Category: Free Inquiry

Tonight’s dish was thai themed/inspired and I believe I did the thai cuisine justice. I decided that I was going to combine two recipes that I had come across online and make a coconut thai shrimp and rice dish. The dish’s main focal point and majority of flavour came from the sauce so I knew I needed to successfully execute this. It started with using the largest pan I could find in my house and adding oil then proceeding to heat up the pan. Then I minced 5 cloves of garlic and finely cut up a full onion which I then added to the pan with some freshly shredded ginger. After that began cooking I added a full can of coconut milk which I let simmer and almost bring to a boil. Next, I added some crushed tomatoes and a lot of lime to keep the acidity balance at par to what typical thai dishes are. The recipes called for cilantro in both to add an element of earthiness, however, I find cilantro tastes like dish soap so I substituted this ingredients for something similar I already had in the fridge. The only thing I had was the leaves/stems of the carrots. This ended up working out perfectly as they added a bit of a bitter element that brought the whole dish together. I chose brown rice instead of white rice to add a nutty flavour aspect to it. As for the shrimp I kept it plain and simple with just cooking it with some chicken broth to keep them moist and juicy since they were going to be mixed into the sauce. After everything was stirred together and the prawns soaked up the flavours from the sauce I added them onto the bed of rice and squeezed a quarter of a lime onto the entire dish. Rating of this dish 10/10.

The second pasta dish I attempted was one I learned when I was home for reading break the fast few days. It involved parpadelle pasta with squash ribbons, pesto, and herbed goat cheese. This dish was much simpler than the previous pasta dish as most of the things that were required for this dish were pre-bought. However, to challenge that I decided on making my pesto dish which involved toasting pinenuts, adding them to a blender with garlic, olive oil and lots of spinach and all of a sudden I had a delicious tasting pesto! As the pasta was boiling and the pesto was made, I began peeling out my squash and creating a ribbon of them which I then steamed to make them soft and blend well with the pasta. After the pasta was cooked I drained it, tossed it into a bowl with the squash ribbons, mixed in the pesto sauce and then added the crumbled goat cheese onto the pasta for a nice salty aspect to it. Overall this was a very simple dish which I am grateful I gave a chance since it may be filled with limited ingredients, it has a burst of flavour within each bite.

Tonight I decided to attempt a dish my mom use to make for my family all the time. There was only one way that I could make this dish and it was to retrieve the recipe straight from my mom herself. I decided to facetime her and get her to instruct me as I was cooking to ensure my success for this timeless dish. I began by boiling the pasta, specifically Conchiglie pasta. While the pasta was boiling I began with the filling that I would be stuffing in this. This involved mixing spinach with ricotta. After the pasta has become fully cooked to my taste I began stuffing them with the filling I had made. I then put each of the shells into a glass pan filled with a thin layer of tomato sauce (my mom gave me sauce to freeze at the beginning of the year so this is my mom’s homemade sauce keeping the authenticity of the dish). After I have placed them all in the pan I poured the rest of the sauce over the pasta and poured some store-bought pesto over of the sauce with a bit of sprinkled parmesan cheese. Finally, the last step consisted of baking the shells at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. At first, I was nervous about attempting a dish that means so much like home to me, however, after tasting it and following my mom’s instructions to the best of my ability, it did taste like home. 11/10 for this one as I even impressed myself with my cooking ability.

Since today is Halloween I thought I would try something kind of in the spirit of Halloween such as rice paper spring roll wraps! These were a burst of freshness by the end but they were the most difficult item I have attempted to make so far. The individual items that went into this dish were too easy that I knew I was doing something wrong. It included finely chopping carrots, cucumbers, spinach, and cook thin vermicelli noodles. After all those ingredients are prepared, I created the sauce for the spring rolls. This involved whisking together peanut butter, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, 2 cloves of smashed garlic, siracha sauce, and a bit of water to make the consistency where I wanted it. I believed this was themed for Halloween as the noodles slightly resembled brains so that was my idea of making it festive. This is where the hard part came, wrapping all the ingredients into the rice paper wrappers. The trick is to get them wet to they can therefore stick and keep everything together, however, as soon as they begin sticking to something other than the exact spot you want them to, they won’t move!! They become permanently folded and you will have to start from scratch. Although I was forced to start from the beginning and waste 3 rice paper wrappers, after I finally got it, it was worth the wait as they tasted 10/10 delicious. Perfect for if you are wanting to stay on the lighter but still filling side for dinner.

With my leftover Orzo due to me putting in the incorrect measurements, I was lucky enough to have leftover and wanted to keep the greek theme going for the next night. I decided to add feta cheese, tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper, parsley and even cooked shrimp to add as a protein! Cooking the shrimp was the hardest part to cook as I have never worked with this protein before so this was especially a challenge for me. However, I was able to go over to the trusted youtube and found a tutorial by Gordon Ramsey teaching me how to properly cook the shrimp. Before putting heat on the protein I marinated it for around 2 hours with garlic, oregano and lemon juice just to keep the theme of greek within the dish. Overall 10/10 yet again for the flavour and execution of this meal and very creative use of leftovers to make it seem like a brand new dish!

Tonight’s dinner was based on a Greek dish recipe I found online! This included orzo, pickled red onion, cucumber and tomato salad, greek spiced chicken, tzatziki and green beans! Each of these components on their own seemed to be quite simple, orzo is just a pasta so cooking it was the same as any other type. As for spicing the chicken, the recipe online gave me all the ingredients needed so all I had to do was pick up the spices. This includes marinating the chicken in fresh oregano, onion, garlic, and a lot of lemon juice. As for the salad, I diced up some tomatoes and cucumbers and added olive oil, lemon juice oregano, and feta which you cant see in the photo as it is at the bottom of the plate. I bought the pickled red onions because I didn’t have 2-4 weeks of patience to pickle them myself but the store-bought ones were perfect. If I am being honest, the green beans were about to expire so I just threw those in with some garlic, salt, and pepper! Overall, this dish was amazing and one that I will definitely be making again on my student budget diet. What isn’t captured in the photo is I proceeded to heat up a naan on the stove and started making almost like a gyro which was even more filling and left me with leftovers for the next day! 10/10 rating for this dish, thankful that the internet provided me with a great recipe.

For tonights dinner I went with a more basic approach, I rarely eat breakfast at my house because every morning I am out the door by 7:50am, this leads to all my breakfast food items being used for dinner!! In this picture I decided to challenge myself with executing the perfect technique for all the simplest foods. This means for the eggs, cooking them at the perfect heat where they dont overcook and become rubber and arent runny and become possibly poisonous! The trick for eat of the ingredients was also to salt and pepper the perfect amount which I have always found a challenge for cooking. As for the vegeterian sausages, it was knowing the balance of crispy on the outside without drying it out. Overall this meal ended up being a 9/10 with the saltness level being a 10!

For my free inquiry topic I have decided on testing my abilities by challenging my skills of a chef. I have never had to cook by myself before, which is more common then one would think. When parents cook it only makes sense for them to provide enough for the whole family. Therefore the opportunity to cook has never been presented to me and as a high school student plus being involved with after school clubs and sports teams, I never had the time to even begin to learn how to cook. Over the summer, while transitioning into year 2 of post-secondary education I didn’t have time to learn how to cook since I was working full time and whenever I got home it was past dinner, closer to midnight! Therefore I chose the challenge of trying something new to cook every few weeks to continue to develop my cooking abilities. This weeks recipe I gave a try was just a classic veggie burger on the barbeque (which I have never used before!), sauteed mushrooms with wine, chicken broth, onions and garlic. Lastly I made sauteed spinach with onions. Overall I would rate this a 8/10 for my first time, the burger was slightly charged and the spinach was a tad too peppery but only room for improvement.