The Albatross

Lazy Saturday!! It's a day for lounging around and ignoring chores, smokin' some grass and playing video games.

Also, for tasty breakfasts.

Today I made a simple steamed egg, something very tasty but very easy to make. The steamed egg is delicate, soft, jiggly and very flavorful. Best of all, it can be seasoned anyway you like. I like spicy, sour things, so I put chili crisp and vinegar on it, but you can make it savory or sweet or do whatever. There's no law, only tasty egg!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 part Beaten Egg
• 2 part Water
• The Smallest Pinch of Stock Granules (Dealer's choice)
• Light Soy Sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Green Onion
• Spicy Chili Crisp (Lao Gan Ma)(Optional)

METHOD

1. Combine beaten egg with water with The Smallest Pinch of Stock Granules.
2. Filter mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and use a chopstick to gather and pop any remaining bubbles.
3. Steam egg bowl for 7-8 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine soy sauce and oil and chop green onion. Once egg is steamed, drag a knife through it in any pattern you wish and pour over seasoning mixture, top with onion and lao gan ma and serve!

Notes

• You can season this however you like. Sometimes I add mirin or vinegar, depending if I'm going to make it spicy or not
• You can use any kind of stock granule, but you SERIOUSLY only need the smallest pinch. I use daishi, often, and I use less than a 1/16th of a teaspoon, you really only need a very small amount to flavor this well.

I like to steam up some extra veg with this, usually bok choy or heat up a pre-made steam bun. It's fairly easy to make even while still waking up and yields a wonderful tasty meal. Enjoy!

Hey!! This worked pretty well!!

This is a pretty standard bao recipe with minced mock char siu pork and bbq sauce stuffed inside. I was worried it was gonna be too salty, but it turned out quite nice, deffo gonna make this kinda baozi again. I've included a quick recipe for the bao dough below.

I love how fluffy and soft this dough is and I make it often enough to know it by heart. Give it a shot!! Stuff it with anything!!! I usually do some sort of mushroom and bok choy mix, but, seriously, put anything in here, or even nothing, as I did with the buns in the center of the basket as I ran out of filling.

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INGREDIENTS

• 300 g Bun Flour
• 20 g Tapioca Starch
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/8 tsp. Baking Soda
• 255 g Warm Water (110°F-115°F)
• 15 g Granulated Sugar
• 3 g Dry Active Yeast
• 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

METHOD

1. Combine sugar and water and bloom yeast for 10 minutes or until foamy. While yeast blooms, combine flour, starch, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Once yeast is bloomed, add to dry ingredients and add the vegetable oil and mix to combine. Knead well until dough comes together, adding water or flour as necessary, dough should be soft, but not sticky.
3. Rise in an oiled and sealed container until doubled in size. I recommend using a container twice the size of the original dough so you know the rise is done when the container is filled.
4. Dough is ready to use! I make 14 medium sized buns (two for breakfast for a week) out of this, so I separate them out into 37 gram balls before rolling into 4"ish round disks, fatter in the center before filling with about 2 Tbsp. of filling and closing however you like. You can adjust that as you wish for whatever sized buns you want.

Notes

• This will work with AP Flour, but it works better with Bun Flour. What is bun flour, you ask? I have no idea. My local Chinese grocer had a bag of something called "Wheat Flour (for buns)" so I grabbed it and it works better than AP Flour. The ingredients read "wheat flour". Why it's better is a total mystery. I bet it's protein content, tho. I see some bao recipes recommend cake flour, so maybe lower protein flours are better.

I recently moved and while I love the new place, there are far fewer good Asian restaurants nearby and the local wing options are serviceable, but nothing like the Korean ones I was spoiled with. After a few frustrating semi-sober wing outings I realized if I wanted something done right, I'd have to (try to) do it myself.

I'm not too experienced making deep-fried foods outside of sufganiyot for Hanukkah, but I had oil, a large pan and a probe thermometer, so I figured I might as well practice.

INGREDIENTS

For Wings

• Vegetable Oil (Enough to cover wings plus an inch)
• 1 lbs. Chicken Wings (flats and drums separated)
• ½ tsp. "Umami Dust" (mixture of ground dried mushroom, salt, MSG)
• ¼ tsp. White Pepper
• ¼ tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Minced Garlic
• 1 tsp. Minced Ginger
• ¼ cup Potato Starch

For Sauce

• 1.5 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
• 5 Small Hot Chilis with seeds (slivered)
• 1 tsp. Minced Garlic
• 1 tsp. Minced Ginger
• ⅛ cup Gochujang
• ⅛ cup Honey
• 1 Tbsp. Ketchup (Red Duck)
• ½ Tbsp. Rice Vinegar
• ½ Tbsp. Light Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp. packed Brown Sugar

For Garnish

• Roasted Peanuts
• Toasted Sesame Seeds
• 1 Green Onion (sliced)

METHOD

1. Heat oil to 375°F. Line a baking sheet or plate with paper towels.
2. Pat chicken wings dry and mix with ginger and garlic. Season with "Umami Dust", baking powder and white pepper, mixing until evenly coated. Toss seasoned wings in potato starch, squeezing hard to adhere coating.
3. Carefully adding the wings, fry chicken until lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. Remove and set aside on prepared paper towels. Let rest while you prepare the sauce.
4. Heat a medium saucepan to medium-low heat and add oil. Combine gochujang, vinegar, soy sauce, and ketchup in a small bowl and set aside. Once the oil is hot, add ginger, garlic, and chilis and fry until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add gochujang mixture and cook until bubbling, then adding honey and brown sugar and stir occasionally until slightly thickened and bubbling.
5. Heat fry oil to 400°F and refry chicken until well golden, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from oil, dry with paper towels and transfer to a large bowl to combine with sauce and peanuts, then toss until very well coated.

To Serve: Plate in an attractive, sticky pile and generously top with sesame seeds and sprinkle with green onions. Eat immediately after serving for maximum crunchiness and serve with a cold, crisp beer for maximum enjoyment. Ginger beer is a great accompaniment for teetotalers!

NOTES

• This recipe uses A LOT of oil. Don't waste that! Strain through a cheesecloth and sieve and store for later meat frying usage. Be sure to label it as chicken oil!!
• You can adjust the gochujang and chilis to taste for your own heat level enjoyment. I used some fairly hot chilis, but know that cooking the sauce tends to mild it out a bit.

This is a super tasty recipe and I'm mostly happy with how it turned out, but I'd make a few revisions for next one. One, I totally forgot the fucking peanuts and I had bought them for the sole purpose of having them here. Fuck! Two, I'd probably fry them in peanut oil next time, I think it would be just a tad tastier. Third, the recipe I was trying to mimic from the Korean chicken restaurant had much flakier chicken. Larger, more defined flakes on the coating. I'm not sure how to achieve that, so if any of you have any advice I'm all ears. Lastly, this was fairly spicy, but next time I think I'd add more chilis and make it hotter. I'm a glutton for capsaicin, though.

Tell me what you think about this recipe!!! Did I lay it out well? Are the directions easy to follow and understand? Did you make this and enjoy it? Any and all comments appreciated!