Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Winter Vermicelli, a mung bean fiasco and a mystery...

I have a problem where my eyes are bigger than my tummy. Last week, I went grocery shopping and spent £40 in one go. Yes, £40. That's $60+. Most of the things were of the snack variety. One of them was a package of mung beans because I wanted to make honey mung bean soup for snack (recipe to come).

So per the instructions, I rinsed the beans three times and then let them soak. And soak. And soak. And I guess I forgot about them because everywhere I turned there was something else to eat before it went bad, so by the time I remembered those poor little mung beans again, they were emitting bubbles in the water.

Not a good sign when your mung beans start farting.

But I'm not one to waste things, so I optimistically put them in a pot and let them stew. When I got back to the kitchen, a smell of poop reached my nose. Oops.

So I had to dump them out the window. Lesson learned. Hopefully.

In other news, there's a thief on the loose in our kitchen. When I first arrived, the students of this dorm warned me to keep any yummy foods in my room (although given my mung bean fiasco I'm not sure this is a great idea either). One girl had bought 3 cheesecakes for a friend's going away party and put them in the refrigerator. When she got back, 2 of them were gone. Two whole cheesecakes. The chocolate she had bought in Switzerland was gone as well. Another girl had bought a carton of Ben and Jerry's...gone within a day. And she had apparently hidden it in a bag deep inside the freezer so someone has been pawing through our stuff regularly. Another guy found that one of this red peppers had been reduced to half a red pepper. Gone the way peoples' meatballs, bacon, cheese, etc. have gone.

I haven't head anything stolen yet because all my stuff is usually raw, but I'm sitting on pins and needles. I want to buy some nice things to eat once in a while, but if they're going to get stolen...we're going to have to do some Home Alone style kitchen thief napping.

Winter Vermicelli (guaranteed to warm you up!)
Ingredients
1 bunch of baby bok choy, chopped
1 tablespoon of ginger, minced
3 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
2 stalks of spring onion
100 grams of vermicelli
Salt and Pepper to taste

To Cook:
1. Add mushrooms, ginger, and garlic to 1 liter of water and bring to boil.
2. Meanwhile, soak vermicelli in freshly boiled water for 5 minutes.
3. Add bok choy and salt to vegetables. Let simmer until vegetables have softened.
4. Drain vermicelli and add to pot of vegetables. Let simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Add spring onion.
Serves 1-2.

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