About Cooking Oils (Smoke Point)

I recently watched a video about pan frying. According to the video, to prevent the food you are cooking from burning or sticking to the pan, make sure your pan is heated very hot and you don't move the, let's just say, chicken breast until it is nicely browned on one side. To my surprise, it worked well. Since then... high fire was my method of choice when using the wok.

Moving along, while Piee was making some green onion pancakes for Kay one day for lunch, the three of us were chatting. The subject of oil was brought up. Piee gave a shocking reaction when Kay said her oil sometimes steamed, or vaporized or smoked or whatever. Kay and I just shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

I cooked dinner a few days ago, and I noticed that my oil smoked. I didn't think much of it, but I did some research anyways. I found that "smoking oil" is indeed very dangerous!!! Scared me... a lot actually when I was reading my findings....



This is a good website to keep handy.

http://missvickie.com/howto/spices/oils.html

"Watch out for the smoke point signs as it means you are getting close to the flash point, which is when the oil can erupt into flames. "

Smoking Point for Different Oils
-Butter, whole or clarified: 350°F
-Canola (rapeseed oil): 400°F
-Olive: Unrefined 320°F; Extra Virgin 406°F; Virgin 420°F; Extra Light 468°F
-Peanut: 450°F

Mocha Crackle Cookies

So... I made cookies. Kind of. I think. Well, that was idea... and isn't it the thought that counts??? haha!

^ So I didn't use the milk.

I used Martha Stewart's Chocolate Crackle Cookies recipe and made some changes; changes that I never should have made.... Anyway, here is what I did.... In no way am I encouraging anyone to use this recipe!!!! :) It's just a reference for myself.

Mocha Crackle Cookies
makes 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 TBS unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup coffee (Vietnamese drip coffee)
3 tsp condensed milk
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 TBS of instant coffee

Instructions
1. Melt the chocolate (I put the chocolate in a bowl in a wok of simmering water. Make sure the water doesn't touch the chocolate.).
2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate large bowl beat the butter and dark brown sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
5. Mix in melted chocolate.
6. Alternate adding dry ingredients and brewed coffee (mixed with condensed milk) into batter. Combine well.
7. Mix in instant coffee.


Okay, so I tasted the batter... I know raw eggs are not good for you.... but... I wanted to see if the flavor was okay. ... I didn't die or get sick, so I should be okay....

8. Put batter on to a plate, cover with Saran wrap, and place into the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
9. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
10. Sift confectioner's sugar into a bowl.
11. Spoon some dough into your hands, and roll into a ball shape with a diameter around 1 inch. Then, cover the dough ball with confectioner's sugar.
12. Place dough balls ~1.5 inches apart on cookie sheet.
13. Bake until cookies have flattened and the sugar cracks, ~14 minutes.

Notes
- Kay helped me roll the dough balls in the confectioner's sugar!
Changes I made?
- Cut down the sugar by 1/3 cup
- Used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar
- Added condensed milk
- Replaced milk with brewed coffee
- Added instant coffee
Opinions?
- "Cake-y Cookies," said Dad.
- My friends and family said the flavor was good, but the texture was more like a brownie than a cookie.
- I think the reason why my cookies were "fluffy" was because I was having too much fun with the beater.... Usually, I mix stuff by hand..... and usually I don't even need to mix stuff... I was supposed to be on low setting, but I used high instead. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
- One friend said the cookie was burnt, but she's tripping!!
- Yay, people said it was pretty though. :) ... but to me... that's the least important of eating.

IOU, PIEE SOME MORE COCOA POWDER. >.>
I will buy the next container of it.

SUNKIST JELLOOOO?!

We just finished decorating the tree. Tired and hungry, my sisters (piee & Kay) and I entered the kitchen. After devouring a bag of expired popcorn, Kay, my sister, craved for jello. Sadly, mom tossed them out long ago; so we made our own.

We looked down and low all around the house.... and all we had was... a can of... Sunkist... from years ago hidden away. To hell with it, we already ate expired popcorn; a can of old soda won't hurt.

Piee boiled some water and added 2 packets of Knox gelatin.
I poured the Sunkist in with the gelatin.
Kay recorded it.


Result?
... Surprisingly, it wasn't sweet to me. I didn't think a little bit of water would dilute it to that point of blandness, but it did. There were still bubbles in the jello, so that was cool.

Blueberry Crisp.

I used frozen blueberries.... I don't think I'm going to do this again.... The oven killed all the flavor in the blueberries. Yuck. =_= AND of course... me being the lazy one... didnt' follow the instructions and ended up having a a messed up (and a lack of) 'crisp.' (I don't like following directions. I just looked at the ingredients and eye'd everything....) There was no brown sugar in the house... and it appears as if I used too little oats! Piee's Apple Crisp Recipe on TehSaltyMelon!

It'z boiling!!! =_=;; overflowed into the oven...

PB?

Can you guess what this is?


... no?
How about now?


... now?


Okay, please tell me you knew what it's supposed to resemble....
AND PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNEW THAT IT WAS BREAD FROM THE VERY FIRST PICTURE! lol! give me some face.

Before baking:


After baking:


2 Videos :)

Tehehe! Soft! :)

Hehehehe, Papa said bread was yummy. :)
Piee said it was tasteless, but texture was good.


Recipe from:

Do What I Like (WLTEEF)
Not Quite Nigella
TARO-TARO

Note:

1. Proof'd yeast in warm milk & egg yolk.
2. Manually "kneaded" dough. "Knead" is in quotes... cause I don't really know the 'proper way' to kneading! HAHAH!!
   
3. The colors are very light because I just fail'd at that. The recipe said to mix the matcha & chocolate powders with water, then add the mixes to the dough. ... It made my dough really wet, so I took it out of the puddle and added even more flour.
   
4. I added A LOT A LOT A LOT A LOT more flour that I was instructed to because the dough was very liquidy.... It wouldn't hold it's shape....
5. I don't think I kneaded the dough enough... It wasn't elastic-like, instead it just kind of ripped when I tugged at it.
6. For the finished product, I thought the consistency could be a lot better.
7. ... I reminded myself not to put any salt into the mixture because I was using salted butter, I forgot and put a teaspoon of salt. Then, I freaked out and I actually had to taste different parts of the dry ingredient mountain to find the salt concentration... and scoop it back out. -__-;;

Vermicelli Salad & Steamed Scallion Buns.

Mom usually cooks dinner for the family, but because she was extremely busy this week, she asked the family to cook this week.

Monday: Dad
Tuesday: Piee
Wednesday: Me
Thursday: Piee

The picture isn't pretty, but I was hungry. Actually, the entire family was hungry. Lol! I don't like having people knowing what I'm doing in the kitchen whenever I'm concocting something, so I prohibit anyone walking in. Usually, when the family members come home one by one, the first place we go is into the kitchen to grab something too eat. Poor them, I didn't allow them to come in... so they all starved. I also served dinner around 40 minutes past the usual time.... LOL!! (HAHAHA!! After I called for dinner, everyone came rushing into the kitchen. Err. All the utensils and dishes were in the sink.... Heheh... So they had to wait even longer.)

Also, I usually cook way too much food... so this time I wanted to get my portions right... so I cooked less than what I usually would. Whoops... it turned out that I cooked way too little. >.<;; In the end, Mom&Dad had to eat cereal... for dinner....

Ingredients: Vermicelli, lettuce, shrimp, calamari, cucumber, Thai basil, cilantro.
Sauce/Dressing: 1/2 cup of lime juice, 4 crushed cloves of garlic, 6 tablespoons of fish sauce, chili (mashed into bits/paste--> added to taste)/Sriracha, pinch of salt, 3 teaspoons of sugar (added to taste)

(Yay! The whole family said it was yummy, but... I didn't make the whole dish by myself. Piee helped me boil the noodles, shrimp, and calamari. :( Turns out that I once again just washed the vegetables. =_=;;)

------------------------------------------------------------------------


I also made some steamed buns using this recipe.


Heheh! They came out beautifully. :) They made me so happy, cause... in all honesty, I'm a pretty bad cook. BAHAH!! I have to say that that recipe is foolproof.


Actually, the reason I made it was because we had too much green onion at home. I bought some for the main dish, but forgot that we already had a bunch at home already (and it also turned out that I didn't even use any for the main dish....).

Coconut Milk w/ Tong Yuen & Bananas

It was 9:01P.M. I was hungry. Half a burrito for dinner wasn't enough. The cupboard was empty, as was the fridge.

A few ounces of coconut milk was left from my creation from a week ago. Sago? Sago would be good, however... it's nonexistent in this house. TONG YUEN(湯圓). win! It's a bit plain still. No mango. Only apples & pears &.... bananas?

• Make the glutey balls.
  
• Slice bananas.
  
• Boil coconut milk & cow's milk. Add sugar.
  
• Plate (or in this instance, "bowl" it. =P) it.

Coconut Milk. Milk. Sugar. Glutinous Rice Balls. Banana.