So I think that everyone has foods that they aren’t super fond of or just aren’t really sure how to approach. One of those for me is pancakes, which you may have read about already on this blog. I love eating them but really need more experience in cooking them. Another food for me is rice. For a while, I just didn’t like eating rice. I have a feeling that my heinous creations in college with rice had to do with my dislike of rice. Either way, the last two weekends have been me revisiting these foods.
Pancakes. Yeah, so you may be already aware that the last time I tried cooking pancakes, I ended up with partially cooked yet close to burning pancakes. Not only was I inexperienced with cooking pancakes, I used a recipe off the internet that I had never attempted and therefore not familiar with how it would look and cook. So I decided that if I was going to cook pancakes again, I was going to use Bisquick which is basically how my family has made pancakes as far as I can remember. I honestly can’t remember my dad making pancakes any other way. Therefore, my references on how a pancake should look cooking, are only in reference to Bisquick pancakes (this is why I should not have used an internet recipe to begin with).
So I bought a box of the mix and followed the directions. I also decided to lower the temperature by about two notches off from last time. As it turned out, having my stove at about a 3 or 4 is an acceptable temperature for cooking pancakes. I find this slightly ironic since it is technically 1 to 2 notches below medium and the recipe tells you to use a hot greased griddle. Yeah, that burner goes a bit too high. Either way, I followed the directions in making the batter and cooking temp. However, I did figure out that I essentially need to disregard the suggested serving size. They tell you to use slightly less than a quarter cup of batter and it should make about 14 pancakes. Yeah, I accidentally grabbed a half cup measure and wondered why I was making so fewer pancakes than what was suggested. Finally I figured out the problem but I still can’t figure out why Bisquick thinks Americans eat pancakes that are only a couple of inches in diameter. The half cup amount made pancakes maybe 5-6 inches in diameter so I assume that the suggested amount would make a pancake about an inch or so smaller. So yeah, I basically have to double the recipe to get the suggested amount of pancakes. I also have to mix the batter better next time since I had pockets in my pancakes of dry Bisquick mix. Either way, I am glad that I have revisited pancakes and a bit more confident in trying to cook them.
Now over to rice, yeah…. so I have an interesting relationship with rice. I have very rarely enjoyed eating it, although to be perfectly honest, I feel like my distaste stems more from my complete inability to cook it properly. I have made heinous creations with rice that will not be repeated here. They were abominations of cookery. Now some of my favorite experiences with rice would probably have to do with my college roommate’s chicken biriyani. So I do enjoy rice I suppose when it is properly made. For whatever reason, I had decided at one point to buy two 2 pound bags of rice when I am not an overly huge fan of rice. So yeah I needed to figure out how to make it. This past weekend, I made a dish that was paella inspired, so it had shrimp, tomatoes, peas, peppers, and onions within spiced rice. I actually enjoyed it and did not find it heinous. So yeah, I am revisiting old foods, some that I enjoy eating but wasn’t super confident about cooking as well as ones that I did not overly enjoy consuming. Have you revisited foods that you couldn’t cook or enjoy eating? If so what were they? Please answer below with your comments and thanks for reading.
unknownclimate 