Rex Roof

Tagged: Cooking RSS

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  Rex 10:52 am on February 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking   

  What I Cooked Last Night 

  Yesterday I felt like having an egg salad sandwich. So, I made mayonaise. Just for good measure I added some pressed garlic into the mayo. Then I realized I was going to have too much mayonaise. So I looked for other ways to use it. I found inspiration in Ratio to put citrusey mayo on fish. I bought some rainbow trout and zested some lemon into a bit of my mayonaise. I rinsed and dried the fish, put it on some foil and slathered it with mayonaise. (this is where I forgot to season the fish, I should have, before the mayo went on) This wasn’t gross, I promise. I broiled the fish until I could see the thickest parts were opaque and the mayo was blistering but not burnt. I moved the fish away from the broiler at one point to help prevent burning the mayonaise.

  At the store I picked up some redskinned potatoes. I rinsed, cut and boiled them in salted water. Then I softened some scallions in clarified butter and tossed the potatoes in the hot pan.

  Lastly, I cooked a minced shallot in plenty more clarified butter, added some sliced button mushrooms and salt, cooked most of the liquid out and then added some sliced bok choy. Into this I tossed some red pepper flakes to give it some spice. I didn’t add anything else to this and it was good, but it could have maybe used some lemon juice or a fresh herb to give it a more interesting flavor.

  The fish with mayo was good. I wouldn’t have done this with store-bought mayonaise, but with homemade it didn’t have that heavy mouth feel that mayonaise sometimes has. The lemon flavor came out and was delicious.
  

  I still haven’t had that egg salad. Maybe tonight.

   

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  Rex 11:48 pm on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, potatoes   

  Cornish Game Hen & Fingerling Potatoes 

  

  A few things came together to make dinner tonight. 1) I had a cornish game hen in the freezer from class last semester. 2) I’d been reading What Einstein Told His Cook and saw a recipe for a cornish game hen basted in soy sauce. 3) I had the Tare from the Momofuku book in the fridge and figured it would be well-served in that basting liquid. 4) I saw that video from goop.com earlier this week where gweneth paltrow cooks some fingerling potatoes in a very similar style to Heston Blumenthal. It involves a pre-boil and a long roast to get crispy baked potatoes. kinda.
  Peeling fingerlings is a pain in the ass, it gave me cramps in my hands. I peeled the fingerlings and boiled them in some salty water for about 8 minutes. Then I strained them and beat them around in the colander to give them some rough edges. Then I tossed them in olive oil and threw them in a square pyrex baking dish to serve as the base for my cornish game hen.

  

  The game hen was brined in a quart of water with a 1/4 cup of both brown sugar and kosher salt. I left it in the fridge for about an hour. Meanwhile I threw together 1/4 cup of tare plus a little bit of soy sauce, 1Tbs or so of peanut oil, about 1Tbs each garlic and ginger, roughly chopped. I put all this together in the cup that came with our immersion blender and blitzed it up good. It came out opaque and creamy looking. the ginger and garlic pieces totally disappeared. You can barely see the bits on the surface of the raw game hen. I rinsed the game hen and stuffed it with some random fresh herbs. sage, rosemary and thyme, I think. I put the cornish hen on top of the potatoes, breast side down, and brushed it with the tare/soy mixture. Into a 400° oven it went.

  Every 10 minutes I opened the oven and basted on more of the soy & tare mixture. After 30 minutes I flipped the bird breast side up and basted it again. Repeat this process until the bird looks like it might start burning, or an hour has gone by. I also put a 1/4 cup of water into the dish if the juices in the dish were burning, or starting to. Normally I’d check the temperature, but after an hour at 400°, this bird is cooked. I removed the bird and let it rest on a plate. I tossed the potatoes a bit in the pan and put them back in the oven to crisp up a bit more while the meat had a rest.

  

  Actually, I didn’t love this meal. The flavor of the skin was a bit overwhelming. Way too much salt/soy flavor going on, and this is from someone who loves salt. The potatoes weren’t crispy, but they were excellent. The cornish game hen did have just about the perfect amount of meat for me, but it seems like a ridiculously tiny bird to bother cooking. This dinner needed something green, I think. But a dinner cooked is a good dinner.

   
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  Rex 9:49 pm on January 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, momofuku   

  Momofuku Taré (yakitori sauce) 

  

  In my attempt to create Momofuku Ramen from the Momofuku cookbook, I first had to make taré sauce. This sauce involves roasting bones and then simmering them in mirin, sake, and soy sauce. The final product was meaty and delicious. The momofuku recipe calls for roasting chicken backs, I didn’t have any but I did have a duck carcass and a turkey backbone, so that is what I used!

  Chop up the bones from 2-3 chicken backs, or use duck parts or turkey parts or whatever poultry bones you have. Extra meat and skin is good, too. Put them in an oven-proof saute pan or pot. Roast in a 400˚ oven for 45 minutes or so. You want the parts well browned, but not black at all. Take your bones out of the oven and put them on the stovetop over medium heat. Splash about ½ cup of sake into the pan and use it to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Once all the brown bits are up, add another ½ cup of sake, 1 cup of mirin, and 2 cups low-sodium soy sauce. Stir this into the pan, kick up the heat, bring this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a slight simmer. Let this cook for an hour. Pick out the bones and strain through some cheesecloth.

  

  I used some duck parts so I had a bit of extra fat in the sauce that I needed to pour off.

  This stuff is salty and amazing. I can’t wait to use it.

  Cornish Game Hen & Fingerling Potatoes « Rex Roof is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Rex 5:36 pm on January 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking   

  Cinnamon-Nut Granola 

  

  Take 4 cups oats (old-fashioned rolled), 1 cup chopped almonds, 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, 1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened) and toss it together in a really big bowl.

  Melt 1 stick of butter and stir in 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp salt and 1/2 cup honey. Pour this over the oat mixture and toss it all together by hand. Put this on a rimmed baking pan and put it into a 300 degree oven. Stir this on the pans every 10 minutes or so, until it is a nice even golden brown, probably 35 minutes.
  While it is cooling, roughly chop the dried fruit: 1/2 cup each of golden raisins, apricots, cherries, and cranberries.
  Once the oats are cooled, toss it all together in your big bowl and store in an airtight container. Eat it with milk or yogurt or ice cream.

  Taken from the King Authur Whole Grain Baking book.

   
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  Rex 10:00 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: breakfast, Cooking, food cooking   

  Chocolate Steel Cut Oats 

  This steel cut oats recipe from thekitchn interested me. I usually eat steel cut oats using this recipe from Mark Bittman: Coconut Oat Pilaf. Normally when I make it I wish there weren’t so many ingredients and that it didn’t turn out so awesome, justifying all the work. This one is simpler, and almost as delicious, just in a totally different way.

  Bring almost 3 cups of water to a boil. I use less, I like my oats dryer. Dump in 1 cup steel-cut oats, some salt, 2 teaspoons each espresso and cocoa powder. Stir and bring it back to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until done. Maybe 20 minutes? Once most of the water is gone you can just turn it off, cover it, and let it soak up the rest of the water. It is also great to do the night before, it keeps in the fridge for more than a few days. Oh, once it’s all finished cooking, stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar. More if you like it sweeter. Or use honey. or whatever you like that is sweet. Eat this in the morning, plain or with nuts or coconut in it. Totally awesome.

  Based on this recipe: Mocha Crunch Oatmeal.

   
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  Rex 9:16 pm on August 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, Everything (28)   

  Chickpea-Carrot-Olive salad 

  

  This comes from Once Upon A Tart…, the cookbook, and the restaurant. Erin and I happened upon it when we were looking for breakfast in New York. We ordered some quiche and tart and this salad. I took a cameraphone pic of the book and could only decipher the ingredient list, so here is what I did with that:

  
  Grate 3 or 4 medium carrots into a large bowl. Take a handful of mixed olives (about a cup, with pits) and pit and rough chop them and add them to the bowl. Finely chop almost a full bunch of cilantro and two scallions, into the bowl. Rinse and drain two cans of chickpeas, mix into the bowl. Stir this up really well, making sure all the ingredients are well distributed.

  For the dressing, in a smaller bowl: One or two cloves of garlic, finely minced. the zest and juice of one lemon. 2Tbls ground cumin, 2tsp paprika, a strong dash of red cayenne, 2tsp salt, generous grind of pepper. Whisk this until combined. Whisk vigorously and add in 3Tbs of olive oil.

  mix the dressing into the salad, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour before serving.

   
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  Rex 11:23 am on May 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, Everything (28)   

  Pork Chow Mein 

  6oz medium egg noodles (I used flat rice noodles)
  12oz pork fillet (I used a chop)
  2 Tbs frying oil
  1tsp sesame oil (I used hot sesame oil + regular sesame oil)
  2 garlic cloves crushed
  8 spring onions (I used a finely sliced leek)
  1 red bell pepper, chopped
  1 green bell pepper, chopped
  2 Tbs dark soy sauce
  3 Tbs dry sherry
  6oz bean sprouts
  3Tbs chopped flat leaf parsley
  1Tbs toasted sesame seeds

  1) cook noodles until almost done, drain and rinse cool
  2) slice pork, cook in frying oil in high heat until cooked through
  3) add sesame oil(s) with garlic, leek, and peppers. cook over high heat for 3 minutes, peppers should soften.
  4) reduce heat and add noodles with soy sauce and sherry. stir-fry for 2 minutes
  5) add beansprouts and continue to cook for 2 minutes. add water if noodles start to stick.
  6) stir in the parsley and serve with toasted sesame seeds on top.

  This is from a Thai & Southeast Asian cookbook I bought at Borders on clearance. It was delicious. I’m really glad I used spicy sesame sauce, it added the heat that I expect from any asian dish. And I probably wouldn’t use a pork chop in the future, it was a bit too tough. Maybe if I would have cut it properly, against the grain.

   
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  Rex 2:34 pm on February 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, Everything (28)   

  Bacon and Egg on Waffle 

  
  Breakfast, originally uploaded by Rex Roof.

  I toasted some leftover waffles and made a sandwich with bacon and egg. Next time I should make some maple-flavored waffles so that I can emulate this: Dunkin Donuts Waffle Sandwich

   
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  Rex 10:15 pm on February 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, Everything (28)   

  Super Crispy Waffles 

  This recipe inspired me to make myself waffles for breakfast. I wasn’t totally paying attention when I was adding the milk and possibly made the batter a bit too thin. I made up for it by adding some more flour in the end. I also didn’t want to dirty measuring cups so I weighed out the flour. I decided 1-3/4 cups of flour was 8.25oz.

  Crispy Waffles (adapted from serious eats)

  Whisk together in a batter bowl: 8.25oz All Purpose Flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt.

  Whisk together in separate bowl: 2 egg yolks, 1 3/4cups milk, 1/2cup canola oil.

  Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg/milk mixture. stir until all wet but still lumpy. Let batter sit while you whisk 2 egg whites to rather stiff peaks.

  

  If after whisking your batter is still quite thin, stir in two tablespoons of flour. Fold egg whites into batter.

  Be sure to use enough batter in your waffle maker to fill it. Waffles without enough batter suck.

  

  Eat with syrup, bacon, jelly, eggs and coffee.

   
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  Rex 9:46 pm on May 9, 2007 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cooking, Everything (28)   

  Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies 

  I just got back from New York. I had a great trip: I biked the 5 Boro Bike Tour, I had an amazing dinner at Lupo, and I caught up with some of my best friends. I stayed most of the time with my friend Blake and his girlfriend Katrina who were attempting to make great oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were doing fairly well, but I really just wanted to enlighten them to my favorite cookie recipe of all time. It’s a recipe I slightly adapted from the pages of Cook’s Illustrated. Here’s how they go:

  1.25 cups (6oz) All Purpose Flour
  3/4 tsp baking powder
  1/2 tsp baking soda
  1/2 tsp table salt
  

  whisk these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. it’s important to whisk them, this is in lieu of sifting. Who does that for cookies?

  1.5 cups (3.5oz) of rolled oats
  1 cup (4oz) pecans chopped and preferably toasted in the oven until nutty smelling
  1 cup (5oz) dried cherries or cranberries, chopped. look for some with less sugar.
  4 oz chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. I usually use the ghirardelli bittersweet bars from the grocery store.
  

  stir these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

  1 large egg
  1 tsp vanilla extract

  in a small bowl, crack the egg and add the vanilla extract. whisk together slightly with a fork.

  12 Tbls (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cold but soft. (20-30 sec. in the microwave will soften it)
  1.5 cups packed (10.5oz) dark brown sugar

  with a sturdy spoon, cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl. mix until it is a uniform creamy texture, then mix it a while longer. stir in the egg mixture, one half at a time, adding the second half after the first is completely integrated.

  once mixed, stir in the flour mixture in four batches, waiting until the batter is completely mixed before adding more flour. After the flour is all added, stir in the oat mixture. It won’t appear to be able to all fit, but if you keep folding the batter, eventually you’ll get a uniform mixture.

  Throw the batter in the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

  These cookies should be made rather large, approximately 3 tablespoons, each. flatten each cookie into a puck-like shape and place on a cookie sheet. These can be baked on two cookie sheets at once. Bake for 6 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets, moving the top sheet to the bottom, and vice versa. Then bake about 6 minutes more. Make sure not to overbake!

  If you make these, let me know the results. I think I should make them again, ASAP, just to get some better pictures of them.