Dessert- fried plantains

Plantains are so delicious, and make a very delicious dessert. I like to eat these after a meal since they are very very sweet!

For those who do not know, a plantain is a starchy banana-like fruit, eaten (always cooked) as a staple vegetable throughout the tropic regions around the world.

Plantain Guide (stolen from the sticker on the plantain):
Green - Use like a potato! Perfect as a side dish, in soups, and stews or deep fried.
Yellow with Brown Spots - Great fried and mashed.
Black: Sweet and mainly used as a dessert.

For me, I like slicing my bananas and frying them in a little bit of oil.

Fried Plantains

Ingredients:
- 1 plantain
- 2 tbp cooking oil
- paper towels to blot the oil, when done frying.

Instructions:
1) Get your plantain! Mine is yellowy-brown!



















2) Slice plantains into coins

3) Heat up oil. Then fry the bananas.

4) Turn bananas over when it turns golden.















5) Yummy and Easy peasy!!

2x Mushrooms & Tofu

I have been sick with a cold this week,
so I have not been craving to eat any type of heavy or greasy meat dishes.

I had two types of mushrooms in my fridge (Enoki mushrooms, and this giant mushroom.. i have no idea what breed of mushroom it is... All i know is that I got it from my mom),
and I also had a box of tofu lying around the fridge for quite some time.

What are Enoki mushrooms?
They are a native Asian mushroom commonly found growing on tree trunks or tree roots. Enoki come in clusters of long stems topped with tiny white caps. Enoki are rich in vitamins B1 and B2, and also contain enzymes that are converted into vitamin D in the body. Avoid overcooking to preserve their unique, crunchy, texture.

What is tofu? I should hope you already know this, but just to be safe...
Tofu is a soft food product prepared by treating soybean milk with coagulants (as magnesium chloride or diluted acids) that is rich in protein, and popular in many Asian dishes.

I decided that a light, unfatty, dish is exactly what I am looking for.
I was unsure how to make a dish using tofu and mushrooms, so i just threw them together.
I was quite surprised with the results! It was so delicious!
Try it for yourself! Especially on a sick day.

2 x Mushrooms & Tofu

Ingredients:
- 1 box of tofu (firm)
- 1 giant mushroom
(refer to the middle ingredient in the photo -->)
- 1 bag of Enoki mushrooms
- cooking oil
- 1 tsp tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp salt

Instructions:
1) Cup up tofu into little squares.
2) Slice giant mushroom.
3) Separate Enoki mushrooms (they grow in clusters, so they require separating, with their roots cut off)
4) Heat up cooking oil in pan, then throw in tofu.
5) When tofu is hot, toss in both types of mushrooms.
6) Stir for about 3 minutes. Mix in oyster sauce and salt.
7) Stir until seasoning is evenly distributed.
8) In a seperate bowl, dissolve tapioca starch in the water, then dump the mixture into your pan.
9. Let cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Finished!


The dish is slippery, and gooey.
Goes down a sore-throat very easily.

Enjoy with rice porridge or regular steamed rice.

Salty Tips! Salty Secrets!

Allow me to share some salt tips to my fellow readers:
Oh the wonders that salt can provide....

Salty Tips! Salty Secrets!

- Using a dash of salt in your cooking can enhance the flavors of your food, even if it seems counter-intuitive! I am not sure why this is... I'm no science major, but the salt just seems to distract the tongue from certain flavors and enhancing others??? =/

- When you saute garlic in your cooking oil, right before cooking your dish, it is helpful to add a little salt! This seems to diffuse the flavor evenly throughout your dish, making your dish very tasty (and not too salty!)

- I used to work for a catering company when I was in college (oh the days of scraping in those minimum wage paychecks...). When my bosses were not looking, I always sprinkled a dash of salt into the coffee grinds right before I put it in to brew. Don't worry! The coffee does not come out salty.
Once again, I am not a science major, but I think the salt distracts the tongue from the perception of bitterness, so your cup of coffee appears less bitter. When people add tons of sugar into their coffee, the sugar only attempts to mask the bitterness. But the salt actually fools and distracts your tongue from the bitterness.

- If you have sliced apples that you want to prevent the oxidation process (the browning of sliced apples), soak your sliced apples in a bucket of lighty salted water for a couple of minutes. Rinse before eating.

- When beating eggs or cream, add a pinch of salt before beating. This will whip up your eggs or cream faster

- When I roast chicken, I always rub the inside cavity of the chicken (or foul of your choice) with salt. This makes the chicken tasty from the inside-out, and MOIST!

- It's so hard to wash all that darn dirty our of leafy or tight-knit fruits and vegetables!! (Think spinach, or grapes). Wash your veggie or fruit in a bucket of salted water. This will help cleanse the fruit,, and removes the dirt from the crevices.



Beware! Use salt in moderation!
Of course, please do not consume too much salt.
Eating too much salt is one factor in high blood pressure. And everyone should know that high blood pressure can cause heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems.

How is salt related to high blood pressure?
Sodium is the part of salt that increases blood pressure.

The body needs sodium to hold water in the blood vessels and to regular the water balance within cells. If too much water is held in the body, the amount of blood increases, and that increase in blood will make the heart work much harder, resulting in HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE!

The take home message is:
Salt is very beneficial in the kitchen, but do not overdo it.
Your food won't taste good, and your heart will thank you.

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

Look!
A freight-boat full of salt!
That's a lot of salt! =P

Healthy Dessert - Applesauce!

Apples and Applesauce!

I am cheating a bit, because I have not yet made applesauce yet .
(I've been so busy and tired lately! Forgive me!),
but I decided to put up an applesauce recipe on my blog, for several reasons:

1. I blog too much about food. How about a dessert idea for a change?
2. It's apple season! Even though apples grow year round, their peak season is September to November. And YAY. It's October right now, right in the middle!
3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. And eating applesauce helps you eat more apples!
4. Applesauce is so easy, you can't go wrong. I should not even be writing a recipe about it!

The best apples to use for applesauce making, or canning/storing are:
Golden Delicious, Paula Red, Rhode Island Greening and Spartan.

This is common sense, but when shopping for apples, select firm, shiny apples, and avoid bruised, dented, shriveled apples.

Homemade Applesauce

Ingredients:
- 4 apples of your choice
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 2 tsp. lemon juice

Instructions:
1. Peel and core apples. Cut into chunks.
2. Heat apples and water to a boil.
3. Turn down the heat to a slow simmer, for about 10 minutes.
4. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Add more sugar if it's not sweet enough.
5. Continue to cook on low heat, simmer, for another 10 minutes or until apples are soft enough to mash easily.
6. Remove from heat, and smash smash smash!

This make a fun activity when you're bored....
Well, I guess that means I will be making a lot of applesauce this October then! ho hum....

Braised Pork Feet

Warning: This recipe post is for pork feet, an exotic Asian dish. Close-minded eaters, please refer to the "back" button on your web browser.
Now let's continue.....

The last time I ate pork feet was over 10 years ago. But I remember it was always one of my favorite dishes my mom made. However, as my family became more health conscious and vegetable-oriented, my mom stopped making pork feet.

The other day at Food-4-Less, I saw a pork feet in the meat section, and gave it sad look, exclaiming how I used to love eating pork feet as a child. My boyfriend said to get it anyways, even though I had no idea how to prepare pork feet. I figured that I could easily find a recipe online, so I purchased a 4.5 pound bag of pork feet.

When I searched online for pork feet cooking tips or recipes, I could not find a recipe that looked remotely close to what my mom used to make.
Instead, I kept pulling up a Chinese (Cantonese) recipe for vinegar pork feet, with tons of reviews saying how delicious that dish is.

I decided to follow the vinegar pork recipe a try, and needless to say,
Holy CRAP, the dish came out tasting like crap!
I was so disappointed, so disgusted, and so dejected.

Day two, I decided to try cooking the pig feet again.
I decided to do something simple, so simple it can't possibly go wrong:
Braise the pork in soy sauce!

For those who do not know, to BRAISE is to slowly cook vegetables or meat in a small amount of liquid, in a closed container
YUM.
The pork feet came out so tender, flavorful, and delicious, and just like the way I liked it as a child.

So I learned my lesson..........
I don't like vinegar, and I'm better off making recipes off the top of my head.


Braised Pork Feet

Ingredients:
- 4-5 pounds of pork feet (please have the butcher cut the pork into smaller pieces. It's impossible to cut at home!)
- 1 cup of soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 oz of ginger, sliced.
- 6 cups of boiling water

Instructions:
1. Submerge the pork feet into the 6 cups of boiling water, and boil for about 6 minutes.
2. Dirty foam from the pork feet should be on the surface of the water. I boil the pig feet to get all this foam and dirt out of the meat, so I don't have to eat it.
3. Toss the dirty boiling water out, and wash all the pork feet with cold water.





The piggie feet are now alllll clean!









4. In a clean pot, boil the 1 cup of water and 1 cup of soy sauce.
5. When the mixture boils, dissolve the 1 cup of brown sugar (you can also use 3/4 brown sugar and 1/4 white sugar if you like).
6. Toss in the sliced ginger.
7. When the sugar is dissolved, place the pork feet into the sauce.
8. Simmer in lidded pot for about 1.5 hours, or until desired tenderness.
9. *NOTE* Be sure to periodically turn the pork feet around the sauce, so the flavor is evenly distributed among all pieces of the pork.





This finished result.
Piping hot!
Serve over a bed of white rice.







I feel somewhat guilty eating pig feet, all that skin and fat....
But hey..
I only get pork feet every 10-15 years. So that ain't so bad..

Napa Cabbage-Carrot Soup!

I made this very nutritious and delicious soup consisting of only Napa cabbage and carrots!

For those of you who don't know,
Napa Cabbage is a plant of the mustard family, having an elongated head of overlapping, crinkled, broad-stalked leaves and is common in Asian dishes. It is also called celery cabbage.

I'm sure everyone knows what a carrot is, but just to be safe....
The carrot is a biennial Eurasian plant in the parsley family, widely cultivated for its edible taproot.

My co worker took me to the super market the other day, so I got to pick up some napa and carrots! YAY!
Buying fresh produce is so hard, if I don't have people to take me to the store... =/


Napa Cabbage-Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
- 1 head of napa cabbage (about 2-3 pounds)
- 5 carrots
- chicken bones (these bones are saved from the "Sweet Marinated Chicken" post
- 2 tsp salt (maybe more depending on how salty your preference is)
- 1 tsp black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash and peel carrots.
2. Cut napa and carrots. Separate napa stems from napa leaves.
3. Place chicken bones into 5-6 cups of water, and boil.
4. When water boils, toss in carrots, and let boil-simmer for about 8 minutes.
5. Place napa stems into the water, boil-simmer for about 3 minutes.
6. Place in the napa leaves.
7. Put in salt, pepper.
8. Simmer for about 10 minutes or desired tenderness.


Oh no! The vegetables don't fit!!!
And that's the biggest pot I have!!




















Okie. The veggies cooked down.
That's better.

Sweet Marinated Chicken

I love Asian food. My favorite cuisine of choice. And I also like eating everything with a bowl of steaming hot white rice. Especially hot cheetos with my white rice. Mmm Mmm Mmm.

Where was I?

Oh yea, I love Asian food, which is why I like marinating my chicken meat with any Asian ingredient I could get my hands on.

I know that adding sugar to your meat, causes the meat to burn while cooking, and causing the sugars to burn and stick on your pan.
But I love my meat sweet, so it's totally worth it!

Sweet Marinated Chicken

Ingredients:
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp white sugar
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 small piece of garlic, minced
1.5 pounds of chicken

Instructions:
1. Defat and debone your chicken (choice of meat is up to you. I used chicken thighs).
2. Save the chicken bones for later, to be used in making chicken broth in soup.
3. Mix all ingredients together (chicken + seasonings)
4. Let chicken marinate over night. I left mine marinate for about... oh 4-5 days..... =/



















Cooking:
5. Heat up pan with oil.
6. Set chicken down to cook.
7. Turn chicken over when chicken turns golden brown.



















8. When both sides are golden-brown, remove from heat.
9. Serve!

Mexican Cupcakes for Jeff's Birthday

So this recipe post is wayy behind!
I made cupcakes for Jeff's birthday, which was Sept 14, and I am posting the recipe on on the 25th...
ok, I'm not that far behind!

So Grace lent me this Mexican cake recipe of hers (thanks!), since I wanted to try a new form of chocolate cake!
Of course, Jeff likes his cake in cupcake form, so I poured the cake batter into cupcake paper. and the cupcakes came out very.... unique.
Mexican cupcakes have more of a spice flavor, rather than the milk chocolate flavor my taste buds are accustomed to.

So if you like chocolate with a spice/cinnamon-y flavor, this is a recipe to try:

Mexican Chocolate Cake/Cupcake

Ingredients:

3 disks of Mexican chocolate, chopped
2 oz of unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I cheated and used semi- sweet!)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs (separated)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk

Instructions

1. Chop up the Mexican chocolate. It was hard work! phew!


















2. Add the unsweetened/semi sweet choclate to Mexican chocolate

3. In a separate bowl, pour in the flour



















4. Add baking powder, salt and cinnamon with the flour.



















5. Gather the remainder of your ingredients! Yea. That's a good idea...



















6. Separate your eggs. I separate eggs by transferring the egg yolk from one shell to another, then letting the egg white drip into a bowl, in the process.



















7. The eggs are separated! (whites on the left, yolks on the right)



















8. Melt the chocolates. I melted my chocolate by immersing the chocolate bowl in a hot pot of boiling water, and covering the pot.



















9. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.



















11. Add in melted chocolate and mix well. Yum?



















13. Add in flour mixture and milk, alternating. Mix well. Add in 1/3 of egg whites.

14. All mixed!



















15. Beat egg whites til stuff, then fold in remaining egg whites.

16. Preheat oven to 350 F.

17. Line up cupcake cups, and fill cups 3/4 full with batter. Put into oven.



















25- 30 minutes later.....

18. Cupcakes are done baking!!



















19. Frost the cupcakes.



















20. Birthday boy and his cupcakes!