Sun, 12 May 2013
Crockpots and kitchen improvements
Preeya and I cooked together at my place yesterday, and after the event, I wrote down some notes so that next time it can be even better.
The idea of the cooking was to create leftovers for us both to eat during the work-week. Preeya's angle is that she loses interest in eating something during cooking it, so we thought we could make food for each other.
We cooked:
- Crockpot Recipe for Vegetarian Black Bean and Tomatillo Soup with Lime and Cilantro (for Asheesh, by Preeya)
- Slow Cooker Coconut & Green Curry Pork (for Preeya, by Asheesh)
Notes
Here are the notes I wrote up from the event. Mostly I'm sharing these to provide some insight into the process of "Do something in the kitchen, then think about how to improve the kitchen" that I've been going through a lot lately.
Dry things we could have had but didn't
- Brown rice
- Black beans
(Fix: bought them by Google Shopping Express)
- Canned diced tomatoes... (reading http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=25627 suggests Hunt's is good; fix is to stock a few cans. I should get that from a local store since Google Shopping Express doesn't have Hunt's. Muir Glen Organic is also good, says this. Personal note: Jersey Fresh brand is super great, but hard to get.)
Locations of things in kitchen
- Scissors were easy to use once Asheesh said where they were.
- Counter space was not cleared-off before we began.
- Oven gloves were in a weird spot. (Fix: I moved two magnetic hooks
- We didn't have a garlic press, which would have been nice. (Fix: I did some research and bought http://www.amazon.com/Zyliss-Susi-3-Garlic-Press/dp/B007D3V00Q/ . Note that this press does not need one to peel the clove, which is good news.)
- Now that the 5lb gag of basmati is open, I'm afraid it'll get infested with moths. (Fix: Buy a 1 gallon Mason jar and see if I can fit all the rice into that.)
- Some spices aren't in the "spice rack" (but there's a fix already in the works for that, awaiting delivery of more spice jars).
- Preeya didn't know where chopping boards were, though they were easy to get once found.
- We tried two different locations for Preeya's slow cooker, settling on to the right of the sink / underneath the window there.
Shopping
- The pork butt was very reasonably priced, but it meant round-tripping to Mission Street for Preeya's favorite meat market. Asheesh could have tried La Gallinita next time.
- Buying the rest of things was easy. Casa Lucas had everything, I think.
General
- Things in the slow cooker take ages to cool down.
- We don't have any tupperware large enough to fit a full 4 quart slow cooker cooking result.
- The programmable-ness is super nice in Preeya's slow cooker.
- Using our can opener on the Maesri curry paste just sucks.
- Preeya had to go back to her place to get her slow cooker, which we could have thought of.
- Preeya mentioned the Mezzaluna style of cutting board, which has a dome to rock a knife within, for dicing. (Other names for similar things: ulus, uluut.) Such a thing might be worth getting.
Recipe
- The rice in the recipe for Asheesh became mush. Should probably have stuck to brown rice.
- Asheesh thought he'd add spinach to Preeya's recipe but hasn't yet.
Logistics
- It was nice cooking together. The scheduling was somewhat messy. We could have pre-picked our recipes. Preeya didn't bring a computer so only Asheesh really looked.