Food in The Room: DIY Fusion!

My so-called passion for cooking always comes at a bad time. Or rather, its precisely because of mundane exams that my mind kept floating to anything and everything but the books. Oh well, why not destress by whipping up something good for the stomach?



Since my cooking tools in hall are severely limited, I keep to simple one-dish meals with pasta being the easiest of all. Premix and canned food are real lifesavers too, cutting down so much on preparation time and opening up many mix-and-match options. Let's try something fusion!


Stir-fried Korean Fusilli with Buttered Broccoli and Diced Fishcake

After encountering the multi-purpose soybean paste in Korea, I reckoned it might work well for stir-frying with pasta too. The spicy, fermented flavour with a strong hint of garlic might not suit everyone well, but worked for me as it coated the fusilli nicely with no need for salt too. Some greens and fishcakes to go with it!



Another idea that stuck me was replicating the classic Italian risotto. Did some research that the starchy, short-grain Arborio is preferred, so off I went to Cold Storage for a packet of the exotic import. Lesson learnt though; NTUC Finest sold them at almost 25% cheaper!


Hainanese Risotto with Broccoli and Sliced Sausages

Instead of using normal chicken stock, I used a packet of hainanese chicken rice premix instead, boiling in water and letting the arborio rice slowly absorb the flavour. The result was pretty satisfying too, as it had both the creamy texture of risotto and the savoury taste of chicken rice. Italians will probably faint at my fusion attempt, but I'm loving it! Next experiment: Green Curry Risotto, anyone?

3 more papers, and freedom beckons on Thursday!

Taken with Nikon D70