Oui’s Happy Autumn Stew: Chicken Afritada

November’s almost over and I’ve finally got fed up cooking and eating adobo and sinigang (courtesy of Mama Sita’s sinigang na sampalok powder mix) for a the past few weeks. Not to mention that one time, I subsisted on party leftovers for 8 days (they were tasty, but you get tired of eating the same thing day in, day out). So, when it was my turn to cook the main dish for the girls’ Sunday lunch, I decided to pull out all the stops and challenge myself in cooking a fiesta-rated dish that I haven’t had any experience preparing on my own.

Afritada. Chicken afritada.

I had all the excuses to make this dish—one, this Sunday’s the feast of Christ the King, and two, I’ve invited Adriana (my Ecuadorian friend and labmate in the drug-discovery group) over to taste the Filipino version of a Spanish dish.

(Correction: my family’s version of the Filipino version of a Spanish dish. )

My chicken afritada with rice

Materials (serves eight)
- approx. 1 kg of chicken parts (drumsticks / thighs)
- 1 tetra pack (500 g) of tomato sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
- ½ shallot, sliced
- 3 medium new potatoes (Charlotte Ros), scraped and quartered
- 1 bottle of peeled baby carrots, rinsed and drained
- 2 bell peppers/capsicums: red and green (or you may use any color), cut into strips
- some green beans / haricot verts, trimmed
- canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce
- salt and pepper
- flour
- ½ cube chicken bouillon

Methodology
- Rinse the chicken parts in running water, pat dry, then coat them with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown the pieces in hot cooking oil, then set aside.
- In a large Dutch oven / cooking pot, heat approx. 2-3 tablespoons of oil, then saute the garlic and onions with the crushed chicken bouillon. Add the browned chicken pieces and lightly toss until coated with the oil and spices.
- Add the tomato sauce. Cover pot and wait until the mixture simmers (in medium heat). Stir the chicken and the sauce, cover and time for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the potatoes, cover pot and let everything simmer for ~10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Add the carrots, cover pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Again, stir once in a while to prevent the food sticking in the pot.
- Add the bell peppers and green beans, let everything cook uncovered for 3-5 minutes (or until the beans turn bright green). Add half a bottle of canned white beans in tomato sauce, stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Turn off heat and serve with hot, fluffy rice!

Results and Discussion
Time allotment. This is not a quick dish (i.e., this takes around at least an hour to cook everything, not to mention that it takes me around 20 minutes to prepare the meat and vegetables for cooking), so this is best done during weekends. For today’s lunch, my original plan was to divide the cooking method into two stages—cook the chicken, potatoes and carrots the night before, then reheat and add the vegetables and beans when the girls and I come back from Sunday Mass. I still followed the two-stage cooking plan, however I did not do the first part last night since I was a bit feverish—instead, I got up at around 5AM to do it!

Cooking chicken afritada, stage 1, at 5AM

Absurdly early, I know…but I had Sunday choir-practice at 9AM, and it takes me 25-30 minutes to walk from Brusselstraat to the seminary. And with my sleep-addled (and paracetamol-stuffed) brain had to figure out what sort of cover to use for my hand-me-down Dutch oven…

Bottled baby carrots? Fresh carrots here are sold by the bushel, not by piece. Again, the solo-living dilemma—what am I going to do with a pile of unused vegetable since I can only eat as much? Another advantage in using bottled baby carrots is that I get to skip the trimming and scraping part—all I needed to do was to rinse the pieces thoroughly with cold water to remove the brine (wait, are bottled veggies brined anyway? I am not sure, but it pays to play it safe…and I don’t want any extra, “bottle-only” flavor to compete with my dish) and toss them into the stew. Reduces cooking time, too.

Canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce?? Ah, I have revealed a family variation to the afritada—the canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce (back in the Philippines, it would’ve been “canned pork & beans”) rounds up the rich flavor of this tomato-based stew.

Breading the chicken pieces. Another family variation—coating the meat pieces with seasoned flour does two things: prevents the meat from sticking to the pot, and the meat becomes pre-seasoned already. Notice that the “adjust the amount of seasoning to taste” is at the last part of the Methodology—in this attempt, I just had to add more pepper and a tiny bit of salt to complete the taste profile of the sauce, not of the meat.

Wrapping it up
For a PhD student, this is a time-intensive dish, perfect for weekends and for entertaining friends since it’s a stew rich in flavor AND ingredients—with one pot, everyone gets “stuffed to the gills” with protein and veggies. If there are leftovers, they would be greatly appreciated as afritada also ages well in the fridge. But this is definitely not a dish you’d like to whip up from scratch after a long day in the lab.

Although, I call this a “happy stew” because of the colors. Perfect for the grey autumn weather.

6 Ways to Survive a Kitchenette

The German kitchenette doesn’t really offer a lot.  Having lived in different student apartments across Germany, I know that a typical kitchenette is nothing but a 1 x 0,5 square meter space occupied by a small refrigerator, 2 hot plates, a small sink, and a cupboard.

A lot of my colleagues, who also live in my apartment building, complain that they cannot cook properly in their kitchenettes.  I seem to be the only person not to bicker about it.  And it is only because I’ve learned to live with it.  And I would like to share six ways as to how you can survive it too.

1. Clean as you go
I know, it’s common sense right?  Well, so is drinking 8 glasses of water everyday.  Good in principle, terrible in practice.

Kitchenettes provide very little workspace if any at all.  It is then a necessity that items that can be put away, actually be put away. This includes materials and equipment used for prep work, food scraps, and the dishes.

During weekdays, I wash my dishes once a day, normally before preparing dinner.  This way I have a clear work area to do all of my chopping and slicing and the sink is free to dump used utensils into.

2. Frozen vegetables
Ahh frozen vegetables.  This is going to be controversial as most foodies champion fresh ingredients, but hear me out here.

Fresh vegetables are normally sold in 0.5 – 1 kg packs in German supermarkets.  For a single person, to buy a package can be wasteful; not all will be used up within a week and not all have a long shelf life.

Frozen veggies guarantees availability and longer shelf life at low cost. You don’t sacrifice nutrition because the vegetables used were picked at their peak ripeness before they are blanched and flash frozen.

I like to buy Kaisergemüse (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots) or Mischgemüse (Peas and Carrots) because they are more versatile and can be used with a lot of stews or stir fries.

Now when your mama calls you, you can say, “Yes, Mom.  I’m still eating my peas and carrots.”

3. Portioning proteins
Proteins from discount supermarkets like Aldi or Lidl are pre-packed in plastic trays.  There is normally a lot of airspace inside, making the container too bulky to be stored in my small freezer.

Here’s an example of how I work around it. I portion a 500 g package of chicken breast into three and put them in individual 1 L Ziploc bags.  When I need them later in the week, I just have to take out one bag and thaw it.  If I need more meat for batch cooking, I just take out more bags.

4. Stackable storage
Dry ingredients can come in bulky packages.  Some come in carton boxes while others are packed in plastic.  Now I do not think it makes sense to keep the pasta cartons when it is only 1/4 full.  And plastic packages don’t sit well on the shelf.

So I recommend that pasta and rice be stored in stackable airtight plastic containers.  The smaller the size, the better. Don’t hesitate to transfer to a smaller container when you see that there’s only a  portion or two left inside.

Worried that you’ll forget how to prepare what’s in the container? Cut out the cooking instructions from the package and put them in the container or tape them on top.  This way you know which type of pasta or rice is inside.

5. Mini & Micro
Get the smallest equipment as possible.  Always craving for pizzas?  Get a mini baking oven.  Coffee-dependent but no space for a coffee maker?  Get a stove top moka.  Asian and can’t live without rice?  Get a 3-cup rice cooker.  There is almost a mini alternative to any device.  (off topic: I onced owned a mini washing machine.)

I will be honest to say that I don’t own a microwave, but I see the value of it for a lot of people.  If you are the type to do batch cooking during weekends, a microwave will save you a lot of time during the week by quickly reheating your dishes.  Not to mention it’s the fastest way to prepare popcorn during movie night.

6. Minimum Equipment
The less equipment you have, the more workspace and storage you can get.  So before you start hoarding all of that beautiful kitchen goodies from Ikea, pause, breathe deeply, and start editing your shopping cart.

Here’s a quick list of what you basically need:

• Glassware (plates, drinking glasses, cups, bowls) for 2 people
• Cutlery for 2 people
• 1 non stick frying pan
• 1 sauce pan with cover
• 1 2.4-L cooking pot with cover
• 2 wooden spoons
• 3 piece utensils set – cooking spoon, ladle, slotted spatula
• utensil holder
• strainer
• mixing bowl
• can/bottle opener in one
• chopping board
• 1 chef’s knife and 1 paring knife
• measuring cup / measuring spoons in one

I hope some of you will find this list of ideas useful, specially those of you who are just about to begin your Ph.D. journey.

Got any more ideas?  Please feel free to share them.  I personally am open to suggestions

Alaska Seelachsfilet mit Kirschtomaten

Perhaps you’re already tired of cheese, seeing that it’s all we’ve written about the last week. It was an enjoyable experience, but I’m kinda sick of cheese right now, both in taste and in concept.

So I want to change the topic back to recipes! It’s been a while, eh?

Here’s one very simple fish recipe, that takes only 15 minutes to make. It’s a modified version of Fish Sarciado which I made using Alaska pollock filets. I named it Alaska Seelachsfilet mit Kirschtomaten which literally translates to Alaska pollock filet with cherry tomatoes. Had I had bigger tomatoes, I would have made the real Sarciado but this little version, in it’s simple elegance, all but makes up for the lack in volume.

MATERIALS and METHODS
Alaska Seelachsfilet mit Kirschtomaten (Serves 1)

• 2 pieces Alaska Seelachsfilet (fresh or frozen)
• 10 pieces cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil, divided
• fish sauce
• salt and pepper

1 Rub both sides of the fish filet with salt. Pan fry on non-stick pan over a 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil until golden brown. Set aside on plate.

2 On the same pan, pour the remaining sesame oil. Saute the tomatoes. Season with fish sauce and pepper. Keep sauteing until you see the skin wrinkling slighty and the sauce emerges from the tomatoes.

3 Pour sauteed tomatoes over fish. Serve with rice.

DISCUSSION
Working with frozen fish. The promise of 15 minute preparation is of course outside the thawing time, if you used frozen Alaska Seelachsfilet. Whenever I would buy a package of frozen Alaska Seelachsfilet in Aldi, I would immediately portion them into Ziploc bags, with each bag containing two filets. The moment I arrive home, I take one bag out and put it in a bowl of lukewarm water. By the time I’m done changing, turning on my laptop, and checking my Facebook page just to see if anybody updated since I last checked Facebook in the office, the fish would have thawed.

Thawed fish contains a lot of water in it. I don’t particularly like it when the fish doesn’t fry immediately, but instead is braised in its own water.

What I would do is I dry the fish a little bit using a paper towel before I rub it with salt. This way, I hear that nice fizzing sound when I put the fish on the hot pan.

Fish sauce. For the non-Asian readers, if there are any (wouldn’t hurt if you make your presence felt ), fish sauce can be a turn off. I mean come on, it kinda stinks. So if you have no desire to purchase not even the smallest bottle, ask that Asian colleague of yours (preferably the one who comes from South East Asia). Believe me, he or she would gladly give you more than you need.

Kookie’s First Raclette Dinner

If you have been following this blog, you’d know that we are all about affordable eating. And what can be more affordable than eating dinner at a friend’s house?

So when Tina (a.k.a. Dr. Binz) invited me over for a raclette dinner, I couldn’t say no. Besides, I have never had a raclette dinner before. So free dinner + new food experience = happy Kookie.

For those of you who don’t know, this is what the raclette grill and the raclette pans look like.

Here’s how it works, the heating element is located just below the top metal plate but about 2.5″ above the grill bottom. This gives enough space so that the raclette pans can fit underneath the heating element. When the device is on, the raclette grill can simultaneously heat the cheese on the raclette pan and grill meat and vegetables. Talk about multi-tasking!

The major component of the raclette dinner is well the raclette. Raclette is a salty cheese derived from cow’s milk. The cheese originates from Valais in Switzerland but the dish has crossed the border to France and even to Wallonia in Belgium (Sorry Oui, it’s in the French-speaking region).

Aside from the cheese, the traditional components of the raclette dinner would be boiled potatoes, gherkins (small cucumbers), pickled onions, capers, and some dried meat.

The German version : put whatever the hell you want!

I piled by little pan with tomatoes, fresh champignons, some slices of mini salami, and a slice of bacon. I slapped a piece of raclette on top shoved my pan into the grill. After 10 minutes, voila…

Drool-worthy ain’t it?

We also grilled some meat while we were waiting for the cheese to melt. Here’s a fair warning. The stuff on the raclette pan does not smell when it’s cooking. The problem is when you grill the meat on the metal plate, all the fat that boils off sticks to everything in the room. You may ask, “Why not grill it outside then?”. You see the raclette is typically prepared during winter, and eating outside at near freezing temperatures is not fun.

Raclette dinners are great when you have a few friends over for dinner. The process of preparing your own pan coupled with good dinner conversation is a recipe for an enjoyable night.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to bring my clothes to the washing machine. I need to wash the bacon out of my fleece jacket.

Cheese Tasting, Part II

Armed with our purchases from Cora, Kookie and I had a nice cheese tasting on Saturday evening.  We had a lot of cheese, so the first task was to take down all the names and make a score chart so we’d remember which was which.  We cut up a freshly-baked (shrink-wrapped) baguette, also from France, jotted down notes and flavour comments – we’re not professionals, but we can still say things like ‘strong’, ‘nutty’, etc. – and took pictures, of course.

We tasted a total of 14 cheese, which were (in tasting order):

Pié d’Angloys

K: Mild, no small, camembert.

J: Kind of wheaty, soft and mild with a thin, pale rind.  Runny inside.

Rigotte D’Échalas

K: Tastes old, is it expired?  (lol!)  Has slight smell.

J: Texture = mushy, like frishkäse.  Strong initial flavour of…”plain” =S  Orange rind.

Le Crottin de Chèvre

K: Sustained, nice aftertaste.  Smells.

J: Hard for a goat cheese, mild initial flavour, the rind is pretty tasty (salty and buttery)

Moulé et Affiné en Berry (or something to that effect)

K: Milder than previous

J: Sharper than Le Crottin, slight mushroom flavour

Chamois d’Or

K: Camembert, nothing special

J: Really soft, thin rind, kind of fruit and buttery

Le Brin Pavé d’Affinois

K: Soft, rich, not smelly, firmer than Chamois

J: Very mild, soft, orange rind, slight gummy texture, buttery flavour

Coeur de Lion

K: Not smelly, firmer texture

J: Firmer, slightly sharp, powder white rind, mushroomy

Roitelet

K: Strong, richer

J: Firmer soft cheese, water/metal smell, stronger, earthy, white powdery rind

Camembert Président

K: Solid camembert, mild

J: White rind, slight mushroom flavour, creamy texture

Port Salut

K: Reminded me of cheddar, but not really

J: Medium cheese, orange rind, kind of like…low fat harvarti

Rochebarron

K: It’s cheese =)  Strong aroma.

J: Ashy grey rind with a smoky flavour

Manchego pur Brebis

K: Sorta like parmigiano in hardness.  Nutty.

J: Hard, nutty and buttery rind

Bresse Bleu

K: Mild blue cheese aroma, equally mild taste

J: White rind, large blue pockets, tastes like camembert

Saint Agur

K: Blue.  Strong flavour.  Reaches the nose.  Nutty.

J: Sharp, stinky, salty.

For our favourites, Kookie recommends the Manchego and the Pié d’Angloys.  I also recommend the Manchego (that rind!  Yum…) and also the Saint Agur, because I think it goes great with a little bit of bread.

We were so full after our cheese tasting, and I still have more than half the cheese left.  That night, I went to sleep dreaming of Manchego…

When Janet and Kookie went to France to buy cheese – Cheese Tasting Part I

Title says it all.

Janet and I took the bus from the SB main train station, crossed the German-French border to buy cheese at Cora Forbach.

It’s not because there was a lack of cheese in Germany. Au contraire. There are good cheese counters here. But there are more choices in France. Plus it sounds fancier.

sealed baguettes

baguette packing machine

The baguettes would shoot out already covered with plastic, freshly sealed for the customers.

Here’s Janet examining the options at the cheese counter. At this time point, we’ve already raided the cheese shelves for packaged cheese (I think we had 13 different kinds already). Janet wanted two more fancy cheeses to complete our cheese tasting selection.

There were a lot of cheese to choose from.

We had our cheese tasting this evening complete with comment cards. Janet has the cards and will write about the cheeses soon.

Oh wow my burp smells of blue cheese…

お好み焼きです！ (It’s okonomiyaki!)

Lately, I’ve been craving a lot of Asian food.  I’m not too sure why, but I guess being sick kind of makes you miss home a bit, and while ‘home’ is not Asia, ‘home’ sure has a lot of Asian cuisine.  I’ve always liked Japanese cooking, and while I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of sushi (doesn’t mean I don’t like it, though), I really like Japanese street food and home cooking – ramen, somen, taiyaki, ekiben, and onigiri on the go.

One of my favourite Japanese foods is お好み焼き (oh-koh-noh-mee-yah-kee), which literally translates into “whatever you like (お好み), grilled (焼き)”.  It resembles a pancake or pizza and is most famous in the Kansai region of Japan (Osaka), but there are many other variants throughout the country.

The base consists of flour, cabbage, eggs, water or dashi broth (has a bit of a salty fish flavour), and grated Japanese mountain yam (山芋).  As I’m in Germany, I had to substitute a few ingredients – I found dashi broth, but thought it was too expensive, and couldn’t find yamaimo at all (not that I expected to).  The rest is “whatever you like” – I added some grated cheese that I found at Aldi and some bacon.  I would’ve liked to add green onions and leeks, too, but I couldn’t find the former, and forgot to buy the latter.  Other common additions to okonomiyaki include pork, beef (normally in strips), octopus, shrimp, and squid, but you could really put anything in it.

Toppings can include okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, pickled ginger, aonori (green seaweed powder), and bonito flakes.  One note on the Japanese mayonnaise – I don’t think okonomiyaki is worth eating without the mayo.  It’s got to be the Japanese kind, though, because it’s got more of an eggy flavour and isn’t as sour as the North American variety – it really kicks awesome.  I scoured Saarbrücken to find it and, after two and a half hours of hitting every Asia Markt in town and asking the folks at Hashimoto where I might be able to find some, found it at the Asia Feinkost und Kunstware (?) shop on Mainzerstraße.

It was the last bottle, too, and I won’t tell you how much it cost, because it was REALLY EXPENSIVE…but I have it now.  They were sold out of bonito flakes, which was a bit disappointing, but at least I have the most important ingredient!  Kookie, if you want to borrow some, let me know =)

I took the recipe off a Youtube channel about Japanese cooking, “Cooking with Dog”.  The dog’s name is Francis, and he’s the host of the show…it’s just weird.  You have to check it out.  They’ve got some good recipes, though =)

Ingredients

• 100g flour
• 140ml water or dashi broth
• dash of salt
• 200g cabbage
• Japanese mayonnaise
• 2 eggs
• 50g shredded cheese
• okonomiyaki sauce

1. Mix flour and water together until most of the flour lumps are gone.  Don’t worry about overmixing – since we haven’t used yamaimo, extra mixing should give some elasticity to the okonomiyaki.

2. Cut out the hard white parts of the cabbage (the stem part) – this will ensure more even cooking).  Dice cabbage leaves into half-inch square pieces.  The shape doesn’t really matter, but you’ll want it small enough so that the pieces coat well in the batter.  Add on top of the batter.

3. Add cheese and whatever other ingredients you want (green onions, leeks, etc.) on top of the cabbage.  Usually the meat goes on top, so leave that out!

4. Add the eggs on top of all the ingredients and toss everything to coat evenly in the batter.

5. In a hot pan (oiled, if necessary) on max heat, add the mixture and flatten it out into a circle.  Add the meat strips on top.  Fry for about 2 minutes, then flip over.  Cover with a lid and leave it to cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

6.Brush with okonomiyaki sauce and flip over again to brown the other side.  Brush the other side with okonomiyaki sauce, too.  Remove from pan to a plate.

7. Top with Japanese mayo, bonito flakes, and aonori.  Enjoy!

After the Fact…

I didn’t use okonomiyaki sauce because I actually don’t really like the taste of it (I think it’s too sour), but in retrospect, the sourness balances out the richness of the mayo, so I should’ve bought it.  As well, it makes the okonomiyaki more brown…oh well!

Okonomiyaki goes best with carbonated drinks, like Coke or beer, or drinks that have a bit of acid in them, like most types of fruit juice.  Because I’m sick and also don’t drink beer or Coke, I made myself a honey lemon tea.  The acidity in the lemon and the tea cut the fattiness of the mayo quite well, so it was pleasant =)

I wouldn’t call okonomiyaki “healthy”, per se, but it’s surprisingly not too bad for you (depending on what you add in it, of course!).  It’s mostly cabbage, and rather filling – I ate two small ones for dinner.

Now that my stomach is (really) full, time to get back to translating lecture slides…!

Coming soon: Bento, Omurice, Thanksgiving dinner

Pfifferlingen + Spaghetti nero

I’ve long been meaning to do a post on pfifferlinge (chanterelles in English), but I don’t usually eat them with anything, so it would’ve been a bit of a boring post.  However, on Saturday, Kookie, Katrin, and I went to Trier and stopped by Strauss Inovation (think gourmet food store with an identity crisis).  Browsing through the pasta section, I found a pack of spaghetti nero – pasta made with squid ink.

I thought, “Hey, that’s a pretty good colour contrast, right?  White plate, black pasta, orange mushrooms?  I’m sold.”

So here we are: pfifferlingen with spaghetti nero.  It’s a pretty good harvest dish, I think – like most mushrooms, pfifferlingen are excellent this time of year (though still rather expensive).  Pfifferlingen are wild mushrooms that have a characteristic light orange colour and real pfifferlingen have the gills running down the stem.  They’re easy to cook, but they need to be washed thoroughly (I rinsed them in cold water), unless you want a little something extra in your food…

The pfifferlingen have a meaty texture, and the classic way to cook them is just to fry them up in butter.  An alternative is to add them to a cream sauce, but I neither want to consume so much cream, or have the patience to make one!  The amounts given below are flexible, of course – the recipe isn’t going  to fail if you double the amount of pfifferlingen and half the amount of pasta =)

Ingredients:

• 100g pfifferlinge
• 150g pasta (depends on how much you want to eat)
• 30g butter
• salt and olive oil to taste

1. Cook the pasta anyway you like – I like to do the “Janet special”: stick the pasta into a pot of water, turn on the burner to max, wait for the water to boil, then turn it off.  I’m pretty sure that’s not the proper way to cook pasta, but it’s so time efficient…

2. Meanwhile, wash the pfifferlingen and put them into a skillet (I have a non-stick, but it doesn’t matter, as you’re going to add butter to it).  Turn on the heat to max.

3. Add the butter to the pan and wait for the mushrooms to start releasing water.  Fry until the water is evaporated and the liquid inside the pan almost turns clear.

4. Drain the pasta and add some olive oil and salt to it.  Top with the pfifferlingen.

Comments

I should have left more of the water in the mushrooms – unfortunately, I stepped away to use MSN, and by the time I came back, all the water was gone =(  Also, when I drained the pasta, it smelled really strange…kind of fishy.  It didn’t taste that way, though, so maybe it was just my imagination.  And the rumours that the squid ink in black pasta will stain your teeth are not true – I checked in the mirror straight away =)

Coming soon: okonomiyaki!  May also get a mini oven like Kookie so I can bake things in my apartment…(American) Thanksgiving is coming up soon…

Happy Birthday NRLR!

I cannot think of anything else to dedicate to Nina on her birthday except this.

To those of you who don’t know, the Rojas leche flan is legendary. Rich and creamy, no one’s been able to duplicate its even consistency.

This was made guerilla-style in my kitchenette. The leche flan looks deceivingly huge but they were actually molded using cookie cutters with one end wrapped with aluminum foil. I have no llanera you see.

To make a basic leche flan is quite easy. Click here for the recipe I followed. The Rojas version I think is a family secret

So Nina, here’s a toast to you. We here in the PhoodJournal wish you all the happiness and success in the world!

Pasta aglio e olio

those who know me know i LOVE garlic.  those that don’t (at gaußstraße 81, at least), soon will.

i’m not a very skilled cook, and i like simple foods.  when i say simple, i mean that if it takes more than say…10 minutes from when i bust open a package of frozen veggies or pasta to when i start eating, i’ll probably lose interest in making it.  cooking doesn’t usually give me any relief from stress, so, for me, it’s more like a means to an end (which is eating tasty food, which IS stress relieving).

the inspiration started with a trip to vapiano with Kookie.  i saw pasta aglio e olio on the menu, and thought that i hadn’t had it for a couple of months, but also that i could easy make it at home.  i’ve been on a strange eating regimen lately – essentially i only have veggies at home, which is a healthy thing, but…there’s no variety!  since tonight is a friday night, and i have the whole weekend to try to rid myself and my apartment of the smell, i thought it’d be an excellent idea to make some fried garlic in oil, and then use it to make pasta aglio e olio.

Ingredients:

• garlic
• salt
• olive oil
• pasta

i used a LOT of garlic to make my fried garlic stock.

i’m not too sure on how many cloves exactly it was that i used…but it was 3 bulbs worth.  that’s right, BULBS.  my eyes started to water when i was chopping them, and yes.  it’s garlic, not onions.

essentially i just chopped them up and fried them in about a half cm of olive oil until some of them started to turn golden brown.  i let the fried garlic cool for a bit in the pan (so nothing unfortunate would happen to my untempered glass jar), then scooped everything into the jar and topped it off with more olive oil to completely cover the garlic.  then i put it into the fridge – done!

to make the pasta dish, i just boiled some pasta until al dente, scooped about a spoonful of garlic and oil onto the drained pasta, salted to taste, shaved some parma, and started eating =)  it required no skill whatsoever (which is good, because i don’t have any!).

now i can enjoy pasta aglio e olio any time i want.  i just have to vent my apartment for about a week…it smells so bad in here that i’m afraid to open the door to leave my apartment.  i’ll just have to do it when no one’s looking =)

improvements: a rucola salad and a side of bread.  mushrooms too, maybe, but no meat.  i think aglio e olio is one of those dishes that just feel a bit wrong with meat or fish.