Cooking Journal #29

Cooking #29 Breakfast Sushi

Well, well. This isn't how it's done! There's an art in making sushi omelette and obviously, this is not it. In fact, I simply fried the eggs while rolling the sushi. Notice, there's no wasabi involved. I use sriracha!

Next time I do this, I'll do scattered sushi. The nori can be cut up into little stripes and use as sprinkled garnish.

cooking journal #28

Cooking #28 Ice Cream Sandwich

Ha ha. What do you know? Ice cream and bread makes a nice pairing! Don't you just love chocolate mint ice cream on bread?

This brings back memories, as one of my childhood experience. Simple, yet pleasant. Who needs fruit jams when you can have ice cream?

Cooking Journal #27

Bento Box

Yup. My lunchbox! The rice ended up too dry after a while. Perhaps I should have put a moist towel to cover them up? Or maybe I should have put more water while cooking the rice? Oh, well. Next time I do this, it'll be scattered sushi for sure!

Cooking Journal #26

Peasant Bread

So, after the dehydrator experiment failure, I decided to do another experimentation. This time, I bought myself a bread maker. The first two experiments were, to put it mildly, total disasters. The first one was obviusly lacking water. The second one, too much.

The third experiment was successful. I bought a bread machine recipe book and in the introduction, it mentioned how unlike hand made bread, bread cooking machine demands accuracy in ingredient measurements. Well, now I know!

I picked the simplest recipe in that book, and that's peasant's bread. 1 part water. 3 parts flour. 2 spoons sugar. 1 spoon salt (I use leftover ramen salt packet!) and 1 packet of yeast. I notice a bit of dryness when mixing dough, so I added 2 spoonful of water at a time, until I judge that the dough is fine. I think it ended up a little more moist that I anticipated, but that's okay.

The end result is terrific! Once I started into the eating the bread, I couldn't stop! As you can see from the picture, I ate the bread in one go! Well done!

Cooking Journal #25

Dried Kale Chips

If you remember that dehydrator I got a while back, it was not successful. Well, it was, but too high maintenance for me. Here is the commercial version of the kale chips. The thing that may be surprising is how expensive this thing is. Definitely not your everyday consumption. Okay for occasional snack, though.

Another thing that I find objectionable is that there is too much salt. Okay, so I prefer things "pure" without any spices added, but this is clearly too much!

I find it very surprising at the weight. These are almost weightless! The chips crumbles very easily, so I'm guessing that they really evaporated the water completely!

You may want to try these out, but too salty for me! I much prefer the homemade one. Maybe one of these days, I'll try it using regular oven.

Cooking Journal #24

Scrambled Egg

Nothing special, really. I got a jar of mushroom. 3 eggs. Drop mushroom in a pan. Cook until warm. Break eggs in a bowl. Stir. Drop in pan. Cover. Cook until done.

About the only thing I don't like is that I have to clean that extra bowl. Lazy, eh? But little things do add up!

Book Review #21

Japanese Cooking
Lulu Grimes

First of all, I'm not even sure "Lulu Grimes" is the author of the book. There's no name listed on the cover. The publisher is Parragon Publishing in UK. Printed in China. Produced by the Bridgewater Book Company, Ltd. With Home Economist Kate Moseley. I really don't know what to think of it. The photography, by David Jordan, seems good enough, but there's no blurbs or anything.

The recipe follows a simple procedure.
1. List the ingredients
2. Show one picture of the process
3. Show the text of the preparation process
4. Show a big picture of the finished product

In some cases, this shows the picture of a knife cutting meat, or ingredients being dumped into a pan. So, not much there. Regarding Japanese cooking, they're mostly pure ingredients. In some cases, one short ingredient list. One short preparation steps. Done.

That's my kind of cooking. It annoys me, though, that I can't find the name of the author of this book. Still, if simply prepared Japanese cooking is what you want, then this book is ideal.

By the way, if you haven't done so, try cutting meat in tiny little slices, and use chopstick to drop them into hot oil in a pan. Wait until cooked, and fish it out with the chopstick. Put it in plate. Simple. Quick. Convenient. Done.

Cooking Journal #23

Frozen Pizza

So, I bought a few pizza from the local supermarket. Buying in batch of 5, they cost $2 each. Quite a good deal, if I may say so myself. $2 meal is nice, but the large pizza means that I eat only half. The other half goes to refrigerator for another meal time. So, the cost per meal is only $1.

I find it hard to believe that people will order a pizza delivery. I can understand if you're travelling and have no means to cook good food. I can also understand if you're having a party or maybe you want to have more than one pizza. If all you want is a pizza, frozen pizza is cooked in about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, or about the same as delivery.

Pizza quality, of course, is less than gourmet pizza. Pizza Hut is great. So is Papa John. However, the quality of frozen pizza is not bad. There's nothing wrong with stocking your freezer with them.

Take a simple Pepperoni pizza. Maybe you think it's rather bland. So? Just add more toppings as you like it. There's nothing wrong with customizing the toppings. You may need to experiment a little bit with the proper cooking time as to accomodate the opening of the oven, but I don't think that's too difficult to do.

Book Review #20

Chinese Cooking
Rose Cheng and Michelle Morris

I like this book because the book opens up with a short cultural lesson of Chinese cooking that is frequently missing in other cookbooks, and yet short enough as to concentrate on cooking, without being wordy or irrelevant. A philosophical overview maybe irrelevant to some, but I find that as I experiment with the recipe, these provide the guidance I need.

The tool section is short and to the point. Normally, a cook book would specify so many pots and pans, and so many utensil. This one specifies a few multi-purpose tools. I really appreciate that.

The problem comes when it comes to ingredients. Chinese ingredients are unique to chinese culture, and that's kind of hard to get in rural America. There's a big picture that helpfully shows the different kind of ingredients desired, but unless there's a good Asian store in your neighborhood, there's no getting them. I'd appreciate if the writer would write equivalent substitute to the ingredients. Alas, that information will not be found here.

The dishes are varied and good. My complain about them is the same complain about other recipes: They are all hard to make, requiring many different ingredients and spices, and frankly, a bother to do. I have no doubt that they are great tasting food. I find that I'm skimping all the different exotic ingredient, and substitute what is available locally. There's nothing to it. I appreciate the pictures of the food, and although mine is nowhere close to looking the same, it's good enough for me.

If you want a good survey of chinese food, and don't mind either going to Asian store and do a lot of work, or maybe converting it to using readily available local ingredient, then this is a good cook book to have.

Cooking Journal #22

Cooking #22 Dehydrator

Yep, got myself a dehydrator. It works fine. What you see there is a bunch of kale leaves being dried. Kale chips are rather popular, don't you know? So, I dried them. It works well enough, I suppose, but what happens is that I have to rotate the tray every so often. The end result is great, though. So, this technique is certainly doable.

I'm unsure about contamination. My thinking is that the warmth will cause bacteria to multiply rapidly. So, I don't know. Perhaps if you maintain a septic kitchen it's alright. For me, though, this dehydrator is going back out.

Got to admit, though, those dried kale chips were terrific!

Cooking Journal #21

KFC

Yes, that's KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken. I cook my own rice, and I cook my own egg. This dish is brown rice, egg, and fried chicken. It's very quick to prepare since I'm using Success Rice. I fried the egg, while the rice is cooking. The chicken is courtesy of KFC. You're probably wondering why I bothered to cook rice and egg if I'm eating KFC chicken? The answer is that I don't eat chicken as a meal. I eat rice as the main meal, and chicken is just something extra.

In any case, it's too salty. KFC maybe famous for their secret spice, but the current KFC is mostly salt and pepper. Make that various salt and pepper. For some reason, I keep thinking Monosodium glutamate (MSG) every time I eat KFC. But what can I say? It tastes delicious! So, I do take KFC original style chicken from time to time.

I limit myself to just legs and thighs. Dark meat. 10 piece bucket. $14.03. That's enough for five meals. About $3 meal. I think that's a good deal, considering the great taste of KFC. I do know how to cook tender, juicy Leg+Thigh chicken. But the process takes 45 minutes each. For quick meals when I'm tired, KFC makes a good substitute!

There's a caution here, though. Usually KFC features big sized chicken. However, lately, their size is on the smallish side. Considering that, I think $10 is about right. When I found out that they charge $14 for the small chicken size, well, I stopped coming. There's that.

Cooking Journal #20

Potato Chips

I know I did potato chips cooking last time. However, For this one, I use a special slicer board. Grab yourself a bag of Russel potatoes from your local supermarket and do it.

I fry them using medium heat, as usual. The whole process took 45 minutes. The way I do it is to just hold the slicer on top of the pan and just slice the potato right into the pan. I can usually fit 20 slices at a time. Then wait until they're done.

I like it when they're stops being yellow and starts to become golden, but not so much. I experimented with the thinnest slice and the second thinnest (1/32) and prefer the second thinnest. You may have a different preference.

The subsequent slices would cook faster due to the oil warms up as it goes. And that's the trouble. Whenever I do this, it's upwards one hour for the whole thing to finish. I usually just eat the first batch while the second batch is cooking, and so on.

I have to say that the end result is terrific! I thought that I'd need to use salt or something to make it taste good. I had Sriracha sauce prepared, but it turns out, I don't need it. That's right. I just eat it without salt or anything. They're that good!

So, if you're wondering whether or not you should invest in potato chip microwave thing, I'd say, no. This is good enough. I will admit that doing this takes a very long time, as it is not a hands-off operation. I need to watch the whole cooking process from start to finish.

Cooking Journal #19

Exotic Butter

I usually just pick up the butter substitute. However, when I was wandering over to the butter section, I saw this butter, and I can't resist. It's certainly unique, and I'm glad I tasted this one. Something like a specially made butter. Not too sure that I have use for special ingredient, though. Yes, it's better. No, it's not so much better that I want to hunt this specific butter.

Cooking Journal #18

Chicken Leg and Thigh

I usually cook my rice with hot dogs. However, I do like to get fancy from time to time. So, I'd go to the local supermarket and raid their chicken section. I usually grab their legs and thigh section. In the old days, I'd grab their boneless breast section. Nowadays, though, after reading Modernist Cuisine, I decided that cooking bone-in is the way to go!

It's a simple enough deal to cook these. Once the oil is warmed up in the pan, I set it to medium, and put a leg and a thigh into it. Wait 20 minutes, and turn them over. Wait another 10 minutes, and take the leg out. Wait another 10-15 minutes and take the thigh out. Total time: 25-30 minutes for the leg. 40-45 minutes for the thigh.

The only problem with this is that last 5 minutes. I have to watch over them. I have the pan with glass lid, so I can actually watch them fry. However, I still go by smell.

The end result is delicious! Not as good as KFC, because I simply don't care about spices, but the meat is tender and juicy. Just the right amount of cooking.

Cooking Journal #17

Rolled Sushi

If you are interested in sushi at all, you probably have one of those sushi making kit. The truth is, you don't really need it. But if you have it, I'll show you how to do it real quick.

You need nori sheet. That's seaweed. I bought the cheap kind, which is not what you want. You want the nice flat kind with smooth surface on one side. Mine, as you can see, is bumpy all over.

Lay down the nori sheet on bamboo mat, shiny side down. Put rice and meat on top. I use spicy hot dog cut length-wise. If you want, you can add some veggies like cut carrots or celery sticks. You can use condiment. I like to use sriracha on mine. No need to use wasabi on it unless you crave authenticity.

Roll the sushi using bamboo mat. The most important point is to press evenly along the spine. Firm enough to press the rice, but not so hard as to compress them solid. By the way, use two hands while doing it. My other hand was holding the camera.

Also, I should tell you that the bamboo mat is optional. One time, I was doing it, and I realized that I forgot to put the mat under the sheet. So what I did was pick up the paper towel and roll the sheet with it. Works just fine, although not as easy as with the mat.

Wet the end of the sheet so that it sticks together when rolled over.

And that's what you should have. One rolled sushi.

Cut into six equal length. Notice that I'm using a proper kitchen knife for this. Buck knife is not good enough for this. To be honest, even this sharp kitchen knife is less than ideal. The sharper the knife, the better! Use the sharpest knife you have, and use it only for cutting sushi rolls!

That's the result, and I can tell you that spicy hot-dog makes a good substitute for avocado used in California Rolls. Serve on plate with pickled ginger. I have yet to find a good substitute for pickled ginger. So that and the nori seaweed are the two must have ingredient for a good rolled sushi.

Cooking Journal #16

Cooking Sushi

Probably not the best title. You're probably wondering: It's Sushi! What is there to cook? Actually, sushi refers to the vinegared rice or sumeshi. There are all kinds. Rolled sushi, finger sushi, scattered sushi, and pressed sushi.

The one I like to make is actually scattered sushi, which is vinegared rice in a bowl with ingredient scattered on top.

Finger sushi is the one you find in a good sushi restaurant. It takes skill to press sushi and meat just right.

Rolled sushi is the one you find in a supermarket. It's relatively easy to make, and makes a nice presentation. Better than the scattered sushi type.

I've never seen pressed sushi. I imagine it's a cheap industrialized kind.

The traditional way to cook sushi rice is with wooden bowl. Once the rice is cooked, dump it into a wooden bowl. Sprinkle vinegar+sugar mixture, while fanning vigorously. The rice will then have the proper texture and consistency while having illustrious sheen on the surface.

Does it matter? Having done it that way, I'd say yes. It makes for a better sushi rice. Of course, my motto is "cheap, fast, and easy" and so I don't usually bother doing any of that.

I also just cook my regular long-grain rice, instead of special sushi rice.

As soon as the rice is done, I fluff the rice using bamboo spatula while sprinkling vinegar a little bit. As you can see, I use it straight from the bottle. I don't bother mixing a special solution for it. And no, I don't use wooden bowl to do it.

The result is less than ideal, but close enough to the real thing, that I don't mind at all. Of course, you may have a different opinion about it.

Then I simply put the rice into a bowl and top it off with some meat I have on hand. That usually means hot-dog.

What? You expect maybe some special sashimi for it? ;)

Cooking Journal #15

FoodSaver

I usually buy my food by bulk. Of course, I need to save them for a long time. I like to wrap them for long storage in the freezer. The best kind would be FoodSaver vacuum bagger. Admittedly, it's a little bit over kill for freezing chicken.

The bag I use is split in the middle for portioning. It's just a long piece of plastic, so you can cut it however long you want. If you want to make a bag, you need to seal it. Use the seal button on the left.

My regular portion is a leg and a thigh. I put in a spoonful of Teriyaki sauce for marination. Just a little. You don't want too much liquid to drip in the device.

Then it's a simple matter of Vac and Seal.

And store in the refrigerator for some marinating time.

The truth is, you don't need the fancy vacuum machine. A simple cling wrap works just as well, cheaper and more convenient to boot. The wrapping quality isn't as good, so use the meat quickly.

Frying them takes some time. It all depends on the thickness of the meat. The leg will cook in about half-hour and a thigh slightly longer than that. No need to bread the chicken. It's good as-is.

Cooking Journal #14

Baked Potato

It's always a hassle to skin a potato. That's why I never bothered. Sometimes, though, you want a good mash potato. My solution to that is to microwave the potato.

First, I make some cuts for ventilation. Exploding potato in microwave is very bad.

Then hit Baked Potatoes selection in the microwave. Let stand after baking.

The nice baked potato makes skin peeling easy. Just squish the potato. The skin will fall right off!

And that's it. Serve with butter and enjoy!

Cooking Journal #13

Potato chips

For a time, Lays was selling Sriracha potato chips. It's somewhere between BBQ and SuperHot. I love it. I just bought multiple bags of them. Well, Lays stopped selling them. Unfortunately, now that I know just how good potato chips with sriracha sauce can be, there's no going back! BBQ is not good enough anymore! So I cook my own.

 Regarding potato chip, I can tell you that the thinner you can slice it, the better! It's helpful if you have a slicer, then you can just set it up to the thinnest section. Paper thin is just right!

Frying them is simplicity itself. Just deep fry them until they float. You may even wait until they go slightly brown for extra crispiness.

It's okay if some of the chip "bubbles". It just makes it that extra crunchy!

Make sure to drain the oil with paper towel. Salt to taste, although personally, I never bothered. Serve with sriracha sauce. Delicious!

Cooking Journal #12

Home Fries

If you did the french fries last time, then you know how thick the cutting should be. Well, it's time for the next step in the potato frying: Home fries.

Which is exactly like hashbrown, except it's cut squares instead of string. And well, that's it.