Thursday, September 13, 2012

Time for a career change?

My friend Edwin knows my love of all things Chinese, so when he and some classmates had to do a presentation about Chinese cuisine, he recruited me in the testing stage.

We made papaya dumplings (which were an utter failure.  As far as I'm concerned, even deep frying can not redeem cooked papaya)

We also made yin yang soup.  It's deceptively simple.  Boil some prawns and calamari with a smidgen of MSG thrown in for good measure.  Beat an egg and swirl it into the broth.  In another pot boil finely chopped spinach (again, a little bit of MSG never hurts. . .)  I think Edwin may have thrown it into the blender.  I was trying not to throw things across the room at that point as I reached my frustration level trying to roll out unworkable dumpling dough.  Once the two soups are cooked, place a ladle of the egg drop soup in the bottom of the bowl.  

With a spoon, carefully spoon the spinach soup on top in the shape of a yin yang.  


It looks pretty awesome and was really tasty too.



I surprised myself with my artistic talent.  I think it might be owing to wearing a chef jacket.  


Another fun discovery was this fruit- it's called papayuela.  Neither Edwin nor I knew what it was, so we decided to buy one just to experiment. They need to be cooked, but had a wonderful sweet/tart flavor.

 Next on my list of things I want to experiment with in the kitchen- these "rawvioli" made from beets