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Recipe: Corned Beef Silog

Mar18

Oh yes, another TikTok recipe. You know it!! I saw it and just couldn’t get it off my mind. I knew I was going to Sam’s Club for a run so I could buy a few cans of the Palm Corned Beef. This is basically homemade corned beef hash and it takes so much time and effort. I just asked Chan if he felt like it was worth all the hassle, he said it liked it! He said we should try to make our own corned beef next time to really make it homemade. I told him he can make the meat and I can do the rest. My favorite is the garlic rice because of course it is.

Diced Potatoes frying up…

Yeah so it takes quite a while to get browned since I just do some shallow frying. Also…it goes back into the corned beef after and loses the crispiness anyway so is it worth it? Idk man. I’m sure it does add a nice crunch to the dish when you have it fresh!

Garlic Rice

I didn’t burn it this time! I fried up the minced garlic in butter and oil on a medium-low heat. You gotta be patient with this, because it’s going to look so white for the longest time but it will brown eventually. Mm…and so well with some nice jasmine rice. Delicious!

Here’s the corned beef with the potatoes, garlic and onions stir-fried together! Mmm…

Recipe Credit: derekkchen (instagram)

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Recipe: Shrimp in Savory Sauce Over Rice

Mar9

One of Chan’s favorite dishes is Hokkien Fried Rice. It’s a fried rice dish with a thick savory gravy on top – loaded with whatever you want in the gravy. I found a YouTube channel and her recipes look pretty good and legit so I decided to try to make this recipe as a first try. It’s just over white rice but to me that’s totally fine. Having the savory gravy over fried rice feels a bit wasted to me because the fried rice will then just have none of it’s own flavor left. Save yourself the effort and calories and just eat it over white rice.

I followed her recipe exactly but just doubled it. We really enjoyed it! Chan’s only note was to maybe add just a bit more white pepper next time. Also, I had access to MSG so in it went. Just a sprinkling. I’ll link her YouTube recipe video below!

Sauté the shrimp!

Add the whites of the green onion and garlic to sauté with the shrimp

LOL, it’s hard to start taking pictures when I’m at the gravy stage of the cooking. It’s just chicken broth and cornstarch mixed together and then you throw in the beaten egg while you’re stirring. Mine came out much thicker looking and browner than hers but that’s probably because I got the shrimp super browned on my end.

Recipe Credit: Cook! Stacey Cook: Shrimp in Savory Sauce Over Rice

Post Views: 233

Recipe: Healthy Vegetable Soba Salad

Feb4

In my quest to be healthier, I did sit down with a nutritionist about a year ago. I was hoping it was like a coaching program where she would oversee me for a few visits. It was only one visit but I tried to take notes and heed her advice (well, the best that I can). One of the biggest pieces of advice she had was to incorporate as much vegetables as I can into my meals. I found it super hard to prep all these different vegetables to try to add into my already made meals…which would make the prepped veggies go bad.

Well one day, I saw a recipe for soba salad with it’s own ginger soy dressing so I did it. I don’t like a lot of veggies raw but wanted the colors so I quick pickled red cabbage and carrots – quick blanched spinach, etc. I add some fish cake as a protein/meat for the meal and I haven’t turned back since. I’ve been eating this for lunch at work for 2 weeks now and I still haven’t grown tired of it. I love all things savory and noodles so this really works out for me. And you can easily play up which veggies to use as toppings which keeps things fresh. Here’s a quick write-up of what I do. The dressing is the most important part of this recipe.

Healthy Vegetable Soba Salad

Ginger Soy Dressing (enough for 5 servings):

  • ¼ C rice vinegar
  • 3 ½ T vegetable oil
  • 3 T soy sauce
  • 2 T honey
  • 3 t sesame oil
  • 1 t grated fresh ginger

Salad Ingredients:

  • Blanched spinach – throw in boiling water for 15-30 seconds, drain and squeeze out excess water
  • Red cabbage, shredded and pickled (salt/sugar for 15 mins) – rinse and squeeze out excess water
  • Carrots, shredded and pickled with cabbage
  • Edamame, cook according to instructions
  • Chikuwa, sliced (4-5 slices)
  • Green Onions, sliced as garnish (a must for me)
  • 1 bundle soba per serving, cooked according to package instructions

Other topping ideas: wakame, cilantro, dashi tamagoyaki, bell pepper slivers, cucumber slices

I like that it’s my own homemade dressing. I like that it’s a cold dish so I don’t have to heat it up in the microwave. It just ticks all the boxes for me.

Spam Musubi Rating (Yes I can rate myself!):

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Recipe: Rice Paper Kimbap

Jan21

You read that right, rice paper kimbap! What a genius idea, I saw this on TikTok (obviously) but to add cred to the recipe, it was created by Koreans (from Korea lol). If you are trying to go for less carbs, this is a great way to do it…and this is coming from the rice queen herself. I didn’t miss the rice at all – the rice paper holds all the toppings in and wraps it up nice and tight!

This recipe starts with a full sheet of nori cut in half!

You need to find the smallest size rice paper. I compare it like a taco size? Here is the package I bought.

Soak the rice paper in water – I just do it for 10-15 seconds, flipping it a few times to get both sides

Since the rice paper is a bit wet and sticky, you immediately place it to the end of the nori. Be very careful, the rice paper is delicate!

Get the toppings onto the rice paper, I like to line it up at the edge of the rice paper to allow room for rolling up. You have to roll it up like a burrito – roll it up a little to gather the toppings together, fold in the sides and continue to roll!

See? Pretty easy, just keep rolling! The nori will hold onto the rice roll.

Boom! Mini kimbaps! I brush sesame oil on the rolls and sprinkle on some salt.

My knife isn’t even that sharp and it cut it just fine lol. Give it a try! The hardest part of this recipe is definitely getting all the ingredients prepped ahead of time and since it’s just half a sheet of nori, you have to cut all the ingredients down to size too. I think I will experiment with the bigger rice paper next time and roll up a full nori sheet.

Here’s the link to the tiktok video recipe!

Happy rolling and eating!

Post Views: 489

Homemade Naengmyun

Jan12

You read that right. Homemade naengmyun! Well sorta. We basically bought the kit from the store and cooked it up ourselves…but, there’s a catch! Chan decided to buy a big slushie machine and this is the first thing I thought of making with that machine. Ice cold naengmyun broth slush! Check this out…

Naengmyun Broth in action!

Here are the bowls ready for their ice bath! Hard boiled eggs, pickled daikon, raw onion and cucumber slices serve as toppings.

The icy broth melts perfectly as you eat, it was so good! We also had leftover kalbi so it was just a meal meant to be. It was so good. What else can we slush? Anyway, I wouldn’t mind eating this again soon!

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Recipe: Pork Tofu and Watercress Stir Fry

Nov3

I saw this old school recipe online the other day and decided to make it as meal prep for my weekly breakfast. How was it? Good! The only thing is, I make such a huge batch that I get tired of it pretty easily. That’s the thing about meal prepping, I save a lot of money and time but get so tired of the food by day 3 or so. Wish I had the mentality of eating to live rather than living to eat. Hard life (lol). Anyway, I’ll share the recipe below. I think I found this from the Electric Kitchen website. The only thing I changed was to add rehydrated bean thread noodles at the bottom of my container before pouring over the stir-fry to make it a heartier dish and because I’m carb crazy.

Pork Tofu and Watercress Stir Fry

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • 1 pound lean pork, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup shoyu
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 1 medium carrot, sliced
  • 1 (1-inch piece) ginger, crushed
  • 1 (20-ounce) block firm tofu, cubed
  • 1 bunch green onions, chopped into 1-inch lengths
  • 1 bunch watercress, chopped into 2-inch lengths

Directions:

  1. In a large pot, heat oil and brown pork.
  2. Add shoyu, water, sugar, onions, carrots and ginger.
  3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
  4. Add tofu, green onions and watercress and simmer gently until watercress is wilted.
  5. Salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Serve immediately with rice.

Noods!!!!

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Recipe: Crispy Chow Mein with Shrimp Egg Swirl

Oct8

I’m always on a look-out for recipes during the week that I can meal prep during the weekend for the next week’s lunches. It’s hard because I want to cook something I won’t get tired of eating 4 days in a row. I think I found a winner recipe this week! It’s super easy to make and I have almost all the ingredients at home already! I would definitely make this again. I’ll type out the modified recipe before but I will also give credit to the original recipe below!

Crispy Chow Mein with Shrimp Egg Swirl

Ingredients
1 pound shrimp, deveined deshelled
1 bulb of garlic, minced
4 pounds chow mein noodles (I used the fresh Sun Noodle Chow Mein noodles)
4 tablespoons avocado oil divided
2 bunches choy sum, cut into 2 inch pieces
4 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons cool water
4 eggs

For the Marinade
Pinch Kosher salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper plus more for garnish
2 teaspoon Shaohsing wine

For the Sauce
2 cans chicken broth
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

In a small bowl, marinate shrimp with pinch salt, ½ teaspoon cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon white pepper, shaohsing wine. Set aside.

In another small bowl, lightly beat eggs.

In another small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in cool water to make a slurry.

Blanch the noodles in the boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Drain well.

In a large frying pan on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons avocado oil. Add noodles and pan fry for about 2-5 minutes until golden brown. Flip and fry the other side, adding another tablespoon of oil along the side of the pan. Remove the noodles onto a serving platter and set aside. (I didn’t pan fry my noodles – you can do this step if you want to!)

Add another tablespoon oil and add shrimp. Cook 1-2 minutes until almost cooked through. Add garlic and stirfry for another minute.

Add broth and vegetables. Let broth come to a low simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Stir in slurry. Add the slurry to the sauce and stir until thickened.

Gently pour beaten eggs in a slow stream to create a ribbon. Stir gently. Turn off the heat.

Scoop mixture over the noodles. Garnish with a pinch of ground white pepper.

Full Recipe Credit: https://flolum.com/crispy-chow-mein-with-shrimp-egg-swirl/

Post Views: 744

Recipe: One Pan Caramelized Onion Pasta

Sep24

Chan loves onions so when I saw this recipe for a one-pan caramelized onion pasta – I had to make it!! I don’t know how you folks cook but when I follow someone else’s recipes – I follow it to a T in the beginning. After the first try, I will then know what tweaks I need to do to make it better. Chan’s comment was that there was something a bit off about this dish, when I told him I squeezed an entire lemon into it – he realized that’s what it was. He added a bit of MSG afterwards and liked it. I liked it with and without the MSG – I like that it is a very savory dish and I didn’t miss not having meat in it. It’s a very easy dish to make other than cutting up like 5 onions…the onions and garlic roasts up very nice in the oven for the hour.

Look at all those onions…yes, I cried

Onions with the bulb of garlic and seasonings ready for the oven…

Out of the oven after an hour (stirred it around 30 minutes in)…doesn’t that look great??

One Pan Caramelized Onion Pasta

Ingredients
5 small yellow onions sliced, or 3 large
1 head garlic top sliced off
½ cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp dried parsley
½ cup coconut milk
3 cups farfalle pasta cooked
1 handful fresh parsley chopped
1 handful fresh basil chopped
1 lemon juiced


Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F.

To a casserole dish, add the onions, sun dried tomatoes, paprika, salt, pepper and dried parsley.
Toss, and then place the whole garlic head in the middle. Drizzle the entire dish with olive oil or the leftover sun dried tomato oil, cover with foil, and then pop in the oven for 1 hour, tossing halfway through. The onions should be caramelized by the time it comes out of the oven.

About 20 minutes before the casserole dish is done, prepare the pasta according to package directions, reserving up to a cup of pasta water.

Remove the garlic from the casserole dish, and when safe to handle, squeeze out the cloves. Add the fresh parsley, basil, lemon juice and coconut milk, along with the cooked pasta and pasta water as needed. Stir and enjoy!

Full Recipe Credit: plantyou

Post Views: 1,584

Recipe: Banana Bread Mochi

Sep17

I love banana bread and mochi so why not combine them? I found this recipe on TikTok and was crazy curious about it. It came out good! It tastes like banana bread but not…it has the taste of banana bread but not the texture because well, it uses mochiko! The office enjoyed it and the entire pan was destroyed. 🙂 Recipe credit below!

Banana Bread Mochi

  • 4 large, very ripe bananas (I used 5)
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • ½ cup salted butter, melted 1 stick
  • 1¼ cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 16 oz Mochiko flour (sweet rice flour) generally 1 box
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt

Instructions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, add your ripe bananas and mash. *Note: I prefer when there are still some clumps in your banana mash because it creates small pockets of concentrated banana flavor and helps your mochi stay moist.
  3. Add the rest of your wet ingredients – the eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and whole milk.
  4. Whisk your wet ingredients until well incorporated and set aside.
  5. In a medium mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients – the Mochiko flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  6. Mix until combined.
  7. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in batches – add in about 1/3 of your flour mixture to your large mixing bowl, whisk to help incorporate, add the second 1/3 of your flour mixture, whisk to incorporate, and then repeat for the last 1/3 of your flour mixture.
  8. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan and pour your mochi mixture in.
  9. Place in the oven for about 45 to 50 minutes or until the top of your mochi is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. *Note: Avoid over baking by keeping an eye on your mochi intermittently, and pull the pan from the oven as soon as your mochi turns golden brown.

Notes:

  • I used 5 bananas because I had 5 bananas haha
  • I added the mashed bananas at the very end (right before pouring batter into the pan) and folded them in so I could keep the lumps.
  • I add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in 2-3 batches.
  • Did not grease the pan, I also used a glass pan
  • Mine was done at 50 minutes

Full Recipe Credit: Kristi’s Kitchen

Post Views: 2,191

Recipe: Gandule Rice

Sep10

Gandule Rice and Pastele Stew go together like bread and butter but I don’t know how to make pastele and I don’t think I would ever have the ingredients or patience to make it. I’ll leave that to the pros. But one week, we were having Hispanic foods for a party so I decided to try my hand at making gandule rice. I found a recipe online and tried it out…and oh boy, did it turn out well! Full credit goes to Keeping it Relle, she made the recipe look so easy that I made it! The funniest thing is, I didn’t realize one of my students was Puerto Rican so I was a bit nervous for her to try it but she liked it a lot! She gave me some tips for the future which includes using long grain rice instead. I would definitely make this again!

Annatto Seeds

Have you used this before? Before this recipe, I had never heard of it but I must have been crazy to want to make my own annatto oil but here I am.

I followed the instructions on the package, it’s so fast! And you get this deep red oil from it. Definitely helps add color to the dish.

Annatto oil ready to go for the dish…

Half pack of bacon sizzling away…

Add the pork shoulder…

Add your veggies and herbs…rice and broth and ready to cook! My rice cooker wasn’t big enough so I cooked this in my wok on the stove top. Worked perfectly fine! It takes about 30 minutes to cook through.

Gandule Rice

  • 3 cups uncooked white rice
  • 1 tablespoon achiote oil (annatto oil)
  • ½ pound bacon
  • ½ pound pork tenderloin sliced into thin, short, narrow strips
  • 4 cloves garlic finely minced
  • ½ green bell pepper diced
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 1 bunch cilantro finely chopped
  • 5 stalks green onion thinly sliced
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 2 packets Sazon Goya
  • 1 can 8 ounces tomato sauce
  • 1 can 15 ounces gandules verdes, drained
  • 1 can 6 ounces pitted black olives, drained

Instructions 

  • Rinse rice in cool running water until water runs clear. Drain and set aside.
  • Set a large pan over medium high heat. Add achiote oil, bacon, and pork. Cook until browned, about 5-10 minutes.
  • Next add garlic, bell pepper, and onion. Cook until fragrant and the onions become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
  • Then add cilantro and green onion. Stir to combine and heat through. Remove from the heat and set aside.
  • Pour drained rice into the rice cooker (gotta be at least 10 cup rice cooker). Add chicken broth, Sazon Goya packets, tomato sauce, gandule beans, and olives.
  • Strain oil from pork mixture and discard. Add pork to the rice pot. Stir until well combined. 
  • Set the rice cooker to cook. Once the rice cooker has finished, open and fluff the rice by stirring with a fork.

Full Recipe Credit: Keeping it Relle

Post Views: 2,799