Fried Rice

2nd of the 2 fried rice dishes posted here...

TIPS:
1. Pre-cook the rice and chill overnight in the refrigerator. This will give the rice separation and not stick to each other when you stir-fry the rice together with the other ingredients.
2. Instead of adding extra oil to fry the rice during the cooking process (when you see that the rice is dry or it is starting to burn), use broth or water to moisten the rice.

Tofu Patties

Do not fear tofu. Tofu is versatile, and can be included in many dishes. The flavor is bland to mild, so it is easy to accommodate into a variety of flavored dishes.

For a quick tofu dish that is high in protein and low in fat, make tofu patties seasoned with salt and pepper and whatever spice you desire. Saute in a bit of oil on both sides until golden brown, and serve.

For an asian taste, season with soy sauce instead of salt and add drops of sesame oil to marinade. You could also try for an Italian version and sprinkle Italian seasoning and pair it with tomato sauce at the end. If you like the taste of India, use curry powder to enhance the flavor of India. As you can see, tofu is not as difficult as you may think.

Labne - Kefir Cheese

I purchased a 16 ounce tub of homemade labne, aka kefir cheese, at the local international supermarket. It resembles mascarpone, only sour. The soft and creamy consistency is mild and its texture is soft and smooth.

You can serve it alone as a light snack or an accompaniment to anything else. It pairs well with bagels or veggie sticks.

I have made home made kefir cheese by over-fermenting kefir until the separation occurs into curds and whey. It does not look this smooth, but resembles more of a cottage cheese consistency.

Japanese cuisine

Fresh seafood and meat at a good Japanese restaurant ranks high on my list of favorite foods. Above photos show an assortment of fresh sushi, fried whole soft shelled crab, and lime juiced raw beef.

Mochi - Rice Cake

Glutinous rice cakes with sweet fillings inside. Any type of sweet filling can make mochi unique. You can coat the outside of the cake (to prevent sticking) with either some type of flour/starch or coconut shreds or sesame seeds.  The photos above show versions of peanut candy powder and melted chocolate.

Diner food

I choose diner food before fast food. Food is fast but doesn't look as fast as fast food. Sometimes I just crave milkshake, burger, and fries.

Jellyfish

I grew up eating jellyfish. In Hong Kong, I remember eating jellyfish at every wedding.

I found a package of cooked and prepared jellyfish at my local Chinese grocery store. I was excited to try it. It came packaged separately with a seasoning and chili sauce packets. As simple as opening each bag and combining the ingredients, the jellyfish dish was ready to devour. It is as I remember--a bit rubbery, but not tough, with a distinct indescribable taste. Flavor is mild and fresh, not fishy. Jellyfish is best eaten fresh so that it has that "crunch" of a cartilage-like texture.

Did you know that jellyfish does not have a brain, heart, or lungs? It is an entire nervous system, providing calcium binding proteins for nutritional benefits.

Stir Fry - Pork & Bok Choy

Meat and veggies over rice is my comfort food. I never feel miserable even after a large meal like this.

Substitute any type of meat or vegetable to this dish. White rice is the best staple to this dish, without over-powering or competing with the flavors of the other ingredients.

Salt and pepper it, satay it, garlic it, or five-spice it up, etc. It is MY fast food health food.

Curry Chicken with Potatoes

The more spicy you prefer, the more curry powder you add. I like it mild to medium spicy, but I mainly cook it mild for the entire family. I sear and saute everything separately starting with the onions, potatoes, and chicken drumsticks. You do not have to cook those ingredients thoroughly since they'll be cooked further--simmered altogether in chicken broth. I like to brown the outside to give the dish more flavor. This type of stew can be made ahead of time and left overnight for a higher intensity of flavor. The sauce will automatically thicken from the starch of the potatoes. Add salt accordingly and you could leave out the pepper since the curry is spicy enough. This dish is great to add on top of rice and eaten as a comfort food on a cold day.

My Comfort Food

Simple to prepare, this combination bowl of what I consider to be comfort food, satisfies my hunger late at night.

Prepare rice ahead of time and you will have it ready for nights like these. TIP: I pre-separated and frozen smokies ahead of time so that when I need to cook just a few, they are easy to take out. Fried egg over-easy or sunny-side up with soy sauce drizzled on top makes the perfect accompaniment.

For a healthier version, there are organic, antibiotic and hormone-free sausages "smokies" available at your local health food grocery store. They taste great!

Cookie Monster

Monster cookie, bitten from one large cookie monster.

Breakfast meets dinner food, for supper

Have you ever had breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast? This is soy sauce scrambled eggs with tomatoes and bok choy all-in-one. Stir-fried separately and then combined together makes a combination to eat over rice.

Scrambled eggs salted with soy sauce transforms to a Chinese version, that even a young child prefers it over regular-salted scrambled eggs.

The sweet and sour flavor of the tomatoes plus the savory and saltiness of the eggs completes this combination of flavors.

Shrimp crackers

Shrimp crackers or shrimp chips are very popular in Asia. It doesn't actually taste like shrimp but it has a distinct seafood flavor, unlike the regular American potato chip. Most versions of shrimp crackers (which may be from various Asian countries) differ slightly in flavor. MSG is a common component, which makes it more or less "tasty" to certain palettes...To "eats" his own!

Sweet Potato Casserole

There are many versions of sweet potato casserole. The one with a crumb nutty topping is my favorite.

Sticky Rice with Taro

Thai dessert -- glutinous rice dessert filled with taro paste. It is sweet with a milky and a hint of coconut milk flavor.

You can purchase this at the frozen section of an Asian market. To prepare, simply steam it, covered, for 10-15 minutes in a simmering pot of water. It is already sweetened so there is no need to add any sweeteners. It is best eaten warm while soft.

You will normally find it wrapped in leaves (possibly bamboo). Make sure to steam while wrapped in the leaves to prevent the sticky rice from sticking to your dinnerware and falling apart in the pot of steam.

Grass Jelly

A refreshing Asian dessert made from a type of grass/herb, in the mint family. If not made fresh, it is normally sold in cans in a whole jellied state. You can cube it, slice it, dice it, or cut it up in any form. As a child, my mother would cube it and mix it with sugar or "block brown sugar" syrup (sold in Asian grocery stores and different from brown sugar as we know from American grocery stores).

Best to cool the entire can prior to serving, then sweeten it to balance the bitterness. Strips of grass jelly can also be found in some Asian dessert drinks, or mixed with evaporated milk along with sugar for a different variety.

Acquired taste--its combination of the name, its bitterness, and the color may be offensive; therefore, recommended for food adventurists.

Eat Local

Grow your own vegetables. I make mine organic, without pesticides. Less is best. Certain herbs, such as rosemary, mint, and cilantro deter insects. Flowers like marigolds are also good insect deterrents. There are healthy versions of insect deterrents you can administer if you choose to go that route. Rain water is better than  community water--no added chlorine plus other chemical and contaminants. Growing your own is the freshest and most local you'll ever get. Nutrients are kept best when it is picked when ripe and eaten quickly afterwards. Fresh is best.

Onion Pancake

Chinese style pancake--pan fried with little oil and eaten without syrup. It is considered as breakfast food but there's nothing sweet about this dish. It is normally cut up like a pizza and eaten without condiments. Made with wheat flour and sprinkles of green onions, this salty flat bread is a popular accompaniment to congee and noodles.

Jung

Jung is the Chinese (Cantonese) translation.

This sticky rice bundle stuffed with a myriad of different ingredients (some or all of but not limited to these): pork, Chinese sausage, duck egg, shiitake mushroom, mung bean, dried shrimp.It is wrapped in softened (soaked) bamboo leaves and bounded tightly and tied to hold in all ingredients before cooking. Initially it is boiled for several hours, then can be frozen and then reheated by boiling or steaming (my preference) before eating.

Preparing and making jung involves much effort, patience, and organization. Jung is mainly eaten during the winter season. After steaming, cut the string and carefully lift open the leaves (caution! hot steam), to enjoy a warm and savory all-in-one meal.
Optional: chestnuts. Roast or boil, then peel the skin and chop to smaller pieces to combine with the other ingredients. Chestnuts have a mild nutty flavor. They are soft and dry when cooked.


Optional: dried scallops. Soak until soft, then peel apart into slivers. A little goes a long way in flavor with dried scallops.


Glutinous or sticky rice is short-grained. Once cooked, it is literally sticky and the grains stick together like glue. (Photo shows the uncooked rice.)


Mung beans are small yellow or green colored beans. The beans are cooked before stuffing into the jung, to ensure that it will be cooked thoroughly. The mung bean layer sits adjacent to the glutinous rice before other ingredients are stuffed inside the jung.

Dried shrimp has a very deep shrimp flavor. You don't need much since its flavor is stronger than most of the other ingredients. It needs to be soaked before cooking. Soaking will make it soft and more plump than the dried version.



Chinese roasted pork is a popular type of meat used to stuff jung. Some use chicken. The roasted pork adds immense meaty flavor.


Two or three long bamboo leaves are used to wrap jung. The wrapping style and stuffing ingredients will depend on the region, or from personal preference of how jung preparers were taught to wrap jung. You may notice that the jung in Chinese grocery stores or restaurants will differ slightly from each other.



A sample jung half-way devoured. This is a different type of jung than the ones shown above. This "Shanghai jung" is slightly larger and more triangularly wrapped. Its ingredients are similar to any other jung.

Glutinous Rice Balls - Savory (Rice Ball Soup)

Similar to chicken and dumplings, but Chinese version, with chicken and glutinous rice balls in place of wheat dumplings. This is my ultimate comfort food eaten during the winter season.

The chicken broth is simmered from the chicken drumsticks in this recipe. Rice balls are prepared ahead of time so that they are added to the boiling soup at the end to cook until they float. Slices of daikon (asian radish) and shitake mushroom adds flavor to the broth. Slices of ginger are added to the broth to give it some zing.

Glutinous Rice Balls - Sweet

uncooked glutinous rice balls

cooked rice balls in simple syrup (with hint of ginger)

cooked rice balls in peanut paste

Some call this mochi (Japanese name). This sweet dessert dish is popular during the winter solstice, and is also eaten during Chinese Lunar New Year.

The sugar syrup is best simmered with a couple slices of ginger and a small sliver of orange rind to provide that hint of gingery citrusy flavor.

Glutinous rice balls, as the name indicates, is made from glutinous rice flour. The dough is formed by adding water to produce a smooth ball of dough.

Dessert rice balls can be plain or center-filled. Popular fillings include sesame, red bean and peanut pastes. Dessert rice balls with filling inside compares to chocolate molten lava cakes. The filling spills out with each bite.

TIP: Place rice balls on a tray to freeze separately, then remove to store in bag. Then it will not stick together when freezing.

All Things Pumpkin

Pumpkin cheesecake bars

Pumpkin bread

Pumpkin loaves

Pumpkin tart

Not many people enjoy the taste of pumpkin. It's an acquired taste. With Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays close together, it is almost impossible to avoid hearing about pumpkin on TV or seeing it at the store.

This nutrient-rich fruit is healthy and versatile. Almost the entire melon is used. It has a high beta-carotene content and is packed with antioxidants. It can be used as decoration or as an art project. Its seeds can be roasted and enjoyed as a snack. Its pulp/flesh can be used in many other desserts such as the most popular pumpkin pie.