothing wrong with these other ways of doing them and they're certainly not inauthentic, but I don't like them - most of them are either too sweet or too watery.
That said, I have a problem with the bubbles hardening up if they're not super-fresh. The bubble tea process involves several vessels and a lot of time for just a drink - you have to make the simple syrup, boil the bubbles, brew the tea, shake the tea with the milk and ice in a cocktail shaker and then (finally) pour it into a glass. So it's nice to be able to make the bubbles ahead of time and turn a 45-minute process into a 5-minute one. So I tried a new way of making the boba and it worked like a charm. I'm quite excited.
Ta-da!
And the boba (unboiled in the package, and in the foreground, the boiled ones in their bath of simply syrup).
I was using rice milk (sometimes plain and sometimes almond-flavored), which doesn't foam a lot, but the flavor is great and you don't need to add any additional sweeter. I ran out of rice milk once and used soy milk, but soy milk and tea really don't go together well (I don't like the beaniness - it overpowers the tea).
Today's culinary experiment was lentils.
While searching for bubble tea accoutrement at the Asian shop in our neighborhood, I ran across red and yellow lentils. So I decided to try to make dal. I couldn't find ground cardamom, so I ended up buying the little pods and grinding my own. It was much less work than I thought it would be, and the entire kitchen smelled like cardamom for an hour - amazing! (By the way, that's basmati rice, also from the Asian store, next to the dal. Colombians eat lots of rice but you can't get basmati at the regular grocery stores.)
It turned out really well (Bill seemed surprised it was so good...that's always a good sign!) although it wasn't really what I was aiming for. I have memories of eating really delicious dal at an Indian restaurant in Norman, OK, but I don't know how to re-create their dish. The problem with Indian food is that I'm not familiar enough with the spices that I can taste something and identify the ingredients in order to replicate the dish later. For instance, I had no idea before today what cardamom tasted or smelled like, though after grinding it today, I know I've had it before. So I'm trying to remember what the dal I had in Norman tasted like, and all I can remember is that it had a really creamy texture and was very mild. I imagine it's typical of some specific region in India, although (again, knowing so little about Indian cuisine) I can't tell which one, so I don't know if I should be looking for a typical Bengali way of preparing it, or a typical Northern way, or a typical Southern way, or what.
Which reminds me of something someone told me about the Indian restaurants in Norman. When I started college, Norman had two Indian restaurants, and then a third opened up very near the campus which had a great lunch deal. I asked the lady who ran the third one why there were three restaurants and why all the Indian students had such preferences as to which one they ate at, and she said it's because they were all different regional cuisines. "One is Northern, and the other is Southern, and mine is more like from all over." But then I asked a friend of mine who is Indian, and he said, "One is Muslim, one is Hindu, and the other one is Sikh." :) I think Misal might be the Northern/Muslim one, so I guess I'll try searching for Northern Indian dal recipes for next time.
I'll end with dessert. (The coffee cup is just there for size comparison.)
Bill brought me back these cookies from a business trip to Putumayo. They are very simple cookies - flour, sugar, corn starch, pomorroso, and water. I'd never heard of pomorroso before, but apparently English wikipedia has never heard of it either, so I don't feel too bad. Miputumayo.com says it's scientific name is Syzygium jambos (L.) Alst., it originated in Asia, and it's a bellwether for environmental degradation.
Anyway, the cookies are great - very simple, crisp and perfect with a cup of coffee.
Next adventures in cooking:
1. Croissants made with margarine (I'm going to do these, really, I'm not just saying it)
2. Carob chip cookies (since I can't have chocolate). Mom mailed me some carob chips and Ener-G Egg Replacer, both of which I just received today, so I want to try baking some cookies - maybe for my birthday?
It wasn't bad. I would have preferred to use ham, but I ended up using chicken breast, because I'm not supposed to have deli meats or cold cuts (and I think that includes ham). And there was no egg, but that also can't be helped, and I used Colombian yellow potatoes, which are very, very soft and basically crumbled after I boiled them (but they are soooo delicious!). The main thing I should have done differently was to cut everything a tad bit smaller. Overall, though, I consider it a success.
I didn't want to do the same thing twice in a row so a couple days later I made chicken salad - chicken breast, my homemade mayo, celery and green onions. Pretty simple, but pretty good.
I found a package of tapioca for making bubble tea last week and decided I needed to start making myself some. Two important things should be stated here before I continue:
(1) I have no self-control when it comes to bubble tea. I kept making enough tapioca for three teas, intending to have one per day and instead I'd end up having three. So I very quickly ran out of bubbles (since I had just one package). I've ordered more from amazon.com, but I don't know what I'll do when they get here, because I need to make them last. I might have to have Bill hide them from me.
(2) I'm sort of a bubble tea partisan - there are very specific ways I do and do not like bubble tea to be made. I approve of the use of tea, milk, tapioca, ice (though I really prefer it to be strained out) and some flavored syrup (but not too much, and really, no flavor but the tea and the milk is better). This is mainly because that's how they were when I first tried them in China. I do not like jelly candies added, I do not like them frapped, and I don't like nasty flavored powders that collect around the waterline in the cup. I suppose there's nothing wrong with these other ways of doing them and they're certainly not inauthentic, but I don't like them - most of them are either too sweet or too watery.
That said, I have a problem with the bubbles hardening up if they're not super-fresh. The bubble tea process involves several vessels and a lot of time for just a drink - you have to make the simple syrup, boil the bubbles, brew the tea, shake the tea with the milk and ice in a cocktail shaker and then (finally) pour it into a glass. So it's nice to be able to make the bubbles ahead of time and turn a 45-minute process into a 5-minute one. So I tried a new way of making the boba and it worked like a charm. I'm quite excited.
Ta-da!
And the boba (unboiled in the package, and in the foreground, the boiled ones in their bath of simply syrup).
I was using rice milk (sometimes plain and sometimes almond-flavored), which doesn't foam a lot, but the flavor is great and you don't need to add any additional sweeter. I ran out of rice milk once and used soy milk, but soy milk and tea really don't go together well (I don't like the beaniness - it overpowers the tea).
Today's culinary experiment was lentils.
While searching for bubble tea accoutrement at the Asian shop in our neighborhood, I ran across red and yellow lentils. So I decided to try to make dal. I couldn't find ground cardamom, so I ended up buying the little pods and grinding my own. It was much less work than I thought it would be, and the entire kitchen smelled like cardamom for an hour - amazing! (By the way, that's basmati rice, also from the Asian store, next to the dal. Colombians eat lots of rice but you can't get basmati at the regular grocery stores.)
It turned out really well (Bill seemed surprised it was so good...that's always a good sign!) although it wasn't really what I was aiming for. I have memories of eating really delicious dal at an Indian restaurant in Norman, OK, but I don't know how to re-create their dish. The problem with Indian food is that I'm not familiar enough with the spices that I can taste something and identify the ingredients in order to replicate the dish later. For instance, I had no idea before today what cardamom tasted or smelled like, though after grinding it today, I know I've had it before. So I'm trying to remember what the dal I had in Norman tasted like, and all I can remember is that it had a really creamy texture and was very mild. I imagine it's typical of some specific region in India, although (again, knowing so little about Indian cuisine) I can't tell which one, so I don't know if I should be looking for a typical Bengali way of preparing it, or a typical Northern way, or a typical Southern way, or what.
Which reminds me of something someone told me about the Indian restaurants in Norman. When I started college, Norman had two Indian restaurants, and then a third opened up very near the campus which had a great lunch deal. I asked the lady who ran the third one why there were three restaurants and why all the Indian students had such preferences as to which one they ate at, and she said it's because they were all different regional cuisines. "One is Northern, and the other is Southern, and mine is more like from all over." But then I asked a friend of mine who is Indian, and he said, "One is Muslim, one is Hindu, and the other one is Sikh." :) I think Misal might be the Northern/Muslim one, so I guess I'll try searching for Northern Indian dal recipes for next time.
I'll end with dessert. (The coffee cup is just there for size comparison.)
Bill brought me back these cookies from a business trip to Putumayo. They are very simple cookies - flour, sugar, corn starch, pomorroso, and water. I'd never heard of pomorroso before, but apparently English wikipedia has never heard of it either, so I don't feel too bad. Miputumayo.com says it's scientific name is Syzygium jambos (L.) Alst., it originated in Asia, and it's a bellwether for environmental degradation.
Anyway, the cookies are great - very simple, crisp and perfect with a cup of coffee.
Next adventures in cooking:
1. Croissants made with margarine (I'm going to do these, really, I'm not just saying it)
2. Carob chip cookies (since I can't have chocolate). Mom mailed me some carob chips and Ener-G Egg Replacer, both of which I just received today, so I want to try baking some cookies - maybe for my birthday?