What little time I have

 

I've been super busy with life...literally. I don't even have time for my family and friends any more. Unfortunately, I will be moving out of Hawaii. But, fear not, my next location will be another great journey in life. The good news is that I'm done with my classes for now, but the bad news is that I have lots and lots of packing to do. However, I found what little time I had to cook and feed my stomach. This is over the course of a few months. Sorry....no written recipes to post. Enjoy!!

Left: My favorite kind of eggroll....healthier kind. Cabbage rolls! Same process and method as regular eggrolls except rolled in cabbabe leaves and steamed. Smothered in my spicy red hot Thai chili sauce. Delicioius!!

Right: When my mom visited, we made two trays full of cabbage rolls for my husband. He loves cabbage rolls..more than me! He especially loves it with a peanut sauce. My mom's home-made cabbage rolls are delicioius...plain, but brings back childhood memories. I miss my mom!

Left: Some friends of mine were having a picnic at the beach. My friend Debbie is pregnant and she wanted to try my caprese bagel sandwhich. I made it for her and, luckily I did because we didn't have charcoal to start the grill. Well, I ran out of bagels, but still had the tomatoes, bacon, basil, and mozzarella cheese. So I turned it into a salad. My husban plated it nicely for me but it's drizzled with a little bit of olive-lemon salad dressing. Very delicious and lite...a new twist to the regular caprese appetizers.

Right: Valentine's day. Didn't give each other anything special....nothing special left to give since we have everything special already in our lives. He still got me roses and cards and balloons. We went out for a nice family dinner and then shopping for fun. It was a nice, relaxing Valentine's. I made strawberry cupcakes (boxed) with a home-made raspberry cream cheese and for decorations, I made hearts out of sugar. Nothing too special about this recipe, but I thought it looked nice.

Left: Here is steamed shark wrapped in banana leaf on a bed of carmalized vegies. Made for my father who had never had shark and shark meat was sold plenty at our grocery store. My husband also loves shark and so we bought plenty. I had a sauce to go with it, but it's not in this picture. It does not have a fishy taste. It has a clean fish taste and very easy on the tongue too. Delicious!! I will miss it!!

Right: Hmong steamed flounder with eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini. The sauce is a soy sauce base. Nothing really unique about this recipe...just traditional Hmong style-ish. This was made for my parents when they visited. My dad loves fish and so my husband bought flounders to impress him hahaha. I'm not a fan at picking bones, but this was very delicious too. The tomaotes and cilantro really brought out the freshness of the fish.

 Left: Recognize the picture? My husband loved the steamed shark so much that he wanted me to make it again for him. Instead of steaming the shark this time, I pan fried it. I also added saffron rice to the dish just for color. This picture has the sauce with soy sauce as a base drizzled over it. It brought the right amount of salt content and flavor.

 Right: I made a double-layer white cake with mango curd for dessert when my parents came to visit. My mom doesn't really like cake that are too sweet so I chose a white cake, eliminating the egg yolks. I used the egg yolks to make the mango curd which was fruity and not as sweet. I made the frosting from scratch eliminating most of the sugar because it would've been too sweet for my mother. She loved it! She wished she could have all her cakes like this. It wasn't too sweet for her and tasted lighter than usual cakes. I'm glad it was a success!

 Left: Seared shark fillets on a bed of sauteed asparagus drizzled in a mango sauce. This sounds like a sweet dish because of the mango sauce, but it was actually a nice compliment to the asparagus and shark fillets. My husband loved this dish and I thought it was actually quite delicious with the sweet and savory sauce. I had left over mango puree so I thought a mango sauce would be new. Plus, I love the color on the plate. Beautiful!

Right: This is a dish you've all seen before...plenty in my blog. Pho! Hmong peope love Pho and home-made pho are the best!! Nothing new, but I was just craving for a bowl of hot and spicy noodle soup. I can never get enough Pho. I just recently made Pho a few days ago and mastered the rich broth...FINALLY!!! The key is the type of meat used in the broth...and I cannot give out my little secret.

Beef Noodle Salad

I made some to try for myself...
just the noodles, beef, and pepper sauce...
yummmm!!

Okay, I found these pictures from last year. I can't seem to find the recipe for it. I guess I will look harder. Anywho, I made this last year for our wedding anniversary and we ate this at the beach. It was a perfect cold noodle salad for the warm summer breeze. I love vermicelli noodles and I would literally eat it every way or find some way. I decided to add beef for my husband. Normally, I would add cold cooked shrimp or cold boiled chicken. This time I did it with beef and I also flavored the beef. I don't have the exact recipe, but I can remember the ingredients. The beef was marinated in a little bit of fish sauce, finely minced lemon grass, minced garlic and ginger, and sugar. The marinade is enough to just coat all the sliced beef; it's not soaked or drenched in the marinade. Cook the beef on medium heat until it's cooked. Cook the noodles and drain it out. Place noodles in a bowl, top with bean sprouts and cilantro, add the beef, and then the pepper sauce. The pepper sauce is the main flavor that will combine everything together. Without it, you mind as well not eat it. Luckily, I have the recipe for the pepper sauce. You don't have to have a recipe for the beef, any asian marinade for the beef will do.

Chili Pepper Sauce/Nouc Cham:

1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp sugar
½ cup water
2 ½ Tbsp fish sauce
1 ½ tsp vinegar
1 Tbsp chili garlic pepper paste

Combined all ingredients and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Set in the fridge and then drizzled a few tablespoons over the beef noodle salad.

**This pepper sauce is great on steamed rolls, eggrolls; basically, it's great on anything and everything.

Our packed cold lunch for the beach in celebration for our anniversary.



Red Curry Chicken Wings

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I've been busy with school and taking care of my son by myself so it's been a little crazy. However, I do remember to write down recipes and take pictures of what I cooked new. Just don't really have the time to post them up.

Anywho, I am a huge fan of chicken wings. Buffalo wings, honey BBQ, or hot spicy wings...you name it. I decided to come up with my own chicken wing recipe since I think that every household should have their own unique chicken wing recipe. I was inspired by Pizza Hut's wing wednesday and surprised that they have so many varieties of wings. Never tried them yet, but I wanted chicken wings with something new and different. Voila!! I came up with thai curry chicken wings using two different thai curries. I am a huge fan of thai curries especially in curry noodles so I decided to combine the two together. I've created chicken wings that is sweet with a kick and still has all the familiar taste of curry. My husband, who can't handle much spicyness, actually enjoyed these wings very much.

Ingredients:

1 tsp yellow curry (Karee)

½ tsp red curry (Panang)

1 tsp vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

1 ½ cup water

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp brown sugar

Direction:

In a pan, melt butter and add in both curries. Stir until both curries are cooked. Add in vinegar and water. Bring to a boil and add in honey and brown sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Simmer on low to medium heat for about 30-45 minutes or until it has reduced to half its size and thicken. Let it cool for a bit and toss in 6-12 cooked chicken wings (deep fried, baked, or grilled).

This is a very simple and easy sauce for any wings. You can always add more curry if you like it hotter. Red curry (Panang) is a lot spicier than yellow curry (Karee) so add more red curry if you'd like. There's no dipping sauce for these wings because they are great on their own. But of course, you can always use the good ol' ranch sauce. I made a peanut butter sauce to dip because my husband loves peanut butter and peanut butter goes great with curry.

Valentine's Day 3 Course Dinner

Happy Valentine's Day! Every year that comes by, I can't seem to figure out what to get my husband. He has everything he ever wanted or need (yes, he is spoiled). I know cooking a nice dinner is always something cheap to do, but he loves food and I love cooking. This year I decided to make something that I've never tried before, but only thought of. My husband's a beef kind of guy so beef stew it is! The only difference with my beef stew is that it's made with sweet potatoes and bell peppers (I like a sweetness in my meats). I then topped it off with a pair of pan fry polenta rounds and strips of fresh basil to bring out the earthiness of the flavors. Best part: it was cooked in a crock pot so I had free time to do other things. We started off this 3 course dinner with an appetizer of artichoke bruschetta. It was a light start which made us even hungrier for the entree. We then ended the dinner course with a delicious cold raspberry cheesecake.

Artichoke Bruschetta (this recipe serves 2 people or about 4 people)

6 oz jar of artichoke hearts

7 oz jar of roasted red peppers

4.25 oz can of chopped black olives (optional)

Olive oil

Grated parmesean cheese

Fresh basil

Baguette (I bought a small one just enough for me and my husband)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice baguette in diagonals about 1/2 inch thick and place them on a baking tray. Drizzle olive oil and bake for 10 minutes until crispy.

Take the artichokes out of the jar and chopped them into smaller pieces. Do the same with the roasted red peppers (if you don't use all the roasted red peppers, it's okay). Mix them both in a bowl. Add a small pinch of chopped black olives (olives are very strong in flavor so it can be eliminated, but it provides a saltiness to the mix). Drizzle about a 2 teaspoon or less of olive oil. Sprinkle some grated parmesean cheese and mix well (parmesean cheese does not have to be grated, but it was all I had; can add shaved parmesean cheese on top for a more parmesean flavor).

Drop spoonfuls of artichoke mix onto slice baguettes. Take fresh basil and, starting from the tip of the leaf, roll fresh basil and thinly slice through the roll to create thin shreds of basil. Sprinkle basil strips on top and serve. *The longer the artichoke mix sets on top of the baguettes, the more the bread soaks in the flavor*

Beef Stew with Pan-fry Polenta

2 lbs cubed beef (used prime rib)
oil
1 clove garlic

Stew:
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and dice
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 onion, thin slices
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup red wine
1 chicken boullion cube
4-6 cups water
salt and pepper
fresh basil

roux:
1/4 cup water
1 tsp corn starch

Sautee beef in heated pan with drizzle of oil. Add grated garlic and pinch of salt. Brown the sides of beef a bit. (Do not cook all the way)

In crock pot, add onions at the bottom, potatoes, garlic, thyme, oregano, beef, wine, chicken boullion, water, and salt and pepper. (Can add more salt and pepper later to taste later)

Turn crockpot on high for about 6-7 hours. On the last hour, add the roux mixture. Towards the last 30 mins, add the bell peppers. Taste to see if needs more salt or pepper.
Take fresh basil and, starting from the tip of the leaf, roll fresh basil and thinly slice through the roll to create thin shreds of basil. Set aside.
Meanwhile, start on polenta. (I couldn't find the polenta where I can make it from scratch so I bought premade polenta)

Pan-fry Polenta:
Premade polenta (comes in a round tube-like form)
Olive oil

Cut polenta into thin slices (circles). Heat a pan with oil and brown both sides of polenta slices on medium heat (about 5-8 minutes). Sprinkle salt on top of one side.

Serve beef stew, top with polenta and fresh basil strips.

Raspberry Cheesecake:

Crust:
9 sheets of graham crackers
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulverize graham crackers until grainy like texture. Add melted butter and mix. Press graham cracker mixture to the bottom of a 4 ramekins or 8x8 baking pan (I used 2 ramekins for individualized servings, but had enough to also make an 8x8). Bake crust for 10 minutes and set aside.

Cheesecake:
2 (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pack of fresh raspberries
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp almond extract

In a mixer, cream together sugar and cream cheese. Add vanilla extract. Add one egg at a time making sure to incorporate the egg thoughout the mixter and scrape down the sides every now and then. Once all eggs are added, blend until the mixture is smooth with barely any lumps.

Meanwhile, in a blender, blend fresh raspberries with sugar and almond extract. Drain out the liquid discarding the seeds. (If not sweet enough, add more sugar) *sauce can be used for a ton of things; I used it to make mixed drinks*

Pour the cheesecake mixture into the baked crust. Drop spoonfuls of raspberry mixture on top. Take a tooth pick and make swirls throughout the raspberry drops and cheesecake. Add more drops if needed. Bake in a water bath at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour until cheesecake is no longer jiggly. Have it rest in the fridge for about an hour before serving. Top off with more raspberry liquid and whip cream if desired. (a water bath is placing the actual dish on a larger and deeper dish and adding water to the larger dish only until it's half as tall as the smaller dish; make sure the water is not poured into the cheesecake dish)

Thanksgiving Pasta

I call this dish Thanksgiving Pasta, but I don't actually make it for Thanksgiving. I call this Thanksgiving Pasta because my kitchen smells like Thanksgiving when I'm cooking. Growing up, both my mom and dad cooked the turkey together. They would wake up very early to cook everything and eat by noon. We never had the traditional dinner because everything was eaten by noon, but we sure did have a great family time. Our turkey was always cooked the same way every year with 3 main ingredients: carrots, celery, and onions. Those were the 3 ingredients I used to make this pasta dish smelling like Thanksgiving morning. 

I like this way of cooking store-bought spaghetti sauce because there's more flavor to the sauce than just tomatoes. I always had a difficult time buying store-bought sauce because I can never find "the one". Of course there's new and improved tomato sauces such as portebello mushrooms, but it wasn't ever good enough for me. I wanted a traditional tomato sauce with something extra and this was it.

6 celery stalks, chopped coarsely

3 fat carrots, chopped coarsely

1 onion, chopped coarsely

10 mushrooms, chopped coarsely

1 lbs cellentani noodles or any pasta noodles

1 jar traditional spaghetti sauce

In a food processor, puree all the vegetables together. You may have to add a little water to help with the puree. Meanwhile, cook the pasta as directed on the box.

When all the vegetables are pureed into an apple sauce like texture, heat up a pot with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and brown the pureed vegies. This process will take awhile so be patient and keep stirring. If you added water to help with the puree, it may take longer because the water will have to evaporate before the browning can begin. At this point, you may also add salt and black pepper if you like. I didn't and on't worry if alittle of it sticks to the bottom of the pot...just keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the color is like a rusty reddish brown color. This process is to bring out the most flavors from the vegies.

Once vegies are all browned and smelling great....slowly add the jar of tomato sauce. Stir slowly, scraping the bottom of the pot, and make sure it's well combined with the puree. Once tomato sauce is heated then it's ready to serve over pasta noodles.

Wedding Anniversary Picnic 2011

Kimbap

Kimbap, korean sushi, made with flavored rice, eggs,
do chua, and marinated beef.

My husband and I had just recently spent our 6 year wedding anniversary together. This year was extra special because we had our son to celebrate with us. Every anniversary, we would do something different and something special to the both of us. In the past, he has surprised me with little meaningful gifts in a special location. They were all special and memorable so this year we decided to do something simple. Lately, my husband's been very busy at work so it was important for the both of us to have a good relaxing time. We decided to do a picnic at the beach. The picnic menu was easy to make. I just had to go through my recipes that didn't require reheating. I came up with all my husband's favorite dishes: korean sushi, fresh summer rolls with a peanut dipping sauce, bun bo xao with nuoc cham, chocolate mouse cake, and watermelons.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Fresh rolls: vermicelli noodles, lettuce, cilantro,
and honey roasted ham

Fresh spring rolls were the first to come into mind when planning a picnic outdoors. It's easy and simple to make and can be eaten at room temperature. My husband loves fresh rolls because we can make it as healthy as we want. Fresh rolls can be filled with anything you want that doesn't require a microwave. I love the fresh rolls for the noodles...I stuffed mines with lots of noodles. Also, it doesn't require spoons or forks. Fresh spring rolls originated from Vietnam, but now you can find them with a chinese, thai, and even french twist. There are even some fresh spring rolls made for desserts!

Bun Bo Xao

Bun Bo Xao: lemon grass marinated beef, vermicelli noodles,
and nuoc cham (chili fish sauce)

Bun bo xao with nuoc cham is a vietnamese dish that's eaten cold and very simple to make. Bun bo xao is simply a bed of noodles with marinated beef and toppings. Nuoc cham is the chili fish sauce that combines everything together...my favorite sauce. You can add toppings like bean sprouts, mint, cilantro, peanuts, and shredded carrots. I only used what I had, but it's very delicious without toppings. I grew up eating this dish. I remember going into a vietnamese store and they would have it already made to eat. I forgot about this dish until I came to Hawaii. My husband fell inlove with it too. It's like a cold noodle salad...perfect for the beach!

Nuoc Cham

Nuoc cham: fish sauce, sugar, water, chili peppers, lime juice

I love nuoc cham! I make it to eat with almost everything. I can make it really spicy or less spicy for my husband. It's great with all kinds of spring rolls, egg rolls, cabbage rolls, or as a pepper dip for beef, pork, chicken, etc. Very simple to make and doesn't require much effort. Alittle of this sauce goes a long way. You only need a few spoonfuls of this sauce over your bun bo xao and it will taste great already. This sauce is a very thin sauce so the flavor spreads very easily. I packed this in a seperate container and off to the beach we went!! Had a great picnic with my little family!! Recipes coming soon...

Tzatziki Sauce

Tzatziki sauce is a greek cucumber yogurt sauce mainly used as a dip with beef or lamb kabobs or in gyros. Gyros are a greek version of a pita wrap. There's many versions of tzatziki sauce, but I made mines plain and simple with tons of flavor. I eat tzatziki sauce with anything. It's great on burgers, hot dogs, smeared on pita breads or on salads. I just fell in love with this sauce. It's cool and refreshing and just so yummy. You can definitely leave out some ingredient. Actually, you really only need 3 ingredients; greek yogurt, chopped dill, and garlic cloves with salt and pepper. Very simple, but my version is also simple with great flavors.

Beef stips with tzatziki sauce

Greek yogurt should be found in the yogurt isle of your grocery store. If you can find strained greek yogurt then that'll save you time. If not, then use a cheese cloth and strain the greek yogurt yourself. You will also want to strain your cucumber so that the sauce doesn't become liquidy.

1 cup cucumber, grated and strained
1 cup grated greek yogurt, strained
1 cup sour cream
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Combine together the strained greek yogurt with the sour cream. Add the cucumber, garlic, and chopped dill. Mix well and add the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 1 hr and serve as a meat dip or with pita bread.

Beef Strips: oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and olive oil

Green Tea Chicken and Rice with Green Garlic Sauce

I love drinking tea, but lately I've been drinking coffee. Plus, I like drinking oolong tea more than green tea. My husband bought a box of green tea awhile ago. He's not a fan of drinking tea, but he thought he should start. Well, the box of tea was still on the counter unopen so I decided to use it in some of my recipes. I came up with this cold green tea chicken recipe from this one chinese restaurant in China Town in Honolulu. I ordered this chicken dish that was served cold and plain with a green garlic sauce. It was delicious and taste just like home. I was inspired to make this recipe with a twist.

Chicken Broth:

8 cups water

8 green tea bags
1 Cornish hen, halved
½ onion, diced
Salt
Ice bowl water

Green Garlic Sauce:
2 clove garlic, finely minced (try 1 clove to begin with first)
2 tsp grated ginger
Handful of cilantro leaves
1 Tbsp olive oil

Salt

2 cups uncooked rice, rinsed well

Bring 8 cups water to a boil and add the 8 tea bags. Let steep for 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, start on the green garlic sauce. Put the minced garlic, ginger, and cilantro in a mortar and pestle. Pound until cilantro have broken down. Add oil and pinch of salt to taste. Mix well and set aside. (add sriracha sauce and fish sauce for a spicy green and red sauce)

Add Cornish hen to the pot of green tea and bring to a boil. Skim off any fat foam that floats on top. Once it boils, add the diced onions and salt to taste. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until hen is fully cooked. Take out the Cornish hens and put them in the ice bowl water for about 1 minute. Take hen out and set it aside to dry.

Make stove top rice as you usually would, but replace plain water with the green tea chicken broth. Once rice is done, fluff and serve with cold green tea chicken and green garlic sauce.

my green garlic sauce was very garlicy and the rice infused with the green tea....

and the cold chicken....yummmm oh!!

Pizza Dough

I love pizza, but buying frozen pizza or ordering pizza was getting alittle boring for me. I wasn't satisfied enough with whatever pizza I was getting so I decided to make my own. I love the dough, there's so many things you can do with pizza dough. You can make monkey bread, bread sticks, stuffed crust pizza, calzones, and so much more. Here is a simple recipe for pizza dough. You can make the crust thick or thin, stuffed or not stuffed. You can even try deep dish. Just remember that the baking time will change so always check. It's so easy and saves you a ton of money. Plus, you can be creative and try new toppings like I did.

1 pkg active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
½ tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
2 ½ - 3 ½ cups AP flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in mixing bowl. Add salt, oil, and 2 ½ cups flour. Mix with wooden spoon. Add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, while mixing with wooden spoon. You can definitely use your hands. Mix until dough forms into a ball and comes off the side of the bowl. Knead dough for a few seconds and set in a greased bowl, greasing the top of the dough, and cover with a cloth for about 1 hr. Punch dough down, knead a few more times, divide into two, and form pizza shape. Add toppings. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes for a thick crust.

my white cream spinach sauce

with spinach cream sauce and roasted eels...delish!

with spinach cream sauce with creole shrimp...yumm!

My Fatty Patty

It was SuperBowl XLV weekend and I was excited for my Packers team. I wanted this to be the best superbowl ever...I'm talking about food. I came up with this hamburger 3 days before the game and I just wanted it full of flavor. This burger is now going to be my family burger...it's called a fatty patty but it's actually pretty healthy. Now...I'm a huge fan of messy, sloppy food so I purposely made my burger sloppy. It's just something about a burger that is dripping with grease and messy that makes it so good.

Ingredients:
Pears, peeled and halved
Red and green peppers
Onion, sliced in rounds
Bacon
Tomatoes, sliced
Lettuce
Swiss cheese

Sauces:
1 Avocado, peeled and halved
3 Tbsp. Miracle Whip
1 tsp. Lime juice
1/8 tsp. of Salt and pepper
Cilantro, chopped
Sriracha Sauce

Patty:
2 lbs. Ground beef
Mozzarella cheese, diced
2 tsp. Oregano
2 tsp. Thyme
Cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 Egg

Grill

***I didn't measure out the ingredients so the measurements aren't exact...I just eye balled everything. Just taste as you go.***

Prepare the grill. Place onion rings and pears on grill until carmalized. Place bacon on grill until cooked. Place red and green peppers on grill until skins are charred. Place them in a bowl and cover with siran wrap (this steams the peppers), then peel away charred skins and seeds. Cut into strips.

In bowl, mix patty ingredients all together, except cheese. Form patties; not to fat and not to thin. Make sure to really press them together to hold their shape when grilling. Make a dent in the center and stuff with about 2-3 dices of mozzarella cheese. Grill.

In a small bowl, mashed up the avocado, lime juice, salt, and pepper together. Add miracle whip and cilantro.

In another small bowl, mix sriracha sauce and miracle whip. You can add as much siracha or as little as you like.

Butter both buns and place on grill for a nice crispy color.

Assemble: Spread sriracha sauce on bottom bread, add lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, patty, swiss cheese, pears, and bacon. Spread avocado sauce on top bun and top off burger. Enjoy.

***If you have leftovers like me...I have a recipe for that too***