2016 Cooking Tracker - Jan

Starting with minimal knowledge on cooking, my gameplan was as follows:

1. Clear out the fridge

   

2. Start learning basic ingredients and how fast they spoil

   Like starting with the prime numbers, I wanted to understand the building blocks before I jumped into random recipes online. There are handy charts such as this or this that provide guidance.

3. Set up system for buying, storing and cooking food

   With a general understanding how fast items spoil, the next step was to develop a system to prevent wastefulness. The initial target is to do grocery shopping once a week and to buy the categories in the following amounts:

   • Short Life Vegetables (buy ~3 Servings) Generally all the leafy greens. Plan to eat in next 2~3 days.

   • Longer Life Vegetables (buy 2~3 Servings) Root vegetables, Carrots, Potatoes etc. Try to eat later in the week but ok if some go into next week.

   • Seafood (buy 2 Servings) Eat these in the next 2~3 days.

   • Meats (buy 2 Servings) Put in freezer and transfer to fridge 1 day before eating. Generally eat these later in the week along with the root vegetables.

   As opposed to squeezing items wherever there was room in the fridge like I used to, I then designated sections for each food category. I had no idea what humidity drawers were for. This is how you should use them:

   • Low Humidity Drawer: Apples, Avocados, Bananas, Kiwis, Mangoes

   • High Humidity Drawer: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Carrots, Green beans, Herbs, Leafy greens, Strawberries

So that's version 1 of our cooking process. I think the key will be avoid the temptation of throwing everything that looks good into our shopping cart and stick with this system for the next few weeks. As we iterate, I'm sure we will have improvements.

Dishes tried this month:

1. Basa Fish Fillet w Pickled Cabbage. Chop fish and add salt (one teaspoon to two fillets), baking powder, rice wine, ginger. Stir fry cabbage first then add fish.
2. Black Chicken Soup. Black chicken, dates, ginseng (soak and chop), goji berries, long yan, salt.
3. Water Spinach w Fermented Tofu. Add garlic and 1 chunk of tofu.
4. Precut Kalbi w Collared Greens.
5. Steamed Lobster. Salt Water, steam for 15 min.
6. Baby Bok Choy. Garlic and stir fry.
7. Lotus Root. Peel and slice. Add 2 tablespoon rice wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, garlic and stir fry.
8. Wagyu Steak. Salt, pepper. Lower heat than ribeye. Sear on both sides for ~2min.
9. Nagaimo pancake. 1 egg, green onions, herbs, salt.