Minimally Invasive DIY Archives - Minimally Invasive

Day 21, Rosemary Syrup

My friend Kasha came over yesterday to hang out, do a little cooking, and help me with styling a few things, but it was one of those star-crossed days in the kitchen — my chicken was dry, the caramel sauce didn’t set before sundown, and the rosemary syrup didn’t make it entirely into the jar. No worries, though; I like a bit of imperfection in my pictures. Also? That dry chicken is nothing a little BBQ sauce won’t fix, and the caramel finally behaved itself long enough to proceed with the recipe. (More on that later.) It’s all about rolling with the punches in the kitchen, as Julia Child taught us so well with her enthusiastically-flipped potato pancake (not a chicken or duck as urban legend would have us believe).

Be sure to check out Kasha’s blog for a lot of great fresh-from-the-farm recipes and tips for using seasonal produce. She’s also an excellent baker.

recipe after […]

Day 11, Homemade Vanilla Extract

As promised, homemade vanilla extract! Once you try this yourself, you may wonder what took you so long to get with the program.

The principles are simple — choose a liquor for the base that’s about 40% alcohol, add vanilla beans and wait — but the results are extraordinary. I keep dark rum and bourbon versions on hand, though vodka is what you’ll usually find in stores because it has a very neutral flavor. I made the jump to dark liquors when I realized that either one would shine in nearly any recipe that calls for vanilla extract. Most baked goods would be complemented by them, don’t you think?

Because vanilla beans can be prohibitively expensive to buy in stores, I ordered mine from ebay. Yep, ebay. This store has a great reputation and a broad selection. And it’s a real bounty of beans, at least for a non-baker like me; I’m still working on the shipment I received a couple of years ago.

If you want to give this as a gift, I’ve created two versions of […]

Day 10, Flavored Salts

Flavored salts are so easy to make and they’re such a great way to punch up dishes at home.

Cook with them or use them as finishing salts — either way, they’ll impart loads of flavor. I made three versions for you today.

Doesn’t this just look like Christmas with the red chiles and green lime zest? So festive!

Very subtle smoked flavor with great umami.

My favorite of the three. It’s smoky and spicy with a big hit of fruity orange.

I took the Chile-Lime recipe directly from The Kitchn‘s guide to making flavored salts, but winged the other two with ingredients I had in my kitchen, just to see if I could do it.

DIY Ginger Ale

I can’t even remember why now, but earlier this week I decided I needed to make homemade ginger ale and started googling. It turns out to be very simple — just a few tablespoons of ginger syrup + a cup of club soda, so I knocked that out this afternoon, post-nap.

I used Ming Tsai’s recipe for ginger syrup, but the search yielded a bunch of similar results — a combination of ginger, sugar, and water cooked down till somewhat thick. It’s spicy and sweet and so good, I think I could eat it by the spoonful. But the best thing about the recipe is you can set aside the sugary ginger slices to use as an ice cream topping or a drink garnish. Or, if it isn’t summer where you are, you can coat the dried slices in sugar and bake at 200 degrees F for four hours for homemade candied ginger.