Every year we decided on a fun relationship goal that we should do together. Last year we vowed to watch 52 sunsets together and we did. And that was actually harder than we thought, in terms of scheduling and finding locations. But we did find some really nice spots and we enjoyed our time together.
So this year, we switched our fun relationship goal to something that we both can do, but don’t enjoy doing on a regular basis. And that, is cooking.
Both of us can cook, of course, maybe not restaurant quality, but we won’t starve to death. And we do cook at home most of the time, but it is usually something very simple like a salad, a stew, or some kind of a one dish meal.
In the old days, the benefit of cooking at home is probably because of budget. Cooking at home used to be more economical than going out to a restaurant to eat, and if you have a big family you can probably save quite a bit of money by eating at home.
Nowadays though, I find that, it’s not really about money anymore, but it is really about the quality of our foods. Let’s be honest here, eating out at most fast food restaurants can be really economical if you have a very tight budget, plus it is convenient right? It is fast, it fills you up, and you don’t even have to wash dishes.
So for us, cooking at home means we have control over the ingredients. And not just the main ingredients like fish or chicken or steak. But also everything that you put into your dish including the oil. Oil comes in a wide variety: There’s olive oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, soy bean oil – while all of them are used for cooking, some oil have health benefits, while others actually causes inflammation. Any oil that is high in Omega 3 is good for us. Oil that is high in Omega 6 is just the opposite. It causes inflammation and can be really quite harmful to our bodies in the long run.
Salt, on the other hand, all came from the sea. All salt is sea salt. Hawaiian salt, coarse salt, table salt, there’s all types of salt on the market nowadays and they are mostly infused with something else so you can have fun with your salts.
Back to our fun goal. This year, we set a goal to cook 12 3-course meals using 1 main ingredient. We called it the Foolish Feast 1-2-3:
1 ingredient
2 chefs
3 courses
So far we’ve done 2 episodes: We started our first episode with Cauliflower, and it is a beautiful 3-course meal which we used 3 colors of cauliflowers. The 2nd episode we went all out and cooked lobster.
This time, for our third episode, we chose to use Prawns as our main ingredient.
Here’s the introductory video:
Prawns are an excellent source of lean protein and as you may or may not know, our bodies needed protein to regenerate our cells. What happens when our cells don’t regenerate? We get old and sick.
So proteins are good, but not all prawns are good. 90% of America’s prawns are imported from overseas farm where the farming practices are, at best, questionable. Pesiticides and other chemicals were used as well as food coloring which give the prawns a weird orange color. By nature, prawns should not be orangy.
When we cook at home we can to choose our ingredients, and we always try to choose the cleanest, best quality that we can find. For seafood, we opt for wild, sustainably raised sources whenever we can.
So for our Foolish Feast, here’s the menu. We’re going to start off with a spicy Thai-style coconut prawn soup. We like spicy food because it gives us a good kick and it is also good for our digestive system.
Next, we are making a mango prawn salad with cucumber noodles. We’ve just picked up a new toy: A new attachment that works with our mixer and it spiralizes vegetables – and we’re going to experiment it with cucumber this time. 
For the prawns, we’ll be marinating it with smoked salt and smoked sugar which we bought at our local farmer’s market called Whiskey Oak.
Here’s the salad:
And we’re going to finish off with a Cantonese style buttermilk prawns. This is a very popular restaurant dish from where we grew up, but we don’t seem to be able to find the same here in the Bay Area. So, we’re making our own.
Watch the video on how to make our delicious Buttermilk Prawns:
The whole meal took about 45 minutes to prepare, and that’s because we are not professionals and we’re also playing around with the spiralizer. Prawns cook fast and everything today actually is quite simple to prepare.
Here’s the outcome:
Are you curious what we’ll be cooking next time? Like us here on Facebook, and we will keep you posted.
*To follow the Foolish Feast, follow us on our Facebook page www.Facebook.com/TheFoolishFoodies
Bon Appetit!
*Foolish Feasts are prepared by the Foolish Couple, at www.TheFoolishCouple.com
