The best coffee cake

Today's post is a short one but a must. This is a coffee cake recipe I have been swearing by for a couple years now. I deliberately avoid making it often because it always gets demolished within days, and that much butter and sugar is never a good idea for anyone. It's that good.

Tunnel of cinnamon sugar

Peanut butter soba noodles

I won't claim to have invented the combination of peanut butter and noodles but I will say that if you get bored with your own cooking as frequently as I do (seriously...it's like eating at the same restaurant every day), this is something you can whip up quickly while still trying something "new."

One thing that's easy about this recipe is that there is no right way to make this. Some people (i.e. myself) like their noodles extra peanut butter-y while others find it bizarre and would rather taste just a hint of nuttiness. Some people (again, like myself) like spicy food and others, not so much.

The best food in life often looks like diarrhea

To make these noodles, you're first going to mix peanut butter, soy sauce, hot pepper flakes, sesame oil, and garlic in any ratio you like. I mixed the first two ingredients in a 1:1 ratio and used three large cloves of garlic.

Super simple peppermint brownies

The combination of chocolate and peppermint around the holidays is - to me, anyway - what I would imagine the pumpkin spice latte is to the basic white girl: a must. I've tried many methods of fusing these two flavors, including peppermint leaves and/or peppermint extract in the brownie batter, crushed peppermint candy canes sprinkled atop - but this method is by far the easiest and the most chocolate-y.

This recipe is embarrassingly easy.

But that doesn't mean it isn't any good.

Chicken korma

There has never been a cuisine so flavorful and aromatic as Indian. I have had an ongoing love affair with Indian food ever since as a young teen, I broke free of the diet encouraged by my parents consisting mostly of Korean food and began to explore the culinary world. Naturally, when I began cooking for myself, Indian cuisine was among the first I sought to learn; however, I found the exquisite blend of spices to be rather intimidating, and relied on store-bought sauces and restaurant Indian food for the longest time to get my Indian fix.

Chicken Korma

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Lately I have been getting to the nitty-gritty of authentic Italian cooking. Now, I am nowhere near even remotely close to being Italian in any way, so I wouldn't dare tout my methods as "legit." You can go to someone's Italian grandmother for that.

Nonetheless, I discovered that using butter and cream on pasta is strictly an American thing, and I can't say I'm surprised (what don't Americans put butter on?).This means that heavenly, creamy spaghetti alla Carbonara - a dish I have been enjoying my entire life - does not actually contain cream; rather, it is thickened with eggs.

Image 1. Dat bacon tho

Needless to say, I was intrigued.

And thus began my quest to make (semi-)authentic Spaghetti alla Carbonara.

Low fat cheesecake

If you're like me and you grew up drinking whole milk and eating full fat cheese, you may shudder at the thought of low fat cheesecake. But fear not! I would never sacrifice flavor just to cut some calories. Life's too short.

This cheesecake may be low fat, but it is creamy, cheesy, and just the perfect amount of sweet; you won't be disappointed.

Image 1. Follow me after the jump for the recipe!

s'more cupcakes

If you have been baking for a long time, you already know that s'more cupcakes are nothing new. However, you will find that the modular nature of s'more ingredients leads to a variety of interpretations when it comes to translating this campfire dessert into cupcake form. Today, I will share mine.

Image 1. My s'more cupcake

Fun fact: I finally bought a piping bag, but I had my kitchen redone and I lost it in the process. That would be why the frosting looks like white poo. A tragic tale, indeed.

Bulgogi

For a while I debated whether to put this on my MOTD section or in here, because while I technically have a recipe, it is nearly identical to my Korean-style baby back ribs recipe, which makes this whole post rather redundant. After much rumination, I decided that I had to share, partly because the recipe turned out so well and partly because it is my first true Korean recipe on this blog.

Bulgogi (불고기) roughly translates to English as "fire-roasted beef," which I always thought was odd; how else would you roast beef if not with fire? Nevertheless, bulgogi is also the most universally loved Korean dish in existence; even if you've never had Korean food before, you will enjoy this.

Image 1. Bulgogi marinating

Ice cream cake: when heaven freezes over

At first, I thought this recipe may be too amateur to post here, and then I realized this was The Rookie Cookbook, where professional photography is frowned upon and nothing is too amateur. Nothing. Thus, I present to you the ice cream cake.

Image 1. Homemade ice cream cake

This ice cream cake has a flourless chocolate cake base, topped with cheesecake ice cream, graham cracker crumbs, and dark chocolate ganache. In other words, it's heaven frozen over.

But enough of my babbling. Let's get to it.

Classic & Korean-style baby back ribs

I love me some ribs.

But sometimes, after going through the same rotation of meals for the umpteenth week, you stare at a rack of ribs and think, "I wanna try something different." Which is why, my friends, I present to you the Korean-style baby back ribs.

Image 1. Ribs with brown sugar & paprika rub

Of course, I needed to insure myself for potential damages (i.e. if my Korean ribs suck), so I divided the ribs in half and cooked up a batch of classic baby back ribs as well, complete with homemade barbecue sauce from scratch. That's right. You get two recipes in one post.

Hassle-free hayashi rice

I just realized that even though I'm Asian, I don't have an Asian recipe on this blog yet. BLASPHEMY! Seeing as I have an old bottle of cabernet that I bought for cooking purposes and I was kind of getting tired of making marinara sauce, I decided to try something different.

Thus began my journey of cooking hayashi rice.

Image 1. Hayashi sauce

Every Asian probably remembers buying these at their local Asian supermarket. I myself have never tasted hayashi rice made of anything other than this conveniently packaged block of hayashi rice sauce. The problem was, I didn't have any with me, and the nearest Asian market is a significant distance away. Besides, being that this is America, I had no idea how much they costed here and didn't want to be unpleasantly surprised.

Carrot cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

I've never liked cake much, other than chocolate cake (I know, I'm weird). But for some reason, I've always liked carrot cake, even as a kid. I realize now that my love affair with carrot cake can be attributed to the cream cheese frosting (further emphasizing my undying obsession with cheese and cheese-based desserts).

Image 1. Dat sprinkle of cinnamon

Let me guess what you're thinking. Carrot cake? Really? Carrot cake has been around for eons and there are countless tried and true recipes all over the internet. But mine is a little bit different. Being the problem solver that I am, I have identified three major issues with carrot cake as we know it today.

Seafood paella

I must be on a major seafood kick, because right after I returned from GT Fish & Oyster, I decided to make this seafood paella.

Image 1. Seafood paella...in a cast-iron pan...with Italian rice.

Paella is named after the pan in which it is prepared, which is a wide, shallow metal pan that gets wider at the top, like this. I wasn't going to buy a something that I rarely use to fill up my already inadequate kitchen cabinet space, though, so I used my cast iron pan instead. It is also prepared with bomba (or Valencia) rice, but Trader Joe's did not carry it, so I opted for Arborio rice (otherwise known as Italian risotto rice). Any short-grain rice will do; just don't use basmati or anything crazy like that, because it won't taste right.

Mojito cupcakes & matcha rice cupcakes

I've never been a huge fan of food coloring, since they serve no other purpose other than to dye a food a specific color (with the exception of red velvet, because they're rather hideous without the red hue). I've always been all about function over form, and when St. Patrick's day rolled around I found myself brainstorming ideas to concoct naturally green desserts.

The first idea I had was a mojito cupcake, which combines two green things (lime and mint). I decided to go for a traditional white cake infused with mint, with a lime curd center and a tart lime buttercream. The second idea I had was a matcha cupcake with white chocolate ganache, inspired by the green tea Kit Kat. To keep with the Asian theme of the recipe, I opted for rice flour instead of all-purpose.

Image 1. Mojito cupcakes & matcha rice cupcakes

The results were great, and I'm here to share my recipe with you.

Triple chocolate tiramisu from scratch

I'm not a huge dessert person, but I make an exception for those that are made from chocolate, cheese, or both. Tiramisu has all the flavors that I love as well as the airy texture that I find myself craving on occasion. 

Image 1. CHOCOLATE. CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE.

The hint of coffee soaked into the layer of ladyfingers just hits the spot, and I was determined to make this Italian delicacy from scratch. But why stop at a light dusting of cocoa powder on the top? Why not make a chocolate ladyfinger layer and a chocolate mascarpone cream? Is that too much chocolate? Can there ever be such a thing as too much chocolate?

The answer is no. This triple chocolate tiramisu is at least as good, if not better, as its non-chocolate counterpart.

Pork & ricotta ravioli with pesto

If I may make a confession...

I will admit that I did not intend to make the ravioli from scratch. I was actually looking for ravioli wrappers that I could use at the grocery store, but then I realized that this was preposterous, as dehydrated pasta is impossible to shape into ravioli shells and once they are cooked you can't actually fill them in. So alas, I was forced to roll pasta dough until the cows came home.

But let me back up and start from the beginning. 

Image 1. Finished ravioli and pesto

Brioche french toast with bananas & salted caramel

I love breakfast food.

No really, I really really love it. I've been eating homemade pancakes every weekend since forever, and I must have made them literally a hundred times. It's easy, it's quick, and I've got the whole routine down pat.

But sometimes, I feel like going all out and start preparing for weekend brunch the night before. Hence, brioche french toast was born.

Image 1. Finished product. Glorious.

It's a lot of work, but it will be worth it, I promise.

Let's start with the brioche, shall we?