Random cooking notes to myself

[tuftears]

* Bake bacon in oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, not 20. 20 gives you almost charcoal.
* Bake Trader Joe's Apple Blooms at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, not 350 degrees at 15. It's still icy in the middle otherwise.
* After boiling ramen noodles, bake them at 400 degrees for 50 minutes, shaped in individual portion discs or squares, for making delicious "pan-fried" noodle stirfries.
* Make microwave popcorn easily: 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels at 2:30 minutes in the microwave in a safe bowl with cover, with 2 teaspoons of ghee or butter-flavored olive oil and a dash of salt mixed in.

Feel free to pop any cooking questions you have but I don't guarantee to know the answers. -_-

Comments

[archangelbeth]

Heck, I just pop the popcorn in a modified coffee-pitcher (sold as a microwave popcorn thingie, so the modification came at the factory) without anything. Mmmmm, plain warm popcorn!

[tuftears]

I could do that, like I said, it's just a microwave safe bowl and cover, but I prefer my popcorn with a bit of butter and salt. Ghee and butter-flavor olive oil are both shelf-stable butter substitutes that work without needing you to melt them separately though, which is nice!

[archangelbeth]

Oh, well, if you WANT additional flavors... ^_^
I'm weird. I like plain popcorn.

[tuftears]

As I see it, the popcorn is just a vehicle for additional flavor - it provides texture, and you can flavor it in lots of different ways. :) Some people even put tamari on theirs.

[archangelbeth]

But then you can't taste the coooooorn!

[xyzzysqrl]

*raise hand*
I want elaboration on the ramen noodle thing. Do you just boil and bake, or what happens there?

[tuftears]

It's almost as simple as I make it sound! Let me go over the procedure step by step to make sure I'm not leaving something out.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Get started cooking your sauce. Pretty nearly any kind of stir-fry will do as long as the pieces are small.

While you are doing this, boil water, cook noodles until al dente; drain in a collander. I use 'Chinese Noodles' from Whole Foods which makes just enough for 4 per package, but you could use one ramen package per person.

Oil a baking pan (I put aluminum foil on top for easy cleanup, then lightly oil that surface) and then use tongs to put individual servings on it. I actually put them in one of my sandwich-sized "meal containers" and then invert it over the baking pan to ensure that the noodles will match my container, but if you're serving a family, you just need them to be small-plate-sized.

You can optionally spritz a bit of cooking spray on top of the noodles but, you're covering the noodles with sauce eventually anyway, no one cares that it doesn't brown on both sides.

Place in oven, bake 'em for 50 minutes or so - you can turn the oven light on and verify they're done enough.

Your stirfry should get done somewhere in this. My recipe is something like this though the link shows an oven-baked brown rice crust instead.

Once the timer goes off, pop them out of the oven, let them cool off a bit, then use a spatula or your own fingers to pry them off of the baking sheet. (this is why the oil is useful)

Pan-frying your noodles in an oiled frying pan is tastier and looks better, but it takes a lot of time, and this process guarantees me noodles that will fit in a container; I pour stir-fry into the container, then put the noodle-square on top and freeze them for later.

[xyzzysqrl]

Ah-ha! The way I read it, you boil ramen noodles and then put them in the oven and (???) and stir-fry comes out somehow.

Your way makes MUCH more sense.

[tuftears]

Alas, the stirfry is generally best prepared separately! I mean, if you really wanted, I'm sure you could figure out a way to bake them together but then you wind up with something like a baked-noodle topped casserole.

... hm, that might actually work, but I'm pretty sure you still have to at least brown the meat first. If you put your pan up close to the broiler, that might be enough to make sure the noodles are brown and crunchy in a shorter baking time. It would require experimenting.

[zhora]

What about baking them on parchment instead of using oil?

I've been experimenting with moroheiya noodles lately in place of ramen and other noodles (like spaghetti). I keep meaning to try making turketti with them...maybe that's what I'll prepare in a bit (takes two days according to my mom's recipe).

[tuftears]

I haven't tried it, I would guess it should work. :) I'm not overly concerned with the small amount of oil I use here; the big win is the time saving over frying each noodle patty one at a time in a wok or frying pan.

[zhora]

I was just thinking it would be one less pan to wash. :D

[tuftears]

You're not supposed to wash baking trays, evidently. :) Just wipe 'em clean.

[zhora]

Heh! Makes sense with how hard they are to completely scrub clean! XD

[tuftears]

Yeah, they don't seem to hold up that well in the dishwasher, this is why I cover mine with aluminum foil before baking whatever it is.