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Ingredient Challenge #1: BBQ Rouladen

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Saturday, October 3, 2015 – So a little bit of backstory: As far as cooking practice goes, I’ve invented my own recipes, cooked random episodes from Good Eats, cooked a chapter from Chef Watson, and practiced my knife skills. But what do these all have in common? I decided all those things. So I decided it was time to push myself out of my comfort zone and do things that I wouldn’t otherwise do.

I took some inspiration Chopped and pantry challenges. The game was my friends would pick 5 ingredients, and then I would pick 5 ingredients, and then I’d see what I can make with all of those ingredients and only those ingredients.

JJ got first pick (by being the first person to respond), and he picked bacon, sausage, beef, cheese, and BBQ sauce. My first thought was one of the “crustless pizzas” he’d been making, but I didn’t want to copy him. My second thought was to choose bread as one of my ingredients and make a sandwich, but that was too obvious. So I took a page from bacon mania and decided to make something crazy, but prolly wasn’t all that crazy.

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Taiwanese-Style Beef Noodle Soup

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Mid-Autumn Festival 2015

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The Mid-Autumn Festival happened again, as it does every year. And every year, it’s an excuse for me to cook dinner for my friends. This year, I decided to tackle Beef Noodle Soup. It’s my mom’s quintessential dish, and even my brother has learned how to make it. So of course I too have to learn how to make it.

Not only that, but I decided to combine French cooking techniques to it. Taiwanese flavors, Taiwanese ingredients, made in the style of beef bourguignon (namely simmering on low heat for a few hours).

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June 2015: Cooking Adventures

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So the original plan was to cook fried chicken wings for the traditional July 4 party, and also to cook omelets for my family for July 4 breakfast (which would have happened on July 3). That of course didn’t pan out, because my cat sitter lost Missy. But I figured I’d post pics from my practice runs and write up my notes and thoughts.

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Yes, Tomatoes Are Vegetables

Almost everyone has heard, at some point in their lives, the saying “a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable”. It’s one of those things that sounds clever, but once you really start to think about it, once you start to do some research on it, it starts to unravel really quickly. I want to talk about tomatoes today and how the saying “a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable” is just plain misleading.

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Why Stainless Steel Is Awesome

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A lot of people swear by cast iron. And for good reason. It gets hot and stays hot, which makes it ideal for searing steaks and other meats. And it’s naturally non-stick, which makes it ideal for sticky foods like eggs and pancakes. (Because let’s be honest, you don’t want to use non-stick pans.

But no one ever talks about stainless steel pans. Stainless steel is amazing in its own right, and sadly incredibly underrated. Here’s why I love my stainless steel pans so much.

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Pi Day 2015

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(Photo courtesy of Joy)

For those of you who don’t know about Pi Day, March 14 can be written as 3.14, which is pi. Therefore, March 14 is Pi Day. Also, pi sounds like pie, so we celebrate Pi Day by eating pie. But wait, there’s more. This year, Pi Day falls on a Saturday. So I figured, all the stars are aligned, and this year, I’m going to bake a pie and have a pie eating party at my place. Fruit pie or savory pie? Why not both? It’ll be a Double Pie Pi Day, a Pi Day Pie-thon, if you will.

For the apple pie, I started with the crust and filling recipe from Sizzleworks, and eventually, I made enough tweaks to the apple pie filling that I’m willing to call it my own. The chicken pot pie recipe, though, I was inspired by an Emeril recipe from a long time ago, but I re-wrote the recipe from first principles and my own preferences. The only thing it has in common with Emeril’s recipe is they both have shiitake mushrooms.

In the traditional manner, I’ll show you the recipe(s) first, after the cut, then jump into the write-up.

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