We are approaching our third week of teleworking here in Ohio. Just yesterday, I found out I will likely continue teleworking until May. When I’m not at work, I’m spending most of my time testing out recipes in the kitchen. I’ve been baking quite a bit lately using mainly ingredients found in my pantry. Whenever possible, I like to pair pantry ingredients with whatever fresh ingredients I have on hand. Usually, I’m able to work fresh or frozen fruits into my dough. This week, I felt compelled to use up the rainbow tomatoes I had sitting on my counter from a few weeks ago. The tomatoes haven’t gone bad just yet, but the skin on a couple have begun to shrivel. I had purchased the tomatoes to make an anniversary pizza dish a few weeks back and forgot to use up the rest until this week. I wanted to find a way to use up the tomatoes, so I decided to make focaccia. Focaccia is a very popular type of bread served in many Italian restaurants, bakeries, and shops all over the world. When Kevin and I traveled to Italy last spring, we had some of the most amazing focaccia. The ones we had were typically served as an afternoon snack and had a variety of herbs laced throughout. During the two weeks of our honeymoon in Italy, focaccia became an occasional snack whenever we weren’t loading up on pizza, pasta, salad, or gelato. The focaccia I remember eating always had indentations all over. Within the indentations were a variety of herbs – typically rosemary. The bottoms were ultra-crispy. The tops were sprinkled with kosher salt, a drizzle of olive oil, and more herbs. I set out to recreate the focaccia I remember eating after my research led me to realize the ingredients in focaccia were the same ingredients in my pizza dough recipe. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how easy it was to convert my pizza dough into focaccia dough. My pizza dough is super versatile and has been used to craft some of my favorite carbs. I’ve used it to make endless pizzas, rolled it out to make variations of pretzels, folded it up to make Stromboli, tied it up to make garlic knots, and this week, I transformed it into focaccia. I prepared the dough for my focaccia pretty much the same way I prepared my pizza dough. Instead of a combination of flours, or double zero flour, I only used all-purpose flour. I ended up using all-purpose flour because I had about 1/3 of a bag left sitting in my pantry, and I didn’t want to open up a new bag. I prepared the dough by combining some all-purpose flour and kosher salt in a bowl. Separately, I combined some lukewarm water, active dry yeast, and sugar in a glass measuring cup. If I was making pizza, I would let the dough rise undisturbed overnight, but I was eager to have some focaccia, so I only left the dough to rise undisturbed for about an hour. The temperature in my kitchen was also very warm from the sunshine we’ve been getting in Ohio, which helped the dough rise quicker than it typically would take. While the dough was left to rise, I quartered some of the larger tomatoes and halved the rest of the smaller tomatoes. After an hour has passed and the yeast has had some time to work its magic, it was time to remove the dough from the bowl and make some focaccia. I incorporated the rainbow tomatoes, a few dashes of oregano, a generous sprinkle of kosher salt, and another drizzle of olive oil into the dough. Once baked, the dough turned into the most beautiful looking focaccia. The focaccia had a wonderful, fluffy artisanal bread texture, a golden-brown top, and a crispy bottom. The combination of tomatoes and oregano was beyond delicious.

I’ve been relying mostly on pantry ingredients to help build my meals this week. Here in Ohio, most people are required to stay indoors. Outside of teleworking, I’ve been cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Cooking from my pantry has forced me to get more creative it the kitchen and actually use up bits and pieces of leftovers. When I started going through my pantry this week, I started to discover ingredients I completely forgot about. Canned tuna became the perfect base for my crispy Asian fishcakes. Cashews transformed into a creamy sauce for my seasoned vegan mac. Rice paper combined with chicken and veggies turned into my grilled chicken summer rolls. Canned tomatoes, boxed pasta, cheese, veggies, and meat became one too many casserole dishes filled with baked penne, baked cavatappi, baked ziti, and baked rigatoni. Apples and oats combined together made the best, simple baked apples with oatmeal crumb topping. Golden raisins added a touch of sweetness to seasoned rice. The ingredients led to endless combinations of flavors and dishes. Kevin and I are reaching the end of our second week of working from home. We’ve been glued to our makeshift work stations for the duration of our weekdays. When my workday is over, I start rummaging through my pantry to see what new dish I can whip up using the available ingredients. I like to imagine myself as a contestant on Chopped trying to invent new dishes using whatever ingredients I had on hand. Some dishes become delightful creations, while other dishes not so much. Luckily, the one ingredient I always have on hand is flour. Flour is the foundation of most baked goods. I keep a variety of flours in my pantry for when cravings hit. I’ve used whole wheat pastry flour in gnocchi, cake flour in steamed buns, and all-purpose flour in pretty much everything else. When I don’t know what I want to eat, I can always prepare a batch of scallion pancakes using the ever-reliable all-purpose flour. My scallion pancakes are made with flour, salt, water, oil, and a ton of scallions–all ingredients I always have on hand. Scallions impart a distinctive onion flavor to the pancakes and serves as a colorful, tasty garnish. I even recently tried to regrow scallions using leftover stems. Surprisingly, I was able to regrow scallions on my kitchen counter using a glass cup filled with some water. This discovery made it even easier to whip up scallion pancakes whenever I wanted. Today, I’m sharing a new spin on my scallion pancakes – sesame scallion pancakes with sesame maple soy dip. The sesame adds another layer of fragrance and crunch to the scallion pancakes. The maple syrup adds a wonderful woody sweetness to the dip. When paired together, the sesame scallion pancakes with sesame maple soy dip was just perfect.

It has been more than a week of working from home and staying home. Surprisingly, Kevin and I have been doing just fine. I guess it is because we are both inner homebodies. Kevin has not stepped foot outside our home in almost two weeks. I did leave our home a few times to run quick errands, replenish groceries, and take out the trash. It has been somewhat strange to see how empty the streets are. There is the occasional person walking a dog outside, but otherwise, the streets are mostly empty. Most people are opting to stay home out of abundance of caution. Aside from work, I’ve spent a lot of time testing, developing, and refining recipes. On most weekdays, I make quick meals using potatoes, flatbreads, pastas, noodles, rice, and whatever I can find in my pantry. On weekends, I take time out to make dishes requiring more time in the kitchen. Currently, I’m working on homemade hand pulled noodles and a variety of baked goods. I will share those recipes down the line once I’ve tested them out a few times. This Saturday, I woke up craving some steamed buns and bubble tea. Steamed buns are one of my favorite brunch food items when I lived in New York. Brunch in my family meant gathering as a group for dim sum on weekends. We would all make the trek out to our favorite Chinese restaurant, wait in line to be seated, and then immediately order our favorite dim sum dishes once we were seated. Little bro always ordered egg tarts and cheung fun. Big bro goes for the har gow, siu mai, and congee. I tend to opt for the steamed buns (usually char siu bao). My parents weren’t picky and typically ate whatever we ordered. When I moved to the Midwest, I missed dim sum with family on weekends the most. In the Midwest, it is a bit more difficult to find authentic Chinese Restaurants near where we live. Usually, if I want authentic Chinese food, I have to drive quite a bit to get to an authentic Chinese restaurant. Instead of eating out, I started learning to recreate some of my favorite authentic Chinese dishes. One of the first dim sum dishes I started to tackle was steamed buns. I experimented with different doughs and fillings until I found the perfect combination. My experiments led me to the fluffiest cabbage and pork steamed buns. My cabbage and pork steamed buns are beyond fluffy, tasty, and always turn out delicious. The secret to my fluffy buns is cake flour. Cake flour has less protein and a lower gluten content resulting in fluffier buns. Steamed buns can be sweet or savory. I prefer savory steamed buns and have recently developed some truly tasty vegetable steamed buns.