Monday, January 11, 2010

It's Been TOO Long!

I realize that it has essentially been eternity since I last blogged, and for that I don't have an excuse, other than finals and the semester ending and having more work than is healthy. Anyhow!! I am back and ready to blog!

Now, just because there may be no time to blog during exam period, that certainly does not mean there is not time to eat - in fact, if anything, it means there is more time to eat, because one is feeling like they deserve treats, etc. and its a good break from the studying.

Anyhow, since last I blogged, we have welcomed a new year, and while the Party itself was nothing too too special, Yair sent me roses even though he was stuck on the base, with a lovely note apologizing for his absence. Well it was just so sweet of him, and he sent me lovely Yellow roses, knowing that I think red ones are slightly cliche and overly mushy.
Here they are, Aren't they lovely?? Well, you can imagine how special it made me feel, and that he got many "thank you thank you thank you" text messages :)

Back to the most important thing, Food. During a particularly grueling study session, I decided what I needed was a pasta dish that was super salty, but guess what I didn't have? SALT!!!! That is a travesty a) because I have an addiction to salt, which I know is unhealthy, and b) salt just enhances flavours, it's a fact. So boiling pasta in unsalted water, making a sauce without salt, it just felt wrong, and sad.
I knew, however, that this gave me the opportunity to experiment with different ingredients that would make my dish salty without a grain of actual salt.
So, here we go. I boiled my rice pasta in CHICKEN STOCK, Salt? CHECK! which made the pasta nice salty, and gave it a really nice depth of chicken flavour.
The Sauce:
1 Medium white onion
A handful of cracked green olives
1 small red chili
5 cloves of garlic - or to taste, because that's a lot of garlic, so take account of your surroundings before hand :)
4 Large Mushrooms
1/2 Cup of frozen Peas
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
Handful of Alfalfa Sprouts
Handful of Fresh basil leaves, torn. - careful not to cut fresh basil with a dull Knife, it bruises really easily, and then it gets brown, and sludgy, nothing like its crisp, fresh self when torn nicely.

I sauteed the onions and garlic until the onions were transparent and the garlic was nice and brown - but not burnt! There is nothing worse than Burnt garlic, it's so bitter, blech! :(
Once the onions and garlic were cooked, I added the peas, the mushrooms, the olives and the chili; and when it was almost cooked, I added the basil and voila! it was done!
Now, although the chicken stock helped with the salt, it wasn't good enough! So once I had mixed the pasta and the veggies, I added a generous splash of Soya Sauce. Now! it was salty, saucey and had so many different complementary flavours, it was really nice. I added once it was in my bowl ready to be eaten a very generous HEAP of alfalfa sprouts which added an amazing crunch and a great freshness.
So that was that! A perfect, homey lunch for a tough day of studying!
Tomorrow I have a friend coming from Denmark, who is really a friend from Toronto, who is doing an exchange like me in Copenhagen - He will be here for two weeks, and like me has a love for good food and for cooking and Baking, so I look forward to the adventures and blog entries his presence will provide :)

1 comment:

  1. YEAH! So happy that you are back!! NO SAlt??? that sounds like a disaster to me! Smart thing about the chicken stock...i don't think i would have even thought about that!! AND...lovely roses....i agree about red ones (although i would never turn them donw! ahahha) :) xo

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