Gordon Ramsay is my favorite celebrity chef. Sure he’s enormously successful with his food and TV empire blah blah blah, but I love his tireless and meticulous nature, his juxtaposing demanding exterior and soft reverence for food and family. Past his screaming impossible-to-impress image of Hell’s Kitchen, in most other appearances (Master Chef, Kitchen Nightmares, etc) he’s a bouncy skilled chef who says the phrases “stunning” and “the most amazing” and “let the knife do the work” too often. Watching him crash his daughter’s cooking show as the lame dad figure is downright endearing.
So yeah, in honor of posh Scottish/English/French cooking, I put his shepherd’s pie in the original list’s ~10 dishes. It involved mashing potatoes for the first time and cooking lamb for the first time. Mine came out too tomato-ey and I didn’t have red wine lying around (well, I never have wine lying around).
Shepherd’s Pie
1 lb ground lamb. Season generously with salt/pepper. Brown, Drain of fat.
In 1 tbsp butter, saute 1 carrot grated, 1/2 large onion grated, 3 cloves garlic grated.
I’m all about minimalism when it comes to kitchen equipment, and I’ve tried to get by without thermometers. Thus, I scorched my first batch of chili oil. The apartment reeked of smoke and the resulting oil tasted like charcoal.
Oh, also, the above photo features the “sad woman sauce.” My friend brought it along and explained how it’s ubiquitous in China and like crack. The chili oil with black bean sauce goes on everything, even spicy noodles!
Brown 1 lb ground pork. Add 1 tbsp sweet bean sauce/hoisin sauce, 1 tbsp shaoxing wine, 1.5 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp five spice powder, cook until evaporated.
Optionally, separately saute 1/3 cup suimiyacai (couldn’t find it)
Prepare 1 lb white noodles.
Blanch 1/2 bunch leafy greens, like baby bok choy.
Prepare sauce: 2 tbsp sesame paste, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp five spice powder, 1/2 tsp szechuan peppercorn powder, 1/2 cup chili oil (below), 3 cloves garlic minced, 1/4 cup hot cooking water from noodles.
Garnish with 1/4 cup chopped peanuts, 4 scallions sliced long obliquely. Serves 4.
Chili Oil
1 cup oil, 2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns, 2 star anise, 1 bay leaf, 1 Chinese cinnamon stick (1” fragment Indian cinnamon). Heat until lightly bubbly, then maintain there on low heat for 30 minutes.
Strain. Cool oil for 5 minutes.
Stir in 1/3 cup Asian red pepper flakes, 1 tsp salt. Done when cooled.
Sorry KTown, your meat is very expensive. I found $7.99/lb hot pot meat in Chinatown instead. I also need to return for the second pound of meat; half the marinade is still sitting in the fridge! Recipe from mykoreankitchen.com.
Bulgogi (Korean marinated beef)
2 lb beef sirloin, thinly sliced (like hot pot meat), marinated for 4 hours to overnight in:
Process 1/2 small onion (2 tbsp), 5 cloves garlic, 1/4″ ginger (1 tsp), quarter giant korean pear (5 tbsp), 1 scallion with 1/2 cup dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp rice wine, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1/8 tsp pepper.
Stir fry in batches with 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 scallions sliced thin. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
I go out of my way in Chinatown to buy cha siu because it was a dish that I never dreamt of cooking. However, when I bought a pork shoulder on a whim and subsequently frantically looked up ways to cook it Chinese-style, cha siu came up. I didn’t even realize that was the cut used! Next time, I will be sure to buy the fattiest cut available.
Shoutouts to thewoksoflife.com, with consistently good Chinese and Taiwanese recipes, and invaluable advice on how to emulate industrial cooking equipment in the home kitchen.
Cha Siu (Cantonese BBQ Pork)
sliced: lean cut. back: fatty cut.
3 lb pork shoulder/butt, very fatty, cut obliquely into flat 1”-thick strips. Marinate in bag overnight.
A few days ago, eight weeks into my cooking project, I found a package of sliced cheese tucked under the vegetable crisper. It was rather moldy. I chuckled a bit before chucking it.
I used to buy that cheese every two weeks. It went in the same sandwich that I made every day to bring to the hospital. In the sandwich also went versatile ingredients like tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach; they were things I could throw into random entrees to cover dinner. I cooked regularly before 2017; in fact, I got by all of third year only buying cafeteria food but once (a chicken wrap in Queens; it was meh). However, priorities were minimal thinking time, flexible utility, and financial efficiency. For four years, my food — including that sandwich — were boring.
Korean food time! Korean restaurants often start with a big collection of banchan, little side dishes like pickled veggies, preserved seafood, and other little things. Feasible on a restaurant scale (or a habitually Korean-eating household, I guess!), but I’m just going to make one: japchae, the glass noodles. I’ll make it up by making it super colorful.
Japchae (Korean glass noodles)
250g sweet potato starch noodles, boiled for 7 minutes, then rinsed in cold water, then mixed with
To use up more of my copious amount of gochugaru, we cooked some spicy pork. Somewhere I read that typically beef bulgogi is cooked non-spicy, and pork “bulgogi” is cooked spicy. Can this be verified?
A true sign I’m turning into a true American home cook: I’m deep frying!! Except I’m making Japanese pork loin. lol
If I’m making Japanese food, without fail I consult justonecookbook.com. She writes detailed precise recipes, includes invaluable tips, and takes beautiful photos. I think I used smaller panko crumbs so the breading came out flatter, but the color was great and the pork was so tasty.
Tonkatsu
4 pork loin chops, boneless, about 1/2” thick. Cut off extra fat and slit connective tissue, pound to tenderize, season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
Dredge in 1/2 cup flour (1/4 cup might be enough), knock off excess flour. Dip in 2 eggs + 1 tbsp oil. Dredge in 1 cup panko, pressing in crumbs.
In oil at 350 F (if panko crumb immediately floats), without crowding, fry for 1 minute each side. Rest standing up for 4 minutes, letting excess oil drip off.
Fry for 30 seconds each side. Rest for 2 minutes.
Cut into strips by cutting straight down, not sawing.
Serve with tonkatsu sauce or curry on raw shredded cabbage with rice.
I can’t really write a terse recipe for steak and potatoes because it’s just featured ingredients plus salt/pepper/oil plus lots of technique. I’ve picked up some from watching cooking shows on YouTube.
Sorry for the subpar photo. I was a little eager to eat this after my ridiculous snow adventure today. I was also trying to disguise the fact I only own one plate, which is much too small.
Home-Fried Potatoes
Scrub skin. Dice potatoes to 1/2″ cubes.
Parboil for 2-3 minutes. Drain.
Transfer to skillet. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil.
Roast at 425 F for 30-35 minutes. Turn twice in between, trying to achieve sear on sides.
Separately, saute 1/4 small onion, diced.
Combine, garnish with chives.
Steak
Bring to room temp. Pat dry to remove blood.
Season with generous kosher salt, cracked pepper.
On skillet on high heat, heat olive oil, then lay steak down to sear.
After about a minute, flip over, then turn to low heat.
Cook without moving 5-7 minutes, depending on thickness. Flip.
Add knob of butter, a couple whole cloves garlic, a couple sprigs thyme. Baste with butter. Cook for 6-8 more minutes.
Remove steak, pour juices over, rest for 5-7 minutes.
