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.

Baileys cream pudding

Bailey is nice. It is a cream with small amount of alcohol, very flavorful. Sometimes, I like to use it to make dessert. Here is one simple experiment.


Recipe: Bailey cream pudding (make around 4 mini puddings, each 1/8-cup sized)


Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoon (TB) Baileys
- 3 TB evaporated milk
- 2 teaspoons (tp) cocoa powder
- 1 TB sugar
- 3 TB water
- 2 tp gelatin


Procedure:
Dissolve gelatin in water. Place mixture on low heat until simmer. Add sugar and cocoa. Stir until dissolve completely. Add evaporated milk and Baileys. Stir to mix thoroughly. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Then pour into mold and chill for  2 to 4 hours. The pudding should be soft with a creamy jelly-like texture,  and yet it holds together well enough to be picked up by fingers.

Vegetables pesto

One thing that the Italians are very proud of is their food, and rightfully so. I like the Italian pesto sauce very much. It's a paste of olive oil, basil, garlic, pine nut and spices. It generally goes with pasta. I've discovered that pesto goes very well with cashew. I think it's because of the pine nut in the pesto itself. Now I'd like to try it with vegetables. And I pick long bean because it is quite a taste absorber. 


Recipe: Mixed vegetables pesto (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 15 long beans
- 1/2 small carrot, chopped to 1/4" cubes
- 1/2 small leaf of purple cabbage, sliced to short 1/8" thin strips
- 2 tablespoon (TB) broken cashew pieces
- 1-2 oz cooked pork or turkey, thinly sliced
- 2 TB pesto sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon chilly pepper
- salt to taste


Procedure:
1. Trim off 1/4" from each long bean's head and tail. Cut to 3" long pieces. Boil for 15 minutes (to remove toxin). Drain and cut into 1/2" long pieces. 
2. Heat 2 TB of pesto sauce with chilly pepper in a pan on medium heat. Add meat, carrot and purple cabbage and let heat up. Stir occasionally. Then add long beans and cashew and stir. When all the ingredients are hot, allow to sit on very low heat for 30 minutes to let the flavor get absorbed into the vegetables. Add 1 TB of water and mix if the pan seems to dry out. Note: vegetable absorbs flavor more slowly than pasta, so it's necessary to let the mixture sit for a while in warmth before serving. 

Spicy stuffed cucumber

A lot of the times, the excitement of food comes from the contrast of tastes and textures, that gives rise to the senses unlimited surprises. Here is a dish I tried out, that toys with the difference between cucumber and meat, heightened by a strong chilly taste. 


Recipe: A light dish of Cucumber stuffed with pork and dried shrimps (for 2)


Ingredients
- 1/2 a cucumber, cut at cross-section, seeds removed
- 3-4 oz ground pork, 80% lean
- 2 teaspoon (tp) small dried shrimps
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 slices ginger
- 1 tablespoon (TB) spring onion chopped
- 2 tp strong chilly paste
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1/2 tp vinegar
- white of one egg
- a little sesame oil


Procedure
Mix pork and dried shrimp with 1 tp water and salt. Let sit for 10 minutes. Fry pork (without oil) in a pan on medium to med-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, spring onion and let cook until pork is light brown. If too dry, add some water. Mix vinegar and chilly paste and add to pork. Cook until water dries off. Let cool. Then add some egg white to the pork mixture. Stuff into cucumber. Bake in oven at 300F for 30 minutes or less. When done, the cucumber should look only a little cooked on the surface, remaining crispy and juicy, giving out its mild and refreshing smell. Sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil on top and serve.


To serve this dish as a summer appetizer: add 1 TB water with 1/2 tp cornstarch when cooking the pork mixture on the pan. Let thicken, then stuff into raw cucumber. Skip the egg white and the baking. 

An evening with a seafood soup

It was during a biological experiment (to study the cholesterol content in a shrimp) that I discovered the best-tasting seafood soup comes from boiling the shells of shrimps! What a great lab session! The bonus finding at the end of that class was that shrimp shells have very little cholesterol. So if you love seafood, don't you love knowing this? Since then, I always save the shells of seafood to make stock. Seafood stock is easier than fish or meat stock. Just boil the shells in water enough to cover them for 1 hour. Add a teaspoon of vinegar to help soften the shells while boiling. Some people like to add a clove of garlic too. Usually the shells have plenty of salt in it. So it may not be necessary to add extra salt when using seafood stock.


Recipe: Seafood noodle soup (for 2)
- 1-2 oz rice noodle
- 3 cup seafood stock
- 9 oz tofu (about 1/3 package)
- 2-4 fresh shrimps, shelled
- 2-4 oz shark (or tuna) meat, cut to 1.5" cubes
- a large sheet of dried seaweed, crumbled
- 3-4 mushrooms, sliced

- 1 leave of kappa cabbage, cut to 1" slices
- 1 stalk of green onion, chopped
- 1 thin slice of ginger
- 1 small clove garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil


Procedure:
Boil rice noodle, garlic and ginger in seafood stock for 2 minutes. Add kappa cabbage and mushroom to stock and let boil for 1 minute. Add shark (or tuna) meat. Let boil for 3 minutes. Add tofu and seaweed. When soup is still boiling, add fresh shrimps and let cook for 1 minute or just before it completely turns pink. Serve the noodle soup right away with sesame oil and green onions. Keep the shrimps on top while serving. The shrimps will continue to cook in the heat of the soup. 

This seafood soup goes very well with a spicy appetizer of anchovies! 

Simple beef ball

I was going to make some comfort food for my husband's return from work when I discovered that I was running out of beef chunks. So I decided to try making some last minute beef meat balls as a substitute. My first experiment turned out pretty good. It was simple to make, and well fitted for a tasty soup. The baking gave the meat balls a nice smell and a lightly elastic feel in a bite.


Recipe: Beef balls (for 1 serving of soup)


Ingredients:
- 4 oz minced lean beef
- 1 tablespoon (TB) cornstarch
- 3 TB oil
- 1/4 teaspoon (tp) salt
- 1/8 tp pepper
- dash of sugar
- 2 TB water
- 1/4 cup flour for coating


Procedure:
Mix thoroughly beef, oil, salt, pepper, sugar, cornstarch and water. Keep stirring in one direction until the mixture forms a paste. Form ball with hand, and coat with flour. Then set on baking pan. Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or until surface is browned. Drain fat and cool. 

 

Eggplant fantasy for the finger

Unrestrained fantasy often goes in directions that lead to many colorful surprises in daily life. For a while I was so indulged with eggplant that I was trying all types of them and imagining everything possible to match with their individual uniqueness. Lately I just tried out both the Indian and the Thai variations. To better grasp their individual characteristics, I decided to make some appetizers and see how they match with various ingredients.

Recipe: An eggplant appetizer (for 1)


Ingredients:
- 1 Indian eggplant
- 1 Thai eggplant
- double gloucester cheese chopped to fine pieces
- bacon bits
- tangy cherry pepper sauce
- roasted rosemary oil
- a few pomegranate seeds
- a little of each of the following vegetables, finely chopped:
* white and purple onions
* parsley
* spring onion
* celery
* carrot


Procedure:
Halve the eggplants and broil them in oven at 450F for 10 minutes or until they are cooked. The Indian eggplant might need 3-5 more minutes.


The Thai eggplant has a very soft pastry-like texture after broiling. So I give it a heavier dress-up. First, spread double gloucester cheese and allow it to melt a little. Then add a mixture of white and purple onions, parsley, spring onion and a little carrot (for decoration only). Lastly, top with bacon bits and sprinkle roasted rosemary oil on top to smoothen the texture.


The Indian eggplant has a rather rubbery texture, so I give it toppings that make a refreshing salad, using white and purple onions, parsley, spring onion, celery, carrot, and a little pomegranate seed (a surprise!) Then I add a little tangy cherry pepper sauce to give it a spicy and sour sensation.

Pork braised with apple and vegetables

Never had I thought of cooking meat with fruit until I was invited to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner some years ago, in which side dishes were sweet as desserts. I couldn't quite get used to that yet. But this exposure stirred up my curiosity in fruit. My first experiment cooking meat with apple left me with a very pleasant impression. Apple adds a thick sweet and sour flavor to the dish in its very-apple way, making the meat dish even more savory and juicy. It makes such a wonderful cooking material! (While I was typing away, my husband came behind and read today's food journal as he gave me a hug and a kiss. I just heard his burp...)


Recipe: Apple and vegetables braised pork chop (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 2 pork chop, 1.5" thick, about 6 oz
- 1 medium apple with skin, chopped to 3/4" pieces
- 1 carrot, chopped to 3/4" pieces
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped to 3/4" pieces
- 2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 cup turkey broth
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 1 teaspoon (tp) cornstarch


Procedure:
Brown pork chops in 2 TB oil in a non-stick pan. Then place pork chop on a 1.5 quart sauce pot. Add in chopped apple and vegetables. Heat turkey broth with dijon mustard in the non-stick pan and mix with drippings of the pork. Then add to the sauce pot. Heat sauce pot until the liquid starts to simmer. Then turn heat to low and let braise for about 40 minutes. Place meat along with the vegetables and apple on a serving plate. Thicken the liquid on high heat to about 1/2 cup. Dissolve 1 tp cornstarch in 1 tp water. Mix into the liquid to thicken it into a gravy. Pour onto meat and vegetables. Serve hot.

I used a turkey broth from cooking a Shady Brook Farms turkey, which is already very salted and flavorful. This saved me from adding any seasoning.

Chickpea and beef stew

Being curious with beans, I decided to check out chickpea. I'd heard that it's used to make hummus. That's something I'd try out one day. I like chickpea's interesting taste, which matches very well with seasoned meat. I always soak beans overnight. Most beans require more than 1 day of soaking. But chickpea seems to be good enough with just one day. Moreover, it also cooks faster than many other types of legumes, though not as fast as lentils. 8 oz of dried chickpea, after thoroughly soaked, takes only 1 hour of low heat to cook to complete melting type of softness. That's "fast". Alternatively, when I want to cook it in the same day, I just boil dried chickpea for a few minutes and let it soak in hot water for 2 hours. The chickpea softens quickly after reheating. However, it feels more "chalky" when cooked this way.


Recipe: Chickpea and beef stew (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 4 oz minced beef, 90% lean
- 1 cup chickpea, soaked and boiled until soft
- 1/2 cup liquid from boiling the chickpea
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons (tp) rosemary grilling oil
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2 tp of mixed herbs of oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, savory
- 1 tp paprika
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1/4 tp sugar
- dash of pepper

Procedure:

Brown beef in a sauce pan with garlic and rosemary grilling oil on medium heat. When browned, add mixed herbs, salt, sugar and pepper. Let heat for a minute or so, until the aroma of the herbs come out. Then add red wine. When the liquid boils, add in chickpea, the liquid from boiling the chickpea and paprika. Mix and let cook on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Turn heat off and allow to keep warm for 30 minutes so that the flavor of the juice is absorbed by the chickpea. Reheat briefly when served.

This dish is so tasty!!

Exciting yogurt marinate

In Indian food, yogurt plays a big role in many aspects. I like the way yogurt is combined with herbs the Indian way. I decided to try out some possibilities. So I decided to make a yogurt marinate for chicken tender. Chicken tender is to me one of the hardest to get tender result after cooking. So lets see whether the enzymes in yogurt can do a miracle.


Recipe: Broiled chicken tender in yogurt marinate


Ingredients:
- 3 oz plain non-fat yogurt
- 2 teaspoons (tp) ground lemon peel and dill mix
- 1/2 tp onion powder
- 1 tp basil
- dash of cumin
- 1 tablespoon (TB) salad oil
- 1/2 lb chicken tender, sliced to 1/4" thick


Procedure:
1. Mix all marinate ingredients in a flat pan big enough to fill the chicken tender without overlapping. Lay chicken tender flat on pan, on top of a layer of marinate. Then cover the top of chicken with another layer of marinate. Let sit in the fridge for 4-6 hours. If the marinate is to be cooked, leave the pan out of fridge 1 hour before cooking to let marinate warm to room temperature.
2. At cooking time, scrub off excess marinate to leave a thin coating on chicken. Set oven to broil at 450F. Place chicken on a rake with drip pan on the top rake of the oven. Broil each side for 5 minutes.
3. If there is a lot of marinate left, heat marinate with 1 TB salad oil in a sauce pan on low to med-low heat. Stir frequently until boil. As a better alternative, mix a sauce using the same seasonings for marinate and serve as a cold dip with the chicken.

The chicken does have a nicer texture! The yogurt marinate also gives it a thin coating that's rather flavorful. Good experiment.

Yogurt petite (At the beginning...)

My first time making yogurt was also my first culinary castastrophie. I was following a recipe at http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/  which required me to heat the milk up to 180F in a double boiler. When the milk was ready and I was lifting it out of the water, the whole milk container fell upside-down into the pot of boiling water! Oh well! Subsequently, when I tried again, I had understood that the scalding of the milk does not have to be that complicated. It can be done directly on stove top, with just regular stirring. My second attempt turned out much better. I also compared the very scientific method with a traditional Persian method by a friend. The comparison helped a lot in making the connection between the science and the senses. And here comes my first yogurt, made with evaporated milk. The resulting yogurt has a rich taste of evaporated milk, which is so special! 

Recipe: Yogurt (make 1.75 cup)


Ingredients:
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon plain yogurt


Procedure:
1. Boil a glass jar, its lid, 2 spoons, and a saucer in boiling water for 15 minutes to sterilize. Use a clip to take them out to cool. Be careful not to contaminate them after sterilization.
2. Mix evaporated milk with water and let heat until it starts to foam (this process of heating is called scalding). Stir frequently and remove from heat once it foams. Else the milk may spill out. Transfer milk to the sterilized jar. Let it cool until the hand can hold the jar.
3. Use a sterilized spoon to place 1 teaspoon of plain yogurt curd in a saucer. Stir to break the curd into a paste. Mix the yogurt into the warm milk and stir. Then close the jar and let sit in a water bath at a water temperature that does not scald the hand. For this small amount, the milk will curd within 5 hours. Then place in the fridge overnight. Consumable the next day.

In subsequent experiments, I left the yogurt at a temperature much lower than 110F. Instead, I kept it for over 16 hours in a water bath that feels lukewarm to the hand. Wrapping the water bath in towel helps keeping it lukewarm overnight. This resulted in much thicker and more flavorful yogurt. 

Making vegetable pie (attempt #3)

Practice makes perfect. That holds in almost every field. My third attempt at making vegetable pie has proven much rewarding in terms of my control of moisture and taste. These elements are so much a personal preference that there's probably no master recipe for them.


Recipe: Long squash and okra pie (make one 8-inch-pie)


Ingredients:
- 1 medium long squash, about 1 lb
- 1.5 cup frozen okra, defrosted, soaked in salt water, and drained
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoons (tp) baking powder
- 2 tablespoons (TB) dill weed and lemon peel
- 1 TB oregano flakes

- 1 tp marjoram

- 2 tp basil
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1 tp pepper
- 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded


Procedure:
1. Sieve flour with baking powder.
2. Grate long squash in a large bowl used for making the pie mixture, so that the juice of the squash can be saved for use. Squeeze okra off excess of water, add to the grated long squash and mix. Add feta cheese, 2 eggs, and all the herbs. Mix into a watery mixture. Add in the flour sieved with baking powder. Stir into a batter-like mixture. Immediately transfer to a greased pan. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until a knife stuck into the center of the pie comes off clean. The pie top will be still milky white, with only a little golden color. Sprinkle mozzarella on top. Return to oven. Turn heat off and let sit for 10-20 minutes or until top is golden.

This recipe yields a much moister pie than my previous 2 attempts, with more vegetables and less starch. But for a more stomach-filling pie, the recipe from my second attempt would be more suitable, especially for breakfast.

Experiment on veggie pie (attempt #2)

Having tried a vegetable pie with Chinese chive and spring onion, I wanted to see whether it would give better result using a different vegetable. This time I picked a long squash (or opo squash) along with eggplant.

Recipe: Long squash and eggplant pie (make one 8-inch-pie)


Ingredients:
- 1 small long squash, grated to 2 cups
- 2/3 medium Chinese eggplant, grated to 1 cup
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 tablespoon (TB) dried whole oregano
- 1 teaspoon (tp) garlic powder
- 1 TB dried parsley flakes
- 1 TB dried dill and lemon peel
- 2 tp black pepper
- dash of salt
- 2 tp baking powder
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 0.5 to 1 cup water


Procedure:
1. Mix flour and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Mix grated long squash and eggplant with all the herbs, spices and seasonings. Add feta and egg, and mix well. Then add the mixture of flour and baking powder. Mix thoroughly to form a thick paste. Add water to make the paste flow freely.
3. Pour into a greased metal baking pan. Bake in oven at 350F for about 50 minutes.


This time, the use of long squash contributed some moisture to the dough. The pie rose nicely in the oven as an effect of the baking powder. After the first 30 minutes, it was nicely browned and a knife sticking into the center could already come out clean. I covered the top with foil and let it bake for another 20 minutes anyway, just to be sure it's cooked. When the pie came out of the oven, its top had fallen flat after rising. But it still looked pretty good to me. My next goal is to improve the flavor and keep the pie texture moist for a longer time---even a few hours after coming out of oven.

Because of the rich starchy content of this pie, it makes a great breakfast. I cut 1/6 pan of the pie, heat it up for 40 seconds in the microwave, and then move it to the toaster oven to heat at 250F for 5 minutes to get a hot content and crispy top.