The Burger - Kept Simple

 

Burgers are definitely one of the ultimate comfort foods. Each bite gives you warm bread, cold greens, cold tomato, gooey cheese, sweet and vinegary hints from ketchup and mustard, and sinful beefy bliss. One of the things I really dislike about the direction food is going is that nearly every semi-high end restaurant has decided to give their take on a burger. Usually this involves some kind of blue cheese, caramelized onion, garlic aioli covered mess. Burgers are comfort food and should be kept simple. You don't see many restaurants making a fancy meatloaf...

Although it may not seem like it, I'm all for gourmet burgers as long as they're at a reasonable price. If I'm going out to a restaurant, I'd rather not spend $12 or $15 dollars on a "gourmet" burger that cost them two dollars to make. The only time I would dish out money for a burger is if it incorporated two very important things: high quality beef (with a specific ratio of cuts i.e., 40% short rib, 20% sirloin, 40% chuck) to ensure maximum fatty and tenderness, and a baked on-site bun. A burger that consisted of a really good freshly baked bun and a nice cut of beef would be completely fine with me. For example, The Spotting Pig's burger. Bread, Blue cheese, and meat.

 

Until then, I'm fine with cooking simple American burgers. Cooked in a skillet with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion.

Chicken Lo Mein

Chinese food - the best food ever. Going to be honest, y'all. Chinese food is better than French, Italian, Indian, and anything else. Going to an authentic Chinese restaurant and being bombarded with such a variety of delicious tastes is insane. I also love Chinese food because they always give huge portions and I love to eat more than anything else. While Lo Mein isn't really an authentic dish by very many means, it's still a delicious one. All the ingredients I use are from various Chinese markets and imported, so as long as it's made with all authentic ingredients it's authentic to me!

The biggest secret of Chinese cooking that everyone will tell you is that you need a high BTU burner, or a significantly hot source of heat. And while you may hope I say, "this isn't true!", it kind of is. You can make perfectly good Chinese food at home, but it won't be anything like the food you get at any restaurant. This "secret" is called wok hay, it's the flavor that the intense heat of a seasoned wok gives the food. In my kitchen, I use a stainless steel, deep pan with a thick bottom. While I do have a wok, it doesn't hold heat nearly as well as my pan. When you add ingredients to a pan, it brings down the temperature of everything in the pan ruining any kind of "wok hay" you could wish to achieve. It also turns the food in the pan from frying to braising, because it's basically just boiling in a sauce. I will now impart onto thee a recipe for, if you make it exactly like I did, lo mein that is better than a Chinese take-out. (and this quote came from an actual Chinese person! (just kidding she's half but that doesnt make it half true, it's still completely true...))

Ingredients
Sauce: Warning..I eyeball all of my measurements when I cook Chinese food. I believe Chinese food isn't about exact measurements, like French cooking would be more of, but about knowing what sauces give off what taste and knowing how much of a sauce will affect the overall flavor. This only comes with time, but it's not hard or anything.

• Half cup of soy sauce
• 3/4 cup of chicken broth (bouillon cube works fine)
• tablespoon of dark soy sauce (this is really dark, I added a bit more when cooking to give it a darker look)
• Drop of sesame oil
• Dollop of Chili garlic sauce. Rooster brand aka sriracha 
• 1 tsp of white pepper
• about a tsp of corn starch, keep adding if thicker sauce is wanted
• Tablespoon of xiao xing cooking wine
• Tablespoon of Oyster sauce

Also you will need

• Two chicken breasts, sliced thinly
• Half lb of lo mein noodles
• Half an onion cut up
• Two small or one large green onion
• Three cloves of garlic

Chicken Marinade

• Tsp of cornstarch dissolved in water
• tablespoon of dark, tablespoon of light soy sauce

First of all, I do cook this in two different batches so I can have more heat. That means just have everything together and add only half each time.

This isn't a hard dish to make, but it cooks really fast and you have to be on your toes.

1. Marinade the chicken up to 30 minutes, 15 minutes is fine really.
2. Boil the noodles and strain, toss with oil to keep them not sticking together.
3. Fry all the chicken in a good amount of oil on very high heat (all heat is very high in this recipe)
4. When almost done cooking, set aside in a bowl.
5. Fry the half of the garlic in a good amount of oil, before it burns add in half of the onion.
6. Fry this stuff around for a while and then add half of the noodles.
7. Keep stir frying everything so nothing sticks, add half of the chicken and then half the sauce.
8. Keep cooking and let the sauce reduce and then plate when it tastes right.

Repeat the process for the next batch and there you go!

Brioche au Chocolat

Food blogging has definitely gotten me a lot more interested in baking. I considered baking a lost cause before, but for no real reason. It's now something that I've been doing every week, nearly daily. What got me wanting to make a Viennoiserie was the fact that I don't eat breakfast. I've been complaining to Olivia that all this campus needs is a bakery, and a deli, and I would never leave. I'd be completely fine with this god forsaken city if I could just get a nice pastry or bread, without having to drive in a car (which I don't have). Thankfully I now have a full service bakery in my apartment thanks to these babies (aka my hands).

I decided to create a breakfast pastry bread called a Brioche. While it's not exactly a breakfast bread, it is eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, but it's not a kind of bread you eat with a meal. A couple slices of brioche and coffee in the morning and you might as well puke because you're already going to have a great day. I chose a chocolate brioche because A. I love chocolate and B. Chocolate and bread is the greatest. Pain au chocolat is a popular French bread and this is basically pain au chocolat because pain means bread in French, although that particular bread is a bit more flaky. A brioche is characterized by its eggs, milk, and lots of butter. Three things that guarantee deliciousness in a bread. If you can't think of something that would taste like this, imagine a sweeter Challah with a softer texture, and a swirl of chocolate throughout. Oh and I made sure to add instructions for all of y'all out there who miss them :)!

Here is the ingredients list:

• 2 cups of flour (more for dusting)
• 7 tablespoons of softened  unsalted butter (if you do use salted butter, omit the salt)
• 2 eggs, 1 egg for egg wash
• 1 tbsp of instant yeast
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup warm milk (I had to use water because I am poor and don't have any milk, it still tasted fine)
• 1 tsp of salt
• Large handful of chocolate chips

1. Mix the flour and yeast in a large bowl.

2. Pour in the warm milk and combine slowly until everything is dissolved.

3. Add the sugar and the salt next and combine.

4. Start adding the butter a bit at a time while mixing the whole time.

5. Next add the two eggs one at a time. Again, make sure you're mixing the whole time.

If your mixture is too runny, keep adding flour a bit at a time until it looks like this. By the way, if you're adding more flour, make sure that you actually let it be combined each time. This is what it should look like.

Let this dough rise in a warm place for about two hours. It should look like this.

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes and here comes the special part. The adding of the chocolate. Yum.

What you're going to want to do here is roll out the dough so it's a long flat rectangle. Place your chocolate chips on the dough and then roll it up so it will fit in a bread pan.

Sick.

This is what your bread should look like in a bread pan. Let it sit in this pan and proof (rise again) for about 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350. 

Once your bread is done proofing score it three times. Crack that last egg into a cup and mix it up. This is your egg wash. Get a brush and brush the egg wash on top of the bread and stick it in the oven. It should cook for about 20-30 minutes. There you go! Brioche really is delicious and guess what, I have a secret....(I'm making some more right now)