Recently I've wanted to learn how to cook. In high school I never really thought about it since my parents always cooked. Freshman year of college I didn't think about it since I lived in the dorms and got almost all of my meals at the cafeteria. Sophomore year I moved into an apartment and started to think about it. Then I got super busy and lived on microwavable Healthy Choices and Lean Pockets for the next few years. Sure I learned a couple of staple recipes like my Italian and rice chicken which remains to be one of my favorite dishes ever. But if I was cooking it was probably pancakes or eggs (I'm one of those people who likes breakfast for dinner). Then I came to Moldova directly after college and lived with a host family for a year and paid them for all my meals. So I never really learned how to cook. Then I moved out. And the markets here don't have Healthy Choices or Easy Mac.
Over the last few years I've started watching shows like Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" which I love, and the Food Network. I've decided that I need to learn how to really cook because it is a skill that everyone should have. I just never thought that I would be learning how to cook in Eastern Europe.
Tonight I made chicken and vegetable stirfry. This is the first time I have made this dish with chicken. Last weekend another volunteer, Anita, visited me and toured Drochia. She spent the night and we made vegetable stirfry. We did want the chicken, but when we got to the store, we learned that the rotisserie chickens would not be done until much later that evening and the frozen stuff was questionable. So we nixed the chicken from the plans. I did learn from this that I wouldn't use cabbage in the future because I think it smells weird and just wasn't a fan; that I want to use yellow bell peppers instead of red because red are too sweet; and not to let the noodles sit in the pan too long or else they end up crunchy.
Today I went to the market that is just a couple of meters away from my apartment and found that they have rotisserie chickens on Tuesdays. I asked the lady when to come back and went to get what else I would need for the dish. I also watched a couple of youtube videos on how to carve a chicken.
It went pretty well, I think. I got the chicken and was followed home by a cat who could smell what was in my bag. Since she climbed four flights of stairs in her pursuit I figured she earned a leg, which I don't like anyway, and fed her before shooing her off. Then I started carving and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Especially after I figured out that I had the chicken upside-down and flipped it over. Much easier. So I picked the carcass clean with a mix of the knife and my fingers and then took the leftovers out to the garbage. I didn't want the bag of bones and skin stinking up the apartment. As I left the apartment another cat started following me to the dumpster. So instead of throwing the bag in I emptied the contents on the ground and let the strays go at it.
After that it was just a matter of mixing the right ingredients in the right order. I let the minced garlic simmer in a drizzle of olive oil, then added the veggies (which next time I will let cook longer and I will cut the carrots thinner.) Then the noodles followed by chicken and teriyaki sauce I bought in Chisinau. I'm going to have to buy more the next time I'm there because these two meals used up the whole bottle. Granted, it was a fairly small bottle. Only about 0.25ml. The finished product, while not perfect, tasted wonderful. I also have leftovers to look forward to. I'd say it was pretty successful.
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