Combination Fried Rice

Fried rice was created primarily as a way to finish using leftover cold rice, meat, or vegetables. In Asian cuisines, fried rice is a snack, served in the afternoon or eaten in a train or bus; it is never served at the regular meal. Since it is seasoned and mingled with other ingredients, it would detract from rather than enhance the main dish. Fried rice has merit as a light luncheon dish or a side dish and has become very popular among Westerners in takeout menus. The secret to making good fried rice is that the rice must be cold and firm and cooks need to separate the rice with wet hands to prevent lumping or mashing during the fast stir-frying process. Long grain rice is better for these dishes than short-grain rice. I like to make fried rice using brown rice for a healthier choice. Also, my fried rice recipe is quite simple to follow using the leftovers in the refrigerator at the end of the week. My combination fried rice is truly fluffy, seductively aromatic, delicious and nutritious.

Ingredients:
4 cups cold cooked brown rice
3 tbs oil
3 large whole scallions, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups cooked chicken (roasted chicken)
1 cup total of peas, carrots, sliced button mushrooms, and frozen kernels of corn
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:
Beat the eggs well with 1/4 tsp salt. Heat wok over high heat until hot. Add 1 tbs of oil, swirl, and heat for 30 seconds (don't let the oil smoke). Pour in the eggs, and, as they puff around the edges, push the egg with a spatula across to the back of the pan as you tilt it toward you.

Repeat this pushing and tilting quickly until the eggs are no longer runny but soft and fluffy. Slide them onto a dish and set aside.

Add another 1 tbs of oil, swirl, and heat for 30 seconds. Stir in chopped mushrooms, peas, corn, and carrots (cork for 2 minutes).. Add cooked chicken. Cook this mixture for 3 minutes.

 Then rejoin them with the cooked eggs.
Separate the cold rice with wet hands. Add the remaining oil to the hot pan. Add garlic and scatter into the rice. Stir, poke, and flip with a spatula to coat each grain with oil. Add the other 1/4 tsp salt and soy sauce to taste and stir briskly for 1 minute (just to warm the rice through). Then add the lightly fried eggs and cooked chicken. Stir to mingle the two. Add the scallions.

Give the dish a few fast turns and pour into a hot serving dish. Sprinkle with some black pepper.

Fish Congee Chao Ca

In Vietnam, this soup was served to people to fight their flu. The ginger and garlic infused into the broth give this soup a distinctive flavor. Personally, I can enjoy this soup every day.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. whitefish fillets (your choice)
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp fresh garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1 tbs cooking wine
Broth:
2 cups fish stock
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup rice, washed and drained
1 knob fresh ginger, sliced
Garnish:
Scallion, chopped
Cilantro, chopped
Black pepper
Fresh hot chili, sliced (optional)

Directions;
Cut fish fillets into bite-size pieces and place fish in a shallow dish. Add fish sauce, ginger, garlic, green onions and cooking wine. Marinate fish for 30 minutes.

In a 4 qt pot, fry the rice and ginger with 2 tbs of oil until the rice becomes opaque.

Add chicken stock, fish stock. Bring it to boil. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let rice sit in the hot broth for 30 minutes.

When ready to serve, bring the soup back to boil. Add the marinated fish and cook for 10 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt, if needed. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls. Sprinkle with green onions, pepper, and cilantro.

Tuna Vegetable Chowder

"Dinner's ready!" is music to the ears of everybody at the end of the day. I have the recipe that will satisfy everybody's tastebuds as well, using all the ingredients which are already in most pantries.

 Ingredients:
One 12 oz can tuna, drained
2 tbs butter
1 cup skim milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 bottle of clam juice
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup white onions, chopped
1 tbs fresh chopped marjoram or 1 tsp dried marjoram
2 cups vegetables: carrots, frozen peas, corn, & green beans, cut up
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup Mexican cheese blend

Directions:
In a 3 quart saucepan, cook onions in butter on low medium heat until soft.

Stir in flour, mustard, and pepper.

 Cook until the mixture is smooth and bubbly.
Add broth, skim milk, clam juice, marjoram, and vegetables. Bring to boil, and cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add tuna and salt. Stir in cheese and serve.

Coconut Raisin Sweet Dinner Rolls

I love to make sweet dinner rolls using a bread machine and the Tangzhong starter (posted on Feb, 02, 2012). I add raisin in the middle of the rolls after the dough has finished its first cycle. The coconut milk adds Asian flair into this bread and can be served with dinner or eaten as a snack.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Tangzhong starter (posted on 02/02/12)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 egg
3 tbs sugar
3 tbs butter
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbs butter at room temperature
1 egg, well beaten for egg wash

Directions:
Place the 8 ingredients listed above in the order presented into a bread machine pan. Select the dough function and press start. The dough will be a little sticky when it is done. Try not to use flour to shape the dough because too much flour will make a tougher dough.
Spread soft butter on the bottom and on the sides of a 9" round baking dish. Divide dough into 10 small pieces as the size of a golf ball. Divide the raisins into 10 equal portions. Place in the middle of each piece of dough. Try to shape the dough as round as possible and place onto the prepared baking dish. Cover dough with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place. Let dough rise for another 40 minutes or until dough is double in size and use a pastry brush to brush dough with egg wash.

Preheat oven to 375° and bake the sweet rolls for 30 minutes.

Chicken Cooked in Tomato Soy Sauce

This year my vegetable garden produced quite a lot of tomatoes. I made several dishes with fresh tomatoes, and one of them is chicken cooked in tomato-soy sauce. The tender chunks of chicken slowly cooked in a nicely seasoned tomato-soy sauce are a good way to enjoy a simple dinner.
 
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts and legs, skinless and boneless
Vegetables:
1 small onion, cut into chunks
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 cup carrots, cut into chunks
1 cup button mushrooms, thickly sliced
Sauce:
3 tbs cooking wine
4 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs ketchup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup water
Thickening:
2 tbs water
1 tbs cornstarch
Garnish with green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths

Directions:
In a pot, heat oil over high heat. Then stir-fry onions until fragrant.

Add tomatoes and stir briefly. Add chicken and carrots.

Add sauce ingredients and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Add mushrooms in the last 10 minutes of cooking time.

Mix cornstarch and water and add into the pot. Cook until thickened. Sprinkle with green onions.

This dish is suitable to serve with cooked noodles or rice.

Fish Fillet in Wine Rice Sauce

Cooking with wine is a time-honored tradition in Asian cuisines. Wine is used to enrich a sauce to diminish the fishiness of seafood, to lighten the heaviness of meat, and to anchor the delicate flavors of vegetables. Other cuisines use dry sherry, red wine, or white wine. China uses cooking wine from Shaohsing city, which very much resembles dry sherry in color and taste. Besides shaohsing wine, wine rice is another wine very commonly used cooking wine in Southeast Asia. Almost every dish created in Chinese restaurants always use the velvet coating technique to enhance the color and flavors of the dishes. As the term velveting implies, the coating is white and fluffy, and the meat or seafood is as soft as velvet. There are two kinds of velveting the food – one uses oil and the other uses water. I want to introduce the master recipe for velveting seafood or meat, and this will be the beginning of making any delicious and elegant stir-fried Chinese food dishes at home.

Ingredients:
1 lb. fillets of tilapia or flounder
Velvet Coating:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs dry sherry
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 egg white, well beaten
1 1/2 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs oil
Vegetables:
2 Shitake sliced mushrooms (presoaked)
1 clove garlic
1 tbs slices of peeled ginger
1/4 cup sweet pea (frozen)
1/4 cup sliced white onions
2 green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths
Wine rice sauce:
1 cup wine rice*(sweet wine made with sweet sticky rice)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbs cornstarch
1 cup chicken broth or water

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the velvet coating mixture and mix well

Halve each fillet lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise into 2-inch pieces.

Put these in the velvet coating bowl, and mix well. Let the fish set, covered and refrigerated, for at least 2 hours. The longer it sets, the smoother it will be.

The velveting technique:
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in large pot. Turn heat down to maintain a gentle simmer.

Then give the fish a few gentle stirs and pour them into the water, stirring gently to separate the pieces. Turn heat to medium high.

 When the water comes to a boil in about 2 minutes, drain the fish by pouring into a colander. The fish is white and twisting. It is ready for the wine sauce. Don't do the velveting in advance
In another bowl, combine the wine rice sauce and stir until dissolved.

The wine sauce should not be mixed in advance just a few minutes before cooking time. Prepare the vegetables ingredients and have it ready before cooking.

The stir frying technique:
Heat a large, heavy skillet over high heat until hot. Add 2 tbs oil, swirl, and heat for 30 seconds.

 Add garlic and ginger and stir rapidly a few times.

Turn heat to medium and then add the Shitake mushrooms, tossing them vigorously for 30 seconds.

Turn heat to low, give the wine rice sauce a big stir, and pour it slowly into a pan. Stir in a circular motion until the sauce is smooth and thickened.

Add frozen peas. Push the mushrooms to the side and add the fish in a single layer.

Tilt the pan, and baste the fish. Turn the pieces quickly but gently. Remove to a serving platter with a spatula; Add green onions. Pour sauce and all vegetables on top.

*Sake can be used if sweet wine rice is not available. Add more sugar into the sake because it has a stronger taste.

Vietnamese Sponge Cake Banh Bong Lan

I am not a professional baker, but this simple Vietnamese sponge cake is quite easy to make because it does not require a high skill to make. In Vietnam, street vendors baked this cake in a cast iron mold with charcoal covering the entire mold, and the cake came out very light, soft, and with a bright color from the egg yolk. As a young girl, I watched them make this cake from the beginning to the end with great admiration. Later, I learned that the secret comes from beating the egg white until it stiff peaks, and lemon juice plays a big role in this process. I tried different recipes for sponge cake, and finally this one came very close to the Vietnamese sponge cake sold by street vendors in Vietnam.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 tsp sat
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup milk, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbs vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven set to375°. Line the bottom of a 9 inch round or square cake pan with parchment paper. Spread butter over the entire bottom of the cake pan.
Place the white of four eggs in the bowl of a KitchenAid® stand mixer. Add salt and lemon juice and 1/4 cup of sugar. Attach the whisk and turn the machine to medium. Start beating the egg white until it stiff peaks (about 10 minutes).
In another bowl, combine egg yolks,1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add milk, oil and continue whisking mixture. Sift haft of the flour into the egg-milk mixture . Continue to mix until incorporated.
Take half of the egg white mixture and fold into the egg yolk mixture until there is no trace of the egg white. Pour this mixture into the other half of the egg white mixture; add the rest of the flour. Gently mix them together until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

 Let cool and serve with blackberry jam

One Pot Cooked Southwest Chicken

Everyday, with just 15 minutes of preparation, busy moms will be out of the kitchen in no time. This delicious, low-fat dish gets even better when served with low-fat sour cream and cilantro. Also, using the leftover roasted chicken will enhance the flavor of this dish and definitely save money, as well.

Ingredients:
3 cups roasted chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1 can 15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can 14-1/2 oz diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 cup homemade chicken broth
1/2 cup white onions sliced
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 cup button mushrooms, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs chopped fresh parley or 1 tbs dried parsley
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
Serve with hot cooked rice, avocado, and cilantro

Directions:
In a 2 or 3 qt. slow cooker, combine the beans, broth, tomatoes, corn, chicken and seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.

Serve over rice. Garnish with avocado and cilantro.

Salmon Baked with Hot Bean Paste

After a long hot summer, when the night air is crisp and ready for fall, baked salmon in sweet-sour-spicy sauce is another way to enjoy a late autumn dinner with great flavors.

Ingredients:
Two 6 oz salmon fillets
1 tbs cooking wine
1/2 tsp salt
Sauce:
3 tbs each soy sauce, cooking wine
1/2 tbs each vinegar, sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
Spice:
2 tsp hot bean paste or hot chili paste (Korean or Chinese)
1 tbs each, (minced) garlic, ginger, green onions
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Garnish:
3 green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths
Chopped cilantro

Directions:
Place fish in a baking dish. Marinate fish with wine and salt
Heat 2 tbs of oil in a wok. Then stir-fry the spice ingredients until fragrant. Add the sauce ingredients and cook until thickened.
Preheat oven to 400°. Then bake fish until cooked (about 15 minutes). Pour sauce over fish and sprinkle with green onions and cilantro. Serve.

Pan Seard Tilapia with Tomatoes and Herbs

These tilapia fillets are cooked in a very hot cast iron skillet to ensure using very little oil. Topping this simple healthy dinner with fresh citrus herbs will pack it with so many satisfying flavors.

Ingredients:
Two 8 oz tilapia fillets
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp seasoning salt (store-bought)
1 tbs butter
Citrus herbs:
1 tbs fresh mints, chopped
1 tbs fresh basil, chopped
1 tbs fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbs fresh thyme, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1tsp chili flake
1 tbs lemon zest
1 tbs lemon juice
Garnish:
1 beefsteak tomato cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1/2 cup sliced white button mushrooms

Directions:
Sprinkle salt and oil over fish and set aside.
In another small bowl, combine all the citrus herbs and set aside.

In a cast iron skillet over high heat, add butter and watch until foaming. Place one fish at a time and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Using a spatula, turn fish over. In the same hot pan place mushrooms and freshly sliced tomatoes in even layer to char for a few minutes (about 3 to 5 minutes).

About 2 minutes before the cooking time is done, sprinkle dish with fresh herbs.

 Remove and place onto the serving place. Enjoy!