This is another recipe from Hip Cooks. We tried to make this at home and we used deep dishes, instead of the shallow ones. And we used whole milk, instead of creme. As a result, our creme brulee never seemed to quite set and was very watery. I was so disappointed because creme brulee is one of my favorite desserts.

This yields 4 - 5 brulees. Remember, they will keep well in the fridge, covered, for date #2. If you do not have ramekins, then teacups or small, shallow bowls will do just fine!

5 eggs
½ cups sugar
1 ½ cup heavy cream or whipping cream (same thing).

Separate the eggs. (Toss the whites, or save them for a wonderful breaky-in-bed omelet for the next morning.) Put the yolks in a bowl with sugar and whisk them together well. Scald the cream (bring it just below boiling point.) At that point you can add 2-3 tbspns packed grated ginger to the cream, if you are making ginger brulee.

Once the cream is almost boiling, stir into the egg mixture with a whisk. (Add Grand Marnier at this point, or other flavored liqueur if you are making that kind of brulee.)

Fill the ramekins. Place in a baking sheet and fill about ½ way with water. (This is called a bain marie.) Bake at 350, for about 30 minutes ( I start checking after 20 minutes) or until just cooked in the center (slightly jiggly) - they may wobble or shake a tiny teeny bit, but will firm up in the fridge. Cool for about 3 hours, or longer, covered with cling film if it will be overnight or more.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle with sugar (about 1 tablespoon) and torch, or put under broiler (or toaster oven, monitoring carefully!! Wait for the tops to cool and harden, and serve with garnished with raspberries, if you like.

This recipe is courtesy of Hip Cooks. Ben and I attended a Hip Cooks cooking class and made this risotto at home for Valentine’s Day. We made this with veggie stock at home and froze the leftover stock for future risottos.

1 Butternut squash peeled and diced. (Low and behold, TJs has it already diced – check for freshness)
1 packet sage leaves
1 medium onion
Garlic
Cream
Chicken stock if you are non-veggie (or see the note below on veggie stock)
Parmesan, pecorino or asiago cheese to finish your risotto

To prep the squash:
Sauté with oil in plenty of garlic (about 5 or so cloves, diced). Do this over medium heat so as not to brown the squash – the goal is to cook it until soft but not browned. When it is done, add salt and sage to taste. For the sage, make sure you separate the leaves from the stems (the stems are bitter, blechy!). To chiffonade the sage leaves: stack the leaves, and run your knife along the leaves to sliver finely. But this is your show - chop them how you want them!

To cook the risotto:
Practice your knife skills and dice the celery and onions. Sweat the celery and onion in a wide, heavy-bottomed pan with a bit of olive oil and butter (1-2 tbsps of each, but who has time to measure!) Add about 1 and 1/2 cups of rice and stir around until the rice absorbs the liquid that the veggies have given off. Cover the rice in store bought chicken stock or veggie stock* if you prefer. (And the stock does not have to be hot already, as we did in the class - this just makes it go faster.) Gently keep adding liquid, salt and pepper to taste. Careful not to overstir! When the rice is prefect, introduce the squash. Add in more sage, cream and grated cheese (Parmesan, pecorino, romano, asiago - whatever!) at the last minute. Viola!

* A note on making your own veggie stock: reserve the ends of the celery (from one head), & the trimmings from the onion. Add three roughly chopped carrots and the stems from a bunch of parsley. Put these in a large pot (like the kind you use for pasta, and bring to a boil. When it has come to a boil, turn off the heat and let cool until you are ready to strain it. It should be a lovely light brown in color, taste good, and make your kitchen smell fantastic.

Makes 6 servings

6 sausages
1 small onion
2 sweet red peppers
6 mushrooms
1 T. oil
1-1/2 T. butter
3 cups uncooked rice
1 T. Curry powder
3 cups of stock
salt
pepper
1 T. white wine

1. Slice sausages on the bias 1/4-inch thick. Dice onion and red peppers into 1/2 inch cubes. Remove mushroom stems and sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch thickness.
2. Heat oil and stir fry sausage, onion, sweet red peppers and mushrooms.
3. Add butter and rice and stir-fry for a few minutes, then add curry powder and stir for a few more minutes.
4. Add soup stock, salt, pepper, and white wine and mix. Cover and bring mixture to a boil.
5. Turn down heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Mix rice before serving.

Reference:

Takagi, Junko. The Classic Rice Cookbook. Shufunotomo Company Limited: Hong Kong, 1996. p. 26.

Makes 4 servings

2 rice cooker cups of rice
1/2 tsp salt
1 10 oz. Japanese pumpkin (kabocha), cleaned and cubed
4 pieces of bacon, sliced
minced parsley

1. Wash and drain rice well.
2. Boil the bacon to remove excess fat.
3. Add rice and salt to rice cooker and fill with enough water to reach the two-cup measuring line in the rice cooker pot. Add the pumpkin and bacon and mix well. Let rice mixture stand for 20-30 minutes before cooking.
4. Mix thoroughly and make sure the mixture is evenly distributed and under water. Cook the rice.
5. After the rice is finished cooking, let it sit 10-15 minutes, then mix well. Serve into four individual serving bowls and garnish with parsley.

Reference:

Takagi, Junko. The Classic Rice Cookbook. Shufunotomo Company Limited: Hong Kong, 1996. p. 23.

Ever since I was introduced to the crepes while I was in Japan, I’ve been obsessed. I found a creperie nearby my former job and I became a regular, ordering an Egg and Curry Sauce Crepe and a Chocolate Banana with Custard Cream Crepe for lunch with a medium Milk Tea with Boba. Ahhh, decadence. Now that I’m unemployed, I can’t find any creperies around my neighborhood I decided to try to make my own. I made crepes for dinner last night using the crepe recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Here’s what happened:

1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1- 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 T corn oil

Savory Crepe Filling

10 slices of Monterey Jack Cheese, sliced into thin strips, 1/4-inch wide
5 slices of Honey Baked Ham, sliced into thin strips, 1/4-inch wide

Sweet Crepe Filling

1 ripe banana, sliced into thin coins
Hershey Chocolate Syrup, to taste
Whipped Cream (in spraycan), to taste
What I did:

1. Combine flour, salt, and milk and beat until smooth. I then added 1 egg and beat it into the mixture, then added the second egg and beat that into the mixture. Finally, I added the oil.
2. I poured the entire mixture into a 2 cup measuring cup (so it would be easier to pour it out later) and put the measuring cup and mixture in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. I heated my non-sticket skillet to medium heat until a drop of water evaporated on the surface. I took out the measuring cup and stirred it again before pouring about 1/2 cup of batter onto the pan and then tilted the pan to make a roundish shape of a crepe.

Looking back, I should have only poured 1 tablespoon of batter onto the skillet and used the back of a spoon to swirl it around on the pan. This would have resulted in much thinner and more crepes than what I eventually made. At creperie restaurants, I’ve seen the chefs use a wooden rake to spread the batter out.

4. When the top is dry, turn the crepe over and cook on the other side for 15 seconds. Your crepe is now ready to be filled.
5. To make the savory crepe, add the cheese and ham to to the crepe and allow the cheese to melt. Remove the crepe from the pan and fold into shape before serving. To make the sweet crepe, remove a fresh crepe from the pan and add bananas, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream on top. Fold crepe into shape and top with more chocolate syrup before serving.

Folding the crepes into the triangle shape was awkward. Crepe Institute has pretty good photos of what I was trying to do at home. It might be easier if I had a thinner spatula to help me fold the crepes

Verdict: Worth trying again.

Reference: Bittman, Mark. How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food. Macmillan: New York, 1998. Page 750.

2 tbsp butter
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1 cup milk

Melt the butter in a small cup in the microwave. Sift the flour into a bowl. In a smaller bowl mix together the eggs and milk. Add the eggs and milk mixture gradually to the flour, mixing with a whisk. Finally, add the melted butter and stir until just mixed. This batter will keep in the fridge for at least a day, so you can make just a few crepes for one night and have some more the next morning.

Last night I made the simplest roast chicken based on a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated’s The Best Recipe.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and  stuck an empty roasting pan in the oven. I melted 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. I brushed the chicken all over with the butter then sprinkled salt and pepper generously all over it. When the oven was preheated, I took out the roasting pan and set it on top of the stove.

Normally, this recipe calls for using a v-shaped roasting rack, but I used a flat roasting rack on top of the pan instead. I put the chicken breast side up and stuck it back in the over for 15 minutes. Then I realized that I should have put the chicken breast side down instead. So I switched and let it bake for another 15 minutes on 375 degrees.

When the time was up, I took the chicken out and raised the temperature to 450 degress. I also moved the oven rack to the lower middle level so it wasn’t so close to the burner element at the top of the oven. The skin on the chicken was already starting to blister on the chicken. I put the chicken back in the over, with the breast side down for another 20 minutes.

Finally, I flipped the chicken breast side up and roasted it for a final 20 minutes. The meat thermometer read 180 degrees. I let the chicken rest of 10 minutes while I prepared the sweet potato fries and set the table. The breast meat was a little dry but the dark meat turned out well, The skin was crispy and delicious.

Next time, I’ll pay more attention to which side of the chicken is up when I roast it. Otherwise, this was a great recipe.

2 eggs
1/2 cup Crisco oil
1 box of Duncan Hines White Cake Mix
2 bag of Nestle semisweet chocolate chips

Mix the first three ingredients together, then fold in the chocolate chips. Scoop by tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees. Makes 3 dozen.

1 T. of canola oil
3 cloves of garlic - sliced thin
1 pkg of Chicken Thighs (Foster Farms 6-pk)
3/4 cup of white vinegar
1/4 cup of lite soy sauce
1 T. of pepper corns
2 bay leaves

Heat a large pan and add the oil. Saute the garlic till golden. Add chicken, skin side down. Fry until brown. Turn over to boneside. Cook 3 - 5 mins. Add soy sauce and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Add peppercorns, bay leaves. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until tender. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. After 30 minutes, place the chicken in a pan and keep the sauce. Put pan in the oven for 10 minutes until chicken is crisp. Take out pan and pour sauce onto chicken. Serve hot with white rice.

Fried Rice
1 T oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups of leftover white rice
1 cup leftover meat or veggies
2 eggs, scrambled
salt, pepper to taste

Serves 2.

Heat a wok or frying pan. Cook the eggs and then set aside. Add the oil and the garlic, saute for a few seconds. Remove garlic from the pan and discard. Add your leftovers to the garlic oil and cook until its hot again, then add the rice. Toss the rice in the pan for a couple of minutes until the grains are fairly separated. Return the scrambled eggs to the pan and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and then serve.