Bittermelon in Miso Sesame Sauce

I think bittermelons are under-appreciated given their nutritious value.  The name for starters, will turn many people off.  It is also not much of a looker.  I've recently tried a new way to cook it and I do prefer it to the black bean sauce recipe as this is lighter and somehow more refreshing.  We just stumbled upon a white bittermelon over the weekend at a farmers' market, so do watch this space for yet another bittermelon recipe.

Bittermelon in Miso Sesame Sauce

- 1 bittermelon

- 1 tbsp organic white miso paste

- 1 tsp mirin

- as much white sesame seeds as you want

Cut the bittermelon into manageable sections (about 2-3 inches long) and halve it to scrap out the spongy, seedy center with a spoon.

Slice the bittermelon as thinly as possible so it can cook quicker.

Heat up a wok and drizzle in some oil (whatever you fancy).  Stir fry the sliced bittermelon on high heat for about 2 minutes.  The bittermelon should be cooked through but still retaining some crunch.

In a bowl, mix the miso sauce with the mirin and about 1 tsp of water.  Make sure to dissolve the miso into the liquid so it becomes more sauce-like.  If you don't have mirin, you can skip it and add another tsp of water and a tiny bit of sugar for taste.  I've noted above to use organic miso paste because I've seen many non-organic ones using msg as one of their ingredients.  Yes, msg imparts that umami taste that many crave but it isn't the best stuff for you so try to omit it if possible.

Put the cooked bittermelon into the bowl with the sauce and mix them up so that every slice of the bittermelon will be coated with the sauce.  Sprinkle as much roasted white sesame seeds on it as you like.

DONE!! This is truly a simple, quick and hopefully healthy dish!

My Lazy / Easy Take on Taco Rice (tako raisu)

What is taco rice? Really? You have to ask me that question? The answer is in the name! It is erm basically taco on rice.

This is an Okinawan dish but the authentic one isn't quite like the one I've posted.  To learn the real way, please head over to No Recipes.  This is my take on it because I was too lazy to defrost any meat and really because this blog's objective is to show you how to make simple yet good meals with the stuff you already have!  Or so I say...

Instead of using sautéd ground beef, I decided to replace it with tofu and egg.  I only had silken tofu on hand, but using firm tofu would work as well but you should pan fry it or broil it to get it slightly toasted and crispy.  I used red leaf lettuce because, you guessed it, that was what was sitting in my fridge.   Feel free to use any greens that can be eaten raw.

Tofu Taco Rice

- Half a block of tofu
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce paste
- 1 tbsp of ketchup
- Tomatoes (amount depends on your preference)
- Raw greens
- 1 fried egg
- Half an avocado
- Mayo (optional)

Slice or cube the tofu.

Fry the egg.

Chop up the tomatoes and the greens.

To a plate of rice, add the tofu and drizzle some soy sauce paste and ketchup on top. Add the tomatoes and greens. Add the fried egg and top it off with the sliced avocado. Squeeze some Japanese mayo aka kwepie if so desired.

Fyi for the cholesterol conscious, I managed to find a yolk less asian mayo which tastes really good at an asian grocery store.

Enjoy your own take on taco rice!

Steamed Chicken with various Chinese Goodies

So someone came home with a less than satisfactory blood test results which meant I had to tweak our diet to improve it. Black fungus has been touted to be able to reduce high cholesterol so I was looking for recipes to use this particular ingredient. 

I didn't expect to like this dish so much, but I do. It was easy to fault to prepare and so delicious. It reminded me of those braised chicken wings my mother would make. This is definitely going to be one of the dishes I will keep coming back to when I want a fail proof comfort meal and I hope you will like it as much. Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you off. I just figured since I needed to rehydrated the black fungus I might as well throw in some other stuff as well. You can feel free to opt out any of the dried ingredients. I would recommend including the mushrooms as it soaks up the amazing gravy and is just a joy to bite into.

Steamed Chicken with various Chinese Goodies

- 1 whole free range chicken chopped into pieces
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing rice wine
- 2 tbsp premium oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp soysauce
- 4 pieces dried shitaki mushroom
- 4-5 pieces black fungus
- 1 tbsp dried wolfberries
- few strands of dried lily buds
- 1 tbsp ginger thinly sliced

Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces. Put them into a bowl and add the rice wine, soysauce and oyster sauce to it. Massage the marinade into the chicken and leave it in the fridge for an hour. In another bowl, place the dried products and fill it with warm water. Set it aside for about 20 minutes. After 20 mins, wash all the ingredients. Slice the mushroom (sans mushroom stems as they are too tough to be eaten) and black fungus. Place the rehydrated ingredients into the bowl with the chicken. Steam chicken dish for 30mins. You then have a healthy and delicious dish which will have you go mmmmm....

Napa Cabbage with Goji Berries

Yet another super simple dish. Adding goji berries to vegetables is a great way to increase your intake of antioxidants and to impart some sweetness to an otherwise savory dish.

Napa Cabbage with Goji Berries
Serves 2

- 6 leaves of napa cabbage
- 1 tbsp of goji berries

Wash and chop the napa cabbage into 1-2 inch pieces. Wash and soak 1 tbsp of goji berries in water. Heat 1 tbsp of oil and throw in the cabbage. Stir fry till the cabbage softens and the green turns into a livelier shade. Sprinkle some salt, add in goji berry with some water. Mix everything and serve.

Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce

See the title of this post? Those are the 2 ingredients you would need to make this dish. The most labor intensive part of this recipe is the prepping of the bitter melon. You would need to scrap out the spongy filling and the seeds with a spoon and slice the melon into thin slices.

Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce

- 1 large bitter melon sliced
- 1 and a half tbsp of black bean sauce

Heat up about 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Throw in bitter melon and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add in black bean sauce and mix it into the melon. Add half a cup of water and braise mixture for about 5 minutes. Bitter melon should be tender but not completely limp.

If you want to make this into a one dish meal, you can add some ground pork into this dish.  I would cook the ground pork 1st before adding the bitter melon and adding some chilli sauce would kick things up a notch!

Food has to be smelly to taste good

Huh??!!

I realize many of the things I find delicious smells putrid to others. Despite that, I'm unapologetic about the pungent fragrance food from my culture emits. Durians, one of my biggest loves apparently tastes like feet to many. On the other hand, I think stinky tofu is one of the most vile food I've tried, while hubs thinks it's such a delicacy.

For dinner yesterday, I made a fishy smelling vegetable dish that made me wanna eat more rice than I should. Here's my version of spicy long beans with dried shrimps and garlic. This is similar to 干煸四季豆 but with a more southeast Asian twist.

Spicy Long Beans
- 1 bunch of long beans cut into 2 inches sections
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons of dried shrimps cut into smaller pieces and soaked for about 15 minutes
- 3 teaspoons of your fave chilli sauce
- salt to taste

Heat up about 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Throw in the garlic and dried shrimps and fried them for 1-2 minutes till fragrant. Stir them constantly so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add in chilli sauce, you can adjust the amount to suit your tastebuds. After coating the garlic and shrimps with the chilli sauce, throw in the long beans. If you find it too dry, feel free to add more oil. Fry for about 5 minutes until long beans are cooked through. You can sprinkle in a few teaspoons of water to create steaming effect to help soften the beans. Before serving, sprinkle some salt to taste. This is optional, my chilli sauce wasn't very salty so I had to add some for taste. If yours is salty enough, feel free to skip this step.

Here are some recommendations for chilli sauce.  I think they are mostly available in Chinese grocery stores.

Amped up brown fried rice with kale

Gotta give it to Gywneth Paltrow for giving fried rice such a good rep. I love fried rice, but it isn't exactly a dish that is known to be healthy. When you go to chinese restaurants and order fried rice, you are expecting a plate of rice and other ingredients coated with oil emitting a wok smokiness. But of course, fried rice is like a blank canvas, you are free to put in any ingredients you like and Ms. Paltrow has chosen kale, scallions, garlic and soy sauce.

My love for kale started when I found out it has the highest nutritious value. I was excited to try out this dish since we already eat brown rice almost everyday and I'm always on the lookout for easy and healthy recipes. However, I made some tweaks to it to up the wow factor. Instead of using regular oil, I used a mixture of roasted sesame seed oil and grapeseed oil. The latter has no taste but just to even the taste out. Instead of using soy sauce, I used soy sauce paste. Soy sauce paste has a sweetness to it that I thinks adds another dimension to fried rice. It is important to buy good tasting soy sauce and soy sauce paste as you don't want to end up with a flat tasting sauce that is simply salty. I use the Kimlan soy sauce paste, it should be available in Chinese supermarkets.

(Amped Up) Brown Fried Rice with Kale

adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's recipe

- 2 and 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice, cooked

- 1/2 bunch of black kale or 1 bunch of regular kale, cut into thin strips

- 1 tablespoon of grape seed oil and 1/2 tablespoon of roasted sesame oil

- 3 large green onions sliced diagonally

- 4 cloves garlic (I love garlic so I used more)

- 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce paste

- dash of white pepper

Heat up the oil in a wok and put in garlic and spring onions. This allows the wok to take in the smell and taste of these ingredients. Next throw in the kale and fry it till slightly wilted. Put in the cooked brown rice and try to separate the chunks of rice so that each grain of rice can be coated with the oil and the ingredients can be mixed in well. Drizzle the soy sauce paste and sprinkle some white pepper over the rice and stir and stir some more and you're done!

This dish is really delicious, thank you Gwyneth!

Roasted Cauliflower Bleu Cheese Soup

Inspired by Some Like it Haute's immense liking of Soup Spoon's roasted cauliflower bleu cheese soup, I decided to make my own rendition.

Today might have been a bad day to be drinking hot soup but it turned out pretty apt since we didn't have much of an appetite on a warm day. Always finding an excuse to chomp on some yummy and cheap baguette, was also a deciding factor in making the soup. Another plus point is the health benefits as cauliflower belongs to the superfood family of cruciferous vegetables. If you do not like bleu cheese, feel free to leave it out, roasted cauliflower soup is still pretty tasty on it's own.

Roasted Cauliflower Bleu Cheese Soup

- A head of cauliflower (maybe about 1.5 to 2 lbs)
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons of bleu cheese (adjust to your taste)

Chop the cauliflower into small florets and let them flat on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Roast at 380 degrees for about 30 mins

Slice the onions and mince the garlic. Sauté the onions and garlic till soft and fragrant. Add the roasted cauliflower and enough chicken stock to cover. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of bleu cheese. Bring soup to a boil. Add soup to blender in batches and blend till smooth. If you wish to make it slightly richer, add some cream to it.

I'm sure this is not as good as Soup Spoon's but good enough for now!

Thai Basil Chili Pork

I know this dish is typically made with ground chicken, but since I have ground pork leftover from making Yong Tau Foo I decided to use pork instead.

This dish tantalizes the taste buds with the saltiness of the soy sauce, tangy-ness from the fish sauce, spiciness from the red chili and hint of sweetness from sugar. The smell is also wonderful when cooking it, the aromatics fill the house and envelops you in comfortness.

Thai Basil Chili Pork

1 lb of ground pork (I used those with 20% fat)
2 red chili
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 cup of fresh thai basil leaves
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soysauce

Crabmeat Pasta

One of my all time fave pasta would be Marmalade Pantry's crabmeat linguine. The sauce it tomatoey with a hint of heat and freshness of the crab with a little crunch from the toasted pine nuts. I've yet to have any crab related pasta at Italian restaurants here, so decided to recreate it myself.

I'm all for convenience and ease of doing things. I simply do not like buying 20 ingredients to make a meal. I had an opened bottle of pasta sauce in the fridge so decided to use that instead of crushed tomatoes. I jazzed it up with sweet onions and shallots and some minced garlic for the aroma. Here's my adaptation of crabmeat pasta.

Crabmeat Pasta (Serves 4)
- 2 6oz canned crab meat
- a bottle of ready made pasta sauce (approx 15oz)
- half a white onion
- 1 big shallot
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 packet of pasta
- salt and black pepper to taste
- chopped parsley
- shredded parmesan

Saute onions and shallots with some preferred oil of choice. When onions and shallots are soft and are starting to brown, throw in minced garlic. This is so the garlic will cook for a shorter period of time as burnt garlic will render the sauce not as tasty. Pour in ready made pasta sauce or canned crushed tomatoes. Let sauce come to a boil and reduce slightly. Add in the canned crab meat together with the liquid in the can. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you are using ready made pasta sauce, it probably is already seasoned, so be light-handed on the salt. Bring sauce to a boil and serve over pasta of choice. Add chopped parsley and shredded parmesan.

Mapo Tofu

One of the things I like best about Chinese food is how well it goes with a steaming bowl of rice, especially if it includes a savory sauce. Wanting to whip up something comforting and easy for a weekday night dinner, I turned to my trusty Mapo Tofu recipe. Now, you can easily get those packet sauces at many grocery stores, but I like being able to concoct my own sauce to suit my tastebuds. While gathering the ingredients from the fridge, I found this interesting bottle of chilli sauce (we absolutely love chilli sauces, so at any time we will have various types on hand)and decided to mix it in.

- 1 pound of ground pork (I bought ground kurobuta pork and it was so smooth)
- 1 packet of firm tofu
- 1.5 tablespoons of chilli bean sauce
- 1 tablespoon of black bean sauce
- 1 tablespoon of your fave Asian chilli sauce
- 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 teaspoon of corn starch
- few tablespoons of water depending on how thick you want your sauce to be

In a bowl, marinate the pork with the Shaoxing wine and the corn starch. Let it sit for about 10mins.

In a heated wok, add some oil and stirfry the ground pork till about 90% cooked. Add in the 3 sauces and mix them into the pork. When pork is fully cooked, add in cubed tofu and water and let it simmer for about 5 mins.

Sprinkle chopped green scallions on top and serve (with rice of course).

Garlic White Wine Mussels with Spaghetti

A few weeks back, we took our good friends who were visiting from Singapore to Tasting Kitchen after getting recommendations from one of my fave LA food blogger.  Unfortunately, it was so dark there I was not able to take any decent pictures of the yummy food.  One of the appetizers we ordered was this saffron cream mussels.  I didn't have high hopes since I'm not much of a shellfish person.  Having tried the highly acclaimed green lipped mussels in NZ and not loving yet didn't do much to help.  However, I only had to try 1 @ Tasting Kitchen and I was hooked.  It was so fresh, non of that yucky shellfishy taste.  And the sauce...oh the sauce, so creamy, so appetizing..I wanted to drink it up but chose a classier route by souping it up with the crusty bread provided.

I've been thinking about those mussels ever since then.  I would totally go again if it wasn't about an hour's drive away from me.  So I decided to take up the challenge and make my own.  Scouring the net for recipes, I found many reputable ones.  While I did like the creamy taste, I wasn't prepared to cook with something that contains so much saturated fat and calories.  I was afraid it wouldn't taste as good w/o the cream but decided to forge ahead.  Not wanting to bog it down with too many ingredients, I tweaked the recipes to suit my lazy self.  The taste definitely did not fall short of expectations.  It was so delightful..sweetness from the wine, shallots, mussels..it felt like I was tasting the sea..please do try this simple recipe.

- 1.5 pounds cultivated mussels
- 4 shallots, sliced
- 5 cloves of garlic
- a handful of chopped parsley
- few threads of saffron
- 1 cup dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Pasta to serve 2

In a pot, drizzle in the olive oil and put in the butter.  Stir fry the shallots and garlic (do not let them burn).  Add in parsley and saffron and cook them a little.  Pour in white wine and water and bring the mixture to a boil.  Add in cleaned and debearded mussels.  Put the lid on and steam mussels for 8-10 mins.  Discard any mussels that are not fully open.  Add in cooked spaghetti and serve.  I would strongly suggest having some toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic on hand to soak up excess juices.

Spiral Curry Puff - a buttery, flaky reminder of home

i absolutely love curry puffs - deep fried (ok, i love most things that crisp up in hot oil) pastry filled with potatoes and other ingredients such as chicken, onions, hard boiled egg mixed in with an aromatic blend of southeast asian spices. back home, such treats can be found almost everywhere. there's the malay version epok epok, the chain store version and the many mom and pop versions. of course, finding these treats here is near impossible so i took up the challenge of making it from scratch. images of how my terribly failed attempt to make croissants haunted me but i was comforted by the fact i'm in a much drier and cooler country (read: less likely for butter dough to break through to make an oily mess).

i wanted to share my recipe, but due to the lack of pictures capturing the process, i decided to just post the final product

Kimchi Chigae

the korean craze has many countries a decade ago..till today, i catch myself sometimes secretly wishing i was korean..and many times i find kimchi chigae so comforting, so here's how i do mine

slice 3 stalks of green onions diagonally into 2-inch length
slice 1 large shallot
mix 1 tablespoon of gochujang, 1/2 tablespoon of doenjang paste and 1 teaspoon of red pepper powder

Heat some oil in a pot, stirfry the green onions and shallots till fragrant
add in about 1 cup of kimchi and 1 tablespoon of kimchi juice
put in sliced protein of choice - here i'm using thinly sliced pork loin
add in the paste mixture and stir it into the ingredients till nicely coated
add in enough water to cover ingredients and stir to ensure paste is dissolved
bring to a boil, add it the cubed tofu and serve at lava hot temperature

i usually have my kimchi chigae with rice dunked into the hot soup (coz that's how koreans in those k-dramas do it)..yummeh!

breakast, the most important meal of the day

i love the idea of breakfast on weekends. on weekdays, i eat whatever is most convenient, so there's not much interest there. while i'm tempted to shell out $20 to have breakfast cooked for us, i try to make breakfast for us so that I can be sure it is relatively healthy and cheap.

Here's what we had this weekend:

Cranberry walnut bread from picketlane bakery with hillshire farm ham. the bread was yummy, dotted with sweet cranberry and walnuts, even better when toasted.

someone at work mentioned that the south americans like to put avocados on toast and have it for breakfast. i know avocados have good fat that is good for peeps with high cholesterol so decided to make it for him. using rosemary sourdough from costco, i toasted it, drizzled olive oil over it and rubbed raw garlic to give it that wonderful aroma garlicky bite without it being too overpowering.  sliced some avocados and laid it on top and finished it with some sea salt and black pepper. this is so yummy, the crunchy bread with the creamy avocado, accented with garlic, salt and pepper...mmmm...

Pumpkin Kueh (Cake)

I'm sure many of you have had the pan fried radish cake as a dim sum dish. This pumpkin kueh is a variation of that, using pumpkin instead of radish. Pumpkin is considered a superfood given that it is high in antioxidants and especially good for women.

Soak about 6 Chinese mushrooms and 3 tablespoons of dried shrimps.
Dice 4 shallots
When the mushrooms are soft, chop off the stem and thinly slice them
Heat some sesame oil in a wok, add the shallots and stir fry. Add mushrooms and dried shrimps and fry till fragrant and set aside
Add about 2 cups rice flour to 1.5 cups water and mix over the stove till the mixture gets sticky. Add in mashed pumpkin and the shallots, mushrooms and dried shrimp
Transfer the entire mixture into a deep dish and steam for 45 minutes.
After steaming, allow it to cool before serving. What I usually do is to slice them up and pan fry them till it gets crisp on the outside
Serve plain or with your face chilli sauce and/or sweet soy sauce.

Chili Tomato Prawns

Ok, so i need to work on my photography skills.  made this dish as i had fresh prawns bought in bulk from costco and was hoping to make something spicy for the tastebuds.  mummy mades a very good rendition of this dish and i've always loved ladling spoonfuls of gravy onto my rice.

i don't have a recipe per se for it since i pretty much eyeball my ingredients. so i added a whole white onion, 1 roma tomato, about 13-14 prawns, half a tablespoon of chili sauce brought from hometown and about 2 tablespoons of ketchup.  depending on how runny you want the gravy to be, feel free to add desired amount of water.