White Fusion

Sometimes when I think of what to do for this blog, I have absolutely zero ideas and I have to watch hours of cooking shows to get inspired. Occasionally, however, I have amazing epiphanies that shoot into my brain like a lightning bolt from Zeus. 

Take a Polish Pierog. A dumpling, typically stuffed with potato and/or cheese and/or cabbage. 

Take Irish-American Corned Beef. Served with potato and cabbage, sometimes paired with cheese in a sandwich. 

What if you combine them?! I know, who makes Corned Beef in August? I DO! I buy at least 3 for my freezer when they're on sale in March. TAKE THAT, SEASONAL BS! 

So I did.

I used a basic Pierogi recipe from King Arthur Flour, and I filled it with my Corned Beef, mashed potatoes, swiss cheese and sauerkraut. Almost like a Reuben. 

I learned two things while making this. 1. Pierogi are a lot of work. 2. I'm a genius. 

Crab Battle!

Despite the heat being on full blast this season, I made something deep fried. WORTH IT!

Lucky Peach lured me back into the poorly ventilated kitchen with promises of Corn & Crab Fritters. They turned out super light for a fried food. It uses baking powder, and I let the corn and crab and dough mush sit for a little bit while I made a quick and unauthentic remoulade. Small fried things always take extra time to make, but I keep making them!

The fritters also reheated well in the oven. Because nothing says "Great Ideas for Heat Waves" like turning on your oven every day. :|

*record stop scratch*

Can we talk about this heat? It's the hottest year on record, again. I'm not one of those types who posts those "I love Fall because sweaters, leaves and Pumpkin Spice Lattes" memes but let's get real here. You can add clothing and blankets in the winter. You can only get so naked in public before it's illegal in the summer. I don't complain about the cold, I just cook things in my dutch oven for hours on end to heat up the house and wear super cute knits. You should see my slippers from Ikea, they're practically duvets for my feet! My cat hates the heat and humidity too, and he's a lot more snuggly during the other three seasons. Gawd. I do love a good thunderstorm though. And the beach. 

Ok. Rant over. Make these fritters, you won't be disappointed. 

Handling Noodles

I've been a bit lax the past few weeks, and I've burnt through my backlog of posts. I needed something easy to get back into the cooking swing of things, and Jap Chae kept coming up in my recipes. I opted for the 101 Easy Asian Recipes version, as it's super colorful and I had most of the ingredients already. Bonus! 

Just a note of caution, this recipe makes 8 servings, so if you're cooking for two, like I do most of the time, cut it in half. It'll save you a lot of prep work too! 

I would definitely make again, it was really really easy, and super delicious!

Oh Mama, Umami!

Sad news, the Williams-Sonoma by my house is closing. Good news, I got a sweet new saucepan at 60% off! Time to make a sauce!

A demi-glace is a French brown sauce, made from stock and espagnole sauce then cooked waaaaay down. I had never made one before, so yay new things! Chef Steps has a recipe for a vegetarian-friendly demi-glace that takes less time than making a beef demi-glace. I also have a very small fridge, so storing enough bones for stock was going to be a problem. At least vegetables can be kept at room temperature for a little while.

Get a mandoline, even a $20 one from Target. It's such a time saver for this recipe! AND USE THE HAND GUARD!!!!! Especially if you want it to be a vegan sauce!!! 

I used MSG, because it's an umami-enhancer, but you don't have to. There's forever a debate over it, whether it causes migraines or whatever, but it just doesn't affect me. Plus I'm not bathing in it, or having it with every meal. The pectin and xanthan gum provide the silky texture that meat would provide. Some xanthan gum is made with lactose, therefore if you're vegan, check your xanthan gum source carefully, or don't use it. 

We drizzled this over pan fried pork chops, asparagus, and potatoes. I think my biggest issue is the vegetable waste that occurs for a small amount of sauce. I might do this again, with frozen vegetable scraps, or the bruised produce you can buy at a discount. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Shrimp & Grits

Recently I had a bout with some gastrointestinal distress. I know, TMI, but it was bumming me out (pun intended). I have been eating relatively well so I couldn't figure out what was causing the issues, until I found the common ingredient. Nightshades. A group of plants that include tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers, and eggplant. Of course I've been eating a TON of nightshades. So, without going to a doctor and getting tested for food allergies, I figured it wouldn't hurt to eliminate them from my diet for a while. 

Which is fine. I've done food eliminations before. Except I had already planned to cook Shrimp & Grits, which traditionally features at least a couple nightshades. Using this recipe from The Castaway Kitchen for the seasoning, I think I was moderately successful. 

Moderately successful because I haven't actually had Shrimp & Grits before so I didn't have a control to compare against. It came out very tasty though! I would have liked thicker grits too, but I was much too impatient to cook them down further. 

Oh, and my tummy? After a couple weeks of no nightshades, I brought them back into my diet, and I haven't had too much trouble since. Some day I will get a full write up from a gastro-doc, but until then, I'll just eliminate as needed. 

Persian Paisley 'Plants

On our way back from seeing Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (and Eric Nally <3) we needed grub and it had started to rain so we popped into a place I had Yelp-scouted earlier. Limoo Tea Bar has alcoholic Boba Tea, and small plates, which are perfect for post-show-noms. Their Korean Fried Chicken is the best I've had (so far), and their eggplant dip is amaaaazing. Rather than drive the two and a half hours back, I figured it was more economical to make it at home. This Mizra Ghasemi recipe comes from Serious Eats, as an adaptation from "The New Persian Kitchen." Rather than beat the eggs into the mix, I poached (and nuked) an egg. Limoo Tea Bar has a soft fried egg on theirs, and I would say that's better than my microwave poaching. 

Serve warm with warmed pitas or your favorite bread. I also made Mast-o-musir, which is yogurt and shallots. Yus!

Back to Basics Onion Soup

I have a beautiful set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child, Bertholle & Beck. 

You know the one. Julia Child's cookbook debut, the volumes that launched an empire. I recently read an older article on Slate, decrying the books as a dust collector, something everyone buys but no one cooks from. I bought mine as a housewarming gift to myself when I moved out of my parent's for good. (I've included an Amazon Partner link below if you want to get it for yourself)

I'll admit it, I don't cook from them as often as I do from Serious Eats or Momofuku, but I love them nonetheless. I grew up in Eastern Massachusetts, where Channel 2 is WGBH. That's the station that produced the OG of home cooking shows, The French Chef. And I grew up watching that alongside Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross. So not only is the book full of comfort food, but the show itself is comforting. I put it on in the background when I want to work, I watch it when I'm feeling sad. I watched a marathon of it in my hotel room after spraining my foot! So if buying two books to sit on my shelf serve no other purpose than to make me feel warm and fuzzy, then I'm going to do it! I believe you can still watch episodes online, and I know an Amazon Prime account has them included in their streaming service. 

Where was I? Oh yes. So I do, on occasion, cook from the set. Usually when I want something fancy. French Onion Soup is not complex, nor fancy, but it's quite good. I opted for enhancing premade beef stock with Better than Boullion, but if you have the time, homemade stock always wins. If you have a technique for preventing onion-tears, use it, as this is an ONION soup!

Bon Appetit!

Bang Bang! Noodles

This week's dish comes courtesy of a friend. He posted this recipe for Biang Biang noodles onto Facebook and I knew right then and there I needed to make them. 

So I did. 

These noodles hail from the Shaanxi province in China, so whereas last week's dish was Chinese-American, this dish is firmly Chinese. 

It was my first time with hand pulled noodles. I would recommend first watching some videos of people doing it. Don't try for perfection, the flavor will make up for appearances. 

Lordy these are good. Make them. 

Generally So-so Chicken

I love Chinese food, whether it's more "authentic" like salt and pepper duck tongues, or something more Chinese-American such as pork fried rice. One of the Chinese-American dishes I crave most often is General Tso's Chicken. 

It's sweet, tangy, and spicy. The chicken is still crispy. Broccoli is usually included, smothered in the sauce and still crisp as well. 

The problem is, I don't live near any good sources of General Tso's. It's usually overly sweet, never ever spicy, and once Tom and I ordered Orange Chicken and General Tso's and we literally couldn't tell them apart. Which is really sad because Orange Chicken is the bee's knees too. So I decided to make it myself!

With help from Serious Eats of course. I highly recommend their recipe. It hit all the flavor notes I wanted, spicy, tangy, sweet. And I was able to follow it closely with great success! 

You can cook the broccoli in a wok, or blanch it ahead of time and bring it up to temp when you mix everything together, but I just microwaved it until it was the consistency I wanted. There were so many dishes from the main dish, it was nice to just dirty a piece of Tupperware with steam and green bits. 

I also recommend The Search for General Tso, a documentary following the inception of the dish. Just make sure you watch it after you've made this for dinner!

Summer Spicy Steak Salad

Happy Summer! Finally, I have both air conditioners installed! I don't do well in hot weather. I don't like cooking, and I just stay low and try not to move. But I still need to eat, and I can't live off of take-aways, that's not healthy or sustainable. 

Vietnamese Steak Salad is a great balance of hearty and light. You get the satisfaction of steak, and the healthiness of greens. The spice is balanced by the cucumber and herbs. Grill the flank steak for extra flavor and to keep the kitchen temperature down. 

Birthday Pie!

Tom's birthday was last month, and as tradition, he got a labor-intensive meal as his gift. Cooking instead of getting something material is also great since I'm unemployed! 

I don't remember where I first saw Rigatoni Pie, but Tom has always wanted it. I usually would defer the idea since it's pretty labor intensive, but as it's a gift, I decided it was worth the extra effort. 

Using a Martha recipe, I embellished the meat sauce to my liking. I also injected EVERY NOODLE with seasoned ricotta cheese. The recipe calls for a 9" springform, but as I only have a 10", I used an extra half pound of pasta. My back killed me when I was done, but it looks like a pasta birthday cake, and it was totally delish. I'll definitely make this again for special days. 

OMG Onigiri!

Onigiri! The cutest food? Probably. 

In all my years of watching Anime and attempting Japanese cuisine, I've never tried making rice balls. WHAT GIVES? They're super easy and very tasty! And the rice makes for a basic meal when you're experiencing tummy issues. Just Hungry has a great method for making onigiri, so I would start there. 

We used leftover salmon, tuna with Kewpie mayo, and minced umeboshi for fillings, with sesame seeds and nori for toppings. Put a dab of the filling on top of the ball when you're done; it'll show you what's inside and it's super kawaii. 

Chiapalin Donburri

I've been watching anime, and getting ideas for food. Again. This time from Shokugeki No Soma, which follows the protagonist, Soma, as he attends the most elite culinary school in Japan. The anime, and manga, are quite redonk. As usual, they cook something up that I'd want to eat. 

The dish that really got me hungry was Chiapalin Steak Don, which is steak with onion gravy over rice that's been laced with pickled plums (umeboshi). 

Here's the recipe I used, I stuck to it pretty closely. In the show the meat is so tender the characters pull off pieces with their chopsticks. I wasn't able to get that, despite scoring and pounding my steaks. You could sub in Cube Steak if you want to skip a step, but I would use either a fattier cut or score it more severely to get it "chopstick tender." 

The umeboshi are very salty, but once they're mixed into the rice, it mellows out perfectly, so you don't want to salt the rice separately. 

Dons (rice bowls) are a lot of fun, and they're cheap and filling. This one was really good, and I'd probably make it again. 

On a [Sausage] Roll

Today we're making a Grandma recipe, from Scratch!

Sausage Rolls!

Truthfully I didn't like these at all when I was a kid, but now I don't make them often because I just want to eat the whole batch when I do. 

Typically the EASY recipe is:

Sausage Rolls

• 1 lb pack of Italian Sausage, Sweet, Mild or Hot. Get the formless forcemeat, it's easier than cutting it out of casings
• 1 bag of Pizza Crust Dough
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Anise or Fennel Seed

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, lightly grease a cookie sheet
2. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, somewhat thin.
3. Rub it down with olive oil.
4. Season it with red pepper flakes and anise or fennel seed if you want.
5. Evenly spread little sausage nuggets across the oiled surface. It's messy.
6. Roll tightly and slice into 1.5" pieces
7. Set onto the cookie sheet, cut sides vertical.
8. Bake for 25 minutes? or until golden brown.
9. Eat em hot or cold!

Or be like me and buy a meat grinder attachment for your KitchenAid. I used the Italian Sausage recipe from The Wurst of Lucky Peach (use link below to help me financially! I'm unemployed!)

I didn't like them :| Tom did, because the sausage wasn't overly-italian-y. It was a good exercise in learning how to grind meat, but in the future I'm going the lazy route and just buying a styrofoam tray of sausage. At least until I get better at homemade sausages.

And if you're a fan of Sausages AND Video Games, check out Stephen's Sausage Roll!

Falafel Rofl

I am by no means a falafel expert, but I think my falafel come out pretty damn good. 

Falafel fall under that regional category where everyone has their own idea of the correct recipe. I've seen this happen with other regional dishes, where it can vary wildly from town to town, or country to country. 

The answer is, they're all "correct" and "authentic". Woe to anyone who accuses a grandmother of making a dish "wrong" just because it's not the exact same recipe as their own.

I make a chickpea falafel, but I have seen variants that include broad beans. I'm comfortable enough with the food that I believe I'll try other legumes in the future. I used Saveur's recipe for a base, and added a jalapeno and cilantro to the mix. I've never used canned beans, so I don't know how different the texture would be compared to soaked beans.

If you can't get the dough to hold together, try smaller balls, or add a little bit of flour, a couple tablespoons at a time, until they do. Coconut flour is a good binder if you're gluten free. 

I like them in a pita, or as a fancy salad topping with the tahini sauce as a dressing.

Orange Duck

Woooo another week of experimenting with foods! 

I picked up a couple pretty Muscovy breasts to test my new sous vide on, but there's going to be a shipping delay, so I was left with pan frying. Oh well!

For the breast I scored the skin and fat, and rubbed it with Chinese 5 Spice. You want to cook it skin side down first, on medium heat, for about 10 minutes. Then you flip it and continue for another 5-7 minutes, then rest it. I kept mine on the heat a smidge too long, but they still came out quite nicely. 

For the sauce I just mushed together a few a l'Orange recipes I found online, adjusting it as I went along. I think a coulis with the orange segments would have been nicer than just throwing them on a plate. Thoughts for next time I suppose!

Finally the carrot puree was made from carrots, ginger, garlic and onion. 

A++ would make again. Maybe with more veggies. 

Good news if you're a fan of my illustrations! I have a little shop on Redbubble now, so if you want the above design on a shirt, or a notebook, or as a print, head on over! I'll be adding other illustrations as I see fit, so stay tuned!

Slammin' Salmon Soba

Sometimes I follow recipes for my meals. Other times I just cook what I know. I don't need instructions anymore to roast chicken thighs with make green beans and potatoes. Then there are the times that I kind of have an idea of what I want to make, but I'm not entirely confident in my own ability to mix flavors. Miso Salmon over Peanut Soba Noodles falls into that latter category. 

It makes for a situation in which I have no actual recipe, as I just combine and adjust as I go along. 

The recipes I got the basics from for this are from Jacques Pepin, and Lucky Peach, mixed with a fondness for cold peanut sesame noodles my mom always ordered from the local Chinese restaurant. 

I think it's this mixing and matching that eventually leads to recipe writing. Now that I no longer have a day job, hopefully the extra time will allow for more brainstorming creations like this, as it was definitely something I'd like to make again. And maybe eventually write down.

Release the Calamari!

This post marks a milestone! It's the first entry written from a location other than home! Yay portable devices! At the time of this entry, I've been eating my way through Chinatown Boston and living it up at PAXEast, the largest gaming convention on the East coast. So check out the Steak and a Clam Instagram for photos of all the things I ate! 

Back to cooking!

Braised Squid is one of those meals that looks super fancy but can be done easily on a weeknight. The hardest part was getting raw squid to look photogenic. So I just used a cute bowl. The harissa adds a nice kick, but a dash of cayenne would do in a pinch. I definitely suggest getting harrisa though, as it's super versatile. The lemon zest really -ahem- brightened the dish up. Like, I hear that term all the time on Top Chef and such, but this was probably the first time I've ever actually thought that as I ate the dish. You can serve this with couscous, farro, rice, or any grain you prefer. We used Freekeh, because why not. The leftovers came out great too, and the squid didn't get rubbery upon reheating. 

You Knead Cardamom Bread

One thing I am looking forward to during my impending Funemployment is all the time I'll have for multi-hour, multi-DAY recipes!

When you are limited to only two days a week, there's a lot that just gets left behind because I simply can't let something sit around for hours at a time. Bread usually falls into this category. I know there are plenty of no-rise, no knead breads too, ssshhhh. 

Which brings us to this, Cardamom bread! I had an extra quiet weekend, no appointments, no social events, no need to leave the house. Just me, my computer, and a cup of tea. 

It's really not too difficult, but I definitely need to get a gosh darn pestle & mortar. Smashing the cardamom pods, and subsequently smashing the seeds was not easy without them. 

Another thing to note about this week's project. I authentically shopped for the ingredients ahead of time!!! I already had plenty of cardamom pods and powder from Dual Specialty in NYC. I didn't have pearl sugar for the topping. I searched EVERY DANG STORE in my area! I used Demerara sugar but it definitely isn't the same :( I'll have to order some from the interwebs for next time. 

This is quite tasty, and best eaten whilst warm. With a cuppa.

Wakako al Ajillo

I've been watching a lot of "Wakakozake." You can find it as a manga, an anime and a live action show. It follows the food adventures of a 20-something professional living in Tokyo. Wakako love food and alcohol, and she eats the most delicious foods whilst waxing philosophical about matching shochu with seafoods. 

In one episode of the live action (also known as a "Drama") she orders Gambas al Ajillo. The garlicy oil causes her to go through her crusty bread before finishing the shrimp, much to her embarrassment. Fortunately she gets more bread, and more wine and finishes the dish with relish. 

If there's one weakness Tom and I have, it's an Asian Drama showcasing tasty food. So needless to say I made this purely because of Wakako. 

Serious Eats has a very easy recipe if you want to make it yourself. It's quick enough for a weeknight too.