Curry Rice Gratin

It's THAT time again-to clean up my fridge. Trav has a thing with casserole; he hates it without a verbalizable reason. So every time when I am about to make this dish, I need to say: Honey, I'm making the oven rice again! Yet Gratin is truly a subcategory of casserole. As far as I understand, every casserole dish thrown into the oven has bubbly, golden-brown topping (made of cheese and/or bread crumbs) as the outcome could be called Gratin. 

So I started with a container of steamed rice, which is a staple of our leftovers. I also gathered the last cube of Japanese curry form the fridge's compartment and a frozen link of chorizo sausage. Let the assembling line begin!

The rice part:

Chop onions, garlics, carrots, cabbages (you can certainly use something else, such as peas, corn kernels, celery, or bell peppers) into fine cubes, set aside.

Heat up the pan and add a bit oil on it; discard the case of the sausage and torn the meat into the similar size of the vegetables; adding all of the vegetable mixture onto the pan after the sausage turns slightly brown. Add a bit flour into the mixture and stir well at this time.

Add one can of chicken broth and a cube of Japanese curry, and then the rice.

After all of the ingredients are combined well, the texture would turn risotto-like, starchy- looking. Adjust the seasonings and set aside.

Finish it in the oven:

Prepare a casserole dish (with a shallower depth and wider-opening face). Grease the bottom of the dish very slightly and dump the rice mixture into it. Preheat the oven to 380 degree. Sprinkle your fav cheese generously on the top of the dish (I used pepper jack, smoked cheddar, and parmesan, which were the only three cheeses I had at that time). Add some herbs if desire. Bake it for 15-20 minutes. For golden-brown result, crank the heat up to 390 (or 400) degree after the first 15 minutes for another 5 minutes/or you can simply use broil. Please keep an eye on it at this stage of cooking; you want a golden-brown topping instead of a burnt one. 

If you like comfort food, you would love this dish! 

p.s. If prefer more chewy. starchier texture of rice, you can use risotto rice instead. Yet it would be more expensive alternative, I think. Even for just using the regular sushi rice, the result is quite starchy and satisfying.   

 

Steamed buns & Taiwanese shrimp pancakes

I do think marriage is not easy. Before getting married, I sometimes wondered if I would be a good wife. I still ask myself the same question silently often.

I bought a package of flour mixture to make steamed buns and followed the instructions printed on its back. And the result--not very successful. I think I should have rolled out the dough thiner so that the bun wouldn't have tasted so...cakey. Anyway, I need someone to teach me how to wrap a bun in person...

The Taiwanese shrimp pancake is supposed to be an oyster pancake. Taiwanese usually puts oysters into this kind of street food. the most important things are the freshness of the seafood and the sauce. You can put any kind of seafood you like into this pancake. 

The dough:

1 cup sweet potato starch; 2/3 cup 太白粉(or corn starch); 2 1/2 water

mix them together and set aside 

The sauce

ketchup; miso paste; dark soy sauce （醬油膏, I usually don't have it in my pantry, so I just use regular soy sauce); sugar; water (I got this recipe from this blog: tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jersey-wind/)

Saute the shrimps or choice of seafood first, and then add the dough, cook for a while

add some leafy vegetables and one egg, cook till done. Drizzle the sauce freely on the top.

Belated Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day!

Trav & I have been getting up early on Saturday mornings to serve at MTC since last month, and this past Valentine's Day (Sat) was no different. While I was chewing my oatmeal groggily, Trav presented me my first valentine's gift (from him) ever-a "cow" bank and heart-shaped shortbread cookies! I knew right away where the cow bank came from since it was spotted in a nearby dollar store during a spontaneous window-shopping trip. The shortbread cookies were catered to my taste-NOT fond of chewy cookies! My sweetie Trav! He told me a single rose's price was raised to about 15 bucks (around BYU campus) so that he couldn't get me one. And he also told me that he thought I would choose food over roses if I could only choose one. (Yeah, you know me well, Trav) Well, you can see we've been struggling to meet the ends and roses are too luxury for us. Since dear bishop did encouraged us to serve in the temple to celebrate this special holiday, we went, in a very snowy, windy afternoon, and luckily the sky did clear up after the temple trip. We decided to rush to grocery stores and finished shopping for next week. Everything seemed pretty ordinary by far yet tinted with a slight bubbling anticipation of the Valentine's Day dinner, which was supposed to be a surprise for me. 

Finally, the moment had come. We sort of dressed up and sort of pretended to be in a premarital dating scene (which implies more excitement, I think). Our reservation was at 8 so we went to the restaurant, the Ottavio's, a bit earlier...

Then we saw its reception area packed with people.

At first, we were not concerned. We had a reservation, wasn't it? A reservation was supposed to protect us from such an embarrassing, seem-to-be-endless waiting in an over-crowded front of a restaurant. Different scents of perfume and cologne were entwined, mixing with some sort of anxiety. I tried to strike a conversation with a mid-aged woman and she revealed that she ALSO had a 8-o'clock reservation.

Bummer. I thought.

Yes. The two-third of this crowd had reservation around the same time. Yet we were not moving at all. The freezing air sneaked in through the often on-and-of front door. I felt myself as if a prisoner was enticed with the smell of food yet only could stay in a cold chamber. 

Time seemed to pass slowly. I was anxious, angry, then silent. The lady at the front desk called different parties in and some of them were even walk-ins or had later reservations than us. I started to ponder on justice. 

Finally, we got in around 8:40. 

Well, unfortunately, that's the part impressed me the most during this romantic day. The food was good yet wasn't worth 40 min. wait and 49 bucks. So please don't go to this restaurant on Valentine's Day unless they decide to not over-book the Valentine's Day reservations...(Their lunch menu looks much more affordable; about 8 to 10 bucks for a main dish. 

I need to say that compared to the Valentine's Day, we had a more relaxing and fun experience at Dad & Mom's place. Chatting with folks during Sunday evening, sleeping-over, munching leftover Valentine's Day chocolate and watched old classic Star Wars with a slice of rich, fattening cherry pie garnished with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Thank you Dad & Mom! I love you guys and it's always a pleasure to invade your big, warm house!!   

   

    

Egg Dumpling

Egg dumplings are usually used in Chinese hot-pot cooking. To be honest, I've never made it on my own since I always had easy access to it in Taiwan. Well, apparently, things have changed a lot after I moved over here. I went to Old Chao (老趙店), located on University Ave, last Saturday and intended to get some blood rice cakes. Apparently this delicacy is not popular here, thus the store doesn't carry it any more:( Ah, I do miss the blood rice cake though. When I go back to Taiwan, I definitely will eat some steamed blood rice cake, fried blood rice cake, and spicy stewed blood rice cake with stinky tofu (my fav)!

I guess not everyone is crazy about the blood rice cake or stinky tofu as much as I am. So I went ahead and got some hot-pot dumplings, such as fish dumplings and a sort of fish ball with fish-egg stuffing, which is Trav's fav. Egg dumplings are easier to make as compared to the above two. If you have made 1) dumplings (pot sticker) and 2) omelet before, you'll find making egg dumplings is a piece of cherry pie (in commemorating President's Day, haha!)

For the stuffing 

Mix ground pork, ginger, green onion, pepper (preferred white pepper powder), soy sauce, chicken powder (optional), sesame oil, and salt. Knead it till the consistency shown in the pic.

For the egg wrap 

Mix 3 to 4 egg with some water, some corn starch, pepper, salt, and chicken power (optional). pour about 1 to 2 table spoon egg mixture onto a hot pan. Place the pork stuffing on one side of the omelet and fold the other side unto the pork side before it's completely cooked. Make sure you seal the edge of the omelet before it's completely cooked. See the pic. The size of one egg dumpling should resemble that of a regular Chinese dumpling. 

You can add the home-made egg dumpling to your chicken noodle soup or any kind of soup. I added it to my kimchi soup along with some vegis and hot-pot dumplings, yum!

Recipes learned from Magazine

I like to check out magazines from library, especially some home & women magazines. They provide some fresh ideas for me to play in the kitchen. Due to our TIGHT budget, I tend to adopt recipes using more affordable ingredients. Here it goes!

FOR SLOW COOKER:

thai chicken legs (From Woman's Day, Jan. 2009 issue, the following recipes are also from the same issue)

Serves 4   Total: 7 to 9 HR ON LOW

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced

4 each chicken drumsticks and thighs (about 2 1/4 lb), skin removed [of course you can save the skin]

1 large red pepper, quartered and sliced

1 can (14 1/2 oz) petite diced tomatoes with zesty jalapenos

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp each fresh lime juice and soy sauce

1/2 tsp ground ginger

8 oz fresh mint leaves, cut in strips

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

So put everything in at once expect for the snow peas (only need 15 min. to be cooked through), mint and chopped peanuts are for garnish. 

Skewers Ideas: 

Different combinations: Chicken tenders and zucchini slices; Swordfish chunks, bay leaves, lemon wedges, grape tomatoes; large shrimp, pineapple and cubanelle pepper cubes; Thin-sliced beef round steak (rolled around scallions, then sliced) and asparagus; Lamb chunks, mushrooms, red and yellow pepper cubes; Pork tenderloin chunks, apple slices, sage leaves, red onion slices.

Dips for dunking

Thai

Whisk 1/2 cup cream of coconut, 2 Tbsp each creamy peanut butter and lime juice, and 1 to 2 tsp jalapeno hot sauce in small bowl. Stir in 1 Tbsp chopped jalapeno pepper.

Red Pepper Mayonnaise

Pulse in food processor 1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted red pepper strips, 1/2 cup light mayonnaise, 1 small clove garlic and 1 tsp red wine vinegar. Cover; refrigerate until serving.

Cilantro Chimichurri

Pulse in food processor 1 cup packed cilantro leaves and 3 cloves garlic until finely chopped. Add 1/2 cup olive oil, 3 Tbsp each lime juice and water, 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes and 1/2 tsp salt; process until blended.

Curry Yogurt

Pulse in food processor 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup mango chutney and 2 tsp curry powder. Cover; refrigerate until serving.

Asian Soy-Orange

Mix together 1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce, 3 Tbsp each dark brown sugar and water, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp grated ginger, and 1 tsp grated orange zest until sugar dissolves.

 

Versatile Marinade

Serve 4

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon or lime juice or vinegar

2     tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp red pepper flacks or ground black pepper

about mixed children

I was reading an article in Vogue (on the October 2008 issue) on the differentiations in a cross-cultural, racial marriage. The author, Christina Thompson, a white New Englander married to a Polynesian New Zealander, expressed her expectations for her children in the following message:

"...But what I truly hoped for, what I still hope for, is that they will end up someplace comparatively neutral. I like to think they might ultimately have social identifies as fluid-seeming as the way they look, with their black eyes and brown hair and varying shades of skin. Ethnically indeterminate, difficult to place, they are, in my fondest dream of their imaginary future, unconstrained by membership in any social class." (Italics added)

I just think this message is cool:) If I have kids in the future, it would be what I hope for.

Yakisoba

I found this bag of yakisoba at the corner of our freezer and it looked "suspicious." Why? Cuz I couldn't recall when I got this at all. I guess either Trav got this or we got it together during one of the many trips to different oriental stores. Yet I am sure it happened way before we got married! Um...in other words, I don't know how old this pack is.

                                                       

 Well, I guess I feel courageous today so I risk myself to partake it regardless of its suspicious expiration date. The ready-to-make yakisoba package contains 3 individually-packed frozen cooked noodles and three packages of seasonings. In order to make my lunch more nutritious, I add a couple of ingredients, such as shredded onions, carrots, cabbages, one clove of garlic (smashed), one strip of bacon (uncured), one egg, and some chopped green onions. See the pic. These ingredients mixing with one package of frozen noodles makes about one-two servings. (If you eat as much as I do, then it only makes up for one serving) Basically, you can add whatever you want to the noodles. I make a thin egg skin by pan-frying the mixture of one egg, some water, a pinch of salt & pepper, and a pinch of corn starch. Corn starch makes the egg more stretchable and less fragile. Cut the egg skin into strips after it's cooled down. Saute all of the ingredients (expect for noodles) first, then add water and seasonings, and then add the noodles. I add some additional yakisoba sauce into the noodles. You can also buy yakisoba sauce in the oriental store. We always have some in the fridge since Trav makes okonomiyaki pretty often and we discovered that we can totally substitute yakisoba sauce for okonomiyaki sauce.