Survival Sunday 314: Dalgona Dreams

In Which I Try That Viral Coffee Everyone Raved About

If you know me, you know I like deep bitter and sweet flavors. I'm all about that bright, citrus sweetness, don't get me wrong - orange juice is still the bizzomb for breakfast out - but when I'm home, I wake up with a 2:1 ratio of hot cocoa to coffee. My partner calls it my morning gruel. I've brainwashed them into liking it. Apologies.

Regardless, this means I've got the ingredients on-hand for a viral drink sensation that's sweeping the internet.

Dalgona Coffee, or whipped coffee, is everywhere on the internet right now. I cannot escape it. It has completely saturated YouTube and Twitter, and I cannot blink without seeing a caramel-colored whip in a cup somewhere. It drove me completely to the brink, and I eventually just said...

Alright, where is my tiny whisk and some sugar?!

Because despite its complicated appearance, it's actually the easiest thing in the world to make, gives you a fantastic caffeine and sugar high, and gives you a workout. Also, there's milk involved.

You need four things:

• 2 Tablespoons instant coffee powder (I use Nescafé Taster's Choice House Blend, but pick your poison preference)
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons hot water
• A glass of milk

I have no idea if sugar substitutes would work for this. I'm gonna guess honey wouldn't work. Regardless, you'll also need a bowl, a whisk, and something to get the Dalgona out of the bowl with.

That tiny whisk in the above pic? Too small. Get you something bigger than that.

What you want to do is pour the dry ingredients into a bowl - not too big or it won't whip well, but not so small that it just goes flying when you start to whisk. That's a large cereal bowl.

Once your sugar and coffee are together, dump in your two Tablespoons of hot water and immediately start whisking. Just... beat the tar out of this mixture. Obviously, you can use whatever mechanical means you usually use for whipping cream for this, but I only had my biceps and a whisk. My poor, poor biceps.

Because this whip job is a long one. It's gonna look like coffee soup and smell like someone tipped over a Tim Hortons, but keep going. Whip it like it's the 1600s and it took an apple from your yard. Whip it like it's your hair at a metal concert. Whip it like you want it to call you daddy... uh... that got weird.

Eventually, it will start to look whippy. This is good.

The coffee mixture, which, by the way, does not yet have any milk in it or near it, will start to lighten in color as it thickens in texture. Whip it til either your arms are screaming louder than the Devo song you now have stuck in your head or until it's at a consistency you find appealing - somewhere between foamy batter and whipped cream. I got mine to a loose whipped cream texture.

At this point, you get out your glass of milk and start carefully dolloping (or if you're smarter than me, piping with a pastry/icing bag!) your Dalgona into the cup.

I used half of this mixture in each of two cups and it was supremely overwhelming for my mother. It's sweet from all that sugar, but it's also mondo bitter - pure coffee goodness. If I'd had the presence of mind I'd have made chocolate milk to put this in, because it's insanely addictive and I think it would make a stupid-tasty mocha drink. It thickens the milk as you stir it in, and it's just... it's really good.

10/10, would whip the crap out of ingredients until my arms hurt again.

So in conclusion: This is one viral food trend that I not only understand now, but am actually a convert/advocate for it. If you have instant coffee and sugar and a kettle with water and some milk (or a milk substitute, I'm not cutting vegans or the dairy-challenged/allergic out of this fun), you should make some Dalgona.

It's probably going into the rotation for summer drinks, tbh.

Stay tuned for next week when I make 2/3 of a meal and then forget to take photos at the end (or they don't come out)!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Survival Sunday 309: Breakfast Time Again!

In Which I Make A Breakfast

I'm not really a breakfast person 99% of the time. I like breakfast foods - pancakes, waffles, French toast, quiche, toast, eggs, bacon, oatmeal, etc - but when I've just woken up, cooking is the last thing on my mind.

And then this morning, I had a craving for Cream of Wheat. Which I never usually want, but hey, who am I do deny my stomach?

So I set about making Cream of Wheat for breakfast.

Your first step is always to gather your ingredients and measure things

So for one serving of Cream of Wheat, you want 3 Tbsp (three tablespoons) of the cereal and 3/4 cup of either water with a pinch of salt or just straight-up milk. I chose milk, today, since I wanted to maximize the filling-potential. Then I readied my morning cup of coffee and set the kettle on to boil, but that was just for the coffee lol.

Also, the tongs are on the counter because I had to dig for my tiny whisk and the measuring spoons.

Next, you heat the milk!

I set up the milk on medium-low, stirring constantly until it came to a light boil. I didn't want to scorch the milk or burn it onto the pan (which is a pain to clean up), so I watched it like a hawk. Now is about where I'm going to admit that my initial plan was to just... nuke it in the microwave instead of making it on the stovetop. Then I thought for a second and reconsidered. It's a good thing I used the milk, too, since it's gonna go by soon...

Once the milk or water boil, slowly add the cereal mix and start stirring like mad

I've made Cream of Wheat using a spoon before. Don't do that. Find or buy a small whisk - this one came with a hot chocolate gift set a few years ago - and use that instead. You want to go until the mix is gloopy and makes slightly obscene bubbling sounds as you stir.

And then dump it in a bowl with some cream, cinnamon and sugar, and some brown sugar!

At this point, it was a bit pasty, and even after mixing in the cream, it was a little too thick, so it was a good thing I'd just heated the water for my coffee!

This is before I added water and mixed it together.

As for the texture, well... I remember Cream of Wheat being much soupier as a child, but between me whisking rapidly the whole cooking time, using milk instead of water, and continuing to stir like mad once it was in the bowl, the end result was like eating a soft, faintly sweet bowl of clouds.

I'm a convert.

This was so much better than most of the oatmeal I've made...

I think I'm officially old. That's cool :)

So what about you guys? Do you have any breakfast foods you used to dislike that you're now really cool with? What are your favorite hot cereal toppings?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Survival Sunday 232: Steak and Shake Connection

In which I make Noodles with steak and also make a milkshake!

My mom made steak, which, I may have mentioned, usually means she made too much steak for just her and my father. The leftover steak sat in the fridge for a few days before I finally asked if I could put it out of its misery, and once I was given the go-ahead, I got ready to put it in some noodz!

The Noodz

The Steak!

Some Eggs!

These Noodles came from our August Umai Crate!

Healthy Vegetable Ramen?
Better add some steak.

If you know me, then you probably know I have a somewhat rude and subversive sense of humor. One of my favorite things to do is taking a healthy option and making it as unhealthy as possible - hence adding steak to "healthy" veggie ramen!

Here we see the steak all cut up into strips and soaking in an egg bath

To make this at home, you will need:

• Leftover protein
• Ramen
• Eggs
• Spices and/or onion or garlic powder to taste

Cut the protein into manageable pieces, then crack the eggs into a bowl and scramble them up. Once the eggs are a mostly uniform yolk-color, add your protein and let it soak.

This is also when you add any herbs/spices/powders you'd like.
I believe this is garlic and/or onion powder.

 Next, you're going to want to assemble the ramen packet(s). I set the brick right in the bowl to hold it, but you don't have to. Basically, you just want to be sure what you have to work with!

The contents of the ramen pack

The Noodz

The seasoning packet

The unmarked and somewhat intimidating packet of ?

Cook your ramen according to the package. Since our package was in Japanese, I used Google Translate, and it was well worth it. The cooking instructions were hilariously dire - "Stop fire when strings become untied".

The strings are not yet untied.

Untied noodz with the steak and eggs added in!

If you're curious as to how I kept things from burning on in the pot, I actually floated the steak chunks on top of the brick before things softened up! That way, the fat started to render out of the steak (what fat was left, at least) and into the noodles, the egg bloomed into the broth, and the overall effect was delightfully easy to clean up after the fact!

Once I'd "stopped the fire" (turned off the heat and moved the pot to a cool burner),
I added the broth packet, which smelled delightful and looked really good!

Now came the moment of truth, however - what was in the unmarked packet?!

Oh. It's veggies. The kind you get in Yakisoba.
Sweet!

This meal did not last that long! We got it to the table and it was devoured in mere minutes. Honestly, there is no nobler fate for leftovers than to be cooked up with ramen. The steak had gotten tough in the fridge, but after soaking in egg and simmering with noodles for a while, it softened right up and became just as tender as when it was first cooked! The egg bath is quickly becoming my go-to trick for working with leftover meats.

Now, if you're going to have hot noodles in the summer time, you're probably going to want something to cool yourself off with, right? Of course you are! So please enjoy this week's video:

Hopefully, you all enjoy noodles and sweets in the days to come.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC