Ramen with corn is besto.
I noticed I was pretty much out of amaretto tonight, so I was googling which brand to get. In my Internet travels I found a forum debating this very topic. However one poster was confused, why not just make your own amaretto? I honestly didnāt know this was a thing you could do.
I had all the ingredients on hand and the recipe was ridiculously simple so I made a batch right away.
Iām shocked. This stuff is surprisingly good. I doubt Iāll be buying it ever again.
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Welp, thatās a google away. Also I donāt think Iāve ever shared my mead, I could do it now but I donāt wanna steal any thunder so Iām just gonna learn how amaretto works.
Edit: shit son, that is simple. I donāt think I have any almond extractā¦ but damn. Thatās like mad easy.
Seriously! I didnāt think something that simple would work, but after seeing the same basic recipe from various sites I tried it. The version I used was
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar.
Bring that to a boil, stirring,making a simple syrup.
Let that cool for like 15 minutes then add
2 cups vodka
2 tablespoons almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract .
Crazy easy. All the recipes I saw had the same ingredients, but slightly different amounts. I guess you can fine tune it for personal tastes.
Iād be interested in your mead recipe, but Iām gonna guess itās a bit more involved than this?
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Just a bit, but not much more. However it does require a bit of specialized equipment. Nothing crazy mind, butā¦ First and biggest pain in the ass is everything needs to be sanitized, I use this stuff
Then you take between 3 and 5 pounds of honey (I usually go lower for a drier mead), some yeast nutrient and some yeast energizer into a carbouy and fill the rest of the way with some distilled water. Then take some wine yeast pitch it in some warm water, wait a bit and pop it in the carbouy with the rest. Place a water seal on top of that thing so CO2 can bubble out but no gross bacteria can get in then hurry up and wait.
Every 2 weeks or so move from one carbuoy into another leaving the gunk* at the bottom. The process of switching containers is called ārackingā and after your first rack is the time to put stuff in there. The batch before the current one was blackberry and the one before that was orange/lemon. The one downstairs now is just pure honey.
Since weāve spent enough time on this let me grab a picture for ya: Stuff missing from the left turning into the stuff on the right.
*Gunk smells like yeast but Iāll let someone who knows more about what happens here to tell me whats up.
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Amaretto French toast here I come!
Iām going to make this Hokkaido Milk Bread.
The thing is, I am having a hard time with some of the ingredients. Should I really be spending $15 on a box of cake flour?
Fifteen bucks seems rather expensive, I would go to a grocery store for it if you can and see if you can find it for less. Cake flour has less gluten than all purpose flour, which is what gives fancy cakes and your Hokkaido milk bread their airy fluffiness, so I would get it if you can. You can apparently make a decent substitute by cutting all purpose flour with cornstarch, but I have found with most substitutions in baking that it is better to use the real thing.
Hereās a link for making your substitute:
http://www.thekitchn.com/the-easy-way-to-make-cake-flour-substitute-baking-tips-from-the-kitchn-44521
I made some pumpkin bread today. It looks like I didnāt mix in the spices well enough so they formed a kind of cinnamon swirl thing, which is fine by me it tastes great!
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If that wasnāt intentional, then Iād say it was a happy accident. You might want to keep repeating that method. It looks very nice.
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Having a HelloFresh subscription (3 meals a week for 2, but we tend to skip weeks here and there), has been such a great experience for us. We started cooking our own meals inspired by the menus we previously cooked from. Having an upbringing with Pacific Islander/Polynesian/Asian most of the cooking involved soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, pepper, bay leaves, etc.
I never got to really experience other types of herbs or vegetables not known to be in the cooking of my family.
Recently I discovered how awesome fresh dill is compared to dried up dill. Itās like two worlds. I added fresh dill to a tuna cheese quesadilla. Oh mans. Good shit. If you got recipes with dill, let me know.
Jeremy and I plan on using HelloFresh as we found it to be cheaper than buying groceries because the portions are exact and I donāt have excess of anything really.
Only thing that sucks from this: DISHES. Fuck dishes. Iām so tired of washing dishes everyday.
How does it compare to Blue Apron? Have you tried that?
Havenāt tried Blue Apron. I heard they had bad employee treatment practices.
Hello Fresh has been decent. Love the variety of meals you can select each week. We have no food issues so no need to worry about that, but I know they offer gluten free and various food issue free meals.
The recipes are easy to follow and average 30-45 mins for prep and cook. Also everything they ship is recyclable.
Other than my first late shipment happening this week, I have had no problems.
Hello Fresh have assholes on the streets of NYC who harass the living shit out of everyone trying to get them to sign up. Because of that alone, I donāt like them.
I had Blue Apron before, but cancelled it. However, I recently got it again. I was walking home, and had nothing to cook for dinner. I thought about maybe getting Blue Apron again since itās cold, and I have more cooking time. When I got home there was spam from Blue Apron in the mailbox. $20 off if I rejoin. Also, they fixed all the things I complained about before.
It used to be they had 6 meals per week. You had to pick 3. You could only pick certain combinations. Now there are 8 meals per week. You can pick 2 OR 3. You can pick any combination you want. Got my first box of just two meals on Saturday. So much better than before.
I just use a grocery storeā¦
The grocery store? How quaint.
I use both.
For some of my groceries, Blue Apron delivers the ingredients. For the rest, Fresh Direct delivers. The balance between the two has significantly cut down on cooking, meal planning, and shopping time while increasing the average quality of the meals we make.
I only go to a physical grocery story for occasional fresh items (e.g., on my way home from work) or specialty nonsense.
Discovered my favorite fall recipe from combining things together. Bratwurst + Chutney + Goat Cheese? Incredible.
Scottās Savory Apple Chutney:
2 Onions, diced
4 Celery ribs, chopped
2 Granny Smith Apples; peeled, cored, and diced
2 tbsps of Olive Oil
1 tsp. of the following: salt, pepper, cayenne, garam masala (Indian Spice Mix)
1 tbsp of Worchestershire Sauce
12 oz of Apple Cider. (I use Bold Rock Virginia Draft)
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Heat oil in large bottom pot or dutch oven at medium-high heat.
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Add onions, celery and apples to oil. Stir with wooden spoon for even cooking for about 10 minutes.
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When the vegetables turn translucent, at your salt, pepper, cayenne, and garam masala. Stir to ensure even coating around the vegetables. The vegetables will turn a bright orange/yellow color from the Indian spices and have a strong aroma.
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After 10 more minutes, the vegetables should have a golden brown color and fond will develop. Deglaze with worchestershire sauce for savory flavor. Stir until the evaporated.
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Add entire bottle of cider to the pot and stir, scraping the bottom. Once the cider comes to a boil, cover the pot with a lid and put the heat to low for 15-20 minutes.
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Remove the lid after the appropriate amount of time and stir. Once the cider has fully evaporated and the apple/celery/onion has a dark brown color, the chutney is ready.
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Serve ontop of Pork Chops or Sausages. Enjoy!
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Thereās a restaurant near me that, every Oktoberfest, they prepare apple-cinnamon sauerkraut to go with their sausages. This looks a lot like that dish. Itās sooooooo good!
The goat cheese is certainly an interesting touch. I might try that sometime.
Oh man, sausages and chutney. The other night, I stir fried onions, cabbage, butter beans and sausages in mango chutney. It was phenomenal.