Hollandaise Sauce

What is yummier than hollandaise sauce drizzle over food? It is a bit scary how much fat goes in this sauce.  I always found it tedious to make hollandaise sauce, but then I saw how Ina Garten makes it in a blender I decided to try it. I used her techniques but a recipe from Allrecipes.com because I only make a small portion and Allrecipes.com convert the recipes for you.  

Ingredient

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch cayenne

Directions

1.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan. 
2. Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne in the jar of a blender. Blend for 15 seconds. 
3. With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the blender and blend for 30 seconds, until the sauce is thick.  

I found that the sauce was too thick so I added 1 tablespoon of hot water.

Green Bean Omelette

 

I recently came back from Malaysia where I spent Chinese New Year with my family there.  My mom is the greatest cook and cooked whatever I requested.  I had a lot of food that I have not have in years.  When I came back, I realized that I did not ask her to make me the green bean omelette.  Naturally I look this recipe up online and found not only the recipe but pictures of the omelette being made.  I loved the blogger's site, her pictures are amazing and her instructions for her recipes are easy to follow.  This is her site: http://www.soyandpepper.com/2010/01/green-bean-omelette.html .

BBQ Sauce

I love this BBQ sauce because it is not too sweet or thick.  I like bbq chicken but I don't like the taste of the store bought  bbq sauce because they are either too sweet, sour or too thick.  When I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, I had to try it.  I substituted whatever I did not have. The original recipe is:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• 1/2 cup red vine vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons dry mustard
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
• 2 dashes of hot sauce

Direction

Mix everything in a bowl until it is combined.

I didn't have red wine vinegar, so I used rice vine vinegar.  I ran out of dry mustard, so I used 1 tablespoon of prepared mustard and instead of paprika, I used smoked paprika.   Just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and cook! 

Stewed Chicken

My chicken stew is made with dice white and dark skinless boneless chicken.  Before cooking the chicken, I sauteed the mushroom and onion until it is browned then set aside.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper then coat it with flour in a bag, brown the chicken in batches then add chicken stock, water, fresh thyme, white wine, salt and pepper to taste and stew for 1 hour.  Add 1 or 2 potatoes and mushroom and continue to stew for another 40 mins or until the potatoes is tender.  I like to break break up some potatoes to make the stew thicker.  If you don't like mushroom, omit it.  This is cooking add, whatever you like. 

Chili

My chilli is made with a combination of cumin, cayenne, chilli powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper.  I cannot give you a the exact recipe because I just dump the spices into the meat.  Unless I am baking or it is the first time I am cooking the recipe, I don't measure my spices. I always make chilli when I have an open Ragu marinara sauce, it is so much tastier than tomato sauce.  I know the traditional beans is the kidney beans but I hate the texture and taste of it, I substitute it with navy beans.

Curry Beef Stew

There is a Chinese restaurant in NYC Chinatown that serve this amazing curry beef stew and from time to time the craving for it drives me to trek all the way there just to get this dish.  When I was recently asked why do I not make it myself, I automatically went online to look up a recipe.  I already make great beef stew so how hard can this be?  

Ingredients

• 1 pound stew beef
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 2 small potatoes, diced
• 11/2 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon Indian curry powder
• 1teaspoon cumin
• 3 tablespoon coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup chicken stock
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
2. Put flour in a plastic bag then add the beef and twist the top.  Toss the beef with flour to evenly coat.
3. Brown meat in batches over medium high heat. Add all the meat and its juices back into the pot.
4. Add curry powder and cumin, saute for about a minute.
5. Add water, stock and coconut milk to meat. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen the bits.
6. Stew for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
7. Add the celery, potatoes, and carrots.  Cook for another 45 minutes or until the meat is tender.

I love to serve this with Jasmine rice.

Hint:  I never am able to use up the whole can of coconut milk so whatever I do not use, I freeze.  This way you are not wasting what you do not use and it is always on hand if it's in the freezer! If you freeze it in an ice tray and then pop it out to store in a freezer bag or container, it will melt faster and you do not need to melt the whole thing to get a portion of it.  You can do the same with left over chicken stock.

Chicken Soup

I do like the chicken soup that they serve in diners but when you are sick, you need something light.  I like bone in chicken breast because the bones gives it more taste. The taste is so clear, light and sweet, instead of the heavy thick salty soup you get at diners. I always serve this with rice and if I wanted more taste to it, I add diced sauteed Kielbasa on top.  

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 cup of water
• 1 large zucchini
• Kielbasa sausage
• 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Dice the kielbasa and saute in vegetable oil until crispy. Set aside.
2. Rinse the pot of excess oil and add water, stock, chicken, carrots, and celery.
3. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for half hour.
4. Add the zucchini, salt and pepper, simmer for another 15 minutes.
5. Serve over rice with kielbasa on top.

Chicken Congee

Congee was a poor Chinese dish.  During the time of famine, the Chinese people had to make a lot of food with very little ingredients.  Now everyone eats congee because it is just delicious.  My favorite is the Thousand year old egg (no the eggs are not really that old!) with pork but I am not even going to attempt to make that.  My chicken congee is so easy to make that anyone can do it.  I am a fan of Jasmine rice and it is what I always have at home.  In my 3 1/2 quart pot, I add about 1/4 cup of rice, 1/2 tablespoon of salt and water up to 2/3 the way.  Add about 3 tablespoon of julienne ginger (depending on how spicy you want it) and chicken.  Bowl about 1 1/2 hours, until the rice is broken up and the water is all starch.  Serve with green onion and soy sauce.

Hint: Ginger is so expensive in non-Asian stores.  Therefore when I am in a Chinese store, I stock up on ginger.  It is 1/3 the price and much fresher than the ginger in the American supermarkets.  After you julienne it, put it into the freezer bag and freeze.  It is good for a few months in the freezer.  I do the same for the green onion because I always use so little and always have excess.  With the green onion, you have to first put it into a bag then into a container to contain the smell of onion.

BBQ Pork

This BBQ pork is made with pork shoulder and my homemade BBQ sauce.  Sometimes the pork shoulder in my supermarket comes in slices and sometimes it comes in this huge hunk of meat.  Either way, I cut it into 1 inch chunks so it will cook faster.  After stewing for a couple of hours, you can break it apart with a fork.   So easy to make and so yummy!

Couscous w/ Roasted Vegetables.

Why not jazz up couscous with roasted vegetables, it adds flavor and it's good for you!  I love the combination of red pepper, mushrooms, onion and zucchini. After the couscous is cooked, toss the vegetables together.

Lamb Chop

Lamb chop is what I make when I am really sick or beef, chicken or pork.  When lamb chops are on sale, I always get it and freeze it.  This is either an emergency meal or when I don't feel like eating any other meat.  It can go from frozen to the oven.  I usually season it with salt, pepper, cayenne, and smoked paprika on both side.  I bake it at 400 degrees until it is browned, about 45 minutes.  This is served with sauteed frozen peas, told you this is my emergency meal.

Rice Krispies Treats

I was bored and had the munchies.  I wanted something sweet and looked through all my chocolate stash and nothing appealed to me.  When I realized I had mini marshmallow and a box of opened Rice Krispies, I had to make rice krispies treats.  I ate most of it in just 3 hours.  It was gone by the next day, I don't think I will make this again any time soon because it was just too good.

Parmesan Chicken Tenders

These chicken tenders are so good and tender.  I serve this with marinara dipping sauce. If you add mozzarella cheese on top, this recipe will turn into chicken parm. 

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/5 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper 
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Cut chicken breast into small strips and season with salt and pepper.
3. Mix Italian seasoning, cheese and bread crumbs.
4. Evenly coat the chicken in the bread crumbs mixture.
5. Fry both side until the coating is golden brown.
6. bake for 10 minutes in the oven.

I like to bake the chicken to ensure that it is cooked through.

French Style Beef Stew

I was tired of the same old beef stew I always make, even though it is so delicious.  I looked up this recipe Allrecipes.com.  It asked for 2 cans of Italian style dice tomatoes, lucky I had only 1 because even with one can it was still too acidic.  I made it again and used only 1/2 a can.  I love the taste, it is tangy and flavorful.

Allrecipes is my favorite website because most recipes are to serve four people or more.  In Allrecipes website, you can adjust to how many people you are cooking for and the site adjust the whole recipe for you.

Mushroom Tart

I had left over pastries after making two tomato tarts so I used the left over pastry for a mushroom and onion tart.  Who cares it is not perfect, the shape is actually cute and anything with mushroom is great.

I made two mushroom tarts, it was much tastier than the tomato tart.  I must make this again!

Ingredients

• 1/2 sheet of puff pastries
• 12 button mushrooms, chopped
• 3 tablespoons onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Brown mushrooms, onion and garlic together in oil, season with salt and pepper.
3. Score the center of the puff pastries and add the mushroom mix and bake for 25 minutes.

Fresh Tomato Tart

Ina Garten made this on her show and I thought: Hey this is easy, and the ingredients are very accessible, why not? I changed the ingredients a bit because I don't really care for goat cheese, so I used fresh mozzarella cheese.  Of course hers came out perfect while mine came out all distorted. It tasted good, so I am happy.

Ingredients

• Half a sheet of puff pastries
• 2 slices of Roma tomato
• 2 slices of fresh Mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Score the puff pastries lightly around the middle.
3. Lay the mozzarella on the pastries, then tomato slice, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
4. Bake for 25 minutes.

If you have some fresh herbs, throw some on top. I suppose the reason why my tart came out so distorted is because the cheese I chose had more water content in it. Ina used goat cheese which is less in water density. Of course she does this as her career and her tart was perfect! Here is her recipe, she also has a video of it. I love her recipes and show and is a big fan.

Ziti

This is a meatless baked Ziti, fresh mozzarella cheese makes all the difference in the world.  It gives it a fresh clean taste that I love.  I love the Barilla Marina sauce with this because it is sweeter and has tomatoes in it too.

Meatloaf

This meatloaf is made with the Lipton Onion Soup Mix, since I don't care for the dehydrated onion i sift it out and put in fresh onion.  This is great with rice or as a meatloaf sandwich.

Moroccan Chicken w/ String Beans

This chicken was amazing and the combination of the spices was a surprise. Each bite has a burst of flavors and the ginger works so well in it.  I got this recipe from "The Primal Blueprint Cookbook" by Mark Sisson and Jennifer Meier.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon of ginger, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander 
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 1 lemon thinly sliced
• 2 cups green beans, cut in half
• 1/4 cup finely chopped mint
• Juice from 1 lemon

Directions

1. Saute onion, garlic and ginger in oil until soft and slightly browned.  
2. Add spices and saute a minute more.  
3. Then add chicken, tomatoes, water, cilantro and sliced lemon.  
4. Simmer with a lid for 30 minutes.  
5. Add green beans, mint and lemon juice.  Simmer a few more minute until green beans are done.

I changed the recipe to my taste.  I omitted the mint because I hate mint in food, however if it is mint chocolate that is fine. I did not have fresh lemons, therefore had no lemon slices but did put about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice from a bottle. I only put half a can of the tomatoes because I felt that it would make it too acidic with the combination of the lemon. Of course I served this over my favorite Jasmine rice.

Pan seared brussel sprouts

I hated brussel sprouts as a kid and only way I would eat it was when it was covered with cheese.  Now it have to be covered with butter.  There is absolutely no difference between frozen and fresh brussel sprouts so I always keep frozen ones in my freezer.  All you need to do is to boil it until it is cooked, then drain it. Add two tablespoon of butter and sear on a non-stick pan until it is brown.  Season with salt and pepper and you got yourself a yummy side dish.

Oven baked chicken

The secret to making these oven baked chicken is to coat the chicken with flour then sear it in a pan before baking it.  The spices I used consist of 1/8 teaspoon of cumin, all spice, salt, coriander and smoked paprika. It must be smoked paprika, it makes all the difference in the world. A little bit of cayenne to add some heat.  After coating both sides with spices, I put the chicken into a plastic bag with a few tablespoon of flour and shake to coat all the chicken.  Then sear both sides before baking it in the oven.  Searing it keeps the juices in and this makes the chicken incredibly tender and juicy.

Mac & Cheese

Mac & cheese is definitely a comfort food for me.  It took me more than a year to finally make edible mac & cheese.  Everyone always says it is the easiest thing to make and cannot mess up on it.  Trust me, it was a disaster in the beginning and almost always inedible.  I finally look up a recipe and I have to say the cheese makes all the difference.  I use a mix of Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar, Cracker Barrel White Cheddar and Gouda.  I also add 1/2 tablespoon of fresh ground pepper and 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon of Red Hot.  I love the color it gives and it gives it a little spiciness to the background.

Chicken Pot Pie

I love Allrecipes.com, the best thing about this site is that they recalculate the recipe for the amount of people you are cooking for.  Most recipes are base on 4 to 6 people.  However I am always cooking for two people, it's a pain to recalculate the recipe myself.  I found this Chicken Pot Pie recipe and immediately went out to get the ingredients the next day to make it.  This recipe is so simple and delicious that I made it twice in one week.  I followed the recipe but found that the taste of the chicken was really bland.  The recipe said to boil the chicken breast and the vegetables together for 15 minutes. Instead of just white meat, I had a combination of white and dark.  Here is my recipe:

Recipe for two pot pie:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cooked chicken breast and thighs
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 5 button mushrooms, diced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons peas
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons milk
• a pinch of garlic powder
• half a pie crust
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2.    Boil celery and carrot for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

3.    Season the chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Sprinkle with 1/2 spoon of flour.

4.    Saute mushrooms until they are golden brown in 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Remove and set aside.

5.    Saute the chicken in 1 tablespoon of oil until it is done. Remove and set aside.

6.    Saute onion until translucent and add the rest of the flour.

7.    Add stock and bring to a boil.

8.    Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add celery, carrots, mushrooms, chicken and milk and boil for 5 minutes.

9.    Spoon mixture into ramekins, add frozen peas.

10. Cover with pie crust, cut the crust for ventilation and bake for half hour.

Be careful, the ramekins and its contents are amazingly hot! Break open the crusts and let it vent for 15 minutes before eating. I also doubled the recipe and froze the fillings for the next time I wanted Chicken Pot Pie.  Thaw the frozen mixture, spoon the mixture into ramekins and cover with pie crust and bake.