Pork Ribs with Salted Black Beans 豆豉排骨- So Flavorful, You Won't Even Know It's Just a Steamed Dish!

Friday night quick update.

This is one of the dishes that I've always requested begged my mom to make every time I'm in Taiwan. Only a few ingredients are needed, let the meat marinate overnight, steam for 30 minutes then BOOM! A plateful of pork ribs packed with Asian flavors.

The key lies on the quality of the ingredients especially with such a simple recipe. Make sure to source the best bone-in pork, salted black beans, and soy sauce possible.

Mommy's love - Pork ribs with salted black beans -

Ingredients?

• Some pork ribs (preferably with bones)
• Some salted black beans
• Some very spicy red chilies
• Some soy sauce
• 4 cloves of garlic

How?

My mom made the dish and this is what she told me, beware, the steps and ingredients might sound too simple to be true. 

Discard the stems and finely chop the red chilies. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. Easy on the garlic cloves otherwise it'll hinder the aroma from the salted black beans.

Simply marinade the pork inside a bowl with about 1 to 2 big spoonfuls of salted black beans, chopped chilies, chopped garlic, and just a few splashes of soy sauce. Massage the meat and let it marinate overnight in the fridge, make sure to stir the meat half way through to make sure every pieces are well seasoned.

Once ready, just pop the bowl into a steamer with a lid on. You can also cover the bowl with cling foil to prevent the water/vapor from dripping down to the bowl and dilute the flavors during the process. About 30 to 40 minutes then you'll get this chopsticks tender pork that falls right off the bones.

Here's my other recent recipe using salted black beans:
Spicy chicken stir fry with salted black beans 辣炒豆豉雞

- Sidetrack -

I peeked through the curtain the other day and saw this dove couple. I was in love with the heart shaped silhouette.

Avocado and Milk Puree / Avocado Milkshake - My Dad's Nutrition Booster Creation

My dad rarely cooks nowadays, but accordingly to my mom, he can actually recreate quite a few classic Asian dishes that taste just like the ones from the restaurants. Unfortunately, only my mom had the chance to savor these foods from who knows how many years ago.

As time passes by, my mom became the master chef in charge of our household's daily meals. As for my dad, it seems like he's only willing to prepare all sorts of "liquid" form items such as soup, dipping sauces, and juice blends. Even though I might never find out how good his actual cooking is, but at least I can say that the deliciousness of all these liquidy creations are guaranteed.

Dad's nutrition booster - Avocado and milk puree/avocado milkshake -

Ingredients?

• 4 ripe avocados
• 1 cup of mixed walnuts and almonds
• Some organic whole milk
• Some honey
• Some fresh dragon fruit/pitaya or pear

How?

I'm not quite sure how should I name this recipe. It's not as runny as milkshake and not as thick as puree. So I've decided to leave both names up there. You can simply adjust the number of avocados used to achieve the consistency of your likeness.

In a regular sized blender, add in 4 avocados, 1 cup of mixed nuts, 1 to 2 tablespoons of honey, and pour in the milk all the way to the top. Blend till smooth. Taste and see if more honey is needed.

Use only 2 avocados if you prefer a more milkshake-like consistency. The recipe here yields a more puree formed avocado and milk blend, which is better served with a spoon and eat like a healthy afternoon treat.

Top the mixture with some freshly chopped white meat dragon fruit/pitaya. If you can't find fresh pitaya, a nice and crunchy pear will do the same trick.

This puree/milkshake can also be served as a breakfast item. Just pair with some toasted bread, lettuce, and turkey slices. What a way to start a healthy day!

Cabbage and Dried Shrimp Skin Rice - 高麗蝦皮菜飯

My family has been feeding me too well since the first day I arrived in Taiwan. Over the past week, I haven't really cooked anything besides blanching some local green veggies. When I'm hungry, there're always some kind of stewed meat, a big pot of soup, and stir fry vegetables in the kitchen or in the fridge that's always overfilled with fresh ingredients and delicious homemade food.

As a result, I'm running out of my own recipe to share because mommy and daddy took over the cooking work. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind having this "tasty issue" for the rest of my trip. Solution? How about my mom's recipe? I guarantee the food will be at least 10 times yummier than my own!

Cabbage and dried shrimp skin rice 高麗蝦皮菜飯 -

Ingredients (about 6 to 8 portion)?

3 1/2 cups of uncooked white rice
1 big handful of dried shrimp skin
1 small cabbage
Some olive oil
Some ground pork
Some soy sauce
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some rock salt

How?

You can find dried shrimp skin at a Chinese supermarket -

It's not the same as "dried shrimp." Dried shrimps are meatier and tougher in texture. Dried shrimp skin is small and flat. Be careful not to be fooled when you see dried shrimp skin with vibrant orange color especially some sellers tend to add chemical coloring to get a better looking product.

Remove and discard the very outer layer of the cabbage leaves. Thoroughly rinse the remaining, drain well, and chop into smaller bite size pieces.

Drizzle some olive oil into a big pan and turn to medium high heat. Add in the dried shrimp skin and cook till the aroma comes out, about 2 minutes. Add in ground pork along with some salt and freshly ground black pepper.

My mom doesn't use any measurement while cooking, everything is done by gut feeling. That's actually the way I cook, I only jot down the amount of seasonings used when preparing for a blog post.

"Use a lot of black pepper," she noted.

Pour in some good quality soy sauce along the sides of the pan, that way the heat will bring out the aroma and adds more flavor to the ingredients. The amount of soy sauce? Enough to darken but not "browning" the meat.

You can also substitute ground pork with already cooked ones. In that case, perhaps reduced the amount of soy sauce to prevent over-seasoning. When the pork is fully cooked through and just slightly browned on the edges, add in chopped cabbage.

Just a quick stir, about 1 minute then turn off the heat.

My mom used long grain white rice and short grain white rice mixture, about 3:1 ratio. Wash the rice and transfer to a rice cooker. Pour in a little bit of water, just a little bit under the surface of the rice. Lastly, pour in previously cooked cabbage and pork mixture, close the lid and press the button to start cooking.

It might seem like there's not enough water added for the rice. However, cabbage contains lots of water and it'll all be released during the steaming process. That naturally sweet flavor will then absorbed by the grains.

Once done, gently mix the stir fried ingredients with the rice. Remember to close the lid again and leave the rice cooker on for about 10 more minutes. That way you'll get a thin layer of darkened crispy edges to munch on!

We usually serve it with other small dishes such as spicy sausages, stir fry shirasu, etc.

Some small dish recommendations:

Shirasu and vegetable pancakes
Spicy garlic chives and ground pork stir fry
Seared steak with spicy sacha sauce
Oven baked Matsuzaka pork marinated in red vinasse and white miso

Happy Thanksgiving Dinner"S" - Asian Style

Happy belated Thanksgiving!
Everybody all gained some weight this week?
If yes (and a lot), then congratulations, mission accomplished,
Thanksgiving is at least 50% meant to be a fun week full of food, and fat,
But no worries, we'll all start working out the extra numbers, starting the following Monday!

So what have I been eating these couple days?
It's not just Thanksgiving dinner, it's dinner"S!"
One little greedy foodie!

First night, pre-Thanksgiving dinner - potluck style,
Instead of turkey, we had a giant lobster as our main course!

Lobster dish (before) -

Lobster dish (after) -

This crustacean was marinated first before deep frying,
Underneath the lobster is Chinese egg noodles,
In addition, every ingredients were drizzled with special-made sauce to boost up the flavor.

Some live clams on the counter -

Steamed egg with clams -

This steam egg was silky and flavorful,
I got the "miracle ratio" for the main ingredients from my friend,
Maybe one day I'll cook some kind of egg custard dish and share it with you guys.

Stir fry cabbage with fermented bean curd -

Another clam dish, stir fry style with lots of Thai basil and garlic -

My stir fry ground pork, semi-Thai style,
Similar sauce recipe can be found here.

Scrambled eggs with Thai basil -

Our dining table was full of homemade goodies,
My friends all cook like real chefs, lucky me!

A meal won't be complete without something sweet right?
So here it was, chocolate chip cookies by me,
The texture is more like shortbread cookies instead of the "regular" kind,
*I looked through my blog and found nothing in regards to "regular" chocolate chip cookies recipe,
But I made it so many times already..?...
Maybe it's time to add another dessert post once I get to digest all the food in my system,
By the way, the recipe for this version of chocolate chip cookies will be posted in the near future. 

.....The very next day...real Thanksgiving dinner,
This time, I got to enjoy the food without running around in the kitchen,
Thank you Su Family!

Turkey two way,
The first one is roasted turkey with Chinese sticky rice as stuffing -

The bird might look small from the picture,
But don't let the image fooled you, the portion was huge!

The other half of the bird went to a big pot of soup with Chinese medicinal herbs -

I only had a small bowl, see, not so greedy afterall.

Stir fry greens with scallops -

Stir fry pork liver slices with Sacha sauce -

Stir fry veggies with Sacha beef -

Fried meat balls (very moist inside!) -

Roasted beef -

Braised daikon with dried scallops (chopsticks tender) -

Fried taro ball -

I think all the gyms will be full people sweating the fat off the following Monday, and Tuesday...maybe Wednesday too.

It's all worth it.

Mama's Sweet Red Bean Soup

This is a simple recipe from my mom.

Ingredients?

Red beans
Granulated sugar
Water
Sea salt
Heavy whipping cream or whole milk (if desired)

How?

The quality of the ingredients is crucial since this is such a simple recipe,
This is especially true regarding the choice of red beans.

Try to use organic red beans,
Pick the type that looks "full," or "plumped."
If the beans are not sealed in a bag, smell it first,
Superior red beans come with an elegant sweet fragrance that you can't get from the regular kinds,
Trust me, you'll know when you smell one.

I didn't include the quantity/measurement in the recipe,
It's all up to you,
Some people like it dry; some like it soupy.

Here's how you make this Asian dessert,
First, pick out damaged red beans (broken, chipped, etc),
Rinse under cold water and pick out the ones floating on top of the water,
Afterwards, soak the beans with filtered water for a minimum of 2 hours,
My mom soaked it for 4 hours.

Once the soaking process is done, drain out the water,
Transfer the beans to a pressure cooker,
Pour in more filtered water,
The ratio between the beans and water can be somewhere from 1:3 to 1:5, depending on your preference.

Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of sea salt,
Set the timer to 4 minutes, leave the rest to the pressure cooker.
Once it's done, add in granulated sugar till desired sweetness level.

Some people cook the beans without a pressure cooker,
That's doable, but can take hours to do so.

You can enjoy the red bean soup the way it is,
Some pour 1 to 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream on top of it,
Or you can try what my dad always does,
He prefers thicker red bean soup (almost no more liquid),
He'll scoop the beans in a medium sized bowl and pour whole milk to replace the liquid part,
Be creative and see what you like the most!

Cindy's Rating: 8

Fancy Chinese Style Potluck

It's been a while since my last potluck event,

Let me see....it was like...almost a year ago?

Time flies...

So what brought everybody together this time?

Perhaps too much toxic liquid for the past few weeks?

Maybe we were just in the mood for something chill in a Sunday afternoon?

Or it was just an excuse to have lots, I mean loads of delicious homemade food?

The reason's no longer important,

I can only recall that I overstuffed myself with yummy Chinese goodies!

Since it was a potluck event,

That means I can't just show up and devour everything on the table like I usually do,
Some efforts need to be done first,
So I decided to cook something I made before: beef with scallion and butter sauce,
You can find similar recipe from my previous post.

Here's the before picture-

After-


I almost burned my tiny little brain while trying to figure out what to cook,
This wasn't an ordinary potluck,
All the personnel involved are awesome cooks,
I was under tremendous amount of pressure throughout the whole cooking process,
First, I had to worry about whether my dish tastes OK or not to those regular cooks,

A simple scrambled eggs won't satisfy their palate at all.
Second, I don't want my friends to commit a sin by lying to me that the food is delicious.
Can you imagine me with stiff smile on my face when they had the very first bite?

So what happened after they reluctantly swallowed my food?

I don't know, I was avoiding eye contact every time somebody took a bite of my food.

But enough of my anxious talk,

Here are some of the dishes they cooked~

Braised pork knuckle with crystal sugar 冰糖煨蹄膀-

My friend fried the whole knuckle prior braising it,

The meat was very tender, but I personally think the fatty skin was the best,

The inner side of the skin fat just melted slowly in my mouth,

It was full of wonderful aroma from all the Chinese essence: garlic, ginger, star anise, and so on,

I can have bowls of rice with this dish!

Fish fillet with garlic sauce 魚香魚片-

The chef for this dish put lots of freshly grounded fagara (花椒) in this dish,

The whole house was filled with the aroma from fagara,

Not only my tongue can tastes the spiciness, my nose can sense the power of fagara too!

Fish head casserole 砂鍋魚頭-


The tofu sucked up all the flavor from the soup,

All the juice just splash out when I took a bite of it!

Rice with sweet corn and garlic 蒜香玉米飯-

There's even a spin on regular plain white rice,

This is the evidence that we really put lots of effort in this potluck event.

Group picture for several dishes including baked cod 烤鱈魚 and steamed pomfret 清蒸鯧魚-

People (especially us the spoiled generation) usually don't cook these kinda dishes for potluck right?

Every plates here looks like meals that are nicely prepared from a authentic Chinese restaurant,

It's a blessing that maybe I'll have many opportunities to eat professional homemade food in the future,

Hey, wait a second!

Does that also means I'll be under the spot light for more tests and challenges from now on??

Taiwanese Style Thanksgiving Dinner

While you guys are enjoying your Thanksgiving turkey,

I'm having my very own Asian style Thanksgiving dinner here.

Taiwanese Style Hot Pot-

(It was still cooking so I had to quickly take a picture,

Otherwise the heat will run out,

And no one has the patience to wait for another 5 minutes)

Basically what we do is cooking all the ingredients together with light chicken stock,

And those ingredients can be quite different and adventurous base on your own preference:

Cabbage, corn, enoki mushrooms,

Pork, beef, chicken, lamb,

Egg dumplings, shrimp dumplings, fish dumplings,

Intestine, stomach, tendon,

Ramen, udon, instant noodles,

Pork balls, Beef balls, fish balls,

Crab, Scallops, Lobsters,

Mochi, cheese balls,

You name it.

Here's our not so fat beef of the night-

People sometimes are confused between hot pot and shabu shabu,

Here are the two biggest differences:

Shabu shabu usually use water or water with conbo (dried seaweed) as their soup base;

Whereas Taiwanese style hot pot use flavored stock for it.

Also there are some differences for the dipping sauce,

Shabu shabu usually comes with sesame/miso sauce and ponzu sauce;

Whereas Taiwanese style hot pot uses Chinese Barbecue (Sa Cha 沙茶) or soy sauce.

Egg dumplings and scallops-

Ingredients Parade-

Most of the people just buy the pre-made chicken stock from the grocery store,

What can I say? It surely saves a lot of time and energy.

But this year,

My friend's brother actually made the soup by stewing the chicken meat and bones for hours,

It tastes pretty good,

Fresh and healthy.

So when I was glad that I don't have to chow down thousands of calories this year with turkeys, gravy, mashed potatoes, and pies,

Cupcakes and red bean soup showed up in front of my face all the sudden....

Oh well,

We only have one Thanksgiving a year,

Just let me eat.

Kahlua Cake

Dessert made by my friend!

Man....am I full?!

Kahlua Cake-

Didn't taste the alcohol at all even though my friend used Kahlua and Vodka for the cake.

Yum.

Green Tea Chiffon

Here's my breakfast,

Green Tea Chiffon-

(I also added some whipped cream and chocolate syrup for the cake)

It was made by my friend's sister,

Not too sweet,

With a hint of green tea taste,

Most importantly,

She didn't add any butter,

Which leads to --> low calories!

Good job.

Homemade Food in San Jose

Here are some of the dishes my roommate's mom made during my stay in San Jose.

Yu San (魚生)-


I'm not sure if it's originally from Malaysia or not,
But for sure it was claimed to be Malaysian food by my Malaysian roommate's mom.

According to her,
You only eat it during new years, or some kind of big event.
I guess having guests over tonight was a big event for them.

It's an honor.

Some ingredient:
Carrot strips
Apple Strips
Pear Strips
Some kinda melon strips
Fried tofu skin strips
Sesame
Peanuts
Sugar

And This is How You Eat It-


Everyone has to stir it at the same time,
I heard from someone saying that the fortune is bigger if you stir it longer,
Who knows,
Chinese people has a good twist for everything you do.

Fish Curry with Chilies-


A little bit sourish,
Pretty good.

Steamed Tofu with Dried Shrimps (蝦米蒸豆腐)-


Water Boiled Chicken (白切雞)-


Sauce:

Ginger (with soy sauce and stuff I don't know)
Scallion (with soy sauce and stuff I don't know)

You can tell that I've been eating well up here.

Lunch Box - 愛心便當

What I got from my aunt tonight.

Lunch Box-

Including:

Stir-fried vegetable (炒A菜)

3 cups chicken (三杯雞)

Fried pork chops (炸豬排)

Stewed egg (魯蛋)

Scrambled eggs with tomato (蕃茄炒蛋)

I also have another box of chicken soup.

And one more box for stewed pork foot (魯豬腳),

All these food will keep my hungry stomach happy for 3 more days.

Thank you Auntie!

Homesick

I guess this blog's not just about food, it's kinda like my diary too~

A place where I can just jot down whatever come across my mind.

So...what's happening now? Homesick. Serious homesick.

Can't really do anything about it...

Let me just post some food pics from Papa and Mama....to fill that blank spot in my heart..

Dumplings from the Lo Family-Uncooked Ones

I was just having fun trying to make mine looks like a sunflower.
Cindy's Rating: 9 (Food from Papa and Mama always has the highest ranking)

Stir-fried Egg Plant-

One of my favorite dishes from my mom,

Just by looking at the colors then you'll know the ones you get from Chinese restaurants suck so bad.

Cindy's Rating: 9

Lien Wu-Fruit that I cannot find here.

They know I love it, so they always have whole bunch of Lien Wu when I'm in Taiwan...

I miss my parents.....