30 Minute Cottage Cheese Bread

It’s been a harrowing week but yesterday I resolved to get my act together and bake one more time before leaving Montreal. Unfortunately, my wife and I have been steadily using up all our remaining food and staples, leaving me with precious little with which to bake. Fear not! As usual, “Quick Bread” – my trusted source of speedy bread recipes which included Mini Cinnamon and Walnut Bread, Irish Bread, and Apple

Bread – answered the call and listed this delicious recipe for Cottage Cheese Bread.

This recipe is dead simple and serves 2. All you need is:

Batch A
100g of all purpose flour, plus 1-2 tablespoons extra in a small bowl
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of baking powder

20g of cold butter, chopped up
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 tablespoon of regular yogurt (though it may be interesting to see what happens if you add flavoured yogurt)
1 tablespoon of milk (2% is fine)

First off, preheat the oven to 180ºC/350 ºF.

Sift the ingredients of Batch A into a bowl. Then, add the cold butter and work it into the flour with the tips of your fingers. I didn’t work the butter in to the point that it completely disappeared into the powder. Rather, I left the powder looking a bit clumpy using a rubbed-dough method. As the seasoned bakers out there know, the less you incorporate the butter, the flakier the dough (see pages 1084-1085 of “The Professional Chef” (8th edition) for more about this technique).

Right…onwards and upwards. Mix in the cottage cheese, then mix in the yogurt, and finally mix in the milk. Kneed gently until all the ingredients are incorporated. You will be left with a moist dough. If, like me, you wanted to dry it up a bit and make it easier to handle, take your messy hands and pour in some of that flour you presciently put aside in a separate bowl.

Roll out the dough until its about 1cm thick. Chop up your dough into 6 equally-sized pieces and then put them on a baking sheet lined with a cookie sheet. If you’re feeling especially fancy, try brushing a quick egg wash over these gems. Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread is baked through and the top is golden.

These little breads are quite delicious on their own, but are also good with jam, butter, or even maple syrup. This entire procedure should only take about 30 minutes if all goes according to plan, so now there are no excuses not to make them! Get to it!

 

Light Madeleines Made Easy

In preparation for my move to Toronto at the end of the month, I am slowly but surely packing away my books. As I was doing so, I came across Proust’s “À la recherche du temps perdu” or “Remembrance of Things Past” and thought of its now famous protagonist:  the madeleine.  Madeleines are, of course, scallop shell-shaped cakes that originated in Comercy, France.

Incredibly easy to make, these little gems are a sure-fire way to inject a simple tea/coffee break with some class.  They also make for a great (edible!) conversation piece.  Here is my take on the madeleine.  It features a hint of vanilla to play against the cake’s traditional lemon scent.

To make 12 of my madeleines you’ll need:

1 madeleine tray
80g of caster sugar
1 large egg
A tablespoon of vanilla essence
80g of unsalted butter
100g of pastry flour (premixed with baking powder)
1 pinch of salt
The rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 tablespoon of icing sugar (for dressing)

First, pre-heat your oven to 200ºC/400 ºF. Melt your butter over low heat and then remove it from the stove to cool. Use a brush to spread the melted butter in the madeleine moulds, and then flour them.

Next, with an electric mixer/whisk, cream the egg and caster sugar. The goal is really to work in as much air so that you get a fluffy batter which will in turn become a light cake. This takes about 5 minutes.

Once that’s done, slowly sift in the pastry flour.  Do not over mix.  Gently add the remainder of the cooled, melted butter and the vanilla essence. Then, carefully mix in the lemon rind. If you are feeling adventurous, you can even add some blueberries to the batter.

Now, fill your madeleine moulds 2/3 full with the batter. Bake for 12 minutes or so, until the tops of your cakes are golden and lovely. Gently remove them from the moulds (I find chopsticks to be the tool of choice), sprinkle with icing sugar, and serve warm – that’s when they’re at their fluffiest.  To be extra hedonistic, serve the warm madeleines with vanilla ice cream, and drizzle the dish with some nice, high quality honey. Delish! 

 

Decadent Apple Bread Breakfast

Around 11pm the other night I just couldn’t sleep. I also noticed that we were low on breakfast goodies, so I decided to break out my trusty “Quick Bread” book and try out a new recipe. The one I chose was apple bread. Though I just happened to have some apples kicking around the fruit bowl, I have to say that this recipe would be best near apple picking time near the end of the summer/beginning of autumn. This bread is a bit denser than I

thought, and was less sweet than expected (you may want to add an extra tablespoon of sugar) but makes for a nice breakfast

The ingredients for this bread are:

Apples
240g of chopped apple (granny smith or other sweet/tart apples), skin on
½ teaspoon of granular sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
10g of unsalted butter

Batter A
2 cup of all-purpose flour
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

Batter B
2 large egg
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
4 tablespoons of sour cream

First off, get rid of that core, and then chop up your apple into tiny 5mm cubes. Toss the cubes with lemon juice and granulated sugar to coat them. Then, heat up a frying pan at medium heat, put in your butter, and once its melted throw in 1/3 of the apples and sauté for 5-8 minutes (to soften them up).

Next, take the contents of Batter A and whisk them all together. You should get a pancake’esque batter.

After that, mix the ingredients in Batter B. Take half of Batter A and whisk into Batter B. Take the other half of Batter A and mix with the apples you did not sauté. Then mix everything together.

Still with me? Ok…. Put the Batters into a buttered and floured bread pan, then top with the apples you sautéed. Now, put the pan in a pre-heated oven at 190ºC/375 ºF for 10 minutes, and then drop the temperature down to 180 ºC/350 ºF and keep baking for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.

As I mentioned before, this is a nice recipe but is heavier than your everyday bread. I’d really call it a cake, and as such would recommend eating it with some nice vanilla ice cream and drizzled with honey. Now who can say “no” to that?

 

Amazing, Easy, Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms

The funny thing about party food is that you never know what appetizers will grab your guests’ attention. I put these stuffed mushrooms together almost as an afterthought and yet they disappeared in the blink of an eye. I was attracted by the ease with which they can be made and that they only require 20 minutes in the cooking in the oven before coming out piping hot and full of flavour.

This recipe is based one I found in Tyler Florence’s Eat This Book. To make it, here’s what you’ll need:

24-30 white mushrooms
2 handfuls of cilantro/flat leaf parsley, chopped
½ cup of olives (pitted), chopped
¼ cup of sultana raisins, chopped
1-2 hot chillies, seeded and chopped
1 cup of panko breadcrumbs (or regular breadcrumbs)
1 cup of freshly grated parmesan (or store bought, if you have to)
3-4 Italian sausages (about 500g or 1lb)
1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
Salt (Kosher, if you’ve got it)
Freshly ground pepper
5-7 sprigs of thyme

First off, prep your non-meat ingredients. Remove the stems from the mushroom and make sure you have nice big wells in which to put as much of the meat mixture as possible. Oil an oven-proof baking pan and put in your mushrooms.

Next, combine your chopped olives, raisins, pepper(s), ¾ cups of breadcrumbs, ¾ cups of the parmesan and a table spoon of olive oil. Mix lightly to combine the ingredients.

With that out of the way, remove the minced meat from within the Italian sausage skin. Season with salt and pepper and add the mince to the non-meat mix you just put together.  Now, roll up your sleeves, get your hands in there, and start mixing the ingredients together. This will take about 2-3 minutes and is the most taxing part of the recipe.

Stuff the meat mixture into the mushroom…and don’t be shy! Next, sprinkle the leftover panko and parmesan on top of the stuffed mushrooms. Then, sprinkle the mushrooms with olive oil and drape some thyme over them.

If you’re having a party, you can cover your baking pan and refrigerate for a day. When you’re ready to go, put the uncovered pan in a 240ºC/500ºF preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove, let cool for 5 minutes, and serve.

 

Fantastic Mini-Hamburger Hors D’Oeuvres

This past weekend my wife and I hosted a party in honour of our impending move from Montreal to Toronto. The event provided the opportunity to splurge and put together some hors d’oeuvres I’d been eager to try. This recipe for mini hamburgers was one such recipe which combines the challenges of baking . I was inspired to make these after reading Elsa Petersen-Schepelern’s beautiful book Finger Food – a veritable treasure trove of snack and

amuse geule ideas. Here’s what you’ll need for my take on the mini-burger recipe.

Buns (makes 40)
4g (or 1/8oz) of active dry yeast
25ml of hot water at 38°C/100°F
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 1/3 cups of white all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/8 cup of cold and chopped up unsalted butter
¾ cup of lukewarm milk (plus a tablespoon extra for brushing)
½ medium egg
Sesame seeds

Mini Burger Patties (makes 40)
2 cups of ground beef, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped (and I mean FINELY!)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of coriander
¼ cup of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or regular breadcrumbs
Vegetable or peanut oil for sautéing
Sweet chilli or BBQ sauce

Making the Buns:  Take your yeast and whisk it into the warm water. Add the sugar and mix that in, too. Wait about 10 minutes and if the mixture has a nice foamy layer on top (proof), you’re yeast mixture is ready.

While you’re waiting for the yeast to proof, sift your flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Then rub the butter into the flour with our fingertips until it has disappeared. Your flour should look sandy.

Make a well in the sandy flour/butter mixture, and pour in the yeast mixture, milk, and ½ egg. Take a fork and gradually incorporate the flour/butter into the liquids. You should get a relatively sticky dough, but if yours is too floury add a bit of milk (a tablespoon should do the trick).

Now, flour a work surface, roll up your sleeves, and kneed the dough for about 5-10 minutes until all ingredients are properly incorporated. Your goal is to get an elastic and dough. Once you’ve achieved this, flour the outside of your dough, put it in a large bowl, and cover the bowl with a damp cloth. Wait 1.5 hours for your dough to double in size.

After you dough has inflated, punch it down and kneed lightly for a few minutes. Then, cut your dough up and roll it into balls with one 2.5cm/1 in. diameters. Make sure the balls’ exterior are smooth (i.e., no folds or creases) or else you’ll get freaky cloud shaped buns rather than ones with smooth exteriors. Place them in a baking tray and wait another 30 minutes. Then, brush some milk on the balls, sprinkle them with the sesame seeds, and then bake at 200°C/400°F for 25-30 mins until they sound hollow when they are tapped and the tops are nice and brown.

Wait for them to cook and use immediately, or saran wrap the cooled tray and keep the bread in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Patties:  Now, on to the patties. Take all your ingredients and mix them together in a bowl. It is essential that they are all finely ground – especially the onions – or else your patties will look lumpy. Take your mixture and make 40 or so flat patties that measure a little over 2.5cm/1 inch in diameter. Don’t worry if you think the patties look too flat, they’ll pop up during the cooking process.

Heat up the oil over medium-high heat and put in the first batch of patties. Make sure they’re not too close to each other. Cook for about 2-3 minutes. Flip the patties, press down on them, cover the pan and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until done. You know the patties are done if their juices run clear when you press down on them. Clean the pan between batches to make sure there are no burnt bits to spoil your masterpieces.

You can serve immediately or let them cool and keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat them in the oven, garnish with mini gherkins, tomatoes, sweet chilli or BBQ sauce.

These make a great conversation piece and taste great!

 

Bill Buford in Heat

There is a moment in every foodie’s life where s/he wonders if s/he could make it as a real chef – trade the part-time apron for a full-time position in a kitchen. For Bill Buford that dream became reality he chronicled in his excellent book Heat. Heat is really three books in one. First is the story of his year and a half at Mario Batali’s kitchen. When I say he started at the bottom of the pecking order I mean the basement. This reader was astounded at his utter lack of cooking prowess and knife skills and wondered if his true skills were hidden to make his metamorphosis into true cook all the more dramatic.

Either way, his account of his rise through the ranks (and through the cooking stations) is recounted with sensitivity, perceptivity and humour. We are allowed to understand Buford’s frustration and his triumphs, and we get a behind the scenes look at kitchen culture and the various chefs personalities.

Heat is also a great primer about the boisterous life of the legendary Mario Batali (Babbo) recounted so honestly and vividly that my liver hurt as I read about his hard-living lifestyle.The truly amazing and touching parts of the book do not recount Buford’s time with Batali.  Rather, Buford’s time in Italy learning to make pasta and his time at Dario’s world famous butcher shop. 

Buford’s explanation of the art of making pasta is masterful.  After getting through this second of Heat’s triptych my view of pasta making went from black and white to Technicolor. In fact, the week after I read the book I went out and bough a pasta maker – a good half-way house to the real pasta making deal. Buford gives us a thumbnail sketch of the complexity and subtleties of making pasta and impresses the idea that to give it its famous “cat’s tongue” texture.

The part of the book that is surely to be a hit with those looking for sentimentality. Buford’s time at Dario’s butcher shop in Tuscany – touted to be the best butcher shop in the world – is nothing short of amazing. One can almost smell the aging meet and taste the meats from the animals Buford is taught to prepare. No longer will I associate butcher with mindless cutting – it is an art of the highest order.

Heat is an necessary addition to any foodie’s library and a fascinating read that will certainly engender feelings of jealousy. I yearned to have the opportunity (and luck!) that Buford had to live out his dream and rise up to the challenge of being a professional cook. When I put this book down I felt saddened that it ended…and started reading it again from page 1.

 

Grand Marnier Marinated Fruit Pie (Tarte)

Recently there has been an influx of beautiful Chilean fruit at my local supermarket, reminding me that despite today’s -30°C temperature, spring and summer are on their way. Inspired by the prospect of Zephyr’s return, I decided to post a recipe for one of my favourite “tarte” (I find that “pie” doesn’t really reflect what I make). I’ve put together this recipe from two excellent books. I got the pâte

brisée recipe from Guy Disdier’s Les Desserts: Les secrets de leur réussite (Editions S.A.E.P; 1990); and the fruit and creme recipes from Jacqueline Gerard’s La Cuisine (Larousse; 1974). Generally, people use a pâte sable in this recipe, but I find the light pâte brisée in this recipe does a great job.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Fruits
700g mix of fruit that includes strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries
1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier
½ tablespoon of sugar

Pâte Brisée
250g of all purpose flour
5g of salt
20g of sugar
125g of butter (cold and chopped up)
1 egg white
50ml of water

Creme
1/3 litre of milk (warm)
2 eggs
75g of sugar
50g of flour
25g of butter
2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier

FRUIT
First off, clean your fruit, remove the tops of your strawberries and cut the remaining portion in half, and then put all your fruit in a shallow bowl. Pour over the Grand Marnier and sugar, and gently mix so that you cover the mixture, thus allowing the alcohol and sugar marinate into the fruit for 1-2 hours. Afterwards, drain the fruit and allow them to dry well. If you put wet fruit on your pie you’ll get a gooey, watery sauce that looks…well…gooey, and unsightly.

The alcoholic mix that drains off the fruit is delightful and is a great post-baking reward.

CREME
You want to do this early ‘cause it has to cool before you put it in the pie crust. Mix the eggs with the sugar and flour, put it in a casserole and then gradually mix in the warm milk with a whisk. Put your casserole on low heat, thicken the mixture and continue to mix until the creme thickens. It’s ok if it looks a bit dry. Now, remove the creme from the heat and mix in the butter and Grand Marnier. Allow it to cool (mixing it from time to time helps this) to room temperature.

PÂTE BRISÉE
Next, make your pâte brisée. Mix and sift the flour, salt and sugar onto a clean work surface, making a little mound. Make a “crater” into the mound of powder and put in the chopped up butter. With your thumbs, middle and index fingers work the butter into the flour. Don’t squeeze the butter too hard. You are aiming to make a sandy looking mixture.

Once the butter has been incorporated make a mound from your mixture (again) and then hollow it out (again) making a “well”. Take your egg white and water, mix them together in a bowl, and then pour the mixture into the centre of the “well”. Use your well as a bowl, and use a fork to gradually incorporate the outer powdery wall into the liquid. This should be a familiar technique to those who make pasta. When you’re fork is no longer a useful tool to incorporate the ingredients, gently kneed the dough only enough to properly incorporate your dough – the less you kneed, the lighter your crust will be.

By the time you’ve incorporated all the ingredients you’ll be left with a dough that is easy to roll out. If your dough is too powdery add a bit of water, bearing in mind that too much water will (in my experience) shrink the dough more than usual once you cook it.

When you’ve made your dough, let it rest for 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your over to 240°C/470°F. Prepare a 28cm pie tray with a removable base and break out the rolling pin and flour a work surface. Take out your rested dough and roll it out on the floured surface, turning it once or twice as you do so to make sure it doesn’t stick. Once you have a circle a bit bigger than the pie tray. Put your crust in the pan, prick holes in the bottom of the dough and make sure it’s snug against the edges. Allow the extra crust to overflow from the edges. Your pie will shrink once you cook it. Cut it after you’ve cooked it to ensure you have nice even, tall edges. Put the pan in the over and bake blind for 10-15 minutes (until golden).

PUTTING IT TOGETHER
You’re in the home stretch. Your pan should have finished cooking by now. Remove the cooking blinds (of course) and put in your cooled creme. Then, place your fruit on top, sprinkle with icing sugar, and serve.

 

Mini Cinnamon and Walnut Rolls

In light of the surprise success of the Irish Bread recipe I posted a week back, I’ve decided to post a cinnamon roll recipe adapted from the same book – Quick Bread – written by Fujita Chiaka (I’ve included a photo of the book below). I made this recipe this morning and these bad boys are really quite delicious. Here’s what you’ll need:

• 100g of flour
• Half a teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 20g of butter chopped up into small cubes
• 45g of cottage cheese
• ½ an egg yoke
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• Cinnamon sugar (1 teaspoon of cinnamon mixed with 3 teaspoons of granular sugar)
• 10-15g of walnuts finely chopped
• 1 egg wash (1 egg mixed with a bit of milk)

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and add the cold butter. With the tips of your thumb, index, and middle fingers, rub the butter into the flour as though you were feeling the texture of a fabric. After a few minutes the butter should have “disappeared” into the flour. Add the cottage cheese into this powder and mix until it has an even consistency.

Next, mix the ½ egg yoke into the milk and then add it into the cottage cheese-flour mixture. You may be stuck with a pretty mucky paste, so add a bit of flour to make your mixture into something solid enough that it can be rolled out without sticking to a rolling pin.

Kneed your dough until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Then, roll up the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and put it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to allow it to rest. While you wait, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once you’ve got your dough made, you’re 90% of the way there.  Unwrap your dough, roll out your dough ball into a 15cm x 20cm (6” x 8”), half-centimetre (1/5”) rectangle. Take your cinnamon sugar and rub it into the dough. If you’re like me and you enjoy your cinnamon rolls extra sweet, add some extra sugar to the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Next, take your finely-chopped walnuts and gently roll them into the dough with a rolling pin.

Roll your seasoned dough like you would sushi. Now, take a knife and cut your roll into 2.5cm/1” sections. Set the sections so that the swirly bit is facing up, liberally brush on your egg wash to give your rolls a nice brown glaze, and put them in your pre-heated oven for 18-22 minutes.

The recipe is not as sweet as the fondant-caked cinnamon rolls you get at your local patisserie/bakery, so I poured on some maple syrup. I’d also suggest some cinnamon butter to smear on the warm rolls.

 

Simple Sweet Crêpe and Boozy Fruit Recipe

Early March in Montreal is usually the time when winter packs one last wallop before releasing Quebec from its clutches. This year is no different as the province (and the Eastern part of Canada) was spanked by a storm. On those snowy weekends I like to get up a bit early and put together a nice brunch for my wife and I.  Here’s what I made this morning – a fruit and crêpe recipe.

This recipe is adapted from the crêpe recipe in The Silver Spoon – the English translation of the Italian cooking bible “Il cucchiaio d’argento” first published in 1950 and currently in its eighth edition. For my version (serves 2/4 crêpes) you’ll need:

Boozy Fruit

• Handful of strawberries, washed, tops removed, and cut in two
• Handful of blueberries, washed
• A tablespoon (or two) of Grand Marnier
• A teaspoon of sugar

Crêpe

• ½ cup of all purpose flour
• 1 egg
• ½ cup of milk plus ¼ cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (it’s cheating, I know!)
• 1 tablespoon of butter plus some extra to cover your crêpe/non-stick pan
• A crêpe pan or non-stick pan

Boozy Fruit
Take your (soon to be boozy) fruit and put them in a bowl with the Grand Marnier. Mix them up carefully so as not to squish those blueberries. Then, mix in the sugar and marinate for 1-2 hours. Afterwards, drain the alcoholic liquid (you could down it there and then!) and put the fruit aside to dry a bit.

Crêpe
Sift the flour into a large-ish bowl. In a second bowl, break your egg and mix it with the ½ cup of milk. Then, gradually add the milk-egg mixture to the flour and mix it up. You’re shooting to make a runny batter, so if you’re left with a pretty thick one more akin to pancake batter, add some of that ¼ cup of milk you’ve wisely set aside.

Melt the butter in a double boiler (or simply very carefully in a regular pan). Let the butter cool to room temperature and then add the liquid into the batter. That’s your batter done.

If you’re like me and slightly useless in the morning, I suggest doing of the above prep work the night before a brunch and keeping the batter refrigerated in an airtight container. It will save you a lot of time and grief. If you do this, make sure to give the refrigerated batter a whisk before your use it.

Now, heat up your crêpe pan or non-stick pan over medium heat. Once it’s nice and preheated take some butter and coat the pan. To do this, I like to cut a long thin strip of butter and use it like a crayon to coat the pan. Take some batter (with a ladle or pour it from a container) and cover the base of the pan with a thin layer. Crêpes should be nice and slim so they’re easy to roll. Cook for 3-4 minutes and then flip the crêpe and cook until set. That’s it. Be sure to re-butter the pan if it looks dry. Without that layer of butter it’ll be tough to flip your crêpe.

Leave one crêpe flat on the plate and roll up the other and place it on the flat one. Cover the flattened crêpe with your boozy fruit and whatever other fresh fruits strike your fancy. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, sorbet, or whatever else you can get your hands on. We like liberally spread some maple syrup over the lot, but if you feel creative you could use some of the liquid you drained from the alcohol-soaked fruit to make a boozy coulis or sauce.

 

Cheap and Delightful Indonesian Rice

I’ve been living life as a student for the past few years and financially things have been rather tight.  Suffice it to say that there have been no truffle-covered pizzas in my near past, but limited financial means did not mean tightening my belt.  Indeed, my wife and I have managed to save a TON of cash by investing heavily in vegetable- and rice-based dishes.  “Boring” you say?  Well, try out this fabulous Indonesian fried rice dish (Nashi Goreng) before jumping to judge.  This dish is adapted from the excellent Creative Cooking Library’s Taste of Asia, written by Steven Wheeler.  It’s tough to get a hold of but its gem and well worth hunting down.

Here’s what you’ll need for this delightful (yet unphotogenic!) recipe that serves 2 people.  Before making this or any other Asian dish I put the emphasis on the “meeze” to borrow a phrase from Tony Bourdain – I make sure everything is prepared before firing up the wok.  I’ve divided the ingredients up into batches so that you can toss each ingredient into a bowl and then add the contents of the bowls as you move through the recipe.

Omlette: 1 egg A bit of salt   Batch 1: 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil 6 shallots or 1 medium onion   Batch 2: 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 tablespoon of finely chopped ginger 1 chili, chopped

Batch 3: 1 tablespoon of tamarind sauce ½ teaspoon of tumeric 4 teaspoons of coconut cream 1 lime’s worth of juice 1 teaspoon of sugar 1 pinch of salt   Batch 4: Chopped chicken breast (skinned) or pork, or shrimp   Batch 5: Veggies like broccoli and mushrooms   Garnish:  Green onions

First off, make a thin omelette.  Pre-heat a non-stick pan and season it with a thin layer of oil.  Once the oil is “hazy” (not smoking) Whisk the egg and spread it in the pan.  It should set in a minute or so.  Remove it from the pan, roll it up and then cut it into thin slices. Once that’s done, get your rice going and put your oven on to about 200 Farenheit.Then, heat up your wok with 1 tablespoon of oil at medium heat.  When your wok is nice and hot, toss in Batch 1 and brown the onions.  Once browned, remove the onions and keep them warm in that oven you heated up not so long ago. Now it’s time to make your kitchen smell fantastic.  Keep the burner at medium heat and put in the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and throw in the contents of Batch 2 and soften then up.  Note that you might want to reduce the heat of your wok before this to avoid burning and browning.  Next, toss in Batch 3 to heat up the sauce.After that, it’s on to Batch 4.  Throw in your meat/seafood and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Then, put in Batch 5 and cover the wok to steam the broccoli and cook the mushroom properly – about 3-4 minutes.  Throw in the rice and keep on stirring (so the rice doesn’t burn) for 5-7 minutes.  Then, place the contents of the wok on a plate and garnish with the onions, omelette and some green onions.  Mmmmm…delicious.