Baklava with 3 nuts

My recipe for baklava made with a mixture of walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.  This makes an 11"x7" pan, and this is rich enough that it'll feed a small army, or 8 hungry foodies.  This recipe more than most is approximate, just taste it as you go.

Ingredients:
phyllo dough
melted butter

Nut mixture:
Between 1 and 1 1/4 lb of nuts, evenly mixed between walnuts, almonds, and pistachios (I get unsalted unroasted nuts for the walnuts and almonds then roast them, and salted in shell pistachios)
1/4 C sugar
1 heavy t cinnamon
1/4 t ground clove
1/4 t ground cardamom
salt to taste, if using all unsalted nuts

Honey mixture:
1 1/4 C honey
1 1/4 C sugar
5/8 C water
2 cinnamon sticks
6-8 cloves
scant 1/2 t ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350.  Simmer the ingredients for the honey mixture together until syrupy, then kill the heat and allow to cool (remember, it will thicken as it cools).  When it's cool remove the cinnamon sticks and the cloves.

Food processor the nut mixture together, and you may have to work in batches as there's quite a bit of it.  You want small chunks but not powder.

Heavily butter each of eight layers of phyllo and put those in the bottom of the pan.  Add half the nut mixture, then add eight more buttered phyllo layers, then the rest of the nut mixture.  Add another eight layers of buttered phyllo on top.  Cut the top layer into diamonds a little over an inch on a side, and if you want to be fancy push a clove into the center of each diamond (this is removed before eating).  Bake until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes).  Remove and cool for 15 minutes before adding the honey mixture; cool another 3 hours before serving.

Toum, V1

This is an initial pass, modified from a recipe online, but I wasn't completely happy with the meringue-like texture that I got from this one (I could be biased, I despise meringue).  The next time I think I'm going to skip the egg white and add some lecithin as an emulsifier, though the acidity of the lemon juice may keep that from working well.  If the lecithin works it would also make this generally fridge stable unlike something with raw egg in it.

6 cloves garlic
3-4 T lemon juice (to taste)
salt to taste
1/4 C neutral flavored oil
2T cold water
1 egg white

Food processor the garlic, a pinch of salt, and 1 T of lemon juice together.  Add the egg white and processor some more.  Drizzle in half the oil while blending, then alternate slowly adding the lemon juice and the rest of the oil.  At the end add water while checking the consistency, and adjust the salt of necessary.

Sushi Rice

The start to all good sushi and chirashi.

Sushi Rice:
2 2/3 C Japanese short grain rice, rinsed to remove starch
Water appropriate for your rice cooker plus a little (roughly 3 C on the stove top)
note card sized piece of kombu, wiped down with a damp cloth

Vinegar mixture:
1/2 C Japanese rice vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 t salt

Heat the vinegar mixture until everything is dissolved, but without boiling. Allow to come to room temperature.
Cook the rice the kombu, then remove to a large bowl (preferably non-metallic), discarding the kombu, and allow to sit for several minutes to cool.
Add a small amount of the vinegar to the rice, pouring it on the back of the spatula to spread it, then cut it into the rice. Continue this until you've used all the vinegar; this mixes the vinegar in and separates the rice grains.

Miso Soup

Basic miso soup, but made so much better by using homemade dashi.

Miso soup:
2 Q water
1 - 1 1/2 oz bonito flakes
half a block firm tofu, in large dice
small handful wakame, rehydrated
5 note card sized pieces of kombu
~10 T miso paste (depending on taste and type used, I like a blend of white and red called awase)
small handful thinly sliced green onion

Place the kombu in the water and bring just to a light boil over medium. Remove the kombu and add the bonito, continue to cook until it just returns to a boil, or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, then kill the heat. Allow the bonito to soak for 15 minutes, or until the bonito sinks to the bottom, then strain out the bonito flakes. From this point you can hold the stock (dashi) until ready to make the soup. When you are ready bring the dashi to a gentle simmer, whisk in the miso, then add in the tofu, green onion, and wakame and give it another 30 seconds.

Stuffed Morels

Okay, so it took me months to get around to posting it and morel season is over, but save it for next year.

6 White morels, cleaned and halved lengthwise
Panko

Filling:
1/4 lb spicy breakfast sausage
pinch nutmeg
2 t chopped parsley
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 T butter

Sauce:
Splash dry sherry
1/4-1/3 C heavy cream
1 t dijon mustard, or to taste
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450.  Saute the shallot and garlic in the butter, then add to the rest of the filling ingredients and mix.  Fill the mushrooms with the sausage mixture, mounding slightly, and top with a sprinkle of panko.  The amount of filling that you need will depend on the size of the mushrooms, the ones I had were fairly small.  Place in a steel skillet and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and remove the morels from the skillet.  Place the skillet over medium heat and brown the juices from the mushrooms if they haven't already browned, then deglaze with the sherry.  Add in the cream and mustard and bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper.  Top the mushrooms with the sauce and enjoy.

Pad Thai

Okay, I finally got around to writing up my Pad Thai recipe:

Pad Thai

Pad Thai that Thai food staple of restaurants everywhere in the US...  This isn't that, the original author says it's the Pad Thai you'd actually get in Thailand, and it's something you'll probably decide is superior as long as you don't mind seafood.  This recipe isn't mine originally, and you should definitely go hit up http://shesimmers.com/ because I'm not going to go into anything like the detail she does, but I have a few changes including those for the lazy, or ingredient challenged - her's calls for banana blossom, which I think I've seen once around here.

So to start, you're going to need a few implements:
a couple of spoons, spatulas, or the like, preferably at least one set up for moving and straining pasta.
A wok or a nice big flat bottomed skillet with some walls.  Cast iron is great, as is anodized aluminum; non-stick would probably work as you're never getting up to temperatures hot enough to damage the teflon.

Noodles:
You need rice noodles, about 3mm wide, but there's some play in that.  Take half a pound of those noodles and dump them in slightly warm water (and a lot of it) for about half an hour.  Make sure you can take any of those noodles and easily wrap it around your finger, but that it's still unpleasantly chewy.  Then give it another 5-10 minutes in the water.  You'll also have a much easier time down the road if you break them up some so you don't end up with a tangled noodle ball while cooking.

The Sauce:
150g tamarind pulp
180g fish sauce
226g palm sugar
60g brown sugar
 This is a lot more than you're going to need for one batch according to this recipe, but the sauce keeps well.

Other stuff:
roughly 1.5 T of shrimp paste in soy oil (this isn't the block stuff you'd use in other Thai dishes)
roughly a cup of slightly crushed roasted nuts (peanut or cashew)
1/4 cup of sliced garlic chive greens (can be left out, but I like them)
slightly less than 1/3 C of small dried shrimp (the little tiny whole ones complete with eyes)
3/4 C extra firm or fried tofu
1-2 C bean sprouts
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
Thai chiles to taste, minced
1/3 C preserved daikon (sweet), chopped (optional, but nice if you can find it)
1/2 lb of chicken or shrimp (if using chicken slice it fairly finely to make it cook more quickly)
Very finely julienned carrot as a garnish (optional, if you can cut it that finely)
A handful of chopped cilantro leaves as a garnish (optional)


Add vegetable oil to the pan over medium high; when a noodle sizzles in the oil you're ready to go.  Add the noodles and approximately 2/3 C of the sauce, as well as the shrimp paste.

Keep everything moving around the pan, and once the pan gets back up to temperature another 30 seconds to a minute and everything should loosen up.

Add in the garlic, chiles, shallot, dried shrimp, tofu, preserved daikon, and shrimp or chicken; you may need to add some more oil.  Now is the important time, KEEP EVERYTHING MOVING.  You need to get the protein cooked, and make sure the noodles soften and loose that unpleasant chew; you may find that you need to add a little extra sauce or a little water.

Check to see if the noodles are about done when the protein is about right; if they're still unpleasantly chewy you want to cover them and cook a little more, adding a little water if necessary.

Kill the heat, add the chives, bean sprouts, peanuts, and carrot and toss to combine.

Serve it up, you might want to include some dried red pepper, lime juice, fish sauce, or, if you're a bad person, some soy sauce on the side.

Cornbread

Made this one again and it was good enough that I felt it was time to post it.  If you wanted to play with it you might add some sauteed jalapeno or some cheese, but I love it the way it is.  If you wanted to add cheese you might want to decrease the sugar.

1/2 C butter, melted
2/3 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1/2 t baking soda
1 C cornmeal
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
Kernels from an ear of sweet corn (if available)
oil or bacon grease to grease the cast iron pan

Preheat an oven and cast iron skillet to 375.
Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients and mix the batter together.
Remove the pan from the oven and grease the pan before adding the batter.  Bake for ~25 minutes.

Update

I finally figured out how to make the right dough for my pot stickers, so that recipe has been updated.

Fish-Fragrant Pork

This dish doesn't actually have any fish in it, it's just that the salty, sweet, and sour flavors in it are common in traditional Sichuan fish dishes. This is a fast dish for when you want something interesting but don't want to spend much time in the kitchen. Just make sure you keep it moving as you're cooking on high heat, and you might pepper gas yourself if you don't have the vent exhaust on.  See Chinese Ingredients for pictures and substitutions of ingredients.


1/2-3/4 lb lean pork, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 can baby corn
handful black fungus, re-hydrated and sliced
2 t grated ginger
2 shallots, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T pickled chiles, chopped
hot chiles to taste, chopped (optional)
oil to fry the meat
2 T chile bean paste
Stock to thin sauce if necessary

Marinade:
1 T soy sauce
1 T water
1 T cornstarch

Sauce:
2 T soy sauce
1.5 T Chinkiang black vinegar
1 T Shaoxing rice wine
2 t sugar
1 t salt, or to taste
2 t corn starch
2 t sesame oil
1/2 t black pepper, ground
3/4 t Sichuan pepper, toasted and ground

Marinate the meat for 15-20 minutes, then fry it in very hot oil for 30 seconds.  Remove the meat and set it aside, and drain off all but 3 T of the oil.
Combine the sauce ingredients.
Heat the oil on high until almost smoking, then add the hot chiles, garlic, ginger, and shallots, and stir fry for 20-30 seconds.
Add the bean paste and stir fry for another 20-30 seconds.
Add the rest of the veggies and stir fry for another minute.
Add the meat back in an continue cooking for another 30 seconds to a minute.
Add the sauce and cook just until it thickens; add some stock if it is too thick.
Adjust seasoning if necessary, and serve with rice.

Nam Prik Pao

So if you're in the Lansing area, please ignore this as Nam Prik Pao is horribly disgusting and you should avoid it at all costs. For those not frequenting the same stores I am, the stuff is like crack. It's a delicious combination of caramelized shallots, garlic, and chiles. I'm pretty sure you could spread the stuff on cardboard and it would be award winning. For my tastes, a spread on just about any sandwich involving cheese, or a dose in most curries is dynamite. Look for the Pantai brand "chile paste with soya bean oil". A spread on an English muffin with cream cheese and a fried egg may ruin you forever. I haven't tried making it myself from scratch as it's rather intensive, but I'll take a chance at it and post the results before long.