New Ventures

When I go to the Farmer's Market on Sundays, I really get inspired to try lots of new things. Lately, I have been trying to cook things that I have never done before, and try new meats and vegetables that I see at the market. I am trying to remember to take pictures of these things to share with you all.

My mother was so surprised when I called her and told her that I was cooking lamb. It was really unusual because my parents had never served lamb when I was growing up, and I have probably eaten it about 3 times before... I also had a bit of a moral dilemma over it, admittedly. I didn't like the idea of meat from baby animals. It might seem a bit silly or trivial, but I tended to shy away from things like veal and lamb because of this (even though I had eaten them both before), I didn't buy them or cook them.

I know my husband likes lamb, and his family cooks lamb/mutton so I had eaten it at their house twice, and I had seen lamb at the market a few times and I am very curious, so I wanted to try making it for myself once. I put aside my concerns, and decided to buy a boneless leg roast.

I got up early before work and  chopped up some fresh rosemary and I patted it onto the lamb, with some salt and pepper. I also cut up some rainbow carrots, potato and onion and put them around the roast, with a few sprigs of rosemary. It looked delicious already...

I left it cook on low all day while I was at work, and I came home to a delicious smell in my home. I carved up the roast

and I scooped out the vegetables with a slotted spoon.

Everything was very tasty! I also strained the juices for gravy. It was great to see that my experiment had worked out! It tasted good, and I have to say, the vegetables were my favourite part. I decided I liked them lamb, and it turned out well, but in my honest opinion, this is not my favourite meat. But it was a great experience, and I am glad I tried it, and I am not completely writing it off. You never know, I might try something else next time I am inspired to try lamb.

I hope I have inspired you to try something new! It's different when you cook something yourself, you can tweak it anyway you like and you can be honest with yourself about how much you like, or dislike something, and I think you are more likely to like something if you do it your own way, because you know yourself and your preferences. Don't be afraid to try new things, or things you might have written off before! There's always more than one way to do something and you might like something different than you've tried before.

Until next time, Happy Munching!

A Plethora of Flavours - Hot Pot

     Since my 1st post about hot pot, I have had it several more times since then. I wanted to provide a new post that was a bit more intensive and a close up on hot pot. This now seems to be a fairly common meal around my house. It is great because it is simple, fun, and nutritious.

     There was a brief period where our usual store did not have the hot pot soup base we usually use in stock. We tried a couple others, but we discovered that they either did not compare (way too bland), or were way too spicy. It is important to have a soup base that you like because it is going to flavour all the ingredients you put into the pot. Our favourite base is very easy to prepare, all the ingredients are in the bag (it comes with the stock, some spices and things), and you just need to add 20 cloves of garlic and some green onions and some boiling water. It is very flavourful (and actually not very "garlic-y").

This is how it looks (it's boiling in the picture)

     We have also found some new ingredients that we like to use.... and some older ones that have stayed the same:

These are our new ingredient!

Yam Noodles!

We tried these one night and loved them!

They cook very quickly and we do it in a small metal basket spoon-type thing.

They are in little bundles, so its great because you do not have to try to fish them out of the pot.

Another great ingredient is cauliflower! It takes a little longer to cook, but it is very tasty.

(Broccoli is also good, but I didn't have any yesterday)

Peas & Carrots!

I like to use snow peas, they are yummy and cook quickly.

Also, I like to use baby carrots because it not only saves on preparation time, but thin slices of carrot tend to fall apart when cooked through. These take a bit longer to cook, but I believe its good to have a balance of quick and slow cooking ingredients.

Another ingredient not to miss is mushrooms!

I like to use a mixture of different mushrooms. Tonight, I used white button and portobello. But I often use cremini and I've also used shitake and king oyster. I find it is best if you cut up the mushroom, this makes it more appropriate sized to eat, easier to pick up, and faster cooking.

Napa cabbage is another great ingredient. It cooks quickly and has good flavour. You can use other types of cabbage too, but this has been our favourite. 

Another great ingredient that I didn't use last night is bok choy. There are a few different types, don't be afraid to try them. I often use Shanghai bok choy. 

This is one ingredient we rarely vary. Udon! It is very delicious when cooked in the hot pot. You can buy it packaged just like this. It is very quick to cook, and easy to eat!

Shrimp! We buy cooked frozen shrimp. Its best to try to cook these in the metal basket because they can get lost and hard to catch in the boiling hot pot. If you get frozen cooked shrimp its best because you basically just need to heat the shrimp up in the hot pot. 

Meat! We like to get beef and lamb. We buy the meat frozen and thinly sliced. This is important because otherwise it would take forever to cook. Now, you can buy the same kind of meat you would use for fondue, but you might have to thaw it first because it does not come apart easily when frozen. The nice thing about this meat is that it is in rolls so it is easy to pick up and toss into the hot pot. We buy this at our Asian grocery store.

Now cooking hot pot is super easy... just throw a bit of everything into the pot and watch it cook!

When it is ready, fish it out with your chopsticks, or a metal basket spoon.

Lastly, ENJOY!

Now, it is very common for these cooked ingredients to be dipped into sauces. What type of sauce you like is up to you. My husband doesn't use any, but I love sesame vinaigrette. Other great options are hoisin sauce, satay sauce, soya sauce, and in Japanese hot pot (called shabu shabu) they dip it in a beaten raw egg! 

     Hot pot is a delicious meal that is very sociable. It is very easy to prepare, and full of nutritious ingredients and best of all you can control those ingredients as you like! There are also lots of restaurants that have hot pot. If you are curious about it, I highly suggest you go out to one of those places and try it! 

     Until next time, Happy Munching!

Hello, Year of the Rabbit!

It is that time of year! Chinese New Year! We say good bye to the previous year, (the tiger) and hello to the new year, year of the Rabbit!!

Rabbit-Dragon Tissue Box Cover

I decided to have a little celebration with my fiance to welcome the year of the rabbit!

I decorated a little (unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the decorations on the walls) and I prepared a hot pot! A little information for those who wish to know, a hot pot is basically a form of table top cooking. We have an induction burner that we use for this purpose. One has a pot on the burner which is filled with a broth or soup of their choice. One can purchase lots of different bases to which they add to water only must add a few ingredients like garlic and green onions. Then one uses thinly sliced meats and cut up vegetables which are cooked in the boiling soup. Its very fun and social.

Here is a picture of the spread we had laid out! As you can see in this picture we had a few different types of thinly sliced meats (pork, beef, and lamb), lots of veggies (cabbage, carrots, cremini mushrooms, baby bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas), udon noodles, rice, cheese cubes (old cheddar and havarti) and I prepared a small salad to start. We also had some lemon green tea. It was great!

This is just a little picture of my tea set that I purchased a few months ago and really wanted to pull out for this occasion. You can see that it has little rabbits on it. :)

 

We also had some treats for dessert! Those fish are Nian Gao which is a Sticky Cake, made of rice. (We didn't get a chance to eat them yet because we were so full from dinner, but they are sure to be interesting!) And we have a few different treats in that box! 

Here you can see that it is filled with some various candies, almonds and some sweet crispy fried dough and some dried yam. We tried a few treats and they were all quite tasty! 

Well that's all for now! I wish you all the best in Year of the Rabbit! Until next time, Happy Munching!