This is an amalgamation of a few recipes I found online that I wanted to remember. I simplified the ingredients (e.g. no carrots, no celery, no milk, no lemon, etc.) and cut out any fancy equipment (e.g. no pressure cooker, no dutch oven). Everything is browned to add flavor before it’s added to the soup….
Will it Quesadilla? Kimchi Fried Rice with Spam
Yes, it quesadillas! I bought a 30 pack of flour tortillas from regular Costco and a 5lb bag of shredded Mexican four cheese blend from business Costco. The only way to eat it all is to try to quesadilla everything. My wife asked me to recreate the kimchi fried rice with spam from Bear’s Ramen…
Farfalle Pasta with Avocado Pesto, Kalua Pork, Corn, and Freeze-Dried Strawberries
Costco Business sells restaurant-sized quantities of food for close to wholesale prices. A case of 35 avocados costs $16. 8 oz. of basil costs $4. Whatever you buy becomes the Iron Chef secret ingredient to use it all up. Freeze-dried strawberries are a substitute for tomatoes and take this dish to the next level. They…
Cumin Lamb
Terra Cotta Warrior is our benchmark for cumin lamb. It’s an excellent Shaanxi/Xi’an restaurant. It’s always packed and almost all of the patrons are Chinese (although the secret is out and non-Chinese people dot the crowd). This cumin lamb recipe from Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes tastes slightly different (cumin is more subtle,…
Sichuan Pork Ragu
This recipe is from Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes, where it’s described as “This bastard love child of Bolognese and mapo tofu is a de-escalated and simplified version of a dish from Momofuku Ssam bar. You will Win Friends and Influence People by serving it in your home.” It’s as delicious as advertised….
Jook with Soy Sauce Egg
A lot has changed since my last post in Feb 2016. Although I no longer have time to spend on complex recipes, the current COVID-19 pandemic has created a renewed focus on cooking at home. Going forward, I’ll be posting recipes with a high deliciousness/effort ratio. Jook is an excuse to make soy sauce eggs….
Dark Matter Coffee Bean Chocolate
ChefSteps has a unique recipe for dark matter: chocolate made with coffee beans instead of cocoa beans. After making the chocolate, I’d like to discuss three issues I encountered: Chocolate melangers are expensive. What is an affordable tool to conche the chocolate? It’s very bitter. How does the “percent” of this chocolate compare to real…
Aquaponics with the Back to the Roots Fish Tank
My dream home has a fully automated aquaponics system that grows tilapia and vegetables in the backyard. Alas, I live in San Francisco, so the closest I can get to experimenting with food self-sufficiency is this Back to the Roots Water Garden. Aquaponic farming is a closed system that captures the complete nitrogen cycle to…
Vitamix vs Blendtec – Why not both?
The eternal question: Vitamix or Blendtec? Behold this chimera of a Vitamix base with a special Blendtec Rebel+ Jar. It’s the best of both worlds. The Blendtec jar is great – so great that Vitamix copied it. It’s short, easy to pour, and easy to clean. However, the controls on the Blendtec Total Blender are…
Rhubarb Gin Fizz with Miracle Berry
Spring is rhubarb season. A rhubarb gin fizz with miracle berry is my variation of iNG Restaurant’s rhubarb whiskey sour. It starts sour then turns sweet, thanks to the miracle berry. The gin fizz is a laborious cocktail to make. It requires vigorously shaking a cocktail shaker to build up a good foam. Modernist tools…