Micah's BBQ Pork Steamed Buns

You can fill these steamed buns with just about anything and they'll be delicious, or even cook them flat and create a taco style meal with them.  This recipe is modified from the Food Network recipe here.  I prefer them a little sweeter and have found rolling them out a little thinner makes for a better meat to bun ratio.  Both the pork and dough should sit over night, so this is best made over 2 days.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brian-boitano/pork-steamed-buns-recipe.html

Any kind of steamer and oven are required.

Filling:

1 rack pork back ribs
3/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup sweet bbq sauce (I use Famous Dave's Sweet and Zesty sauce)
Optional - Any simple vegetables, cabbage, green onion, and the like work really well.  Amount depends on your preference.

Buns:

1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, plus more for kneading and rolling
1 1/2 cup cake flour
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil, plus a little more to coat the bowl


Filling

• Marinate the ribs with the hoisin and bbq sauce over night.  I use the bag they come in and twist and rubber band it to seal.
• Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Cover a sheet pan with tin foil and place the ribs, meat up, on it.
• Squeeze out all of the sauce you can across the top of the ribs.
• Cook for 2 hours, basting every 30 minutes.
• Let rest and cool before cutting all of the meat from the bones and roughly chopping

Buns

• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl.  Let sit for a few minutes, the yeast will foam and bubble.
• In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, surgar, and baking powder.
• Make a well in the center and add the warm milk, oil, and activated yeast.
• Work the dough with your hands or a spoon until it just starts to come together, it will be a mess.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured board or countertop and kneed until the dough becomes smooth and soft.  About 10 minutes.
• Scrape the large bowl clean(semi-clean, just get any big chunks) and lightly oil it.
• Put the dough in the bowl and turn it over once to coat very lightly with the oil. 
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night.

Bringing it all together:

• Cut vegetables to a fine chop and cook if necessary.  Mix with the chopped rib meat.  (green onions and cabbage will cook fine in the buns and don't need to be cooked separately, carrots or thicker vegetables won't cook all the way through)
• Roll the dough out into a log 14 inches long and cut into 14 even pieces.  Trying to work our 14 even pieces without measuring is a pain, so I suggest using a ruler or tape measure.
• Ball each piece and set aside.
• On a flour dusted board or counter top roll each piece of dough out into ~4 inch circle and set aside.  Re-flour the surface for each ball. 
• When you're ready to fill the dough, put 1 piece of dough on the board and thin out the sides, leaving the middle a little thicker
• Put 2 full spoon fulls of the rib meat in the center of the dough.
• Pull the sides up around the meat, it should fit tight without needing to stretch the dough much extra.
• Pinch and twist the dough at the top to seal
• Steam for 12-15 minutes

Micah's Cobbler French Toast

This recipe uses the spices you'd find in a fruit cobbler mixed with the batter for the french toast, and replaces the syrup with fruit jam for a more seasonally spiced french toast.  I eyeball the spices every time I make it, so exact measurements aren't necessary.


2 Eggs
2 tbsp. Milk
1/8 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/8 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2-3/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3-6 Slices of Bread
Your Favorite Fruit Jam
Ground Cinnamon - Dusted ontop of the french toast while cooking
Butter - to grease the pan

• Start the pan heating on a medium to medium-low temperature
• Mix the eggs, milk, nutmet, ginger, and vanilla in a small bowl
• When adding the ginger to the bowl make sure there are no chunks
• When pan is hot butter should sizzle but not smoke as soon as it touches the pan
• Individually, lightly soak a piece of bread in the batter for ~15 seconds, then place on the greased pan
• Once all pieces are down on the pan dust the tops with ground cinnamon
• Cook on each side ~1.5 minutes for a 1 inch thick slice of bread, dusting the 2nd side of the bread with cinnamon once flipped
• Add a light coat of your jam to the top and enjoy

Micah's Apple Sauce

This is an apple sauce recipe I've been playing with using cinnamon and curry.  The curry flavor is very light and doesn't really come across as curry as much as just a deeper taste to the cinnamon, similar to using nutmeg.  I've tried this with Fuji and Honeycrisp apples, both are good but the Honeycrisp is a little sweeter and tasted better with less seasoning.

Equipment Needed:
Blender or large food processor
Baking sheet
Oven

Apple Cinnamon Spice:
This spice is great for apple sauce, apple pie, or just baked apples.  This will make enough for 3-4 baking sheets full of apples.

1 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Curry Powder
1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves

• Mix all ingredients thoroughly and store in an air tight container

Apple Sauce:
Fuji or Honeycrisp apples.  Really any sweet crisp apple should do fine.  # of apples entirely depends on how much sauce you want.

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Cut all apples in half and remove the cores with a small knife
• Cut off the skin on the bottom of each apple half to create a flat surface so the apples will rest on the baking sheet
• Place apples on a baking sheet
• Dust the tops of all of the apples with the apple cinnamon spice, lighting coating each one.  We want this spice to caramelize into the apple
• Bake the apples at 400 degrees for 20-40 minutes, depending on apple size.  A fork should puncture through the apple with light pressure.  For Fuji, after 20 minutes check every 5 minutes.  For Honeycrisp after 30 minutes check every 5
• Remove the apples from the oven and let cool for ~5 minutes
• Once cooled place apples in a blender or food processor and blend until they are the consistency you want, tasting along the way.  I usually blend until they are roughly mashed, then taste and add more spice if necessary before blending to a smooth sauce

Tasia's Korean Beef Bowl

Note: I've been changing the amount of sugar each time, still haven't gotten it quite right. The original recipe called for 1/4 c. which is way too much. 1 tbsp might be too little. Will update when I get it right....

Korean Beef Bowl

Ingredients:

1 tbsp brown sugar

¼ c. soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp hot sesame oil

¼ tsp fresh ginger (minced)

1 tbsp oil

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 lb beef (ground, chopped, any kind)

2 green onions (thinly sliced)

¼ tsp sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:

Mix together brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oils, and ginger. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, ~1m. Add beef and cook until browned, ~3-5m. Drain excess fat as needed. Stir in sauce mixture and green onions, simmering until heated through ~2m. Garnish with green onion and sesame seeds as desired.