cook: vietnamese spring rolls and taiwanese three cup chicken

I decided to turn my Sunday in a cooking day and make shrimp and pork salad rolls to eat for the week. But first breakfast to use up the spinach in my vegetable bin because I had a lot leftover from my Tuscan Salmon. I wanted bread for breakfast and made a run to Safeway. I can't believe that the groceries below added up to $20.26. I used to marvel that food used to be so cheap. I thought I was going to make a spinach and cheese omelette with baby garlic and Parmesan.

 

I sauteed the aromatic first in butter and then added ALL the spinach. A lot. But I knew it would shrink down.

 

I forgot to add more butter or olive oil to the pan, and so the scrambled egg stuck and decided it would be a spinach scramble instead. I made sure not to overcook and leave it creamy.

 

But I wanted it cheesier and decided to top it with more Parmesan and put my eggs under a low broil. Kind of a fail, but my English muffin was delicious and so too, the sausage. The rest of the sausages will be for homemade Sausage McMuffins, but with real cheese, not cheese food.

After breakfast, I cleaned up my succulent gardens a bit. More cleaning chores in the kitchen and dining room. I disposed of dead flowers and refreshed a bouquet of Bird of Paradise and a yellow Gladiolus with blooms from my Columbine plant. I think I adhered to the rules of Ikebana: Silence; Minimalism; Shape and Line.

Making Vietnamese spring rolls took up my whole afternoon. I decided to include noodles into the rolls, which I normally omit and which came with exacting directions of soaking in boiling water for no longer than 1 minutes and 15 seconds and then soaking in cool water for no longer than 20 seconds and then draining for 15 minutes.

 

I plan on first using up all the dried rice noodles in my pantry for noodle bowls next week. In the meantime, I broiled pork belly, thawed frozen shrimp, rinsed and sorted mint leaves and cilantro, and drained pickled daikon and carrots before assembling it all into a roll-making station.

Wow was it a long afternoon, and I made enough to share with the neighbors, whereupon Patrick complained why was I feeding them? Because I'd rather them eat it than we not and then waste. However, I kept thinking there was a missing ingredient in the spring rolls, but what? Not bean sprouts, for they perish too easily before we can eat them. I realized today what the missing vegetable was. Cucumber! However, cucumbers are like bean sprouts for my household, whereupon if we don't eat them right away, they rot too fast in my fridge. Next time. 

Patrick brought home garlic scapes from the vegetable garden, and the New York Times food newsletter featured three-cup chicken, which unfortunately was behind a paywall (bastards! but I get it and am willing to pay for a general New York Times subscription. Instead I found a Food and Wine recipe recipe online. And instead of scallions, I decided to sub it out for the baby garlic. You really only need Asian cooking wine (I had Japanese in my cupboard), sesame oil, and soy sauce as well as garlic, ginger, and scallions. My mise en place was a mess because I spilled all the liquid ingredients while browning the chicken thighs.                     

And because I must always have vegetables at a meal, I added baby bok choy and sugar snap peas during the last few minutes of the braise. At the very last, I sprinkled lots of chopped basil into the dish.

I managed to not cook the Jasmine and Japanese rice get too soggy

 

The meal reminded me of Chinese restaurant meals though my palate was confused and wanted adobo. I wonder if I could incorporate vegetables into my adobo?