Soyaki-Braised Potatoes & Broccoli

This Soyaki-Braised Potatoes and Broccoli dish is a variation from Mark Bittman's Soy-Braised Potatoes. It's a tasty vegetarian dish that's easy to make in less than 30 minutes, perfect on top of a bowl of steamed rice.


Ingredients:
1 pound baby Dutch potatoes, cut in half
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons neutral oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup soyaki sauce
1 1/2 cup water
1 pound broccoli florets, cut into pieces
1/2 pound crimini mushroom, sliced
4 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When hot, add the potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until coated in oil and beginning to turn golden.
• Add the soy sauce, soyaki sauce and enough water to barely cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and stirring once in a while to make sure the potatoes aren't sticking, then the heat to medium-low so that the mixture bubbles gently.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes almost tender, 15-20 minutes.
• Add the cut broccoli florets, sliced mushroom and green onions into the pan and cook for 5 more minutes.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

After hanging with Auntie Sandy and Mo-Fo at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, I got inspired to make a Hawaiian-inspired dish since they are from Kauai so the next day I made this Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken. It is a delicious meat dish to be eaten with rice for lunch and with salad for a light dinner.


Ingredients:
½ cup of low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
½ cup of brown sugar or ½ cup of honey
½ cup of chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons of sake (I used dry white wine)
3-6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, grated fine (skins on)
1 teaspoon of Chinese five spice powder
Hot sauce such as Sriracha to taste (I used Sambal Oelek)
5 pounds of chicken thighs
Green onions and sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

• Whisk together soy sauce, brown sugar (or honey), chicken broth, sake, garlic, ginger, five spice powder and hot sauce in a large bowl.
• Add the thighs to the marinade and stick in the fridge for one hour.
• Heat up the oven to 350 degrees.
• Pour the chicken and the marinade onto a large baking pan, arrange so the meaty side is down. Cook for about 40 minutes, turning the chicken 3 or 4 times.
• Turn up the oven to 450 degrees our put chicken in a broiler for another 5-10 minutes to brown the chicken, skin side up. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds and serve with white rice.

Sausage Buns

At least once or twice a week, I would stop by at a Chinese bakery in Chinatown on the way to work to get a Sausage Bun. I thought that it would be interesting to try making it this weekend so I don't have to do a pit stop on the way to work and save some money. After searching for the recipe online, I finally settled on this one on Toxo Bread because there's a detailed step-by-step instruction.


From this experience, I am convinced that baking bread is NOT my forte because it's just too complicated for me and I only had 1 bun came out looking decent and the other 7 were an embarrassment. Although they tasted good, I'd rather spent $0.95 to get one in Chinatown instead.

Ingredients:
300 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
5 grams (1 teaspoon) instant dried yeast

10 grams (2 teaspoons) white granulated sugar

6 grams (1 teaspoon) salt

1 egg, lightly beaten
220-230 grams (1 cup) lukewarm milk

2.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
8 pieces of hot dog sausages

egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten

sesame seeds, for topping

Directions:
Follow the step-by-step direction at Toxo Bread.

Sake Ochazuke (porridge with broiled salmon)

At a glance, a bowl of porridge with a piece of no-dressing, no-marinade salmon sounds almost sad. As in, it's-Saturday-night-I-am-home-alone-slurping-instant-ramen sad. But in fact, this dish is full of rich and nice flavors and has quickly become a staple at my house.

The key is to get the right ingredients and not under- or over-cook the salmon. Once you assemble the porridge with a hint of green tea and that dashi stock umami with the fatty crispy salmon skin and slightly salty salmon flakes, the flavor combination just doesn't get better than that. Oh wait, it does, put some roasted seaweed on top. Now you've got the texture, the taste, and the warmth all from a single bowl of pure goodness.

Ingredients
4oz Salted Salmon Belly
1/2 sheet Roasted Seaweed ( like Yamamoto nori)
2 cups Cooked Rice (use Nishiki brand rice)
1 cup Green Tea (use Japanese green tea such as genmaicha for its nuttiness)
1 cup Dashi Stock
Canola Oil
Salt

Direction

• Rub the salmon with a generous amount of salt
• Cover and let it refrigerate overnight
• Remove the salmon and rinse under cold water to remove the salt
• Dry the salmon with paper towels or a kitchen towel
• Drizzle oil over salmon and place under a broiler in low setting
• Broil for 15 minutes until a nice crust has formed; if the skin is still not brown enough, you can turn the broiler to "high" for a couple of minutes and monitor closely to make sure the salmon doesn't burn
• Break apart the salmon into flakes and set aside
• Add rice to a bowl with salmon flakes and seaweed on top
• When you are ready to serve, mix the hot green tea with the stock. You can add as much liquid as you would like, as long as you remember to use it in the ratio of one part tea one part dashi stock.

Date Night at Chotto

Today was one of those days that we both were very blah at the end of the day and we felt that we needed something to cheer us up. We were supposed to go to Tsunami swimming practice tonight but we just did not have it in us to do it and we decided that, instead of going there and do a bad swim session, we would do an impromptu date night at Chotto - a new Japanese Izakaya restaurant in the Marina district.

We started our dinner with a carafe of hot Hakutsuru sake, Imo Age (garlic french fries with spicy miso aioli) and Tori Age (crispy chicken wings, shichimi buffalo sauce).


Bacon Mochi (applewood smoked bacon, mochi, nori) - Very interesting combination, I kind of liked it.


Tsukune (chicken meatball, eggyolk, homemade teriyaki) - I can eat multiple orders of this. Delicious!!!


Tontoro (pork cheek, sea salt, shichimi chili) - Yum yum...


Miso Tonkotsu (pork & chicken broth, miso, chashu) - I think they gave us the Karamiso Tonkotsu (the spicy miso ramen) since it had a nice spiciness to it.


After dinner, we decided to stop by at the La Folie Lounge for some night caps on the way home. Porgy got Dark and Stormy (Goslings dark rum, ginger beer, lime, canton ginger cognac) and I Rye Manhattan (Rittenhouse rye, carpano antica sweet vermouth, bitters).


So did I feel guilty for skipping swimming practice? Eh... kind of but not really. I think it's nice to be able to do this impromptu date nights to keep ourselves sane. We promised ourselves we would go to the practice on Wednesday and Thursday but we'll see how that goes.

Stir-fried Yu Choi and Shiitake Mushroom

Here is a simple and delicious vegetable dish that can be used as a main dish or a side dish for something like Osso Buco since it can stand up for itself. It took me only 5 minutes to prep and another 5 minutes to cook the dish.


Ingredients:
1 lb yu choi or other chinese vegetables, ends trimmed
1/2 lb shiitake mushroom, sliced
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1-inch ginger, julienned
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 wine
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

• Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a wok on a medium high heat and, when hot, add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry quickly for 1 minute or so until fragrant.
• Add in the vegetables, mushroom, and sauce and stir until combined. Cover and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Nobu style Miso-glazed Black Cod

My friend Vincent and I used to work together. Often when we were sitting in our cubicles looking at spreadsheets of numbers and graphs, we have another window open with pictures of beautiful food on them. We would trade recipes, tips on the newest and hottest restaurants, and our current cravings. Anyway, this year Vincent invited me to guest blog and I am going to start it with one of my favorite dishes.

In fact, if I had a last meal, it'll certainly include this as an entree: Miso-glazed black cod. Everytime I order this in a restaurant, I close my eyes and go "mmmmm" (at least in mind I do). The succulent buttery tender fish is indescribably good. Once you've had cod, all the other fishes taste like overcooked dry pieces of chicken.

Unfortunately, it took me a while to realize how easy it is to make it yourself! It's far cheaper, way easier, and no one will care if you want to lick the plate clean afterwards.

Here is the recipe I used from TheKitchn. All the Nobu inspired miso-glazed black cod recipes online are pretty much the same.

Ingredients for two:

1 black cod fillet (half a pound)

2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons white miso paste
1.5 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

• Two to three days beforehand, make the Nobu-style Saikyo Miso marinade and marinate the fish.

• Bring the sake and the mirin to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Boil for 20 seconds to evaporate the alcohol. Turn the heat down to low and add the miso paste, mixing with a wooden spoon. When the miso has dissolved completely, turn the heat up to high again and add the sugar, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon to ensure that the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn. Remove from heat once the sugar is fully dissolved. Cool to room temperature.

• Pat the black cod fillets thoroughly dry with paper towels. Slather the fish with the miso marinade and place in a non-reactive dish or bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Leave to steep in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. If you don't have enough time, marinating it for 24 hours is okay too, but 3 days yields a much tastier result.

To cook the fish:

• Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C, gas 6). Preheat a grill or broiler. Use "high" for broiler. Lightly wipe off any excess miso clinging to the fillets but don't rinse it off.
• Place the fish on the grill, or in a broiler pan, and grill or broil until the surface of the fish turns brown and the marinate starts to bubble. Then bake for 10 minutes.

To serve with rice and bok choy:

• Serve with Japanese rice. For bok choy, you can put them in the oven along with the cod. Drizzle them with olive oil and a little salt. Roast for about 5-7 minutes.

Chicken Adobo

How do you mend a broken heart? No, it’s not what you think… Porgy and I aren’t going to Splitville – well, not that I know of anyway. However, something similarly tragic and saddening happened a couple weeks ago... we found out that Arthur has a lymphoma cancer. After seeing a vet oncologist for consultation, we decided not to do any treatments on him because it’s not fair for him (and for us) to have him suffer through all the medications that he has to take and the chemotherapy sessions that he has to endured just to prolong his life for possibly another year. He still behaves normally (very food oriented and ever so grumpy in the morning) and not showing any other lymphoma symptoms except the enlarged glands so we don’t have to do the inevitable thing anytime soon. I think he’s actually enjoying the fact that we are totally spoiling him nowadays.

Since we’re stuck at home even more (because we feel guilty if we do not spend more time with him), we decided to do some more cooking - Porgy made America's Test Kitchen’s Chicago-style deep dish pizza while I made NYTimes’ Chicken Adobo after reading the their article on how each Filipinos make Chicken Adobo a bit differently from the other person.

I have never made Chicken Adobo with coconut milk before so I thought it is kind of interesting that the recipe calls for it and the marinade mixture smells fantastic. Although I love the taste, I thought the vinegar is a bit too overwhelming in both the chicken and the sauce so if I have to make some adjustment to the recipe, I would cut back on the vinegar and maybe added some palm sugar to help the chicken to caramelize even more.


Ingredients:
1 cup coconut milk
¼ cup soy sauce
1½ cup rice vinegar
12 garlic cloves, peeled
3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili
3 bay leaves
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs

Directions:

• Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, nonreactive bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
• Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.
• Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.
• Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce.

Thai-style Chicken with Basil, Celery and Red Cabbage

As I mentioned in my last post, I changed up my meal this week from Italian-style Pesto alla Trapanese to Thai-style Chicken with Basil, Celery and Red Cabbage. I got the idea for this dish from America's Test Kitchen and added some sliced celery and red cabbage because I had them in my fridge and I wanted to add more vegetables & fiber to the dish.

I really love the flavor of this dish (thanks to the combination of fish sauce, chili and basil) and the crunchiness of the cabbage. I guess I will have something to look forward to during lunch time tomorrow!


Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil leaves , tightly packed
6 medium garlic cloves , peeled
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
3 green Thai chiles, stemmed & seeded
4 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon sugar
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 medium shallots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 celery stalks, sliced
1 head red cabbage, cored and sliced

Directions:

• Process 1 cup basil leaves, garlic, and chiles in food processor until finely chopped, 6 to 10 one-second pulses, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once during processing. Transfer 1 tablespoon basil mixture to small bowl and stir in 2 tablespoon fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar; set aside. Transfer remaining basil mixture to 12-inch heavy-bottomed nonstick skillet. Do not wash food processor bowl.
• Pulse chicken and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in food processor until meat is chopped into - approximate 1/4-inch pieces, six to eight 1-second pulses. Transfer to a medium bowl and refrigerate 15 minutes.
• Stir shallots and oil into basil mixture in skillet. Heat over medium-low heat (mixture should start to sizzle after about 1 1/2 minutes; if it doesn’t, adjust heat accordingly), stirring constantly, until garlic and shallots are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Add in the sliced celery and cook for 5 more minutes.
• Add chicken, increase heat to medium, and cook, stirring and breaking up chicken with the spatula, until only traces of pink remain, 4-6 minutes. Add reserved basil-fish sauce mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly until chicken is no longer pink, about 2 more minutes.
  
• Add in the sliced red cabbage and red pepper flakes, stir to combine, cover the pan, and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir in remaining cup basil leaves and cook, stirring constantly, until basil is wilted, 30 to 60 seconds.
• If there are too much broth, thickened with 2 tablespoon corn starch dissolved in a small bowl with 1/4 cup of the broth.
  
• Serve immediately over white rice.
  

Fried Chicken

You know that you are getting older when you feel relieved and actually happy that you are not going out on New Years. Porgy and I decided to take it easy this evening, but I thought that we should do something special to celebrate. So I decided to make some fried chicken using Kobe seasoning mix (just like what my Mom used to), drink some Champagne and watch Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Happy New Year 2011!


Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 package of Kobe seasoning flour mix
canola/palm oil for frying

Directions:

• Wash and pat the chicken pieces dry.
• Season with salt, white pepper, paprika and a couple tablespoon of Kobe seasoning flour and marinade for an hour or so.
• Pour enough oil to come just 1/8-inch up the side of a heavy frying pan and heat over medium heat. I don't have any oil/candy thermometer but I think the preferred temperature is ~325F.
• Pour the rest of the seasoning flour on a plate and roll the chicken pieces in flour and shake off the excess.
• Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time so not to crowd the pan, place them skin side down.
• Cook until golden brown on each side, approximately 12 minutes per side.
• Drain the cooked chicken pieces on a rack over a sheet pan.

Stir Fried Green Beans

I bought a couple of types of green beans at the Farmers Market last week - the French-style haricot-vert and the Chinese long bean because I was in the mood to have a simple stir-fried green beans specially the Asian-style, with some chili sauce and shrimp paste. Porgy helped me cleaned up the green beans and snapping off the ends and cut them into 2-inch sections while we're enjoying our Manhattans.


Ingredients:
1 lb of haricot-vert (French green beans), cut into 2-inch sections
1 lb of Chinese long green bean, cut into 2-inch sections
4 shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 inch of ginger, thinly sliced
3 dried red chili pepper
a small tip of shrimp paste (~1/16 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon of Sambal Oelek
vegetable oil
1/4 cup fried shallots (optional)

Directions:

• Heat up a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large wok (or stir-fry pan) over medium heat for a 1-2 minutes until hot.
• Add in the green beans and stir fry for 5 minutes or so until they're just about to cook through. Set aside.
• Heat up another 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the wok over medium heat and add in the shallot, garlic and ginger slices along with the red chili pepper and shrimp paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and then add in the Sambal Oelek.
  
• Add in the semi-cooked green beans, add 2 tablespoons of water, cover the wok and cook for 3 more minutes or until the green beans are all cooked through.
• Add in the fried shallots, stir and transfer to a serving plate.
  

Eggplant and Minced Meat with Thai Peanut Butter Sauce

When I first started to cook this dish, I wanted to make stuffed eggplants with some kind of South East Asian flavored mince meat. However, when I made the stuffing, I noticed that the peanut butter sauce was too creamy to be used as stuffing so I improvised and cut up those eggplants into bite-size pieces and mix them with the mince meat. It turned out pretty good - though now I'm on a hunt for a good stuffed eggplant recipe!


Ingredients:
3 eggplants, cut into half and then into 2-inch sections (I used Chinese eggplants)
1 lb ground pork
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 stalk lemon grass root, finely chopped
1 green chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup coconut cream
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

• Heat up the oven to 400F degree and bake the eggplant slices in the oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked.
• Mix the peanut butter, coconut cream, fish sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
• In the mean time, stir fry the pork with a couple tablespoons of oil over medium high heat for a few minutes until well colored.
• Add chopped garlic, shallot, lemon grass and green chili pepper and cook for 2 more minutes.
• Add in the peanut butter sauce mix and cook for several minutes until the mixture thickened.
• Stir in the eggplant pieces and chopped parsley, adjust seasoning and serve over white rice.

Beef Tongseng

I'm back!!! Finally I'm not as crazy busy with work and Arthur. Yes... Arthur still has his moments from time to time but at least I don't have to keep worrying about him all the time because Porgy and I decided to put him in a doggie day care. We love this particular doggie day care because they also do trainings and long walks with their "customers".

Earlier this week, I met up with close family friends who were visiting from Indonesia. They brought an Indonesian cookbook for me from my sister and I've been going through the recipes in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I decided to make this Indonesian Beef in Spicy & Sweet Soy Sauce called Beef Tongseng. In Indonesia, you would make this dish with goat or lamb meat but I find that fatty beef meat can be a good substitute for them. I followed a recipe from Gramedia International's "Menu Sehari-hari" cookbook.


Ingredients:
1 lb beef eye roast, cut into 1-inch cube
6 shallots, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1 lemon grass stalk, bruised
1 tablespoon tamarind water
5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
4 1/4 cups water
1/2 head of small cabbage, de-bone and roughly cut into thin strips
10 red chilli pepper, seeded and cut into strips
salt and sugar to taste
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 tablespoon minced galangal

Directions:

• Using mortar and pestle or food processor, grind the garlic, black peppercorns, coriander, ginger and galangal until they become a smooth paste.
• Stir fry the shallots with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat for 3 minutes or so until light yellow colored.
• Add seasoning paste, bay leaves and lemon grass and cook for another couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add the meat, toss around and cook until the meat change color.
• Add in the water, soy sauce and tamarind water. When the water boils, lower the heat and continue cooking until the meat is soft.
• When the stock has reduced by half, add the chopped cabbage and chili pepper.
• Adjust seasoning with salt and sugar according to taste.
• Finish cooking when the stock/sauce boils again and serve over white rice.
  

Otsu Soba

A couple weeks ago, I made this cold buckwheat soba salad with lightly fried tofu and ginger dressing called Otsu Soba because Porgy and I were craving for something light, refreshing and delicious. I used these two sites, WeHeartFood and DinnerWithJulie for my recipe source and according to one of you they are based on Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks (thanks for letting me know of another wonderful site!) Otsu Soba is a perfect left-over food for us since you don't need to warm it up and you can just eat it cold out of the fridge.

It was my first time cooking with Soba so I was pretty excited about that and now I can't wait to cook another Soba dish... wonder what's next. Maybe Zaru Soba – cold soba noodles with tsuyu dipping sauce?


Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

12 ounces dried soba noodles
12 ounces extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 small handful of cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup shredded toasted Nori

Directions:

• Drain and press the tofu for 30 minutes or so, pat it dry, and cut it into 1-inch rectangles.
  
• Make the dressing by combining the rice vinegar, soy sauce, cayenne, salt, grape seed oil, sesame oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, and ginger in a jar and shake vigorously until it's mixed well.
  
• Cook the soba in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water just until tender according to the package direction then drain and rinse well under cold running water.
• In a well-oiled saute pan, brown the tofu on all sides over medium high heat. It took me about 3-4 minutes of each side. Toss gently once and continue cooking for another minute or so until the tofu is firm, golden brown, and bouncy.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the soba, tofu, 1/4 cup cilantro, green onions, cucumber and about half of the dressing. Toss gently until well combined.
• Serve on individual serving bowls (or plates), garnish with more cilantro, toasted sesame seeds and shredded Nori. Add more dressing if needed.
  

Stir-Fried Beef with Broccolini and Shitake Mushroom

I was surprised to find Broccolini in the Farmers Market a couple weeks ago since I thought they are only available during the Winter and Spring time. Maybe I am wrong? Since it was an impulse purchase, I did not know what to use them for. After looking at the contents of my refrigerator and browsing some cookbooks, I made Stir-Fried Beef with Broccolini and Shitake Mushroom – with sauce that's similar to the Noodle with Red-braised Short Ribs and Asparagus post.


Ingredients:
1 lb of Broccolini
1 lb of fresh Shitake mushroom, halved
0.5 lb of stir fry beef meat
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 garlic, smashed with skins removed
1-inch ginger, cut into julienne strips
4 green onions, cut into 1-inch sections
5 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
1 tablespoon Mirin
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Directions:

• Marinate the beef with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine, 1 tablespoon Mirin and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch for 30 minutes.
• Mix the rest of the sauce ingredients (soy sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine, sesame oil, sugar, salt, black pepper, cornstarch) in a bowl and set aside.
• In a large pot, blanch the Broccolini for 1-2 minutes until the color turns bright green and plunge to cold ice bath to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large saute pan until hot but not smoking.
• Add the meat and stir with spatula until all pieces are coated with oil, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent sticking. Fry until the meat just cooked, set aside.
• Add the rest of the oil and stir fry garlic, ginger and half of the green onions for 1-2 minutes.
• Add the sauce and mushroom, stir to blend and cover with lid, lower heat to a simmer and braise for 5-6 minutes.
• Add the meat, Broccolini and the rest of the green onions into the pan, stir well until all is coated evenly with the sauce.
• Adjust seasoning and transfer to a serving dish.

Rawon

Geesh... I can't believe that it's almost end of May already, time definitely flies by quickly. Although I had been cooking plenty of interesting dishes, I didn't have the time to blog them because I had been pretty busy with other things. Since I kind of feel bad about neglecting this blog (don't ask why), I promise that I'll try to be more diligent.

I had been thinking about Rawon (an Indonesian black beef soup) since I had a small portion of it a my sister's place in Indonesia a few months ago. Here is my family's version of this dish courtesy of my Mom.


Ingredients:
2 lb beef stew meat
6 large garlic cloves
10 shallots
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
10 black nut (kluwek), rinsed and soaked in warm water
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1-inch galangal, peeled and bruised
4 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
1 stalk lemongrass
2 bay leaves, torn in half
2 tablespoons palm sugar
1 red chili, cut into strips
vegetable oil
3 green onions, chopped
hard boiled eggs
bean sprouts

Directions:

• Cook the beef stew meat cubes in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes to help the meat becomes tender quickly without having to simmer the soup for hours.
• Take out the meat cubes and save the strained beef broth.
• Using a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic, shallot and coriander seeds in batches with some salt and white pepper. Put the mashed-up mixture into a food processor, add in the turmeric powder, kluwek meat, grated ginger and red chili flakes and grind/puree until smooth.
• In a heavy bottom pan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium heat and stir fry the spice paste for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add in the galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and torn bay leaves and stir fry some more for a couple of minutes or so.
• Add in the cooked meat cubes, mix well so the cubes are coated with the spice paste and cook for a minute or two.
• Add in enough strained beef stock (or water) to completely cover the meat plus an extra inch and cook until boil.
• When the soup is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and let simmer for 30 minutes or so until the spice flavor is absorbed by the meat.
  
• In the mean time, you can make several hard boiled eggs and blanch the beansprouts (optional).
• Add the chopped green onions and red chili strips and adjust seasoning by adding salt, pepper or palm sugar accordingly.
• Serve over rice with halved hard boiled eggs, blanched beansprouts and shrimp crackers (if you have any).
  

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

One of my favorite lunch spots in San Francisco Financial District is the Henry's Hunan Restaurant on Sacramento Street. I go there at least once a month with MoFo and we usually always order the same food: Dumplings, Chicken with Black Bean Sauce and Chicken with Bean Curd. We used to be able to finish them all in one seating but sadly we can't do it anymore because we just can't eat that much anymore and we don't want to do a face plant onto our desks when we get back to the office. This dish is my attempt to make their Chicken with Black Bean Sauce and I think it's pretty darn good. I'm definitely looking forward to eat it for lunch for the next few days.


Ingredients:
1 lb chicken meat (thigh or breast meat), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 head of cabbage, cut into quarters and then roughly sliced
2 carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch coins
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, cut into quarters and then roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons Chinese Black Bean and Garlic sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup of roughly chopped basil leaves
1/2 cup of chopped green onion
1 teaspoon corn starch

Directions:

• Marinate the chicken meat in ginger, Shaoxing cooking wine and sesame oil for 30 minutes.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan until hot and then add the marinated chicken. Stir fry until it cooks through (about 5 minutes or so) and set aside.
• Add in the chopped onion and garlic into the hot pan and stir fry until fragrant.
• Add in the chopped cabbage, carrots, salt, white pepper and continue cooking on a medium heat for 5 minutes.
  
• Add in the Black Bean and Garlic sauce and sugar, stir the mixture, lower the heat, cover the pan and continue cooking for another 5-7 minutes until the carrots starting to soften up.
• In a small bowl, dissolve the corn starch with a little water.
  
• Return the chicken meat into the pan, add the corn starch mixture, chopped green onion and basil leaves.
• Adjust seasoning as needed, stir well and continue cooking for another minute or two until the sauce started to boil and thicken up.
• Serve over rice.
  

Vegetable and Tofu Soup

After eating plenty of cupcakes in the past few days, we both felt that we should eat better so I made this light yet very tasty Vegetable and Tofu Soup. It is another fantastic recipe from Periplus' Homestyle Chinese Cooking cookbook – I'm loving this cookbook more and more!


Ingredients:
6 cups of water
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 lb fresh Shiitake mushrooms (or 8-10 dried Shiitake mushrooms)
1/2 lb of fresh bok choy or similar Chinese vegetables
1 package of firm or soft tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
5 slices ginger, cut into thin strips
2 teaspoons white pepper
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine
1 teaspoon Mirin
1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onions, finely chopped

Directions:

• If using dried Shiitake mushrooms, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes and drain.
• Bring water to a boil in a large pot and then add salt.
• Cut the mushroom stems and then cut each mushroom in half.
• Wash and rinse the vegetables, removing any dirt, any tough or wilted stems, and separate the leaves.
• Add the mushroom to the boiling water, and let the water return to boil, then add the tofu, ginger, white pepper, soy sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine and Mirin. Return to boil on medium flame, cover with lid and simmer for about 15 minutes (or 20 minutes if using dried mushrooms).
• Add the vegetables and stir, let water return to boil and simmer for 1 more minutes.
• Sprinkle chopped parsley and green onion prior to serving.
  

Dan Dan Noodles

A couple weeks ago, ShunBun made Dan Dan Noodles using Jamie Oliver's recipe. When he told me about it, I remembered reading a similar recipe at Appetite for China. They looked very appetizing so last weekend I decided to make it by combining both recipes together and substituting the Sichuan peppercorn with dried red chili pepper. Some people might think that this dish is not an authentic Sichuan dish because I didn't use any Sichuan peppercorn. I don't care because the result was a total success as each bite contains full punch of spicy, salty and crunchy goodness.


Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons peanut (or vegetable) oil
4 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons ginger, peeled and finely chopped
5 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons chili oil
1.5 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon dry red chili pepper
8 oz chicken stock
1 pack dry spaghetti noodle
1/2 lb of Choy Sum (Chinese vegetable)
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped

Directions:

• Marinate the ground pork with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce of 1 teaspoon of salt for 30 minutes.
• In a large skillet, stir fry the pork with 2 tablespoons of oil for 10-12 minutes until it's golden and crunchy. Pour away any excess fat, then add honey and toss until all the ground pork is nicely coated. Cook for another minute and then set aside.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil (to be used to cook the noodle and blanch the vegetable).
• Reheat the skillet and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and stir fry the garlic, ginger and onions until fragrant for about 2 minutes or so.
• Add the peanut butter, soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, dry red chili pepper, salt and chicken stock and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
• Cook the noodles according to the direction (7-8 minutes). Add in the Choy Sum in the last minute to quickly boil them. Drain the noodles and vegetable well.
• Return the noodles, vegetable, cooked meat and the peanut sauce into the pot.
• Add in the chopped green onions and roasted peanuts and mix well.

Indian Mee

We still could not finish the Roast Leg of Lamb even after eating it for 5 days on and off so I had to figure out what to do with the rest of them. Flipping through my collection of cookbooks, I decided to make this Indian Mee recipe on a Primarasa's Hidangan Asia – an Indian-inspired Chinese noodle dish. The recipe called for fresh thick yellow noodle but I had to substitute it with dry Chinese egg noodles instead. It was not the best decision because the noodles were a bit too thin... so if you want to try it out, I recommend you to use spaghetti noddle instead.


Ingredients:
1 lb of lamb meat, cubed
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
4 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon ghee
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 half onion, sliced
1/2 package of fried yellow tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
12 oz dry Chinese egg noodles
1/2 lb Choy Sum (Chinese vegetable)
4 green onions, cut into 1-inch sections
2 eggs, beaten with a little bit of water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup fried shallot
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Curry sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Marinate the lamb meat with soy sauce, dark soy sauce and black pepper for 30 minutes or so.
• Boil the dry egg noodle for 4-5 minutes or according to the direction. Add in the Choy Sum in the last minute to quickly boil them.
  
• Heat up the ghee and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok and stir fry the sliced onion until translucent.
• Add in the curry sauce and stir well until fragrant.
• Add in the lamb meat cubes and cook until they change color.
• Add in the cooked noodle, stir until all is mixed well while adding the tofu and green onions.
• Move the noodle mixture to the side of the wok, add in the rest of the vegetable oil in the center of the wok.
• When the oil is hot, pour in the beaten egg. Let it sit for awhile until the egg started to harden and then stir a little to scramble it.
• Move the noodle mixture back to the middle of the wok, add in the lemon juice, parsley and 1/2 cup of the fried shallots and mix well.
• Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the rest of the fried shallots on top.