Ingredients:

2 slices of bread, your choice
1 slice of swiss or American cheese
1 small handful of baby spinach, rinsed and dried
2 slices of deli Turkey meat (I chose oven roasted)
1 tspn Chipotle Mayo, recipe as follows
1 tspn Strawberry Jam (click to make your own homemade jam!)
1 tbspn butter, optional

Preparation:

Toast bread in toaster or melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat and toast both slices of bread, one side down, until golden brown.

Turn off stove and remove pan from heat.

Take two slices of bread and place each, browned side-down, on a cutting board or plate.  Spread one side with the strawberry jam and the other with the chipotle mayo.

Place cheese on one slice of bread. Lay small bed of spinach over cheese and assemble slices of turkey over the spinach.

Take other slice of bread and gently place atop turkey to form a sandwich.

Cut in half and enjoy.

Simple Smokey Chipotle Mayo

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 pinch black pepper

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl.

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Ingredients:

Toasts

1 loaf unsliced white bread, brioche or rich bread of your choice
1 1/3 cups whole milk
2/3 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 teaspoon Grand Marnier or another orange liqueur or 1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Preparation:

Cut bread into 1 1/2-inch thick, generous slices; a 9-inch loaf should yield 6 slices. Whisk together milk, cream, eggs, sugar, salt, liqueur, and vanilla extract, if using. If using a vanilla bean, halve it lengthwise and scrape the pulp into a small dish. Whisk vanilla bean with one tablespoon of custard, then whisk in another and a third tablespoon, then pour the vanilla bean-custard mixture back into the main batter. This avoids having vanilla bean clumps that don’t disperse in your batter. Don’t you hate that?

Preheat oven to 325. Arrange bread slices on the smallest rimmed tray that will fit them in one layer (encourages maximum absorption) pour custard over slices. Allow them to absorb the custard for 30 minutes, turning the slices over at one point to ensure they’re soaking it up evenly.

[Do ahead: You can also soak them overnight in the fridge. No need to flip them if so.]

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer custard-soaked slices to prepared sheet, arranging them with a smidge of space between each to avoid making one French mega-toast. Flipping them halfway through if you wish, bake French toast slices for 30 to 35 minutes, until a slim knife inserted into the center of a slice and twisted ever-so-slightly does not release any wet custard. Keep warm until ready to serve.

To caramelize the tops:

Sprinkle each toast with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and let the broiler do the torching for you.

What?! Another summer-savoring recipe and reminder of summer’s end yet to come already here?! I know, I know. I’m clearly behaving as a sullen, whiny teen (which seems so ten, okay fine,  five years ago) constantly complaining about another end of the favorite season and consequently, another beginning of the dreaded semester, but I can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that I won’t have as much time to bake and cook anymore! Let me moan just a little. It’s not my intention in the slightest to be cumbersome to any readers with my incessant weeps and woes. Honestly, I keep thinking for some reason that the more I complain and vent about my troubles and worries, it will do one of two things. One, the problem at hand will *poof* magically disappear or disintegrate as the groans and grumbles appear and increase with every word typed and created by my almighty fingers (needless to say, the blatantly desired outcome). Or, two, as I blab on and on about my pathetic minion of a problem especially in comparison to other far more prominent and official worldly disasters and tragedies (although, quite frankly, I can’t really bring myself to say I don’t believe the situation I or any other stressed and exhausted college student is in isn’t a complete and total calamity in and of itself), I’ll be forced to accept (gracefully?) the hell that awaits me.

Or will I?

Who knows, it might not even be hell. I’m just assuming and expecting the worst so that when tomorrow actually arrives and classes actually resume, I’ll be more than prepared for what’s in store. Even if it is hell, I have the ultimate dish to cool myself after being hit by any potential heat wave, both literally and figuratively.

Even though this Korean-style pasta/noodle/somen salad seems foreign, I’m quite sure (from both experience and experiment) that it isn’t an acquired taste. It’s a cool and refreshing combination of sweet and spicy flavors with a play on textures between the crunchiness of the raw vegetables and the chewiness of the sliced top shell.

Top Shell Bibim Kooksoo/Mixed Noodles (골뱅이 비빔국수)

Adapted & translated from 요리천사의 행복밥상

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

about half packet (400-500g) of somen noodles

1 can of top shell (400g) – can be found in most Korean supermarkets

1 cucumber, julienned

1 onion, chopped

half head of Chinese cabbage, chopped into bite-size rectangles

salt, to taste

radish sprouts (Kaiware sprouts), for garnishing

For sauce:

2/3 cup Kochu Jang, Korean red pepper paste

1/4 cup Kochu Kkaroo, Korean red pepper flakes (adjust to taste)

2/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

3-4 tbspns minced garlic

2/3 cup green onion, chopped into small circles

1-2 tbspn minced ginger (or 1/2 tbspn ginger powder)

1/3 cup soy sauce, or more to taste

3-4 tbspns corn syrup

2 tbspns sesame seeds/sesame salt

2-3 tbspns sesame oil

Preparation:

Drain the can of top shell and slice each into thin pieces. Prepare the vegetables.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together into a red sauce.

Meanwhile, bring  a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles.

Add in the top shell and prepared vegetables to the sauce and mix together well.

Once the noodles are cooked, drain the water and rinse the noodles in cold water for about a minute so that the noodles can be served cold.

Serve the noodles on a dish or in a bowl with the sauce mixture over it and garnish with radish sprouts (optional).

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Nothing screams summer (albeit nearly over) like barbecued ribs. I swear, it has to be universal. I’m sure everybody has their own form of barbecue that epitomizes the sunny summer season. If this isn’t the case, it needs to be because otherwise they don’t know what they’re missing out on!

I’ve never cooked or grilled or barbecued ribs, ever. I’ve always left that up to other, older, more experienced master chefs, kitchen gurus, and Bobby Flays. Needless to say, I’ve always happily been on the receiving end of the barbecue bashes leaving me with a food-pregnant stomach and sloppy-mopped grin. Seriously, people who are able to cook meat to perfection deserve standing ovations and this rib recipe can glorify any cook, experienced or beginner. Not to mention, it also brings out the barbaric side of any gallivanting carnivore (or maybe just me).

Sweet & Smokey Spare Ribs
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar plus a little extra for sauce (what can I say, I like my meat sweet)
2 tablespoons chili powder (ancho is recommended) or paprika (I used paprika)
3-4 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 pounds spareribs, cut into 4 slabs, rinsed and patted dry
2 teaspoons mild or hot pimentón (smoked Spanish paprika) or cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or red or white vinegar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 270 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, chili powder or paprika, salt, garlic powder, cloves and cinnamon; you can do this easily with a fork. Place each slab of ribs on a piece of foil large enough to fold into a packet. Sprinkle spice rub over the ribs, patting it in generously on all sides — you’ll be glad you did. Turn the ribs meat side down and tightly fold the foil to make sealed packets.

Put a rack on a baking sheet (I needed two racks and two sheets; a cookie cooling rack works for this) and place it in the oven. Bake for 3 hours at 270 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 200 for another hour or so or until a fork easily penetrates the meat. Open each packet carefully and pour the accumulated juices into a saucepan. Boil the juices and reduce them by half, at which point you will have a syrupy sauce that easily coats a spoon. Stir in paprika and vinegar and if you’re like me, a little more sugar.

Remove the ribs from the foil and either coat them with the sauce or serve the sauce alongside the ribs. For extra caramelization, the ribs can be finished for a few minutes under the broiler, before being coated with sauce.

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