Sorry guys, I know it's been a while. 1. I've been busy writing a research paper. It's actually pretty interesting...I'm studying whether there is a gender effect on risk aversion. 2. I had a friend in town last week so all we did was eat out. I don't have much to blog because I've not been cooking all that much! But I'll throw up a blog sometime tomorrow...after my midterm.
Laters!

Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Laksa Version 2.0

As of late, I've been on a noodle soup kick. I love the stuff. Some of you might remember the recent Laksa (Malaysian noodle soup) post but I decided to follow another recipe in order to taste a different version. From a technical perspective, both recipes are fairly similar. Grind/mince fresh/dried seasonings and make a seasoning paste. Brown paste in oil and add liquid and coconut milk. Add proteins of your choice and serve over noodles. I really like recipes like this because once you get a handle on the technique, you can modify the recipe to your heart's content. Good stuff.
This recipe is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Step-By-Step Cooking. Although I like it for my purposes, I don't know if I can recommend it to others. If you are thinking about buying it, go and check it out at a local bookstore. It's got a rather eclectic collection of recipes so it won't ever become a reference cookbook but will remain something that you flip through looking for recipes...FYI, I'm TOTALLY not disparaging the book because it's a flipper...I'm just giving you my two cents.
All of the stuff:







Blend (add water if necessary) what's in the food processor and you should get something like this:





Cook for another ten minutes. You should have something like this:

To assemble:
Bean sprouts:




Time-About an hour...Only 20 minutes or so of actual active work.
Food cost-
Chicken- About $3.00
Tofu- $0.50
Coconut Milk- $0.70
Chicken Broth- $2.10
Incidentals- $1.00
Total- $7.30...makes about 4 servings...$1.82 per bowl.
Here's the link to the picture-less version of the recipe.
And, since I love LOLCats, here's a favorite:

Shellfish Skirmish!
George and I frequently visit the 2+2 web forum. The forum primarily exists to disseminate poker related knowledge but they also have some cool community areas. At the El Diablo Discussion Forum, they have a monthly cooking contest which revolves around a specific theme. This month's theme is shellfish so we decided to give it a shot and make a complete menu based on non-fish sea creatures. Needless to say, it was ALOT of work and we're going to be making the same menu in a few days for a few friends. We've sorta figured out what components we can make the night before and which need to be done the day of so, hopefully, the dinner party won't be horribly hectic. Here's what we cooked:
Scallop Tartare with Asian Pear, Bell Pepper and Walnut Oil Vinaigrette
Egg with Dungeness Crab, Softly-Scrambled Egg and Uni (Kinda looks like a brain is climbing out of the hollowed-out shell, yes?
Shellfish Stew with Ginger Bouillon (Clams, mussels and shrimp in what is basically a ginger-shrimp bisque)
Oyster and Uni in Seawater Gelee (Ripped off from Manresa)
Shrimp with Roasted Butternut Squash (Squash is flavored with ginger and there are also crispy, puffed pumpkin seeds for textural contrast)
Lychee with Strawberries and Lime (Notice anything interesting? That's right...we wanted the first and last courses to look identical...to come full circle, so to speak. I think we succeeded.)
If I feel so inclined, I will throw up some pictures of the cooking process...Don't expect full recipes though because I don't feel like doing it. Unless 23 people leave comments asking for a full play-by-play.






If I feel so inclined, I will throw up some pictures of the cooking process...Don't expect full recipes though because I don't feel like doing it. Unless 23 people leave comments asking for a full play-by-play.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Comment Moderation
I have turned off comment moderation. Maybe the threat of my vengeful wrath kept some of your tongues, err...keys, silent?
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Bran Muffins

Here is the weekly installment of the The Clueless College Baker but, unlike some of my previous efforts, this one has a happy ending! The muffins turned out really, REALLY well...except for one step which we'll get to a little bit later. Wholesome and moist, these muffins make me look forward to getting up in the morning...perfect with a cup of coffee.
The recipe I'm using can be found in I'm Just Here For More Food...I've had issues in the past where the volume and weight measurements didn't quite match up (1 tsp of vanilla extract weighs 57 grams?) but had no problems with the bran muffin recipe. It's also a fun book to read through. Brown's enthusiasm for food is infectious and his science-based perspective is refreshing in an industry dominated by flowery adjectives and hollow rhetoric. There's substance behind his words that helps you understand WHY things happen as they do. When you understand the science behind the cooking process, you'll become more confident and will, eventually, be able to anticipate problems before they happen. Good stuff.
Oh. Some of you might notice that I use weight measurements when I bake. I do this because it's more precise. Given that flour can be compressed, it's easier to give weight measurements because then everyone's on the same page.
Anyhow, here we go.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Set half of a stick of butter aside to come to room temperature.
Use butter to grease up a 10 of the 12 openings on a 12-muffin muffin tin.
Measure out the dry ingredients. First, 138 grams of whole wheat flour:



Measure out more dry ingredients. 20 grams of wheat germ:




More measuring. 86 grams of brown sugar:


Buttermilk, 228 grams:

Measuring is done.
Take the softened butter and smoosh it around until it's sorta smooth. This was harder than I had imagined it would be:

Here's what happened a moment later:
Ughh. Ideally, I would've whisked the butter and then added the sugar/molasses and whisked that for a while. After that, one egg. Things don't always go as planned. Aim for a nice homogeneous mixture.

Add half the flour/baking soda/salt mixture. Combine:


Add the bran flakes, wheat germ and raisins. Fold to combine...you will need Popeye-like forearms...it gets pretty thick:


Done. Notice how some of these tins aren't quite full. The next time I make this recipe. I will only make 10 mufffins.

20 minutes later...



Time- About an hour including baking time
Food cost- Lost the grocery receipt. Oops. However, it can't be more than 4 bucks for the whole batch...these things are pretty cheap.
edit: It should be known that I was somewhat unsatisfied with the shape of the muffins. They just don't have that steroid-fueled GIANT Starbucks muffin shape. This is one reason why I decided that, the next time, to make 10 muffins and not 12...that should help facilitate the classic muffin shape.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Lemongrass Marinated Pork

Pork. I'm unsure what cut this is...All I know is that I was at the Asian market and I saw an unmarked cut of pork. I checked it out and noticed that it had a terrific looking mix of fat to lean so I asked the butcher where on the pig it was from. He didn't speak English so he grabbed another butcher. This butcher just pointed to his face. I assume cutlets of pig face? Who knows. Anyhow, it looked terrific and was thin so I decided to grill it. This is a little under a pound of meat. You could also use thin loin cutlets or thin pork chops. Given that I was at the Asian market, I grabbed stuff for a Vietnamese marinade.

The marinade: Half of a grated onion, 2 cloves of grated garlic, 3-4 tablespoons of finely chopped lemongrass, a tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar, a powerful shake of white pepper, a teaspoon of curry powder and 3 tablespoons of oil. Mix well, combine with the pork. I usually marinate this overnight.

I am using a grill pan. I let the thing heat up for 15 minutes over high heat. I want it good and hot...just set a timer and walk away. Remove the pork from the marinade and try to wipe off the excess marinade. The sugar will burn so you need to be careful. Dry the meat off and slap onto the heated grill. Let it sit for 3 minutes, undisturbed. Don't peak, don't touch it. Nothing. After three minutes, rotate the meat. This will give you those cool hatch marks. After the second 3 minute set, flip the meat over and...voila!

Let the meat rest for 5 minutes. This is enough time to quickly saute some bean sprouts.
Cut the meat...it'll still be slightly pink:

Since I'm trying to be more veggie-centric, here was my dinner:

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