Riffing

This week, I've been trying to trust my instincts and cook with more ingredients I already have, only buying things I actually need. This means not going off of a recipe, but rather going off of... vibes.

Gyudon riff

This gyudon I made by simmering some gochujang, soy sauce, mirin, sake and then adding in some sliced around-the-pole onions we had laying around. On the side, I grated some ginger and garlic together to be put in towards the end. After the onions were nice and translucent, I added some cheap sliced ribeye from hmart and covered it to let the beef cook and infuse the broth with that beefy flavor. After that was done, I added the ginger/garlic as well as some scallion greens and served that over rice.

Paneer Patak Makhani

This was a riff on a bunch of butter chicken, tikka masala recipes, this indian cookbook I've been reading AND some techniques from this burmese cookbook. I toasted some spices (coriander, cumin, star anise, mustard seed, etc.) and ground them, adding in garam, paprika, turmeric, etc. Meanwhile, carl pounded some garlic and ginger toegther. I diced an onion pretty finely and then cooked that in ghee. Once that was looking translucent, I heated up some oil and fried the garlic ginger paste until well browned and then I added the spice blend. After that was plenty aromatic, I added it to the pot with the onions and stirred until well combined. I then added some balachaung, dried chilis, puffed cashews in water, thai fish sauce (three crabs), some marinara, and coconut milk. I let that simmer for about 20 mins and then went over it with an immersion blender. After that, I added in some of the really leafy spinach I got from the indian grocer, let that simmer covered for a bit and then added in some paneer right at the end. On the side, I pan-fried some paratha and made basmati rice for serving it. I topped with some cilantro and lime, and it was wonderful.

Paneer Patak Makhani

The picture is terrible, but it tasted pretty darn good!