Pesto Sauce

If you like both pine nuts and sweet basil, then this is the perfect sauce for you. My first experienced with pesto sauce was at Olive Garden a very long time ago. I didn’t know what it was called back than, I just know that it tasted soooo yummy with grill salmon! From that day on I was determined to learn the recipe and indulged! At last, I finally found this simple yet delicious recipe.
There not much to this recipe except make sure that the pine nuts is of good quality. If you used bad pine nuts, the consequence would be very bitter. And I meant literally. Not long ago, as I was trying to clean my pantry, I noticed a bag of pine nuts that seem good yet open. Not wanting to be wasteful I decided to make some yummy pesto sauce to go with my spaghetti and steak night in.
I combined both the new package and the rest of the old package. Well the result was superb. It look great and taste great, the only con was that the very next day I have this bitter taste in the back of my mouth. Of course, didn’t know the cause of it I naturally think that I was sick or something. Anyway, it took a whole week and plus some to get rid of that awful taste. Needless to say, nothing tasted good during that whole process.
Anyway to make the story short, I didn’t realize that it was the pine nut that causing it until it happen the second time. Then I did some thinking and google pine nuts and found that bad pine nuts can leave that bitterness in the back of your mouth.
So that little rascal can do some damage if you’re not careful with it.
Disregarding that one little minor set back, I still love pesto sauce and I put mine on everything from steak, fish, vegetables to pasta. Its just one of those sauces that so good you can’t put down.
Beside from that fact, enjoy and have fun making it….if you still want to make some.

Ingredients:

1 Cup basil
½ Cup pine nuts
3 Garlic cloves
¼ Cup extra virgin olive oil
½ Cup parmesan cheese
¼ Cup romano cheese
½ Tsp ground pepper
Salt to taste

Methods:

There not much to this sauce, except to put everything in the food processor and mix well. Serve as is.

Babies Theme Cake

Sorry been away for so long. With all that going on in my life right now, I have too much to get process all at once. Anyway, glad to get back on track and start to post again. Now let get started.

In this past couple of months I had made two cakes. One was for my baby boy 1st Summer Lua birthday bash. Therefore I decided to make an island inspired cake with teddy grams and fishes splashing around the water oasis. I used the same Asian sponge cake recipe and whipping. I got this idea from Parent’s Magazine and decided to do a Lua thyme with it. It was a great success! We had great food, great time with families and friends.

The second cake was for my little princess 3rd birthday. For some reasons, maybe because it winter and cold outside, we never have a chance to make her a lavish birthday party…including this year. In quote from my cousin “this is the saddest birthday party ever” of course maybe it is because we didn’t invited anyone. We just want to celebrate our princess birthday on quieter note. Just with the people that love her most, her family.
Now as for the cake, it was not hard to make at all. It was just a little tedious work with all the gum paste coral that was made overnight, but it turn beautifully. And the plus side was that she had fun helping me roll and cut them too! It was a great way to spend quality time with my birthday girl. As for the icing, well that wasn’t too hard, but a bit of a mess to clean up. In the end it was all worth the effort and time. As a mom, I feel that whatever little I have, I will make it an effort to do whatever I can for my kids big or small. And hopefully they can pass this tradition down to their own kids one day with sweet memories of growing up.

Here are the recipe for the Asian sponge cake and whipped cream icing..All you need is some food colors and creativity...
Babies Birthday Cake

Ginger Chicken

If you ever had ginger chicken before, than you know that there are many ways to make them. Every restaurant have their own version of how it done. I for one don’t really like the one in the Chinese restaurant, due to the fact that it is too soggy and have too many ingredients. For me, ginger chicken only require two main ingredients and that is ginger and chicken. I want to be able to taste the spiciness of the semi crispy ginger and tender chicken, no other overpowering flavor needed. Of course, oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and pepper are an addition that also a must to perfect the dish!

Growing up ginger chicken is our favorite dish to make and eat. As mention before, we love our ginger and chicken to be crispy and with lots of pepper.
Beside from the fact that ginger taste good, it also very good for you. It is known to regulate your blood flow due to it heat factor. This is also a very popular dish for women post baby, to help their body heal and regulated itself. Not to mention it other benefit for nauseate, gas, stomachache, headache, but we’re not going to get to into that today.
The point is that ginger is just plain good for you and taste absolutely delicious no mater what you add to it!

Ingredients:

8 oz Chicken thigh or breast thinly slice into strip
Cup of ginger cut into thin strings
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of fish sauce
1 Tsp of oyster sauce
½ Tsp of dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
A couple dash of white pepper
Lots of black pepper or to taste

Methods:

1. In a hot wok add half of the oil.
2. When oil is hot, stir the ginger until it is lightly golden.
3. Remove the ginger and set aside.
4. Add the remaining oil and add the sliced chicken to the hot wok.
5. Add the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, oyster sauce and pepper.
6. Stir until it is fully cooked and all the liquid is evaporate.
7. Stir in the ginger and stir for a couple times.
8. Remove from heat and serve with hot steaming rice!

Seafood Wonton Soup

The best soup are the one that are home made and from the heart, but with so many things to do and catch up, who has time for home made right? That is the sad part of today busy mom world. Having a meal on the table at all is a task to itself. Although I find that this to be true for me before in a bigger city and more demanding job, but now in a lazy slower pace town, I find time to make what is good for my family. It is not always completely from scratch, but always from the heart and it home cooked.
In Chinese culture, the most meaningful food to make for someone is soup. For soup is believed to be essential to balance energy and bring them back to health from sickness.
Beside from that fact it also time consuming to make soup, for you have to cook it at a medium to low heat to get the best flavor and benefit out of it.

Ingredients:

1 Package of dumping wrapper
12 Shrimps
6 Scallops
1 Tsp of minced ginger
1 Tbsp of minced scallion
1 Tsp of sesame oil
½ Salt
A couple of dash of white pepper
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tsp of rice wine
1 Tbsp of baking soda
1 Egg white
1 Package of fish balls or shrimp balls
5 Pieces of bak choy cut in halves

Soup:

1 Package chicken bone
1 Package pork neck bone
1 Dried turnip
6 dried shrimps
2 Inches ginger
1 Onion
1 Tsp of kosher salt
2 Tbsp of fish sauce
2 Tbsp of chicken soup base

Or use the ready made wonton powder soup base to taste.

Methods:

1. Make the soup by using ready made wonton soup base or boiling some pork neck bone and chicken bone for 2 hours with some ginger, onion, dried turnip and dried shrimp. Add kosher salt and fish sauce to taste.
2. Clean the shrimps and scallops and chop them into small desire size.
3. In a bowl add the baking soda and enough water to cover the shrimp and scallop and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. When it done rinse the baking soda out completely. Then mix the egg white and a couple dash of salt and message into the shrimps and scallops. Let it sit for another 15 minutes.
5. After the 15 minutes up, add the sesame oil, rice wine, salt, soy sauce, ginger, scallion, white pepper and mix well.
6. In a small pot pour enough water and bring to boil.
7. Placing the dumpling wrapper in your palm, scope a teaspoon size filling and place it in the middle. Now wrap it up by simply twisting into a small pouch with wet water finger or using some oil.
8. When all the wonton is ready, slowly lower into the boiling water and cook for a good 8 minutes. You can also blanch the bak choy at this time too.
9. Remove and place in the serving bowl adding the soup and some scallion.
10. Serve hot and enjoy!

Chicken Curry with Rice Vermicelli

As I mentioned before, my favorite dish of all time is anything with noodle in it. In our house, it called “noodle head” and there a couple of us that can be labeled as that! Although rice vermicelli is not really consider as your traditional noodle, but nevertheless it is such as good if done right and with the right soup base. Now this is one of those dishes that is very popular in Southeast Asian where spices is their everyday life. And after tasting so many different curries dishes, I can state that every culture and family has their own version on how it is done.

This version that I am making is my family version that been passed down by my grandma. I remember getting up early in the morning to help cook, because she would make two big giant pot so that she can give it to all her five children and their family. Not to forget her neighbor too. Therefore, she usually make enough to feed 30 plus people and that meant lots of coconut grating, lemon grass mincing and the mortar always busy pounding away.
Of course this is the long and old fashion way where everything is made from scratch. In the end, the result is authentic and tasted splendid!

Now let face fact, not everyone is a homemaker that would actually have the time to do all this from scratch, so I came up with a shorter version and taste very close to how I remembered how my grandma curry used to be. Of course, if she ever found out I did this she would have a field day with me, but what she doesn’t know doesn’t hurt right?
Then again, I have both the long and easy version, so I am pretty much guilt free…or at least I hope to be….lol


Ingredients:

6 Lemon grasses
Handful of kaffier lime
5 Dried chili pods soak in hot water to soften
1” turmeric
4 Garlic cloves
In a mortar or food processor mash the above ingredient to fine and paste like. Now you have your homemade curry paste.
1 Tbsp of powder curry
(For a shortcut, you can use 2 Tbsp of Thai yellow curry + 1 Tsp of curry powder instead of the above ingredients)
1 Large can of coconut juice or 3 to 4 Cup of fresh squeeze coconut milk
1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
1 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tsp of shrimp paste
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
½ Cup of fish sauce or to taste
1 Tsp of kosher salt or to taste
3 Tsp of chicken soup flavor powder
1 Organic chicken cut into small desire pieces
1 Large can of bamboo shoot
2 Large yellow onions
1 Handful of Asian green bean cut diagonally
3 Asian eggplants cut diagonally
2 Potato cut into 2’ cubes (optional)
Water

Garnish:

1 Handful of sweet basil
Fresh Thai chills
Bean sprout
Thinly sliced green been
Thinly sliced cucumber
Thinly sliced cabbage

Sauce:

4 to 5 Jalapenos
2 Cloves of garlic
1 Tsp of kosher salt
2 to 3 Tbsp of lime juice

This is the sauce that I made for dipping the chicken and vegetable in. It also great to put in the noodle to “give it a kick” BAM! Lol
In a mortar mash everything together and add the lime juice to taste. Set aside.

Methods:

1. In a 10 quart pot, heat to hot. Add the vegetable oil, wait a couple of seconds to bring the oil to hot. Stir in the curry paste, oyster sauce, half of the fish sauce, salt and stir until aroma and lightly golden.
2. Now stir in half of the coconut milk and bring to boil. If using the ¼ of the can, use half at a time with about a cup.
3. Add the chicken and stir until gently. Slowing adding the rest of the coconut milk, chicken flavor soup base, the rest of the salt and enough water to cover the chicken. I used coconut can to measure 3 to 4 cups of water, depending how thick you want the curry to be.
4. After it boil bring to heat to medium.
5. About 10 minutes before it done, put all the vegetable and let it cook.
6. In another pot, add enough water and bring to boil. Cook the vermicelli according to package.
7. Remove from heat and run cold water on it to stop the cooking process.
8. With your two index fingers pick the noodle up and form a circle around your palm.
9. Wring the water out of it and place on a strainer to dry.
10. Serve by placing the noodle and vegetable and herbs in a bowl while pouring the curry soup on top of it.
11. For a kick add the jalapeno and garlic sauce.

Ahi Tuna Salad

This is a great dish if you’re looking for a lite and filling snack without all of the calories. I especially enjoy this dish, because the tangy sauce just compliments the Ahi tuna and crispy salad. This is can be serve alone before the main course as a salad dish. The plus side is that it is so easy to make and in such little time.

Ingredients:

½ Lb of fresh Ahi sushi grade Tuna
2 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of wasabi
1 Tsp of minced ginger
1 Tsp of minced cilantro
1 Tbsp of sesame oil
1 Tbsp of rice vinegar
1 Bag of baby Spinach clean

Methods:

1. Make the sauce by mixing the sesame oil, wasabi, soy sauce, rive vinegar, minced cilantro and ginger. Set aside.
2. Heat the skillet to hot. Place the tuna and sear for 1 minute on each side.
3. Remove from heat and slice into long thin stripe.
4. To serve place the sear ahi tuna over the baby spinach and lightly drizzle the dressing over it. Serve right away.

Sticky Rice Ball

I love, love this sticky rice ball dessert. The plus side is that it is so easy to make. With very little time require and methods, this is one the dessert that you can easily impress your kids and guest alike. I for one never really have the need to make it when it so readily available in the hometown where I used to live in. Now since moving so far away in an isolated, no Asian food place, I have learn to make this with ease and confident. The only hard part is the coconut grating part. Otherwise this will be a easy as pie recipe.

The texture is so worth it though. With a slight sweetness chewy and sticky rice on the outside and sweet, melts in your mouth palm sugar in the inside is just to die for! The coconut meat is just added the perfect combination to both of this texture, making it crunchy and creamy, yet so delightful. This is a must try recipe, even just for the sake of trying!


Ingredients:
2 Cups glutinous rice flour
½ Cup of palm sugar (filling)
1 Cup Hot boiling water
1 Cup freshly grated coconut meat
1 Tsp of vanilla extract
¼ Cup of granulated sugar

Methods:

1. Smashed the palm sugar to thumb sizes. Set aside.
2. Grated the coconut meat and set aside.
3. In a clean bowl, pour the flour in it and make a well in the center.
4. Slowly pour the hot water into it and mix well. Be sure to do it a little at a time so that you’ll get the right consistency. Use a wooden spoon to blend the flour together until it pliable.
5. Now knead the dough in your hand for a couple of minute.
6. Meanwhile, in a small pot pour enough water to ¾ full and bring to boil.
7. Pull out a quarter size ball and flatten it. Place the thumb size palm sugar in the middle and close it up by kneading it until it looks like a ball.
8. Now drop the ball into the boil water. It will sink down to the bottom of the pan. Once it floats up, it is done. Pick it up and let it cool off for a couple of minute.
9. To finish this dessert just roll is in the grated coconut meat and serve hot.
10. Carefully when biting into it, because the palm sugar in the center is very hot and runny.