I thought that traditional ramen noodles didn't use egg, though I could be mistaken. I think the big difference is that broth powder and freeze dried bits can't really hold a candle to fresh stock and toppings. You can't package sliced pork in an instant ramen cup. There's a Japanese restaurant down the street from us that does a great miso ramen.
From Cook's Illustrated, here is how to make impossibly fluffy omelettes. This is how to make two such omelettes, halve all the relevant measures to make one. The trick is to make a meringue and then fold the yolks back in, and then bake that mess. Ingredients - 4x eggs - 1/4 tsp cream of tartar - 1 tbs butter, melted and another tbs besides. - 1/4 tsp salt - Whatever omelette fillings you enjoy. Cook's Illustrated suggests going easy on the strong flavors, so you can enjoy the eggy goodness of this omelette, and they're right. One of their suggested fillings is a mix of sauteed asparagus and shallots as well as smoked salmon. It's good! Preheat oven to 375. Separate the yolks and whites. Whisk the yolks in a small bowl with the melted butter and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, mix the whites along with the cream of tartar at medium-low speed for two minutes or so, until they're foamy. Kick the speed up to medium high and mix until soft peaks form, about two to three minutes longer. Now use a spatula to fold the egg yolk mixture back in, until all of the white streaks are gone. Take a 12" pan and melt the other tablespoon of butter in it. When the butter is bubbling, take the pan off the heat and spread the egg mixture into it. Dump on whatever toppings you're using, and toss it in the oven. Four and a half minutes will get you a somewhat moist omelette, five will get you to a dryer omelette. Cut it in half and transfer to plates. Depending on how moist the omelette is you may lose structural integrity at this point and end up with a scramble, but it's no biggy. Fold it in half and enjoy!
Baked brownies and chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. Failed to make flapjack as the baking parchment was un-removable from the bottom. Feeling nauseous from bowl lickings so it's probably best that the flapjack failed.
I made vegan mini apple pies last night and everyone loved them, especially the one vegan guest we had. The crust was a smidge dry but it had the right texture and the right taste. SUCCESS!
I'm having my sister and her partner over for dinner tonite and will be doing a two course meal, consisting of a shaved vegetable salad for the appetizer and a main course of soy-sriracha-glazed salmon with rice pilaf and broccoli. This should be fun!
So I got this last week. I think I am going to head over to the Asian Food Market in Middletown and get the fixins for Mapo Tofu.
Made a mess with remaining fresh veggies and leftovers today. This happened in the skillet: olive oil soy sauce 1 sliced fennel 2 sliced leeks 3 small golden beets last cup(ish) of cooked brown jasmine rice salt fresh pepper Directions: heat until heated, eat until eated. It didn't even need a dash of sriracha. deeeeelish!
shift6, allow me to go all Amazon Recommendations on your ass and suggest a recipe you might enjoy! This is easy as heck and delicious, especially if you don't sorta-burn the ginger the way I did. :)
RAWR! I usually have ginger and garlic in the house too, just not right now. Well, next time I guess. :)
I may have posted this before, but I just made it tonight. SO DELICIOUS. I double the dumplings cause they are the best part. If you do this, don't forget to up the water or broth by 1 cup. If you leave it out, like I did tonight because I wasn't thinking, it's still SUPER DELICIOUS but a bit thick. ___ Chicken and Dumplings 1 3-pound chicken 4 cups water 2 cups chicken broth 1 carrot, roughly chopped 1 medium onion, cut into quarters 1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons shortening 1 cup buttermilk Place the chicken in a Dutch oven or other large pot, and add the water, broth, carrot, onion, celery and salt. Bring to a boil, cover and lower heat. Simmer for 60 to 70 minutes, or until tender and chicken is done. Remove chicken and allow it to cool enough to handle. Remove the carrot, onion and celery pieces from the broth and discard. Reserve the broth. Bone the chicken, discarding all skin, bones and cartilage, and tear meat into bite-size pieces. Set aside. (You can do this part the day before, if you like. Just refrigerate the boned chicken -- well covered so it doesn't dry out -- and broth.) For the dumplings, combine the flour, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture is consistency of coarse meal. Add the buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times -- no more. For drop dumplings, pat the dough down to a 1/4-inch thickness, and pinch off 1-1/2-inch pieces. For rolled dumplings, roll the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness, and cut into strips, no larger than about 2 x 2 inches. (The dumplings will plump up when they are cooked.) If you have prepared the chicken in advance and refrigerated it, return it and the broth to your big pot and bring it to a boil. Then, with a very large slotted spoon or ladle, dip the boned chicken out of the broth, cover it and keep it warm. With the chicken broth at a low rolling boil, drop in the dumplings, one or two at a time, and reduce the heat to medium. Stir from time to time to make sure dumplings do not stick together. Cook dumplings 10 minutes. The flour in the dumplings will thicken the broth, and it is absolutely not necessary to thicken it further. Return the boned chicken to the mixture and simmer until heated through. Add the freshly ground black pepper and remove from heat. Makes 4 or 5 servings, depending upon appetites. I've seen two hungry men put away this entire recipe. Note: If you are cooking a whole chicken, it is fairly easy to remove as much of the skin as possible to avoid a lot of fat. Also, unless you use a really deep, narrow pot, the chicken isn't likely to be covered by the cooking liquid. So turn your chicken upsidedown; that is, cook it with the breast side down, to prevent drying. Dumpling dough is very similar to biscuit dough and, like biscuit dough, the less it is handled, the lighter and more tender the result. _______ I've also been known to leave out the celery and carrot if I don't have them on hand. This is also just as good, if not better, a day later.
So dinner was a success. Salad consisted of radish, fennel, beets, celery, celery leaves, carrots, asparagus, cucumber, green onions, and broccoli stalks, all shaved lengthwise at the thinnest setting on the mandolin, dressed with a simple vinagrette of grapeseed oil, sherry vinegar, sugar and salt. It was taken from the Eiffel Tower Restaurant cookbook, which is where my wife and I ate for our wedding dinner when we eloped. It would have been better with some farmer's market produce fresh from the harvest in summer, but it was a really nice change from the typical salad, and I've been looking forward to making it since I first had it back in 2009. Main course was rice pilaf with sauteed peas, mushrooms, bell pepper and onion, salmon on a cedar plank with a soy, ginger, sriracha and brown sugar glaze, and steamed broccoli. I got a late start to making things because I didn't get home in time so my whole production was set back but I had hammered out a timeline on paper in advance and placed out all the tools and pots I'd need so I didn't fuck things up during making it. I'm really happy with how it turned out and contrast what I made with what I was cooking just a few years ago and I feel really good. I didn't use a recipe for the salmon topping, I just whipped it together and tasted it and knew it was going to be good and the only thing I would change is making it a bit thicker next time so it doesn't run off as much. I used a bit of cornstarch and I'd probably double that amount next time. No pics this time, I was in a hurry because of timing issues. It's a shame too because the salad look gorgeous.
I made The Best Chocolate Cake Ever and let me tell you: it really was. It was DELICIOUS! The frosting was good, but I think I'll use half the espresso powder next time for the frosting--I couldn't really taste it at first, but after sitting around for awhile it started coming out and I don't like coffee-flavor anything. Could not at all taste it in the cake and I think it really brought out the chocolate flavor. Seriously, this will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on. It was SUPER simple and absolutely delicious! Really chocolatey, the caketop (you bakers know what I'm talking about) was the absolute BEST I have ever had, and it was moist and not crumbly. Mmmmmmmmmm!
You can also just microwave 2 eggs in about 1 minute in a coffee cup: 2 tablespoons milk, 2 eggs, salt and pepper. Scramble in coffee cup coated with nonstick spray (unless you like scrubbing egg off of cup) Microwave for 45 seconds, stir. Microwave for another 50-60 seconds, depending on microwave's power. Either eat from cup, or pour out onto plate and appreciate your cylinder of egg. Now -- this is really for just quick eating. For real, good scrambled eggs, I like the low and slow method that Mark Bittman uses.
STUFF MY EX-ROOMMATE LEFT BEHIND crackers (based on a recipe for water crackers found online) (or: What to make when you want to get rid of flour, but your fridge broke and spoiled your perishables) EXAMPLE: I think they are technically hardtack, but they're edible.
I'm making mapo tofu again tonight! It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite dishes: delicious, healthy, and super easy to make. The recipe I have is courtesy of Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. I'm making it in a cheapass steel wok I got for $13.00. It involves some ingredients that you won't find in the grocery store; but if you go to an asian market and/or just order online, you're good to go. Ingredients: 500-600g plain tofu. I use firm. Ideally you want the softest you can find that will hold its shape during the cooking process. Salt 4 baby leeks or green onions. I can almost never find baby leeks. :( Also if you can find garlic leaves use them, but good luck finding garlic leaves. 4 tbsp cooking oil. I prefer peanut. 2.5 tbs Sichuan chili bean paste. You'll need to hit up the asian market for this. 1 tbs fermented black beans, rinsed and drained. THE SECRET INGREDIENT, these guys add an amazing richness to the dish. (optional) 2 tsp ground red chilies if you want to bring the heat. 1 tbs finely chopped ginger 1 tbs finely chopped garlic 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water. 2 tsp potato flour mixed with 2 tbs water 1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns. OK, so like I said, I use a shitty carbon steel wok. You know the rules for most cookware: you get what you pay for. The opposite is true for woks. You want something with super fast heat response. Thin carbon steel is where it's at. Seasoning it is a pain in the nuts and you can't clean it with anything other than maybe a little cold water, but damn if it won't cook the shit out of your food. Get some water heated, but don't boil it. Cut your tofu into 3/4" cubes and dump it in the hot water. DO NOT BOIL, you'll fuck up the tofu. You just want it hot. Anyway, start by heating the oil in the wok over a high flame. Reduce it to medium and add the chili bean paste and cook it for a few minutes until the oil is a rich red color. Then add the ground chili (if using) and the beans and stir fry for just a few more moments, until they're fragrant. Then add the ginger and garlic. The trick here is temperature control; you want it hot enough but not too hot so that the oil pulls all that flavor out of the ginger and garlic and stuff. This will give you a nice, thick sauce too. Now remove the tofu from the water with a perforated spoon and drop it in the wok. Add the stock, some salt, the white pepper, then push the tofu around to cover it with sauce. Let that stuff simmer for a few minutes before adding the leeks/onions. When they're a little soft, start adding the potato water mixture, just a bit at a time until the sauce is thick and clinging to the tofu and spices. Transfer it to a serving bowl, and top with the Sichuan peppercorns. Enjoy the magic. I serve this with white rice (Uncle Ben's boil in a bag, natch). It's amazing! Leftovers are good too.
The best part about this recipe: it's hot in that way where it's never unpleasant in your mouth but holy shit the sweat is pouring down my face!
I made bacon fat cookies, and they're as good as I remember. They're kind of an acquired taste I suppose (they have a slightly greasy aftertaste) but they're crispy and with a slight hint of bacon.
Sweet, they're basically shortbread cookies but with bacon fat instead of butter. One of those depression era (or older) recipes that's been kicking around the family.
Tonight I'm making my go-to chili(or whatever you want to call it) casserole. -Two chicken breast fillets -Two largish shallots -Two cloves of garlic -One tin of crushed, peeled tomatoes -One tin of kidney beans -One(small) tin of sliced champignons -One(small) glass of sliced, pickled jalapeños -A bunch of diced carrot bits -Approximately half a(small) head of broccoli -A rough handful of cashew nuts -A shitload of spices of various sorts Slice, brown, fry, mix as appropriate, bung in casserole, leave to simmer for 20ish minutes, stirring now and then. Serves 4(or 1, over four meals, as I tend to do it). And it's fucking delicious.
It is three in the morning. I have pretzel dough mixed that will be rising underneath my laptop once I go to bed. Shallots are being diced and potatoes will be peeled and boiled shortly for Salad Olivier. And I'm not starting on the hamantaschen dough tonight, but I have poppy seeds soaking in milk and cranberry filling cooling in the fridge. I may not be awake for this shindig tomorrow, but by Cthulhu, I will bring FOOD.
Props to Pache for winning the Most Patient Sous-Chef award, btw. What I said above about not being awake? Yeah. >.< Added to my pre-party to-do list: clean up the unholy mess that poaching pretzels makes when you overfill the pot. Whoopsie.
The banana bread is oven, and I expect it will be as exquisitely delicious as it is every other time I make it. It's a nice solid recipe, which I've tweaked very slightly for my own preferences and convenience. The trick lies in using a good recipe that calls for buttermilk, waiting for the bananas to be so ripe they're almost liquid, and never, ever over-stirring the batter. Juuuuust enough for it not to be dry powder anywhere anymore, and in it goes. Using a ton of high quality real vanilla helps too. ETA: Topping it with the freshly whipped cream that my roommate made? That makes it even better. So now we know.
Karen made Mustard Milanese with an Arugula Fennel salad, from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook (there's a fried chicken cutlet hiding beneath the salad). It was super good. Even my two-year old ate, like, an entire chicken cutlet, and he hasn't been into chicken lately. Lots of good stuff in the Smitten Kitchen cookbook.
I don't know why, but I've been obsessed with carrots lately. Last night for dinner I decided to get all "experimenty", so I put a little olive oil into a pan, dumped in a bag of baby carrots and started throwing stuff in there. I think I used salt, pepper, parsley, and a little brown sugar, and kept adding water to the pan of carrots until they were nice and soft. I would also occasionally use my ninja stir fry skills to make sure that they cooked evenly. They actually turned out pretty freaking delicious, but does anyone have actual carrot recipes I could use?
Like the cutlery design, but how do you manage without a fork? I'm trying my new slow cooker for the first time - beef stew (why don't more of you post recipes in the slow cooker thread?). Made Paella the other day: It was lovely.
Sure. Easiest salad possible - grate a pound or so of carrot, add lemon juice, salt to taste and thyme, let stand for an hour or so. How about carrot and lentils with olive oil and mint. Carrots generally go really well together with mint, (and/or ginger). Carrot cake, you will find tons of recipes online. Or slowly cook in a bit of butter, when mostly done turn up the heat and add a spoon or so of sugar, then wait (and stir) until you have caramelized carrots. These go well with roast meat of any kind.
Finally got to make my favourite chocolate tart using Valrhona chocolate and Muscovado sugar, not less nice ingredients. Today, I am whole. (And people seemed to like it as well.)
Chipotle burrito for breakfast (protein and starch) followed by a dinner of steak and potatoes. That's how you get the metabolism reset.
