Saba Meishi (Mackerel Rice)
One of my top ten rices. It has that Japanese flavor profile I love with a mix of dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sake for the cooking liquid, and just about whatever else you want to put into the rice while it cooks. I used burdock root and carrots (I had these in frozen and julienned form from the Japanese grocery store), some sort of dry mushroom I had in my pantry (I don't know what it is but it was good!), and lots of ginger. This is Saba Meishi, or Mackerel Rice, but I'm sure other fish would work.
I don't like it when it's overly sticky so I wash my Nishiki medium grain rice quite a bit until it's beautiful. And then I soak the mackerel in the rice washing liquid which apparently removes some of the fishiness.
Ruby Badam Barfi Block
I admit that the only thing I look forward to for Indian festivals like Dhiwali is the chance to make pretty deserts, and this Ruby Badam Barfi is the prettiest one yet. Ruby from the Ruby Chocolate, which is a pink colored chocolate variant I didn't know existed until now (and was thankfully in stock at Michaels of all places). Badam is almond, as this uses almond flour. And Barfi is... well it's Barfi, a desert that some liken to fudge. I topped it with freeze dried strawberries and raspberries, and edible flowers and foil. It looks like a lot of effort, but it took only 20 minutes.
(Actually the original original is from Hetal Vasavada's "Desi Bakes" and this desert is the cover image on the book.)
Copycat In-n-Out Burger
I may actually like this more than my copy cat McDonalds burger, and once again it's all about the onion for me. While the McDonalds one uses rehydrated onion bits, this one just uses a slice of onion. With the secret sauce and the tomato and lettuce and crisped up bun, it tasted just like the real thing!
The only mysterious part here is how do they make it so that the onion and tomato always fit the bun perfectly? The center parts of both fit just right for me. So doesn't that mean they'll have to toss out most of the onion and tomato (or use it as scraps for other things?). I may need to take up employment at In-n-Out to find out!
3 Cup Pork Butt
This take on the classic Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken probably deserves a name minus the "Butt," but the "Boston Butt" part near the collar is apparently best for this sort of braising because of the high fat content, so I made sure and got that cut. Minus the skin unfortunately because my Whole Foods doesn't have the skin on cuts.
The recipe video doesn't have measurements on the three cup part, but for this 3 pound pork shoulder I used 1/2 cup each of mirin, soy sauce (split half dark and light), and shaoxing rice wine.
Excellent with rice with a side of some quickly blanched greens (gailan here -- my favorite green!)
Fruity Pebbles
The last time I bought cereal was Cinnamon Toast Crunch three years ago so I could make this dulce de leche cinnamon toast crunch ice cream cake for my niece's first birthday:
Well I have another niece now, and this time I'm using a different cereal.
I was actually a Cocoa Pebbles guy myself, but I couldn't find any pretty Cocoa Pebbles cake recipes so Fruity Pebbles it is!
The Best Sliders
I've been blasted with podcasts and videos about sliders recently and now know enough to know that I probably know that these probably originate as an onion infused mini burger from White Castle back in the 20s (the 1920s) and that they may or may not be called Sliders possibly because they're small enough to slide down your throat (although not really...).
Read the original J.Kenji Lopez Alt recipe for more, but the prep style of frying up the onions, sticking them into the patty, then steaming the bun on top of all that resulted in an excellent mini burger. I used Hawaiian rolls because that's all I had and loved the sweetness from the roll.
Hamaichi Kama
Is there a better use for fish collars than Japanese izakaya staple Hamaichi Kama aka Grilled Yellowtail Collar
Just fifteen minutes under the broiler and it's done -- that's it! Served with a side of Broccolini Gomaae.
Original recipes from Just One Cookbook:
Crispy Orecchiette with Spicy Ragu
My first Molly Baz recipe! Frying up orecchiette after cooking them al dente creates a unique crispy pasta texture which goes nicely with the Italian Sausage and Collared Greens ragu. This is also a very simple recipe with just a handful of ingredients. I'll have to pick up Molly's new book!
Ugly Chicken Stew
Biggest flavor bang for the time-buck! Just dump raw chicken into a pressure cooker with a bunch of veggies, cover, cook for 25 minutes (10 to heat up, 15 high pressure). And that's it!
Yeah it's not pretty. But it's oh so good!
I was surprised to learn that there's no need to add liquid to the pot. If the chicken is raw (meaning you didn't take the time to sear it) and you have veggies in there, you'll have all the liquid you need. In fact it comes out nice and soupy but not overwhelmingly so.
In my case, I used potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, tomatoes, many many many many whole cloves of garlic. Those cloves of garlic become deliciously mushy and lose much of their harsh garlic taste. Stick 40 of them in there if you want -- it won't be excessively garlicky. (40 clove garlic chicken stew is a thing and it's so good!)
As part of OMASL (Operation Make Anoop Suck Less) I'm trying to spend less time cooking while still eating the yummiest of things so I'll probably make this or variants of it frequently from now on!
Chickpea Confit
Slow simmered in a whole cup of fancy olive oil -- my new favorite way to eat chickpeas!
I added some aleppo pepper to give it a little spice kick, some shallot just because, and found that I definitely needed a nice squeezer of lemon in addition to the lemon peel.
On its own or on rice, this is a showstopper and super easy to make, and very versatile -- you could probably add loads of other things to it.
Ignore the recipe's ridiculous instruction to toss half the oil afterwards. That's the best part! If you don't want to eat the flavorful oil on its own, save it and put it on top of stuff! Seriously I'm watching you -- don't throw it away!
Brown Butter Za'atar Pasta
I found a big thing of za'atar seasoning in the back of my fridge. I've no idea how long it's been there, and I don't know why I bought it, but I wanted to use it and I had a pasta craving and Google gave me this:
Brown Butter Za'atar pasta. It's just browned butter with za'atar and lemon juice as a sauce base for your usual emulsion of parm and pasta water. And it's so so good! Another great addition to my pasta collection! I'm going to one day make a book of pasta recipes I didn't invent but I always make.
Triple Layer Chocolate Cake
I made a triple layer chocolate cake for a friend's birthday cake the other day and I learned the hard way about one major pitfall of such an arrangement when the top two layers slid off the bottom layer while in transit (or to be specific, while I was stopping off at IBU to pick up some beers).
I managed to nudge it back mostly into its original triple stack formation, but it was still quite messy because the cake has a super soft and moist crumb (which remained in that very state for many days to come!)
I'm definitely making this cake again as it's a chcocolate lover's delight (and I be a chocolate lover) but I think I'll take more care to make sure I have even middle layers of frosting o there's no sliding at beer stops.
Calabrian Chicken with Croutons and Cooling Salad
The chicken was good... the salad was great... the croutons... other worldly!
They're nice and crisp on the outside and full of chicken cooking juices and fat on the inside. And they somehow retain those properties the next day!
The crunchy salad is also real good in much part due to the buttermilk dressing. I've made this many times already and have expanded it into a main with some tuna and cherry tomatoes.
Another keeper from Carla!
Chicken Gunk Snack
When (if?) I die, I want to be known as 1) the guy who loved but was never loved back, 2) the guy who invented the Chicken Gunk Snack, 3) also maybe the guy who sucks at naming snacks.
Take all your leftover chicken parts -- backs, necks, wingtips, skin, whatever you have. Add them to a container and keep them in the freezer until you've accumulated a certain amount. One day, dump the frozen block of chicken parts into a pressure cooker, fill it with water, and pressure cook for 40 minutes or so for one of the best chicken broths that you've ever made (pro tip -- once uncovered, let it simmer over a low flame for a few hours so you get double concentrated chicken broth for much more economical freezer storage!)
Now... what to do with all the spent chicken parts? Throw 'em away? No no no! Turn them into your new favorite beer snack! Tear the remaining meat off, keeping some of the smaller bones since they're actually totally edible and incredibly nutritious (even the larger bones are probably edible, but maybe not so pleasant). Cover it in lots of chicken bouillon powder to restore essential chickeniness, then broil until crispy and overcooked.
Salty, crispy, meaty -- served in these pics with some Green Goddess Sauce (spinach, cilantro and parsley, nutritional yeast and lemon juice blended together in a high power blender).
I don't know if I'm the first person to do this... but I always look forward to this little snack when I make my chicken broth.
Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Cookie
One of my coworkers made chocolate chip oreo cookie cookies and they were great so I had to make something similar for this week's nephew sleepover desert and I found this most excellent recipe from Stephanie's Sweet Treats. Oreo dirt, Oreo pieces, and chocolate chips on the inside, then after the baking you stick more chocolate chips and Oreo pieces into the still gooey top and sprinkle on more Oreo dirt. Plus they're massive cookies and retain their shape and thickness well if you freeze them for a bit before the oven.
Served here warm with the French Honeycomb ice cream that I found on sale at Whole Foods.
