Monday, December 24, 2012

We made popovers for the first time.  Started with two eggs, a cup of milk, 3/4tsp salt, and 4.75oz of flour

nonstick popover pan I think you can add butter to the pan to give it more flavor.

fill each about halfway up

hot hot hot oven!!! 450 degrees for 20 minutes and then 350 for the next 20 minutes

my window is sooo dirty!!!

anyhew I had already pulled them and forgot to take a picture so I threw them back inthe oven after I had poked holes for steam to come out.

bunch of popovers we ate with soup.  Yum-o!!! 
This was our first attempt and they came out okay.  Now we fiddle with the temperature and ingredients to make deliciously huuuge popovers. 

and tonight we will be using this.... to make a new dish I havent seen or heard of before.  It will be my own creation!!! stay tuned!!!

Friday, December 21, 2012

So the last bag of Korean pepper flakes I bought are pretty mild.  To fix this I think Im going to mix it with the last batch of pepper flakes I took from moms which is hot enough to fry your  duodenum.  I mean look how much I had to use to get the heat I wanted.  The kimchee is soooo red.  Pretty though.

made ankimo at home again.  This time I really soaked the livers and squeezed out as much blood as possible.  The result was awesome.  No fishy taste at all just creamy ocean deliciousness.  Mmmm...

made some burdock for fiber

served up the kimchee which is juuuust starting to sour

and made smoked salmon ochazuke.  Smoked the salmon in my stovetop smoker with alder wood, fried up some baby anchovies and sevied with the standard ochazuke fixings.  I am really digging this stuff during winter.

I abuse my body.  Look at this 2 pound breakfast burrito.  I WILL NOT eat this again.  

and on the same day my coworker baked me apple and chocolate scones =(  Why must I be such a fatty.

That there toilet in the parking lot at work looks mighty fine.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Alright so did anyone guess what this contraption is?  No because no one reads this blog. 

Here it is!  I bought this in Korea a LOOONG time ago for my mom.  She used it a handful of times and then for some reason stashed it away in the cupboard where it sat unused for several years.  Its a Korean green onion slicer made by the company GIANT.

and here it is in action

it slices the onions the long way so you can do stuff like this....

for your chinese dinner

I also added the green onions to my tuna poke.  Sashimi tuna, green onions, yellow onions, sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.  DELICIOUS.

Monday, December 10, 2012

what if you want to sous vide something small?  Or cook in a poaching liquid or butter? I love my immersion circulators but they are kinda big and noisy.  Awesome if youre cooking a whole lotta stuff but overkill for small items.  This is where the Dorkfood Sous Video unit comes in handy.  At $100 bucks on Amazon its a pretty good deal. 

Heres the unit

take a crock pot, rice cooker, or in this case a deep fryer

plug it into the dorkfoods plug (yes its really from a company called dork-food)

set the temperature you want and put the temperature probe into the pot.

The dorkfood will turn on/off the electricity to the pot to maintain the set temperature.  Too hot turns off too cold turns on.  Only real disadvantage is that theres no pump stirring up the water so there may be hot/cold spots within the pot.  I took a spoon and stirred the pot every 10 minutes or so just to see how eggs would cook.  First thing... the thermostat is about 4 degrees F off.  I adjusted to the correct temp to get 62 degree C eggs.  After an hour I tested and they cooked beautifully.  I forgot to take pictures will do later.

and then theres this... I bought this for my mom a while back when I was visiting Korea.  

You crank the handle 

which turns a series of circular blades inside.  Whats it for?  Ill show you tomorrow after I take some pictures of it in use.  Stay tuned!!!

Monday, December 3, 2012

unconventional Thanksgiving
This is how I prepared dinner at home this year.  A bit modernist.

Sous vide pork belly and turkey

This is just some of the turkey.  I broke it down and cooked the legs, thighs, and wings the day before.  Cooked the breasts the day of.  Finished each piece differently.  

and heres how I presented dinner.  I lined the table with foil and then parchment to create a waterproof lining.  Then I threw everything on the table.  Pick and eat. Heres some of the items.  Turkey all sous vide.  Breast finished in the oven under a broiler to crisp up the skin.  Legs and wings deep fried.  Thighs used in turkey pot pies.  Bone marrow with parsley salad.  Brined and sous vide pork belly on skewers with a pineable sauce.  Stuffing in chinese take out containers.  a mish mash of garnishes and sides.

Heres a pic with everything.  There were sweetbreads on toothpicks, assortments of pickles to cut the fat, cubes of cranberry, garlic confit with bread, mashed potatoes, etc.... Was fun!!! just pick up and eat!