Momofuku Experiment

Remember how I mentioned that Brigham loves Momofuku (the restaurant group based in the East Village in New York City)?  And how Niall is really interested in Momofuku's food and wants to try as much as possible?  But we didn't eat there when we went to NYC because it's not super vegetarian friendly?  It's okay if you don't.

But, anyway, in an attempt to learn more about cooking Asian food and making it so Niall can eat it, we're embarking on an experiment.

Step One.  Get the Momofuku cookbook.  Done.  It hasn't been released in the UK yet but Niall got the US version for Father's Day.

Step Two.  Read the book and try and try to get as many of the commonly used ingredients to have on hand.  I've read most of the book and yeah, there's meat in almost everything.  (Mmm...pork.)  After hitting up four Asian stores, three butchers and spending about 60 pounds I think we have enough of the ingredients to give this a go.

It was really interesting browsing the different Asian markets trying to find the ingredients.  I'm such a novice with making Asian food.  A few things we had on hand or we've bought before.  But the majority of the ingredients neither Niall nor I have ever used (or seen).  And most often I ended up having to ask the store clerk for help and then found out what I wanted was right in front of my face.

In case you're interested, here's the checklist I've been using:

• Flour and water lo mein noodles
• Rice Vinegar
• Kosher salt
• Pork belly (skinless)
• Nori (the dried seaweed commonly used to roll sushi)
• Scallions
• Bamboo shoots (canned)
• Mirin (rice wine)
• Meaty pork bones (mostly neck)
• Konbu (Japanese kelp, dried in flat sheets)
• Dried Shiitake mushrooms
• Cheesecloth (okay, this is material and not an ingredient, but I still need it)
• Sake (Japanese rice spirit)
• Usukuchi (light soy sauce)
• Dried scallions (I'm hoping drying fresh scallions is good enough)
• Katsuo-bushi (dried fish flakes)
• Grapeseed oil (I still don't have this)
• Sherry vinegar (I don't have this either!)
• Hoisin sauce
• Sesame seeds
• Mochi/rice cake sticks (frozen-in long tubes)
• Ssamjang sauce (fermented bean and chili sauce)
• Mustard seeds
• Kochukaru (korean chile powder)
• Fish sauce
• Sriracha
• Denjang (Korean fermented bean pate)
• Shiro (white) Miso  (I'm hoping this means the soup, otherwise I'm not sure)
• Coriander seeds
• Szechuan peppercorns
• Kewpie mayo

Step Three.  Start making the recipes from the book, as closely as possible, including the meat.  Please could you come by for dinner so I don't have to eat all the meat alone?

Step Four.  Once I have a vague idea (hey, the best I can do with my cooking skills) of what some of the sauces and recipes are taste like then we can try making vegetarian versions inspired by the cookbook.  Heaven knows we have enough ingredients to do some experimenting.

So, yeah.  That's the experiment.  Wish us luck.  Hopefully Niall will eventually get to eat something.

Gnocchi and Creamy Marinara

I've never made gnocchi.  I have only eaten it a couple of times, so I don't even know the difference between good and bad gnocchi.  But it was raining today (so I didn't want to go out to the store) and we had a lot of potatoes, so I decided to give gnocchi a go.  I followed the instructions from Italyum.  It worked really well, but made a lot so we froze the leftover gnocchi.  (Uncooked, placed them individually on a cookie sheet and then put them in the freezer.  Once frozen we put them in a plastic bag.)  It was kind of labor intensive, but fun.  I think it took about an hour and a half from start to finish.

Ingredients

Gnocchi
6 medium size potatoes
Flour
1 egg

Marinara Sauce
3 fresh tomatoes
1 can plum tomatoes
1 medium sized zucchini, cut into small pieces
1/2 green pepper (washed and seeds removed)
2 small chilies
sea salt to taste
5 clove garlic
1/2 cup single cream (half and half)
Basil to taste (I used dried)

Wash the potatoes and put them (whole) in a large pot, covered with water.  Bring to boil.  While the potatoes are boiling, place all the marinara ingredients except the cream in a blender and puree until smooth.  Pour the sauce into a saucepan and simmer (I simmered the sauce about 80 minutes until the gnocchi was ready to eat.)

When the potatoes are soft and the skin comes off easily (I boiled the potatoes for about 35 minutes), remove from the heat and rinse with cold water until they can be handled.  Remove the skin from each potato.

Mash the potatoes.  (I washed the pot I boiled them in and used that.)

Get a large piece of parchment paper, if you're like me and don't like wiping a lot of flour off the counter.  If you don't mind the mess then skip this step.

Put about 2 cups of flour on the parchment paper (or directly on the counter) and put the mashed potatoes on top.  In a small container, crack the egg and whisk it.

This is where it gets messy.  Add half the beaten egg to the potatoes and start kneading the flour into the potatoes.  Keep kneading the dough and adding more flour (I found this super messy and had Niall add the flour) until the dough is smooth, not sticky.  It took me about ten minutes to get to this point.  (I hope I didn't overwork the dough.)  You can use the egg for something else (like a quarter batch of chocolate chip cookies.)

Wash your hands and get a big pot of water on the stove, with plenty of salt, and bring it to a rolling boil while you roll and cut the gnocchi.

Flour a knife (dip it in flour so it doesn't stick to the dough) and cut the dough into five or six segments.

On a floured surface, take a segment and roll into into a ball.  Then continue rolling the dough until it makes a long "snake"...for lack of a better word!  Per the instructions, I rolled until the dough it was about as thick as my thumb.  Then with a floured knife cut the dough into one-inch pieces.

If you're like me and have no pasta making equipment, you can roll the dough with a fork to get ridges.

Drop the gnocchi into the boiling pot of water.  Once the gnocchi float to the top take them out of the water with a slotted spoon.

Place the gnocchi on a flat surface so they don't stick together.  (On the first attempt I put a bunch of gnocchi into a bowl and they stuck together.  There's probably some neat trick to get around this problem but I'm a novice.)

Stir the cream into the marinara sauce, then pour the sauce over the gnocchi.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Peach Cobbler Crumble Cupcakes

The fruit shop down the road has really lovely peaches.  So when I saw the recipe from Land O' Lakes Recipe Buzz Blog for Peach Cobbler Coffee Cake I bought a bunch of peaches and let them ripen.  Oh, I love a fresh peach.  The original recipe calls for canned peaches, so I think it will be sweeter.

I halved the recipe, substituted creme fraiche and milk for the sour cream, made cupcakes and used the fresh peaches.  I also skipped the glaze because I thought the crumble would be sweet enough.  My version is listed below.  Overall, I really liked this recipe and will use it again.  (I loved how the batter tasted.)  But, I put in fairly large peach pieces and the cupcakes separated when we ate them.  Next time I'll cut the peaches into smaller pieces and mix them directly into the cake.

Ingredients

Filling
1 1/2 fresh peaches

Topping Ingredients
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

Cake Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup creme fraiche (I used the reduced fat)
2 Tablespoons milk (I used 2 %)
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350°F.   Pour boiling water over the peaches and let sit for about a minute to loosen skin.  Peel the skin and remove the pit.  (I overestimated and peeled three peaches, only using 1 1/2.)

Stir together all crumble ingredients in medium bowl with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside.

Combine sugar and butter in large bowl. Beat until creamy. Add eggs, creme fraiche, milk and vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add all remaining cake ingredients. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until smooth.

At this point I would suggest cutting the peaches into small pieces and mixing into the batter.  I didn't and regret it!

Line 12 muffin tins.   Divide the cake batter between the cups.  Sprinkle with topping. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes and serve!

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

There are some people that when they tell me something is good I just have to believe them.  When Anna from Cookie Madness says something is good I have to try it.  And she raved about these Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes, so I had to make them.  Wow.  That's a lot of chocolate.  If you're a chocolate fan then these are for you.

I followed Anna's recipe here to make six cupcakes.

A few differences.  I meant to buy bread flour but never did, so I used regular flour.  We didn't have any bittersweet chocolate so I used half semi-sweet and half unsweetened chocolate.

I'm not sure if baking with coffee is a Mormon no-no, but I did it anyway.

The frosting was a new one for me.   Cooking the egg white, sugar and salt over the stove then adding the butter, vanilla and chocolate was pretty interesting.  My frosting was not fluffy so I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes and then mixed it again.  It fluffed right up!  It's so rich it gave me a headache right away-a typical sign that there's a lot of chocolate!

Laverbread with Cockles

 Following on with the attempt to try more Welsh cuisine, a cab driver suggested to try cockles.  As far as I can tell cockles are little clams that have been removed from their shells.  When we got them from the fish stall they had been cooked and we could have had them right there with vinegar, salt and pepper.  But instead we decided to try this recipe for a gratin from Chef Keith Floyd.  (I think he's Niall's favorite TV chef.)

Ingredients

Laverbread (warmed)
Cockles
Salt and Pepper
Breadcrumbs
Cheese (we didn't have any good Welsh cheese and used Mozzarella)
Butter mixed with garlic

I have no idea on the measurements and probably put in too many breadcrumbs in.  In an ovenproof dish, place a layer of laverbread and a lacker of cockles.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the cheese and salt and pepper and sprinkle on top of the cockles.  Drizzle the garlic butter on top.

Broil for 3-4 minutes until browned on top and serve directly.

Laverbread Patties

Since we live in Wales it's high time I get to know the cuisine a little better.  The first order of the day?  Laverbread.  First mistake?  I went to the bakery to get it.  I didn't know laver is seaweed (that has been boiled for about six hours.)  The bakery sent me to the fish stall.  I was advised to mix the laverbread with oatmeal and fry it in bacon fat.  To make it vegetarian friendly I used butter instead.  I'm not sure if this is anything close to the authentic laverbread patties, but I liked it.

Ingredients

1 cup laverbread
1/2 cup uncooked oats
salt and pepper to taste
butter for frying

Here's the laverbread from the fish stall.  (Sorry about the picture.)

Mix it with oats and a little salt and pepper.  Use a teaspoon to make a little patty.  Heat some butter in a skillet and place the patty in the skillet.

Fry until browned on both sides.

Red Velvet Cake

Our friend was in town and it's almost his birthday.  For his birthday cake, he said he didn't care which type of cake as long as it had a Red Dwarf theme.   Here's the cake.  (Have I mentioned my decorating skills are not the greatest?)

We decided we should make a red velvet cake.  I used the very thorough Red Velvet Cake recipe comparison from The Bake More blog.  Based on the results, I used the Cake Man Raven recipe.   It was pretty straightforward and except for not having buttermilk and forgoing the nuts, I followed the recipe pretty closely.  I would use it again.  Except I think I added double the baking soda.  Which I do not recommend!  The recipe is here.