Bulgogi, red beans, pullman bread

Experimental Bulgogi.
Experimental red beans
Experimental Pullman type bread

Red beans soaked overnight. Next day, fried bacon incompletely with finely diced onion and garlic. Refreshed water of beans and added to bacon and onion. Added bay leaf, cumin. But no salt or pepper. Boiled for hours until softened, then added one small tin of roasted chopped tomato and maple syrup.

I'm considering buying a Pullman loaf pan because I want square slices of bread. No dome. But I'm worried. We baker types like our loaves lofty as possible but Pullman pans have a lid that limits their expansion. You have to judge exactly how much your dough will rise. And all that works out to how much water you start out with.

I know my pans fairly well. 1.5 Cups of water produces a nicely risen loaf with a dome above the rim. So I backed off to 1.25 Cups water and that was pretty much perfect.

This is not a pullman pan. I simply tuned it upside down on baking tray but I did not weight it down. I sensed it would lift a little bit and it did. I did not anticipate it would lift the pan at an angle. But the idea is to trim off the crust for elegant sandwiches so that doesn't matter.

This convinced me to buy a pullman pan. I've been putting it off, but now I want to try copying Japanese style sandwiches. 

I want the bread to not have any large holes. This bread has medium size holes. I was aiming for perfectly uniform crumb. That is my goal. Bread that resembes Wonder Bread except a lot better than that.

Bulgogi is a North Korean thing. It is thinly sliced steak grilled or broiled. But first marinated for several hours.

* soy sauce

* half the amount of sugar as soy sauce

* fresh grated ginger

* fresh minced garlic

* toasted sesame seed oil

You'll usually see sesame seeds and/or chopped scallion

This is an excellent meal. The beans are sweet. The beef is richly enhanced with customary familiar Asian flavor ingredients and the bread is excellent.

Light, delicate and crispy, cheese, bacon and chipotle flavored breadsticks.

* 1.5 cups hot water

* 2 teaspoons sugar

* 1 teaspoon active dry yeast

* About 3 cups flour, possibly a little bit more

* 4 slabs of thick cut bacon, and all of its fat

* About 4 ounces of cheese (considered a fat)

* Salt

* Chipotle powder

The bacon is cut into chunks and fried to crisp doneness. The emersion blender comes with a mixing cup and a tiny blade. The fried bacon chunks are processed to dust with 1/2 cup of flour. 

Grated cheese is processed to dust the same way. This creates the smallest particles possible. You might want to leave an occasional small chunk.  Pieces interfere with rolling and they create weak spots in the baked breadsticks.

It's a lovely dough to work with. If you consider kneading and rolling out dough to be work.

The dough is divided in half and rolled out on top of a Silpat. This establishes the size.

A disc pizza cutter is used to slice through the dough to create long strips of dough

Each dough strip is gently and lightly rolled to erase the edges. This technique is a lot faster than shaping snakes from a heaping teaspoon of dough. The process is much quicker. I suppose you could leave them square-shaped. By rolling you can also roll them with differential so that they twist and this could help them avoid bending into arc shapes as they dry. I'm guessing. I didn't do that.

Before proofing ↑.

Baked ↓.

I have only 3 storage containers available presently for proofing boxes. There was enough dough to roll thinly as possible but not enough dough for another tray of breadsticks so I made cracker with them. 

Baked for 10 minutes at 375℉, near the top of the oven. 

They might have to bake a little bit more to fully dehydrate. That's how I like them. Without any moisture at all.

Each tray can hold a little more than a dozen breadsticks.

I love these things so much. I'd like to have them around all the time. But then I would weigh at least 400 LBS. Because I cannot keep off of them when they're around.

fried shrimp sandwiches

Dredged in seasoned flour. So that the egg wash will stick.

Drenched in beaten egg with water so that the panko will stick.

Dredged in panko seasoned with the leftover seasoned flour.

Mayonnaise.

Cury catsup.

Prepared mustard.

Horseradish.

Good. But they'd be better with the crusts trimmed, and something sweet mixed in with the spread.

You'd think the breaded shrimp plus the sandwich bread would be too much bread, but the breaded shrimp is crunchy and the outer bread is soft.

Oh man, my sandwiches are gone already? I should have made more.

Fast bread made in a cloche

On YouTube I saw a woman open Lipton's onion soup mix and rub it on her beef brisket, and I thought, that's not the onion soup with which I am familiar with caramelized onion and homemade beef broth, wine, toasted bread raft slathered with gruyere cheese baked to perfection. Easy enough, but this is not it. Instead, it's dehydrated onion and beef bullion, spices and plenty of salt sold in an envelope. Like Ramen. I can do better than that with the greatest of ease. And whatever is in that Lipton's envelope of onion soup used as meat rub then I can do better than that too. There is simply no real use for these bizarre dehydrated products. What am I, on a campout?

So I made onion soup on the fly like Lipton does but with an onion and commercial beef broth sold in cartons. I filled out the profile with my favorite Asian flavor ingredients and BAM! There it is, onion soup of a type that is extraordinarily delicious. You cannot get enough of the stuff. But it's not French onion soup. And that made me realize it's been weeks since I've had any bread.

This is yeast proofing. There is no need to do this. The yeast is frozen and it will last for years on end. It always works, there is nothing to prove. But I like watching it change. This is sped up X20. They're having a little orgy in there.

Swedish meatballs

Meatball mixture in excess of what fit on the baking tray. This was added to the gravy.

1 lb ground chuck

1 lb ground sausage meat

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs, est., about two stale pieces of white bread worth.

1/4 cup whole mil, est., enough to soak the Panko bread crumbs

2 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon allspice, est., I sprinkled enough to darken a portion of the top of soaking breadcrubs

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, est., I grated two leftover bits in the tin.

1 small diced sautéed onion.

salt 

pepper

Nothing extra. No Worcestershire, no soy, no liquid smoke, no cayenne, no chipotle, no jalapeño, no mustard powder, no turmeric, no cumin nor coriander, no oregano, no catsup, no asafoetida, no fenugreek, no anchovy, no fish sauce, no mirin, no toasted sesame seed oil, no garam marsala, no garlic, no fennel, none of the usual things. Just rather plain, such as children would eat. 

And it tears me apart!

While these plain amuse bouches are baking gently their gravy is prepared. 

The gravy is a beef broth based velouté. 

A mirepoix is prepared and simmered in olive oil and butter to keep the butter from browning too much. 

* 1 diced small onion

* 1 diced carrot

* 2 diced short celery sticks. 

* 3 bay leaves.

* 2 tablespoon olive oil

* 2 Tablespoons butter

* salt

* pepper

The meatballs in the oven and this mirepoix are both done at the same time. The meatballs have browned and vegetable have softened. They both leave particles stuck to the cooking surface.

* all the leftover meatball mixture that didn't fit on the baking tray is added to the vegetables.

* 1 heaping tablespoon flour cooks in the pot with the vegetables.

* A spatula to loosen the fond on the baking tray, the meatballs transferred to a dish, the junky fond transferred to the vegetable pot.

* a splash of vermouth to loosen the fond in the pot. This amalgamates the vegetables into a thick pile of loose sludge as the vermouth evaporates.

* 2 cups beef broth, more as needed.

The broth is given the emersion blender treatment. More beef broth added as needed. I used more than 1/2 the commercial container. Probably about 3 cups total.

Taste-tested. The gravy tastes so excellent, in its plain somewhat Amish way, that no adjustments are necessary. We're aiming for plainness, for universal appeal. We don't want to give anyone any excuses. Which is stupid because I'm not sharing this with anyone. It's an experiment, okay? 

The meatballs are dumped into the gravy, and now the two marry and become one. 

Meatballs and gravy sitting in a tree.

K-i-s-s-i-n-g

First comes love

Then come marriage

Then come tiny meatballs in a meatball carriage.

The Dalai Lama goes up to a meatball vendor in New York and says, "Make me one with everything." 

The meatball vendor doesn't do anything. For the Dalai Lama is already one with the universe.

"Come on, Poop-Head fix me a bowl of Swedish meatballs." The Dalai Lama handed the meatball vendor a $20.00 bill. At this point the meatball vendor and Dalai Lama were still on transactional terms.

The vendor prepares a bowl of Swedish meatballs and hands it to the Dalai Lama but he turns his attention to the next customer without giving the Dalai Lama his change for the twenty.

Trained in art of non-violence, the Dalai Lama says, "Come on, Douchebag, where's my change?"

The meatball vendor says, "Change must come from within." 

Irritated with being given the short shrift, the Dalai Lama whips out a pistol from inside his robe and points the gun at the meatball vendor's head menacingly. And we all well know that concealed carry is illegal in New York City so the meatball vender knows already that the Dalai Lama flouts the law and given his conceptualization of reincarnation might not put so much emphasis on preserving one's present life.

The meatball vendor says, "Yikes, Brah, calm down, whatever happened to inner peace?" 

The Dalai Lama says, "Look, Yak Dung, this gun is my inner piece." 

The meatball vendor says to the Dalai Lama, "Wazza matter, Brah, ain'tcha got no sense of humor?" 

The Dalai Lama spits, "Shove your meatballs up your butt." 

Thus ends the story of enlightenment from which we learn that Dalai Lamas are people too.

delicious omelet, robust, flavorful, healthful, balanced, satisfying and very easy.

For years I shook the pan to dislodge the egg, have it pile up in the center, and have liquid egg pour the vacated space in the pan.

But that was to make it dynamic, dramatic and fun and since then I have grown and matured in my ways. All of that is not necessary. Now I use lower heat and simply push the egg around and end cooking before the top denatures fully.

chocolate soufflé

4 eggs

1 oz dark couverture chocolate

1 tbs cocoa powder

1/3 cup white sugar processed in coffee mill to powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar. 

1 tbs butters

chicken salad

One half gigantic chicken breast made several meals. This is 3 of its segments heavily spiced up, but that's only on the surface. Sliced up that becomes spice around the rims of slices. This has jalapeño and cayenne heat. Plus a whole lemon. Lightly dressed with mayonnaise. 

I could put an apple in this and it'd be great. 

Gyoza, tuna, daikon

This is a fine meal, right here.

The gyoza is frozen. It's placed in a pan with water and oil and covered half way. The water evaporates as the gyoza thaws and cooks, then they fry in the residual oil. 

Daikon is a wonderful radish. Not quite so hot as regular little red radishes. 

The tuna is nowhere near sushi quality, but I don't care. I love it. 

Love love love it. I love the whole thing. Especially with excellent soy sauce. 

fried chicken breast, cole slaw

This is one large chicken breast cut into pieces. The thin portion cut off, the broad portion cut laterally then divided in half again. 

It's marinated with dry rub of a specialized chile mixture consisting of not-so-hot red chile powder, cumin, and something else. I forget its name. It was a small gift of an ounce. And I already have all its component elements. I make this type of curry by another name all the time.  

The girl delivered a green cabbage instead of a napa cabbage, and I hate its guts.This is the second cole slaw I've made from it and both are disgusting. The cole slaw I buy is a lot better than the cole slaw I make. I'd rather it be made with napa cabbage, the best of all cabbages. Green cabbage is just gross. 

I'll go further. Whoever invented green cabbage was a maniac. Maybe they found it growing naturally one day during an acid trip and imagined it would be good to eat. And all current green cabbage crops should be transformed to napa cabbage crops immediately. Just change them all. ALL of them at once. Plant proper seeds. And banish green cabbages from the face of the earth forever. So that life can be enjoyed and credit given where credit is due. 

Spaghetti squash soup made in Instantpot pressure cooker

The spaghetti squash is cooked under pressure for seven minutes and removed and its water.

Bacon is fried in the pot then removed.

Chicken broth and squash and all other ingredients are returned to the pot except bacon and cooked until soft without pressure. 

 The ingredients are blended by emersion blender.

The bacon returned to the pot and the soup cooked further without pressure.

Not shown:

homemade chicken broth

bay leaves (removed before blending)

cayenne pepper

sat

black pepper

cumin

heavy whipping cream to finish

butter to finish

The soup is heavenly and I mean it. 

The squash fibers form around the equator of the squash. If the squash is cut lengthwise pole to pole, then the fibers will all be cut in half. Cutting the squash in half along the equator keeps the fibers long as possible. 

A little bit of butter, salt and pepper, is all that is needed for this spaghetti squash to taste great. I can see why people like this so much.

As for soup, acorn squash and butternut squash will work very well this same way.