The Sisterhood of the [Unbuttoned] [Trousers]

Right before a long experiment, a friend and I got together and made a large batch of egg fried rice. It turned out really well, and not only worked as dinner for two, but also fed me for a weekend. This dish is as delicious as it is versatile!

You will need:

Day-old cooked rice

Eggs: 3 – 6 should work

Sauces: soy, chili, and oyster

Veggies: onion, garlic, ginger, green onion and anything else that you fancy

Seasoning: pepper, chili powder (especially if you don’t have chili sauce)

Optional: meat, seafood, and or a meat/alternative

For example:

Below is the recipe we used for the fried rice, with some pictures as a guide:

1. Take 3-4 eggs. Whisk with a few drops of soy sauce.

2. In a hot pan, make fluffy scrambled eggs and set aside.

3. In the same pan, add more oil. Medium heat ‘til oil and pan are hot. Break two dry red chilis apart and add to oil. Don't let them get too dark. Add 1/4-1/2 minced onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, and minced ginger for 1-2mins.

4. Add carrots, green beans, other veggies, mushroom, small pieces of chicken/shrimp, etc.

5. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce, and fresh ground pepper.

6. Add the rice once the veggies and meat are pretty close to being done. The rice should soak up the sauces and turn a golden brown color.

 

7. Once the rice is heated through and your seasonings are all right, add the eggs back in.

8. Add some fresh green onion. 

Green tea makes a nice addition to this meal. Enjoy!

After trying haloumi bites at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, I immediately remembered helim peynir, a Turkish mezze, or  quejo na brasa, one of my favorite beach treats in Brasil. The salty, creamy cheese chargrilled with savory oregano is hard to forget. In Brasil, we generally eat it like a popsicle on a stick. Optional: Follow up with sweet pineapple, also on a stick.

Using some leftover haloumi, olive oil, pepper, and oregano, I attempted to reproduce this snack, with satisfying results.

A summary:

I’ll admit that at the beginning, a lot of my day-to-day cooking had consisted of relatively quick recipes: Boil up some derivative of pasta, heat up sauce on the hob for a few minutes while adding Italian spices and maybe some wine, and then combine. Or, microwave some ready-made rice and grill marinated chicken together with one of Sainsbury’s curries. I’ve tried to step out of my comfort zone and explore some new dishes.

During my recent travels in Turkey, I once again experienced the wonderful simplicity and freshness of the traditional shepherd’s salad, or Çoban Salatası. In preparation for a big genetics lab experiment, I gave this salad a go to ensure a reasonable vitamin count.

The ingredients:

The dressing:

Here is the finished product:

I improvised, but if you would like some more exact measurements, check out: http://www.food.com/recipe/turkish-salad-82177

Thanks to this meal, copious amounts of fried rice, and a lot of tea, I survived the adult survival experiment, although some of the fruit flies I infected with virus have not been so lucky.