Chicken Rice in Clay Pot

Asian cooking usually uses a clay pot as the best and easiest method for cooking. I have a few quick recipes to demonstrate this tradition and the twice cooked chicken rice in a clay pot has a light, fluffy texture.
Ingredients:
1 cup Jasmine rice, washed and drained
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups cooked chicken cut into cubes
1 carrot, diced
1/2 sweet onions, chopped
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
3 dry shiitake mushrooms, soaked and shredded
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs olive oil
1 egg, beaten for making an omelet

Directions:
In a rice cooker, combine chicken broth and rice. Press start to cook.
Make a thin omelet and then julienne.
In a large nonstick pan, add oil and heat until smoking. Sauté onions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant (about 3 minutes). Stir fry all the vegetables and chicken. Season with soy sauce and sugar. After rice has cooked, mix with all the cooked ingredients except the omelet. Transfer rice into a clay pot and top with the omelet. Cover and bake in preheated oven set to 350° for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Avocado Pana Cotta

Pana cotta is a dessert made with cooked cream, milk, sugar, and gelatin and letting it cool until set. The dessert is then served with berries, chocolate sauce or fresh fruit. The original pana cotta which uses heavy cream is too rich for a healthy diet so I created my own pana cotta with avocado because avocado is good fat to substitute for heavy cream fat. For women, eating avocado daily could improve skin tone and prolong the aging process. I use more honey than sugar and add chia seeds to this recipe to further the purpose of healthy eating.
Ingredients:
5 cups skim milk
3 tbs cup honey
2 tbs sugar
1 fresh avocado, peeled and pit removed
1 tbs gelatin
1 tbs chia seeds

Directions:
Blend avocado and 1 cup of milk in a bullet machine or blender until combined. Add gelatin and mix well.
In a saucepan, put the rest of the milk, honey, sugar and chia seeds. Boil for about 5 minutes. Stir in avocado mixture and cook for another 5 minutes or until the sugar and the gelatin dissolve. Pour into ramekins (serving bowls) and let cool 4 hours before unmolding and serving. For serving at an elegant dinner, pana cotta can be poured into a tall champagne glass or any fancy glass and garnished with fresh fruit or caramel sauce.

Banana Strudel Muffins

I frequently make muffins for breakfast or snacks, and the banana is a fruit that I often use in my recipes because it is very popular in my house. When bananas are too ripe to eat when peeled, then it is time to use them creatively. Making banana strudel is an absolutely delicious option.  Ingredients:
Strudel topping:
2 tbs all-purpose flour
2 tbs oatmeal
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs butter, cut-up

Batter:
1 cup mashed bananas
1 cup muffin mix, any brand
1 egg
2 tbs sugar
1/3 cup skim milk
2 tbs chia seeds gel
1/4 cup nonfat yogurt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the strudel topping and mix well.

In another bowl, mash bananas

Fill muffin tins with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven set to 350°
In a mixing bowl, whisk egg, sugar, nonfat yogurt and skim milk together.
 Add flour and whisk a few strokes.

Stir in mashed bananas to mix well. Spoon the batter into paper liners (2/3 full)..

Fill the top of each muffin with strudel topping.

 Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Chicken with Mushrooms and Béchamel Sauce

Béchamel, which is a sauce made with milk and roux, a combination of butter and flour, is one of the white sauces, also called mother sauce, in the French cuisine and very popular in the Italian cuisine. Most cooks learn to prepare this white sauce first because so many recipes use this simple white sauce, like lasagna. Adding cream and cheese into this white sauce is the base sauce used in even more recipes. Other ingredients commonly added to béchamel are mustard and nutmeg used to top cooked meats or vegetables. I like to make this sauce in a light version without cream or cheese for a healthy meal. This quick and tasty chicken-mushroom dish using béchamel sauce is one of my favorites. Using leftover roasted chicken will add more flavor to this dish.
Ingredients:
Béchamel sauce:
2 tbs butter
2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 cup skim or whole milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
Chicken:
2 cups roasted chicken
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1/2 cup thinly sliced sweet white onions
1 tbs fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
To make béchamel sauce:
In a saucepan, heat milk to nearly boiling. In another saucepan, melt butter.

With a wooden spoon, stir in flour until smooth and while stirring constantly, slowly add the hot milk to the flour and butter.

 Continue cooking until the sauce is thick and smooth. Add salt and pepper to sauce and remove from heat.

To prepare chicken:
Heat olive oil in sauté pan. Add onions and cook for 3 minutes.

 Add mushrooms and cook until wilted (about 5minutes).

Stir in cooked chicken and béchamel sauce and bring to boil.

Let simmer for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and enjoy!

Sweet Corn with Green Onions And Bacon

I grew up in Vietnam, where inexpensive corn and sweet potatoes are the main ingredients of meals or snacks. Stir-fried corn is a common snack sold on the streets of Vietnam. As a result, I love to eat corn often, from corn on the cob, steamed corn, corn chowder, to Corn Crème Brûlée. The sweet smell when roasting corn is fantastic, but I always remember as a child when my family lived on a farm and quickly prepared stir-fried corn with dried shrimp and green onions. My mother made this dish just to reward us after a long, hardworking day during corn-harvesting season when corn was available to use. All of us sat around a horseshoe-shaped stack of rocks that supported a pot above burning wood in my family's small kitchen while waiting anxiously for my mother to prepare this dish and arguing when the portions were not equally served. Even now, I still have the sweet memory of sweet corn between my teeth at the first bite. Scientists say that just two hours after harvesting, corn will quickly loose its sweetness. It must be true because I can never find any corn that is as sweet as the corn that we grew on our farm. After residing in this country for many years, I think frozen corn can be substituted for fresh sweet corn and butter, bacon are the two ingredients that pair well for this recipe, if dry shrimp is not available.
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen sweet corn, thawed
3 slices bacon, roughly chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 tbs butter
Salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste

Directions:
In a nonstick sauté pan, add bacon and cook until crispy.

 Remove bacon and place on a paper towel to absorb some bacon fat.
 Pour off the bacon fat from sauté pan. Add corn and shake pan vigorously to roast corn in the pan.
Add 2 tsp of bacon fat during this time and continue cooking the corn until it locks golden brown (about 5 to 7 minutes). Add green onions and return bacon to the pan.

Season with salt, pepper, chili flakes, and butter.. Remove from heat and eat while hot.

If using dried shrimp, then soak the shrimp in water. Finely chop and cook with oil. Then add corn a few minutes after cooking the shrimp.

Lemon Dill Fish Fillets

I found this recipe in a community recipes cookbook. The recipes in this cookbook are submitted from the people all over the country from their own passed-down recipes or creations. I think the most important thing for cooking is that the recipe should be quick and easily understood and offer several options or choices. Having personal menus, especially with simple recipes, is the best way to bring the family and friends together. Because of the busy lifestyles that many have in common now, spending just little bit of time cooking, sharing a good-healthy meal, and having good conversations with loved ones is priceless.
Ingredients:
Sauce for marinade:
1/4 cup nonfat yogurt
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp sweet dill pickle
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbs olive oil

Two 8oz tilapia fillets

Garnish with 1/2 cup of fresh dill chopped

Directions:
Combine marinade ingredients up to and including fennel seeds. Blend well.
Place fish on a baking sheet, if baking. Brush fish with some oil and half of the marinade mixture. Let fish marinate for 30 minutes.

for easy clean up, line baking pan with foil. Grill or bake fish under broiler in the oven for 7 minutes.

 Turn fish over and brush with the rest of the marinade and continue to grill for another 5 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Sprinkle with chopped dill.

Sweet Chocolate Coffee Rolls

This is one of my creations that I am so proud to share in my blog. These simple sweet rolls made with coffee and chocolate definitely earn the description of "wake me ups”.
Ingredients:
1 shot espresso
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbs chia seeds gel
1 tbs butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour

3 tbs soft butter to prepare pan and topping

Directions:
Add chocolate chips into a hot shot of espresso. Stir to melt.
Place all ingredients in a bread pan, starting with the chocolate-espresso liquid and followed by the rest of the ingredients up to and including the bread flour as listed above. Select Dough setting and press start.
When the dough has risen long enough, the machine will beep. Remove dough from the bread pan and place onto lightly floured surface. Shape dough into a long snake or log (about 15 inches).

 Cut dough into 12 equal pieces.

Lightly dust hands with flour and roll each piece into a smooth round ball.

Butter an 11" x 8" rectangular baking pan. Place 12 dough pieces into the prepared pan. Top each piece with butter.

 Cover with kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for another 40 minutes to one hour or until double in size.

Preheat oven set to 350°. Insert pan into oven and bake for 20 minutes. Dust rolls with powdered sugar.