The Cooking Diaries
I knew the time would come when I eventually had to learn how to cook. I had only ever been able to bake simple desserts and cook a basic breakfast. Now, on my own in a different country, I needed to rely on something besides restaurants and frozen dinners for sustenance. With this ambition, I set out on a journey to learn how to cook simple, nutritious dinners for myself. The first step in my culinary journey was making sure I had the right tools to cook food. I bought a few pots, frying pans, oven trays, and tools, and set out to decide the first meal I wanted to cook.
I decided to start with a dish that I often enjoy in restaurants, shrimp alfredo. I got some linguini, white pasta sauce, shrimp, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic and got to work. However, I soon learned my mistake of not following the recipe when my shrimp alfredo turned into shrimp on Mount Linguini. I added all of the pasta to a pot of boiling hot water and undercooked the pasta. Thus, it turned into a big pasta clump, unable to absorb the pasta sauce or mix with the shrimp. Sadly, I had to toss the disaster away and try something else.
Feeling defeated but not ready to give up, I decided to call in the big guns, my mother. She helped me to pick my next dish and taught me how to properly cook something. I chose to cook salmon with asparagus and baby potatoes. My mother said the key to cooking any meat is to season it with salt, pepper, and garlic, then leave it in the fridge to marinate for, at least, an hour before cooking. Following her instructions, I marinated my salmon and then got to cooking on the potatoes and asparagus. Tossing everything on different frying pans and watching each dish sizzle was exciting! I was slowly watching my salmon turn golden, and the asparagus get a nice crisp edge. In the end, my salmon dish turned out amazing with added lemon juice to give it a nice texture and zing.
Feeling great about the success of my salmon, I returned to the realm of pasta dishes and cooked spaghetti and meatballs. This time, with some tips from my mother, I only added 1/4 of the pasta to a boiling pot, cooked it for longer, and made sure my meatballs were well done before combining everything into a simmering pot with the tomato sauce and pasta. After letting it simmer and mix for a while, I plated my pasta and added a bit of parmesan cheese for a topping. Another success down, I was on a roll. I was starting to cook different meats, veggies, and starches for dinner and enjoyed each minute of the process.
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| (Julia Child's Cookbook) |
I decided to start with a dish that I often enjoy in restaurants, shrimp alfredo. I got some linguini, white pasta sauce, shrimp, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic and got to work. However, I soon learned my mistake of not following the recipe when my shrimp alfredo turned into shrimp on Mount Linguini. I added all of the pasta to a pot of boiling hot water and undercooked the pasta. Thus, it turned into a big pasta clump, unable to absorb the pasta sauce or mix with the shrimp. Sadly, I had to toss the disaster away and try something else.
Feeling defeated but not ready to give up, I decided to call in the big guns, my mother. She helped me to pick my next dish and taught me how to properly cook something. I chose to cook salmon with asparagus and baby potatoes. My mother said the key to cooking any meat is to season it with salt, pepper, and garlic, then leave it in the fridge to marinate for, at least, an hour before cooking. Following her instructions, I marinated my salmon and then got to cooking on the potatoes and asparagus. Tossing everything on different frying pans and watching each dish sizzle was exciting! I was slowly watching my salmon turn golden, and the asparagus get a nice crisp edge. In the end, my salmon dish turned out amazing with added lemon juice to give it a nice texture and zing.
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| (Salmon with Potatoes and Asparagus) |
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| (Spaghetti and Meatballs) |
Soon my hubris got the better of me when I tried to cook lemon pepper chicken wings in the oven. I had planned my cooking as usual, I bought the ingredients, marinated the meat, and then got to cooking. However, things started to turn for the worse once I started to cook my chicken. With an oven that heats up very slowly, my chicken was hardly cooking and started to produce a foul odor. After spending an hour in the oven, my chicken wings were finally cooked with a juicy interior and crisp skin. Plating my chicken wings and vegetables, I was about to dig in when the smell got notably worse. The chicken smelled of raw oysters, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, my mind was screaming "Do Not Eat This!" In the end, I had to toss my chicken wings away due to a suspicion that my wings had gone bad while cooking. While I was sad, I didn't let a few mistakes hinder my ambition and immediately went back to the kitchen to cook pork loins. Having cooked for a month, I decided to buy Julia Child's cookbook and continue my cooking journey with the knowledge that I would have many victories and failures along the way.
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