JALAPENO, CHIVES AND CHEESE BREADS

Lately I have been baking more breads, by having fresh breads at home, it makes easier for me to think what to cook or eat for breakfast or brunch, I can have anything for my breakfast, couple pieces of cookies, granola bars, toasts or else ( except for cold cereal or oatmeal, or grits or or or :) ), my DH is not a picky eater, but I know he wont be satisfied with cookies or granola bars only .. so I mostly rotate breakfast quesadilla, hash brown, omelets, quiches but they always come with eggs, cheese and sausage/bacon/meat and I don't like the idea of eating eggs or sausage/bacon everyday, yeah.. sometimes he has a bowl of cereal or grits too..

I found out if I have a bag of fresh bread on my counter, he will take a couple of them and nuke them in microwave.. eats them with his coffee in front of his computer, a batch of bread can last for a few days, so we'd have easy or lazy mornings :) what I need now is try to bake different kinds of bread, one of the easy and delicious dough recipe is The Egg Bread recipe I posted in my previous post, it has become my favorite dough recipe for now

http://beyondfoods.blogspot.com/2014/01/egg-braided-bread_28.html

Today I made it again, I added some jalapeno, chives and cheese, I made it last week and he loves it, so today when I saw some homegrown red jalapenos that he picked yesterday, I decided to make it again, he picked some onion chives too, it perfect to be added in the bread

For this post, I only want to add some pictures to show the easy way to combine all the ingredients

after the second rising, deflate the dough, then divide it into 14 to 16 portions

arrange the pieces in a big circle or square form, depend on the form of the baking pan, then sprinkle the desired toppings, I used chives, jalapenos and cheese

with a scrape or a big knife, randomly cut and fold the dough

random cut and fold

then carefully transfer the whole dough on a greased pan, add more cheese if desired

cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 30 minutes

bake in a preheated oven, 350'F for 25 minutes

no knife needed, just pull

GRILLED PORK STEAKS IN LEMONGRASS AND SOY SAUCE

Here is another recipe I want to share today.. it's one of my favorite orders when I went to the Vietnamese restaurants... sometimes I got the good ones.. I mean the tender and juicy ones.. other times I got the tough and dried ones.. no good

We bought these pork steaks.. I don't really like pork steaks/chops, too lean for my taste.. but when my DH pointed and wanted to buy those, I just grabbed them and put in my cart.. I saw there were some fats on them so nothing could go wrong with them.. we are fat eater... and the idea of cooking this stuck in my head..

What we need:
- pork steaks, mine was Shoulder Blade ( I think, can't remember ) steaks with bones and fats on
for marinate:
- 1 stalk of lemongrass, thinly sliced
- 1 big shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp of minced garlic
- 3 Thai chili, chopped
- 1 tsp of freshly ground peppercorn
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of fish sauce
- 2 tbsp of sweet soy sauce ( can be substituted with 1 tbsp of dark brown sugar or honey )
- 2 tbsp of cooking oil

lemongrass

Method:
- mix well all the marinate ingredients
- place pork steaks in a big zip lock bag
- pour in the marinate sauce, give them a gentle massage then let them sit for hours in the fridge
- grill on the char/wood grill.. I love how the fat melts right on the fire, my favorite part :)
- serve with steamed rice and some wine vinegar coleslaw
- or serve with vermicelli and lettuce salad

Vermicelli + lettuce + carrots + cilantro salad.. with fish sauce + wine vinegar + fried garlic oil

CREAM CHEESE ONION BUNS

Not much to do today.. I have some leftover soup for our supper... as we try to cut off our food/meat intake, we did not buy snacks for munching.. but it looks so empty on my counter without packs of snack.. no breads either.. so today I decided to make some buns.. for our breakfast or brunch..  no eggs and sausages breakfast/brunch for a while

I used my favorite bread dough recipe.. using WATER ROUX method.. here is the recipe

http://beyondfoods.blogspot.com/2013/03/salami-and-cheese-buns.html

Instead of salami and cheese, I used 1 pack of Cream Cheese, mix with onion chives and a bit of salt, four blend cheese ( it also calls Mexican Cheese ) and some Parmesan.. it turns out so good.. like always :)

STEAMED/BAKED FISH IN GINGER AND SOY SAUCE

One of my favorite ways to cook fishes is to steam or bake them, this recipe is so simple.. my Mom likes to cook this, she likes steamed White Pomfrets.. it's kind of expensive here and hard to find in our Asian stores.. so I substitute it with  Pompano, I just found out recently how tasty it was.. the meat is so smooth and juicy.. not too much bones..

Today is Chinese New Year, it's customary to eat fish on CNY.. it signifies prosperity.. so today I cooked it, just because I like eating fish and it's been in our tradition since long time ago..

Ingredients:

- a big chunk of ginger, thinly sliced

- 2 big shallots.. thinly sliced

- 1 tsp of minced garlic

- 1 red jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced

- chopped cilantro

- chopped green onion

- 1 tsp of Wine vinegar

- 2 tbsp of soy sauce

- 1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce ( can substitute with 1 tsp molasses or dark brown sugar )

- black pepper

- 1 whole white meat fish, Pompano, Pomfrets, Tilapia or stripe bass, clean and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice, season both sides with a bit of salt

Method:

- prepare a heatproof bowl, spray with cooking oil, place the fish in 

- heat a pan, add a bit of oil, add ginger, stir until fragrant, add in shallots and garlic, stir, then add jalapeno pepper, stir until all softened, turn off the heat

- mix vinegar, with soy sauces 

- pour the softened ginger mix on the top of the fish

- pour in the sauce mix, black pepper

- top with cilantro and green onion
- spray a bit of cooking oil on top of the fish 

- cover with aluminum foil

- bake in a preheated oven 350'F for 25 to 30 minutes or steam in a hot steamer for about 15 to 20 minutes 

- let it rest covered

- serve with white rice

STUFFED TOMATO

While I'm still in my writing mood.. here is another easy recipe entry

I made this for my DH's brunch.. and I tasted a little bit.. it was so good.. tangy from the tomato, sweet from the Johnsonville Maple syrup sausage,  a bit heat of the chili flakes makes it perfect.. and the cheese.. mmh.. gooey..

What we need:
- 1 big round tomato, carefully carve off the top, then scoop out the meat and seeds, discard the seeds and excess juice
- 2 tbsp of leftover cooked sausage ( I used Johnsonville Maple Syrup sausage )
- 1 tbsp of cheese
- cilantro
- chili flakes

How:
- chop tomato meat, sausage, cilantro
- mix the cheese in
- add chili flakes
- mix well, then carefully stuff back in the tomato, press hard
- spray with cooking oil, I use olive oil
- bake in a preheated oven 350' for 20 to 25 minutes

I serve it with my homemade bread, light toasted