Well, I started to suggest we should move everything out into the other room (the intent had been to set up elsewhere), then realized it was perfect the way it was. In a way, the best part is that I spent a bunch of money last year to replace the hood over the island and that really made it possible. The old one came down to eye level and really got in the way.
Chickpea and Couscous Stew with Moroccan Spices
from How to Cook Everything Fast
Start off by blooming a teaspoon each of cumin, coriander and cinnamon in olive oil for a minute or two on medium. Add one onion, chopped, and soften it for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add two large peeled, chopped carrots. Raise the heat to medium high, and once the veggies start to sizzle, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add a couple cloves of garlic, minced. Then add a tablespoon of tomato paste and stir for a minute or so. Add a can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, then a 28-oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes. Break them up and stir them in with their juices, scraping up any browned bits. Add 4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock, or water, and turn up to high. Once it’s at a boil, turn down to a simmer and then add half a cup of couscous. Stir, turn off heat, and cover. Once it’s sat for five minutes, add the zest of a lemon and chopped fresh mint leaves. Serve.
I’d never zested or worked with mint before, and turns out a microplane zester makes the former really easy. And the latter is lovely.
That looks like it smells good
I made Dragon’s Beard candy, although I didn’t take pictures. It’s basically a hand-pulled cotton candy, that you dip in flour to prevent from sticking together, and the wrap around ground peanuts. I haven’t ever really made sugar candy before (closest I’ve come is probably a custard), so the process of boiling sugar and monitoring temps to dial in the viscosity was interesting.
I made it because I wanted some, and it seems impossible to find locally, but I notice now that it’s possible to buy packaged from importers, although I imagine it’s not quite as good when it isn’t fresh. It was good, although i am quite bad at the pulling portion, so I didn’t get the thin’ness or consistency that I really wanted. I will probably try it again at some point.
First of all, that sounds really delicious and isn’t so far from a few Indian recipes I do. Awesome job, @malkav11! Second of all, zesting is really magical. I love doing it!
Dragon’s Beard Candy is the thing behind one of my favorite Youtube videos ever. If I ever make it out to South Korea, I’m gonna find this guy!
I have never even heard of dragon’s beard candy, much less seen it for sale anywhere. I need to keep an eye out for that!
Haha.
There are multiple videos that feature what looks like a different stand and it looks a different guy, but with near identical patter. I like this guy’s version of the patter better:
https://youtu.be/9yHDLPGB77o
Same guy, different day:
I watched a dozen of these videos because there’s very little written in English about the process or ingredients. I pulled the actual ingredient list from another video series:
https://youtu.be/UbXj4jte7C8
It super does.
It’s been a tough week here but this warmed my heart. Good on you, Christien. That’s an awesome bit of time spent, something you should bring back up over time with your son.
I’ve had it mostly in Singapore or Taiwan. Apparently it’s quite popular as a tourist street food in Korea as well. Surprisingly, there are places in Montreal’s Chinatown that sell it, but I haven’t seen it many other places. I don’t think anywhere in NY sells it. There used to be a stand somewhere on Grand Street, but that apparently closed some time ago.
Real talk, the amazing thing about those videos is how flawlessly they do the first ring. When you watch them, they don’t adjust the ring for width after the first pass, they just stretch it. That means that they aren’t correcting for imperfections in the candy ring, other than with tension. So, they’re either evening out the width using incredibly consistent tension, or the original ring was incredibly uniform (probably both).
The Korean versions they claim use fermented honey, but the version I made just used a maltose based sugar syrup. I’m curious if the viscosity of the honey changes the technique.
He seemed to have a much easier time with the honey than the guys on Youtube doing it with invert sugar do, that’s for sure. But yeah, crazy about the consistency they’ve achieve.d … but I guess they do it all day long everyday, right?
Yeah, that’s my favorite thing about the two videos of the same guy. He does the exact same patter both times. He does that exact same patter, probably hundreds of times a week, and pulls the exact same candy every time.
Watching any expert Craftsman is always exciting, but it’s crazy how easy those guys make it look.
See, I’m partial to that old one I used to watch just cuz of his multi-linguistic additions to the usual script. I thought that was super cute.
But in any case, yeah, watching masters at work is amazing. I loved Gordon Ramsay and Rick Stein’s food travelogues through India on BBC for similar reasons–watching those street food guys crank out like 12 pooris a minute was just nuts.
Looking online, Koreans have done crazy fillings like, if I’m not mistaken, pop rocks.
If I were a younger man, I’d open a hipster dragon beard shop in Brooklyn with stupid flavor combinations and become internet-famous.
Dang. If they don’t have it in New York, I don’t think Idaho is going to fare any better. Looks like something I should try and tackle!
Speaking of crazy but delicious asian desserts, you need to try chinese candied sweet potato. It’s sweet potato covered in sticky molten light caramel, and it comes out mordor-lava-hot, so you pull a piece off the plate creating tons of thin sugar hairs, dip it in ice water then eat it. Crunchy on the outside, soft sweet potato on the inside.
It’s interesting that they have two separate stands with different people, that have basically the same identical sales pitch. The stands are different, but they have the same stuff like that strip of photos on the top of the case.
Is it some kind of chain or something in Korea, like Auntie Anne’s pretzels?
Or maybe it’s just like the creepy situation where every single strip mall Chinese joint in America uses the same set of a dozen menu photographs that were clearly taken in the early 70s with very little concern for making anything look appetizing or accurate?
That’s part of the authenticity, along with the traditional bad grammar and misspellings in the menu. Americans wouldn’t buy it if there were honest pictures and a proper menu!
So having had a few weeks to cure my rice overload, I dived into making Indian food tonight.
I present you chicken biriyani!
Results are good, but holy wow did it make a lot. I cut the recipe by half and still wound up with a ginormous amount. It also probably would have done with a bit more seasoning, and a bit less rice proportionally. Good, but the flavor was more subdued than I hoped.
Still it was mostly a success, and the raita was the star.