I Just Love My Apron

Thai-Inspired Meatballs with Vinegar Pickled Cucumbers

2012-01-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

A 5 star makeover cooking group is back! After taking a break for 2 months due to holidays, we're back to share our food passion again. I'm not going to lie. I like it. Year end and holidays are the busy time of work, family, and celebration. However, the brake gives us time to recharge ourselves and to welcome a year of Dragon.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

On 23rd of January this year, in Asian culture it is considered a Lunar New Year. This year is a year of Dragon which most Asians believe that it's a good and powerful year. To me, the Lunar New Year is similar to Christmas here. Well, first - it's a time of family gathering. Second, there's lot of good food!. Thrid, red is a symbolic color for this holiday, and lastly, there's a thing called a red envelope with lucky money inside; just like a holiday gift.

Since I live here and not be able to celebrate this holiday with my family, what I miss the most is family time. A tradition of how to do things on this Lunar New Year brings back my good old memory. A certain way to arrange a food table, red color, certained must-have food, fire crackers, food spread, and a red envelope are my childhood memory.

Although, I didn't get a chance to help my mom make food, I got to make these meatballs in an honor of Lunar New Year! When I knew about this month theme, I was thrilled. Meatballs are fun to make and have several variations depending on your taste buds. I'm sure you can see the fun from the round-up of our cooking group on Friday from Natasha at Five Star Foodie and Lazaro at Lazaro Cooks.

before going into oven

My meatballs are a combination of ground pork, ground chicken, diced pork belly, cooked brown rice, minced cilantro, minced red basil, minced garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, pepper, sesame oil, and canola oil. I found out that my good friend, Lazaro, also added pork belly to his meat mixture too! As you know, we both love pork belly. There's no surpised we don't forget to include it to our meatballs.

They are filling because of rice in meatballs. You can serve as dinner or small appetizer.

Thai-inspired Meatballs with Vinegar Pickled Cucumbers and Carrots
Yield: 27-30 meatballs

Ingredients for meatballs:
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground chicken breast
1/2 lb sliced pork belly, small diced
3/4 cups cooked brown rice
1 egg
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1/2 cup minced red basil
3 Tbs fish sauce
4 Tbs soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp white pepper
3 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs canola oil

Directions:

Mix everything together until they are combined. Let it sit in a fridge for half hour for flavor to develop.
Pre heat oven to 400 F
Form the meat mixture into a 2 "ball.
Bake meatballs for about 30-35 mins until golden brown and cooked through.
You can keep baked meatballs in a refrigerator. Heat them up in a microwave until hot before serving or under oven at 350 F for 10-15 mins.

Vinegar pickled cucumber and carrot

Ingredients for vinegar pickled cucumber and carrots
Yield: 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 English cucumber, thingly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup carrots, cut into sticks
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs garlic chili paste
1 cup rice vinegar
3/4 cup water
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Mix everything except cucumber and carrotstogether and microwave at high for about 2 mins. Whisk well and until sugar has dissolved. Pour the vinegar mixture over cucumber and carrots. Keep in a refrigirator for at least 4 hours. This can be kept for a few days.

Serving:

Serve meatballs with pickled cucumber and carrots or over some salad. Drizzle about 1/2 Tbs or more over meatballs.

Meatball mixture

Right off the oven

Serve with pickled vegetable

Matcha Green Tea Pudding with Sweet Red Bean Paste

2012-01-18T22:20:00.000-08:00

Blurrrr..

It's so cold here. We had snowstorm this week and I was snowed in on Monday and today. We had 5" of snow in our area. Did I like it? Definitly hahaha but it wasn't convenient to access work database which kinda annoyed me. Well, can't say much. You can't get it all.

Fun trivale: Other than the observance of Martin Luther King Day's on Monday, do you know January 16th is also an International Hot & Spicy Food Day?! Yep. You heard me.

It's so beautiful in Winter. I love it. I must say this past weekend was productive for me. I got all emails done, made some food, yoga, meditation, dinner with friends, and got to make this matcha pudding. It's really easy to make and tastes so good. Green tea and sweet red bean paste (Azuki) are a good combination in any dessert, and so is this pudding. Soy milk is a great altenative to skim or whole milk. You can use any kind of milk you have on hands. I first made it in a dessert martini-like glass but we like it better when serving with a shot glass. It's adorable and you won't feel you intake too much dessert.

Shot glass is also great for party. With easy directions and a few ingredients, I definitely add this to my party food list next time! Please feel free to bump up measurements.

I like to share another easy appetizer for a party - pear and goat cheese mini cups - which I made for New Year's Eve party. It's a little time consuming with making cups but I guarantee this will add a wow factor to your party. I brushed gyoza wrappers with melted butter. The original post with ingredients is here.

Matcha Green Tea Pudding
Yield" 1.5 cup

Ingredients:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin package
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup soy milk
2 Tbs caster sugar or regular sugar
2-3 tsp good quality matcha powder
Sweet red bean paste (Azuki)

Shot glasses
Strainer

Directions:

Boil water. Then mix in gelatin powder. Mix well and set aside.
Heat up milks (heavy cream and soy milk). Add matcha powder. Whisk well.
Use a strainer to strain crumbed or excessed matcha powder.
While the milks are still hot, gradually add sugar. Whisk well.
Strain milk mixture again.
Pour gelatin mixture into milk mixture. Whisk well.
Add about 1 tsp red bean paste into bottom of glasses.
Pour green tea mixture into a glass.
Chill for sbout an hour or until gelatin has set.
Serve chill. It can be save in a fridge for a few days.

Strain matcha from milk mixture

Adding sweet red bean past at the bottom

Creamy and jelly-like

Happy Holidays and Brioche Rolls

2012-01-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year of 2012!

I hope everyone got your belly full with happiness, joy, and prosperity. I know some of you're already thinking or have New Year resolutions in place. I personally like to have resolutions. It's something you will look forward to and motivates you to meet your end goals. To be able to accomplish those or not, is a different story hahaha. For me, I will continue "reading more books" as one of my resolutions from last year. It's great to get off computer every now and then.

Can't believe it's already a new year. I remembered when I started my blog in 2010. I had a lot of energy and ambition. Although it has faded away, one thing to remain is my passion on food. Balancing work, life, and hobby can be very challenging. I'm trying my best to balance them. If I have been MIA-ed once in a while,(don't worry) I'm still around and waiting to check in your post occasionally! Nonetheless, I'm grateful to have met great people in this blogosphere and have special relationship with them. I don't take things for granted and will embrace every moment in my life. Thank you everyone for your support, encouragement, and compliment. All these things keep me going and I hope it shines through my work and food.

I actually cooked quite a bit during the holidays but didn't get to post any. Below are some of the pictures I took before they were gone!

I made these Christmas cookies for friends. These are before decoration.

I also hosted simple Christmas dinner for close friends on a Friday night

I made these brioche rolls right before Christmas. I know I know I'm super behind! I got the recipe from a Cooking Light Magazine - Holiday issue last year. It wasn't an easy task for me when it came to bread making. Some was a success while some was epic fail -- just like this time. The first time I had a difficulty with yeasts. After checking with my blogger friend, Roxana at A little bit of everything, I'm pretty sure I killed the yeasts with too hot milk! Yikes. Roxana is a talented baker. She shared her post "Let's Talk Yeasts" to me and that was very helpful. Thanks Roxana!

So, I was on a second attempt. This time I tried to have a "luke warm" milk (about 100-110 degrees). Your skin would feel just a little but warm when touched luke warm water/milk. It seemed to work this time. I covered my dough in a fridge overnight. Used muffin pan instead of brioche pan. The recipe called for 4 equal dough portion, then 6 equal pieces. However, I did 3 equal pieces which was double in size and also tried the bigger pieces (about 4 equal pieces). It might be that my dough didn't rise as much as a recipe called for. I also had problem with butter. I probably added butter too late (the dough was already formed) and butter made the dough slipped right off the hook and didn't mix butter well with the dough. On the second attempt, I added right after the dough started to form. It worked.

At the end, it turned out great - not too dense but fluffy! It wasn't perfect but good enough. I think I'm going to give myself a pass this time.

I'm not sure if my yeast works right. If you have any comment, please feel free to let me know

Brioche Rolls

Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

Yield: 24 rolls

Ingredients:
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
1/3 cup warm milk (100-110 F). I used soy milk.
3 1/2 cups AP flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
8 1/2 Tbs butter, softened and divided
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs water
1 egg white

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand 5 mins until you see bubble.
Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups. Add flour, sugar, salt, and eggs to milk mixture. Beat with a stand mixer at low speed. When it starts to form or pull away from the side, stop and change to a dough hook.
Add butter. Beat it at low speed then medium speed until incorporated and the dough is soft and elastic about 4-5 mins.
Place dough in a large bowl coated with olive oil; turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in warm place (I put in an off oven) for 1 hr or until doubled in size. Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough). Punch dough down into a ball.
Return dough to bowl; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 8 hrs or overnight.
Uncover dough and let stand about 90 mins or until dough is at room temperature.
Divide dough into 4 equal portions, cut dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 1.5 inch ball.
Repeat procedure with remaining. Place rolls in muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise for 45 mins or until almost doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 350 F
Combine water and egg white. Stir with a whisk. Gently brush rolls with egg mixture.
Bake for 14 mins or until golden.
Before serving, brush melted butter onto rolls.

Before getting in an oven

After

Resting on a rack

Eat me!

Slow Cooked Pork Spareribs Noodle Soup (Kluay Teaw Moo Toon)

2011-12-20T23:23:00.001-08:00

Christmas is just around the corner! I love this time of year. It's beautiful. An anticipation for "wishes" to come and a new resolution to look forward to keep us alive. Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and a New Year filled with peace and happiness.

Too bad I only get Monday off while the hubs get 5 days off! With limited weekend I have and all the parties keep me really busy. That's when a slow cooker comes handy. It's easy and convenient. I don't get to use it as often as I should have. I left it on in the morning and came home to tender meat and savory soup. Hmm..Yum!

This pork spareribs noodle soup is what Thais call "Kloy teaw moo toon". It's basically herbed soup with tender spareribs. Cinnamon and star anise add deep flavor to the soup. It's actually easy to make; just requires long cooking time. My desire for this dish happened when I craved for it so much. There's only one restaurant I know have this dish. However, I would need to drive 40-45 mins to get there. Not a chance on weekdays to happen!

So, I decided to make my own. The authentic style will need to add pork blood in a soup but I omitted it for mine. I cooked it on high for 8 hours and switched to simmer for 2 hours. I even used water but still got a savory soup. My favorite part for this dish is soft bones. They are tender and crunchy. Bella and I shared the dish- tee hee. It's pretty good! You can serve it with rice instead of noodle.

Without further ado, let's get cooking.

Slow Cooked Pork Spareribs Soup
Yield: 4-6 people
Cooking time: 10 hrs

Ingredients:
1 lb pork spareribs, cut to 2 inches
1 cinnamon stick. Mine was about 4" long.
2 star anise
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp whole coriander
3 Tbs cilantro stem. Thais normally use cilantro root but it's not accessible here.
3 Tbs cilantro, chopped
3 Tbs soy sauce
3 Tbs black soy sauce
1 Tbs seasoning sauce. I used brand Golden Mountain.
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup sake
2 tsp white pepper
1 onion, peeled, quartered
2 inches fresg ginger, peeled, sliced
Water (about 6 cups)
1 Tbs vegetable oil

Condiments:
White vinegar
Fried garlic
Garlic chili sauce

Slow cooker
Cooked noodle
Bean sprouts

Directions:

Grind garlic, coriander, and cilantro stem until coarsely chopped. Put in a small bowl.
Heat up big pot over high heat; add oil. Swirl to coat. Sear ribs on all sides but no need to cook through.
Transfer ribs to a slow cooker. Add prepared garlic cilantro mixture, and everything else in except water.
Add water just to cover the ribs. Cover a cooker with a lid and put on high for 8 hours.
After 8 hrs, stir the soup. Taste and correct seasoning. Switch it to simmer for another 2 hrs.
Remove cinnamon stick and star anise if possible. If you won't finish all in one day, you can leave those in the pot.
To get rid of excessed fat, chil the soup in the fridge. You will see all solid fat on top of the soup. Use spoon to scoop it out. Reheat.
Serve it with cooked noodle and bean sprouts. For bean sprout, blanch them in a soup and transfer to prepared bowl. Add condiments about 1 tsp of each on each bowl. However, this is optional.

Add garlic chili paste, white vinegar, and fried garlic for more flavor

Seasoned Sea Bass and Roasted Pork Belly with SE Asian sauce

2011-11-29T15:15:00.001-08:00

...It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and great happy meetings...

Oops, it's not Christmas yet. This song is playing over and over again in my head. The year 2011 is almost over. Can you believe it?! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are going to have a fabulous Christmas!

My inspiration for this dish is from Joule, a modern with Korean influenced restaurant in Seattle, WA. I had been wanting to come here. My wish was granted on my birthday. I ordered pork belly clam rice as a main dish. I was excited when I saw pork belly on the menu. I had to say I was disappointed. The pork belly wasn't roasted but steamed and cooked in a rice. It wasn't what I wanted. However, I ordered grilled beef tongue as an appetizer. Man, this was money! The beef tongue cooked perfectly and has a charred flavor from grilling. It was served with Asian pesto and some sauce. I'm not sure what's in the pesto or sauce but I got the idea.

As shown in my past post a way to cook pork belly that Lazaro from Lazaro Cooks suggested - slow cook and a low temperature, I've come to realize that my mom has cooked it by roasting it too! The difference is that my mom cooks in a really high temperature in a shorter period of time. I decided to try her way for this dish. I roasted at 450 F for about 45 mins or so. The skin turned out to be somewhat crispy and the meat was perfect. If you leave out skin, please adjust shorter time accordingly. So, I think it's up to you which way you like better. I encourage you to try both and let me know or you can suggest a new way for me to try!

Espresso salt, black pepper, chopped garlic, and truffle oil

Pear marinade.

I also made 2 marinades to see which one I like better. The first one is salt (I used espresso salt), pepper, chopped garlic, and truffle oil. The second marinade is a mix of pear puree, soy sauce, pepper, chopped garlic, seseme oil, Siracha, sugar, and vegetable oil. Yeah, the second is a winner. My friends who got to try confirmed that too. It has a sweetness from pear but not too much and has more flavor.

For Asian pesto, my version has cilantro, green onion, salt, lime juice, pepper, chili flakes, garlic, and olive oil. The secret sauce has lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and olive oil. I also served it with sea bass too. You can serve with either meat or seafood or both. I like variety and I am greedy so I want both - hahahaha.

Seasoned Sea Bass and Roasted Pork Belly with South East Asian sauce

Ingredients for Pear marinade:

1 riped pear, peeled, pureed
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 Tbs seasoning sauce (Golden mountain brand). If you don't have it, you can use only soy sauce.
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 splash Siracha hot sauce
2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped

Directions:

Blend or mix everything together. Pour over pork belly. Let it marinade for at least 2 hrs or more.

Asian pesto

Ingredients for Asian pesto:

1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp chili flakes
1 garlic, peeled

Directions:

Put everything in a food processor. While it's processing, add olive oil until it becomes like a paste and to your desire of thickness. Adjust seasonings.

I call it secret sauce - SE Asian style

Ingredients for Secreat Sauce:

1 lime juice
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs fish sauce

Directions:

Mix eveything together and put in a microwave for 15 secs for sugar to dissolve. Adjust flavor.

Cooking Seabass and Pork Belly:

For Seabass,

Season with salt and pepper. Heat up a pan and add 2 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil. When butter melts and oil is hot, place seabass in a pan. Spoon melted butter over the fish repeatedly. Finish it in an oven. Cook until the fish becomes flaky.

For Pork belly,

After marinade for at least 2 hours, discard marinade. Roast it on the oven at 450 F for 45 mins or so. If using thermometer, it should read 160 F. Let it sit for about 10 mins. Slice it.

Cooking sea bass before finishing them in the oven

Assemble:

Spread the pesto on a plate. Place pork belly and Sea bass on top. Drizzle with the secret sauce on pork and fish and also on the side.

Kao Mun Gai (Hainan Chicken)

2011-11-18T12:46:00.001-08:00

Kao mun gai is what Thais call this dish, while Hainan chicken is what Chinese call it. It's steamed chicken with oiled rice served with dipping sauce. In my opinion, the difference between Thai and Chinese is a dipping sauce. I might be wrong! I've neither had it cooked in Chinese style, nor do I really know about the recipe. Every time I go back to Thailand, I always have this dish as I hardly find it here. In Thailand, it's considered street food. As you walk on a street, you will see street vendors selling this dish.

Not too long ago my friend gave me the recipe. It wasn't as hard as I expected. It was just time-consuming. It yields quite a good amount that will last for a few days or even a week. I normally use whole chicken, bone-in. I've come to realize that we use every single thing from the chicken. We boil whole chicken with veggies and water to make a stock. Use oil from the chicken to cook rice. Shred chicken meat and throw the bone back into the stock. Ah- ha, I know, I know. I got everything done the night before, and was planning to take pictures of the finished dish the next day during dinner. Too bad, I kept forgetting and didn't get to take any. Boo. I hope you will forgive me!

I don't have a recipe of turkey to share for Thanksgiving. I would have hoped this chicken could slip in the theme (tee-hee). What are you cooking for Thanksgiving? It's only a few days away! Time sure files. For me, luckily, I don't have to be in charge of cooking turkey as my mother-in-laws does it. I will be making egg rolls - 2 styles for appetizer. In fact, I've been making egg rolls for a few Thanksgivings now. I think I'm going to have it as a tradition :)

I've been away from blogging a few weeks as I got busy at work and volunteerism. But now, I'm sick. My fingers and brain are still working so here I am blogging again! Take care everyone. The weather is getting nasty.

On another note, if you have time, please check out my contribution to International Examiner (a local newspaper in Asian community here in Seattle), the latest issue - Holiday Entertainment Issue.

Kao Mun Gai
Cooking time: 3 hours

Cooking chicken:
1 whole chicken, cleaned inside, bone-in.
1 dikon, peeled, cut to 1.5 " long
1 cup chopped carrot
1 onion, quartered
water

Directions:

Wash chicken and put it in a big pot. Add water to just cover the chicken. Turn on the heat to high. Add carrots, onion, and diakon. Cover with a lid. Bring it to boil. When it boils for about 10 mins, turn off the heat with the lid on. Let it sit on a stove for an hour. Do not open the lid.
When the soup and chicken is cooled down, remove the chicken carefully. It will be very tender. Keep the soup to make stock.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, slice/cut it and put on a big plate.

How to cook a chicken

Cooking rice:
3 cups Jansmine rice or brown rice. White rice works better than brown. In the picture, I used brown.
2-3 inches gresh ginger, peeled, sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed but still in a form of cloves.
3 Tbs vegetble oil

Directions:

Heat up a wok. Add oil. Swirl to coat.
Add rice. Stir fry the rice and oil. Add ginger and garlic. Stir to cook until ginger and garlic create aroma scent.
Cook rice in a rice cooker. We will use water and oil from cooking chicken. The ratio of rice-to-water is 1:1.
Put rice in a rice cooker, scoop oil and soup on a surface from the pot that we cooked chicken. Try to get as much as oil as you can.
Cook rice as instructed on its directions.

Fry rice with oil, ginger, and garlic

Making sauce:

2 Tbs fermented bean paste (เต้่้าเจี้ยว)

1/2 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs sugar

1 garlic cove

2 Tbs cilantro stems

2 Tbs chicken stock or water

3-4 Thai chili (optional)

2 inches fresh ginger, peeled, chopped

Directions:

Blend everything in a food processor. Adust the taste.
Garnish with cilantro.

Dipping sauce

Making stock:

Soup from cooking chicken

1 Tbs sea salt

2 tsp white pepper

Leftover bone from chicken

Directions:

Continue cooking the soup to make stock. Season with salt and pepper. Throw in the bone after you shred chicken. Simmer for about half hour or so. Adjust seasoning. It shouldn't have full flavor. We will serve it as a side dish.

Serving:

Scoop cooked rice on a plate. Top with chicken and fresh cucumber. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with soup and dipping sauce on the side.

Arrange cooked chicken on a serving plate

I apologize for a poor quality of the picture. It was taken on my cellphone. Yep, at least I remembered to capture it with my phone!

Thai Style Salmon Fritters with Siracha Sour Cream

2011-10-26T16:34:00.000-07:00

It's football season! Well, I'm not a big fan. I know it's in season because all the guys and Facebook friends are talking about it. Five Star Makeover challenge is in trend. They're hosting a virtual tail gate party! This month's theme is tailgate food. I was actually excited about this even though I'm not a football or any sport fan in particular. The idea of having a party, finger food, beer, and going wild blows me away (tee hee).

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

I cordially invite you to join our virtual tailgate party this Friday at our host's home - Natasha @ Five Star Foodie and Lazaro @ Lazaro Cooks.

I had been thinking for a while what I should make. I wanted finger food. Asian BBQ chicken wings, grilled pork with sticky rice, Asian meatballs, blah blah blah.... They all pop into my head but it doesn't "click". You know, it's like chemistry when you're on a date. That is until I thought of a Thai fish cake; I can incorporate this into classic fritters. Fried food is always a hit. Anything fried is good, don't you think?!

Red curry paste and kaffir leaves are mysterious ingredients in this recipe. You will get the what-is-that flavor while eating it and continuing to keep eating more! Salmon chuck and green beans are a nice touch, and topping with fried basil is just sexy. I can gaurantee these fritters will be a crowd pleaser at your tailgate party! Whether your team wins or loses; this dish will always be a winner.

Fresh diced coho salmon

Thai Style Salmon Fritters

Yield: 45-50

Ingredients:
1 Tbs red curry paste
1/2 Tbs fish sauce
1 cup chopped fresh green bean
1 lb fresh salom. I used Coho salmon, wild caught
2 whole eggs
3/4 cup whole milk or heavy cream
1 1/4 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs minced fresh kaffir leaves
1/4 cup green onion (white part)
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tsp white pepper
Oil for frying
1 cup fresh basil
Salt and Cayenne pepper for dusting

Red curry paste

Directions:

Beat eggs, milk, lime juice, fish sauce, and red curry paste in a bowl or stand mixer just until everything is incorporated and curry paste is dissolved.
Change the speed to stir or low speed and add flour, baking powder, and white pepper. Stir until mixed.
Add green beans, green onion, minced kaffir leaves, and salmon to the batter. At low speed, stir to mix. You can use spatula or wooden spoon to mix the ingredients.
Add oil to a sauce pan and heat it up to 375 F. Lay paper towel on a baking sheet.
Scoop a spoon full of mixture in a hot oil. Don't overcrowd. Fry them until brown. Use a slotted spoon to scoop up and transfer to prepared tray.
Keep doing until the mixture is out.
Sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper to fried fritters.
Use same oil to fry fresh basil until it's crispy.

The mixture

Siracha Sour Cream Sauce:

Sour cream
Lime juice
Chopped green onion
Splash of Siracha

Directions:

Mix everything together to suit your taste buds. For Siracha, if you like spicy, you can add more. If you don't like spicy, you can leave out this.

They are hot tubing

Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and salt

Serve with fried basil and Siracha sour cream

Want a bite?

Leek and Celery Root Soup - A comfort food on a cold day

2011-10-16T23:53:00.000-07:00

It's my first time making smooth silky soup and with this ugly beast -celery root. I know I'm lame. With chilly weather, warm soup comes first on the dinner menu list at my house. The weather sucks and I need something to comfort me. I've been wanting to make smooth soup and work with root produce. I guess this is the time - (just do it, T!). With busy schedules that took all my time and energy away from cooking, I finally overcame it and realized how much I missed cooking. It's worth it. I love it. The soup is surprisingly flavorful with a few ingredients. Nothing is new in this recipe but a classic is a good comfort food.

Celery Root

Celery root has a celery flavor, and is often used as a flavoring in soups and stews; it can also be used on its own. The appearance is ugly but the inside is white or off-white - like apple mixed with potato.

Leek has a mild onion-like taste, and is less bitter than scallion. The taste might be described as a mixture of mild onion and cucumber, with a fresh smell similar to scallion. In its raw state, the vegetable is crunchy and firm.

I changed and added a few ingredients. Feel free to tweak this to suit your taste buds.

Leek and Celery Root Soup
Yield: 6 cups

Ingredients:
2 leeks, (use only white and light green part) halved, cleaned, and thinly sliced crosswise.
2 medium celery roots, peeled, cubed
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
3 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
Salt and pepper
Heavy cream
Creme fraiche or sour cream
Chopped chive
White truffle oil (optional)

Blender and big pot

Directions:

Heat up large sauce pan over high heat. Add butter and oil.
Add leeks and onion. Cook until onion is translucent and leeks are getting brown.
Add chopped celery root. Cook for a few mins. Add 1 cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook for about 20-30 mins until celery root is cooked through. During this process, if the liquid is evaporated, keeps adding stock or water.
Season with salt and pepper
Let it cool a bit before transferring to blender
When it's not too hot, blend it in a blender and adding cream to your desire of thickness until the soup is smooth.
Correct seasonings
Pour in prepared bowls or glasses. Drop a spoonful of creme fraiche and chives on top. If using truffle oil, drop a few on soup before serving.

Note: This can be served hot or cold. It can be kept in the fridge for a few days.

The soup after some has already transferred to a blender

You can serve it as dinner with toasts

Or serve it in a glass shot for appetizer

Espresso Salt Seared Scallop with Lime Grapefruit Dressing Salad

2011-10-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm just into seafood recently because I intook too much meat - all kind of meat. Don't get me wrong. I like pork belly, good steak, chicken tender and stuff. However, my body can't handle it very well when I intake too much. Do you have the same problem? Rotating meatless and seafood meal occasionally is good for your digestion and health!

Okay, enough of talking seafood. I chose to cook with scallops because 1) I want it. 2) I haven't cooked them for a while and I don't care if the hubs isn't a big fan. 3) I can't resist seared scallops with brown Brit. 4) I have espresso salt that I'd like to experiment with. 5) All of the above. I think I have enough reasons to justify with the hubs (wink).

I used Alaskan scallops in this recipe. I also wanted to incorporate espresso salt, herbs, grapefruit, and lime for the dressing. This dressing went well with seafood-any kind of seafood, baby arugula, and fennel. The espresso salt was redeemed at Marx Foods for the credit I won on the Reishi mushroom challenge. It has an interesting flavor. Well yeah, salt and espresso in one bite.

I marinaded scallops with lime juice for half hour to get more flavor, pat dry, and seasoned with espresso salt and pepper. Seared them in a hot pan to get a good color and texture. For the dressing, I sneaked white truffle oil in it; just to have a what-is-that-taste in the background.

You can plate as appetizer - a bite size

Espresso Salt Seared Scallop with Lime Grapefruit Dressing Salad

Yield: 4 entrees or 8 appetizers

Ingredients

For dressing:
2 limes, juiced
1/4 cup grapefruit juice

1 tsp espresso salt or more
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs minced parsley
1 Tbs minced mint
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp garlic chili sauce
1 Tbs truffle oil (or you can leave this out and drizzle on the salad as a finish-touch)
Olive oil

For scallops:

1 lb fresh Alaskan scallops
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbs Walnut oil
Espresso salt and black pepper

For salad:

1 package baby arugula
2 grapefruits, segmented
1 cup or more chopped celery
Cherry tomatoes, halved
1 fennel, trimmed, thinly sliced
1/4 cup, toasted Walnut or pine nuts (optional)

Espresso salt I got. I have a long way to go with this container!

Directions:

Marinade scallops in lime juice that you get from 1 lime for half hour. After half hour, pat dry. Season with espresso salt and pepper.
While waiting for scallops to get marinaded, in a small bowl, mix parsley, mint, tarragon, 2 limes juice, grapefruit juice, 1 tsp espresso salt, pepper, garlic chili sauce, truffle oil (if using), and olive oil. I didn't put much olive oil but you can adjust to your preference.
In a hot pan, add 1 Tbs of Walnut oil; swirl to coat. Sear scallops until brown. When scallops are done, they will be easy to flip. If they're still stick to the pan, they're not done yet. DO NOT overcook scallops otherwise they will become rubbery.
Mix all the green -arugula, tomatoes, fennel, celery, grapefruit, and nuts (if using). Pour the dressing over and mix well. Be careful not to over mix otherwise arugula will get bruised.
Plate it and top with seared scallop(s). Drizzle remaining dressing on a scallop and finish with truffle oil.

The dressing

Another idea of plating

Manila Clams with Chinese White Wine Chili Paste Sauce

2011-09-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you're having fun.

I'm having fun with my life and it's already September! In a heartbeat, we will talk Thanksgiving soon and celebrate for 2012. It's hard to believe the year is almost over. I feel the same way with this cooking group. I don't remember how many months it has been but it feels so great to be in the group. That's right; it's that time of month again. This month is cooking with wine! Don't tell me this doesn't excite you. Who doesn't like wine!? Although you may not be a drinker, believe me alcohol makes food taste much better!

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

I'm a lightweight; however, when it comes to cooking, I pour wholeheartedly in and sink myself in aroma. This dish is a simple dish but with my take on the sauce. I was originally going to use Sake as a substitute for the wine ingredient but I realized I had Chinese wine- Dragon's Hollow- I won from Trix at Tasty Trix for her giveaway. They claim that they're the first premium wines produced in China. I got an un-oaked Chardonnay. I'm not a wine expert so I'm not able to tell you much about flavor. All I know is it tastes good. Feel free to use any wine you like or Sake.

Thai chili paste is a key ingredient here. Its flavor is bold. It's used in cashew nut chicken and spicy noodle (Pad Kee Mao) if you've ordered it at a Thai restaurant. I think it would be interesting to make a sauce out of it and with wine!

Thai Chili Paste

This sauce has a kick. If you have low spicy-tolerance, sorry, this dish isn't for you.

I used red basil instead of regular basil because it has a licorice flavor and goes well with Asian cuisine. You can serve over cooked noodles, rice, or bread.

Manila Clams with Chinese White Wine Chili Paste Sauce

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 lbs Manila clams
3 Tbs Thai chili paste
1/2 cup Chinese wine or Sake
1/4 cup Chicken stock
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 Tbs fish sauce
1 packed cup red basil
Cooked noodle
1 Tbs walnut oil

Sauté onions, garlic, and chili paste

Reduced wine and chicken stock

Directions:

Heat up large sauce pan. Add oil. Swirl to coat.
Add onion and saute until it's translucent. Add garlic. Cook until brown.
Add chili paste. Stir a few times. Add wine. Simmer until it's reduced by half.
Add chicken stock, sugar, and fish sauce. Gently simmer until it's reduced by a quarter.
Add clams. Close lid and shake occasionally. Cook until all clams are open. Discard ones that are close. Adjust seasoning.
Turn off the heat. Add basil and stir a few times.
Serve with cooked noodle or serve as appetizer.

Turn off the heat and add basil to finish

Serve it as appetizer or meal with bread or noodles

Or serve it over cooked noodles

Have you tried a Blue Marlin fillet? Man, this fish is meaty and it almost tastes like chicken!

Asian Grilled Pork Skewer

2011-09-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

This grilled pork is a bomb. No, I'm not lying or exaggerating but it is; even my pastor confirmed! I got this recipe from my good friend, Jay, who is a chef at a Thai restaurant. He created several menu to several restaurants. He didn't give me measurement as he adjusted the taste as he went. I tweaked the recipe and used my own measurement. The result is delish with a kick from Korean hot pepper paste (Gochujang).

The original recipe calls for apple and pear puree but I think apple and papaya puree would make the pork more tender. The papaya enzyme called papain, is used as a meat tenderizer. It breaks down tough meat fibers. Plus, I had it in my fridge! The pork turned out super tender. I mixed seasoning sauce with light soy sauce instead of using just one. The color is reddish because of Korean hot pepper paste and papaya puree. So, don't be scared when you see the sauce.

My note would be if you use papaya puree, please cut your pork a bit thicker and bigger. The enzyme from papaya really breaks down fiber in meat. It will make grilling easier too.

If you use pear puree, you can cut your meat thinner and smaller.

I called this "Asian" because I'm not sure if it's Korean or Thai or something else. I know Thai uses seasoning sauce (Golden Mountain) while Korean uses soy sauce and hot pepper paste (Gochujang), and Thai and Chinese use oyster sauce. To cover all of the above, Asian would be the suitable word to be used- tee hee.

This dish is also perfect for BBQ outing or appetizer.

Asian Grilled Pork

Yield: a lot (75-90 skewers)

Ingredients:

3 lbs pork shoulder or butt
2 Tbs oyster sauce
3 Tbs light soy sauce
3 Tbs seasoning sauce.I used Golden mountain brand.
1 Tbs sugar
1 apple, peeled, cored, cubed, and pureed
1 full cup papaya, peeled, cubed, and puree
3 Tbs Korean hot pepper paste (Gochujang). This is spicy so please be careful. You can decrease the amount for less spicy
1 Tbs sesame oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

Bamboo skewers

Directions:

Soak bamboo skewer in water overnight or at least 6 hours (until they are fully submerged with water)
Add everything except pork and sesame seeds in a blender. Blend until mixed well.
Cut pork into slice or small cube. Pour in the sauce. Marinate it overnight. If using apple and pear, marinating it a few days works best to get all the flavor.
Thread each piece of pork with a skewer. Leave about 1/4 of skewer left for grilling and handling.
Grill on medium high heat or about 375 F until it's cooked through.
Serve with couscous or fresh lettuce and other fresh vegetable.

After marinating overnight

These bad boys are ready to go on a grill

Yum!

Pork Belly Rolls with Mint Dressing - Guest Post

2011-09-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

It's guest post time!
It's my honor to be guest posting for one of my buddies - Lazaro at Lazaro Cooks- to be a part of his returning guest post spotlight. Lazaro has so many nicknames that we made up for him such as Rock'N'Roll DJ for food, angry dude, seafood King, etc. The one thing we all agree with is he's a talented cook with a real passion. No fake!

I learned this cooking method on pork belly from him and I would love to use the same tactic on my guest post. He loves pork belly and I love roll. Therefore, this pork belly roll is perfect for the guest post.

To check out more rolls, you can click here and there.

Please come over to check out this post at Lazaro Cooks!

Gingery Plum Cake -Happy Labor Day Weekend!

2011-09-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for the 3-day weekend! Hope everybody gets to relax, enjoy, or travel with your beloved ones!

It's not often that you will see baked goodies on I Just Love My Apron's lab. This time is an exception! Why? Because I found a great recipe from a cookbook I checked out at the public library. Yes, I know. I'm an old-fashioned girl who still get books from the library. However, it's convenient, cost-effective, and free of charge! I was first going to skim and scan through appetizer and party ideas until I ran into this recipe. The cake is very moist and fluffy. Plus, ginger and plum sound very Asian to me and I've seen this combination in many food recipes.

Plums make me think of one of my favorite bloggers - Patty from Patty's food. She's a talented baker and a great grandma! I have to say her grand-kids are lucky to get to taste her food and baked goodies so often.

I scanned through the recipe and I almost had everything on hand except plums. That's an easy part; they are in season now. You can keep the cake in a fridge and when you're ready to eat, you just pop it in a microwave for 30 secs. It's also good when serving it with whip cream or a scoop of ice cream!

Gingery Plum Cake

Recipe courtesy of Fine Cooking appetizers

Ingredients for the cake:

1 1/3 cups AP flour
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream

Cake batter before going in an oven

Directions for cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F
Lightly butter or use butter spray on a 9x2-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper that is cut to fit the pan. Lightly flour the sides and tap out the excess. I used the pan that you can lift up the side from the bottom of and that really made the lifting-the-cake part easy.
In a bowl, mix flour, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy for about 3 mins.
Add eggs one at a time. Beat on medium speed until just blended.
Add vanilla extract and beat.
Adjust speed to low or stir, gradually add dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stop half way and add sour cream, then the remaining dry mixture. Mix until it's blended.
Scrape the batter into a pan and spread evenly. Bake for 15 mins.

Ingredients for Topping:

1 plum, halved, pitted, and cut into 1/8-1/4 inch slices
2 tsp finely grate fresh ginger
3 Tbs firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbs AP flour
Whipped cream or ice cream for garnish

Arrange sliced plums on the cake

Directions for topping:

While cake is baked, combine sliced plums and ginger in a small bowl. Toss until the ginger is well distributed.
Add sugar and flour. Use a fork to mix ingredients to coat the fruit evenly.
After the cake has baked for 15 mins, arrange sliced plums on top of the cake.
Continue baking for another 35-40 mins. Test it by inserting a toothpick. It should come out clean.
Let the cake cool on a rack for 15 mins. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Lay a rack on top of the cake pan and holding onto both pan and rack, invert the cake.
Peel away the parchment paper.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Store in a fridge. When ready to eat, heat it in a microwave for 30 secs. Enjoy!

Serve it with whipped cream or ice cream

Chicken Satay Pizza and the Winner

2011-08-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the month again with the 5 star makeover hosted by Natasha from 5 star foodie and Lazaro from Lazaro Cooks. This month them is pizza!!

Does the word pizza make you excited? Oh yeah, it does with me! My love is with Asian food but I have a crush on pizza. Believe it or not, pizza - a type of flat bread - originated from Middle East and Mediterranean cuisine. However, it made its appearance in the US when Italian immigrated here. Tomato sauce, basil, and cheese also made its appearance on a pizza (source: wiki). I had a very good and light pizza in Rome, Italy. It's thin and had a charred flavor. It was basic ingredients like tomato sauce, basil, and cheese but somehow it tasted so good! I know everyone in a cooking group got excited for this month theme and I can't wait to see everyone's delicious dish! Please stop by our cooking group if you have time. The list is on the side bar on this blog. I've realized that pizza can have so many variations. Let your creative juice begin! I guarantee after checking out the cooking group's pizza, you won't look at pizza the same way.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

As mentioned earlier about my love and the crush. It's always nice to see an incorporation between any 2 or more cuisines. I made a green curry pizza before and it was a bomb at the party. This time I decided to make a chicken satay pizza. Yep, you heard me right. Chicken satay can be done in so many ways. I made it on a wonton cup, burrito, taco, skewer, and this pizza. On any kind, it's a crowd pleaser I can tell you that.

Chicken satay wonton cup

I cut chicken breast into little cubes for more flavor and easy to bite on and marinated overnight. The dough has a very mild curry and turmeric flavor from curry and turmeric powder. The kick is a clear sauce that Thais call "Ah-Jad". It's sweet and sour liquid that some serve on the side with cucumber and red onion for another dipping sauce other than peanut sauce.

Last but not least, we have a winner from the giveaway last week!! Congratulations to Natasha at 5 stat foodie. It's such a coincident that Natasha won and she's also a co-host for the challenge. Thanks to random.org for the winner!

Chicken Satay Pizza

Field: 2 - 14" pizzas

What you will need:

Chicken Sate (recipe below)
Peanut sauce (recipe below)
Ah Jad sauce (recipe below)
Pizza dough (recipe here)
Thinly sliced red onions
Quarter sliced cucumber
2 cups grated pepper jack cheese
2 Tbs corn meal

Dough recipe:

Please click here for the best pizza dough ever! I added 2 tsp curry powder and 1 tsp tumeric powder in the dough. If you do, please add it with flour (before adding water and oil). This will yield 3 - 14" pizza dough.

Chicken Satay:

1 cup canned coconut milk
1/4 cup yellow curry paste. I used Mae Ploy brand.
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Tbs minced garlic
1.5 lbs diced chicken

Directions:

Put medium sauce pan on medium high heat. Add oil. Swirl to coat. Add garlic and cook just until brown. This will add more flavor to the marinate.
Add half coconut milk, followed by curry paste. Stir occasionally to prevent from sticking. Add the remaining of coconut milk.
Season with fish sauce. Cook until it's all mixed. Let cool.
When it's cool, marinate chicken in ceramic container and refregirate overnight.
When ready to cook, heat up wok. When it's about to smoke, add marinated chicken. Wok until cooked through and has charred bits. Set aside

Peanut sauce:

1 cup organic crunchy peanut butter
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup chicken stock
3 Tbs brown sugar or more to taste
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 tsp chili oil

Directions:

Heat up a sauce pan over medium heat. Add peanut butter and coconut milk. Stir to mix.
Add ginger, soy sauce, sugar, oils. Stir to mix. Add chicken stock to dilute to your desire of consistency. Correct seasoning.

Ah-Jad sauce:

3 Tbs white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs water

Directions:

Mix sugar and water. Put in a microwave and heat for 15 secs (until sugar melts). Add white vinegar. It should have sour flavor first then sweet flavor.

To assemble:

Heat oven to 500 F. Place an iron cast pizza pan in the oven at the beginning.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured area. Use a rolling pin or spin it by hand to your desire of thickness. My preference is thin crust so I rolled out very thin.
Sprinkle corn meal over the pizza pan. Place the dough on the pan. Be careful, this can be very hot.
Use oil from peanut sauce to brush the dough. It will stay at the top of the sauce since oil will separate itself from solid.
Spread peanut sauce all over the dough. Spread cheese over, then chicken and red onion. Bake for about 10-12 mins.
After it's done, place sliced cucumber and drizzle with the ah-jad sauce. Cut and serve.
Enjoy the Thai style pizza!

Wok those chicken!

How to assemble chicken satay pizza..hmmm..

You can slice it any way you like

Or serve on a bamboo board

YUM

Jamba Juice Matcha Smoothie & Customized Postcards Giveaway

2011-08-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Those calla lilies are from my garden!

A girl is sitting in a sun and feeling an air breeze in a farm while writing about a sustainable food. It sounds awesome right? You think it's me? I wish! A friend of mine, she was living in a farm for a time being, learning about a sustainable food, and writing about food. I imagined the atmosphere and pictured myself on an open field while receiving tweets from her. It's heaven on a ground. I know. If you're a tweeter handler, feel free to find me at www.twitter.com/tananthap or at tweet tag #ijustlovemyapron. We'll be connected in an instant!

I figure I should post a refreshing beverage before the Summer is gone. This matcha drink is real simple. I got an inspiration from Jamba Juice. The only beverage I drink at Jamba Juice is Matcha Blast Smoothie. It's creamy, not too sweet, and you can taste a matcha flavor. However, to spend almost $4 a day isn't an ideal at this downturn economy and stock crash market. So, I mimic the drink and I think it's pretty close! Jamba Juice uses frozen yogurt but I opted to vanilla yogurt which makes it easier. I sometimes freeze it before using to make this drink.

I also used soy milk green tea flavor I found at my favorite grocery. It added more green tea flavor without ruining the taste. If you can't find it, vanilla soy milk works just fine.

Before I leave you with this refreshing smoothie, I have a giveaway to share! They are 100 customized postcards from UPrinting. These are really cool products that you can customize however you'd like. You can design a postcard and send love to your readers, family, and friends, or even letting them know your upcoming project with your personalized design. If your blog anniversary is coming up, this is a great opportunity to spread the word and send your love. How cool is that!? Let's spread your message!

Here are some of the postcard samples on UPrinting website.

Sample postcard design from UPrinting website

Prize Details:

100 Postcards for One (1) Winner

5" x 7"

14pt Cardstock Gloss

No Folding

Front Only Printing

2 Business Days Print Turnaround Time

Postcard Design, please click on the link here

Restriction:

Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only (Sorry International readers!)
Winners are allowed to win only once over a six-month period. If you already won a UPrinting giveaway in the last 6 months, you're not eligible. I'm sorry.

How to enter the giveaway:

If you can share your love by passing the word of this giveaway, share through your social media platforms, leave me a comment, or even support my apron through the links below.

Please let me know how you share. You can share in multiple ways and it will count as multiple entries too! Let's share the apron!

I Just Love My Apron on Facebook page, twitter, and email subscription

This giveaway is open until Thursday, August 18th at midnight Pacific time. Good luck!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, an online printing company, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive postcards for hosting. See more information about available postcard size and postcard design on UPrinting.com.

Matcha Green Tea Smoothie

Yield: 1-2

Ingredients:

2 tsp good quality matcha powder
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, frozen
7 ice cubes
1/2 cup organic green tea soy milk
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions:

Blend everything together in a blender until smooth. Serve chill.

organic green tea soy milk

Clam Linguine with Garlic White Wine Sauce

2011-08-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday!

I went camping and clam digging this past weekend. We had a lot of clams. Most weren't from me. I was bad. I got less than 10 clams. I swear, I dug 5 holes and I got nothing. They were either dead, broken, or too small. It was hot and Bella was on my back. I was tired so I gave up--whining--. I went collecting oysters for my friends to shuck instead. I did contribute to the group, tho, by cooking for them! Ha. Well, it was more like "delegating" tasks. I know. I'm smart *wink*

Bella was such a good girl. She was on my back for almost 3 hrs!

I now appreciate the work of people selling clams. Man, it's hard work. You need not only skill but also luck!

Before the camping trip, I craved clams and had been eating them quite a good amount. However, after this past weekend, I won't be eating them for a while. That shows how many we got!

some of the clams we got

that's how much stuff we brought hahaha

This dish was inspired by the picky taste buds of mine. I don't really cook shellfish so I seek out when dining. I don't know if it's luck or what but the clam linguine I had been having wasn't savory enough. It either needed more flavor, more tartness, or fresher clams. This really annoyed me. While visiting my favorite market, I spotted live manila clams in a tank. After thinking, I decided to make it myself -with pouty face-. Fine, I will show you what it's supposed to taste like! Therefore, I had to break the cuisine style for once.

Clams are in season so the price is really affordable and they are a sustainable seafood. If you are trying to decide whether you should try to cook them or not, don't ponder any longer. It's time to get your hands-on, on! :) I was able to customize the dish based on my preference which was plenty of clams and savory flavor. The guideline for the recipe is from my past post --Ink spaghetti seafood. The dish is simple. You need fresh clams, good wine, and fresh herbs. As Lazaro says, you cook with the wine you're drinking otherwise you might spit it out. This dish is nothing new but it's new on I Just Love My Apron!

I'm proud to tell you that I used parsley from my little garden! This is the first time my herbs didn't die on me.

Parsley from my little garden

Fun fact about Clams: The clam has no head, and usually has no eyes (scallops are a notable exception), but a clam does have kidneys, a heart, mouth, anus, and pearls. Source: Wikipedia.

Clam Linguine with Garlic White Wine Sauce

Yield: 4-6 people

Ingredients:

3 lbs manila clams - clean and rub dirt from shell
1 lb linguine pasta
1 cup good dry white wine
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots (about 8 shallots)
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 packages of pancetta
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup chopped dill
3 lemons
Olive oil - about 2 Tbs
1 Tbs chili flakes
2 Tbs butter
1 cup reserved pasta water
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Soak live clams in fresh water. Put either cornmeal or about 2-3 tsp of white vinegar and leave it for about half hour. Vinegar will help clams spit out dirt.
Bring water to boil. Season with salt. Boil pasta as directed on its package.
In the meantime, bring large saucepan to medium high heat. Heat up oil and add pancetta. Fry pancetta until crispy. Remove them and reserve oil.
And butter. Then, add shallots. Saute until shallots start turning brown. Add garlic.
Add clams, salt, pepper, and white wine. Close the lid and shake the pot occasionally.
Cook until all clams are open. Discard the ones that aren't open.
Add reserved pasta water, squeeze lemons in, add 1/2 of the herbs, and chili flakes. Correct taste with salt and pepper.
Pour cooked liquid over cooked pasta. Add remaining 1/2 herbs. Mix well.
Place clams over pasta and mix well. Sprinkle with crispy pancetta.

Brown shallot and garlic in butter and oil. Oops, it's a little burnt!

Steam clams

Mix in herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper and stir well

Pour liquid over cooked pasta, mix in herbs, and mix well

Savory clam linguine --my kinda dish!

5 Star Makeover: Black Plum Sauce, Nectarine Whole Wheat Couscous, and Oven Roasted Chicken

2011-07-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to talk about my busy schedule but instead about the nice weather this past weekend. It reached 88 F! It wouldn't be exciting if it wasn't for the fact that Seattle rarely has nice weather. Everyone was out and about ~~and we appreciated the sunshine more~~. (okay, this part sounds depressing). Outdoor activities are huge in the Pacific Northwest. No matter what season it is we are able to find stuff to do outside. Although we have a short summer, the activities are packed in. Keith just bought a jet ski so we took it out but it died on us twice! Yeah, I was on the marine patrol boat twice and people looked at us like we were arrested on some sort of drug crime. hush.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

It's that time of month again with the 5 star makeover with Natasha @5 Star Foodie and a co-host Lazaro at Lazaro Cooks. This month theme is farmers' market. When they announced the theme, everyone got so excited except me. Why? That's a good question...First, I didn't know what I wanted to make. It didn't ring a bell. Second, what was I going to do with peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, and summer vegetables. I mostly eat them fresh and I couldn't make up my mind to pick those as a main ingredient. I admit shamelessly I was a little stressed. You know, It's like when you were in school and you didn't quite know what to do with a school project while your friends were enthusiastic and moved by the project.

"Crap" I thought to myself. C'mon, you just have to go find inspiration at any market or maybe go dine at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that's the kind of thing to motivate yourself. So, I went to my favorite market and saw tons of nectarines and peaches so I bought some. The other time I went again I got black plums. I still didn't know what to with those yet. So, I started eating nectarines fresh and cut them into a container for snacking. After upon thinking for some time, plum sauce that is served with a fresh roll came to mind. I can do something with those plums!

Black plums and cherry tomatoes

I don't know how you create your concoctions but for me here's how it works:

Pick a main ingredient
Pick a cuisine style. This will help you narrow down other ingredients and seasonings to go with.
Pick a side dish and look for what you have on-hand.

So, I chose black plums and wanted to keep my style for Asian--Japanese/Chinese. Other ingredients started lining up like picking candidates for a job interview. This one looks good, keep it; that looks bad, pass.

That's how I got cinnamon stick, star anise, soy sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, mirin and such in the sauce.

For chicken, I preferred skin-on, bone-in chicken since I chose to roast it in the oven for the juicer meat -and you can't say no to crispy skin! C'mon, it's Summer. That means it's time to get messy. Shredding meat from the bone by hand is the classic art of eating chicken! (okay, you can use fork and knife *wink*)

Peeled, diced plums

Here comes the side dish. I was lucky to find this whole wheat couscous at Trader Joe's a few days earlier. Man, I don't go to Trader Joe's that often due to location and accessibility. They have good stuff with good deals. If they happen to read this, please open more locations specifically in Renton, WA!

Since I also have nectarines, it wouldn't hurt to put some in the couscous. Oh yeah, I have homegrown mint in my backyard that needs to be used. So, I added mint. I've realized that when you get your act together (from not knowing what to do with those plums), everything flows out from your brain. You just need to get started. That's why they say the beginning is the hardest, huh?

This plum sauce works well with all kinds of meat. I tested with chicken, beef, and pork. They were scrumptious!

Black Plum Sauce, Nectarines Whole Wheat Couscous, and Oven Roasted Chicken

Ingredients for Plum Sauce:
4 black plums, peeled, diced
1 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs black soy sauce
3 Tbs mirin
1 Tbs rice vinegar
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
2 Tbs grated fresh ginger

Directions for Plum sauce:

Heat up small sauce pan over high heat. Add everything in a sauce pan. Bring it to boil, then lower heat to simmer for 20-30 mins until the sauce is reduced by half and thicker. Use wooden spoon to mash plum if needed.
Remove cinnamon stick and star anise.
This will make about 2 cups. It was enough for my chicken, beef, and pork. The sauce can be kept in a refrigerator for a week.

Plum sauce

Ingredients for Nectarine Whole Wheat Couscous:

1 cup chopped nectarine

1/2 cup minced red onion

1/2 cup chiffoned mint

1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1 cup whole wheat couscous

2 Tbs butter

1 cup chicken stock

Directions for Nectarine whole wheat couscous:

Cook couscous by package instruction. For this recipe, I brought stock and butter to boil. Turn off the heat and removed pot from the heat. Poured couscous. Mixed well. Covered for 5 mins.
Use fork to fluff the couscous. Mix in red onion, mints, tomatoes, and nectarine.

Nectarine couscous

Ingredients for Roasted Chicken:

4 quarters skin-on, bone-in chicken

Salt, pepper, and five spice powder

olive oil

Directions for Chicken:

Preheat oven to 450 F.
Season chicken with salt, pepper, and five spice powder. Go easy with salt. Don't sprinkle too much as the sauce will add more flavor to it later.
Drizzle olive oil over. Bake skin side-up for 40 mins.
Brush chicken with the plum sauce half way through and when the chicken is done.
When the chicken is done, turn off the oven and brush with plum sauce. Put it back in the oven and close. Leave it there for another 5-10 mins.

Assemble:

Spoon couscous on the side of the dish. Place chicken on another side and drizzle the sauce over or serve on the side.

Here's when it's done with beef kalbi and pork belly

Nectarine couscous was served with plum sauce glazed boneless kalbi

pork belly that I cooked by following instruction from Lazaro --230 F for 2.5 hrs

Oh boy, those pork were scrumptious and melted in your mouth!

Cashew Nut Cookies as We Call "Cookie Singapore"

2011-07-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Perfect Bite

These cookies are quite well-known in Thailand. but I never thought of making them. Yeah, not sure why. I think it's because they don't seem easy to make? Every time when our friends went to visit Thailand, they always brought back these cookies for us and I did a happy dance afterward. I like the nutty smell/taste, and they are sweet and salty at the same time in one bite.

Until recently, I've had enough courage to look for the recipe and get my hands on it. I found a couple Thai sites that seemed to be promising. The first thing my eyes were focused on was ingredients. Sometimes, the availability of ingredients isn't good here in the US. Dang! - this is easier than what I had thought, I said out loud to myself. I was excited about this and couldn't wait to experiment it. The main ingredient is of course cashew nuts which I find fascinating to be in cookies unlike other common nuts - walnuts, almonds, and macadamia for example.

The difficult part was to translate the Thai name ingredients to the English name. I'm not familiar with the words they use but thanks to the technology of a famous search engine to help me translate it to English! Normally, these cookies would be in a round shape but I had a fancy cookie cutter that I'm itchy to use. They make cute cookies!

In Thailand, they call these Cookie Singapore or Singapore Cookies for the English version. How the name got adopted, you ask? Thailand and Singapore are not far by distance and Thai's adopted the cookies when they went to visit and brought back to Thailand. It got famous among Thai's and they learned to make their own. The authentic cookies are supposed to be soft but Thai's like it crispy so the recipe got tweaked a bit.

The key of making these cookies are 1) no kneading, because you want the cookies to be crumbled and melt in your mouth, 2) Do not over beat, because the dough will be stiff and dense, 3) Refrigerate the dough for an easier roll-out and cut process, 4) Leaving it sitting in a fridge for the flavor to develop and absorb into the dough.

Warning: These cookies are addicting. You will hardly stop yourself from eating for more!

Cashew Nut Cookies

Yield: 50 cookies approximately

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups AP flour
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cashew nut for grinding
1/2 cup cashew nut, halves for topping
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable shortening
3 Tbs vegetable oil

Directions:

Sift four, salt, and baking powder twice.
Put 1/4 cup of cashew nut in a food processor and grind it to make like coarse powder.
Add sugar in a food processor and process with ground nuts until it's mixed and creamy.
Add egg, oil, and shortening in a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Do not over mix. If your food processor isn't big enough, you can do this step in a stand mixer and use a stir mode.
Remove the dough from a food processor or mixer. Wrap with plastic wrap and leave in a fridge for about 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour your working area. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to make it 1 cm thickness.Try to have the same thickness throughout the dough so that it's baked evenly.
Use a cookie cutter with about 1 inch diameter to cut the dough.
Arranged cut dough on a prepared baking sheet with some space apart.
Mix egg yolk with a little of water to make eggwash.
Brush each cookie dough with eggwash and place halve cashew nut on top.
Bake about 10-12 mins or until it's golden brown.

After refrigerating for 30 mins

Ready to go in the oven!

Smell heavenly

Yum

It's More Than Thai Basil Chicken - Lemongrass Basil Chicken

2011-07-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

My mind is still on vacation. Ugh.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and enjoyed yummy food with friends and family! My friends and I got together at a friend's apartment to have some food and watch fireworks. It was so fun especially since the weather was so nice.

The day before, Roxan @SweenShanti and I met up. Yes, she was in town for her friend's wedding! It was the first time we met in person after we had been "talking" through the blog and Facebook. I was nervous at first because I didn't want to look or be different from what she might have imagined I would be hahaha. It was fun and I felt like I was hanging out with friends (at least to me!).

Here's a picture of us at Sculpture park.

Photo Credit: Roxan

Now back to the food. For the get-together function with friends I made Korean tacos, Vietnamese salad with grilled shrimp, and so called "Cookie Singapore" which I will share with you soon. The Korean tacos were the bomb! Although I've made it before, I dressed them up a bit more this time. The key is the meat and the sauce - recipe here.

Korean taco with homemade saamjung sauce

Without further ado, the recipe I'm going to post today is lemongrass basil chicken. It's another version of Thai basil chicken. In fact, if you take off the lemongrass and other vegetables, it's a regular Thai chicken basil.

I wanted to spice up my regular chicken basil so I added lemongrass and featured Summer vegetables. I found a beautiful Japanese pumpkin and some green beans at the market. They went perfectly with this basil. Also, I used basil from my little herb garden! It's sure organic and I felt super good to use my own herbs. You can use red basil a.k.a Thai basil if you wish and for a more authentic recipe. If you don't, I would say forget about it and use what you have on hand.

Chicken thigh and dark meat are my favorite. I ignored the hubs' white meat fondness for once and went ahead with chicken thigh - all in. Lemongrass adds a deep flavor and aromatic smell but doesn't over power the rest of the flavor. I hope you like it if you have a chance to try.

PS: If you serve with rice, the sauce should be a little saltier.

Oh, almost forgot! I recalled a great dish from Lazaro and craved for a light, good, flavorful dish. If you remember his pan fried cod and black bean soup dish, it's one of my all time favorites. I made one from my memory and adjusted seasonings based on my taste buds. Here we go. Thanks to Laz for a great recipe!

Although this doesn't look like his dish, you get the idea of the deliciousness.

Lemongrass Chicken Basil

Yield: 4-6 portions

Ingredients:

2 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1.5 lbs chicken thigh, cut to small pieces
2 cups Japanese pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 cups green beans, cut to 1.5" length
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
3 stalks lemongrass, minced or out in a food processor to release oil
8 oz. sliced white mushroom
3 coves garlic, minced
3 Tbs fish sauce
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp white vinegar
1 Tbs black soy sauce
3-4 fresh Thai chilies, tabbed with a side of knife to release flavor and heat (optional)
White pepper
Vegetable oil

Directions:

Heat up wok over high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat.
Add lemongrass and garlic and stir fry for a min or so. The aromatic scent is just so good.
Add chicken and stir fry until it's cooked. Season with fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar.
Add onion and pumpkin. Stir fry until onion is translucent and pumpkin is getting soft.
Add green beans. Correct seasoning.
Stir fry until it's all cooked and flavorful!
Add basil and cilantro and turn off the heat. Stir fry basil until it's all mixed. Remove from heat.
Serve with rice.

When you work with wok, the longer you have food in the wok, the more liquid it will come out from vegetable. The key is to have everything on hands, stir fry fast so you get a nice and crisp chicken basil.

Basil and Cilantro from my garden!

Sorry lemongrass is a little burn

Add onion and pumpkin

Serve with rice and enjoy!

My Mom's Tomato Soup

2011-06-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Last post I mentioned a relationship between my dad and me, this time I will talk about my mom for a little bit. My mom is a clean freak-hahaha yes she is. It's good and bad. Their house is organized and clean. It's bad when she asks me to help her clean the house so often!

I've realized that motherhood is a hard job and requires quite a lot of scarifice. At my age, motherhood time is soon approaching and it makes me think back to the experience with my mom. We hang out, we shop, we cook, and we talk like other mother-daughter relationships. She has done a lot for our family and I have to say she's very patient. She's at the age where it is time for extended family. So, no doubt that every time when she calls, the most non-stop repeated question is when will I give her a grandchild!? Oh gosh mom, please stop.

My mom is a great cook. I learned a lot from her and I feel fortunate for that experience. Her food is a mix between Vietnamese and Thai. This tomato soup is one of my favorites. I have to request this soup every time I see her. I'm glad that now it's Keith's and my friends' favorite! The soup is so simple that it's hard to believe this is it for the ingredients! I changed a tiny ingredient to suit my taste buds. We also recommend using fresh Roma tomatoes. Roma tomatoes are meatier and sweeter than other tomatoes (at least in my opinion). They're also good for making sauce. You could make this as a first course soup or even a meal by adding pasta, rice, or noodles at your choice.

Fried shallots are one of the key ingredients. They add flavor and aromatic scent. I tend to overdose fried shallots in my bowl! I hope you like it. My mom would be proud of me! (teehee)

I know it's Summer and might be hard to take on a hot soup. However, all the ingredients are very accesible especially at farmers markets. If you have a chance or crave chucky hot soup, this dish is a must to try!

My Mom's Tomato Soup
Yield: 6 first course soup

Ingredients:
7-8 fresh Roma tomatoes, cut quarterly
3 medium shallots, thinly sliced
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 lbs of ground meat at your choice (I like to use ground pork)
1, 8 oz. package of firm tofu, cut in cubes
4 cups chicken stock
1 Tbs kosher salt (add more if needed)
1/4 Tbs black pepper
Chili flakes (optional)
1/2 cup chopped green onion and cilantro

beautiful Roma tomatoes from farmers market in my hood

Directions:

Heat up large pot on medium high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat.
Add shallots. Cook until brown.
Add meat and cook until brown and cooked through.
Add tomatoes. This will take a while about half hour. Cook until tomato meat is smushy and starts to turn to soup. Season with salt and pepper. Cover lid as needed.
Add chicken soup. Adjusting seasoning (salt, pepper, chili flakes if using)
Bring it to boil. Add tofu and let it simmer for another 10-15 mins.
Turn off the heat and add chopped green onion and cilantro.
Serve as a soup or eat with rice or bread.

Brown shallots. The smell is incredible good!

Add ground pork

Then tomatoes

Cook until tomatoes are smoochy and turn to tomato soup

It will look like this

Add chicken stock, tofu and cook in low heat for 15 mins. Add green onion and cilantro; turn off the heat and remove from heat

A finished soup witout fried shallots on top

Top with fried shallots (optional) and serve with your choice of pasta, noodles, rice, or even bread

Orange Bear and Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

My dad and I weren’t very close when I was a kid. He was a quiet and calm man and I was his first daughter. There was an adjusting line between us. We talked about serious stuff that needed a decision. Years later time had gone by and we somehow learned how to “talk” to each other in his and my love language. The silence turned to comfort that we both knew nothing wrong with that. His silence and mine were tuned. It’s clear and loved with comfort since then.

Yeah, that’s my relationship with my dad.

I hope you all have a wonderful Father’s day with your beloved ones. All the dads out there, you’re doing a wonderful job! Happy Father’s Day!

This orange bear is adorable dessert, centerpiece, or even a great table décor. I got the idea from a Japanese/Korean restaurant called Kobe wellbeing in WA. They served this cute orange after meal. After investigating how they did with it, I could do this too! It’s actually pretty easy and will impress your guests for sure.

I also think it’s an easy way to eat the oranges too especially when someone cut it for you hahaha. It’s no recipe!

Directions:

I hope photos help for better directions.

Look at the bottom of the orange or the smaller dot because it will be a nose of a bear.
You cut top and bottom of the orange about a quarter off. Cut the top 45 degree angle
Use a small knife to craft out orange meat from the peel. Cut the meat into small bite.
Insert the cut piece into crafted hole orange for the base of orange meat.
Put the cut orange meat back in.
The top part where the nose will be. Use a small knife cut out part of the peel to make ears.
Make a pouch to insert the cut piece back in for ears.
Insert a toothpick to make it stay up like the picture.
Use a marker to draw eyes and mouth.

Three Flavor Sauce and Broiled Dover Sole

2011-06-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Rice is Japanese brown rice so it's not as brown as regular brown rice

Hi Everyone! I know I haven't been around bloggie much. I have no excuse but busy schedule. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoys the almost-summer-time! So, last Saturday I got a chance to provide food for the Post Women In NAAAP (WIN) Conference Party at the Microsoft Store. It was a good experience and I enjoyed doing it. Store staff were excellent and we got to play Microsoft Kinect and yes even the Michael Jackson game! It was pretty cool.

Here's some photos of the event and the food I made. People enjoyed the food and also the event!

Mini cupcakes

Mini shrimp cups

The table

Me and my food!

Microsoft store

Let's get back to the the three flavor sauce. It's super easy! When I say it's easy, it is indeed easy. It's sort of like a semi-homemade sauce I would say. Usually, this sauce is eaten with deep fried (crispy) whole fish. However, whole fish and I don't get along well so I went with fillets. I wanted to get Tilapia but there wasn't one available at my favorite seafood store -Uwajimaya. They had fresh Dover sole fillets that day. I went with those. Dover sole is a sustainable fish and has a mild, buttery sweet flavor and versatility. Instead of deep frying it, I broiled it for a healthier version and served it over Japanese brown rice. I recommend serving it over rice for a better taste. Rice balanced out the bold flavor of the sauce and complimented the delicate flavor of the fish.

It's called three flavors because the sauce is supposed to have three flavors - sour, sweet, and salty. The flavors will compliment one another and balance the flavor out.

Sweet Chili saue that I used

Three Flavor Sauce and Broiled Dover Sole

Yield: 4

Ingredients:

1.5 lb Dover Sole fillets
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
2 Tbs tamarind paste concentrate (see the link)
1 Tbs fish sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 Tbs Chili flake (optional)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (save some for garnishing)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil to brush on fish
Cooked brown rice (In this post, I used Japanese brown rice)

Directions:

Preheat broiler
Heat up skillet or wok under high heat. Add vegetable oil; swirl to coat. Add onions and bell pepper; stirring until onions are translucent and pepper are partially cooked
Add chili sauce, tamarind past, fish sauce, and chili flake if using.
Season to taste. It should have three flavors of sweetness, sourness, and saltiness.
Turn off the heat and remove pan from the heat. Add cilantro; stirring.
Season fillets with salt, pepper, and drizzle olive oil on both side. Run it under broiler for 10 mins or so or until it's cooked.
When fish is cooked, serve it over brown rice and pour sauce over fish.

The sauce is done

I even had this sauce and fish with salad. It was great too!

Pulled Pork & Red Wine Caramelized Onion Sandwich - Gourmet Picnic Food

2011-05-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the month again with a 5 Star Makeover hosted by Natasha @ 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro @ Lazaro Cooks. This month's theme is a gourmet picnic food theme to welcome Memorial day weekend. I cooked the dish alongside the so called Cooking Group which is a sidebar of this blog. I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

This pulled pork is so easy especially if you have a slow cooker. It's tender - melt in your mouth - and so juicy! This is not the first time I made this. I changed spices every time. This time I added Piment d' Espelette I got in Paris during my Europe trip last year. This pepper was recommended by Lazaro. It works well with this slow roasted pork. Red wine caramelized onion is a nice touch for a sandwich. Leftovers from this onion can be used in so many ways! I used in a sandwich, salad, side dish, and even a taco.

this is made from pork loin roast

it's pretty tender but doesn't have "fat" that I need

Since my husband doesn't like dark meat, I tried with pork loin roast. It worked fine with a lean taste. Surprisingly, it was juicier than I thought. We had this for a sandwich and the next day I mixed with taco sauce for tacos. Keith absolutely loved it!

the leftover I mixed it with taco sauce to make tacos

It can't be perfect pulled pork if I haven't used the meat I like which is pork flank or shoulder. Pork flank doesn't come from the rear end of the hog. It is cut from the shoulder. It contains a lot of fat and connective tissue. It creates moist, succulent meat after many hours of "low and slow" cooking. That's what I want it to be.

that's the meat I want

A marbling line makes it easy to "pull" with a fork. I also made this when I catered for NAAAP-Seattle at a Microsoft building. It's easy to prepare and a crowd pleaser.

The next main component is red wine caramelized onions. The way of cooking it is adapted from Momofuku cookbook by David Chang. You cook onions by piling them up on one another - let the weight work itself out. Pile it up and around occasionally to prevent burning. For this recipe, just salt, pepper, herbs, and red wine; you're done. It will take a bit of time to create a caramelization but it's worth it.

Pulled Pork & Red Wine Caramelized Onion Sandwich

Yield: 15-20 sandwiches

You will need:

Pulled Pork (recipe below)
Red wine caramelized onions (recipe below)
Shredded Romain lettuce
Rustic Dinner rolls
Pickled Cucumber

Ingredients for Pulled pork:

2.5 lb pork butt or shoulder
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 Tbs Piment d' Espelette
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup beef broth

Slow cooker

Directions:

Combine everything together except pork. Rub pork with the seasoning mixture on both sides. Put in a slow cooker and put on low for 9 hrs or so. When it's done, remove the pork and preserve the juice. Use forks to pull meat. Pour juice back in the pork.

Ingredients for Red wine onions:

5 yellow onions, sliced length wise
1 cup red wine
1 tbs kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp fresh oregano
1 Tbs minced parsley
2 Tbs vegetable oil

Wok and wooden spatula

Directions:

Heat up a wok on high heat. Wait until it's about to smoke and add oil. Swirl to coat.
Add onions in a wok. Pile it up occasionally to prevent from burning by using its weight.
Add salt, parsley, and oregano, and keep turning onions. When it's getting translucent, add red wine.
Let it caramelize for about 15-20 mins. Don't forget to turn onions.

Assemble:

Halve the roll and add shredded Romain lettuce.
Add pork and juice. Top with red wine onions and close with the top half.
Serve with pickled cucumber if you wish.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Hope everyone has a fun week.

Mexican Lasagna Cupcake

2011-05-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

I know it's late for Cinco De Mayo. Did you celebrate? I didn't but I made this dish to honor the 5th of May. If you'd like to know more about Cinco De Mayo, please check out this post from Nancy @ Spicie Foodie. She will tell you about the history and the importance of this day.

For me, living in the States has embraced me with different cultures. I've enjoyed learning about other cultures, people, and food. I couldn't agree with the statement "Melting Pot" more. United States is a big pot that has melted all cultures together and transformed to one. Although we're from different backgrounds, food seems to be a one important connection to bring us together. I like Japanese food, Japanese like Chinese food, Chinese like Mexican food, Mexicans like Thai food, and so on. This food chain is never ending. I've enjoyed the ride on my food journey.

The cupcake idea is from my co-worker. He made lasagna cupcakes by using wonton wrappers. I was questioning it at the beginning and then the "light bulb" went on when I saw the picture he sent via text message. That's such a cool idea! So, here I am sharing this adorable and tasty cupcake with you. It's a bit time consuming but it's worth the try. However, it's really easy. A couple spices, cheese, and tortilla - you're good to go. I used spinach tortillas for a healthier version and it helps for the color. I also added some veggies like corn and zucchini.

I adore a small/individual bite. This is my kinda dish! I hope you enjoy it.

PS: If I haven't been around your blog much, please accept my apology! I'm looking for a new job and the free time has gone to that part a lot lately (good thing my boss doesn't read my blog *wink*)

Mexican Lasagna Cupcake
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 package spinach tortilla or any kind you like
1 lb ground chicken thigh
1 lb ground pork
1 cup frozen or fresh corn
2-3 zucchini, think julienne
1 can black bean, drained
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs chipotle powder
1 tsp cumin
1 cup Taco sauce. I used medium spicy (if I could find hot, I would use the hot one)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups Cheddar and Monterrey Jack mixed
Vegetable oil
Chopped cilantro and green onion

Muffin pan
Vegetable oil spray
Biscuit cutters 3" and 2.5"

Directions:

Use a biscuit cutter cut tortilla into 2 different sizes. The bigger ones will be go to the bottom of the muffin pan and the smaller ones will be at the top. Set aside cut tortillas.
Pre-heat oven to 375 F
I used a wok because I just loved using wok. Heat u a wok on high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat.
Add meats and use a wooden spoon to break it apart until it's cooked though.
Add onion and stir fry it until the onion is translucent. Add all the seasonings - chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, salt and pepper.
Stir well. Add corns, beans and zucchini and finish with taco sauce. Cook until everything is mixed and cooked through.

Assemble:

Spray vegetable oil to muffin pan only the first time.
Place bigger cut tortilla at the bottom of each cup. Add meat mixture about 1 Tbs. Add cheese on top and on the side. Cheese will work as a glue in this cupcake.
Add another later of meat and top with cheese. Don't forget to add cheese on the side of meat too.
Top with smaller cut tortilla and top with cheese.
Bake for 8 mins.
After it's done, let it cool and set about 5-7 mins.
Remove by using a big flat spoon and a dinner knife to help.
Place it on a plate and top with sour cream and cilantro/green onion.

Sprinkle cheese on top and the side

Top with cut tortiall and more cheese

Baked and awaiting for it to be set

Serve with sour cream and cilantro, and green onion

MAGNUM! To show how good it is, I finished it all and even licked the stick!
Thanks to FoodBuzz's Taste Maker program and Magnum Ice Cream for a great product. I confirm it's good!

Apple Brie Crostini

2011-05-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

Guitar takes all my free time away from cooking.

Yes. Guitar. Boo.

Look at this beauty! How could you resist!?

I played it back in high school and now I'm trying to get better at it. This pretty girl (yes, I just called it a girl!) is my first acoustic guitar. ever. The first day I got it I was like a little kid who just got a new toy. Played and played and played tirelessly until the finger tips couldn't take it anymore. So, I took a break and realized I totally ignored my cooking and probably the Hub's and Bella's well-being.

After passing the honeymoon period of the guitar, I was able to manage my time a little bit better. I baked Patty's chocolate banana marble cake, and this easy yet elegant appetizer. I have to give you warning that this crostini is addicted. You will make it over and over again just like I've done. I got the idea from one of my favorite brunch cafes. They have apple brie panini and I figure this is so simple that I can make my own and add or cut anything I like or dislike. I made it at a tea party with my girlfriends, friend gathering party, and my niece first birthday. Every single person who have tried loves it. You will also get a "wow", "pretty", or "taste great" from your crowd.

Brie and apple go so well together and lavender syrup brings everything together smoothly. You can prepare it ahead of time and will take a few mins to finish on a day of. When I "catered" (I pretended I catered for 30 people for the event), I cut baguette ahead of time, and put them in ziplock. I sliced apple and squeezed lemon juice to prevent from browning; put it in a fridge. I even cut brie and used parchment paper to layer it. Lavender syrup is of course can be prepared ahead of time and keep in a container. This appetizer is perfect for a Mother's day dinner :-) Don't forget to tell your mom you love her! Although Thai Mother's Day is different month but I guess I can still tell my mom I love her (wink).

Let's talk about Patty's cake a little bit. When I first saw it on her blog, it looked so great that I wanted to try it. So, I did. As a newbie baker, something went wrong. I mean it tastes wonderful but the chocolate part doesn't taste right. I figured out what went wrong. I forgot to mix chocolate with some of the non-chocolate mixture! Well, that was my guess. I will redo to get the right marble soon!

Brie Apple Crostini
Note: please adjust portion due to the party size accordingly
For this below yields about 10 slices

Ingredients:
10 sliced crosswise baguette
1 apple, cored, thinly sliced
10 sliced ripe brie
1 tsp dried lavender
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (add more if you like sweet)

Directions:

Put a small sauce pan on medium heat to make lavender syrup. Add water, sugar, and lavender. Bring it to boil and simmer until it looks syrupy. Don't take it out too soon because we want to develop lavender flavor.
Lay sliced baguette on baking sheet and run it under broiler just until a bit toasted.
Place sliced brie on top of the toast and run under broiler again for a few mins.
Place sliced apple on top and drizzle with lavender syrup.
That's it!

Sliced apple with lemon juice

Toast!

Lavender syrup

before being drizzled by lavender syrup

I couldn't resist so I took a bite!