In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
I wish I could convince more people to cook bi-valves and it’s not just because I love them so much. I hear from nearly every novice cook that they are afraid to cook clams and mussels. They just assume it’s going to be difficult. On the contrary, it’s easier than learning how to cook chicken or pork (in my opinion). The key to all proteins is to NOT over-cook them and clams tell you when they’re done. When they open up, they’re done!
This Weekend Shout-out goes to Todd and Diane, of White on Rice Couple, for posting a recipe for sriracha style hot sauce! Make your own sriracha? Yea! As much as I try to make everything, it never even occurred to me to make sriracha. My handy squeeze bottle is always on the left fridge door, and I grew up with that rooster, so I’ve never questioned it. I am flabbergasted by the freshness and new life this sauce takes on. The heat of the chilies perk up the sweetness of the tomatoes, which highlights the rich umami of fish sauce. (Diane, you are so right about the fish sauce.) What genius! It’s as usable as ketchup (put it on my burger last night and my omelet this morning) but so much more sophisticated and twisted, almost evil. I think I’m falling into a mean addiction. I shouldn’t be surprised because nearly everything freshly home-made is better but really, when you didn’t think sriracha could get any better….
Whenever I have left-over steak, it becomes a steak salad or steak sandwich. The reincarnation must be something cold because I cannot stand reheating beef. I want it nice and rare or not at all. The other day, Caroline mentioned Gado Gado in a comment so it was fresh in my mind and I was now craving it, so that’s how this Gado Gado with Beef came about (it doesn’t usually have beef in it).
While I was going to depart from traditions anyway, I decided to take liberties to creating the color scheme I wanted and my dressing is not 100% authentic either. I absolutely love this version though and will make it again just like this for sure. (For a more authentic look, Rasa Malaysia has a great guest post from Indonesia-Eats. )
