Shrimp Satay with Peanut Sauce

This month's cooking adventure was Thai food - I've always wanted to try it just because I'm fascinated by some of the techniques they use. I really want to try making pad thai because it looks so delicious, but I decided to go with something that was relatively easy (less possibility of catastrophic failure), and made shrimp satay with peanut sauce, and I also made a vegetable and noodle stir fry to go along with it. Now, I am not a fan of Asian food, I never really have been, but I went to an Oriental restaurant the last time I was in Salt Lake (I don't remember the name, I'm sure my sisters know it) and it was...not so bad. I decided that if I could tolerate someone else cooking it for me, I could at least give it a shot myself, this is supposed to be a cooking adventure after all.


The shrimp satay was pretty easy, it's just shrimp mixed with some turmeric, coriander, sugar, salt and cream, and then fried until the shrimp are cooked through. I must have written part of the recipe down wrong because I could tell right after I started cooking it that there was too much liquid - I tried draining some of it off, and it helped a little, but the pictures I looked at showed the shrimp as being pretty crispy, and mine were most definitely not. They still tasted good though! I was worried about it being too spicy (mom), but there wasn't that much heat to them.


The peanut sauce, on the other hand, was super spicy. I knew that going in though, because the recipe calls for Thai red curry paste and I know enough about oriental cooking to know that their sauces are usually pretty hot stuff. I also made a point to taste all of my ingredients by themselves (including the dry spices, blech!) before cooking with them just to get an idea of their taste. I've never had a peanut sauce with a meat dish, and I think that's what I was most looking forward to - I wasn't disappointed, the shrimp and peanut sauce together was awesome. After a few bites of that sauce though, my head felt like it was on fire!


I also made a veggie and chow mien noodle stir fry just to add some more textures and tastes to the meal. It's the first time I've ever used a wok (sweet!) and they turned out ok. It was just some red peppers, onions, and snow peas (I also hate peas, but I made myself eat a couple) fried in sesame oil, but they were good too. I would have mixed everything together, but I didn't want to drench everything in the peanut sauce - I think that it was better to let everyone control the amount of heat they were getting, plus I wanted to try the shrimp plain instead of mixed together with everything.

I'm pretty happy with my meal overall. Once again, the sauce was the star of the show - at least I know I'm good at making sauces. :) I'm still set on trying to make pad thai someday, for now, I'll keep thinking about what to make for next month's cooking adventure. Stay tuned!

Beef Vindaloo with Chapatis and Raita

So I decided to try my hand at some Indian style cooking - ended up with some mixed results. I got to grind my own curry powder out of some whole spices, which was cool - I learned that curry powder doesn't have to be super hot and spicy, it's just any blend of spices you choose to use, so I only made mine mildly spicy because my mom can't handle really spicy food. Anyway, the beef vindaloo is where the spice mix went, and it tasted good, but the meat was tough, and I'm sure that was my fault, but I followed the recipe to the letter, so I don't know why it turned out that way. Something more to work on.
The rest of my adventure included chapatis, which are a flat bread that you cook on a griddle - they're supposed to puff up and be flakey on the inside, which mine didn't do, so I know that one is my fault, I've never been very good at making bread - so I'll have to work on that too. :)
The last thing I made was cucumber raita - it's a yogurt sauce with cucumber, garlic, mint, and golden raisins. The trick to the meal is, you're supposed to take a piece of a chapati, use it to pick up a piece of the beef vindaloo (look ma, no forks!), then you dip it in the raita and eat it, which worked out pretty well, I thought it was really good. The raita was, by far, the best thing I made, it was so good! It was tangy because of the yogurt, sharp from the mint and garlic, with little bursts of sweetness when you bit into one of the raisins, plus, the cucumber flavor was awesome (but I love the taste of cucumber anyway).
So, even though the beef vindaloo and the chapatis didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, when all of it was put together, it was still pretty good. I'd like to try it again just so I can work on getting the beef and the chapatis right. For now though, I'll move on to my next adventure in cooking, hopefully it will turn out a little better than this one - stay tuned!

Steak with Mushroom Cream Sauce and Homemade Mac & Cheese

Ok, for those of you that don't know, I LOVE macaroni and cheese. I've always wanted to try to make it myself, and I decided that's what I would do for this month's cooking adventure. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. I didn't think I would like macaroni that didn't come out of a box, but I really liked the mac & cheese that I made. I used two different kinds of cheese, cheddar and monterey jack, which made it kind of tangy - an interesting taste for me when it comes to pasta. I think next time I'll try adding something to it, like bacon (Dad's suggestion), or maybe jalapenos (Troy's suggestion). For my first try though, I just wanted to make sure I could do it without messing it up and having it taste bad.
I also decided to try a mushroom cream sauce to go over the steaks that we had for dinner. That turned out to be the real star of the show - it was amazing! I love mushrooms on my steak, and I wanted to try making a cream sauce because I had a steak like that at Ruby Tuesday's and wanted to see if I could make something like it. My sauce turned out a little thicker than I expected, but the garlic and mushrooms in it made it taste fantastic. I really liked it, and so did everyone else (except Andy, but I knew she wouldn't because she doesn't really like cream-type sauces). My mom thinks we should try it over chicken next time, which also sounds delicious to me. My dad told me everything I made was "restaurant quality," which is the highest compliment he pays, so I was pretty proud of it.
All in all, it was a really good dinner, now to think of something equally amazing for next month! Stay tuned!

Sauted Pork Loin and Apples

Well, I'm pretty happy with the first go-round. I made sauted pork loin medallions and Granny Smith apples in an apple cider/cream sauce. It was pretty good - I thought I might have overdone it on the pepper, but Jen and Jason told me that the seasoning was perfect - I just don't eat a lot of pepper, so maybe that's why it was so obvious to me.
Anyway, I sauted the pork and apples then finished them off in the cream sauce. The sauce was really sweet - which I liked, I thought if made the pork not quite so peppery. The apples seemed a little mushy, but I guess that's what's supposed to happen to them. Overall, I thought it was really good.
I actually made two new things for dinner - I wanted to make some garlic bread or something to go with the pork, but while I was shopping for dinner I decided to make something that I'd seen on one of the cooking shows that I watch - I've been thinking about making it for a while. It's bread slices toasted like a crostini with a slice of roasted tomato, a basil leaf and a slice of melted mozzarella cheese on top. I loved it, it tasted so good! The roasted tomatos were actually another thing I've never tasted, so I tried one plain and it was awesome - sweet, but still with a little acid to it. Jason said that he could have just eaten an entire loaf of bread cooked like that for dinner (I told him I'd put that compliment in my blog).
All in all, it was a really good meal - now I have to think of something for next month that's just as impressive. Stay tuned!

What to Cook?

I've always loved to cook, it's always been a great way for me to make myself focus on a task and get my brain in order when I'm feeling scattered. I've also always been a picky eater. I'm trying to get over that part of myself and try new foods and flavors.
At first, I decided that I would try cooking something new at least once a week - but between work, school, and the fact that I'm horrible about keeping my other blog up to date, I decided that once a month would be much easier for me to get a handle on, at least for now.
So, starting tonight, I begin my adventures in cooking. I'm hoping for some brilliant successes (like my chicken kiev and fajitas), and will try to aviod any catostophic failures (like the tuxedo cheesecake). As far as format, I'll probably end up making recipe names the titles, and I'll give my personal opinion about what I made. I don't know if I'll put the actual recipes in my posts like so many other food blogs (flogs, as I like to call them) do. I guess if anyone is really that interested, they can ask and I'll give them the recipe.
Expect another post tonight or tomorrow about this evening's cooking adventure!

P.S. Anyone who wants to call me out for my blog title by telling me that Wadsworth isn't a character from the game can save it. I know he's not original, but Tim Curry is hilarious. :)