Whole Steamed Fish

Ok.. so..
the dish tastes better than it looks, and the whole fish did not look as disgusting in real life, as it does in the pictures!
I usually have no problem cleaning, cooking, and eating a whole fish, but once I uploaded these
whole-fish photos off my camera... I think I might have a problem cooking whole fish from now on!!

Anyways, for those who don't know, this dish is very chinese. So go for this recipe if you want an asian meal.

Whole Steamed Fish

Ingredients:
- 1 fish of your choice (I used milkfish, since it was on sale =D) about 1-2 pounds
- 2 stalks green onion, sliced
- few slices of gigner
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- salt
- some soy sauce if you want (i did!)

Instructions:
1. Make sure your fish is fresh, gutted, scaled, with incisions across the meat. This allows meat to cook more thoroughly, and easier to take a chunk of meat off when eating.














2. Place fish on a plate. Place half the ginger and half the green onions on top and inside the fish.
3. Pour vinegar over fish.














4. Place fish in a steamer, and steam for about 25 minutes. Around 15-20 minutes if your fish is thin and lightweight.
5. When fish is done, take the fish out of the steamer, and discard any juices. This will reduce the fishy flavor.
6. Heat up the vegetable oil, then fry up the remaining green onion and ginger and few drops of soy sauce.
7. Pour this mixture over the fish. It should smell very fragrant.














8. Consume with steamed white rice.

Whole Stuffed Camel

I was introduced to this lovely recipe for camel today!!

Stuffed Camel

1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
60 eggs
12 kilos rice
2 kilos pine nuts
2 kilos almonds
1 kilo pistachio nuts
110 gallons water
5 pounds black pepper
Salt to taste

Skin, trim and clean camel (once you get over the hump), lamb and chicken. Boil until tender. Cook rice until fluffy. Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice. Hard boil eggs and peel. Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice. Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens. Add more rice. Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice. Broil over large charcoal pit until brown. Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice. Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts. Serves friendly crowd of 80-100.

Shararazod Eboli Home Economist, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
http://home.tiac.net/~cri_d/cri/1997/camel.html

Leftover Turkey? Make turkey soup!

When I made the Thanksgiving turkey, after the turkey was carved, I immediately bagged the carcass (with vegetable stuffing) and threw it in the freezer.

I finally decided to take the turkey carcass out and make soup out of the bones, leftover turkey meat, and vegetable stuffing.
Nothing beats hot brothy soup on a chilly evening!!


Brothy (Leftover) Turkey Soup

Ingredients:
- 1 Thanksgiving turkey carcass. (and any other leftover turkey bones you have)
- Handful of excess Thanksgiving turkey (in chunks or shreds)
- Vegetable stuffing from the turkey carcass' cavity
- 3 stalks of celery, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 Italian squashes, sliced
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 3 tsp salt
- 6 cups boiling water
- Add any herbs if you desire. I didn't, but you sure can.

*note: salt and pepper amount varies depending on your preference, and also on the saltiness of your turkey bones and meat. Adjust accordingly*

Instructions:
1. If your turkey bones/leftovers were in the freezer, defrost your frozen goods.
2. Tear your turkey carcass into small pieces, so they fit into your pot.
3. Fill a pot with 6 cups of water, and bring to a boil.
4. Submerge your turkey carcass, vegetable stuffing, and any turkey bones, and boil for about 40 minutes. This creates the broth for your soup.
5. Skim off any foam or fats on the surface of your broth.
6. Wash and chop all your fresh vegetables















7. Place the carrots and onions into the soup, and boil for about 8 minutes.
8. Toss chopped celery and leftover turkey meat and boil for about 3 minutes.















9. Toss in Italian Squash and bring soup to a boil.
10. Add the salt and black pepper and herbs (optional)
11. Let soup simmer for another 10 minutes, or until desired vegetable tenderness.















12. Soup is done! You can either discard the turkey bones from the soup or enjoy your soup while gnawing on the turkey bones.

Breaded Pesto Pork Chops

A quick post, a quick recipe!
Perfect for pesto fans, such like myself.

Breaded Pesto Pork Chops

Ingredients:

- 3 pork chops

- 2 tbs basil pesto (store bought is fine!)

- 3/4 cup bread crumbs

- ¼ cup parmesan cheese

- salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Wash and pat dry your pork chops
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Sprinkle your pork chops with salt and pepper
   
   
3. Thinly coat the pork chops with pesto
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Mix parmesan cheese and bread crumbs together in a separate bowl
   
   
5. Coat the pork chops in the bread crumb mixture.
   
   
6. Preheat oven to 400 F.
   
   
7. Place pork chops in a oiled baking pan, and spray the top of the pork chops with cooking spray, to make the bread crumbs crunchy.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes, and then decrease temperature to 350 for another 20 minutes. Turn the chops halfway.

All done! Close-up shot:

Popular Pumpkin Pie!

I made 2 pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving this year, that received many many praises!!

I also personally feel that these pies were the best pumpkin pies I have ever had, and this was my first time making pumpkin pie too!!

I hope every thing I make in the future will just get better and better.

Popular Pumpkin Pie
for this recipe, I actually followed the recipe printed on the Libby's Pure Pumpkin can but made a few alterations and revisions to the recipe, to my liking :)

Ingredients:
- 1 canned pumpkin, 29 oz. (I used Libby's canned pumpkin)
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1.5 tsp ground ginger
- 4 jumbo or large eggs
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cans (2 fl oz each) evaporated milk
- 2 pre-made deep dish pie crusts (you can find this in the frozen section of the grocery store.
You could also make your own pie crust at home, but I feel that is too time consuming and not worth the effort.

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, salt, and ginger.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then add the vanilla and canned pumpkin. Mix.

3. Combine the sugar and spices into the pumpkin mixture.















4. Mix while slowly adding the evaporated milk.

5. Stir and mix thoroughly.















6. Pour batter evenly between the 2 pie crusts.















7. Preheat the oven to 425 F.

8. Bake pies for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 F and bake for another 50 minutes.

9. Stick a toothpick down the center of each pie. If the toothpick comes out clean, then the pie is done!

Serve with whipped cream if desired. Let pies cool before serving



*note* if you feel that the pie comes out wetter/soggier than you would like, you can add 0.5-1 tsp flour to the pumpkin batter prior to baking.






Such a delicious dessert

Jeff's Yummy Smashed Potatoes

Jeff made the mashed potatoes for our Thanksgiving dinner, and they were wonderful!
Perfect saltiness and texture. Not too dry at all =)
He should contribute to this blog more often.. =D

Jeff's Yummy Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of potatoes
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup half & half

Instructions:

1. Wash and scrub potatoes.















2. Peel and cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
3. Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes or until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.















4. Drain the potatoes and mash.
5. Add half&half, butter, black pepper, and salt, and mix/beat until seasonings are evenly distributed. An electric hand beater could also be used, but Jeff used his arm muscles instead =D
6. Add more salt or pepper if desired.















(Don't forget to enjoy this with Jen's homemade gravy! =D)

Homemade Gravy from the Turkey!

Gravy is not the healthiest, so please consume in moderation.
Of course, a Thanksgiving dinner is not the same without gravy made from scratch, so the following is a recipe for the gravy that I made!!

Making Homemade Gravy Requires the Following Steps:
Step 1: Create the turkey stock
Step 2: Cook the stock with the turkey drippings.

How to make turkey stock:

Ingredients:
- Turkey giblets (located in cavity of the turkey)
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 celery
- 4 cups of water

Instructions:
1. Get your turkey giblets (neck bone and organs) from the turkey.















2. Chop giblets into chunks. The neck bone may require a large kitchen cleaver and arm muscles.















3. Chop the vegetables















3. Throw vegetables and giblets into a pot.
4. Pour 4 cups of water into the pot, and bring mixture to a boil.















5. Turn the heat down and simmer for 1 hour.
6. After the hour, strain the solids and keep the broth. Discard all solids.















7. Congrats! You just made turkey stock!


How to make Turkey Gravy:
1. Skim oil from the turkey drippings, on the bottom of the roasting pan.
2. Scrape all the dark bits loose from the bottom of the roasting pan. These dark bits add the dark color and meaty flavor to gravy!














3. Turn on the stove, and heat the turkey drippings on the stove, be sure to cook using the same pan that you roasted the turkey in.
4. Pour turkey stock into the roasting pan, and stir the stock and drippings together.
5. In a separate bowl, get 4 tablespoons of flour or corn starch and add just enough water to dissolve the flour.
6. Slowly pour the dissolved flour into the gravy and stir, until all lumps are gone. Pour enough flour until the desired gravy consistency (you may not use all your flour, or you may need more).
7. Simmer the flour in the gravy for 10 minutes, to get rid of the raw flour taste.

The gravy is now done!
Enjoy with mashed potatoes and turkey!

Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey!

I gathered information from many turkey websites and turkey recipes, and I created my own very delicious turkey this year!
Very very successful with many many praises!
I definitely would follow this recipe next year too =)

Here is the Thanksgiving dinner I made for my boyfriend Jeff and I (quite a lot for only 2 people!)

Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey

Ingredients:

- 1 young turkey (around 15 pounds)

- ¾ stick of butter (room temperature)

- 1 stalk of celery

- 1 carrot

- black pepper

- juice of 1 lemon

Instructions:

1. Brine the turkey the night before, following the turkey brining recipe posted below.
2. Rinse the turkey clean of the brine. Pat dry and loosen the skin from the turkey. (the giblets already be removed and set aside to make turkey stock)
3. Using clean hands, rub butter under and over the turkey’s skin.
4. Sprinkled desired amount of black pepper all over the outside and inside of the turkey.
5. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into the cavity of the turkey.
6. Place chopped celery and carrot into the cavity of the turkey, then cover the turkey’s cavity with a piece of aluminum foil.
7. Ensure that the turkey’s legs are tied together, any flaps of skin around the neck are pinned down, and the wings are tucked against the turkey.

Roasting:

8. Preheat the oven to 425 F degrees.
9. Melt the remaining amount of butter, and brush a layer of butter all over the turkey.
10. Place turkey into the oven, BREAST DOWN on the roasting rack and roast for 30 minutes. Be sure there is a pan below the roasting rack, to catch the drippings to make gravy.

11. * Note * a turkey should roast for 15-18 minutes for every pound of turkey. I took a bit longer, because I kept taking the turkey out to check on it =P
12. After 30 minutes reduce the temperature to 350 F degrees and roast for 2 hours.
13. If the turkey seems to be browning too fast, then place a tent foil over the turkey.
14. After the 2 hours, brush a thin layer of melted butter over the turkey, and reduce the temperate to 325 F degrees for the remainder of the cooking time.


















15. If you would like the turkey breast to be browned, then turn the turkey breast side up during the last 30 minutes of roasting
16. Always check the done-ness of a turkey using a meat thermometer. Thigh meat should be 180 F degrees, and breast meat should be 170 F degrees.



















Once the turkey is done roasting, remove the turkey from the oven and let it stand for 20 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat.