Cream Of Mushroom Soup Rice

Tonight was chicken fried rice. I add extra chicken and ... Tomorrow is teriyaki meatballs on rice with Asian vegetables. https://therecipecritic... chunks 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or onion soup) 1 packet onion soup mix ½ cup beef... hours. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or egg noodles. The meat ...

... nuts Main Big bowl of mushroom soup with caramelised onion and goat's... almond Pat and Stick's ice cream sandwich Seasonal fruit Chocolates Japanese... bento box served with steamed rice, miso soup and Japanese pickles Teriyaki chicken..., Earl Grey, chamomile, oolong Full cream milk, low fat milk, oat ... aioli Buttermilk pancakes with mascarpone cream, strawberries, maple syrup and toasted...

... creamy mushroom sauce. Recipe Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups cooked white rice 1... 1 (10.75-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted 1 teaspoon lemon juice ... shrimp into the rice crust. 4. In the same skillet, combine cream of mushroom soup, lemon juice and... remaining pepper. Stir until smooth and thoroughly heated. 5. Pour soup...

... creamy mushroom sauce. Recipe Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups cooked white rice 1... 1 (10.75-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted 1 teaspoon lemon juice ... shrimp into the rice crust. 4. In the same skillet, combine cream of mushroom soup, lemon juice and... remaining pepper. Stir until smooth and thoroughly heated. 5. Pour soup...

My mother used to make stew meat with one can of cream of celery and one can of golden mushroom soup. It was really good over rice. Otherwise I would have never heard of this soup.

... that could give you the cream fat flavor. The process of ... 99% of the lactose. Soup base....Almond or Rice milk without Carregean. Thicken with... corn starch and gelatin. Add powered mushroom... probably encorporate it into a soup. https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chickpea-whipped-cream-236591 ...

.... Ideally one that doesn't use cream of mushroom soup. Are all casseroles creamy and... write it out myself. No cream, no mushroom, no cheese. I like all... of that. 1 cup dry rice - any variety 1.5 ..., previously frozen peas Mix the rice, broth, can of tomatoes, chorizo, ...

... run through as fast. Ice cream (½ cup) - Fat and lactose... with the same effects. Brown rice (½ cup) - Higher fiber than... white rice. Needs to be well cooked... very tiny pieces in a soup or something, not a lot ...) - Extremely fibrous. Avoid! Large mushroom pieces (½ cup) - Frequently pass ...

... and served as a soup course, or wok-fried with salt...green peppers, with black rice vinegar poured table-side. The century... green peppers. The black rice vinegar condiment is made from... fermented glutinous rice, and sorghum or wheat. ...KB Double-boiled chicken soup, abalone, sea coconut, dried matsutake mushroom - I’d ... mousse cake, mango sago cream, pomelo, passionfruit & mango ice-cream...

..., white fungus, cucumber Soup Soup chicken and oyster mushroom broth, red dates, wolfberry...sauce, broccoli, carrots, celery, steamed rice Western Menu Settling In Warm... ricotta Dessert (choice of) Ice Cream Sundae morello cherry compote, chocolate... sauce, cookie crumble, whipped cream Fruit and Cheese Plate Roth...fruit, water crackers Berries and Cream Cake strawberry gelee Mid-Flight Snack (...

..., carrots, celery, steamed rice Western Menu Mustard Marinated Chicken... white fungus, cucumber Soup Soup chicken and oyster mushroom broth, red dates...broccoli, carrots, celery, steamed rice ------------------------------------------------ Western Menu Settling In...Dessert (choice of) Ice Cream Sundae morello cherry compote, ..., water crackers Berries and Cream Cake strawberry gelee Mid-Flight Snack...

.... Maybe some fried cutlets. Clear soup for the hangover.' He... earliest. In the meantime, dried mushroom stock served well enough. He... the words "fruit" and "whipped cream" in proximity to each other... hand stopped halfway to the rice pot. "Your main body?" "Correct." "... Leon's hand tightened around the rice paddle. He knew that name ...? Leon exhaled and set the rice paddle down. He'd hear what ...

...-[X] SOUP DISH - Flashpoint Cream of Mushroom Soup: A thick, creamy soup made with...with wild herbs and rice and crunchy vegetables hefted over ... that spread across the soup. A pot of wild rice cooks alongside, amber grains fattening... the next dollop. The rice comes up, with only enough ...another helping of fried mushroom and soup, and decide to try dipping the fried mushroom, scooping up a big helping ...

... 1 (10.5 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup 1 (10.5 ounce) can... a paste forms. Add condensed mushroom soup, milk, and drained mushrooms; cook... Add frozen peas or cooked rice to the casserole before baking...

... 1 (10.5 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup 1 (10.5 ounce) can... a paste forms. Add condensed mushroom soup, milk, and drained mushrooms; cook... Add frozen peas or cooked rice to the casserole before baking...

... and steak with garlic fried rice, and it was a good... Bistro was excellent!  I ordered mushroom soup, and the beef tenderloin, and... loved the hand dipped ice cream, as well as the soft... cheddar cheese potato soup, BBQ ribs, brisket, cream of asparagus soup, and hush...

... Egg Noodles In a vegetable-based soup served with shredded chicken, Asian... boiled egg with traditional accompaniments Cream Cheese Omelette Served with grilled... Egg Noodles In a vegetable-based soup served with shredded chicken, Asian... peanuts Nasi Lemak Mushroom Rendang Coconut pandan rice served with mushroom randang, fried... Penne Penne pasta with wild mushroom ragout, served with steamed seasonal...

... of potatoes, a layer of rice, a layer of canned peas... meat, topped with canned tomato soup or cream of mushroom soup, and baked for hours. Bonita's... sausage and topped with tomato soup. Est. reading time: 3 minutes ...

... Breadcrumbs (200g) – £1.69 • VITASIA Rice Vinegar (250ml) – £1.99 (Lidl... (250ml) – £1.99 • VITASIA Miso Soup (200g) – £1.99 • VITASIA Miso... • S&B Japanese Instant Miso Tofu Soup (30g / 3×10g) – £1.99... (200g) – £2.59 • VITASIA Shiitake Mushroom Pouches (280g) – £1.79 • VITASIA... (100g) – £1.79 • VITASIA Ramen Soup (400g) – £1.99 🍘 Snacks...) – £1.99 • VITASIA Japanese Ice Cream Sesame & Honey (473ml) – £2...

..., I dreamed it was snowing rice and Hanayao went into ecstasy... it with spices and thin-sliced mushroom and a little savoury sauce... just a touch of heavy cream. It's a fricasee. Oh, and... Shchi, which is a cabbage soup with onions, carrots, and potatoes.... "There's no garlic in sour cream, right?" "I don't think so... had caviar, onions, and sour cream. Beef Stroganoff is a noodle...

...” busting mound of sausage, beans, rice, eggs, and corn flatbread.   Empanadas... helado de paila, an ice cream that is whipped in a... another bowl of chicken noodle soup even though it was not... menu.  Mains were one vegetarian mushroom raviolis and one surf and...

... or Guacamole roll and / or Mushroom soup Please choose from our selection... basil sauce Sautéed vegetables, fried rice or Fillet of red snapper... Brownie Chocolate sauce Chocolate ice cream Selection of cheese Fresh fruit...

... chicken in a red sauce, rice, coleslaw, macaroni pie, conch fritters... sauteed mushroom appetizer and loved it (she loves mushrooms). The potato soup... they serve under the ice cream scoop.) Spidey coming out at...

FaureverTrashy said: Nah, she’d inject those kids with cream of mushroom soup if that was required for them to attend school and get them the duck away from her for 7-8 hours a day (on the days they’re actually with her). She has no mental capacity to form any opinions of her own. It’s just memes. Her whole life is just memes. Cream of mushroom soup with rice reminds me of childhood lol

So this is all I am eating this week. EDIT: You can find the conclusion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyfoodporn/comments/1tc8a1h/tinned_food_for_a_week_the_review/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button submitted by /u/DaVirus to r/shittyfoodporn [link] [comments]

edit I really do appreciate all the advice for end of life care but I think what I'm asking for is getting misconstrued into something else. we're not trying to force food that she doesn't like down her or forcing her to eat what she doesn't want. there really isn't much to offer based on what she likes because she wants a proper dinner, a main dish and sides but if you ask her what she wants as a main food she has 0 idea. my mom and I have to take care of my grandparents, her parents, and we are struggling to feed my granny. Here are a few things we're dealing with: 1.) If the food gets stuck in her teeth she won't eat 2.) "not a soup person" 3.) recently decided she doesn't like sour food anymore 4.) is tired of chicken, will eat sides but no meat 5.) has macular degeneration and glacoma so she gets discouraged from eating if it's light in color 6.) doesn't like cheese quick list of foods she doesn't like for examples: chicken breast, sour cream, bacon, ground beef, any type of soup, mushrooms, fish, no longer likes salt added to food, squash/gourds quick list of foods she does like: gravy, claims to like beef but can't/won't eat it, sweet potato, green beans, when she was feeling sick she ate chicken noodle soup her only real dietary restriction is that she's diabetic. any thoughts or ideas on what or how to prepare food for her? she only eats once a day because she doesn't usually want to get out of bed so we kinda have to make the most out of dinner. *edit, she also doesn't like eggs and won't eat rice even though she used to like fried rice *edit 2, she has glacoma, macular degeneration, and diabetes, she's 88, and she has a tbi that effects her short term memory. but she doesn't have dementia, she's been tested before and after the brain injury. she's not sundowning or actively dying. I do appreciate the concern though. thank you everyone for the recommendations, I'm going to look into everything and cross reference with what we know for sure she won't eat submitted by /u/Raine-or-Shine to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

First try at making cream of mushroom soup, definitely need a better blender. Beef livers n rice boiled in beef stock as the main. Roast me pls. submitted by /u/MycoWarrior420 to r/shittyfoodporn [link] [comments]

Last May I was disabled and not likely to walk again, I got past that and have been walking with a cane - today was my first day cane free!! submitted by /u/dingdongiamwrong to r/GirlDinner [link] [comments]

After a year of research, debate, and help from many of you in your home regions, I’ve finished a national map of 78 U.S. food regions. Each area is based on distinct culinary traditions shaped by geography, culture, and history, from Gullah and Tex-Mex to Monroe BBQ and Crucian cuisine. I’d love your feedback: Did I miss something obvious? Should a region be renamed, removed, or split further? A version of this map’s headed to print next year as part of a national cultural atlas, so this is the last round of tuning before it gets locked in. Methodology note: This map is interpretive rather than purely statistical. Regions were defined using a mix of historical settlement patterns, agricultural zones, immigration history, regional dishes, and feedback from locals across multiple revisions. This is the 5th major revision, and I’m posting here specifically to invite critique before it goes to print as part of a larger cultural atlas. Edit- just tried to reupload this in higher resolution. I went as high res as Reddit would let me. Sorry if it's still blurry or unreadable. DM me or look at links in my profile and I'll point you to a higher-res version submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/dataisbeautiful [link] [comments]

After a year of research, debate, and help from many of you in your home regions, I’ve finished a national map of 78 U.S. food regions. Each area is based on distinct culinary traditions shaped by geography, culture, and history, from Gullah and Tex-Mex to Monroe BBQ and Crucian cuisine. I’d love your feedback: Did I miss something obvious? Should a region be renamed, removed, or split further? A version of this map’s headed to print next year as part of a national cultural atlas, so this is the last round of tuning before it gets locked in. Edit- just tried to reupload this in higher resolution. I went as high as Reddit would allow. Sorry if it's still fuzzy. DM me or look at links in my profile and I'll point you to a higher-res version submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

I grew up on Campbell’s soups but they don’t taste the same and I just don’t like them. However, I’m making no-peek chicken today and the recipe calls for a can of cream of mushroom and a can of cream of chicken. Looking for advice on how to get that homey, chicken-and-rice Midwestern-comfort-food flavor without the can? submitted by /u/Western_Taiwan to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/GumbyWeinstein to r/vintageads [link] [comments]

I've been eating gluten free for ages. I cook wonderful, yummy things. But Thanksgiving is coming and damnit!! I miss the original green bean casserole made with the common man's Campbell's soup. Everyone has lovely gf recipes that make elevated casserole fit for the foodies. And they're delicious! I just need to taste the nostalgia. So I humbly come to you brilliant folk. How can I make a version of cream of mushroom soup that contains no gluten and no yeast (my partner's fun allergy)? I have a theory that involves reducing chicken + mushroom broth to a thick goo, using evaporated milk for the rest of the liquid, and glutenous rice flour for the thickenener. Has anyone already cracked this code? I figured I'd ask here before reinventing the wheel. submitted by /u/LadyofCorvidsPerch to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

Someone posted something similar and I was inspired. My version 1.8 lbs Italian sausage ~2 lbs Bella, oyster, and chanterelle mushrooms Large white Onion chopped 4 stalks Celery chopped 6 Carrots chopped Head of garlic 64oz Beef broth Salt and pepper 1 t red pepper flakes 4 T Italian seasoning 1 T Thyme 1 T Worcestershire 1 whole Lemon juice 1 c wild rice plus another cup of left over wild rice 2 c half and half 1c heavy cream 1 or 2 Manhattans (for the cook and assistant) Yall know how to cook. Do the things… submitted by /u/StarObvious to r/soup [link] [comments]

Version 5.3 of the project, I made it less text heavy (a lot of people wanted a cleaner more visually appealing version for prints/puzzles), added 9 new regions, and included the U.S. territories due to popular demand. Uploaded in highest quality possible at >300DPI with zoomins, so hopefully it's high enough quality for your viewing pleasure (if not, leave a comment or DM me for a link to downloads). submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

I grew up in the 60's and both my parents were children of the depression from Kansas. Mom was from a small town called Solomon. Mom used to make various things like homemade bread (no recipe here sorry) and swore that all her children would learn to butcher chickens. Now the stage is set, so to speak. (I don't have the recipe cards, so this is mostly from memory): Poached eggs in tomato soup - pretty much the recipe is in the title, you'd open a can of Campbell's tomato soup and pour into a frying pan, heat it until it was simmering and then crack as many eggs as needed into it. Poach to the desired hardness. Sometimes we'd add a bit of garlic or other spices. (A variant would o do the same thing but with hot dogs. Rice with Cornish Game Hen. Cook several servings of rice, mix with a can of Mushroom soup, put rice mixture in an appropriate sized corning ware dish, lay out the Cornish hens on top of the rice, season the hens with salt and pepper, bake in oven at 350 until done (about 60 minutes?) Hot milk: This is what brought this post on as I'm finishing drinking a mug right now. Heat enough whole milk (ours came from our cow and we skimmed the cream off of it in the morning for several days) to about 170 to 212 degrees. Pour into mug add bread chunks to taste, a couple of tablespoons of butter and sprinkle Season salt over it -Enjoy! Tomatoes and saltines. This traumatized me when my uncle did it at a family dinner at his place. Take a bowl of canned tomatoes (probably my aunt canned them) or bowl of fresh sliced tomatoes. Crush several saltine crackers over the tomatoes. Sprinkle several table spoons of sugar over it and mix. I had never heard of tomatoes and sugar, just like it was later in life that I ran into people that salted their watermelon. There was one last thing that mom used to make, a canned mackerel casserole. It consisted of a can of mackerel, bread chunks, chopped celery and not much else, you mix the previous ingredients and spread into a 9x9 corning wear pan and bake until the top turned golden brown. (Not a favorite of mine) Ok this was a bit of a walk down memory lane, thanks for listening and feel free to share any childhood recipes especially if they are like to come from the early 1900's... EDIT: Holy Kitchen Implements, Chef Batman! I just posted this a few hours ago only to wake up and find numerous replies. Normally, I'd try to respond to everyone or at least the top level comments, but that's not going to happen. Thanks all for the responses!!! I'm working my way through reading all of them and so far have really enjoyed them. submitted by /u/ChangedAccounts to r/Old_Recipes [link] [comments]

Thanks for all the love on this 🙏 Reddit compresses the map—if you want full-res zoom-ins (and prints), they’re on my IG. My bio there has the link to the shop. IG: americanfoodatlas submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

We eat it with rice. Not the prettiest thing but it tastes good to me! submitted by /u/GlassUsual9748 to r/badfoodporn [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Quibilash to r/GenshinImpact [link] [comments]

I am a fan of thicker soups as I find them more filling. I made a recipe for wild rice and mushroom soup but I used heavy cream and chicken stock at the time. I know I can substitute chicken stock for vegetable stock but what about the heavy cream? Would coconut milk be a bad substitute if I used some coconut cream too or should I just use all vegetable stock? submitted by /u/thedafthatter to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

When I was a little girl growing up in the Sonoran desert— RECORD SCRATCH God I hate corny recipe backstories. Here's the best smoky chili ever AND it's actually quick and easy, despite the long ingredient list (scroll to the end of the instructions to see all the "secret ingredients¹" I didn't use): CHILI ULTIMO CINCO ESTRELLAS Ingredients: 5 strips uncooked bacon chopped 1 large yellow onion diced (about 1 cup) 4 jalapeno peppers, diced (deseed if you prefer less spicy) 3 cloves garlic minced (about 1 Tablespoon) 1 lb ground beef (455g) ½ cup tortilla chips, food processed to a powder (1 big handful) Dry spice mix: 1 Tablespoon brown sugar 1 Tablespoon chili powder 1 Tablespoon ancho chili powder 1 ½ teaspoons smoked hot paprika 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon mexican oregano 1 teaspoon cocoa powder ¾ teaspoons ground black pepper ¼ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon MSG ¼ teaspoon curry powder ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper Liquid mix: 1 cup beef broth (236ml) ¼ cup ham bone broth² (59ml) 1 cup espresso or strong black coffee (236ml) ½ teaspoon fish sauce 1 tablespoon peanut butter (creamy, not chunky) 1 dried chipotle plus 1 dried ancho pepper, chopped fine ¼ cup tomato paste (66g) 1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar Cans: 15 oz can dark red kidney beans, undrained (425g) 15 oz can black beans, undrained (425g) 14.5 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes, undrained (411g) 7 oz can chili peppers in adobo sauce, undrained (198g) 4 oz can fire roasted green chilis, undrained (113g) Additional Ingredients: 1 cup roast leftover roast (beef or pork), cubed (optional) Preferred toppings, particularly mexican crema (or sour cream), shredded queso fresco (or cheddar) cheese, avocado, and corn chips Instructions: Chop onions and jalapenos, combine, and set aside. Chop garlic and set aside. Prepare dry spice mix detailed above, mix together thoroughly, and set aside. Crumble/process tortilla chips and set aside. Open all the cans and set aside. Prepare liquid mix detailed above (including chopping dry peppers to add to liquid mix) and set aside. Place chopped (uncooked) bacon in a large pot or Dutch oven and cook over medium heat until crisp and cooked through. Remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate and drain half the grease. Add onion and jalapenos, stir quickly, and undercook them (thanks Kevin) for just one minute. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add beef, breaking apart with a spatula as you cook. Once meat is partially (about 50%) browned, add ground chips and prepared dry spice mix and stir well, cook for about two more minutes. Add all remaining ingredients — liquid mix with dried peppers, all cans, and your cooked bacon (and optional cubed roast), and stir well. Bring to a boil and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, allow the flavors to really get to know each other in the pot. Use the side of your metal stirring spoon to cut any oversize chipotles from the can into smaller bits as you stir. For best results, let cool and refrigerate overnight. Warm back up the next day and serve. Serve with preferred toppings (mexican crema (or sour cream), shredded queso fresco (or cheddar) cheese, avocado, and corn chips are a must!) ¹ If you think I have too many ingredients in this recipe, here are other "secret ingredients" that I decided against: Guinness beer, miso, celery (wtf), black garlic, cloves, coriander, carrots, onion soup mix, mole, turmeric, soy sauce, red wine, whisky, frank's red hot, marmite, berbere, molasses, cilantro, green olives, olive juice, hominy, italian sausage, cheddarwurst, gochujang, mushroom powder, pureed pumpkin, star anise, dried mint leaves ² Ham bone broth: I do this every Thanksgiving, or every time I buy a ham. It's just a ham bone, plus all the fat trimmings from that ham, thrown into an instant pot and not quite covered with water, and pressure cooked for 2 hours. Basically turns into a jelly-like consistency when done cooking and cooled, I store it in a big pickle jar in my fridge. Keeps for months, through the whole cold season. It's a wonderful addition to any soup or stew (red beans and rice, split pea soup, ramen, lentils, stroganoff, this chili, casseroles, pretty much anything savory). If you don't have this available, maybe don't drain the bacon fat, and maybe add a little more beef broth and a tiny bit of lard or butter. Someone also mentioned Better Than Boullion Ham Broth - that's probably a winner, I love all the BTB products I've tried. submitted by /u/man_teats to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/HypnosisG to r/coolguides [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/ProgramTricky6109 to r/minnesota [link] [comments]

Lentil soup is a dish you can find in most countries around the world, you can get it from Scotland, to China, to Srilanka, but few places give it such high regard as the Middle East. In the Middle East it's extremely popular, and you can get it at restaurants and even takeaways all over the region. The history of the lentil in the region goes back quite literally to the dawn of civilization and I like to think we have mastered the making of lentil soups. To this day it's eaten regularly in households all over the region and I think you should cook it this winter. If you grew up disliking lentils like myself, you may find yourself converted by this recipe. As usual I have a full video recipe which you can follow and I've linked to all my past r/cooking posts in the comments. What is Middle Eastern Lentil soup Middle Eastern lentil soup is made by boiling split red (or yellow) lentils until softened and tender. They're usually cooked with a combination of different vegetables or meat and are spiced accordingly to the taste of each country. The dish is widely eaten throughout the Middle East and is commonly served during the Month of Ramadan, when many people like to break their fast with a bowl of warm soup, it has the benefit of being simple to cook and very filling which make it a perfect Ramadan meal. Lentil soup is also a favorite amongst Middle Eastern Christian communities many of whom fast and adhere to a vegan diet for many days throughout the year including the Coptic Christians of Egypt who fast a whopping 180-210 days. The dish itself heavily varies from country to country and even house to house, and is usually made with whatever vegetables are on hand. I find that the use of onions, carrots and tomatoes give it a delicious and well rounded flavor, though it's possible to also add celery or courgettes (zuchinni). In this recipe the soup is blended once cooked into a smooth and creamy texture, with the lentils helping to emulsify the soup until it resembles the texture of a cream based soup. In some countries the soup is not blended, and it can have eggs, beans or even pieces of meat added to it. The moroccan dish Harrira, takes the soup further, with the addition of chickpeas, meat, celery and spring onions as well as more spices that give it a beautiful brick red color and smokier flavor. Most Lentil soups have fried vermicelli added to them which gives a slight texture contrast just like in chicken noodle soup. In the levant it's also common to add fried bread croutons (like those used in a fattoush salad) to the soup to give it a nice layer of crunch. I'd recommend first making this recipe with the same ingredients and spices, then put your own twist on it. I think the addition of chipotle peppers and adobo would give it an amazing smokey flavor, or the addition of some fresh herbs and lemon would give it a nice sourness. History Lentils have been eaten in the Middle East for millenia and are thought to be one of the first foods cultivated by humans, indeed they're considered the oldest domesticated pulse crop. Architectural digs have found evidence of lentil consumption along the Euphrates river going back to 8000BC and they've been mentioned in the holy books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Ancient Egyptians even left offerings of lentils in tombs to feed the mumified on their journey to the afterlife. The first mention of lentil stew as a dish exists in the book of Genesis 25:34 "Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way.". Given their historical significance and popularity, it's no surprise that they continued to be popular into the modern day. In "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens" a 10th century cookbook from Baghdad, a chapter called "Making Dishes of Yellow Lentils" describes a recipe that closely resembles this one, it says: "Wash and pick over hulled lentil and cook it until it falls apart and becomes mushy. Cook with it round onion, olive oil, and salt. Add some vinegar. You have the option of adding to it sugar and saffron. Alternatively, if you do not like to use saffron or onion, put bruised garlic cloves and a dusting of cumin in the pot after adding the vinegar". After the introduction of the Tomato to the Middle East, it has kind of become a necessary ingredient in lentil soup which really elevates the flavor of the dish. The introduction of blenders and food processors also eased the process of milling the cooked lentils into a smooth soup, which prior to that was mashed by hand. Flavor Profile The dish is definitely a wintery tasting dish and despite not containing the usual winter spices, the earthiness of the lentils really make it feel so. The main flavor here comes from the lentils, which give the soup an earthy and nutty flavor. The red lentils in particular don't overpower the flavors of the other components and like a mushroom I find they empower the other flavors in the dish. The garlic is also quite noticeable and it gives a nice pleasant garlicky flavour to the soup. Using both crushed and fried garlic gives you a strong depth of flavor. You also get a little bit of heat from both the cumin and chili powder which takes on a background flavor in the soup, and are tolerable even to someone who doesn't like spice. One of the main flavors here actually comes from the addition of vinegar which elevates the flavors of the whole dish, it adds just the right amount of tang and sourness to brighten the dish and rebalance the earthiness of the lentils and vegetables. The vegetables are blended into the lentils and although you can't distinctly taste each of them, they contribute sweetness and a fresh flavor to the soup, particularly the carrots add a bright flavor. Ingredients Makes 4-6 large servings 1.25L (1.25 qt) Vegetable stock, you can also use chicken, meat or even water. If you are using stock cubes rather than fresh stock, then please use high quality ones. 250g (1/2 lb) Split Red Lentils 150g (5 1/4 oz) Carrots (about 1 large or 2 medium) 1 Brown Onion 1 Tomato 4-6 Garlic Cloves 1/2 Cup Short Wheat Vermicelli 3 Tbsp White Vinegar 1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil 1 1/2 Tsp Salt 1 1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin 1/2 Tsp Ground Black Pepper 1/4 Tsp Chili powder (cayenne or whatever you have on hand) Directions Peel and slice your carrots into large chunks about 1 cm or 1/2 an inch thick Peel your onion, remove the root and top and slice into quarters Wash your tomato and slice into quarters, we'll remove the skin later Peel your garlic cloves, mince 2 of them and set aside, the rest should be lightly crushed Add your chopped vegetables, the lentils and garlic (the crushed ones not minced) to a large stock pot Add your stock or water to the pot as well as 1 teaspoon of cumin, turn the heat up to high and bring the pot to a boil When the pot boils, retrieve the tomato quarters and remove their skin, then add them back to the pot Turn the heat down to low and allow the soup to simmer for 45 minutes. When done simmering, the carrots should be cooked through and the lentils should be swollen and mushy Using an immersion (stick) blender, blend the soup and all the vegetables pieces into a uniformly smooth mixture. Once blended it will have a creamy texture that resembles wall paint, remove the soup from the heat and set aside (check the notes for regular blender warning) In a small pot add 1/2 a tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat and add the 2 minced garlic cloves to it Fry for about 30 seconds then add the remaining cumin Fry for another 15 seconds then add the vinegar Mix and fry for 15 more seconds and add pour the mixture into the lentil soup Add salt, pepper and Chili powder (optional) then mix the soup well. Taste your soup and check for seasoning, you may need to add another 1/2 tsp of salt if your stock is low in sodium, or add more Chili powder if you'd like it spicier In a pot add the remaining olive oil and the vermicelli and fry on medium high heat until it turns a golden color. Stir constantly as it can burn easily Add the fried vermicelli to the soup as well as 1 cup of water to thin the soup out. Bring the pot to a boil once more and allow the vermicelli to cook for 10 minutes When the time is up, your soup is ready. The vermicelli will have absorbed some water from the soup, so add more water to thin it out until it's thinner than the paint like texture from before. It should be able to coat the back of a spoon without running, similar to the consistency of cooking cream. Garnish with coriander, thin slices of Chili and nigella seeds Notes and tips You must use split red lentils for this, brown or green ones have a lot stronger taste and I think the dish won't taste right with them You can serve this over rice and it will be a close approximation to Yellow Lentil Koshari or Kichidi If you have a spice grinder, then toast whole cumin seeds and use them instead for an even more powerful flavor A standard blender can be used in place of an immersion blender, however you need to be sure to either remove the steam vent from the lid, or leave the lid slightly ajar, as it can explode when you blend hot soups The method for making the fried bread croutons is in my fattoush post submitted by /u/ObiEff to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

So there’s an offchance you might recognize my username: I’m the dude that’s posted weekly Chinese recipes here for the last… couple years or so. Together with my fiancé (who’s from Guangdong), we live in Shunde, China – a small city a bit south of Guangzhou on the Macau side of the delta. I’m sure you’ve been inundated with news about the most recent coronavirus outbreak over on this side of the world – I certainly don’t want to pile on and make you any more anxious than you need to be. That’s not my goal: social media does a good enough job with that as is. It’s just that… I feel like this time’s given me some personal insights on food and cooking that I haven’t really had the chance to internalize in the past. Maybe everything I’m about to write is all obvious to you, I don’t know. But I figured I’d share regardless. The situation we’ve found ourselves in See, for the past two weeks or so, the city we live has more or less… shut down. People don’t go outside unless they have to – we take our dog for walks up on the roof of our apartment complex, make quick runs to 7/11 for supplies every two days or so (because I mean… alcohol is pretty much mandatory in a time like this), and… that’s pretty much it. Restaurants are for the most part all closed down. The city is essentially on the economic equivalent of life support – the only things that’re open are convenience stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies. There’s checkpoints and roadblocks entering and leaving the city. Hell, every time we leave or enter our apartment complex we’re checked for symptoms by the doorman. The only people that dare to go outside without a medical mask are those unlucky sods that didn’t get the chance to buy any before supplies ran out. Now I don’t mean to paint too apocalyptic of a picture here. We live in Shunde, not Wuhan (which’s tragically borne the brunt of all this). A lot of these measures are precautionary, and… you sort of get used to it all. It sucks, no doubt. But it says a lot about human psychology just how quickly a new normal can become… normal. Feeding yourself is an interesting challenge, however. Completely by happy accident, out of any of our friends or family we’re probably the most prepared for this kind of situation. We do a YouTube cooking thing, after all. We test a lot of recipes. Our cabinets, fridges, freezers are stocked with leftovers, sauces, nuts, dried seafood and mushrooms, frozen meats, pickles, tubers, grains… shit, we could probably live for a month off our food stock alone and not starve. And while we’re far from chefs, I do like to think we know a thing or two about cooking… so at least a portion of that month might actually be rather tasty. What I just wasn’t mentally prepared for, however, was the shortage of fresh vegetables. Veggies were pretty much the first thing to go after medical masks. If you’re anything like me, the thought of that makes you feel… claustrophobic. No fresh vegetables for potentially weeks on end. The walls start closing in… Luckily of course, we don’t live in the epicenter of all this. Where we live at least, you can get fresh vegetables. It’s just not super easy. Supermarkets get one shipment in a day and you pretty much have to order online ~30 minutes from that time before they sell out. You pretty much don’t have a choice in what you get – when you’re in that window you’ll take what you can get. Chilis, carrots, and broccoli are usually available. Anything else is a crapshoot. But it’s fine. Buy what you can. Pickiness is luxury. What this does to your mindset I think everyone that’s a devoted homecook is pretty experienced with cleaning out their fridge before stuff goes bad. We’ve all had those fuck it, let’s feed myself stews, sandwiches, and stir-fries. Some of them might’ve actually been pretty good! To me at least, that’s the ultimate test of the skill of a cook. A novice sees a sparsely populated refrigerator and thinks, “delivery”. An experienced cook can look at that same refrigerator and can see… possibility. There’s three ways that make our current situation unique to that… ever so common experience: We have time. Lots of it. Too much, really. The epidemic has been a mandatory extended vacation for the majority of the country. We don’t have much choice in ingredients. While similar to the normal exercise, we have this weird overabundance of some ingredients together with a shortage of others. Way too much carrot… The supplies must last. What’s really the crux of the what’s made this situation such a unique feeling to me. Nothing is wasted. Every square millimeter of that broccoli’s used. I’m careful with how much aromatics I use. Because like, while it’s quite likely we’d be able to get garlic in the next time we squeeze in a food order, you never know. All of these factors force you to be creative – day in and day out. You approach each meal differently. You don’t enter the kitchen with the mindset of “what do I feel like eating?” You enter it asking the question, “what’s the best thing I can possibly make with the resources I have?” Cooking with this kind of scarcity mindset’s been… eye-opening. An entirely different perspective. There’s a lot of rambling online about “creative constraint” – how limitations force you to be creative. Much of it has the tone of pseudo-scientific self-help bullshit (and given the replication crisis in psychology, who knows if there’s a solid scientific foundation for the idea), but after these couple weeks… I think it’s true. I mean… some of the best art happens with limitations – poetry in meter, painting on a canvas. Some other random shit I’ve internalized: I have a newfound appreciation for cuisines from colder climates. In this kind of environment, you get a lot more inspiration from, say, Northwestern Chinese food than (central) Thai food. Pickled vegetables seem to scratch the same itch fresh vegetables do. On that note, modern Korean kimchi might be the greatest invention of the 19th century. The steam engine doesn’t have anything on kimchi. Flour is amazing. You can do anything with flour. Life would fucking suck without fermented sauces. We would be eating so, so much worse without soy sauce and fish sauce. I’ll go over some of the stuff we’ve whipped up in the lockdown below, but first… there’s something that I’ve been mulling over for a while. I have zero clue if any of this’ll make sense, I’m kind of working through this shit myself. Hopefully my ramblings aren’t too boring… Why I think modern cuisine kinda sucks: There’s something that’s bothered me for a while. Stay with me here. Think of almost any dish that you can name. Anywhere in the world. Chinese food, French food, whatever. There’s probably 95% chance that that dish – or at least what you would recognize as that dish was first invented during the time period of 1750 – 1950. A few examples: Mapo Tofu, 1874. Modern (not fermented) sushi, 1750. Neopolitan Pizza, 1889. Pho, mid 1880s. Gumbo, 1802. Modern Paella, 1840. Beef Bourguignon, mid 1800s. Risotto, 1809. Eggs Benedict, 1894. Char Siu Bao, 1924. For any of these, you could obviously quibble about the exact dates. E.g. slaves in Louisiana were eating a gumbo-esque Okra stew that was labelled ‘gumbo’ since the early to mid 1700s, 1802 was simply the first recorded instance of the dish. You could do this exercise the list over, of course – hell, fermented narezushi can be traced all the way back to 2nd century AD China. But as you stand back, a mosaic begins to emerge. First thing you notice? Much of what we consider ‘cuisine’ is… surprisingly modern. Like, I know with Chinese food there’s almost an assumption that most of the food has thousands of years of history or something… nope! While it’s definitely cool that there’s a few dishes that you can trace back to the Song dynasty or even earlier… like it is the world over, most of the innovation (on the level of individual dishes, at least) seemed to happen post 1750. Second thing you notice? Most of the innovation stops around the time of world war two. Post war? The landscape of newly invented foods seems… pretty barren. The question of why has… knawed on me ever since I saw those puzzle pieces. Maybe it’s a mirage. Maybe if you were standing in 1870 England and you fired up your Victorian steampunk Babbage-engine equivalent of Wikipedia, you’d find all the dishes you loved seem to have been invented in the years of 1600-1800? Who knows. Food history is murky as all hell. After all, throughout the course of human civilization, people tend to write about Kings and Revolutionaries and Conquerors… not the cooks that fed them. But I think we at least need to entertain the notion that maybe there was some sort of special sauce that led to that Cambrian explosion of dishes in those two centuries. I’m still not sure if I have an answer – in fact, I’m pretty sure that I don’t. Some possible reasons for the upsurge of recorded dishes mid 18th century: The Columbian exchange/the entire colonial project introduced novel ingredients from around the world and touched almost every society. Obviously this process started in the 16th century, but it was a couple centuries yet before it people started eating tomatoes in Italy and chilis in Sichuan. The development of the restaurant. Restaurants became common in China in the Song dynasty (I believe, don’t hold me to that) and in the West in the 19th century. This seems to coincide with a greater diversity in recorded dishes in both those places. The printing press could be another possibility. The dates aren’t quite as neat though, as the first printed cookbook was in 1485. But cookbooks began gaining popularity in the mid 17th century, so maybe. Or perhaps any number of those reasons. Or perhaps a combination. I don’t know, I’m far from a historian. As to some possible culprits of the decline of cooking: The electric refrigerator became commonplace in 1940s, potentially killing the creativity-inducing ‘scarcity mindset’ Women in the workplace became much more common post war. Obviously a very good and beneficial development from a societal perspective, but perhaps the loss of half of society devoted to the job of cooking may have harmed cuisine? Mass production of full meals – in the form of TV dinners and began in earnest in the post-war period. Again, I’m not sure the answer. If you pressed me before this whole coronavirus lockdown episode, I’d probably have told you that modernism and mass production is to blame. Now… I’m not so sure. I think time has something to do with it, potentially. I can’t seem to find any good data on the topic for the pre-war period, but in 1965 women in America spent – on average – two hours a day cooking. Now women spend an average of 51 minutes (men, 22 minutes… c’mon guys…). Despite what the “QUICK AND EASY!!!!!!” bloggers of the world tell you, you can prepare much better food in the time of two hours than you can in 22 minutes. Mix that with a dash of scarcity induced creative limitation? The entire society over? That seems like a recipe for some good food. Why modern ‘fusion’ is boring: Which brings us to the other great culinary mystery our time: why does fusion suck so hard? Because I mean, if you look at cuisines around the world… the cultures at the intersection of great migrations or trade routes seem to have some pretty damn interesting food. Situated in the middle of the silk road, Uighur cuisine is an awesome mix between Northwestern Han Chinese and other central Asian foods. Sichuanese food, meanwhile, was the product of one of the most massive internal migrations of human history, when the province was repopulated by people from Hunan and Shandong after a devasting war (the Qing government kinda killed… everyone). The food in the Malacca straights, with the mix of Southeast Asian, Indian and Chinese flavors is aggressively awesome. Istanbul – at the crossroads of Occident and Orient - is one of the world’s great food cities. So why, despite all of our best efforts in the past forty years, have our culinary mashups seemed to go basically nowhere? Like, seriously. With a touch of digging, you can have an entire globe’s worth of ingredients available to you. With the smallest amount of gumption, you can have authentic recipes and techniques the world over demonstratedto you in video form. When it was just out-of-touch white American chefs mindlessly smushing together high end French and Japanese food in the 80s, you could kind of get why “fusion” sucked: it was pretty much the dictionary definition of pretention. But now… now we have all these resources… now we have so much more diversity in chefs… and the best the great culinary minds of our generation can come up with is… fucking Kung Pao Pastrami? Seriously? It circles back to the importance of limitations, I think. Limitations help break you out of functional fixedness - i.e. limiting yourself to using an object only in the way it’s traditionally used. The most famous example of this is the “candle box problem” in psychology: Participants were shown a picture containing several products on a table: a candle, a pack of matches, and a box of tacks, all of which were next to a wall. Participants’ task was to figure out how to attach the candle to the wall by using only the objects on the table, so that the candle burns properly and does not drip wax on the table or the floor. This is the answer, if you’re curious. Now again, I don’t like using psychology studies to prove a point because (a) I am not a psychologist and (b) there’s a rich history of other not-psychologist-people twisting studies and taking them out of context in order to peddle BS. But with that preface out of the way, I still think the concept of functional fixedness can at least help us give some sort of framework as to why fusion – still – sucks. Let’s take a look at this Wagyu Beef Bao Bun from Wolfgang Puck. I’m sure it tastes fine, I’m not going to argue otherwise. But what I will argue is that that dish is goddam boring, and probably not worth the premium. Why? The “Bao Bun” there (god, I hate that translation) is simply conceptualized as sandwich bread. It’s not interesting, it’s just… a more instagrammable potato roll. So many of these trendy ‘Bao’ creations throughout the OECD are just hipsters putting Asian shit on steamed buns and the media patting them on the back for their ingenuity. But there’s nothing ingenious there. It’s… a sandwich. A decade later, food trends’ll move onto something else, and we’ll forget the Bao craze even happened. Because at their core, most of these dishes are… forgettable. I don’t mean to be too much of a critic. The food industry is hard… I don’t blame any chef for doing what they have to to make a decent living (it’s really food media that can be cringy). But I think we can do better. One way out of functional fixedness is the “generic parts technique”. If you don’t mind a quick copy/paste: For each object, you need to decouple its function from its form. McCaffrey shows a highly effective technique for doing so. As you break an object into its parts, ask yourself two questions. "Can I subdivide the current part further?" If yes, do so. "Does my current description imply a use?" If yes, create a more generic description involving its shape and material. For example, initially I divide a candle into its parts: wick and wax. The word "wick" implies a use: burning to emit light. So, describe it more generically as a string. Since "string" implies a use, I describe it more generically: interwoven fibrous strands. This brings to mind that I could use the wick to make a wig for my hamster. Since "interwoven fibrous strands" does not imply a use, I can stop working on wick and start working on wax. People trained in this technique solved 67% more problems that suffered from functional fixedness than a control group. This technique systematically strips away all the layers of associated uses from an object and its parts.” This is why so much innovation in food happened around the Columbian exchange, I feel. People were introduced to novel new ingredients, not novel new foods. So you get interesting shit like people in Guizhou fermenting tomatoes into a paste and using it as a base for sour soup catfish hotpot, or people in France pounding potatoes until sticky and mixing it with cheese. So I think one good way to make more… organic fusion is to simply grab an ingredient from another culture and just keep it in your fridge. Bonus points if you have no fucking clue how it’s actually used. In time, you’ll find what to do with it. Like, with the burgeoning popularity of Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, I heard some people online talk about how they liked it together with a bagel and cream cheese. I thought that sounded weird as hell, so obviously I had to try it. And you know what? Pretty good. Weirdly works well together - vastly more interesting than anything I’ve seen out of these ‘fusion-y’ restaurants. Because anyone can mix together some fish and shit and call it ‘poke’. Lao Gan Ma with cream cheese? That’s the kind of vision that only the most desperately inebriated could possibly concoct… A list of stuff that we’ve cooked during this lockdown: Now, I think I probably over emphasized my points in these last two rambly… sections. I’m obviously no visionary chef. I hold precisely zero illusions otherwise. I’m going to list out the stuff we’ve whipped up in the past two weeks, and you’ll probably say to yourself “uh, dude… really, that’s it? The David Changs of the world make way more interesting stuff than that”. And… I’d 100% agree. Not claiming otherwise. What I would say though is that I do think some of these concoctions have been surprisingly good. And this? This is from just two weeks of staying inside. Could you imagine an entire society of people with a lifetime of experience with the same sort of mindset? Think of all the stuff they’d invent! No wonder traditional food is so damn interesting the world over… In any event, in rough order of how much I liked them: Guizhou-style Laoguo sizzling pan stir-fry, with Oaxaca cheese, Lao Gan Ma, and flour tortillas. So in Guizhou there’s a style of eating called Shuicheng Laoguo - looks like this, basically you toss a stir-fry on a sizzling pan and slowly munch on it (though some varieties’ll also toss raw stuff on the pan to let it cook/toast). This was mixed vegetables with black pepper pork chop, seasoned with mianchi (red miso), Hunan chili sauce, soy sauce, Hoisin, and chili garlic sauce. Usually it’s dipped in seasoned chili flakes, but we’ve just been using Lao Gan Ma black soybean chili. For the Oaxaca cheese, we just melted it on the pan bit by bit… then tossed in a flour tortilla (I know those were kinda overly thick, was trying out a new recipe) – the mix of Oaxaca cheese and douchi really, really worked. Heavily recommended, this was awesome – some restaurant should really serve this somewhere (probably in Guizhou… would be way easier to convince Guiyuang people to eat Laoguo with Mexican cheese than try to educated American restaurant-goers how to eat Laoguo-style). Really, the more I pay around with the flavors I kinda think Gui-Mex should be the thing lol. This would be even better with masa tortillas imo. Tomato sauce with spicy fermented paste over Northern Chinese ‘cat ear’ noodles, with stuffed lotus root on the side. I know this really doesn’t look like much, but we got a small shipment of tomatoes one day and I thought to myself ‘eh, alright, I’ll whip up a quick roasted tomato sauce, why not’. No onion… but hey, whatever. I was running a touch low on tomato paste, so on a whim I reached for Guizhou fermented tomato paste – it’s the base of the aforementioned sour catfish hotpot, slightly spicy and pretty intensely sour. At first I was kinda pissed at myself for potentially screwing up the tomato sauce – the sour notes were totally cool, but the heat was… distracting. Sliced up a bit of carrot, tossing it in with water to let it all cook down. After that and seasoning with a bit of sugar, MSG, fish sauce, and black pepper… it actually really, really worked. Topped it over some freshly whipped up cat ear noodles, and ate alongside stuffed lotus root. Blended Mexican-style hotsauce with Sichuan chilis and Laozao fermented rice. This one is kind of cheating because it was something that I first developed with a buddy of mine who runs a Mexican restaurant in Shenzhen. The original task was “make a house hot sauce that’s kind of like Tapatio but using Chinese chilis”. I ended up being really proud of the stuff. I won’t bore you will all of the details, but two cool points I think are (1) the water the chilis are blended with are soaked with Sichuan peppercorn – if you soak Sichuan peppercorn in this way, you’ll only get the floral quality, not the numbingness and (2) the vinegar is rice vinegar, Laozao fermented rice was also tossed in. The latter bit adds a bit of sweetness and a lot of complexity. This stuff was perfect drizzled on Mac N Cheese. Pan-fried Guozengzong with the aforementioned hot sauce. Steph’s mother’s side is from Zhaoqing – city outside of Guangzhou renowned for their Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). This is what they look like – the best sort are stuffed with fatty pork belly and mungbean. It’s a tradition to make them around Chinese New Year, and after swinging by to Steph’s parent’s place we got… loaded up with a bunch of them. In Vietnam they’ve also got a very similar thing called banh chung, which they’ll sometimes smush down into a pan and fry it. Pan-frying this stuff is awesome, and it also went great dipped in that vinegar-y hot sauce above. Pork Belly and Kimchi Sandwich. Ate way too many of these things. This was thinly sliced pork belly that we had in the freezer from testing Suanni Bairou – Sichuan Spicy Garlic Pork. Basically, the pork belly is blanched until cooked through, then left to sit in the pot for ~3 hours to get a bit more tender. You slice it super super thin… like, 1mm wide. Makes for an ideal sandwich meat to be honest. Roughly equal parts pork belly to kimchi (maybe a touch more pork belly), together with a spread of equal parts Kewpie mayo, Dijon mustard, and Kimchi pickling juice. This was on some homemade crunchy wheat bread but I think that Rye would probably work best. Just a simple, good thing. Tried it with cheese inside too... doesn’t need it. Yunnan colored steamed rice with fried pork mince and pickled chili, together with the aforementioned hot sauce. The mince was done by hand, ala Macanese minchi. Really great stuff to top over rice, but unlike minchi Steph also tossed in some Hunan pickled chilis in (which can really bring the heat). Great with the hot sauce. The bit on the bottom left is just some (totally not homemade) Teochew taro roll that we had in our freezer. Stir-fried Mantou Buns. We were doing a Mantou (steamed bun) video for the channel, so we’ve had a lot of leftover Mantou. One thing we’ve heard that in the North of China, some people’ll cube leftover mantou and actually stir-fry them. We have no idea if this is actually how people do it, but on a whim Steph very lightly oiled a wok, toasted/fried the Mantou until golden brown, and seasoned with the same Chinese BBQ spice mix that you’d have on cumin roast lamb. Pretty awesome, very reminiscent of the grilled Mantou buns that you get at Chinese BBQ joints. And again… I’m not trying to say that our cooking is awesome, or interesting, or anything. I know a solid chunk of you probably clicked on a couple of those links and thought to yourself “I dunno, looks kinda shitty”. We’re no chefs. There’s a reason we devote ourselves to researching authentic dishes/techniques to the very best of our ability… because precisely no one is interested in “/u/mthmchris and /u/leeleesteph’s wacky fusion fun hour”. What I am saying though is that this all’s forced us to be the most inventive cooks we’ve ever been in our entire lives… and this’s just from two nobodies with a camera over the course of two weeks. Imagine millions of people, many lifetimes over, with the same mindset. Iterate that function for a while. That is why ‘authenticity’ in food is a valuable goal, despite it being a… controversial word in many circles. It’s not that cuisine can never change, or that there’s only one recipe for any given dish. It’s about respecting the idea that (1) the generations that came before us were probably much better cooks than we are and (2) you can generally find a lot more interesting food by looking back, by peeking in dusty corners, than you can by inventing your own hack or whatever. That’s not to say that we all can’t be inventive, or have fun being creative. But when I’m saying that I want an “authentic” version of say, Bouillabaisse sauce… what I’m saying is that I’m looking for a recipe that is connected to and respects those cultural traditions. What else we’ve eaten Of course, not everything’s been mashups or whatever. Lots of bread and noodles (heavily recommend Ken Forkish’s Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by the way… having some nice western-style bread during this time’s been awesome). The aforementioned Laoguo, Cantonese claypot rice, and Mac N’ Cheese have been other staples (luckily the 7/11 near us sells small cartons of fresh milk). But probably what we’ve eaten the most of has been Mantou – steamed buns. Mantou with chili crisp (if steamed) or condensed milk (if fried) has been my go-to snack. We’ve had a lot of them from testing them for the channel, but they’re so great to have around that we’re actually whipping up more, even after we’ve made the video (a rarity for us, usually we’re so tired of a dish after testing it’s months before we circle back). So to actually give you some actual content here, outside of my insane bourbon-and-cabin-fever-induced ramblings… here’s how to make some Mantou. How to Make Mantou Buns So there’s three primarily types of Mantou buns: Northern Laomian Mantou. In the North, mantou are traditionally made with a sourdough starter called laomian (老面), which’s then mixed with alkaline ingredients like sodium carbonate to balance the taste. They come in two varieties – hard and soft. The taste itself is rather plain because they’re meant to be eaten alongside other things as a meal. Southwestern Laozao Mantou. A really interesting Mantou from Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan… this kind of Mantou also uses a starter, but interestingly uses fermented rice (醪糟) to make it. Usually yeast is also added to the dough as well, making for some super-fluffy Mantou. Southern Mantou. These Mantou are a bit sweeter, and rely on baking powder and yeast. I’d venture that these are probably the most common Mantou that you can find at restaurants, especially abroad. Eventually we’ll want to cover all three, but the southern mantou are the most straightforward of the bunch so that’s what I’ll show you today. Video is here if you’d like a visual to follow along. Seeing as there’s not really too much to this, I’ll try to be a bit more brief from here on out. Ingredients, Mantou Buns: Baker’s percentages in brackets. I’ll try to remember to do this. All Purpose Flour (中筋面粉), 200g. For reference the AP we use here in China is 10.8% protein. Water, 90g. Divided into two bowls, each with 45g. We’ll get to why in a second. [45%] Sugar, 20g. [10%] Instant Dry Yeast (酵母), 1 tsp. Or 2 grams. [1%] Baking Powder (泡打粉), 1 tsp. Or 2 grams. [1%] And if you end up deep frying these, you’ll also want the totally-mandatory condensed milk to dip them in. Process, Mantou Buns: Thoroughly mix the sugar with half the water and the yeast in a separate bowl with the other half. This dough has a lot of sugar and yeast in it. Because a high-sugar environment can actually draw moisture out of and damage yeast, we’ll keep these separate for now. Sift together the flour and the baking powder. Slowly drizzle in the yeast water into the baking powder/flour, aiming for the dry bits. Then do the same with the sugar water. I always like mixing with a single chopstick for this kind of step. Knead for eight minutes. Or alternatively in a stand mixer on speed 1 for the same time (dough hook attachment). This is the final consistency you’re looking for. Cover, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Either by hand or using a pasta maker on the widest setting, roll the dough out thin. Fold it in half, then pass it through again – six times in all. This step will get us that classic smooth skin that Southern-style Mantou are known for. With the dough in a sheet now, tightly roll it all up into a log, then roll it a touch longer by hand to get something ~25cm long. Flour a work surface, place the log on, and gently press down on the bottom. Very gently, just enough to get a bit of an indent in order to get that classic Mantou shape. With a sharp knife, slight the roll into eight pieces. Don’t try to use a bench scrape for this step – being less sharp, it’d slightly press down on the Mantou and muff up the looks. Place the mantou on some squares of parchment paper, then in a steamer. Toss the steamer over a wok filled with 28C water, and proof for 15 minutes. Just for standardization sake. Over the same water, swap your flame to medium-high and bring it to a boil. Once you can see steam pluming out of the crack of the steamer, set your timer for five minutes. We’re steaming this gently so that the Mantou doesn’t rise too fast and form air bubbles on the surface of the skin. After that time, shut off the heat and don’t peak for five minutes. Then after those five minutes, take them out and enjoy! Note that one common problem is for the skin of the Mantou to come out a bit wrinkly. This means that you either over-proofed the Mantou or steamed at too high of a heat. It’s ok if one or two out of the batch has a couple wrinkles – you’d rather these be overly fluffy than under-fluffy, after all – but make adjustments if it’s the whole batch. How to Deep Fry Mantou: One of the best things you can do with these southern-style Mantou is deep fry them. A couple cups of oil in a wok, heat it up to 175C. Mantou in, and after about 30 seconds give them a flip. Fry for another minute under golden brown, flipping periodically. Out. It’s a great way to use up slightly stale mantou, and perfect dipped in way too much condensed milk. submitted by /u/mthmchris to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/wingwongshingshong to r/slowcooking [link] [comments]