Monday, December 31, 2007

[recipe] Thinly sliced beef stir fry

Whipped this up after the hike today, with the thinly sliced beef from Mitsuwa.

- Sliced six fingerling potatoes. Pan-fry with a saute pan with a little oil in medium heat. Takes a good ten minutes until they get that beautiful golden brown home-fries colors.
- In the wok, heat oil with garlic, and the stir fry a package of snow peas. When done throw them over the potatoes.
- Reheat the wok with more oil with garlic. Stir fry about half pounnd of thinly sliced beef. Today I had Lee Kum Kee's sweet and spicy beef ribs sauce on hand, so as soon as it's half way done throw a good amount of it in there.
- Finish by stir frying the snowpeas and potatoes back with the beef and sauce.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

[recipe] Lightly Salted Salmon

Saw the "lighly salted salmon" on sale at Mitsuwa yesterday and bought a package. Have never cooked this before but my guesses turned out pretty good:

- Pan fry in medium heat. Probably a couple of minute on each side. Just stop when salmon looks cooked on the outside but still very rare on the inside.
- Even though the package says "lightly Salted", the salmon is actually pretty salty. Slice up bunch of cucumber mix with beans sprout, and eat it with the salmon.

Gonna go get some more next week ...

[recipe] Lettuce Wrap

I always get protein-style at In-n-Out. But even then the heart attack guilt factor is still pretty darn high. Made this up a couple of days ago as a substitute -- Though I think the principle is simply to dice up a bunch of things that end up soft and in small enough bits to wrap in a lettuce leaf and eat.

- Dice a shallot, saute
- Dice a zuchini, saute
- Dice a dozen Shitake mushrooms
- Auntie Ruth made us a bunch of 梅菜扣肉, so I just took the pork belly that's already steamed soft and diced that, and sauted with bunch of Hoisin ()
- Rinse a hanful of lettuce leaves and wrap away. I used butter lettuce this time. Might try romaine or iceberg next time.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

[recipe] Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies

OK. Now I know why we buy cookies (or just eat ones that Scott and Auseh make). Because making them is a crap load of work. A recipe that I used today, edited for next time I want to make them again:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup dried tart cherries
Cooking spray

- Preheat oven to 350°.

- In the first "dry ingredient" bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix thoroughly. This step is easy.

- Soften the butter by defrosting it in the microwave for a good 30 seconds.

- In a second bowl that you can run the mixer in, add the sugar and butter. Mash the butter into the sugar, and then blend until there is no big butter chunks. This whole process will take a while.

- Add vanilla and egg. Beat well. This step is easy.

- Here comes the pain-in-the-a** part -- With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture with a big spoon. This means add a couple of spoonful, blend until the dry stuff disappears, and then repeat. This process gets really hard about halfway through, when all the batter will stick to mixer, and you have to keep spooning everything off the mixer just so you can mix again. Beat just until combined -- Meaning the moment that you are really, really relieved because you don't see any more dry stuff in the bowl.

- Fold in chocolate chips. This isn't easy either, because the batter is very dry and chunky. Try using two spoons so you can break up the batter to incorporate the chocolate chip.

- Cover two cookie sheets with foil and lightly cover with cooking spray. This will save you dishes time later.

- Divide the batter into 20 to 30 cookies, 2 inches apart. Depending on how big you like them. Spooning doesn't really work, just use your finger like you are making rice balls for sushi. To each cookie, add 2 to 4 cherries, depending how much your audience like tart cherries.

- Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or just until set. Remove from oven; cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

- Enjoy a couple of these wonderful, chewy, chocolate cherry cookies. Enjoy how the tartness of the cherries contrasts with the cocoa and semisweet chocolate chips. Then go take a nap. You'll need it.

(Original recipe from Cooking Light. Notice how the recipe reads like it's so easy.)


[recipe] BBQ Sausage Sauté

Came home from the airport and whipped this up out of things in the fridge.

- Cut 1 onion in to one-inch squares. Sauté until golden brown.
- Cut 4 cooked sausage (like the Aidells) length-wise and then into one-inch chuncks. Sauté.
- Throw in a handful of frozen corn, frozen green peas, and BBQ sauce to taste. Sauté.
- Dice a fresh tomato to sprinkle over when serving -- Adds a nice splash of bright colors and the tomato is refreshing.

Monday, December 17, 2007

[recipe] It's da BOM hash

- Bacon - 8 slices. Cut into 1 inch strips.
- Onion - 1. Cut into squares.
- Mushrooms - 1 container of whatever sliced stuff.

- Cook Bacon, Onion, Mushrooms in that order.
- Drain onto paper towel to feel less guilty about the whole thing
- But don't skip the finish -- Drizzle maple syrup over the whole thing and mix

Great with anything (bacon is just so magical), or just enjoy by itself.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

[recipe] Sloppy Jose

Picked up some random new things from the "Hispanic Foods" section at Pavilion that ended up looking like Sloppy Joe:

- Chopped 1 onion into smallish pieces. Brown it.
- Then brown 1.25 lb Extra lean ground turkey.
- Throw in handful of breadcrumb. Not sure what this does but sounded good.
- Throw in small can (7oz) of Salsa Ranchero
- Throw in small can (7oz) of Van Camp's Pork and Beans in Tomato Sauce
- Throw in sliced mushrooms. Like half of those small bucket from store.
- Throw in teaspoon of Kirkland Steak Rub. Because that's good in everything.
- I think if I had sour cream that would be good to mix in. But I didn't

Dead simple, quick cooking, enough food to last for days, artery-friendly, and low-carb.

Monday, December 03, 2007

[trip] Costa Rica

- Hotel Martino (hotelmartino.com)
- Tabaon Therma Resort (tabacon.com)
- Cacique Guaro Quattro Plume (guaroliquor.com)
- Pozo Azul (pozoazul.com)
- Canopy Zipline
- Horseback Riding
- Whitewater Rafting
- Filet Mignon, $13. Wine by the glass, $3.
- "Proximio ... Donte ... Mucho .. Animales", "Zoological?", "Yeah!"
- Running in Dallas airport to Gate C4
- Happy birthday Jessica and Truc!