No Knead Bread

I can finally make bread without hand kneading. I’ve made bread and noodles once from scratch and it was the last because the labor isn’t worth it.oodles and it was the last time because the labor is not worth it. Anyways, this recipe works great and you can mess up all the ratios, rising time ect and it still comes out great. Anyways this is another recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt. Video Here. It’s based off of baking ratios so you can make this as big or as little as you want. Ratio of ingredients: 100 parts flour, 1.5 parts salt, 1 part instant yeast, and 70 parts water.

Ingredients

• 300 grams (10.5 ounces, about 2 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour
• 4.5 grams (about 3/4 teaspoon) salt
• 3 grams (about 1 teaspoon) yeast
• 210 grams (7.5 ounces, about 1 cup minus 1.5 tablespoons) water

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
2. Transfer in airtight container to refrigerator and let sit for at least 3 and up to 5 days.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator and turn out onto well-floured surface. Turn once or twice and form into loaf shape. Place on parchment paper large enough to protect in dutch oven. Cover with a well-floured kitchen towel and allow to rise at room temperature for at least two hours, and up to 4.
4. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 450°F, with a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel Dutch oven placed inside it.
5. When dough has risen, slash top with a floured knife into two or three slashes, 1/2 inch deep. Remove Dutch oven from oven and working quickly, drop dough inside. Place lid back on Dutch oven and return to oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove lid and continue to bake until center of bread registers 209°F on an instant read thermometer, about 30 to 45 minutes longer (time will vary depending on shape of loaf).
6. Remove Dutch oven from oven and remove loaf of bread with a spatula or tongs. Allow to rest on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Unused bread can be stored at room temperature wrapped in foil for up to three days, though it may need to be refreshed in a hot oven or toaster before serving.

The first two doughs, I mixed the night before and covered until the next morning. Then at 8 or 9 am I took it out of the bowl, turned and covered with a towel while I was preheating the oven to bake them and it comes out fine. He changed the cooking times, it was 20-30 mins covered then 20-30 mins uncovered. 25 min covered makes a wicked outside crust, I’ll try the new recommended times and get back to you.

2nd try

• 3g of yeast is 1 tsp. Made dough 8pm Friday. Dough rose fine. Gonna change the recipe

• 20 hrs later (4pm Sat) worked dough, put in fridge.
• 10am Sun (14hrs)
• 2pm score bread and heat oven

Five-Ingredient Biscuits and Sausage Gravy | Kenji’s Cooking Show

Ripping this off from this video here.

Big difference is the biscuits, the come together super quick which I like considering the buttermilk ones are a bunch of labor.

Cream Biscuits (Makes about 3)

Oven middle rack 450 degrees

bake 15 mins or until golden brown

Ingredients:

5 oz 1 cup flower

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

5 oz of heavy cream

(ground pork )

Mix then make into a rectangle, cut into desired size.

Flour to cream 1:1. Every cup of flour, baking powder and salt above.

Sausage Gravy

• 4 oz of ground pork
• 1 TB of butter
• black pepper
• 2 cups of milk

Ground pork, can be from sausage, whatever the hell put into steel or cast iron pan medium heat (NO non-stick)

Cook and break up sausage w/ butter if you want.

Add 1/4 cup of flower and incorporate into sausage mix and fresh ground black pepper.

Add cream to the pan slowly to fully incorporate into the sausage. The gravy should be a little watery it won’t thicken the whole way until you bring it to a simmer. After it simmers, you can figure out if you want to water it down or keep cooking to thicken further. Black pepper. Pour over biscuits.

Note: I think these biscuits taste better because the fat from the cream is even distributed throughout. When making buttermilk again, I found out there is cream buttermilk which I’m sure will make them taste much better and be so much more unhealthy. When baking I usually use 2% buttermilk.

Beef LoMein

I’m cooking so much new shit that I can’t even remember when I wanna double back and do it again a week later. Lo mein is amazing and pretty easy to make. Another great channel I found was Souped Up Recipes and this recipe is from there. When you put the meat in baking soad, soy sauce corn starch, cooking wine its called VELVETING. You can do this with any meat, chicken, beef or pork and it will become insanely soft. Also great for meat that is starting to turn and is slimey. The marinade will cover the bad taste and you can save some meat from going in the garbage.

Ingredients

• 2 portions of noodles (I used fresh egg noodles, about 300 g / 10.6 oz) (I used 300 g of dried wheat noodles)(2nd time 260 g of dried egg noodle)
• 12 oz of beef
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1.5 tsp of dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp of peanut oil
• 300 grams (10.6 oz) of beef
• 1/8 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tbsp of cooking wine
• 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 medium-size onion, sliced thinly
• 3 pieces of scallion, cut into 2 inches long pieces

Instructions:

• Cut beef into 1/8th pieces and marinade in 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tb corn starch,1/2 tb soy sauce, 2 tb cooking wine, black pepper. Marinate for 20 mins
• Cook egg noodles in boiled water 2-3 mins (cook noodles while cooking meat so you can put hot noodles into the wok)
• Get wok burning hot, add oil and beef cook halfway through
• Add onions
• Add 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 3 tbsp of oyster sauce, and 1.5 tsp of dark soy sauce
• Turn off heat add noodles, stir

Note: I think the dark soy sauce I thought I had was just regular off brand Chinese regular soy sauce. Makes a bunch of food at least 6 servings.

• I made the noodles early, drained and cooled them. In the video, they cook the noodles as the meat is cooking, drain and mix the noodle sauce with the meat. I ended up cooking the noodles first and cooling which made the sauce part and incorporating the meat a little harder.

(words for searching: tenderize, soften meat)

Harlem Chopped Cheese Sandwich

Taken from Kenji’s Cooking Show on Youtube

Ingredients:

• Preformed or regular ground beef 4 or 5 oz per serving
• Cheese slices or velveta
• Chopped onions
• Tomato sliced
• Lettuce
• 1 tsp or more of Chicken boullion (Knorr that has msg or equivalent this is a must)
• Hoagie roll
• Optional: pickled peppers, banana peppers

Directions:

• Heats two pans up and sandwich the roll in between it and press it. This will soften the roll.
• Throw onions in a oiled pan, sweat till translucent, don’t need to caramelize, 3-5 mins
• ground beef, when it’s mostly cooked, throw in 1 tsp of chicken boullion
• put cheese on meat, melt.
• assemble sandwich with desired toppings

Red Beans and Rice

Huge pain in the balls for prep because I forgot there is legit pickled pork and that shit takes at least 3 days. You also need a ham bone. So start the pickled pork on Friday, ham on dinner on Sunday, soak the beans Sunday night for dinner on Monday. It’s a bunch of planning for one meal but it’s completely worth it.

I’m referencing 2 legit NOLA cookbooks mainly, watched America’s Test Kitchen and Binging with Babbish Cajun Food episode. I didn’t soak the beans so it’s gonna take longer to cook. I made the pickled pork, ended up brining for 5 days so hopefully that’ll add some extra zest.

Notes: Soak the beans, it took 6 hrs to cook without soaking and you have to keep adding more water/broth to feed the unhydrated beans. You WANT the beans to split. It helps with thickening of the sauce. The pickled pork (72 hr inactive prep) is fucking amazing and it’s what makes this dish bangers. It cooks down and shreds itself in the pot.

Serving: 8+ more likely 12 if you do 4 cups of rice

Time: Active 6.5 hrs (Pre-soaked beans Active 4, Inactive 12)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of red beans (camellia beans) or small red bean/mexican bean soaked in 3 TB salt/ 1 gal water
• 1 ham bone (mine was 2 lbs) it was salty as hell so I didn’t add salt
• 2 lbs sausage, andouille/smoked kielbasa (only used 1 lb b/c of pickled pork)
• 1 lb of pickled pork (if not use 1 TB of red wine vinegar and to taste before serving)
• 3 strips of bacon (optional)
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of chopped celery
• 1 cup of chopped green pepper
• 2 bay leaf
• 1 TB of fresh parsley
• 1 TB paprika
• 1/8 tsp of cayenne (could use way more)
• 1/8 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 5 cups of chicken broth (optional)
• 5 cups of water

You can fuck with this of course, pick up some smoked hocks for smoke flavor if you want, use different sausage.

Cook bacon, remove from pan, in the fat, brown the sausage then cut up into pieces. Remove meat. In the fat, add all the veggies and sweat for a few minutes. Add bean and ham in with the spices, cover with water and broth, bring to a boil then simmer with an open top, 45 mins. Add water/broth as it cooks down. Add cooked sausage, pickled pork and cook until creamy.

Use half and half of water and chicken broth to cover.

I ended up using 4 cups of broth and at least 6 cups of water to start. Just added another 2 cups of water for the beans and it’s 5 hrs later. Beans are soft but I don’t have the super nice thick bean gravy yet. Just smashed some of the beans up, this should help the process a bit. This is suppose to take 4 hrs with pre-soaked beans.

Rice

Doing this from America’s Test kitchen

• 2 cups of long grain white rice
• 1 TB butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups of water

Wash rice until water runs clear.

Melt butter in a saucepan, pour in rice and coat with butter and cook until translucent and fragrant. Add 3 cups of water, bring to boil then cover and turn burner to low. Cook for 18 mins.

Remove from heat, cover lid in a towel, place back on saucepan and let steam for 15 more mins.

Notes:

TOTAL TIME: 6.5 hrs with rice. The beans thickened within the last hour and a half and is fuckin perfect.

EDIT: Cooked from the NOLA cookbook I have and it’s completely backwards.

Pickled Pork

Alton Brown’s Pickled Pork

This is for red beans and rice, there are a million different versions of this but some have pickled pork and for authenticity, I don’t mind making it. Takes 3 days for brining though. Some don’t have ham bones which is bullshit because it’s a ham roast on Sunday and bones to make red beans and rice for Monday. Anyways, this adds an amazing depth of flavor to the beans and rice, so make Friday night/Saturday morning to have ready for Monday.

Ingredients

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1/4 cup kosher salt

• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard seed

• 2 tablespoons hot sauce

• 1 tablespoon celery seed

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

• 8 ounces ice

• 1 1/2 pounds fresh boneless pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes

Directions

Throw all ingredients with the exception of pork and ice into a pan and boil for 3 minutes. Throw the ice in the brine then put into a gallon ziplock with the pork. Refrigerate for 3 days, turn every 12 hours or so.