Cooking

I've been meaning to post about learning to cook forever. So here it is!

During October holiday one of my students, Danielle, taught me to cook. She called around 10 and we went to the market to buy the needed food.

Here is a photo of buying eggs. It's so different than in the States, don't you think? Every week the price is different and you can buy as many as you want.

We (well, mostly Danielle) decided we would have four dishes: eggs & tomato, winter melon soup, thousand year old eggs, and potatoes.

The very first thing we did was to render pork fat to make lard. I never ever want to do that again. I admit lard makes food taste good. But I'm much, much happier using canola oil, and I'm sure my arteries are too!

For each dish I'll write the recipe and show a photo.

Eggs & Tomato
-put some lard in the pan on medium heat
-crack eggs into a bowl
-add some salt and scramble (with chopsticks)
-cook the eggs in the pan, take them out
-put sliced tomatoes, garlic shoots, a little water and some salt
-cook for a few minutes
-put the eggs back in


Winter Melon Soup
-put some lard in the pan on medium heat
-add 1/2" water, bring to a boil
-add winter melon and sliced ginger
-put some meat tenderizer on sliced pork
-add pork and salt, cook for five minutes
-add bean sprouts, chicken bullion and sliced tomatoes
-cook until melon is tender, add green onions


Thousand Year Old Eggs
(you must know that I really don't like these at all. They are eggs that are buried in cement for two weeks and then eaten. Ewwww)
-peel the eggs, chop
-mix cilantro, green onions and garlic
-put the eggs in the cilantro mixture

Potatoes
-put oil & lard in hot pan
-add sliced garlic, sliced green peppers
-sautee one minute
-add sliced (tenderized) pork, sautee one minute
-add shoestring potatoes, cook 4-5 minutes
-salt, cook until potatoes are tender