For most of us, cooking is just something we have to get out of the way in order to have something to eat – a pesky task like cleaning or laundry washing. But for Mandy Lee, cooking is much more than that. Sharing her recipes online, Lee treats her platform as a way of channeling her thoughts and feeling, dubbing it “an angry food blog”.
Ironically enough, Lee admits that before starting her blog, she had never measured anything during cooking, nor has she ever followed a recipe successfully. Having said that, she likes sharing her recipes with added backstories. Those make the cooking process less of a hazard and more of a journey.
“The advertisements on the blog have no influence on the content,” assured Lee in an interview with Outlook India. “I try very hard not to warp the content to cater to a particular group, not even to the followers. That’s a slippery slope.”
She clearly does it well. With features in numerous publications, including Yahoo, Food 52, and the WashingtonPost, on top of well over 120k followers on Instagram – you’d want to take note from the Lady and Pups !
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New Recipe. For years, I’ve been sitting on a tapioca-based batter that is super easy to put together and produces donuts that greatly if not perfectly mirrors the texture of the infamous pon de ring donuts… and I haven’t told a single living soul. I was caught up at the impracticality if not impossibility of shaping the batter into the beaded shape (read the post for my argument against other pon de ring recipes on the internet). But today, such silliness ends here. By embracing what I thought was a weakness as a strength and dropping the donuts into the fryer in a particular motion, i was rewarded with these elongated “tails” that become super crispy and chips-like even hours after they’re made. It became such a pleasant contrast to the ballooned main body that deflates into a weightless pillow of silky chewiness, with a single hemisphere thinly glossed with vanilla seed icing and coated in salted peanut brown sugar dust. It’s a sweet, salty, light and chewy morsel, held by and ends with a shattering crunchy finish. I called them, tadpole-oca donuts, and the recipe is on the blog now. • • • • • #f52grams #feedfeed #huffposttaste #buzzfeast #eeeeeats #beautifulcuisines #thekitchn #foodandwine #forkyeah #yahoofood #onthetable #buzzfeedfood #vscofood #foodstyling #foodphotography #lifeandthyme #eater #heresmyfood #food52 #gloobyfood #foodgawker #eattheworld #eatfamous #tastingtable #dailyfoodfeed #spoonfeed #foodbeast #hautecuisines #foodblogfeed
A post shared by Lee Mandy (@ladyandpups) on May 21, 2020 at 4:46am PDT
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#cookingoutloud. Grilled whole fish. One of the most elegantly simple way to serve seafoods, yet so intimidating and easy to fuck up. Too much conoodling on the grill or in the oven, the delicate flesh loses its supple reason to be desired. Leaving the party too early, the pale skin deters appetite. But really, the perfect grilled whole fish is fuss-free and foolproof. Whether it’s branzino, sea bass or snapper, have it thoroughly scaled and gutted, cleaned and pat dry. Rub the fish inside out with appropriate amount of sea salt and ground white pepper, then let it slightly “cure” if you will, on a baking rack for one hour in the fridge. A process, often overlooked, that reduces excess liquid thus tightening and enhancing the texture of the flesh. Now pat the fish dry again, and reward its patience with a gentle rub of extra virgin olive oil on its skin and its cavity filled with your favorite herbs and couple slices of lemon. Place the fish on a baking rack set atop a baking sheet; the circulation of air is key. Now place it all into a cold oven. Yes, cold oven. Close and set to preheat on 300 F/150C. Strange, yes, but not really, when you realize that this method allows the delicate fish to slowly warm up, evenly and thoroughly, to reach its optimal doneness with minimal risk of overcooking in such low temperature. Once the oven finishes preheating, odds are the fish is also perfectly done. Relax because you can always check to see if the flesh easily separates from the bone. If not, back in the oven for another 10, 15 minutes or so. Regarding the crispy aspiration of the skin, this is where the fun part begins. Hover a blow-torch in a generous distance to the skin with a circular motion, and watch, in glee, the surface slowly blisters, hisses, cracks and crisps up to a beautifully charred landscape. Don’t forget the other side, too. Serve immediately with wedges of lime and garlic thyme infused olive oil. • • • • • #f52grams #feedfeed #huffposttaste #buzzfeast #eeeeeats #beautifulcuisines #thekitchn #foodandwine #forkyeah #yahoofood #onthetable #buzzfeedfood #vscofood #foodstyling #foodphotography #lifeandthyme #eater #heresmyfood
A post shared by Lee Mandy (@ladyandpups) on Mar 5, 2020 at 6:24am PST
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After taking a short break from taking a long break, I’m finally rejoining the rest of the world with another episode of, #cookingoutloud. Spaghetti with tomato sauce is the oldest thing on the menu, yet, it can still be exciting with a twist. Whatever recipe of tomato sauce that you dug up from your ancestor’s grave should work fine, but I make mine with simply olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme, but most importantly, seasoned with fish sauce with a good pinch of sugar. I reduce it down by 1/2 because thick tomato sauces agree with me. Then in another small pot, I shave 5 cloves of garlic using a truffle shaver and performed the same task with equal amount of pitted green olives, welcoming the irregular shapes and broken pieces as they add a rustic character to an intuitive homey dish. Two fillets of anchovies and enough extra virgin olive oil to flood all the ingredients later, I set the small pot over medium heat and fry until the garlics and olives become shriveled and slightly browned. I immediately transfer everything into a bowl to escape the possibility of over-browning, and added a pinch of chili flakes to celebrate. Let your spaghetti that is still slightly under-cooked finish cooking inside the tomato sauce, allow proper introduction and chemistry between the two before pushing them onto the stage. Then spoon the garlic-olive oil over the top, salty crispy and all that, and a few opened fresh cherry tomatoes with flakey sea salt to add juice and coolness. Grated parmesan cheese, don’t forget that. All the Cooking Out Loud series are saved in the blog, under the main menu “Cooking Out Loud”. • • • • • #f52grams #feedfeed #huffposttaste #buzzfeast #eeeeeats #beautifulcuisines #thekitchn #foodandwine #forkyeah #yahoofood #onthetable #buzzfeedfood #vscofood #foodstyling #foodphotography #lifeandthyme #eater #heresmyfood #food52 #gloobyfood #foodgawker #eattheworld #eatfamous #tastingtable #dailyfoodfeed #spoonfeed #foodbeast #hautecuisines #foodblogfeed
A post shared by Lee Mandy (@ladyandpups) on Jan 8, 2020 at 5:54am PST
