Cooking 101

Lesson number 1: always remember that electric stoves cook differently than gas stoves. *sigh*.

I had a friend over for dinner last night to get back into the habit of making dinner (something about having a guest over makes me want to cook). I had the ingredients prepared, the menu set and was ready to cook. What was I making?

Stir fried Japanese peppers (shishito)
Sake Braissed enoki mushrooms
braised shiitake mushrooms
rice
dad's teriyaki chicken

So first off, I haven't cooked in a while. So I was a little slow in getting going. I drove my guest home with me from work so she was polite enough to stand there and make conversation while I ran around the kitchen like a confused and lost climber in the middle of Kansas. Second, things on the electric stove don't cook quite the same as a gas stove. I remember it took me about 3 years to finally make decent food off of an electric stove, and I completely lost my touch. So what ended up happening is that the peppers were overly burnt and soy sauce carmelized, the enoki looked like a stack of hay instead of their normal succulent glazed look, and the shiitake was a little dry.

What about the chicken? I had a freak out hours before dinner when it hit me: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK CHICKEN!!!! Plus, looking over the recipe again, I realized I should have gotten the chicken with the skin on it (apparently it helps maintain the moisture) instead of the skinless stuff. So here I was, cooking everything else and leaving the chicken for last. When I finally had to deal with it, I spent a few minutes staring at it and thinkin: "ok chicken - you don't like me, and I sure as hell don't like you, but let's just get through this and you can go into my belly without delay..."

Fortunately my friend was once again nice enough to be patient, gave me some pointers on chicken and all was successful! woo hoo! Still sorta dry, but whatever.

All in all, I didn't like dinner. In fact, I was a little ashamed. In fact, I was mortified that I was feeding my friend this dried out, crap. I can do better, damn it! My samurai honor will not let me live this down!!! I will seek out my vengence on the chicken again! Who wants to come over for round 2? :)