Baking Adventure: Bánh Bò Nướng (Vietnamese Pandan Tapioca Honeycomb Cake)

Ahoy, Adventurers! Here's something a little different that I baked for a class potluck. This super fragrant, green-tinted, chewy cake is called "Bánh Bò Nướng" in Vietnamese and is one of my favorite Vietnamese treats. It's a popular dessert flavored with pandan extract and coconut milk. The English name might be a little misleading because the "honeycomb" does not refer to any honey used in the recipe but rather the unique bubbled honeycomb shape of the finished product.

Bánh Bò Nướng - Vietnamese Pandan Tapioca Honeycomb Cake

Bánh Bò Nướng is notorious for being really fickle. There are many tips and tricks suggested by various bloggers, but often in the comment sections, you'll read about the multiple failures others experienced - mainly getting a dense brick cake with no bubbles. After successfully making this cake twice (just to rule out beginner's luck with my first attempt), I am pretty confident that my method works.

Before we jump into the recipe, I wanted to include a section for tips and tricks I've gathered that appear to increase your chances of having a successful Bánh Bò Nướng. I'm not entirely sure if all the tips are crucial but I incorporated them into how I make Bánh Bò Nướng just in case. Honestly, I suspect only the final tip is SUPER important but I'd rather be enjoying cake than sorry I wasted my ingredients. If I ever find the time and money, I'll test out all the tricks to see if they're all necessary, but for now here's what I've gathered:

Tips and Tricks

• You have to use single-acting baking powder. Double-acting baking power supposedly won't give you the proper honeycomb shape, but Andrea Nguyen from Viet World Kitchen found that you will still get bubbles just maybe not the ideal honeycomb formation.
• Preheat your baking pan so that your batter sizzles when it hits the pan. (I don't think this tip is necessary because my batter didn't sizzle but the final product still came out okay.)
• Do not incorporate any air into the eggs or else you will get a flat cake. (This is one of the tips I'm not entirely sure about but I followed anyway.)
• Do not overmix your eggs or else you will get a flat cake.
• When measuring out the coconut milk, do not shake the can or carton. Instead, open the container as is and measure out the cream part floating on the top. (I think this is more for flavor.)
• Let the cake rest in the hot oven before removing it.
• Add your single-acting baking powder to you mixture as your LAST INGREDIENT (after you've mixed and strained your other ingredients). (Now this tip, I think is really important. Single-acting baking powder starts reacting and making bubbles once it hits liquid. If you added the single-acting baking powder at the beginning and took too long to mix your ingredients, all the baking powder would have reacted and you would not get any bubble formation when you're baking in the cake the oven, which would result in a dense cake. Therefore, I think this step is crucial!)

Now, onto the recipe...

Breaking Bad - Blue Sky "Meth" Rock Candy

My friends are HUGE fans of Breaking Bad. Although the show ended not too long ago, I wanted to cook  a special treat for my friends for Christmas - Blue Sky! No, not that Blue Sky! The rock candy version of Walter White's ultra pure meth!

Breaking Bad - Blue Sky Meth

Baking Adventure: Portal Cake (and Happy Birthday to My Little Bro)

Hey, Adventurers! Happy 2014!

Apologies for the extended hiatus! It was much longer than I had originally anticipated, but I hope you all had a fun, safe, warm holiday season. My holidays were busy with family and friends, but I've also been making things that I'll blog about later. :) Be sure to stick around in the upcoming weeks!

You see, the end of November and early December always correspond with end-of-the-quarter craziness - finals, papers, projects, presentations, and all that fun stuff. In addition, there's Thanksgiving and... my brother's birthday!

Portal Cake

My brother's a big fan of Portal so this year, I made him a Portal Cake. That's right, the cake is NOT a lie!

Cooking Adventure: The Hunger Games - Basil-Wrapped Goat Cheese

In honor of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire movie opening this weekend, I wanted to make something Hunger Games-related. Today, I present the basil-wrapped goat cheese that Prim made for Katniss on Reaping Day in the first Hunger Games book.

The Hunger Games - Basil-wrapped Goat Cheese

THE HUNGER GAMES: BASIL-WRAPPED GOAT CHEESE
Adapted from "Prim's Basil-Wrapped Goat Cheese Balls" in The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook

Ingredients
5 oz goat cheese, room temperature
4 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Salt (to taste)
Ground pepper (to taste)
Basil leaves
Crackers or bread for serving

Directions

1. Combine goat cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl
2. Scoop out small spoonfuls of goat cheese mixture and form into balls
3. Wrap with basil leaves
4. Serve with crackers or bread 

The original recipe called for freshly ground black pepper, which is what I used, but I didn't like how it created little black specks in my goat cheese. I would recommend using white pepper next time.

If you're interested in more Hunger Games recipes, check out the links below:
Katniss's Favorite Lamb Stew with Dried Plums
Peeta's Nut and Raisin Bread
District 4 Bread - Fish-shaped Seaweed Bread
District 11 Bread - Crescent-shaped Grain Bread

Anime Food Re-creation: Ponyo Ramen

Hey everyone! Today's Anime Food Re-creation is Ponyo Ramen!

Ponyo - Ramen

After watching Ponyo and seeing Sosuke's mom make surprise ramen for Ponyo and Sosuke, I knew I had to make it.

Cooking Adventure: Joey's Meatball Sub from FRIENDS

In one episode of FRIENDS, Joey, Ross, and Chandler go on an undercover ride-along with Phoebe's cop boyfriend, Gary. While on the ride-along, Joey gets "the best sandwich in the world" made with meatballs, melted cheese, and marinara sauce, but Gary won't let Joey eat it in his car. Now you have to understand, Joey loves his meatball subs. Later in the night, the guys are startled by a car backfire, which they mistaken for a gunshot. Joey appears to dive to save Ross, which upsets Chandler. However, Joey is actually diving to save his sandwich! That must be some sandwich!

After seeing this episode, I knew I had to make my own meatball sub sandwich. Below is a super easy recipe for a meatball sub inspired by Joey's sandwich and made with frozen meatballs and canned marinara sauce. Of course, if you make homemade meatballs and marinara sauce from scratch, definitely use that instead.

Joey's Meatball Sub from FRIENDS

EASY MEATBALL SUB SANDWICH
Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients
16 meatballs, thawed
1 can or jar marinara sauce
Garlic butter (Homemade Garlic Butter Recipe Here)
4 French rolls
Shredded mozzarella or provolone (sliced cheese works too)

Directions

1. Brown meatballs in a skillet.
2. Add marinara sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, or until meatballs and sauce are cooked and heated through.
3. Spread garlic butter inside French rolls and toast in toaster oven.
4. Spoon in 4 meatballs per sub sandwich with a little marinara sauce.
5. Top with shredded or sliced mozzarella/provolone.

I don't think meatball subs normally have garlic butter, but I thought it added another dimension of flavor. Feel free to omit it, if you want.

If you'd like to see Chandler confront Joey about "saving Ross," check out the clip below. You'll also get a look at Joey's favorite sandwich and see just how much Chandler means to Joey.