A Week of Asian Cooking

I felt a need to get close to my roots, so I thought it would be nice to cook Chinese every (business) day one week. After all, I did vow to cook more Chinese food. Since I do not have an arsenal of Chinese recipes yet, I thought I would get by with cooking Asian cuisine.

• Monday - Ma Po Daofu (麻婆豆腐). This is a somewhat spicy Chinese dish (in particular, Sichuan) that is traditionally made with a spicy bean sauce (豆板醬), tofu and ground pork. I made some adjustments based on what I had in the fridge by using ground turkey instead of pork and adding diced eggplant.



• Tuesday - Chicken Adobo. I thought it was about time to pay tribute to my husband's heritage by making what can be considered the national dish of the Philippines. It is basically a rustic and easy dish made of chicken simmered in a combination of soy sauce and vinegar.



• Wednesday - Chicken Adobo. I cheated. I made a big batch of this and ate it over two nights. Truthfully, even with marinating the chicken before cooking, the dish always tastes better the following nights as the chicken has more of an opportunity to absorb the tasty sauce.
  
• Thursday - Seafood with Broccoli. While this may sound Chinese, it's actually Japanese (fusion, to be correct). I simply followed Nobu's recipe for Squid Pasta and substituted the squid with shrimp and scallops. Given that Nobu is known for its new-style Japanese cuisine (Peruvian + Japanese), the sauce has a rather unique taste thanks to a combination of butter, soy sauce and sake. Yes, butter with soy sauce!
• Friday - Fried Rice (炒飯). I made sure I cooked more rice than usual the night before so I would have enough to make fried rice the day after. I didn't have any left overs to toss in, but I certainly made good use of the tough broccoli stems in the fried rice.

There it is! I took a trip to China, Philippines, Japan and China all in 5 days. I hope this has inspired both me and you to keep closer to our roots via food.