While I am in no way a great chef, I am trying to better myself. I figure, if I can do food, that is an ability I can use every day, enjoy every day, until I can’t cook anymore.
1. Adding new vegetables to my database: I knew when I came down here that I needed to expand my vegetable horizons. Sticking with what was comfortable meant that we were missing out on variety, flavor and nutrients. Always on the hunt for ways to stuff vegetables into my husband (we are supposed to have so many servings a day I can’t keep up) I adopted a few new veggie friends. I had wanted to do this in Inuvik, but, honestly, the selection was so unappealing, and I was a busy girl with work. My latest additions are avocados and leeks. I’d also like to add eggplant, bok choy and turnip in there at some point. (Every soup I had in Taiwan had chunks of turnip in it…they just take on the flavor of whatever they’re in, much like tofu). With these new additions I needed to find out how to tell when they’re ripe and what fresh versions of these things looked like. I had some help from girlfriends and Google (in that order). Leeks just look like giant green onions. Avocados are trickier as you can’t tell anything about the inside from the outside (apparently color is not a consistent marker for ripeness). You have to squeeze them gently. If the flesh gives just a little, they’re good to go. If it’s like squeezing a rock, it needs more time. If your fingers touch pit…well, you’ve got to go wash your hands, and find another avocado to take home for dinner.
2. Using mangos - tropical fruit scares me a bit, only because I don’t now much about it. What it tastes like, how it grows, even what it looks like (spent a few hours with a girlfriend going store to store to find out what mangos typically look like). I needed a ripe one for a salad I made for Valentines dinner. The same questions apply here as to the leeks and avocados - how do I tell it’s ripe? Fresh? And how, good grief, how, do I slice it open?? Again, girlfriends and google made an educational combination. I find learning from someone else’s experience to be the best way I learn (chef demonstration videos online are the second). Despite the prep, I ran into a snag on my first mango date - they were a little un-ripe. But dinner is tonight!!! (I shouted). So, not sure if this is a kosher habit to have, but I sliced up the mangos, grabbed some butter and sugar, and fried em in a pan to soften and sweeten. Then I let them cool so they could be added to the salad. I thought I was pretty clever, but probably broke some cardinal mango rule or something (Chef Dilly is that OK??)
3. Coffee: Long have I felt uncomfortable ordering at Starbucks. I have no idea what’s in those drinks, aside from plenty of sugar… I don’t know the difference between a latte, a cappuccino, and a coffee, or didn’t until a few days back. Funny how some questions can float around in my head for years before I set out to answer them. I never drank coffee until coming to Male (with any regularity, and SURELY not without any candy-cane/pumpkin spice/mocha flavoring). But all this time, I said I was drinking coffee here… nope, turns out I am drinking lattes. Apparently it’s all in the amount of milk you add. 2/3 milk 1/3 strong coffee with foam on top is a latte. 1/3 milk and 2/3 strong coffee is a cappuccino (that and a cute little mug). A coffee is just a coffee (BO-RING!). So I THINK I have an espresso maker at home (makes strong coffee) and a steamer attached. Together, they make cappuccinos and lattes. Also, now I am comfortable with a coffee maker. Never before have I said that. I keep remembering the time I was 8 and trying to make my mum a mother’s day coffee…by pouring the water directly into the filter with the coffee grounds. My only problem was what to put under the spout to catch the coffee water while I was using the coffee pot to pour it into the top…. not the sharpest tool in the shed.
4. Coconut - I LOVE coconut!!! Could munch on it all day. So, it was mandatory I learned this at some point in my life. Found a great video online and watched a master at work. Now I can have a coconut, and eat it too.
5. Chicken Laksa soup - I have been a big fan of Thai food for a while. THEN I went to Medhufushi Island resort and had their chicken laksa soup. It was one of the best things I have ever tasted. Such a sweet balance of coconut milk, ginger, curry, onion, and noodles. YUM. Wanting to try and replicate it, I searched for recipes and tried this one which we are eating tonight with some pad thai (minus some of the ingredients that I will keep my eyes peeled for from now on so the next time I make it, it will be complete). http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/thai/thai_laksa.html
6. Salad dressings - ever since making Lee’s mum’s caesar salad dressing, I figured, hey, anytime I make a salad, I can just whip up a fresh dressing instead of settling on one that ’sort of’ incorporates the ingredients I’ve chosen for the salad…. PLUS with all the crap they put in stuff these days, it would be nice to know exactly WHAT crap is in my salad dressing. For that mango salad I made my hunny on the 14th, I concocted a salad dressing to go with that included a bit of mango, some pepper, lime and ginger. Yum 
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