Week 7: Ginataang Manok (chicken in coconut milk)

So after last week's disappointment, I went back to mah Asian roots hoping for some yummy foodstuffs. Even though this dish is Filipino (and I'm not Filipino), I know I needed something Asian. I've been craving food from the east- believe it or not, Davis isn't exactly known for its array of awesome ethnic cuisine (but we do have a lot of sushi buffets!)... so here came Ginataang Manok!!


Here's the linkage:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ginataang-Manok-Chicken-Cooked-in-Coconut-Milk/Detail.aspx

And the overview:
Rating: 3.5/5
Cost: less than ~$20 bucksss
Difficulty: not that difficult :)
Eat it again?: probably!!
Allergies: nothing really haha



I only made one real change to the recipe, which was the coconut milk. I was like, SCARED to use regular coconut milk cuz its SOOOO FATTY and I've been munching on chocolate all week xD so I found this awesome light coconut milk at Trader Joes (huzzah for the TJ that opened in Davis!! I love love love that place) that its a LOT better for you. Granted, it probably takes away from the creaminess, but I'm not really one for white, creamy things in the first place (go ahead, insert your dirty thoughts here), so the light coconut milk was a double plus. I also used chicken thigh meat as opposed to just a big 'ol chicken.



The recipe pretty much went as planned. I cooked/fried the ginger (which is something I've never done before). Uhhh really not much to say about how I cooked it. Except that when I had to half-cover the skillet to let some of the steam come out, well... I couldn't find a cap big enough to cover everything, so I kind of had to half-ass it all weird... but I think the outcome was the same :)



For anyone who wants to try this recipe, make sure to add SALT to this recipe! The coconut milk kind of just swallows the salt and makes it go away, so don't be afraid to be liberal with the salt. With that being said, don't dump a frickin salt mine into the recipe. Also, if you like a little kick like me, I'd recommend adding some chili flakes on top :)

I'd recommend this dish because it makes quite a bit, and its super easy- just serve with rice, and you're golden!! If you're watching your weight, however, I'd think twice xD coconut milk is sooo fattyyyyyy

Week 6: Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)

Wassup fellow foodeaters! :D Sorry I went out for a week- I actually made this recipe last week, but failed to update until right now :( I finished this week's food, as well, so I'll probably make a post about that one tomorrow :) but for now, lets focus on Feijoada!

I was debating between this dish and Fajitas... fajitas are a LOT easier to make, super quick, and yummy :) a perfect dish for a college student! But, me being the overachieving Asian that I am (sometimes overachieving... mostly underachieving), I decided to challenge myself and make the black bean stew instead. After finishing this recipe, let me just say I wish I made the fajitas T_T;;

Here's the linkage:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Feijoada-Brazilian-Black-Bean-Stew/Detail.aspx

And the quick review:
Rating: 2/5
Cost: less than ~$20 bucksss
Difficulty: not that difficult, but takes patience T_T
Eat it again?: nope. :(
Allergies: nuffing I don't think... but there is pork, religious people!! Watch yoself~

I made quite a few changes to this recipe, which may have been the reason it didn't turn out as well as it should have, but whatever. For the soaked overnight black beans, I just bought a can of black beans lol. I'm not gonna soak beans overnight, are you kidding me? And also, I could not find ham hocks for the life of me. Ham hocks are apparently the ankle of the ham. I think something like that would be sold in a specialty store, not a Safeway. :( so I bought porkchops (with bone attached, not smoked). I also used smoked ham instead of regular ham (to make up for the lack of smoked ham hocks) and smoked turkey bacon, not thick-cut regular bacon. I realize this could seriously change the flavor of the recipe, but I'm really not a bacon person, so I took the chance.

Even though I made all these ingredient changes, I followed the recipe instructions on how to cook it. I still reduced (to simmer for a long time to thicken something and "reduce" the volume) the soup for two hours, and I cooked the pork chops for an hour. I used three regular sized pork chops, so I probably got a lot more meat than a ham hock would have given me. This recipe was annoying because the wait was so long, and while I was cooking, the food really didn't look that appealing. Or smell that appealing haha. But whatever, I stuck with it.

One change I did make to the instructions on how to make it was how long I cooked the bacon ham mixture for. I put it in the oven for about 10 minutes longer than suggested so that it could really make things crispy. Make sure to dispose of the oil and junk at the bottom of your pan afterward! You don't want that nasty in your soup >_<;;

My boyfriend ate it and said that it was good, but it wasn't his favorite. Personally, I didn't liek this recipe at all. I thought the flavors were boring and predicable, it had way too much meat in it (which I guess was my fault for adding so much derp), and it was too thick to really call a stew. I had to actually add water to it to make it bearable. And even then it was very thick. If I had to eat it by itself, I would dislike it a lot. Thank god for rice. I swear to god rice just makes everything better.

This recipe is definitely not for the average college kid. As much as I wish it was, the trouble it took to make and the outcome just made it a silly recipe. I am disappoint. :(

Overall, I wouldn't make this recipe again. Even though I challenged myself, the outcome was less than I expected. The soup was not really my thing. :(

Here's the fajita recipe I was GOING to do, but decided against (you should probably just do this one instead XD):

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pollo-Fajitas/Detail.aspx

Week 5: Eggplant Parmesan

First of all, GO GIANTS!!! WEWT WAY TO FUCKIN WIN THE WORLD SERIES >:D TAKE THAT, WORLD!!!

*ahem* Moving on....

A friend of mine actually suggested that I make this dish for my "E" week (after he insulted my choice for "D" week lol), and I took his opinion into account. I've never made this before, and I see it all the time on menus at Italian places, so why the hell not? I love me some good eggplant (I love it so much, I forgot to take a picture of the entirely finished product... note: missing corner) :)

This dish is, in case you couldn't guess, Italian. I've officially used one of my "easy recipes" countries (its a lot easier to find an Italian recipe than a lot of other genres of food)... I think I'm running out of easy countries lol. I've done America and Italy... maybe China will be next? Who knows :P I've never had eggplant parmesan before, so I'm pretty excited!

Anyway, lets get to the point!

Here's the link to the recipe, courtesy of allrecipes once again: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggplant-Parmesan-II/Detail.aspx

And the dealio with this recipe:

Rating: 4.5/5
Cost: less than ~$20!!
Difficulty: Pretty simple dewds
Eat it again?: FO' SHO.
Allergies: nuffing cept Gluten and lots of cheese

I made a couple changes to this recipe, one which was using two eggplants instead of three like the recipe suggests. I'd go with 2. In fact, 2 was exactly enough to finish about 3 layers of eggplant in this lovely dish :D Any more and I don't think my pan would have been able to hold it all lol. The other change was I baked the eggplants longer than 5 minutes on each side. I think I baked them at about 10 minutes on each side (like a couple of people suggested), and I think it really helped to make it awesome :) Crispy eggplant with great flavor? Yes please!

So there was quite a bit of eggplant to work with. I wish I had two baking sheets to bake the eggplant on, but I didn't, so I had to use some kind of random things I found in the kitchen drawer to actually bake all the eggplant in a sufficient amount of time. The dipping in egg and then into the breadcrumbs was easy, sticking them in the oven was easy, pretty much everything was easy! Some people on allrecipes.com suggest that I sweat the eggplant (when I first heard the term of "sweating an eggplant," I imagined an eggplant in gym gear sweating and running. Dont' tell me you didn't imagine the same thing). Sweating an eggplant is a process in which you pour salt on the eggplant, wait for 30 minutes, then wash it off. It's supposed to get rid of the natural bitterness of the eggplant (or at least soften the bitterness), but I didn't have enough time to do that, so I just went straight to cutting.

It was just a layering process, a lot like lasagna. Sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant, cheese, etc etc. The last layer, though, I put down the eggplant first, then put the sauce and cheese on top to make it look all pretty :) YEY FOR PRETTY FOOD~ It looks so beautiful, mmmm looking at it is making me hungry for it again xD

This dish was really good! I think next time I'll use a more savory pasta sauce, though (Ragu's sundried tomato and basil was a little bit sweet). I really liked the eggplant and I felt good because it was a baked version of eggplant parmesan (apparently it's usually fried...?) There was a shitton of cheese which I probably could have done without... I really don't think I needed so much lol. I ended up picking a lot of out of my food- partly because I'm lactose-intolerant, and also because I don't want to gain fifty pounds from fatty cheese in one meal XD ITS SO HARD TO LOSE WEIGHT WHEN SOMETHING SO DELICIOUS IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF MEEEE.

I would for sure recommend this dish to any college kid, basically because it makes enough for about 4-5 people (depending on how hungry you are), its pretty cheap to make, and its really easy! All it takes is a little bit of time. I don't think this recipe is as college-friendly as the Dijon Grilled Pork Chops (I'm not sure when I'm going to use Italian bread crumbs again), but overall, pretty amazing!!

This recipe was so good, my boyfriend finally got the guts to ask if he could take the food I make home with him. He said he had been meaning to ask me for a while now, but he felt bad asking me since I made the food with my blood, sweat, and tears. But something about this recipe put him over the edge :D I guess I'll have less eggplant parmesan for myself, but he said he'd take me out to eat a couple extra times! AWESOME TRADES ARE AWESOME!!