Recipe Corner: Fried Rice

I was asked to make fried rice.  I looked at several recipes online and in cookbooks and came up with this amalgamation.  This version was approved of by all household members, who promptly ate it all up, yum, and asked me to make it again.

I'm adding it to our blog since I don't want to forget how to make it in a way that I know will be liked.

Fried Rice on the Divide

~4-5 cups cooked rice (it doesn't matter if it's leftover cooled rice or freshly cooked hot rice)
2 eggs, mixed with a pinch of salt
~3-4 scallions, chopped
~1/3 cup frozen peas, more or less thawed (use the microwave or let them sit out for a while)
~2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
a bit of ginger, chopped (optional)
~4 T. oil, divided (see the cooking process below)
~2 T. soy sauce
pinches of salt, pepper, etc.

Heat ~2 T oil in a frying pan until hot.  Pour in the egg mixture and cook as for scrambled eggs.  Remove the cooked eggs from the pan.

Add ~2 T oil to the pan.  When it is hot, add the scallions, garlic, and peas, and saute (stir fry) for ~30 seconds to a minute, until they are about half-cooked.  Add the rice, soy sauce, and cooked eggs.  Saute (stir fry), stirring, until all is blended, cooked, etc.

Serve and eat.  It will serve 4 people if they are not too hungry and/or have other things to eat at the meal.  If you are feeding teenagers, it might look like the hyena feeding time at the zoo.

I'm sure this would be even better with some diced leftover meat, other vegetables, and so on.  I sometimes add a sploot of sesame oil when I add the soy sauce.

Needless to say, all amounts are approximate.

I used a large cast-iron frying pan for this.  A wok would work well, too.

This is a fairly new recipe for us, so I expect it to evolve over the next several months.


Ramen Noodle Variation

If you want to tart up some ramen noodles, the above mix of stuff works well.

All the ingredients are the same except for the rice.  Instead, use one packet of ramen noodles, cooked and drained.  (Put the seasoning packet somewhere else, not in the noodles)  Cook the rest of it as above, except that the cooked noodles get fried with everything instead of cooked rice getting fried with everything.  Definitely add sesame oil to this variation; it makes a big difference for balancing the flavors.

I'm pretty sure that any other kind of Asian noodle would work tolerably well for this.

Recipe Corner: Butter Mochi

We had this at a potluck a few years ago.

The person who brought it gave us the recipe.  She wrote, "I got this recipe from a Japanese/Hawaiian woman who owned a little cafe in Mesa AZ called 'Highland Cafe' which is now closed."

The person at the potluck gave us the full recipe, which makes two pans of butter mochi.  We usually make a one-pan version, with the amounts slightly tweaked.  We now bring it to potlucks.

Since the paper on which we wrote the recipe is getting rather scummy with drips of this and that, here is the recipe, both the 2-pan version and the 1-pan version.

Butter Mochi  (original recipe)

1 20-ounce box of sweet rice flour (3.75 cups)
2.5 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), melted
1 can coconut milk (2 cups)
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls.  Combine and mix thoroughly.  Grease two 9" x 13" pans.  Pour batter evenly into both pans.  Bake for 45-60 minutes.


Butter Mochi (enough for one 9" x 13" pan)

approximately 1/2 box of sweet rice flour (we estimate it)
1.25 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (regular salt is fine)
1/2 stick butter, melted (1/4 cup, we use either unsalted or salted depending on what's around)
approximately 1/2 can of coconut milk (we estimate it)
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The method is the same as above.  The mochi is usually done in 30-45 minutes, when it is golden and set, but not too dark along the edges.  Even with a greased pan, this can be a pain to get out of the pan.  If the pan is hard to clean, soaking it in water for a short while softens the stuck-on bits enough to get off fairly easily.

We cut this into 1" squares, give or take a bit, and then remove it from the pan.

When we make the half-recipe, we end up with half a can of coconut milk left over.  We either make another batch of mochi within a few days, or we use the coconut milk for other things.  I suppose it could be frozen, then thawed and used in a second batch later.  The rice flour is not a problem.  It keeps indefinitely in the pantry along with other flours.

Sweet rice flour and coconut milk can be found in grocery stores with a good ethnic section or in Asian specialty markets.  Sweet rice flour is also known as mochiko.

There are several similar recipes on the 'net for butter mochi in case you want to try several and then tweak it to match your own personal preferences.

Mammatus Clouds Over Monument

I'm clearing out the camera and found these shots I took early in the summer.  It was an afternoon of thunderstorms -- hail, tornadoes, flash flooding, and all those other things.  Oddly enough, we got almost nothing.  It all went around us but not over us.

The clouds were amazing, though.  Big poofy lumpy blobs on the underside of the very dark clouds... It was very dramatic!

These kinds of clouds are called mammatus clouds.  They are indeed associated with severe thunderstorms, though that is not the only time they can be seen.  We have seen them before.  However, this time I had a camera handy!

Recipe Corner: Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

I have no idea where we found this recipe.  Online?  A cookbook?

It's easy and relatively fast.  The preparation can be done in the time it takes the oven to preheat.  After that, very little attention is needed.  The rest of the meal can be put together while this cooks.

Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

1.5 lbs chicken thighs  (or whatever)

1/4 cup orange juice

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp soy sauce (we usually use a strong-flavored Japanese brand from the regular grocery store)

< 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 to 1.5 tbsp oil

a sprinkle of garlic powder


Mix all of the above.  It can be used as a marinade if desired for about 30 minutes, but it's not necessary.

Put chicken in a pan, pour over the sauce.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top (optional).  Bake at 350-375F for about 30-40 minutes.  Baste with the sauce a few times during the cooking.

The exact cooking time is not critical.  The chicken can cook for a while longer without getting too overdone.   Ditto for the amount of chicken.  We use anywhere from about 1 pound to more than 2 pounds.  It depends on the size of the packages in the grocery store.  The recipe works fine for other chicken parts, too.

One can easily derive many variations on this.

Recipe Corner: Classic Gingersnaps

Sure, these are probably just like most of the other gingersnap recipes out there.

But it's the one we use, and we know it works.  It makes cookies that are gloriously gingery and soft the first day, crunchy beyond that.  The tops of the cookies have large cracks all over.  The sugar adds an interesting crunch to the texture.  They are moderately irresistible.

This is from a clipping, source unknown but probably from a spice company.  We are putting the recipe on our blog in case we lose the clipping.

Classic Gingersnaps

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

350F oven, preheated.  Bake 12 minutes.  Makes ~48 cookies.

Cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Gradually add to the wet ingredients and mix well.  (We usually do our one-bowl method -- add the soda, salt, and spices to the first mixture and blend.  Then add the flour and blend.)

Put a few pinches of sugar into a small bowl or plate.  Shape the dough into one-inch balls and roll them in the sugar.  Replenish the sugar in the bowl as needed.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake until they are done, then remove them to cool on a wire rack.

When we vary this, we might add more spices.  Someone wrote "1/4 c milk" on the corner of the recipe, so I imagine that is added sometimes, though I'm not sure why.  Sometimes we use butter for part of the shortening.  I've seen versions of this that call for vegetable oil, no solid fat at all.

Recipe Corner: Not-Quite Sugar Cookies

When we make cookies, we'll often start with a basic recipe and then play around.  We'll add stuff, substitute stuff, etc., and then see what the results taste like.  If we are lucky, we'll write down the successful variations so we can make it again.

This started out as plain old sugar cookies.  That's one of our go-to recipes.  It is so easy to make -- we can have a batch mixed together and on the cookie sheets by the time the oven preheats.  It is a great base for all kinds of additions.

The latest batch is worth writing down.  Its origin as a sugar cookie is not obvious.  I don't know how well they will keep.  I don't think we'll be finding out, since they are disappearing rapidly.

To be honest, a lot of the amounts in the recipe below are approximate.  How much, after all, is a "sploot"?  Or "add a bit more until it tastes right" or "add until the dough is the right texture or thickness"?

Not Quite Sugar Cookies (aka Yet Another Sugar Cookie Variation)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (white)
about 1-2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
about 1 teaspoon almond extract (probably optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
"some" milk

Preheat oven to 375F
Melt the butter in the microwave (or at least get it pretty soft).
Add the sugar and mix.  Add the egg and mix.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then the baking soda, salt, and spices.  Mix.  Add the flour and oatmeal.  Mix.  Add enough milk to make it like a good sugar cookie dough.  I don't know how much that is, but I think it's somewhere between a few tablespoons and a quarter cup.  Maybe we'll be more careful and write down the exact amount next time.  If so, I'll update the recipe in this post.

Put small balls of cookie dough on the cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes.  Remove when the cookies are done (starting to get golden on top, bottoms starting to brown, and obviously set and no longer wet-looking in the middle).

These are different in texture from regular sugar cookies.  Is it the oatmeal?  The milk?  The molasses?  The higher relative proportion of flour/oats to the rest of the ingredients?  The crumb seems more tender than the slight graininess of a sugar cookie. They have a slightly caramel-like flavor.

-----------

The basic proportions for sugar cookies are as follows, in case we need to know.  We use the same method for mixing.  Nuke butter, add sugar and egg, add other liquids and the powdery things, finally add flour, then add any other additions such as nuts or chocolate chips.

Basic Sugar Cookie proportions:

1 stick butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1-2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1.5 cups flour

Those can be drop cookies as is.  Or, you can refrigerate them in a log shape to make refrigerator cookie dough.  Or, you can chill it for a while, then roll out and use cookie cutters on the rolled out dough.

The obvious variations are to use brown sugar for part of the sugar portion, to add cocoa to make them chocolate sugar cookies (or add cocoa to part of the dough and make spiral or marbled cookies), to add interesting spices, to use different flavor extracts, to add things like raisins or nuts or lemon zest or other tidbits, to make them into thumbprint cookies, to add icing (mix powdered sugar with a smidge of liquid and some food coloring), to substitute other flours for part of the regular flour, and so on.

Recipe Corner: Mint Crinkle Cookies

We keep losing the recipe -- it's written on an index card, like many of our other recipes.  Last week, the index card, covered with bits of butter and crinkle-colored dough, went on walkabout.  Eek!  So here it is on the blog, for safe-keeping.  The recipe is originally from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen.  We have many of her cookbooks but apparently we don't own this one yet.

Mint Crinkle Cookies

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint abstract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 2 oz. of cake decoration crystals (the original recipe calls for one 2.25 oz. jar of green cake decoration crystals, but we use about half of a 4 oz. jar of colored sugar crystals, any color.  Today it is "Decors Red Sugar Dessert Toppings")


350 F oven, preheated.  It doesn't matter if it's a convection or regular oven.  We've done it both ways.  Grease a couple of baking sheets or use non-stick ones.  We use ungreased, non-stick cookie sheets.

We usually use this quickie one-bowl method for mixing the ingredients.  A fork works fine for all the mixing -- you don't need any fancy electric appliances or whisks or anything.  Use a non-metal mixing bowl if you're using the microwave to melt butter.

Melt the butter (we use the microwave).  It's OK if it's softened more than melted.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Add the extracts and the egg and the milk.  Mix after each addition or after it's all added.  Then add the flour.  Before you mix in the flour, put the baking powder and salt on top of the pile of flour in the bowl.  Mix it a bit, then mix all the dry stuff into the wet stuff.  (Sometimes, we add the salt and baking powder to the wet stuff, mix it in, and then mix in the flour.  Either way works.)  Don't overmix.  Finally, add the sprinkles and mix.

Roll small balls of the dough, maybe 1" or so in diameter, and place them on the cookie sheet.  Flatten them slightly then bake until they are light golden (i.e. done).  It takes about 8-12 minutes depending on how big and/or flattened the cookies are.

Remove cookie sheet from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes (or not, as you wish).  Then remove the cookies from cookie sheet and eat.  You can wait for the cookies to cool before eating if you'd like.  They are good warm or at room temperature.  These keep for at least a day or two.  We don't know if they last beyond that because they're always eaten by then.  They are best the day they're made.

With about 12-15 cookies per cookie sheet, we usually use two cookie sheets per batch of dough.  So that's a couple-dozen cookies, give or take a bit.  They spread a bit while cooking, but not a whole lot.  It depends on how much they are flattened before cooking.



We like these with the peppermint extract.  One of these days, we might try something else, such as almond or lemon or anise extract.  Or maybe not.  Why mess with success?

We like the little crunch of the crinkles as we bite down into the cookies.  They are always obnoxiously and artificially colored by the coloring of the sugar crinkles.  It's a bit startling, but very cheerful and appealing to small children.