Mar 28, 2009

My Emergency Breakfast - Omelet with...Almost Nothing

This is a super duper easy recipe for super duper hungry people in the morning.
You can twitch the recipe in so many ways to fit your personal taste.

I didn't do much with mine since:
1. I didn't feel like touching the kitchen knife in the morning, especially when my eyes were still half closed.
2. There's nothing in the fridge. Nothing, except some dairy products and few dry ingredient in the cabinet.

But even with only a few items, I still managed to make a yummy breakfast in...5 minutes!


Ingredients?

3 eggs
2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
Some dried seaweed flakes
Some toasted sesame seeds
Some shredded mozzarella
Some ketchup
Salt
Olive oil

How?

Beat all the eggs in a small bowl, remember to add a pinch of salt and the heavy cream there too. In a skillet, drizzle some olive oil and wait until it gets hotter.

When it's ready, pour in the eggs and let it cook for a while,
Sprinkle some dried seaweed and toasted sesame seeds when the bottom of the eggs turned slightly brown.

Then just gradually form the mixture into an omelet,
The trick here is don't stir it too much,
Only flip or fold the edges once a while.

Sprinkle some cheese on the omelet, transfer to the plate, serve with some ketchup.
Voila, so easy huh?!

I only used those ingredients because that's all I got in the kitchen,
You can do so much with this,
Add some smoked salmon, ham, sausages, mushrooms, or bell peppers,
Or instead of mozzarella, you can use Parmesan, cheddar, or pepper jack,
The best part is the sauce,
Besides ketchup, you can substitute it with blueberry jam (yes, it's good!) or even fresh salsa!
Just let your cooking intuition lead you in making the perfect omelet!

Cindy's Rating: 7 (I consider it very good since I have nothing in the kitchen)

P.S.
Here's my best scenario for my omelet:
Eggs with heavy whipping cream and lots of mozzarella mixed with pepper jack,
Filling comes with smoked ham, onions, mushroom, and spinach,
Topped with either homemade ketchup or fresh salsa.
Mmmmmm mouth watering!

Mar 25, 2009

Stir Fry Veggies with Miso and Spicy Bean Paste

It's gonna be my birthday in....less than one hour!

Somehow there are so many March babies, is it just my imagination or?
Looking at my calendar, I have at least 15 birthdays listed up.
What's more surprising?
I'm not the only birthday person in one hour,
There's Dan, my old neighbor back in Minnesota,
My American grandfather
(I was an exchange student and stayed with a lovely host family back then),
And Kenneth, my boyfriend,
We all share the same birthday, isn't that amazing!?

Unfortunately,
Tomorrow, the big day, I have class all the way till 10 p.m....

Oh well, celebration starts later,
Did I mention that my spring break begins after my late night class on Thursday?
Yes, let's have tons of fun for the whole week!

But wait! Before all the fun happens, let's satisfy our tummy first,
So here it is, stir fry veggies with miso and spicy bean paste-


Ingredients?

1/4 of Chinese cabbage (chopped into medium pieces)
2 cups of green bean sprouts (mine comes in a bag, so I used half of it)
1 small onion (sliced)
8 shitake mushrooms (sliced)
12 thin pork slices
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Sauce:

1 tablespoon of miso (red miso)
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of Japanese cooking wine (sake)
2 tablespoons of spicy bean paste 豆瓣醬
2 teaspoons of corn starch

How?

Drizzle some olive oil in the pan and toss in the onion,
Sprinkle some salt and cook till the onion turns translucent.

Toss in the cabbage and cook for couple minutes,
I usually put the cabbage in first since the harder stems take longer time to cook.
After that, toss in the mushrooms and the bean sprouts.
Give it a stir once a while and make sure all the veggies are softened.

I add in the pork slices after the veggies are cooked,
Since they are thin slices, you don't wanna put them in the pan too early, otherwise it'll get too hard.
I simply let the heat in the pan to slowly cook the meat through, takes less than 1 minute.

Mix all the sauce ingredients well and pour onto the veggies,
Give it a quick stir and this steamy hot dish is done!

Cindy's Rating: 7 (very good with white rice)

P.S.
I gonna be gone to Grand Canyon this weekend,
Will post up some scenery pictures (hopefully they'll turn out great) after I'm back,
Ciao!

Mar 20, 2009

Spaghetti with Smoked Salmon and Capers

Friday night already! Man...time flies...
I was gonna write about this recipe on Sunday,
However...I lost some money playing online poker tonight...
Eh don't judge me here, it was actually my first time...well..second time playing online poker,
The first time happened when I had to play for my friend for less than 10 minutes.

I have to save my remaining $$ here, otherwise my well-planned stewed pork meal for next week is gonna turn into instant noodles carnival.

So this is what I had today for lunch, spaghetti with smoked salmon and capers-


Ingredients (for one)?

One small bundle of spaghetti
3 oz smoked salmon
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon of capers
1/4 onion (chopped into small pieces)
1 lemon wedge
1 to 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Water

How?

Bring a pot of water to a boil,
Toss in some salt and the spaghetti,
Cook according to the instruction on the package (I cooked 10 minutes for mine, al dente!),
Before you drain it, remember to save some pasta water just in case if you need more liquid for the sauce later.

In the meantime,
Tear the smoked salmon into smaller pieces-


Have a skillet ready, drizzle some olive oil, toss in the onion, and sprinkle some salt,
Cook till the color turns translucent then we add the salmon pieces.
Cook for about 30 seconds, add the capers in,
Give it a quick stir.
Time to pour in the heavy whipping cream,
Turn to low heat.
Sprinkle more salt,
Remember to taste it and adjust the salt amount accordingly,
This dish can turn out to be a total milky disaster if undersalted.

Remember the drained pasta? Let's toss that into the sauce and mix them well,
Transfer onto a plate, have some Parmesan cheese on top.
I also squeeze a lemon wedge before devouring this dish
Just love that sourish taste with salmon,
It also helps to balance out the heavy taste from the whipping cream,
Yum!

Cindy's Rating: 7

Mar 15, 2009

Oven Baked Pork with a Hint of Orange

This is gonna be a quick post here,
My eyes are about to close after a long day doing NOTHING!
Yes, it's been a very unproductive Sunday for me,
And I guess the laziness is.....

(After 12 hours.......)

Yeah the first part you saw was written on Sunday night,
Right now it's already Monday noon,
Yes...I fell asleep after that...didn't even get to finish my post...
Guess my eyes just couldn't stayed open yesterday.

Please allow me to finish my job here,
Recipe for oven baked pork with a hint of orange-


Ingredients?
1 lb of pork loin (cubed into large bite sizes)
6 garlic cloves (peeled)
1 orange
1 tablespoon of honey
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of mirin
2 tablespoons of sake (Japanese cooking wine)
2 teaspoons of grated ginger

How?

This is a very simple dish to make,
Just toss in everything in a Ziploc, including the juice of 1/2 orange,
Squeeze the air out, and seal it.
Rub the bag in order to mix all the ingredients inside the bags,
Make sure all the meat chunks are coated with the marinade,
Put it in the fridge and let it sit for at least 6 hours.

When you're ready for the feast,
Simply preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit,
Transfer the pork into a baking dish,
I also transfer all the sauce too, don't toss it away please, I can assure you that the sauce will be very tasty on rice.

So let's bake it for 20 minutes,
Turn the heat up to 400 degrees and back for another 20 minutes, or till the edge turns slightly brown.

After you take out the baking dish from the oven,
Let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving.
I also added some orange zest on the pork,
It gives more kick to the dish and makes it look prettier!

Cindy's Rating: 7

Mar 8, 2009

Ants Climbing a Tree!? 螞蟻上樹

Ants? What?
Don't ask me where I got all the "ants" for this famous Chinese dish,
Maybe I just put a lava cake in the middle of the kitchen and waited overnight,
Or I tossed some rice in the garden and followed some ants to their nest...

Ok ok, before I seriously gross you out,
The real "ants" behind this dish is in fact - ground pork!
The vermicelli used in the dish resembles a tree,
And the ground pork resembles ants,
Don't think vermicelli and ground pork look like tree and ants?
I'm on your side too,
I think whoever named this dish a long long time ago might be drunk,
You never know!

Ingredients?

1 lb of ground pork
2 small bundles of vermicelli (soaked in warm water first to soften it)
4 garlic cloves (peeled, minced)
2 teaspoons of grated ginger
2 stalks of scallion (diced into small pieces)
2 tablespoons of spicy broad bean paste
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of Chinese wine (sake works too)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of black vinegar
2 teaspoons of corn starch
Extra virgin olive oil
Water

How?

First we need to prepare the vermicelli.


Simply soak them in warm water till they turned soft.
Drain out the water and set aside.

After that,
Drizzle some olive oil in the pan and toss in minced garlic, grated ginger, and 2/3 of the scallion,
Cook till the aroma comes out (watch out don't let the garlic get burned),
Add the spicy broad bean paste.
Give it a quick stir, add the ground pork into the pan.

Remember to mix the sauce and the pork well,
Wait until the meat is fully cooked,
Add the oyster sauce, vinegar, cooking wine, sugar, and about 2 tablespoons of water,
Give it a quick stir again,
Toss in the vermicelli.

Some people cut the noodles first before cooking it,
I just use my spatula and cut them into shorter pieces during the cooking process,
Make sure the vermicelli are cooked through and turned soft,

One last step,
Combine about 1 tablespoon of corn starch with about 2 tablespoons of water,
Toss into the pan,

Another quick stir and this dish is ready to go,
Matches perfectly with steamy white rice-


End Note:
So does that picture looks like ants climbing a tree with ant eggs?
Maybe I'm drunk here too...

Cindy's Rating: 7

Mar 3, 2009

Cafe Blanc

Somehow I've been waking up with this uneasy feeling every morning,
Sort of like breathless..unsettling sense at the very tips of my nerves,
And the bad thing is that I don't think this feeling is going away anytime soon.

What's going on?
Maybe the stress is coming from my writing class..
Especially my group project, it's killing me...
What am I suppose to do? Any ideas?
Meditation? Yoga?
Or should I just cope with it and live like this all the way till summer time? Till I'm out of school?
It's driving me nut!

I only know that at this moment,
Maybe one slice, wait, two slices of cakes will relax my body a little bit..
So I went to Cafe Blanc last Friday for a quick mind and body relaxation therapy.

Ice tea-


Comes with milk and honey.

Pardon me that I can no longer remember the names of these cakes,
They're both chocolate based,
The top one contains some nuts and the bottom one has white chocolate mousse in the middle.


And they give you a tiny scoop of gelato for each dessert.


Cafe Blanc is a nice and cozy place where you can truly "relaxed" and rest up,
The taste itself is leaning toward Japanese style patisserie,
Light and not too sweet.
If you are a big fan of these kind of dessert, Cafe Blanc is the place to go!
Overall Rating: 6
Cafe Blanc
298 E. 17th Street. Unit B
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 631-9999