i have been a bad bad girl
Cooking is what I do to procrastinate while pretending I'm being productive. Sooo, I've been cooking a lot lately, avoiding properly looking for a job. But damnit, today I am going to do both.
After I write up all these recipes.
Crusty Rustic Bread (no knead)
Adopted from a recipe here.
I've made this bread twice in the past week and honestly I'm still really surprised by how well it works. Maybe it's because I've never made legit bread before, but holy shit it's SO EASY. Flour and yeast, the end.
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dried yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
Whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add water and stir it in until you get kind of a lumpy, shaggy ball of dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit (and rise) for 12-18 hours. It's a good idea to make the starter in the evening, so you can bake your bread the next day. The longer you wait, the more you get kind of a sourdough-y taste, I think, but I'd have to try it again to be sure.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is preheated, put a cast iron pot (covered lid) inside and heat for 30 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the dough (which by now is soggy and mushy) and turn it out onto a a well floured surface. Using lots of flour, shape it into a ball and carefully drop the dough into the heated pot. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off the pot and bake for another 15 minutes before pulling it out of the oven.
Let the bread cool on a rack and store in a paper bag or let it sit covered by a paper towel or something, since airtight containers make the crust go mushy. This is a delicious dense bread that's good with cheese, sandwiches, butter, eggs, whatever.
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Chicken and BBQ Pork Fried Rice
So there's this super well known ramen place in downtown LA, and they have fantastic tonkotsu ramen.... AND really, really good fried rice, probably the best I've ever had. So the other day, I wanted to try and replicate their fried rice while using up some of the crap in my fridge and it actually turned out quite well!
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice
2 chicken thighs, defrosted
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 sprigs green onion
1-2 pieces of chinese style bbq pork
1 carrot
1/4-1/2 onion
2 eggs
salt
white pepper
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
Make two cups of rice in a rice cooker, or have two cups left over (leftover rice usually makes really good fried rice.) Defrost the chicken thighs, cut out the bones and skin (but keep the fat), and chop up the chicken into one-inch chunks. Marinate the chicken in the soy sauce and garlic and then set aside. Chop up the green onion sprigs and place them aside in a separate bowl.
Chop up the carrot and onion into fine pieces and cut up the bbq pork into half inch chunks. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and add the carrots, onions, bbq pork, as well as the marinated chicken plus garlic. After the chicken is browned, add the rice to the frying pan and mix it thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients. In a separate small frying pan, crack the eggs and scramble them before adding the eggs to the rice. At this point, add the green onion, and then salt and white pepper to taste.
This is actually a ....lot more effort than you actually have to go through to make good fried rice, and most of these ingredients you can take out or swap for other things, but the end result is fucking delicious awww yeah.
-----------------------------------
Honey Ginger Molasses Cookies
Adapted from this recipe.
I had a minor kitchen accident this afternoon while baking these cookies and ended up with flour all over the everywhere, which was a huge pain. These cookies are totally worth it though.
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tblsp honey
1/4 cups dark brown sugar or molasses
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups (1 and a half sticks) butter, softened.
1 1/4 cups sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. In a small, shallow bowl, pour 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat together the butter and the remaining cup of sugar with an electric mixer, or cream it by hand in a large bowl. Add the egg, brown sugar/molasses, and honey and mix until combined. Fold in the flour mixture until you have even, buttery cookie dough.
Roll out balls of cookie dough (about a tablespoon of dough each) and roll them in the bowl of reserved sugar to coat them. Set them about three inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake one sheet at a time for 12 minutes, until the cookies are cracked and slightly browned. Let them cool on the tray before removing and then eat with lemon curd. 8)) They're pretty good by themselves too.
After I write up all these recipes.
Crusty Rustic Bread (no knead)
Adopted from a recipe here.
I've made this bread twice in the past week and honestly I'm still really surprised by how well it works. Maybe it's because I've never made legit bread before, but holy shit it's SO EASY. Flour and yeast, the end.
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dried yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
Whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add water and stir it in until you get kind of a lumpy, shaggy ball of dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit (and rise) for 12-18 hours. It's a good idea to make the starter in the evening, so you can bake your bread the next day. The longer you wait, the more you get kind of a sourdough-y taste, I think, but I'd have to try it again to be sure.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is preheated, put a cast iron pot (covered lid) inside and heat for 30 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the dough (which by now is soggy and mushy) and turn it out onto a a well floured surface. Using lots of flour, shape it into a ball and carefully drop the dough into the heated pot. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off the pot and bake for another 15 minutes before pulling it out of the oven.
Let the bread cool on a rack and store in a paper bag or let it sit covered by a paper towel or something, since airtight containers make the crust go mushy. This is a delicious dense bread that's good with cheese, sandwiches, butter, eggs, whatever.
-----------------------------------
Chicken and BBQ Pork Fried Rice
So there's this super well known ramen place in downtown LA, and they have fantastic tonkotsu ramen.... AND really, really good fried rice, probably the best I've ever had. So the other day, I wanted to try and replicate their fried rice while using up some of the crap in my fridge and it actually turned out quite well!
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice
2 chicken thighs, defrosted
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 sprigs green onion
1-2 pieces of chinese style bbq pork
1 carrot
1/4-1/2 onion
2 eggs
salt
white pepper
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
Make two cups of rice in a rice cooker, or have two cups left over (leftover rice usually makes really good fried rice.) Defrost the chicken thighs, cut out the bones and skin (but keep the fat), and chop up the chicken into one-inch chunks. Marinate the chicken in the soy sauce and garlic and then set aside. Chop up the green onion sprigs and place them aside in a separate bowl.
Chop up the carrot and onion into fine pieces and cut up the bbq pork into half inch chunks. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and add the carrots, onions, bbq pork, as well as the marinated chicken plus garlic. After the chicken is browned, add the rice to the frying pan and mix it thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients. In a separate small frying pan, crack the eggs and scramble them before adding the eggs to the rice. At this point, add the green onion, and then salt and white pepper to taste.
This is actually a ....lot more effort than you actually have to go through to make good fried rice, and most of these ingredients you can take out or swap for other things, but the end result is fucking delicious awww yeah.
-----------------------------------
Honey Ginger Molasses Cookies
Adapted from this recipe.
I had a minor kitchen accident this afternoon while baking these cookies and ended up with flour all over the everywhere, which was a huge pain. These cookies are totally worth it though.
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tblsp honey
1/4 cups dark brown sugar or molasses
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups (1 and a half sticks) butter, softened.
1 1/4 cups sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. In a small, shallow bowl, pour 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat together the butter and the remaining cup of sugar with an electric mixer, or cream it by hand in a large bowl. Add the egg, brown sugar/molasses, and honey and mix until combined. Fold in the flour mixture until you have even, buttery cookie dough.
Roll out balls of cookie dough (about a tablespoon of dough each) and roll them in the bowl of reserved sugar to coat them. Set them about three inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake one sheet at a time for 12 minutes, until the cookies are cracked and slightly browned. Let them cool on the tray before removing and then eat with lemon curd. 8)) They're pretty good by themselves too.