Day 11 - Sushi!

First can I tell you about a cool blog I heard about today on 'A' Morning Ottawa?  It's called Would Rather Gather .  It's a local woman who blogs about cooking vegan recipes and they all look amazing!  I love how she knows what to throw in to substitute any animal products in a recipe.  I'm definitely going to try a few recipes listed!!

Now... on to dinner:

Today I decided to pick a recipe based on the ingredients that had to be used up for fear of rotting!!  I typed 'avocado' and 'cucumber' into the allrecipes.com search engine and 'sushi' came up as the response.

I love sushi!  But I remember making it once before and I think I had an issue with the rice.  I have major issues with rice in general but sushi rice is special.  Still I went to the store and picked up a bag of Kokuho Rose Premium Rice .  I recognized the bag a friend from university had once told me I had to buy.  Plus it said sushi rice on the grocery store tab below the shelf.  I also picked up some artificial crab meat and a package of nori (seaweed wrappers).

When I got home I had this feeling that the friend who taught me how to make sushi before had told me something special about preparing the rice but I couldn't remember what it was.  I remember the rice being too vinegar-y once but couldn't remember where the vinegar came in.  Do you think I made any attempt to answer those questions?  A call to my friend or a simple search online?  No.  I did not.  Instead I followed the diagram on the back of the rice package (I didn't even read the written instructions) and rushed to get the dogs outside for a bit of play time.  I was tired and I had run around Bells Corners trying to find the nori.

What I'm trying to say is I don't think I made the rice correctly.  Just now I googled 'rice' and 'sushi' and came up with this link that answers all those nagging questions in my mind.  There was something else I was supposed to do with the rice and vinegar was involved somehow.
My rice didn't turn out bad it just wasn't technically correct.  While it was cooking I sliced up the avocado, cucumber and crab meat.  When everything was done I went to grab some rice to put on the nori and realized it was very hot!  Duh!  So I put it in the fridge to cool down - also not technically the correct thing to do.

I laid out a sheet of nori on to of some saran wrap.  When the rice was cool I pushed a layer of it on the nori with my fingers.  I laid the veggies and crab out in the middle and used the saran wrap to wrap up the roll tightly.  I even kept the wrap on while cutting the sushi - something I had seen at my favourite sushi restaurant in Ottawa.  Watching an expert sushi chef make sushi does not make one an expert themselves.

What I ended up with were a little light on the filling and a little heavy on the rice.  To make up for it I piled some avocado and crab on top of each slice before taking a bite.  They were very tasty and one roll filled me up easily!!  Which is surprising considering how much we tend to order when we go out.

It wasn't perfect but now I know what I did wrong.  The next step is going to be learning how to make tempura shrimp so I can make R's favourite rolls of all time.  I have a feeling once I learn how to do that - it might be all sushi all the time!!

Oh - and one other thing I have to do is to buy more kitchen gadgets.  Seriously, if I had more money and a bigger home I think I would have one of everything.  Things I would have liked to have tonight:

-A wooden rice mixing bowl
-A rice cooker
-Bamboo rolling mat
-A set of knives sushi chefs have
-Something that cuts vegetables in the 'julienne' style (not a knife)

But clearly you can actually make sushi without any of those items!  I'm not living proof.

I even wrapped up an extra roll for lunch tomorrow.  I think tomorrow might have to be a leftovers day!!  My fridge is getting a little full.  That - and I have to put some leftovers in the freezer for another day.

Now... sleep.

Day 10 - Yellow Curry

No roast chicken... again.

They actually had them at the store tonight but I found out I have to go into work really early tomorrow so there just wasn't time to make the chicken, eat it and get a good night's sleep!!

The normal me would have just made more of the pesto pizza with some potato soup.  That is one of my worst habits.  I get groceries and then eat the same thing for every meal until I'm done.

I forgot to mention one thing about the pizzas: you can throw the pitas in the freezer and when you need something last minute just make the pizza on a frozen pita and it heats up while it's in the oven.  Plus you can throw whatever you want on it!

Instead, I decided to make one of the meals I was going to make with the leftover chicken - yellow curry!

It's a recipe I picked up from a good friend and it's one of my favourites.  Plus it's very very easy!

All you need is:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Onion
1 Can Coconut milk
Thai Kitchen Yellow Curry Paste (to taste)
Vegetables
Rice

I am not going to say what vegetables you should put it in because I tend to just use up whatever is in the house.  Tonight I added mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, tomatoes, and cabbage.  I have never put cabbage in it before but it ended up being quite good.  One thing I have used in the past but didn't have tonight is a can of diced tomatoes.  If you put that in you will need to boil it down a little.

Here's what you do:

Chop the chicken breasts into chunks.

In a pan heat some oil and add onions, chicken and mushrooms.  Cook until the chicken is done.

Add vegetables as you see fit in terms of cooking time (I added the snowpeas and cabbage at the very end so they didn't over cook).

Pour in a bit of the coconut milk.  Add curry paste to the coconut milk and whisk with a fork to break up the chunks.  Tonight I added four teaspoons and it wasn't super spicy.  You kind of have to figure out what you like in terms of spice.  Pour the mixture into the pan.  This is also where you would add the tomatoes if you had them.

Boil everything for a few minutes.

When it's done put some rice on your plate and top with the curry.  Don't forget to spoon some of the sauce onto the rice it's the best part!

I love lots of vegetables in my meals so I just pile them in but I'm pretty sure when my friend made the dish initially it was just chicken, onions and maybe snow peas.

Thai Kitchens has a red and green curry past as well but the yellow is by far my favourite.  Don't take my word for it though!  Try them all and find your own fav!

I had a couple of friends (two golden retrievers) at my feet as I cooked so when I was done I gave them a taste of the rice and sauce.  I wasn't sure if it would be spicy but they lapped it up.  I'm not sure they're the best critics though, they tend to eat pretty much anything I put in front of them!!

One thing about all of this cooking ... it creates a lot of dishes!  I have never had so many things to clean.  At the same time there is a lot of time to clean up while dinner is cooking so I suppose there is no excuse.  Have I complained about this already?

I promise I'll start making some more recipes from books, magazines and web sites.  I am just trying to get over the laziness that makes me not want to cook before I start to tackle really big tasks.

One request - does anyone have a good apple pie recipe??

Day 4 - Ginger Beef Stir Fry

Day four and we're cooking with leftovers!!

It's actually a good thing.  Right now there are a few plastic containers in my fridge with leftovers destined for the green bin.  Not the case for our roast beef from last night.  We decided to turn it into a stir fry.  

I really wasn't in the mood to cook as I left work around 6:30 p.m.  I knew I had to hit the grocery store before going home because I didn't have what I would need for the stir fry and I was starving!  I think next week my goal should be to work a bit more on my planning skills.  

Determined not to fail during week one I drove to the grocery store.  I asked R what he wanted for dinner tomorrow so I could pick up anything else we might need then promptly forgot to get the supplies requested!!  I suppose that's why people write lists!

What I did pick up was this:

Red cabbage

Sugar Peas

1 Yellow pepper

Mushrooms

Broccoli

Ginger

Garlic

1 Bottle of VH General Tao Sauce

Generally I associate General Tao with chicken.  The bottle even had a recipe for General Tao chicken on the back but it also said it was a sauce with garlic, ginger, and sesame and that was the taste I was going for so I decided to throw caution to the wind!  Looking at the ingredient list I thought it would be much better if I knew how to make the sauce from scratch but that's for another day.  Or year.

I also wanted to buy some bean sprouts but the store was sold out.  The grocery store was out of a lot of things.  It must be all the people stocking up after being away on holidays.

When I came home I started off with the rice.  Normally I forget the rice until everything else is going and end up having to wait for it.  

Next I cut up the veggies and sliced yesterday's roast thinly.  I wondered what the mustard crust would do to the taste of the stir fry but I wasn't too worried.

The meat really only had to be warmed up so I started off cooking the mushrooms, broccoli and ginger with a bit of rice bran oil.   After a few minutes I added the yellow pepper and then the cabbage and snap peas.  As you can see in the photos I overwhelmed the pan so I was having a bit of trouble stirring it all up.  I turned up the heat and added a splash of water to get the steam going and covered the whole thing up for a minute or two.  

I threw the meat in a different pan with some of the sauce and cooked it just until it was warm.  I stirred a bit more sauce in with the veggies and then it was all done. 

To serve I put a layer of rice on the plate then one of veggies and topped it all with meat.  

It only took about half an hour from start to finish and it was delicious!

I don't know what the nutritional value is for this meal but it felt healthy.

At this point I feel like this experiment is like working out: I never really want to do it but when I'm done I feel really good about it.  Plus we now have leftovers of the leftover meal for lunch tomorrow.

Oh - did I mention that I also made breakfast this morning?  I just made another breakfast sandwich though so it doesn't count as a separate recipe.  I am not sure how good they are on the waistline but it kept me full for a long time today.

I didn't bring anything for lunch so I made a chocolate meal replacement shake and ate an orange.   Baby steps.