Category Archives: Cooking

Cooking

Beef Stew

Look at me, cooking during the day! I actually get to take photos with sunlight. Notable for using the first bottle of red wine I’ve ever bought. Based on an NYTimes formulation.

Edit 11/23: see Thanksgiving post for legit beef stew.

Beef Stew (Edit 11/23: nullified)

  • 1 lb stew beef, cubed. Coat in 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp pepper. Brown on all sides, Remove.
  • 1 cup red wine, (2 tbsp red wine vinegar), to release scraps from pan.
  • Replace beef. 2 bay leaves, 3.5 cups beef broth.
  • Simmer covered for 2 hours. 40 min before end, add 1 onion, 5 carrots, 4 stalks celery. 30 min before end, add 2 potatoes.

This turned out wetter than anticipated. Thus, when I tried reducing it, it was much much starchier from the potatoes. Consider cutting back on wine and broth, and adding potatoes later to account for the cooking time from the de-skinning by boiling protocol.

To offset the very heavy nature of the stew, I decided to make a light salad, and because I have canned chickpeas…

Chickpea Salad

  • 1 can chickpea washed, 2 roma tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), 1 cucumber seeded, 1/4 red onion, 2 tbsp parsley, 1/2 lemon of juice, drizzle olive oil. Cut. Combine.

I roasted the chickpeas with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 tsp olive oil, in a skillet, 375 F, 45 minutes. Shouldn’t have. Oh well.

Cooking

Dutch Baby

This dish is not Dutch. Apparently Americans in Seattle who created this named it after the German word “Deutsch,” which of course means German in German. Americans are the worst.

This is one of the funnier uses of a cast iron skillet I’ve stumbled across. I just dumped the batter in and it crept up the sides and exploded in volume!

Dutch Baby

  • Melt 2.5 tbsp butter in hot 10” skillet.
  • Pour in 3 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tbsp sugar, pinch nutmeg and cinnamon.
  • 425 F, 20 minutes. 300 F, 5 minutes more.
  • Serve with powdered sugar, fruit jams, etc.

 

Cooking

Taiwanese Nougat

This is really easy to make provided that your mom mails pre-portioned ingredients and sends video instructions via text. Hehe.

Taiwanese Nougat

  • Melt some marshmallows, a knob of butter, a bit white chocolate chips.
  • Take off heat. Fold in some milk powder, tons of nuts, a few dried fruits.
  • On parchment paper, slam/roll/shape. Cool 3 hours. 
  • Cut. Optionally dry out overnight.

If you want the actual proportions, ask!

Cooking

Vietnamese Pork Chops and Pickles

I got a cast iron skillet. It sears meat well. 

Pork chops from this resource, but with sugar cut down.

Viet Pork Chop

  • 2 pork chops, thick cut, bone in. Score sides, pierce all over with fork
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp light brown sugar, 1 small shallot minced, 1/2 tsp pepper
  • Marinate 20 min room-temp or overnight in fridge
  • Scrape off excess marinade and boil 4 minute to make sauce
  • Cook pork in oil about 4 minutes per side. Rest 10 minutes.

Daikon is easy to julienne (cut into matchstick-size strips). Carrots? Non-trivial.

Pickled Carrots and Daikon

  • ½ lb carrots, ½ lb daikon julienned
  • 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp salt, ⅓ cup (rice or white) vinegar, 4 cups warm water
  • Pickle for 3 days in fridge.

Cooking

Butternut Squash

You know how carrots are like kind of tough to cut? Well imagine if it were just as dense, had a skin that was twice as tough, and was the size of a butternut squash. That’s how much a pain in the ass butternut squashes are to cut when raw. Goodness grief!

butternut squash “dicing”

Roasted butternut squash

  • 2-lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
  • 4 medium shallots, peeled and quartered; 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp sugar, in 2 tbsp olive oil.
  • 450 F, 20 minutes, stir, 15 minutes.
Cooking

Scones

Originally we sourced a recipe for healthier scones from womensday.com which called for sour cream, except I didn’t have sour cream, so now I just make it with yogurt anyway.

It’s all in cutting the butter, and I take a shortcut by basically mincing the butter before dumping it into the powder.

Rosemary Cranberry Scones

  • 2 cups flour, ¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt. Whisk.
  • 6 tbsp cold butter. Cut up with knives into little chunks and incorporate into powder.
  • ¾ cup craisins, 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped. Mix in. (or 1 cup chocolate chips)
  • 1 egg, ⅔ cup yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk, then add. Don’t overbeat.
  • On floured surface, shape into 1-inch thick round. Cut into 8 slices.
  • 425 F, 12-14 minutes, until golden brown.

 

Cooking

Soondubu Jjigae

In my mind, Korean food is always so red. Turns out, there’s a simple trick to that: gochugaru. Red chili powder. The Korean grocer just sells very large quantities of it. The smallest package is 7 oz, which means I now have more gochugaru than all other spices combined.

Soondubu Jjigae (Korean spicy tofu stew)

To make a stew, I want to start right at the source: an anchovy and seaweed stock. Sourced from chowdivine and zenkimchi and kimchimom.

Stock: 

  • 2″x3″ strip kombu (or dashima), 1/2  onion, 3 garlic cloves in 8 cups water. Boil for 10 minutes.
  • 10 large dried anchovies, gutted. Add, then boil on low uncovered for 15 minutes.
  • Scoop out solid ingredients, leaving golden broth.

Soondubu with beef:

  • Marinate 10 oz thinly sliced steak in 2 tbsp gochugaru (pepper powder), 1/2 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soju (or cooking wine), 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, pinch pepper.
  • In pot, saute 1/2 onion. Add beef and ladle of stock, and cook beef.
  • Add enough (how much?) broth. Adjust seasoning.
  • Add 11-oz tube of soondubu (silken tofu) and 1/2 zucchini, and simmer for at most 3-5 more minutes, or else will draw water from tofu.
  • Serve with room-temp egg, scallions, and steamed rice.

 

Cooking

Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken)

This project was meant to push comfort zones, and venturing into Indian curries from scratch definitely did that. Exotic spices from a specialty store, hand-mincing ginger and garlic as finely as I can, marinating chicken in yogurt and lemon, frying whole spices, pretending a hot wok is a tandoor oven.

Turns out that butter chicken is like a global interpretation of Indian cuisine, but it still starts with tandoori chicken, a bunch of spices (many which I hadn’t heard of before), and — of course — butter. Preferably ghee, or clarified butter, but I was baking too!

Sourced from maunikagowardhan.co.uk, with input from so many other resources that I lost track.

 

Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken)

  • In 1.5 tbsp butter, fry 5 green cardamom pods crushed, 1 cinnamon stick crushed, and 4 cloves until fragrant
  • Add 1 small onion finely diced. Cook 5-7 minutes, until light brown.
  • Add 1” ginger grated, 2 green chilies sliced lengthwise, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 3 tbsp tomato paste (or 2 tomatoes diced).
  • Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, simmer 2-3 minutes.
  • Add 1 tbsp fenugreek leaf powder, some sugar if tomatoes were tangy, water to desired thickness. Salt to taste.
  • Add chicken, simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Garnish with cilantro. Serve with basmati rice or Indian breads.

Updated 3/20, with bolded ingredients, fresh tomatoes, and a new photo (now featuring cilantro and skillet!)

with mood lighting

 

Tandoori Chicken Tikka

  • Marinate 1 lb chicken thighs overnight in 2 tbsp thick yogurt (e.g. Greek), juice of 1/2 lemon, 4 cloves garlic minced, 1” ginger grated, 1 green chili minced, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp mild paprika, pinch chili powder, pinch cinnamon powder.
  • Skewer, then roast on hot grill, basting in butter, turning frequently, or stir fry in butter.