Cooking 101, anyone?

It was an exciting day for me as I had my first cooking session this morning after so many years. I cannot even remember the last time I cooked. But today, I had decided to have my pots and pans do its magic.

But don't get too excited because I just cooked a very plain dish, tuna with egg sautéed in onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Hey, I need to have refresher course in cooking, right? As they say, start with something that you can do and this is what I thought about.

So I woke up around 7:00 am which is the unusual time I get up in the morning (I usually start my day around 8:00 AM), then prepared my cooking kit, the corn oil, eggs and the other ingredients I bought the night before.

While I was chopping the basic ingredients, I felt a bit nervous since I’m still recalling the basic cooking techniques. But it is something that I have decided that I need to pursue so I lighted the stove and went on. When I put in the garlic and sautéed it in the hot corn oil, the aroma was like to magic to my nose. I felt I was home.

Then while reminiscing on the scent of a home made meal, the delightful aroma of the garlic began to change. I almost got the garlic toasted, so I just put in the rest of the ingredients and seasoned it. As I was preparing the last ingredient of my specialty dish, my first calamity in the kitchen happened. I was getting two eggs from the box, and then the whole box fell on the floor. I was able to save two pieces of eggs, but four of my babies got broken and created a beautiful mess on the floor. I quickly cleaned it up while waiting for my dish to cook.

I really enjoyed one bit of that moment, the excitement, the mess and the slight exhaustion. And the product of course was a delight.

It is actually our lunch and my friend has no choice but to eat it as well. It was not that bad and if I continue cooking, I will certainly get the hang of it. So tomorrow, I have my thoughts on cooking Adobo. Bold choice but as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. And if I want to be an expert with this dish, I guess I better start now.

Josh / 20-Apr-10