52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Thirteen - Breads

The theme for week thirteen was breads, which didn't necessarily excite me. I have baked bread plenty of times, but it's hard for me to beat anything that comes from the farmer's market. Recently, Leigh and I have become obsessed with the jalapeño cheddar bagels at Kavarna Coffee in Oakhurst, so I decided to make something with jalapeños and cheddar. The next logical step was some kind of pig in a blanket. 

For the Jalapeño and Cheddar bread, I made the standard boule recipe in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook (recipe here), and added in jalapeños and cheddar. The chorizo I picked up from the farmer's market. For the mustard, I used this recipe, except I used Orpheus' Lyric Saison instead of a Pale Ale--mainly because that is what I had at my house.

The bread turned out excellent, but it wasn't right for a pig-in-a-blanket. I really think you need some kind of softer bread. The real star of the show was the mustard. It's so easy to make and so wonderful.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Twelve - Mac and Cheese

This is the kind of dish that my brother calls "bro food," and he doesn't mean it in a nice way. I wasn't too inspired for the theme of mac and cheese, because, honestly, mac and cheese is already perfect and doesn't need to be messed with. That being said, strangely enough, this blue cheese mac and cheese was better the second day.

The hot wings were cooked with Kenji Lopez-Alt's oven method. The hot wing sauce was made with sriracha, butter, and a little apple cider vinegar. The blue cheese mac and cheese was made by making a roux, adding milk, and adding blue cheese. Mix it together witch some pasta, and sprinkle it with blue cheese crumbles. All in all pretty good. The blue cheese mac and cheese is intense, and is tastes better when combined with the hot wings.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Eleven - Malaysian

Cooking or eating Malaysian food is something that I have virtually no experience with. This is really a shame, and there aren't many Malaysian restaurants around town, which is actually very surprising. I went through a lot of different recipes on the internet, watched a lot of videos, and finally decided on a fish head curry. It seemed interesting and challenging enough, and I would get the experience to cook with a fish head, which is something I have wanted to do for a while.

I don't have a straight forward recipe for this dish, because I added extra veggies (bok choy and bell pepper). It is basically a mix of Lucky Peach's Malaysian Fish Head Curry recipe and this video of a Singaporean Fish Head Curry, which is essentially the same thing. Overall, it turned out pretty good, and it wasn't hard to make whatsoever--just a lot of ingredients. I'll probably skip the giant fish head next time and just use grouper fillets if I want something similar in the future.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Ten - Braised

For week ten's theme braised, I decided to do either braised artichokes or celery. I went with the artichokes, and it was really an excellent choice. I followed Mark Bittman's super easy recipe, except I used Hondashi broth instead of chicken stock. No reason for this other than that is what I had at my house. This recipe was so tasty I ended up making it a few times in the same week. I highly recommend this simple recipe.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Nine - From a Can

The theme for week nine of the 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge was "From a Can." I’m a huge sardine and canned fish fan, but I decided to stretch the idea of what can be made from a can. Burritos seemed like a logical choice. I really wanted to make sure that every ingredient for this week’s challenge was from a can, and I succeeded.

All of this was pretty simple once I got started. I used canned refried beans and canned queso blanco for the burrito’s filling. I used canned jalapeños and a variety of canned salsas for toppings. For the tortilla, I used canned pizza dough. 

At first I used my tortilla press to press out the dough, but that didn’t work, so I just rolled out the pizza dough. 

Then I baked the burritos for about 20 minutes. In the end, it was not bad. Definitely more like an empanada, chimichanga, or a frozen-style burrito than a classic burrito though.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Eight - Japanese

I really wanted to think outside of the box for the Japanese challenge, so I decided to do something decidedly not Japanese but definitely Japanese influenced. David Chang was a definite source of inspiration. For the fried chicken, I used David Chang’s Ramen Fried Chicken recipe. For the pickles, I used Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Rice Wine Quick Pickles recipe. For the wasabi honey mustard, I used Alton Brown’s honey mustard recipe (which also uses rice wine vinegar), and I added wasabi to it. I threw all of this on a Martin’s Potato Roll. It was a great "Japanese" dinner.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Seven - Air

At first I was slightly confused as to what I could do with week seven's theme of air. Part of the reason I am doing this challenge is to push the boundaries of what will actually fit in each theme, and I didn't want to do something too obvious. I figured everyone would do some kind of whip cream siphon inspired dish, but I decided to do one anyway. A few years ago, I was obsessed with making pimento cheese whiz--so much so that a small piece of a pimento broke my last whip cream dispenser. I think I made actual whip cream in the dispenser once.

This time I decided to make a homemade goat cheese whiz and pair it with whatever I felt like eating, which ended up being a lamb burger and a garlic/dill microwave bread for an appetizer.  This recipe is really easy for the most part. The lamb burger was seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in a cast iron skillet. The homemade goat cheese whiz was made by making a mornay sauce with goat cheese and loading it into a whip cream siphon. The garlic and dill microwave bread is loosely based on this recipe (very loosely). I added garlic (smashed into a paste) and dill (stirred in after I squirted the "dough" in the paper cups), and I took out about half the sugar. When the bread was done, I toasted it in the oven. Pretty good--I wasn't sure how it would turn out, because I have never made microwave bread with a siphon before. I love making homemade cheese whiz, and I definitely plan on making it again. Next time, I think I will try a blue cheese.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Six - Finger Foods

The theme of week six was finger foods, and I decided to go with one of my favorite recipes that I only make maybe once a year: Pimento Cheese Stuffed Hush Puppies. These are awesome. Hands down perfect. The recipe is from the Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, and I respect their organization so much that I will not reprint the recipe here. Here's a hint on how to make them: you stuff hush puppies with pimento cheese. I'm sure any variation would be awesome. Here's the serious eats write up on the cookbook that links to a couple of recipes from the book.

Fried Bologna Sandwich

If you would have told me that I was going to make a blog post about trying to create a fried bologna sandwich at any point in my life (and pretty much including right now), I would have said that you were crazy. Bologna is one of my most hated foods, and I am not a picky eater. In all honestly, I haven't probably had bologna since I was 10 years old, and I hated it then.

Recently though, I have noticed that fried bologna sandwiches are becoming en vogue. I have seen them pop up on menus around town, and Lucky Peach just did a recipe on bologna cups.

My old roommate Joe would make the occasional fried bologna sandwich, while I usually watched in a mix of disgust and awe. I wanted to get his opinion on them popping up around town. He is obviously a fried bologna sandwich expert because I have never seen anyone eat or make one before, and he has done both. I sent Joe a text inquiring about the popularity of fried bologna sandwiches, and what he wrote back blew my mind.

I was typing so fast from this revelation that I wasn't able to spell.

Hold up. Bologna straight out of the package, which I hate so much, is like a hotdog out of the package? That's insane! I would NEVER eat a raw hotdog, but I love them cooked.

This revelation got me thinking that maybe I had been missing out on something delicious, so I decided I was going to make one.

First, I went to the farmer's market and found some bologna that I thought looked decent. I went with a veal bologna with a picture of some guy that looks like he may know what he's talking about on it. I also picked up some of my favorite sour pickles. My plan was to slice them ultra thin and layer them on the sandwich. I figured a mixture of sour pickles and mustard would make the bologna better if it tasted horrible. Oh yeah, and a slice of cheddar. Cheese would definitely help this sandwich. The bread is a pre-sliced brioche. I used this cause I already had it at my house.

It definitely looks like a raw hot dog.

With my main ingredients in place, the sandwich pretty much put itself together after that. I fried the bologna in a skillet, and a disturbing amount of inflation and fat leakage occurred.

I then threw in the slice of cheese to melt on top--this is something I had seen Joe do, so I figured it was proper fried bologna sandwich protocol.

With everything ready, it was time to put this thing together. I had been skeptical up until this point, but, honestly, it really didn't look that bad.

I put it all together, cut it in half, took a bite, and didn't vomit. Actually, it was pretty damn good. Definitely not an all-the-time kind of thing, but it was pretty good. I even started telling people about how good it was and showing them pictures of it on my phone. Most people didn't care. 

So there you go, fried bologna sandwiches are pretty damn good. People are putting them on menus for taste and not just kitsch. I look forward to trying a super-fancy one sometime.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Five - Chili

Week five's challenge of chili wasn't that exciting to me. Don't get me wrong, I love chili, but I didn't feel like being creative with it. I probably could have thought of something more interesting, but I really just didn't feel like it. I like this chili recipe, and I feel no need to go crazy with it. The upside of this challenge was that I made enough chili to have it for lunch everyday that week. The chili is Kenji's recipe without one of the cans of chickpeas and plus a lot of portobellos and green bell pepper. I also left out the bourbon. Put the chili in a frito bag and top with sour cream, cheese, and scallions. It's excellent.

Snacks I Need to Remember, Vol. 1

Chicken Macho Fantastic Wasabi. These things are basically like cheese puffs, but instead of cheese they have wasabi flavoring. Not enough wasabi flavor to clear your sinuses, but enough to remind you that if there was more wasabi it would clear your sinuses.

This isn't an all the time snack, but definitely a nice change up. It would pair very well with a sandwich (big suprise!).

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Green Tea Kit-Kats. These things are addictive. They don't really taste anything at all like a normal Kit-Kat. They have the same consistency of a normal Kit-Kat, and feel the same in your mouth, but they taste sort of like white chocolate and green tea.

Fortunately, the tea is not overpowering at all--I think some people wouldn't even taste the tea if they didn't know it was there. They also look cool because they are green. I have given these to my students in the past, and they would go crazy. This was mainly due to the fact that none of them knew where to find them. If you give kids interesting snacks, they usually hook you up with snacks on a regular basis, so it's a win-win situation.

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Chimes. These things taste like the Thai equivalent to Werther's Originals (eventhough these are from Indonesia). A great mix of peanut butter and ginger, which reminds me of Thai food. They are sweet and savory, and definitely have a buttery flavor (à la Werther's Originals).

Anyway, I found all of these snacks at the Buford Highway Farmer's Market in Atlanta, GA. Try them if you are into snacks. I posted it here, because like the title says these are Snacks I Need to Remember.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Four - Brunch

Week four's theme was brunch on the 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge. I decided to try something different, and I remembered a recipe from Mission Street Food by Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz that I thought people would like. That, however, didn't happen. If upvotes are any indicator of actual "likes" on Reddit, Reddit hated this recipe.

Anyway, I made a giant piece of cinnamon toast crunch. The finished product may look like a square turd, but it's really good. It's actually pretty decadent and amazing. I "adapted" this recipe by adding cinnamon to the butter and not adding chamomile to the milk, and I really piled on the cane sugar (which gives it the turd look). I think this would be a huge hit with children and people with a sweet tooth. My girlfriend loved it. Here's an online copy of the recipe.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Three - Greek

This is my attempt at a Greek inspired dish. For this recipe, you need to use fresh whole sardines. I find them at the local farmer's market. Coat the sardines in flour--I used a flour, salt, cayenne mixture--and fry in oil for around 2 minutes each side. Chop up a pepper (I used a red serrano) and mix it with capers, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Let this mixture sit for a little bit, and then drizzle it all over the sardines. Top with fresh cut parsley. The salad is just a classic greek salad. The recipe for the salad is here. Really easy with a high flavor payoff. 

I made the pepper/caper/oil mixture first, then the salad, and then I fried the sardines. A lot of people are turned off by the idea of fried sardines, but fresh whole sardines are completely different than the canned ones. They are really easy to clean, and don't take long to cook. I highly recommend trying some. I also love the ones in the can, but I'll save that for another post.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week Two - Sous Vide

Sous vide was the theme for week two of the 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge, and I was pretty psyched. I've been messing around with sous vide for a few years. I started off with the cooler method, which made me obsessed, and then I bought an Anova Immersion Circulator. At first, everything was cooked sous vide at my house (à la the obsession), but it tapered off into a hardly ever used device. It was nice to bring it out again.

I decided to cook an old standby: eggs and asparagus with toasted almonds. This is something I've been making sous vide since I first started. It is super simple, delicious, and works equally well for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. All you have to do is vacuum seal and cook the asparagus for 10 mins at 190° F (add some butter to the bag), and cook the eggs for 13 mins at 167° F. Toast the almonds on a skillet. Add a crack of black pepper and some smoked sea salt to finish it off. Super simple and super delicious.

52 Weeks of Cooking: Week One - Soup

I had been wanting to join the 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge on Reddit all last year, but I didn't want to start in the middle of the year. So, I started the challenge this year. I guess this is my personal challenge/resolution for 2016. I already cook weekly, so the challenge lies more in sticking to the weekly themes, thinking of different and creative preparations, plating the dishes, and taking (hopefully) interesting pictures of the food. I also talked my brother into joining, so there is a little bit of friendly competition (which I love).

The first weekly theme was soup, and lucky for me I had recently discovered a soup recipe that I was dying to cook. Over Christmas 2015, I traveled all over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico visiting ruins and eating a lot of food. I had amazing tacos, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, moles, flautas, soups, and fajitas (and tequila and mezcal, but that's a different story). My favorite meal of the trip was either the tacos from this one place in Tulum, or, and more-than-likely, a tomato and avocado gazpacho called divorced gazpacho that was at a restaurant in Valladolid. This isn't a recipe for either of those. This is a recipe for Crema de Cilantro, a delicious cream of cilantro soup.

I found this recipe in a cookbook that Leigh and I picked up at a used bookstore in Puerto Morelos. Leigh loves cilantro, so this recipe was a shoo-in for the 52 Weeks Cooking Challenge.

My version of this soup is slightly different than the cookbook's. I used mexican crema and veggie broth instead of milk. Here's the recipe with my changes:

Crema de Cilantro

Ingredients

• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1 White or Yellow Onion
• 1/2 Leek (white part)
• 3 stalks Celery
• 2 medium Carrots
• 1 stick Butter
• 3 TBSP Flour
• 2 cups Mexican Crema
• 2 cups Broth (Veggie, Chicken, whatever)
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 3 bunches Cilantro

Instructions: Sauté garlic, onion, jalapeño, leek, celery, and carrot in butter until soft. Add flour and stir. Add 2 cups mexican crema and bay leaves. Keep stirring. Blend cilantro and broth together. Add cilantro/broth mixture to sautéed veggies. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Take out bay leaves. Use a hand blender (preferred) or reguar blender and blend to your preferred consistency. Top with tomato (essential), onion, crema, and jalapeño slices.