Spinach is Tasty

The boyfriend returned from Japan, and was craving something non-Japanese.  A friend of mine also had just recently moved to Austin, and I was feeling nostalgic for a dish that she always craved with a mutual friend who is Peruvian.

The boyfriend requested spinach and so I prepared a Peruvian spinach pesto.

Not bad, just had a hard time getting the Peruvian spinach pesto to stick to the spaghetti for some odd reason.  Nevertheless, it was a good welcoming home dinner for the boyfriend.

Sole as a Soul

So I had to experiment this week at the boyfriend's brother's house.  They had a project to work on, and so since I offered to cook, the boyfriend suggested that I do my experiment while they worked on their project.  A little overwhelming to me since I know very minimal about his house's kitchen, and cooking in someone else's kitchen without their knowledge of cooking except what's good and not is difficult.

Paupiettes de Sole

For the experiment itself, the boyfriend picked another recipe from his grandmother's cookbook.  He picked Paupiettes de Sole since it sounded "interesting."  Sometimes I don't like when he says, "oh, this looks good.." I say how do you figure, "because its interesting..."
Interesting I'll say because it means I have to decipher what a recipe dated 1970s means for one, and figure out how someone else's stove and oven works!

The last time I cooked in the boyfriend's brother's kitchen was when I offered to help with Thanksgiving dinner for the brother's in-laws and wife.  As much as they boyfriend's brother and wife love food, neither of them cook very much.  So Thanksgiving in itself posed to be a challenge.  We called it the great pumpkin fiasco of 2012 because of how they boyfriend's brother prepared a pumpkin.  Normally when I prepared pumpkin pie these days, I do it from complete scratch.  But, when you're in a time crunch and want it easy, you can buy the pre-made crust, canned pumpkin and sweetened condensed milk.  Simple, right? Not difficult when you have the proper ingredients...however, the pumpkin fiasco of 2012 wouldn't be if it was simple.  The pumpkin fiasco involved evaporated milk in the pie.  The pie was so bad that the boyfriend's brother's wife spit it out.

Having said all of that, the pressure of me cooking in her kitchen was a bit daunting.  Fortunately for me she was gone for this particular weekend so I only had two hungry guys to worry about.

I prepared Paupiettes de Sole, since both of them like seafood and seafood for me to me is still a challenge and uphill battle.  Sole is a very delicate fish and can flake very easily even before its cooked.  Paupiettes de Sole required the sole to be folded over the stuffing and placed in the sauce prior to steaming in the oven.  Another challenge when you steam fish such as sole, it doesn't change color when it is fully cooked.  Its hard to tell when it actually sole is done without actually cutting it or breaking the fish.  I tested the sole by getting a nice little steam bath to the face...

By this time, the creamed spinach and my test of mushed artichoke hearts were done and the project the guys were working on was complete.

It all came together and another cooking challenge complete, but I do have to say, the next time someone wants me to cook in someone else's kitchen, seafood may not be something that is served unless I have gotten better at by then.

The Chinese meet the Indian Saag

I haven't put recipes on this blog for a reason.  Yes it is a cooking blog, but blogs with recipes are a bit overdone, and my purpose is to try and experiment with the food around me.  Though, if you as the reader, would want the recipes I used, I can release it.  Otherwise, its more of a sociological take on cooking as opposed to the art of cooking.

The boyfriend challenged me with the ingredient of bok choy.  Otherwise known as Chinese cabbage.  I had watched an Iron Chef episode on bok choy and feared that my challenge would involve my ice cream maker.  Thankfully, it didn't, but the request of a non-Chinese dish did come up.  I was definitely stuck on this one, until I thought to myself, if it has the same composition as spinach in the leaves, why couldn't I use it like a spinach?

Bok Choy Saag

I challenged myself to think a little further.  What is a spinach dish that I love?  Okay, maybe love is too strong of a word, but aside from wilting spinach and calling it a meal, what could I do?  I kept on the Asia continent for this dish, which made it even more interesting since I was specifically told, no Chinese style to the Chinese cabbage.

I reverted to Indian.  Yup, Indian.  Indian Saag.  I love the flavors that come out of saag when I have it in the restaurants and I thought, why not try making it out of bok choy.  The results were hardly different from spinach saag, in fact, I almost had to do a second take myself when I tasted it since it was almost no different.