Shrimp & Tofu Pad Thai

Ingredients: 

(For the chile paste)

- 2-3 red fresno or serranto chiles, (i kept the seeds and it made it super spicy)

- 2 shallots, chopped

- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped

- 1/2 lb dried flat rice noodles 1/4 (6mm) wide

- 2 tablespoons canola oil

- 1/4 cup fish sauce

- 3 tablespoons tamarind paste

- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons chopped palm sugar (can use dark brown sugar as a substitute)

- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

- 1/2 lb shrimp (prawns) peeled and deveined

- 1 1/4 cups mung bean sprouts

- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

- 1 package of tofu

- 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts

- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (fresh coriander)

Place the noodles in a bowl and add hot water to cover.  Let stand for 5-10 minutes.  Drain the noodles and set aside.

To make the chile paste: in a mortar or mini food processor, combine the chiles, shallots, garlic, and 1 tablespoon water and process or grind with a pestle until a thick paste forms.

Ingredients: chopped peanuts, scallions, lime, cilantro, and the chile paste

After you de-shell the shrimp, put them in cold water and let them soak.

Add a little vegetable oil and scramble an egg on low-medium heat.

In a large wok or frying pan, stir-fry the tofu with the egg. (be careful not to break the soft tofu into bits!)

After removing the egg and tofu mixture,  turn the heat over high heat, and warm the oil.  When the oil is hot, add the chile paste and saute until fragrant, about 10 seconds.

Stir in the fish sauce, tamarind paste, soy sauce, palm sugar, and lime juice. Add the shrimp and saute just until they turn opaque, about 1 minute.

Add the noodles to the pan along with 1 cup of the bean sprouts and the broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring the mixture 2 or 3 times, until most of the sauce has been absorbed, 5-7 minutes.

Transfer the noodles to a warmed platter.  Top with fresh bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions, chopped peanuts, and slices of lime. Serve and enjoy!

Bibimbap! 2nd edition.

Here is the original post that I previously did on Bibimbap for a more detailed explanation of how to make it- but I took some better photos of the ingredients and process, so figured I should add them :) The best thing about bibimbap is that you can always mix it up- and try different ingredients for their various flavors and textures.

This time the ingredients I included were:

- shitake mushrooms

- bean sprouts

- zucchini

- squash

- spinach

- carrots

- sesame seed leaves

- bulgogi beef (thinly sliced marinated beef: 1 lb marinated with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon grated garlic, 1/2 white sliced onion, green onion/scallions, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper)

- egg

- gojujang (of course:)

- sesame seed oil

- garlic

- green onion/scallions

-sesame seeds

First make sure you start by soaking the dry shitake mushrooms for at least 30 minutes (unless you get the fresh ones!)

it's pretty simple and basic: you slice the vegetables: zucchini, squash, shitake mushrooms and carrots into thin small pieces and sauté each individual ingredient with a little bit of garlic and sesame seed oil, except for the bean sprouts and spinach- which you boil until they are cooked. you then flavor them by adding a little bit of freshly grated garlic and chopped green onion/scallions.

[so... i stopped taking photos because i got too preoccupied with cooking..]

To set it all up you add some rice at the bottom of a bowl, add a little bit of each ingredient on top, and put a sunny-side up egg on top. add a splash of sesame seed oil and a heaping big spoonful of gojujang before you mix it all up. Now you can sweat veggies :)

mapo tofu. (my koreanized version)

I made spicy mapo tofu yesterday- and typically I use a pre-packaged sauce packet, but I didn't have any so i came up with my own sauce and it came out delicious:)

Ingredients:

- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

- 1 1/2 tablespoon grated garlic

- 1 lb ground pork

- 1 package of tofu (soft or firm, however you like it:)

- 4 chopped green onion/scallions

- 1-2 cup of rice

sauce:

- 1 tablespoon soy sauce

- 2 tablespoon gojugadu (korean red pepper flakes)

- 1 tablespoon gojujaang (korean red bean paste)

- 1 1/2 tablespoon miso or bean paste

- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

- 1 tablespoon dashida (korean beef stock)

- 3/4 cup of water

Directions:

1. Start to sauté and cook the pork with the garlic and ginger. It should probably smell delicious :)Add the ingredients to make the sauce

2. Pre-mix the sauce in a separate bowl- and mix well until the chunks are dissolved.

3. Add the sauce mixture into the sautéed pork and let some of the water evaporate.

4. Add the tofu (cut into small squares) and about 3/4 cup of sliced scallions and stir, while keeping on very low heat- and continue to simmer so that the juices penetrate into the tofu pieces!

5. Add rice to the bottom of your bowl/plate.

6. Spoon the mapo tofu over the rice, and add freshly cut scallions/green onions on top. It will be spicy and hot! Enjoy ^_^

"Korean" Harry Potter Roasted Hen

I got this simple roasted hen recipe from "The Unofficial harry Potter Cookbook" and I modified it by adding lemons and Korean hot red pepper flakes. The recipe called for cooking it for 45 minutes... But in reality it took about 3 hours.. O_O (*correction: that's because I used a frozen hen. Don't do that. Wait till it defrosts. I was too impatient;)

Ingredients:

- 1 pheasant or hen (I used a cornish hen)

- 1 onion, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slices

- 2 celery ribs, cut into chunks

- 2 carrots, cut into chunks

- 1 potato, cut into chunks

- 4 cloves of garlic

- olive oil for brushing on the hen

- salt and freshly ground black pepper

- red pepper flakes

- 1 cup water

- 1/2 a lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Lay the onion slices in a roasting pan and scatter the celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic cloves on top.

2. Rinse the hen in cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. Place the pheasant in the roasting pan, breast side up, wings tucked under. Brush the olive oil over the hen and sprinkle it with the salt and pepper. Pour the water into the roasting pan.

3. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, or until the juices run clear. (AND then i saw that it wasn't cooked throughly so I flipped it over, stabbed into the meat everywhere so the juices would go inside, squeezed the lemons over the hen and layered them on top of it, basked the juiced over the hen, and continued to roast for another 45 minutes. I did this every 20 minutes for the next hour (so three times). And finally, at 4am (it was a night project) the roasted hen was complete and ready to eat. All of the flavors from the juices soaked into the meat- you could taste the celery, carrot, lemon, garlic, and the little hint of spice. It was delicious.

SOON DUBU JIGAE!! (Spicy seafood and tofu stew/soup)

This is by far one of my favorite dishes ever. Its tasty, spicy, seafood bitty, soupy and easy to make.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup (or more) seafood mix: I used one from the Korean store that included scallops, shrimp, mussels, and calamari ^___^)

- 2 1/2 tablespoons gojugadu (korean hot pepper flakes)

- 1 tablespoon dashida (powered beef stock)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

- 2 tablespoon sesame seed oil

- 5 cloves of chopped/crush

ed garlic

- 1 green onion/scallion

- 1 large jalepeno

- 1 packet of soft tofu

- 1 cup of water

- 1-3 eggs

First put the seafood mix in water and soak for about 15 minutes. Chop up the raw ingredients such as the garlic, scallion, jalepeno, etc. Then in a hot-pot, (I used a stone hot-pot) add the sesame seed oil under high heat. After it starts to smoke, add the red pepper flakes and stir to make a deep red pasty mixture. Drain the seafood and fry the seafood bits into the red paste along with the garlic. After about 2 minutes, add water and bring to a boil. Add the dashida (beef and/or anchovy stock), salt, pepper, jalepenos and soft tofu. Let it all boil for about 4-5 minutes. Add the green onions/scallions. Turn off the heat and bring the entire pot to the table, then crack the eggs into the top. Swirl around the egg, (or let the eggs poach, whichever you prefer:)

And then you have delicious Soon dubu jigae. Serve with rice.

I stopped taking step-by-step photos because I got too excited chopping and cooking. But long story short, I served the soon dubu jigae along with saang-gilsal, pork-belly Korean BBQ. To add into the saam (lettuce wrap) I mixed chopped scallions with a little bit of sesame seed oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, salt and red pepper flakes. (pictured last) YUMMMMMM ^_^

Spinach, Artichoke & Bacon Pizza

My sister and I made homemade pizza for the first time this past weekend and it was such a success! It is pretty simple as well.. The following recipe for the dough makes two large (about 16") pizzas.

Ingredients:
[For the dough]
1 1/4 cup water (105 degrees Fahrenheit)
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 packet of dry yeast
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil

[For the toppings]
Marinara sauce
About 1/2 cup of shredded Italian blend cheese
3 cloves of garlic
About 1/2 cup of chopped artichokes
About 1/2 cup of spinach
3 slices of bacon

To start, mix the dry yeast and and 1 1/4 cup of water that is 105 degrees in temperature and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Next, add the flour, olive oil, sugar and salt into the mixer and let it knead on the lowest setting for 10 minutes.

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and add extra virgin olive oil, along with some italian herbs (such as oregano, thyme, basil, etc) Then cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's time for the toppings! Take three slices of bacon and chop them into smaller pieces

Cook the bacon until they are crispy!

Arrange the artichoke, spinach and bacon on separate plates and put aside.

After the hour, take out the dough and roll it into two equal balls of dough. We wrapped up the other ball of dough and saved it for the next day to make pizza again:)

In the meantime, put the marinara in a large sauce pan and simmer. I added 2 extra cloves of chopped garlic to add more flavor.

Next, roll the dough out into a large circle, drizzle olive oil on a large oven pan and put the dough on the pan. Drizzle more olive oil on top of the dough (and you can sprinkle more oregano on top)


Next, add a layer of marinara sauce, then cheese, then artichokes, spinach and bacon. Sprinkle more cheese on top.

Bake in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, and then when the crush is hard enough, push it off of the baking tray and put it directly on the oven rack and let it cook for another 4-5 minutes (or however crispy / soft you like your pizza to be)

And here's the final product!!!! It turned out so delicious and yummy!!! ^_^

Chicken Fried Rice

To make fried rice, make sure you use day old rice, and non-sticky rice is preferred.

Ingredients:
- Carrots
- Peas
- Corn
- Water Chestnuts
- Chicken breast
- 2 cups of cooked rice
- Soy Sauce
- sesame seed oil

Directions:
1) Start cooking the chicken breast in a pan with medium heat in some olive oil. Cut into little pieces.
2) Put a teaspoon of sesame seed oil into the bottom of a large pan or wok and add the rice.
3) Add the chopped carrots, corn, peas and water chestnuts. Add the cut chicken into the mix and stir fry, adding 3 tablespoons of soy sauce (add more if you like it salty)
4) Serve and enjoy!

Smoked Salmon Penne Pasta

This dish is so easy to make and is really good. I learned it from my favorite Italian, Matteo Milllone! ^__^

[Serves 4]

Ingredients:

- 3 cups of uncooked Penne Pasta

- 1/2 quart of heavy cooking cream

- 5 oz Smoked Salmon - make sure you get free-range raised fish. Farm-raised salmon doesn't taste as good, and it has less than half of the OMEGA 3's that are so healthy for your body!

- 1/2 white onion

- 1 tablespoon butter

- Crushed Black Pepper

- Salt

1. Boil water and add the pasta, and salt to taste. Cook exactly the amount it says on the box for al dente.

2. In a large sauce pan melt the butter and saute the chopped onion until translucent. Add the cut and sliced smoked salmon and a dash of crushed black pepper, and saute with the butter and onion for 1-2 minutes.

3. Pour the cooking cream into the sauce pan and stir with the butter, onion and smoked salmon. Let it simmer until it reaches a light boil (do not let it boil for too long or the sauce will become too thick)

4. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce pan, mix and stir the ingredients together (turn the heat down to one of the lowest settings)

5. Serve and enjoy! (and sprinkle some freshly grated black pepper on top)

Black Pepper Tilapia

here's a simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1) Tilapia fillets
2) Fresh black pepper
3) Half a lemon
4) Extra virgin olive oil
5) Cherry tomatoes
6) Whole grain rice

Instructions: If you don't get pre-marinated ones, then you can mix together 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, fresh ground pepper and the juices from half a lemon. Let the fillets marinate in the mixture for half an hour in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and heat in a pan. Saute the cherry tomatoes and tilapia fillets, on each side for about 3 minutes. Cook the whole grain rice, arrange the fillets and tomatoes on the plate and serve:)

Bibimbap!

Ingredients:

• Cooked rice
• bean sprouts
• a bunch of spinach
• 2 small size of zucchinis
• 1/2 a pound of bulgogi (marinated thinly sliced rib-eye beef)
• 1 small carrot
• eggs
• soy sauce
• hot pepper paste
• garlic
• sesame oil

Recipe:
Arrange everything on a platter.

1. Cook rice. You can use a rice cooker or a stainless pot.
   
2. Next, you need to prepare a large platter to put all your ingredients on. Rinse your bean sprouts 3 times and put them in a pot with a cup of water. Add 1 ts of salt and cook for 15 minutes. Drain water and mix it with 1 clove of minced garlic, sesame oil and a pinch of salt.
   Put it on the platter.
3. Put your spinach in a pot of boiling water and stir it for a minute. Then rinse it in cold water a few times and squeeze it lightly. Mix it with a pinch of salt, 1 ts of soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic and sesame oil. Put it on the platter
4. Cut 2 small size zucchinis into thin strips, sprinkle them with a pinch of salt, and then mix them together. A few minutes later, sauté them in a pan over high heat. When it’s cooked, it will look a little translucent. Put it on the platter
5. On a heated pan, put some oil and 200 grams of thinly sliced rib-eye (bulgogi) and stir it. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tbs of soy sauce, 1/2 tbs of sugar, a little grounded black pepper, and sesame oil.
   Put it on the platter.
6. Cut a carrot into strips, sauté it for 30 seconds and put it on the platter.
7. prepare eggs with sunny side up.
8. Put your rice In a big bowl, and attractively display all your vegetables and meat. Place the sunny side up egg on the center.
9. Serve it with sesame oil and hot pepper paste.
10. Lastly, mix it up and eat!

Garlic Lime Salmon

I need to work on my food photography..

Garlic Lime Salmon
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon grated lime peel
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- lime slices
- 2-3 salmon fillets (i got Alaskan open-range salmon fillets)


1. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the first five ingredients; shake well.
2. Broil salmon, skin side down, 4-6 inches from the heat for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork, basting every 5 minutes with lime mixture. Garnish with lime slices.

Mashed Potatoes:
1. Peel and wash potatoes, then cut into 1-2 inch blocks
2. Put the potatoes in boiling water, adding salt to taste. Cook until soft.
3. Drain potatoes.
4. Mash the potatoes, add I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and black pepper to taste.

Parmigiano-Reggiano Mushroom Chicken Pasta

(i got impatient cutting the chicken, hence the huge block of chicken on top :P)

I lived with Italians for a while and learned lots of good pasta sauces made from scratch. Here is an easy, tasty, hearty pasta dish that takes you back to Italy.

Ingredients:
- Half a bundle of fresh parsley
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup Freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese (essential and key!)
- 1/2 pint of whole foods organic light cream
- Extra virgin olive oil
- mushrooms
- white chicken breast (I used 2 Perdue Perfect Portion Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts)
- 3/4 box of spaghetti noodles (Barilla) (Serves 4 people)

Recipe:
1. Boil water, add salt to taste, add pasta and cook for exactly however long it says to on the box for al dente.
2. Add the minced garlic and olive oil into a sauce pan on high heat. Put the cut chicken in the pan and cook until white, adding salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add cut mushrooms and saute them with the chicken
3. Lower the heat to medium and add the cream and let it simmer to a light boil.
4. After 3-4 minutes of letting the sauce thicken, add the grated parmigiano reggiano cheese and stir.
5. Add the chopped parsley, and cook for 30 more seconds.
6. Mix the pasta and the sauce. Add more grated parmigiano reggiano cheese on top and sprinkle with black pepper.

Buon appetito!