First Harvest + Quick Meals #2

Phew. I managed to save my parsley plant. Despite its colour being slightly yellowish—at least it's still alive—I strategically pruned it and got my first parsley harvest today. It's quite hard to ignore the aroma of freshly cut parsley so, of course, I had to use some right away. 




Dinner: Baked Salmon with Miscellaneous Sauce (elaborated below) topped with fresh chopped parsley and served with a simple tomato and cucumber salad with lots of feta (mmmm!!mmm) and balsamic vinegar. I have been eating A LOT of this salad; it's just so easy and quick to make. Most importantly, it's cheap. Student Cooking 101: It's all about convenience, speed and budget. As you can see in the photo, I did not even bother discarding the parsley stems. The more the merrier.

Right, the Miscellaneous Sauce. 

Ingredients in Miscellaneous Sauce (a.k.a. a mixture of random things I found in my fridge...):
-Ketchup, Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce, Salad Cream (in equal quantity, I put about one tablespoon each)
-Spring Onions (chopped)
-Ginger (diced)
-Garlic (finely diced)
-Olive Oil

Surprisingly, it was really tasty. I think it's the ketchup; ketchup makes everything taste better. I also seasoned the fish with freshly ground black pepper and chinese five spice before loading the sauce onto the fillets. I think, in post-rationalisation, I was going for an Asian Fusion type thing?! 

I finished the dish with a sprinkle of dried parsley. 

Not Too Long After...

My parsley plant! :S Apparently one of the many things that "melt" in heat.
This is the reason why I should never have children... (kidding?)
Or why you can't leave young things unattended in a small room... 

A Little Bit of Green

New additions to my room - Sweet Basil and Flat-Leaf Parsley

Roasted Duck a l'Orange

Once upon a time, there was a duck. It got frozen ... without one of its limbs. It was marinated over night and roasted in oven for an hour. While still juicy, crisp and golden brown, it was cut up to quarters and gobbled up by four ravenous humans. The humans were satisfied after dinner. The End.

Oh, and we must not forget the awesome orange sauce that I made...

Braised Ox Tongue

I'm back in Toronto living with my parents and my cousin. Cleaning the house, buying groceries, occasionally picking up my cousin from school, running on the elliptical, cooking meals for four people everyday - my past month has been dedicated to this routine.

In a week or so, my parents, my aunt & uncle and myself are embarking on a three-week trip to the Canadian (and American) west coast. My new challenge? To record as much food related activity as I possible can. 'Challenge' is definitely the right word to describe the above mentioned task for myself. Um...March 27th was my last real food post. That's almost six months ago - oops. (Boink on the head - I'm a terrible blogger.)

Last night was an adventure. Ox tongue. Bought from a Chinese supermarket, the black rough outer membrane was already removed, completely destroying my hope of doing my own mini-surgery. The stewing took about two and a half hours. The smell of herbs, spices (star anise, Sichuan peppers & peppercorns), an onion and a piece of cow muscle rocking out a stew in my slow cooker (the same cooker my very own mother used a couple months ago to make me loads of strange-tasting Chinese herbal medicine) and a can of beer lingered in the house for hours. Then I braised it for another two hours with carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, more onions and some red wine. Half a bottle to be exact. What can I say, I love alcohol. The meat was really tender, almost like corned beef, but fatter; it'd make excellent sandwich meat.

Herbs and Garden

Life has been full of surprises for the past 2-1/2 months. Unplanned events had put a halt to my blog posts but those are far and well behind now. Soon, I should be up and cooking, burning down kitchens and setting smoke detectors off once again.

This afternoon, I took a peek out onto the veranda from my bedroom window. I saw that my herb plants are all grown up. They were babies just two weeks ago when I bought them at the local superstore. I went outside and did some trimming. My borage plant seems to be doing the best - it's almost two feet tall now! It's blossoming beautiful violet and pink flowers. I'm definitely going to make ice cubes with the flowers when cocktail season kicks in. Borage is supposed to have a cucumber-like taste so I'm also thinking of making a crisp, fresh salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and red onions.

My herb pots also include sage, rosemary, thyme, Italian parsley, basil and Greek oregano. They have been attracting a lot of various bugs. My dill plant was bought in a separate pot. Sadly, it's going through a rough patch. As you can see, most of it is yellowing. There is the one little fighter in the middle that I'm hoping will pull through.

The landlord planted some gorgeous yellow flowers in the front yard that are in full bloom at the moment. I'm not sure what they are called. They are calming to look at in any case.