Wild Rice with Mushrooms

One of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes is wild rice. The wild rice side dish I will make today is simple and very healthy.  I am making myself wild rice because it is economical.  Most wild rice varieties are sold at the Asian markets. Also, they have more varieties to choose from, such as red, black, and brown rice.  If making your own wild rice, mix the one that can cook using the same ratio of water. Another way to cook wild rice is using the rice cooker. Flavor the rice by using chicken broth to cook the rice. Today, I will make my wild rice with mushrooms. However, other ingredients that go well with this side dish are nuts and some other vegetables, such as peas or green beans. Suit your own taste when making this side dish. It tastes great and one can enjoy this dish throughout the year.

Ingredients:
1 cup wild rice
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb. of a mixed variety of fresh mushrooms, such as baby portabella, white mushrooms, oyster, etc., sliced
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt, sugar, and pepper, to taste
Green onions and cilantro for garnish
Oil and butter for stir frying, about 1 tbs

Directions:
Wash rice and pour into the rice cooker.  Add chicken broth and salt.  Close the lid and turn to cook.

In a sauté pan, add 2 tbs of peanut oil and butter.  Heat until hot. Stir in shallots and garlic cloves.

 Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Stir in mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft.  Season with soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat.

 

When the rice is cooked, mix the mushrooms well with rice. Close the lid and keep warm.  Serve with the green onions and cilantro on top (a few more pieces of butter can be dotted over the rice).

 

Asian Salmon Ratatouille

The French word ratatouille literally means "to disturb & to stir" everything and “stew”. What I will do today is to finish most of my root vegetables from the Thanksgiving meal.  I also want to add some fish with this dish to complete a meal.  I will use the concept of making French ratatouille but using Asian spices by adding ginger and the Asian gourd and winter melon. This recipe will please most food critics and still be a healthy meal.

Ingredients: (the quantity of vegetable ingredients listed below serves 4; the quantity of fish ingredients listed below serves just 2.).
1 cup of each of the following diced vegetables: Japanese eggplant, winter melon, gourd
1 cup total of green, yellow, and orange bell peppers
1/2 onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp salt
2 tbs ketchup
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp oil
Fish ingredients:
2 salmon fillets
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp peanut oil

Garnish with chopped green onions

Directions:
In a nonstick skillet, add 2 tsp oil.  Heat oil until hot.  Add onions, ginger, and garlic. Sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant. 

Add the rest of the vegetable ingredients and sauté for 3 minutes.

  Add stock and bring to boil. Cover and cook for 7 to 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. 

Adjust the seasoning with more salt or soy sauce and green onion.  Cover and turn the heat off to keep warm.

In a mixing bowl, combine salt, pepper, and cornstarch.  Dredge fish on both sides and set aside.

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet and add fish. Pan fry the fish until golden brown on both sides.

Serve fish with the vegetables and cooked rice (optional).

Crock Pot Cranberry Sauce

Almost everyone knows the recipe to make cranberry sauce for the Thanksgiving meal, but most of them do not know that a crock pot is a helpful tool to create a wonderful cranberry sauce. The night before Thanksgiving,  place all the ingredients for cranberry sauce in a crock pot, and let it slow cook overnight. Try making a different cranberry sauce from the traditional one, which has the ingredients listed on the label of the packing bag, by instead making a contemporary sauce that suits your taste. A crock pot is the right kitchen gadget to help make this sauce.

Ingredients:
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 red apple, peel and chopped(optional)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Orange zest from one orange
1/2 tsp salt
Spices, such as pumpkin spice or cinnamon, can be added

Directions:
Place all the ingredients above in a crock pot. Turn to low from 6 to 8 hours or to high from 3 to 4 hours.

 Adjust the sweetness to your taste and add more water if the sauce looks dry. Use a spoon to mash the cranberries, if you like.

 

Fish Stew with Tomatoes

Fish always provides abundant food nutrition, contains low-fat protein, and has many other valuable nutrients. Today, I will share a simple but delicious recipe that will make fish a highly desired meal by your loved ones.

Ingredients:
½ lb. catfish (about 2 pieces)
1 large tomato or 2 small, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 red onions, chopped
Sauce ingredients:
1 tbs blackstrap molasses
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro
1/4 cup peanut oil

Directions:
Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Wash and dry the fish.
Add oil in a nonstick skillet.  Heat oil until hot. Add fish and fry on both sides until golden brown.  Remove from the pan.  Discard some of the oil and keep about 1 tsp of oil

Add onions and garlic into a hot pan and stir until fragrant. 

 Add chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. 

 Add sauce ingredients and fish into the pan.

 Simmer until the sauce has thickened.

Adjust the seasoning before adding the green onions and cilantro. Serve with rice.

Vietnamese Meat-Stuffed Gourd Soup (Canh Bầu Nhồi Thịt)

In Asian cuisines, gourd vegetables are very common. Often gourds or pumpkins will be boiled to make soup with shrimp or meat. Gourds or what Vietnamese call,  bầu, bí,  when used in a soup, make the soup more attractive and delicious, especially when meats or seafood are stuffed into the gourd. For me, every time I cook this soup recalls memories of the time when my family left Vietnam to resettle in the United States. A plane took  our family to Thailand one evening in July of 1984. We were served stuffed cucumber soup. Actually, the taste of the stuffed cucumber soup of Thailand did not measure up to that of the stuffed gourd soup of Vietnam, but then the joy of seeing my father after almost ten years of separation may have increased the flavor of the soup in a  special way. Later, I also occasionally cooked Thai stuffed cucumber soup just to relive those  very important memories in me. I originally planned to present this Thai soup recipe at another time, but since I have enough stuffing available now, the soup recipe below will include both stuffed cucumbers and stuffed gourds. Gourds are sold a lot in Vietnamese and in the Korean markets. The price is also affordable, and this soup has the very good effects of decreasing the heat in the body and to calm nerves . However,  there are a few steps to prepare before, but this is a delicious and nutritious dishes . This soup can be cooked in a crock pot to enhance the flavor and slow cooking will make the broth very clear. If possible, I recommend trying to create this dish occasionally as a change of taste from the family’s everyday meal routine.

Directions:
1 gourd
1 cucumber
6 cups kelp or chicken broth
Stuffing ingredients:
¼ lb. meat paste (gio song) homemade or store-bought
3 Chinese dried fungi
1 oz. oyster mushrooms, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, mined
1 oz. cellophane noodles
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp mushroom seasoning, optional

Directions:
Soak the dried fungi in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and squeeze out the water. Finely dice and set aside.

 

Soak the cellophane noodles. Drain and roughly chop the noodles.

Dice the oyster mushrooms.
Place all the stuffing ingredients after dicing and chopping the noodles into a bowl and add the meat paste.  Mix well. Adjust the seasoning to your liking with more or less fish sauce, salt, and sugar.

 

Peel the gourd and cucumber. Wash them dry. Cut in sections as shown in the photo and use a spoon to remove the seeds.  Hollow out the inside of the gourd and cucumber.

Stuff the meat paste mixture into the hole of the gourd and cucumber.

Place them on the bottom of a 5 to 6 quart crock pot. 

 Pour the kelp or chicken broth over the gourd in cucumber. Cover and let cook on the low setting for 6 to 7 hours.  Sprinkle with green onions before serving.

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken (Asian Char Siu)

Relax and enjoy your day when using a crock pot for making a small meal for the family or a large meal for a party. This recipe is adapted from the sauce used to create the popular Char Siu dish served in Asian restaurants.  Cooking does not require the entire day to prepare a meal and a crock pot is also a tool to tenderize meat. For a family on a tight budget, a crock pot is a good way to buy inexpensive meats and turn them into moist, tender, and delicious meals. Most crock pot recipes are simple and so is this one.

Ingredients:
3 lbs. chicken thighs
Sauce ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 knob (2 tsp) fresh ginger, minced
1/3 cup total of blackstrap molasses, ketchup, and honey
1 tbs dry sherry
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp five spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp white pepper

Directions:
Cut chicken into big pieces.

Place chicken into the crock pot.

In a bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and pour it over the chicken. 

 Cover the crock pot, set temperature to low, and cook for 6 to 8 hours, or set temperature to high and cook for 3 to 4 hours. (Regardless of temperature setting used, remove the crock pot cover halfway through the cooking time to allow enough time for the sauce liquid to evaporate.

 Because of the characteristic or variety of crock pot used, you might have more sauce than needed.)For a healthier meal, use boneless, skinless chicken or remove the skin from the chicken thighs.

Mackerel Pike Stew (Cá Nục Kho)

“Sanma” or mackerel pike is usually served in Japanese or Korean restaurants as sushi. Vietnamese like to make it as a stew dish. The mackerel family has different varieties of shape and size. The bigger mackerel fish is usually stewed with vegetables, such as bamboo, tomatoes, or pineapple. In Japan, this fish appears more often with the advent of autumn, but it can be found until mid-winter in the Shizuoka Prefecture. It is also known under other names, such as "Saira" or “Banjyo”.*  It is a fish with red meat rich with proteins. In season, the flesh is fatty and sweeter. A mackerel pike is thin and boney, and the stew method is the way I like to enjoy this fish. This fish is less expensive to serve for a big family and provides for a good source of vitamins and iron. So here is a simple mackerel pike stew to serve with rice on a deep, cold winter. It is a blessing!

Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs. mackerel pike

Marinade ingredients:
1 tbs blackstrap molasses
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp chili flakes 
1/4 tsp salt
Sauce ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 shallots, minced
2 tbs blackstrap molasses
1 tbs honey
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 red hot chilies, dried or fresh
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tsp chili powder Optional
Other ingredients:
Green onions 

Directions:
Gut out the bloody insides of the mackerel and then rinse the mackerel under cold water until the rinse water is clean and clear (I usually submerge the fish in water with vinegar). Drain well and cut into large sections of each fish as shown in the photos.

Place fish in a container and add the marinade ingredients. Marinate for a few hours or overnight.

In a cast iron or clay pot, add oil.  Heat until hot. Add shallots and garlic and cook until fragrant. 

 Add chili powder if using. Cook for 1 minutes and stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to boil. 

 Add fish, cover, and simmer for 2 hrs.

 

Remove lid and cook until all the sauce liquid evaporates. Add green onions and cook for 1 more minute. During the time of cooking, adjust the seasonings to your taste, more fish sauce can be added.  Enjoy with cooked rice and steamed vegetables.

* Fish names and sundry information was acquired from http://shizuokagourmet.com/japanese-seasonal-fish-sanmamackerel-pike/

Fried Brown Rice with Bok Choy

The question for me is always how to finish the leftovers in my refrigerator and turn them into a fantastic dish.  Healthy eating was a big part when I first decided to create this blog. Some people are too busy to cook a healthy meal because it takes time and effort to do so. However, eating healthy should always be a big part of everyone’s daily routine from a cup of Joe in the morning to a simple meal at night. Here is a recipe to do just that.

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked brown rice
2 heads bok choy

1 cup roughly chopped mushrooms (your choice)
2 eggs
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced
Sauce ingredients:
1 tbs blackstrap molasses
1 tbs soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

 Garnish with chopped cilantro

Directions
First wash and then separate the bok choy stems and leaves. Afterwards, slice them and place into a small bowl.
Beat eggs and set aside.
Combine sauce ingredients. Have all the ingredients ready to use next to the stove.
Heat 1 tbs of peanut oil in a wok.  Add shallots and garlic.  Stir until fragrant (about 1 minute). 

 Add brown rice and cook for 2 minutes. 

 Move rice off to the side of the wok. Add 1 tsp of peanut oil. Pour beaten eggs into the wok.  Cook until eggs just set.

 Scramble the eggs and move them to the side beside the rice.

 Add mushrooms and sauce. 

Cook for 1 minute.  Mix the rice, scrambled eggs, and mushrooms together.

Add sliced bok choy.  Mix them well and cook until the bok choy is tender. Serve with some cilantro.