The wife and I have different cooking styles.

She starts out with an end in mind, and assembles ingredients to match. I start with ingredients in mind (usually whatever happens to be in the fridge), and create a dish out of those ingredients. Simply put — I do a lot more improvisation that her.

This leads to some interesting dishes. A couple of days ago, I cooked a Chinese influenced pea-soup. (Seems fitting, considering our heritage.) It was pretty memorable, enough so that I might even make it again. Rough recipe follows.

Asian Pea Soup

Split peas
Water
Chinese Five-Spice
Char-siu (Chinese BBQ pork), diced
Salt

Add split peas to water at a rolling boil — boil until they’re appropriately mushy, add water if necessary to keep consistency to what you like. When the soup is the right consistency for you, add BBQ pork (do allow some additional cooking time to allow flavors to mix). Add salt and five-spice to taste.