After using up my weekly free dinner card at the parents so early in the game (aka Monday night) I found myself with limited options come Tuesday. I could either a) buy Wok n Noodle or b) knuckle down and actually attempt this cooking business. After spending ALOT of the moolah on ski gear over the weekend and paying off the ol' flight laden credit card (long distance boyfriends who enjoy skiing are expensive) I found myself unable to justify spending a whole $14.50 on one meal (because like hell am I saving half of my delicious pad see yu for lunch the next day).
I spent a quiet afternoon at work trying to think of foods that freeze well that aren't soup. I wanted options that used ingredients you could eat over multiple nights in different recipes and not notice the outfit repeat. Somehow tacos and Japanese box curry were the dishes of choice.
My justification? I felt like panko crumbed fish. I could put that in a taco. Tacos require slaw which is cabbage. I found a long lost sirloin steak in the freezer. I could also make a taco out of it. This taco would also use cabbage. I like box curry. It is Japanese. Japanese food is often served with cabbage. Boom. Cabbage is the common denominator! Oh and carrots.
Over the weekend Dylan (the long distance bf I was talking about) and I in our Japan trip prep decided to psych ourselves up by trying one of the Golden Curry sauce premixes you can find in the international isle. His friends had made him some once and swore it was the tits. Said friends were correct. Although unless you are slow cooking for multiple hours DO NOT USE BEEF. It was tougher than boots if said boots were smothered in delicious curry sauce.
I learnt from this mistake and found myself in possession of a hot Golden Curry box and a pack of chicken thigh cutlets (no way these gems could ever be tough and dry). So after going to the supo then to the veggie shop only to find it was closed then back to the supo again to buy vegetables it was after 7pm before I even got started on making it. Sigh.
Step 1: de bone the chicken cutlets. Sigh. Hats off to the butchers with their wizard fingers for somehow doing this without wasting half of the chicken or deboning their fingers..
Step 2: follow the instructions on the box. Seriously, it is literally a saute chicken and onion then add more vegetables then add water then add sauce mix. It is embarrassing how little effort it takes. I used a butt load of carrots, a mighty kumara and some rogue freezer burnt peas my flatmate found in the freezer whilst clearing it out. Score. Simmer it away for like half an hour and you have a delicious thick curry (yay for artificial thickeners!). Alas all this effort was not to be enjoyed tonight. This was to be for my dinner on Wednesday when I have to somehow make three cakes in an hour before running away to get my mop chopped into some Jennifer Lawrence type fashion.
Dinner tonight was fish tacos.
Take one wholemeal tortilla, smother it in Best Foods mayo.
Take some green cabbage and finely shred a bit of it. Take a red cabbage and shred a wee bit of that too. Take a carrot and either a grater or your julienne peeler and turn the big carrot into smaller carrot pieces. Mix vegetables together. Place vegetables on mayo smothered tortilla.
Fish fillet, sliced into pieces coated in salted flour. Dipped in beaten egg. Tossed in panko crumbs (buy them in the international isle or at your Asian supermarket - waaaay cheaper than the white man equivalent and a helluva lot more delicious). Melt a good knob (hehe) of butter and a splash of oil (stops the butter from burning) in a frying pan. Brown the crumbed fish pieces on both sides. Place fish pieces on taco.
Eat taco. Enjoy the taco. Feel the nourishment fill your body.
Sigh at all the finely shredded cabbage that now covers every surface of the kitchen.
Oh and I forgot to say, I made twice as much as I needed so I can take some for lunch tomorrow. Win. Guess who won't be eating porridge for lunch tomorrow! (Me in case you were wondering).