(Part 2) 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.

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!

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

Adapted from The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book

2 tbsp oil
2 onions
1 large sweet potato or 2 medium ones, chopped roughly
2 carrots, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, minced
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups chicken broth (from bouillon)
1/3 cup spicy peanut butter
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until nearly soft and transparent, then stir in carrots , garlic and sweet potatoes. Cook for about 60 seconds, then add ginger and spices. Stir to coat, then add broth.

Bring mixture to simmer, stir in peanut butter until smooth, then cover and cook for 30 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice

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

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

This list is interesting but very much outside my experience of the 1980s, being from the UK. Nearly all those foods are very American.

Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course came out in 1978 and that had a significant influence on the 1980s.

For UK suggestions:

1. Findus Crispy Pancakes
   
2. Chicken Kiev
   
3. Deep Pan Pizzas
   
4. Boil-in-the-bag
   
5. Slush Puppies/Sodastream
   
6. Ryvita
   
7. Viennetta
   
8. Nescafé Gold Blend
   
9. Frosties
   
10. Ferrero Rocher
    
    If this list looks 1970s or earlier to US redditors, it's because trends took longer to reach Europe in those days. Today, due to the internet and perhaps more international travel, we access stuff much faster. I remember in the 80s how all our mothers avidly tried out this amazing recipe for chewy "Toll House Cookies" from the single American family in our town.

They're from this book, which has a ton of good stuff. I'll try to take a picture of the pages when I get home.

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.

Here are a few Week 24 ideas for people who don't have grills or smokers:

• Try wok smoking (also works in a regular pot with a lid) with a steamer basket
  
• Feature a pre-smoked protein, like smoked fish, smoked ham hocks, smoked sausages, smoked bacon, etc
  
• Experiment with liquid smoke
  
• Make something including smoked spices (smoked paprika, smoked salt, etc) or smoked cheeses (brie, gouda, some kinds of cheddar, etc)
  
• A smokin' hot dish, just for the pun
  
• Make something that's literally smoking--bust out the dry ice, baby!
  
• Make something you'd eat if you were, uh, smoking the devil's lettuce

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.