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I have a bad habit of eating half the ingredients while cooking and I'm too lazy to go to the grocery store that's like literally 10 minutes away so I make do.
Some recipes use Asian ingredients. Taste and cooking properties are noted down for easier subtitution. None of that Authentic Cuisine stuff here, everything is bootleg. Cooking is like 50% recipe and 50% adjusting for taste, and this is why I'll never be a baker.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Ingredients
    Base ingredients:
  • Spaghetti
  • 1 dashi packet/1 spoon of mushroom seasoning/1 packet of dried fish for mild soup stock
  • Garlic
  • Butter/Cooking oil
    Pick 1 or more, and cut to bite size:
  • Meat/Prawns
  • Mushrooms
  • Leafy veggies (spinach)
    Optional, add according to taste, around 1-2 teaspoons
  • Fish sauce (obtainable at asian grocery stores)
  • Cayenne pepper powder
  • Lemon juice/Lime juice
  • Cream
Directions
  1. Fill a large pot halfway with water and add soup stock ingredient (dashi/seasoning/dried fish).
  2. Add spaghetti into the pot. Ensure the water covers at least half the spaghetti if the pot is too small.
  3. Let spaghetti cook. You can push it into the pot as it boils if it hangs out of the pot. When it's done, the spaghetti will look opaque and can curl easily around a fork, and will taste soft without a 'stiff middle'. When in doubt just eat a bit.
  4. Sieve out spaghetti and save 1 small bowl of pasta water.
  5. Wash spaghetti under cold tap water to stop them from cooking and sticking to each other.
  6. Chop garlic into small chunks.
  7. Fry garlic in butter/cooking oil, add ingredients in this order:
    1. Ingredients that sweat or absorb sauces (mushrooms/carrots/onions etc.)
    2. Condiments (fish sauce/cayenne pepper powder/lemon juice)
    3. Meat and/or seafood
    4. Pasta water in increments of 1 tablespoon until sauce leaves a thin coat on your spoon. Add 1/2 tablespoon of cream for an even thicker sauce.
    5. Spaghetti. Toss to coat in sauce.
    6. Washed leafy greens, toss with spaghetti until dark green.
  8. Portion out onto plate, add garnishes. Eat time!
Notes
  • Assuming you're using dried pasta, it's okay to put the spaghetti in the water then boil it.
  • Dashi just removes the boiled noodle taste the pasta sometimes picks up in unseasoned pasta water. Salt can be used instead, or if you don't mind the taste, omitted entirely.
  • A little bit of sour taste sometimes helps since this dish is primarily oil and fat. Not tasting as rich just means you can eat more of it.

Pickled Onions

Ingredients
  • Onions. Red onions are very good. White onions if you can't get those or don't want it that strong.
  • Vinegar
  • Salt
  • Pickling container (pick an airtight one that you know the volume of.)
    Optional aromatics for flavoring the pickles:
  • Chilies
  • Chopped Garlic
  • Pepper
  • Dried/Fresh herbs, depending on your tastes
  • Sweetener like honey or sugar. Can be omitted for maximum sourness.
Directions
  1. Fill a saucepan with vinegar, slightly lesser than the volume of your pickling container. Boil.
  2. Add aromatics, a pinch of salt and sweetener. Simmer.
  3. Slice onions to your desired size.
  4. Put raw onions into your pickling container.
  5. Pour the pickling liquid into the container. Use a fork to squish the onions into the liquid. Try not to leave any air bubbles.
  6. Clap the lid onto the container and let it cool. For cooler pickles, refrigerate after it reaches room temperature.
Notes
  • Using a vinegar that already has a taste makes the pickles taste slightly different, but don't use the dark-coloured vinegars, they tend to be more expensive and sting a lot more.
  • Thinner onion slices make for faster pickling and softer pickles, thicker slices are crunchier and stronger.
  • A little sweetener is enough, more sweetener just makes the pickles taste less sour.
  • Less is more in terms of aromatics, usually just 1 clove or a few sprigs will do. Unless you like spice. Then it's as much spice as you'd like, but do note that the sour-spicy combo slaps pretty hard on the tongue.
  • Tastes really good in a sandwich with just butter. Also good to throw into cup noodles.

Hainanese (not really) chicken rice

Ingredients
  • A chicken. Whole. You can make do with pre-chopped portions but the skin texture may end up different.
  • Salt
  • Sesame oil (Asian supermarket, sadly no substitute for this. Can be omitted, but this is where most of the aroma comes from)
  • 2 Carrots
  • 2 Leek or onion (or both!)
  • Ginger (half a thumb sized nugget)
  • Garlic
  • Cilantro if you like the taste, otherwise optional.
  • Rice
  • Chicken stock/cube to cheat, or if there's not enough flavor.
Directions
    Chicken and soup:
  • Prepare and clean chicken carcass. Try not to damage the skin. If the chicken comes with feet/organs/head, chop those off and save those. Bonus if there's a glob of fat in the chicken!
  • Pat the outside of the chicken dry with some paper towel.
  • Salt the chicken, rubbing the salt into the skin so it tightens up. Don't damage the skin! Stop applying salt when no more will dissolve into the skin.
  • Rub sesame oil onto the chicken. Think an exfoliating-massage session.
  • In a pot that is big enough to hold the whole chicken, boil half a pot of water.
  • Chop vegetables.
  • Stuff chicken in the following order: Ginger, onion, leek, carrots. Pin the hole shut with a toothpick.
  • Lower chicken into pot of boiling water, breast side up. Add more water until the water level is just covering the breast.
  • Add remaining vegetables into the soup, together with leftover chicken parts like head and feet.
  • Boil for about half an hour, then taste. Add stock/cube if needed, then lift out chicken.
  • Coat chicken thinly with sesame oil, just so it won't dry out. Set aside.
    Rice:
  • While chicken is boiling, add a little sesame oil into a frying pan. Add the chicken fat if you have it.
  • Add garlic and raw rice to the pan.
  • Fry rice until the grains turn translucent and shiny.
  • Put rice into your preferred rice cooker/pot, but substitute the water needed with the chicken soup instead. Cook as per normal instructions.
Notes
  • Breast meat won't be dry as long as the chicken is not overcooked or the chicken is the wrong side down.
  • Preparing the skin well makes it springy and light when eating.
  • If the chicken isn't completely done when lifting it out, that's okay. A quick nuke in the microwave works well enough.
  • For the amount of oil the dish uses, it's not really a heavy dish. The soup can end up tasting plain without the use of cubes or stock, so please adjust as you see fit.
  • Not everyone eats chicken feet, organs etc. They're good for making stock with instead of just discarding.

Doenjang veggie soup

Ingredients
    Required:
  • Doenjang (Korean bean paste)
  • Assorted vegetables (Roots, leaves, etc.)
    Optional:
  • Tofu
  • Meat/Spam or Luncheon meat
  • Seafood
  • Whole egg? Runny egg yolk in soup is top tier, but watch the salmonella.
  • Chili and pepper if it's a cold day or you just like spice.
Directions
  1. Boil pot of water.
  2. Add one tablespoon of doenjang.
  3. Chop all vegetables, meat and tofu into bite sized cubes and add to pot.
  4. Stir until everything's cooked. Eat time.
Notes
  • hey i make depression meals sometimes too and this is like the least amount of effort, just above cup noodles
  • Doenjang is where all the saltiness and tastiness is, but can always be substituted with stock or cubes. Won't taste the same, but it'll do.
  • Leafy veggies don't do so well when thrown in too early. Throwing them in when the soup is nearly finished prevents them from overcooking.
  • Throwing in instant ramen noodles makes it into a 1-pot meal that you can just eat out of.
  • Leftovers just mean you can throw in more ingredients next time, or heat it up to cook instant noodles with.