Quarantine Cookventures

It’s been a challenging almost two weeks for me recently as I’ve been confined to my apartment due to the possibility of direct COVID-19 exposure. Since I cannot enjoy adventures outside of my apartment, though, I’ve tried to focus on ones still available to me – like cooking!

I’ve baked and cooked since I was a child – making my first solo family dinner as a seven-year-old (don’t worry, it was baked beans and hot dogs…) and my first entirely solo “real” dinner from scratch for my family of seven when I was 12-years-old. Experimenting in the kitchen has always been a joyful and relaxing experience.

Moving to new countries – and continents – entirely refreshes that experience. My kitchen is nothing like what I’ve been used to. No oven, just two burners to use instead. I’ve picked up my first airfyer as a result, and of course I got a rice cooker, and even a tiny little toaster oven. I went to open a can of tomato paste the other day and realised I still need to aquire a can opener. No amount of inventiveness could open that can without one for me!

This new kitchen has made me realise how much I’ve come to rely on certain easy staples in my life; baking some variation of quiche that lasts for a week at least once a month; oven roasting veggies; oven roasting meat; crock-pot soups and stews and curries… the list goes on. No oven, no crockpot – not to mention a whole new assortment of food to figure out.

When I first started my 52 weeks of veggies three years ago, I thought the hardest part was going to be the actual eating of the veggies. As it turned out, though, the hardest part was learning how to identify and prepare them! I discovered I had major anxiety in the produce section that I’d always ignored since I skimmed past that section anyways. I realised that I didn’t know how to identify what was a “good” veggie vs a rotting one or not ripe-enough-for-when-I-need-it veggie, and that I was still scarred from this one time my sister and I ate moldy peas that had been imported to our island before someone realised that they were, actually, moldy. We didn’t grow them there or see them often, so how were we supposed to know they were bad? (We did point out that they felt fuzzy…)

The point is, I neither grew up seeing nor eating a lot of the fruits and vegetables available in the USA grocery stores and when I did see them, they didn’t necessarily look the same.

Now I’m in the same place again, but I understand it better and I’m not crippled by anxiety over it; I find myself feeling curious and excited instead. What will this turn out to be? What can I do with it? Will I like it? No? What if I try preparing it a different way?

It becomes fun instead of stressful. And the biggest thing I realised in 2018 when I first started the veggie project: it’s also a way of creating art. The very act of experiment and creation focuses and relaxes me, as well as eventually also providing sustenance for me.

So, now that I’ve shared all of that, what have I been trying out? I’m so glad you asked!

A new friend here told me about a farm-to-table company called Toom, where I can have a box of fresh produced delivered straight from an organic farm to my apartment. I’ve started getting a box about once a month delivered to me and while I know some of the items (carrots, cabbage, potatoes, bananas, tomatos), there have been some I had to figure out.

I used to feel embarrassed about asking questions like that; ashamed that people would realise I didn’t just know. But the fact is, while it may be humbling to show that, it doesn’t mean I’m ignorant or have reason to feel shame. Rather, it simply means I don’t know yet – and that I want to learn. And do I prepare the food more tastily and end up eating healthier (not choking to death because that part of the veggie shouldn’t have been consumed) as a result of asking? Yes.

As it happens, I’m still not entirely sure what the green things are in the photo and maybe one of you know better.

I experimentally sliced them up and stir fried them with coconut oil, garlic, some sweet paprika, and salt, then dipped them in a GF soy-sauce/sweet chili sauce mixture. They were delightful – very light to the palate and almost buttery. I kept the skin on them and that part stayed a bit tougher (it’s surprisingly thick) and had a hint of a grassy taste to it. If I never ate something that tasted like the colour green before, I have now! I did save one to try air frying as an alternative experiment, because I imagine that will bring out a whole other flavour profile and I’m quite curious.

Besides that, I sauteed some fresh spinach (I think; it looks slightly different) from the box with olive oil, garlic, and paprika, then made a duck egg omelet with it – adding in balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese. That was a treat to the taste buds, for sure!

I’ll share some more culinary experiments and experiences again soon (and a cocktail I concocted!) – but hopefully I’ll be getting back outside again by the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me!