Cooking Class with SSOL (NOT!!)

when i first started blogging, it was on Friendster (gasp!) and the blog was called '(mis)adventures of cooking' or something like that. Evryone knows i loVE food and a few have even dared to brave the waters of my home-cooked meals. 


so, based on what i've told you, it should be clear that this post is NOT intended to teach you how to cook this dish. it's just chronicling my experience and serves as a reminder of any adjustments to make, should i attempt this dish again. actually, a confession is that i was quite nervous the whole way. i've no idea why...i cooked for about 2 years(?), almost everyday. it's been more than 3 years since then, so i am terribly rusty. 


if anything, you'd want to try this dish out for yourself and have a few laughs at my expense while reading this post :D


i'm living in Macau now, and it was
 only logical i start with a Portugese dish. i had a HUGE can of Portugese chourico that i was supposed to bring back to Malaysia but left it out at the last minute cause it was too heavy (700 grams!). i got the recipe here at one of my favourite go-to sites for dinner (thanks John!). Portugese Chourico is not to be confused with Spanish Chorizo, they're different things but i guess you could substitute one with the other if you're super-cincai like me. 


Portugese Chourico Stew...here we go..

the actual ingredients called for chourico, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, potatoes, red pepper flakes, paprika and green beans. i only heeded four of the ingredients! omg! yes, i'm stingy, paprika cost almost MOP30 (RM15!) and i don't like green beans and the onions were going at about RM1 EACH! so i used 

• shallots in place of onion, 
• tomato paste instead of sauce, 
• chili flakes/seeds from chilli oil instead of the flakes, (from the red jar)
• carrots instead of green beans

yeah i know. i'm not staying true to the original dish. it's a bastardised poor version. what the hell! i'm cooking for myself only. so i don't care :D

(see the small red plastic bag behind? thats for my rubbish. ya i'm gross and throw my rubbish on the same top as the one i prepare my food. told you, this is NOT a cooking guide! be prepared for more disgustingness!)

                                         

i was so excited about eating something new that i took out the chourico and started dicing them first. ok i admit, i already cooked with them earlier in the day, nothing fancy, just fried them with shallots, tomatoes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. they were DAMN salty but that's my fault. they came in a can that i'll show you later. they were in oil with some peppercorns and cloves, which i thought was so cute :D

i used about one and a half, and after i had started cutting up a half, i realised that i should have taken the casing off, so i started pulling them off with my fingernails from the small diced bits. feeling pleased with myself, i started cutting up the whole one, only to remember that i forgot to take off the casing again. (insert Hokkien expletive here) so i had to peel them off the small diced bits instead of just cutting the chourico in half and pulling it off the whole thing. 

then i started chopping up the veggies. then i remembered you should prepare veggies before meat to avoid contamination. then i didn't care and continued. :P

i decided to throw in some chilli for i-don't-remember-what-reason, maybe the added vitamin C or antioxidants? heh. recipe called for one small onion so i used 3 small shallots and 2 cloves of minced garlic. 

i have bad bad memories of stinging, painful hands in secondary school ERT class while using chili so i was DAMN freaked out when deseeding the chilis. i actually washed the chili ok i was that scared! 

then i remembered i read somewhere that if your hands are oiled, it will protect your skin from the c-something in the chili seeds. i forgot la. MissC has a DAMN funny (not to her i think) story about that on her blog and i didn't want to end up like that. my fingers were already oiled from the sausages so i did a little 'yay' in my heart :D yes i live alone but i don't want to start talking to myself yet ok!

i didn't peel the potatoes cos, as i told you, i'm gross. at least i washed them ok! so i didn't think to figure out if the apartment had a peeler but thank God i found one! at first i only peeled halfway and diced that part up. then i decided i needed more and peeled the rest. 

i'm so indecisive that way. and bad at agar-ration. 

suddenly i had this great idea of putting mushrooms! yet another bastardization in progress! it's opened weirdly cause i don't know how to use the can opener and two bits of the cover were stuck to the can still. whatever lah. as long as it can get half-open enough already for me. i used half a can cos I LOVE MUSHROOMS and it's precious to me!

so here we go. two medium potatoes, diced, one carrot, diced, and half a can of mushrooms, quartered. :D

this whole food blogging business. not easy lah. added like half an hour to the cooking!

i used 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil from the sausages, and one teaspoon from the chilli oil, just for flavour and kicks :D got the cookerhood going (that word is just really weird to me) and started by frying the onions garlic chili for a bit. 'just to get the flavour out' or whatever that means.

can you see the end of the black plastic spatula? mann i hate using plastic to cook. i couldn't find anything else in the kitchen. freaks me out cause last time i checked, the one at home was all melted at the end. eeeeeee.....

then i dumped in the diced chourico (i keep wanting to type chorizo, ishish) and fried that for another minute (plus? plusplus? who knows!). the smell was GREAATT because, other than that rich meaty flavour, the chourico has some other smoky yummy spices in it that delivers a mouth-watering smell..hey i was cooking really late ok! so hungry at that time!

cheap! tomato paste. forgot how much but i remember it was cheap. heh. i used the whole can! and regretted it. tell you why later. 

in goes the paste with some water, enough to cover the chourico..

after stirring it around, i dumped the potatoes, carrots and mushrooms in. i REGRET! i think i should have fried it like i do with the Japanese curry thing. as in, fry onions etc, add chourico and fry, then add potatoes etc and fried, then add water and stuff. dang nammit! oh well, next time :P


by the way! i finally found a wooden spoon thing in a drawer! the shape is kinda weird for cooking but at least it's not plastic :S ewww..

here is where the red pepper flakes and paprika goes in. so, in my cheapo version, here is where my red chilli oil bits-of-thing goes in. cheap ler! only rm3! i love chili oil, not easy to get in E. Malaysia :P

let it all boill.... that black bit is the chili oil, in case you're wondering. i tasted it and it was kinda lacking something...some ooOMPh...probably cause i skimped on the paprika..sigh..

then i had a brilliant idea! powdered chicken stock! you can't live without this man. but...why oh WHY did i buy knorr's?? i think maggi is less salty. i have no idea what i was thinking..anyway i dumped about less than half a teaspoon in..

it says to leave it for 25-30 minutes. then i suddenly remembered i hadn't cooked rice. heh. :D at least that's one thing i know how to do right :P

oh yea, this is the can that the chourico came in. yes i opened it upside down. oops. i kept the can cause i thought it might be useful for something (yes i'm stingy that way :P) and it was! i dumped my wooden ladle in while i was waiting for the stew to cook. heh. 


do you know how much this can of chourico costs!? ZOMG ok. it's like a bit over RM30, or MOP63, according to Royal Supermarket's price. about six large sausages inside. so maybe it's ok la. about rm5 for one sausage? i used that for breakfast with the eggs and all, lasted me til dinner...so i guess it's cheap? 
weird rationalization, i know.

while waiting for the food to cook, i decided to take some photographic evidence for you, that i did buy fruits! see! i listened to you! hehe. rm2.50 for bananas and rm5 for the apples (8). ok or not?

this is some other stuff i bought last night. RM7 for sesame oil man. my heart just breaks. i don't think they have that brand i usually get at home. maybe it's malaysian? the lemon drink is a desperate attempt to use it for lemon juice. but i tasted it and i don't think it's going to work all that well. first off, it's kinda fizzy? and it's a bit sweet. might work for some things but definitely not salad :(

so after 25 minutes, this is what it looks like. all globby! then i realised....i should have used tomato PUREE! what la. tomato paste is just way too thick for this. sigh. next time. it was a bit sour for me so i cut it by trying a tablespoon of the lemon drink i got, and some sugar. it was okkk lah.

i finally gave up on trying to tweak it when the rice was done. too hungry already! i think next time i really need to use a REAL onion, just for that sweet tang. this is what you get for being stingy. 

are you mad? of course i don't normally eat like this! this is just for display. normally i would mix up everything in a bowl and just eat. that's the kind of girl i am :D the cucumber would have remained in its original state and i would have just chomped off it in intervals to cut the richness of the stew. but for you, i did it all up, so you'd have even more of a reason to think i'm a good girlfriend :D and hurry up and come visit!

sorry this photo is upside down! can you spot the difference? made it just for you ;) don't ask me why there's no G, i was too lazy :D


the result? it wasn't too bad, i usually don't like my own cooking anyway. except on really rare occasions. cause by the time all the cooking is done, you're just tired and hungry. heh. definitely tomato puree next time. or a mix of puree and paste. and definitely use an onion. DBS is probably going to complain i didn't use enough meat. 


okay off to lunch. guess what i'm having? the leftovers! :P