Issue 2 - Spring/Summer 2020
Cover by Alex Boccon-Gibod ‘21
instagram: @chopstirhack
Letter from the Editors
Dear reader, From terror to turmoil, this year has shaken the world. However, one of the things we know has remained constant is the need for humans to eat. The pandemic and the protests have served to turn the attention of many to the central role of food in the human experience. We’ve seen increasing food insecurity across the U.S. as well as the exposure of racist practices in food media. From Dalgona coffee to sourdough starters, many have found comfort in the feeling of having control in your kitchen. Food is vital, now more than ever before. We are so blessed at MIT to have a diverse culture that brings together people from many different backgrounds. While most of these recipes and articles were written before our lives irreversibly changed, we hope Chop Stir Hack can serve to document the diversity of student expression through cooking both on campus and at home. As always, don’t be afraid to try something new in the kitchen. Bone Apple Teeth, Alex Boccon-Gibod and Jessica Yen
The Team
Co-Editors-in-Chief
Publicity Director
Content Coordinator
Design Director
Financial Director
Table of Contents Teriyaki Salmon.........................................................................................................................5-6 Recipe by Erica Weng ‘20 Photography by Jessica Yen ‘21 Cream Puffs.................................................................................................................................7-8 Recipe by Anru Tian ‘23 Photography by Ophelia Zhu ‘23 and Kevin Sun Chen ‘23 H31 Meal Plan: A Pop-Up Restaurant.............................................................................9-10 Article & Photography by Brian Xie ‘20 Seafood Paella.........................................................................................................................11-12 Recipe & Photography by Brian Xie ‘20 Nutritional Poetry............................................................... ................................................13-14 Poetry by Erica Flear ‘20 Illustrations by Jessica Yen ‘21 Interview with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt ‘02............................................................................15-18 Interviewed by Danielle Herman ‘21 and Alex Boccon-Gibod ‘21 Illustrations by Jessica Yen ‘21 Beef Udon................................................................................................................................19-20 Recipe & Photography by Jessica Yen ’21 Crispy Pork Belly...................................................................................................................21-22 Recipe by Kat Yang ‘20 Photography by Maxwell Yun ‘21 Pickles.......................................................................................................................................23-24 Recipe by Hantoa Tenwhij ‘21 Photograpy by Anru Tian ‘23 Food in the Time of Coronavirus.....................................................................................25-26 Anonymous Text Submissions Photography by Various (full credits on pg. 27)
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Teriyaki Salmon
My mom’s teriyaki salmon recipe has long been one of my favorites, and it’s always a winner at Asian potluck parties. Seriously, who can resist this flaky salmon dish, each chunk infused with a tang of sweet and savory homemade sauce? I added my own spin to this recipe by searing the salmon in the frying pan before popping it in the toaster oven to bake. This has two effects: sealing the surface of the salmon, preventing the juice from escaping and keeping the center soft and tender, and it providing a visually appealing, golden-brown caramelization to the outside surface. I pair my teriyaki salmon with baked sweet potato, oozing with natural sugars and healthy carotenes, as well as a side of stir-fried chinese broccoli, my go-to vegetable. The result is a hearty meal reminiscent of home—more satisfying than any dish I could get at a 5-star restaurant.
RECIPE Erica Weng ‘20 PHOTOGRAPHY Jessica Yen ‘21
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Ingredients · · · ·
2 filets of salmon 1 c Soy sauce Sesame oil ½ c Sugar
· Chinese broccoli · Onion · Sweet potato
Instructions Teriyaki Salmon: 1. Marinate salmon in soy sauce and sugar. 2. (Optional) Pan fry at medium heat for two minutes on each side to develop nice color on the salmon. 3. Put in oven with leftover marinade at 375°F. Bake for 15 minutes Chinese Broccoli: 1. Add 2 Tbsp oil to a pan. 2. Slice onions and pan fry on medium until golden brown. 3. Wash and chop broccoli into two inch pieces. Pan fry with onions on high heat and season with salt 4. Cook until broccoli stems start to carmelize, stirring for five minutes. Cover with a lid and let cook for 3 minutes. Sweet Potato: 1. Wash sweet poatoes. 2. Place potatoes on tin foil and bake in oven at 450°F for 45 minutes
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Cream Puffs
I love making cream puffs! I started making them during Christmas a few years back in high school when I was making a lot of holiday desserts, like a yule log. I soon realized they were not only delicious but also SO easy to make, and they can lend themselves to many creative variations. One time I made some for my archery banquet but forgot to use non-stick foil, so I had to cut them out. I sincerely hope everyone there noticed and no one ate the foil, oops. Anyway, this recipe is quite a basic one, but feel free to add whatever toppings or flavors you prefer!
Ingredients · 4 Eggs · 1 package Instant vanilla pudding mix · 2 c Heavy cream · 1 c Milk · ½ c Butter · 1 c Water · ½ tsp Salt
· 1 c Flour · Parchment paper · Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar) · 1 pint Raspberries · Extra cream to thin out filling
RECIPE Anru Tian ‘23 PHOTOGRAPHY Ophelia Zhu ‘23 and Kevin Sun Chen ‘23
Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 425°F. 2. In a medium sized pot, bring to a boil the water, butter, and salt. Once water reaches a rolling boil, add flour and salt and mix until mixture forms a ball. 3. Keep cooking for around 1 minute to cook off raw flour taste, then remove from heat and add to a mixing bowl. 4. Let mixture cool for 5 minutes, then add eggs one at a time, making sure each one is thoroughly incorporated (I like to use a spatula and ‘chop’ up the dough into small pieces while incorporating the egg to make it a bit easier). 5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and add dough to a piping bag (or Ziplock bag). Cut off end of bag and pipe dough on to baking sheet. You can do creative shapes at this step, but just remember that the dough will expand when cooking, so leave room between puffs. 6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Take out puffs and let cool. 7. In the meantime, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, cream, and milk to make the filling. Cover and let set in refrigerator. You can customize this step by adding extracts, powders, or fruit, but make sure any added chunks are fine enough to go through the opening of a piping bag. After filling is set, if it becomes too thick, add more cream to thin it out to around the consistency of really thick oatmeal. 8. To fill the puff, insert a paring or butter knife into the bottom of each puff, twist and leave a small opening at the bottom. Add filling to a piping bag and fill each puff. 9. Wash raspberries and fill each raspberry with filling and place one on top of each puff. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve!
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H31 Meal Plan:
By Brian Xie ‘20 Provencal Stuffed Squid
Running an informal pop-up restaurant was a personal project that I wanted to try for a while, especially after I moved into a MacGregor suite with a renovated kitchen. With the encouragement of my suitemates and equipped with plenty of free time over IAP, I decided to give it a try. A couple of friends joked about how they’d pay me to cook for them every day, so I impulsively named my endeavor, “H31 Meal Plan,” or H31MP for short (I live in MacGregor House, H entry, 3rd floor, 1st suite). Every Thursday and Sunday, I’d have a group of people over for brunch and dinner. There was no set menu. Instead, each group described their food preferences through a sign up form I created, and I tailored each meal to the group’s preferences. In order to eliminate all barriers to entry, H31MP was completely free, and I encouraged anyone from the MIT community to sign up. In total, I hosted 14 groups and served 46 people from various class years and backgrounds. Cooking-wise, H31MP was a great learning opportunity. I experimented with unfamiliar cooking techniques and new dishes based on the requests I got. One group included a pollo-pescetarian and two soup enthusiasts, so I made a bouillabaisse, a seafood stew from southern France. Cooking for larger groups also made me more cognizant of timing and the necessity of multitasking to ensure everything finished cooking at the same time. Korean Fried Chicken
A Pop-up Restaurant
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大盘鸡 The social value I gained from H31MP was perhaps even more important than the cooking experience itself. I connected with friends, met awesome people (about half of the participants I met for the first time), and enjoyed some great conversations. I typically do a lot of solo dining, and H31MP was a nice change of pace. Would I run a pop-up restaurant again in the future? Certainly not at the same scale—running H31MP was a big time and monetary commitment. However, I would be more than happy to occasionally host poker and dinner with friends or by request. H31MP was a great experience, and I’m so glad that I went out of my comfort zone and decided to go for it. One of my favorite dishes I made for H31MP was seafood paella, which I share recipe for on the next page.
Warm Almond Cake
ARTICLE & PHOTOGRAPHY Brian Xie ‘20
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Seafood Paella
Paella is one of my favorite recipes—it’s delicious, versatile, and great for parties! The vibrant colors and arrangement of seafood is sure to impress. You can add whatever protein you want—I often make it with just chicken thigh and shrimp when I don’t have fresh seafood. Saffron is available at Trader Joe’s, and bomba rice is available on Amazon.
Ingredients · ⅔ c Rice (ideally bomba or calasparra) · 6 Shrimp · ½ lb Squid tube · 6 Littleneck clams · 10 Mussels · 1 Onion · 3 Garlic cloves · Parsley · Lemon
Paella with Chicken
· ⅓ c Olive oil · ½ c White wine · 2-2.5 c Chicken stock (fish stock if you have it) · 1 Tbsp Tomato paste · Salt · Pepper · Paprika · Cumin · 0.5g Saffron
RECIPE & PHOTOGRAPHY Brian Xie ‘20
Instructions 1. Prep your ingredients: Peel and devein shrimp. Carefully clean clams and mussels. Chop calamari into small pieces. Dice onion. Peel and finely chop garlic. 2. Heat chicken stock in a pot on medium-low heat. Add shrimp shells to the broth. If you have extra clams or mussels, add them to the broth to infuse more seafood flavor. 3. Generously season calamari and shrimp with salt and pepper. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat with plenty of olive oil. Fry calamari for a few minutes until half cooked. Remove and set aside. Do the same with shrimp. 4. Sauté onions for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, continue to sauté for a few minutes. 5. Add rice and sauté for a few minutes, ensuring the rice is coated with oil. Add white wine, stir, until mostly boiled off. 6. Add calamari, tomato paste, pepper, paprika, and cumin. Remove solids from stock and pour all of the liquid into the pan. Add saffron. Gently ensure that the rice forms an even layer at the bottom of the pan. 7. Cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, or until the stock is half absorbed. 8. Arrange mussels, clams, and shrimp in the pan, pushing them in to ensure the clams and mussels are fully submerged. Cook until the broth has entirely been absorbed. 9. Make the soccarat (crispy part at the bottom of the rice). Drizzle over some olive oil, turn the heat up to high, and cook for a few minutes. 10. Take the pan off the heat, cover, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. 11. Dust with some more paprika. Serve with lemon wedges and chopped parsley on the side. Enjoy!
Seafood Paella
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Nutritional Poetry Calcium: A Limerick For calcium seek dairy and greens Spinach and kale, but not beans Without it you’ll see Bones break easily And for strong teeth you’ll be without means
Vitamin Haikus No Vitamin A And nothing shall you see now Try carrots, spinach Losing hair, thin nails It’s Biotin that you need Eat well, cook your eggs When tired, and gray With no vegetables in sight Seek them, for folate
POETRY Erica Flear ‘20 ILLUSTRATIONS Jessica Yen ‘21
Iron, Potassium, and Iodine Iron is the metal that helps you breathe Potassium keeps your nerves firing right While Iodine controls hormones with ease They keep the body in health day and night When scarce you feel fatigue, your heart flutters Or your blood pressure rises, heartbeat slow The mind fogs, body cools, and mind mutters To fix these ills is no great challenge though For iron, red meat, and beans and tofu Potassium’s in milk and spuds and bran Iodine’s easy, in salt, hassle-proof Broaden your diet to keep you human For as long as varied you keep your diet These afflictions at bay, ever quiet
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Interview with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt ‘02 In May 2020, we interviewed J. Kenji Lopez-Alt ‘02, a famous food writer and chef (and MIT alum!) who writes for the popular food blog “Serious Eats” and has written books such as The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. We were interested in learning about his experience as well as understanding his approach to food and cooking and how it might be relevant for MIT students. -------------------------------------Walk us through your process of creating a new dish or a recipe. Where do you start, where do you get your inspiration and how does that evolve? Generally, if it’s a recipe for home cooks, I try to find the intersection of things I’m interested in and things that people would read and are interested in. I want to get a good historical and also cultural understanding of a recipe before I start working on it because—I’ve made this mistake myself— frequently when you read other people’s recipes, you’ll find that people have a very myopic view of what a recipe is and they’ll think that what they think this dish is is the only thing that it is. It’s like “my meatloaf is what I picture in my head when I think of a meatloaf”. When you’re trying to write for a broad audience, you have to make sure that you are either very clear and specific about what you’re after, and say, “hey, this is my meatloaf and this is why I want to make it this way” or you have to say “this is what the general concept of meatloaf is and maybe there’s some of you out there who are going to disagree with it”. You basically have to show that you’ve done your homework and have a good understanding of a recipe so that people feel that their needs are acknowledged because the whole point of a recipe is to help people.
“The whole point of a recipe is to help people.” Usually what I’ll do is take a bunch of existing recipes and find what the commonalities are between them, see if I can identify any points of difficulty about them. Then I’ll start testing and I’ll make the recipe
a bunch of times. It’s like any science, a bit of it is instinctual. I come up with a hypothesis and then I test and I identify what worked, what didn’t work, and what I should test next time. There’s some recipes I’ve done that have hundreds of tests.
“The recipe doesn’t really matter that much, what matters more is understanding the principles and the technique behind it.” From there, I end up with a final recipe. But the final recipe takes you to a very specific place and not everybody necessarily wants to go to the same place that I do. Your idea of a perfect meatloaf might not be the same as mine. What I see as the value of the way I test recipes is that hopefully you come away with a better understanding of the overall picture, technique and science rather than just a regular recipe. It’s very limiting when all you have is a recipe that gives you step by step directions. Understanding the technique behind it is more like having a map and being able to decide for yourself, here’s where I am, here’s where I want to be, this is the route I can take. That’s always what I try to convey when I’m writing: the recipe doesn’t really matter that much, what matters more is understanding the principles and the technique behind it.
A lot of college students feel like they want to cook but are limited by lack of equipment. This is also something that we’re seeing more broadly during quarantine. How do you think students or anyone with limited resources can cook well? Well that’s sort of specifically why I started doing a YouTube show because there were a lot of people who would read my book and they’d see I tested the chili
INTERVIEWERS Danielle Herman ‘21 and Alex Boccon-Gibod ‘21 ILLUSTRATIONS Jessica Yen ‘21
recipe 40 something different times, so this must be the best way to do it. It’s a ridiculous recipe. It takes four days and it has something like 40 ingredients and since writing it, I’ve never made it again. But people think this is the only way you can make it. What I meant was now it’s up to you to decide what you want and to understand what your parameters are. If you don’t have the budget to buy short rib and spend 40 hours doing something, then why the hell are you going to make that recipe? Instead you can get some of the takeaway and design a recipe that works for you.
“You have to really adapt to what you have, that’s part of the skill and experience of becoming a cook.” Figure out what you’ve got, get a good understanding of the technique and figure out what your own parameters are, whether it’s a time constraint, a budget constraint, whatever it is, or whether your constraint is that you have half a cucumber that’s going to be rotten in the next couple days and you have to use it up somehow. That’s how restaurants operate. The whole idea of frugality in a restaurant is optimizing time and optimizing use of ingredients. You have to really adapt to what you have, that’s part of the skill and experience of becoming a cook. Becoming a better home cook also is understanding the first principles so that you can apply them to your cooking. The way I’d say to get better at cooking within a budget, within a time constraint, or with limited equipment is to read, practice, and understand that recipes are not there to be followed, they are there as ideas while the techniques, the science, and the understanding are going to allow you to adapt your cooking to your own needs.
“Don’t be afraid to screw up.” Also, don’t be afraid to screw up. There’s very few things you can do in the kitchen that are going to
turn something completely inedible. Most of the time, the mistakes you make in the kitchen are going to be aesthetic mistakes. You just have to learn to shrug it off. It’s kind of like the Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross approach, it’s just an accident, accidents happen and sometimes they result in good things. We all eat three times a day. Most of us do, at least. It’s a lot of chances to make accidents, but also your next opportunity to do better is probably only a few hours away. One of the things that I’m hoping for with my YouTube show is to help people understand that I often make mistakes. Learning how to be okay with that is a skill in and of itself, because if you’re not OK with imperfection, you shouldn’t cook.
That fear of messing up is definitely a barrier to cooking for a lot of people. How would you convince someone who doesn’t enjoy cooking or feels really intimidated to give it a try? It’s hard to give universal advice for that because there’s different things that motivate different people. What I found interesting when my book came out, or when I was writing my column online was that a lot of people who came to events or who reached out to me said they grew up similar to how I did where they didn’t really have a food culture. A lot of people my age had either two parents that worked or came from very multicultural backgrounds. In some cases people learn about their culture through their food. Whereas in my case, my mom moved to the US from Japan, but she tried very hard to assimilate to American culture. I got some amount of Japanese cooking growing up, but a lot of it was just my mom making Betty Crocker recipes or New York Times recipes. I didn’t grow up sitting on my mother’s lap making fresh pasta. I don’t have a strong personal food identity with any one particular culture. I know a lot of people like me that don’t have a very strong memory of growing up in the kitchen the way older generations did. It’s difficult to comment on food from a cultural perspective.
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What I think was appealing about the way I wrote things was that I came at it from the science side by saying you don’t have to understand the culture of this dish to be able to make it. Of course, if you want to understand the culture, that’s even better, but I think I gave people a different approach to cooking that they found appealing. It’s really a personal thing. If you find science and technique appealing then you can read my stuff or read a book. There’s a lot of people who do this kind of stuff now. But if you find the cultural side of it appealing, then, say, if you love Chinese food, there are people who have spent years living in China and writing about Chinese food and you can go on YouTube and find actual Sichuan chefs cooking Sichuan food. There’s many different ways you can approach food these days. I think you’ve got to really reflect and ask yourself “what is the thing about food that appeals to me, how do I learn best” and then try and find the right resource for that. I don’t think it’s one size fits all. It’s also totally fine to not care about anything, to not want to cook. Some people don’t like eating. The whole soylent crowd, that’s fine. People get pleasure from life in different ways.
“Just understand that the whole point of cooking, once you’re past the basic sustenance level, is enjoyment.” The one thing I would say is if cooking stresses you out and people like Gordon Ramsay and competition cooking shows have given you the impression that cooking has to be this stressful thing and has to be either perfect or it’s garbage, then that’s just such a huge shame. There’s a lot of snobbery in cooking. Especially if you go online and see people posting pictures of their lunch and they’re proud of it, it’s the first time they’ve ever cooked and they made an imperfect omelet, or whatever, and then they just get shouted on by assholes who watched too much Gordon Ramsay. Just understand that the
whole point of cooking, once you’re past the basic sustenance level, is enjoyment. It’s sitting down and enjoying your time with people. If you’re being exposed to it in a way where it’s causing stress, then I think you need to get yourself out of that situation or stop.
We noticed a lot of your recipes are explicitly vegan or vegetarian. What do you feel is the role of plant based cooking? Is it a sacrifice we have to make now that we’re so aware of the environmental toll of animal products or is it a way to make genuinely tastier food? I think that’s inevitable. What we’re doing right now is definitely not sustainable. Either people are going to have to drastically cut back on their meat intake or we’re going to have to come up with more efficient ways to produce meat. That’s a definite yes, but I don’t think it necessarily means it has to be a sacrifice. There are billions of very happy vegetarians and vegans in the world and many of them don’t think they’re sacrificing anything. I think it’s going to be a generational thing. The idea that a meal is incomplete without a chunk of meat is changing. Just two days ago I did a Twitter poll where the question was “a meal is not complete without...” and then the options were a green vegetable, a piece of protein, dessert, and wine. And I think green vegetable was the most popular answer, which would be my answer.
“The idea that a meal is incomplete without a chunk of meat is changing.”
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Younger kids are going to get used to eating impossible burgers or whatever ends up winning that competition (maybe everyone wins). That seems like a novel thing now, but my daughter, who is three years old, knows what impossible meat is and she knows that it’s not real meat. It’s just not going to be a weird thing to her. I think her generation is going to grow up thinking it’s totally normal. If down the line, the impact becomes even more severe and meat becomes really expensive or there are social taboos and you’re inclined not to eat it at all, then I think the choice becomes much easier. I think meat consumption is going to go down, it has to.
You’ve written about how tofu is your favorite food, which I’m sure you know is a controversial opinion. How can you convince tofu haters out there and how can we all improve our tofu cooking game? There’s some people who aren’t going to be convinced, period. The reason that’s my favorite food is because I grew up eating it. Tofu was never seen as a “you can’t have steak today” or “we’re gonna have this instead of chicken” dish. Tofu was just its own thing. Once you get out of the mindset that tofu has to be compared to meat, you can appreciate it. It’s in your head. If you think of chicken, you have this idea of what it’s supposed to be, it’s supposed to have this level of chewiness, it’s supposed to shred like this, and it’s supposed to have this kind of flavor. Tofu doesn’t shred and has a very different flavor, a clean, sort of grassy flavor. I find the tenderness of tofu to be a part of its appeal.
I would say if you want to convince yourself that tofu can be good, make ma po tofu. That, to me, is the best dish, and it’s what I would like my last last meal on earth to be. One of the reasons why I think it’s good for illustrating the value of tofu is that it’s not a vegetarian dish. It has meat in it. It’s usually ground beef or ground pork, but it has ground meat in it. It’s very clearly not meant to be a vegetarian dish, it’s just a dish that highlights the texture of tofu and the ability of tofu to carry flavors. It’s a very strongly flavored dish and an interestingly textured dish. I think it’s a good dish to try if you’re convinced that tofu can only ever be a vegetarian alternative to meat. Other than that, some people are not going to be convinced and that’s fine, they’re there, they’re gonna die off eventually. My daughter is going to take over.
“Once you get out of the mindset that tofu has to be compared to meat, you can appreciate it.” I think the first thing to do is research, find out about people and places where tofu is consumed regularly like in China and Japan. See how they eat it and try it that way. I think one of the problems is people try to treat it like meat. They dry it out, slow roast it in the oven so that it gets dense and it gets that texture of meat, and then use southern barbecue sauce and put it on the grill. What you’re going to end up with is a bad imitation of barbecue because you’re specifically trying to mimic the flavor and texture of meat. You’re setting yourself up for failure. Tofu is way deep in the uncanny valley. It’s never going to be real meat and it’s not meant to be. So I would say stop thinking of tofu and meat and see how people who actually consume tofu regularly eat it.
Beef Udon
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There’s something so comforting about slurping noodles. Growing up my mom would always make these amazing dishes that were, to be honest, completely outside my culinary reach. After spending many an hour mindlessly clicking through different cooking videos, I found that udon had only 3 ingredients. 3 ingredients that I actually have! It’s super fun to knead these noodles and try to modify the flavors to be more sweet, sour, or salty. I highly recommend giving this beginner recipe a try!
Ingredients · · · · · · · · ·
100g Flour 45g Water 5g Salt 1 c Chicken stock 1 Tbsp Soy sauce ½ Tbsp Mirin ½ tsp + ¼ Tbsp Sugar Shiitake mushrooms Thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye prefered, but other cuts work too) · Toppings of your choice (naruto, scallions)
RECIPE & PHOTOGRAPHY Jessica Yen ‘21
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Instructions 1. Combine flour, water, and salt in a bowl and knead until fully combined. This is a 45% hydration rate (typical bread is 65-100%), so it’s a pretty dry dough. 2. Once it’s combined, place dough in a Ziploc bag to rest in the fridge for an hour to relax the gluten. 3. In the bag, smack that sucker on the ground and knead it with your feet. Take out all your pent up aggression. 4. Fold up the dough and repeat steps 3 and 4 at least three times. 5. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough to ⅛” thickness 6. Fold like a fan and cut into noodle shapes (remember they will grow when you boil them, so you don’t cut too thick.) 7. Dust the noodles with flour or cornstarch and set aside. 8. Add some oil to a pan and pan fry the beef with ¼ Tbsp sugar and ½ Tbsp soy sauce. Set aside. 9. Pan fry the shitake mushrooms before you put them in the stock (this helps concentrate the flavors in the soup). 10. Bring chicken stock to a boil and add in the shitake mushrooms, mirin, ½ Tbsp soy sauce, and ½ tsp sugar. 11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the noodles for 10-12 minutes 12. Assemble the soup, noodles, and meat in a bowl. Slurp away!
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Crispy Pork Belly
I first remember tasting crispy pork belly cooked by my freshman year suitemate for our entry's Thanksgiving. I've always associated it with friends. No matter who made it, or even if it's from a hole-in-the-wall shop in Chinatown, I feel like there's always enough to share. I've made this several times, including for my hall's 'Putzgiving' tradition of a Thanksgiving feast with all our alumni invited back to visit. It's always tastiest the day it's cooked, so it's ideal for sharing!
Ingredients · 3 lbs Boneless pork belly with skin on · ½ c Salt · ⅓ c Soy sauce · ½ c Shaoxing rice wine
· 3 Tbsp brown sugar or baking-friendly sugar substitute · 1 ½ tsp Five-spice powder · ⅓ tsp Garlic powder
RECIPE Kat Yang ‘20 PHOTOGRAPHY Maxwell Yun ‘21
Instructions 1. Pat the pork belly skin dry with a paper towel. Apply liquid part (soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine) and then dry part (brown sugar, five-spice powder, garlice powder) of the marinade to the meat (not the skin) and let sit overnight 2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Create a foil ‘box’ around the pork belly (skin side up) with a 1-inch rim. Spread ½ cup of salt across the top and bake on a roasting pan for 1.5 hours, until the meat looks cooked. 3. Take out the roasting pan and pork, turn oven to broil 4. Take off salt crust and lower foil walls and broil for 15-20 minutes. Let cool a bit on cutting board before carving and serving. When cutting, flip so the skin touches the cutting board.
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Pickles
Pickling is a process that transforms vegetables and fruits into a sour, eccentric product that can last several months, requiring practically no effort on your part beyond the initial preparation thanks to the work of lactobacillus. Among the most popular pickled foods in the United States is the cucumber. Reminiscent of those found in a deli, these pickles are crunchy, sour, entirely customizable to your preferences, and will build you the confidence to pickle other foods such as kimchi or sauerkraut. Snack on these throughout the day or add these to sandwiches, burgers, or salads to give them a sour twist.
Ingredients · Kirby Cucumbers · Pickling Spices (any is · Filtered or non-chlorioptional): nated water · Bay leaves · Kosher salt or pickling · Mustard seeds salt · Coriander seeds · Bunch of dill · Whole peppercorns · Head of garlic · Whole allspice · For spiciness (optional): · Whole cloves · Red pepper flakes · Mason jar with seal · Half a seeded jalapeño or a seeded habanero
RECIPE Hantoa Tenwhij ‘21 PHOTOGRAPHY Anru Tian ‘23
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Instructions 1. Sterilize the jar and its components by submerging them in hot, but not boiling, water for 10 minutes. 2. Peel garlic and, if desired, slightly crush for a stronger taste in the finished pickles. If necessary, slice cucumbers into halves or spears. 3. Prepare brine: 1 tablespoon kosher salt or 2 teaspoons pickling salt for every 2 cups of filtered water. 4. Combine into the mason jar any number of pickling spices to your personal preference. In general, 1 or 2 bay leaves and a few shakes of each spice is sufficient. Stuff the garlic cloves, bunch of dill, and as many cucumbers as possible into the mason jar. 5. Fill the mason jar to the top with the brine, making sure no cucumbers are exposed. Seal completely. 6. Let it sit on a counter for up to 2 weeks. Burp every two days or so. Start tasting after about one week. Once desired sourness is achieved, store in the fridge. As long as the jar is properly sealed, the pickles will be good for up to a few months.
• Try pickling other vegetables with the cucumbers. Carrots and peppers are a great start. Other vegetables benefit from different spices. The pickling spices listed do not form an exhaustive list. Adjust with other flavorings as desired. • Crushed garlic should turn blue after a few days. This is a natural reaction in the sulfur compounds of garlic. If using kosher salt, the jar will become cloudy. This is also natural. • Caution: Throw away if mold is clearly growing on the top or has a bad taste or smell. This may happen if the brine does not cover all vegetables, or if the jar was not fully sealed.
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Food in the Time of Coronavirus I can take up cooking again because I have more space to cook and more accessibility to grocery stores. This makes me happier.
Cooking is now my study break. I’ll stop and make bread or mochi for an hour or two, then I’ll get back to my psets. Sometimes I’ll watch lectures while I bake; it’s one upside of having virtual classes.
My mom spent six hours trying to find yeast.
My family recently celebrated our culture’s New Year. This is the first time in a few years that I’ve been home for it, and I helped make all the traditional dishes for a big dinner at the end of the day. This is something I’ve missed terribly while at MIT and although the entire situation has been by and large total shit, it’s nice to have these moments that would have been otherwise impossible. That dinner brought back nostalgic memories of big family dinners with my grandparents before they passed away; when the table would be surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins, all currently locked in their own homes. I’m glad to be able to share these occasions with my family again, even if the circumstances aren’t ideal.
Our team sent out a survey asking students to describe how the pandemic has affected their cooking and eating habits and to submit photos of food they’ve made during quarantine.
I generally have enough food to eat, but it’s not really the foods that I want to eat. My family eats meat and I don’t which means I’m usually on my own for planning meals. I’ve been substituting a lot of ingredients and making up a lot of recipes so I’ve had to be creative since a lot of vegetation proteins are limited in stores and it’s hard to get vegetables. My dad grew up dirt poor as a child, and now that he has lost his job, some memories of my grandma’s cooking and the way she made food last are flourishing up today. Like, did you know you can add more water to make more beans?
I’ve found that cooking regularly and manageably has been a welcome respite. Whether it’s for 15 minutes at noon or an hour in the evening, when I’m cooking my mind is entirely removed from the current crisis or psets I still have to do. I can sit and single mindedly chop an onion or meditatively grate a block of parm. I can briefly panic about whatever small disasters happen in the kitchen, but everything almost always turns out alright in the end.
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Food in the Time of Coronavirus photography credits (from top left): Vegan Chocolate Pie by Jess Arbuckle, Chocolate Chip Muffins by Mulan Jiang, Petit Choux by Vivian Zhong, Char Siu Bao by Aslan Cook, Split Pea Soup by Danielle Herman, Kimchi by Alex Boccon-Gibod, Pineapple Bundt Cake by Anru Tian, Egg Tarts by Jessica Yen, Hot Pot by Jessica Yen, Tuna Loin Aged with Kombu by Yu-Chi Cheng, Crispy Tofu and Vegetables by Danielle Herman, Cheesecake by Jessica Yen, Pineapple Buns by Anru Tian, Homemade Honey Bunches of Oats by Nicholas Baginski, Cranberry Muffins by Danielle Herman, Bagels by Anru Tian, Lengua Tacos by Daniel Tong, Pies by Diane Zhang, Shakshuka by Claire Hsu, Pasta Carbonara by Kayla Tabb, Zucchini Banana Muffins by Elaine Zhang, Vegan Full English Breakfast by Tafsia Shikdar, Deep Dish Pizza by Nicholas Baginski, Berry Yogurt Cake by Danielle Herman.