Korean Bugogi Beef

 

Korean Bulgogi Beef for dinner!  Cooked on a Field Company Number 8 skillet and matching cover.  I skewed the cover slightly to allow some steam to escape.

Yum!

Homemade Chicken Tamales

 

My wife wanted chicken tamales, so we decided to make them!  This is our first attempt and we followed the recipe on this video: https://youtu.be/XFwHkwUddZQ 

My wife does not like certain ingredients, so we took out most of everything on the recipe!  We removed the jalapeño peppers, the onions, the cilantro, and the garlic.  So what's left?!

Well, we kept the tomatillos with cumin.  Yeah, that's about it.  Ok, my wife added some salt in there as well.  And she added some sugar and some baking soda to counteract the acidic taste of the tomatillos.  But believe it or not, it still wasn't too bad!  Oh... yeah we took out the lard in the recipe for the masa too.  I substituted a cup of canola oil instead.  Going forward, my wife wants me to skip the oil and just add more chicken stock.  Not sure how that would turn out, but I'm willing to give that a try one day.

Steamed in my double decker steamer for one hour.  I added water a couple of times just to be sure it did not run out, but the steamer has a large section for the water so it was always in good shape.

Even though so much was removed, overall, the tamales were still very good!  It was not hard at all to make really.  Worth trying if you are in the mood for some modified Mexican tamales.  Or, make it the way the recipe says if you are ok with those ingredients.  Overall, the masa made the taste authentic as well as having the cumin in the sauce.  

The tamales are way too thick with the Masa.  It should be spread with a thin amount of Masa.  I did not realize this.  Also, the masa needs to be more wet compared to how I mixed it.  I'll know better for next time.

Dutch Oven Bread

 

Made bread once again, but this time, I wanted to try a recipe from Tasty:  https://youtu.be/91ZXVw58Ths

I followed the directions as stated in the recipe, but suggest not removing the cover for the last 15 minutes during the baking as the video says.  Doing so, the top of the bread darkens way too fast and was on the verge of getting burned.  The photo above was taken about 35 minutes into the total 45 minute baking time.

I used parchment  paper inside the dutch oven to make it easier to remove the bread.

Overall, the bread was decent, but I feel the Challah bread was far better.  This bread however, had good crunch to the crust and I baked it until the internal temperature reached 190 degrees.

Homemade Challah Bread - First Time Making Bread

 

This was the first time attempting to make bread and it turned out great!

The recipe was found here: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-challah-bread-181004 

I followed the instructions to a tee and my wife braided the bread for me with the six braid method.

Overall, I'd say we did really great!  To see a video of the process, go here: https://youtu.be/2CoIJcdIhC4 

Edit Note: A second loaf was made the next day that tasted better.  It's a bit sweeter.  This recipe is most likely better in my opinion: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/four-strand-braided-challah-recipe