Pizza for peasants, just sounded right in my head

Mi Cocina:

Hey guys, Nico here, long time no see.

Not that anyone actually reads this, nor can you see or hear me.

But long time no see. Last time i posted was winter, it’s now spring. Consistency’s the name of the game

So, i didn’t do as good of a job taking pictures of the process creating the different components to my culinary creation as I did last time, rather just pictures of the finished product.. which helps you: 0%

first things first, or in the case of this post - first things fifth - I found another suuuuper legit bottle of wine for 9.99

Doesn't even have a vintage year on it, neither is it TESCO selected. BUT it's got the guys signature on it. ya win some ya lose some

Music: spotify's discover weekly

anyways… I decided to make pizza today - i guess keeping up with an “italian" theme

FYI I just licked a chili flake off of my keyboard - YOLO, ya know.

I made dos pizzas with homemade ricotta, buckwheat crust (gluten free for you paleo idiots) although nothing else is paleo on this pizza, mozz, spinach pesto-ish sauce, and some different toppings

for the crust: 1.5 cups buckwheat flour, .5 tblsp of olive oil, .5 C agua, and .5 tsp sal, I split the dough in half to make two pizzas

para ze ricotta (that's spanish and maybe a french accent): bring milk to a boil in a pot, add vinegar or lemon juice until the milk starts to curdle, let it sit 15 mins then strain it out. 

ZOOM, science (ahem, tina)

fo da sauce: 2 garlic cloves, chili flake, .75 C olive oil, salt and a cup of fresh spinach. whirl that shit up in a blender.  

zoom, less enthusiastically, science wins again. 
(don't you guys love inside jokes)

you can dunk shredded chicken in the pesto as an appetizer, or mozzarella cheese

pizza numero uno: features pumpkin, daikon and apple roasted in coconut oil plus some walnuts atop the afore mentioned components.

pizza numero dos: roasted mushroom and cherry tomatoes in coconut oil. also, can you guess, atop the afore mentioned components

Primero: (that's spanish for first)

              

Segundo: (that's spanish for second)

Finito, then you kiss your fingers like you're italian.

When life gives you hagwons… get drunk alone and make gnocchi

Hi, I’m nico - a wannabe wine snob and salt addict.

Although my current kitchen is smaller than what I’m used to, I’m grateful that it’s bigger than many others i’ve seen in the past months I've spent in Korea.

I’ve got two gas burners and a washing machine right under so i can eat right from my stove while i do laundry, dreams really do come true. I have an extra area with a lot of counter space, and I wanted to be a diva and show off for my first post - so I made gnocchi, got drunk, and ate all of it - and i’m gonna teach you how.

Gnocchi: 1 cup flour, 1 cooked and mashed russet potato, 1 egg

Any vegetables you have on hand, I had pumpkin, shrooms, carrot, garlic, onion, broccoli, a small hot pepper

Salt/Pepp Chili Flake, olive oil, lemon

PS current music mode: leon bridges

That's my kitchen and a bag of trash

 

this is what I'm drinkin, TESCO selected guys - it's legit

Okay so to make gnocchi you need four ingredients: flour, egg, mashed potato, and beauty 

one: combine flour and mashed pot, make a well in the center - beat an egg in it

two: flour your plams, combine ingredients together (knead two or three times, don't over-knead) then make this shape

three: cut into fourths

four: roll each one out like this, with your hands and start from the center

finve: cut into mini pasta pillows

     

These bitches are goin to the tuuuuub

boil 3-4 minutes, until they float to the top and no longer than a few seconds (reserve some of this cooking liquid)

put some vegetables you've got on hand into a screaming hot pan with olive oil, embrace the char (i added chili flake and lots of salt), add the cooked gnocchi until also charred. Finish with some of the reserved pasta water until evaporated. Turn off head - finish with desired amount of olive oil/lemon

A Salad (no I'm not kidding)

 Hi, I'm Zeke and I have an addiction.

This is a picture of my kitchen at its cleanest. It's cluttered at the best of times.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she beautiful?

I love my kitchen right now. It's bigger than some of my apartments here in Korea have been. That being said, that's all of it. Not a lot of counter space. Only two burners. Colder than a witches teat. The other day I threw out half a dozen eggs because they had frozen and cracked open while sitting on the counter. True story. Today, I'm going to make a salad. Anyone who knows me will think I've been hacked, but no this really happened.

Current mood: Confused? Scared? Afraid of wolves? 
Sounds: My neighbors' baby and a yipping dog 
Drink: Either Merlot or Cab. Sav. 
Time: Probably much less than 2 hours



 I decided to make a salad. I eat salads ALL THE TIME, easily every other time there's a lunar eclipse or so. When I eat a salad I want it to be tasty and kinda non-salady. I knew I had some olives and salami in my fridge so I decided to make a sweet vinaigrette.

 These are the things I used (plus the wine {yes, I'm drinking it out of a Starbucks mug with boobs because I'm classy}that made me feel better about making salad)

• 3/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

• 2 table spoons raspberry jam

• eyeballed amount of thyme, oregano, salt, pepper

 I threw everything in my measuring cup and mixed it up with a fork. Fancy stuff.

This is the finished result.

 After that, I got all of my salad stuff together.

• Various greens
• Green olives
• Tomato
• Red and yellow peppers
• Walnuts
• Genoa Salami
• Aged Coastal English Cheddar

 Honestly I don't know what the greens are, partially due to my amateur green eating status and partially because I didn't bother to look up the Korean words. The salami, cheese, and olives all came from my favorite store: Costco. The cheese is really great for salads for two reasons. One, it's super salty. To me all my salty ingredients taste super good with the vinegar and sugar from the jam. B, it crumbles really easily. If you cut it kinda thin, it just falls apart beautifully. I love nuts in salad, especially walnuts. They have a texture that's really unique to me, almost pleasantly chalky.

Who cares about when there were just greens in the bowl?

I rinsed the greens and threw them in. I took all the slicing-required veggies, sliced them, and threw them on top. Probably you know how to make a salad or can figure out the rest anyway.

In the end, it turned out pretty delicious. There was minimal kitchen mess and no disasters occurred. Yay!

All said and done

Cajun Spring Rolls

This is my kitchen. One burner. One ELECTRIC burner. It's a challenging space, but with some creativity it's fine.

~*~THIS IS ONE ELECTRIC BURNER, ONE PAN FRIENDLY~*~

Current mood: It's too cold to go outside for a 15 minute walk to the market
Sounds: Frank Sinatra's Bests via youtube.com
Drink: Some the finest Cab. Sav. from the GS25 on the corner
Time: 2ish hours due to random distractions and I decided to make two batches


This is gonna be all the information that you want:the recipe. Not too much chit-chat that will be skipped over anyways.... Digging through my cupboards I found the randomly purchased Vietnamese rice paper and some Cajun spices. I've never used either of these and don't know how either came into my possession. So I immediately thought "Let's do some mixology here and make some spicy Cajun Spring Rolls". 


I used this amount and it yielded about 7 spring rolls. So add or subtract for what you want.


-4/5 cloves of garlic
-sprinkles and dashes of red pepper flakes for those who like it HOT
-2 red onions
-coconut oil
-maybe like 20ish shrimp
-lime juice
-Cajun Seasoning
-2 big carrots
-18cm rice paper
-chopped cilantro
-lettuce(the stuff you get at BBQ)

• Mince up that garlic real good and toss it in the pan with some coconut oil. Stir it up till it's a tad brown.
• While your waiting on the garlic, dice up those onions. When the time is right, and the garlic is turning it's first shades of brown, toss those onions in. 
• Stir all this up with some squirts of lime juice and some chopped cilantro. Add as much to the flavor you like. While you're waiting, do some side work of chopping up the carrots. When the onions are looking soft, toss in the carrots. I added more coconut oil in during this step also. In my opinion, you can't have too much. It just adds to the flavour. 
• Periodically shimmy and shake some Cajun seasoning in there. Also add in some red pepper flakes.
• When it's nice and good, put them in a separate bowl on the side. 
• Toss in the shrimp and cook till ready. I bought the already cooked ones, so cook the shrimp how you need to with what you bought.

• Sprinkle in some more Cajun Seasoning, because it's great, and sauté the shrimp.
• When they are cooked, take them out and chop them into small pieces.
• Put everything in the pan just for a quick 2 minute sauté  and let everything mix and blend together.

NOW, for the making of the rolls.

• Dip the rice paper in the warm water real fast, flip it, and repeat. Then place on whatever flat surface you have available (I used my cutting board).
• I used one or two leaves of lettuce for each roll and ripped them up a little and placed them down. Then I took about two spoonfuls of the carrot, onion, shrimp mix. Use what you feel is good for you.
• If you wanna add some extra spice, on a few i put a line or two of Siriacha sauce.
• Simply roll them up and put them on a plate.

At this point you've probably drank enough wine and listened to enough Sinatra you're in a real good place, which makes clean up a breeze. 

The Damage

HOW TO ENJOY:

Whatever wine you have leftover from casually drinking while cooking, go ahead, and treat yourself, finish it while enjoying these delectable rolls. Give business to your local GS Man and keep yourself happy. Dip in some rice paper chili sauce found at the markets, and enjoy!