So, I’m a bit on the tail end of peach season, but I’m going to contribute a recipe for this season anyway. This is a traditional “biscuit style cobbler that requires very minimal effort and comes together surprisingly easily. Serve it by itself or with a beautifully generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I actually ran a poll on my Facebook for my friends and family to vote on either banana bread or peach cobbler. I was actually surprised and a bit hurt that they chose this over banana bread. I had to obey the results of the poll and see for myself if there was a reason why they would choose that. One bite, and I instantaneously understood. Don’t get me wrong, I love banana bread, but I now realize that banana bread has a time and a place, but peach cobbler can sometimes win that slot.
- 2½ lbs peaches peeled (see video on how to peel them)
- 1 cup blackberries *optional*
- 6 tablespoons granulated sugar (cane or coconut)
- juice of ½ a lemon
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- small pinch salt
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons All purpose flour or cassava flour
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (cane or coconut)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon butter, cold, cut into cubes
- ¼ cup milk plus 2 tablespoons
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut peaches into half inch slices.
- In a medium bowl toss the peaches and blackberries(if using) with the lemon juice, cinnamon, granulated sugar for filling. Mix thoroughly.
- Grease a cast iron skillet or baking pan with butter and add your fruit mixture to the pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
- While that's baking go ahead and make your biscuit topper by whisking together your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together until incorporated. Add your cold cubed butter to the flour and blend it into the flour using your hand or a pastry blender to crush the flour and butter together until you get a crumbly looking mixture.
- Once crumbly add the cold milk and mix together with a spoon until a loose sticky batter like dough comes together.
- After your peaches have baked for 10-15 minutes, pull them out of the oven and drop tablespoon sized dollops of the biscuit dough directly on top of the peaches. Make sure to space them apart as they will spread a little bit.
- Once you've used all of your mixture, add your cobbler back to the oven and bake again for another 40-45 minutes, until the biscuits are golden.
- Pull from the oven and let cool slightly and serve big spoonfuls, juices and all. Add vanilla ice cream if you wish.
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I remember when I first learned how to make shrimp scampi. I was expecting a lot of work and time to make something so incredibly delicious. Italian cooking proves me wrong yet again. Technically this is not a true Italian dish, it’s mostly an Americanized version but I think that it is a very good example of what good Italian food is like. Incredibly simple, with the freshest of ingredients, and cooked surprisingly quickly. 15 minutes to be exact.
Shrimp scampi is essentially just shrimp that is cooked in a white wine and garlic butter sauce. It doesn’t actually have to include pasta like I chose here. You could serve this with anything you like really. It could be regular or gluten free pasta like I did, or it could be vegetable noodles, or it could simple be served with vegetables or atop some steamed rice. This is actually a great throw together weeknight meal but it tastes and looks like hours in the kitchen. A true win win.
Also I don’t know if y’all have noticed but I actually recently started this new series called Cooking Isn’t that Hard. It’s essentially a little series I’m doing to show the ease of cooking to get people back in the kitchen cooking from scratch again! You can click here to see my youtube channel if you’d like to see all of the episodes that have been published so far. If you’re enjoying them I would really appreciate it if you subscribed to my channel on youtube that way you’ll get updates for when I upload the next episode!
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2.5 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- ½ cup white wine such (don't use a sweet wine, only dry wines like chardonnay)
- 1 lemon of lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- Heat butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until butter is completely melted and bubbling. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir to incorporate, saute for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
- Increase heat to medium high and add white wine and lemon juice. Once it comes to a boil add the shrimp in an single even layer so that all the shrimp lie flat on one side. Keep heat the same and boil for 2-3 minutes, then flip all of the shrimp to their other side and cook for an additional minute.
- Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper to your taste, then add the fresh chopped parsley. Toss to distribute seasoning and chopped parsley evenly.
- Serve with whatever you like! If serving with pasta, gluten free pasta, cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and add the pasta in with the shrimp scampi and toss to coat. Do the same with zucchini noodles, sauce the zucchini noodles until they're cooked through before tossing them with the shrimp scampi. Or you can just serve the shrimp scampi with veggies on the side or atop rice or potatoes. When serving garnish with chopped parsley and olive oil. Enjoy!
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Well y’all, Fourth of July is tomorrow. Time sure has flied by this year. Ups and downs, with lots of good things as well as difficult. I figured in order to celebrate this American holiday with some classic Southern fried chicken.
Fried chicken as well as chicken fried steak are two things that speak very close to my inner child. These are things from my childhood that I ate because I grew up in a mostly southern family. Another one of my bigger inspirations for this recipe would be my Grandmother, whom recently passed away a few days ago. I want to dedicate this recipe to her. I know it’s something that she would have loved and respected. She was a great woman and passed down many a recipe to my mother and I.
This fried chicken is made with a classic buttermilk base and then a simple salt and pepper dredge. Nothing too fancy or spiced up, although you could add any spices you like into the flour dredge if you’re into that. I might do that with the next batch. The thing I liked about this chicken being less spiced up meant that there was more room for dressings and sides. You can dip this chicken in anything or toss it in any sauce if you were to desire that.
- 1 whole 3 to 3½lb chicken cut into 8 pieces (2 wings, 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs) *see notes for using two or more chickens*
- 3½ cups all purpose flour or all purpose gluten free flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper (you can reduce this to a half teaspoon if you want less peppery flavor)
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard.
- In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients for the buttermilk dredge. Add you cut up chicken pieces, lightly mix, and keep submerged. You can place this back in the fridge and marinate it for 1 hour or up to overnight or you can go ahead and just use it right away and skip the marinating all together.
- Heat a heavy bottomed pot of with 2-3 inches of oil to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Try and maintain this temp throughout the frying process. I used a candy thermometer to measure this temp, which you can buy at a grocery store for about $4.00. Make sure not to overfill your pot here. If it over flows, big danger. My oil only went up about halfway in my pot.
- Set up your dredging station by adding all of your ingredients for your flour dredge into a large bowl. Whisk those ingredients together until thoroughly incorporated.
- Add 1 piece or 4 pieces of chicken at a time (whatever is most comfortable) and toss them in the flour dredge to thoroughly coat. Make sure to get the dredge under the skin and in the meat crevices. Press the flour firmly into the chicken to ensure there are no wet patches and that it is totally dry with flour. This is how you keep the skin crispy. As you finish dredging chicken just place the finished pieces of chicken onto a baking tray.
- Once chicken is dredged carefully place the a chicken in the frying oil, do not overcrowd the pan and make sure the chicken is frying in an even layer, no chicken on top of another. You may have to do this in batches. Fry for 7-15 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. The chicken should be golden brown and should read 165 degrees fahrenheit for an internal temperature.
- Let cool on a wire rack fitted above a tray to catch the drippings. Cool it to an edible temperature because these suckers are hot! Enjoy with whatever other festivities you have, serve with a sauce if you fancy, lots of pickles, radishes, lemons, you name it!
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Well it’s going down you guys. I’m excited and proud to announce my first youtube series Cooking Isn’t That Hard. It’ll be hosted entirely on Youtube as of right now so if you want to see more of these I would recommend going and giving me a quick subscribe here before going through this post. Without further adieu, How to Cook A Perfect Steak.
Steak to me is one of those things that should be kept relatively simple, but not too simple. Don’t be that person that says “my steaks are so good they don’t need salt.”. That’s not a good person to be. Pretty much everything needs some level of salt, no matter how high quality or how great of a cook you are. A great cook would know this. Salt isn’t just something our body needs in order to live, it also gives the spark to flavor that you need. In the case of steak, you’ll need a pretty generous amount on both sides in order to give it maximum flavor. It’s pretty hard to over season a steak unless you’re using really fine grain salt. I prefer kosher salt when seasoning my steaks. Some people like flakey salt, but that stuff is expensive and you have to use A LOT of it in order to get the right amount of salt on there.
One of the things I love about steak is it’s complexity of flavor and texture despite the fact that it really should only take about 5-10 minutes to cook. Assuming you’re cooking it medium rare. I’m not going to shame you if you like yours cooked above that, I’m just going to say that there is definitively a significant loss of flavor when you do that. If you’re cool with that, then no biggie. As for a cut of beef for steak I think that’s definitely going to differ based on the individual. I l0ve a good thick ribeye. Not too chewy, a good fat to meat ratio, and it has multiple parts of the steak that each have their own textural differences. A good sub for this would be maybe a new york strip, or a t-bone steak. The only downside to a t-bone is that they tend to cook rather unevenly considering the fact that there are two different steaks on on bone. No matter what your choice, if you follow this cooking method, you will have a delicious, nicely cooked steak, just like the restaurants do it.
- 1 steak (you can do multiple here but I would limit it to 2-3 steaks per large pan when cooking)
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil of your choice (avocado oil, olive oil, pork fat, etc.)
- kosher salt for seasoning (not ice cream style, we just want something a little coarser than fine grain)
- black pepper for seasoning
- 3½ tablespoons of butter
- Pull your steak out of your fridge and let it come to room temperature. If you're strapped for time please try and let it sit out for at least 15 minutes, this is a huge contributor in the browning process.
- Pat your steak dry with paper towels. Season both sides generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat a large pan with your cooking oil over medium high heat. Once the oil begins to slightly smoke and move around the pan quickly, add your steak. Sear for 2-3 minutes or until nicely browned, not black.
- Flip the steak and sear for 1 minute then reduce heat to medium heat. Add your butter to the pan. Lightly tilt the pan so the butter pools at the bottom of the edge of the pan. Using a large spoon, baste your steak repeatedly for 20-30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat, then remove the steak from the pan and place on a cutting board to rest for 5-8 minutes.
- Once the steak has rested serve however you like. You can either serve it whole or slice it before it's served. This steak goes well with just about anything, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, etc. Enjoy!
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Your eyes don’t deceive you. These are chewy, fudgey, brownie cookies made entirely flourless and gluten free. Whether your gluten free or not (I think we all know that I do eat gluten) these cookies are absolutely amazing. I was also lucky enough to be able to guest post this on my friend Bellas blog. You can find the recipe, and the rest of the post and photos on her blog by clicking here.
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I have eaten avocado toast a couple times but I decided to take it a step further with this multi-variation recipe. Sort of a choose your own adventure avocado toast. To my surprise, avocado actually has quite a wide spectrum on how you choose to make it. My inspiration came from an article I read online that quite literally said something along the lines that millennials will be unable to buy homes in the future because of avocado toast and lattes. Whether you choose to believe that or not, here is 8 different easy avocado toasts that you can make in 10 minutes or less.
Oh by the way, you can totally use gluten free bread for this if you choose to do so. Also there is a video for all of these toasts at the bottom of the page.
The Plain Jane: Toasted bread, avocado, extra virgin olive oil, flakey sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper.
-Simply slice your avocado, layer it to cover the surface of your toast (a quarter to a half of an avocado will do.
-Smash it down with a fork
-Finish with extra virgin olive oil, flakey sea salt, and black pepper
The New Yorker: Avocado toast base, smoked salmon, sesame seeds or everything bagel seasoning, sliced tomatoes, capers, thin sliced red onion.
- Same base as before. Smash a quarter to a half of an avocado onto toast with a fork
- Add all the toppings one layer at a time
The Put an Egg on It: Sliced Avocado, soft boiled egg, shaved parmesan, sunflower sprouts(optional and could be replaced with herbs if you prefer), pepper
- Soft boil your egg or eggs by bringing a small pot to a boil. Place 1-3 eggs in at a time. Carefully lower in eggs one at a time with a slotted spoon, don’t let them slam against the bottom. Boil with lid off for 6 1/2 minutes. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and place them into an ice water bath to cool for 2-4 minutes. Peel them.
- Slice your avocado and layer it nicely onto your toasted bread of choice.
- With a vegetable peeler, peel little shavings of parmesan over the avocado toast. add your sunflower sprouts (however many you like).
- Tear or slice your egg in half and add to you toast. Finish with fresh cracked pepper
Ya Makin Me Caprese: Avocado Toast Base, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, flakey sea salt, basil
- Smash your avocado onto toast with a fork
- Add sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, drizzle with olive oil, finish with flakey sea salt, and basil
The Uncommitted Vegetarian: Avocado toast base, radish, bacon, feta
- Smash avocado on toast with a fork
- Slice a watermelon or regular radish thinly, and layer on top. Sprinkle chopped and cooked bacon on top, followed by crumbled feta cheese
The Samurai: Avocado toast base, togarashi
- Smash your avocado onto toast with a fork
- Add togarashi seasoning (you can buy this here or at a local asian store)
The Spa Day: Avocado toast base, olives, cucumbers, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar
- Smash avocado on toast with a fork
- Add chopped olives, followed by thinly sliced cucumber, finish with extra virgin olive oil, and a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar
The Trailer Park: Avocado toast base, raw corn and chili relish
- Mash avocado onto toast with a fork
- Remove kernels from 1 cob of corn, add to bowl. Slice 1 red bell pepper thinly. Season generously with salt, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar. Stir until nicely combined.
- Spoon on your raw corn and chili relish.
Panna cotta is one of those things where it can either be really good, or really gross. You don’t want to use too much or too little gelatin otherwise you’re gonna end up with a weird texture. I like a smoother, creamier texture, with just a little bit of jiggle. I also think that panna cotta needs more texture added to it in general since it’s completely uniform in texture. Hence why I added some crunch to this recipe through the form of crushed almonds.
I was talking to Bella of Full-Filled over the phone and this was a potential recipe that I was going to guest post on her site, but unfortunately rhubarb will likely not be as seasonal by the time we do that. So, I figured what better time to post, than right now? I ended up having a wonderful chat with her about the dogma in the food community as well as the unnecessary politics that inevitably surround it as well. Long story short, we can’t have a dogmatic community if we want to move forward in helping others eat and cook better food.
I could go on and on about that (Bella and I definitely did) but I’ll stop myself now. Let’s talk about this panna cotta. This panna cotta will likely be one of the easiest yet most impressive things to make for either yourself or for guests. It only takes a few minutes on the stove and then a chill in the fridge. If you do this ahead of time, it will make for a really easy transition into dessert. Also, don’t forget to post a photo of my recipes if you make any. I just love seeing when y’alls creations, it just makes me happy. You can tag me in them and use the hashtag #joshuaweissman on them! Until next time folks!
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk or coconut milk
- ½ cup granulated cane sugar or coconut sugar ( if you use coconut sugar it will lightly dye the panna cotta brown)
- 2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
- 1 vanilla bean seeds and pod or 2½ teaspoons of vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large stalks rhubarb cut into 3-4 inch segments
- 1¾ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup granulated cane sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 6 juniper berries
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- crushed almonds
- bee pollen
- fresh tarragon leaves
- Toast your juniper berries and coriander seeds in a pan over medium heat, shaking often, until fragrant.
- In a medium sized pot add the vinegar, water, ½ cup cane sugar, honey, toasted juniper berries, and toasted coriander seeds. Bring to a boil.
- In a large jar or mason jar add your cut rhubarb. Pour the boiling liquid over the rhubarb and let it sit for at least 2 hours before using. Keep this in your fridge after it's completely cool.
- In a medium sized pan add your milk. Sprinkle the gelatin over the top of the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Set the sauce pan over low heat and stir frequently until the gelatin is entirely dissolved. Do NOT bring the mixture to a boil.
- Once the gelatin is dissolved add the sugar. Keep stirring until the sugar is entirely dissolved still avoiding bringing the mixture to a boil. If you need to take the pot off the heat to keep it from boiling that's okay.
- When the sugar is fully dissolved at your remaining ingredients, the heavy cream, the vanilla bean pods, and the salt. Whisk and let sit for 5 mins off of the heat.
- Remove the vanilla bean pod and pour the panna cotta mixture into ramekins or small bowls. Place in the fridge to solidify for at least 4 hours or overnight. This is best done ahead of time.
- Once your panna cotta is set, finely dice your pickled rhubarb and lightly sprinkle some of the pieces on top. Mind you these little bites of pickled rhubarb are very powerful so don't use too much. You can add more if you want more later. Then finish topping by adding some crushed almonds, bee pollen, and fresh picked tarragon leaves on top.
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When I say traditional I mean made in a classic way. Yes I have a fan favorite paleo and gluten free chocolate chip cookie but since I’ve incorporated some locally milled wheat in my diet I figured it was time to post my best recipe using real flour. Of course you can sub gluten free all purpose flour and it will be fine, I’ll put the substitution amount in the recipe. If you want to read about my dealings with the whole paleo thing you can read it here and here.
Like my paleo version of chocolate chip cookies, these cookies are crispy on the outside but chewy, fudgey, and dense on the inside. The chopped bits of chocolate make for randomized bites of moderate chocolate and then bites of molten oozing pools of chocolate. It truly is a beautiful experience. As usual I topped these cookies with flakey sea salt as well. I noticed that by doing cookies made with flour makes for a really nice dense mouthfeel when you first bite into the cookie.
Not a necessarily a food that is entirely perfect for your health but it is a treat that is entirely perfect for your soul. Remember that folks, you’ve only got one life. If you’re going to indulge make sure it’s as high quality and wonderful as possible. Also heads up, I posted a video on how to make these cookies on my recently launched youtube channel! You can watch the video by scrolling down past the written recipe in this post. It will be embedded at the bottom of this post. If you guys like the video I would really appreciate a like and a subscribe on my youtube.
- 2¼ cup all purpose flour *see notes for gluten free*
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar (I used evaporated cane sugar)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6-8 oz chopped dark chocolate roughly chopped into chunks (70% cacao or higher)
- flakey salt for sprinkling
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add your sugars. Whisk together to combine. Add the melted butter and whisk until thoroughly incorporated. While whisking add in your eggs, egg yolk, vanilla extract. Whisk until completely incorporated then add the baking soda and salt. Keep whisking until everything is thoroughly mixed. Add half your flour and stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated then add the remaining amount of flour and mix until combined. Add your chopped chocolate and fold it into the cookie dough with your wooden spoon until evenly distributed.
- With an 2 oz. disher scoop (you can also use a regular cookie scoop it will just make smaller cookies), scoop 5 cookies per baking sheet (or more if using a smaller scoop). This should use all of the batter, if there is any remaining you can freeze it for up to 3 months.
- Place your cookies in the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes if using a large cookie scoop or 12-15 minutes if using a smaller cookie scoop. The cookies should look golden brown and craggly (not a word but you know what I mean) when they're done.
- Let them cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling just enough till they are cool on the outside but the chocolate is still melty. Trust me they are best when they have had some time to cool. They will be chewier and nicer overall.
Also the yield of these cookies is highly dependent on the size of your cookie scoop.
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It’s important to note that I am destroying this ramen as I type this. Destroying as in; eating furiously and almost frantically. This ramen is easily one of the best soups I’ve ever made in my life. I didn’t even make it with my homemade broth and I, honest to god, never thought those words would cross my lips. Instead, made it with Kettle & Fire chicken bone broth. You guys, this was a revelation. I didn’t think making ramen at home could be so easy. Well, I suppose it depends on the type of ramen you’re making.
Tonkotsu ramen can take up to 48 hours. Luckily, this shoyu ramen can take as little as an hour total if decided to forgo the optional chashu. Although it is important to note that the chashu is an incredibly flavorful and nicely textured addition. With that said, it is easy to sub the chasu with any cooked meat. I bet smoked brisket would be good, just sayin.
I just so happens that I accidentally dipped my hair in the ramen while eating it…love that. I’ve always been a stickler to make broth at home, one of the reasons being that most store bought broth/stock tastes like absolutely nothing. This one on the other hand, is about as good as my homemade broth. I don’t know if my pride will allow me to say that it’s better, but I might go as far to say that. In other words, if you don’t have the time to make chicken broth/stock then please don’t get any other pre-made stock other than Kettle & Fire. That’s my final stance as of right now. I know I sound like an infomercial, but I rarely find products that I like this much and this is my honest opinion. Plus, they take the time to simmer their broth for 24 hours; I think we can agree that not everyone has time for that.
Now that I have you all amped up; let me take you down a notch. This recipe DOES have some specialty items, but I promise they’re possible to find. I got all of the kombu, mirin, and bonito flakes at whole foods. Just go to whole foods, or buy them at a local an asian grocery store (I promise there are likely a couple in your area just a quick google map search will get you there). If you do go to whole foods, I recommend this method: Walk in, cover your eyes when you walk past the kombucha, chocolate, or any other expensive aisle, pick up only the ingredients that are needed, pay for them, and leave. Boom, I just saved your five hundred dollars.
Now before I bid you all adieu, I will finish this post with a sprinkling of history and knowledge on shoyu ramen. Shoyu Ramen (shoyu meaning: soy sauce in Japanese) is one of the oldest forms of ramen that is known. It is supposed to be prepared in a way that it has a clear brown broth, typically with a chicken broth base, that has a high enough volume of soy sauce to add a serious level of flavor depth, without making the broth too rich or heavy. It should be salty, tangy, slightly smokey (from the bonito flakes), and meaty tasting. Shoyu ramen is supposed to have curly noodles, but I prefer and recommend the straight noodles. Your richness level should come from the toppings that are chosen to apply. In this recipe, I’ve given you my favorite array of toppings and how to prepare them in addition to this ramen base.
I hope that this ramen class helped motivate you to create this magical soup. I’m going to finish slurping this noodles and I hope you get the chance to do the same. Until next time.
- 2½ cups water
- 2-in piece kombu
- ½ cup bonito flakes lightly packed
- 5½ cups chicken stock/broth
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thin
- 4-inch piece ginger peeled and sliced thin
- 2 shallots peeled and finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil or oil of your choice (don't use extra virgin olive oil, animal fat like lard or duck fat works great here too)
- ¼ cup plus 1½ Tablespoons soy sauce
- 3½ tablespoons mirin
- ramen style straight noodles (you can also get gluten free noodles or use zoodles to make this paleo or gluten free)
- 4 cold eggs (these will be made into medium boiled eggs, instructions are in the toppings directions)
- finely sliced green onion or scallions
- chili oil *optional*
- Finely sliced rehydrated shiitake mushrooms *see notes*
- Japanese togorashi spice *optional*
- 1½ pounds unsliced raw pork belly
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 1 cup mirin
- ¾ cup sake
- ½ bunch green onions or scallions chopped into 2-inch segments
- 3 whole cloves garlic peeled
- 1 inch pieve ginger peeled and sliced
- 1 shallot halved
- Preheat oven to 275 degree Fahrenheit.
- Tightly roll your pork belly up into a log, rolling down the longest side to create log like this and tie it off with twine spaced about a ½ inch apart to keep it together. .
- In an oven safe medium pot or dutch oven add all of the ingredients for the chashu except the rolled pork.
- Bring that up to a boil and add the pork and place it in the oven with the pot lid slightly ajar for 3-4 hour. Turning the pork over every side to coat, every 30 minutes.
- Once it's done remove the pot from the oven and let the pork cool in the fridge for a few hours but ideally overnight. When it comes time to serve the ramen, remove the twine and slice the chashu into ¼ inch slices and reheat the slices in a pan over medium heat until the slices are hot.
- In a medium sized pot add the 2½ cups of water and kombu. Place the pot over medium heat and let it come up naturally.
- Just before the water comes to a boil remove the kombu from the water. Boiling the kombu can create a bitter and slimy textured dashi, and you don't want that.
- At this point add the bonito flakes and let the water come all the way up to a boil. Once it's at a boil drop the heat to a low and let it simmer for 1 minute.
- Remove the pot from the heat and add a lid to the pot. Let the bonito flakes steep in the hot water for an additional 5 minutes.
- Strain the dashi into a heat-proof container and discard the bonito flakes.
- The Dashi is done.
- In a large pot or stock pot add the oil and heat over medium heat until very hot. Add the sliced garlic and fry until it begins to toast to a golden color. Stop the toasting of the garlic by adding the finely chopped shallot, and thinly chopped ginger. Season very lightly with a pinch of salt to draw the moisture out of the vegetables. Cook this until the shallots turn translucent. Be sure to keep an eye on the toasted garlic to make sure it doesn't get too much darker, reduce the heat if necessary to keep the garlic from getting blackened.
- Add the chicken stock, bonito dashi you just made, mirin, and ¼ cup of the soy sauce (reserve the remaining 1½ tablespoons for the end), and stir. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer with a lid on for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Add the remaining 1½ tablespoons soy sauce.
- The ramen broth is done.
- I would recommend boiling your eggs while your ramen broth is still simmering to save time, that way when the ramen is done you'll already have boiled and peeled eggs. You can apply this task stacking method with any of the toppings for the ramen. First start by bringing a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Add your cold eggs and boil them for 7 minutes. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and transfer them to medium sized bowl filled with ice water. Let them cool until mostly cooled. Peel the eggs when they're cool and set them aside.
- With the remaining water that you boiled the eggs in (or not if you poured it out, no big deal), boil your noodles according to package instructions.
- Pour the Hot broth into a medium to large sized bowl, add your noodles, your heated chashu (or other cooked meat of choice), a medium boiled egg sliced in half, finely chopped green onions, sliced shiitake mushrooms, small droplets of chili oil, and a sprinkle of togarashi.
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I hate wasting food. I avoid using that word too often so I don’t end up de-sensitizing it’s meaning. Therefore, I mean it when I say I absolutely hate wasting food. In the United States alone, we waste 30-40 percent of our own food supply. Ironically organic waste (food) is the second highest contributor to landfills, which is also the biggest source of methane emission. Before I batter you with more horrifying statistics, I think just this piece of information alone, is troubling enough.
With all of this said, I’m not going to say I’ve never wasted food before, or accidentally let something sit in the back of the fridge a little too long. My point is that I try to waste as little as possible as much as I can. This doesn’t just mean eating all of the food I make, this also means looking at other areas of food that we don’t typically think about. What about those parsley and cilantro stems you throw out after you use all of the leaves? OR, what about all the broccoli stalks, beet stems and greens, etc. that gets thrown out. All of that is totally useable and often times quite delicious as well. In this recipe I’m going to show you a really fun and easy way to use your parsley or cilantro stems. This way you’ll use the entire bunch of parsley (or cilantro) and nothing get’s thrown away at all! That is a very simple thing that you can do that can make you feel really good about yourself for not wasting food. I think that just starting to focus on utilizing all of your cilantro or parsley will be a really great point to move upward on lessening your food waste. Start there and I’ve got a good feeling that you’ll begin to think a lot more closely about your food before you throw it away. Doing this certainly has had an effect on how I purchase and cook my food in accordance to wasting as little as possible.
- 1 cup water
- ¾ cup cane sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley stems (you could sub cilantro here as well if you only have cilantro on hand a different but still tasty flavor)
- 2 inch knob ginger peeled and sliced
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3½ - 4 cups filtered water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- *Get the full written recipe here*:
- In a sauce pot add the cane sugar, water, parsley stems, and ginger. Place the pot on your stove over medium high heat, stirring often, until it reaches a boil and all of the sugar dissolves. Cover the pot with a lid or something airtight to keep steam from escaping. Let steep until the mixture cools down to room temp.
- Strain your simple syrup into a large bowl (or straight into a pitcher if serving right away). Add the lemon juice, 31/2-4 cups filtered water, and salt. Whisk until salt is totally dissolved.
- Serve over ice with a lemon slice and sprig of thyme.
Also by the way, I totally started a youtube channel and this recipe is my first true video! Check it out here:
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