Hot Garlic-Buttered Asparagus

I love Asparagus.

Too bad I do not cook them more often, since finding fresh, tender asparagus at a reasonable price, is very difficult.

On my way home from work yesterday, I stopped by the store to pick up some bread, and birthday candles, and horrah! there was asparagus sitting there!

Unfortunately, because I got off work a little late yesterday, the post-work shopping crowd came and left and took all the good asparagus. =(
Shifting through the remains, I found a decent bunch, and carried the poor reject home.

Hot Garlic-Buttered Asparagus

Ingredients
- 1 small bunch of asparagus (it was pre-bunched by the store, so I am unsure how much it weighed... 0.5 pounds - 1 pound?)
- 1 tbsp of butter
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper

(salt and pepper amount can be increased or decreased based on personal preference)

Instructions
1. Wash the asparagus then cut about 0.5-1 inch off the base of each asparagus. The base is too tough to eat.
2. Peel the outer skin off the bottom of your trimmed asparagus. This skin is fibrous, but is just way too hard for my teeth to handle.
3. Boil enough water to submerge the asparagus. Boil the asparagus for about 5 minutes, or until fully cooked.


















4. When the asparagus is done boiling, remove the asparagus and set aside. Dump water out.
5. Place butter in heated skillet
6. When butter is melted, toss in minced garlic and saute until golden
7. Place asparagus into skillet, until asparagus is evenly coated with butter and garlic


















8. Toss in salt and pepper, and turn the asparagus until the salt and pepper is evenly distributed.
9. When asparagus is at your desired tenderness and flavor, then the asparagus is done!


Here is my asparagus!


















It was quite delicious, tender, and tasty.















CLOSE-UP PAPARAZZI PHOTO!

Steamed Live Rock Crabs

I went to the Asian supermarket "Ranch 99" today (or is it "99 Ranch"??) and I bought 2 large Live Rock Crabs !!

They looked small when Jeff and I picked the crab out of the water tank,
bigger when we stuffed the crabs into plastic bags,
and gigantic when we took the crabs home and opened up the bags!!

I was so excited over eating fresh crabs, that I went camera crazy today.
Look how gigantic these beauties are!




















The crab with his giant claws, and me with my perfectly manicured claws, uh I mean, nails.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------























The crab is bigger than my head! (He looked much smaller at the store)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


















Jeff's crab is humongous too!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steamed Rock Crabs (with dumplings on the side)
*note*
I do not recommend boiling crabs and dumplings because all their flavors just run into the boiling water, and all you're left with is soaking wet, flavorless, crab and dumplings.
So unless you plan on drinking the boiled water,
I recommend steaming your crabs of dumplings instead.

Ingredients:
- 2 Crabs (or as many crabs as you want that fits in your steamer)
- 1 Steamer!

Instructions:
1. Wash the crabs clean

2. Pose and take a lot of pretty photos with the crabs

3. Place crabs in the steamer. Fill steamer up with water and turn on stove on high.


















hi-yah! Mortal Kombat Crabs!
(notice their interlocking claws)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------























Mortal Kombat crabs, ready to be steamed! Hi-yah!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because I was using my 3 tiered steamer, but the crabs only occupied the middle tier,
I decided to put the top tier to use, by throwing some Asian dumplings !



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Before placing dumplings into steamer, be sure to oil the bottom of the steamer, to prevent the fragile dumpling skin from sticking to the steamer.

5. Cover the steamer!
























6. After the water boils, turn the heat down to a medium, and steam for about 15-20 minutes.

7. The dumplings are ready!



















8. Let's take a peek at the steaming crabs. Yum! Steaming hot!



















9. Bright orange, hot, and freshly steamed crabs on a platter



































How To Serve The Crabs:

The wonderful thing about eating crabs, is that they have their own natural seafoody flavor, so eating the crabs plain is always a delicious option.

Of course, crabs can always be eaten with dips and sauces such as:

Lime juice + Salt
1. Squeeze the juice out of some limes
2. Pour a pile of salt in the middle of the lime juice.
3. Serve lime juice in a dipping bowl


Hot Butter dip (not for the health conscious)
1. Melt butter on low heat over the stove.
2. Place butter in a dipping bowl
3. Dip crab meat into butter, or use a brush to lightly brush your crab with butter.


and now..... my all time favorite dip: .....
Crab Brain+Gut Dip
1. Crabs come with crab goo, located right under the shell of the crab. It's green and white and tastes so good.
2. This "crab goo" is naturally flavored, somewhat salty (from living in the salty sea!).
3. When you remove the crab shell from the body of the crab, turn the shell over and mix the goo. Dip your crab meat in this goo.
4. Not only does the crab supply his own flesh for your consuming entertainment, but the crab also supplies the dip for you too!


And here's Jeff, happily enjoying the crab, with the Crab Gut Dip!! (next to his left hand)


















YUMMY!

Picking out crabs, cooking crabs, de-shelling the crab, and eating the crab, makes both: a very fun meal and a really fun afternoon activity!!

Pan Fried Pompano Fish

I love Asian pan fried fish! I wish I had fish more often, but it's so hard when there is not Asian super maket nearby.

I luckily was able to buy some pompano fish recently, so I was quite happy. They taste good and are relatively cheap!

Pan Fried Pompano

Ingredients
- 2 Pompano fishes
- 6 thin slices of Ginger Root
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 - 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp oil

Preparation:
1. If the fish is not already gutted, gut the fish.
2. You gut fish by first cutting right under the fish's head. Then make an incision from underneath the head, down to the fish's belly. Yank out the innards and guts, and wash clean.
3. When fish is cleaned, rub salt all over the outside and inside of the fish.
4. Lay sliced ginger both outside and inside the fish.

Here is my prepared fish (still raw):


















Cooking Instructions:
5. Place oil in skillet. When oil is hot, lay the fish into the skillet and cover.
6. When the fish is done cooking on one side (about 5 minutes on high heat), turn the fish over, being careful not the tear the thin fish skin. (Add more oil if you're having trouble).
7. Turn the fish over and cook until that side of the fish is cooked (about another 5 minutes or so). Cover or don't cover, your preference.
8. Pour soy sauce into skillet, then pour in water, making this gravy.
9. Turn fish over until both sides of the fish are coated in the gravy.
10. When the gravy thickens, the fish is done!

Here is my finished masterpiece. Mmm.:

Stuffed Baby Eggplants

My sister/roommate Grace surprised me when she came home one day with the cutest, purplest, babiest, eggplants!
They so adorable. (goochie goochie gooo....)

My sister told me to take the baby eggplants and to "work it".
I was not sure how to "work it", but I felt quite nervous, feeling the expectation to make delicious eggplants! oh no!
So I decided to stuff these little babies. And I was quite happy with the result!
(thanks to Jeff for helping me chop the veggies and being my little kitchen helper!)

These Stuffed Baby Eggplants makes wonderful appetizers or party favors!


Stuffed Baby Eggplants

Ingredients
- 8 Baby Eggplants
- 4 tbsp Green Bell Peppers (diced)
- 4 tbsp Onion (diced)
- 2 cloves Garlic (diced)
- 8 tbsp Bread Crumbs
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 8 oz bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions:
1. Wash all your vegetables, bowls, utensils, and pots!
2. Remove the stems off the eggplants and cut each eggplant in half lengthwise. Scoop out the pulp using a spoon, leaving 1/4 inch thick shells



















3. Chop/dice (your preference) the eggplant pulp/meat and place into a bowl.
4. Add diced bell peppers, diced onion, and diced garlic into the bowl of eggplant pulp.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
6. Spray non-stick cooking spray, or evenly grease a baking pan. Place shells face up into the baking pan.
7. Place olive oil into a skillet and heat up the oil on the stove, on high.
8. When oil is hot, add the bowl of eggplant-pulp mixture and cook until ingredients are tender.
9. When mixture is done, remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese, the eggs, then the bread crumbs, then the herbs and salt.
10. Spoon eggplant-pulp mixture evenly into the eggplant shells.
11. Place eggplant shells into the oven, at 350 degrees, for about 25 minutes, or until the shells are softened.
12. When the stuffed eggplants are ready, sprinkled mozerella cheese over the eggplants, and pop them into the oven for another 3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Here is the finished result!:

Updated French Onion Soup Photo

So my last french onion soup photo came out really bad.
I apologize.
But I took a new photo, and it came out much better, so here it is!

Jen's French Onion Soup (excuse the burnt cheese pieces on the sides of the bowl)

peaches on growth hormones!

When Jeff and I drove up to SF this weekend,
we also stopped by to visit Jeff's Dad and Grandma in Oakland.

During our visit, we were given a big heaping bag of peaches!
And these were the biggest peaches I have ever seen (either that or I have only eaten puny peaches in my lifetime).

Look at them!
I think I smell a fruit/peach salad coming soon!
















--------------------
I also purchased a 3-tiered stacked steamer when I was up in Oakland.
So horray! I can steam foods in abundant amounts now!

Steamed Chicken

Until I have a steamer, I will have to continue cooking with my weird steaming-apparatus.. =/

Oh well. I like steaming my food now! Because it's so much healthier than cooking things in a pan with oil, and it retains more flavor than boiling (and boiling causes meat to dry out too!)

So yay for steaming!
If anyone feeling generous, feel free to buy me a food steamer.... =D!
You can purchase my ideal food steamer here!:
http://importfood.com/stacked_steamer.html

So anyways, because I used a make-shift steamer, I was only able to steam about a pound of chicken.
However, I recommend that this dish be made in larger amounts, so I will be writing the recipe in terms of 3 pounds of chicken.

Salty Steamed Chicken

Ingredients:
- 1 Whole Chicken (or about 3 pounds of chicken pieces)
- 1- 1.5 tbsp Salt (try this. if you prefer a more salty flavor, up the salt to 2 tbsp)
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Fresh Ginger (sliced)
- 2 stalks of Green Onions (sliced)

For Dipping Sauce
- 2 cloves Garlic (chopped)
- 1 tsp Fresh Ginger (sliced)
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- pinch of sugar

*note*
I personally was not too fond of the dipping sauce, even though the other dip-user liked it.
Perhaps the next time I make steamed chicken, I will make a fish-sauce based dipping sauce in addition to this dipping sauce, so everyone can be happy!

Instructions:
1. Wash chicken and cut off any excess fat (eww... fat ::shudder::)
2. Rub salt, sugar, green onion, and ginger all over chicken and under the skin.
3. Set chicken in the steamer, and let steam for about 1 hour.
4. The chicken should be done when it's no long pink near the bone, and does not bleed.
5. When chicken is fully cooked, remove the chicken from the fatty water it's sitting in.
6. For the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients together.
7. Slice chicken and serve with the dipping sauce in a separate bowl.

how simple.
...
so simple, you (yes YOU) should make me some steamed chicken, while I go take a nap. =)

FRIED RICE. so typical

FRIED RICE. so typical,
it should not even be blogged about on here!
I wanted to keep my blog with recipes of meals that are more rare, more special.

However, the fried rice I made last night came out so pretty, and so good, that I couldn't resist blogging.

I mean.... how can you say 'no' to my bucket-full of fried rice?




















Half-full bucket!





















Zooooomed-in bucket!

Asian Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients:
- 2 cups rice (uncooked). Cook rice beforehand, let it cool.
- 1 pound chicken breasts, cut into small cubes
- 3 sweet chinese sausages, cooked and cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup of frozen mixed vegetables
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp Lawry's Seasoned Salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper (more or less depending on how much you like black pepper. or none at all!)
- 2-3 tbsp soy sauce (more or less, depending on how salty you want it).
- half small yellow onion, diced.
- seasame oil

Instructions:

1. Add sesame oil to skillet, and pour in eggs when the oil is hot.
2. Scramble the eggs and add in the salt.
3. When the eggs are scrambled, scoop them out of the skillet and set aside.
4. Add sesame oil to the skillet once again, and pour in onions when the oil is hot.
5. Saute onions until golden, then add in cubed chicken breast.
6. Saute and turn the chicken+onions until the chicken is no longer pink. Add in seasoned salt and turn some more.
7. Scoop out chicken+onions and set aside.
8. Pour cold rice into the skillet. Constantly turn the rice until the rice is thoroughly heated.
9. Add the scrambled eggs, chicken+onions, chinese sausages, and frozen vegetables into the rice.
10. Turn the rice until all the ingredients are thoroughly heated/cooked. Then add in the soy sauce.
11. Turn the rice mixture until the soy sauce is distributed evently. The rice should be a uniform light brown color (refer to my fried rice images above).
12. Taste test the fried rice. If it is the way you like it, then it's done!


*note* I did not do it for my dish, because I did not have any, but adding chopped green onions into the rice adds more flavor and fragrance into your fried rice.