Exploration 1: Repollo Guisado*
Not every post will have a recipe, but I think for the times there is something yummy - you should know immediately where to find it.
My transition to eating mostly vegetables has been getting easier. I haven't been trying to do it, I've just been finding myself more in the habit to do it. Unfortunately, in this increasing habit I sacrificed the bacon this morning. I knew that I needed to cook it. I attempted to fry potatoes with bacon for breakfast. Right when I opened the bag I could smell the sour aromas.
I can't say my dog complained any. So breakfast ended up just being potatoes with coffee.
Something I do enjoy quite a bit, PROGRESSO's vegetable soups. They are quite satisfying. I started to learn in their direction about 9 months ago while recovering from a head injury I sustained in August 2016. I lost my sense of smell and taste. Thankfully, I recovered it but it was a slow process. Some parts of it aren't the same, but I'm just thankful to have most of it back. Life SUCKS without smell and taste.
As I was saying, I couldn't eat the soups with chicken or beef. Something about it didn't taste right. The vegetable soups, they were okay and actually really good. Maybe because tomatoes were something I enjoyed even with no sense of smell and taste so the tomato sauce played to the favorable pallet.
I've been having soup for lunch, now that it's colder out.
I've also still been spending a lot of time on Google seeking recipes. I don't understand how anyone can NOT cook these days. There's like a bazillion recipes online. It's ironic how in a time when we all have SO MANY cooking resources at our fingertips, the majority of us don't cook. It's a dying art.
A couple weeks ago my sister wanted to make something from scratch so she dove in. I'm not sure what she tossed into her sauce, but when she called me over to taste it while saying, "It still needs something." I replied, "The acidity is too high, we need to drop it back."
With the help of past experiences, past advice, and occasionally Google we tamed it down but it was still sharp on certain notes. Her and her boyfriend enjoyed it and that's all that matters.
As we experimented with how to harness her run away flavors, I couldn't help but recall a conversation I had with a friend about a month ago. We commented on how our grandmother's grew up in a time when cooking was an art and how they know how to fix things or make things better. They just know how to navigate a kitchen. How true.
I suppose that comes partially from being taught and partially from experience. So I figure, I already know the basics of the kitchen - now I just need to get some experience. I'll catch on if I keep working at it. I intend to because again...I want to make this my lifestyle for the rest of my life. If it means I need to whip up my own dinners nightly, then damn it, I will!
Google last night had a specific search, however "cabbage vegetarian recipes." You see, I'm frantically trying to use up the heaping of vegetables I still have in the refrigerator. I think you know this already. I've only mentioned it these past three entries.
Cabbage is on the top of list as I have two unused heads of it. Next comes cucumbers, then celery. Back to cabbage....there were a lot of recipes. Some of the best sounding ones were Ethopian. I love Ethopian food! When it came to the breakdown, however, a handful of the ingredients I never heard of, let alone knew where to find them. Those weren't going to happen. Maybe if I lived in Atlanta, but definitely not where I am, at least not right now.
There were also a lot of stuffed cabbage recipes, some sounding really good (the first 8 layers is really important to the creation of these, just a heads up. Every recipe specified, the first 8 layers. I found that amusing - yeah, I may have read one too many recipes to find THAT amusing. Leave me alone. lol) But most of them were super complex. A couple I started reading sounded oh so good, but after it started it's third part in the five part combination, each part having around five steps - I said, "Nope!" And moved on.
I'm not a chef and will not try to cook like one. Well, unless I try to impress someone. But considering my group of friends, who I am very thankful for, consist of pretty much nothing of straight males....a love life isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Yet, for the second time in my life - I'm surrounded by handsome men and none of them are an option. Back in college, I had three male roommates. Two of them were Venezuelan and one was Brazilian. They were so attractive and straight. They didn't mind that I was gay and in fact, sometimes had too much fun with it. One night I woke up when they all crawled in bed with me, drunk from a night out being silly. Then after I was fully awake, ran out of my room laughing.
Which brings us to Repollo Guisado or cabbage strew. It appears to be Dominican and since I have never had Dominican food before, I had no idea what I was aiming for. So I stuck closely to the recipe. I didn't modify anything. Given my track record so far, that might be a surprise. I know. I was on the phone, however, with my sister when I started my rice so forgot to time it and may have put the wrong amount of water into it. It came out a tad dry and crunchy.
Asian fail! (It's a good thing, I'm not really Asian. I'm a B-sian...LMAO)
Flavor-wise, it's not complex and looks and sounds much more exotic than it is. It is high on acidity though so I wouldn't recommend eating it by itself, although I'm sure you could. You have to love tomatoes too. It's very tomato-ie. I love tomatoes, but didn't find full satisfaction with the dish. I've learned to sit and digest my food when finished instead of automatically getting a second plate. Vegetables are tricky - it's almost like they don't fill you or at least, satisfy you so the immediate reflex is to assume you're still hungry and you go get more only to find out, you're actually full.
I imagine this is because as a meat-loving carnivore, I'm conditioned to experience satisfaction and fullness as a result of a flavor or feeling that meat has. Vegetables don't have that, so the experience is different. It's not bad, it's just a matter of reconditioning yourself to feel satisfied and full from them.
People think reconditioning is difficult. It's not. I've done it a few times in a variety of different ways. It just takes some work and effort. It comes naturally at some point, usually around 10-20 days into it. Be brave. Recondition yourself for the better.
My sister gave it a try and she loved it. Keep in mind her kitchen creation was high in acidity and she enjoyed it. It might be just her personal pallet. I tend to lean towards spicy and sweet. The last two dishes I've made she seemed to have enjoyed a bit more than I did. I find that funny.
I think if I were to remake this recipe, I'd throw in some cucumbers just to add a different flavor note. Again, it's very tomato filled. Since I'm not sure how it's supposed to taste, I wouldn't add much more because it is Dominican based. I'd like to keep it true to how it was intended. I just need to learn to appreciate it.
If you'd like to give the recipe a try find it here: Repollo Guisado.
The preparation was fairly simple and the cooking time was about 20 minutes which worked out nicely because that's how long it took the rice to cook anyway. It did cater to my need to use vegetables on hand and wasn't a bad dish. If I had to rate it out of 5 stars, I'd give a 3.5.
I did end up nibbling at my pieces cheese pizza later than night as I didn't feel quite satisfied. So personally, I'm thinking I might move past this dish.
If meat was an option, I'd cook it up in the skillet with some ham or spam. Hell, I still have a lot of cabbage in the fridge. I might just lean that direction tonight. Perhaps a salad the next couple days might be my best option to use what I have. I hate to waste it.
Speaking of waste! So a college friend of mine from New Mexico sent me a video on how to make my own vegetable broth! It's actually easier than it sounds. You save all your vegetable scraps in a big gallon zip-lock until it's full. To keep it from going bad, you freeze it. Then when it's full you boil/simmer it in a large pot for 30-60 minutes.
Vegetable broth.
Then everything goes to compost. I'm starting to feel like a true hippie and I'm hardly trying. YES! I can't wait to get my vegetable garden going. Then I grow, use, make byproduct and compost my own food! That to me is pretty cool.
Yeah it's requiring some lifestyle changes, but what else am I going to do with my time. I'm in the middle of no-where Georgia. lol
Not sure what to expect for Friday, but we'll see you then. As always, thank you for reading.
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