Recipe: Corned Beef Hash – Island Style

I need to start this with…YUM. I found this recipe a few weeks back and have made it twice already! Then I remembered that I first had this before Christmas of last year when my coworker brought some in to work. She made it really well – I think I need to put a better browning on the corned beef hash. I think this is a pretty typical recipe but my other coworkers don’t seem familiar with it. I think it’s a great recipe, easy to make and delicious over rice! Let’s get to the pictures and recipe.

140228-01I’ll be honest. I don’t buy a lot of corned beef hash so when I got to Times, they had all brands on sale. This one, this Palm brand was the only one that was locked behind their sales counter. I figured that’s the one I should get since the others were left out in the open…lol. It wasn’t too bad but I think I need to try the Libby’s brand to compare!

140228-02Diced Tomatoes. I removed all the excess seeds but I didn’t go nuts trying to get them all out.

140228-03Diced Potatoes

140228-04Sliced Onions

140228-05Garlic garlic garlic…can’t get enough of this

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Corned Beef Hash – Island Style

Ingredients
1 small can of corned beef, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, sliced (I used a medium sized onion)
1 large potato, diced
1 large tomato, diced (I used like 3-4 small tomatoes)
2 tablespoons oil

ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Open the corned beef and place in a bowl. Use a fork to mash it. Crush the garlic, slice the onions, dice the potato and chop the tomato.

In a skillet, fry the garlic and onions in oil. Add the potatoes and fry. Crumble the corned beef and mix well until the potatoes are cooked through. Remove from heat. Stir in the tomatoes. Sprinkle with pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve hot with steamed white rice.

Jenny’s Notes:
– Next time, I’d like to pan fry the potatoes on their own to get a good crust on them.
– I would also like to pan fry the corned beef hash on it’s own to get a good crust on them too! The brown yummy bits will add lots of great flavor.

Recipe from Hicookery.com

Zippy’s Lau Lau

Quick update today. Just wanted to share a plate lunch I got from Zippy’s, they usually serve Hawaiian plates on Fridays. I was pleasantly surprised! It was ono! When I was a kid, I used to always think Zippy’s was such a rip-off. That’s probably because I had less money too…lol. Now while I don’t dine at Zippy’s a lot, I appreciate them being around and serving up consistently good comfort food.

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140226-02I love luau leaves. Delicious.

 

Fukuya Pt. 2 – Honolulu, HI

Here’s my sequel to my first Fukuya visit. I thought I hadn’t taken a picture! I tend to only go super early in the morning, meaning before 7am so not everything is always ready. No nori chicken in sight! So here is the lackluster encore…

140224-01Clockwise from top left, fried tofu block, shiso musubi, chow fun and fried chicken.

Fried Tofu Block – Flavorless. Only somewhat flavorful where the dressing is. Felt a bit cheated since it’s just a plain raw piece of tofu with some dressing on top.

Shiso Musubi – This is one of their more popular offerings but I wasn’t a fan. I generally like herb0y things but wasn’t a fan of this.

Chow Fun – Not great, not bad. I can’t get into okazuya chow fun.

Fried Chicken – Well it was already cold when I ate it…nothing memorable.

 

Recipe: Custard Mochi

Okay before I begin, I have a funny story to tell about this. I saw this recipe online and was amazed at this mochi. I had never seen a mochi recipe that separated into a layer of mochi, a layer of custard and then a glorious layer of crust (yes, I count a good crust as a layer!). Needless to say, I had to make it right away and I am so happy I did. It’s a pretty crazy recipe, it asks for 4 cups of milk and 4 eggs…but we are making custard! How did it turn out? Heavenly. Absolutely perfect. I followed the recipe exactly but I have some tips of my own after the recipe I’m going to post.

Funny story. So I got into work and wrote an e-mail out to the staff about how I never saw this kind of mochi before and told them all to give it a try.  Then one of my coworkers tells me she has made this same exact recipe and brought it to the office at least three times. OOPS. I felt really bad but I kept laughing too! Not at her but at me writing that e-mail to the staff like I found something new or something! Luckily she wasn’t too mad since we are pretty close…lol. Here are the pictures!

140223-01Look at that awesome crust. No can beat that…

140223-02You see the layering? Oozy custard in the middle…

140223-03Wish I had a nice one sliced up to take a picture of…I was too busy trying to eat it! It is crispy, creamy, chewy all at once. All that texture makes for the perfect dessert.

Custard Mochi

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 cups milk (2% or higher)
4 whole eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups mochiko (rice flour)
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 X 9 pan. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well blended. Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until center is firm. Cool and chill in refrigerator. Cut into squares — my mom suggests using a plastic knife for easier cutting. Do as Mom says, she knows best.

Recipe from Wasabi Prime.

Jenny’s tips:
1) You must use a glass pan, no exceptions!
2) Do not chill it in the refrigerator! For me, I baked it at night and let it cool overnight at room temperature. Then I served it out to my office in the morning and bugga was gone before I could even throw it in the fridge. Well I did save a few pieces for my family which I did throw in the fridge (since there’s custard) and it did not taste good. The crust got really mealy and ruined the whole mochi for me, but these are just my personal tips.

Happy Saturday!

Yes! Thank god it’s the weekend. I had a very busy week so I am very happy to rest today. The past two nights, I’ve been coming home and like sleeping at or before 9. That’s crazy! But that’s how busy work has been. It’s gonna be busy for the next few weeks too but busy is good right? 🙂 I’ve been slowing down on my eating adventures, I need to pick it back up! Also now gonna try to save money but a meal out once a week ain’t too bad right? Well I was without a car for a week and counted on my cousin to take me to and from work…it was horrible without a car! I guess I really got spoiled cause I used to bus it all over. Anyway, I do enjoy walking and miss it a bit. When you’re driving, you miss out on a lot of details around you. Once, I decided to walk home from work and it let me appreciate so much more about my surroundings! Things that I just drove past when I’m in my car. This picture is an example of that. Last week as I was waiting for my ride, I saw this sprouting out from a wall! It was so pretty that I just had to capture it. I was sad to see it gone a few days later…but was happy I caught it when I did. Have a great weekend folks.

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Recipe: Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy

I’ve been trying to vary up my home lunches in an effort to continue eating home lunches and save money! When I saw this recipe, I really wanted to give it a try! Roasted garlic in salisbury steak? Yes please. Here’s how it turned out.

140221-01Here are two bulbs of garlic rubbed down with olive oil and salt ready to be roasted. There’s my first deviation already, the recipe only calls for one bulb of garlic.

140221-02Caramelized red onions…yummy

140221-03Sautéed mushrooms. Can’t go wrong.

140221-04Finished product with the gravy and mushrooms oozing on top…

First of all, here is the recipe:

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy

  • 3 tsp olive oil (divided)
  • 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
  • 8 oz of button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 lb of lean ground beef (96/4)
  • Bulb of roasted garlic
  • 2 pieces of bacon, crumbled
  • Snider’s Prime Rib seasoning (or your favorite steak seasoning), to taste
  • Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
  • 1-2 packets of brown gravy mix, prepared per instructions

Prepare roasted garlic (click on link above for directions). Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, once done remove to a paper towel to drain. Remove all but 1 teaspoon of bacon grease from the skillet then add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil. Once hot, add the diced onion and cook until soft and tender, about 5-6 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Add the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil to the same skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms once the pan is very hot. Let them sit, without stirring for 3-4 minutes for a nice golden color. Flip the mushrooms and continue to cook for a few minutes until golden brown.

In a small saucepan, prepare gravy per instructions. Once it’s thickened, add the golden mushrooms and simmer.

Combine the ground beef, bacon bits, caramelized onion, roasted garlic bulb, steak seasoning, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper in a large bowl. Form into oval shaped patties, not too thick or thin. Add the last teaspoon of olive oil to the same skillet over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the salisbury steak patties and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, or to your desired degree of doneness.

Place the cooked steak patties on a serving dish and cover with mushroom gravy. Enjoy.

Credit: For the Love of Cooking

So what did I think? I thought it was all right. I did of course make little changes in the recipe. I enjoyed the addition of more roasted garlic. If you haven’t had roasted garlic, you really have to. It is such a mellow garlic taste and it is SO easy to make! This recipe called for bacon, prime rib seasoning AND salt and pepper. Well I didn’t want to buy a whole pack of bacon so I bought a pack of bacon bits. I used the prime rib seasoning but didn’t add salt and pepper because I felt like the dish already had a lot of salt and spices. Besides, the gravy on top would add even more salt! All in all, I think it was good though. Maybe I did a horrible job of forming the patties because they fell apart. I’m not a big fan of bacon so I think I would leave that out next time.

Cha Gor

As I’m typing this entry, I can’t for the life of me remember the English name of this dish. I think the literal translation of the name is Tea Roll but if you look that up online it just pulls up a ton of swirled cream cakes. Ahh…and I don’t really see these in Chinese restaurants. Have any of you had these? They’re so delicious, one of my favorites really. It’s steamed in banana leaves but it’s soooo sticky (because the outer layer is like mochi) that they have to put a lot of oil on the leaves to get it not to stick. Well, it sticks anyway so the oil is kind of useless. Well not useless but not up to par. My family has worked around this in the past by wrapping these things in iceberg lettuce, works great for me. No oil and the entire piece is edible! I should really learn how to make this…

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Pho My Lan – Chinatown, HI

I do a lot of posts on Pho. And you know what’s funny? Pho isn’t even my favorite food. I don’t think it even ranks in the top five but there are times when you just want to sit back and eat a good bowl of noodles. Pho really hits the spot for that. My cousin took me out for a free bowl last week, who can say no? This is the first time I tried Pho My Lan and it is a very nice restaurant! Pretty clean and friendly staff. I’m not one who likes parking in Chinatown so I’m not sure when I will be back but I would definitely recommend it to others!

140219-01Shredded Pork Rolls – Shredded pork, raw bean sprouts, lettuce, mint, and vermicelli wrapped in rice paper. Served alongside the vinegary fish sauce…sauce. Very good!

140219-02Fresh veggies to place in your hot steaming broth when it arrives at your table…

140219-03Meat outside. Those who order pho know this lingo.

140219-04Combination Pho – I like to eat the whole animal when I’m chomping on noodles. 🙂

Happy Tuesday

Yay! Here’s to a good week I hope! It is starting off great already, one day short! Just wanted to share a cute picture of my brothers with some Starbucks. Don’t worry, I didn’t start them off caffeine at an early age. It’s just a nice cup of cocoa for the both of them. I would like to look at this picture at work. It’s been awfully cold at work lately. For some odd reason, the AC kicked into full gear a few weeks ago and all of us look ridiculous. I wear like three jackets and started using a heater. Why aren’t we doing anything about it? Because we’ve suffered through many days of NO air conditioning and I would take cold over hot any day. No AC is the worst in our building because we have no windows to open…lol. Anyway, we will see how much longer we will go through the crazy AC. No one has given in yet.

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Fukuya – Honolulu, HI

Fukuya doesn’t need an introduction, you should all know about this place! Fukuya is very close to my work place but I haven’t tried it too many times. I decided to drop by one morning to pick up lunch before work. I wasn’t disappointed! I returned once more after this initial visit and had to try the Shiso musubi. For me personally, I thought the shiso musubi was just okay (hides).

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From top left, clockwise: Nishime, Fried Chicken, Nori Chicken (I had to add it, they just put it out fresh!) and Chow Fun (can always tell if it’s okazuya chow fun if it’s white)

140217-02Nori chicken innards! Well I got this in the morning and couldn’t resist eating the nori chicken right away since it was fresh. It was great!