Cookbook

I am currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

Have you read it?

I've read several of Murakami's books and there are some definite things that he likes to repeat in his stories, some of those things are jazz music, cats, and the descriptions of foods and meals.

So I've decided to cook my way through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I didn't decide this until page 25 so I'll need to go back, make, and eat whatever foods are described in those first few pages.

The first dish I made is from page 25: "Not that I had any great feast in mind: I would be stir frying thin slices of beef, onions, green peppers, and bean sprouts with a little salt, pepper, soy sauce, and a splash of beer--a recipe from my single days. The rice was done, the miso soup was warm, and the vegetables were all sliced and arranged in separate piles in a large dish..."

I went to the store and bought what I needed. Prep time was about 10 minutes, cutting the onion and pepper, setting the water for the rice to boil. I stir-fried the sliced beef (kept moist with an initial dash of water, and oil, the beer and soy sauce were added near the end for flavor), sliced peppers, sliced onions (cook until they look clear), and the bean sprouts (added at the very end).

The rice took about 20 minutes to cook. The miso soup was instant out of a packet.

The total cook time was about 45 minutes.

It was delicious.