COVID-19 and cooking

Chick-fil-A sandwich #2

Bananas Foster

Grilled PB&J

Mongolian beef

Thit nuong (grilled pork)

Chick-fil-A-ish chicken sandwich

Pizza night (homemade)

Thit kho (caramelized braised pork)

Corn dogs, beignets, and vodka

Ever since I started exercising and going on a calorie-reduced, pseudo-diet... I haven't cooked anything. It's the fact that everything I cook tends to be on the unhealthy side. I miss cooking/experimenting sometimes and if I get inspired, I'm doing it. During our last trip to Austin, we ate some awesome corn dogs at Pluckers of all places so I decided to look up corn dog recipes.

Fried chicken, homemade

It was time to take a break from Asian food and go back to the unhealthy, greasy American food. It was time for fried chicken. Target (my favorite store) sells a whole chicken, which is cut up into 8 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings), for 50% off at $3.75. It seems like it's always on sale. Maybe it's only at our local Target, maybe it's a coincidence that it's on sale when I buy it, or maybe it was about to expire in two days. Whatever the reason, check out your local Target if you want to buy some cheap, organic chicken.

6 pieces of chicken (thighs, legs, wings)
1 can cream of chicken
1 egg
seasoning salt
[mix all together and set aside]

1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
[mix together in large zip lock bag]
[add chicken one by one, shake, dust excess off, set aside]
[wait several minutes until the mixture on the chicken becomes doughy]

frying oil (peanut oil is best, if available), enough to cover chicken
[heat oil to 350F and fry 7-10 mins, or until golden brown]

It turned out fairly good. The skin was really crispy and flavorful. The chicken meat was kind of bland if eaten without the skin. But like with most fried chicken, the skin is the best part. There are so many recipes out there that I will probably try another. My next attempt will probably be a one that requires the chicken to soak in buttermilk, along with other spices, overnight. But who knows when that will be as I can't be eating this that often... I'd like to live past 40.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Thit suon ram mang (braised short ribs)

I was inspired once again. My friend Viet had posted a picture of his braised short ribs and I had to try it. It's very simple and essentially a thit kho recipe. But yeah, I don't normally eat Vietnamese food that often so it's an anomaly that I've been craving Asian food for this long.

1 lb pork short ribs (cut at each bone)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp minced garlic
cracked pepper
[marinate 30-60 mins]

2 Tbsp sugar
[in pot on high heat, until sugar caramelizes]
[add marinated meat]

chicken broth, as needed
[add enough to cover meat]
[bring to a boil, cover, turn down heat and cook for 1-2 hours]
[uncover, bring back to boil, reduce sauce]

In this recipe, I used chicken broth since I didn't have any Coco Rico and added a little more sugar to get the sweetness I'm missing. You could probably use water instead of chicken broth. My intention was to leave it on the stove for 4 hours to get the meat really tender but I was getting too hungry. A little over an hour, the meat was already tender and fell off the bone. I reduced my sauce to intensify the flavor, so a little goes a long way. I learned my lesson with my first bowl, as my rice was drenched with the sauce... it was super salty.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich)... my way

Most of my food cravings come from either seeing it somewhere or hearing someone talk about it. The other day I stumbled upon a YouTube video of two guys (Tran Can Cook) talking about banh mi. Coincidentally they are from Houston. After watching that video, I really wanted some but then it dawned on me... why don't I just make it myself, the way I want it. I don't like the pickled carrots or diakon, and can live without the cucumber and jalapeno slices. I don't need the BBQ pork or any other fancy meat. All I really need is some good pate and the Vietnamese mayo, the key ingredient of making good banh mi.

My banh mi:
french bread (mini)
liver pate
Vietnamese mayo
cha chien (fried pork roll)
cilantro
dash of Maggi soy sauce (red top)

Vietnamese mayo recipe:
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp rice vinegar
[pulse together in food processor]
1 cup canola oil
[slowly drizzle in while running food processor]

The mayo had a vinegar smell that threw me off but it tasted really good. Other recipes I found said to add an additional 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or to use white vinegar instead of rice vinegar. Next time I make it, I'll probably experiment with leaving them out and see if it effects the taste. My thought was it was only added to act as a preservative but I could be totally wrong. And next time, I'm adding a fried egg. Nom Nom.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
(4 out of 5 stars)

Bo luc lac (Vietnamese shaking beef)

I decided to make this after randomly seeing it on salon.com. The picture doesn't do it justice because that was all that was left before I decided to take a picture of it. Click here for the recipe.

There are so many recipes for bo luc lac and it's pretty much the same concept. Add a salty Asian sauce (oyster and/or soy sauce) and some garlic to cubed meat and cook. You really can't get it wrong.

I liked this recipe for several reasons. After I cooked it, it had a sauce to it. Normally this dish is sauce-less, besides whatever juices are coming from the meat. Or maybe I messed up but I like having saucy meat. Additionally it had a slight sweet taste too from the caramelized sugar. The recipe calls to make a lime-pepper-garlic dipping sauce but I disregarded that and just made the typical salt-pepper-lime to dip my meat. I will definitely try this again but add sliced onions.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
(3 out of 5 stars)