Classic Chicken wing stew

Stews make easy meals as well...I can chop veggies during Baby's early afternoon nap and then during the early evening nap I put everything into a pot/slow cooker/thermal cooker and let it simmer for a couple hours until Hubby's home and it's all ready to eat. And if the stew is chocked full of veggies then I don't have to prepare that either. Just make rice and enjoy!

Here I actually pan seared the wings first, added the veggies, a bit of stock (not too much because the veggies let out a fair bit of water too) and seasoning and then covered for 45min on low heat. Chicken wings cook pretty fast...especially if seared already. 

Chicken Wings

Various veggies you can find: Carrots and Green & Yellow zucchinis were in my fridge this time

Soy sauce (dark and light)

Sugar

Cornstarch (to dust the chicken wings in before searing)

Cooking wine

Sesame Oil

Enjoy!

Bacon Brussels Sprouts

I'm back!! It's been rather eventful....I became a Mom at the end of April! A beautiful and amazing experience...that is ongoing. Even through the endless diaper changes. My parents were with me for the first month and a bit for the first bit of the Chinese confinement period. And then my husband's parents were with us for the rest of the 100 days of rest, renourishment and replenishment of the body. So, I haven't cooked much. But....we're on our own as a family now and it's back to feeding ourselves. A slight challenge when you have to work around 3 hr feeding/nap schedules. I need quick and easy meals...so a quick starter is my favorite Brussels Sprouts recipe with an addition: bacon! 

Cumin wings on sweet potato spinach salad

 

I love chicken wings...and so I bought some. I was too lazy to mince garlic for some honey garlic wings (plus I can't really eat the honey right now) so I went with my next favorite flavor which is curry/cumin wings. There was a random sweet potato in my fridge so this got worked in as well.

Chicken Wings

Cumin

Soy sauce

Coconut sugar (or any sugar you want....I just used a slight pinch though normally I'd probably use a tbsp or two)

Salad:

Gouda cheese

Sweet potato - cubed and pan seared in butter

Spinach

Dressing:

Grainy mustard

Olive oil

Cider vinegar

a couple drops of Stevia (plant based, zero glycemic index, sweetener)

It was a nice hearty salad. The sweet potato was filling when paired with some meat. Yum.

Warm Brussels Sprouts & Kale Salad

I burned the last batch of brussel sprouts I made so this is a redemption effort. Still not the way I like it because it didn't char as much as I like this time. I used my favorite brussel sprouts recipe and then mixed it with sauteed kale in a kind of salad. It's served over quinoa rice and topped with the pre-seasoned New Zealand rack of lamb that you can quickly throw in the toaster oven and make.

Brussel Sprouts
Fish sauce
Sugar
Grapeseed oil
Kale
S&P

Summer Apple Salad

Whenever I think of apples in salad, I usually remember the creamy potato fruit salads my grandma would make. But now I've got a beet salad to change up the taste and color of an apple-y salad, and today, a fresh citrus seasoned apple salad. It's got barley mixed in so I feel it could replace the carb option in a meal.

Sliced Apple
Shredded carrots
Sliced celery and its leaves
Barley
(I may have one more vegetable ingredient but I can't remember for the life of me.)

Dressing is my go to:
Grainy Mustard
Lemon juice
Olive Oil
Stevia drops (sugarless sweetener)...instead of honey

Also pictured, a nice med rare stake and some grilled broccoli.

Green Steak and Ham

A MEAT post!!! Finally! ...but no ham in this...I was just thinking about Dr Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham book.

My husband told me about a cilantro mint chutney that his coworker shared with him once. It's simply:
A bunch of fresh mint
A bunch of fresh cilantro
Thai chilies (as many or as little as you like....I would recommend at LEAST one)
A spoon of sugar

And then blend it to a saucy consistency.
We only have the Magic Bullet...and had trouble with the leaves sticking to the walls and not coming down. So we added about 1/3 cup of olive oil. It ended up being a thick paste. Keeps for a couple weeks in the fridge.

What's great about it, is that it can be used to marinate ANY meat. In this case, I used it on steak. I thinned out several spoons of the paste with some grapeseed oil since it was going into the BBQ. In hindsight, I should've only used grapeseed oil since olive oil burns in high tempuratures....like in the BBQ. Here I've got some rib steak marinating in the green goodness:




And after grilling to a beautiful medium rare, I took more chutney, added some lemon juice and minced garlic to make a chimichuri sauce for the steak. SO GOOD.



The sides are a quick Asian pickles and grilled cauliflour.

Pickles:
Cucumbers
Couple spoons of white vinegar (you're supposed to use rice vinegar)
Spoon of sugar
Minced garlic
Spoon or two of soy sauce
few drops of sesame oil

Grilled cauliflour was tossed in grapeseed oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

Baked Miso Tofu on Salad and Burnt Tomato Soup

I can't remember where I saw a recipe for baked miso tofu, but it sounded interesting. I had both medium firm regular and soft egg tofu. I've been buying organic since I hear soy is a major GMO product now.

Miso sauce:
Miso paste
Soy sauce
Sugar
Grapeseed Oil

Mix this all together and then spoon over the cut tofu in a baking sheet. Bake at 350-385 F until the liquids dry and it starts to brown. Serve over salad with a garlic balsamic vinegar dressing that you can also easily throw together.

Tomato Soup....sadly was a bit of a fail. I was browning the onions and had added cut tomatos to simmer with it, except I didn't include enough liquids in the pot...or maybe the stove was on too high. Anyways....the bottom burnt. I picked out what I could, added veggie stock and then put the immersion blender in until I got the desired consistency. My husband said it tasted good...so I'll go with that. But I'm not aiming for a repeat performance for sure. =)

Tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Basil
Oregano
Vegetable Stock

Gingko nuts & Lotus Bulb Dessert

Okay, this was a favorite Chinese dessert of mine growing up. I don't know how to describe the tastes...but it's GOOD.

But this time, it was a fail. Not sure if it's because I bought the de-shelled and preserved gingko nuts isntead of fresh ones...but it had a bitter taste to it. Every. Single. One. I ended up throwing away half the pot. So sad.

Fresh gingko nuts
Fresh lotus bulb
Rock sugar
piece of raw ginger
water

 

Leftover Makeover: Kimchi Edemame Fried Rice

Apologies for the half eaten bowl of rice....I forgot to take the photo first. I've mentioned before how I hate wasting kimchi juice left after eating a tub of the spicy goodness. Well here's another way to use it up. Use it in fried rice! Fried rice is also a great way to use up hard leftover rice. Instead of adding water to reconsitute the rice, I poured in the kimchi juice. I also had leftover buckwheat. And leftover cooked edemame beans. Perfect. For added protein I cut up a medium firm block of tofu into strips...you can't really see them in the photo though.

I let everything simmer under a lid, then stir every now and then until the liquids have dried up and the rice gets a little browned. Yum.

Leftover grains
Kimchi juice
Edemame
Tofu
Salt/Sugar to taste

Warm Sweet Potato Broccoli Salad

What do you do when you have a little bit of a couple different veggies but not enough of any for a good meal size serving? You throw it all together and call it stew or soup or in my case, salad. The yams take longer than broccoli to cook so I started with them in a pot with some butter. Added a tiny bit of water to get the steam going. Then I cut up the broccoli and added it. BUT, I didn't watch the timing so I ended up with overcooked broccoli. Ah well...still tasty. With the added water and moisture from the broccoli, there ended up being enough "sauce" to coat the salad so I didn't need to make a dressing. The contrast of soft warm veggies with the crisper cooler leaves was quite nice. The heaviness of the yam made it possible to be full as well.

Yam/sweet potato
Broccoli
Box mixed greens salad
Paprika
Cumin
Sugar

 

Saucy Veggie Omlette...not really

I don't know what this is called....when you crack eggs into sautéed veggies. It's not a fritata, it's not a Spanish omlette, it's not really an omlette either....meh. It was tasty! And an easy way to use up various veggies in the fridge. I served it with some garlic naan to soak up some of the sauce.



I sautéed everything until it was nearly done, made four "wells" that I cracked the eggs into. Covered it for a few minutes then served it.

Button mushrooms
Yellow Pepper
Broccoli
Onion
Eggs
Cumin
Paprika
Sugar
Basil flakes
Garlic
S&P
 

Veal Flank Stew and Spring Salad

I bought some veal flank meat and thought a stew would be nice....but as Spring is here, pairing it with a fresh salad would be even nicer.

Stew:
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Veal flank
Onion
Garlic
Cumin
Paprika
Sugar
Sriracha
BBQ Sauce
Ketchup
Tomato Paste
Various herbs that seemed to smell good together

Salad:
Spring Greens
Naval Orange cut to bite sizes
Chopped Almonds

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Grainy mustard
Honey
Lemon Juice

Chili Taro chicken

Taro root...it was a favorite of mine growing up. Hawaiians eat it and is called "poi"...but I found the way they prepare it to be rather bland the two times I've tried. I like taro in stew-type dishes as well as in pastries and desserts. Taro takes on flavors of whatever you're cooking it in rather well. It's also got an aromatic earthy taste if you eat it whole and freshly cooked. I love it.

Fermented chili bean paste
Sugar
Soy sauce
Chicken
Taro

 

I used small taro bulbs rather than the large root. With the small bulbs, I boiled them whole until soft enough to poke through with a fork. The skin is peeled off once it's cooled enough to handle. And then it's cut to bite sizes and added to the cooking meat/stew around the same time I make the sauce.

Three Color Stir Fry

After the pork rib and beans dish, I was reminded about all the stir fries I used to cook though my university years. Meat and veggies into the frying pan or wok, make some kind of sauce and voila...your one-dish dinner is ready to go. There was always enough to pack for lunch the next day as well. After, oh, seven years of various stir fry combos, despite all the different meat/veggie/sauce combos you can get out of it, I got tired of it. I stuck to separate meat and veggie meals for a while.

So on a day I forgot to defrost meat, but had eggs, and had some remaining beans now on the brink of decay, I decided to give the stir fry another go.

Green beans
Tomatoes
Eggs (fry ahead of time and add it back in when you add the sauce)

For the sauce:
Cornstarch
Sugar
Soy sauce
==============> The above three ingedients look familiar? Not only are they the base meat marinade, they're also the base to any Asian sauce. Make a slurry with cornstarch and water, add the sugar and soy sauce, then you can either just use that or add additional condiments for different flavor combos. I added:

Ketchup
Fermented Chili Bean paste



I think my husband misses the heartier meat and veggie meals, but the stir fry with rice was tasty. =)

Pork ribs and Green beans

I have never cooked green beans before...mainly because I never really eat them. But because my husband likes them, I'm trying to incorporate it into our meals. This dish was cooked all in a wok...(does this make it a stir fry?)...not for any reason other than I didn't want to clean extra pots if I didn't need to. =)

Pork ribs

Soy sauce
Corn statch
Sugar
(These three ingredients make up the basic Asian meat marinade...from here you can add whatever other Asian seasoning/condiments you like.)
Satay sauce
Fermented Chili Bean Paste ("dau ban zherng")
 
Green beans

The pork was cooked first. I browned each side then added a little bit of water into the wok and covered it for a few minutes. The pork was then removed and I added the beans next with a little more water to deglaze the wok and steam/fry the beans. I kept it under a lid to keep the heat in for a good five minutes. Then I added the ribs back in and kept stirring/flipping everything until the water dried up. End result was super tasty....though the beans were slightly undercooked. Oops. I forgot to do a taste test. Maybe I need seven minutes for the beans to cook? Next time.

Christmas Roasted Veggie Medley (fake)

Yes this is a "fake" roasted veggie medley because only one of the ingredients was actually roasted. I pan seared the brussel sprouts in my favorite way. Then I heated leftover roasted beets in a pot with some frozen corn niblets. Tossed everything together and voila! The perfect dish to bring to a Christmas potluck or for Christmas dinner. =)

Brussels Sprouts
Fish sauce
Olive Oil
Sugar

Roasted beets
Frozen corn

I accidently got some burn marks on the beets and corn in the unattended pot, but hey, now it looks convincingly roasted to match the brussel sprouts! It's the colours of Christmas, it's healthy...and delicious.

Kimchi Stew

THIS is perfect for a cold day! The tip of my nose is always a little cold and hot stew is the perfect fix. Hot spicy stew. A couple weeks ago we had bought a tub of kimchi from H-Mart....which we inhaled fairly quickly. There was a lot of kimchi juice left in the container and we were starting to think of ways to use it up as to not waste the tasty goodness. So.....it all went into the stew.

Pork belly
Kimchi and all the leftover Kimchi juice
Onion
Carrot
Potato
Sugar




Serve over rice. So yum!

Brussels Sprouts

The number of times I've eaten Brussels sprouts in my entire life can be counted on one hand. Usually a bad stomach ache followed one of those unfortunate meals. Can't say I enjoyed it. So when I saw a recipe that called for the hearty sprouts with fish sauce (a seasoning I like), I thought maybe I could give it another chance.

Brussels sprouts
Olive Oil
Fish Sauce
Sugar

Key is to get a nice char on the cut side. And Omigoodness....it was so good! Definitely having this again. =)

Rosemary Pork Chops

Pork is hard to do well I find. I tend to dry it out and then have to deal with some really chewy meat after. One thing that helps is to not overcook it. Growing up, my immigrant parents/grandparents would be afraid of food poisoning so meats were always cooked to death. Can't blame them considering fridges were a bit of a luxury back then. But now, I try to cook pork "just" under well done and then let it continue to warm while resting is pretty decent. I'm tempted to try pork medium well...but just in case, I'm taking it to well done. For now.

Marinade:
Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
Dried Rosemary
Cumin
Sugar (Brown sugar is better but mine had solidified into a giant block...so white sugar substituted.)

I pan fried about four minutes on each side. And then served with a dallop of spicy mango chutney on top. It was really good! You can see sides of Tomato Zucchini casserole and some brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Soy Lime Salmon

Another easy marinade:

Fresh Salmon
Soy Sauce
Lime juice
Sugar
a few drops of Sesame Oil

As you pan fry, watch the meat turn color from the pan upwards. When the pale color reaches halfway, then flip the fish and watch the pale color come up again. I personally like it "just" cooked so that it's still got a little bit of pink in the middle. Skywalker, my husband, like it cooked through so that you can flake the fish easily. Up to you though! Cheers.