Scalloped Potatoes

I have tried and failed making this dish a lot of times. Although I made a perfect cheese topping, the potatoes just didn't come out fluffy enough. Recently I finally figured out the trick - the potatoes need to be cooked in the water before baking.

Quick Open Face Sandwich

Made this quick dinner for my little man in a lazy evening. A perfect clean-up-the-fridge dish.

Homemade Chili Sauce (and XO Sauce)

I avoided having spicy foods until I was around 20, and I felt like I missed out a lot. Sometimes I believe it was just in my mind that I couldn't handle spicy foods. 

Chicken Liver and Oyster Pate

The other day hubby and I revisited a seafood restaurant that has changed its name and menu. He wasn't a big fan of pate, but he tried one of their hit appetizers with me, the chicken liver and oyster pate, and kept raving about it throughout the meal.

Grilled Steaks

It took me a while to get a hang of grilling steaks. I prefer rib eyes and tenderloins, for they are more tender than striploin or sirloin so even my younger son can enjoy the steaks better. Rib eye has more fat and marble while tenterloin is more lean but it costs more.

Mentaiko Spaghetti

I had Mentaiko in Japan over 10 years ago and I still remember the taste. It is basically a clump of marinated fish roe, kind of like caviar. I always see it frozen and as well freshly made Mentaiko in some local Japanese supermarkets and have been wanting to try it then, but was a bit hesitant. It is raw fish roe after all and there was a recent news saying that some people got sick by eating Korean raw marinaded crabs...

Pan Fried Chicken Steaks

When I told my husband that I will be home late and he has to prepare the chicken for dinner tonight, I saw a green face. I knew right away that I have to post this one urgently. Steps on how to turn a piece of chicken thigh into steak, how to marinade and pictures will follow.

Ingredients

Chicken thighs, bones removed skin on

Marinated

How

If possible, let the chicken sit on the kitchen countertop for 15 minutes before cooking. This will warm the meat up a bit and allow it to be cooked quicker and more even. The estimated cooking time noted below is for chicken that are not completely at room temperature.

Preheat a non stick pan on high and add just a small dash of oil into it. A lot of oil will come out of the chicken so you don't need to add a lot. Use a paper towel to spread the oil evenly on the pan. When you put your hand an inch over the pan and you feel the heat, that means the pan is ready.

Put the chicken steak skin side down and do not overlap them. You can probably cook 2 to 3 pieces at a time.

As soon as you put the chicken into the pan, turn the heat down to medium or medium low. Put a lid over the pan and leave about an inch of gap. Cook like this for about 5-6 minutes, until the top of the chicken starts turning white. Do not leave your chicken unattended. Pay attention to it. If you see smoke, quickly remove the pan from the heat to cool the pan down and turn down the heat. When the pan is no longer smoking, return the pan back to the heat and continue cooking.

If you cannot hear a lot of sizzling, that means the temperature is not high enough. Turn up the heat to bring up the temperature. When the sizzling is back, turn the heat back down and continue cooking.

When you see the top of the chicken starts to turn white (the color of cooked chicken), that's the time to flip the chicken. Flip them and put the lid on with an inch gap again. Cook on low for another 3 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a serving plate. Let it sit for 5 minutes before serving hot to let the juice inside get settled.

Before cooking another batch, use a paper towel to wipe off the black bits and extra fat first. Do not add any more oil as the remaining fat in the pan will do.

Note: the reason for cooking with the lid on is to reduce the oil splashing everywhere. But never leave the lid on completely, as it will trap all the moisture and the chicken be steamed and not crispy.

Salmon Poached in Champagne with Honey Mustard Sauce

I guess we are one of the very few families that will have leftover champagne in the house. I mean, who wouldn't finish a bottle of champagne? Well, unless we have guests coming over, we are not big fans of alcohol and we don't usually have alcohol for consecutive nights. So we always have leftover bottles of wine or champagne in the fridge, and they are always good for cooking seafood dishes.

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

Who doesn't like chicken wings? I cook chicken wings at least once a month because they are usually dishes that can be prepared during the weekends. Aside from the fish sauce chicken wings, these soy sauce chicken wings are another hit in my house. There was time when I used to make the sauce from scratch, but I have been lazy and using the store bought sauce. The taste is good so I haven't gone back. 

Taiwanese Style Beef Stew

Adding some dark soy sauce will make it look more like it, but I prefer it this way.

Taiwanese makes some of my favorite food- actually, there is no cuisine that I don't really like. Anyway, the Taiwanese beef stew is one of their popular dishes. It is usually soupy and served with noodles. I have read and tried so many different versions of recipes for this dish and have been twisting the recipes to make it easier and more fit to the taste for my family.

Korean Style Pasta

So there was another night that I didn't know what to cook for dinner again. I was planning to make chicken and pasta, but we always eat that and the kids are bored of it. Then I tried this flavorful pasta dish. It would have been even better if I had some kimchi. My kids have enjoyed Korean dishes lately and they like the spiciness. I believe this new dish will appear in my kitchen quite often from now on. 

Leftover Chicken

In my house, no one likes the chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken, not to mention leftovers. Last weekend we attended a Chinese banquet dinner and brought home some chicken. It would've been such a waste if I just threw it away. So I decided to give it a twist and turn it into something that everyone likes.

Sous Vide Egg (at the Office!)

Working at the downtown core, I have easy access to all sorts of food and restaurants anytime. But occasionally I crave a soothing snack, and that's when I invented this interesting egg recipe. I experimented this last week at the office and it tasted great with my instant ramen noodles! 

Savory Custard (翠塘豆腐)

I made this dish the other night when some friends came over for dinner, and we called this an "adult dish", because all the adults enjoyed it but the kids didn't. I assume the taste of this dish is not as exciting as some others to the kids; however, I find this dish is so soothing and delicious. It is also a good hosting dish, because the steamed custard helps to retain the temperature of the dish through out the meal.

This super easy dish has two parts: the bottom steamed custard and the toppings. I used a recipe from a popular celebrity chef for the custard which never fails. The toppings need a very thick cornstarch water to finish, as the tofu will keep sweating. 

Here is the Savory Custard from my kitchen:

Ingredients

For the steamed custard:

4 eggs

1 can of chicken broth 412 ml

For the toppings:
1/2 cup of each of the following ingredients all diced into about 1cm cubes:

silk tofu

Zucchini, about one small one

mushroom, any kind

about 6 shrimp, shelled
1 tbs. of cornstarch
2 tsp. of cold water
salt to taste

How

1. Use paper towel to dry the shrimp completely before dicing it. Place the diced shrimp in a small bowl and marinade it with a dash of salt and sesame oil. Let it marinade while getting the steamed custard ready.
2. Mix the cornstarch and cold water together and set aside.
3. To make the steamed custard, beat the eggs until it is just mixed. Add in the chicken broth and beat again until it is just combined. Do not over beat the mixture.
4. Pour the egg mixture into a wide dish that can fit into your steamer. Cover the dish tight with plastic wrap. Add the dish into the steamer when the water boils and steam it for 6-7 minutes on medium high heat. At the end, check the custard by gently shake the dish. If the middle is still runny, steam for another minute. When done, remove it from the steamer, set aside and keep it warm.
   
5. To make the topping, heat up a pan and stir fry the shrimp on medium high heat until the shrimp is semi-cooked. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside. 
6. In the same pan, stir fry the mushroom with some oil for one minutes. Add in the zucchini and stir fry for another minute. Add salt to taste.
7. Add shrimp and tofu then gently stir everything together and slowly add the cornstarch water while continue stirring.
8. To serve, remove the plastic wrap from the steamed custard and pour the hot toppings over the custard. Serve hot.
   

Lobster Bisque

The other day I made some lobster broth and used some of it to make a pasta dish. Tonight I used the remaining broth to make a bisque to go with the fresh baguette that we bought from Kensington Market.

When I made the broth, I didn't strain away the vegetables that were used for making the broth. Instead, I blended the vegetable to give the broth some nice volume. So this bisque doesn't need too much cream to get thickened up. In fact I ran out of cream and only used milk in this recipe tonight but it still tasted as good as using cream.

Here is the Lobster Bisque from my kitchen:

Ingredients
10 cups of lobster broth
1/4 cup of each cream and milk, or 1/2 cup of milk

How

1. Heat up the lobster broth in a pot. I fried some bacon in the morning and left with a pot with bacon bits sticked to the bottom. So I wiped off the bacon fat and used the same pot for heating up the broth to add more flavor.
   
2. When the broth boils, add in cream and/or milk and stir well.
3. Turn off the heat when it boils up again and serve hot immediately.

Angel Hair with Scallops in Lobster Sauce

Why is it not Angel Hair with Lobster in Lobster Sauce? Because I used the leftover lobsters to make the sauce and there was no lobster meat left.

Boneless Sweet and Sour Pork

This dish takes a while to prepare but it's totally worth it! If you have a good recipe, homemade dishes are always ten times better than restaurant ones and this dish is a proof.

Meatballs with Vegetables

Whenever possible, I try to sneak in some vegetables. After watching so many documentaries and reading up from various sources, I agree that a plant based diet is a healthier choice for men, but I am just not ready to go vegan (yet?) So adding as many vegetables into my family diet as possible is my mission.

Pumpkin Salad

Haha, by looking at the picture it's hard to tell what kind of salad this is. Can you tell?

Green Tea Red Bean Creme Brulee

I bought a new little kitchen blow torch, so of course I have to try it with my creme brulee recipe. 

Orange Mac 'n Cheese

It is hard to understand why kids like Mac n cheese so much. It's so plain and heavy and it's such an unbalanced meal, but my kids like it. So I try to make it more nutritionally balanced by adding vegetables and protein - butternut squash and Edamame beans. Not a change in taste from the traditional dish and my kids finish it quick, but I'm still not a fan of it.

Green Tea Waffle with Red Beans and Green Tea Whipped Cream (updated)

My waffle maker has been collecting dust in the basement for months. The waffles I used to make were too hard and dry that I had been blaming on my waffle maker, until recently I finally figured out a recipe that is crispy on the outside and moist in the inside. Luck that I did not donate my waffle maker!

Green Risotto

I always order this dish whenever I see it on a menu, but making it at home usually doesn't taste as good. Even so, I still give it an attempt in my kitchen once it a while. This time I am trying it with asparagus and bacon and added some beans for more protein. I personally would prefer it without the bacon but the kids think otherwise. 

Crepes

This is a fool-proof recipe and a special cooking method that my dear friend left for me. I can whip this up easily for a weekend brunch without looking at the recipe. I am passing this to my kids, hoping that they will keep this to use one day.

Purple Oatmeal

Since we started juicing, I became more cautious of what's in my diet. Not aiming for losing weight, but for a more healthy diet that involves minimal processed food and refined grains.

Homemade Chewers for Dogs

Our dog Coco's diet is a lot healthier than ours. He is no longer eating any processed food. Occasionally we buy store bought treats for him, but those are only dried liver or sweet potatoes with no other added ingredients.

He is not a big fan of chewing. If he is given a piece of dried food, he will hold it in his mouth to moisten it then swallow it whole as soon as it is soft enough. But we really want him to chew on something to keep the teeth clean, as he doesn't exactly find teeth brushing fun. So I made him these chewers with beef tendons.

I can only find theses tendons from the Chinese supermarket. Cook them whole first as they shrink a lot. Sometimes I cook them using the broth left from cooking his foods for added flavor. Here is how:

Ingredients

6 pieces of beef tendons

How

1. Put all the tendons into a big pot and try to lay them flat in little layers.
2. Fill the pot up with water, or homemade broth if available, up to half of the top layer of the tendons.
   
3. Turn up the heat and bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes with the lid on, and stir occasionally. The bigger the tendons, the longer it should simmer, but don't cook it for too long as we don't want to boil out the nutrients.
4. When done, remove from heat and drain off the water. Then dry them using one of the methods described below.
5. Once the tendons are dried, let them cool to room temperature. Cut them into smaller size if you like. Then store them in ziplog bags in the freezer or fridge. 
6. To serve, if stored in freezer, thaw in microwave before serving.

To dry the tendons, I tried the follow two ways and they both work for me:

Baking: Bake the tendons single layer in an 375F oven for 30 minutes.

Air dry: Leave the tendons on a cookie sheet in single layer. Let them sit on the counter-top for 24 hours.

The weather here is now cold and dry so the second method works fine for me. But if you are concerned, stick with baking.

Chicken Wings Poached in Orange Juice and Honey

Hubby brought home a 5-lb bag of oranges and I really wanted to cook them with my chicken wings. Instantly I was already picturing roasted chicken wings coated with a sticky honey and citric sauce. Marinating the wings in orange juice and honey then roasting them would be tasty, but I wanted to fully cook the wings for the weeknight dinners so that my weeknight will be less hectic. Plus reheating roasted meat is really not to my liking. So I adopted the same cooking technique as the fish sauce chicken wings. The outcome was lighter and less greasy. The citric and honey aroma filled the house and put me in a good mood. Most of all, no one at the dining table was able to tell that these wings were made days in advance!

Here are the Chicken Wings Poached in Orange Juice and Honey from my kitchen:

Ingredients

3 lb of chicken wings, split

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/4 cup of white wine

1 cup of fish sauce (use the Three Crab Brand only)

1 cup of water

1 cup of honey

2 oranges

I like to order split chicken wings online from local farms. They are a lot fresher, tastier and bigger in size.

How

1. Zest and julienne the skin of one orange. In a small pot, boil the orange zest in water for 30 seconds. Drain and rinse the zest under cold water. Then boil the zest in water and drain again. Do this three times in total then drain off the water and set aside. This is to remove the bitterness from the zest.
   
   
2. Juice the two oranges and drain the pulp from the juice.
3. In a pot, add a little bit of oil and fry the garlic on low heat until fragrant.
4. In goes white wine, bring it to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Add water, fish sauce, honey and Orange juice. Stir well and bring it to a boil.
6. Add chicken wings and turn up the heat. As soon as it boils, immediately turn the heat down to low. Simmer with lid on for 10 minutes. If the liquid does not cover all the wings, add 5 more minutes and stir occasionally.
   
7. Remove from heat, leave the lid on and let the wings infuse in the liquid for 20 - 60 minutes. Stir occasionally. If the wings are bigger in size, let them infuse in the liquid longer for better flavor, but do not infuse for more that 1 hour or they will be too salty.
8. Drain and discard the liquid. Serve warm immediately or keep in the fridge and serve cold later. 

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Hmmm...I feel like I am cheating here, as this dish requires zero preparation. Perhaps I should have bought some scallops and wrapped them with bacon myself to fill up the preparation time. Since there is zero preparation, I am throwing in the spicy mayo.

Poached Chicken Breast + Special Dipping Sauce

Remember the six chicken breasts? Here is how I prepared them. The kids are not a big fan of chicken breasts, but when I poach them and serve with sauces, that's another story. The sauce for today's dish may seem a bit complicated, but once you have all the ingredients ready, you can play around with the portions to your taste.

Here is the Poached Chicken Breasts with Special Sauce from my kitchen:

Ingredients 

3 boneless chicken breasts

Sauce (suggested portions)

1 part of peanut butter
5 parts of hot water

1 part of soy sauce

1 part of vinegar

1 part of sugar

a handful of Sichuan Pepper

1 part of vegetable oil

A splash of sesame oil, optional

5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced

3 red chilies, seeded and thinly sliced

A handful of peanuts, toasted

a handful of toasted sesame seeds

Sichuan Pepper

How to poach the chicken breasts

1. Bring a pot of water or broth to a boil then add in all the chicken breasts. I was making stock with the bones so I used the stock to poach my chicken.
   
   All the chicken breasts should be fully submerged. If not, add more broth or water. Bring it to a boil and immediately turn the heat down to low. Simmer with lid on for 18 minutes. Remove from heat and leave the lid on. Let it steam for another 5 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken breasts and immediately submerge them into icy cold water. I added ice pack to bring down the temperature quicker. Soak until all the chicken breasts are completely cooled down. Drain and pad dry.
   
3. Thinly sliced the chicken breasts diagonally. Serve with sauce immediately or keep in the fridge for serving later. Can be served warm or cold with the sauce (see below).
   

How to make the sauce

1. Heat the Sichuan pepper and vegetable oil in a small pot on low to medium heat until fragrant. Drain the oil and discard the Sichuan pepper. Pour the drained oil back into the same pot.
   
   
2. On low to medium heat, add garlic and red chili into the pot of oil. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
   
3. Put the peanut butter in a bowl and add 1/2 of the hot water. Mix until it is completely smooth. Repeat with the same to add the remaining hot water. 
   
4. Add the galic, red chili and oil, and all the remaining ingredients into the peanut butter mixture, except the peanuts and sesame seeds. Mix well and adjust seasonings to your taste.
5. To serve, warm up the chicken or serve at room temperature. Right before serving, pour the sauce over the chicken then sprinkle peanuts and sesame seeds on top. Or serve the peanuts, sesame seeds and sauce on the side. Do not mix the peanuts and sesame seeds into the sauce and sprinkle them on top right before serving to keep the crunchiness.

   

   Skipped the red chili for my younger son, but he actually preferred the sauce with chili.

Mussels and Angel Hair in White Wine Broth

This is my typical way to serve the baby mussels from Costco. I prefer to make a broth rather than a think sauce to highlight the fresh taste of the baby mussels. I also prefer to use Angel Hair as opposed to the other types of pasta as it feels lighter in the broth. If you do not have Angel Hair handy, try other stringy pastas such as spaghetti or Linguine. 

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenterloin

This petite roast may look fancy, but it is super easy to make. The cooking time varies for every oven so I always cook my roasts based on a set temperature rather than roasting time.