I've turned my creative juices onto cooking lately, and this cooking has some spice to it! A lot of these ideas I've gotten from Mark Bittman's cookbook, "How to Cook Everything." Or, perhaps I found a recipe somewhere else, and then tweaked it after reading the cookbook. My latest endeavors:
1) homemade chili paste
2) "busy-man's chai"
3) vegetarian and pork dumplings
4) stuffed zucchini and stuffed onions
Each of these has been an experiment, and in each I've learned a little something, and thought of how I could do it better next time. Here are the corresponding thoughts and lessons:
1) Get to know more about different types of chilis. In this round, I used dried Ancho chiles. They were supposed to be milder, and they were. But also, the paste had a bit of a bitter flavor, which I don't how how to fix. I used it mixed in with a quinoa filling for #4, but perhaps paired with a meat it would have a different result.
2) I definitely need to try this again. Since I don't have a microwave, I had to heat milk in a little container on the stove, which is tricky because you can't heat it too fast or too much. I dipped a lipton tea bag in, and it barely steeped at all. I had cardamom and cinnamon, but not cayenne or clove, but then sprinkled in ginger and a little black pepper. I'd say it less resembles chai then just a weird drink. But, it's a work in progress and this has potential to be amazing.
3) First time, I steamed these in a bamboo steamer over a wok - proper AND delicious. The second time, I boiled them and they were a pretty disgusting texture. Next time, I'll pan fry them first, then steam them to finish. Both low tech AND delicious, I predict.
4) These were just good. I don't know if I'd make the onions again, but maybe with a different filling. Maybe more like a ground beef or ground lamb type thing, with cheese and tomatoes? I don't know - but I am INTO the technique.
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