Chocolate Pudding & Wonderful Stock

I haven't gone grocery shopping since the 22nd (I think?). Considering I usually spend <$8 per grocery shopping trip, this implies that I had/have a lot of leftover food to consume within the next two weeks! I can't wait to go home! Hopefully, I don't have to spend money on food until I get home (except for veggies of course).

With 3 leftover egg yolks (from failed macarons), I made chocolate pudding! I used fat-free milk, and added some red pepper flakes. I also replaced the cornstarch with about 6 tsp of white flour, and the sugar/cocoa with 120 g dark chocolate. The pudding was smooth and had a crusty top (which was pretty delicious!).



I also have been saving leftover plant parts in the freezer. I made a delicious stock with leftover cilantro, celery bottoms, potato peelings, onion caps/skins, garlic skins, and carrot tops, and eggplant bits. I think that I will do this from now on, and maybe even get my mum to do it at home! Vegetable stock is so easy to make as well -  just dump all the scraps into a saucepan of water, and let it simmer for a few hours! I'm sure non-vegetable stock is also easy to make - just simmer animal bones for a few hours. I think that next time, I'll cut the scraps into small pieces.




I used the stock for my risotto (to use up my leftover Arborio rice), and I also added some celery root juice that I got from Monell (they were going to use it for a study, but chose carrot juice instead). Celery root juice is tangy, sour, not sweet, and quite delicious!




In both instances, SP helped stir. Therefore, he was allowed to eat unlimited portions.

Mushroom Risotto

My GA is Italian and enjoys cooking. Therefore, we (10 or so people from my college house, even though the event was open for everyone) made some authentic mushroom risotto last Tuesday. 

For risotto, the key is to not add all the stock in at once; you add it in little by little (when the rice starts really sticking, add more stock). It was delectable!! So gelatinous, gooey, chewy, and mushroomy! (And cheesy, with the parmesan).

A special mention goes to TJ, who cut up the parsley really nicely.

I also really enjoyed having red shallots in the risotto, even though they made me cry when I was cutting them.

Supermarket Specials 1

I decided to blog about some quirky stuff I found at the Chinese supermarket, Kamman, "near" [har har! Not say how near] my house. I've never noticed it before, but they sell umami seasoning. I suppose after writing that paper about umami. All of a sudden, umami seasoning popped onto the shelves at Kamman! I honestly don't recall ever seeing it before, when I combed the store all those times. Well, it's quite interesting to see cute shakers of this stuff, just as described in those articles I read for my Writing Seminar class.

They even come in economy size! By the pound! One note of irony, I suppose, is that the brand name is meant to be Japanese, yet it quite clearly states that it is a "PRODUCT OF U.S.A." In addition, there is a French translation ["glutamate monosodique", "produit des etats-unis d'amerique" - pardon my lack of accents]. Now, this is notable because the stereotype is that French cuisine is flavourful, gourmet, fresh - whatever you like - yet the translation happens to be in French. The French are not known to use MSG. Yet, the package, in an Asian supermarket, has a French translation [not even a Chinese translation, which would be expected since the [false] stigma is that all the Chinese use MSG by the bucket]. Perhaps this is saying something about the way the world is heading; after all, MSG makes stuff taste good without having to cook stocks for 17 hours. I would be pretty upset if all soups tasted umami though. What about the hint of celery, or hint of broccoli?

MSG is much cheaper to buy and use than cooking a stock for 17 hours. The gas/electricity price of cooking stock costs more than a pinch of MSG crystals, I'm guessing.

So, another thing I saw, this time at Target, during the Winter sale, was garlic. Sure, Target now has a whole section selling fresh food, but this was found in the sale section, among the wrapper paper, holiday cards and chocolate. It was a box of garlic.

I have never seen garlic packaged in a cardboard box, wrapped in plastic before. This is completely novel to me. Of course, it begs the question: why did a company decided to sell garlic in a box during the holiday season? [Especially when vampires are loved, in this Twilight era...?]

I suppose since I was happy to get a pie pan for my Holiday present, maybe some people enjoy getting 57 g of garlic.

Then again, I would really love 57 g of garlic if I didn't have much money, or if I hadn't eaten garlic in months/years.

So perhaps it IS rational to package garlic that way, for easy wrapping and giving during the holiday season.

The last thing I will talk about, which I actually bought, is the canned coconut milk. I plan to use this when I go back home for Spring break, but I definitely will not be throwing away the cans that hold the two coconut milks! If you can't figure out why I think the cans are funny, it's ok; I suppose it's not that funny except for immature teenagers/young adults like me.