Friday, May 25, 2012

Fish & Sausage Gumbo

Fish & Sausage Gumbo



This was the first time I made gumbo. As I said in other articles, I've been cleaning out my fridge, so I thought it would be a good idea to make gumbo since I have bell pepper, tomato, okra and fish in my fridge. So the only two things I had to get from the store is the sausage (well, it's not necessary, but I thought I might like my gumbo with it) and an onion.

As a person doesn't like carrots, mirepoix is definitely not my choice, but I didn't follow the holy trinity rule either. For some reason I just used cabbage instead of celery. I added tomato in, so I think it's more Creole than Cajun variety of gumbo.

I love my gumbo!!! It was so delicious!! I'm so gonna make this again!




Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Spinach with Braised Ground Pork

Spinach with Braised Ground Pork


Well, I am just trying to clean out my fridge since I'm moving out soon. So there's no recipe of the Chinese Braised Ground Pork today, but I promise I'll write a good one about it in the future.


P.S. In Taiwan, where I came from, it's very popular to see a plate of boiled spinach or Bok Choy, or other kinds of vegetable with the braised ground pork on the top in the restaurants or diners (the only difference is it's not plated like what in my photo).


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Niçoise salad


Niçoise Salad

Acutually, both are non-traditional Niçoise Salad, especially the second one.
To my knowledge, the traditional Niçoise consists of lettuce, canned tuna(in oil), hard-boiled eggs, tomato, olives, green beans, and anchovies. Sometimes potatoes, artichoke hearts and red pepper might be added too.


I am not a canned tuna fan, I prefer raw or seared tuna, and don't like hard boiled eggs either, I dislike the egg yolk hard-boiled, I like it still soft, such as coddled egg. And I did not add anchovies in my salad.

The first one, I did add green beans, but they were hiding under the mixed greens, and the second one, i used strawberries instead of tomatoes (cuz I had two boxes of strawberries in my fridge). I was kinda worried about if it would be weird, but it was actually quite tasty!


The first one was made months ago, and the second one was my dinner today. Both were very good. Although I'm not quite into olives, somehow I really like Niçoise Salad. Maybe next time I'll try tinned tuna, maybe, I'm just saying maybe. :P


Monday, May 14, 2012

Chikuzen-ni (筑前煮/ がめ煮)


Chikuzenni


Since I still had one more pack of bamboo shoots, so after I finally finished the Bamboo Shoots with Salted Duck Egg, I was thinking what else I could make. My friend gave me this idea: Chikuzenni. 

Ok, so let's start this: what is Chikuzenni?
This is what said on wiki:
Chikuzenni is a dish that originated from northern Kyushu, Japan, made of braised chicken and vegetables. It is often eaten when ringing in the new year in Japan
The ingredients are first sautéd together in oil. Bring dashi, shitake flavored broth, and mirin (sweet rice seasoning) to a simmer and let the chicken cook in the mixture. Then, insert taro root, dried shitake mushrooms, konnyaku (yam cake), burdock root, lotus root, and carrots, and cook until the vegetables are tender. Sometimes, snap peas are added after the vegetables are completely cooked.


Recipe?
I'm lazy and not in a mood today, so here is the link of Japanese recipe. Well, there are lots of photos, so even though you cannot read Japanese, I believe you can still easily figure out what's going on in the photos.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bamboo Shoots with Salted Duck Egg (鹹蛋竹筍)


 
Bamboo Shoots with Salted Duck Egg


I'd been craving for this dish for months. So one day when I went to the Asian supermarket, I purchased two packs of vacuum packaging bamboo shoots.



Ingredients:
Salted Duck Egg
Bamboo Shoots
Green Onion
Broth
Sugar
Salt
White Pepper Powder
Chile Pepper (depends, only if you like it)



Put bamboo shoots in the broth and cook them with low heat. (about 8-10 minutes)

Unshell the duck Egg(s), and smash the egg(s).

Add some oil in the pan, put the smashed egg in and stir it with medium-low heat.

Add the bamboo shoots in.

Season it. ( Be careful the salt! It depends on how salty your duck egg is, there's no way I can tell you how much salt you should add in)

Add the Chile Pepper (if you like) and green onions. Done!

Enjoy it~~

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Angel Food Cake with Strawberries




I have a big sweet tooth, I mean, you can even call me an ant. If I don't have to worry about weight problem or health, I can eat only sweet stuffs.

So when I'm in a good mood, I eat dessert to celebrate my life; if I'm in pain or sadness, I eat dessert to cheer myself up.

Strawberries, ice cream, Angel Food Cake~~ All these combined together makes me feel better, no, much much better :-)


Monday, May 7, 2012

Cold Cucumber Side-dish





Cold Cucumber Side-dish




Summer is coming soon.
Sometimes in hot days, I don't have appetite for food, but something sour and a little spicy can always give me good appetite easily.

Here are two flavor but four different cutting way of the cold cucumber side-dish. Me personally like the fourth the best, cuz it's the easiest way to prep and it's what my mom always did since I was a kid.

The first two were only seasoned with sugar and salt. The last two were seasoned with salt, soy sauce, vinegar, Doubanjiang and crushed garlic cloves (just put the garlic cloves between cutting board and knife, press the knife-- which your knife is not perpendicular to the cutting board, it's put flat as the cutting board is, until the garlic cloves got crushed. And it's how you make the cucumbers into the way in the 4th picture)


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Tuna & Tofu Salad


Tuna & Tofu Salad


Ingredients:
Tuna
Tofu
Mixed Salad Leaves
Dashi ( Japanese broth)
Soy Sauce
Shichimi Togarashi ( A Japanese spice mixture )  
Sugar
Salad Dressing



Cut tuna and tofu into cubes ( about 0.3-0.5 inches per side ).

Put tofu cubes into dashi, cook it over low heat for 10 minutes.

Put tuna cubes into a bowl, then add some soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and Shichimi to season the tuna. ( about 10 minutes as well )

Scoop up the tofu cubes from the dashi, then put them in a plate to cool down.

Put mixed salad leaves, tuna and tofu all together on a plate, add some salad dressing (whatever you like works. I used Asian Sesame Dressing)

Enjoy it~~



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Gao-Sheng Spareribs (高昇排骨)


Gao-Sheng Spareribs
( 高昇排骨 )


This is a Chinese dish, which is called Gao-Sheng Spareribs. Gao-Sheng means promotion. Why it has a such interesting name? Let me tell you the recipe, then you will understand.


Ingredients:
Spareribs
Soy Sauce
Sugar
Vinegar
Rice Wine
Water
Olive Oil
Garlic & Ginger



Fill a pot with oil until it is 2-5 inches deep (depends on the amount and size of spareribs you cook, so as long as the oil can cover the ribs, then it's enough). Turn to medium-high heat. Cook pork until golden brown.
( The other way is to boil a pot of water, then put the spareribs in, and cook them until all the dirty blood all comes out )

Get the spareribs out, and put them aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and ginger, stir until fragrant. Add the spareribs in, then add rice wine, vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce in. Cook the sauce and spareribs for about 5-8 minutes and transfer to a bowl.

Then, enjoy this dish~~~~

The most important thing is the proportion.
Rice wine : Vinegar : Sugar : Soy sauce = 1:2:3:4
Now you understand why it is called Promotion Spareribs. :)
I don't write it as Tbsp or tbsp is because it depends on how much your spareribs you use, like today I only cooked 6 small pieces of spareribs, so i only added 1.5tbsp rice wine, 3tbsp vinegar, 4.5 tbsp sugar and 6tbsp soy sauce. If you cook much more than me, you can add some water in as well, that way will cook easily.


P.S.
The vinegar in this recipe I strongly suggest to use the dark color vinegar ( in Chinese, it's called 烏醋 )