Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Update (Aug 2021) for an added secret ingredient.

The Roommate (capital R) is a cookie monster. Numerous batches of chocolate chip cookies later…here we are. Note: these need to rest overnight, so start the night before you want to eat them or you will have a very hangry cookie monster on your hand…

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter

• 6 tbsp whole milk
  

• 260g all-purpose flour

• 6g (2 tsp) Diamond Crystal kosher salt

• 6g (1 tsp) baking soda
  

• 1.5-2 tbsp whole milk

• 160g dark brown sugar

• 80g granulated sugar
  

• 2 large eggs, cold from the fridge

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract OR 1-2 tbsp espresso powder

• 280g coarsely chopped chocolate or chocolate disks

Instructions

1. Combine 2 sticks unsalted butter and 6 tbsp of whole milk in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low to medium heat, stirring frequently with a spatula. When the butter starts to foam, use spatula to peek under the foam and keep cooking until the white milk solids turn brown. Turn off heat. If using espresso powder, add that here and mix.

2. With your large heat-resistant mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl) set over a scale, pour the browned butter (be sure to scrape in all its browned bits) into the bowl. It will weigh ~200g. Add whole milk to this until you reach 227g (aka the amount of butter you started with), about 1.5 to 2 tbsp.

3. Stick this bowl in the fridge or over an ice bath until it’s cooled and solid. You will want this to be solid, but still soft and cream-able, about 60 to 65F.

4. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.

5. In your butter bowl, add the sugars. Using the paddle on a stand mixer or an electric hand held mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and pale, about 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape the bowl down.

6. Add both eggs and the vanilla extract and mix together (on low first, then higher). Scrape the bowl down.

7. Add all of the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined.

8. Remove bowl from stand mixer, add all of the chocolate chips and fold with a spatula to combine.

9. The dough is probably a little loose and sticky right now. Let chill and set in the fridge for ~20 minutes.

10. Using a cookie scoop (mine is 3 tbsp), scoop the dough into mounds onto lined quarter sheets (you will need 2). No need to set them far apart since we’re just chilling them for now.

11. Top each cookie with a generous sprinkling of flakey sea salt (I use Maldon’s)

12. Let the cookies rest in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

13. (Optional) After 12 hours of resting, transfer the trays to the freezer and freeze completely. Then, put the dough balls into a ziplock.

14. To bake, pre-heat an oven or toaster oven to 350F. Space the dough balls at least 2 -3 inches apart on a lined baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes, up to 20 minutes, to your preferred done-ness. Allow cookies to cool a bit on the baking sheets (they will be very very soft) before transferring to a wire rack (or your mouth)

Et voila, the best chocolate chip cookies ever (Cookie Monster R’s words, not mine. I don’t even like cookies) … on demand!

References

• Chocolate Chip Cookies (pg 133) from Claire Saffitz Dessert Person

• Lady and Pups Extra-browned butter

• Square Cafe 9 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Spanish-style Pork Ribs

Ingredients

Rack of pork ribs - 2lb

Dry Rub

• Cumin seeds (or powder) - 1/2 tbsp

• Coriander seeds (or powder) - 1/2 tbsp

• Sweet paprika - 1 tbsp

• Smoked paprika - 1 tbsp

• Garlic powder - 1 tsp

• Chili flakes - 1 tsp

• Cracked black pepper - 1 tsp

• Dried oregano - 1 tsp

• Salt (Diamond’s) - 1 - 1.5 tbsp

Glaze

• Sherry wine - 3 tbsp

• Honey - 3 tbsp

• Tomato paste - 1 tbsp

• Soy sauce - 1 tbsp

Notes

• Freshly toasting and grinding whole cumin and coriander seeds will yield a better rub. If you don’t have, use ground cumin and coriander powder.

• Diamond’s salt is significantly less salty than Morton’s so if using Morton’s, reduce to no more than 1 tbsp.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Toast whole cumin and coriander seeds in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until fragrant. Or until you see the first wisps of smoke. Remove into a bowl and let cool.

3. Grind cumin and coriander seeds into a fine powder.

4. Combine all the dry rub ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

5. Wash and pat dry the rack of ribs.

6. Take a piece of aluminum foil that is at least 4+ inches longer than the length of your ribs. Spray the foil down with oil.

7. Place the cleaned and dried ribs on foil and rub all over with dry rub. Use all of it.

8. Wrap the ribs up in foil tightly and fold in from all 4 sides. Where you don’t have enough foil, wrap with additional pieces of foil.

9. Place the rib package on a baking tray and bake in 350F oven for 2 hours.

10. Towards the end of the 2 hours, combine all the “glaze” ingredients in a shallow pan and mix well. Reduce over medium heat until halved. The mixture should look thicker and it will continue to thicken when cooled.

11. Remove ribs from oven and unwrap the package. Crank the oven to 400F.

12. Glaze all sides of the ribs with the prepared glaze. When turning the ribs over, be careful as they are now very tender. Use two pairs of tongs to assist.

13. Let the glaze absorb before glazing again all over. You’ll have some glaze left over.

14. Place the uncovered ribs back in the oven for 10 or so minutes.

15. Remove and serve hot. The ribs should be fall-apart tender and come off the bone quite cleanly. Nom.

Reference

MLiving

Grandpa's Spicy Pork Sauce

Fond childhood memory of coming home from elementary school to a steaming bowl of noodles topped with this sauce.

Ingredients

• Minced pork and/or beef, 2 lb

• Pressed Tofu 豆干, 4 square pieces, diced

• Shiitake mushrooms (preferably rehydrated), 14 medium size, diced

• Garlic, minced

• Ginger, minced

• Chicken or beef broth / stock - 3 to 4 cups

• Fragrant spicy paste 香辣酱, grandpa’s preferred brand is 美乐

• Spicy fermented bean paste 豆瓣酱

• Sweetened soy bean paste 甜面酱

• Dark soy sauce

• Cooking oil

Method

1. In a non-stick skillet, dry saute the mushrooms to release some of their water over low heat. Reserve.

2. In a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven with a fitted lid, deep fry the dice pressed tofu.

3. Remove tofu from pot. In the same oil over low heat, stir fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.

4. Add minced meat and using a spatula, break it up into small pieces. Saute until browned. Add the mushrooms.

5. Add 3 tbsp of each paste sauce and 2 tbsp of the dark soy sauce.

6. Add broth. Adjust seasoning to taste.

7. Cover and cook for 30+ minutes until everything comes together. It should look like a bolognese ragu sauce.

8. Add in the fried tofu and cook for 5 minutes more.

Roasted Cauliflower Cream Soup

Easy, healthy, soul-warming bowl of goodness. Easy to make healthier, vegetarian, or vegan.

Ingredients

• Cauliflower, chopped to 1-inch or so pieces - 2lb

• Yellow onion, sliced or minced - 1 medium size

• Garlic, minced - 4 cloves

• Broth - 3 cups

• Olive oil

• Milk, as needed

• Butter - 2 tbsp

  • Or soaked cashews (for a vegan option)

• Seasoning: salt, pepper, nutmeg (optional)

Tools

• Heavy bottom pot or dutch oven

• Stand blender (eg Vitamix) or immersion blender

Method

1. Toss the chopped cauliflower with salt and olive oil and roast in a 425 preheated oven until the edges are browned and very fragrant, about 30 minutes.

2. 10-15 minutes before the cauliflower is done roasting, heat olive oil and start caramelizing the onions in a heavy bottom pan over low heat. Salt the onion with a few small pinches of salt to help draw out moisture. Low and slow and let it soften, turn translucent and caramelize without burning. There may be some brown bits on bottom of the pan. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.

3. When the onions are almost done, turn the heat to medium and add the minced garlic. Let the garlic golden and become fragrant. Before the garlic burns, add broth to the pot and deglaze the bottom, scraping up any brown bits (yum, flavour)

4. Reserve a few pretty florets of roasted cauliflower for garnish when serving later and dump the rest into the pot. Taste and season with salt and black pepper. Let all the ingredients cook together until you’re ready to serve.

5. Turn off the heat. Transfer the pot’s contents to a stand blender (be careful, it’ll be hot! use a ladle) or homogenize using an immersion blender. Thin the mixture out with milk to your desired texture (note that the soup thickens as it sits). Add butter and grate in a bit of nutmeg and blend some more. Add salt / pepper to taste.

6. To serve, ladle / pour the soup into bowls, top with your reserved florets, drizzle some olive and crack some black pepper or chili flakes on top.

Notes

• Roasting the cauliflower really helps bring out its flavour, don’t skip this step. Ever had steamed cauliflower? Yeah, it ain’t great.

• So much of the flavour in this soup is from the broth, I highly recommend you use as tasty of a broth as you can find / make.

• To make this vegetarian / vegan, use vegetarian broth, nut or soy mylk of your choice, and soaked cashews.

• Be careful using an immersion blender as the hot mixture tends to bubble (and the bubbles burst).

References

Cookie and Kate
Skinny Taste
Lidey Heuck @ NYTCooking (Vegan)

HK-Style Claypot Rice with Spareribs

Ingredients

• Rice (long grain Thai rice preferred) - 2 rice cooker measuring cups / 1.5 American cups / 360mL

• Water

• Oil

• Short spare ribs, 1-inch pieces - 1LB / 500g

• Green onion - 1 piece

Spare ribs marinade

• Garlic, minced - 4 cloves

• Fermented black beans - 1 tbsp

• Oil - 1 tbsp

• Soy sauce - 2 tbsp

• Oyster sauce - 1 tbsp

• Shaoxing wine - 1 tbsp

• Grated ginger - 1 tsp

• Sesame oil - 1/2 tsp

• Salt - 1/2 tsp

• White pepper

• Starch (potato or corn) - 2 tsp

Sauce

• Soy sauce - 3 tbsp

• Dark soy sauce - 1 tbsp

• Oyster sauce - 1 tbsp

• Sugar - 1 tbsp

• Sesame oil - 1/2 tbsp

Method

Spare ribs prep + marinade

1. Cut short spare ribs into 1-inch pieces.

2. Soak ribs in plenty of cold water for at least 30 minutes, if not longer.

3. Remove the ribs from water (the blood is at the bottom of bowl so lift out the meat rather than pouring the water out so you’re not just dumping the blood over the meat again). Rinse in clean water. Pat dry.

4. In a dry pan, heat garlic in oil over low heat until fragrant. Add fermented black beans and stir fry until fragrant.

5. In a clean bowl, combine dry ribs, the garlic bean mixture and all the other marinade ingredients save for the starch. Mix well and let marinate for at least 30 min and up to a few hours.

6. After marinating, sprinkle on the starch and massage in / mix well.

Sauce

1. In a small pot / butter warmer, combine all ingredients, heat until it starts to bubble and sugar is all dissolved.

2. Set aside to cool and reserve for serving.

Assembly

• Wash and rinse rice until the water runs clear. In the very first rinse, do not wash too vigorously and drain the water immediately into the sink. Keep washing and draining a few more times. I like doing so in a strainer and a bowl that the strainer fits in. After the last rinse, let the rice drain as dry as possible.

• In a claypot or cast iron braiser that has a tight fitting lid, add the drained rice and ~80% of its volume in water (290 - 300 mL)

• Over medium-high heat and constantly stirring, cook the rice until most of the water has been absorbed.

• Reduce heat to low.

• Drizzle oil around the edge of the pan and let it seep down to the bottom. Swirl the pan around a bit to distribute more evenly. (Careful, the handles can be really hot!)

• Pile ribs into the pan in an even layer. Put the lid on and let the whole thing steam-cook for about 30-40 minutes (this largely depends on how much meat you add. I did about 35 minutes with the 1LB of ribs I used)

• After that time, turn off the heat, leave lid on and let it steam for another 10 minutes.

• Put on top some chopped green onions.

• Drizzle on the sauce to taste (Depending on how much of the marinade juices you also put in the pan, you may not need)

• Serve hot in the pan with a stiff spatula to scrape the crispy rice off the bottom!

Reference

MLiving

Beef Noodle Soup

Updated March 2021

Broth

Ingredients

• Beef bones - 1000g / 2.2lb

• Water - 4L

• Ginger, sliced - 30g

• Onion, cut in half - 1

• Bay leaf - 2

• Whole black pepper - 15

Method

• Preheat oven to 400F / 200C

• Roast beef bones, ginger, onion for 30 minutes in oven until fragrant and browned

• Cook the roasted ingredients with bay leaves and black pepper for 5 hours on stove top (or 1.5 hours in a pressure cooker)

• Chill overnight to easily skim off fat.

Braise

Ingredients

• Beef (see note) - 1200g / 2.6 lb

• Tomatoes, peeled and cut - 2

• Onion, sliced thin - 1

• Garlic cloves, smashed - 8

• Ginger, sliced - 20g

• Soy sauce - 1/2 cup

• Rice wine - 1/4 cup

• Sesame oil - 1 tbsp

• Doubanjiang - 2 tbsp

• Shachajiang - 1 tbsp

• Rock sugar - 1 tbsp

• White pepper

• Broth - 3.5L

• Spice bag:

  • Star anise - 3

  • Sichuan peppercorn - 2 tsp

  • Nutmeg, cracked - 1

  • Black Cardamom, cracked - 2

  • Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

  • Bay leaf - 2

  • Cinnamon stick - 1

Method

• Cut the meat into pieces slightly bigger than you want to end up with. It’ll shrink as it cooks. If you want cubes, cut into rectangular pieces (rectangular strips along the grain. See this video for reference.

• (Optional) The night before you’re going to braise, salt the cut meat.

• Peel the tomatoes like in this video (do not seed) and cut into chunks.

• Heat the contents for the spice bag in a dry skillet until fragrant. Add to a disposable tea bag.

• Cover the meat in a pot with cold water, boil and skim the foam until it comes out clean. Fish out the beef and rinse clean.

• Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add the blanched meat and brown on all sides. Remove meat.

• Add additional oil if necessary and stir fry onion, garlic, ginger until fragrant.

• Add the doubanjiang and shachajiang, stirfry until fragrant. Add the meat back in and toss to coat.

• Add soysauce and let it bubble in the hot pan.

• Add the tomatoes, spice bag, rock sugar, sesame oil, rice wine, and white pepper to the pot. Scrape up any brown bits

• Cover and turn to low and simmer for 1 hour. Both the beef and tomatoes will release juices. Adding no water insures that the beef fully takes on the flavors of the seasonings.

• After an hour, add most of the beef broth (reserve some for adjusting flavor later) and simmer for another 30 minutes or until the meat is tender to your liking.

• Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

• Chill to easily skim off fat and let the flavors develop in fridge over night.

Notes

• I like to use chuck rib / short rib and shank. The ribs provide a meatier flavor. For the shank, get a whole one (it looks almost like a whole tenderloin), which is usually available at Asian grocery stores. Slice in half to braise. After braising, chill and cut into slices.

• I don’t recommend scaling the spices proportionally. If doubling the amount of meat, tomatoes, onions, etc…I would use 1.5x the spices…otherwise, the resulting broth is a tad too herbal-y for my liking. YMMV so if that’s what you prefer, go for it.

Beef Noodle Soup

Fixings

• Blanched vegetables

• Chewy noodles

• Chopped green onions and cilantro

• Pickled mustard greens:

  • Soak in water for 10 minutes to remove some of the salinity

  • Squeeze dry and dice

  • Heat oil in a pan and stir fry some smashed garlic cloves

  • When fragrant, add in the mustard greens and stir fry

  • At the end, add a bit of sugar and sesame oil

References

• M Living Beef Noodle Soup

• Betty Liu Braised Oxtail Bao

• 小高姐牛肉面

• 小小米桶屋牛肉面