Tag: cooking

I wish I could write better. Or on time. But I just need to write.

Anyway, I ate some noodle soup from The Noodle Company. It was advertised as ‘Spicy Thai Hot Pot,’ but it was more like a Phô, but with rice noodles and a touch of pad thai flavoring. It was okay. There was not enough noodles to make it like true Asian noodle soups. It did make me want to cook up something for dinner.

I’m making some stock for whatever noodle soup I will make tonight. There’s ramen, soba, and mung bean noodles in my house. One of those three will be the noodle for the soup.

In my slow cooker, which I plan to use to bring the stock together, I threw in carrots, a quartered onion, chicken thighs, and a whole head of garlic. I also added a dash of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, two bay leaves crushed, some whole pepper kernels, and parsley flakes to round out the broth. I’m let these ingredients cook for a few hours.

When it is done, I’ll shred the chicken and then add some noodles. Maybe, I’ll have a nice soup.

I don’t cook. I make dishes, but I am not really a cook. I’ve made a few dishes, but not like the one I made for dinner tomorrow. I didn’t have a recipe. All I had was an idea and meager skills gathered from watching television cooking shows or reading Seriouseats.com. Is that enough to make a decent dish?

Last week I went to stock up my cupboard after returning from a long vacation. Since my brother had a heart attack, I thought to buy lots of vegetables. It’s asparagus season, so I bought a bunch. I also bought a pound of carrots, a couple onions, a bag of fresh spinach, and a cucumber. I made lots of asparagus dishes last week, but still had plenty left over. I needed to make a dent in the amount of vegetables in my kitchen.

I formulated a soup. They’re pretty easy to make. I’ll just throw vegetables into stock and cook for an hour. Viola!

All last week I was roasting asparagus. I would trim them and season with salt and ground pepper then throw them in an oven for 15-20 minutes. They came out nice and tender, and I threw them into the dishes I had made. Roasting gave me an idea for the soup!

Today, I roasted carrots, cucumber, onions, garlic, and asparagus. I seasoned them with rosemary, thyme, salt, and ground pepper before placing them on a baking sheet in the oven for 25 minutes. After they cooled down, I chopped them up and placed in a soup base I was making.

The base started out by frying spinach then in went some barley and the beef stock. There was also a little bit of chicken stock left in the freezer so I added it as well. The stock made it 2 quarts, then I added another 2 quarts of water. The roasted vegetables went in, a little bit of salt, a dash of patis, and more ground pepper. I brought it to a boil before turning down to a hard simmer for an hour. Towards the end, I added some lemon juice to brighten the taste.

So far I’ve had a small cup and it was great. Better than I expected. I think that lemon juice brought the whole thing together. Hopefully, this will keep for a few days.

I don’t have a rice cooker. Mine was broken.

What? An asian without a rice cooker?

Psshaw! You don’t need one. There’s plenty of ways to cook rice.

Currently, I cook it on the stove. Here’s how.

One cup of rice. Not the big normal measuring cup, but the cup that came with your broken rice cooker. Turns out that’s half a normal measuring cup.

Rice is usually cooked in a one-to-one water ratio. I add slightly more.

Before you cook it, rinse it in cold water. I rinse twice, then let sit for a couple of more minutes.

Cook on medium heat for about 10 to 12 minutes or until all water is gone.

Serve!

Same ingredients as the last batch. Different chiles. 

UPDATED: Added link to the last batch.

Let me tell you about my first attempt at Beef Barley soup. Usually, I stick to vegetable or chicken featured in the soups I make, but I need to learn more about beefy soup. So, I choose to make barley soup this time with the classic beef.

Here’s what I did to prepare — diced a half a white onion, sliced a half a cup of carrots, measured 2/3 of a cup of frozen pea and corn, and soaked over night white beans. Finally, I used the beef marked as ‘stew meat’ and cut it into smaller sizes.

I threw it all in the slow cooker to cook overnight for about 12 hours.

It turned out alright. Edible, but not awesome.

I should’ve found more herbs and spices in my cupboard not just bay leaf. I should’ve cooked the beef before throwing it in the pot. Maybe get it a nice brown color to be more appetizing.

Yeah. It’s got to be better. This will be categorized and memorized.