This recipe requires the use of a Fukkura-San, a Tagine-style Donabe (Clay Pot). Donabes are made in the Iga region of Japan where the clay is very special (more here, scroll down) and fabrication methods have been passed down through generations. Finding recipes online for this particular style of clay pot was a bit tricky. The Donabe itself came with a booklet of recipes, but they are all in Japanese! Continue reading
Author: radmeal
The Burr Coffee Grinder Showdown
Our weekend breakfast ritual usually includes a carefully prepared cup of coffee made with freshly ground coffee beans. The first coffee grinder I ever purchased was a pretty cheap $20 USD grinder from Krups (this one), which I used mostly for French press or single-serve pour-over. The Krups was quick and compact but the result was always inconsistent.
Eventually my husband and I switched to a six-cup Chemex. It didn’t take long for us to decide that we wanted to graduate up to a grinder that could produce a more consistently coarse grind. But we weren’t quite ready (nor did we want to shell out the cash) to go all-in on an electric counter top grinder. So in early 2015 we upgraded from the Krups to a hand-crank Hario Skerton Ceramic Coffee Mill (100g), which retails at a reasonable ~$40 USD.
The Hario Skerton was a vast improvement over the Krups. The grinds are much more consistently sized, but man can the thirty minutes of hand-grinding put a damper on an otherwise lazy Sunday morning. It took two years of (un)happily hand-grinding before we decided to upgrade again. Continue reading
Buttermilk Waffles for Two
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking. This recipe makes exactly two pairs of waffles, enough for breakfast for two.
Breakfast Frittata for Two
We have made this breakfast frittata more times than I can count. The base recipe is pretty quick and simple but the prep time depends on the fillings you choose. For example, bacon or sausage filling should be cooked before you start the frittata. Greens could be cooked or not, depending on the greens. Continue reading
Crispy Oven-Fried Jamaican Jerk Party Wings
Like others who enjoy the Sunday NFL ritual, we have been in pursuit of the perfect chicken wing for a while now. We’ve had great results with Kenji Lopez’s recipe for The Ultimate Extra-Crispy Double-Fried Chicken Wings (first confit, then crisp ’em up). But for an alternative to frying, we’ve discovered a recipe that yields wings as crispy as fried without the fuss of a pot of hot oil.
Alton Brown’s recipe for Buffalo Wings are steamed, chilled, then baked to a crisp. We were somewhat skeptical with the process since we’d never had baked wings that were actually crispy, but the steaming of the wings renders the fat & prepares the wings for a good crisping in the oven.
Instead of the traditional Frank’s hot and butter mixture for buffalo wings, we used a mixture of our favorite Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning and butter. These were crispy, spicy, salty, delicious jerk wings. Enjoy!
Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Fried Plantains and Rice ‘n Peas
Make sure to source a jar of the almighty Walkerswood Traditional Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (Hot & Spicy) for this recipe. There is no substitute. This is the best jerk marinade-seasoning out there. Depending on your tolerance for heat, you may need to work up to the hot & spicy. There is a medium heat version if you’re not particularly tolerant.
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Jamaican Goat Curry
There are only a few things that my husband likes more than fried chicken. One of those happens to be spicy curry, and the hotter the better. This recipe is another mash-up we made (see credit notes below). This curry is a delicious, straightforward, and spicy dish. One of the more successful curries I’ve made at home. Continue reading
Coconutty Granola
This granola is great for breakfast, or as a snack between meals. Feel free to add dried fruit to the mix after baking is done and the granola has cooled. Continue reading
Ramen_Lord’s Tonkotsu Ramen with Shoyu Tare
We have a mild obsession with Tonkotsu ramen. A few months back, we made our first ramen broth at home using the David Chang/Momofuku recipe – the one from his book, not online or Lucky Peach, which calls for 5 lbs meaty pork bones and 4 lbs chicken. After a weekend of boiling bones and roasting chicken backs, and cleaning an endless stream of dishes, it was a let-down. It didn’t have anything special going for it; it just sort of tasted like chicken, and the veggies were far too prominent. The tare that went along with it was just sort of fine, but seemed only to exist to mask the inadequacy of the broth, as opposed to enhancing it or adding another dimension to the bowl as a solid tare should do. I’m glad we tried it, but we won’t be making that again. Continue reading
Five Star Carnitas
This recipe is the result of our quest for the ultimate carnitas. It is a mash-up of Smitten Kitchen’s Homesick Texan Carnitas, and Tacolicious’s Carnitas Taco. Where one triumphs for depth of flavor, the other wins for method. So we did what any curious and inventive home cook might do: we combined them! Continue reading
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