'Nobody' likes my cooking
Sep. 15th, 2022 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomI have been on a cooking odyssey this week. And much like that story, there were many twists and turns but everything turned out all right in the end.
Having gathered (I thought) all of the ingredients for a batch of one of my favorite self-made dishes - something I call "jambalaya-ish", as it's missing most of the vegetables and some other things a purist would insist on - I started browning the sausage and cubed chicken late Tuesday night (the 13th, of course), opened the cans of diced tomatoes and sauce... and only then realized I had no chicken broth in the house. Oops. Well, nothing for it at 10:30 pm but to press on, with four cups of plain tap water. The result was predictablybland underseasoned, and also slightly undercooked, because in my haste to be done and get to bed (and my desire, from previous attempts, to avoid burning/sticking any of the rice to the bottom of the pot), I didn't let the sauce, meat, etc get up to a proper boil before adding the rice and turning it down to simmer. So it was watery and "al dente".
Yesterday, after the market opened, I set about correcting my first mistake. I acquired both a few boxes of fresh broth (for the second batch I'll make in a few days with the rest of the browned meat, and another pair sometime soon) and a jar of bouillon powder (for this and any other future emergencies). What I really should have done was added two spoonfuls of the latter, stirred it in thoroughly and sampled that before proceeding; what I did instead, naturally, was to go directly to three. The result was... edible, but rather strong.
Despite my hubris and this fresh reminder that you can't "un-add" things, I was fortunately able to rebalance the mix by adding one more cup of water (the rice having soaked up a little in the interim) along with another sprinkle of cajun seasoning to keep the spice level up. The final result was a bit more "soupy" than I might have wished, but still within parameters, and quite tasty.
Now, as I said earlier, to wait a few days and try again, with a bit more care to keeping it all to plan from the start...
Having gathered (I thought) all of the ingredients for a batch of one of my favorite self-made dishes - something I call "jambalaya-ish", as it's missing most of the vegetables and some other things a purist would insist on - I started browning the sausage and cubed chicken late Tuesday night (the 13th, of course), opened the cans of diced tomatoes and sauce... and only then realized I had no chicken broth in the house. Oops. Well, nothing for it at 10:30 pm but to press on, with four cups of plain tap water. The result was predictably
Yesterday, after the market opened, I set about correcting my first mistake. I acquired both a few boxes of fresh broth (for the second batch I'll make in a few days with the rest of the browned meat, and another pair sometime soon) and a jar of bouillon powder (for this and any other future emergencies). What I really should have done was added two spoonfuls of the latter, stirred it in thoroughly and sampled that before proceeding; what I did instead, naturally, was to go directly to three. The result was... edible, but rather strong.
Despite my hubris and this fresh reminder that you can't "un-add" things, I was fortunately able to rebalance the mix by adding one more cup of water (the rice having soaked up a little in the interim) along with another sprinkle of cajun seasoning to keep the spice level up. The final result was a bit more "soupy" than I might have wished, but still within parameters, and quite tasty.
Now, as I said earlier, to wait a few days and try again, with a bit more care to keeping it all to plan from the start...
