Chinese mustard greens

I visited a friend and found out that Chinese mustard greens can make a delicious dish just blanched as such. So I tried cooking it the way she did.

Recipe: Chinese mustard greens blanched (for 2)

Ingredients:
- 5-6 stems of large Chinese mustard greens, washed
- 3 quart of hot water
- very concentrate meat stock or gravy
- 1-2 tp cornstarch

Procedure:
1. Separate mustard green stems from leaves.
2. Keep a pot of water boiling. Dip the stems into the boiling water. Let cook for 1 minute. Remove from pan and transfer to serving plate. Then dip leaves into boiling water for a few seconds until just freshened. Transfer to serving plate.
3. Heat concentrate meat stock with 1-2 tp cornstarch. Stir to make sure the cornstarch dissolves. Cook until thicken.
4. Drain blanched vegetables of excess water. Pour gravy on vegetables. Serve hot.

Weekday dinner special

A dinner specially prepared for someone special...

pork and shanghai cabbage in black bean sauce

It's been a while since the last time I spent time on cooking.


Recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 TB fermented black bean sauce
- pork chop, trimmed of fat and bone, cut into cubes
- bunch of shanghai cabbage, washed and trimmed
- 3 TB vegetable oil
- 2 tp cornstarch
- 1/2 tp sugar
- 1/4 cup shaoxing cooking wine
- 4 large king oyster mushrooms washed and cut

Procedure:
1. Fry black bean sauce in oil until fragrant.
2. Add pork chop and stir to brown.
3. Add cooking wine, sugar. Add water to barely cover the meat. Boil to a hard boil and let cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add mushrooms on top. Cover pot with lid. Cook until done.
5. Transfer meat and mushrooms to serving bowl.
6. Blanch shanghai cabbage, 2-3 stems each time in the sauce, taking 30 seconds each round.
7. Thicken sauce with cornstarch. Pour onto meat and mushroom to serve.

Results:
6:22pm, pork chop pieces:

6:24pm, black bean paste in oil:

6:26pm, pork added to pot to brown:

6:29pm, water, wine and sugar added:

6:30pm, mushrooms:

6:32pm, mushrooms added on top to cook covered:

6:39pm, cooked 7 minutes on medium heat:

6:49pm, meat and mushrooms done:

6:49pm, to blanch vegetables in the sauce:

6:58pm, sauce, half discarded:

6:59pm, cornstarch added:

7:02pm, sauce thickened:

7:04pm, to serve:

Observations:
1. The pork is a little tough. It's good otherwise.
2. May use half the liquid from cooking in case it's too salty.

Luncheon meat cauliflowers

Recently, we are so short of time that cooking has become a challenge. Weekend, however, still remain special to us, with fresh dinners. This is a quick dish that turns out rather nice, and goes well with a beef curry.

Recipe: Luncheon meat cauliflowers (for 2)

Ingredients:
- 1/3 can of low-sodium low fat luncheon meat, cut into cubes
- 1/4 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 cup meat stock
- 1 TB olive oil
- dash of parsley
- dash of celery seeds

Procedure:
1. Heat luncheon meat cubes in pan to brown lightly. Not much fat is out. When meat is done, remove from pan.
2. Boil cauliflower florets in 1 cup meat stock until soft. About 5 minutes.
3. Drain off any liquid. Mix meat with cauliflower. Toss in olive oil. Then sprinkle parsley and celery seeds. Serve hot.

Cactus pear

Out of curiosity, I bought a cactus pear. All the time, I keep thinking that it's a species of pear that happens to look like cactus. When I come home to wash it to make a fruit salad with it, I start wondering how its waxy skin feels awfully like a cactus. After peeling off the skin, I can't resist taste-testing a slice of it. Oh! Though it's as sweet like any fruit can be, its sticky juice reminds me of cactus in every way. I end up with a mouthful of seeds that are hard as pebbles. I go online and check for cactus pear. True enough, it's the fruit of a cactus that happens to look like a pear, not the other way round! It's really a yummy surprise.

Skin of a cactus pear:

Head of a cactus pear:

Cross-section of a cactus pear:

Plenty of seeds in just a very very thin slice:

The next thing I'm going to do is to sow the seeds to grow some cactus at the kitchen's window sill.

Love Dough Friday

Lately, both hubby and myself have been juggling with so much work, I feel sorry for his deprived stomach. After a whole week of events, Friday night is about time for his stomach to get pampered. So I take some time to make some thing new, something he may like: a stuffed chicken roll, and a salad.

When hubby steals into the kitchen to give me a hug, the good smell of baked bacon is so irresistible that it makes his tummy dance! Both the salad and the chicken turn out wonderful.

Life is not always smooth-sailing. But each day is memorable all the same.

Strawberry spring mix salad

This is a nice integration of fruits with greens. I've got this idea from Maple, the lady who did the catering of my wedding. She makes a great strawberry spinach salad.

Recipe: Strawberry spring mix salad (for 2)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of spring mix salad
- 5 fresh strawberries, cubed
- 1 TB blue cheese crumbled
- 1 TB honey
- 1 TB red wine vinegar,
- 1 tp lime juice
- dash of black pepper
- 2 TB olive oil

Procedure:
1. Mix honey, vinegar, lime juice and black pepper.
2. Place strawberries and spring mix greens in a medium bowl. Mix with blue cheese crumbs.
3. Add the dressing. Mix until greens have shrunk gently.
4. Add olive oil. Mix. Serve right away.

Results:
6:46pm, greens, strawberries, and dressing mixture without olive oil:

6:52pm, salad ready to serve:

Observations:
This salad is very tasty! The honey complements the strawberries greatly, while the acids go very well with the greens.

Baked stuffed chicken breast with cottage cheese and bacon

I rarely stuff chicken breast, because of the unfamiliarity with the technique to flatten the chicken. But then, how else can one learn apart from practicing?

Recipe: Baked stuffed chicken breast with cottage cheese and bacon (make 5 servings)


Ingredients:
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 5-6 slices of precooked bacon (drained of fat)
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup fat-free cottage cheese
- 2-3 TB low-fat mayonnaise
- 2 TB bread crumbs
- 2 TB dried okara
- 1 TB parsley flakes


Procedure:
1. For thick chicken breast, slice into two thin pieces. Dry each piece of meat with paper towel.
2. Place each chicken breast between two layers of plastic. Hammer until thin, about 3/8" thick.
3. Place 2 slices of precooked bacon on the bottom of a plate. Place a slice of pounded chicken breast on top of the bacon. Spread about 1 heaping TB of cottage cheese on top of the chicken.
4. Roll up the chicken breast and place the open side down on a tray lined with foil.
5. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on the top of the chicken roll.
6. Mix bread crumbs, okara, and parsley flake. Spread on top of the mayonnaise. Press to firm.
7. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes. Once the bread crumbs on top turn golden, cover top with foil and continue baking at 350 to 375F.
8. Juice from the chicken should start coming out in small quantity after 20-30 minutes.
9. Slice and serve.


Results:
5:51pm, a chicken breast being pounded on:

5:56pm, three pieces of pounded chicken breast:

6:05pm, chicken rolled up in cottage cheese and wrapped by bacon:

6:12pm, chicken roll covered with mixture of bread crumbs, okara and parsley:

6:14pm, to bake in toaster oven at 350F, at first uncovered, then when bread crumbs turn golden, cover with foil:

6:53pm, baked 40 minutes, with a little liquid from the chicken:

6:54pm, cut to see doneness:

6:56pm, to serve:

7:04pm, a juicy bite:

Observations:
1. The cooked bacon has a small amount of grease that helps provide some fat to the chicken. The bacon, cottage cheese, and mayonnaise all are richly flavorful. Therefore, the dish does not need extra seasoning.
2. The chicken breast is surprisingly tender, to an unbelievable extent.

Guinness beef stew

Hubby really likes Guinness beef stew, and it's one of the easiest. This time, I've got pretty good beef.


Recipe: Guinness beef stew

Ingredients:
- 2 beef round steak, cut to 2-3" cubes
- 1 can Guinness
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup green peas
- 1 TB cornstarch

Procedure:
1. Rinse beef. Add to pot. Add onion. Then add guinness. If the beer is not enough to cover the meat, top with water.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then turn heat down to low or med-low. Let simmer 1 hour.
4. Allow to cool on stove top. Chill overnight.
5. Half an hour before serving, heat up mixture. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
6. Remove beef from pot. Add peas and cook for 30 seconds. Turn heat down to low or med-low. Dissolve cornstarch in 2 TB water. Add into the pot and stir until a thick paste is formed. Mix with beef and serve.

This time the beef must have been really good. Without doing much, the meat is tender and juicy.

Stir-frying beef

Recently I tried out the technique of dusting beef with flour before browning. This technique has been so successful with my beef stew that I adopted it for stir frying as well. It results in a rather tender and juicy beef. The down side of this cooking is that the flour tends to stick to the pan.

Recipe: Beef stir fry with apple and carrot (for 2-3)

Ingredients:
- 1 slice of beef round steak, trimmed of fat and thinly sliced
- 1-2 TB flour
- 1/2 of an apple, cubed
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 of a medium onion
- 2 tp light soy sauce
- 2 TB oil

Procedure:
1. Dry beef with paper towel. Coat each piece with flour on all sides.
2. Heat oil in heavy skillet. Turn heat down. Place slices of beef flat on the skillet. Shake the pan to prevent the beef from sticking to the bottom. Let cook for 1-2 minutes or until bottom side is done. Flip. and cook the top side likewise. Then remove beef from pan.
3. Add apple, carrot and onion to the pan. Cook for a minute or two. If the bottom of the pan is stuck with flour, add a little water to loosen the bits.
4. Return beef to pan. Stir. Add soy sauce and let sizzle. Serve hot.

Big feast

Tonight's feast:

Coconut pork curry

Dark and sweet buns

scallop tofu

Indian bittermelon and chicken, fried with fermented black bean sauce

And yuchoi fried with pork (no picture).

Dessert: chocolate cakes

Scallop tofu

Recipe: Scallop tofu

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup dried scallops, soaked 4 hours
- 8 large dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 1/2 hour
- 2 oz pork, cubed to 1"
- 1 pack soft tofu
- 1/4 cup green peas
-  1 TB hoisin sauce
- water
- 1 tp cornstarch

Procedure:
1. Add scallop with all its soaking water, and mushrooms with half the water, and raw pork into a pot.
2. Add water to cover. Mix in hoisin sauce. Then bring to a boil. Cook until the scallops are flaked. About 20 minutes.
3. Remove scallops and mushrooms from pot.
4. Add tofu, cubed to pot. Let cook on med-high until boiling.
5. Place tofu, mushrooms and scallops in serving bowl.
6. Add green peas to gravy. Bring to boil, 1 minute.
7. Add 1 tp cornstarch to 2 TB water. Add to gravy to thicken.
8.  Pour thickened gravy on serving bowl. Serve.

Coconut pork curry

Recipe: Coconut pork curry

Ingredients:
- 2 lb pork, cut to 2-3 inch pieces
- 1 small chinese eggplant
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 TB turmeric powder
- 1 TB garlic powder
- 1/2+1/4 tp kosher salt
- 3 TB flour
- 3 TB oil
- 2-3 TB coconut paste

Procedure:
1. Dry pork pieces. Dust with flour.
2. Brown pork in oil, in a heavy skillet.
3. Remove pork from pan. Add chopped onion to pan to cook.
4. When onion is sizzling, add a little water to soften.
5. Place onion, pork and juice from cooking into a medium pot. Add water to half cover the ingredients. Add turmeric, garlic and salt. Bring to a boil. Then turn heat to low. Simmer for 1/2 hour with lid covered.
6. Chop eggplant. Add to the top of the mixture. Cover lid to let simmer, so that eggplant is steamed.
7. Gently mix the eggplant with gravy. Then remove all solid ingredients from pot, and place in serving bowl.
8. Add coconut paste to pot. Cook until melted. Then Pour gravy into serving bowl. Keep warm until serve.

3:42pm, browning pork coated with flour:

3:47pm, browned pork:

3:50pm, onion cooking:

3:54pm, onion transferred to pot:

3:55pm, pork added to pot:

4:07pm, spices added to pot:

5:55pm, cooked, with eggplants:

5:58pm, coconut gravy added: