Today was cooking day. That means I got up at 7:30 and then went back to sleep instead of rushing right to the store. But eventually I made it out of bed and went over to one of the asian grocery stores I hadn't tried. No red peppers and no lime leaves. So then I decided to try the other store I knew about on the other side of the lake. On the way, I stopped at the winter location of the farmers' market (no peppers, no cheese curds). First time I've ever been there. Didn't even know it was a thing until today. Made it to the other Asian market. No lime leaves at all, so I just got limes to zest up. Was able to find bay leaves. And a bag of jalapenos were a couple started to turn slightly red. Closest I got and I needed to go home and start cooking so I accepted it. Also bought more shallots, which ended up being a good idea because I barely had enough for the rendang, let alone the telur balado.
Was really tired (got up early and biked around the lake basically on a whim) so after getting home I ate lunch, showered and took a brief nap. Was really lazy to get downstairs and start cooking. Making the spice paste took like two hours. So many cloves of garlic and shallots to peel. And removing the skin from my galangal. Plus grinding took forever even with a blender because nothing wanted to blend (and even by the end, it probably wasn't smooth enough). I also didn't bother measuring my powdered spices (most recipes I drew from asked for fresh versions) so that balance probably ended up off.
Actually cooking the rendang was fairly easy. Fry the spices, add coconut cream (I likely used too much, next time just a liter per kilo of meat), add the meat and then stir every once and a while. Of course, it reduced much slower than I wanted (too much coconut milk probably) and took over three hours for the oil to separate from everything else and really reduce to a paste over the meat. Unsurprisingly, the beef rendang tastes a lot better than the rabbit one (which is tougher). Even the beef could be softer in my opinion though. At first I was pretty disappointed with how it turned out, but once the rendang cooled down and the flavors started to settle it tasted a lot better so hopefully by tomorrow it will be very good.
Pathfinder went well, even if I was cooking for half the time while we chatted. For like the first time ever, I used a cantrip to good effect. Well, not really to good effect but it was so desperate and funny that the DM rolled with it. Those coral golems got a good scare from the sound of parrotfish. First encounter in a while, first game in a while really.
After patherfinder I cleaned up the kitchen more (including both of the woks I was using) and then started boiling eggs. Got all 25 of them boiled (which took way too long), peeled half of them and then wrote this.
I'm quite tired, which is a good thing. I should be tired, I keep getting up early, going to bed late and being active. Felt pretty good, as I have been doing. I continue to ignore my work (in this case the lit review due Wednesday). That's gonna be an all nighter one.
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