A friend was having a taco-themed birthday and asked me to help with the cooking. The week before I had discovered just how easy and delicious homemade corned beef was. “Self,” I said, “I think it’s time for some fusion!”

WARNING: You are curing meat, which means you’re dealing both with potentially deadly pathogens and toxic substances. Double check measurements, keep curing salt – which is generally dyed pink – away from children and other seasonings. I like Putting Food By as a resource on all things curing and canning.

These tacos were amazing. They played. You just need to start 10 days ahead of time.

Step 1, make the corned beef

• 1 whole brisket, about 5 lbs
• 120g kosher salt
• 12g pink curing salt
• 5 crushed bay leaves
• A lot of pepper

Puncture meat with a fork 20-30 times per side. Combine dry ingredients and rub all over meat. Put meat into a vaccum sealed bag or ziplock with all the air forced out via water immersion. Place in coldest part of fridge for 7-10 days, flipping once per day.

After the cure, pull the meat out and rince off under cold water. Using either sous vide or a very low simmer, cook at 160-170 degrees for 8-10 hours. Remove from heat, immerse in cooled cooking liquid and refridgerate 4 hours or overnight. It will be better if you can let it go overnight.

Step 2, make the spicy slaw the day of

• 1 medium green cabbage
• 1/4 cup sriracha
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2tbsp course brown mustard
• salt and pepper

Core and thinly slice the cabbage, salt heavily and put in collander for 30 minutes. Rinse salt with cold water and dry in salad spinner. Dress with ingredients, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refridgerate until needed.

Step 3, make the Sriracha Island sauce

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sriracha
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup dill pickles, diced
• 2 hard boiled eggs, diced
• salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together. Cover and refridgerate until needed.

Step 4, make the cool topping for the spicy-impaired

• 2 lbs sugar snap peas, ends cleaned up
• 8oz queso fresco
• salt, pepper, juice from 2 limes, and olive oil

Slice the snap peas into 1/8”” strips on the bias. Crumble the queso. Toss together with salt, pepper and olive oil. Cover and refridgerate until needed, then toss with a bunch of lime juice.

Step 5, wake up the corned beef, grill the tortillas.

Corned beef likes to be steamed or simmered just before serving. Cut thin slices across the grain and build the tacos.

Over the 2013/2014 winter break, I decided that I wanted to get better at baking bread. I’ve made bread a few times over the years, but never really been happy with the results. Since then, I’ve baked probably 30 loaves and am starting to achieve competence. The recipe I use is a blend of Julia Child and Jacques Pepin’s approaches.

I started with vanilla Jacques Pepin Gros Pain recipe. I really Pepin’s recipes because they tend to be the easiest version that works. This was no exception.

The next question was how it compared to Julia’s recipes, which many friends swear by. I started with this gem of a video from the French Chef.

Using the kneading technique and rise from this recipe, I A:B tested Jacques and Julia’s recipes.

They ended up very similar, although testers preferred Julia’s crumb and Jacques crust. After lots of experiments, this is my current go-to bread recipe.

Mk 1 Mod 0 Bread…

• 17.5 ounces of bread flour + 2 tablespoons
• (additional flour as needed for dusting, hand, rise)
• 12.6 ounces of water
• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt
• 1 packages of instant, rapid rise yeast
• (optional) tablespoon of fresh cut herbs, such as rosemary, very finely diced

Whisk dry ingredients (including herbs if desired) together in large bowl, add water. Stir to almost combine, dump onto floured counter. Gently bring mixture together, should be extremely soft and sticky. Let dough rest for a couple of minutes. Add as little additional flour as needed to enable to pick up and knead the dough like Julia does in the video, for 6-8 minutes.

Pull dough into ball, drop into oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit until tripled in volume. Punch down, add in 2 table spoons of flour and work in until dough is smooth again. Repeat rise step.

Shape the dough into either one large batard or two baguettes, using Julia’s technique from video. Allow to rise for 30-60 minutes, covered (or in cold oven).

Make several shallow cuts across top, dust with flour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Add loaves and add humidity to oven with 4-5 spritzes from spray bottle of water. Wait 3 minutes.

4-5 spritzes. Wait 3 minutes.

Rotate loaves in oven. If just one, spin 180 degrees. If two, spin both 180 degrees and swap top and bottom positions. 4-5 spritzes. Wait 3 minutes.

4-5 spritzes. Wait 5 minutes.

4-5 spritzes. Wait 5 minutes.

Total baking time 18-20 minutes, internal temperature should be nearly 200 degrees, crust should be very firm and golden. A tapped loaf should feel very firm. I usually pull the load here, although letting it go another 5 minutes or so doesn’t seem to change much.

To add flavor, get sourdough starter going. 2:1 ratio of water to flour in a covered but not airtight container. Once it starts bubbling, add approximately 1:1 flour and water by weight (around 1oz each) every day. By the end of a week, you should have some excellent flavors going and the ratio will be roughly 1:1 by weight, so scoop out 4 to 6oz and add to recipe, the subtract one half of the total from flour and water amounts. For example, if you add 6oz of starter, you’d go with:

• 14.5 ounces of bread flour (17.5 ounces in original recipe - 3 ounces of flour in starter)
• 9.6 ounces of water (12.6 ounces in original recipe - 3 ounces of water in starter)

I still add packaged yeast in addition to the yeast in the starter.

Oh, yeah, don’t forget the fresh butter.

Fresh, homemade butter…

• 1 pint of heavy whipping cream (best quality you can find)
• salt to taste

Put the cream in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Put the spurs to it and make whipped cream. Keep going until the whipped cream starts looking over whipped.

Switch to paddle attachment and use plastic wrap to make a tent around the stand mixer, because it’s about to get messy. High speed with the paddle and wait. And wait. Get to the point that you think you’ve screwed up and nothing is going to happen. Keep mixing. Suddenly the cream will separate into solids (the butter) and buttermilk. Slow down and keep mixing until the butter begins to clump.

Transfer to cheese cloth or a fine strainer and use a spatula or wooden spoon to press liquid out of butter. You can dunk the butter in ice water to keep it solid between squeezes. Goal is to get all the liquid out. You can keep it and it works well as a substitute for water in bread, but it’s not acidic buttermilk yet, so don’t use it in recipes that need the pH hit. Still need to research how to make it into real buttermilk.

Work salt into the solids with a spoon or spatula, press the solids into a block with wax paper, and refrigerate until you’re read to. Like all butter, let come to room temperature for best flavor.

This has been a go-to party recipe, but wanted it today so I made it. Greatly improved by importing techniques from Fried Chicken and Waffles recipe. Lost of steps, but all pretty easy.

The fish… > 4 (or more) fresh, farm-raised Catfish filets (one per two people or so)

The drying mix (same as Fried Chicken and Waffles recipe )… > 1 cup corn starch
> 4 tablespoons kosher salt
> 2 teaspoons baking powder

Cut the catfish filets in half lengthwise through the seam in the muscle, then cut each half into two or three pieces. Toss them in the drying mix and set aside.

The wet coat…
> 1 cup cornstarch
> 1 cup all purpose flour
> 1 teaspoon baking powder
> 2 tablespoons kosher salt
> 1 tablespoon Penzeys Northwoods Fire (blend of coarse flake salt, paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary and garlic)
> 1 1/4 cups vodka
> 1 cup water

Whisk the dry ingredients together fully, then stir in water and vokda. Should be very liquid, barely forming ribbons off of whisk.

The dry coat…

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pulverized corn flakes (1 cup of corn meal works as a replacement)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Penzeys Northwoods Fire

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Heat peanut oil to 350 degrees. Working in batches, dip pieces in wet coat, shake off excess and dredge in dry coat, shaking off excess. Carefully place in oil and dry for 3-4 minutes, adjusting flame to keep oil close to 350 degrees. Remove with spider to drying rack.

The pickled peppers…

4-6 jalapeno peppers
4-6 carrots, sweet bell peppers, radishes
1 1/2 cups of vinegar
1 cup of water
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of kosher salt

Bring water, vingar, salt and sugar to a boil. Cut peppers etc. Toss peppers into liquid, boil for 1 minute, kill the heat. Put peppers into Bell jars and cover with liquid. Ready to eat in 3 hours or store in fridge once cooled.

The slaw…

1 head of cabbage
Good quality mustard and mayonnaise
Kosher salt and pepper

Peal off any dried or damaged outer leaves, then split in half and remove the core. Thinly slice changing your angle regularly to get a mix of sizes and textures. Toss the cabbage with salt and pepper, adding mustard and mayo approximately 1:1 until just coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

The tortillas…

Masa Harina
Hot water
Kosher salt

Mix masa per package directions. Make tortillas on griddle. If you have a gas stove, finish directly over burner just before eating.

Assemble tacos, give a shot of lime juice to brighten up just before diving in. Tasty goodness.

Apparently, Glazed Doughnut Bistro in Los Angeles makes a Fried Chicken Doughnut. But the only time I could swing by was at 7am and they weren’t open. What kind of doughnut place isn’t open at 7am?! (Answer: a doughnut shop that’s trying to make a name for itself in West Hollywood!)

So I decided to make them. First, I made the fried chicken from the Fried Chicken and Waffles recipe, except I cut the thighs into quarters. Then I modified the doughnuts from the Maple-glazed, Apple Bacon Doughnuts recipe (essentially, ditch the apples and juice, add a bit more milk.) The results played out very well.

And a line of them ready to go.

It all worked. The fried chicken stayed crispy, the doughnuts fluffy. In the future, I think the chicken needs to be in even smaller chunks – probably each thigh into 6-8 pieces and go for a larger, thicker doughnut than normal so that it’s possible to stuff the doughnut rather than crimping too doughnuts together.

This is a blend of Korean BBQ wing and classic southern techniques. They rule.

The chicken… > 10 chicken thighs with their skin on, bones removed (the butcher should do this for you)

The drying mix… > 1 cup corn starch
> 4 tablespoons kosher salt
> 2 teaspoons baking powder

Cut thighs in half along the gap between muscles so you have 20 pieces. Put mix in a large ziplock bag, shake around to mix, then toss thighs 4 at a time to coat. Shake off excess mix and put them on a drying rack for at least 30 minutes or overnight in refrigerator. This step dries out the surface for a crisper fry.

The wet coat…
> 1 cup cornstarch
> 1 cup all purpose flour
> 1 teaspoon baking powder
> 2 tablespoons kosher salt
> 1 tablespoon Penzeys Northwoods Fire (blend of coarse flake salt, paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary and garlic)
> 1 1/4 cups vodka
> 1 cup water

Whisk the dry ingredients together fully, then stir in water and vokda. Should be very liquid, barely forming ribbons off of whisk.

The dry coat…

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pulverized corn flakes (1 cup of corn meal works as a replacement)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Penzeys Northwoods Fire

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Heat peanut oil to 350 degrees. Working in batches, dip thighs in wet coat, shake off excess and dredge in dry coat, shaking off excess. Carefully place in oil and dry for 8 minutes, adjusting flame to keep oil close to 350 degrees. Remove with spider to drying rack. Hope your fellow cook has kept up with the waffles.

The waffles…

The dry team…

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch kosher salt

Mix the dry team together. Make a well in the center.

The wet team…

1 cup half n’ half
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the egg yolks and rest of the wet team together. Add to the dry team, and fold together until combined but not completely smooth. Whip the egg whites until barely stiff peaks, then fold the whites into the rest of the batter.

Follow directions on your waffle iron to make the waffles.

Finally, the sauce…

2 parts Grade B maple syrup
1 part Sriracha sauce

Mix the syrup and Sriracha sauce together. Place chicken on a waffle and drizzle sauce on top.