Tag: Date

Pork Ramen

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Ramen is a classic Japanese dish that is flavorful and incredibly filling. Ramen has 3 main elements, the broth, the noodles, and the toppings. all three elements add flavor to the dish and make a bowl of ramen what it is. And though the broth and the noodles bring amazing flavor to the dish, the toppings are the real star of the show. For this bowl, I used red pepper flakes, sesame oil, and fish sauce. The red pepper flakes made this dish interesting. It started out tame in flavor, but the more that the flake got moved around the broth and dish, there was a surprise heat in some bites, while none in others. In the same way, the oils would be present in one bite, and absent in another. The rich savory toasty flavor of the sesame oil and the smooth slightly fishy flavor of the fish sauce, brought depth to the dish and great flavor. Other than that, my pork broth was a bit weak, so I added some beef bouillon and 1/2 a chicken ramen packet (as my MSG). I also used the leftover homemade noodles I had posted about yesterday. Since they were already cooked from then, i simply had to boil them for 3 minutes to heat up, then I strained them and plated. This recipe makes 3 large bowls of Ramen, and it heats up well the next day.

Pork Ramen Recipe CardDownload
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What You Will Need

  • Pork stock (homemade or store bought)
    • Pork Bones
    • Water
  • Pork Chops
  • 2 Beef Bouillon
  • 1-2 tsp MSG
  • 1 Onion, Sliced
  • 1 Clove Garlic, Minced
  • 1 Can Sliced Mushrooms
  • 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Ginger Paste
  • 12 Oz Pasta
  • Dried Red Pepper
  • Diced Chives
  • Dried Parsley
  • Sesame Oil
  • Fish Sauce

Directions

1. If using store bought stock, skip to step 2. To make pork stock, Add bones to a pot and cover bones with water bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes to remove impurities. Strain off the water and just cover the bones with water and simmer for 4 hours covered. Reserve the broth and discard the bones. Save any meat that may have stuck to the bones and add to the broth. Store in fridge covered or use immediately.

2. Begin by cooking the pork chops in a large skillet. Cook 3 minutes per side, remove from pan, and cut into strips to top the ramen. Fill a large sauce pan 3/4 with water. Place over medium high heat to boil. Add the broth to the hot skillet, and add in the onion, garlic, and optional beef bouillon and MSG. Once simmering, add mushrooms, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and ginger. Taste, then season as needed. Once the water is boiling, cook pasta as directed on package. Strain.

3. Plate the ramen by making a nest of noodles. Top with onions and mushrooms and place a cut pork chop over the top. Cover with broth. Finally, sprinkle each bowl with pepper flakes, chives, and parsley, then drizzle with sesame oil and fish sauce.

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Homemade Pasta – Spaghetti

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Spaghetti can be made by hand like fettuccine, however the quality of your pasta will not be as good if you don’t use a pasta maker. This was my first time using a pasta maker and it is shocking how thin you can get your dough and how uniform the pasta ends up coming out. If you would like to make spaghetti without a pasta maker, follow the directions for fettuccine however cut your dough thinner for smaller pasta. You can find these instructions here. So below I’ll be giving you instructions for how to make pasta with a pasta maker.

I did make some mistakes in this, but I have corrected them down below. My biggest mistake was not flouring my dough before I ran it through the cutting roller. The noodles immediately began to stick together and though some detached during cooking, there were still several stuck together by the time it was plated. The only other thing I changed was that I had rolled and cut the dough in halves instead of quarters. This made for a very long roll of pasta that I had to cut in half before running through the cutting roller. This recipe made 6 adult sized portions of pasta. I cooked this pasta in half batches, using half in this spaghetti dish, and using the other half in my recipe for tomorrow, ramen.

Homemade Pasta Spaghetti Recipe CardDownload
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What You Will Need

  • 2 Cups Flour
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Tbsp Oil
  • Pasta roller
  • Flour to dust
  • Saran Wrap
  • Optional Freezer Bag

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add flour, eggs, and oil, and mix until it becomes a shaggy dough. Switch to a dough hook, and knead the dough until it comes together. It is a drier dough that should not be sticky or wet, you may add a bit of warm water if it won’t come together. Divide the dough into quarters and wrap 3 of the sections in saran wrap.

2. Using a pasta roller, begin rolling out your pasta starting at the thickest setting. Fold the dough in half and place the ends of the dough through the roller first on the next pass. Continue to fold and roll until the dough is consistent in appearance and there are no holes in the dough. Then, begin making the dough thinner one setting at a time until the pasta is as thin as you desire. (I stopped at 5 for a standard spaghetti thickness). Dust both sides of the pasta sheet with a layer of flour, send through the cutting roller, then transfer to a clean and dry counter space. Repeat this step for remaining quarters.

3. Form pasta into nests to place in freezer bags and freeze, or place into boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes before straining. Serve as desired.

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Review: Angel Food Cake

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The original recipe can be found here!

With my husband’s birthday last week, I found myself with a bit of a challenge. For his birthday he always got to have Angel Food cake, and that was a huge challenge for me. I don’t usually bake and I especially never make cakes. When making an Angel Food Cake, taking your time is important and making sure each step is done according to the directions is important, but it is not the way that I cook. If you would like to make this recipe yourself, please go visit the original recipe above and only take away some of my tricks and advice. The Woman who wrote the recipe will probably know far more about cakes than I ever will!

As for my review, I can say this cake was very delicious. It was rather difficult to make, and I did make at least one mistake, but the cake still turned out good despite my incompetence. One mistake I made was not sifting my flour. That meant there were clumps of flour in my batter that were very crunchy in the freshly baked cake. My second mistake was due to a complete lack of understanding. While the cake is cooling, I guess you are supposed to invert it. I had never heard of such a thing, and though the directions said to flip the cake, I just assumed that you do that after it is fully cooled. Neither of these mistakes ruined the cake, they just made the cake have it’s own quirk. Since I did not invert the cake, the center of the cake deflated while the outside stayed fully inflated. The last bit of advice I can give is to be sure to eat the cake as quickly as possible. Once the cake is baked and cooled, you should keep it in the fridge. I made the cake Thursday Day, and by Sunday when we were finishing the cake, it had a very subtle but present fridge flavor.

The only tricks I can provide is to make sure to use wax paper for your cake. Don’t use a bunt pan unless it’s your only option, because with a bunt pan, you’ll have to use a non-stick spray on just the bottom, then coat with flour to keep from sticking to the bottom, but to still allow the cake mixture to stick to the sides while cooking. Finally, if you don’t have an angel food cake pan, a spring form pan works very well with a can or a small glass in the center. I don’t have an angel food cake pan, so I used an old jelly jar wrapped in wax paper, and it worked great. It wasn’t as pretty as it would if I had the correct pan, but it was good enough to impress me! I also didn’t have cake flour, so I saw that you can use cornstarch to make a cake flour. This recipe used one cup of cake flour, so add 2 Tbsp corn starch to a one cup measuring cup, then fill the rest of the way with flour. That worked great as a substitute!

This cake made about 8 slices. Below I will include some picture from the process.

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Directions

Dry Ingredients and Making Meringue

Mixing, Filling, and Baking

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Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast with Ranch Pasta

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Chicken, bacon, and ranch is a very popular flavor combination right now, and I’m also a huge fan of the flavor combination. Sandwiches, salads, or casseroles, that were all good options, but I decided to do a special meal and made bacon wrapped butterflied chicken breast with a homemade ranch pasta side. This meal won’t serve a huge family the way a casserole will, but if you are looking for a special meal that is also very easy to make, this is a great option. This recipe has very little active cooking since most of the time is baking. Also, if you want your chicken to be a bit more brown, broil your chicken breasts for 30 seconds to 1 minute watching carefully to prevent burning! This recipe made 4 adult sized servings.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast with Ranch Pasta Recipe CardDownload
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What You Will Need

  • 1 Large Chicken Breast, Butterflied in Half
  • 4 Thick Slices of Bacon
  • 1 Lb Rotini, or Pasta of Your Choice
  • 1/2 Cup Ranch Dressing
  • 1/4 Cup Mayo
  • 1 Tbsp Parsley
  • 1 Tbsp Chives
  • Baking Pan
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Large Sauce Pan
  • Colander
  • Medium Serving Bowl

Directions

  1. Fill large sauce pan 3/4 with water and place over high heat. Heat oven to 375 F. Line baking pan with aluminum foil. Wrap each half of chicken breast with 2 pieces of bacon and place in baking pan. Bake chicken for 30 minutes or until internal temp of at least 165 F is reached.

2. Once water is boiling, add pasta and cook as directed on the box. Strain, and rinse with cold water before transferring to the serving bowl. Add ranch dressing, mayo, parsley, and chives to serving bowl and stir everything together. Once chicken is cooked, remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve chicken over noodles, or dice chicken and stir together. Serve hot or cold.

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Steaks and Stuffing

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This is just a recipe for a meal I made last week. This was a new stuffing I had never made before. I had heard people usually use broth in their stuffing, so I thought it would be good to make a more healthy stuffing that the one I usually make with only butter. For this recipe, I used a half loaf of Homemade bread. Since homemade bread is so much more dense than normal bread, you’ll want to make sure your store bread is either an artisan thick bread, or that your store bought bread is one the stale side, or you could alternatively make it croutons before using it in this recipe. This stuffing was very good. The broth is very forward, and the spices are very evenly present. The butter adds a bit of fat to the dish and a bit of salt, but season as you like. As for the steaks, I just cooked them by themselves like an ordinary steak. You could add butter after the flip and baste during the final side, but I chose not to. I also added a bit of oil at the beginning of the cooking for the steaks, because I have very lean steaks. I served these steaks with some A1. The steaks were able to serve 2 adults, and the stuffing was enough to serve 3 adults.

Steaks and Stuffing Recipe CardDownload
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What You Will Need

  • 1 Stalk Celery, Diced
  • 1/2 Onion, Diced
  • 1/4 Cup Butter, 1/2 a Stick
  • 1/2 Loaf of Bread, Cut into 1 Inch Cubes
  • 1 Cup Chicken Broth
  • 2 tsp Ground Sage
  • 2 tsp Ground Thyme
  • 2 Steaks, 1 Inch Thick
  • Frying Pan
  • Medium Sauce pan

Directions

1. First, heat saucepan over medium heat. Add butter, celery and onion, and cook until onion is tender. Place Frying pan over medium heat. Add bread, broth, and spices to the stuffing. Reduce heat to low, and stir every 1-2 minutes until all broth is absorbed. Remove from heat once very hot.

2. Once the frying pan is hot, add the steaks. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, and 3 minutes on the second for medium rare. Remove from heat, plate, and let rest for 5 minutes before enjoying your steak.

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