STEWED PORK LEGS IN SOY SAUCE

Tomorrow is LUNAR NEW YEAR.. 2012  is a water dragon year.. largely celebrated in most Asia countries.. including my family back home. My mom usually cooked various meals to celebrate it with all my family, now she is getting old so my family dine out the celebration..

In this time of year, I'm feeling homesick.. I miss the family gathering, miss the foods, the chats, the laughs.. so to minimalize my homesickness I cooked our comfort foods, baking cake too

This year I chose PORK LEGS.. it's usually served in my family for big occasion such as LNY, one of our favorite foods.. I rarely cook it, as it's so fattening, but it's a good excuse for celebrating LNY

At our Asian stores pork legs and pork hocks are easily found, usually cut, cleaned and frozen, so I bought six pieces of the pork hocks, about 1 and 1/2 lbs, and I added 1/2 lbs of skin on pork leg meat..

It's a bit complicated to make a tasty stewed pork legs, but when it's cooked.. it worth every minute of the time we spent..

Let's start..

What we need:
- 6 cut pork hocks, big chunk skin on pork leg meat
- 1 lbs of raw peanut, soak in boiled water, drain
- 2 bulb of garlic, peel and smash
- 10 dried shiitake mushroom, wash, soak in a big bowl of boil water
- for the seasoning: 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice wine, 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of vinegar

Method:
- boil pork hocks and pork leg, let it simmer for 10 minutes, discard the water
- cut the meat in chuck pieces
- in a big pan, put back the hocks and meats, slowly pan fry them in medium heat, until all brown and some of the fat come out, take out the meats and pour out most of the fat.. leave a bit to brown garlic
- meanwhile.. prepare the slow cooker, put the meats in, peanut, add in soaked shiitake mushroom with the water, browned garlic, add soysauce and rice wine, let them cook on high for 3 hours
- add brown sugar and vinegar, cook for another 30 minutes to 1 hour depend on the tenderness of the meats,  add more salt if needed

if using regular pot, let them boil, then reduce the heat, to simmer for hours, stir occasionally

To complete the feast... stir fry spinach with garlic ..

and the cakes, and the sweet cake, and the sweet snacks and the hung bao (red envelopes), like every year, we get it from my mom.. thank you mom.. KHIUNG HI FAT CHOY, FUNG PAU LOI.. HAHA.. MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU

EASY EGGROLLS

A few months ago I made some simple eggrolls for my husband to bring to our neighborhood meeting.. it was always a crowd pleaser, usually it'd be the most liked. One of the lady from our neighborhood requested the recipe through my husband, and I was.. yes..okay.. then forget about it.. ha.. my bad.. then last week my husband saw her again and she had the same request, this time with her email address attached..

So to fulfill her request, here I'm..  writing the most simple recipe with easy ingredients to find in our local grocery stores.

Let's start with our ingredients: basically we can use anything we like
- 1 lbs of seasoned sausage, Jimmy Dean or 1 lbs of ground meat
- 1/2 medium brown onion, finely chopped
- 1 pack of ready to use coleslaw mix ( shredded cabbage and carrot) or you can use anything, like: mushroom, bamboo shoot, jicama, water chestnut,  even potato or tofu, all diced in small cube
- 2 thinly chopped green onion
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten (optional)
- 4 oz of chopped shrimps (optional, it's better if using ground meat)
- salt and pepper to taste
- store bought eggroll wrappers

Method:
- brown sausage (or ground meat) and break it into fine crumbs
- add onion
- add raw coleslaw, sautee until soft, add in green onion
- add chopped shrimps if using ground meat
- add eggs (optional), stir until well blended
- season with salt and pepper, no need much seasoning if we use sausage
- if the meat mixture is too juicy, separate the juice and the meat (drain it), we need a dry filling
- thaw eggroll wrapper, lay 1 wrapper on a plate (cover the rest with clean dam towel)
- add 1 tbsp of the filling, roll it, try to roll it tightly
- stick the edge with water.. put it in a container, again, cover with dam paper towel
- repeat it until all the filling is gone
- let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour
- heat 2 inches of canola / vegetable oil in pan until about 350 'F
- carefully put the eggroll in the hot oil, reduce the heat to 325'F
- fry until golden brown, drain it on the strainer or clean paper towel

For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup of tomato ketchup
- dash of chili sauce
- 1tsp of sugar or honey
- grated ginger (optional)

Make: 15 to 20 eggrolls

CRUSTLESS MACARONI QUICHE FOR BRUNCH

I had a bit of leftover boiled macaroni that I used for soup several days before, I had some bacon, I had cheese and I had eggs and milk, so baked macaroni came in my mind, but today I twisted the recipe a bit, I used more eggs, so I'd call it MACARONI QUICHE, NO crust though..  it was perfect for a lazy Sunday lunch

individual serving macaroni brunch

Let's start:
- 2 cups of boiled macaroni
- 1 cup of bacon bits or 6 bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 4 eggs, whisked
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup of cheese, I used italian blend
- pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt, pepper to taste
- some chopped herbs

Method:
- preheat oven on 350'F
- spray or brush baking oil on the ovenproof pan / bowls for individual serving
- whisk eggs in a large bowl, add milk, herbs, all the seasonings, half of the bacon crumbs and cheese
- pour the mixture in the pan or bowls
- add the remaining of cheese and bacon
- bake for 30 to 40 minutes

For 4 servings

LASAGNA.... MY WAY

Let's talk about Lasagna.... Lasagna is one of a few Italian foods that I like, in my house we only eat certain pastas, like, lasagna, spaghetti, macaroni and some small pasta, the ways I cook them are so much different than their basic recipes, the cheeses I add on them are the ones I'm familiar with, like Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Italian or Mexican blend, I still can't eat Blue cheese, Cottage, feta and else, some I can't even pronounce or spell their names :) .. so my lasagna today is cooked in my way, I added some vegetables in the filling to make it one dish meal.

So let's start with the recipe:
What we need:
for the filling: (what I had in my refrigerator)
- 1 lbs of hot Italian sausage
- 2 hot link/hotdog, cut in small cubes or 1lbs of ground beef
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 4 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 big tomatoes, diced
- 1 big red bellpepper, diced
- 2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (optional)
- coarsely chopped favorite herbs like cilantro, rosemary or parsley

How to cook:
- brown sausage in  a bit of oil, break it into chunky crumbs
- add hot link/hot dog / ground beef, cook until juicy
- add the onion, cook till the onion soft, then add in all the remaining ingredients
- set aside when it's done, I usually cook the filling ahead of time, 1 day or 2 before

the meat filling

For the pasta:
- 8 oz / about 200 gram of lasagna pasta, boil in salted water until it softened, or store bought ready to bake lasagna (no need to boil)
- 1 jar of spaghetti sauce or 2 can of tomato sauce
- variety of cheese, today I used ricotta, mozzarella, and Mexican blend cheese
- medium size rectangle ovenproof glass or stone pan

Heat oven on 350'F
- spray the surface of the pan with cooking spray or brush with cooking oil
- spread some spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan
- lay some lasagna
- spread the 1/3 of meat mixture, add sauce again, then add the cheeses
- top another layer of lasagna, then 1/3 of meat, sauce and cheese
- another layer of lasagna, repeat with the remaining meat, sauce and cheese
cover with aluminium foil and bake for 50 minutes, uncover, broil it for another 5 minutes

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with Tabasco sauce, for 4 to 6 servings

ONE FINE DAY

Yesterday we had some companies in our house, we haven't seen them for a while, maybe for about a couple of years, she was my co worker and her husband taught in the same school with my husband, so we got together quite often before we moved out from the neighborhood. They came with their little boy, the last time I saw him he was still crawling on the floor and now he was faster than me on the hiking we took yesterday.. mmh time flies...

We went out for a hike before dinner.. I prepared some meals for our dinner a head of time, like potato cakes that I could easily reheat it in the oven, I cooked fried noodles a day before too and I reheated it for a few minutes in the microwave. That morning before they came, I grilled some salmons brushed with teriyaki sauce, and eggplants that I cooked in spicy chili relish sauce. After cooking those I put them in the oven to keep them warm.

The hiking was nice, the weather was perfect for an outdoor activity, after a tiring hike (for me) we went back home and ready for a yummy feast

grill eggplants, brushed with oil + salt and garlic powder

grilled salmon

grilled salmon in teriyaki sauce

eggplants in spicy chili relish

salmons in teriyaki sauce

potato cakes

Now let's talk about the foods, today I want to share my EGGPLANTS IN SPICY CHILE RELISH  recipe, it's quite easy

Ingredients:

- 2 big eggplants, sliced in 1 cm thickness, brush with the mixture of oil, salt and garlic powder 

- your favorite chili sauce, such as Sambal Oelek, Sriracha (Thai hot sauce), or you can make it yourself with:

- 6 shallots, 4 cloves garlic, 10 red chili (Thai chili, or red patch chili or habanero, depend on how hot you want), 2 candle nuts (macadamia nut), process with Food Processor... 1 tsp ginger powder, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar, sautee them in cooking oil until done

- 1 big tomato, dice in small cubes 
- finely chopped green onions

Method:

- grill eggplants in medium high heat, I like using my electric grill, or pan fry them in a nonstick pan, when the eggplants are soft, set aside

- using the same pan, add a bit more oil , add tomato, sautee until it's soft, add in the chili sauce and green onion, stir until well blended, add more seasoning if needed, such as salt, vinegar, or sugar or kecap manis 

- set the eggplants in a ovenproof dish, after 1 layer, top with the chili sauce, lay another layer of eggplants, chili sauce again, after all done, put in the 350'F preheated oven for 10 minute 

Serve with steamed hot rice..nyum nyum...

SHUMAI.. aka CHINESE DUMPLINGS

This is one of my favorite foods.. it's the star and most popular of dimsum foods, we like it very much, it's a must eat whenever we go to dimsum, too bad our dimsum place is quite far from our home, so once in a while I'd make it myself.. it's not hard at all, the hard part is to find the right wrappers, we usually use wonton, dumpling or gyoza wrapper, most Asian stores sell them frozen, I like the thin wrapper but until now I haven't got the right one yet..

With a lot ways and recipes to make it.. depends on how we like, I tried out some of the recipes I found from the nets, but I stick on with the one I modified myself...

What we need:
- frozen wonton wrapped, thaw
For the fillings:
- 8 oz of ground chicken with fat (thigh meat) or ground pork
- 4 oz of coarsely chopped shrimps
- 4 chopped shitake mushrooms
- 2 finely chopped green onion
- mix well: 1 lightly beaten egg white + 1 tsp salt and blackpeppers + 1 tbsp of garlic oil + 1 tsp of tapioca starch + 1 tsp of sesame oil + 2 tbsp of fish sauce (optional) or 2 tbsp of soy sauce

Method:
- combine chicken + shrimps + mushrooms + green onion, fold with fork, add the sauce mixture, fold again until well blended
- scoop 1 tbsp of the meat filling, put on the middle of the wrapper, gently press it and wrap the wrapper around the filling, top with grated carrot, place it on the lightly grease (with cooking spray) plate / tray, after all done, generously spray cooking oil on top of the dumplings (to prevent it from sticky and dry)
- boil water in pan, put the steamer on, place the plate in the steamer, and steam over boiled water for about 15 minutes

make about 24 pieces

BAKING MOOD

I'm not good in baking, by baking here I mean cookies, cakes, pies and more, but once in a while I'd do it, mostly because of I felt challenged, sometime it turned good, but other time I failed, even I used the same recipe and the same way. Lately because of winter, cold and rains, I warmed up my house by baking a lot,  some Christmas cookies, breads ( I tried out the water roux method for the first time, it's a bit complicated, but the breads turned out so good, so soft and so full), and some cheesecakes.

My husband loves cheesecake, we rarely eat it, because it's so fattening and a bit too pricey for our wallet, but when my good neighbor lent me a cook book by Pillsbury, I fell in love with their Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe, and it was around Thanksgiving's day, pumpkin season, everybody has pumpkin on their dinner tables, so I decided to give it a try, I was worried because it'd be the first time I used my spring foam pan, and from my experiences baking cheesecake before, it always cracked on the surface.
http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/pumpkin-cheesecake-with-praline-sauce/101e0703-2fa3-429d-87a2-9355112becef/

So I determined to make it, followed every steps by the book, using the water bath method really helps for a smooth cheesecake, and tada..  we had a very yummy pumpkin cheesecake, I brought it as a dessert (instead of the old pumpkin pie) for our Thanksgiving Dinner at my parents in law's house, I got lots compliments for it, so today I baked cheesecake again, this time I used bananas, I followed the recipe from:

http://gracekitchencorner.blogspot.com/2009/01/baked-banana-cheesecake.html with some modification because I was using the store bought pie crust.

First I was confused because it does not have  any flour in the recipe, but I decided to follow it, and I was glad I did it, because my Banana Cheesecake turned out perfect, though a bit too sweet for me, but my husband loves it (he has sweet tooth :))

Here is what I did:
- 9 inches graham cracker pie crust + 8 small pie crust
- 110 gram sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 ripe bananas, smash
- 4 eggs

I followed most steps of the method on the recipe, except for the water bath, I put a pan of boil water on the lowest rack of my oven, my cheesecake pans on the middle rack, it worked well

Tomorrow I'll bring it to my parents in law's house, as a dessert for our Christmas Eve's dinner, I know they will love it..

MERRY CHRISTMAS...