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Recipe: Cambodian Stir Fry Shrimp

When I saw this recipe on TikTok (duh), my mouth was salivating already. It’s a simple dish to make but I did have to venture out to Chinatown to grab a bottle of crab paste.

Don’t ask me what is in crab paste, I hope there is crab but I don’t love that it says formula 2 on this bottle lol. The bottle is also kind of pricey, I think this was almost $9.00. I asked the lady the price and she was nice but was defensive when she told me the price because she said this is the good one. Okay, I’ll take your word for it lady!

Funny story, some folks add other seafood like mussels to this but I decided to add squid. Times had baby squid on sale so I bought a box. The cashier starts scanning it and then asks me if I fish. If you know me, you know that I absolutely do not fish. She asks what I’m going to do with it and I was like…”eat em?” and she mentioned that a lot of fisherman buy this to use as bait for fishing. Well come time to make this dish, I regretted buying this box of baby squid with every ounce of my soul. The amount of cleaning and prep work I had to do with the baby squid was insane – it was not worth my time or efforts cause by the time it was “cooked” there was barely any meat. Ugh! No wonder it’s used as bait for fishing.

Garlic and Crab Paste Sauteeing!

Add the shrimp to the sauce and stir fry

Add jalapenos and green onions and continue cooking until the shrimp is cooked through (and look! Where even is the squid! Ugh!)

Cambodian Shrimp Stir Fry

1 bottle of crab paste
2 lb. head-on shrimp, deveined
1 head of garlic, minced
2 T oyster sauce
1 t chicken bouillon
1 t black pepper
1 T chili oil
1 T sugar
3-4 jalapenos, sliced (keep the seeds for extra spice!)
3 green onions, chopped into 2 inch sticks
1 T neutral oil

Heat up a wok and add neutral oil and garlic, fry until fragrant. Add entire body of crab paste and heat up for about 1 minute or 2. Add shrimp, oyster sauce, chicken bouillon, black pepper, chili oil and sugar and stir fry for about 3 minutes. Add jalapenos and green onions and continue to stir-fry for about 6-7 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked through.

Very spicy but very delicious! Definitely a rice thief dish. Chan and I enjoyed it immensely!

Recipe Credit: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8kvRc6S

Recipe: Taegu Tofu Poke

Another TikTok recipe but this time it was harder because she gave ingredients enough to feed a big party. I tried to cut it down to a smaller portion and it still came out to a LOT but I wasn’t about to use a whole jar of furikake and a whole jar of chili oil (LOL). I’ll try to give you folks the ingredients I used and I’ll link her video below too!

Triple Tofu Action!

So much chopping…

Taegu Tofu Poke

1 pack extra firm tofu, cubed
1 pack firm tofu, cubed
1 pack unseasoned aburage, cubed
1 3 oz. container taegu, chopped
1 kamaboko, cubed
1 package vegetable tempura fishcake, cubed
1 container sea asparagus (I bought the container from Don Quijote)
1/4 C Furikake
3 T chili oil
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 sweet onion, minced

Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl and refrigerate, tastes best as it marinates in the fridge!

Recipe Credit: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8k7322S

This was very good and everyone I shared it with enjoyed it. I liked it too but do you ever make recipes and then after you’re done making the dish, you don’t really want to eat it? That was me, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted. The sea asparagus and sweet onion adds the perfect crunch to this dish, and the taegu and chili oil add plenty seasoning. I think I added a dash of shoyu initially before it got to sit in the fridge but that’s probably not needed.

Recipe: Chinese Cucumber Salad

My original name for this recipe is Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad. Too much of a tongue twister so let’s just call it cucumber salad. I found this recipe on TikTok and I wanted to make it because wood ear mushrooms are Chan’s favorite but it also looked like such a refreshing salad. I had to type up the recipe and best guessed the quantities from the video and guess what? It came out GREAT. It is so delicious! Do I think the peanuts are needed next time? I don’t think so.

Dried Bean Curd Sticks

I found this at Don Quijote, I’m sure you can find this in Chinatown in any store. You have to soak these in water to rehydrate them. There are many different ways according to different websites but I decided to just soak it in cold water in the fridge overnight and that worked great! I rotated the sticks once just to make sure they got equal exposure to the water.

The wood ear mushrooms rehydrated much faster, I soaked them in room temperature water and it took about 30 minutes to get soft. The recipe calls for you to blanch both of them for about 1-2 minutes.

Garlic, Red Bell Pepper, Crushed Peanuts, Roasted Sesame Seeds and Green Onions ready for the hot hot oil…

Hot oil added! Immediately mix the ingredients so the hot oil can distribute to them evenly!

Cucumbers after my quick sugar pickle!

Fresh cilantro washed, drained and ready to go! Cilantro is a must!

Here’s the sauce with all the ingredients dumped in…so good…!

Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad

Ingredients

  • 3 Japanese cucumbers, washed and cut into 1 inch sticks
    • 3 T Sugar for quick pickling
  • 2 small packets Wood Ear Mushrooms, rehydrated, rinse and drained (from Don Q – takes about 30 minutes in room temp water to rehydrate)
  • 1 package Bean Curd Sticks, cut into 1 inch sticks (soaked in cold water in the fridge overnight)
  • 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1 handful of shelled roasted peanuts

Sauce Ingredients

  • 3 Green Onions, sliced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 T Toasted Sesame Seeds
  • 3 T Crushed Peanuts
  • 3-4 T heated neutral oil
  • 6 T light soy sauce
  • 6 T black vinegar
  • 2 T oyster sauce
  • 2 t salt
  • 2 t chicken bouillon
  • 1 T sugar, to taste

Toss cut cucumber sticks in a bowl with 3-4 T sugar and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Set aside. Heat a pot full of water, blanch the wood ear mushrooms and bean curd sticks in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Immediately drain, rinse in cold water and drain. 

Add red bell pepper, green onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and crushed peanuts into a heat safe bowl. Heat up neutral oil in a pan/wok until smoking, turn off the stove and pour hot oil over the ingredients in the bowl. Immediately stir it to distribute the hot oil to all the ingredients.

Add soy sauce, black vinegar, oyster sauce, salt, chicken bouillon and sugar to the bowl and mix well. Taste and add sugar to your taste.

In a big bowl, add cucumber sticks, bean curd sticks, wood ear mushrooms, roasted peanuts, cilantro and sauce, toss. Can be eaten right away but tastes great after marinating for a few hours!

Note: Doubled sauce recipe when I made it compared to the video, doubling of sauce is reflected in this recipe write-up

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Mixed Plate Friday

Thịt Nướng | Vietnamese Grilled Pork Skewers

It’s summer time so you know it’s time to do some BBQ’s! I wanted to try something a little different so I made vietnamese grilled pork skewers! Never tried making skewers like this before…and using fresh lemongrass before but it was a hit! Perfect food to go with some alcohol too. I had to buy a big pork shoulder chunk and slice it thin manually, that was the worst part of this dish. Other than that, it was good!

Salted Turnip

I found this at Don Quijote the other day and got super excited, really happy to see them branching out and getting more obscure Chinese ingredients. I don’t think I have ever bought this before but I think I was taught how to make a pork hash patty long time ago with it from my mom. Here’s to me cooking to my roots!

Look! This is the first time I ever guessed Wordle on the first try! This was my go-to first word everyday. Now that it’s been used, I am so lost without my first word guess! Gotta keep up with my streak!

Recipe: Chinese Braised Tofu

How do you folks get your recipes nowadays? I have a whole bunch of cookbooks but I never touch them, I rely on social media and YouTube. Been on a Chinese kick, just wanting to cook up comforting Chinese dishes. I found this video on YouTube and it looked so good and it’s actually quite simple to make! I made adjustments from the original (I always do). Check it out!

Chinese Braised Tofu

Ingredients
2 blocks of firm tofu, sliced into 1/2 inch rectangles – drained and patted dry (extra firm okay too)
6 spring onions – white sliced thin and at an angle, greens sliced into 2 inch sections (reserve greens on the side)
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 C water

1 Tbsp neutral oil for panfrying tofu

For sauce, mix in green onion whites, garlic, black pepper, chicken bouillon, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch and water. Mix well. Set aside.

Pan fry tofu slices – brown on both sides. I had to do this in two batches since my pan wouldn’t fit two blocks of tofu in a single layer.

Add sauce mixture and cook until sauce thickens. Add green parts of the green onions and cook for an additional minute. 

Notes: Perfect dish to serve over rice – a bit salty. I would probably add a maybe 1.5 T of soy sauce next time. Take this with a grain of salt (heh), I’ve been into blander food lately.

Recipe Credit: Linda Guo’s Kitchen

Recipe: Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Perhaps I should say “crab” stuffed mushrooms because I bought imitation crab but eh…no can really tell the difference. Also, I found the real looking ones at Sam’s Club. Check it out!

Gadré Surimi Snow Leg Style, 16 oz., 2 pk. | $10.88

I think if I served this up in a seafood boil or something, you would not notice the difference but since I chopped it up, you could tell. I followed a recipe that I’ll credit below but I definitely took a lot of liberties. I’ll share my own recipe and the link to the original and let you make your own decision!

Mushrooms de-stemmed and rinsed, hanging out on the baking pan to pre-bake. We are supposed to bake this for about 3 minutes to help get rid of the moisture. It didn’t really lol…maybe I had to put it in longer?

My version of the stuffing, I basically omitted the egg and didn’t do the panko crust. Didn’t feel like I needed it anyway!

Mushrooms stuffed and ready for the oven! Yummy! I served these up at a BBQ and it was nicely enjoyed! I also had some extra for the bros and boy did they like it too. I think you absolutely need to serve it up with lemon slices and tabasco…it needs a bit of the acid/vinegar kick to cut through the richness of the stuffing.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 2 – 24 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms (Sam’s Club)
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
  • 2 tablespoon salted butter
  • 1/4 cup shallot, small dice (1 big shallot from Safeway)
  • 6-8 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 16 ounces imitation crab (snow leg style from Sam’s Club)
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup Italian blend cheese (any combination of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh italian parsley, minced
  • 3 tablespoons fresh italian basil, minced
  • 2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, more to taste

EXTRAS/GARNISH:

  • lemon slices, for serving
  • Tabasco (or you hot sauce of choice), for serving

Instructions

  • SAUTE THE SHALLOTS AND GARLIC. Heat the pan over medium/high heat. Add the butter, and when it’s melted, sauté the shallots for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Set this mixture aside to cool.
  • COMBINE FILLING INGREDIENTS. The stuffed mushrooms with crab filling is best when it’s chilled for 1 to 24 hours, to allow the flavors to meld together. To a medium bowl, add the crab meat, cream cheese, Italian blend cheese, egg, fresh parsley, fresh basil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Mix well. Once the shallot/garlic mixture is cooled, fold that into the crab mixture.
  • PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS. Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Remove the mushroom stems (any stems and pieces can be frozen to use for stock later). Thoroughly rinse the mushrooms under cold water then pat them dry. Place the mushrooms cap side down on a baking rack placed over a sheet baking pan. Prebake them in the oven for 3 minutes to remove most of the excess moisture. You can turn the oven off for now.
  • OIL THE MUSHROOMS. Pour some olive oil into a small bowl, and using a basting brush or your hands, lightly coat each mushroom cap with oil (inside and outside). Place the prepared mushrooms into the biggest baking dish you have (you may need to use two depending on the size, which is okay).
  • STUFF THE MUSHROOMS. Fill each mushroom with about a tablespoon of the filling (this small scoop makes it easy). Use more or less of the filling depending on the size of each mushroom.
  • Preheat the oven again to 375° F (190° C) then bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms should be tender, and the filling fully warmed through.
  • SERVE AND ENJOY! I recommend serving lemon slices and hot sauce (vinegar based) with stuffed mushrooms with crab. It adds a lot of flavor and acidity.

Recipe Inspiration/Original: Heavenly Spiced

Recipe: Healthy Rotisserie Chicken Cabbage Salad

I saw this recipe on TikTok and it didn’t really have like a full blog recipe for it so I won’t be able to post any credit links. I really wanted to try it because it seemed easy enough and I love using rotisserie chicken breast in salads!

Recipes always sound easier than they are. A lot of chopping and prep work goes into this dish. Chan and I enjoyed it! Nice low carb option for you that is healthy and easy to make!

Rotisserie Chicken Cabbage Salad

Salad Ingredients:

  • 2 C shredded chicken breast (Sam’s or Costco Rotisserie Chicken Breast, all of it)
  • 1 large cabbaged, shredded
  • 2 medium carrots, julienned
  • 5 mini cucumbers, sliced thick matchsticks
  • 1 medium white onion, sliced
  • Pumpkin seeds (or any nuts you prefer), optional topping

Dressing Ingredients:

  • 6 T oyster sauce
  • 4 T soy sauce
  • 1 large lemon, juiced
  • 2 T honey
  • 6-8 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1-2 t grated/minced ginger
  • 2 T sesame oil
  • 4 stalks green onions, sliced

Instructions

  1. Combine dressing ingredients, okay to make ahead. Best overnight!
  2. Combine all salad ingredients except the chicken into a big bowl, top with chicken breast and pour salad dressing over the ingredients (this way the chicken breast soaks up all the dressing goodness first!). Top with nuts if you prefer and serve!

Mixed Plate Friday

OG sign from Kaimuki

Anyone remember this sign? This picture must be like 2 decades old but I was always so amused by this sign. Pidgen but straight and to the point. Just no do em k?

Chinese Chicken Wing Seasoning

Don’t even ask me where I bought this. I forget already but I always saw this on random videos online and it always made the chicken wings look so delicious so I decided to try it. Well all the instructions are in Chinese and Google Translate wasn’t very helpful so I really just improvised. I think I added too much water to the marinade but I let it sit overnight and then baked it in the oven. The taste wasn’t bad! My brother loved it so it’s big kid approved. Would I make it again? Sure! Wish they had English directions haha.

Recipe: Chinese Stuffed Peppers

Another adventure in Chinese cooking with Jenny! Hmm, I must have been too tired to keep track of where I got this recipe. But honestly, I kind of just experimented with different recipes all in one. I was first inspired by Jalna’s post but then got inspired to do the Chinese version (add black beans lol). It came out pretty good for my first try! I would definitely make this again!

Used the bag of mini sweet bell peppers from Sam’s Club, the whole bag.

Ground pork and shrimp mixture. Wondered if I should have maybe minced the shrimp less, made the pieces chunkier.

What a pain in the butt to stuff all these peppers, was worth it though.

Sautéing on both sides…

Chinese Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

You’ll need:

  • 8 large shrimp, shelled, deveined and minced
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 10 water chestnuts, minced
  • 4 scallions (half of the greens for the sauce, rest of greens and whites for the stuffing)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 4 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
  • Fresh ground white pepper
  • Bag of mini sweet bell peppers (From Sam’s Club)
  • 1 tablespoon oil (for sauté)

For the sauce:

  • For sauté of sauce:
    • 2 T oil 
    • 6 clove garlic (minced)
    • 3 tablespoon whole fermented Black Beans, washed and smashed
    • 2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
  • Okay to mix ahead of time:
    • 2 cup chicken stock
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon sugar
    • 2 teaspoon soy sauce
    • 2 teaspoon oyster sauce
    • 2 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed into a slurry with 1 tablespoon water)

Instructions

  1. Use a cleaver or knife to finely mince the shrimp into a very fine paste. This process entails chopping and folding the shrimp paste over and onto itself, and continuing to chop. Transfer the shrimp paste to a bowl.
  2. Chop the scallions. Set aside half of the green portion for the sauce. Add the rest of the chopped scallion to the shrimp, along with 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine, and white pepper to taste. Use a fork to beat/whip the shrimp until it is smooth and all the ingredients are well-combined.
  3. Pop the stems off the bell peppers and follow the lines of each pepper to cut into 3-5 segments. Remove the seeds. If using long hot green peppers, just cut them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.
  4. Stuff each pepper segment with the shrimp mixture until the filling is even with the edges of the peppers. You can also trim the ends of the peppers to ensure they are flush and at the same level of the filling. This will make the peppers easier to cook.
  5. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat and place the peppers in the oil, stuffing side down. Cook until they are browned, about 2 minutes. Turn the peppers over to sear the bottoms for another 2 minutes, turning the heat down if they start to get too dark. If using the long hot green peppers or another variety of thin-fleshed pepper, simply transfer them to the serving plate.
  6. If using bell peppers, which have thicker flesh and take longer to cook, add 2 tablespoons of water to the pan, cover, and steam for another 2 minutes, or until the peppers are just tender. Set aside on a serving plate.
  7. It’s time to make the sauce, which only takes a couple minutes. Heat the wok over medium heat and add the oil, garlic and fermented black beans. Stir-fry for a few seconds and add the shaoxing wine. When the wine is bubbly, add the rest of the sauce ingredients (except the cornstarch slurry) and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add the cornstarch slurry gradually until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Stir in the reserved scallions and spoon the sauce over the peppers to serve.

Note to self:

  • Shrimp was not needed and did not seem to add any taste different or texture difference
  • I was a bit iffy about the the 6 minute cook time, it’s a pretty thick pork stuffing. But it worked out well for me because I was not eating it fresh anyway, it would be reheated for meals later. It was perfectly cooked when I reheated and the peppers retained their structure, did not get too mushy.

Recipe Inspiration/Credit: The Woks of Life

Recipe: Steamed Garlic Shrimp on Vermicelli

Another Chinese dish from my childhood, my family used to make this all the time over bean thread noodles. We also played around with chow fun noodles which I like a lot so I decided to go for it! No real recipes online that have it with chow fun so I had to improvise. My friend is constantly telling me to cook from my roots so I do try to. Chan and I both enjoyed it very much! Very time consuming because I had to prep the shrimp quite a bit but it was well worth it in the end.

I’m going to post the recipe below, this is actually from Made with Lau. I love their channel on YouTube because the dad cooks a lot of recipes that are akin to the ones I grew up eating.

The dish right before steaming!!

Steamed Garlic Shrimp on Vermicelli or Chow Fun

  • Main Ingredients
    • 12 oz head-on shrimp (31/40 size) or
      2 lb Jumbo Head-on White Shrimp (5/9 size) – came out to 12 shrimp
  • Vermicelli/Noodle Ingredients
    • 3 oz mung bean vermicelli (2 bundles of LungKuw) or
      4 packages of Sun Noodle brand Chow Fun (6 ounces)
    • 2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
    • 1 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon sugar
    • 2 glass pie plates
  • Garlic Paste Ingredients
    • 1 garlic bulb, smashed and coarsely minced
    • 6 green onions, whites and greens chopped and separated
    • 1.5 inch ginger, minced
    • 3 tablespoon neutral oil
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 2 teaspoon sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
    • 2 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
    • 2 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
    • 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
    • 2 teaspoon cornstarch

Step 1: Prep vermicelli

First, soften the mung bean vermicelli (3 oz) by soaking the bundles in warm for 10 minutes.

Use a pair of kitchen shears to cut the vermicelli into shorter pieces. Drain from the water, using your fingers to move the vermicelli around to remove any excess water.

Place the vermicelli on a plate/bowl. Mix the seasoning in well until it’s evenly light brown.

Skip this step if using Sun Noodle Chow Fun noodles, no need to prep the fresh noodles.

Step 2: Prep garlic paste

Smash and peel the garlic. Trim off the hard ends of garlic. Smash the cloves using the back of a cleaver or chef’s knife. Chop the garlic finely into a paste, using different angles to produce even smaller pieces. Set aside in a small bowl.

Slice the green onion into fine pieces. Add the whites to the same bowl as the garlic. 

Set the green parts aside for garnish.

Peel the ginger and cut into thin slices. Cut into strips, then rotate 90 degrees and mince into a paste. Add to the bowl.

Step 3: Heat and season garlic paste

Heat a wok on high. Add the oil and cook for 30 to 40 seconds until it’s smoking.

Pour the oil into the bowl of garlic, green onion whites and ginger.

Season with the rest of the garlic paste ingredients, mix well. 

Step 4: Prep shrimp

Use kitchen shears to cut off the part of the head right behind the eyes. Next, trim off the legs and cut diagonally across the tail (This last step is optional, but you get bonus presentation points if you do it!).

Place the shrimp flat on a cutting board and use a small paring knife to slice through the shell halfway into the interior to make space for the garlic paste. Devein the shrimp. 

Step 5: Stuff shrimp

Add ½  to 1 teaspoon of garlic paste to the back of each shrimp.

(Chef’s Tip: Don’t overstuff the shrimp or else the garlic flavor will overwhelm the delicate sweetness of the shrimp.)

Set on top of the vermicelli in a circular pattern. Dollop any remaining garlic paste across any empty areas in the vermicelli.

Step 6: Steam shrimp

Place a steamer rack inside a wok or pot. Pour in hot water until it just reaches the bottom of the rack. Cover and bring the water to a rolling boil.

Carefully put the dish on the steaming rack, cover, and steam with the heat on high for 6 to 7 minutes, until shrimp meat is firm and opaque and the shell turns red. (This recipe yielded enough to make two glass pie pans worth for me)

Uncover and turn off heat. Garnish with the remaining sliced green onions.

Recipe Credit: Made with Lau