florid ☆ razor ☆ happy ☆ asylum

Dun dun dun I should be sound asleep since 2,5 hours ago but I had so much fun today I need to post. So our wonderful neighbour asked me if I wanted to go and take some pics close to where our school is, and I did. Full set available on Flickr. I guess I liked how these turned out because I haven't been taking artsy fartsy photos for a while and I guess I surprised myself. I guess I was expecting something stuck in the patterns of how I've done things in the past.



I'm getting good at keeping my hand steady. Loong exposure.

( +7 pictures )

I got the inspiration for this dish from the cookbook Urban Italian (via Serious Eats) and had to try out this zucchini recipe because my parents recently got a hold of a number of huge zucchinis that would go bad if we didn't eat them.

This recipe combines thinly sliced zucchini, shrimp, onions, olives, tomatoes and lemon in a way that will please your taste buds. My dad was totally fanatic about this dish even though I serve demi-restaurant level foods to them on a daily basis.

Simplified steps as follows:

1. (You can skip this step) Pre-marinate the finely sliced [length-wise halved] zucchini in some balsamic vinegar, sugar and kosher salt for some 15 minutes. Be careful not to salt them too much. They should turn soft and a bit translucent.
2. Heat a bit of oil in a large pan and fry the (defrosted and deveined) large shrimp for 1-2 minutes, then turn them around and fry for another minute. Add some thyme, rosemary and chili flakes and mix well so the oil absorbs the flavour.
3. Add the thinly sliced zucchini and one or two cloves of finely chopped garlic into the pan and fry for some 5 minutes until the zucchini gets soft and translucent, stirring every once in a while. Finally, add a little tomato sauce and cream to the mixture. Taste the sauce and if it requires more salt, add some soy sauce.
4. Mix it all up with the pasta you obviously cooked while you were preparing the sauce, and add a generous heap of panko breadcrumbs, a few tablespoons of butter and some lemon juice, then mix it well so the sauce spreads evenly and the panko softens from the moisture. Enjoy!

1. In a large pan, saute half the onion (finely chopped) with the butter for around 20-30 minutes on low heat. It should absolutely not burn. When the onion is starting to acquire a golden brown colour, add the finely chopped or ground ginger and garlic.
2. Let's make the roux: In a small pot on medium heat, melt the butter and add the garam masala and flour. Mix well. Add the peppers, ketchup and tonkatsu-soosu and mix again to form an even paste. Let the paste "fry" until it dries a bit and starts to crumble. Set the paste aside.
3. By now, the onion should be golden brown. Add the other half of the onion cut in stripes. Raise to medium heat and fry for a few more minutes.
4. Add the potatoes and carrots chopped into bite-size pieces. Add soy sauce. Add water so it nearly covers the vegetables and let it simmer until the vegetables are soft enough to be pleasant to eat. (Steaming the potatoes and carrots beforehand in a ricecooker or w/e pre-chopped preserves both taste and vitamins better and shortens the cooking time.)
5. When the vegetables are soft and some of the fluid has evaporated, mix the roux paste with 2 tbsp of water and whisk it until it doesn't have too many clumps, then add the mixture to the vegetables in the pan.
6. Mix well, and let the roux thicken the curry until it isn't very runny.
7. Serve with steamed rice. Noodles should work well too.

For a richer taste, increase the amount of soy sauce, peppers and garam masala.

Got the idea to make a calzone from the cheapest available ready-to-bake frozen pizzas from my parents. Just buy a small-sized cheapskate crappy one, bake it in two sessions - the first one to melt the pizza and add extra toppings, the second one to "seal" the folded over pizza. Though I like to throw in some salad and sour cream after I baked it aswell.

This one was an X-tra cheese-and-ham pizza to which I added more cheese, a few slices of bacon, black olives, an egg, some salad, sour cream, sriracha, soy sauce and sweet chili sauce. Excellent hangover food. And quite different from my breakfast diet that for the past few weeks has looked somewhat like this:

Went by the asian grocery shops today to get some basic stuff. I always get that weird look from the vietnamese cashiers because the stuff I pile on the conveyor would be somewhat characteristic to a native Japanese housewife with a husband that has a liking for traditional domestic cooking. Aside from a few snacks of course. Then they see me, looking like some tormented teenage soul dressed up in torn black clothing.

• Kimchi
• Rice vinegar
• Mirin
• Sriracha
• Sesame paste
• Aloe Vera lemonade
• Wasabi (ready-made, there was no powder :( )
• Panko
• Noodles

To my disappointment, both stores were out of daikon :(

So after drooling over random stuff for a few days I spent some €130 on a new set of clothes (see below)
I wanted to buy like 3x as much stuff but I am le poor  :( 

And for your listening pleasures, I compiled the most played songs at nightclub DTM summer 2010 into a spotify playlist. Enjoy.