tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58809388762552094022024-03-05T05:18:09.129-05:00One recipe a day: a collection of recipes from the past and presentFrom our kitchen. Most of these recipes are the ones I grew up with. Some of them are recipes I adapted myself. So, here they are, perhaps, then, you'll get a glimpse into what life's been like for Elsa and I.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-46015357738344572222019-04-23T17:12:00.001-04:002019-04-23T17:12:33.345-04:00What's for dinner tonight?I'm working on a giant post of all the soupy soup I have made in the past (especially the ones that my better half loved). That task seemed to be pretty daunting. I guess I should rework the post and break them into little pieces... Then I would be able to actually sit down and work on writing down those recipes and notes.<div>
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Anyways, lately the question in our house was "What's for dinner?" I guess I should start putting those recipes of things we eat on a regular basis for families and friends who can't come to dinner. Here's one: Indonesian Noodle.</div>
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If you visit Indonesia and ask for a noodle dish, you'll be looking at a lonnggggg list of noodle dish: thin noodle, thick noodle, bouncy noodle, egg noodle, rice noodle, a la [insert town name/region] noodle, fried, boiled, happy birthday noodle (yes, there's apparently a noodle dish reserved for birthday, since noodle represents longevity)... </div>
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Despite all that, there is one noodle dish that's sort of uniform. I'm talking about the street dish: mie ayam (lit. transl.: chicken noodle). In reality, there are variations for this dish as well, for example: a Chinese shop uses ground pork or char siew (roasted pork) for this dish, whereas some other ones will use a combination of chicken and pork (so much for chicken noodle). The noodles used for this dish also varies: rice noodle (flat/thin), egg noodle (chewy, thin, flat)... However, even with all those variations, the main elements stay true: some (soy sauce) cooked chopped/ground meat, blanched leafy vegetable, spring onion, fried shallots, and sambal.</div>
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Here's our version.</div>
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<b>Indonesian Mie Ayam</b></div>
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<u>Ingredients</u>:</div>
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1 lb ground meat (chicken or pork or turkey only) or</div>
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1 lb chicken thigh, cubed, small</div>
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8 oz straw mushroom, sliced (use sliced button mushroom if you don't have straw mushroom)</div>
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1/4 c Indonesian sweet soy sauce</div>
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1-2 tbs fish sauce</div>
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6 cloves of garlic (small), chopped</div>
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1 large shallot, sliced</div>
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3 tbs oil (not aromatic) to fry</div>
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Salt, pepper, sugar to taste</div>
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<u>Noodle</u>: </div>
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any type of Chinese style egg noodle or rice noodle is what's typically used. I have never tried it with somen/soba</div>
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<u>Noodle seasoning</u>:</div>
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1 tsp Sesame oil/oil</div>
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1 tsp Salty soy sauce</div>
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1 tsp Sweet soy sauce (optional)</div>
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<u>Garnishes</u>:</div>
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Wontons, steamed/boiled</div>
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Blanched leafy vegetable (think bok choy/turnip green)</div>
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Fried shallot</div>
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Green onion, chopped</div>
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Sambal</div>
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<u>Directions</u>:</div>
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1. Heat oil on high heat.</div>
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2. Fry the meat, shallots, and garlic until meat is halfway cooked and crumbled</div>
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3. Add sweet soy sauce and fish sauce, continue cooking until meat is completely cooked, stirring often</div>
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4. Add mushroom, stir </div>
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5. Adjust flavor with salt, sugar, and pepper, the final flavor should be just slightly sweet.</div>
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6. Let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionaly</div>
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<u>Assembly</u>:</div>
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1. Boil noodle, drain and stir in the noodle seasonings</div>
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2. Assemble the meat, vegetable, and wontons</div>
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3. Sprinkle with fried shallots, and green onion</div>
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<i>Notes:</i></div>
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<i>1. Add sesame oil into the meat dish, the original Indonesian street dish doesn't have sesame oil flavor, but as I said, there are 10,000 versions of it so make it to the way you like it</i></div>
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<i>2. Add some char siew (sweet roasted pork), sliced thinly, instead of the meat dish above. I believe this is the Medan/Bangka version </i></div>
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<i>3. Add some stir fried cubed chicken cooked without soy sauce along with the meat dish above, this is the version I grew up with (someone used to sell this dish near my childhood home)</i></div>
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<i>4. Omit the soy sauce from the ground pork dish. This is the version my parents grew up with.</i></div>
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<i>5. Omit the fish sauce and substitute for salty soy sauce. Also, omit the sesame oil and use only oil. This is the street version.</i></div>
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<i>6. Add some blanched bean sprouts for added crunch.</i></div>
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<i>7. Indonesians often serve this with soup on the side (simple soup made out of chicken broth and salt/pepper, garnished with fried shallot and green onion)</i></div>
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<i>8. Ran out of noodle? No biggie, just add rice to the meat dish.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-52377860156356417442016-04-22T07:21:00.004-04:002016-04-22T07:30:17.699-04:00Mixmixmixmix...Aloha... Still bored. But a bit better. I suppose...<br />
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I am leaving for Indonesia in a week! Ironically, I am craving Indonesian food, badly. I suppose it's not at all surprising. My brain thought that I was a week away from tasting Indonesian food in Indonesia... especially that one particular dish called Gado-gado.<br />
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Translated literally, Gado-gado means mix-mix, according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gado-gado">Wikipedia</a>. Now, this version of the dish is what I grew up with. Waaaaaayyyy back when (yes, I am old), I used to buy this for lunch. The peddlers of this dish usually set up shop in their respective homes, somewhere around their garage. In Indonesia, the garages aren't separate buildings, they're just covered area in front of the house, a part of the front yard, if you will.<br />
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When you come to their shops, usually you'd tell them what you want the peanut sauce to taste like (salty, sweet, spiciness level). Then, they would make the peanut sauce fresh in front of you and add the vegetable, mix it, top it with fried shallots and crackers and serve it.<br />
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Now, although generally there are variations in what vegetables are included in the dish, there's a consensus for not adding carrots or broccoli (I have bought a version which contained the offending items). Generally, the vegetables used in this dish are leafy, crunchy vegetable that maintained crunchiness after boiling. Also, they have to be cheap (think peasant food). Garnishes, though, is a whole different story.<br />
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<b>Gado-gado</b><br />
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<i>For the peanut sauce:</i><br />
1 jar of pure peanut butter (see notes)<br />
6-7 kaffir lime leaves (or more to taste), ground<br />
2-3 tbs palm sugar<br />
1 in block tamarind (or 1-2 tsp tamarind concentrate)<br />
1/2-1 tsp fried shrimp paste<br />
lime juice to taste<br />
salt<br />
water<br />
oil to fry the shrimp paste<br />
boiled birds eye chili (for spiciness)<br />
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<i>For the vegetables:</i><br />
Potatoes<br />
Chayote squash, matchstick cut<br />
Spinach<br />
Long beans, cut to 1 in<br />
Bean sprouts<br />
Cucumber<br />
Cabbage, shredded rough<br />
Tofu, fried<br />
Tempeh<br />
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<i>Garnish:</i><br />
Fried red onion<br />
Crackers<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
1. Fry shrimp paste in 1/2-1 tsp of oil per 1/2 tsp of shrimp paste.<br />
2. Make the peanut sauce by mixing the ingredients. Add water to desired consistency.<br />
3. About an hour prior to serving, cut tempeh into smaller blocks (about 2 in. x 2 in) and soak them in salt water.<br />
4. Boil all the vegetables until cooked (to desired tenderness), except for the spinach and bean sprouts which need to be blanched and cucumber which is served raw.<br />
5. Drain the tempeh and tofu then deep fry them until golden brown. Set aside.<br />
6. To serve, first pile on spinach, cabbage, bean sprouts, long beans and chayote squash. Then peel the boiled potatoes and slice a few pieces. Add few slices of cucumber, fried tofu, and tempeh. Add peanut sauce and then garnish with fried red onion and crackers.<br />
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<i>Notes:</i><br />
<i>1. Pure peanut butter means the peanut butter that contains nothing but peanut, and maybe a bit of salt. Read the ingredients on the jar. Avoid something that has molasses, sugar, etc. Alternatively, of course, is to buy raw peanuts, fry them until golden brown, and then ground them. Or skip them altogether and get instant gado-gado peanut sauce, which looks like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bumbu-Lotek-Dressing-Paste-Pack/dp/B0085330P6/ref=sr_1_24_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1461324225&sr=8-24&keywords=indonesian+peanut+sauce">this</a> (need a LOT of doctoring).</i><br />
<i>2. If you have kaffir lime, no need for lime and kaffir lime leaves.</i><br />
<i>3. Freeze the kaffir lime leaves and run in through warm water quickly to thaw, this will weaken the plant cells. Tear the kaffir lime leaves to pieces from the leaf veins. This will make it easier to pound the leaves in mortar/pestle. Crush is to the point it's a paste, add about 1-2 tbs of water to the mortar to collect all the crushed leaves. The leaf veins of this plant is rough and tough, so it is important to separate the leaves from the veins to avoid unpleasant texture.</i><br />
<i>4. Palm sugar has a distinct taste. I highly recommend using palm sugar, although other types of sugar can be substituted for it without changing the taste too much.</i><br />
<i>5. A block of tamarind looks like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thailand-Tamarind-14oz-Spicy-World/dp/B000JMDJ5M/ref=sr_1_8_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1461321141&sr=1-8&keywords=tamarind">this</a>. I suggest shopping around. It shouldn't be that expensive. Put this block in 1/4 cup warm water and massage it. That should separate the pulp from the pit and you should have a thick slurry at this point. The pit can break your teeth, so make sure none of it goes into the sauce.</i><br />
<i>6. Shrimp paste should always be fried because it is raw. How do you know it's done? It'll turn lighter brown color. Don't use too much oil or the shrimp paste will disintegrate into the oil. </i><br />
<i>7. I highly recommend russet potatoes for this dish. If you boil them first, it'll be easier to peel. </i><br />
<i>8. The slices of potatoes, cucumber, tofu, and tempeh are not uniform. But of course you are more than welcome to go fancy and make them uniform. </i><br />
<i>9. I recommend cheapy shrimp crackers, one that doesn't taste too much of shrimp and more salty. Or garlic crackers. Avoid the round noodle crackers or fish crackers.</i><br />
<i>10. What to do with leftover peanut sauce? You can turn it into Indonesian peanut noodle salad (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoprak_(dish)">ketoprak</a>, not to be confused with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoprak">performance</a>) by adding crushed fresh garlic and sweet soy sauce and drizzling the resulting sauce to rice noodle, sliced cucumbers, tofu, and bean sprouts; or you can use it for satay sauce (your satay will just be that much fancier).</i><br />
<i>11. Wikipedia said string beans, bitter gourd, corn, and/or egg. I personally don't like to add those in mine. To be honest, I have never seen a version with string beans and bitter gourd. I have seen ones with corn and egg, however.</i><br />
<i>12. Cousins of this dish include: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecel">pecel</a> (with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaempferia_galanga">lesser galangal</a> and boiled cassava leaves and super complicated list of ingredients), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karedok">karedok</a> (raw), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojak#Rujak_Pengantin">gado-gado pengantin</a> (literally, wedding mix-mix, commonly served at wedding, uses more vinegary peanut sauce eliminating the kaffir lime leaves and tamarind, also uses partially raw ingredients), and ketoprak above. </i><br />
<i>13. Skip the shrimp paste to make this vegetarian friendly. Although shrimp paste adds a layer of flavor, it's not super crucial, especially if you're turning the peanut sauce into ketoprak.</i><br />
<i>14. You can serve this with rice or rice cakes. I don't like to do so, because I'm a purist (and the rice gets trapped in the peanut sauce so they're kinda pasty mush unpleasant textured, so use rice cake if you must).</i><br />
<i>15. Finally, if you add too much water and it makes your peanut sauce runny, mash a potato and add it into the sauce to thicken it.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-55398580700205111002016-02-16T20:35:00.003-05:002016-07-31T23:10:49.950-04:00Quick Turkey Psgetti...I am bored...<br />
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Quite frankly, I am waiting for my job to start so I don't have to do menial "please help me"-intern-type jobs (which are tedious and of course nobody wants to do). But I am also poor (no income as of now). So I eat out less and cook more. <br />
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Last weekend, I traipsed to my local (AWESOME!) Trader Joe's, picked up spaghetti (~$1.29), ground turkey ($2.99), a can of diced tomatoes (~$1.50), and a can of tomato sauce (~$0.99). Including the oatmeal, pickles (which is VERY optional), and grill seasoning, I probably spent less than $15.00.<br />
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Here's what I did:<br />
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<b>Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs in Tomato sauce</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
<i>For the meatballs:</i><br />
1 lb ground turkey<br />
1/3 c oatmeal<br />
1/3 tbs grill seasoning (I used Weber's Chicago Steak Seasoning)<br />
~6 pickle chips, chopped (I used Famous Dave's Devil's Spit pickles, but this is optional)<br />
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<i>For the sauce:</i><br />
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)<br />
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)<br />
12 oz. water<br />
3-4 garlic cloves, minced<br />
1/2 tbs olive oil<br />
1 tsp grill seasoning (use the same seasoning as you used for the meatballs)<br />
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste<br />
Crushed red pepper to taste (optional)<br />
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Spaghetti<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
1. Mix turkey, grill seasoning, and oatmeal well. Add pickles too, if you are using pickles.<br />
2. Form into about ~1 inch meatballs. Place meatballs onto 8 x 8 casserole dish or baking tray<br />
3. Broil meatballs for about 15-20 minutes.<br />
4. While meatballs are broiling, saute minced garlic in olive oil.<br />
5. Lower the heat to medium. Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste.<br />
6. Add water into the can of tomato paste to wash off the leftover tomato paste and add it to the pan. Add another can of water to the sauce (total water 12 oz)<br />
7. Add grill seasoning, taste and then add salt, pepper, sugar, and crushed red pepper to taste.<br />
8. Simmer on low while waiting for the turkey meatball to cook.<br />
9. While waiting, boil spaghetti per instruction on the box.<br />
10. When turkey meatballs are done, take out from the oven and add to the pasta sauce. Mix well and continue to simmer on medium, covered.<br />
11. Drain pasta, and put in cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain well and portion into bowls/plate.<br />
12. Add the sauce and meatballs onto the pasta, garnish with cheese and chopped parsley.<br />
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<i>Notes:</i><br />
<i>1. Grill seasoning is not necessary. Use whatever you have on hand. At the basic level, the seasoning is just salt and pepper. I highly recommend seasoning the meatballs because of how quick this meal is, the meat does not have time to marinate. To add more depth, you can use garlic powder, onion powder, chopped scallions, etc. Just bear in mind that whatever you put in the meatball has to be in the sauce as well, so so long as the seasoning goes well with tomato based sauce, go for it!</i><br />
<i>2. You can add vegetables to the pasta sauce. Dice some onions and saute it with the garlic, for instance, or dice some carrots, or maybe peas. "Bland" vegetables like corn, peas, carrots work well in this sauce. I don't recommend something like celery or broccoli or, obviously, leafy vegetables.</i><br />
<i>3. To add another layer of flavor, you can serve this with a side of <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2013/10/spaghetti-aglio-e-olio.html">spaghetti aglio e olio</a>. I've also served this with simple buttered spaghetti with garlic and chopped parsley. And I have also eaten the sauce and meatballs with just plain, undressed spaghetti. Either and all works.</i><br />
<i>4. If you want to add crushed red pepper, go with finely crushed red pepper. My favorite is Thai red pepper, but beware, a little goes a long way.</i><br />
<i>5. Pickles are optional, but it does add a depth of flavor. I have only tried bread butter pickle chips, but maybe dill pickle will work too. Although I think that if you want to use dill pickle, you should reduce the amount of salt/grill seasoning you use.</i><br />
<i>6. This recipe makes thick sauce and tends to be on the "drier" side. If you want more sauc-y sauce, just add more water. But remember to adjust the salt/grill seasoning, sugar, pepper, and garlic amount accordingly.</i><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-11551908251513608222016-01-09T01:17:00.001-05:002016-07-31T23:14:16.449-04:00Umm... what have I learned in 2015...?Well... 2015 was the year that I finished my schooling. So I'm now officially a grown up! And now I have time to blog more! Wooo-hooo! (My poor, poor neglected blog... So much for one recipe a day...)<br />
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I've learned quite a bit of things in 2015. I learned to make pickled radish and carrot for Vietnamese Banh Mi, I learned to make curry chicken for Burmese-style Shan noodles, and I finally learned to make Manado-style satay. Oh, and I played around with Peking duck style of cooking turkey and chicken.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Anyways, I still need to repeat the recipes for the Burmese-style Shan noodles, but I can post the rest of the recipes. Let's start this new year with Manado-style satay.<br />
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The recipe for this satay came from my mother. She told me about the satay (of which I never heard) in an email when she told me that she made some for our family gathering. Of course when she came to visit, my first request was: show me (not quite like that, I said "please" too). She obliged.<br />
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The satay is quite interesting since it used pork meat. Indonesia is a muslim country, in the sense that muslims are the majority. However, Indonesia itself recognizes five major religions (six according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia">Wiki</a>, but I argue that Confucianism is more of a philosophy rather than a religion). In such a way, there are areas in which the four other religions flourish more than Islam. For instance, the primary religion in Bali is Hinduism, and there are pockets of Catholics and Christians in places such as, you guessed it, Manado. The original recipe is probably lost somewhere between the first time my mother learned it and now. But the following recipe is pretty much how she was taught (minus the fish sauce, but the fish sauce is a delicious addition).<br />
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<b>Manado-style Satay</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
2 lb pork loin cut into 1 in. x 1 in. x 0.5 in. cubes<br />
1 cup Indonesian sweet soy sauce<br />
1 tbs cornstarch<br />
1-2 tbs fish sauce<br />
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1-2 tomatoes<br />
Sugar to taste<br />
Chili pepper to taste<br />
Salt to taste<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
1. Mix together cornstarch, sweet soy sauce and fish sauce.<br />
2. Marinate pork loin cubes in the sauce for about two hour minimum<br />
3. Skewer the pork cubes<br />
4. Grill either on the stove or on the grill until cooked (4-5 mins per side, approximately)<br />
5. Puree tomatoes and chili pepper while waiting for the pork to marinate<br />
6. Boil the tomatoes and chili pepper<br />
7. Reduce heat to simmer and then add sugar and salt<br />
8. Simmer until thickened<br />
9. Serve while satay is still hot with piping hot white rice<br />
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<u><i>Notes:</i></u><br />
<i>1. Don't remove the fat from the pork loin. It keeps the meat juicy while grilling. Besides, the pork loin usually only have fat on one side, so it is easily removable after cooking.</i><br />
<i>2. One way to test whether it is marinated enough is to cook one piece of the cube. Pan fry (with very little oil, a cooking oil sprayer works awesome) a cube of meat and taste if it is to your specification. The meat should be tender, sweet and salty at the same time.</i><br />
<i>3. I suggest going with smaller amount of fish oil. Test if the smell is pungent enough already, if not, add a bit more. Be careful about adding fish sauce too since it can make the dish too salty.</i><br />
<i>4. Lazy wo(man) approach: have your butcher cut the loins about 0.5 in. thick. That will make the pork loin more manageable.</i><br />
<i>5. If you don't have Indonesian sweet soy sauce, then just use regular soy sauce (like Tamari, but NEVER Kikkoman for this dish) and sugar. One way to ensure you put enough sugar is to mix half a cup - two-thirds of a cup of soy sauce and sugar first then taste it. You want something that sweet (think Southern Sweet Tea which is usually sweeter than regular standard sweet tea). Add water to dilute the saltiness. If you are using this approach, however, you want to use fish sauce sparingly and taste the sauce before you mix in cornstarch or meat (obviously...).</i><br />
<i>6. My parents spooned the sauce on the satay directly before eating. Others "unskewered" (is that a word?) all the meat from the skewer and then put the sauce all over it. Me? I drained the meat cubes from the marinade, stir-fried them all in the sauce until the sauce caramelized on the meat. Moral of the story? There are so many ways to customize this dish. </i><br />
<i>7. If you can get palm sugar instead of regular sugar, you're in for a treat! </i><br />
<i>8. Awesome for tofu. But don't marinate too long. </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-2663928233797062502014-07-06T12:06:00.004-04:002016-08-25T04:14:15.295-04:00Tempe<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No, not the town in Arizona. I have never been there and that Tempe is inedible. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This tempe (or some people called it 'tempeh') is made out of soy bean, a great protein source, and pretty delicious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Indonesia this is a very inexpensive food. As in peasant food level. I don't know what it's like nowadays, however, when I was a kid, I used to under-appreciate tempe. I mean... it really was beneath McD or any fast food restaurant. It isn't ever served in any restaurant as fancy food. Ever. Or if it is, it's a part of some dish, never is something featured prominently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It wasn't until I moved here that I realized how wrong I was. The Indonesians, they got it good. They did it right. Tempe is a high protein, nonfat, delicious alternative to meat. It's even better than those imitation meat. It's nutty, its texture can be manipulated at will, and best of all, it assumes whatever flavor that it's in, much like tofu, but with the added benefit of texture and flavor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's hard to find good tempe here. But if you can, find tempe that has a ratio of 3:2 or so of white area and the bean area (easiest is to look at the cross section of tempe). The white area is composed of mycellia from <i>Rhizopus oligosporus</i> and it is the white area that gives it a spongy-like softness. Less white area simply means that the tempe is less cakey and more nutty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think you can make tempe if you have the patience. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The following recipes are sort of a progression of tempe dishes from the simplest one to the most "complicated" one (just takes longer to cook, that's all).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Fried tempe</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 block of tempe cut into 5 mm thick, 1.5 x 2 inch size patties.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Water enough to soak the tempe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Brine the tempe for about 1-2 hours or so, overnight is OK too</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Drain and then deep fry the tempe until golden brown</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tempe stir-fry with soy sauce</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 block of tempe, cubed approx. 0.5 inch thick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1/4 cup soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2-3 tbs water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1/4 tbs oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salt/pepper/sugar</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Directions</u>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Dilute the soy sauce with water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Heat oil in pan/wok, add tempe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Add soy sauce and toss to coat</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Reduce heat, adjust taste with salt, pepper sugar</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tempe fritter:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 block of tempe, divided by half lengthwise, sliced 0.25 inch thick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1/2 recipe tempura batter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2-3 sprigs of chives cut to 1/2 - 1 inch length</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 tsp corriander powder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1/2 tsp garlic powder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">salt to tast</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Coat tempe in tempura batter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Deep fry until golden brown</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Twice-cooked tempe and tofu</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 shallots</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2 cloves of garlic</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 - 2 birds eye chili pepper </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 - 4 tbs tamarind juice (1 - 2 tbs concentrated tamarind juice)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2 - 3 tbs brown sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 block of tofu cut into 2 x 2 inches cubes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 block of tempe cut into 2 x 2 inches cubes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 tbs oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salt, sugar to taste</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Mash/puree shallots, garlic, and birds eye chili pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. In a shallow pan, heat 1 tbs oil and then saute the mashed/pureed ingredients until fragrant (about 1-2 mins).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Add about 1-2 cups of water to "quench" the frying oil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Add cubes of tofu and tempe. Adjust the volume of water until the cubes are just about covered by the liquid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Add tamarind juice, brown sugar, salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. Bring to a boil and let the sugar dissolve.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7. Reduced heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 1 - 2 hours</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8. Halfway through, adjust the flavor using salt, sugar, and/or tamarind juice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9. Cook until the liquid is reduced to 1/4 of original volume.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>1. <u>Fried tempe</u>: they are usually eaten with some sort of sambal. The easiest of course is to use <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fong-Sambal-Oelek-Chili-Paste/dp/B0006SKCJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404662644&sr=8-1&keywords=sambal+oelek+chili+paste">sambal oelek</a>. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>2. <u>Tempe stir-fry with soy sauce</u>: If you want to "fancify" tempe stir-fry with soy sauce, add non-spicy red pepper that's less fleshy than bell pepper (Cubanelle? Red Italian sweet pepper?). Remove the seeds and slice the pepper diagonally.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>3. <u>Tempe fritter</u>: the thinner you slice the tempe, the crispier they will be. They're usually eaten with fresh birds eye chili.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>4. <u>Twice-cooked tempe and tofu</u>: you can eat the tempe/tofu after cooking them, but you can also pan-fry them to get that nice charred skin, especially for the tofu. Also good with sambal.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>5. All of the above dishes, with the exception of tempe fritter, are usually served with rice. Tempe fritter can go both ways: snack or main meal.</i></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-49426712784210610262014-07-06T11:28:00.001-04:002014-07-06T11:28:33.335-04:00Lazy person's Dongpo pork<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, my interest in Dongpo pork was a result of going to a new restaurant in town that just opened. If you know me, I'm always on the lookout for the next "IT" restaurant. No, not "IT" as in the coolest, hippest restaurant in town - I'm actually like a fish out of water at those places - but a restaurant that's different, unique and can pique my interests in their dishes. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMgP1ntH1Q1xAHWSxXmZflNtxlQrvljLnKjs537yhxIRBq1dwjT-nfzmWD7IYIO3lCC6kU9g0YYmLtMlt5tzOc_0pbSaTp1BFlYCMQeowX7xRU8vRfuU4DBC3Je1pzqAUCr63yOLHbQhS/s1600/Dongpo+pork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMgP1ntH1Q1xAHWSxXmZflNtxlQrvljLnKjs537yhxIRBq1dwjT-nfzmWD7IYIO3lCC6kU9g0YYmLtMlt5tzOc_0pbSaTp1BFlYCMQeowX7xRU8vRfuU4DBC3Je1pzqAUCr63yOLHbQhS/s1600/Dongpo+pork.jpg" height="191" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Figure 1. Dongpo pork</i></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, this restaurant, however, did Dongpo pork differently. It was more like a stir-fry with strips of pork meat. Was it good? Acceptable, it's not horrible, but... I always have to look up what the dish is like, the actual dish. When I looked it up, of course, it has NOTHING to do with the one I got from said restaurant. Since then I was on a quest to find a good Dongpo pork. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enter another restaurant in town. Their Dongpo pork was... good, closer to the pictures of Dongpo pork on the internet, but it didn't seem quite right, theirs was a bit more "watery". Almost like Indonesian beef steak dish (it's actually a stew dish, but we call it "bistik", which I assume is the Indonesianization of "beef steak").</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being me, I was looking online for the recipe when I stumbled upon the BBC recipe of Dongpo pork (don't you just looooveeee BBC?). Problem is... I'm not one to slave over hot stove like that. No, sir, not me. So I tinkered with the recipe a bit and come up with this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dongpo pork</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For pork belly:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb pork belly (skin intact)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4-5 quarts of water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5-6 whole star anise</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp corriander seeds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tbs salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the sauce:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup Shao Xing cooking wine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 cups stew liquid (from above recipe)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup dark brown sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4-5 tbs salty soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4-5 whole star anise</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt and sugar to taste</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. In a slow cooker, low setting, overnight, cook the pork belly in water, star anise, sesame oil, corriander seeds and salt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. The next day, cut the pork belly in cubes of about 2 x 2 inches squares gently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Coat the base of a shallow pan with cooking spray</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Pan-fry the pork belly cubes, meat side down for about 2-3 minutes until slightly charred.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Add stew liquid, brown sugar, soy sauce and star anise, bring to a boil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Reduce the heat to simmer and adjust the flavor with salt and sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Simmer for 30 minutes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Turn the meat so the skin side is submerged in the liquid and simmer for another 30 minutes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Serve skin side up, garnished with chopped green onions</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. Choose pork belly with defined layer. The more defined the layers, the more "beautiful" the end result will be. Also, you DO WANT the layers of fat. So, don't pick pork belly from pigs with six-packs abs.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. Theoretically, you can of course cut the meat before you stew them, however, keep in mind that the meat will shrink as cooked, that's why I like to cut it after stewing them.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. A minimum of 4 hours is needed to cook the pork on high setting in the slow cooker, any less then that will make the skin tough and rubbery.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. If your pork belly disintegrated, use twine to tie the cubes</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. The most I cooked is 2 lbs in the slow cooker. This is to make sure that the pork belly is completely submerged.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. I usually make more of the liquid and stop cooking when the liquid is reduced down to about 1/2-1/3 original volume. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>7. The real Dongpo pork involves braising and a technique called "red cooking", which I have no clue about. I did try braising but the skin was ever so rubbery, plus the cooking process is more involved. This way, you just let the slow cooker do the initial leg work. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>8. Soy sauce/brown sugar is used to adjust the color so it's rich dark brown. Of course when you want it to be darker/lighter you have to adjust the amount of salt/sugar that's added to it.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>9. I do not recommend adjusting to final flavor when the liquid is reduced. I think making it to the final taste you desire allows the flavor to penetrate the meat.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>10. Don't skimp on star anise. They're your friend in this dish. But do be careful not to overpower everything.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-92053724046314300332014-01-03T21:44:00.003-05:002014-01-03T21:56:52.772-05:00Black Pepper Chicken or Soy Sauce Chicken a la that Delicious Mamak-Style Eatery in Malaysia...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was a wee late-teen gal, I was sent off to Malaysia for about a couple of semester. Now it seemed like AEONS ago that that episode in my life happened... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I remember it distinctively.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I like Malaysia? Yes and no. Yes, because it's close to my country (only about... an hour and half flight away) and the food is closer to what I like to eat (nasi lemak, anyone?). No, because it's close to my country (no escaping familial duties and running away from community "gossips") and I didn't have the car then, so the commute, if I wanted to go anywhere, was... crappy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I lived in a dorm back then. This dorm is within walking distance to the mall, super large mall called Sunway Pyramid (about 15 mins walk). But living practically next to the mall didn't mean anything (I thought it did, but no, I was wrong). The mall did have fancy stuff (it was where I first experienced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi">kaiten-belt sushi</a>), but the real gem was hidden just a stone throw away from my dorm. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The place was, strangely, called Medan (maybe I spelled it wrong). What it was was a gigantic cafeteria filled with a bajillion stalls (two stories, about 8-10 stalls per story) selling 10,000 different kinds of street food from whichever ethnicity you want (OK, I exaggerated, it was from 3 different main ethnicities: Malays, Indian, and Chinese, naturally). Don't feel like eating Chinese? Well, go upstairs for Indian rojak. Don't want rojak? Next door sells nasi lemak with a bajillion accoutrements you can pick. Feeling like down home favorite? Try the duck rice or the mixed rice stall... You get the idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When night fell and the stalls closed, however, to me, was when the magic started. There was only one stall that opened at night and nothing else. It was in the far corner of the large dining hall/area. I never knew the name of it, but I knew that it sold one of my favorite dish ever. To this day, I still remembered the taste of the dish, even though the name escaped me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here's an approximation. Which can be turned to buffet-place-style black pepper chicken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Soy Sauce Chicken</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLbuw2iWAlwcBpSQ_4nB8gDQ1OCKfMexXlD8mYnDe9r8YMdAcbq3_U8d8k9t8xheS38oYqO0S4ZtN906Z_9_25NIz5yJ5qCRHKYmqAzJYWfUWawwUjL-WZMz3f3frJ4HKrYhHcYnKqQAWC/s1600/Soysaucechicken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLbuw2iWAlwcBpSQ_4nB8gDQ1OCKfMexXlD8mYnDe9r8YMdAcbq3_U8d8k9t8xheS38oYqO0S4ZtN906Z_9_25NIz5yJ5qCRHKYmqAzJYWfUWawwUjL-WZMz3f3frJ4HKrYhHcYnKqQAWC/s320/Soysaucechicken.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u>Figure 1. Soy sauce chicken with onion and jalapenos</u></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 chicken breast (2 lbs.), cubed about half an inch to 3/4 of an inch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Half of large onion, diced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 green pepper, diced (or if you feel brave, 3 jalapenos, halved then sliced)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3-4 tbs soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp black pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3-5 tbs sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corn starch for dusting</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oil for deep frying and sauteing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt/pepper to taste</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper to chicken. Mix well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Dust chicken with corn starch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Deep fry chicken until "skin" form. The chicken won't turn golden brown or anything, but you'll see a nice light sandy brown "char".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Drain chicken on paper towel to absorb most of the oil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Heat 1 tbs or so of oil on the wok on high heat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Saute green pepper and onion for about a minute or so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Add chicken, soy sauce, and about 3 tbs of sugar, toss to coat evenly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Adjust taste with salt and sugar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Add black pepper (to taste), toss to coat evenly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. The soy sauce will give the nice golden brown finish to the dish. Don't add too much, this is a relatively "dry" dish.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. You can coat the chicken in breading (as in flour and not corn starch). The Chinese buffet usually have the chicken coated in flour and deep fried. I don't like the too-much oil version of Chinese buffet places.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. To make the Malaysian version, just stop at step 8. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. This version is a bit wetter than the Chinese buffet version, don't be surprised.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. If you don't want to coat the chicken, just cook the chicken ahead of time (as in cook it separately from the pepper/onion).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. I remember the Malaysian version had a wee bit of sauce, so you can add more soy sauce if you truly want the authentic experience.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-5784384597671460242013-12-18T16:54:00.000-05:002014-07-06T11:29:14.551-04:00From Hainan with love...?<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
This is probably a strange meal. Simply because I used to hate this dish. When I was little, I prefer mixed rice (Indonesian: nasi campur) compared to this. Mixed rice is a mixture of lap cheong sausage, salty and sweet roasted pork (brown roasted pork and red roasted pork), cooked eggs in brown sauce, and a bunch other delicacy with chili sauce. So you can imagine how pale this dish is next to the aforementioned dish. The chicken in this dish is almost colorless, the flavor is VERY mild, and it's really accentuating sesame oil, ginger, and cilantro: all the things I hated when I was a kid.</div>
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Fast forward to a few years after I moved to the states, I missed this dish tremendously. This is a dish that reminds me of Sunday morning brunch or quick dinner when one or both my parents were away. It reminds me of "home". So I learned to make it. Since then it's the go to dish for me.</div>
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I am not a Hainanese. I don't even know why this dish is called Hainanese chicken rice, until <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainanese_chicken_rice">Wiki</a> told me. I didn't make it the way restaurants do, of course, so apologies to true-blood purebred Hainanese everywhere. The chicken was supposed to be boiled and that boiling water is used over and over and over again, with each restaurant having its own "special" boiling solution. I steamed it. I think that 1 hour steaming allows the herbs/spices to permeate better.</div>
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Anyways, enjoy the recipe!</div>
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<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
<b>Hainanese Chicken RIce</b></div>
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<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
<u>Ingredients</u></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>For the chicken:</i><br />
1 small chicken (Cornish hen size)</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
8 cloves of garlic</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
2-3 inches ginger, peeled and bruised.</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
8 sprigs of cilantro</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1/4 tbs salt</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
2-3 tbs sesame oil</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
<i>For the sauce:</i><br />
1 in. ginger, peeled then sliced</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
3-4 sprigs of cilantro, chopped</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
2 cloves of garlic, minced</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1 tbs sesame oil</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1/2 cup drippings from the steamed chicken OR 1/2 bouillon cube dissolved in 1 cup water</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
Salty soy sauce to taste</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>For the garlic sambal:</i><br />
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1/2 inch ginger, grated</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
Spicy peppers (desired amount), mashed</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1/4 cup water</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
Salt, sugar and white vinegar to taste</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
<i>For the rice:</i><br />
2 cups of rice</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
2-3 tbs sesame oil</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
1 bouillon cube</div>
<div style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">
Water (amount needed to cook rice)</div>
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<u>Directions</u>:</div>
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1. Cook the rice with bouillon cube and sesame oil, per direction on the package. </div>
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2. Clean the chicken, trim excess fat, but leave the skin on.</div>
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3. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with cloves of garlic, ginger, and cilantro.</div>
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4. Rub the skin with salt and sesame oil and then steam for 1 hour.</div>
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5. Make the sauce by combining soy sauce, ginger, cilantro and garlic. Let sit until the chicken is cooked.</div>
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6. Make the sambal by blending garlic and pepper in a blender and adding grated ginger. Add vinegar and water, adjust flavor with salt and sugar.</div>
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7. After the chicken is done, strain the dripping from the steamer onto the sauce.</div>
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8. Serve with sliced fresh cucumber.</div>
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<i>Notes:</i></div>
<div id="recipe-main-content" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<i>1. The limiting factor with bigger size chicken is the steamer space. Any chicken can be used for this dish. I have never tried making this with pork or beef.</i></div>
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<i>2. It is not recommended to use store-bought broth for this dish because they are often saltier and they have different flavor profile than this dish.</i></div>
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<i>3. I like to use jasmine rice, but any rice is suitable (except for the obvious ones like arborio rice or sticky rice).</i><br />
<i>4. For the vegetarian version, just omit all chicken broth-related stuff and replace chicken with tofu. I actually like the vegetarian version better.</i></div>
<i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif;">.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-5403390421729795972013-12-07T16:49:00.001-05:002013-12-07T16:53:52.004-05:00Thanksgiving... Thank you for everything!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanksgiving is unknown in Indonesia. Quite frankly, I didn't even learn how to make my own thanksgiving meal set until after I lived here for 4-5 years. The meal is complex, not because of its flavor profile but the sheer amount of trimmings involved in making a proper thanksgiving meal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is, in short, a labor of love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first proper Thanksgiving meals were courtesy of my friends Jen and Auntie Sharon and their families. These people kindly provided me a home away from home and opened their hearts and homes to someone like me, a stranger from 3,000 miles away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needless to say, every Thanksgiving since was a huge deal for me. And the meal itself is a huge deal, because to me, although I altered the recipes to make it "my own" (as befitting my "tinkering" side), those recipes are personal. They are a celebration of love, friendship, joy, happiness, and most importantly thankfulness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here they are: my Thanksgiving recipes.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEXNL3u_vyUd-QTYaXKa0o2kwno9B1Sz2gIilu3_Ie9lT4aglzR108ui4Rj4I-e3iz4XLLa7kA6hnJ3JiW0uBYSg31v-KQ5mRGoahbvPo0OJ_pz2MekSuOpomelQ9l-Yyo7CL6OZrKlYq/s1600/DSC01361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEXNL3u_vyUd-QTYaXKa0o2kwno9B1Sz2gIilu3_Ie9lT4aglzR108ui4Rj4I-e3iz4XLLa7kA6hnJ3JiW0uBYSg31v-KQ5mRGoahbvPo0OJ_pz2MekSuOpomelQ9l-Yyo7CL6OZrKlYq/s320/DSC01361.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Figure 1. Clockwise: chicken and stuffing, pumpkin pie, gravy, cranberry sauce, slime salad, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes in the center. I did not make sweet potato casserole this year.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Roasted Turkey and stuffing:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ingredients</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the turkey:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turkey (whole or turkey breast)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32 oz. chicken broth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 Tbs ground ginger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 Tbs garlic powder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tsp pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt to taste</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the stuffing:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 loaf of sourdough bread, cubed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 medium onion, diced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 oz. baking raisins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 apples, cored, peeled, and diced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Thaw the turkey and stab the turkey multiple times with fork, especially the breast side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. In a large bowl (big enough to contain the turkey) mix chicken broth, ginger and garlic powder. Add salt and adjust the taste to just slightly saltier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Put the turkey, breast side down, into the brining solution above, top with water to just almost covering the turkey.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Let marinate for 24 hours (the longer the better) in the fridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Prepare the stuffing by mixing cubed sourdough bread, diced onion, raisins, diced apples and Italian breadcrumbs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. On the day of the cooking, drain the turkey out of brining solution, pat dry and stuff the turkey with the stuffing and cook as per direction on the turkey package or see this <a href="http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blturkey7.htm">chart.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Cook covered for the most of cooking time, uncover at the last couple of hours to char the skin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Turkey gravy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 recipe of turkey brining solution (see above)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1-2 tbs cornstarch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Boil the turkey brining solution</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water and add to the boiling brining solution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Serve with unsalted mashed potatoes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cranberry sauce</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12 oz. fresh cranberry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 1/2 cup of water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup of sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 - 1 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 - 1 tbs dried orange peel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Boil cranberry in water in a saucepan on high heat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Add sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Cover and reduce heat to medium low until cranberries stop "popping".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Add orange peel and salt. Adjust taste.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Green bean casserole</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24 oz. frozen cut green bean</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 3 cups of <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/cream-of-mushroom-soup.html">cream of mushroom soup</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup of crumbled French fried onion</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">French fried onion for topping</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Thaw frozen green beans</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Mix with cream of mushroom soup and crumbled French fried onion in a casserole dish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Bake at 350 F until piping hot, top with fried onions, bake for another 5 minutes or so to slightly brown the fried onion topping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sweet potato casserole</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">16 oz. canned cut yams, drained</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 cup frozen blueberries</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 recipe of <a href="http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipe/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.aspx">vanishing oatmeal cookies</a> (omit the following: eggs, baking soda, raisin, vanilla, cinnamon, granulated sugar; reduce the brown sugar to only 1/2 cup) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup of mini marshmallows</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Put yams on casserole dish (8x8). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Sprinkle with frozen blueberries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Make the oatmeal dough topping per direction and crumble the topping on top of the yam/blueberry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Bake at 350 until the topping is golden brown.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Sprinkle with marshmallows and bake for another 5-10 minutes until marshmallows are toasted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. For the turkey, if you like turkey skin, Jen's mom taught me to rub it with butter every half hour or so to crisp it. When I tried it, it was DIVINE.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. Adjust the volume of the brining solution depending on the size of the turkey. The key to flavoring the brining is to flavor it BEFORE adding the turkey. I like to use the simplest unsalted chicken broth for this. Of course making your own broth is always better, but if nothing else, any low sodium broth will work just fine. Read the ingredients of the broth carefully, though.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. I used chicken when cooking small scale (i.e. just for me). The recipe is probably halved if not quartered.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. I used red skin potatoes (skin on) for the mashed potatoes. I boiled the potatoes (4 potatoes), mashed them, added about 1/4 cup of soy milk and 2 tbs of unsalted butter.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. For the gravy, Jen's mom also taught me a different way: boil the heart, gizzard, and the neck of the turkey with the broth. After they're cooked, chop the liver and gizzard and shred the meat from the turkey neck. Add them back to the broth and then add cornstarch.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. I do not have the recipe for pumpkin pie because I just use the recipe that's on the back of <a href="http://www.nestleusa.com/brands/Baking/Libbys-Pumpkin">Libby's pure pumpkin</a>. The only slight modification I did to that recipe is that I mixed the evaporated milk, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, and clove and adjusted the taste BEFORE adding the eggs. I find that this method makes for less sweet pumpkin custard allowing me to taste the "milkiness" of the custard.</i></span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-81568213301655851322013-12-06T23:05:00.000-05:002014-07-06T12:09:33.425-04:00Yum, yum, yum!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Probably NOT the right name to call this. And I really didn't know what to call this being that I am not Thai. But this dish is inspired by the Thai beef salad, except that mine has the added shrimp which makes this surf and turf. I liked it to pieces and I like to make a big batch and keep it in the fridge, but NO more than overnight, the salad gets too watery otherwise. But, I'd wager that this is due to the fact that I am lazy to keep the components in separate pieces. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as history goes... I don't grow up with this dish. Thai food was unknown to me until I was about 12-year-old. Thailand was one of the first countries I visited (the other being Singapore). And quite frankly, when I went there I didn't try this dish (nor was I interested in the food, actually). My first visit to Thailand was plagued by grilled cuttlefish (street food) and roti banana (roti gluay - banana pancake), to this day. Although, nowadays I am curious for more things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thai cooking is divine (actually, any cooking is divine). I think of Thai cooking as a trip to a refreshing field in the morning still blanketed by the morning dew. Unlike Japanese cooking that's marked by its simplicity and cleanliness and somewhat "muted" flavors, Thai cooking is simplicity intertwined with robust flavor and complexity of the flavor profile. It's like listening to a symphony where one's taken through alternating dynamics: crescendo, decrescendo, and back...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, I hope you enjoy this approximation as much as I do!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thai Style Surf and Turf Salad:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6-7 celery stalks, sliced across 1/8 inch thick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 roma tomatoes, quartered and then sliced 1/8 inch thick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 romaine hearts, sliced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 oz. lean beef strip steak </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup cooked salad shrimp (about 6 oz.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the dressing:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4-1/3 cup fish oil (or to taste)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Juice of 1 lime</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup water (or to taste)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt to taste</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 Bunch of cilantro</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Optional) 8 birds eye chili pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Grill beef steak medium rare to medium (about 3-4 minutes per side), boil/thaw the shrimp (if frozen)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Pound (with mortar and pestle) cilantro and birds eye chili peppers, set aside about a quarter or so of the bunch of cilantro and chop them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Mix together lime juice, fish oil, water, sugar and salt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Add the pounded ingredients onto the wet ingredient mixture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix beef, shrimp and vegetable, drizzle the dressing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Garnish with chopped cilantro</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. There is no ironclad rules as to how this is supposed to taste. I like it slightly sour with a moderately strong fish sauce smell and very, VERY spicy. If you like it sour, add more lime juice, if you want more fish sauce flavor, omit water. You get the idea...</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. You can use food processor to ground cilantro and the chili pepper, but I like doing it with mortar and pestle because it keeps that "rustic" quality.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. Omit the chili pepper altogether if you don't like spicy. You can even do away with sugar. Sugar just tempers the otherwise overwhelming saltiness of the fish sauce. You can even omit the salt and just go by fish sauce. This all depends on how pungent your fish sauce is.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. I have never used chicken for this or any other meat. I've always used either beef or shrimp.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. I also have never used any vegetable combination than what I mentioned above. But I think any mild tasting leafy vegetable could be used.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. The original salad calls for raw onion (at least the ones I tried at Thai restaurants), but to me this is a bit too strong, so I omitted the onion on this recipe.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>7. I like the mixture of chopped cilantro because then I can still taste the cilantro. When pounded, they get overcome easily by fish sauce and chili pepper. Why not just chop them all? Because I like that green confetti in my salad dressing. That's all. Plus, it does release the juice of cilantro.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>8. You can always make the dressing ahead of time and just chop/grill/thaw the salad ingredients when you need to. I like to let the salad marinate a bit especially because the beef is never marinated with anything prior to grilling.</i></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-36821805213815623322013-12-01T15:34:00.000-05:002013-12-01T19:35:27.151-05:00Satay (aka. skewering chicken mercilessly)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you ever had the urge to skewer something...? Say... like, you know... chickens? Well, fear not! I have the remedy right here! (Actually, I hope not. Chickens are nice, they're cute and fluffy, and they peck at you lovingly and chase you out of their coop curiously... well, you get the idea...)</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Satay is a blanket word for "skewered meat". Not the kabob style skewering. In Indonesian cuisine (at least that I know of) satay only consist of meat marinated in some seasonings (or boiled, ref: <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/noodles-for-new-year.html" target="_blank">seasoned pork satay</a>) and then skewered before being grilled. Yes, sometimes this means twice cooking them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indonesia is a Muslim country, hence most of the time satay means chicken or goat (or lamb, they're interchangeable, really, we don't have the wool-producing kind). Where I live, when I say satay, unless there's an animal name tagged on to it afterwards, I mean it as "chicken".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Satay is one of those seemingly difficult dish to make but surprisingly simple and not fussy at all. Really, the hardest thing you'll ever have to do is to skewer the meat onto the bamboo skewers. And that's all... Well, unless you count the cutting of the chicken and the mixing of the peanut sauce as hard. It is a fun meal to make and eat and it can be used as snack, side dish, or its own meal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was younger, this was my go to meal at school. For Rp. 1000.00 (approx. 10 cents) when I was in high school, I got 10 skewers of satay with a sleeve (about 4-5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter) of rice cake (probably about a cup worth of packed cooked rice). Filling, delicious, and cheap.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, let's move on with the recipe. I'm trying a new thing here where I added pictures as I go along the directions. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. But heck... a picture is worth more than a thousand words, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Chicken Satay</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the chicken:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 bag of frozen chicken breast (approx. 3 lbs. of chicken breast)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup of sweet soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3-4 tbs of salty soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4-5 cloves of garlic minced (optional)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the basting sauce (optional):</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 tbs sweet soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1-2 tbs lime juice</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the peanut sauce:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 1/2 cup peanut butter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup hot water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4-5 cloves of garlic, minced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 tbs lime juice</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 tbs sweet soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7-8 kaffir lime leaves (optional)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 - 1 tbs corriander powder (optional)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt, sugar to taste</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pureed/mashed birds eye chili (optional)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Cube chicken about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch (or as shown):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-xCxTgS2pJNBS8dhNjXPAT8OJ1WB8C3c-VaFmpSpa6bHnZ6KRVw0hUjvjwtE8obB9IyDxEsBn5W7jk6KMC3VdgHUb5fPKgkVqbGonbaPfrXXiMKovXBlSNudn15BSJIQ196K3Db_8kDT/s1600/DSC01346.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-xCxTgS2pJNBS8dhNjXPAT8OJ1WB8C3c-VaFmpSpa6bHnZ6KRVw0hUjvjwtE8obB9IyDxEsBn5W7jk6KMC3VdgHUb5fPKgkVqbGonbaPfrXXiMKovXBlSNudn15BSJIQ196K3Db_8kDT/s320/DSC01346.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Marinate chicken overnight (or for 3-4 hours)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. The next day, skewer the chicken using previously wetted bamboo skewers (this is to prevent burning when they're grilled). About 3-4 cubes per skewer (as shown): (this recipe makes approx. 25-30 satays)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCD7Rj7L9XaVKIAk3dNKDs25Q9MwoF87ZBHzEeCrIlri1LuW9vp0LDmDbgxMg90jPhKZITMZtStJwwXXodSzjHKGyYsgLG_dWfjGHWu1LN2V4OGyqiBmZvxcAIwiKf-X99x8kh5bd2yXMf/s1600/DSC01349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCD7Rj7L9XaVKIAk3dNKDs25Q9MwoF87ZBHzEeCrIlri1LuW9vp0LDmDbgxMg90jPhKZITMZtStJwwXXodSzjHKGyYsgLG_dWfjGHWu1LN2V4OGyqiBmZvxcAIwiKf-X99x8kh5bd2yXMf/s320/DSC01349.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span>. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grill the satay for 2-3 minutes on each side, basting with basting sauce for each side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. In the meantime, prepare the peanut sauce by diluting peanut butter in warm water.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Saute minced garlic and kaffir lime leaves and add to the diluted peanut butter. Add soy sauce, corriander powder, lime juice, sugar and salt (also birds eye chili pepper, if using)..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. To serve, lather the sauce onto the satay right before serving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. If you want the sauce to have a thicker consistency, add more peanut butter. Peanut butter and water is how to adjust the thickness of the sauce. So play with it and try several different consistency. If you don't know which consistency you like most, then add half of the recommended amount of water above. It's much easier to dilute.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. I like my peanut sauce to have that dark brown hue and slightly drier. To achieve this, heat the mixture of peanut sauce on low on the stove top for about 20-30 minutes. If you do this, you'll have to frequently skim the oil off of the sauce using a somewhat flat spoon (shown):</i></span><br />
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<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdejy-FWcsUe0EqgJ9ZEJItkml6Rwm-bZbINh5k0fLXoSiOn63NEac0JF4G_9G2kOPD8Al-Rxh0F8G2vXXX9F3JS5DrRuNpdkt7rW95gyQ_FGgpdRFoRRQW69N3wFjrdfVLkLWETkcjL-B/s1600/DSC01357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdejy-FWcsUe0EqgJ9ZEJItkml6Rwm-bZbINh5k0fLXoSiOn63NEac0JF4G_9G2kOPD8Al-Rxh0F8G2vXXX9F3JS5DrRuNpdkt7rW95gyQ_FGgpdRFoRRQW69N3wFjrdfVLkLWETkcjL-B/s200/DSC01357.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWZ7SPcZviyyfq5qR4n4zWWgLB5Oq-IvP69G4uUWl-OizzAmjQlZc68jaNpI5y3aAhq3Qim38Gj4XQJ6KqKcJy8TWX3ECfCl1mTp_xvjG79K3bWHTG2EsT0MMC7KJm_nQ3yrOvQ5Jjx5e/s1600/DSC01359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWZ7SPcZviyyfq5qR4n4zWWgLB5Oq-IvP69G4uUWl-OizzAmjQlZc68jaNpI5y3aAhq3Qim38Gj4XQJ6KqKcJy8TWX3ECfCl1mTp_xvjG79K3bWHTG2EsT0MMC7KJm_nQ3yrOvQ5Jjx5e/s200/DSC01359.JPG" width="200" /></a></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. You can use the basting sauce as marinating sauce. There really isn't an ironclad rule about which sauce to marinate with. Some people didn't even bother to marinate. I always like to marinate, this way, if anyone's allergic to peanut, one can still enjoy the satay without the sauce.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. If you want to serve chili sauce on the side, I suggest using <a href="http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/oelek.htm" target="_blank">sambal type chili sauce</a>. If you want to make this yourself, it's really just crushed birds eye chili with water and a little bit of salt and vinegar. So, your call. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. Try getting the most all natural peanut butter ever. That additional sugar, molasses, etc constitute a very distinctive taste. Your local grocer/farmers' market may have store made peanut butter. If you want to make it yourself, just fry raw peanuts until golden brown and ground them. You can use a short cut with salted peanut, although be careful to adjust the amount of salt/sugar added to the peanut sauce. I ended up using peanut butter but I also ended up suing twice the amount of kaffir lime leaves and garlic than the recipe called to get rid of that "peanut butter" taste.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. When skewering, do skewer perpendicular to the muscle fiber. It'll be less "torn" even if it sticks a bit. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>7. There's no ironclad rule how many chicken meat per skewer. I just use general rule of thumb that someone should be able to grip the skewer when eating, so that amounts to about 50% of the skewer occupied by the meat, leaving the other half free for people's hands. </i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-15275158822946262282013-10-17T23:15:00.000-04:002013-10-17T23:22:32.803-04:00Huff, puff, puff!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, this post isn't about running or any kinds of sports, although... I did just came back from doing yoga. With all that ZEN in me (ahem!), I decided not to get lazy and start cleaning up my kitchen counter so I can make this dish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soy puffs is one of my favorite forms of tofu. Those of you who rolled your eyes at the mention of the word 'tofu', hear me out first, then roll your eyes. There are MANY different forms of tofu. Mainly tofu is categorized based on its consistency (soft, firm, etc.). But there are also what's called soy puffs, which is the equivalent of Japanese style tofu pouch before they're being soaked in soy sauce, mirin mixture and made into inari. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love tofu. There! I said it. Tofu is my go to place for a quick meal that's fulfilling and comforting. Why? Because tofu absorbs ANYTHING it comes in contact with. And unlike tempe, it doesn't have that much of an effect texture wise (I mean, seriously, when all else fail, get a super soft tofu, mash the heck out of the thing and drink it!). And it's very, VERY versatile. The world is your oyster. I have never, EVER, added tofu into anything that I didn't like. Tofu is like MI7. It blends in stealthily into whatever it's put on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, like I said, there're different kinds of tofu. Soft tofu is good for making watery dishes. Firm tofu is awesome for stir fry or fried tofu dish. Extra firm/rock solid firm (yes, some oriental markets sell the rock solid firm tofu, kinda like tempe consistency) are great for stews because they hold their shape while retaining the seasonings they're put in. Lastly, the fried tofu pouches... These guys are awesome to make stuffs I liked from when I was a kid (the kinds of treat I had to hide from my mum when I bought it using my allowance). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This recipe is for one of the things I absolutely loved and sometimes had to beg my mother to but it for me. This is street food at its finest (according to me, of course). My mother didn't want me to eat street food. She was right, of course, the air pollution in Indonesia is bad (still is). But mommy dearest couldn't keep me from craving this and learning how to make it... HEHEHEH!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know why the name of the recipe is tahu gejrot. Literally translated, 'tahu' is 'tofu' and 'gejrot' is some word in Sundanese (this dish came from Cirebon, west Java) that my mom or my grandma might know. Wiki search didn't turn anything. I always think of 'gejrot' as in the sound the soy sauce/tamarind/brown sugar mixture made as it came out of the spout or something like "pound"... I dunno. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tahu Gejrot </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients</u>:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 box of <a href="http://www.naturesoy.com/products02c.htm" target="_blank">soy puffs</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 cloves of garlic</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 cloves of shallots (red pearl onions)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 birds eye chili OR 1 habanero pepper (optional)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 inch round ball of tamarind reconstituted in 1/2 cup warm water OR 1-2 tbs of liquid tamarind juice</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup sweet soy sauce</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">salt/sugar to taste</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Coarsely mash garlic, shallots, and birds-eye chili/habanero pepper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. In a clean mixing bowl, mix mashed garlic/shallots/chili with tamarind and soy sauce.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Add water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Season with salt/sugar to taste.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Tear soy puffs into 3-4 pieces/puff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Add torn puffs into the mixing bowl, toss to coat evenly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. If you can't find soy puffs like the one I use, you can use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aburaage" target="_blank">Japanese style fried tofu pouch (abura-age)</a>. The only caveat to that is the tofu pouch is a bit more expensive.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. The resulting flavor should be garlick-y and sweet with a hint of sour and savory. The sweetness should come primarily from the sweet soy sauce, but it shouldn't be overwhelming that you can taste the "flavor" of the sweet soy sauce.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. Omit chili altogether. The garlic/sweet/sour flavor takes precedence.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. This can be made a day ahead or hours ahead or it can be enjoyed right after you finished tossing the tofu in the "dressing". The soy puffs is a puff, it has limited absorbency.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. If you have extra "dressing", just add more soy puffs.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. If you ABSOLUTELY cannot find soy puffs, just deep fry cubed firm tofu until thick skin develops. The one thing you'll be missing is the chewy texture of the puffs (puffs are primarily fried tofu skin) and you may need to soak it longer in the dressing.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>7. This dish is the kind of dish that can be modified depending on how you like it. Add more tamarind if you like sour, more salt, less garlic, etc. Have a go at it. It IS street food and there're 1001 variations depending on the seller.</i></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-15595202112596701332013-10-13T12:13:00.001-04:002013-10-13T16:06:09.887-04:00Spaghetti aglio e olio...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds fancy, right? I thought so. :) But this is a deceptively simple dish to make. As in, it's seriously super easy (at least in my non-fancy way) but it's super delicious.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I stumbled upon Korean drama: Pasta. This is one of the dishes featured in that series. Of course, the way they do it is a bit more complicated (what with that serving temperature and all that...). My way is probably not even close to the real Italian way, but it results in something super delicious. Or maybe I was just hungry... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like the Italian name better. The English name is just Spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. Too "not fancy". :D</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spaghetti aglio e olio</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/8 of pasta box of spaghetti</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 cloves of garlic, minced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tbs of olive oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salt/pepper to taste</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Optional) chili powder/crushed red peppers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Optional) minced parsley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Optional) parmesan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Boil spaghetti according to the direction on the box. Once it's boiled, drain and then rinse in cold water. Drain properly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Saute the garlic with olive oil until fragrant, turn off the heat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Toss the spaghetti in the garlic/olive oil until well mixed. Adjust taste with salt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Sprinkle with optional ingredients.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_aglio_e_olio" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, some recipes call blasphemy on adding parmesan cheese. Me, I don't care either way.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. I made this with just the three ingredients above and only added the chili powder and it tasted wonderful. So this means... have a go at it with whatever you want to add. I saw the picture on Wikipedia with shrimp.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-39361243021089172822012-12-27T23:01:00.001-05:002013-01-01T10:31:19.862-05:00Christmas Cooking!!!!<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This</span> Christmas I play host to VERY SPECIAL guests: my dear friends Evelyn, Chris, Sophia and Lily. Prior to them visiting me all the way from the eastern part of the US, I asked them if they wanted traditional American-style Christmas dinner with all the trimmings or the Indonesian rice table. They opted for the latter. So here goes.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTy5Xm13jmnPR9_AQAucjZ5oeuipaHBcc5R6O7VUG1bnS2KO_fluvL6XUtGhQLvv_DCYuo09o9yVRimNFAZT5COnRbFWH6vDhUXtR5LG0xRpbIlnZYVDZtAmGSY-lQl-lR650mNBnav4JO/s1600/2012-12-31_19-42-18_353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTy5Xm13jmnPR9_AQAucjZ5oeuipaHBcc5R6O7VUG1bnS2KO_fluvL6XUtGhQLvv_DCYuo09o9yVRimNFAZT5COnRbFWH6vDhUXtR5LG0xRpbIlnZYVDZtAmGSY-lQl-lR650mNBnav4JO/s320/2012-12-31_19-42-18_353.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Figure 1. Clockwise from the top: coconut milk sambal, prawn crackers, soy sauce tofu/tempeh/potatoes, and fried rice noodle sticks surrounding a cup of coconut milk rice</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rice with coconut milk and all the trimmings have several different versions. In Malaysia, this method of cooking rice is called "nasi lemak" (lit. fatty rice). However, the difference between the Malaysian version and the Indonesian version is the addition of screwpine leaves vs. lemongrass stalks. I love both version. The Malaysian version with its ultra delicious curry-sambal type side dishes is to die for (and my mouth is watering as I type this) while the Indonesian version is... what can I say, it's home, y'know?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Indonesia this menu set is actually a poor man's meal. We used to be able to walk towards the end of the street and cross the main street to get a "box" of this rice to eat as... 1-2 meals for mere 10 cents. This is also versatile in the sense that everyone can modify their meal as they wish. This particular version comes from the hometown where my family comes from, Tangerang.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are four main components of the dish: the rice (virtually tasteless) which provides the "base" with its rich coconut-milk flavor and lemon grass fragrant; the fried rice noodle which lends "saltiness" and texture to the soft, fluffy rice; the sweet soy-sauce cooked tempeh, tofu and potatoes which lends, what else?, "sweetness" to the dish; and lastly the sambal which of course adds the "spicy/sour" flavor to the dish. These dishes stand alone on their own. However, together they made one heck of a happy Indonesian gal!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For the recipe to the coconut milk rice, please refer to <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/lets-talk-about.html">this</a>.</span><br />
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<b>Fried rice noodle sticks</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
1-2 garlic clove, minced<br />
1 tbs oil<br />
1 carrot, julienned<br />
1/2 - 1 cup shredded cabbage<br />
2 cups of softened rice sticks (soften the rice stick by soaking under running hot water. DO NOT boil the rice sticks, it'll be all mushy)<br />
3 tbs sweet soy sauce<br />
salt and pepper to taste<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
1. Heat wok and oil and fry the garlic.<br />
2. Add carrot and cabbage and stir fry until slightly soft.<br />
3. Reduce heat to low and add rice sticks and soy sauce. Mix thoroughly until the color is uniform.<br />
4. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.<br />
5. When taste is adjusted, turn the heat up to high and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes.<br />
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<b>Soy sauce tempeh, tofu, and potatoes</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
1 block <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh">tempeh</a> (8 oz.), diced about 1/2 in. x 1/2 in.<br />
1 block extra firm tofu (14 oz), diced about 1/2 in. x 1/2 in.<br />
1-2 potatoes, diced<br />
1/3 cup sweet soy sauce<br />
1/4 cup sugar (brown sugar, if possible)<br />
1/2-3/4 cup water (until about 1/2 of the depth of the ingredients)<br />
2 tbs coconut milk<br />
1/3 of lemongrass stalk, bruised<br />
Oil to fry tofu<br />
salt to taste<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
1. Fry tofu until skin form (about 4 mins per side), drain.<br />
2. Add diced tempeh, diced potatoes, sweet soy sauce, water, coconut milk, lemongrass stalk, sugar.<br />
3. Mix evenly and cook for about 5 minutes.<br />
4. Adjust the taste by adding salt. The flavor profile should be mainly sweet with soy sauce flavor and a hint of saltiness.<br />
5. Continue cooking until potatoes are cooked and the liquid is reduced to about 1/2-1/3 of the initial volume.<br />
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<b>Coconut milk sambal</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
1 tomatoes, diced<br />
1 tsp of oil<br />
1 lemongrass stalk, divided into 3, bruised<br />
1/2 cup coconut milk (or half a can will do)<br />
salt<br />
(Optional) shrimp<br />
(Optional) 1 habanero peppers, sliced<br />
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<u>Directions:</u><br />
1. Heat wok and oil.<br />
2. Add shrimp and tomatoes and stir fry for about 1 minute.<br />
3. Add lemongrass and coconut milk.<br />
4. Continue cooking until tomatoes are tender and the liquid change color to pale orange/red.<br />
5. Adjust taste using salt.<br />
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<i>Notes:</i><br />
<i>1. For the rice noodle, add meat (lapcheong sausage), sesame oil and more vegetables to make it its own meal.</i><br />
<i>2. I added fish sauce to the fried rice noodle because I love the smell of it, however, this is not crucial.</i><br />
<i>3. Any ingredients can be omitted from the tempeh, tofu, and potatoes. Neither tempeh, tofu or potatoes add to the flavor.</i><br />
<i>4. Add sliced Italian sweet pepper or serrano or cherry pepper to the soy sauce tempeh, tofu, and potatoes (I need to write better name for this...) to make it its own dish and eat this with just plain white rice.</i><br />
<i>5. Add more tomatoes if you want more sour sambal. Add more habanero or any chili paste to make it spicier. I never try with dried chili, but it should work so long as it's pre-soaked.</i><br />
<i>6. When I made this as a meal set, I use 1/2 of can to cook the rice (I know the rice recipe calls for 1/3 cup, but again, this is just mere ballpark), 2 tbs to add to the soy sauce tempeh, tofu, and potatoes, and the rest to make the sambal.</i><br />
<i>7. There's no strict guidelines as to how to serve this. Everyone gets to adjust how spicy/sweet/salty their plate should be. My favorite way of eating this is by mixing all 4 components together (the kind of mixing that will give someone that has problem with their food touching each other a heart attack), crumbling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_crackers">shrimp crackers</a> (just fry it yourself, it's easy, I promise), and adding about 1 tbs sweet soy sauce. I like my shrimp cracker a bit soggy after mixing.</i><br />
<i>8. You can also serve more side dishes by making this chicken dish: <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/cluckety-cluckety-cluck-cluck.html">chicken two-ways</a> </i><br />
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Have fun!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-55782118629225298762012-03-29T23:36:00.001-04:002012-03-30T00:06:56.492-04:00Something different for a change...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay... I owe my utmost, deepest apology for not being able to keep up with the blog as much as I wanted to. After all, I was supposed to post a recipe a day. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finished a novel, yes, finally, after writing it since 2002. The "hiatus" was due to the novel and due to the fellowship application my boss wanted me to submit. In chronological order: I was stressed out after the fellowship application, hence why I decided to take time and retreat to my "dream world". Writing recipes to me is pretty close to writing lab protocols, so, there... My deepest apologies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the next months, I will be trying something new. Call it my no salt diet recipes. Reason? Well, although I will posts all my recipes containing salt and a bunch of other seasonings (due to my daughter's birthday), I'm more concerned with my weight problems. In short, I will mainly be tinkering with salt-free cooking in the meantime. Just be forewarned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, as an introduction to salt-free cooking: it's actually easy. Although I must admit that it does take time to "get used to it", especially if you have been eating out (or eating ramen like me) often. The perks? The most obvious one is weight loss. However, I also noticed that since I started the diet, it gets easier as time passed. I also sharpened my taste buds more, meaning that I tasted more of the food as they should be. And boy... that made a whole lot of difference.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To start, let's meet some of my good friends that helped me through the first week:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nanami-Togarashi-Assorted-Chili-Pepper/dp/B0002YGSA0/ref=sr_1_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1333077278&sr=1-2">Shichimi/nanami togarashi</a>: Japanese assorted chili peppers. This is a mixed, somewhat spicy seasoning. It contains orange peel, sesame seeds, ginger, and chili peppers, as well as others. You can make this yourself, if you want, but this is quite ubiquitously found in any Asian grocery store (cheaper than Amazon price, so shop around!). A sprinkle of this adds a ton of flavor to otherwise bland salt-less dish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Garlic, lemon, sesame oil, ginger: you cannot make do without them. I use these to flavor my meat since I hate meat that smells like meat (yes, go figure!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Balsamic vinegar: this little one deserve a whole post all on its own. I sprinkle about a teaspoon of balsamic as I sauteed my meat/tofu right about a minute before I took it out of the pan. It adds a nice char to my meat/tofu, and combined with a sprinkle of togarashi... it's heaven on a plate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, stock up on those three. Splurge on a really good balsamic vinegar, trust me, it's worth it. About an hour from where I live, there's a <a href="http://www.greatlakesoliveoil.com/">balsamic vinegar/olive oil store</a>. If you have something similar, check it out. They're more expensive than regular store balsamic vinegar/olive oil, but with good balsamic vinegar, a little goes a long way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alrighty. I'll end my intro for now. On to cooking in the coming week. For now, I must concentrate on the upcoming conference... Chicago, baby! And yes, when it's possible, I will peel my eyes for low sodium Chicago eats (I'm not sure if I could, considering the conference schedule is pretty packed :'( ).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until next time...</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-50751769366218124712012-02-14T23:10:00.000-05:002016-05-19T12:37:35.976-04:00Truffles<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy almost Val's! Val's is all about chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. So here's a simple truffle recipe adapted from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Cooking-Worlds-Best-Ingredient/dp/1843090686/ref=sr_1_34?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329279181&sr=1-34">book of everything chocolate-ish</a>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dark chocolate truffles</span></b><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ingredients:</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (60% cacao)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 cup heavy cream</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 tbs unsalted butter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3-4 tbs liquor of your choice (I suggest rum or amaretto)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Directions:</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Simmer heavy cream in sauce pot, keep an eye so it doesn't boil over.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Add liquor of your choice, taste it, add more liquor if you want to sharpen the taste.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Cut unsalted butter, and mix with chocolate chips.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Pour simmered cream onto the mixture of chips and butter and stir until chocolate chips and butter are dissolved and the color is glossy. At this point, if you want to add nuts/raisins, do so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Let cool, then chill overnight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. The next day use melon baller/scooper to make truffle balls. Dust with cocoa powder or coat in chocolate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Whipped white chocolate topping</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 package white
chocolate chips<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1 cup heavy cream<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 tbs unsalted
butter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Direction:</u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Similar to the
above direction, except after thoroughly mixed, whip with electric mixer on
medium.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Use for
toppings for cakes/brownies, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notes:</span></i></o:p></div>
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<o:p><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. It will be messy, so, don't be discouraged.</span></i></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. The whipped white chocolate is a little too sweet for my taste, so pair it with something less sweet.</span></i></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-72265665134228644272012-02-04T16:19:00.002-05:002012-02-04T16:21:05.389-05:00Dimsum day part 1 - easy dimsum<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...and there goes my diet. I caved because I'd been working late nights working on the proposal. So today, I treated myself to dimsum. I think I will have to pay dearly for this "excursion". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But! On to dimsum... It is single-handedly the kind of thing that will make you feel like you've pigged out quite a bit. It's certainly not the kind of thing for single consumption. Plus, because they're all "bite sized", well... if you don't watch it, you may end up overeating...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK! Now that those dire warnings are out of the way... Below are recipes for simple dimsum, simple meaning all you have to do is to throw everything together in a steamer and call it a day. The dimsum itself isn't a one dish meal. It's actually several dishes. So, you can combine the recipe below with the <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/lets-talk-about-rice-part-3-rice-as.html">congee and twice cooked rice recipes</a> and the <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/spring-rolls-in-winter.html">spring roll recipe</a> (sans chili sauce) for a full dimsum meal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alternatively, you can also use this recipe to make some wontons/pot stickers for your noodles, and the pork to accompany your <a href="http://rieandelsaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-stuff-for-when-im-lazy.html">quick stir-fry</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll discuss the more "complicated" ones later on (because I'm at a cafe and I don't bring my bible for pao's/steamed buns).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Steamed pork ribs</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 lbs. pork spare ribs, cut to bite sized (bone-in)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs honey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 tbs <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Douchi-Fermented-Black-Beans/dp/B003K3KOM8/ref=sr_1_3?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1328387490&sr=1-3">salted black beans</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 - 5 cloves of garlic</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 tbs cooking wine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Optional:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 - 5 birds eye chili sliced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix together honey, sesame oil, salted black beans and cooking wine in a bowl.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Add cut meat and mix thoroughly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Add flour, mix evenly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Prepare your steamer and put your meat in a large bowl (about two times the volume of the meat mixture).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Add garlic and half of the sliced chili. Steam for 1 hour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Adjust taste by adding salt after cooking. Serve garnished with the remaining sliced chili.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notes:</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. I hate bones, so I usually substitute this meat with country pork ribs cut meat (boneless). </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. You can opt to marinate overnight prior to cooking, I've done away without marination and it turned out just fine.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. You will end up with quite a large amount of liquid if you use country pork ribs. To re-utilize the liquid, drain all the pork meat off the liquid and put the liquid in cold place overnight, don't disturb the bowl. This way, the fat will float to the surface and you can skim off the fat. You can add the liquid back to the meat when you're reheating the meat, or you can use this to replace fish sauce/soy sauce to make stir-fry. You can even season the rice with this "broth".</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Skip the flour and honey, I've done away without it just fine. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. If you use country pork ribs, you might have to cook it longer (15-30 mins longer).</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. If you can't find fermented beans, you can use black bean sauce. It'll just change the color of the meat, not the taste. If you do find the fermented beans, make sure you find one that's really good (the badly made ones/cheaper kinds smell pretty bad), rinse and drain well. You can freeze these beans after washing and draining</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tontonton...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb ground pork</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb ground chicken/turkey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 eggs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tbs sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs fish sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix all of the ingredients above.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust taste by pan frying about 1/2 tsp of the mixture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. To make:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wonton</b>: Add 4 - 8 oz. water chestnuts and 2 - 3 scallions, chopped. Mix evenly, and spoon one tsp of the mixture to the middle of a wonton wrapper. Fold into two, use water to seal the edges, and press firmly. Attach the two corners of the wrapped wonton with water to make wonton shape. Steam or boil for 3 - 4 minutes until wonton is cooked.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pot sticker:</b> Add 4 - 5 sprigs of cilantro, chopped. Mix evenly and spoon one tsp of the mixture to pot sticker wrapper, fold into two, brush the edges with water, and pleat one side of the wrapper before pressing firmly against the opposite side. To cook: preheat frying pan with cooking spray, place pot stickers upright, cook for 3 - 4 minutes on medium-high, covered.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Shumai:</b> Add chopped raw shrimp (10), mix evenly. Lay pot sticker wrapper flat on the palm of one hand, add 2 tsp of the mixture, then cup the hand. Flatten the top of the shumai, top with 1/16th of shiitake mushroom caps. Steam to cook (5 minutes).</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. Wonton wrappers, pot sticker wrappers, and shumai wrappers are similar, just that their shapes are different. So if you can't find pot sticker wrappers, just cut wonton wrappers to circle.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. It will take time to adjust the taste. The first time I made this recipe I had to adjust it 10 times. I still do now too.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. This is one of my favorite recipe because one basic thing can make three different things. Obviously if you want to make all three, all you have to do is to divide the basic ingredients to three after mixing them and adjusting the flavors. </i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. This wonton recipe can also be used for wonton soup and as accompaniment for noodles. It can also be deep fried.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. This recipe freezes well, just make sure to apply liberal amount of flour to the bottom of freezing container and between the wonton/pot sticker/shumai. Alternatively, make the mixture ahead of time and whenever you want, just quickly wrap some right before cooking.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. You can put whole shrimp inside the shumai, that way it's a "surprise" when people bite into it.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>7. You can use all chicken, all turkey, all pork, or mix and match in between. The flavor different will not be too much. Just don't use ground beef or ground lamb.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Roasted pork belly</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ingredients:</u></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb pork belly</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup hoisin sauce</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs honey</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix hoisin sauce and honey, adjust the flavor.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Marinate pork belly in the mixture overnight (longer is better).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. On the next day, roast pork belly covered at 300 F for 1.5 hour. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Uncover, increase heat to 400 F, and continue roasting for another 10-15 minutes until hoisin sauce caramelized.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Slice to serve.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. This is probably the simplest one of all.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. This roasted pork is a nice addition for noodles. </i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. This isn't a "regular" for the dimsum table, but I usually make this when I make dimsum.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. You can use leaner cuts of meat, but don't trim off the fat. It's there to keep the meat moist. If you really want it to be fat free, after marinating, wrap in aluminum foil several times, then cook as directed above. This is especially critical for the first round of cooking, they may lose moisture. The second round of cooking was just to caramelize the hoisin (not so critical, and can be skipped).</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-16108493280092189122012-02-02T23:26:00.002-05:002012-02-02T23:27:08.037-05:00Interruption to your scheduled programming...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to say that real life is "calling"... Well, I have things I have to work on since I have due date coming up. Don't worry, I've been compiling recipes and drinking plenty of water and orange juice to keep up with everything life's throwing at me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recipes will come back after I'm finished with my fellowship. It's like the fellowship of the ring except with computer, lots of typing, and words.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bear with me, y'all...</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-61253837694598062352012-01-30T21:49:00.000-05:002012-02-05T13:09:06.217-05:00The ever creative omelets<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are something REALLY simple to make. I love omelets. They're also really versatile in that you can stuff whatever you want in it, vegetables, cheese, smoked meats... They can deliver a ton of flavor too, depending on how you season your omelets. Plus, you can make it as you want it. My mother was the first person who taught me how to make omelets. I got more practice because my cousins like omelets and I was the one in charge of making them.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below is a recipe for smoked salmon omelets. The idea came from bagel and lox. I'm not sure really what happened when I created this, but I think I wanted to do something with my smoked salmon and I wanted something spicy and sweet and still be something savory at the same time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Smoked salmon omelet</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 eggs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pinch of salt</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp pepper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp dried thyme</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs crumbled hot smoked salmon OR 2 slices of cold smoked salmon (hot
smoked salmon is better than cold smoked)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs cream cheese<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the glaze:</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tbs peach preserve or to taste<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Habanero pepper sauce (I used Tabasco brand) to taste<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix smoked salmon and cream cheese together.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. In a bowl, whisk egg, salt, pepper, and thyme. Mix evenly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Preheat a good non-stick frying pan on high and spray with non-stick cooking spray.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Fry egg and swirl in a pan to the desired measurement of your omelets, then reduce heat to medium.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. When the egg is almost all cooked (while it's still half-way liquid), crumble the smoked salmon/cream cheese mixture evenly on half of the egg.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Very gently, fold the egg into 2 and press firmly to seal the edges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Cook for another 1 - 2 minutes until cheese is melted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. In a bowl, mix 1/2 tsb peach preserve and habanero pepper sauce to taste.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Right after the omelet is cooked, place on a plate and glaze with peach/tabasco mixture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. You can skip adding salt to the egg, the smoked salmon and cheese are salty enough.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. You can use whatever cheese you want, so long as it goes well with salmon. I use cream cheese as a homage to lox and bagel.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. As usual, feel free to add onions/green peppers/mushrooms, etc.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. Skip the glaze, if you want. I just prefer it with the glaze as more of a flavor play.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. The egg mixture recipe is basic recipe for any omelets. You can substitute the filling with ham, sausage, or merely cheese.</i></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-29534056175629138302012-01-29T22:57:00.001-05:002012-01-29T22:57:49.397-05:00Cream of mushroom soup<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I created this recipe because I like making things from scratch. One of the things I like is green bean casserole. And I know some of you may think that green bean casserole is something "gross", but it's not so when you make it from scratch. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here's my recipe for cream of mushroom soup. I know that it's quite a significant amount of butter, but this recipe will yield about 2.5 quarts of the soup and it's in form of a soup stock (similar to condensed soup), which you can then thin more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite the name, Elsa doesn't eat this. But she's my partner in the kitchen. I work the counter, she works the floor nibbling on carrots, green pepper, and tomatoes...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Rie and Elsa's cream of mushroom soup</b></span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 stick butter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 tablespoons flour<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 pint heavy cream<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24 oz. mushroom, chopped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 cups milk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 bouillon cubes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">salt, pepper to taste</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Direction:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Melt the butter in a big pot (about the size of a pasta boiling pot).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Saute the mushroom until it's cooked and add flour (this step is similar to making roux).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Add heavy cream and milk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Add bouillon cubes, salt, and pepper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. You may need more than 4 tbs of flour, just add 1 tbs at a time. And if you need more after the first 4 tbs, you'd want to dissolve the flour in warm water (just a small amount), to ensure that the flour won't clump.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. I use food processor to coarsely chop my mushrooms. If you want to do this, you'd have to work in batches. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. To make this vegetarian friendly, skip the bouillon cube. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. This freezes well. I made this recipe a month ahead and just thaw it when I want to make green bean casserole.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. You can eat this soup as is with a side of sourdough bread. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>6. Keep an eye on this soup. Stirring is highly recommended since you don't want the milk sugar to "caramelize" and stick to the bottom of the pot.</i></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-68224228310141407632012-01-29T22:35:00.002-05:002012-01-29T22:36:03.003-05:00Crab rangoons<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's start with a disclaimer: I don't claim to know everything about the Chinese table. Now that we get that out of the way... I've never seen crab rangoon until I arrived in the US. This isn't something we do with our crabs (this sentence doesn't sound right...). Even more surprisingly, I found that the "crab meat" is actually a surimi, a flavored fish meat. It is, however, understandable, considering how cheap this "snack" is. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's my take on crab rangoon. I modified the recipe a little bit because the last time I eat real crab chowder in Indonesia (I will post the recipe later), with real crab meat, corn was added to it. I found that corn somehow highlights the sweetness of crab meat. So that's how I modified this crab rangoon recipe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Crab rangoon</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 block (8 oz.) cream cheese<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 package (8 oz.) imitation crab, chopped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup frozen sweet corn, blanched, drained<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 cup chopped sweet onion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wonton wrappers, as needed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oil for deep frying</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. In a bowl, break cream cheese and whisk until soft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Mix in chopped imitation crab, sweet corn, and sweet onion. Stir evenly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Wrap the mixture in wonton wrappers:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>To make the flowery shape</i>: place 1 tsp of the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Dab water on the half lines of the sides of the wonton wrapper. Tuck the half lines inward towards the filling and pinch with four fingers (your fingers should be where the wrapper is tucked).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Simple wrap</i>: place 1 1/2 tsp of the filling in the middle and fold the wrapper into triangle shape. Dab sides with water and press to seal.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Deep fry the rangoons until wonton wrappers turn golden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. Make sure you tuck in tightly. If not, when you fry it, it'll splatter.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. You don't have to use wonton wrappers and deep fry this. This can be turned to simple fancy hors d'oeuvres by using pre-made<a href="http://www.athensfoods.com/products/consumerproduct.aspx?id=12"> fillo dough cups</a>. Just fill in the cups with the filling and use parsley as garnish. Of course the onion will have to be either halved or saute first, unless you like strong onion flavor.</i></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-30084058837654802612012-01-29T22:12:00.000-05:002012-01-29T22:12:33.434-05:00Ginger treats for wintry weather<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ginger is great. My mother swears by it. She did this thing once where she took ginger tea for a whole month to cure cold (I was shaking my head for it). She was on a crusade for all natural homeopathic medicine. That was the last time I heard of it though. Nowadays she took medicines like the rest of the world, although she still supplement it with ginger tea. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not arguing with her that ginger is great. Just that my life demands quick cure to cold. You can cure cold with ginger, but it'll take twice as long. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ginger is quite a versatile ingredient that you can use for both sweet and savory cooking. One of the memories from my childhood involves ginger. Remember how I told you about the highlands? Well, this treat is another ubiquitous treat to be found in the highlands. The street peddlers usually would start around evening time to walk around selling this treat. It's a great one, especially considering that it's cold in the mountains. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first treat is what's called "sekoteng" (no English word for this). It's different from the second treat just because it's using a clear ginger stock and milk rather than using brown sugar ginger stock. The second one is originally called "kembang tahu" (literally, "tofu flowers"). Why it's named that way, I never really know. It doesn't have anything to do with flowers. However, the peddlers selling this treat would have a big, chilled drum filled with silken tofu. He'd spoon the tofu using flat metal spatula (similar to scooping ice cream, but he'd take thin slices of the tofu). Then he'd pour the hot ginger soup onto the tofu. My guess is that it's a direct translation of the Chinese name for silken tofu (doufu hua).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funnily, I used to hate these. But now... </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I wouldn't give to sit on that porch again with my family, talking, joking around, while eating this...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ginger treat (sekoteng)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the ginger stock:</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 ginger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 cups of water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweetened condensed milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>For the treat:</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cooked tapioca pearls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bread, cubed</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cooked mung beans</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Cut ginger to several pieces, bruise them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Boil ginger in water, and then reduce to simmer for another 30 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. In a bowl, put 1 tbs cooked tapioca pearls, 1 tbs cubed bread, and 1 tbs cooked mung beans. Use the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Tapioca-24-Ounce/dp/B000KEJMRI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1327891679&sr=8-4">small tapioca pearls</a>. Originally it calls for <a href="http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Tapioca_sticks">tapioca sticks</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Ladle the ginger water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Adjust sweetness with sweetened condensed milk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. You can add about 1/2 cup of sugar into the ginger stock, this way you don't have to use sweetened condensed milk. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. The original recipe (the one I had when I was little) did have milk in it, but of course you can skip it without affecting the taste.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. You can skip the treat altogether and just drink the ginger stock. The stock is pretty much ginger tea. Or... how we make our ginger tea.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. Reduce the amount of ginger if you don't like spicy.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>5. Save the stock and freeze it if you have extra, you can make soup with it.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tofu ginger treat (kembang tahu)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the ginger stock:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup brown sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 ginger</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 cups of water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu#Soft.2Fsilken_tofu">Silken tofu, soft</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. As above, boil the ginger in water with sugar. Simmer for about 30 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Cube the tofu, or slice it with spoon. Just remember to rinse the tofu gently so no tofu liquid remains.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Place tofu in a bowl, and ladle the syrup while it's hot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. The syrup will cook the tofu. But if you really want to, you can boil the tofu briefly.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. If you can, use the<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Gula-Jawa-500gx4-Total/dp/B005QDP5C4/ref=sr_1_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1327385108&sr=1-2"> Indonesian brown sugar</a>. If you do so, use 2 cylinders.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. You can make this recipe at the same time as you make the above recipe. Just divide the stock and sweeten one with sweetened milk, and the other with brown sugar. Of course, the measurement will change.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. Reduce the amount of sugar if you want. However, factor in the fact that the tofu isn't sweet and is quite bland. The last time I reduced the sugar, I ended up making a tofu "soup" with the stock. It's not supposed to be tofu "soup".</i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-71119064792487425282012-01-27T22:35:00.000-05:002012-01-28T00:48:50.917-05:00Going Dutch!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's not what you may think. Although, yes, you have to make this yourself, unless you live in my vicinity. Anyways... let's start with a bit of a history lesson... Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for a good 3.5 centuries. It is this colonization that gave somewhat of a European flair to otherwise "humble" Indonesian cooking. It was the stuff that gave birth to my favorite cookies, "Lidah kucing" (literally, "Cat's tongue") and pineapple pastry and breads and other goodies for the rice table like the rouladen (don't worry, I'll give you my favorite recipe of the rouladen in a bit).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the flip side, it's also the colonization that made my family shed all its "Chinese" language capability. My grandpa was educated in Dutch school. He spoke better Dutch than he did Chinese. To this day my family is like this: Chinese descendants who couldn't speak Chinese to save their lives, yet live every single day observing a bajillion Chinese traditions and custom and swear by them too. Go figure!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This recipe is suitable for breakfast or brunch. Now I'm not sure what the original Dutch recipe is like, but this recipe is very "famous" in Indonesia. We, of course, eat it with sambal (by now that's a given), but not just sambal, the other kind of sambal,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/ABC-Indonesian-Extra-Chili-Sauce/dp/B001FB68FO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327720831&sr=8-1"> the sauce kind.</a>..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Macaroni Schotel</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cups diced ham<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 eggs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup milk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 1/2 cup shredded cheese<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tablespoon salt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 tablespoon pepper<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Cook macaroni as directed in the package<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Add cooked macaroni, ham, and 1 cup of cheese, mix
evenly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Pour onto casserole dish (9 x 13 in) and bake at 350 F
for 45 minutes - 1 hour until cooked<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of cheese and put it back in the oven
to melt the cheese (about 2-3 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Notes:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>1. You can use whatever tubular pasta you have, although within reason. Anything similar in size with macaroni would do. If I remembered correctly, my mother even used spaghetti one time since we forgot to get macaroni. But the problem with using spaghetti is that you have to cut them to small pieces, which is too labor intensive for me.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>2. Use whatever meat you have. The original recipe actually calls for corned beef, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Libbys-Corned-Beef-7-Ounce-Cans/dp/B001E4VD8E/ref=sr_1_4?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1327721212&sr=1-4">the canned corned beef</a>. But my mom's used ham, sausage, or SPAM (you just have to dice them small. For SPAM, use cheese grater, and use lite SPAM). </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>3. Use whatever cheese you have. The original recipe calls for cheddar, but honestly you can mix and match as you will. This dish will assume whatever cheese and meat flavor you put in, just keep that in mind.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>4. Go easy on the salt. Remember, the meat will be salty, unless you used ground meat, of course. Cheese also adds to the saltiness of the dish. If you're not sure, pan fry about a tablespoon of the mixture you made and try it.</i></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-66581440981640477362012-01-27T01:16:00.000-05:002012-01-29T23:00:02.520-05:00A dash of sugar...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The internet in my house is still non-functional since the floor needs to dry. So I'm writing this at a greasy spoon (?) near my place. I haven't been here for too long, but I like this place so far. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On to the recipe. I need something sweet and I crave for something sweet. This is quite unusual, because I don't really like sweets. There are times, though when I want sweets because I needed it. It's probably my grandmother's thing I'm channeling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My grandmother had sweet teeth. She added a dash of sugar here an there. But miraculously, her "dash" of sugar made everything super tasty. Somehow it balanced things out. One of the sweet things I remembered my grandma making was tomato juice. I know it's too simple of a recipe, but hear me out on this. She made the greatest tomato juice ever. Below is her recipe, but I tweaked it to include honey rather than sugar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, when I was in Bandung, West Java, I tried this strawberry milk. No, it's not the chemically flavored one. Turns out that strawberries is better served fresh, with a dash of milk. So my mom made this recipe to approximate what we tasted there (her version is less sweet). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Indonesia we also make avocado "milk". Well, there are two versions of it: avocado milk (smoothie consistency) and avocado "ice" (rough consistency, you still have chewable avocado bits). Both are delicious, irrespective of what you may think. So keep a bit of an open mind and try it. I say that because the last time I made this, someone told me, "EW!" just because the only avocado containing dish he knew was... well... guacamole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, it's my recipe for orange cream smoothie. I craved it when I was taking my qualifying examination last year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tomato juice</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 - 8 large tomatoes, cleaned, cut to eighths</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 1/4 cup honey</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 - 8 cups water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Place tomatoes in the blender add 1 cup water and about half the honey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Puree for about 5 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Adjust taste by adding honey, and adjust consistency by adding water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Strawberry milk</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 - 5 large strawberries</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 tsp sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Diet version"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Substitute the milk with 1 cup water and 1 tbs sweetened condensed milk. Or you can use 1 - 2 tbs powdered creamer and 1 cup water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Simple, just blend them all with a blender. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Avocado milk</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 3 avocadoes, peeled and pitted</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cups milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 3 tbs coffee (this is a good chance to reuse whatever's left in your coffee maker) or 1 - 2 tsp coffee</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 tbs sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. As strawberry milk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Avocado "ice"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 avocado, peeled and pitted</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 3 tbs milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 3 tsp sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. In a cup, mash avocado with spoon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Add milk, mash until mixed. It doesn't have to be smooth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Adjust flavor with sugar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Orange cream</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cups orange juice</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 1/4 cup honey</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A pinch of salt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Blend orange juice and yogurt thoroughly, taste it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust flavor with honey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Before consuming, always stir the juice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880938876255209402.post-6636487714232956002012-01-25T23:54:00.003-05:002012-01-25T23:59:56.962-05:00... There's no word for today...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The floor at my house is being redone, so Elsa and I evacuated to expedite the process. This way, they can close all the windows, turn up the heat, and Elsa and I won't ever have to inhale that nasty smell.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, we're not here for my tale of woe (well, Elsa's tale of woe, I usually just run away from it by going to lab). So, let's move along, shall we?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the next 8 weeks I will have to be mostly on a severe diet. This is to manage my ever-bulging waistline. It really isn't that bad, it just sounds bad (the diet, I mean, not my waistline. My waistline is catastrophic at best). So to commemorate that... let's spice up some lean protein!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These recipes are simple marinades that you can use to marinate lean proteins like beef, fish, and chicken. I know I said I didn't eat beef, but just because I didn't eat beef, doesn't meant I can't make them... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The origins of these recipe are various. The dill marinade for the fish was inspired by <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Dill-Hollandaise-233506">Epicurious</a> as I was looking for something to accompany hollandaise sauce, whereas the teriyaki was my mother's. The marinade for beef steak was something I invented since I had extra juice boxes laying around. The galbi was a recipe a friend of mine taught me, yet slightly modified. The spicy bulgogi recipe was an approximation of the spicy bulgogi I like from a Korean restaurant. Lastly, the lamb chop recipe was something I invented because I fell in love with that mint sauce.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, the key to making this taste good is to marinate ahead of time. I always say a full overnight marinating is good, longer is better. Marinating to me is really an easy thing to do. I promise it won't take longer than 15 minutes of preparation.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Marinades for fishies</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dill salmon</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 sprigs of dill</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 tbs pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Juice of 3 - 4 lime</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 1/4 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix together salt, pepper, lime juice. Stir until salt is dissolved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust the flavor with water, however be aware that since this is a marinade, it will be saltier than normal and more sour.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Marinate salmon steaks (about 4 steaks) in the liquid in ziplock bags, but in between the salmon steaks, place bruised 1/2 - 1 dill sprig (to bruise dill, just rub gently between your palm until it's slightly wet).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. After marinating overnight, grill salmon for 6 minutes per side, and serve with hollandaise sauce that's infused with dill.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Teriyaki salmon</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/3 cup Kikkoman soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 - 4 scallion chopped</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 1/4 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix together Kikkoman soy sauce (unfortunately, no substitution for this), sugar, and sesame oil. Stir until sugar dissolves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust the flavor with water and marinate salmon steaks (you can use about a side of filleted salmon for this) in the liquid overnight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Marinades for beef</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beef steak</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2/3 cup pineapple-orange juice (I used <a href="http://www.buythecase.net/product/51025/welchs_orange_pineapple_juice_10_oz/">Welch's</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 - 4 tbs Worchestershire sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 - 2 tsp sugar</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix pineapple-orange juice and Worchestershire sauce.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Marinate forked beef loins (6 steaks) cut to 1 inch thick overnight. Then grill for 3 - 4 minutes per side. If you want to, add blue cheese on top of the beef at the last 20 seconds. Cook covered to melt the cheese.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Note: forked beef is a way to tenderize the beef. If you don't have good marbling on your beef cut, there's a way to make it tender, that is by cutting the beef to 1 inch thick slices and stabbing them with fork, both sides. Stab them for a good 2 - 3 minutes per side. Think about it this way... it's a way to channel your aggression. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Galbi</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup Kikkoman soy sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 tbs sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cloves of garlic, crushed</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix soy sauce and sugar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Adjust taste with water and then add sesame oil and garlic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Marinate thinly sliced beef or beef short ribs (about 1/2 - 1 lbs) overnight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Marinade for pork</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Spicy bulgogi</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 tbs <a href="http://www.amazon.com/korean-food-supply-500g-Gochujang/dp/B002WTE0MQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1327552812&sr=1-1">gochujang</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 3 tbs honey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cloves of garlic, crushed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tbs sesame oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp Kikkoman soy sauce</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix gochujang and honey evenly, adjust the taste. If you need to add more heat, add fresh peppers (this way it wouldn't interfere with the flavors of gochujang).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Stir in crushed garlic and sesame oil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Cut thin strips of pork (approx. 5 mm thin, 1/2 - 1 lbs) and marinate overnight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><b>Marinade for lamb</b></u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lamb chop</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 tbs garlic powder (4 cloves of garlic, crushed)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tbs of salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp pepper</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Mix all the ingredients together (unless using cloves of garlic).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Rub lamb chops (about 3 - 4 lamb chops) with the ingredients, similar to rubbing ribs with dry seasoning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Marinate overnight and grill lamb for 3 - 4 minutes per side. Serve with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Blackwell-Sauce-Mint-5-Ounce/dp/B001SAQJW4/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1327552666&sr=1-1">mint sauce</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Note: just like beef, it's better to fork the meat before marinating.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0