Fall and winter 2022–23

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A long stretch of systematic testing: baking soda ratios dialed in across ground beef, chicken velveting, and patties, plus a running ratio-research doc (roux, fake ramen noodles, iced coffee). A mushroom-lentil freezer base and a beef ragu built from leftover gravy both turned out well enough to keep, mushroom aglio e olio and forester gravy joined the regular rotation, and Friendsgiving’s detailed hour-by-hour timeline worked as planned.

Undated. About October 2022 to March 2023; the original notes grouped these as Fall/Winter.

Pizza day

Dough made
Par bake worked okay for one, but the other not as well
- Broiling + flipping was cool

Lunch meats on the cheap

Some research for another week, homemade lunch meats:

Chef John’s turkey

Beef stew

→ Beef stew

Prep day Sunday, late Winter edition

Today’s prep will replace some freezer items and set up the week:

Chicken stock (use up the onions/celery/chicken bits)
Ramen noodles (for lunches this week) → Ramen noodles

Hacked chicken parm

I used one of the chicken patties I made earlier this week and breaded it using cereal crumbs and parm, shallow frying it, and then baking it with cheese on top. I added it to a plate of spaghetti as the protein. The entire meal took about 20 minutes to prepare, including dishes. When I can nail the recipe, this will go into our rotation.

Thoughts:

Cereal was crunchy, but flavour didn’t add much (and needed some salt)
For a salty patty, the chicken was flat (breading unbalanced)
Sauce was fine, but bicarb experiment pushed the flavour to less great

I enjoyed this meal, but it fell short in brightness and balance. Breast meat and better breading would make a huge difference, and a brighter sauce would compliment it better. Experimentation is learning!

Sodium bicarb results

Ground beef: I tested a recipe floating around the interwebs that pairs baking soda and ground beef to enhance browning and reduce moisture loss. What I found:

It does what it claims to do (at 0.5%-1.5%)
The flavour is more alkaline than I like at 1%
- Will try 0.5% next time

The texture and browning properties are good enough that I’m going to try a more subtle amount, and see if the flavour is more easily hidden.

Chicken stir fry: I tested velveting meat with baking soda at 0.5%-1.0% and found the flavour was not as unpleasant, likely due to the different size and surface of strips of chicken. I will continue with 1.0% for velveting.

Ground chicken: I tested a bicarb/brined patty from ground chicken. The baking soda added springiness, but the alkalinity shifted the saltiness of it towards mildly tinny.

Red Thai curry

→ Red Thai curry

A quick Thai style red curry, about 10 minutes of prep and 20 minutes active cook time.

Roast red-hued veg in the oven
Heat the cream of some coconut milk until reduced and starting to split
- Add curry Paste
- Add tomato paste
- (combine, stirring)
- Add onion/shallot (not authentic, but adds some body and depth)
- Cook until sticking
“Deglaze” stuck stuff
- Add remaining coconut milk and stir, lifting bottom bits up
- Add stock
- Bring to simmer
Add veg
- Add a tin of drained:
  - water chestnuts,
  - Mini corns
  - Bamboo shoots
  - Roasted veg
- Heat
Add protein (near the end, assuming it’s cooked)
- Tofu is a great default
Balance
- Fish sauce,
- Sugar/maple syrup/honey
- Soy sauce/salt/msg
- Lime juice
We cooked some shrimp separately with S&P and lime

Chicken patty tests

→ Chicken patties

Planning for Sunday:

Patty recipe
- 450gx2 → 128g per patty ($2 per patty)
- Scaling sheet (making 900g worth)
- ~~Very sticky, may not come off the parchment well (try a warm plate + refreeze?)~~
  - (they came off fine, before 100% frozen)
  - (still weirdly sticky)
- Simple breading → good taste overall, but not what I was aiming for
  - Too springy, slightly salty (skip the NaHCO₃, reduce the NaCl)
  - Skip the garlic
  - Focus on S&P, MSG, and poultry seasoning
  - (consider onion powder?)

Ramen tests

I used up some frozen ramen noodles this week. Observations:

Fresh ramen noodles freeze really well (texture was better?)
Shoyu style broth is nice
Need to get a rule/ratio for salinity of ramen broth

More Feb ideas

TODO: Mushroom pizza/pasta/pan sauce/etc. base
Homemade tea blends
Chicken patties
Fam chili
- SE

Feb ideas

CHICKEN COCONUT CURRY STEW
- This must order creamy chicken coconut curry stew will surely satisfy any palate. Comes with yams, potatoes, carrots, peas, cilantro, mint, spring green onions, and topped with a sprinkle of crushed roasted peanuts. Accompanied with a side of jasmine rice.

Prep, new approach

Browned beef for meat sauce
- 1% baking soda

Ramen for lunches

Store bought ramen was sad face
Baked baking powder - 100g / 66g
- Total - 862g
- Target - 830g
1 batch of noodles
- ¼ after 24 hours (good)
- ¾ after 48 (just as good, slightly better?)
- Froze 2 portions

Veg dinner

Green potatoes (baked to heat up)
Frittata
- 1:1 veg:egg
  - ¼ Savoury things
  - ¾ Healthy things
  - CHEESE MOTHER FUCKING CHEz

More winter ideas and dishes

Hasselback veg (beets, carrots, potatoes, radish, etc.)
- Compound butter (garlic, shallot, herbs like rosemary, parsley)
Top round/outside roast
- 230C for 15 minutes
- 140C for ~30 minutes
- Remove at 58C (~4C under) for medium
- Rest 15 minutes

Late winter prep

Taco beef
- 2x chipotles (not too much, it turns out, just a bit spicy)
- 3x small onion/head garlic/shallot
- 1:1 mushroom beef (before cooking)
  - 1 large bag mushrooms
  - 1 large pack lean beef
  - 1 small pack not lean beef
A better mac and cheese and beans
- Bolognese
- Ricotta mix
- Black
- Noodles

End of January ideas

Raviolis
Ramen noodles
Chickpea flour things

Weekly research

Old HAL bread pudding

Pasta tests

Ravioli With Spinach-Pecan Filling → Spinach pecan pasta filling
- Filling was fantab, though might whip the cheese next time
- Pasta was a bit too wet, but I adapted
- Also learned how to clean the pasta maker
Test

Recipe dev: chicken patties

→ Chicken patties

Research suggests
- minced, some fat, and brined
- Water instead of milk, either a batter or just the dippy method with cornstarch instead of egg
Draft recipe (guessing batter)
These may be good without breading, but assuming pan-fried will work

Pasta, pork, and other things this week

Made a pot of Boerenkool Met Worst → Boerenkool stamppot
- Kale/bok choy (left over), and cauliflower
- Ukrainian sausage
- Onion
- Butter, salt, pepper
- Vinegar to taste
- (great as always)
Baked some pork tenderloin with Al Pastor sauce
- Added seasoning + oil + sugar
Planning pasta for Thursday
- Wednesday make dough
- Make more Thursday
- Filling?
  - Ravioli With Spinach-Pecan Filling

Fam ramen day

This worked very well.

Noodles
- Dough
- Noodling
Broth
- Base
- Dashi
- Cream
Toppings
- Chili oil
- Mushrooms
- Shallots
- Corn
- Bamboo
- Green onion
- Eggs
Inspiration
- Vegan dashi/tonkotsu/tare

NYD prep

2 x Chilis (1 x veg, 1 x beef)
- Brown beef or lentil mince
- Add onions/garlic
- Chilpoltes
- Chili sauce?
- Tomatoes

NYE/Fam day prep

For NYE:

Stuffed mushrooms → Stuffed mushroom caps
- Shallot
Al pastor marinade (for pork) → Al pastor marinade (pantry hack)

For fam day:

Pulled pork or al pastor (carnitas?)
Beef chili
Lentil chili
Coleslaw
Chicken stock

Mushroom raviolis

SE’s recipe and supporting pasta
- Use setting 6 (or 7) for the best shapes
- Tortellini are easy to make
  - Use egg ring (size)
  - ~6-10g of filling
  - Fold, seal starting from middle outward both ways, hugging the filling
  - Fork pattern on edge
  - Flat end down, pull edges together and pinch (pleated edge will fold towards you + innards will dimple a bit
  - Watch a video if you forget or if not working

Mushroom/lentil base

→ Mushroom and lentil freezer base

I’m working on a vegetarian version of my beef/mushroom/sofrito base. The goal is a savoury base for weeknight meals, for pasta sauces, soups, tacos, casseroles, etc.

(This is an approximate recipe, needs some testing)

Ingredients:

3-4 cups finely diced criminis
4-5 cups sofrito
3 cups lentils
2 cups veg stock
½ cup dry sherry
3 tablespoons olive oil
Neutral backgrounds spices
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 large sprigs rosemary
- 1 tablespoons thyme
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons MSG
- 3 teaspoons granulated garlic
- Salt/Ground black pepper to taste

Method:

Fry mushrooms in olive oil on medium. This takes a bit (dry → wet → dry + browned). Add some salt.

Add sofrito and continue frying. As things start sticking, add tomato paste, stirring like a MF. Add a bit more salt.

Add lentils, and fry those a bit. Before the sticking stuff burns, deglaze with sherry, then stock. Add remaining seasoning, stir, and taste.

Simmer until thickened and lentils are just starting to soften.

Too liquidy → add cornstarch
Too dry → add water + cornstarch

Some sort of thickener will keep this together when used in a sauce.

This turned out well enough that I ate some for a snack. We’ll test this in a week or two once everyone is back home.

Prep

✅beef/mushroom
✅mushroom/onion (with lentils?)
- Brown mushrooms
- Add onions + sweat
- Add lentils (etc.) and liquid (veg broth or similar)
- Lightly season
✅Beef patties (120g)

Potential new recipes

Pizza tests

Based on ratio research (1-2% salinity), I’m making pizzas. Weird, but I’ll explain after my notes.

Added notes for the simple pizza sauce I make with weights
Used the Lazy pizza dough recipe, 100g mini pizza → Lazy pizza dough (2022)
- 247C, convection
- Thin crust (15-16cm or so)
- Copicola/ham/hot peppers/cheese
- ~10 minutes one rotation, on the back of an aluminium pan
- Notes:
  - Testing small pizzas for snacks and lunches
  - Nice brown top/crust
  - Bottom mostly cooked (but not crisp)
    - Try lower rack with pan next
  - Left in cooling oven for a few
  - Cooling after for ~5
  - Rise was minimal, may need to pull out of fridge earlier
    - Only 12 hours fridge time so far

Ratio research

Need a one pager of important ratios and terms

Roux/gravy → sauce 2 tbsp : 2 tbsp : 1 cup (fat:flour:liquid)
- 30g : 15g : 250g (fat : flour : liquid)
- 125g:63g:1041g
Fake ramen noodles
- 2 teaspoons per quart of water.
- But when you have a full-flavoured broth, go ahead and use 1 full tablespoon of baking soda per quart of water.
- 950ml : (4g → 14g)
  - 1L : 10g : 10g (water : baking soda : salt)
  - (1) will not work with the evaporation method, and will end up tasting very bad
  - (2) still season with salt
- Reference SE
Japanese iced coffee
- 32.5g coffee/500ml liquid
  - 200g ice
  - 300g hot water
- Step 1: 97g bloom (45sec) stir bloom
- Step 2: pour remain water in 2:30 to 3 minutes
- Step 3: stir once circular motion once in opposite motion
- Step 4: after drawdown, swirl canister to melt ice
- Step 5: serve on fresh ice
- Test:
  - 380g ice
  - 65g coffee
  - 3:00 minute draw (was slow, too fine?)
  - Measured g: 1512g - 656g == 856g-380g == 476g
  - Total 476g

Weekend prep for December

Chicken stew (example)
- Beurre Manié → keep some in fridge
Bases
- Mushroom/onion/garlic/herb mix (for pastas, etc.)
  - Oven or pan?
- Beef/mushroom/onion mix
- Taco mix
- Pulled pork mix
- Beef stew base
Stocks
- Beef
- Mushroom/veg
Chili
Banana crisp
Menu design:
- Christmas eve (sandies, charcuterie)
- Christmas day (breakfast wraps, burritos)
- Christmas week
- Family week
- Family Christmas day (Jan 2)

December ideas

Vindaloo
Pizza dough practice
Noodle practice

Fall ideas

From NY: Cider donuts (baked), seems like apples would be tasty
From Brian L: Enchiladas
- Idea is to use mushrooms and jackfruit instead for texture (and rice?)

Weekend prep and fridge winning

I have a few recipes planned this weekend:

✅Quick cottage pie (use up mash and stock) → Cottage pie
✅Chicken stock (for above and the freezer)
✅Chicken sandwiches
✅Turkey soup or pie filling (use up freezer turkey)
- Turkey was freezer burnt, threw it into the stock
✅Iced tea (it’s been a bit) → Bruce’s iced tea
- 2L tea (black + flavoured)
- 3-4 scoops of white sugar
- ¼–½ cup of lime or lemon juice
- (added to recipes as I only had my old )

Salad sandos

Ann the mixologist

This is a play on the Wild Orchid drink (normally uses Strawberry liqueur). You can use limoncello instead of lemonade, and you can use soda/wine is you’re too fucking lazy to buy prosecco.

Gin lemonade
- ¾ oz strawberry gin
- ½ oz vanilla vodka
- 1 ½ ounce lemonade
- ½ oz sweet prosecco
Strawberry soju
- ½ oz vanilla vodka
- 1 ½ ounce lemonade
- ½ oz sweet prosecco
Red Alizé cranberry vodka
- ½ oz vanilla vodka
- 1 ½ ounce lemonade
- ½ oz sweet prosecco
White zinfandel strawberry
- ½ oz vanilla vodka
- 1 ½ ounce lemonade
- ½ oz sweet prosecco

Second pizza practice

Made two medium pizzas, each with 175g of dough:

All dressed, v2
Greek style

Quick egg McMuffins, v205895

The principles of an egg McMuffin are:

Overcooked egg
Savoury/salty past what you would expect
Toasted english muffin, crunchy on outside and soft on the inside (microwaving first can revive a stale one)
A bit of fat (cheese is a start, butter or olive oil can help)
Let it rest and melt together
Top with something salty, smokey, and savour (maybe a bit of crunch)

I like Swiss cheese slices as my fat/cheese, skip the butter (it’s messy), and use frozen, store bought English muffins. While the are easy to make, I don’t eat these enough for it to be worth it.

Weekend pizza

Craving pizza, too cheap to order out, kinda want to practice.

Dough went together quickly, portioned into 175g balls in the fridge, after a 1.5 hour rise (coolish kitchen). This should be enough for a 15-20cm pizza (small → medium), depending on how thin you want it.

The dough baked well too; I par-baked it, and then dressed and finished it. It was slightly underdone, but I think stretching it more and covering it with foil might help next time.

Last night’s pizza was the all-dressed sort:

Sauce, mozza, parm
Ham, salami, sausage
Pickled peppers, fresh pears, olives, onions

It was good, and close enough to perfectly cooked to be enjoyed.

Beef ragu, a way out of leftover gravy

We were going away this weekend and I wanted to use up some leftovers in the fridge. There was about 500ml of mushroom gravy, a bunch of flat leaf parsley, ¾ of a large purple onion, and a mild anaheim pepper from Ann’s Mom’s garden. I decided to make beef ragu:

1 tin of san marzanos (mashed)
500ml mushroom gravy (diced the mushrooms a bit better)
500ml beef/mushroom/onion/garlic mince (from the freezer)
50ml (or so) tomato paste
½ cup white wine to deglaze
2 preserved and roasted red peppers (diced)
1 anaheim pepper (diced)
1 large purple onion, 1 small white onion (diced)
2 stalks of celery (diced)
5 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems removed (diced), reserving some for service
Lemon juice (to balance)
Balsamic vinegar (to balance)
Olive oil
Salt, black pepper
Thyme, garlic powder (to reinforce the garlic flavour)

This is a ragu hack, but you assemble it like most French or Italian dishes:

Sweat onions in olive oil, add other veg, sweat some more
Add tomato paste and cook until it starts to stick
Let the sticky stuff brown a bit, then deglaze with wine (scraping up brown bits)
Add tomatoes and mushroom gravy, and mash tomatoes until desired lumpiness is achieved
Add mince and break apart if still frozen
Simmer for a bit
Add salt, pepper, herbs as needed
Balance with balsamic, lemon, and olive oil

Reduce the ragu if needed. I like the veg to be soft, but with some texture remaining (freeze better, highlights the vegness).

I had this over fettuccine using the pan-method, and combining the sauce with the starchy water pasta for a smooth sauce. I plated it with black pepper, the remaining flat leaf parsley, and a bit of parmesan (optional).

Mushroom pasta, and forester gravy

I made a few pantry meals this week using dried mushrooms:

Mushroom aglio e olio (on spaghetti)
Forester gravy (without the cream)

For both, I soaked the mushrooms in hot water for ~15 minutes, gave them a rough chop, and fried them in a pan. I used the mushroom tea as the stock, fortifying it with some grocery store vegetable stock, and some basic spices.

I thickened the gravy with some cornstarch, and added some butter near the end. This topped off some plates of potatoes and pork tenderloin.

For the aglio e olio, I added dry noodles to the pan of fried mushrooms and garlic with enough water to cover the noodles with ~.5cm of water. I used the mushroom tea for some of that water, and topped it off a few times with water from the kettle, until the pasta was about 80% cooked. As the water boiled off, I added salt, pepper, and chilli flakes to taste, and drizzled some olive oil in as I stirred to emulsify the oil and starch water.

Both of these dishes are now in our regular rotation, though I need to practice the gravy a bit more (my cornstarch game needs some repetition).

Quick curry

Video 15 minute
- Blitzing the chunkies speeds things up
- Pre-ground spices FTW

5 minute breakfast sandies

bun
1 egg
Cheese (cubed/diced)
Mayo

Roughly stir the egg, salt, pepper, and cheese in a bowl.

Toast the bun in the pan while it warms up, aim for some good crunchy crusty crust.

Remove the bun and add the egg (I use a square Tamagoyaki pan) with some oil and spread it thin. Use a spatula to contain the egg to about half the pan, and let cook. Flip over itself until it’s roughly the size of your bun. Overcook slightly (as that’s what most restaurants do).

Add egg, mayo, and some pepper to your bun.

Mushroom gravy thoughts

We made mushroom stock for Friendsgiving, and the same weekend I had a “forester” schnitzel. The mushrooms on that schnitzel are some of the best I’ve ever had. Here are some thoughts on recreating that dish:

Combine fresh and dried mushrooms (inspiration)
Try using chicken stock or a vegan gelatin
Sweet wine or cherry ←

Friendsgiving 2022

Prep day
- ~~Stunt turkey prep~~
- ~~Stuffing prep~~
- Turkey stock
  - ~~Prep veg~~
  - ~~Prep turkey~~
  - ~~2x 500ml for Lor~~
  - ~~1x 500ml for stuffing~~
  - ~~1x 1l for gravy~~
  - ~~(freeze extras)~~
- Turkey gravy
- Veg gravy (for J)
  - Veg stock
    - ~~Prep veg~~
    - ~~Prep mushrooms~~
    - ~~500ml for gravy~~
    - ~~Rest for freezer (J)~~
- ~~Pie prep~~
Game day
- Baked jalapeno mac & 3 cheese with smoked tempeh bits (40 minutes)
- Stuffing (40 minutes)
- Stunt turkey roast (2-3 hours)
- Turkey roast (2-3 hours)
- Mashed potatoes (40 minutes)
- Corn! (15 minutes)
- Roast veg (40 minutes)
  - brussels, beets, yam, cauli, squash
  - Olive oil and seasoning (light), maybe some balsamic
- Reheat
  - Mac & Cheese (30)
  - Sweet potato pie (30) → Sweet potato pie
  - Veg gravy (20)
  - Turkey gravy (20)
  - Buns/rolls (20)

Timeline

< 12:00PM
- ~~Roux~~
- ~~Season Lor’s stocks~~
- ~~Prep mac~~ → Baked mac & cheese
- ~~Prep stuffing~~
- ~~Charcuterie~~
1:00 PM
- ~~SKYLER~~
2:00PM - 5:00PM
- ~~Turkeys → 70C light / 80C dark~~
4:00PM
- ~~Prep potatoes~~
- ~~Prep corn~~
- ~~Prep veg for roasting (2 pans?)~~
4:30PM
- ~~Cook stuffing~~
5:00PM
- ~~Oven~~
  - Mac
  - Roast veg
  - Dressing
- ~~Stove~~
  - Potatoes
5:30PM
- ~~Oven~~
  - Buns
- ~~Stove~~
  - Gravies (2 tablespoons or 30ml / 500ml)
  - Corn
6:30PM
- ~~Reheat pie~~

Timeline worked well this year.