Baba Ghanoush

It is hummus, but with one substitution, baked eggplant instead of chick peas. Who woulda thunk? That easy.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/236310/traditional-baba-ghanoush/

Potstickers

On the brand new stove installed at Aileen street this morning.
Anna picked up potsticker shells at Berkeley Bowl over the weekend so we're giving it a try today.


Research:
Quick rundown from Alton Brown on the cooking method

Mac n Cheeses

corn avocado mac

Anna's bacon..cant remember what else, mac

Simple Homemade Ice Cream

Made while back home in CH with Mom. Turned out well, Though I think I need to cover it. It had a tiny tad of that freezer burn taste. 

Pork Belly Bao (Steamed Buns)

Another steamed bun attempt
Here's the recipe were loosely following.

We did pork loin steamed buns two nights ago and have left over dough, now to try the more time intensive pork belly version. Also that interesting cooking of the pickled veggies by pouring hot oil on them.

Small bit of salt, pepper, sugar, and a bay leaf in the bag.
Sous vide loosely maintained at ~160 deg F for ~7 hrs.

Took it out, dumped the juices in a pot and reduced them with some brown sugar and hoisin in a pot. brushed on and threw it in the broiler. I think the broiler is not the way to go. all the glaze fell off and it seemed to not crisp quick enough. Took it out and used the pocket rocket stove to "blow torch" the outside, it cracked and popped like crazy. Much better.

Cut into it and it was great. The fat was broken down and soft and delicious. I took a few pieces and on high tossed them with some vinegar, and hoisin to give them a bit of a glaze. I think I'd do that to them all for this application next time. Note, the meat itself before this was already really great. We made bfast sammys with it the next day.

Steamed buns in the bamboo steamer. They came out a bit better. Next time I think don't roll the dough out as thin to get fatter puffier buns. Dont roll after folding, just push shut.

Dumping hot oil on the pickles wasn't necessary or that cool and made them a bit oily, so we went back to regular pickles for the sammys.


Results:

Tortello al Rosso D'uovo - AKA really big egg raviolis

Nick H. sent this youtube clip from Mind Of A Chef

Pretty straightforward, though the egg inside is a novel new addition. We can also make our own fresh ricotta to stuff them with. 

The vid had no actual written recipe, but was pretty explanatory so not much left unkonwn, but here is some research:

-This recipe is very close by the looks of it, I like the slight addition of lemon juice which we can grab from our tree

Results:

Diy Sous vide steak

Tested.com video was the inspiration. 

They use a vacuum sealer but I went with good old 

Ziploc gallon bags, the ones with the double zips.

A cooler with hot water in it cooked our steak. We could get 120 deg water straight from the tap and added in some 150 degree water from the stove to hit the 130 we were aiming for.

I then rubbed in some salt and pepper and seared the steaks with my pocketrocket camp stove

We bought 9.99/lb ny strip steaks from safeway. 

Broccoli cream sauce (with ravioli)

99cent broccoli from the berkeley bowl spoilage bin.
loosely sorta followed this recipe
still housesitting in berkeley. steamed the broccoli in a rice cooker, added carrot slices, mushrooms, red onion we had left over to the pan cooked parts

KIMCHI

Pre-fermenting research:

Steamed Buns!

like your chinese grandmother use to make them

Giving them a go for the olympics dinner party at the house we're sitting in north Berkeley

Research - pre bun making:

two routes:
1. steamed buns stuffed and steamed all together, dim sum like ones
2. steamed little bread "tacos" , momofuku like. where you fill them with whatever after the fact.

we don't have a steamer but read that a rice cooker would do the trick, so that's what we tried.

The dough recipe. pretty much your basic bread dough.

Fillings:
-portobella mushroom (soaked in some soy, salt pepper, sriracha, something else? sauce and pan fried)
-pickled carrots and bean sprouts
-pickled cucumber and jalapeno
-a little sriracha mayo

Olympic night, route 1:

Leftover dough the following day, route 2:

Eggplang Moussaka

We were served this at the Pomo Tierra apple harvest party up in Mendocino county summer '16. Awesome big ol' home cooked meals up there (even being all vegetarian!). So when eggplants and tomatoes were in the 99cent bin at Berkeley Bowl we had to give it a go. Pretty much followed this.

We used spicy italian sausage in the meat sauce.

Pics in reverse order, meat sauce not pictured. 

White Bread

Excellent white bread they say

Used a little less sugar than spec'd

Spaghetti Sex

Dubbed "Spaghetti Sex" by the Virginia Rinis

This is the  - after a long day come home and eat the hardiest of meals with the fam - meal. 

the beez kneez. 

Peppers, onions, mushrooms, Sausage, basil, tomato, spaghetti. Fuck yea.

Grape Syrup (on pancakes)

http://www.flourishingfoodie.com/2013/09/pancakes-with-concord-grape-syrup.html

Buff chick Dip

DANGER...
Old standby.

Crock pot style-

• Chicken approx 2 large breasts (the magic number when it comes to boobs) - cook chicken in a pan, on a grill, buy rotisserie, even canned in a pinch, it doesn't matter
• shred it with two forks
• Cream cheese - 2 packages
• Hot sauce - sriracha, buffalo sauce from store, all, both, any, you like
• cheddar cheese - one 8oz bag
• Jalapeno peppers - i prefer them roasted with some oil, salt pepper on the grill, or a pan until soft and charred, then finely chopped.
• Other things you could add....cooked onion, habanero or other peppers, sweet peppers, cilantro

Throw it all in a crock pot, stir it up as you go. Prepare to eat too much. 

Queso Fresco..easiest way possible

Bunch of varying recipes online. Heres an example.

So I did it as simple as possible on this first try.

-Heat 1/2 gallon of (I used 2% this time bc i ate an entire gallon of whole milks worth of mozz on friday) to 190 degrees

-Add 5 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, and a pinch of citric acid.

-let sit 10 mins.

-strain through cheese cloth

Result:

Fresh Homemade Mozzarella

First attempt:
Not sure if I'm a fan of this "Pioneer Woman"...but the recipe is straight forward and the result looks good so I gave it a try...

You need three things: whole milk, rennet and citric acid. Berkeley bowl didnt have either, I went to a cheese shop on shattuck called the Sacred wheel...$10 each, so not cheap, but its enough to make many many batches.


Didn't look quite right after letting it sit, super curdy, and not custardy looking, but I just continued on.

Here is what I came out with (only microwaved it twice, not thrice)


YUM.

Pita Bread and Hummus!

Wanted to make hummus. Needed a vehicle.

Another dough. Pretty damn simple, basically pizza dough.

Looked over a few recipes, used  smitten kitchen's. 

Used a cast iron skillet in an oven heated to ~500 F

Made about half of them after only letting the dough rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Didnt bubble up and expand very much but still good. 

Made the other half the next morning and they turned out even better!

Pita Bread and Hummus!

Wanted to make hummus. Needed a vehicle.

Another dough. Pretty damn simple, basically pizza dough.

Looked over a few recipes, used  smitten kitchen's. 

Used a cast iron skillet in an oven heated to ~500 F

Made about half of them after only letting the dough rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Didnt bubble up and expand very much but still good. 

Made the other half the next morning and they turned out even better!

Pickles!

Pickles are great. Pickle all of the things. 

Whadya got?

ALL OF THE SALSAS

I love salsa.
Standard one from a while back:


More to cum

Homemade Ravioli! Pasta dough and fillin's

12/22/19 Homemade Ravioli
Pasta dough base for ravioli
Spinach ricotta filling





2011 some time, attempt 1:
I was on a dough kick for one of the first times (there have been other dough kicks).
This was the first attempt at homemade ravioli the year after college. we did it all by hand, it took all day:

filling:

Soft Pretzels

Soft Pretzels 3.7.20
Trying this recipe this time

--------
Great paired with some homemade or infused mustards.

Soft pretzel bites I made for a dinner party:

Tried this once before at the rent's house and it went pretty well.


Onion Jame as a pretzel dip:

Pizzas.. all of the Pizzas

I love pizza. I make it a lot. It has endless possibilities. Post all of the pizzas..

quail eggs on the za:

 

Red onion marmalade and mushroom:

red onion jam, homemade ricotta, and pruschuto (sp??) fucking good


this one at a pizza place in Baltimore, BBQ chicken, cilantro, corn, jalapeno. i was hooked, went back twice in one weekend.

Tofu Pad Thai

Anna and I made this a couple weeks ago. Tofu. normally dont go out of my way to eat it, but was feeling like it this particular night.