I took greenwithenvy's advice and decided not to buy my dad a present for father's day. Instead I cooked him and my mother dinner. Admittedly, I've never done this before. My mom seems to think I'm barely capable of feeding myself. When I was younger I was barely allowed in the kitchen during weekdays lest I drop a crumb. Okay, so once I set the toaster oven on fire and exploded an egg in the microwave. So? So I chose an idiot-proof menu.
Salad, Hong Kong Style. I had to leave the country to find out that salad should consist of more than iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. I mean holy crap, people put blocks-o-tofu in salad? You mean sweet corn isn't meant to be in there at all? People eat broccoli raw?! But fancy salad vegetables cost an eyeball in Hong Kong, and my parents like their Hong Kong style salad, so that's what I did.
Broiled spicy chicken legs. I marinated the chicken in the ketchup-Filipino chili sauce-soy sauce combo I invented. Can't go wrong with that! Plus it was something new to my parents, different from the usual soy sauce chicken. Unfortunately, I'm not used to their oven and I didn't expect it to take an hour too cook. My grill at home threatens to reduce everything to a crisp within 15 minutes. Oops. At least chicken legs are pretty idiot proof. You can't overdo them. But the only way I've made edible, non-rubbery chicken breast was by pure dumb luck.
Pasta with raw tomatoes and fried mushrooms. I kind of made the recipe up last week based on stuff I've seen on TV. Olive oil, basil, lots of garlic, salt, fry mushrooms in it, toss with pasta and chunks of raw tomato. I forgot the cooking wine. More salt. Dash of Maggi sauce (that's Boyfriend's trick). Sugar to counteract the sour. Yet more salt. More sugar. And finally it tasted right. It was another new thing for my parents. My dad's forever moaning about finding cream sauce in his pasta. He's a health nut who never fails to extol the benefits of olive oil. So I made him pasta the Healthy Way, for once. (Don't tell him how much salt and sugar I put in it. He also never fails to propound the evils of them both.)
All in all, a successful meal. Nothing tasted bad, I didn't blow anything up, I didn't break anything, and nobody got food poisoning. I think. Yay.
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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 6/19/2006 09:42:00 PM
2 comments:
That's an admirable menu, Kea!! Sometimes simple is best, especially when it comes to pasta and fresh ingredients.
Sounds like a perfect, fresh meal for the summer. Simple, but with some unexpected twists. I've never had raw tomatoes in pasta! Yum. Glad it was a success.
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