Just let them cool and then enjoy!!
Here's the filling. YUM!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Eggrolls from scratch!
So I cheated a bit and bought organic eggroll dough squares, but I did make the insides from scratch! Basically I pre-cooked vermicelli rice noodles in water and then cut them up into small segments. I added these to cabbage, carrots, mushrooms (broken into small pieces), and extra firm tofu (sliced into small chunks) and cooked for about 5-10 minutes with oyster sauce, chicken broth, and a smidge of sesame oil. About 2-3 tablespoons full of filling was added to a dough square and the square was rolled into a wrap. I was lazy and just used water to attach the final corner so that the eggroll was firmly sealed, but a little bit of raw egg is even better. Instead of using a ton of oil, which takes forever to heat up, I just covered the bottom of the wok in about 1/2 inch of oil and added 3-4 egg rolls at a time. Each side was friend in oil for about 1-2min or until crispy and brown.
Just let them cool and then enjoy!!
Here's the filling. YUM!
Just let them cool and then enjoy!!
Here's the filling. YUM!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Dinner Party, Saturday, 5/12/07
The dinner party was a lot of fun, but cooking was definitely chaotic since I decided to take a nap and wake up 1.5 hours before everyone was arriving! Due to the short amount of time, I don't have many pictures of the process and those that I do have don't show any close ups of my dish. The important thing here though is that the food was delicious!
So to start, I made the pan-fried noodles. These are egg noodles that I bought from the Chinese grocery store and they tell you on the package to add the noodles to boiling water for 20 seconds and then to pan fry them. I guess this helps to moisten them up and briefly cook them. To pan fry them, I used my big wok with a layer of oil that just covered the bottom. There were a lot of noodles, so I took a third of the noodles at a time and basically stirred them around with the oil. Once the oil was evenly distributed I let them sit on low to medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, flipping the batch now and again. Take them out when they start to turn a bit brown and crispy.
During the 5-10 minute incubations (uh oh, this is starting to sound like lab!) I chopped up various veggies from the Chinese store: snow peas, baby bok choy, chinese broccoli, long green beans, and watercress. I looked for lotus root at the store, but couldn't find it. Ironically the store was called "Lotus." To flavor the veggies you can make a variety of different sauces - brown sauces, garlic, ginger. Well I knew my sauces could be sketchy so I opted to stir fry the veggies in oil with garlic and salt and then make the sauce on the side. Veggies in a stir-fry are best when they are crispy, so I made sure to cook them with the lid on for no longer than 3 or 4 minutes.
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I got a recipe from my aunt for a brown sauce. Unfortunately it called for chicken broth and oyster sauce, which I later realized wouldn't work because a large portion of the guests were vegetarians or vegans, so I filed the recipe away for a future date. I did find a recipe online for a ginger sauce, which did not come out well because (1) I didn't follow the directions and melt the brown sugar first and (2) I had the wrong type of soy sauce -the salty kind. Needless to say, the sauce tasted horribly salty and gross, so I threw it out. Luckily Maria came to the rescue and made an impromptu sauce composed of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and corn starch for thickening, as well as other components that I don't recall!
The last component of the meal was fried tofu that actually came out quite well. It was also from the Chinese store and made fresh that day (the best kind!). A woman at the store told Maria and myself that tofu hardens when soaked in cold water overnight. Hard tofu is the best for frying. Since I bought it that day, I only had about 5 hours of soaking, but it was decent. I've learned that it's important to remove as much water as possible when frying, so I removed the tofu from the water and placed it in between two cutting boards (one on top, one on the bottom). A book or heavy object can be placed on top of the upper cutting board to force the water out from the tofu. After allowing this process to go for about 45 minutes, I sliced the tofu and coated it with salted and peppered flour. Then I threw the chunks into a decent amount of oil (almost burning off Maria's arm in the process!) and let them cook on low to medium heat until somewhat brown (5-10 min).
Here are some pictures of all of the food, including my tofu, stir-fried vegetables, pan-fried noodles, Maria's curry
and sauce for my noodles, Shiang Yong's pasta with tomato sauce,
Amanda's salad with balsalmic vinaigrette, Jane's homemade banana bread,
and Elisa's seasoned baked eggplant. John, Ryan, and Henry kindly provided the drinks while Colleen baked an apple pie, Chien-Chiao brought a Boston creme pie, Maria and Henry brought chocolate fondue with fruit, and Frankie made poached pear in a port wine sauce. All in all, quite tasty!
So to start, I made the pan-fried noodles. These are egg noodles that I bought from the Chinese grocery store and they tell you on the package to add the noodles to boiling water for 20 seconds and then to pan fry them. I guess this helps to moisten them up and briefly cook them. To pan fry them, I used my big wok with a layer of oil that just covered the bottom. There were a lot of noodles, so I took a third of the noodles at a time and basically stirred them around with the oil. Once the oil was evenly distributed I let them sit on low to medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, flipping the batch now and again. Take them out when they start to turn a bit brown and crispy.
During the 5-10 minute incubations (uh oh, this is starting to sound like lab!) I chopped up various veggies from the Chinese store: snow peas, baby bok choy, chinese broccoli, long green beans, and watercress. I looked for lotus root at the store, but couldn't find it. Ironically the store was called "Lotus." To flavor the veggies you can make a variety of different sauces - brown sauces, garlic, ginger. Well I knew my sauces could be sketchy so I opted to stir fry the veggies in oil with garlic and salt and then make the sauce on the side. Veggies in a stir-fry are best when they are crispy, so I made sure to cook them with the lid on for no longer than 3 or 4 minutes.
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I got a recipe from my aunt for a brown sauce. Unfortunately it called for chicken broth and oyster sauce, which I later realized wouldn't work because a large portion of the guests were vegetarians or vegans, so I filed the recipe away for a future date. I did find a recipe online for a ginger sauce, which did not come out well because (1) I didn't follow the directions and melt the brown sugar first and (2) I had the wrong type of soy sauce -the salty kind. Needless to say, the sauce tasted horribly salty and gross, so I threw it out. Luckily Maria came to the rescue and made an impromptu sauce composed of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and corn starch for thickening, as well as other components that I don't recall!
The last component of the meal was fried tofu that actually came out quite well. It was also from the Chinese store and made fresh that day (the best kind!). A woman at the store told Maria and myself that tofu hardens when soaked in cold water overnight. Hard tofu is the best for frying. Since I bought it that day, I only had about 5 hours of soaking, but it was decent. I've learned that it's important to remove as much water as possible when frying, so I removed the tofu from the water and placed it in between two cutting boards (one on top, one on the bottom). A book or heavy object can be placed on top of the upper cutting board to force the water out from the tofu. After allowing this process to go for about 45 minutes, I sliced the tofu and coated it with salted and peppered flour. Then I threw the chunks into a decent amount of oil (almost burning off Maria's arm in the process!) and let them cook on low to medium heat until somewhat brown (5-10 min).
Here are some pictures of all of the food, including my tofu, stir-fried vegetables, pan-fried noodles, Maria's curry
and sauce for my noodles, Shiang Yong's pasta with tomato sauce,
Amanda's salad with balsalmic vinaigrette, Jane's homemade banana bread,
and Elisa's seasoned baked eggplant. John, Ryan, and Henry kindly provided the drinks while Colleen baked an apple pie, Chien-Chiao brought a Boston creme pie, Maria and Henry brought chocolate fondue with fruit, and Frankie made poached pear in a port wine sauce. All in all, quite tasty!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Partying it up!
This weekend I'm having a small dinner party at my place and I've decided to cook pan-fried noodles with stir-fried vegetables in a brown sauce. My aunt gave me her recipe for the sauce, which she says usually comes out well 1 out of 4 times (and she's a really good cook!). Let's hope that tomorrow is the 1 time it works out well :) I'll try to remember to take pictures, but will definitely write about my experience after tomorrow.
Slowwwww cooked chicken ;)
Well, here it is! Ok, so this post is a week later than when I actually cooked, and I ended up cooking a lot later than I had hoped, but at least it turned out well :)
Like Chewy, I had a rather interesting time finding ingredients, as the evaporated milk was in a rather strange location. Thankfully, I had done my research on pimentos ahead of time, so I was prepared for that.
Sadly, I don't have as extensive a photolog as I had hoped, since I ended up making this dish in a hurry. However, I found it's a rather simple dish to make, and took me only about 20 minutes total to get everything done! Of course, actually having some prep time before cooking would have been a lot nicer, but I'll take what I can get.
I stayed fairly close to the recipe (halving everything), but deviated slightly by going for orange peppers instead of green ones, and probably overdoing it on the mushrooms.
Final result! (And it doesn't look like a cookie.....). I was a bit sloppy with my pepper cutting, which is why there's that huge orange chunk.
I served it over jasmine rice, which was fairly tasty when mixed together. In retrospect, I should probably have stuck with the green peppers, since it ended up tasting a bit like cream of mushroom + chicken.
Time to choose our next challenge! Hopefully it'll take us less time to do ;)
Like Chewy, I had a rather interesting time finding ingredients, as the evaporated milk was in a rather strange location. Thankfully, I had done my research on pimentos ahead of time, so I was prepared for that.
Sadly, I don't have as extensive a photolog as I had hoped, since I ended up making this dish in a hurry. However, I found it's a rather simple dish to make, and took me only about 20 minutes total to get everything done! Of course, actually having some prep time before cooking would have been a lot nicer, but I'll take what I can get.
I stayed fairly close to the recipe (halving everything), but deviated slightly by going for orange peppers instead of green ones, and probably overdoing it on the mushrooms.
Final result! (And it doesn't look like a cookie.....). I was a bit sloppy with my pepper cutting, which is why there's that huge orange chunk.
I served it over jasmine rice, which was fairly tasty when mixed together. In retrospect, I should probably have stuck with the green peppers, since it ended up tasting a bit like cream of mushroom + chicken.
Time to choose our next challenge! Hopefully it'll take us less time to do ;)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Chicken a la King, finally!
Today I had a hard day at work, so what better way to relieve some stress than to cook? Before I could fire up the stove, I had to make a trip to the store to gather the ingredients for what I hoped would be a very good dinner. However, what I thought would be a quick trip turned into an odyssey! It was easy enough finding the commonly used ingredients like the veggies, butter, and half and half, but when it came to the pimentos...What are pimentos anyway? Luckily a knowledgeable Giant Eagle worker pointed me in the right direction. Oh but the saga continued as I asked everyone in sight where I could locate the pastry puffs. After facing quizzical and dumbfounded looks for about 15 minutes, I finally gave up and went on my way to check out.
I'm happy to report that the process of making the Chicken a la King dish went smoothly. First I cut up all of the ingredients before starting to cook:
Next I sauteed the mushrooms and green peppers in salted butter:
Then I added the dry ingredients and tried to stir in as much as possible, though I had to add some wet ingredients to get the smooth texture that the recipe mentioned. I slowly stirred in the liquid ingredients as directed and did add some corn starch to thicken up the gravy. Lastly, I added pimentos and raw chicken instead of cooked since chicken cooks quickly and tastes really bad if overcooked. This is how it turned out:
The finished product was bordered by crescent rolls, which was the closest thing I could think of to pastry puffs, though definitely not as light and fluffy!
I think rice will also taste good with the Chicken a la King as Wayne will be trying (ahem, one of these days :) ) The dish was very filling and somewhat heavy, so as a dessert I cut up some fresh strawberries and pineapple. Yum!
On a final note, I realized later that I completely forgot to use the dry sherry like Kathy suggested even though I bought it at the store today! Ah well, next time :P
I'm happy to report that the process of making the Chicken a la King dish went smoothly. First I cut up all of the ingredients before starting to cook:
Next I sauteed the mushrooms and green peppers in salted butter:
Then I added the dry ingredients and tried to stir in as much as possible, though I had to add some wet ingredients to get the smooth texture that the recipe mentioned. I slowly stirred in the liquid ingredients as directed and did add some corn starch to thicken up the gravy. Lastly, I added pimentos and raw chicken instead of cooked since chicken cooks quickly and tastes really bad if overcooked. This is how it turned out:
The finished product was bordered by crescent rolls, which was the closest thing I could think of to pastry puffs, though definitely not as light and fluffy!
I think rice will also taste good with the Chicken a la King as Wayne will be trying (ahem, one of these days :) ) The dish was very filling and somewhat heavy, so as a dessert I cut up some fresh strawberries and pineapple. Yum!
On a final note, I realized later that I completely forgot to use the dry sherry like Kathy suggested even though I bought it at the store today! Ah well, next time :P
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
In the meantime...
Looks like we really dropped the ball with the Chicken a la King. In the meantime, here's an easy dish I made not too long ago. It's basically asparagus sauteed in a light oil and butter sauce with lightly breaded chicken and white rice.
Asparagus
Just slice off the rough stem (about 1/2 to 2/3) and wash in a strainer. I used mostly oil, a pinch of salt, and a sliver of unsalted butter and sauteed the asparagus about 5-10min or until it was cooked, but still crunchy. The key to crunchy, but not raw, asparagus is to continue to stir the whole time and to taste a little piece every few minutes :P
Chicken
For the chicken, I cut it into cubes so that it would cook fast - I was really hungry! The breading consisted of about 1:1 plain breadcrumbs to flour and was seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley. Each cube was tossed around in the breading for full coverage before laying on a baking rack and baking at 400 degrees for 5-10min. You'll have to estimate based on how big the chicken pieces are. I don't usually keep track of the time, so I had to cut into one of the pieces to make sure it was cooked. Yes, this causes the chicken juices to run out, so it's better if you can practice enough be confident in the baking time. To give the breaded chicken some added flavor, I generously squeezed fresh lemon juice on top.
Rice
Lastly, I was lazy and just used minute rice, but any type of rice will do. Rice pilaf would have been a nice addition, though the store bought mixes have too strong of a flavor sometimes. In this case, I didn't want the rice to overpower the flavor of the meat and vegetable components.
Viola - here is my final dish:
(Don't worry - this is just a small portion of what I made. You should have enough for 2 people if you use a large chicken breast, 1-1.5 cups of rice, and a bunch of asparagus)
Asparagus
Just slice off the rough stem (about 1/2 to 2/3) and wash in a strainer. I used mostly oil, a pinch of salt, and a sliver of unsalted butter and sauteed the asparagus about 5-10min or until it was cooked, but still crunchy. The key to crunchy, but not raw, asparagus is to continue to stir the whole time and to taste a little piece every few minutes :P
Chicken
For the chicken, I cut it into cubes so that it would cook fast - I was really hungry! The breading consisted of about 1:1 plain breadcrumbs to flour and was seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley. Each cube was tossed around in the breading for full coverage before laying on a baking rack and baking at 400 degrees for 5-10min. You'll have to estimate based on how big the chicken pieces are. I don't usually keep track of the time, so I had to cut into one of the pieces to make sure it was cooked. Yes, this causes the chicken juices to run out, so it's better if you can practice enough be confident in the baking time. To give the breaded chicken some added flavor, I generously squeezed fresh lemon juice on top.
Rice
Lastly, I was lazy and just used minute rice, but any type of rice will do. Rice pilaf would have been a nice addition, though the store bought mixes have too strong of a flavor sometimes. In this case, I didn't want the rice to overpower the flavor of the meat and vegetable components.
Viola - here is my final dish:
(Don't worry - this is just a small portion of what I made. You should have enough for 2 people if you use a large chicken breast, 1-1.5 cups of rice, and a bunch of asparagus)
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