Gyeran mari (Korean omelet)

[valoise]

I watched this video when it was first posted. I'd been thinking about buying a new nonstick pan and this gave me a perfect reason to do it.  The recipe was posted on the Bon Apetit web page and on their web page. It really does help to watch the omelet being made to grasp the technique.

Ingredients
5 large eggs
2Tbsp. mirin
½ tsp. white or regular soy sauce
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 oz. Parmesan, shaved with a vegetable peeler
6 seasoned toasted seaweed snacks

Whisk eggs, mirin, soy sauce, and salt in a 2-cup measuring glass. Heat oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low. Pour in one third of egg mixture, rotating skillet to evenly distribute. Cook until egg is mostly cooked, about 1 minute. Scatter one third of Parmesan over and shingle 2 seaweed snacks vertically down the center. Using a rubber spatula and starting from one side, fold egg up and over itself to roll up tightly; push to one side. Repeat cooking process with half of remaining egg mixture, Parmesan, and seaweed snacks, then flip existing egg roll over onto flat egg and roll up again. Repeat one more time with remaining ingredients. Transfer gyeran mari to a plate and let cool 5 minutes. Slice into ½"-thick pieces.

Watch on YouTube

I ate this first fresh for lunch yesterday and cold today for breakfast. It was good both warm and cold, but a little too salty. I think I'll make it again and reduce the amount of salt a little.

buttermilk bread, for some values of 'buttermilk'

[alexseanchai]

Tea and cocoa are vastly improved by adding dairy, and coffee is near undrinkable without that splash of half and half. The cheapest way to get half and half is from Costco by the half gallon. I do not drink dairy nearly fast enough to get through an entire half gallon before it starts smelling off enough that I cannot drink it. It's not undrinkable, to be clear, but my taste buds say No, and I drink dairy fastest of anybody in the house.

I got bored of pouring the dairy down the drain.

So it turns out soured milk can be used for the same things buttermilk can. And it happens that my favorite cookbook, The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathnell German, has a recipe for buttermilk bread. Quantities below are for the medium variant of the recipe, since I wasn't sure enough it'd taste good to make the large:

1 cup water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1.5 teaspoons sugar
0.75 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour
0.25 cups buttermilk powder
2 teaspoons yeast

A problem is immediately obvious.

So I bothered bisexualbaker and checked the nutrition facts on both the first buttermilk powder on DuckDuckGo and the half and half, and ey advised me to substitute half and half for the water and also sugar for the buttermilk powder. (Give or take the couple teaspoons of sugar already in the recipe. I heaped the quarter cup a little.) So I did this thing, and ran the bread machine on dough cycle because this machine bakes weird, and I baked it according to the directions later in the book for baguettes:

When the dough cycle is done, halve the dough, roll each half flat, and roll those up to be two baguettes. Cover with a cloth and let rise 20 to 30 minutes. Bake at 400° Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until golden.

(I find it helpful to turn the oven on, then, ideally the moment the digital display flips from 100° to 105°, turn the oven off and stick the baking sheet full of dough in there, with the oven light on so I remember there is cloth in there before I preheat the oven for the actual baking. That gives the dough a warm place to rise without risking curious cats putting their paws in it, neither of which is true of the kitchen counter this time of year. It might work with a colder oven, but the thing is, the display doesn't admit to lower temperatures than 100°, so I only know the oven has warmed up past the current room temperature of like 65° when it says it's at 105° and climbing. I do not want it to climb far, though, as the objective here is rising, not yet baking.)

…Long story short, I should've done the large dough. Possibly also put more butter on the bread and less in it? It didn't rise as much as I wanted, anyway, but it's lovely and savory and already half gone. Excellent, I have solved the problem of discarding the dairy.


ETA, later: Warming the dairy first also helps.