stay tuned- 5 course dinner just happened

for real, the 5 course dinner picture and recipes will be made available one post at a time starting very soon!

Helen's glorified fudge

OK

So I always talk about my brownies, which I lovingly refer to as glorified fudge. Why is that Helen? Funny you ask...it's because I love my brownies super chewy, stick to your teeth, chocolatey and underbaked. And YES they are delicious this way! They are made with barely any flour, and if you eat them hot out of the oven, you better use a spoon because it is literally just like warm fudge.

Really, make them yourself. This is my own recipe that I have perfected after much trial and error, so I promise it is no fluke! I will admit I was inspired by a former co-worker who was attending culinary school. Shout out to Liam just in case you ever see this.
If you are really nice to me or if I'm feeling really nice, I'll make these for you as a gift from my heart. <3


Glorified Fudge
1 stick sweet cream butter (also known as unsalted)
1 bar semisweet baker's chocolate (about 3.5 ounces or 100 g)
1 cup (or 1 1/4 cup if you like things sweet...but brownies are about the chocolate and candy is about the sweet, right?) granulated sugar
2 eggs MUST BE ROOM TEMPERATURE
1 cup flour
1/2 cup (two handfuls....if you have hands my size) chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (PURE, HK does not play games)

create
1. Preheat oven to 360º F. Get a 9x13 or 8x8 pan ready by buttering it up.
2.  Melt butter with chocolate, I use the microwave most of the time, but I have done the double boiler before when I feel inspired. Either will work,
3.  Transfer butter chocolate goop to mixing bowl and add sugar. Stir until well mixed. Sugar doesn't have to melt. And, most of the time, it won't.
4. Carefully temper and incorporate the eggs into butter/choc. How do I do this? Take a small amount of butter/choc mixture and stir into room temperature eggs. Then, stir this mixture back into the mixing bowl with the rest of the butter/choc.
5. Optional: stir in vanilla if you want to use it. I can never tell the difference myself, so it's up to you.
6. Stir in chocolate chips. This is not optional.
7. Spread batter evenly in a baking tin and bake for 16 minutes if using the 9x13; 20 minutes if using the 8x8, or until the top is slightly cracked if your oven is uneven/messed up.
Note: baking for this suggested amount of time will leave you with GLORIFIED FUDGE, but if you want real brownies you can add on 2-3 extra minutes of baking time. But, let's be real who wants that?


The secret recipe is out.

just eat,
HK

PS- shoutout to Sky my baking buddy on this project. Props to her for baking with me and taking/providing the picture.

Helen's attempt at Thai Green Curry

Hello!

There are just times when I crave Thai green curry. This craving struck me last week when I happened to have thai green curry paste and some Asian ingredients in the fridge. I proceeded to go for it and make a lovely curry. So, the curry paste I found was pretty legit. Like spicier than I thought and a little went a very long way. So, when you carry on with green curry adventures of your own, please start with a little of the green stuff and work your way up...since you probs don't want to burn a hole in your face!

Helen's Attempt at Thai Green Curry
1/2-1 tablespoon of Thai green curry paste. I got it from an Asian market, it has a Thai label so sorry I can't help with letting you know a brand...but isn't it a good sign that there's no English on it?
smidge of oil, maybe a teaspoon
1 can of coconut milk (I used low fat because I don't like my green curry to taste like slightly spicy coconut fat, but if this is your thing go for the regular full fat version)
1/4 - 1/2 cup chicken stock (could be optional, read below)

my curry add in's
2 Japanese eggplants (partially peeled, sliced on a bias and then into finger sized strips, and lightly sauteed in vegetable oil till slightly browned)
Firm, crispy skinned tofu (you can find this in Asian markets. Make thin slices. If you want it extra crispy, go ahead and saute this in some veg oil too, until brown and even more crispy!)
1 can of baby corn (rinsed, drained, and I go ahead and blanch them to get rid of the "tin" taste)
1/2 a pepper, 1/2 an onion, 2 cups of mushrooms (cook this together in some sort of fat. butter, oil, your choice, till its nice and brown and the mushrooms have lost a good amount of liquid)
1/3 cup of peas/carrots (this is straight up American of me, I won't even pretend. I had it on hand. don't use it if you hate peas or carrots or both
handful or two of thai basil leaves, depending on how obscene you want the basil flavor to be
depending on if this is the vegetarian meal or not...and depending on if I have leftovers to use, I add in some precooked chicken bits. yum.

make it work:
1. Fry the curry paste in the oil for literally 30 seconds or so, and then add the coconut milk. Stir to incorporate the curry into the coconut milk. This will be your yumtastic curry sauce. Let this simmer in the corner if you need to prepare the other stuff, like cook the eggplant or crisp the tofu. Make sure you taste your mixture. Too much curry? too intense? too much coconut? add the stock! not spicy enough? add more paste GRADUALLY. And keep in mind, this is going to cook down so flavors do concentrate....
2.  Dump in the add-ins. Is there an order? Well, think about what you want to soak up the most curry flavor and what you don't want to be a soggy, gross mush. For real, this can happen. I usually put the tofu in first, let it simmer for 3 minutes, then dump all the rest of the stuff.
3. Let this mish mash of curry stuff simmer for another 5-10 minutes on low, until the little bits have soaked up just the right amount of curry (which is obvi based on preference)
4.  I can imagine eating this by itself, but I like rice, so I serve it over rice. yumsville.

吃
HK

late night hashbrowns- mistake or genius?

Since the day I moved in to my current house, I spied a bag of hashbrowns in the freezer. Like, it hung out in the freezer and practically taunted me. They have gone unclaimed for about 3 months and trust me, it took a lot of self control to not just cook them. I'm really into hashbrowns.

I don't know exactly inspired it, but my housemate Hillary suggested that we just cook them. It was 11 pm and I guess it was time for an almost midnight snack. We threw it together and enjoyed it while watching "I Used to be Fat" (because "You're Cut Off" wasn't on).  Try out this creation if you too have a bag of mysterious hashbrowns chilling out in your freezer (whoa, I just made a funny and didn't even try).

Hil and Hel's Gross-good Hashbrowns
1 tablespoon of veg oil and an obscene amount of butter (at least 2 tablespoons)
1 bag of frozen hashbrowns. this is what we used, but I'm sure you could be a real person and grate the potatoes yourself or use something of a higher quality than what we used. ha
2 small onions roughly chopped up
1/4 bell pepper chopped up
cheese of your choice (pinch, fistfull, whatever!)

Lets the l-o-l's begin
1. Heat up the oil/fats in a large pan
2. When butter starts to sass you and make noises or smell nutty, add the onions and peppers. Let them fry around for about a minute.
3. Add the hashbrowns. cook to your liking. I like mine really brown and this took an amount of time that I do not quite remember since Hil and I were chatting away. 10 minutes?
4. After hashbrowns are browned, add cheese. how much? who knows. Which kind? I did mozzarella but I'm sure many other cheese options would be good too
5. Serve it with salsa or be a real college kid, and eat it with packets of ketchup you stole from BK.

giggles
HK