Fun with apples

Having acquired a few pounds of apples for just 99 cents, I spent the weekend exploring apples while my husband busily working outside to keep us from being buried under 2 feet of snow. I started out making apple cider vinegar. Then, with the leftover pulp, I made an apple sauce, which added a delightful juicy taste to the veal chop at our dinner table in this cold and chilly day. Here is my outcome of the apple cider vinegar experiment.


Recipe: Apple cider vinegar (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- 4 medium fresh apples


Procedure:
Sterilize a blender, a glass jar with lid, a measuring cup, spoons, a strainer and a piece of clean cheese cloth in boiling water for at least 15 minutes. Let cool. Wash and peel apples. Remove any small bruises or brown spots. Cut to very small pieces. Then use the blender to chop and liquify. Pour liquified apple and pulp into the strainer lined with cheese cloth. Strain and squeeze out all juice into the measuring cup. Save juice in the sterilized glass jar, cover jar loosely with lid, but do not tighten. Let sit at room temperature (around 70F) away from light for 1-2 months. Use pulp for apple sauce.

4 months later, the liquid in the jar has developed a distinctive smell of alcohol. I tasted it. It's still very sweet, with just a mild taste of acid.

Observations:
The apple juice is kept at a room temperature of 70-75F, away from sunlight. During the first week, the apple juice shows rapid changes: the fine particles in the juice starts to settle into a thin light-colored layer at the bottom, and the juice acquires a lighter color. In the 2nd and 3rd week, the color of the juice continues to lighten. A layer of gray scum floats to the top, while sediment continues to settle at the bottom. The juice starts to break down into a thick curd suspending in a clear liquid. From the 4th week onward, changes are not noticeable. After the 5th week, the liquid is decanted and the curd is drained. The liquid is mildly acidic and mildly sweet, retaining much of the flavor of apple juice.



Recipe: Unsweetened apple sauce (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- pulp from making apple cider vinegar, about 3/4 cup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon (tp) cinnamon
- 1/4 tp nutmeg


Procedure:
Mix pulp with water, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes with continuous stirring. When the pulp heats up, it will give out a strongly sour aroma, distinctive of apple. After that has evaporated, a deepen, richer aroma starts to develop that integrates with cinnamon and nutmeg as the pulp steams and bubbles occasionally. Turn heat of when the pulp thickens. Let cool. It will thicken some more. Use within a few days.

Chinese chive omelette

Unlike the small chive that is typically used as an herb, the Chinese chive is eaten as a vegetable. I'm among those who like its strong flavor. This love for it gives me the motivation to find different ways to combine it with other types of ingredients. Here is one experiment, in which the Chinese chive is combined with spring onion to make an omelette. The spring onion is used in this dish only to offer a sharp crispy feel. Since both greens do not have that much water in them, frying them in an omelette is a quick job.


Recipe: Chinese chive omelette (for 2)


Ingredients
- 1.5 cup Chinese chive, finely chopped
- 1 stem of spring onion, finely chopped
- 1 to 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon (TB) rice flour
- 1 TB water


Procedure:
Place Chinese chive and spring onion in a bowl. dissolve rice flour in water and mix with eggs. Add to the greens. Mix thoroughly to make sure the greens are moist with the liquid. Coat a flat frying pan with a very thin layer of oil and set on high heat. Add the egg mixture and spread the greens uniformly over the pan. Lower heat to medium. When the bottom side of the mixture starts to harden, very gently detach it from pan. Flip to cook the top side. Shake to prevent sticking. Serve hot.

I love the aroma of the Chinese chive with egg when the omelette is sizzling on the pan!

Variety veal saute

Veal is unlike beef in that it's more elastic. It's more like pork in color, but much more tender. So when cooking veal, I simply do not have to do much tenderizing. In my opinion, it's most tender when baked breaded. But I'd like to try out how it goes in other ways of cooking too. So one day, I decided to saute veal in four different types of sauces: satay sauce (peanut based, mildly sweet and spicy), douchi sauce (fermented soy, salty), pesto sauce (basil and garlic, salty), and tian mian sauce (sweet). It was a really simple dish that offers a good variety of tastes!


Recipe: Variety veal saute with Thai eggplant (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 1/3 lb veal chop, cut to small slices of 2" long, wiped dried
- 2 teaspoons (tp) satay sauce
- 2 tp douchi (garlic black bean) sauce
- 2 tp pesto sauce
- 2 tp tian mian (sweet flour) sauce
- 1 tablespoon oil or less
- 2 small green Thai eggplant, each cut into 8 wedges


Procedure:
Partition veal slices into 4 parts. Mix each part thoroughly with one of the four sauces. Coat a flat frying pan thinly with oil on medium heat. Place slices marinated with each sauce at one quarter of the pan, and saute the meat within that quarter. Be careful not to mix slices from different sauces. When the veal is done, take out of pan and set in serving plate. Add the Thai eggplant wedges to saute lightly and serve with the veal. Serve hot.

Our second roasted turkey

Before Christmas, my husband received a $20 Butterball gift voucher from his workplace as a Christmas gift. He was looking forward to a roast turkey after the new year. Prices of turkeys and hams generally go up after the festivals. So I went to the local grocery store to exchange the voucher for a 15-lb frozen turkey. A bird in the freezer is always better than 2 in the grocery store. After we'd rested from the feasting of the festivals, I tried out roasting turkey again. This time, I've learnt to bake it uncovered, using foil only to fence the pan, so as to contain the spitting of the turkey fat. For safety's sake, I always cook huge chunks of meat at least 30 minutes longer than the recommended time. The skin looked a little dry, but the meat turned out really tasty! It was such a big bird that we had much to save for later use.

The charm of Mapo Tofu

I never truly understand why such a simple dish as the Mapo Tofu can captivate some people's heart so deeply, much like the ratatouille in the movie Ratatouille. I'm sure there are thousands of recipes of this dish out in the web, here is my homey version that is a little spicy. And the special ingredient that creates the charm is the Hua Jiao pepper.

Recipe: Mapo tofu (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 2-3 oz lean pork (either cut to bite size or minced)
- 1 pack of soft tofu, cut to 2" pieces
- 2 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 1 teaspoon (tp) light soy sauce
- 1/4 tp sugar
- 2 TB cooking rice wine
- 1/2 tp small dried shrimps
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 5 thin slices of ginger (about 2 tp)
- 1 spring onion, chopped
- 1/2 tp cornstarch
- 1 TB sesame oil
- 1 tp hua jiao pepper corn
- 1 tp pepper flakes
- 1 tp hua jiao pepper powder (optional)
- 2 TB Szechwan chili paste (we like the Dynasty brand)


Procedure:
Marinate pork in 1 TB oil, light soy sauce, sugar, and cooking rice wine for 15 minutes. If bite-sized pork pieces are used, add cornstarch and mix well (to create a tender coating when fried). Let sit for 5 minutes. Heat non-stick frying pan on med-high with 1 TB oil. Add chopped garlic, ginger, hua jiao pepper corn and pepper flakes to pan. Spread evenly. When sizzling starts, add pork and stir-fry until almost cooked. Add Sichuan pepper paste and tofu pieces. Add a little water and let cook with lid on for a few minutes. Sprinkle hua jiao pepper powder, chopped spring onion and sesame oil. Serve hot.

Oxtail soup for a cosy home

This is one of those cold weekdays that one would rather snuggle up in bed and forget about waking up. When I saw my husband off this morning, he felt so down having to go to work. There and then, I was reminded that he was working hard so that I could enjoy the life we had together. So I told him how much I appreciated his labor, and assured him that home would be awaiting his return with good rest and good food. Surely enough, he came back once work was over, and we had a comfy evening dining and unwinding. This is one of my favorite soup recipes for cold days like this. It's a soup rich in meat flavor, but light to the stomach. It's mostly vegetables.


Recipe: Oxtail vegetable soup


Ingredients for stock:
- 2-3 lb oxtail with bone
- 1 big onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups red wine
- water


Procedure:
Broil oxtail in oven until browned. Brown onion and garlic in juice of oxtail. Place browned oxtail, garlic and onion in slow cooker. Add red wine and bay leaf. Top with water to cover all ingredients. Use high setting to let boil. Then turn down to low setting and let cook for 8 hours. Let cool overnight. Since oxtail has bone and tendon, the stock will be jelly like. Skim off fat. Meat should come loose from bone easily. (When I save stock for future use, I keep it in small airtight jars without skimming off the fat. When the stock is cooled, the fat forms a hard cover on top to give extra insulation.)


Ingredients for soup (3-4 servings):
- 8 oz meat from oxtail, de-boned and trimmed of fat
- 4-6 cups oxtail stock. 
- 1 tp red wine vinegar
- dash of marjoram and basil
- mixed vegetables such as:
  1 small onion

  3-4 tomatoes

  2-3 leaves of cabbage
  1 leaf of red cabbage

  2 stock celery

  1 small zucchini
  2 carrots
  1 small eggplant

Procedure:
1. Chop all vegetables to about the same size around 1" long. (Optionally) brown them in oil in this order: onion, cabbages, celery, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes. Note: I don't brown eggplant.
2. Heat up stock. Add vinegar, onion, tomatoes and cabbages. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add carrots. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add all other vegetables, herbs and meat. Get soup to boil for 5 minutes. Then transfer to slow cooker on low setting to keep warm until serve. For fresh-tasting vegetables, do not keep warm for longer than 1 hour. If soup is not used at once, let it cool and reheat before serving.

Persian yogurt spinach

Persian food is fantastic, whether it's a simple or a complex dish. It was at a friend's home that I ate her homemade Persian yogurt spinach. I simply could not forget about it ever since. So I tried making it myself. It's such a simple dish, you'd think everyone could make it. But I did make a few awful mistakes such as: keeping too much liquid from the spinach, overcooking the spinach, and (the worst being) adding the yogurt to the hot spinach! Finally I've got it right, and it's so very lovely, tasty, filling, everything...

Recipe: Persian yogurt spinach (for 1)

Ingredients:
- 10 oz pre-washed spinach from package
- 1/4 cup whole milk yogurt (or to taste, up to half the volume of the cooked spinach)
- 1 tablespoon (TB) garlic powder (or to taste)

Procedure:
1. Heat the spinach in a pot on medium heat, with at most 1 TB water at the bottom (if spinach needs to be washed before cooking, then drain all water before use). Spinach tends to shrink rapidly when heated. When the spinach at the bottom of the pot has shrunk, stir and mix in the uncooked leaves. Allow all the leaves to be cooked without overcooking (taking about 5 minutes).
2. Once the leaves are cooked, drain most of the liquid without squeezing the spinach. Allow the spinach to cool. Drain again when the spinach has cooled to room temperature.
3. After the spinach has cooled, mix yogurt, garlic powder and spinach. Serve right away or after chilling.

It's so very tasty! I feel that spinach really needs a whole milk yogurt to smoothen out its own sharp flavor. The garlic powder adds so much richness to the taste of the dish.

Homemade yogurt refined

Since my first attempt on doing homemade yogurt, I've got into a habit of making one bottle per week. With practice, the outcome has improved gradually. I think that many of the traditional cooking methods allow for much more flexibility to change than the precision-based scientific method. I took my Iranian friend's yogurt making technique, refined on the ingredients, temperatures and duration. What I've got is a very smooth and thick yogurt. In general, the milder the temperature and the longer the incubation time, the finer yogurt is yielded. After several attempts, I finally discovered how the temperature of incubation directly affects the texture of the yogurt. With a lukewarm temperature, the yogurt has a smoother liquid feel, while a high temperature (one that almost scalds the hand) gives a semi-solid tofu-like curd that is commonly available in the American grocery stores.


Recipe: Homemade yogurt (12 fl oz)


Ingredients:
- 6 fl oz of evaporated milk (mixing half whole and half skim)
- 6 fl oz water
- 16 oz glass bottle
- 1 teaspoon yogurt with active culture (starter)


Procedure
1. Sterilize one glass bottle, and one spoon by boiling in water for 15 minutes.
2. Scald 6 fl oz evaporated milk with equal amount of water in a small pot. Scald on high heat is fine. But it's important to watch and stir continuously. Once the milk start boiling, turn heat down to medium or low and allow to boil for a minute or two. Then pour milk into sterilized bottle and cover container. 
3. Allow the milk to cool to a temperature that is warm and comfortable to the hand. Use the sterilized spoon to scoop in the starter yogurt and stir to mix completely with milk. Replace and tighten bottle lid, and set bottle in a water bath that is just a little warmer than then milk. The water level of the bath should be just above the level of the milk in the bottle. Be careful though not to allow water to get into the bottle. The water should be just a little warmer than the milk bottle, and comfortable to touch. The water bath can be the pot of water previously used to sterilize the bottle. Try keeping the water bath's temperature within this comfortable range of warmth for 24-26 hours. This may require periodic reheating of the water on the stove. Whenever reheating is needed, remove bottle from the water bath first. Stir water in the bath until the desire temperature has been reached uniformly before putting the bottle back in. To keep the water bath warm overnight, cover the pot (with bottle in it) with lid. Wrap pot  top, bottom and all around, with a few kitchen towels. Because the water temperature is only lukewarm, it can keep warm easily overnight. Reheat to desired temperature the next morning. 
4. Wipe bottle dry and keep in fridge when incubation has yielded a yogurt of the desired texture. 


My Persian friends told me some of their ways of using yogurt. I tried it with garlic and paprika powders. It's so good!

Trying out baked black bean cake

I wanted to try a black bean cake without meat this time. So I started with some black beans and all precooked ingredients, and see how it goes. Since this time all the ingredients are already fully cooked, I have much less concern about undercooking. What I get is a bean cake with crispy crust and soft moist fillings. Using mixed spices, herbs and a thick ham stock, I get very rich flavors.

Recipe: Baked black bean cakes (make 6)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of fully cooked black beans, soaked overnight in 1.5 cup of liquid from cooking
- 1/2 cup ham stock (salty)
- 2 tablespoons (TB) flakes of rosemary, savory, basil, marjoram, thyme
- 1 teaspoon (tp) garlic powder
- 1 tp onion powder
- 1 tp black pepper
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 TB oil
- 1/3 cup fine bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup wheat bran

Procedure:
1. Re-boil cooked black beans in its own cooking liquid until the beans are very soft and the liquid is thick. Use a spoon to mush all the beans in the liquid to form a thick smooth paste.
2. Mix in the herb flakes, garlic and onion powders, and black pepper. Add the herbs and powders in small batches. For each batch, stir the mixture until the spices are uniformly incorporated.
3. Add in the chopped onion and oil. Mix until uniform.
4. Add bread crumbs and mix. Since the bread crumbs absorb water, add some ham stock whenever the bean mixture becomes too dry (showing sign of cracking).
5. After all the ingredients are well mixed, add ham stock to moisten the mixture into a smooth thick batter-like texture. To test for good thickness, a spoon can scoop out easily a lump of the size of a tennis ball. When the spoon is inverted, the lump will fall off very very slowly.
6. Prepare a medium plate with wheat bran. With a spoon, scoop out a ball of mixture (about 2" diameter). Allow the ball to drop onto the wheat bran. Sprinkle wheat bran on the top and the sides of the ball. Flatten each ball to 3/4"-thick round disc shapes. Place in baking pan. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. When the top of the cakes show cracks, flip the cakes and continue baking for another 10 minutes. Take out of oven and allow to cool to room temperature. The cakes will harden slightly when cooled.

Beef pancake (1st attempt)

A friend of ours really loves this. It reminds her of something from her origin. This is a pancake made with a Saigon pancake flour mix (rice flour, cornstarch and turmeric), popular in South-East Asia. I used it to experiment on a low-fat pancake with beef toppings. 


Recipe: Beef pancake (for 3-4)


Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Saigon pancake mix
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- lean minced beef
- 2 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 2-3 stalks spring onions, chopped finely
- 2 TB Vietnamese spring roll fish sauce (fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic and spices)


Procedure:
1. Brown minced beef in oil. Break into fine bits while browning.
2. Mix pancake mix with salt and water until fully dissolved. Heat 2 TB oil on a flat non-stick frying pan on medium heat. When pan is warm, pour mixture onto pan and spread spring onions evenly on mixture. Turn heat down to low. Let cook for a few minutes until the bottom has solidified but the top remains liquid. Spread beef evenly on top and press into the liquid. Let cook on low heat until the flour mixture on top solidifies. The low heat is important, so that the bottom of the pancake won't be burnt while the top is being cooked. Sprinkle fish sauce onto beef. Serve hot.

Celery with red Swiss chard

It's never occurred to me that the red Swiss chard and the celery are so alike until I put them together. Then it crossed my mind the possibility of making a vegetable dish with the two of them. Since the celery stems are usually twice as long as that of the chard, I scale the portion accordingly to make the ratio of celery to chard equal to 2:1.


Recipe: Stir-fried celery and red Swiss chard (for 1)


Ingredients:
- 1 stem of celery, chopped to 1/2" long pieces
- 1 stem of red swiss chard, chopped to 1/2" long pieces
- 1 tablespoon (TB) cashew pieces
- 1 TB cooked chicken pieces
- 1 TB chipotle chili oil
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped
- a few drops of fish sauce
- dash of salt


Procedure:
Heat chopped ginger in chili oil until sizzling. Add chard and let cook on med-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add celery and chicken pieces, and mix. Let cook on med-high heat until both are a little translucent. Sprinkle fish sauce and salt, and stir well to mix for 30 seconds. Add cashew pieces, stir and serve right away.

Folding Vietnamese rice paper

The first time I saw the Vietnamese rice paper, I had no idea what to do with it. A friend told me that it had to be softened in warm water before using. Later, I found a recipe from a Hawaiian chef that described how he used it to make seafood rolls with steaming. That really got me into the fun of this rice paper. When handling it, it's important to have a pot of hot water and some wet towels in hand. In earlier attempts, I'd wet the paper in water. But subsequently, I found it a lot easier to moisten it on a warm wet towel, on which I also do the folding. When doing the wrapping part, placing the fillings in 2 separate patches helps make roll a little more sturdy. Once the rolls are done, they need to be kept on a flat surface lined with a moist towel, without touching one another, and covered by another wet towel. The wet towels keep them from becoming sticky or drying out. The rolls can be steamed for a few minutes on a steamer with cabbage lining. Alternatively, it can be heated in the oven at 350F in a baking pan lined and covered by wet towel. This roll is really good when it's moist and warm.


Recipe: Chinese chive and pork roll in Vietnamese rice paper (for 4)


Ingredients:
- 1/2 pack of medium sized Vietnamese rice paper
- 12 oz Chinese chives, chopped finely
- 6 oz minced pork, preferable lean
- 2 tablespoons (TB) small dried shrimps
- 1 TB sliced ginger
- 1 teaspoon (tp) chopped garlic
- 1 tp light soy sauce
- 2 tp cooking rice wine
- 2 tp sesame oil
- 2 tp oil
- 1/4 tp salt
- dash of pepper


Procedure:
1. Loosen minced pork with 2 TB water. Marinate with sugar, salt, pepper and 1 tp oil for 15 minutes. Then brown in pan on med-high heat.
2. Add 1 tp oil to pan with the pork. Keep pan hot. Add ginger, garlic, dried shrimps and let sizzle. Then add chopped Chinese chives and stir. Let cook and allow the chives to soften. When the liquid in pan is close to drying up, add rice wine and soy sauce. Let cook until chives have shrunk. Then add sesame oil. Mix well and turn heat off. Set aside.
3. Prepare two plates big enough to contain a sheet of rice paper. Line both plates with wet towels. Have a pot of hot water handy. Use one plate to do the wrapping and another to keep the finished rolls. Place a sheet of rice paper on wet towel and let it moisten slowly. If paper sticks onto the towel, add water to the plate underneath the towel to moisten the sticky part. If the paper starts to curl, flip it and use hand to keep paper in touch with the towel. When paper is soft enough to fold, place 2-3 TB of chive and pork mix on the paper in two parallel rectangular patches, separated by a space equal to the width of the rectangle, and fold the paper to form a roll. Set on wet towel.
4. Prepare a pot of water for steaming. Place finished rolls on a steamer tray (For better results, line the tray with lettuce leaves before placing the wraps). Steam for 2 minutes or until roll is soft and still elastic.

 

Vegetable curry delights

If you like curry, this is one of those dishes that you'd swallow up a few bowls at a time, and then lay on the couch and... BURP! The Malaysian Penang curry is a fine blend of spices that makes a great soup even with just vegetables. It's rich in spices, but otherwise neither too salty, nor too spicy, nor oily. So it can be eaten just by itself. Of course the stock plays a significant role. I like to use a very thick meat stock made from bone with joints. When I prepare this stock, I boil the bones first to get the meat off (giving a stock of rich meat-flavor), then, I boil the bones a second round with vinegar and for at least 4 hours to extract the gelatin. It's this jelly that makes a thick stock, perfect for making Penang curry without using coconut milk. In this recipe, the primary ingredients are the kappa cabbage and the eggplant. I use a little cabbage to give the soup some chunky bites, and a little red bean to make the curry richer in texture.


Recipe: Vegetable Penang curry (for 2-4)


Ingredients:
- 2 cup stock from bone joints
- 2-3 tablespoon (TB) Penang curry paste
- 1 star of anise
- 1/2 lb kappa cabbage, chopped to 1" pieces
- 1/2 eggplant, chopped to 1" pieces
- 2-3 stem of cabbage, chopped to small pieces
- 1/2 cup red beans, soaked for 3 days
- 1/4 onion chopped to 1" pieces
- water


Procedure:
1. Boil red beans, cabbage, onion and star of anise in stock and 1 cup of water on med-high heat for 1-2 hours or until beans have opened up. If softer bean texture is preferred, boil for one more hour. While boiling beans, stir occasionally and add water to keep beans well covered by liquid. When beans are done, add
Penang curry paste. Mix well and let cook for 15 minutes. Then let sit for 1-2 hours without heat. 
2. Ten minutes before serving, heat up bean curry. Add water to make up to 3 cups of liquid and stir well. Add eggplant and let cook for 5 minutes on high heat. Then add kappa cabbage and continue cooking on high heat for another 5 minutes. Serve.

Another encounter with skate

The last time I encountered skate was at least a year back. This week I had an occasion to cook skate again, this time not a fresh one, but a frozen one, imported, and already trimmed. My experience skinning my first skate certainly helped me handle this second one with less fear.

A skate wing weighs at least pound, and may be cut to a few fillets. The skate's bone (actually cartridge) structure is a sheet of rectangular tiles tightly packed together. The long sides of the tiles all run in parallel with one another, and with the muscles. Thus, when cutting or otherwise handling the fish, it's easier to cut along the direction that the muscles stretch.

My previous experiment with pan-frying skate had been very successful and rewarding. So I decided to pan-fry this wing in butter. Pan-frying does not use too much butter. It only took me 1.5 tablespoon for about 20 oz of trimmed skate.  The principle of pan frying skinned skate is simple. Wipe draw the surface of the fish and let it sizzle in butter on medium to med-high until the bottom side hardens, and the top is almost cooked. Then flip and cook the other side. When the bottom side of the fish is cooked, it naturally turns crispy and comes loose very easily.

With skate, it is better to cook the thick side first so that the fillet has a better look. The thick side will be served on top when done. When trying to move the skate, it's important to move a spatula in the direction that the muscles stretch in order to minimize tearing. However, this time I made a very serious mistake. I tried to loosen the fish from the pan before the bottom side became crispy. What resulted was two torn fillets because the fish was skinless and too tender.

Fortunately, my last fillet succeeded. It took about 15-20 minutes of med-high heat to cook the first side. The second side was cooked faster. Some people use flour to coat skinless fish fillets before frying. But so far, my experiments with skate seem good without flour. The meat is pretty tender when done.

When I prepared the sauce, this time I tried two different variations: a thin dark one and a thick creamy one. They are as follows:

Dark sauce for skate:
Mix 1 tablespoon (TB) light soy sauce, 1 TB dark soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon (tp) sugar, 1/2 tp roasted rosemary oil. Heat in a sauce pan until bubbling and lightly thickened. Then pour onto fillet. Serve right away.

Creamy sauce for skate:
Mix 1.5 TB mayonnaise and 1 TB Dijon mustard and serve.

Chicken casserole

I think I've finally got my chicken casserole right! When a cream-based casserole is done, it needs to be like a thick creamy soup, not a semi-solid cake. Today I made a simple chicken casserole to host a friend. It was yummy!


Recipe: Chicken casserole (for 3)


Ingredients:
- 2 chicken skinless boneless fillet
- 1/4 crown of broccoli, chopped to 1/2" pieces
- 6 mushrooms chopped to 1/2" pieces
- 1 can of cream of chicken soup, healthy request
- 2 tablespoons (TB) croutons
- 2 TB evaporated milk
- 4 TB bread crumbs


Procedure:
Bake chicken at 300F in oven for about 10 minutes or until it just turns white. Take out, and cut into 1/2" strips. Mix with broccoli, mushrooms and crouton. Place in a 8"x8" pan. Spread cream of chicken soup on top to fully cover the surface. Blend in the evaporated milk. Then sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake covered with foil at 375F, middle rack, for 20-30 minutes. Casserole should be bubbling and watery when done. Then it thickens after coming out of the oven.

Celery pork stir-fry

Stir-frying meat and vegetables is one of my favorite dishes, in which one gets tender meat and crispy vegetables all at once, and in decent proportions. The vegetables taste great when cooked in the juice of the meat. Here is one simple dish of pork and mixed vegetables - mushroom, onion, and celery. Of these three vegetables, onion and mushroom take longer cooking time to bring forth their aromas. Once cooked, these two vegetables also tend to be a flavor absorber. Celery needs to be cooked only very briefly (a minute or so). I do not season the dish or the vegetables. Instead, the seasoning is primary in the meat. The vegetables take on the flavor through being cooked in the juice of the meat.


Recipe: Celery pork stir fry (for 3-4)


Ingredients:
- 3 stalks of celery, cut diagonally to 1/4" strips
- 4 mushrooms sliced to 1/4" thick pieces
- 1/2 medium purple onion, sliced to 1/" strips
- 4-5 oz pork loin chop, trimmed of all fat, cut to 1/4" thick strips
- 1 tablespoon (TB) sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon (tp) sugar
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1 tp light soy sauce
- 1 tp dark soy sauce
- 1 TB cooking white wine
- dash of pepper
- 2 tp cornstarch
- 2 TB oil
- about 3 TB water


Procedure:
1. Marinate pork in sesame oil, sugar, salt, light and dark soy sauces, cooking wine and pepper for 30 minutes. Then mix in 2 tp cornstarch and 1 tp water. Make sure that the cornstarch is uniformly coated on all the surfaces of the meat. Let sit for 5 minutes. 
2. Heat 2 TB oil in a non-stick pan on medium to med-high heat. Add meat to pan and spread evenly on the pan surface. Let sizzle on med-high heat for about minute or less, until the edges of each piece of meat is cooked. Stir to cook the other sides. When all the surfaces of the meat have changed to a darker color, it's almost cooked. Take the meat out of the pan. Save the juice and oil in pan. Add onion and mushroom to fry in the oil and juice of the meat. If the pan starts to dry out, add 1 TB of water at a time to the pan. Whenever water is added, the pan should be hot enough that steam comes out and the vegetables sizzle and gets cooked. When the onion and mushroom are almost cooked, add celery and pork into the pan and mix well. Let sizzle for about 1 minute. Serve hot.

Frying Persian mixed herbs and wheat bran

I like herbs and fiber. But it's not until recently that I discovered many of the fibers, spices and herbs I like actually have medical values. For example, wheat bran helps lower blood pressure; bittermelon and fenugreek are effective in lowering blood sugar; ginger is used as a remedy for nausea. The list goes on. In any case, I like herbs and spices. Here is a recipe of mixed herbs and wheat bran that tasted pretty good.


Recipe: Fried Persian mixed herbs and wheat bran with eggs (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup dehydrated Persian vegetable mix (parsley, leek, cilantro, fenugreek, dill)
- 1/4 cup wheat bran
- 1 tablespoon (TB) refried beans
- 2 eggs
- 1 TB turmeric powder
- dash of salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 TB oil


Procedure:
1. Mix dehydrated vegetables and wheat bran in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup water and mix well. Let sit for 15 minutes to re-hydrate. Then squeeze out excess water.
2. Beat 2 eggs with salt, turmeric powder and refried beans. Then mix into the hydrated mixture of vegetables and bran. Stir well.
3. Heat oil in a flat non-stick pan on medium heat. When oil is hot, pour mixture into the pan and spread evenly on pan to cook until the bottom side is crispy. Break into small pieces, flip and stir the pieces to cook all sides. Serve hot.

Tofu in oven

Oven is a very fine equipment. I love it so much. Recently I started exploring tofu's behavior in it. Tofu tends to give out plenty of water when heated. So it's only sensible to drain the water in the midst of baking. I also discovered that it is possible to achieve a roasting effect for sauces on top of the tofu, with the use of a little oil. Here is one tofu experiment with wonderful results. 



Recipe: Baked tofu with roasted Shacha sauce and Penang curry paste (for 3)


Ingredients:
- 1 package of soft tofu
- 1 tablespoon (TB) Shacha sauce
- 1 TB Penang curry paste
- roast rosemary oil or sesame oil
- 1 TB finely chopped parsley
- 1 TB finely chopped spring onion


Procedure:
Drain tofu for 15 minutes and cut to 12 square slices. Spread an aluminum foil on a baking pan. Coat foil with a little oil. Place tofu pieces flat on the foil. Mix Shacha sauce and Penang curry paste, and spread evenly on each piece of tofu. Rub a little oil on top of the spread on each piece of tofu. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. If tofu gives out plenty of water while cooking, drain pan. Let continue baking until the spread has sizzled for 5 minutes. Turn off oven, keep warm until serve. Sprinkle chopped parsley and spring onion on top when served. The tofu should be soft inside, while the spread on top of it should be well roasted.

Collard greens stew

This winter, we were locked in a few times because of the snow. In one of the snow storms, the storm was so severe that most stores were closed and traffic came to a halt. After the storm, we went out early next morning to replenish our empty fridge. To our dismay, the grocery store was mostly empty because people had fanatically purchased food because of no truck delivery. What amazed me was that there was plenty of collard greens that nobody seemed to want. So I got a big bunch home. They were fresh and green, through a bit big and rough. I cooked them in a stew.


Recipe: Collard greens stew (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 4 large leaves of collard greens, chopped to 3 cups of 1/2" thick pieces
- 1 large leaf of kappa cabbage, chopped to 1 cup of 1/2" thick pieces
- one 2" piece of Thai salty preserved radish, about 2 oz, cut to 1/2" cubes
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2" piece of polska sausage, sliced to 1/8" thick pieces
- 1 cup thick turkey stock


Procedure:
1. Soak preserved radish in water for at least 30 minutes to drain of salt.
2. Boil collard greens in 1 cup turkey stock and 1 cup of water on medium heat. After about 30 minutes, 
if there is excess liquid, boil liquid down to 1 cup.
3. Heat sausage pieces in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Use a paper towel to absorb melted fat. Take sausage out of the pan. Add sausage to collard green. Then, drain preserved radish and pad dry. Heat oil in pan and fry the radish until the surfaces lighten in color and have marks of gas bubbles. Drain radish of oil and add to collard green. Add kappa cabbage to collard green. Reheat the pot until boiling. Do not add water. Stir to make sure all ingredients get a chance to touch the liquid. Turn heat off and let sit on stove for 15 minutes.

Chinese eggplant fritters

When I tried to search for eggplant recipes, I was so dismayed by the way American recipes treat this vegetable. Apparently, it tastes so rubbery and strange that people have to find all kinds of ways to cover it up. So the eggplant is often very finely chopped, cooked for a prolonged time, and buried amidst many other flavorful and more appealing ingredients. I feel so sorry for the American eggplant! When I introduced the Chinese eggplant to a friend, she tried, and was totally surprised by the difference. Of course, it's largely a personal choice which one tastes better. I sometimes like to eat the Chinese eggplant as a finger food, like a fritter. Eggplant bakes very quickly in oven. When cooked, it melts into a buttery texture with a mildly sweet aroma. To make the fritter a little more crispy and less starchy, I use mainly wheat bran with a small amount of bread crumbs as the coating. 


Recipe: Chinese eggplant fritters (for 1)


Ingredients:
- 1 medium Chinese eggplant, about 4 oz
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/3 cup wheat bran
- 1/6 cup fine bread crumbs
- 1 egg, beaten.


Prepare a saucer of flour, a saucer of wheat bran mixed with bread crumbs, and a bowl of beaten egg.
Chop the Chinese eggplant to irregular shapes of 1.5" long. Coat the whole surface of each piece of eggplant with flour. Then dip into egg, and roll on the wheat bran and bread crumb mix. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until the sweet aroma comes out. Since wheat bran is very dry, be careful not to burn. Serve right out of oven, optionally with mayonnaise. The Chinese eggplant fritters would taste crispy outside, while soft and sweet inside. 

I think, eating is an art of appreciation. Simple food in their original taste has great appeal to me.

Lemon chickpea paste for lunch

I didn't know that hummus is made of chickpeas (garbanzo) until recently. Hummus tastes good, albeit a bit too oily to be eaten as a meal. So I tried making a very thick chickpea paste without much fat, that can be eaten as a side dish like rice or a roll.


Recipe: Lemon chickpea paste (for 1)


Ingredients:
- 1 cup chickpeas, cooked until very soft
- 1/4 cup water from cooking chickpeas
- 2 tablespoon (TB) lemon juice
- 3 TB parsley flakes
- 4 teaspoon (tp) dijon mustard
- 1 TB dried lemon peel and dill weed mix
- 1/4 tp bacon bits (optional)


Procedure:
Mix cooked chickpeas with water and blend with a blender or ground with a mortar and pestle until it becomes a smooth paste. Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Serve chilled. Top with bacon bits when served.

I think, because of the taste of lemon, this chickpea paste goes well with breaded dishes.