h.i.e.p. karma

This is a modified recipe that I got from my mom, who got it from the L.A. Times several months ago...

Ingredients

1 9"x13" glass (Pyrex) pan
1 large roasting pan, 1" clearance on all sides of the glass baking pan when placed in the roasting pan

Sugar coating
2-3 tablespoons orange juice
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water

Flan
5 eggs
1 standard can of condensed milk
1 standard can of evaporated milk
1 cup of milk (I usually use lowfat)
3+ tablespoons of vanilla extract
2+ tablespoons of amaretto (I don't have any so I use rum... haha)

Directions
Sugar coating:
In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil the sugar + water + orange juice. The orange juice will give the flan sugar coating a slight citrus-y flavor. Boil constantly until the sugar mixture is a medium brown (caramelizes). This is the most tedious part of the entire process actually... will probably take 20+ minutes for the sugar to caramelize. Pour immediately onto glass pan and coat the bottom with it. Let the glass baking dish cool to room temperature if you can.

Flan base:
Heat oven to 300 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, mix together the eggs. Then whisk in condensed, evaporated, and regular milk. Whisk in the amaretto and then the vanilla. Pour into the baking dish.

Place the dish inside a large roasting pan. The pan should be filled with enough hot water to be at half-height of the glass dish. Place dish and pan into oven and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours; until a knife inserted at center comes out clean. Remove flan from water bath and allow to cool, then place in the fridge. Helps to keep in fridge overnight before serving.

Mood: Wistful

What do you eat a boiled egg with? Just by itself?

I use salt + pepper as a seasoning... I partially dip the boiled egg in the salt and pepper and take a bite. It's pretty good... try it sometime!

I wonder if this is a Vietnamese thing...

Recipe from a friend:

Darn Good Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 package plain devil's food or dark chocolate fudge cake mix (i like the organic brand dr. oetker...you can find it at whole foods and cost plus)
1 package (3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
350 degrees

45-50 minutes in bundt pan

This is something I'm whipping up... I've been sick the past few days (mostly mild... but enough for me to call in sick). I've never really made any kind of chicken soup before, so here goes nothing:

0-1 tomatoes, diced
2-3 stalks/sticks of celery, sliced horizontally (not length-wise, the other way)
1-1.5 stick of carrots, sliced horizontally
2-3 pieces of chicken (breast or thigh)
0.75-1 cup or so of pasta (I like that curly stuff - fusilli)
0.5-1 can of sliced bamboo shoots
2 cans of chicken broth
1-2 bay leaves
Salt, msg, pepper to taste

Boil pasta for 10-12 minutes (as per directions; you can add some salt). Rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and to prevent the pasta from sticking to each other (maybe?). I let it dry for 5-10 minutes then cover it in a bowl to prevent drying - although I'm not sure if this is necessary since putting it later in the soup/stew would probably re-hydrate it.

Save the water the chicken was boiled in... remove any remaining excess scum. Add the cans of chicken broth/stock.

Boil chicken in water with a few pinches of salt. Note that if you're boiling chicken you'll notice that eventually some "chicken scum" will develop in the water. Just scoop out as much as you can. Once it's boiled take the chicken out to cool; once cooled separate the meat from the bones and skin - which you should toss. Hand shred the chicken.

Once all the ingredients are ready put them together in a big pot and heat it up (leave out the pasta). When near boiling let it simmer for 30-60 minutes - long enough for the carrots and celery to soften up. Add water as necessary. Once ready, add pasta.

End result? It's not too bad actually. My initial version used the "larger" side of the ingredients list, as well as 2 tomatoes. I think that's too much - it ended up being a bit too much on the tomato-sour side. I think no or very little tomatoes would probably be best. It is a very simple tasting soup though.

I have a bunch of chicken thighs left over from a deep fry party (didn't get to those thighs, unfortunately). So I defrosted three and decided to bake them.

I took my inspiration from this recipe.

Like most of my impromptu cooking sessions, I basically put together anything/everything I had lying around in my kitchen. For the sauce I added:

1-2 tblspn butter
Dabs of Worcestershire sauce
Dabs of lite soy sauce
Dabs of oyster sauce
1 tblspn of hoison sauce
Some salt
Some ground pepper
Some msg
Some chili powder

Mixed this up, and poured over 3 chicken thighs in a baking pan. Covered it up and put it in my oven @ 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake for another 25-30 minutes, with an occasional basting as desired.

It actually came out decently... In fact I'm eating it right now...

Recipe courtesy of MarthaStewart.com (interestingly enough, I cannot find the recipe anymore, although Google has it cached).
I've made this multiple times and its always come out great. Watch out for your sinuses though - the vinegar from Tabasco is mighty strong...

Buffalo Chicken Wings and Blue-Cheese Dressing with Sean

Deep-fried chicken in a spicy sauce, Buffalo wings were invented in a Buffalo, New York, bar in 1964. Now a bar staple nationwide, they make an ideal appetizer for informal gatherings. When Martha Stewart Living television editor Sean Steyer has guests over to watch sporting events, he serves this dish with its traditional accompaniments of creamy blue-cheese dressing and crisp celery sticks.
For another spicy and easy-to-make hors d’oeuvre, try Sean’s recipe for jalapeño poppers.

Recipes

Buffalo Chicken Wings
Serves 2 to 4
2 quarts canola oil or Crisco
3 1/2 pounds chicken wings, cut into three pieces, wing tips reserved for stock
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup Frank’s RedHot Sauce
2 1/2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
Blue-Cheese Dressing (recipe follows)
Celery sticks

1. Heat 4 inches of oil in a deep fryer or medium stockpot over high heat until a deep fryer thermometer registers 400°. Line a baking sheet with paper towels; set aside. Add half of the wing pieces to hot oil, and fry until dark golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes. Transfer to prepared baking sheets to drain.
2. While wings are cooking, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add hot sauce, Tabasco, and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until hot. Lower heat, and keep warm until ready to use.
3. When the first batch of wings is finished cooking, transfer to an airtight container. Add half the sauce, and cover tightly. Shake container to fully coat wings. Repeat with remaining wings and sauce. Serve immediately with blue-cheese dressing and celery sticks on the side.

Blue-Cheese Dressing
Makes 1 cup
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/4 lemon, or to taste
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, stir to combine all ingredients.

Saturday marked my 35th birthday. I find that as I get older, I care less about my birthdays (probably because it becomes a reminder of how old I'm getting)...

This year was a particularly mellow one. All I got for my birthday (for myself) was Viva Pinata for the XBox 360. That's it. Of course, I did get a 46" Sony Bravia about a month ago - but come on, that's not related to my birthday at all.

My girlfriend took me to Vito on Sunday night for my birthday dinner. They have a fantastic Caesar salad, which is the following:

- 1-2 tablespoon ground garlic
- 1-2 tablespoon ground anchovies
- 1-2 tablespoon dijon mustard
- Couple tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoons of either red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar (couldn't tell which one)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Couple tablespoons parmesan cheese

I'll have to try this recipe sometime...

I will be prepping this pretty soon (perhaps tonight). I will update with a recipe when I'm done.

A few "reference" recipes I've scrounged:

Allrecipes Marinated Flank steak Version 1
Allrecipes Marinated Flank steak Version 2
Emeril's Flank steak recipe

Update (06.30.06)
OK, so here's the recipe I'm using, which is a modified version of the first AllRecipes link above (basically I just threw in additional stuff that was lying around in my kitchen cabinets )

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1 onion, cut into slices
Few ounces of garlic, cut into slices
1 tblspn MSG (oh yeah)
1-2 tblspn Maggie seasoning sauce
3-4 tblspn Kimlan Teriyaki sauce
A couple of bay leaves
A few sticks of lemongrass, cut up (if you can find it that is)
Pinch/dash of salt
1/4 cup of water (for dilution)

Put everything together and marinate overnight...

A neighbor at my gf's parents house made these for Christmas... omg they're good!!! I'm looking up the recipes now... not sure if I can find the correct one


CARAMELED CEREAL

In top of double boiler over hot water, heat 28 vanilla caramels in 2
tablespoons water, stirring frequently,
until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour caramel mixture over 5
cups Kix cereal; mix gently.
Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. let stand until firm. About 3
dozen candies.


KIX BRITTLE CANDY

Ingredients :

Preparation :
In heavy weight saucepan, melt 1 cup butter. Add 1 cup sugar and
stir over medium light heat for approximately 10 minutes or until it
turns a light caramel color. Remove from heat and add 2 cups Kix
cereal. Pour on well greased cookie sheet.


UPDATE: [01.06.06]
Well, been trying a few variations; one using corn syrup from a cookbook that I consider my "cooking bible"
It turned out pretty good. But I'm not sure if the corn syrup helped at all or is even necessary?!

Caramelio Kix, version 1.5

1/3 to 1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 to 1/3 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 to 2 sticks of butter, depending on your cholesterol level
2 1/2 to 3 cups of Kix cereal

Add the corn syrup and water together and put to medium low to medium heat. Add in sugar and mix. Let it start to boil slightly (stirring not necessary). This will take awhile, about 15-30 minutes. What you're doing is actually slowing boiling off the water. Keep an eye on it until it starts to darken to an amber color. I find a light to medium amber/brown a good end point.

Once you decide on how brown you like it (remember it'll continue cooking slightly, so account for that), add in the 1 to 2 sticks [1/2 - 1 cup] butter. You can lower the heat to um... low setting.

The butter will melt, keep mixing it. You'll find that the mixture will start to slightly separate (this is ok). Once the butter is completely melted and mixed in, add in your kix.

Mix em up in the pan thoroughly, and pour onto nonstick surfaces (my favorite - silpats) and QUICKLY flatten them out. With 2-3 cups of Kix, I find that you'll need 2 silpats to get enough surface area to work with.

Notes:
The key with this specific version is adding the butter last. I hadn't done that with my first try, and the butter ended up foaming and separating a lot. Kinda freaked me out - although it turned out pretty tasty at the end. Putting the butter in LAST will prevent the foaming for the most part, although the butter will slightly "boil" when you first put it into the hot syrup.

It's turned out pretty good, but for a real rich taste you'll want to add at least 1 1/2 to 2 sticks of butter. REAL UNHEALTHY...

Creamed Corn

Ingredients
1½ tablespoons butter
1½ tablespoons flour (Update: 2 tbsp... be prepared to add more whip cream if you use more flour)
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups whipping cream
4+ tablespoons sugar
3 cups fresh, frozen or canned whole kernel corn (Update: 3 cans)


Directions
Melt butter in heavy saucepan; add flour and salt,
stirring to blend. Slowly add whipping cream, stirring
constantly until thickened. Add sugar and corn, heat.
For Au Gratin, place corn in a 9 or 10 inch shallow
casserole dish; sprinkle with ¼ cup freshly grated
Parmesan cheese and brown under broiler.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Update: Changed the ingredient amounts. The original made the corn too "watery"

My bastardized version of chili, from a recipe I got off of Williams Sonoma.

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
3-4 lbs of ground meat (beef/turkey)
Bunch of garlic cloves, diced/minced
1-2 tbsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp dried oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1-2 cups stock (ie 1 can chicken stock)
1 can pureed tomato
1/4 cup masa harina (note: I did not put this in, as I could not find it!!)
Salt (to taste)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste)

My stuff:
1 can (small) tomato paste
1-3 tsp MSG
1 tbsp Cayenne
4 roma tomatoes, diced
1-2 tbsp Paprika
3-4 bay leaves (flavor additive*)
1 onion (flavor additive*)
1 stick of butter
1-2 tbsp Diced ginger
Some diced thai peppers(1), serrano chiles (1/2), jalapeno chile (1) -> dependent on how spicy you want your chili to be

Directions
Heat up olive oil. Sautee garlic til starting to brown, then add meat. Cook for a bit at medium/high heat, until majority of meat starts to cook. Then add all the other ingredients. Stir. And hope it turns out well! (I'm actually still cooking this, so I really don't know if it'll be any good)


*flavor additive -> put it into your chili to add flavor, but they're not intended to be eaten

The butter is intended to help with the inherent bitterness of the chili... (is there another way to overcome this?)



Update:
Turns out... this chili is really good!

Made a meatloaf for the first time this past Saturday... came out pretty decent. Props to my gf for the idea and her help.

1 1/2 to 2 lbs of ground beef, ground turkey
1 egg
1 diced onion
4-8 shittake mushrooms, roughly diced
1/2 to 1 cup milk
3/4 to 1 cup panko (original recipe called for bread crumbs but we didn't have any)
1-2 tblsp oil (canola, etc)
2-3 tblsp oyster sauce
Seasoning (msg, salt, pepper, whatever ground herbs you feel like putting in)

Mix them all together, form some sort of rectangular shape, and bake in a pyrex pan for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

This one is a tad tricky, as I improvised the cooking part (mostly portions to use)

Ingredients
1/2 to 1 cup Wood ear mushroom
1/2 cup Shitake mushrooms (not too much - they have a strong flavor and can tend to overpower the dish they're made in)
1 cup bamboo shoots
2-4 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp chili oil/powder
1 pkg tofu (pref firm)
1 to 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch
Many tbsp soy sauce
Several tbsp rice vinegar
2-3 eggs
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp sugar
Some MSG

Some peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Some slices of ginger


Directions
Juilienne wood ear, shitake and bamboo; set aside.

Prep boil peppercorns, ginger, bay leaf, and chicken broth. Let simmer for a little while then remove peppercorns & ginger. Put in rest of ingredients and heat to boil/near boil. Add sesame oil. Mix corn starch with a small amount of cold water and then add to pot. Stir continuously until it thickens, then slowly stir and add eggs.

Tricky part
To taste: add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, msg to taste. How much depends on how you want it to taste. Be careful of adding too much vinegar as that will make it too sour.

Crust Action

2 cups flour
2 sticks of butter (1 cup), softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon filling

4 eggs
7 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon rind (grated rind... make it as *fine* as you can, otherwise texture can be... iffy. Also perhaps use just half a lemon rinds)
1 to 1.5 cups sugar (orig recipe used 2 cups - too sweet)

Other
9 x 13" pan


Crust prep

Preheat oven to 350 deg and grease/PAM pan.

In a mixer bowl combine butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Beat until fluffy then gradually add flour while beating. Spread into pan and bake for 20 min @ 350 deg. It will be a relatively thin layer; don't worry if it seems like there's not enough pastry dough.

Filling prep

In a bowl combine eggs, granulated sugar, lemon rind & lemon juice. Stir (not beat) ingredients together.

Pour lemon mix over baked crust/cookie layer; return to oven and bake until topping is set and lightly brown, anywhere from 18 to 22 min. Sift confectioner's sugar over top when done.


Notes
Be very careful about underbaking this - it's easy to do. Overbaking is possible too, but underbaking is worse. I baked for about 18-19 min and found it to be not enough. It could possibly due to the oven used (the oven temp was probably under the 350 deg temp). My recommended time is 20-30min, totally depending on the characteristics of your oven.

This is the low-breading (aka Roscoe style) version:

Ingredients

Chicken - thighs/breasts
Flour
Egg
Seasoning (salt, pepper, msg, etc)


Directions

Season flour, egg with salt + pepper, etc. Rub same seasoning onto skin of chicken.

Dip chicken in egg, then in flour.

Deep fry (thighs for at least 10 min.. maybe 12. Initially I deep fried at max temp, but that may result in a more brown chicken than desired - play with the temp a bit). Breasts will require more time.. maybe 2-6 min more(?)

Once out of the frier, sprinkle a pinch of salt on the chicken.

It's pretty easy - the only tricky thing is correct duration to make sure the chicken get fully cooked.