What I Cooked This Week: May 11 - May 17

A running list of what I am cooking. Use it for ideas, inspiration, or just to entertain your boredom. I’ll keep it simple. Each entry will include:

• What I cooked (don't worry, there's always a photo)
• What I experimented with
• What I liked and disliked
• Other thoughts (I'll try to spare you here - I'm a cutthroat critic of my own cooking)

May 12, 2025

Miso marinated salmon bowls

We’ve eaten about 100 of these. Still, I couldn’t help myself—I had to mess with it. This time: an extreme caramelization of the salmon. Notes below. Still very solid

What I experimented with:

• Pan-searing the salmon without rinsing off the marinade (shio miso, shoyu, mirin, sake, sugar, garlic). My thinking: if I kept the heat low enough, I could avoid burning the sugars while still getting that crispy sear on the flesh. The goal? Crunchy salmon with a more intense miso flavor. The result? Not quite. Too much sugar, plus the shoyu burns fast. There’s a reason miso-marinated fish is usually cooked in the oven. I’ve had minimal success in a pan.

• ✅ I love a salmon bowl
• ✅ Crunchy onions—shallots especially—belong on everything.
• ❌ Burnt surface. It didn’t taste bad, and the fish wasn’t overcooked, but next time I’d like a more even, less browned finish.

Takeaway:

Miso-marinated salmon is great—just rinse before pan-searing. Or better yet, skip the pan sear.

Rating: 7.3/10 (still a great meal)

May 13, 2025

Ongoing Experiment: Pizza

This week's felt like a minor step back. So elusive, pizza.

What I experimented with:

• Same dough recipe but scaled for 3. Family had to change plans so used one ball as focaccia.
• Fresh grated mozz.
• Garlic butter crust

• ✅ Fresh cheese is obvious
• ✅ Garlic butter is obvious
• ❌ I cannot get the crust as thin as I'd like. Seemed to have plenty of gluten development. I need to crank the oven next time, maybe a higher hydration dough (70%?), and a hell of a lot better shaping skills.

Takeaway:

Still better than week 1. Still not there. I will find you.

Rating: 6.9/10

May 14, 2025

Isaac Toup's Bone-In Pork Chops

It’s just a brined pork chop with a cane syrup and cane vinegar agridolce—but Isaac Toup is a New Orleans legend, and I’ve seen him cook this exact thing on YouTube, so he gets the credit.

What I experimented with:

• Wet brine (24 hrs): I almost always dry brine, so this was a change-up.
• Cane agridolce: I’ve made versions before, but never with cane syrup and cane vinegar like Toup.

• ✅ Agridolce. Perfect for a salty, fatty piece of meat
• ✅ The brine was good but not sure it's worth the extra effort over a dry brine
• ❌ Slightly overcooked the chops. Pulled out at like 138F and they sailed a bit more than I intended while they rested

Takeaway:

Brine your pork chops (wet or dry), and hit them with something sweet and acidic. Shoutout Isaac Toup.

Rating: 8.0/10