Hello to the void!~
I'm creating a new blog to document my experiences re-learning how to cook.
Background: I've somehow managed to avoid really learning how to cook until now, through various circumstances (parents who cooked, living in dorms, soylent v1.0, free lunches and dinners at the workplace, somehow sustaining myself on sauteed vegetables for six months in my first year of grad school, and a partner who is an amazing amateur cook). But now that I'm living by myself again and my partner's ~3k miles away, I figured I'd actually learn now.
I always found meal planning really overwhelming. Especially when I was in college, it was almost impossible finding a lunch to pack that didn't need to be microwaved or refrigerated. Being (mostly) vegetarian at this point, it's even harder. I've experimented a few times with cooking foods from around the world, and it never really worked, partially because my source for recipes was Wikipedia and I wasn't selective enough with choosing recipes. Some of the recipes that came from those experiments were quite tasty, like koshari; some became ... interesting memories, to say the least (don't use the "shred" option on a blender if you want to shred a potato).
Anyway, this time I'm actually doing it! And it's been great so far. I've cooked a few meals now, and it's actually very enjoyable. I *think* I have a good strategy for meal planning. We'll see how well I can keep it up!
(Also, if anyone does happen to see this blog and I'm cooking your food wrong, I'm so sorry! I don't mean to. My family is white and Midwestern so most of my meals growing up were things like spaghetti, chicken sandwiches, pork chops, taco night tacos, etc. I don't have a lot of experience with food cultures around the world.)
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The first meal I made was ulam rice! I believe it is a Betawi recipe.
It looks a bit unappetizing because the lighting in my apartment sucks.
I used this to try out my new Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker. I really love this rice cooker; it does take longer to cook than the Instant Pot we have in NYC though.
I wanted to find some pre-frozen fresh coconut. It was somewhat hard to find (weirdly enough specialty organic stores in Seattle didn't have any) but H-Mart had it. I used coconut oil as the cooking oil.
I didn't use dried shrimp; I also didn't use anchovies. I instead used some "vegan fish sauce" from Ocean's Halo. I'm guessing this made it far from authentic-tasting but it still tasted good.
I also got a bunch of "living basil". ~2 weeks later, it's still doing okay in my window, but it's finally starting to wilt. I'll have to use it soon.
Verdict: this was so tasty when it was fresh! Coconut is really delicious. My partner told me that I probably cut the cucumbers wrong (apparently you're supposed to skin this kind of cucumber). It didn't reheat very well; the rice was quite dry.
