I have to admit it, but the staff at the nearest Subway all know my name. They know my order, and they know what time I come to get dinner too. For the last two months, I have treated cooking as one would treat a person with the plague: better kept far away. Recently, however, all that has changed. I’ve begun to cook for myself. Sure I started small- pasta mostly. I even considered making peanut butter and jelly and cereal “cooking” just to boost my ego. But I’ve started to attempt to go out of my comfort zone, and into the realm of comfort food. It’s getting cold here, (a frigid 60 degrees some nights) and so I thought I should try to break the monotony of my regular eating habits and to try my hand at something a little more home-y.
My first attempt at real food was anything but a success. I tried to make one of my mom’s specialties: chicken pot pie. unfortunately my expectations were a little high, and I couldn’t quite deliver. I persisted on though, and eventually found a recipe I was convinced would work. The dish is called Hungarian Chicken Paprikas, and the end result is below:
Next I went for a completely different kind of dish, and one that required a little more work- El Salvadorian papusas. Popular with the El Salvadorian community around Los Angeles, my roommate and I figured we’d try out one of the most well known dishes of the area.
We made everything from scratch, including the outside of the papusas, which are made from the same flour mixture that flour tortillas are made from. It was a long process, but after about an hour, the dish was ready to be cooked. This is how they looked on the stove:
Finally they were ready to eat. We tried to make it look as professional on the plate as possible (the guacamole was store bought)
Although it definitely took a while to make, it was incredibly rewarding to have made a real meal for myself, and I can’t wait to make this delicious dish again.
