I’ve been doing a bit of cooking over the past month, and here are a few dishes I’ve tried out. I finally figured out what the noodle-like ingredient in the Japanese braised beef was that I kept skipping or accidentally using noodles for instead. Konnyaku = Yam (noodles)!

I picked up some Konnyaku, in both noddle form and giant box/cube form. I tried following the recipe on the package for one of them and the result was:

Ginger Pork and Vegetables
Tasty simple dish. The konnyaku is a somewhat unfamiliar texture and might not appeal to everyone, but I really liked it.

Recipe Source: JFC Konnyaku Package

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I used the other package to make:

Nikujaga
Alright, hold on. This looks a bit familiar. After watching some cooking videos on youtube, I decided to try this basic dish. It wasn’t until I had all of the ingredients ready that I realized I was making yet another variation of Japanese Beef and Potatoes which I have already made and posted about twice on this blog. The videos made it look so easy I didn’t even recognize it. Well, luckily I really like this dish, so no loss. As for recipe, I decided to follow something of a combination of the videos I was watching.

Recipe Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-bAK9pJPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymRMVUkSTsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj-hgpUn0bQ

Thought I’d try branching out a bit from making mostly asian food with this Creole/Cajun recipe. It actually turned out to be one of the best dishes I’ve made so far. The whole thing was good, and the sauce was really simple and could be used on its own in other recipes.

Recipe Source: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-Boil-with-Spicy-Horseradish-Sauce-243174

This is basically Japanese Braised Beef #2. Same dish, different recipe. This one turned out a bit better, and wasn’t overly sweet like the last one. Also, it was better with the beef cut into smaller pieces. The one mistake involved the one ingredient I couldn’t find: ‘ito-konnyaku’. Since I couldn’t find it, I thought I’d just do without it. At the same time, I somehow thought that this recipe had noodles (given the recipe picture), but it didn’t, meaning that what looked like noodles must have been the mystery ingredient. So, I added noodles fairly early in the recipe making them too soft, though it still tasted good. In the end, I’d stick with this recipe, and use noodles but I’d serve the end product over noodles, rather than cooking them inside.

Recipe Source: Quick & Easy Modern Japanese Cooking At Home (Joie Inc.)

Picked up this crazy looking fruit the other day. Haven’t seen one before. Just posting it because I thought it looked pretty intense

Another recipe from the DS. Turned out alright, although it isn’t the best goulash recipe I’ve come across. This one has it made as more of a soup, and didn’t provide for the beef to cook long enough to be soft. Next time I’d use a different cut of beef, cook it longer, or use a different recipe.

Recipe Source: My Personal Trainer Cooking (Nintendo DS)

Fast food can be tasty, and when I indulge, I tend to end up at McDonald’s. That being said, I decided that I wanted to meet my craving with a perhaps slightly healthier option. I tried to make a sandwich that embodied those same features which we are all used to. Think of this as a kind personal, non-commercial, fair use, food fan-art

Basically, all I did for the sauce was Miracle whip + paprika + finely chopped onion.
Next, toasted some whole wheat bread, added the sauce, sliced dill pickle, sliced roast beef, lettuce, cheese, and then the middle slice of bread with sauce on each side.
Finally, heated it to melt the cheese a bit and then sprinkled a few sesame seeds on top…

As everyone should already know, the Big Mac is © McDonald’s.
Fan-art is by me.

I know, I know, not a particularly difficult recipe, but made it along with the beef stroganoff, and it turned out well too.

Recipe Source: My Personal Trainer Cooking (Nintendo, DS)

As a Mother’s Day gift, I tried my hand at another DS recipe with a little bit of help Beef Stroganoff turned out really well, with the beef cooked just right, and the sauce the right consistency. Not too much else to say, it was probably the best meal I’ve ever made Unfortunately, the pictures don’t quite capture it properly.

Recipe Source: My Personal Trainer Cooking (Nintendo, DS)

If there’s one form of cooking I do know, it’s stir fry. That’s pretty much the only form of cooking I knew to begin with. I had some leftover cabbage that I picked up for another DS recipe (that I never made), so I decided to stir fry it up with some tuna and ramen noodles. Mmmm…

After deciding to try and learn cooking, I got a Nintendo DS and My Personal Trainer: Cooking. I got some games too, but they didn’t really help me learn to cook. Anyway, my first attempt was the Japanese Braised Beef. I didn’t have tin foil to make the sauce drip thingy, and there ended up being more liquid in the bottom than in the recipe picture I think the two might be related… It was delicious, though the one thing I would note is that there was too much sugar. At this point, I’m not entirely sure if it’s because of the recipe or my attempts to follow it

Recipe Source: My Personal Trainer Cooking (Nintendo, DS)

My website will be devoted primarily to my art and writing, with work that I intend to post here and information concerning work that will (hopefully, eventually) be published.

While I intend to use this blog to post updates concerning that work, I might post other things here from time to time. For one, I don’t really know how to cook, but I’m trying to learn, and I will post some of my attempts and progress here. That being said, this isn’t a cooking blog, and it’s still a secondary thing to me, despite that I’m about to bombard my blog now with about 5 cooking posts –> devoted to the five things I’ve cooked that were any good in about the last few months