Thursday, March 4, 2021

Quarantine Cooking Report

Felt like writing something, so here's a quick run-down of new dishes that I've tried over the past year or so as we've been in quarantine.  I'll split them into some different categories:

Easy to make, great results

Ultra-Smashed Cheeseburgers

Easy, fun, delicious



Burgers are surprisingly easy to make at home and extremely straightforward -- assembling the burger itself is something even a young child could do.  The only tricky part is cooking the meat, and these "smashburgers" are pretty lowrisk as you're aiming for a well-done burger in the first place.  Oh, and they taste great.

Notes:
- You'll want something you can SMASH with.  I use a metal spatula, and then the mortar from my mortar and pestle set to apply weight to the surface of the spatula.  The mortar actually works surprisingly well for this as it is both heavy and provides a nice "pocket to protect your hand completely from any heat.
- Really nice if you're cooking with two as one person can be in charge of cooking the patties+cheese and the other can assemble the buns
- Ground lamb burgers are yum


New Orleans-Style Red Beans and Rice

Hearty soul food.  Less effort than making something like gumbo.  Leftovers are great too.



This is what I'm going to make now when I'm feeling too lazy to put together something like jambalaya or (my more recent obsession) gumbo.  I've sort of mastered putting together a great gumbo but the recipe sort of has a few too many moving parts and steps to be an every-week sort of meal.  This on the other hand is extremely easy and you don't have to worry about screwing up a roux or anything like that.  You end up with a great creamy meaty sauce that goes great with rice.

Notes:
- After you try the recipe once I feel like it's pretty easy to scale it up if you want to just make food en masse and have a big enough pot / dutch oven.  It's surprising how fast this stuff disappears


Chicken Yakitori (thighs, hearts)

Fun, really tasty, not too hard either



If you have a grill these would be great to do on that, but I don't, so I just use an oven broiler instead and it's perfectly fine.  You can use a blowtorch to get some extra char, if that's desired.

Yakitori can go pretty deep (like ramen) -- check out "yakitori guy" on youtube -- but fortunately even a half-assed "easy mode" effort can taste delicious.  Start off with chicken thigh pieces and green/red onion slices (maybe some mushrooms as well) and it's pretty hard to screw up.  Making the teriyaki glaze is trivial (or you can even just buy some premade one) and the actual cooking process is easy too.  The only part that really takes any work is cutting up the chicken parts and sticking them on the skewers, but it's not too bad.

Notes:
- Make sure you don't leave much of the skewers exposed.  They will burn.


Oven-Baked Buffalo Wings (or Xi'ian spicy Wings)

Tasty chicken wings without deep frying


Recipes: 

Pretty standard oven fried chicken wings, but with the addition of baking powder to help crisp them up.  You can build a standard buffalo wing sauce out of frank's redhot and butter, or you can go for something different too.  Wings aren't really an "every week" sort of food for me but I can't really argue with the low effort required here, the oven does pretty much all of the work for you.


Lamb "Carne Asada" Fries/Nachos

You too, can make food truck food


Recipe: No recipe, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9knyeE3YN4 will give you the basic idea.

Sometimes you just gotta have food-truck style food.  There's a reason it's so popular.

Basically, take your skirt steak or flank steak, cook it, slice it, then throw it together with fries/nachos together with cheese, guac, tomatoes, salsa, green onions, spicy mayo, and whatever else you'd espect to see out of a "loaded fries" food truck.  I've taken to doing this with lamb flank steak because...lamb tastes awesome, but for a more traditional approach you'd probably use beef.

You could also do this with some chorizo, or even carnitas.

Notes:
- Don't bother making your own fries.  Just get frozen ones lol
- I usually don't bother making a legit cheese sauce.  I just sprinkle shredded cheese on and microwave it a bit.


Harissa Shrimp

This is just a great flavor combo


Recipe: There's a recipe at https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2018/04/harissa-and-beer-broiled-shrimp.html, but honestly I go for something way simpler.

We already know shrimp goes great with butter and garlic, and even hot linsk and spicy cajun seasonings and stuff like that.  Well, you can buy some storemade harissa sauce and throw that in and it tastes great.  That's it.

This can be as simple as thawing some ez-peel frozen shrimp, peeling them, then throw them in a hot skillet with some butter/oil, garlic, and harissa sauce, and they cook extremely fast and you've got yourself some tasty shrimp.  Serve with some sauteed onions, oh yes.


Cacio e Pepe / Carbonara

Classic creamy pasta dishes


Recipes:

I know for a lot of us, making "pasta" actually means "pasta noodles of some sort, with meat, cheese, tomatoes, some sort of premade tomato/alfredo sauce, etc".  There's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes it can be nice to make something a little simpler and a little less "throw a ton of stuff together".

I'm grouping these two dishes together because the basic concept is the same -- form a creamy (not clumpy) cheese sauce out of parmigiano/pecorino and some starchy pasta water (and in the case of carbonara, some eggs), and serve it with pasta, along with black pepper, and some cured pork.

Notes:
- If you're not sure you like sheep's milk cheese stick with the parmigiano instead of pecorino
- Just use bacon in place of the pancetta, no big deal.
- Be sure to get the bronze die cut pasta for this, as the extra starch content is important to help emulsify the sauce
- Make sure to avoid scrambling the eggs (too much heat) for the carbonara
- If you're feeling fancy I often like adding some shrimp or mushrooms so it's not so plain of a dish


Pear, brie, and prosciutto crostinis

As simple and tasty as you would imagine


Recipe: You don't really need one, but https://www.savoryexperiments.com/prosciutto-pear-brie-crostini/ or similar for a basic idea

What you see is what you get here.  It's extremely intuitive to put together and you just stick it in the oven and it's great.

The only thing to be aware of is that this is an awkward recipe if you don't make enough servings/feed enough people, as you're going to end up with leftover french bread that is gonna go stale.  I guess you could use the leftover bread for garlic bread or something?

Notes:
- The recipe linked says to drizzle honey but I like to do olive oil instead
- Topping with a small piece of fresh basil works really nicely if you have any


"Bruschetta"

Not really though, more like "tomatoes on bread", but it's a great snack



So y'all probably know what bruschetta tastes like.  It's actually extremely simple to make -- just make some toast with some olive oil, dice up tomatoes, and add olive oil, salt, and a little balsamic vinegar and spoon it on.

And it turns out even if you're just using not-perfectly-in-season-tomatoes and plain-old-bread and whatever, it's still pretty tasty.  This is the kind of thing that's super easy to whip up as a midnight snack if you've got the munchies.

Hard to make, but worth it if you're up for it

Real-Deal Ramen

Takes a ton of effort, but of course is awesome


This wouldn't be on the list if it weren't for quarantine, since ramen takes quite an investment of time/effort to make properly and it's much easier to have a shop do it for you.  Unfortunately while takeout ramen is decent, it just isn't the same and I was craving that rich hearty miso/tonkotsu broth...

I'd recommend this only if you really really miss real-deal ramen and are willing to put in a substantial effort to get there.  There are a LOT of components here -- tare, chashu, toppings, broth, noodles, and they sort of all have their own preparations.  You need access to a lot of ingredients that you might not find at your everyday grocery store -- pork bones, fresh ramen noodles (or make them yourself), pork belly, menma / etc.

This one has a whole book, not r recipe:

Notes:
- When doing the pressure cooker tonkotsu, skip the parts where you open the pressure cooker and stir and then close again, I find that the extra stirring midway through is a hassle and unnecessary
- Borrow a friend's pressure cooker so you can make the broth en masse.  Making a double batch is way less than 2x the effort and the broth freezes well
- Sun noodles are a standard good tried-and-true brand of fresh ramen but can be hard to find.  Remember fresh noodles will be in the refrigerated section, not with all of the other dry noodles.


Sushi/Nigiri at Home

Kind of a lot of work for whoever is the sushi chef, but good raw fish is delicious if you can source it


Recipe: This isn't really a recipe more as it is a set of food and techniques.  Look up your favorite sushi rice ratio and watch some videos on how to form sushi.

This one is first and foremost predicated on having access to good-quality raw fish.  Don't risk anything that you don't trust -- in the middle of a pandemic is really not the time when you want to get food poisoning or parasites.  Or you could start something completely safe like vegetarian rolls (oshinko rolls!) or unagi (grilled eel)

Cutting up raw fish properly is extremely challenging and a real test of your knife, plus you probably won't have access to nicely shaped raw fish blocks and will have to make do with thin oddly-shaped slabs.  So be prepared for nigiri which....don't look too great.  They'll still taste fantastic though.

Unfortunately this is a lot of work if you are making nigiri as each individual one needs to be assembled by hand, and for the nonpracticed (i.e. us) there's going to be some amount of fumbling around.  I'd recommend recruiting some help in the kitchen.  Also, good raw fish can be expensive.  So this is more of a once-in-a-blue-moon thing.  Still great fun though.

The one notable exception is easy hosomaki rolls, my favorite of which is oshinko rolls (picked radish).  Those are easy enough to make on a somewhat regular basis.

Notes:
- It's essential to have a lukewarm rice vinegar solution to dip your hands in while working with sushi rice, otherwise you'll end up with a ton of rice all over your hands


Mei Cai Kou Rou (Steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens)

Unique sort of dish that tastes great


Recipe (I referenced some others too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYgaL7KZR4

This is something I still need to iron down, as I've only made it twice, so I haven't yet trimmed down my recipe to be efficient yet.  It's really difficult to describe the exact flavor of this dish if you haven't had it before, but it's got pork belly in it so you know it has to be delicious.  You'll need access to mei cai (dried preserved mustard greens).  Basically you steam the pork belly together with the mei cai and some soysauce-based liquid and it ends up all tasting delicious.

Unfortunately there are multiple steps as the recipe calls for boiling the pork belly first and that seems like something that shouldn't be skipped.  Again, I'll need to try and trim down the steps a bit as I get more experience.

Notes:
- Make sure you allow for a significant amount of time to steam the pork belly.  It will still be chewy/tough if you don't let it go for long enough.
- Most legit recipes call for shallow-frying the pork belly's skin in oil.  I'm sure this is great but it also causes a veritable oil explosion and sounds like a lot of hassle, so I sacrifice and just skip that step altogether.  I guess you can torch the skin a bit to see if that helps?
- I got pre-cut mei cai but I'm actually thinking the non-shredded ones may be easier to work with as you can rinse/drain them more easily and then just cut it yourself more easily?  Not sure yet.
- Make sure you have a proper steamer setup to do this.  Mine wasn't big enough, so I had to improvise a bit.
- One recipe I saw suggested dry-frying the mei cai before steaming it.  I'm not sure if this is necessary, I'll have to experiment.


Spinach and Artichoke Dip Toast

Imagine a cheesy spinach/artichoke dip, spread over French bread and baked until nicely browned.  Yum.



If you like spinach/artichoke dip you're probably already sold on this just by the description or the pictures.  The thing about spinach/artichoke dip is that it really needs to be homemade -- all the storebought stuff just....never really compares to the real deal.

Unfortunately this does take a lot of effort as you've got to drain the spinach and artichoke, chop it up, and fold it in with a bunch of cheese -- cheese that needs to be grated.

Notes:
- DO NOT overbake the bread, I found that the timings given in the recipe were way too long especially for the first bake (probably in part because I use convection)
- I tend to end up grating a significant amount more cheese than the recipe calls for to balance the amount of veggies, that's maybe because I'm using a microplane grater and volume measurements are super imprecise for irregular shredded things
- You can adjust the ratio of artichoke to spinach if you like/dislike artichoke particularly


Undecided / "Decent" Recipes


Creamed Cod and Potato Gratin

Creamy fish and mashed potatoes!



This actually came out pretty well!  It's obviously a very heavy dish with cream and potatoes, but the sauce does certainly taste good and I'm always looking for more ways to integrate fish into my cooking.

It took more work to put together than I'd like for a regular meal but I've only ever made it once so I'm sure I can bring that way down if I tried again.


Clam Chowder

Nuff said



I've only made this once and I was cooking the clams separately due to someone with a seafood allergy so I don't really have a good impression of exactly how much effort it ought to really take or adjustments that need to be made.  It sure tasted good though.


Potato and Leek Soup




This is a fine recipe, it's just that potato and leek soup isn't something I tend to have a real craving for.  It's not a TON of effort but you do have to whip out the blender which is always a pain (even immersion blenders need to be cleaned afterwards, etc).  I do have a very tall pot which I'm starting to use for these immersion blended soups to avoid having to pour into a separate container, so that should help, but still, this is never gonna be on the shortlist.


Cream of Mushroom Soup




This is definitely something I'll be trying to make again.  I love mushrooms but unfortunately my first attempt at a cream of mushroom soup (following a more complicated recipe) was a disaster and that sort of scarred me for a while.

I'm happy to report that that time was just a fluke.  Cream of mushroom soup IS actually as delicious as I thought it would be.  It's another one of these immersion blender recipes, and I still have to optimize my workflow on those.  This could make it into the shortlist if I get enough practice with it.

Stuff that I don't think I'd make much again


"Quick" Fried Chicken Sandwich

Pretty dece, but honestly just a bit too much work for my tastes



I honestly probably just need to optimize my workflow for this one, but honestly anything that involves dealing with deep frying just still takes too much effort for my tastes.  You gotta use extra dishes for breading, then there's having to drain the oil afterwards, and store it, and blahblahblah..... you've already gotta deal with sauce, toppings, etc.  It's just one too many things going on, to be honest.

It's just not something I'm super practiced with and honestly, I can live without.  I might try this recipe just as a "quick an easy thing to try to deep fry" but I don't often crave fried chicken sandwiches in particular, so whatever.  Plus, I don't often have milk or buttermilk on hand for the breading.


"Ba'corn" Cheese Corn

Too heavy / flavors didn't really work for me



You can pretty much figure it out from the name.  This recipe throws together bacon, cheese, corn, and even heavy cream, so this is definitely not a recipe for the light of heart.

It was a fine recipe, just the resulting flavors ended up not really being for me in the end.  I think overall the dish is just too heavy (as you can imagine), though I can see how this is popular drinking food.


Salmon Chowder

Surprisingly I wasn't a fan



I thought it'd be a sure-fire win.  Chowder sounds great.  I love salmon.  What's not to like??

To be fair, I only tried this once (and used way too much dill), but I just don't think boiled salmon is super great?  Just, compared to pan-fried or broiled/grilled/roasted salmon (or raw salmon, lol) it just doesn't seem as enticing, plus you don't get to really do anything great with the salmon skin.  Plus I feel like any of the fattyness of the salmon doesn't really gel well when mixed into the soup.  I feel like I'd rather just cook the salmon separately and then have a different sort of soup on the side like one of the aforementioned ones.



What have y'all been trying out these days?

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