Deep Fried & Frosted

and I make lots of food. There’s something about living alone that is significantly less exciting than having people around. AKA I cook significantly less. Even the thought of making a fried egg makes me “meh.”

So, thankfully, I got a chance to make a few things I had wanted to make but was too lazy to because I had a visitor! 

Guinness-braised Short Ribs with Herbed Polenta:

I’m going to go ahead and say it probably looks better in pot than on plate.

Before.

Also, this is my new Le Creuset risotto pot! Works like a dream.

Creme Brulee French Toast:

From this, I have learned that you cannot brulee a burnable surface well. Otherwise it will either char, or set fire. Thankfully this soaked overnight in liquid so it just charred. That is also why my brulee is horribly uneven and not the best to look at. I think my kitchen motto should be, “looks bad, tastes good.”

It started like this:

Sad, boring french toast that has been soaked overnight in fatty dairy products, mixed with orange zest and then baked. 

Then it finally gets some bling, to which Alex asks, “are you sure that’s how much sugar you put on there? It looks like a lot.”

Then I whipped out this baby and showed’em who’s boss. 

And I sort of brulee’d them. As you can see, I’ve already charred the edges on the further one, and seem to have started what looks like a lava flow. 

Momofuku Pork Buns

I’ve wanted to make these forever (and so many other things). And now I had a reason to spend 8 hours in the kitchen. They aren’t a lot of work really. Just the dough has to be made (20 minutes) then rise (1.5 hours) then rolled into pieces and rolled into balls (30 minutes) then allowed to rest (45 minutes) then rolled out and folded (45 minutes) then steamed in batches (35 minutes) then packaged and frozen (for me, 20 minutes). 

So that isn’t 8 hours. Must have messed some times up in there because I definitely started at 2-something and finished at 10 something. Maybe I took a break or 10 in there. 

These are the buns. You eat them with all of these things:

On the cutting board is roasted pork belly (skins removed and crisped for consumption later), green onions, “quick-pickled” kirby cucumbers, sriracha and hoisin. 

Then you put everything together like an asian taco and eat it:

I also tried to make the Chinese eggplant from Urban Belly. Pretty close. I was a little off in cooking method I think. Urban Belly’s is definitely a little softer.

and finally, Breakfast Pizza!

Eggs, green onions and mozzarella on pizza dough. 

Overall, a very nomz weekend. 

Nothing like ending finals, actually I think it was starting finals, with hotpot. It’s great. It may take forever and make a huge mess, but it’s very comforting. Finally a meal where I don’t have to shove food as quickly as possible into my mouth because I’ve got work or something to do (I suppose in this case I did have to do that, but I didn’t).

Mostly the same ingredients except instead of seafood, there was sliced pork and also some fried tofu skin things. (See the package in between the brisket and fish balls)

We also went a little more green with the broth by adding sliced green onions and watercress.

And here we are mid-cook!

We ate everything this time, which is pretty impressive. An entire bag of potstickers, sliced pork and brisket, fish, pork and beef balls, noodles, a bag of tofu skins and a huge bowl of veggie. Yum!