Category Archives: Cooking

Cooking, Radiology

2021 in Retrospect

Coronavirus, year 2. We’re ending on a sour note, in contrast to the burgeoning promise from last year’s end. I got my first Moderna vaccine dose on 12/31/20 and with it the hope we’d never see a crushing spike in cases again. Depressing that this is the new normal, huh? That this blasted virus can roll around and just ruin plans over and over again. I especially feel for my emergency medicine, internal medicine, and family medicine colleagues who continue to bear the burden of the pandemic on behalf of all of us. Not just in the realm of the hospital, but on behalf of the country as a whole. Thanks, guys.

All right, here’s my annual habit of public reflections. Not much to say.

Radiology

Firstly, I officially declare my radiology class the best class.

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Cooking

Soymilk Alchemy

Making soymilk is like alchemy. Turning America’s underappreciated cash crop into a delectable, smooth drink feels like magic. However, this recipe is not for the faint-hearted. It requires a good amount of niche home kitchen equipment and a couple hours of work.

You might be surprised by the scale of America’s soybean crop. It’s second only to big corn and far outstrips wheat and every other crop, but it has low visibility to the average consumer because almost all of it is pressed into vegetable oil and livestock feed and/or exported. Tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy sauce, and soymilk comprise a vanishingly small percentage of the crop.

This project started back in September 2020, when my college friend Alvin and I were discussing pandemic cooking projects. He had been reading some soybean scientific literature and refining his formulation for “delicious, reproducible soymilk” using a few uncommon techniques like applying boiling water to soak and slow-cooking. Then, in the winter, several times I tried buying bottled soymilk from Chinatown and found it overly sweet and—even worse—spoiled and slimy. I asked my friend for tips, and he generously shared his recipe notes and even supplied me with a starter bag of soybeans (thanks!!).

Since then, I’ve cooked 24 batches, so most weeks. There’s been lots of titration, experimentation, and tasting. We’re finding soybean skins and okara crumbs everywhere in the kitchen.

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Cooking

Comparing Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

For his birthday celebration, my college roommate requested that we congregate on Zoom for a PowerPoint party and share 5-minute presentations on any topic. Concurrently, I was comparing many popular chocolate chip cookie recipes to find out what aspects these bakers all consider important. Thus, I took the opportunity to combine the projects, scripting a dense half-silly rapid-fire 38-slide 5-minute presentation on cookie baking science. Here, I’ve reformatted that presentation’s tables and script into this blog post.

If interested in the recipe I currently follow, scroll to the end.

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Cooking

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The world loves its chocolate chip cookies, and that makes them immensely difficult to bake. By buying from bakeries built on the backbones of their basics, we consume so many magnificent cookies. Our palates and preferences become particular. Prickly. 

Consider the precise chemical nature of baking. This is why, more than any other baked good, you can find endless variations of CC cookies with fractional ingredients and precise timings. People recommend specific brands of ingredients, and bakeries sometimes get their chocolate chips custom made specifically for their cookies.

I’ve read lots of articles about the science of chocolate chip cookies, like by the Times/Jacques Torres and Serious Eats/Kenji Lopez-Alt and NPR, but I just started with  the Times’s recipe. It’s good. My roommate has snapchats to prove it.

This is the smallest batch that I can bake as it calls for one large egg (I can’t switch egg sizes lest it ruin my other recipes). All ingredients were from Trader Joe’s except for Domino’s sugar and Diamond Crystal salt.

 

Edit 5/25/20 visit here my lengthy presentation, which includes an updated recipe. Edit: 5/15/18 another version, this time from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of the Food Lab. Edit 2/16/18 I am now better at making aesthetically more pleasing cookies, and this is now the only cookie recipe I make. Ignore the rest.

Kenji Chocolate Chip Cookies

Redacted. These are the cookies that I exclusively make now, but please find my current recipe here. I wrote more about cookies, sorry!

NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Cream 1.25 stick room-temp butter, 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar until very light.
  • Add 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix well.
  • Add 1.75 cup AP flour, 5/8 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp kosher salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in 1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate disks.
  • Spoon into ~18 golf-sized balls. Cover with plastic, refrigerate for 24-72 hours. No less.
  • Place onto parchment-lined baking tray. Sprinkle lightly with flaked sea salt.
  • Bake at 350 F for 17-20 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes, until it solidifies enough to eat warm.

By the way, this makes new recipe #52 for the year. Primary mission accomplished!!

Edit 5/27 yet another cookie, this time inspired by the massive scone-like cookies that Levain Bakery on West 74th sells. Recipe from modernhoney.com. Not for the faint of heart.

Levain-like Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Beat 1 stick butter, cold and cut into cubes (scone-style), into 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
  • Add 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla and mix fairly well.
  • Combine 1.5 cups AP flour (or sub half with cake flour), 1/2 tsp cornstarch, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda. Add. Mix until almost combined.
  • Add 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup walnut quarters/pieces.
  • Divide into 6 giant balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.
  • Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, until light brown. Don’t overbake. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Edit 6/4: working off this recipe, although the Nutella did not melt as expected. I think I was using an old jar where the top half with disproportionate palm oil had already been scooped off. Still yummy though.

Nutella-stuffed CC Cookies.

  • Beforehand, spoon out ~16 1 tsp dollops of refrigerated Nutella onto a sheet. Freeze.
  • Brown 1 stick butter by swirling constantly over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add 1 tbsp cold water. Chill in fridge for about 20 minutes.
  • Cream 1 egg, 3/8 cup sugar, 3/4 tsp vanilla until very light.
  • Add cooled brown butter and 3/8 cup dark brown sugar. Mix to just combine.
  • Combine 1 cup + 2 tbsp AP flour, 3/8 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, then add. Mix until almost combined.
  • Mix in 1 cup chocolate chips until just combined. Refrigerate for 2-72 hours.
  • Spoon out about 1.5 tbsp dough. Roll into a ball. Flatten very thinly. Wrap around frozen nutella balls. Make sure nutella is not protruding. Gently flatten, edges of dough up, with palm onto cookie sheet. Chill again if needed.
  • Bake at 350 F until edges are golden brown, about 10 to 13 minutes. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Let cool.