Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Experimental Cooking

I hated chemistry in High School. I couldn't see the point in remembering all of the stuff. My sister, who is one year older, was in the same class. She did well. I passed.

The worst part of chemistry was the experiments. I could mix blue and yellow chemicals and come up with something that was purple - not green. I never got the right color. Why not??!?!?!?!

But, I have to say, that with cooking, I enjoy experimenting. I tried three different recipes this past weekend. All got a failing grade. Some I will try again. Hmmm. Hubby ate two of the three. Jun too.

Just to satisfy your curiosity, the first was Banana Oatmeal cookies with pumpkin instead of bananas (too EXPENSIVE). No chocolate chips to go in them, and Jun got a rash/hives all over her face from the walnuts. Ryu hates pumpkin, even disguised in cookies.

The second was from a 1920 cookbook. It was a recipe for tea biscuits. It said it made a light batter, but that you could cut the biscuits out. If not, add a little more flour. I went from two cups to two and a half cups of flour, and decided to make drop biscuits. Hubby and Jun loved them. They were TOO sweet. I will try again - a 1/2 batch - and add all the flour necessary to be able to roll these biscuits out!

The third was shumai. What is the English for this? It is a kind of Chinese dumpling. I merged three recipes together. One recipe was for folks who don't eat pork - and it called for ground turkey - I used ground chicken. One was a Chinese recipe - it called for soy sauce, ginger, mirin, etc. to flavor the dumplings. The last was a Japanese recipe. I also grated 1/2 a carrot to put in, and nuked it with the chopped 1/4 huge onion in the microwave for 4 minutes before adding to the mixture. Ryu is NOT a raw onion guy. But, I forgot the salt and pepper. When eaten with soy sauce and karashi (hot mustard), they were alright. Ryu and Jun loved them. I was not satisfied. Try, try, again!

I found a graham cracker recipe to try. Maybe tomorrow?

No comments: