We’re gonna be makin’ some SUPER TASTY Filipino food in the next video, so ya boi Shrimpy is here to make this tasty cucumber and tomato salad that’s gonna go real good with it!
It’s fresh and tangy and full of umami, and all the bright flavors go great with any sort of meat.
Mega Cat Studios reached out to me about their new video game that was coming out, called Bite the Bullet!
If you follow our SushiCodes channel, you’ll know that Son and I are game devs, and also gamers. So we know how much work goes into launching a game, and therefore we are all about doing what we can to support indie game studios!
Plus, if we can help them support a good cause at the same time – it’s a double win for us!
Bite the Bullet is a roguelike RPG shooter where you choose your character’s strengths by eating! In this game, you are what you eat – literally.
And Mega Cat Studios is partnering with Feeding America to raise money to help ensure everybody has enough food on their plates. If you want to donate, and help support Feeding America, you can donate here!
When Mega Cat Studios reached out to us about a partnership to help promote their game, I knew I had to cook something from the game. So when I saw that they have a weapon called Incendiary Jalapeño Poppers… it was an obvious choice.
But how do you take jalapeño poppers… and make them embody the term “incendiary”?
Add more spice.
Add some smokiness.
And most importantly, make ’em delicious!
We’re going to start by parbaking some candied bacon.
Cut your bacon in half, crosswise.
Then mix some brown sugar and cayenne pepper.
The sweetness of the brown sugar will help cut the overall spice, and add an extra dimension to the poppers, while the cayenne will add to the heat.
Coat the bacon slices in the sugar mixture, and place them on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet.
Bake at 325F for 10 minutes. You don’t want them fully cooked, just parbaked enough that the sugar starts to bubble and adhere to the bacon better.
Set that aside to cool while you prep your jalapeños.
Ordinarily, you’d use plain cream cheese for jalapeño poppers, but we’re using jalapeño cream cheese for more spice. Use whichever you can get.
Then, mix in your grated cheese. I wanted to use the cheese to add to the complexity of flavor, so I tested a few different options.
The bacon and horseradish cheddar was really tasty on its own, but the flavors got lost in the popper and it was far too rich.
I adore smoked cheddar with crackers, but while tasty in the poppers, it didn’t add much to the overall flavor.
The smoked black pepper white cheddar was the surprise winner of the day. By itself, I honestly wasn’t a huge fan. But in the poppers, it added an extra dimension of both spice and smokiness that really took the poppers from average to “incendiary”.
However, if you can’t get smoked black pepper white cheddar, any cheddar-style cheese should do just fine!
Mix your cream cheese and your grated cheese until well-combined.
Slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds and ribs. I’d highly recommend using gloves for this part.
Then, stuff your poppers with the cheese mixture.
Wrap each popper with a half-slice of the candied bacon. If you’d like, you can secure the bacon with toothpicks, but I found simply wrapping it worked just fine.
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. You want the sugars on the bacon to caramelize nicely – a little blackening is fine.
8 oz grated cheese – we preferred the smoked black pepper cheddar, but a nice smoked or sharp cheddar would work great as well
14 jalapeños
Cooking Directions
Preheat the oven to 325F.
Slice the bacon in half crosswise. Combine the brown sugar and cayenne. Coat each slice of bacon in the sugar, and place on an aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet, making sure none of the slices touch.
Bake the bacon for 10 minutes, or until just starting to bubble. Set aside.
Turn the oven up to 400F.
Combine the jalapeño cream cheese and shredded cheddar.
Wearing protective food-safe plastic gloves, slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and ribs from the jalapeños and discard.
Fill each jalapeño half with the cream cheese mixture, and wrap with a half-slice of candied bacon.
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until bacon is crispy and caramelized.
Serve warm. Enjoy!
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It’s pumpkin season! If the rumors are true, Starbucks is bringing back the pumpkin spice latte today. Who’s ready for their PSL fix?
I haven’t had a pumpkin spice latte in years, partially due to my poor body hating coffee, and partially because I’m less into super sweet drinks the older I get.
However. I may not be hopping off to Starbucks anytime soon, but boba? I’m all over that.
Today we’ve got another cookbook redemption – this time, TheSandwichKitsune asked me to make something from The Boba Book!
I love boba drinks, so I pretty much wanted to make everything. But since it’s pumpkin season, and I’ve been ready for fall all summer, this Iced Pumpkin Turmeric Latte (with boba, of course) caught my eye!
If a PSL and golden milk had a baby… it would be this drink.
We’re going to start by making the Spiced Pumpkin Turmeric Jam.
We want a strong pumpkin flavor, so we’re starting with a good bit of canned pumpkin.
Add in some sugar for sweetness – we’ll be diluting this quite a bit for the final drink, so don’t worry too much about the amount of sugar.
Then a bit of floral vanilla extract.
If we’re calling it a pumpkin turmeric latte – gotta have turmeric!
And then our pumpkin spices:
The warm bite of cinnamon.
The deep spice of cloves.
And the cool undertone of nutmeg.
If you can use fresh-ground spices, that’s almost always better, but pre-ground is fine, and what I usually go for.
Cook this all together until it’s fully combined and the flavors start to meld – just a few minutes of simmering.
Now it’s time to make our drink!
Start by blending together a little of the jam we just made with some coconut beverage – essentially just thinned out coconut milk.
If you want to use boba, our previous post shows you how! Add that to the bottom of your glass.
Top the boba with ice.
And then pour your blended drink over the ice.
Let the ice chill your drink just for a minute or two, and enjoy!
I’m really happy that I essentially halved the sugar. It’s just on the verge of being too sweet, but not quite there. I prefer my boba drinks on the less sweet side, because the boba itself is already quite sweet. This was perfect.
It satisfies both my boba craving and my PLS cravings all at once, without the stomach irritation that happens when I drink coffee.
It’s the perfect California fall drink. The spices make it cozy enough to feel like autumn, but the drink is also cold and refreshing enough to get us through the fairly warm California September and October.
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients, stirring until everything is well incorporated. Let it simmer over medium heat for a couple of minutes to infuse the flavors. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.
The jam will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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Boba, bubble tea… whatever you call it, we love it!
We’ll be posting a recipe for a boba drink next, but in the meantime I thought we’d have Shrimpy show you how to turn dried tapioca balls into restaurant-quality boba!
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the boba and cook for 30 minutes, stirring frequently during the first 10 minutes of cooking to prevent the boba from sitting at the bottom of the pot and burning. Cover the pot so the water doesn’t evaporate, and stir occasionally for the remainder of the time. Add more hot water if necessary to keep the boba covered.
After the 30 minutes of cooking, take the pot off the heat and let the boba rest for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the sugars and hot water in a bowl large enough to hold your cooked boba.
After the resting time, strain the boba in a colander or a strainer, discarding the water, and pour them into a mixing bowl. Stir in the syrup. After an additional 30 minutes (so 1 1/2 hours total from the time you started cooking), the boba should have absorbed the sweetness; it won’t get any sweeter if it continues to sit longer.
Now your boba is ready to serve; hold it warm or at room temperature (our preference). When you add it to drinks, scoop some of the balls out with a little strainer to leave the syrup behind. The boba keeps for about 4 hours before it starts to lose its texture.
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I know everybody loves their Instant Pots, but even though I own one, I somehow missed that bandwagon.
Pressure cookers still scare me… but if you have a favorite Instant Pot recipe that you think I should try, let me know!
But… slow cookers.
I love starting something in the slow cooker first thing in the morning, or right before bed.
And then gradually your house just starts to smell SO amazing.
Plus, slow cooker recipes are always so easy. Just dump a bunch of stuff in, turn it on, and 6-8 hours later, you have tasty foods!
It doesn’t get easier than that.
This vietnamese chicken and bok choy recipe is one we’ve been making for YEARS.
It’s succulent and healthy and oh so good over rice. And, most importantly, so easy to make!
First, place your chicken in the slow cooker. I like bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for this, but skinless, or a different part of the chicken, should work fine.
Add a quarter cup of fish sauce, and a quarter cup of shoyu – both will add different flavors of that salty umami we love so much.
A bit of earthy white pepper.
And a ton of minced garlic. As far as we’re concerned, more is always better, but you can tone down the garlic if you’d prefer.
A couple of tablespoons of canola oil, and a quarter cup of brown sugar, for a touch of sweetness to round out the flavors.
Don’t worry about the chicken being submerged. As it cooks, the chicken will release fat and the liquid level will rise.
Cook on low for about 6 hours, or overnight.
After the chicken is done cooking, prep your bok choy.
I like to cut off the core of each head first, and then wash it. Bok choy, especially if you buy organic, can get pretty dirty, so it’s easier to wash it when the leaves are all separated.
Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, and set aside for now – then stuff all the bok choy in the slow cooker, making sure it all gets submersed in the cooking liquid.
Put the lid back on, and cook on high for another hour. You may have to turn the bok choy a couple times if it’s not all submersed. You want to make sure it all gets nice and wilty.
Serve the chicken and bok choy over rice, and enjoy!
Vietnamese Slow Cooker Chicken and Bok Choy
Recipe adapted from Yankee Kitchen Ninja. We like to make lots and have leftovers all week, and the bok choy is our favorite part so we make quite a bit extra. However if you have a smaller slow cooker or just want enough for a meal, you can refer to the original recipe.
Ingredients
10 bone-in chicken thighs
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup shoyu
1 tsp white pepper
8 cloves garlic, minced (I usually add more because we really love garlic)
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
lots of bok choy (I usually go with 5lbs or so; other greens can also be used)
Cooking Directions
Put everything except the bok choy in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.
Wash the bok choy, discard the last inch of the base. When the chicken is finished cooking, carefully transfer it to another bowl. Place the bok choy in the slow cooker, stirring to make sure it is coated with the sauce. Replace the lid, and cook on high for another half hour or so, until the bok choy is wilted and soft.
Serve over white or brown rice. Enjoy!
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This week’s been a little more varied. We’re building up a good backlog of recorded videos, so I’m finding time to paint my nails, do some game dev… it’s been nice.
Our neighbors installed a super bright floodlight that the neighborhood critters tend to trigger. I don’t mind though, the shadows that it makes through the trees is kinda cozy.
Son got a cool shot of our recording equipment while I was doing the voiceover for our 1 minute videos on TikTok.
Orange glitter nails!
I love having my nails done, but it can be hard to find time to do them.
I’ve been taking some time to catch up on videos that I’ve bookmarked while I do my nails, so it justifies the time!
Plus, it’s silly of me but I like matching my nails to whatever I’m cooking (when I can, at least).
Hint… something with pumpkin is coming up soon!
We haven’t gotten out to garden as much because it’s been HOT. And muggy. And I’ve been getting sunburns even with sunscreen. Bleh.
I’ve also been attempting french braids, so I can keep my hair out of my face while wearing the sunhat.
No, you don’t get to see the french braids. Just trust me when I say they went extremely poorly.
Someone’s instagram post made me crave nachos.
Totally a valid breakfast, I promise.
Been using the YT channel as an opportunity to get creative with recipes. Brainstorming flavor combinations for something coming up soon.
More recipe testing! Had to test which cheese worked best…
And OBVIOUSLY had to make a popper with each cheese. For science.
Tomorrow’s recipe uses a bunch of bok choy, and I read somewhere that you can easily regrow.
Turns out it’s so easy to regrow, they started growing when they were sitting outside in a bag waiting for us to plant!
I’m excited for the tasty recipes we have coming up this week. What have you been up to lately?
I am a huge fan of all dumplings, but as someone who’s half-Japanese, my culture’s dumplings are gyoza.
Imagine – it’s a chilly, rainy night in Tokyo. Finally, after a 10+ hour flight, and another hour-long train ride into the city from Narita airport, you’ve made it to your hotel room.
Exhausted and in a bit of culture shock – it is your first international trip, after all – you go searching for dinner. Something close, something tasty, something familiar.
You stumble upon a ramen shop around the corner from your hotel, and step into the warm, welcoming environment. On the menu – gyoza… yes please!
A juicy pork and shrimp filling, a crispy wrapper with just the right amount of chew… they’re the perfect dumpling.
And as quite possibly the most common Asian dumpling – in the US, at least – they’re a familiar comfort food when in an unfamiliar locale.
Since we can’t travel these days, all we can do is reminisce from home about our very first Japan trip, a decade ago… but at least we can make our own gyoza from scratch!
If you’d like, you can absolutely use store-bought gyoza wrappers.
But if you’re looking for a bit of a project (or arm workout), homemade is even tastier. If you want to make your own wrappers, you can refer to our homemade dumpling wrappers post, and make the dough up to the point of putting it in the bag so it can rest while you prep your filling.
Now let’s make our filling.
The whole reason why I decided to make gyoza is because I bought a head of napa cabbage on a whim… and then decided I just didn’t feel like making kimchi.
But that’s okay – because a triple batch of gyoza used that napa cabbage all up! The cabbage in your gyoza will make them very light, so it’s not a heavy, meaty dumpling.
Core and very thinly slice your cabbage, and then salt it to draw out some of the liquid.
Let it sit for 15 minutes or so, and then rinse it really well. You don’t want to skip this and end up with suuuper salt gyoza.
Squeeze out as much liquid as you can so your gyoza aren’t soggy.
Next, we’ll add garlic and ginger, for flavor. Since you want both of these to be so finely ground or minced that they’re essentially a paste, we’re using the frozen garlic and ginger cubes to save a bit of work.
If you can get the flat chinese chives, that would be excellent here. Otherwise, just chop some green onions – both the white and green parts. Whenever you use green onions, don’t throw away the stems! You can plant them, or even stick them in a cup of water, and the green onions will continue to regrow. Free food!
Lightly chop your ground pork just to loosen it, since it’s usually packed pretty tightly together, then add that to your cabbage.
Shell, devein, and chop up some shrimp, then add that as well.
Add a tiny bit of sugar just to bring out the flavors, and a bit of black pepper.
Shoyu, aka Japanese soy sauce, for umami.
Sake, a rice wine, for a touch of brightness.
And then a bit of nutty sesame oil, all for that classic gyoza taste.
Mix this all up and set aside for a bit.
If you’re making the dumpling sauce from our last post, you can make that while your filling rests.
Wrap your dumplings, using a scant teaspoon of filling for each dumpling. I’m doing the pleated crescent shape. Please ignore how much of a disaster my folding technique is.
To cook your dumplings, add a little canola and/or sesame oil to a pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, place your dumplings in the pan, making sure they all lay flat.
Fry for a couple of minutes, until they’re just starting to brown, then pour in about a third of a cup of water. This will splatter like crazy, so be ready with a lid to cover it immediately.
Turn the heat down to medium, and let the dumplings steam for 6 minutes or so.
After six minutes, shift the lid so it’s slightly ajar to allow steam to escape.
Once all the water has evaporated and you start to hear a frying sound again, remove the lid and let the dumplings cook for another minute or two until they’re nice and brown on the bottoms.
We want the goldilocks of dumplings here – not too lightly golden, not to dark and burnt. Trust me, I’ve done both – and right in the middle, a rich bronze, is the perfect amount of fry.
Serve with the dipping sauce and some Japanese hot mustard, and enjoy!
To make the filling, in a large bowl, toss the cabbage with the 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside for about 15 minutes to draw excess moisture from the cabbage. Drain in a fine-mesh strainer (the cabbage may fall through the large holes of a colander), rinse with water, and drain again. To remove more moisture, squeeze the cabbage in your hands over the sink, or put into a cotton kitchen towel and wring out the moisture over the sink. You should have about 1/2 cup firmly packed cabbage.
Transfer the cabbage to a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, chinese chives, pork, and shrimp. Stir and lightly mash the ingredients so that they start coming together.
In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 tsp salt, the sugar, pepper, shoyu, sake, and sesame oil. Pour these seasonings over the meat and cabbage mixture, and then stir and fold the ingredients together. Once you have broken up the large chunks of pork so none are visible, briskly stir to blend the ingredients into a cohesive, thick mixture. To develop the flavors, cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes. You should have about 2 cups of filling. (The filling can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before assembling the dumplings.)
Meanwhile, form 16 wrappers from half of the dough. Aim for wrappers that are about 3 1/4″ in diameter.
Before assembling the dumplings, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (If you plan to refrigerate the dumplings for several hours, or freeze them, lightly dust the paper with flour to avoid sticking.) For each dumpling, hold a wrapper in a slightly cupped hand. Scoop up about 1 tbsp of filling with a utensil and position it slightly off-center toward the upper half of the wrapper, pressing and shaping it into a flat mound and keeping about 1/2 to 3/4″ of wrapper clear on all sides. Fold, pleat, and press to enclose the filling and create a half moon, pea pod, or pleated crescent shape. Place the finished dumpling on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining wrappers, spacing them a good 1/2″ apart. Keep the finished dumplings covered with a dry kitchen towel as you make wrappers with the remaining dough and fill with the remaining filling.
Once all the dumplings are assembled, they can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for several hours; they can be cooked straight from the freezer. For longer storage, freeze them on their tray until hard (about 1 hour), transfer them to a zip-top freezer bag, seal well, and keep them frozen for up to 1 month; partially thaw, using your finger to smooth over any cracks that may have formed during freezing, before cooking.
To panfry the dumplings, use a medium or large nonstick skillet; if both sizes are handy, cook two batches at the same time. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 1/2 tbsp oil for a medium skillet or 2 tbsp for a large one. (If you are combining oils, use 2 parts canola oil and 1 part sesame oil.) Add the dumplings one at a time, placing them sealed edges up in a winding circle pattern or several straight rows. The dumplings may touch. Fry the dumplings for 1 to 2 minutes, until they’re golden or light brown at the bottom.
Holding the lid close to the skillet to lessen the dramatic effect of water hitting hot oil, use a kettle or measuring cup to add water to a depth of about 1/4″; expect to use about 1/3 cup of water. The water will immediately sputter and boil vigorously.
Cover the skillet with a lid, lower the heat to medium, and let the water bubble away until it is mostly gone, 8 to 10 minutes. After 6 to 8 minutes, move the lid so that it is slightly ajar to allow steam to escape.
When the bubbling noise in the skillet turns into a gentle frying sound, remove the lid. Allow the dumplings to fry for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the bottoms are brown and crisp. Turn off the heat and wait until the sizzling stops before transferring the dumplings to a serving plate, using a spatula to lift up a few of them at a time. Display them with their bottoms up so they remain crisp.
Serve immediately with the dipping sauce and mustard.
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Last time we made dumpling wrappers. Next time we’re making gyoza. But you can’t have gyoza without a good dipping sauce!
This is savory and tangy and just the slightest bit spicy. If you have chili crisp, the oil from that would be EXCELLENT here – the garlicky flavor is so good.
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