Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Couscous

When I first cooked and tasted couscous, I thought, eugh... It tasted like bland little balls of starch. I "fixed" this by adding some lemon juice, which definitely spruced up the flavour. But there was so much a dash of lemon juice could do. Couscous still wasn't something I was too keen on eating again.

Maybe my mistake then lay in the fact that I cooked couscous in water and I ate it without a dressing or sauce of any sorts. This time, I didn't do that again. I cooked the couscous in chicken stock that was flavoured with the sweetness of caramelized onions and mushrooms. Now this dish, well, it's something I don't mind eating for the next few days. 

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Couscous, recipe from fervourforfood
Ingredients:
vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup couscous

Method:
1.  Heat a frying pan with some vegetable oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until most of it starts to turn brown.
3. Make a well in the centre of the pan and add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are browned.
4. Add the chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat.
5. Add the couscous and cover for 2-3 minutes.
6. Serve.
 serves 1

Apple, Chickpea and Corn salad

If I had to name 3 dishes that I have little success in making so far, they would be caramel, bread and salad. My caramel-making experiences have always ended with a burnt pot(partly due to my ignorance back then that one should use a metal pot to cook caramel). Apart from my cinnamon rolls which are absolutely delicious(quoted from my friends and family), my bread doughs have yielded a chewy, crumbly or rock hard results. As for salad, the flavours are often out of balance, resulting in a distasteful mish-mash of flavours.

Today, my salad didn't turn out so bad. In fact, it was tasteful, if I may say so myself. The sweetness of the apple slices and sweet corn results in a for lack of a better word, sweet salad.
As they say, practice makes perfect. Maybe I'd give caramels and bread another go.

Apple, Chickpea and Corn Salad, from fervourforfood
Ingredients:
Half a head of butterhead lettuce
80g canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
80g canned sweet corn, drained and rinsed
Half an apple, diced
Mayonaise(optional)

Method:  
1. Toss all the ingredients together.
2. Enjoy.
serves 1

Cabbage "Pasta" with Tomato Sauce

On a Saturday, or well, just any day, there's nothing I love more than to whip up a simple meal for myself. There's just something comforting about cooking what you consume on your plate. Perhaps its the control you have over the ingredients, the texture of the vegetables or the portion size.
What I love about cooking is control. You can choose to add something different, try a new technique and cook the precise combination of foods that you want to eat.

Cabbage "Pasta" with Tomato sauce, recipe from fervourforfood
Ingredients:
Half a head of cabbage, sliced thinly
1 yellow onion, diced
4 mushrooms, sliced thinly
200ml tomato puree
Cheese to top

Method:
1. In a medium pot, cover the cabbage with water and bring it to a gentle boil. Once cooked, turn off the heat and drain.
2.  In a large skillet, heat some oil over medium heat and add the onion.
3. Once the onion starts turning translucent, add mushrooms.
4. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add tomato puree. Cook until heated through.
5. Serve cabbage on a plate and top with tomato sauce. Top with cheese.