Cooked, kept, and cooked again
Every recipe here is one I've cooked and kept. Each follows the same format: metric quantities, ingredients grouped by stage, titled steps with doneness cues, and chef's notes for next time.
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Go by thermometer, not the clock
These are the rules behind the braises, broths, steaks and wok dishes I cook most. Each one points back to the recipes where it matters.
Internal temperatures, and where I use them
| Food | Health Canada min °C / °F | My target, served °C / °F | In my recipes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef, lamb · medium-rare | 63 / 145 | 52–54 / 126–129 | Dry-aged steak, wagyu, steak don, cumin lamb chops |
| Beef, lamb · medium | 71 / 160 | 57–60 / 135–140 | Marion's Thai steak salad; pull about 5 °C / 9 °F under |
| Duck breast | 74 / 165 | 54–57 / 129–135 | Air fryer Peking duck, seared duck breast; served pink, the French way |
| Ground meat | 71 / 160 | 71 / 160 | Pad kra pao; grinding spreads surface bacteria |
| Pork chops and roasts | 71 / 160 | 63 / 145 + rest | Tonkatsu; 63 °C / 145 °F with a 3-minute rest is the USDA figure |
| Chicken thighs, legs, wings | 74 / 165 | 80–85 / 176–185 | Three-cup, tebasaki, karaage, fig chicken; collagen softens up here |
| Whole birds | 82 / 180 | 82 / 180 | Shandong chicken, roast turkey; never pull poultry early |
| Fish | 70 / 158 | – | Steamed fish, teriyaki salmon; freeze raw fish at −20 °C / −4 °F for 7 days |
| Shellfish, leftovers, eggs | 74 / 165 | 74 / 165 | Lobster, mussels; chill within 2 hours, reheat to 74 °C / 165 °F |
Barely trembling, never boiling
Collagen starts melting around 70 °C / 158 °F and speeds up toward 82 °C / 180 °F. Hold the liquid at 85–90 °C / 185–194 °F on the lowest burner or in a 135–150 °C / 275–300 °F oven for 2–3 hours.
Kombu low, bonito off the heat
Bring 30 g kombu up slowly and lift it out at about 80 °C / 176 °F, then steep 25 g bonito off the heat for 5 minutes. Don't press the flakes.
Not all teaspoons are equal
Diamond Crystal kosher salt is about 3 g per tsp, Morton kosher about 5 g, table salt about 6 g. Pasta water for the scoglio wants about 7 g per litre.
Low, rest, then hot
Fry once at 160 °C / 320 °F to cook through, rest, then again at 180 °C / 355 °F to crisp. The second fry drives off the moisture the first one left.
Toast, then bloom in fat
Toast whole spices dry for 1–3 minutes and bloom ground spices in oil for 20–40 s. Capsaicin lives in the membranes and dissolves in fat and alcohol.
Tare names the bowl
Each bowl of my double soup shoyu gets 30–45 ml tare, 1 tbsp aroma oil and 400 ml boiling soup, then noodles drained hard.
How I cook each cuisine
| Cuisine | Base | Salt & umami | On my table |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese & Taiwanese | Garlic, ginger, scallion | Soy, Shaoxing wine, doubanjiang, rock sugar | |
| Japanese | Dashi | Soy, miso, mirin, sake | |
| Thai | Curry paste fried in coconut fat | Fish sauce; finish with lime and palm sugar | |
| Korean | Jang | Ganjang, Korean pear, sesame | |
| Italian | Soffritto, or garlic and chilli in olive oil | Parmigiano, anchovy, the sea itself | |
| French | Mirepoix, 2:1:1 by weight | Stock, wine, butter to finish | |
| Mediterranean | Olive oil, garlic, herbs | Lemon, oregano, honey and balsamic |
Ontario seasons, and what I cook with them
| Produce | Season | Cook it in |
|---|---|---|
| Asparagus | May–June | Duck breast with mash and asparagus, wagyu steak |
| Field tomatoes | July–October | Thai steak salad, scoglio, beef noodle soup |
| Figs (imported) | Late summer–autumn | Roast chicken thighs with figs |
| Pumpkin, squash | September–November | Pumpkin coconut soup |
| Apples | Autumn harvest | Grated into the beef curry and the beef noodle soup braise |
| Root vegetables | Autumn–winter | Oxtail chicken soup, roast turkey, herb chicken thighs |
Three templates run my bar
My drinks come from three of the six classic templates. The Old Fashioned is the stirred one, the spicy margarita is a Sidecar, and the mojito is a Daiquiri made long. The rest of the six are here for reference.
Old Fashioned, eight ways
60 ml spirit, 7.5 ml rich demerara syrup, 2 dashes Angostura and 1 orange, stirred 30 seconds over one big cube. Swap in rye, Japanese whisky, Islay, aged rum, mezcal or Cognac.
Spicy margarita
I infuse a whole bottle of blanco tequila with jalapeño instead of muddling chilli into each drink. Seeded slices are ready in 15–20 minutes, so taste as it goes, then strain.
Mojito
45 ml white rum, 20 ml lime, 10 mint leaves and 2 tsp sugar, topped with soda. Press the mint gently, because torn leaves turn bitter.
What my table drinks
Counted from the pairing on each of my recipes. Tap a dish to see it.
| Pour | Recipes | Goes with |
|---|---|---|
| Counting… | ||
Reference specs (ml)
| Cocktail | Spec | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Stirred | ||
| Old Fashioned · house | Bourbon 60 · rich demerara 7.5 · 2 Angostura · 1 orange bitters | Stir 30 s; strain over one big cube; orange peel |
| Negroni | Gin 30 · Campari 30 · sweet vermouth 30 | Build over ice; stir |
| Dry Martini | Gin 60 · dry vermouth 10 | Stir; strain; lemon oil or olive |
| Manhattan | Rye 50 · sweet vermouth 20 · 1 dash Angostura | Stir; strain; cherry |
| Shaken | ||
| Spicy Margarita · house | Jalapeño tequila 60 · Cointreau 15 · lime 30 · agave 15 | Shake hard 12 s; strain over fresh ice; salt rim |
| Daiquiri | White rum 60 · lime 20 · 2 bar spoons sugar | Dissolve sugar; shake; strain |
| Whiskey Sour | Bourbon 45 · lemon 25 · syrup 20 · egg white optional | Shake (harder with egg); strain |
| Tommy's Margarita | Tequila 60 · lime 30 · agave 30 | Shake; strain over ice |
| Long | ||
| Mojito · house | White rum 45 · lime 20 · 10 mint leaves · 2 tsp sugar · soda 60 | Press the mint gently; build; top with soda |
| Paloma | Tequila 50 · lime 5 · pinch salt · grapefruit soda 100 | Build; stir |
| Spritz | Prosecco 90 · Aperol 60 · splash soda | Build in a wine glass over ice |
Always one zero-proof
The tea Old Fashioned, lime soda with a pinch of salt for the Thai dishes, or barley tea with the teriyaki salmon.
More ice, less water
Lots of dry, fresh ice chills faster with less dilution than a few half-melted cubes. One big cube for anything stirred and served on the rocks.
Squeeze citrus the same day
Vermouth is wine: refrigerated, it keeps about two months. A US jigger holds about 44 ml, so I measure in ml.
Buy short-shelf items on the day
Every ingredient across my recipes, grouped by type, with its shelf life and the recipes that use it. I shop at T&T for the Asian staples, a butcher for bony cuts, and St. Lawrence or Kensington Market for anything harder to find.
My workhorses
The ingredients that show up in the most recipes, so they're worth always having in.
The Asian shelf
Light and dark soy, Shaoxing wine, mirin, sake, fish sauce, kombu and katsuobushi, dried shiitake, doubanjiang, rock sugar. Almost every Chinese and Japanese recipe here starts from this shelf.
Seafood and herbs
Live mussels and lobster, fresh fish, Thai basil, cilantro and mint. They're the short-shelf items, flagged in red in the table below.
Bony cuts
Beef shank, oxtail, short ribs, pork knuckle and lamb shanks for the braises, and chicken frames and trotters for the ramen soup.
| Ingredient | Subtype | Shelf life | Used in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading pantry… | |||
Every recipe follows one format
I cook it, snap it or find it, and the home-chef skill writes it up in this format. Each recipe lands here, with a markdown copy and photo in my Project Cook Recipes folder.
House format
| Field | Rule |
|---|---|
| Summary | Two sentences or fewer, point first: what makes the dish work, then how it's served |
| Facts | Cuisine, type, protein, difficulty, flavour, serves, prep, cook and rest time, using the Recipe Master vocabulary |
| Course | Mains, Noodles, Rice, Soups & Stocks, Small Plates, Sweets or Drinks; sets the default order on the Recipes tab |
| Ingredients | Grouped by stage in order of use; grams, ml and °C; whole counts kept as counts; kosher salt means Diamond Crystal |
| Steps | Titled and numbered, each with heat, time and a cue you can see, smell or probe; a timer on every waiting step |
| Temperatures | A target internal temperature for every meat, alongside Health Canada's minimum |
| Why it works | One or two short reasons the key steps matter, where they apply |
| Chef's notes | Two to four ways to make it better, each titled as a takeaway and backed by its reason |
| Source | Johnew's own recipe for anything I cooked, or "Converted from" or "Adapted from" for someone else's. Every recipe links to its original or the closest published recipe. |
| Cook mode | Tick ingredients and steps as you go (they're remembered), run several timers at once, keep the screen on, and download the recipe as a PDF |
Why it works · a quick reference
The reasoning behind the techniques, acids and herb pairings that keep showing up in my recipes. Each recipe also has its own "Why it works" box.
Techniques
| Technique | Why it works | In my recipes |
|---|---|---|
| Dry-brining | Salt draws moisture out and is then reabsorbed. That seasons the meat inside and leaves a dry surface that crisps. | Shandong chicken, fig chicken |
| Searing | Browning (the Maillard reaction) builds hundreds of flavour compounds, but only on a dry surface in a hot pan. A wet surface just steams. | Dry-aged steak, braised chicken |
| Reverse sear | A low oven brings thick steak evenly to temperature and dries the surface. A quick, hard sear then browns it without overcooking the edge. | Dry-aged steak |
| Deglazing | Liquid poured into a hot pan lifts the fond, the browned bits stuck to the bottom, and turns them into the sauce. That's most of a sauce's depth. | Oxtail, lamb shanks, duck breast, steak don |
| Braising | Collagen in tough cuts melts into gelatin at about 70–90 °C / 158–194 °F. Slow heat makes the meat tender and the sauce rich. | Beef noodle soup, galbi-jjim, pork knuckle |
| Blanching meat | A quick boil pulls out blood and scum, so long braises and broths stay clean and clear. | Beef noodle soup, galbi-jjim, pork knuckle |
| Blooming in fat | Most spice and curry-paste aromas dissolve in fat, not water. Fry them in oil first and the whole dish carries them. | Green curry, beef curry, bean pastes |
| Double frying | The first fry cooks the meat through. The second, hotter fry drives off the moisture that rose to the surface, so the crust stays crisp. | Karaage, tebasaki |
| Emulsifying | Starch from pasta water, or cold butter swirled in off the heat, binds fat and liquid into a glossy sauce that clings. | Scoglio, lamb shank sauce |
| Resting | Carryover heat finishes the centre, and the meat loses less juice when you slice it. | Steaks, roast chicken, duck |
Acids and alcohol
| Ingredient | Why it works | In my recipes |
|---|---|---|
| Vinegar | Acid cuts fat and makes rich food taste lighter. Black vinegar is malty, rice vinegar is clean, balsamic is sweet. | Shandong sauce, Peking duck glaze, fig chicken |
| Citrus | Fresh acid plus aromatic oils in the zest. Add it at the end, because heat dulls both. | Thai steak salad, lemon wings, scoglio |
| Tamarind | A fruity, rounder sourness than lime. It's the backbone of pad thai. | Pad thai |
| Wine to deglaze | Alcohol dissolves flavour compounds that water can't, and its acid brightens. Reduce it so the harsh alcohol cooks off. | Oxtail, lamb shanks, scoglio |
| Shaoxing, sake, mirin | Cooking wines add aroma and tame strong meat and fish smells. Mirin adds sweetness and gloss. | Three-cup chicken, teriyaki, ramen chashu |
| Spirits for infusing | Chilli heat (capsaicin) dissolves in alcohol, so a spirit picks it up fast and evenly. | Spicy margarita |
Herb and aromatic pairings
| Pairing | Why it works | In my recipes |
|---|---|---|
| Ginger and scallion with seafood | They mask fishy notes and add sharp freshness. | Steamed fish, lobster |
| Cilantro, lime and fish sauce | Fresh, sour and salty all at once, so they balance rich, sweet or fried food. | Green curry, summer rolls, steak salad |
| Thai or holy basil | Anise and clove aromas suit chicken and pork. They fade with heat, so add them last. | Three-cup chicken, pad kra pao |
| Mint with lamb and beef | A cool, fresh lift that cuts fatty richness. | Oxtail, steak salad |
| Cumin and chilli with lamb | Earthy warmth and heat stand up to lamb's strong flavour. | Lamb skewers, lamb chops |
| Star anise and cinnamon in braises | Sweet, warm spices that hold up to hours of cooking and suit beef and pork. | Beef noodle soup, pork knuckle |
| Thyme, rosemary and sage with roasts | Woody herbs survive long roasting where soft herbs would burn. | Roast turkey, fig chicken |
| Oregano and lemon with chicken | Dried oregano survives the oven, and lemon cuts the fat. It's the Greek pairing. | Lemon oregano wings |
| Parsley, garlic and lemon zest with seafood | Fresh and sharp, they lift briny shellfish without masking it. | Scoglio |
| Dill and parsley in broths | Bright, grassy herbs freshen a long-simmered soup at the end. | Oxtail chicken soup |
| Kombu and bonito | Glutamate plus nucleotides: together they taste far stronger than either alone. | Dashi, miso soup |