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.

After a half hour, I took the veggie chunks from the pot, threw them out, and leftover was a nutrient-rich broth. Yummy! For good measure though, I added soy sauce and a bit of chicken stock. I knew the rest of this meal was going to have some asian in it, other than the roast.

Roast: I preheated the oven for the roast, and trimmed off about 75 grams (I’m just guessing here) of meat, that I sliced super thinly and put aside. I put the yellow onion chunks on the roast meat, with a ton of salt and pepper, and threw it in the preheated oven.

Rice: I took out about half the broth I prepared and put it in another pot to bring to a boil; this was going to be the best thing in which to cook some wild rice! I eventually added some of the scallions to the rice.

Soup: The meat I trimmed off of the roast went into a hot frying pan. Once the meat was fried, I threw it, the bok choi, the rest of the scallions and half the red onion into the main broth pot and brought to a simmer. Soup was on the way.

Stir-Fry: Stir-frys are the easiest thing to make. In my freezer, I also usually keep some frozen stir-fry veggies. It’s not nearly as good as fresh, but it requires zero prep and cooks in 15 minutes with a good wok. It’s almost a essential for a student. I threw those in my wok, added a ton of ginger, some garlic and the rest of my red onion. I put on a small pot of water to boil, and added some chinese noodles. after 5-10 mins, I transferred the noodles to the wok, along with a couple of eggs.

Meanwhile, I had a nice pot of green tea on the go, as I cooked and did dishes as they came along. It wasn’t long until I was enjoying a great asian meal. The soup was amazing, the moose meat being a surprisingly good fit to the bok choi. It wasn’t strong at all. The rice was probably the best I had ever made. Frig I’m proud of myself. I had always had a hard time making rice I enjoyed, because it is usually way too bland and boring. This stuff had great flavour thanks to the broth and the texture was just perfect. Stir-fry was average, texture was a little too mushy. I blame the frozen-ness of the veggies.

After the meal, The roast was done. I took it out and carved it up. I was already full, so I just took a couple of tiny slices before putting the rest  in a container to use for sandwiches. It was really tasty. Pretty moist for a moose roast. Here is where I was concious of making a HUGE mistake: All the bits of juice, fat and onions leftover on the bottom of my pan were thrown right into the garbage, instead of making the world’s greatest gravy. The reason? I only like gravy fresh, and I knew I wasnt going to use any, nor to I have a good enough seive (just a spaghetti strainer). So yeah, I’m guilty of tossing out what could have been the most flavour in everything I cooked tonight.

There are probably a thousand ways of taking everything I had, and making a way better meal. But you know what? I’m trying and I’m learning. After living alone for over a year, you may be surprised when you concoct something for someone else and receive an honest compliment on the food. The trick is that you can’t be afraid to screw up!

Mmm…