Teriyaki Salmon

Fish a la meuniere is a French fish dish bathed in butter. The fish comes out tender and flaky. The Chinese bath fish in soy sauce, and the fish is savory and meaty. My Grand Mom made this dish at least once a week with what ever fresh fish she could get that day. Now, this is my little boy's favorite dish. He never gets tired of it!   

\

Preparation time: 5 minutes.
Cooking time:  10-15 minutes.
Serve 4 people.


Ingredients:

1.   2 large steak size salmon, or 4 cross cut salmon, season lightly with salt and black pepper.

2.   2-3 scallion chopped as 2 inch length, use white parts for saute, green part for color finish in the end. ( You can use 1 small size onion, thin sliced too)

3.   1/4 cup carrot, thin sliced same size as the scallions.

4.   1/2 cup thin sliced onion.


Flavor:

1.   5 thin slices ginger about 2 inch in length .

2.   1/4 cup soy sauce.

3.   1/4 cup sake or dry white wine.

4.   1 tablespoon sugar.

5.   1 teaspoon honey.

6.   1 cup water.

7.   2 tablespoon corn tapioca flour or corn starch mix with same among of water.

8.  Salt, White and cayenne red pepper.

Lightly coat the saute pan with vegetable oil, high heat to bring it to the smoky point, lay in the salmon, skin side down, and just leave it.   When you see the fish color change to white on the bottom side, shake the pan, salmon will be sealed on one side and easy to flip.

After flipping the salmon, check the oil level form in the pan, if the bottom of pan is dry you can add 1 tablespoon oil, also add in the ginger, carrot and scallion or onion, saute it in the same pan until their is released.  (Don't touch the fish). Add in the soy sauce, wine, sugar and honey. Swirl around the pan with handle to mix all the sauce well.  Use a spoon to bathe fish on the top side which couldn't reach the sauce about 4-5 minutes. ( If you like the fish skin crispy, just skip this step. )  Test it with a chopstick for denseness.  If it is easy to go through, then it's done.

Take out the fish then finish the sauce.  Check the saltiness, one hand slowly add in the mixed corn starch water,  other hand  use a spoon of egg beater to mix the sauce well, when it reach the thick consistence, stop adding the flour mixture.  Sprinkle in the green parts of the scallion for color.

Drizzle sauce on top of fish and serve home style with rice, or use Boston lettuce leaves to wrap everything with rice. It's another fun way to eat!

Personally, I like meaty fish such as salmon, shark, or tuna for this savory flavor.  Bon Appetit!

Sweet Potato Braised in Ginger Syrup

My husband's family lives in the North of Taiwan. Every special holiday, we travel to visit his Grandparents. Each time Grand Mom makes something to feed us and send us home with lots of goodies. The sweet potato dish is in every Taiwanese childhood memory.  It's also Grand Mom's favorite dish, too.

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

Cooking time:  1 hour. 

Serve:  6 people.
Ingredients:

1.  3 large Japanese sweet potatoes.  Skin peeled, cut it all finger size, so it will cook evenly. ( You can find this in Whole Food or any Asian supermarket,  it has more starch than an American sweet potato, so it will hold its form better during the long time cooking.)

2.  Sweet peanut powder.

a.    1/2 cup unsalted roast peanut.

b.    2 tablespoon powder sugar.

Grind peanut and powder sugar, in the food process or crush and mix wit roller in a zip bag. ( Do not grind it too long, it will turn to peanut butter!)

3. Red cayenne pepper.

Flavor:

1.  3 cups light brown sugar.

2.  1/4 cup honey.

3.  5 thin slices of ginger.

4.  1/2 teaspoon salt.

5. water

Use a wider, stainless saute pan, place in salt, ginger, sweet potato, add water to soak the sweet potato, but not completely cover it, cover with lid, turn the heat high to bring to a boil, then turn down the heat right away, simmer about 15 minutes. 

(Sweet potato should be soft enough that a chopstick can go through.  Now, Sprinkle in brown sugar and drizzle honey. (Do not stir the sweet potato during the cooking process, but you can shift the pan to give even heat. Once you add in the sugar, sweet potato are not going to soften further.) Bring it to a boil again then turn the heat low, keep uncovered, braise in syrup about 1 hour or a 10 minutes more. Ginger syrupy flavor will all get into the sweet potato. You can serve it hot or cold.  To serve, jazz up with the sweet ground peanut powder, and a touch of red cayenne pepper, or keep it original just like Grand Mom.

Italian Burger

My Italian girlfriend Anna loves roasted peppers. Every time she eats them, she always murmurs "mm-----". You can tell how much she enjoys it. What else I can do to add creating to the Italian burger? The salty provolone cheese that my daughter loves, fresh peppery arugula, nutty pesto and a touch of balsamic vinegar to sweet roast peppers. Take a bite, and you will fall in love with Italy again and again!

Roast peppers:





















Roast Peppers with Pesto and Balsamic Vinegar

Preparation time:  5 minutes
Cooking time:  10 minutes
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredient:

Preheat grill to 400F degree.

1. 4 peppers (orange, yellow and red). Cut into quarters, remove seeds, and stems.

2. 1 teaspoon pesto (Lucy"s pesto, or store bought)

Lucy's pesto:  3 cloves garlic, 2 cups basil, 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/2 cup Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon  Worcestershire's sauce.
grind everything in the food processor, cover tight with a piece of plastic wrap the
lid ( It will keep up to 1 week. in the refrigerator.)

3. 1tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Toast peppers with oil, salt and pepper in the bowl or zip bag for easy clean.
Grill peppers until black color.( only on the skin side), set aside in a bowl with the lid on. Take the chuck skin off when peppers cool down to handle.( The stem will help to take skin off more easily. )Slice the peppers thin then add in pesto and balsamic vinegar.   Check the salt and pepper again, add more as needed.


Italian Burger

Preparation time:  5 minutes
Cooking time:  10 minutes
Serve:  4 peoples

1.  1 and half pound fresh( never frozen) 80% ground beef  ( Angers beef is good. Dry age beef are great.)

2.  4  1/2 1 tablespoon butter squares

3.  1 cup roast peppers

4.  4 slices Provolone cheese

5.  Arugula

6.  4 burger buns

Mold the patty gently with 1/2 tablespoon butter in the center, lightly brush vegetable oil, and season with salt and pepper on two sides. (Burger shrinks after cooked, so check your bun size. It should be the same size as bun about 31/2  inch diagonal, 1 inch thick, so after you cook, you can enjoy it every bite.)

Preheat grill or cast iron pan on high at least 400 F. ( To tell if it is hot enough, place you palm about 3 inches above, and you have to remove your hand immediately.) Put patties on the grill, leave it to cook, without pressing, and once it is sealed half way.  It will not stick and will be easy to flip, then wait about 2 minutes, add the cheese and cover the lid, cheese will melt nice and even.  Burger will be medium to medium rare. 

Toast bun to lightly brown on the same grill or pan, because it will get the flavor from the patties,  then layer on arugula, patty with cheese on top, roast peppers and close the bun.  Enjoy every bite!

Asian Pasto with Shrimp Pasta

In Chinese cooking, ginger plays a very important role in accompanying seafood, as it helps to take away excessive fishy odor, it also infuses nicely into seafood.  ( a couple slices ginger will work like charm.  the longer you cook ginger the more spicy you will get.)  The heat from ginger stimulates the blood, and keeps the body warm, especially on a cold rainy day.  Simply place ginger slices in the water,  bring to the broil,  then add the light or dark brown sugar to your own sweetness, serve ginger soup hot,  it's a old fashion way to avoid the cold.  

Asian pesto






















Ingredients:

1.  3 inch long ginger, skin off , rough chopped.

2.  4 scallion rough chopped

3.  1/4 cup almond or cashew

4.   2 star anise

5.  1/4 cup vegetable oil
6.  1/2 lemon juiced 

7.  Salt and white pepper

Put ginger, scallion, and almond,  in a food processor and grind it fine.

In a sauce pan, place cold oil with star anise and heat it up until the aroma comes out and the oil is hot (don't burn the star anise).  Throw away the star anise, drizzle flavored oil on top of pesto, stir a bit (Hot oil will cook all the ingredients, infuse the flavor, and keep the color bright.) Squeeze in lemon juice, add in salt and white pepper, mix well.  Good with any seafood or chicken!


Shrimp Asparagus with Asian pesto

















Ingredients:

1. 1 box spaghetti cooked.

2. 30 large size shrimps

3. 10 asparagus bend tough parts out chopped them to 2 inch length.

Flavor:

1.  5 garlic cloves mince

2.  1 lemon halved.

3.  1/2 cup white wine.

4.  1/2 cup chicken broth.

5.  Salt and white pepper, to taste.
6.  2-3 tablespoon Asian pesto.

7.  2 scallion diced.

8. 1/2 cup of cilantro chopped coarsely.

Peel the shell off but save for the broth, and open the back of the shrimp from head to tail with knife, clean the dirt with water, then pat it dry with paper towel, season salt and white pepper.   ( Shell fish goes bad quickly, so if I couldn't get fresh of the day, I use frozen shrimp with shells on because they have been frozen right after caught, as close to fresh as you can get, plus the shell has lots flavor for the sauce.)

Prepare a sauce pan, by adding the shrimp shell in the chicken broth, bring it to the broil about 5 minutes, and set aside.
Heat up another large pan with lightly oil coated the pan (about 1-2 tablespoon) to smoking hot, place shrimps and brown them on one side than another, when two sides are done, but inside still uncooked squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon on top the shrimps, then take the shrimp to a  plate.  Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to sauce pan and put in the garlic, saute until light brown, Then add wine and chicken broth,  put back the shrimps, salt and pepper, bring to broil,  add in the cooked pasta,  mix well, let pasta absorbs almost all the sauce, with some sauce left at the bottom of the pan.  ( Cook the pasta a little bit less done than the texture that you like, finish with the sauce that you are preparing.  It's Chinese technique to flavor the noodle.)  kill the heat, add in 2 to 3 tablespoons Asian pesto, mix well, squeeze the other half of lemon juice, sprinkle diced scallion and cilantro for the best  the freshness. 

This is a light, but flavorful dish.  Goes well with chilled white wine or light beer.  Great for hot summer day!

Tuna Sandwich

I used to fix this tuna sandwich as Sunday brunch for my husband in the first couple years of our relationship. I didn't really cook at the time, but I always put something together from the pantry or whatever was in the refrigerator. He always got surprised. Tuna "can" be delicious too!

Preparation: 15- 20 minutes

Make:  6 dinner rolls.


Ingredient:

1.  2 cans tuna.  ( I like the one in water, so I can control the oil.)

2.  6 dinner rolls.

3.  Boston lettuce.  

Flavor:

1. Juice and zest from 1 lemon. ( Adjust the acidly by your taste!)

2.  3 tablespoons light mayonnaise.

3.  2 teaspoon condensed milk.

4.  1 stalk celery, diced.

5.  1/4 medium red onion, diced.

6.  2 tablespoons canned corn, drained.

7.  2 tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped.

8.  Salt and white and black pepper, to taste.

Mix lemon juice, lemon zest, mayo, and condensed milk well. Add in celery, red onion, corn, cilantro, tuna, salt, white and black pepper.  Let the mixture chill for 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Prepare dinner rolls, with Boston lettuce at the bottom, adding 1 big scoop of the tuna salad on top, covering with another piece of bread. You can serve on toast points  (open faced) as an appetizer.

Porky finger

This dish disappeared in five minutes on my dinner table. I had two teenage guests for dinner, and they were fighting for the last pieces.  The ideas for this comes from the famous salty, crunchy, fried chicken in Taiwan. I switched chicken to pork loin, and cut it the l size of a finger, which reduces the frying time and always gets the perfect result.  the pork will appear a beautiful pink color and will be juicy, crunchy, and flavorful.  It's one dish that I feel most proud of; I think you can do it, too.

Preparation time: 5 minutes, at least 30 minutes for marinate

Cooking time:  20 minutes.

Make 30 porky fingers.

 

Ingredient:

1.  6 pieces pork loins cut it to finger size.

2.  1 egg yolk

3.   1/2 cup coarsely ground sweet potato flour for marinade, plus 3 cups  for frying.  ( You can mix panko flour with corn starch 1:1 for the same texture).


Flavor:

1.  3 tablespoons soy sauce.

2.  2 tablespoons sake or dry white wine.

3.  1 tablespoon garlic powder.

4.  1 teaspoon onion powder.

5.  1 teaspoon five spice powder. ( You can find it at the Asian super market.)

6.  1 teaspoon sugar.

7.  Salt & white pepper, to taste.


Seasoned salt:

1. 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder.

2.  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder.

3.  1/8 teaspoon clove powder.

4.  1/8 teaspoon wasabi powder.

5.  2 teaspoon white pepper.

6.  2 teaspoon sea salt.

Mix well.

Place all the flavor ingredient in the large storage zip bag, add in the pork loin, zip it,massage them until absorb all the liquid, then add in egg yolk and sweet potato flour as sticky ingredient, marinade at least 30 minutes. ( Pork lion should be coated like sticky glue consistency and all over, so it will pick up the flour later, adjust the flour that you add in, more stickier, more heavier coated you get !)

Open 2 brown shopping bag, layer it, place on top of working surface, other brown paper bag on the plate to drain the extra oil.(for easy clean later).  Put flour in the bowl, use tong pick up the pork than coated with flour, but make sure use other hand squeeze the flour to the pork well. Set it aside, until the flour get wet a bit by itself about 2- 3 minutes. It's ready to fry. 

Here is what I do, I am a righty, I line up pork, flour, frying pot from right to the left.  You can do 6-10 pieces at once, it depends how big is your pan.  Fill in oil 1/3 of deeper pan, no more than 1/2 in the pan, for safety issue after you add in pork so the oil won't be overflowed. Heat up the oil with medium heat, test it by a tiny little piece of flour drop in. If it flow right away that's the right temperature to fry.

Now, you add in pork slowly in the frying pan, do not over crowded, so the temperature won't drop to fast, otherwise, pork will be overcooked before get crispy.  When pork is done, it will be flow up to the surface, color will be golden brown, if you use tong to get it out, you will feel the pork already get harden which mean It's crunch.  Drain it on the brown paper bag and sprinkle with season salt serve immediately.

Keep the cooking station organized, neat, one useful hand free, and the easy clean up.  You will enjoy it more! 

Meatball on English Muffin( Mini Pizza)

Chinese has this technique call " beating in water", when they deal with ground meat as a meat ball or filling for dumpling. The egg and corn starch will be use as glue which hold the meat together and tender. By add in water makes meat ball or filling more juicy. I promise You won't have dry meat ball again.

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

Cooking time: 40 minutes to fry meatballs and simmer in the tomato sauce.  5-10 minutes to make the Mini Pizza.

Make about 20 meatballs by using 1 1/2 inch scoop.


Ingredients:

1. 5 favorite sweet Italian sausage. Make about 20 meatballs by using 11/2 inch scoop.

2. 1 egg yolk.

3. 1 tablespoon tapiocan or corn starch.

4.  4 tablespoons water.

5. Vegetable oil for frying.

6.  1 can tomato sauce.

7.  1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese.

8.  Parsley roughly chopped.

Squeeze meat from sausage casing.  Mix with remaining  ingredients very well by hand, stir until the meat absorbs the water and comes like a sticky dough.   Do it fast and keep the meat  cooler than  room temperature, so the fat in the meat doesn't melt.

Prepare a sauce pan, add in tomato sauce and 1 cup of water, so the sauce won't burn easily.  Heat the sauce to boil, then reduce the heat down to a simmer, and cover to wait for the meat balls.

In a deep frying pan, on medium high heat, bring oil to 350 degrees F. *Oil is no more than half way high of frying pan for safety.  Choose 9inch wide and deep enough pot, so meatballs can be cover with oil, frying evenly nice golden brown and without by sucking too much oil.  Using a 1 1/2 inch scoop, gently drop balls into the oil, avoid overcrowding which cools down the oil temperature. Meatballs only take 2 minutes to fry to medium golden brown.  It's OK the inside is not cooked yet, because it will cook more in the sauce.

Once cooked, add the meatballs to the tomato sauce gradually, cover with lid, and simmer at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid the bottom burning. (If the sauce gets to thick, you can add more water, but keep the heat low.)

(*I know what are you thinking now.   Are you sure? Seriously? In western, we learn that gently fold in ground meat, avoid over mixing that is one way to keep meat soft, now you will be amaze this technique, I guarantee!*)

Preheat oven to 400degrees F.

Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up.  Apply sauced on halved English Muffin, then halved meatballs, sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 5 minutes at the bottom level of oven.  Sprinkle a little black pepper and parsley for fresh flavor and color.  Serve hot!


My Kids always come home starving after school, no matter what they had for lunch.   If I have the meatballs leftover.  I can just  fix this dish under 10 minutes, everyone is happy! You are saving the money and kids are eating health, too. It's a good thing!

Pineapple Shrimp with ketchup Sauce

I always keep one bag of shrimp in freezer and who doesn't have ketchup in the house.  This flavor come from sweet pineapple, acidly catch-up,  umami from shrimp by itself .  It's a little bit messy dish, but succulent enough.  Most of all, you can fix this dish in no time. 

Ingredient:

1. 20 ex-large or jumble shrimps divine, clean and pat dry by kitchen towel. ( I like it with shell on, because it got more flavor like the steak with the bone)

Flavor:

1. 2 tablespoons ginger finely chopped.

2. 1 medium onion 11/2 inch square chopped.

3. 1 scallion diced, separate the white head and green end apart.

4. 1 cup catchup.

5. 1/4 cup dry white wine.

6. 1/4 cup pineapple juice and pineapple cubed from can.

7. 1 hot Chill pepper for the flavor but don't open the skin, seed is the heat where it comes from, and the longer you cook, the hotter you get. ( if you like it spicy).

8. 1 teaspoon basamic vinegar.

Lightly oil the saute pan, high heat bring to the smoking point. Put in the shrimps, seal it on one side till lightly brown and red, then turn the other side. ( Try not to touch it, and turn it once). Shrimp will be like half way done, take the shrimps out on the plate. Turn the heat low, add in about 2 tablespoon oil and ginger to the pan stir until the fragrant comes out then join the onion and salt, keep saute when the onion soft a little, add in wine and catchup, and the pineapple juice and the whole hot pepper, turn the heat high, bring to the broil then check the salt level and sprinkle some cayenne pepper, put the shrimps back to the saute pan, bring to the broil again then turn off the heat right away, add in basamic vinegar and pineapple cubes.

Kids like this dish without spicy, if you add some clam juice will bring it all the way to the top. Good with rice or dig in the bread.