Chindian fried noodles

I've been asked if I was Chindian before - a mix between Chinese and Indian, though I think she meant Native American. Anyways, this cooking experiment is fusion food with Chinese and "real" Indian.

I got the idea from who I think was the owner of Charisma East Indian Restaurant in Winnipeg. Upon discovering that me and my family was Chinese, he said that in India, a big trend was fusion food with Chinese food. Apparently, using Chinese noodles with Indian spices is big and he was contemplating adding it to his menu.

I completely made this up as I went along. I figured that I still had the jar of Indian curry and I had instant noodles. Why not try and make some fried noodles?

Ingredients: curry and instant noodles

Put some water and oil in the pan. More water required than the fried udon b/c the instant noodles need to be reconstituted. This wasn't enough water as I had to add extra water later.

Add the instant noodles

Cook the noodles until they break apart and is no longer hard

Spoon in some curry

The finished product

It was ok. Not that flavourful. I also put in too much oil as I was afraid of the noodles sticking and I was having problems getting the curry paste mixed in. I probably should've added the curry paste earlier when there was still some water in the pan, though the noodles were crispy, which was nice. The excessive amount of oil combined with the concentrated nature of the paste, it ended up being pretty heavy. It seemed like I needed something else in there. Maybe I should've made it more like real curry by having the noodles in a soup-like base. I don't think the curry paste is supposed to be eaten without adding additional stuff. Maybe I was supposed to use other Indian spices for the fusion dish. I also may have used the wrong type of noodles. Got any ideas?

Apple Hash Browns

I decided I would try and make apple hash browns for breakfast this morning. I wasn't too sure how they would turn out, but I couldn't think of any reason why they wouldn't. My logic was, you usually make hash browns from potatoes, and apples and potatoes are pretty similar when you think about it. They both have a skin, they have similar consistencies on the inside, and in french potatoes are called pommes de terre which if you translate literally means "apples of the ground". So in theory the two should be interchangeable right? Let's find out.

First I took an apple...


Chopped it up and put the pieces in a frying pan....


And then added some vegetable oil and fried the whole thing.


This is how they turned out. They looked like hash browns alright, but there was a subtle difference. When you fry potatoes, they get crispy. Apples, on the other hand, get mushy. Not sure why they behave differently. My theory is that apples turn mushy because they contain more water than potatoes, but who knows what the real reason is?
They didn't turn out quite like I thought, but they still tasted ok. It might work better using a different kind of apple. I wonder how apple fries would work?

Baileys + ? = yum

Went to Rob's place to hang out with him and Vince. It was a snowy evening so I felt like drinking something cozy--Baileys! Caramel Baileys to be precise. You can drink Baileys with coffee or hot chocolate, you can drink Bailey's straight on ice. You can drink it in a house with a mouse, on a train with a dame... As I sat there in Rob's big comfy leather chair with my Bailey's on ice I thought to myself, "hmm, this is good. This makes me think of a Paralyzer--Kahlua, vodka, milk, and Coke. What if you mixed Baileys with Coke? No need for milk cuz Baileys is already creamy." This is what happens when you mix Baileys and Coke.






Begin by pouring some random amount of Baileys over ice.




















Next, add some random amount of Coke (we're not supposed to measure for this blog, right?)
















Hmmm....













Yeah, the results are not pretty. It reminded me of a demonstration of how yeast works. It tasted okay (I would have added milk but I didn't see any in Rob's fridge and I didn't want to continue experimenting by adding eggnog as a substitute). The lesson learned here was, you cannot always improve upon something that tastes good already on its own.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

I was a little bored today, so I decided to cook. I decided to attempt to make some sweet potato pancakes. For fun, I did this completely by the seat of my pants, no recipe was involved whatsoever. I only had a theory, which I hoped would result in something edible.


First step: I baked a sweet potato in the oven for a bit to soften it up, then I mashed it up on the breadboard with some flour.


For step two I added some brown sugar and an egg. (In retrospect, I may have used too much brown sugar.. ah well live and learn :P).


Next I mixed it all together into a big ball of dough. I had to add a bit more flour halfway through because it got all super sticky. This was actually the funnest part because afterwards I had all this orange sweet potato goo all over my hands. It was just like playdough, only tastier.


After I had the dough ready, I flattened it out (which was tricky because I don't have one of those dough rolling contraptions), cut it into pieces, and fried them up in some vegetable oil.


And voila! The finished product. Pretty simple "recipe" I guess. They didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but considering I was making it up as I went it's a miracle they were edible at all.

Best Idea EVER

Many years ago there was some guy. That guy had a vision. He took two of the world's great foods, tacos and salad, and combined them to make one of the most tastiest meals ever.. the taco salad. My friends, tonight I had a similar vision. I took two more of the world's great foods, spaghetti and sandwiches, and combined them. I have to admit I didn't expect much, but the result was surprisingly tasty. And so, I would like to present to you.. THE SPAGHETTI SANDWICH!!! (da da daaaaaaaaa)