my debut-stress-induced cooking
One thing about me is that the more stressed I am, the more food I’ll make, and these last few months have been a very stressful time for me for absolutely no reason whatsoever. But thanks to my stress-induced cooking and baking, I’ve made a lot of new things and figured out the best ways to make some of my old favorites, so here are some of the best and worst things I’ve made since January! Pics of most of these are on an Instagram story highlight.
Tini Younger’s mac and cheese
Chef influencer Tini Younger’s mac and cheese recipe took TikTok by storm around Thanksgiving, but I was a bit late to the trend, trying it in January when I was visiting family. Her spice blend is wonderful—don’t skip the smoked paprika and dijon mustard, as it really adds a bite of flavor. The crust of cheese on the top was rather thick, but that very well could have been my error; I might have been able to add more cheese to the sauce. Overall, really great recipe; my aunt, uncle, and cousins seemed to enjoy it.
Chicken katsu curry
This is another recipe I tried at my cousins’ place. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs to make chicken katsu according to the instructions from Just One Cookbook, and I cooked the curry according to package directions on a pack of Golden Curry. I didn’t season the chicken heavily enough; if I were to do it again, I’d salt them at least 30 minutes before breading and frying. I’d also use chicken breasts, as they’re much more even when pounded out.
Chocolate filled cream puffs
This is the final thing I made while I was visiting my cousins. I used Claire Saffitz’s croquembouche recipe but skipped the craquelin and caramel. This was a big hit. I wouldn’t do anything differently if I wanted to make cream puffs, but I would like to try a full croquembouche someday.
Gluten free white bread
My sibling has a mild wheat allergy, so I try to make some gluten free things when I can to reduce their wheat intake. I tried out The Loopy Whisk’s white bread recipe, and, well, it wasn’t great. The texture was just hard and stale, and it kind of looked like I had cut a log into the shape of bread. I did use some of the substitutions Katarina suggested when I didn’t have the exact flour types listed in the recipe, so I might try this recipe again with the exact flour blend listed in the recipe. (Her method of using psyllium husk definitely does work; I’ve made her lemon roll recipe with far greater success.)
Soy honey glazed salmon
Lesson learned: don’t just wing a recipe if you aren’t experienced cooking this type of meat. Specifically, I’ve never pan-fried salmon before, and when I added the soy, ginger, and honey glaze to it too early, it ended up nearly burning. The inside still tasted great, but the outside looked downright scary.
Candied Buddha’s hand
My mom grows a citrus called Buddha’s hand in her garden, and while they’re nice to look at, they’re not edible as-is because they are made entirely of pith with no edible, juicy flesh. You can zest the outsides and use it in place of lemon zest, or you can candy them. This wasn’t my first time working with sugar, so it was a pretty standard procedure, and we ended up with lots of really great candied citrus peels and some sugar syrup (that later crystallized) scented with citrus fragrance. The only thing I did differently from John Mitzewich’s recipe was cut them into strips instead of cubes.
Recently, I was going to make cookies out of the rest of the candied Buddha’s hand we still had, only to discover that my dad had thrown it away, which he says was because I complained there was too much clutter in our kitchen. It is still cluttered, but now with less candy. Shame on him.
Sourdough
I’ve been making sourdough since 2020, and the method I’ve ended up with is adapted from Mary Grace Quigley and The Kitchn. I make this once every week or two, depending on how fast we go through it. It’s pretty easy and relatively hands-free compared to some of the more involved recipes I’ve seen; the results aren’t perfect, but an 8 out of 10 loaf of bread with 2 out of 10 effort is better to me than a 10 out of 10 loaf with 12 out of 10 effort.
The ingredient ratio I use is 1000 g unbleached all-purpose or bread flour, 750-800 g water, 100-120 g starter, and 1 tbsp table salt (equivalent to 2-3 tbsp kosher salt, depending on the brand), to make two loaves. I mix the dough, do stretch and folds until I go to bed (or for a couple of hours, if I’m starting in the morning), then let it rise. I shape it and let it rise again in proofing baskets covered with shower caps until the dough reaches near the top of the basket. Then I bake in a covered Dutch oven at 500 F for 20 minutes, 450 F for 10 minutes, and uncovered at 450 F for an additional 10-15 minutes. It pretty much always turns out good.
Rotisserie chicken pho
Alissa Nguyen is one of my favorite food TikTokers. (I can’t wait for her to go back to always saying that her baby is crying now that another is on the way.) I’ve made chicken pho a number of times now, and it always turns out good. If your chicken broth isn’t turning out as flavorful as you’d like, I suggest Better than Bouillon paste.
Maine lobster roll
One of my big regrets about my time in undergrad is I never went to a seafood restaurant in Boston. I know for a fact that it just isn’t the same in Illinois, where our local seafood is from freshwater sources.
I made a lobster roll at home when frozen lobster tails went on sale at my grocery store, and though it’s probably not nearly as good as the ones in New England, it was pretty great! It was a simple mix of cooked lobster, celery, mayo, and salt and pepper, loaded into a buttered and toasted split-top hot dog bun. Highly recommend. (I haven’t tried the Connecticut-style rolls yet; those are just lobster and butter. I feel like you’d need fresh lobster, not frozen, for that to be really good.)
Venison burgers
One day, I dug up a pound of ground venison from my freezer and decided to learn how to make burgers. Where did the venison come from? Not sure. How long had it been there? Also not sure. But the burgers were great! I followed standard smash burger procedure and topped with lettuce, tomato, and caramelized onion. I highly recommend Martin’s potato rolls, which are used by many restaurants.
Vodka pasta
I’ve been making pasta alla vodka for years, so it’s not that I tried this for the first time or anything, but now I’ve done it a few ways, with tomato paste and with canned tomatoes. I definitely prefer it with canned tomatoes, though it needs to simmer for a while rather than being instant. I’m honestly not sure if the vodka does anything, but Ethan Chlebowski and J. Kenji López-Alt say it does, so I do include a bit of cheap vodka in the sauce.
Milk bread
Milk bread is another thing I’ve been making for a long time, I think since I was, like, twelve. But recently, I tried the recipe from The Woks of Life, and it was incredibly easy and really tasty. I appreciated that tangzhong wasn’t needed (although I’ve found some great recipes in the past that do use tangzhong). I did need to let it rise for longer than they say in the recipe, but I think that’s because it was cold in our house.
Braised short ribs
I pretty much used Cassie Yeung’s instructions for how to make braised short ribs. My dad thought I’d bought them pre-made, which I’m still not sure was a compliment or an insult, but he was surprised when I told him I made them myself. My sister is a very picky eater, so I roasted some potatoes for her while the rest of us got mashed, and everyone’s plates were cleaned. 10/10, would make again, but I’d wait until short ribs are on sale.
Beef noodle soup
The Woks of Life’s recipe for beef noodle soup in an Instant Pot was great, but the broth turned out very peppery. I checked their cookbook, and the amount of peppercorns they suggest there is a bit less, so reduce it if you’re using the online recipe! The beef also ended up a little overcooked. If it weren’t for the long timing of cooking it on the stove, I would do it on a stovetop so I could check the beef’s doneness more easily.
Pork pozole
My sibling got a recipe for Instant Pot pork pozole from their friend. There were a bunch of types of peppers, plus more pepper powders in the broth, and it was very spicy. My sister didn’t even try it (again, picky eater). But we really enjoyed it, and we discovered that my sibling and I have higher spice tolerances than our mom at this point. If I were to make this again, I’d do it on the stovetop; like the beef, the pork turned out a little overcooked.
Crab rangoon
My sibling’s more serious allergy is crustaceans, so they’ve never been able to have crab rangoon before because you can’t really confirm if a restaurant’s imitation crab contains real crab extract (and we don’t have any kosher Chinese restaurants in our area—I know they wouldn’t have any real crab). I used the recipe in The Woks of Life cookbook, though I omitted the Dijon mustard. Turns out, it needed the mustard. It was missing some kind of zing. But I highly recommend making it yourself if you’ve got some time to wrap them all! It’s much more cost-effective than buying it, and since it’s fried fresh, the crispiness is unparalleled.
Pork katsu curry
Same procedure as the chicken katsu curry, but this time with pork cutlets. I didn’t butterfly the cutlets nearly evenly enough; my knife skills are shabby as it is, and I had a dull knife. Still tasted great, though!
Pan-roasted chicken parts
J. Kenji López-Alt has a recipe in his cookbook The Food Lab for pan-roasted chicken parts that I really enjoyed. It’s absolutely non-negotiable to have an instant-read thermometer on hand when you’re cooking white meat. I cooked the breasts to 150 F (a perfectly safe temperature; 165 kills pathogens instantly, but 150 kills them within a couple of minutes, and 155, which it comes up to as it rests, will kill pathogens in less than a minute). I don’t think I’ve ever eaten chicken breasts that were this tender and juicy before. (My family usually cooks chicken in soup, so my only frame of reference is from restaurants and dining halls.) Highly recommend.
“Future brownies”
Sohla El-Waylly’s cookbook Start Here is perhaps one of my favorite cookbooks as of late. Her recipe for “future brownies,” called that because they feel like some sort of food from the future, was pretty much all gone within a couple of days in my household, and we’re not usually huge on desserts. They’re essentially mochi brownies, made using glutinous rice flour, so in addition to their lovely jelly-like texture, they’re also gluten free. And they’re not too sweet, which any Asian person knows is a compliment.
Prime rib
While I liked Kenji’s method for chicken parts, his prime rib method was a little fussy. He roasts the roast at a painstakingly low temperature in the oven, which takes the whole afternoon, before blasting it with a super hot oven right at the end to form a crust. I had my rib roast in the oven for four hours, and it was still rare in the middle. It’s a good thing most of my family doesn’t mind our beef a little rare, but if I were to do this again, I’d start it in the oven in the morning.
St. Louis gooey butter cake
Claire Saffitz once had a baking competition with her high school friends in which she baked a raspberry chocolate layer cake from scratch and lost to a gooey butter cake made from boxed yellow cake mix. Years later, she included a recipe for St. Louis gooey butter cake in her first cookbook—the yeasted, not-too-sweet version you find in bakeries, not the boxed cake mix version people bring to potlucks. Her friend who won the baking competition tried both cakes, and . . . the boxed mix still won.
Well, I made Claire’s version, and I have a hard time believing a boxed cake mix could possibly produce better results. The cake was light, almost like brioche in its texture, and the goo—for lack of a better word—was the perfect balance of sweet, creamy, and vanilla-y. The overnight rest in the fridge is well worth the wait for this one. My only complaint is that it’s a rather small recipe to be using a stand mixer, but I shudder at the thought of having to make such a buttery dough by hand.
Southern-style fried chicken
(Plus coleslaw and biscuits.)
Another Kenji recipe here; the chicken was great, but I think the spice blend in the breading and marinade was lacking. Too much paprika and garlic powder, and not much of anything else. I liked his method of frying the chicken just until the outside is crisp and then finishing in the oven, but it did take quite a long time. The coleslaw was good, but not sweet enough. And I made Bon Appétit’s “BA’s Best” biscuits, which turned out very good, but a little dry. (Maybe that’s on me for skipping the step where you brush it with butter before baking. I didn’t feel like melting any butter.)
