Cooking: Breakfast Burritos

I normally make a casserole for potlucks, but this morning I wanted Mexican and something different:  breakfast burritos.  I had boiled a can of black beans last night for an hour with French onion soup mix and squeezed the juice of a Meyer lemon.  I also took out leftovers and bits from my fridge and scrambled up six eggs and heavy cream in butter and olive oil until they were soft curds in my grand new green pan--love it, love it, love it--and don't regret my impulsive purchase.

I had also bought a package of flour tortillas, 10" diameter.  Into each tortilla, I spread sour cream, salsa verde, chopped cilantro, black beans, soyrizo, and scrambled eggs.

I then took out my cast iron frying pan and poured a little vegetable oil in order to crisp the burritos and melt the cheese inside.  Don't do what I did below!  I crowded too many burritos in the pan and couldn't rotate them enough to brown all around.

I almost burnt them, but thankfully not.  They were just on the edge of burnt and so pretty tasty.

The burritos were deemed delicious by my clay mates, and I was happy to not have brought home leftovers.

Clay Surface Decoration Problem-Solving and Cooking: Kimchi Fried Rice

Yesterday's kiln reveal was rather disappointing for the ceramic pieces I had glazed the Saturday before:  the bumblebee decal came out great, but the decal I adhered outside the yellow-striped mug smeared; the beetle decal looked cool, but the floral decal adhered outside the pink striped mug didn't adhere completely in the middle though other parts of the floral band were sharp; and the Rottweiler on my brown clay mug smeared.  However, I had 3 bisque mugs on which I underglazed teal and sky blue stripes, adhered a floral cherry blossom red band decal, underglazed with yellow with a wide band of white.  The plan and hopefully better-looking results?  High gloss glaze on the teal and blue mug on which to adhere a commercial decal or two, sponge on the first layer of overglaze to my red flower rice paper decal image to set the underglaze and then brush on the next two coats, and bisque fire the underglaze yellow mug before adhering the yellow rice paper decal and then using the sponge and then brush technique of overglazing.  Try try try again.  That is the definition of research.  Search and search again.

When I'm not obsessing over clay and textiles, I'm experimenting in the kitchen.  This morning, I tried my hand at making the BEST Kimchi Fried Rice.  My husband gets annoyed by all the condiments I put in our pantry and refrigerator.  I justify them this way:  we don't go out to eat because I cook more flavorfully than a lot of restaurants if not better, and I can do so if I have an arsenal of ingredients on hand.  Hence, a bottle of Gojuchang recently joined all the bottles and jars in my fridge.  Luckily, I also had this jar of kimchi as well as leftover rice for one and scallions and single servings of Spam too.

 The no-recipe I went to called for adding sesame oil to the rice to coat as well as squeezing the fermented juice from the kimchi and setting aside to sauce the rice.  After I chopped the kimchi, I added a little more toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, and Gochujang to the pickled cabbage juice to blend and diagonally chopped the green onion.

To the nonstick frying pan on which I had fried my Spam slice which I had set aside, I fried the kimchi in the residual meat grease.

I pretty much just cooked the pickled cabbage until it released most of its water or stopped steaming and then added the rice to the pan.

I cooked the rice and vegetables again to almost crisp before adding the sauce.  Again cook to release more steam or the right ratio of dry and moist to your liking.

 I dislike a very dry fried rice (sorry Dad!) and heaped it on the plate while still a bit steamy.  And then fried the egg after adding a little cooking oil to the pan.

I like a runny yolk but dislike slimy white, and so I tilted and whirled my pan to get most of the egg white on the surface of the pan--it helps to pierce the white and let more white run into its hole.

 Kimchi fried rice is delicious y'all, and I plan on making it again for dinner for the hubs to try.

Ceramics: Conversation Hearts

Clay Body:  Bmix

Underglaze:  Leslie Soft Petal Pink, Western Banana, Western Melon, Leslie Chartreuse, Western Light Blue, Western Pumpkin, Western Light Blue, Western Fire Engine Red, Western White

These are the leftover hearts from my ceramics pop-up sale last weekend that I strung with red ribbon and then festooned on my Valentine Tree.

Ceramics: Rectangular Platter

Clay Body:  Sandstone Buff
Overglaze:  Gloss White

Ceramics: Sea Salt Crock

Clay Body:  Bmix

Underglazes:  Western Black Velvet, Western Sky Blue, Amaco Nautical Blue, Western Medium Blue, Western Light Blue

Overglaze: Clear Matte

Ceramics: Whale Study Improved (I Think)

Cooking: Chinese Food

I'd had a very full and fulfilling day in the ceramics studio and was finally hungry when I arrived home in the late afternoon.  I'd been craving dark leafy greens and tofu and wanting to make Mapo Tofu even though I've never eaten it.  I opted instead to make Food 52's recipe for Spicy Tofu with Pork which seemed simpler.  Whenever I cook Chinese food which is rarely, it's a production because of my unfamiliarity with spices and condiments.  I had bought some gorgeous emerald baby bok choy and snap peas, which I knew I would cook like Fuschia Dunlop does by blanching the vegetables and topping with chopped garlic and ginger before topping with hot oil and soy sauce.  I had also leftover sauteed cauliflower and chopped cilantro from my lunch chili.  I also bought baked tofu and a couple of Thai chili peppers as well as ground pork in anticipation of this dinner. I dug through my vegetable bin and also found half a shallot and two green scallions.

I also dug through my pantry and freezer in search of starch and opted for these Chinese wheat noodles instead of rice noodles or rice.  However, they were frozen which kind of affected my boil.

I should have thawed them, but oh well.  The package directions called for boiling them for no longer 3 minutes, and I wish I had boiled them instead for just 2 minutes so that they were more al dente.

I also blanched my bok choi and sugar snap peas in the same boiling pot after I strained my noodles.

Next I assembled all the bottles and jars of Asian ingredients:  hot chile oil, black bean chili paste, sesame oil, Sriracha, Shaoxing cooking wine, and soy sauce--which I basically mixed up in a pitcher as a sauce for my tofu pork.  I also readied some vegetable oil to heat and mixed up a slurry of a teaspoon of cornstarch and a couple tablespoons of water.

The actual cooking happens very quickly.  I don't have a wok anymore and used my dad's cast iron fry pan.  I browned the ground pork with the shallots and then added the garlic and ginger so it wouldn't burn.  The pan was getting dry, and so I added some bone broth along with the tofu.  And then added the savory sauce to meld with the meat and tofu and then the cornstarch slurry to thicken.  Once proteins and starch were ready, I then poured the heating vegetable oil over my green blanched vegetables.  I served all the components separately.  I didn't want the noodles to overcook into a starchy mess plus my cast iron wasn't big enough to stir fry with my version of Mapo Tofu.

Dinner was pronounced delicious by the hubs, and so this is a meal that will go into a bimonthly rotation.