What I Cook in a Week

Since relocating to London, cooking has become a part of my daily life. I am in charge of our lunch. In the beginning, I was very ambitious about cooking. I would like to make different food everyday. Eventually, I discovered that it was impossible to do so. I spent too much time in the kitchen. To save time in the kitchen and reduce food waste, I created a list of 7 items to cook, and repeat the recipes every week.

Day 1: Mixed Rice with Mackerel and Spinach

Mixed rice with chili oil, mackerel, and spinach is a quick and tasty lunch I do once a week. I usually make the spinach korean-style before mixing it with rice. I follow the spinach side dish recipe from Maangchi.

Day 2: Rice with Jalapeno Fish and Tomato Egg

This is Seryozha’s favorite. It’s supposed to be chinese-style tomato egg and green pepper pork. Since Waitrose does not sell chinese green peppers, I substitute them with jalapenos. I also replace pork with fish because Seryozha is a pescaterian. The taste is as good as the original recipe’s, and surprisingly jalapeno is just as spicy as, if not more spicy than chinese green pepper. I follow Souped Up Recipe for both recipes.

Day 3: Borscht and Baked Lemon Fish

Soup is a nutritious food that we want to have on our table once a week. When you have a russian at home, what can be better than borscht, or the russian beetroot soup? This soup is very delicious and nutritious. I follow Natasha’s Kitchen recipe, but Seryozha wanted a different recipe. He said that in Russian’s home, cabbage is used inside borscht but Natasha’s recipe does not use cabbage. I also never managed to make this soup consistently. Sometimes I did it well, sometimes I didn’t. Therefore, Seryozha will take over borscht cooking, and I will replace this recipe with Korean Soybean Soup (Ddoenjang Jjigae) and Cantonese Steamed Fish.

Day 4: Indonesian-Style Soybean Sprout with Prawns

Although Indonesian food is tasty, I generally do not like to make them because they require a lot of spices, and therefore troublesome to make. However, Indonesian-style soybean sprout with prawns is not only delicious, but simple and easy to make. I also scramble some eggs to go along with it.

Day 5: Smoked Salmon and Asparagus

This is the simplest recipe among all that I make. Ready-made smoked salmon goes well together with rice and grilled asparagus. The asparagus is simply grilled in the oven with lemon and butter.

Day 6: Dandan Noodle - Better Than Din Tai Fung

Kimono mom has the best dandan noodle recipe. In our opinion, it’s even better than the one at Din Tai Fung. I also make celery and scallop to go along with it. We were first introduced to celery scallop during our dinner in Putera Puteri restaurant near the National University of Singapore. Celery turns out to match very well with scallop!

Day 7: Zaru Soba and Korean Vegetable Pancake

This is perhaps the most embarrassing food that I cook. Zaru Soba is very easy to make, but korean pancake is not. My pancake was not good and it never improved no matter how many times I tried. Therefore, I am going to change the pancake into seaweed side dish by Maangchi. I think it will go well with Zaru Soba.

Breakfast and Dinner

Seryozha makes breakfast and dinner. He makes fabulous oatmeal porridge, and omelette for breakfast. Sometimes, he also makes Russian cheesecake (Syrniki).

For dinner, he usually bakes fish and potatoes in the oven, and mixes horse radish, cucumber and dill as salad. His dinner is usually too plain for me, that I always eat them together with chilli oil.

Thenga Cafe: Our Favorite Cafe

A brief introduction to my favorite cafe. When we go to the office, we usually have our lunch at Thenga Cafe - a vegan eatery of Indian cuisines with a large pinch of Bengal. The food is delicious, the atmosphere is warm, the service is excellent, and the price is even cheaper than eating at the UCL canteen!