This is akin to the bread you find in Chinese bakeries. They’re often stuffed with fillings such as custard, red bean, or cha siu, or topped with crusts to make those Hong Kong style pineapple buns (foreshadowing!!!) but as this is my second time ever working with yeast, I’m starting small with just plain loaves.
Combine 2/3 cup heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 egg, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 cup AP flour, 3+ cups bread flour, 1 tbsp yeast (1 packet), 1.5 tsp salt. Knead for like 20 minutes.
Proof for 1 hour, until grows 1.5x. (cover bowl with damp towel, place in warm spot)
Punch down, knead a little to rid of air bubbles.
Divide into 8-12 rolls/knots. Place into greased pans. (e.g. 3 rolls in a 9×5 pan, 5 knots scattered in a 9×13 pan).
Proof for 1 hour.
Brush with egg wash: 1 egg, 1 tsp water.
Bake at 35 F for 23-25 minutes, until golden brown.
Brush with syrup: 1 tsp sugar in ~1 tsp hot water.
What’s the best thing to do with a cast-iron skillet that you bought primarily to sear meats? Bake a cookie in it, obviously. Recipe from marthastewart.com. Cost for ingredients: $2.78.
Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie
remember 10″ skillet.
Cream 6 tbsp butter room temp, 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar.
Add 1 egg, 3/4 tsp vanilla. Mix well.
Add 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. Optionally refrigerate overnight.
Spread into 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Stud with ~1/3 cup chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 F for 18-20 minutes (or 22-26 minutes from cold), until dark golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes.
Boy oh boy, why did I follow a New York recipe for Louisiana dish? Counting the 40 minutes it took me to peel and devein 50 shrimp, this dish took me almost 2 hours of active time to cook. That’s because fresh thyme that’s a little old is a pain to strip, the veggies absorbed all the oil so I had to redo the roux, and I realized last minute that I should brown the sausages. Just to cap it off, I didn’t even like the outcome that much…
Below is a recipe I’d follow on a second try, modified to use fresh tomatoes, more sausage, fewer bougie ingredients (like tomato paste, which the NYTimes throws in everything).
Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo
Peel and devein 1 lb medium shrimp in shell. Season with salt, pepper, 1 tsp thyme, 2 cloves garlic minced. Refrigerate.
Make shrimp broth: In 1 tbsp olive oil, fry shrimp shells, 2 thyme sprigs, 3 cloves garlic for 1-2 minutes. Don’t let brown. Add 6 cups water, 1 bay leaf, salt,and pepper. Simmer for 45 minutes. Strain.
Make roux: Heat 1/4 cup oil (optimally bacon drippings). Stir in 1/2 cup flour, cook on medium while stirring until richly browned.
Saute 1 large onion diced, 1 green bell pepper diced, 3 ribs celery diced, 4 cloves garlic minced. Add 1 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne.
Slice and brown 12 oz andouille sausages.
To boiling broth, stir in roux. Add veggies, sausages, 3 tomatoes diced (or 15 oz can), 2/3 lb (half bag) okra sliced. Add 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp thyme. Season generously. Simmer for 60-90 minutes.
Add shrimp (as much that will be eaten now). Cook for 2 minutes. Garnish with 4 scallions sliced.
First time baking with yeast? Obviously, the best first bread to bake is a Jewish ceremonial braided egg bread. It’s so strange to leave a small lump of dough in a sealed bowl, come back two hours later, and find it’s warm and grown to double the size. It’s alive!!
attack of the challah dough
I’ve also never really braided anything. Well, unless you count sutures, lol.
In a well in center, add 2 eggs, 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup neutral oil (or 1/2 stick butter), activated yeast. Mix until shaggy.
Take out, knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary (ended up using ~1/2 cup more flour)
Place in oiled bowl, cover, place somewhere warm, let rise for 2 hours to double size.
Cut into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each into 1-inch thick ropes.
Pinch together at top. Cross outer strands, start with top one. Braid: Take outside strand and bring it to middle, then bring second strand on opposite side to outside to replace it. Mirror process on other side. Repeat until end. Pinch ends and tuck under loaf. Plump loaf.
Place on parchment on baking sheet. Sprinkle with flour, cover with cloth. Let rise for 1 hour.
Brush with most of the egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp water.
Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. Rotate pan halfway through, brush emerging crevices with egg . Bake until deeply browned and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Cool until warm.
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.
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