Top products from r/52weeksofcooking

For this week’s theme, I wanted to make a Malaysian feast for some of my law school friends. I started with this chicken curry recipe because I liked the fact that it had a ton of different and interesting ingredients (coconut, curry leaves, lemongrass, etc). This was delicious and intense, but the lemongrass chunks got scattered throughout the dish and made it a little hard to eat. I would definitely tie them into knots (like in the rice dish) next time. To go with that, I had to make nasi lemak, a coconut and lemongrass flavored rice. I found the recipe for this in Cradle of Flavor, an Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean cookbook I borrowed from my parents for Week 34 (Indonesian) inspiration. It was a little undercooked, but it is the closest I have come to successful rice on the stove so far. I liked the coconut and ginger and lemongrass flavors that were subtle but persistent in the dish. From my reading, nasi lemak is usually served with, among other things, fried peanuts and some kind of pickle. I made these fried peanuts because they were simple but delicious looking. They turned out really well, though some got a little over-fried. I also made pickled cucumbers, carrots, fresno chilies and shallots with a turmeric-ginger flavoring (also from Cradle of Flavor). These were delicious and a refreshing counterpoint to the richness of the curry and the rice.

For my MetaTheme, I made this Malaysian Negroni. I’m not normally a huge Negroni fan (a little too bitter for my tastes) but I didn’t have a ton of choices available to me. Malaysia is 80% muslim and buddhist so the cocktail culture is pretty limited. I liked that the recipe incorporated some classic Malaysian ingredients in an interesting way. I infused the chili into the Campari for about 4 hours and the lemongrass into the vermout for 3 days. When I tasted the Campari straight, the spice wasn’t super prominent but it really came through in the final drink. I think the Campari was too bitter for me to taste the spice. The lemongrass added a really interesting herbaceous note to the cocktail that I liked a lot.

This dish turned out awesome--it's definitely going into the rotation. I expected it to taste a lot like pad thai as the ingredients were quite similar but the flavor profile was actually pretty different thanks to the caramel-based sauce and lack of tamarind/lime.

Recipe is from the excellent cookbook Hawker Fare by James Syhabout which has a mix of Lao & Thai recipes. I modified it slightly to reduce the amount of oil, increase the amount of fish sauce & shallots slightly, and incorporate meat & broccoli/veggies to make it a complete meal.

RECIPE: I recommend halving this unless you are cooking for a crowd. Plus half the recipe cooked up perfectly in a regular cast iron skillet.

Ingredients:

OMELET (KHAI JIAO)

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 teaspoons canola oil

NOODLES

0.5 lb chicken, pork, or 1 block tofu (optional)

any other vegetable you want to include

24 ounces dried medium-wide rice noodles

1/4 cup canola oil

100 grams granulated sugar

1/2 cup sliced shallots

2 tablespoons finely minced garlic

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

3 tablespoons Gold Mountain brand seasoning sauce (can sub soy sauce)

1/3 cup fish sauce

1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (I subbed regular soy sauce)

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon MSG (optional)

2 cups mung bean sprouts

1½ cups scallions, in 1-inch pieces

GARNISHES

Sliced omelet

2 tablespoons Fried Shallots (optional)

½ cup chopped cilantro, stems included

1 cup mung bean sprouts

CONDIMENTS

Prik phong (ground toasted chile) or Sriracha

Directions:

MAKE THE OMELET: Crack the eggs into a small mixing bowl and add the fish sauce. Beat with a fork, as if making scrambled eggs. Add the oil to an 8-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. When it’s warm pour in the egg mixture and tilt the pan to ensure the egg covers the bottom. Continue to cook over gentle heat for about 3 minutes—you’ll notice the top of the omelet firming up. (If it starts to color it means the pan is too hot; remove the pan from the heat.) Once the top is firm, flip and cook over low heat for another minute. Slide the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate to cool. Slice into ¼-inch by 2-inch slivers and reserve for garnishing.

MAKE THE NOODLES: Cook the noodles according to package directions, but undercook them by a minute or two as you'll finish cooking them in the pan.

If adding meat or other vegetables, stir fry them now then set aside.

Add the oil and sugar to a saucepan with a wide diameter and mix well; set over medium-high heat. As the oil gets hot the sugar will caramelize. Cook until the caramel turns a deep amber.

Once it has reached the desired color turn off the heat, carefully add the shallots and garlic, and give it a stir with a spoon to sweat the aromatics—at this point your kitchen should smell very good. Sweat the aromatics for 1 minute, deglaze with the water, and stir well. Add the seasonings (oyster sauce, seasoning sauce, fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, black pepper, and MSG, if using) and mix well.

Return the saucepan to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add the drained noodles and cook, stirring constantly with a pair of tongs. Move the noodles as if tossing a salad—they’ll wilt and slowly soak up the sauce. When the noodles have absorbed all the sauce and the pan is dry, with no residual sauce remaining, turn off the heat and fold in the bean sprouts and scallions, again like tossing a salad. Season to taste with additional salt, soy sauce, and/or fish sauce. Top with the omelet slices, fried shallots, and chopped cilantro, with a side of extra mung bean sprouts. Serve with prik phong or Sriracha.

If you feel like doing a deep-dive, I'm a total taco nerd! I have a couple posts here on them:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/bl2d21/iwtl_how_to_makecook_tacos/emmb5wz/?context=3
  
  I buy the lard (leaf lard) for my homemade flour tortillas here: (these days, I just buy them pre-packaged in the one-pound bags & then freeze them to extend the shelf life)
  
  
• https://fannieandflo.net/products/1-pound-leaf-lard
  
  You can use the lard for other stuff, like these amazing carnitas:
  
  
• https://www.afamilyfeast.com/carnitas/
  
  If you don't want to go the lard route, this is a good technique that uses warm milk for no-knead tortillas:
  
  
• https://sometimesyouneedtocook.com/the-best-no-knead-flour-tortillas/
  
  For homemade corn tortillas, I use this nixtamalization process:
  
  
• https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/04/how-to-make-fresh-nixtamalized-corn-tortillas-from-scratch.html
  
  I buy my flour & corn in 25-pound bags. I store them in 5-gallon food-grade pails with a twist-off lid: (I use OXO Pop containers for smaller quantities in the kitchen, plus a scoop to reload those containers as needed)
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Gamma2-4120-Gamma-Seal-Lid/dp/B007KAZ1W0/
  
  I use a monster 10" cast-iron press: (expensive, but it's a lifetime purchase, re: /r/BuyItForLife, and works for both big & little tortillas)
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QDZRCCY
  
  I use this microwaveable warmer to keep the tortillas warm for serving:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GVNH7YV
  
  Internet Shaquille has a great video on why restaurant burritos are better than homemade & what to do about it:
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osv72OeCpR0
  
  Quick-pickled onions are a really great taco topping to try out, here's a couple recipes:
  
  
• https://cookieandkate.com/quick-pickled-onions-recipe/
  
• https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/quick-pickled-red-onions/
  
  That may seem like an overwhelming amount of information for mere tacos, but having the equipment, supplies, and recipes already setup in my kitchen means that it's a piece of cake...I've got tons of flour in my big bucket & use that to refill my Pop containers in my kitchen, then I can grab some flour, whip up some no-knead tortillas, let them sit for 30 minutes, smash it on my press, cook it in a skillet, and keep it warm in the fabric warming disc. Homemade tortillas are a huge step up in quality, taste, texture, and functionality over store-bought ones, and you can do so many things with them that it makes setting up an nice little workflow at home worth doing if you're into tortillas!

I had a lot of fun blasting 80's music and rocking out while cooking dinner tonight! I was only alive for one year of the 80's but I love the music, the movies and in high school I was very inspired by the fashions too! Never really thought about the foods of the 80's before now though, more new things that wouldn't have happened without this challenge.

I made the vodka sauce recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook, substituting cashew cream for immersion-blended almonds. It was so good!! This will definitely become a regular dinner!

The walnuts were simply cooked with some brown sugar.

The raspberry vinaigrette is from the Vitamix website and was easy to make and pretty good I substituted apple syrup and agave syrup for the honey in this recipe.

"Blackened Aspargus" might not actually be a thing, and it's really just sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper and no cajun spices at all, but I thought that one more 80's element would really round out the meal!

Stewed Rabbit: "You'll eat Rabbit, or you won't eat. Roast rabbit on a spit would be quickest, if you've got a hunger. Or might be you'd like it stewed, with ale and onions." Arya could almost taste the rabbit. "We have no coin, but we brought some carrots and cabbages we could trade you". (A Storm of Swords). Very good but very plain. Most certainly felt like a hearty stew that I'd want to be greeted with at an Inn after a long day of travel.


Sansa's Lemon Cakes: "Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa was so stuffed that she could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them" These went away so quickly! Family was grabbing them off the cooling rack before they'd even been iced. I now understand why they are so often pilfered from the King's Landing kitchens. Again, very simple, but packed with sweet, tart lemon flavor. I should note that when I prepared the recipe as instructed the dough was very, very dry, and that I had to squeeze in a lot of lemon juice to get it to the right consistency.

Both of these dishes were taken from A Feast of Ice & Fire. While each dish also had a more modern recipe, I decided to go with the more traditional approach.

This week we went back to eclairs. Our last ones tragically deflated, and the cream was eggy, and the chocolate a mess. In comparison, these were amazing!

For Christmas I received this cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Patisserie-at-Home-Melanie-Dupuis/dp/0062445316/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C61K2GF8TTX5QQAR714M, which is quite good. It has "Learn" and "Understand" sections about the various recipes. Additionally, the recipes are all for the individual components (creams, pastries, techniques, etc.) and so composition is quite easy.

The recipes all included good tells for knowing when components were cooked enough, particularly the choux, which had a nice crackling noise to listen for.

They took a very long time but were definitely worth it in the end, and a huge improvement over our last effort!

What oomps62 said. I changed the recipes a bit but the base comes from this book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Ice-Fire-Chelsea-Monroe-Cassel/dp/0007488505

Everything in it sounds amazing and what I’ve made so far has all been great

I use this one. Pricy and big for something that's effectively single purpose, but zucchini spaghetti is awesome. And healthy. And cheap.

Recipe is from The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt and they tasted awesome.

The recipe itself is really simple:
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
2 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Kosher Salt
8 Tablespoons Butter
2 More Tablespoons Butter (Melted)

• Preheat Oven to 425 F
  
• Dry ingredients and butter blitzed in a food processor
  
• Combine everything in a bowl with a spatula
  
• Roll it out
  
• Fold it
  
• Roll it out
  
• Add Cheese/Chives
  
• Fold it
  
• Roll it out
  
• Cut it out
  
• Brush with melted butter
  
• Bake 15 minutes
  
  I'd recommend getting the book as it goes into much better detail about not only processes and technique, but the reasons behind them. Great book!

A perfect excuse to break out my newest cook book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I tried out one recipe from it that had been copied online, and it came out great, so I'm looking forward to trying some others!

Recipe taken from Martin Morales' cookbook Ceviche. Linkarooni to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Ceviche-Martin-Morales/dp/0297868616

Used seabass and shrimp. Cook shrimp before adding to the final mix. Had to use a habanero for spice instead of the recommended Limo or Scotch Bonnet, as there is an apparent pepper drought in my area. /huff

I forgot to cook the sweet potato until I had already added the fish to the lime mixture, so no yummy sweetness to counter the tart lime. /doublehuff

A perfect excuse to use one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas!

Recipe is from Bonnie Stern's HeartSmart: The Best of HeartSmart Cooking. https://www.amazon.com/HeartSmart-Best-Cooking-Bonnie-Stern/dp/0679314121

Back! Burger is a recipe like this one from Veganomicon, a simple black bean patty with vital wheat gluten to bind.
I just served with a mound of avocado, fried onions, and bbq sauce (mix of tomato paste, water, white vinegar, maple syrup, worchestershire, liquid smoke, chillies, and salt simmered).

I made a blender hollandaise sauce based on this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blender-hollandaise-sauce/

The book that inspired my first attempt at Eggs Benedict: http://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Benedict-Society-Trenton-Stewart/dp/0316003956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331486895&sr=8-1

It should also be noted (by Terry Pratchett fans especially) that Nanny Ogg's Cookbook is a real thing you can buy for $10 digital / $15 paperback. It's got a decent collection of recipes and is actually a very humorous read.

Both from Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice.

I'm not the biggest fan of diet foods/fads, I lost a whole bunch of weight just watching out portion sizes and cooking more. I like to follow Michael Pollan's nutritional plan which is, in order of importance, eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

This is the one I have, I think it's the same one OP has as well.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-GINGERDEAD-MEN-Cookie-Cutter/dp/B005LGUWUQ

I used this, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. I'm sure it'll get easier to use once I'm used to it, but it's still kind of difficult to julienne the whole vegetable with it. If you look up spiralizers you can check the reviews for different types. This is the one I see recommended most often, but it's also one of the more expensive brands.

On the left is Bear's Paw Tofu from Every Grain of Rice and on the right is Peng's Home-style Bean Curd from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.

Someone else linked it below https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-GINGERDEAD-MEN-Cookie-Cutter/dp/B005LGUWUQ

All are in this cookbook.