Winter and spring 2022

A long curry stretch (chana masala, butter paneer masala, a Thai red curry that “worked especially well”) alongside a big-batch beef stew and a ravioli filling that held together on the first try. A burger-and-chicken-sandwich cookery week produced real lessons — frozen pre-smashed patties work fine, the buttermilk chicken marinade needed more seasoning — and a char siu marinade and lentil tacos both got written up for the book.

Undated. About January to June 2022; the original notes grouped these as Winter/Spring.

Test dishes

Chana masala (also: simpler steps)
Butter paneer masala (also: chetna’s)
- Masala paste
  - 2 tbsp oil/ghee
  - 2 bay leaves
  - 3 cardamom
  - ½ stick cinnamon (other half for rice)
  - 2 tablespoon of whole garam masala
  - 4 onions
  - 2 cloves garlic/1 inch ginger paste
  - 15 cashews soaked
    - Cook down, starting with spices, adding onions, developing, adding ginger/garlic paste, tomatoes. 20 minutes + 20 minutes
    - Cool, remove whole spices, and blend.
- Curry
  - Oil, real butter
  - Bag, chili
  - 1 onion (finely chopped)
  - 1 tsp turmeric
  - 1 tsp chilli powder (kashmiri)
  - ¾ teaspoon coriander
  - ¼ teaspoon cumin
  - 1 teaspoon masala (powder)
  - Salt
  - Water
  - Cream
  - Panneer (soasked)
  - Kasuri methi (tiny amount of fennel/celery salt/leaves instead)
  - Fresh coriander
    - Add oil and butter to pan, carefully cook new spices.
    - Add onions, spices, salt, paste, and cream. Stir and season.
    - Add paneer.

End of Spring food prep

Mushroom mix (for soups, salads, and omelets)
- Need to figure out packaging (250ml + parchment dividers?)

End of Spring fridge cleanup

Leftover mapo tofu → ramen!
- Cabbage
- Mapo tofu
- Carrot
- Spices
Leftover beef/pork → meatballs → Meatballs
- ~~I will update my recipe~~
- Use kitchen scraps for meatballs
  - Protein
    - 390g leftover frozen chicken (90% lean)
    - 160g pork fat (5% lean)
    - 560g leftover frozen chuck beef (80% lean)
  - Panade
    - 200g overcooked brown rice
    - 50g panko
    - 400g buttermilk
  - Other
    - 3 eggs
    - ½ cup celery leaves finely chopped
    - 100g onions grated
    - 10g grated garlic
    - 250ml seasonings (from recipe for the most part)
  - Method
    - Paddled panade and other ingredients together (after heating panade, mixing, and cooling)
    - Ground 1x fine mesh the mostly frozen chicken, beef, and pork fat, alternating
    - Paddled everything after removing grinder attachment until just barely combined
    - Tested 2 tbsp in a pan
      - Fell apart, surface browning was mostly on rice
      - Flavour fantastic
      - Will try cooling/sit for 1 hour and see if they hold together better
        If this doesn’t work, will add breadcrumbs and salt and retaste
        There may be too much liquid from extra egg or buttermilk as I was using up the last bits
Soup stock

Desserts

Sour cake
Leftover rice → pudding → Rice pudding
- 2 cups rice
- 2 cups milk / substitute (⅛ cream, ⅞ oat milk)
- 1 beaten egg
- 3 ¼ tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- Heat for ~20 minutes on low/med until thickened and heated. Adding beaten egg early lets it temper slowly.
  - Aim for 60-70C

More curry adventures

Develop a base gravy → Base curry gravy
- Research started (there are a lot of processes), need to find some core good technique here
  - Example (decent)
  - Another example (potatoes seem weird, less tomato)
Garlic ginger paste → Ginger/garlic paste

Curried adventures

Vindaloo
Veg thai curry, more authentic and simpler → Red Thai curry
- Paste fried in coconut cream
- Mushrooms and tofu fried simply in oil and garlic/ginger/chilis
- Roast veg
- Canned additions
- Combine with stock, remaining coconut milk, and all other components
- Top with chopped chilis, drizzle of coconut cream
- Serve with jasmine rice
  - FYI: This recipe worked especially well

Skyler break menu

Foods
- ✔️Beef stew → Beef stew
  - This turned out very well, huge batch too
  - 2 large leeks, 2 onions, 1kg (or so) mushrooms
  - 4kg beef, tomato paste, stock, wine, herbs
- Cottage pie
- Tacos/burritos
- Bolognese
- ✔️Ravioli (for me)
  - Filled with parm, mushroom/beef mix, mozza, egg white
    - Held together well
    - 3 or 4 is best sheet thickness
    - Ann liked it too
- Teriyaki wings
- Garbage plate
- ✔️Chilli
Prep
- Hamburger
  - ✔️Mushroom/onion/garlic/beef
  - ✔️Taco beef
- ~~Chicken stock~~

Pre summer projects

Fish tacos:

✔️Pan fried cod
- Rubbed with lime
- Salt/ancho
- Rubbed in oil
- This turned out well, but cod was a bit tough (freezer burn?)

Salad dressings

✔️Ratio is 3:1:.25 (oil: vinegar: mustard)
- 2:1 wasn’t as good, mistakenly added too much to container

Cookery week rollup

Hamburgers are easier than I remember, and they make less mess if you thaw the beef a bit. Flavours this week were good, but I need to find better pickles and better buns. Costs were reasonable, though surprisingly the cheese and bun were ⅔ of the cost. Need to learn to make buns as $.60/bun for a mediocre product is bad.
1. Pre-smash and frozen works fine, just use high heat and bacon press. Works slightly better unfrozen, though texture tightens up after freezing (in a good way).
2. Toasted buns are important.
3. Mimicking famous burgers is a good way to learn flavour and texture balances. It’s all about practice.
Chicken burgers are easier than I remember, though the cleanup is a bit more involved. A wok could help out a lot here (taller sides).
1. Marinade with buttermilk is good, but needed a bit more seasoning. To the taste, the marinade was tasty, but on the chicken some of it was lost.
2. Swiss cheese on chicken is fantastic. Needed more onion though.
3. Ideal chicken sandwich:
  1. Crunchy chicken
  2. Onions, pickles, mustard, mayo
  3. Lettuce, tomato
  4. Soft bun
Red sauce is something I should make more of.
1. Good tomatoes help.
2. Soffritto cooks down nicely (smaller dice or grate)

Food prep/practice TODO

~~Marinate chicken (freeze some in marinade)~~
~~Package up red sauce + meatballs~~
Prep apples
~~Make hamburger patties (half or all?)~~
~~Make chicken patties~~
- ~~Breaded and par-fried~~
- ~~Bare (freeze in some liquid)~~

Food practice: March

Noodle and sauce practice
- Mushroom lasagne
- Mushroom linguini
- Meatballs
  - ~~simple~~
  - w/ricotta
- Bolognese (w/wider pasta)
Burgers
- Beef (90g)
  - Costing (buns/cheese, surprisingly, are at the top of the list)
  - ~~In&out~~
  - Simple
  - Double
- Chicken sandwiches (thighs)
  - Breaded/fried
  - Non-breaded
Prep and ingredients
- Mushroom bechamel
- ~~Red sauce~~
- ~~Meat base (onion, mushroom, etc.)~~
- Ricotta (a, b)

Spring food goals

Cauli-alioli sauce
Fresh pierogi → Perogies
Salads
German foods
- Platz → German platz
- Rouladen
- More ideas
Casseroles, but better
- Cream-oh-mushroom
Veg foods
- Walnut, lentil and chestnut mushroom ragu

Sunday food, prep, and cleanup

Pre-cooked apple (freeze in 2 portions for crisp or porridge)
Bread dough

Equipment shopping list

Taco press
Large sieve
Bun rings
Potato ricer (food mill?)
Wok!
Tongs (oxo, with silicone ends)

Beef tacos

My new favourite way to spice beef tacos is with chipotles that are finely diced (or blended), with onions and garlic. Add cumin, lime juice, and salt/MSG to taste. Half a can usually is enough (for ~1kg of beef), but a whole can will bring a enjoyable amount of heat.

Lentil tacos

→ Lentil tacos

This is based on some youtube videos I’ve seen and some classic lentil bolognese recipes I’ve had in the past.

1 cup green or yellow lentils
½ cup chopped nuts, lightly roasted
1 small diced onion (or 2 shallots)
2-4 garlic cloves, finely diced
½ cup finely diced peppers (jalapeno, anaheim, etc.)
½ tin (100ml) diced chipotle peppers
1-2 tablespoons of dried chilli mix (ancho, cayenne, cumin, smoked paprika)
1 tablespoon oregano flakes
1 teaspoon tomato paste
2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
1 lime (juiced)
Salt and pepper to taste

I’ve seen this made a few ways, but I’d like to try to preserve the textures a bit and am going to try:

Prep proteins:
1. Chop and lightly roast nuts in a hot oven (200C-ish)
2. Boil lentils and nuts in water (salted if you want), until al dente
3. Strain and set aside
Soften onions and garlic:
1. Add onions/garlic to a hot pan with neutral oil (coconut?)
2. Add peppers )
3. Add tomato paste once translucent, and stir until paste starts to stick
4. Deglaze with ½ of the stock and reduce to a simmer
Make a thick stew:
1. Add drained lentils and nuts
2. Add spices and chipotle
3. Add stock to get desired consistency
  1. For salads you may want it thinner
  2. For soft or hard tacos you may want it thicker
Finish:
1. Check seasoning
2. Add lime juice and check seasoning again

Also making some fresh corn salsa: → Corn salsa

2 cups of fried corn (sweet)
½ cup Red peppers
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 teaspoon garlic
Lime juice
Seasoning (cumin, ancho, salt, pepper)

Lightly fry, season, add lime, and let cool.

Random dinners this week

Tested out a battered chicken, which was a bit wonky (baking did not work well)
Quick cottage pie (30 minutes, using pre-cooked beef mix)
Mushroom soup take 2, made without cream and w/some dry sherry (was excellent) → Mushroom soup
2nd pass of battered chicken, converted to a stir-fry
- Roast cashews
- Weird chicken from yesterday
- Onion and broccoli
- Garlic/ginger
- soy/sesame/gochujang/rice wine slurry
- → second pass turned out much better
Thinking about rice puddin’ (John’s)

Burger buns

Based on Josh’s burger buns (and Ethan’s)

cream instead of whole milk
Take out butter (tonight)

Perfect bite nachos

Char siew roast chicken

→ Char siu marinade

Marinade:

1 soy sauce
1 oyster sauce
1 sweet soy (hoisin in a pinch)
1 honey (or maple syrup)
2 brown sugar
⅓ 5-spice
⅙ White pepper
1 Ginger/garlic paste
⅓ red colour (optional)
(I also added ½ rice wine)

Scale as needed (using 1 == ¼ cup makes ~1.5 cups worth, enough for a 8 pack of small boneless thighs)

Marinate chicken pieces for 2-24 hours. Roast until 65C (white meat) or 85C (dark meat). Turn over if browning too quickly.

Simmer remaining marinade and reduce until thick and sticky.

Grandparents potluck

Veg chili
- Add crushed tomato and heat up
Pulled pork
- Reheat, cubed, in liquid
Mac & Cheese
- Tempeh
- “Breadcrumbs”
Slaw
Crab dip → Hot crab artichoke dip
Veg platter
Yucky salad
Cake thing