Chinese Ginseng Chicken Soup

I love this traditional soup and it is so easy to make.  There are only a few ingredients and I always have them in the pantry.  All except for the chicken of course. For the chicken part, I either use one Cornish Hen or 3 drumsticks and one chicken breast, or one chicken breast and a few chicken bones.  I sometimes buy chicken legs and debone it if the boneless chicken is not looking fresh when I am shopping.  So instead of throwing the bones away, I save them for soup or congee.

Ingredients

• 1 Cornish hen
• 10 red dates
• 2 teaspoon of ginseng powder or 4 ginseng roots
• 3 quarts water
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Trim the excess fat on the chicken.
2. Place all ingredients into the stock pot and bring to a boil.
3. When it comes to a boil, turn down the fore to medium low.
4. Skim off the foam that appears on the soup and boil for 2 hours.
5. Add salt to taste.

This soup is usually made with ginseng roots, they can go from few dollar to hundreds of dollar.  I happen to have the really expensive ginseng in powder form, therefore I only need a 2 teaspoons.  If it is the lower grade one, I would need a few ginseng roots for the taste.  You really do not need the expensive stuffs for the soup. I made the mistake of putting a tablespoon of the really expensive ginseng and the whole pot of soup tasted bitterly like ginseng.  I had to add 2 more quarts of water and chicken stock to mellow out the taste of ginseng.  So test out the ginseng before dumping everything into the pot. 

Remember, you can always add but not take out.

Stewed Oxtail

Iced Green Tea

Why buy green tea drink when it is so easy to make.  I usually make a big pitcher of it during the summer.  It takes about 7 teabags and I don't add the honey until I pour it into the glass.  It is so refreshing without any after taste you sometimes get from a can!

Duncan Hines Carrot Cakes

 I am not crazy about carrot cakes and when I am at a bakery, it is never my choice for carrot cakes because chocolate is my ultimate choice.  When I saw that Duncan Hines have Carrot Cakes flavor, I had to buy it.  The smell of the mix was incredible but the carrot and raisin was kind of odd.  It came in another package and it was dehydrated.  You are suppose to rehydrate it by putting into water.  It was a lucky thing that I did not put the whole packet into the cake mix.  If I were to make it again, I would use fresh grated carrots and the Minute Maid raisin.  The dehydrated mix made the cake chewy.  Or I would just buy it for the cake mix itself because the spices smells and taste wonderful, better than some store bought carrot cakes! 

Mac & Cheese 2

I love Mac and Cheese, such a comfort food for me.  Sometimes I add tomatoes on top to add sweetness to the dish.  I add grated parm cheese on top of the tomatoes and broil it to a golden brown after the mac and cheese is done.

Thousand Island Dressing

I was craving a Ruben sandwich and got all the ingredients to make it.  Of course I forget the Thousand Island dressing, so typical of me.  Since I did not feel like dashing out to the store again and my craving needed to be answered, I decided to look up the recipe for the dressing.  Great thing I had all the ingredients to make it.  I looked the the recipe in Allrecipes.com but changed it to my liking. Ingredients 2 1/2 tbsp Mayo 2 tbsp ketchup 2 tbsp sweet pickle relish 1/2 tbsp hot sauce dash of smoked paprika dash of Worcestershire sauce  salt and pepper to taste  Combine all the ingredients in a bowl!

I was craving a Ruben sandwich and got all the ingredients to make it.  Of course I forget the Thousand Island dressing, so typical of me.  Since I did not feel like dashing out to the store again and my craving needed to be answered, I decided to look up the recipe for the dressing.  Great thing I had all the ingredients to make it.  I looked the the recipe in Allrecipes.com but changed it to my liking.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 tbsp Mayo
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
• 1/2 tbsp hot sauce
• dash of smoked paprika
• dash of Worcestershire sauce
•  salt and pepper to taste

 Combine all the ingredients in a bowl!

McCain Curly Fries

The secret to making crispy fries if you are not frying them is to broil it for couple of minutes after it is done.  Frying things in a lot of oil is really tasty, but it is a hazard for me because I am so clumsy and it is so unhealthy for you.

Ruben Sandwich

Ruben Sandwich are so tasty, the combination of melted Swiss, corned beef, sauerkraut, and tangy Thousand Island sauce makes an amazing sandwich.  I put the Swiss on the first slice of bread, then some sauerkraut, and however much corned beef.  Apply Thousand Island dressing liberally on the second slice of bread and top it off.  I like to toast this with butter on a non-stick pan with the side where the cheese is on. Toast both side until both sides are toasty, serve with extra dressing. Enjoy!!!

Hint: I guess the sauerkraut that I had was more sour than the others, I had to take some out of the sandwich because it was too sour.  So beware of your ingredients, it's different from brand to brand.

Spot Dessert Bar

There is a place in St. Marks at NYC called "Spot Dessert Bar."  Since I was with four other people, we got a bunch of desserts to share.  The desserts are amazing, some of the desserts were deconstructed.  The Soft Cheesecake was amazing, there was a small bit of foam on the cheesecake part and the flavor explodes in your mouth.  My other favorite was the Yuzu Eskimo, the ice cream was frozen solid and combined with everything on the plate made it very tasty. My absolute favorite was the Ginger Lime Sorbet.  I did not think that I would like it because I do not like Ginger desserts but this sorbet was amazing.  There is more lime in it then ginger and after all the desserts, this cleanses your pallet with an explosive ending.  I am definitely going back to get the sorbet on the go!

Yuzu Eskimo

Soft Cheesecake

Chocolate Green Tea Truffle Cake with a big scoop of green tea ice cream.

Jackfruit Cake

Steamed Passion Fruit Souffle

Pineapple Tiramisu

Raspberry Tea and Ginger Lime Sorbet

Green Tea Cookies

This is my first batch of green tea cookies.

I love anything green tea: ice cream, waffles, cookies and mochi! Green tea cookies are expensive so I decided to make them myself. It is so simple and the outcome is exactly like those store bought ones. The Green Tea Matcha powder may seem expensive at first, but it is worth it and you do not need a lot for the recipes depending on the quality of the powder you buy. If you put too much into a recipe, it will turn bitter so play around with what you have because some matcha powder are stronger than the others.

Ingredients

• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon Green Tea Matcha Powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, sugar, salt and Matcha powder together with a hand mixer for a minute. 
3. Then use a fork to incorporate flour into the butter mixture.
4. Just as I scoop my Doubly Chocolate Cookies, scoop out the green tea mixture with a measuring tablespoon. Unlike the chocolate cookies, these cookies will spread out a bit so place them 1 1/2 inch apart.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.

I made green tea cookies again, this time I used a different brand of green tea matcha powder.  As you can see the color is much greener than the previous.  I do not have much experience with green tea matcha powder and did not realize that there is a big difference in them.

The trick to getting the dough not to stick is the saran wrap! Or I suppose you can use a melon baller, which I do not own.

I love the vibrant green color and the smell is amazing.

My friends love these cookies!

Stuffed Peppers

Beef & Potato

 

I just wanted something a little different and used whatever ingredients I had in on hand. Since I bought a bag of potatoes and was getting tired of roasted it, I decided to bake it on top of the cooked beef.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 large potato
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Brown meat with garlic and onion in oil.
3. After two minutes add the paprika, oregano, parsley and rosemary.
4. Saute until everything is cooked, then add frozen peas.
5. Transfer meat mixture to a baking dish and add thinly sliced potatoes over the meat.
6. Brush a little bit of oil left over from the browning of the meat and bake until potatoes are cooked, about 30 minutes.

Ginger Chicken, Fungus and Mushroom Stir Fry

Taste of home!  I love this ginger chicken and mushroom dish.  This dish has everything dried mushroom, the chicken, ginger, and I like the combination of all makes this dish really scrumptious. Of course I can never replicate the exactness of my mother's cooking but this comes very close to it.  That is because I do not cook with a wok, tons of oil, and boned in chicken.  I do cook it with a lot of ginger because I love ginger in every bite. I use a combination of boneless skinless chicken breast and thighs.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs and 1 chicken breast
• 10 dried mushroom
• 10 pieces of fungus
• 1/4 cup julienne ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar 
• 2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions

1. Soak the fungus and mushroom for 1 hour, drain and cut into pieces.
2. Cut chicken into bite size chunks and season with salt and pepper.
3. In medium high heat, sauté the ginger for about 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic and sauté another 2 minutes.
5. Sprinkle flour over chicken and toss to coat evenly, and then add chicken to the pan.
6. After 5 minutes of cooking the chicken, add soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine vinegar.  
7. Cook for another 5 minutes before adding mushroom.
8. Sauté for another 20 minutes until everything is cook through and the flavors are incorporated.

You can reduce the amount of ginger or add more to your taste.

Saute Egg Plant

Crumbly Double Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are really crumbly because it does not any wet ingredients in them such as eggs or milk.  They are so easy to make and using the basic recipe you can add anything to it to make any flavor cookies you want.  

Ingredients

• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch salt
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or chips 

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla extract together with a hand mixer for about a minute.   
2. Then use a fork to mix the flour and chocolate chips into the butter mixture until everything in incorporated.
3. Since the dough is so soft and sticky and I did not own a melon baller, you can put plastic wrap around a measuring 1 tablespoon so the dough would not stick to the spoon. Just as the pictures above.
4. Bake on a baking sheets in a 335 F preheated oven for 20 minutes.

BBQ Pork Ribs

This BBQ pork ribs is made with my homemade BBQ sauce.  Season the ribs with salt, pepper and smoked paprika, then bake it at 425 degrees for half an hour.  Base the ribs twice for another half hour and serve! So easy and tasty!