what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

I was reading (NYT) about the insalata verde that Samin Nosrat loves at a particular restaurant. It's interesting that they talk about the maceration of shallots in dressings. But instead of doing the acidic maceration they shock the minced shallots with cold water instead. I am going to try this dressing this week because supposedly adding in the warm water is also key. And I really really love mustard based dressing.

1 large shallot, minced
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon aged sherry vinegar, plus additional, as needed
1 tablespoon warm water
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ teaspoons whole-grain mustard
1 ½ teaspoons honey (optional)
2 sprigs thyme, washed and stripped
1 large clove garlic, finely grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

that looks good. and i am always looking for good sherry vinegar uses outside of ginger scallion sauce to have a reasonable burn rate on the bottle. though we might eat enough of that these days to do the trick.

what's your recipe for that? Sounds great.

momofuku ginger scallion sauce:

2.5 C thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites, from 1-2 bunches)
0.25 C finely minced peeled fresh ginger
0.25 C grapeseed or other neutral oil
1.5 tsp usukuchi (light japanese soy sauce)
0.75 tsp sherry vinegar
0.75 tsp kosher salt

you let it sit for at least 20 minutes, and it keeps in the fridge for awhile. he recommends stirring in a tablespoon of that per ounce of noodles. we always just eyeball it and adjust to taste. you can use rice, alkaline, or egg noodles. we've used dark japanese soy sauce with a bit of mirin when we couldn't find usukuchi.

we then always add the quick cucumber pickles. you just slice a small (kirby or persian) cucumber into pickle-thickness coins and sprinkle a 3:1 mixture of sugar:kosher salt in a bowl (about 0.5 tablespoon of mixture per cucumber). let sit for 20 minutes.

and we also usually add Angrea Nguyen's shaking tofu to the bowl if it's a meal:

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/shaking-tofu

Chang recommends roasted cauliflower. it is awesome, very cheap meal! (as long as you don't buy the usukuchi, sherry vinegar, etc and never use them).

you can also play with the ratio of scallion and ginger, obviously. for some reason, there's twice as much ginger in the "same" recipe in the Lucky Peach book, and I thought it was too much. I also mince the hell out of it though, because I hate eating big pieces of ginger.

this stuff also definitely fits the theme of maceration that Yerac brought to the thread

mmmm def gonna try that

ooooh, I am going to try that too. It would've never occurred to me to make that type of sauce with so little liquid. I would've also automatically done sesame oil instead but that would change the profile totally.

I've seen variations with a bit more oil in them. always neutral though. i like to heat the oil and put it on some of the scallions for a bit so that they mellow a bit - i preserve some that i add later so i don't lose too much rawness

i have made it & it is vvvvv good

xxp it is a strangely small amount of liquid, but the liquid seems to grow a bit with sitting. the shaking tofu has some sesame oil on it, so I don't think it's incompatible. the sauced noodle flavor is definitely subtle, though, with the neutral oil. some would probably disagree with throwing sauced up tofu in there, but we do it. weird thing about that shaking tofu recipe is how it gets a bit of heat from just a huge amount of black pepper.

xp there's a second version in the lucky peach book that involves heating the oil, jim. interested in trying that way as well.

and VG otm. I think VG and others had posted itt about it before. and I was a hater at first because I made some poor substitutions and, I think, even used it in stir fried noodles the first time. imo it is better as a subtle thing mixed into noodles that complements some other stuff in the bowl. it also just really grew on us.

Yeah I would've assumed there was equal parts of oil with vinegar and soy. I need to figure out what I will eat with it.

it keeps for a decent amount of time too, which is a plus

My first instict with that recipe would be to hit it with the boat motor and smooth it out rather than to leave the scallions and ginger chunky.

i microplane-grate the ginger and thinly slice the scallions

not v chunky

I think I would microplane the ginger too although sometimes I really do like the texture of minced ginger, like when I make DUMPLINGS!.

you have dumpling making recipe or link or tips, Yerac?

Not really. I sometimes look at dumpling recipes online but I still kind of make them the same way I made them with my mom. My spouse doesn't eat meat so the filling is always tofu and whatever other onion/scallion, green veg we have on hand. I got lazy for a couple of years and just pureed everything for the filling together but now I try to be better by cooking the onions and kale (if using) a little first and crumbling the tofu with everything else with my hands. We add a lot of fresh ginger. Like the amount of ginger keeps going up.

The dough is basic. Just flour, warm water, a little salt. Getting a dowel is key to rolling it out. I don't even think I could use a rolling pin. When I make them I usually try to do 50-75 at once. And then they get boiled, dried out and pan-fried before eating.

Hmm. Thx. Want to try making but unsure when. Seems like seitan might be a good protein for this. Also,wish I knew where to score wood ears nearby.

Just make sure to add some cornstarch to the filling if you think the veggies might release a lot of water while cooking if you don't cook them beforehand. I've never used seitan. If I had a good asian market near me I would probably try to add some tofu skins. The dumpling sauce is just soy sauce, vinegar, fresh garlic and maybe hot oil. Since that is so strong, I've never been concerned too much about the filling needing to taste perfect. I just try to make it somewhat healthy since we eat a shitload of DUMPLINGS! at once.

Tofu skins sound ace as well. So what's the difference between the DUMPLINGS! you make and using won ton wrappers? Tempted to try and find a easy way into dumpling-making

I have no idea why autocorrect did that to the word dumpling btw

I make shui jiao, basically made like the pics in the link below. Bought won ton/gyoza skins are fine. I just prefer thick skin DUMPLINGS! and I can make dough super quick.

http://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2018/04/03/northern-style-boiled-DUMPLINGS!-shui-jiao/

it's an ilx coded thing about DUMPLINGS!.

That's hilarious. Thx! Yay for weekend project

Aaaand right on cue, momofuku lunch post from the gram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxh4VwSBCxI/?igshid=1xwoxnu49x7rp

That looks really good. You should make some DUMPLINGS! with the won ton wrapper and use the scallion ginger sauce above as the topping.

Oh heck yeah!

partner and kids are out of town, so it's time for the two things I never eat with them: steak and pork belly. just made Night + Market's Prakas's rib eye. it's coated in dark soy, thai seasoning sauce, white pepper and seared (still raw on inside), cut into strips, and lightly stir fried with bird chilies, garlic, and cherry tomatoes. even calls for (thai) basil and parmigiano reggiano. it's one of kris' dad's old recipes and is enhanced by the backstory in the book. it was good! i'm not a steakhouse person, so I enjoyed this steak format. steakhouse people would possibly hate it. I did my part by not cooking the hell out of it. doing the momofuku pork belly buns on saturday. lots of horror stories out there on Chang's high-to-low heat method (because my food actions are extremely food blogger typical. sorry, thread).

and also: DUMPLINGS!

pottery

Based on this thread, I made ginger scallion noodles with soba noodles, roasted cauliflower, stir fried tofu, and pickles. Added a bit more oil than the recipe called for as it was quite dry. It was so good and better than when I made it a number of years ago. Thanks ILX peeps for the inspiration.

nice, took a long break and second try for me as well

xpost I have such a gap in my repertoire of cooking meat. I kind of figure at this point there is no use in experimenting, I pretty much just go balls out when I travel/dine out or someone else prepares it for me. Those momofuku pork buns are soooo good.

I'm getting pretty good with the vegan creole red beans. Soak lb Camellia brand (no good substitutes) beans overnight. Chop big onion, green pepper, 2+ stalks celery, 2+ cloves garlic and saute in the bottom of a big pressure cooker. Add Tbsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp thyme, 3 bay leaves, pinch cayenne, 1/4 tsp salt, generous black pepper, stir in, then add beans with water just to cover. Tsp marmite/other yeast extract/bullion optional. Heat the cooker to the standard 15 psi, and maintain 30 minutes, then turn the stove off as the pressure releases over the next 30+ minutes. No stirring necessary, and no risk of burning as there isn't an external heat source and water isn't boiling off. Don't worry if it looks a bit liquid, stir it up and the starches will congeal as it cools. Adjust flavor with balsamic vinegar, creole hot sauce, salt, black pepper. Serve over basmati rice (microwave recipe: 2 pts rice, 3.5 pts water, in my microwave 7 minutes uncovered, 7 covered) with a plate over the bowl.

the pork belly and the buns turned out well. i tend to think the bread-to-filling ratio in most bao i've eaten is too high, which makes me think i've probably never eaten very good bao. i'm very excited about the format and look forward to making a veg version that everyone in our house can enjoy. i need to get a big wok steamer or something, though, because I was up all night steaming 50 buns at 4 or 5 at a time. maybe i can find something that would work for tamales, too.

i tested the bun quality in real time with just some quick pickle, hoisin, and scallion sauce. that alone was pretty awesome, but it looks like mushrooms is the way most veg versions go.

oh wow steaming that man buns without a stacked set up sounds like a nightmare.

uh, many buns.

that many buns was a pain in the man buns, yes. i drank wine and listened to a few podcasts. normally i would buy the tools for the job beforehand, but i wasn't sure i'd love these. going to do the soy pickled rehydrated shiitakes for the veg version.

my grandpa cut out a receipt for lumpia... but I have been told it is not worth the effort and that the frozen kind at like 99 Ranch are almost/just as good

fucking nonsense

i've not had lumpia and enjoyed looking into it. according to yelp, i'd have to drive a ways to find it. might have to give the frozen a try, as i'm sure one of the grocers have it. giving one a recipe for a thing and then immediately encouraging one to just buy the thing is a classic cookbook move as well. making it seems like good calibration and instruction, even if you do end up buying ready made afterward.

To commemorate a trip my wife and I took to Brittany in May, 2012, I made some savory gallettes tonight, stuffed with ham, gruyere, mushrooms and greens, with steamed artichokes and asparagus on the side. We broke out some nicer-than-our-usual wine and reminisced. Very nice.

i would like those

I normally cook 6 days a week, every week; I simply can't imagine what it would be like to be presented with a delicious cooked meal like that!

Ok, this is a little off topic but it's driving me a bit crazy and I know someone here will know. In France (and other part of EU), it seems there are not a lot of big conventional home ovens but are those little microwaves also little ovens? For some reason I thought they were but I haven't been able to figure it out how to use them and I don't seem to be googling the right things. I always want to make some type of pastry cheese thing in France but I can't figure out the oven situation.

I love savory galletes.

You might be mistaking a small convection oven for a microwave. I don't think they would be compatible in the same appliance, but they can look very much alike.