Category: Cook

Homemade Ramen Burger

So this is the newest crazy food thing. It doesn't seem that crazy to me though. I love ramen, and I love burgers…and now that its introduced together, you know I had to jump on that train! Since its only at the Smorgasbord in NYC I have to make it myself.

It was quite the adventure. I actually had to make it two nights in a row because I wanted to perfect it. The first night, I got the Asian flavors right. Sesame oil, soy sauce, white pepper, sriracha all the flavors that scream…ramen.

Now I can't make my own fresh ramen (yet! I dare to dream) so I had to get cheapie Japanese style ramen packets to start. It was pretty easy to make. I mixed cooked ramen noodles with an egg, then molded it in a wide flat ramekin, and pan fried it.

I seasoned ground beef with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil. Formed a patty, seared it then cooked it in the oven while I made everything else. Like a fried egg.

I am very proud of how it turned out, and taste testers agree, but its definitely way too intense for me to eat regularly. But I would make it again if someone wanted me to!

 

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Curry Chicken and Coconut Rice

Yum! It's been awhile since I cooked something during a week night, but this one made this list. I used Shutterbean's recipe and its awesome.

Rosie came over for our monthly dinner/catch up night. She brought all the ingredients, she watches me cook dinner, and washes dishes. Then we eat and she gets to keep the leftovers for the week. That's our deal and I love it. I get to try out new recipes and I don't have to eat it all week! If you need me to do this, I am willing haha!

 

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the process because I made a video from it, but it smells great. The only thing I would change is use chicken stock instead of water for more flavor. No one else thought it was bland though, just me. Maybe because I was getting a cold when I made this.

 

Definitely will make this again!

 

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I Don’t Like Lobsters

Whaaaat? How can you not like lobsters?! That’s what you are thinking right? Let’s break it down. I usually give myself at least 3 tries before I state that I don’t like something, especially if it’s something that is known to be universally good.

The first time I had lobsters, it was at a Vietnamese wedding. The meat was cooked in a ginger asian sauce. I didn’t like the texture.

The second time, I had it just steamed, dipped in butter. The traditional way right? I had that at a blogger preview of Tacklebox in DC (which has since closed down). Didn’t like the texture, or the flavor.

The third time, I had surf and turf at the Palm. It was a nice restaurant, I figured it would be done right, and I can see what it was really supposed to taste like. Nope. Still didn’t like it. Definitely a texture thing.

So here we go again. A friend of ours went to Maine and brought back 6 lobster tails. She didn’t know how to cook them, I didn’t know how to cook them, and no one that was invited to eat knew either. As the designated chef of the family, I was tasked to figure it out.

After googling things here and there. I decided to wing it and hope for the best. We started with cutting the tails down the middle, then splitting the flesh open.

Rubbed it down with olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Grilled it flesh side down for about 3 minutes, until it go its nice charred flesh. Then rubbed it down with a garlic, lemon, butter concoction I mixed together. We then put it back on the grill butter side up and let it cook and smoke for another 5 minutes.

I really liked the flavor of the meat, and the smokiness. It was very similar to scallops. But I didn’t like the texture of the meat! So I guess no lobsters for me. However, I did like the butter and the technique, so I guess I will have to save this recipe and use it on something else, like shrimp, scallops or fish!

Seafood Lemon Garlic Butter

Ingredients
1 stick of butter, softened
2 tbsp. dried parsley
2 tsp cayenne pepper powder
4 cloves garlic, minced
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of half a lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
Combine all the ingredients, mix well. Refrigerate until use.

Posted on by miemo 0

Pistachio Macarons

I have really been into baking lately. Maybe because I started hustling cupcakes on the side, so I am more interest in baking unique cupcakes and treats. What can be more unique than attempting to bake your own macarons? They have been notorious for bringing fear into the home baker’s kitchen. But I am fearless. This is my second go at making macarons, and this was definitely the faster of the two favors.

There are three classic macaron flavors that are my favorite. Pistachio, Salted Caramel and Raspberry. I’ve made one out of three and eager to try to make the rest. And then even make up my own flavors if all goes well. But will baking them be better than going out to buy some on demand? Good question, we will find out!

Almond flour is known to be expensive. But if you mill it yourself, it’s not bad at all. I got an 8oz bag of slivered almonds for $4.99 and that bag made 2 different batches of macarons (granted they were mixed nut ones) and the ingredient list is fairly short. Thank goodness for my cuisinart spice and nut mill!
I mixed one tooth pick dip of Kelly green food coloring in my egg whites before dipping to get this awesome color. I should have spaced them out more!

But they still developed their pieds (feet) and I am happy!

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Peanut Butter Bacon Pancakes

Breakfast on weekends are a pretty big deal at my house. We are so busy during the week that we always skip out on the most important meal of the day. But not on Saturdays and Sundays! As you may remember, I made macadamia nut pancakes before.
This time lets use peanut butter! This recipe comes from Joy the Baker and I pretty much did exactly what she said so if you want instructions, click away!
Bacon and peanut butter sounds weird…but it worked well together, especially topped with banana. There is just enough peanut butter to give you a hint of nutty sweetness, but not enough to overpower your palate. Don’t just trust me for it, make it yourself!
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Citrus Asian Chicken

Inspired by the soy hoison orange salmon meal I make I wanted to make a chicken version. Who doesn’t love chicken right? And a roast chicken is a classic favorite because you get that tender meat with crispy skin.

So lets do this.

For the marinade, we don’t even need to make it pretty. Also long as we can fuse all the flavors into the chicken, we win! Smash and peel the garlic, cut off the roots and smash the green onions. Don’t even need to chop it! Just release those flavors!

Wash then peel some zest off one orange, and one lemon.

Throw the zest, garlic, green onions into the bag. Pour in the liquid ingredients. Give it a good shake, and taste it to see if it’s something you are proud of.

Add the chicken to the bag, seal and mix, shake, massage. Get all the flavors in there. Lay it down in a pan and refrigerate for a couple hours (the longer the better) and remember to flip the bag over halfway through, for even soaking.

Citrus Asian Chicken

Ingredients
2 oranges
1 lemon
3 stalks of green onion
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup honey
4 chicken thighs or breast
Vegetable oil

Directions
Wash and zest strips of one of the oranges and lemon. Place those in a gallon size zippered plastic bag. Squeeze the juices of the citrus in the bag. Trim the green onions, cut in half and smash the white parts. Add to the bag, along with the liquid ingredients. Shake the bag and taste. Alter to your taste.

Rinse and pat dry your chicken thighs. Add to ziplock and marinate for 2-8 hours, turning halfway.

Preheat your oven to 425F. Stick your cast iron in the oven (empty) for 10 minutes to get it nice and hot.

Remove your chicken thighs from the bag and lay them in a pan to let the marinade drip off a little. Brush the skin with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Remove the hot skillet from the oven, and place the thighs, skin side down onto the skillet and return to the oven for 20-30 minutes.

While your chicken is baking, pour the leftover marinade into a small saucepan, discarding the chunks of citrus, garlic and green onion. Bring to boil over medium high heat, then reduce to a medium low simmer. Taste and season accordingly. If you want it sweeter, add honey, if you want it saltier add soy sauce.

After 20 minutes, check on your chicken. If you think it needs a little more time to brown the skin side give it a little, if not, let’s flip! Pull out skillet. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to help loosen the skin from the bottom of the pan. Flip the chicken over, and baste with the marinade that you turned into a sauce! Cook for another 10-15 minutes, until chicken is done.

Let your sauce thicken, then serve chicken with sauce over rice.

Posted on by miemo 0

Macadamia Nut Pancakes and Coconut Syrup

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I don’t think I will ever have maple syrup again. Which sucks, because I went to costco last year and got two huge bottles for a brunch I was hosting. Fail. Anyone need syrup?
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This picture is from Longhi’s. A super cute french decorated restaurant where we had my birthday breakfast in Hawaii. We had a sidewalk seat that overlooked the street and water, which was like a combination of my France trip last year! I looooved it.

I loved it so much, that I wanted to recreate a Hawaiian breakfast myself.

For the coconut syrup, I took the simple syrup approach. But instead of water, I used coconut milk.

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Simple Steak Dinner

I used to be so intimidated by the idea of cooking a steak myself. But then I finally was like. Time to test it. Easy peasy. All you need is a little bit of salt and pepper and a well cut, perfectly done steak will speak for itself.

Sometimes during the week, I am so tired from work, and I don’t want to cook anything too time consuming or elaborate. And sometimes you just need a STEAK. Luckily, steaks don’t take that long and you can get it done fairly quickly. Here is the step by step. It’s barely a recipe!

When I get home, I like to pull the meat out of the fridge right away, rinse, and pat dry. I rub a little bit of vegetable or canola oil on it (not olive) and then season both sides, and let it sit out while I prep the veggies and heat up the grill pan. This is important because bringing the meat to almost room temperature helps it cook evenly!

Asparagus. People always make fun of my pee when I post pictures of asparagus, but you know what? I like fresh asparagus! It tastes good to me. Rinse those off, and hand break the stems off the bottom. Did you know that the hard parts will break off itself at the right spot? Don’t cut it because you might cut off too little and be left with a tough piece. Your welcome for that tidbit.

I toss this in olive oil and a little seasoning, let that sit and heat up my grill pan. Make sure its nice and hot. I like to oil the pan a tiny bit, so that I can see when it starts smoking and then I lay the steak down. Depending on how you well you want it done and how thickly cut your steak is will determine cook time. I like mine medium well or medium. So I usually do 3 minutes, then slightly rotate (to get criss cross grill marks) for another minute. Then I flip it and use the cheek test to know when its done.

What’s the cheek test? Let me tell you. If you press the middle of your steak with your finger, and its the same softness as your cheek, its rare. If it’s the same as your chin, medium, and your forehead, well. ITS A LOOSE TEST don’t get mad at me if you don’t have good cooking instincts.

After that, let the meat sit on a cutting board (so the meat can rest) and clean the pan and grill the asparagus until bright green and tender with a little crunch.

Well now I am hungry. How about you?

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Jammin’ Jambalaya

What a cliche name, I know, but it really is jamming. And delicious. So delicious, that AFTER my mardi gras party, I had to make another round to enjoy (since I didn’t get to at the party). And I made it a little spicier, which I didn’t do for the party since I was feeding a large group of people with a different range of spice levels.

So let’s get cooking!

Get the ingredients ready. The divine trinity in cajun cooking is celery, onions and green bell pepper. This is the base for the flavor in both etouffee and gumbo as well! For jambalaya I’ve got those three, plus garlic, tomatoes and a medium grain rice.

Emeril used olive oil. I used butter. Cook the onions, celery and green onions in the butter for about 4 minutes, when the onions turn clear.

Then add the garlic, tomatoes, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well mix. Then add the rice.

After rice is mixed in well, slowly add chicken broth. Simmer over medium until rice is tender. While this is happening, I dice the chicken breast, and chop the shrimp then add the crawfish tails in the same bowl, and mix well with cajun seasoning, you can you Tony’s or Louisiana brand creole seasoning. Emeril also has a recipe for his bayou blast.

You can find the recipe here.

 

Posted on by miemo 0

Making Macarons

Don’t let the looks fool you. Yeah they are good looking. Heck they are even edible. But I didn’t like them. They were too chewy/dense flat for me. Yes I will try again. But this was my first try. I am determined to get these right. I eat them too much, to not know how to make them myself. And at two dollars EACH, it’s worth knowing how to make it with my own resources right? My batter (if that’s what you called it) made exactly a dozen macarons. That would be like $24.90 if I bought at a shop (that included taxes).

Instead of trying to start with a basic french macaron recipe, I went straight in for the kill. I made hazelnut macarons with a nutella filling. Maybe I should have learned how to make a basic macaron first. Oh well. I live dangerously. If you were to buy almond flour, it would pretty much cost about $1- $2 an ounce. I got a bag of blanched almonds, 8 oz for $3.99 and only needed 6oz for this recipe (because I made up the rest in hazelnut flour). I ground it myself with my new toy, Cuisinart Spice and Nut Grinder and it worked out fine. Everything was working out the way it should.

I aged the eggs for a day. At room temperature. Because someone said so. Is that why there was a slightly funky taste? Or was that just my nuts not meshing well together. Hm.

I had all the right tools needed. (Silpats are the best way to go, you get perfect bottoms)

and cute little feet. It all looked good. I made them a little too big though. The boo liked it, he pretty much ate them all himself.

I will try to make the basic chocolate one next. And then move on to pistachio. Once I get the technique then I can adjust the taste, right? Yeah that sounds like the best way to go!

Until then I will eat Michel Patisserie Macarons to get the right flavors in my head.

 

Posted on by miemo 0