Andrew Manderson: N00b Cook
I may be a semi-n00b in the kitchen, but at least I’m trying. Tonight I learned a shitton, and want to share the story of a young man learning how to feed himself. You see, the other day I picked up a baby bok choi, because I’ve never used one before and figured I’d find a use for it.
This afternoon, I decided I was craving something like wonton soup. In the end, it’s not what I made, but it was a pretty decent inspiration that turned into a small adventure in the kitchen this evening. I suddenly felt like Michael Smith…The catch was that I had already taken out a moose meat roast to defrost earlier this morning; my aunt always insists on giving me some of the meat, and I needed to clear some freezer space. I had to figure out how I could make the roast *and* something else so it wouldnt clash too much.
I’m going to start off on a tangent: Whenever I skin a carrot or potato, remove the outer layers of onions or garlic, have leftover broccoli stalks, celeri leaves, or break off the hard bits of asparagus, I always save those bits. I put them in Ziplocks and chuck em in the freezer instead of throwing away. When I got back from class this evening, I took out the two Ziplock bags of veggie residues I had, and dumped them in a pot of boiling water for a half hour. Meanwhile, I chopped my leftover red onion, my last green onions (aka scallions), my last yellow onion and that little baby bok choi and set them aside.
