Cooking Marathon – Part 2

Another cooking marathon was not on my To Do list this weekend, but who cares -- life is randomness.

Blame it on having an only child and a male at that, but I have not taught D how to cook except for the very basic eggs, ham, hotdog, bacon, plus some microwave button punching. Maybe he is getting mature, bored with his regular frozen dinners , or just wants to learn -- he has been asking me to teach him more recipes. Finally, at 20 my son is getting interested in cooking – “even if only for survival”, I always tell him.
This ambitious kid’s first request was spaghetti. It was a sight to watch him slice the onions, stir the noodles, mix the ground beef. His big ordeal was opening tomato sauce and cans with a manual can opener. Try using right handed utensils when you are left handed.
Next recipe : Chicken Curry. Second to spaghetti, chicken curry is one of his favorite dishes. He found this dish a bit easy to make, and both dishes turned out well.

Not to be outdone, my Jaime Olivier also wanted to show off his cooking skills. This time he wanted to show D how to make "utan bisaya" with coconut milk (native vegetable dish). Problem is, D was plainly not interested and neither was I. I was already busy (like washing all the utensils they used) – so why bother? But anyway, for anybody interested, here is the utan bisaya recipe (aw, utan Chavacano diay) :

Saute spring and bulb onions, minced garlic and ginger.
Add peeled shrimps and fish flakes (left overs). Dried fish is also good.
Add cubed "tumon" (looks like gabi to me).
When tumon is half tender, add cubed yellow squash and jackfruit (pre-cooked from can).
Stir once in awhile.
Add cut string beans, eggplant and okra.
After about 2 minutes, add a bit of water, shrimp bouillon and let simmer for a while in medium heat.
Add coconut milk. Cover. However, make sure mixture does not reach boiling point.
Add alugbate leaves. Simmer and turn off stove.

Notes:

• Best cooked on a non stick deep wok.
• Water is added only after almost all vegetables are added. ( I use to add water and let it boil before adding all the vegetables - Mandaue style. Hubby says it is best if the vegetables are cooked by itself, as adding water too soon makes all the vegetables very soft).
• Be sure when you cook this you have plenty of rice ready as this is so yummy.
  

My thoughts from that tiring but fun cooking lesson / demonstration :

• An eager student is easy to teach.
• When the need arises, student will seek teacher.
• Keep a record. D and I wrote almost everything we did -- for future reference.
  
• If you can bribe someone to cook it for you (meaning the hubby) -there is no reason to learn.
• Is there a left handed cook? – I really want to know.