1 quarter sized bunch of angel hair pasta (aprox.)
Pulp from 1 rolled lime
1 onion grated, keep the juice (some or all may be diced instead)
1 large carrot finely grated (or 5-6 large mini carrots)
2 handfuls of mushrooms diced
1 handful of chives diced
3 splashes of red wine
2 splashes of mirin
Almond oil
6-7 large, dried basil leaves
1 pre-cooked frozen hamburger patty
2 sets of chopsticks, 2 deep bowls
Set a pot to boiling the angel hair pasta and add a splash of almond oil. Start grating the onion and carrots and chopping the mushrooms while the noodles are cooking. When the noodles are just shy of being done, remove the pot and set it to one side. Don't strain or remove the noodles from the water yet. Stir the onion, onion juice, carrots, mushrooms, red wine, mirin and a healthy splash of almond oil into a frying pan and set on medium to simmer. Crush the dried basil leaves and add them to the pan. Occasionally stir the ingredients to evenly cook everything. At some point before the onion and carrots are done, thaw the hamburger patty, chop it up and add it to the frying pan. When the onions are tender, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chives. Strain the pasta and put half in each bowl. Stir in a dash of almond oil and half the lime pulp in each, then divide up the contents of the frying pan and enjoy with your chopsticks!
When I shared this meal with my friend, we also had a cup of warm sake and a glass of chai milk. I don't know about the sake, but the chai milk was a nice complement to the meal. The onion concoction was created out of a sale of onions at Costco. 15 onions for $4... So I have been creative with my onion consumption, this being the most recent onion experiment. I really like onions, but chopping them, for me, is most agonizing. As I cook with my nose and start cooking before I really have a fully formed idea in my head of what the meal will turn out to be upon its completion, I can't really afford to be incapacitated by evil onion smell, so grating the onions with a really strong fan pointed at my face seems to be the only way I can enjoy this most excellent vegetable. And since the grater is already out, why not use it for the carrots which have a notoriously slow cook time? The almond oil, red wine, and mirin were all things I had about the kitchen and smelled like they would be nice additions to the pot. The pre-cooked hamburger patty is also from a Costco sale, as I've never been a big fan of cooking my own meat. I tossed it in the microwave for 45 sec on each side and added it to the pot for a meat. The angel hair pasta was where this particular meal started. I have a box of it with six packages still to go from way back when, so it probably needs to be eaten... I set it to cook on the stove then started to poke about for what else I could add to it, hence the reason it was cooked first and then set aside. I remembered a previous onion experiment, spruced it up and the rest is what you have before you now... Most tasty!
