Adam Bullied

Improving Specific Dishes

As I get more and more in to cooking, I’m starting to want to find dishes that I can get pretty good at. The challenge is, picking those things that a) I enjoy cooking b) are tasty and c) pretty cost-effective.

This weekend, I’ve decided to take a few things that I’ve always wanted to cook but have held off on until I got a bit better at things. They pretty simple and basic, but will require some solid practice to get right.

The first is a basic kedgeree. You can put a ton of variants on kedgeree, and I’ll be starting with salmon as the key ingredient.

The second is lamb. A pretty versatile meat (and declicious) it will definitely be the most costly thing I’m working with over the weekend - but I’m going to start simple and just add it to some cous-cous, and probably a basic wrap.

The third is risotto. Now, I realize this is going to take many months to get actually somewhat OK at. But everyone has to start somewhere. The thing that attracts me to risotto is how many vibrant ingridents you can add to the base - really exciting stuff!

Looking forward to getting down to business tomorrow…

Recipe: Egg-Fried Rice

Here is a super simple (and vegetarian-friendly) egg-fried rice you can make in under 20 minutes. I did one up for lunch today and it turned out pretty good, so I thought I would share it.

• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup basmati long-grain rice (depending on how hungry you are)
• about 4-5 portabella mushrooms, chopped
• A handful of frozen peas
• 3-4 leaves of fresh mint
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1/2 zucchini
• A handful of fresh chives
• 1 egg (free range / organic)
• 1-1 1/2tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 lemon
• Optional: 1 spring onion
• 5-8 slices of fresh bacon (crisped obviously) would also go well

Step 1: The Rice

Take all of the rice you want to cook with, and put it into a colander - wash through with cold water. This will take the starch out of the rice (long-grain has a bunch of starch in it) so it doesn’t stick together and become a big mess.

Once that’s done, place in a pot of boiling salted water. It should take between 6-8 minutes to become soft, but test it throughout to be sure. Once it’s done, strain the cooked rice and refresh immediately under cold water.

While the rice is going, chop up your vegetables and herbs.

Step 2: Vegetables and Herbs

Get a frying pan on a medium heat (heat up for about 4 minutes or so to achieve desired heat) and put in some olive oil (1-1 1/2 table spoons). At this point, I usually like to season the pan itself with salt pepper.

Take all of your chopped herbs and veg and mix in with the sesame oil in a small bowl and then put in to the frying pan. Cook through (usually in the amount of time it will take for the frozen peas to thaw and cook) and place back in the same bowl you mixed them in prior.

Step 3: The Egg in “Egg-Fried”

Now, crack the egg in to the hot pan and start scraping - you want a good mixture of yellow / white, but generally a cooked (pretty near scrambled) egg in your pan, and then dump in the rice. Mix the egg and the rice in the pan until the rice browns and becomes slightly crispy.

You may want to add a bit of butter to give the rice some color / help the cooking process, or some olive oil for the same reason - use your best discretion.

Step 4: Bringing it Together

Once the rice starts to color, pour in your cooked herbs and veg and mix. Add in the zest of the 1/2 lemon, and also about 1/2 the juice from the same lemon - taste test to make sure it’s not too acidic. If it is, add a bit more olive oil (or sesame oil if you prefer - but be careful as it’s super strong) to balance out the flavors.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoned with fresh cracked pepper.

Once cooked, voila - a simple egg-friend rice meal.

Options

You could add in some lovely chicken, or pork sirloin, or sausages if you like to bulk up the flavor / meal size. Makes great leftovers too!

Homemade Burgers

I know burgers are super simple, and eveyone out there has made them before. But I’m still super new to the cooking thing - and have only made them 4-5 times. So I thought I would write down what I actually put in to them.

Due to all the time I’m spending in the gym, I always use extra lean ground beef, or ground turkey.

Here’s my favorite combination of ingredients for homemade burgers:

• 2 heaped tsp of Dijon mustard
• One organic / free-range egg
• 1 1/2 tsp of worcheshire sauce
• About 3/4 tsp of dried oregano
• Salt / pepper

I swap these out every now and again:

• 1/2 small / med red onion
• Spring onion
• Parsley
• Cumin

I’ll drizzle olive oil on each pre-made burger and put them in the fridge to firm up before pan-frying them. I guess I always make the patties a bit too thick, as the time to cook through always surprises me on a med-high heat.

Tonight I added 12 plain crackers to the burger mix. They worked texture-wise, but here was the big problem (at least for my taste) - they really dried out the meat while they were pan-frying. I don’t think I would use them again, simply because it just tried out the burgers too much. Maybe I didn’t add enough olive oil before I started frying them.

To serve, I’ll actually cheat a bit. I’ll drizzle extra-virgin olive oil on both the top and bottom of the hamburger buns and throw them in the toaster. They always come out toasted and golden.

And as always with burgers, it’s to everyone’s unique tastes - a fresh slice of red onion, cheddar or swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms, romaine lettuce and condiments. But always some extra salt and pepper before they are served.

Quick Tip - Seasoning for Cooking

When you’re grilling up food on the BBQ, nothing is better than setting the meat you’re about to cook in a well-crafted marinade for hours / overnight. But sometimes, it just doesn’t happen.

Of course, this doesn’t only apply to the grill - pan-frying as well, and even in the oven. And not just meats, but vegetables too.

So, what to do? Always, always season and use olive oil (and not extra-virgin olive oil). Take a separate plate, the piece of meat you will be cooking and drizzle with olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. It will really help to bring out the flavor.

Oh, and always remember to flip it over and catch the other side too. Why use a seperate plate? So you don’t waste any salt pepper. You obviously don’t want to over-season, but make sure it covers as much of the meat as possible; top, bottom, sides, etc…

Plus, when cooking with olive oil on a BBQ, it will really help to avoid sticking.

Use common sense as well. For example, if you are wrapping a piece of meat (for example a filet mignon, or a chicken breast) in something that’s already salty (e.g., parma ham) you definitely don’t want to use too much salt, or maybe even any salt at all.

The Batman Arkham Asylum demo on my PS3 is at 80% and still crawling. Here’s hoping to at least SOME gaming before bed.

Really keeping my fingers crossed.

Damn SkyHook - keeps incorrect reporting my location from our past life in Pasadena even though I’ve requested an update.

Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup

Here is the greatest butternut squash soup recipe I have come across thus far. I took this (and varied it) from a book documenting how to cook every dish from the restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road.

The changes are for timing and to reduce complexity, but they would add super amazing flourishes to the dish. I’ll go over those at the end of my basic recipe.

First, what you will need ingredients wise:

• A fully grown (1 - 1 1/4lb) butternut squash
• 2 large shallots
• Double cream / whipping cream (here in Canada that’s 35%)
• ~2 tbsp of butter
• 4-6 cups of vegtable stock (this will vary based on amount of squash)
• 1/4 cup of olive oil (no extra virgin here, folks)
• sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

And here is the kit you will require to make it:

• A saucepan capable of holding all of the squash and stock
• A blender
• A second clean saucepan to pour the soup in to from the blender
• A vegetable peeler of choice

OK, so now you have all of your ingredients, what do you do?

Step 1 - Prep the Squash

Get out that peeler (for my money, one like this is the absolute best for peeling anything) and peel the squash fully.

Now, to do any sort of dicing on a squash, you will absolutely require a very sharp knife - these usually come in the form of an 8” chef’s knife, or something of the like.

Essentially, the first cut you will make is to separate the head from the body, and then proceed to halve the body of the squash. Once you do that, you will notice it has seeds / an apperance very similar to a pumpkin.

Get out a spoon and scoop out all those seeds and those stringy bits. It’s OK if you catch bits and pieces of the flesh of the squash as you are cleaning it.

Now, simply cut (in whatever way you feel is best) the body and head of the sqaush you separated in to cubes - there are plenty of videos on YouTube that can show you exactly how to do this.

Step 2 - Prep and Heat the Shallots

Peel and dice the shallots. Here is a video. Once that’s done, pour your olive oil into a pan and let it heat. Then, get all of the diced shallots in there as well and stir until they start to turn a bit brown.

Step 3 - Cook the Squash

Get all of the squash cubes and put them in to the sauce pan you have been using to cook the shallots. Also, drop in your butter as well and start stirring and mixing.

For this first portion, you want the squash to get to be a SLIGHT bit harder than boiled potatoes. So, you are looking to be able to easily pierce them with a fork and have them slowly slide off the fork - but not to be so cooked they are falling apart off the fork when pierced.

This should take 8-15 minutes, depending on the heat you are using, the pan, etc… You can also season here as you feel is appropriate.

Step 4 - Heat the Stock

Put your veg stock in to another saucepan and heat so that it’s hot. A good test is similar to testing fish fillets for done-ness - put the tip of a fork halfway in the stock and then hold it up to your upper lip. If it feels like a cup of tea / coffee, it’s probably warm enough, but use yor discretion.

Step 5 - Combine

You are now going to want to combine the stock with the squash mixture. Make sure that you have enough stock to submerge the squash - continue stirring occassionally.

Give it a couple of minutes for the flavors to work together, then slowly pour (while stirring) in your cream. Now, leave the mixture to simmer until the squash is soft.

Step 6 - Whiz

Once done, use a slotted spoon to scoop out all of the sqaush from the saucepan and in to the blender. Add about a third of the liquid in which the squash was cooking.

Carefully pulse the contents until you have a smooth and creamy soup consistency. You can add more stock as well if you like to reduce some of the creamy-ness, or add more whipping cream to add additional thickness.

Pour from the blender and in to a clean sauacepan - serve as soon as you can. If you find the soup to be a bit chunky, you can optionally pour it from the blender and in to a second sauce pan by way of a colander.

To Serve

To plate the soup, you can simply put it in to a bowl and serve, seasoned to taste with a drizzle of olive oil. You could also add a drizze of truffle-infused olive oil.

Some of the Gordon Ramsay flourishes / additions include serving with sauteed mushrooms, a parmesan crisp, a seared scallop, and a single hand-made stuffed tortellini.

Photo taken by Rachel Segal.

Second trip to the gym today - chest workout this time.

Hopping in the shower, then off to get a quick lunch.