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Workday Gourmet

recipes for students & young professionals

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Showing posts from August, 2019

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Moon festival treat: savory mooncake (aka puff pastry wrapped meatball)

on August 30, 2019

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Fluffy, Pillowy, Foolproof Instant Mashed Potato Gnocchi

on August 21, 2019

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Minimalist Miso Marinated Chilean Seabass

on August 07, 2019

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Workday Gourmet: Hi, my name's Cheryl. I'm a software engineer with a full time corporate job, a part time app dev side gig, an enthusiasm for good food, and not a ton of time or patience.

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School Lunch Cheese Sticks - You know you miss them!

School lunch cheese sticks were such childhood favorite, I still remember them all these years later, and the fact that we apparently can't buy them easily just makes me want them more. FYI, you can apparently buy max pizza sticks from amazon in bulk - but pack of 192 is bit too much for my freezer. As much as the serving size of 2 sticks at a time in school never felt enough, baking them half a dozen at a time is plenty for my household. My recipe will make at least 6 pizza sticks, with extra dough, that you can trim and make more cheese sticks or mini pizza. Additionally, I'd like to share a few hacks for minimum-knead, easy same-day pizza dough. No sticky mess, no planning ahead required! First of all, let autolyse take care of most of the kneading for you. Resting a rough dough for at least 20 minutes will yield a dough that is softer, less sticky, and easier to knead to smooth stage, by allowing flour enzyme to work on the protein bond for you. One thing to keep i

Fluffy, Pillowy, Foolproof Instant Mashed Potato Gnocchi

If you've ever bought pre-made, shelve-stable, room-temperature packaged gnocchi, you've been disappointed before. They're always gummy with very little potato taste. I wish it were easier to like the much more convenient substitute. God knows how many times I failed at making the legendary light-as-cloud, fluffy, pillowy gnocchi. I've made enough batches that were colossal waste of time and ingredients, I could hear Gordon Ramsay yelling in my head. Truth be told I kinda know why. But honestly, who measures Idaho potatoes by the grams?! How big do you consider a "medium potato" to be? Do you bake your potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, or microwave them with a lid on? What is a good amount of water loss? What is a proper amount of dusting flour? What does it even mean to work just until the dough comes together?! If you've shared my frustrations, this is a recipe for you! It recently dawned on me that potato gnocchi are finicky because the wetn

Shortcut Soup Dumpling with Gelatin, Pasta Roller, & Cake Ring!

This is a hacky way of making my childhood favorite dim sum. My mother laughed at all my cop-out's, but was delighted at the result. Truth is, while xiaolongbao is an ubiquitous Shanghai specialty, a lot of locals have never actually made it themselves because the traditional way is quite time consuming. In a nutshell, the soup was added to the dumplings by cooking down pork or chicken collagen until you get a thick enough broth that gelatinizes when cooled. The solid soup jelly is then chopped up and mixed into the meat, which is then wrapped into the dough. When steamed, the jelly dissolves into soup again at high temperature, and you have soup dumpling. To save you hours of cooking and chilling, my shortcut is to add gelatin into store-bought broth. To further reduce chilling time, warm up only half of the broth needed, dissolve bloomed gelatin in it, and stir in the remaining cold broth into the mixture. This will cool down the mixture a lot faster. My broth was set

Ahi Tuna Poke! Such Fad, Much Ease

I was square in the poke-trend-hating squad for the past decade. It was to me the embodiment of everything annoying about the hipster culture - overpriced low-effort product that people rave nonstop because it's cool. It was the culinary modern art. At last my inner cheapo finally resolved to do something about this ripoff trend that I so resented: by making my own, and urging everyone to make their own. Disclaimer: consumption of raw or under-cooked seafood may increase risk of foodborne illness. Now, if you're reading this you're probably both aware & willing to take your chances. You can minimize your risk by: 1) purchase "sushi grade" tuna that were previously frozen and processed with likely higher hygienic standards, but cost something like $36/lb & require a trip to specialty stores, or 2) purchase the much cheaper, more ubiquitous, previously (or still) frozen tuna steak & then salt-cure it before using. In a nutshell, freezing kil

No-Lump Cacio e Pepe - Explaining Common Failures and the Fix

If you've been to Rome, and came back and tried this out based on the instruction you've heard from Rome, odds are you've had a couple batches that looked nothing like the creamy, smooth, luscious goodness that allegedly was achievable with just cheese and pasta water, with no cream or butter. Nothing says "simple does not equal easy" as loudly as Cacio e Pepe. Not even the infamously temperamental soft scrambled eggs, because honestly, slightly over cooked eggs are still pretty tasty if you're not being snooty, but lumpy, unemulsified Cacio e Pepe is genuinely not enjoyable, aside from being entirely not presentable. To avoid wasting food, I've "cheated" with butter, oil, cream, even a béchamel sauce to salvage the lumpy pasta. But a tasty mac and cheese is no Cacio e Pepe. The taste of Rome can only be achieved with the traditional simple ingredients the recipe calls for: pecorino, pepper, pasta, plus salt & water that the pasta is co

No Grease, Almost Instant Croquette

Try this air fried, Japanese style croquette from instant mashed potato mix! You can totally use real mashed potatoes if you have time or leftover. This is a hack for crispy baked croquette in under 15 min. If you don't have an airfryer, oven-bake will work too. Airfryers are essentially small convection ovens. If using a traditional oven, increase the bake time by 10 minutes. Ingredients: 2 cup cooked mashed potatoes 2 cup 'filler' * 1/4 cup flour 1 egg, beaten 1/2 cup panko breadcrumb, lightly toasted 1 tbsp oil (optional) * choose your favorite filler: - traditional: ground beef sauteed with diced onions - vegetarian: sweet corn, peas, minced carrots, sauteed onions - anything else: diced turkey, chicken, ham, anything you would serve with mashed potatoes Instructions: Prepare instant mash potatoes with ~20% less liquid than called for. A dryer potato mix is harder & easier to shape. (Don't worry about the moisture amount if u

French King Cake (Galette des Rois)

This is a popular January dessert, traditionally eaten for epiphany, but I make it all year round. It is a perfect last-minute dessert, for potluck, dinner guest, or work friend's birthday you almost forgot. It will look like more effort than you'd put in. The whole dish comprises just two components: puff pastry, and frangipane. Egg-wash/decoration completely optional, but strongly recommended - for 30 seconds of effort, it'll look a lot more impressive! Ingredients : 2 sheets of puff pastry (~9-inch) 1 cup almond meal 1/2 cup granulated sugar or 3/4 cup powdered sugar 6 tbsp butter, softened 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs Instruction : Cream butter with sugar just until mixed. Add eggs one at a time, then mix in almond meal and vanilla. Cut out 2 round puff pastry sheets by using a lid or plate as mold. Add the stuffing to the center and spread until there's ~1 inch margin. Brush the margin with egg whites to help the sheets stick. Fold the other

Cajun Steak Fajita

Upgrade your boxed-taco Tuesday with this fusion-spiced fajita! Disclaimer: will fail every purity test & may offend traditionalist. This is Tex-Mex with a melting-pot twist. I know Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce may look questionable and cinnamon sounds straight up wtf to some. But together they give the dish that je ne sais quoi , that reminds you a little of the meat in a shepard's pie, a little of a Chinese soy braise, and a little of a Jamaican jerk rub. You can quadruple the spice blend, swapping teaspoon with tablespoon, & store in an 8oz jar. It's good for tacos, shrimps, blacked chicken or salmon, or jarred gifts! Ingredients: Spice blend: 2 tsp cumin 2 tsp chili powder 2 tsp paprika 2 tsp garlic salt 2 tsp onion powder 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp coriander 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 1/4 tsp cinnamon Marinade: 4 tbsp spice blend 4 tbsp oil 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp soy sauce Meat & Veggies: 1.

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