Eggplant & Vegetables Curry

In the Asian world, curry is the most popular dish being served at most parties. India itself has more than 50 recipes for making curry. Other countries, like Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand have their own recipes for curry. The spices in the curry dish are more like Eastern medicine with numerous varieties of spices, such as turmeric; fenugreek, cumin, ginger, and garlic, which are very healthy foods to intake daily. Hot fresh chili or powder also plays a part in making curry. More and more studies have shown that eating chili is very healthy. Including one or more curry dishes meals a week would improve the health of your family. Today, I am introducing an easy curry dish recipe that adapts a method from and Indian curry recipe called "Sindhi curry". This curry dish is vegetarian using sweet potatoes and eggplant. I do not have sweet potatoes in my curry dish today. Also, some other required special herbs to make authentic Indian curry dish I do not have on hand.  However, this curry recipe is much simpler and the result will satisfy for people who like the taste of India curry.

Ingredients:
Curry sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp fenugreek powder
1/2 tsp cumin
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small knob of fresh ginger, chopped
1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup tamarind sauce
2 tbs flour
5 cups vegetable broth
Vegetable ingredients:
1 Japanese eggplant
1/2 lbs red potatoes
2 cups green beans
2 carrots

Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish with mint leaves, green onions, and cilantro

Directions:
Scrub potatoes and keep the skin. Cut into quarters. Cut the eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Cut the carrots into 1 inch lengths. Cut the green beans into 2 inch lengths. Set the cut vegetables aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat oil. Add fenugreek and stir for 30 seconds. Then follow with the cumin, chili powder, ginger, and garlic.

Cook for a few minutes and then add the flour.

The flour will absorb the oil and will form a paste. Continue to stir with the heat on low so that the flour will have a nutty flavor with all the spices. Add the broth and tamarind sauce.

Bring to boil.
Start adding the potatoes and carrots and cook for 10 minutes. Then add the eggplant and green beans. Season with sugar, salt, and pepper.

 

. Serve with hot cooked rice.

Fish Eggrolls

This deep-fried food is always a welcome appetizer at any party. Each country in the world has its own deep-fried finger food. Asians have the egg rolls, and I think egg rolls always ranked as the number 1 hors d’oeuvre. For that reason, there are many recipes that create wonderful egg rolls. The fillings inside are endless – from vegetables to meat or seafood.  I like to make simple egg rolls when just for a daily snack. There is no need to go fancy or create a complicated filling like for Vietnamese egg rolls. Most deep-fried food is tasty by itself because of the fat contained in the oil.  However, to enjoy these eggrolls daily or weekly, the filling can be easily made healthy, such as the recipe below for making fish egg rolls.

Ingredients:
1 lb. fish fillets, such as cod or tilapia, finely diced
1 carrot, shredded or diced
1 cup jicama, shredded or diced
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup sweet pea
1 cup red onions, diced
3 green onions, chopped
3 shallots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs  
1 tsp each of salt, sugar, and fish sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 package egg roll sheets

Oil for deep frying
2 tbs of cornstarch for sealing eggroll sheets

Directions:
Bring a pot of water to boil then blanch carrots, jicama, corn and pea for 1 minutes. Drain

Combine all the ingredients and mix well.

Mix 2 tbs of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of hot water (this will be the "glue" to seal the edges of the eggroll sheets).
Lay an eggroll sheet on a countertop or work surface.

 Add 2 tbs of filling onto the center of the sheet. 

 Fold 2 opposite sides of the sheet towards the center to cover the filling.

 Wrap and roll the closest unfolded side of the sheet firmly and seal with the cornstarch “glue”.

Bring 2 cups of oil to about 350° and deep fry the egg rolls until golden and crispy. Serve with sweet dipping sauce.

Flaxseed & Nuts Balls

These days, health consciousness is on most of people’s minds. Therefore, with all the good grains available on the market, it is easy to create some healthy snacks to satisfy the sweet tooth. The recipe presented here comes from an Indian cooking blog where I sometimes go to learn about spices to use in Indian cooking. The original recipe is quite sweet, but I understand that it is necessary to bind all the ingredients together before cutting into a bar. As a result, I changed the volume of the sugar so that the result becomes a healthy snack.  Rolling it into a ball is much easier.

Ingredients:
1 cup flaxseed powder
1 cup combination of your choice of roasted nuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
Syrup ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water

Directions:
Cook the syrup in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, and the liquid becomes sticky.

 

Place the flaxseed and sesame seeds in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Stir and roast them for 2 minutes (be careful not to burn the sesame seeds).

Combine nuts and roasted flax-sesame seeds in a bowl. Pour the syrup on top and mix well. Let the mixture cool off to easily roll the mixture into a ball.

Wash your hands and use some coconut oil to wet your hands and start rolling the mixture into a ball. Place in a jar with a lid. It can keep for a week at room temperature.

Crab Meat & Sweet Corn Soup

I adapted this recipe from virtually every Chinese restaurant that I know.  I love this easy soup because it takes less than 30 minutes to have this healthy soup ready to serve. There are many ways to prepare this soup, and the best way is to use cooked crab meat. I suggest buying organic frozen sweet corn sold in most grocers. Some Cantonese recipe add some red bell pepper to the soup to look colorful. For the broth, some recipes use water with an abundant amount of fish sauce to flavor. Others use fish stock. For a healthier version of this soup, make it with kelp broth. Most Westerners are familiar with the taste of some sherry cooking wine and a few drops of sesame oil before serving. I like to blend sweet corn to make my soup a little creamy. However, it is a quick easy soup, so make it the way you like.

Ingredients:
4 cups kelp broth
2 cups sweet corn, blended
8 oz. crab meat
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Seasoning ingredients:
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tbs dry sherry
1 tsp fish sauce
Thickening ingredients:
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbs water

Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro

Directions:
In a soup pan, add broth and the seasoning ingredients. Add corn and bring to boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add crab meat and cook for 2 minutes. Add the thickening ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer for 1 minute. Turn the heat off and stir in the beaten eggs; in a clockwise manner. Adjust the seasoning at this point. Ladle soup into a serving bowl and sprinkle with green onions and cilantro.

 

 

 

An Easy Cake with Butter & Orange Frosting

Baking a cake should not be so hard, especially if the recipe is 100 years old and is called, 1, 2, 3, 4 Cake, which is so named because of its ingredients: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. After reading many other recipes for how to bake a cake, I now feel more and more confident. Oil and butter are interchangeable. Of course, butter gives the best flavor; however, vegetable oil or coconut oil contain fewer calories and also makes the cake moist.  I also like to use oil because it is quick and there is no need to wait for butter to reach room temperature. Cake is economical to give people for their birthday parties or any kind of party. For the frosting, and easy frosting is the one I am introducing today, and it only needs a few ingredients and the cake is dressed up as if done by professionals. This recipe should remain as a basic cake, which allows for more interesting ingredients for someone who likes to advance her skill of baking. This cake is a keeper.

Ingredients:
3 cups self-rising flour, sifted
1 ½ cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Frosting ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup orange juice
Zest of orange

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Use a small amount of butter or cooking spray and flour to grease two 9 inch cake pans and set aside.

In a stand mixer bowl, combine the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Beat the egg mixture for 5 minutes.

Add the flour alternately with milk, starting with flour and ending with flour using the low-stir function of the mixer.

 Divide the batter equally into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cake cool completely on the rack before frosting.

To make the orange frosting;
Use a handheld mixer to beat the butter with the powdered sugar until well combined. Add orange juice 1 tbsp at a time until the frosting becomes the consistency for spreading.  Add the zest.

Spread the frosting over the cake and enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Classic Maryland Crab Cakes

This recipe is for classic Maryland crab cakes. When my father was alive, every year he had received a big box of fresh crabs from a dear friend from Boston, Massachusetts. His friend always included a recipe for making what was called classic Boston crabcake. It had only a very few ingredients in this classic recipe. The freshness of the crabs was so fantastic that one could almost smell the ocean. I could understand the reason why it was called classic Maryland crab cakes because the freshness of the crabs did not require too many ingredients, which would ruin the taste of the crabs. It has been many years now since my father’s passing and have not received the crabs from Boston. Today, it has been just a flash of my memory about making the crab cakes with my dad, so I decided to create this crab cake meal with just a few simple ingredients like the classic Maryland crab cakes recipe send by my dad’s dear old friend. The crab used is not fresh like the ones that he sent from Boston, but the memory is still so vivid in my mind.

Ingredients:
16 oz. crab meat

10 saltine crackers, crushed (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup panko
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (mayonnaise was used in the original recipe)
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp old bay seasoning
1 tsp tabasco sauce
2 green onions (not in original recipe)
1/4 cup oil for pan frying
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine the crackers, panko, egg, yogurt, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and green onions and mix well. Gently add the crab meat. Season with salt. Shape the crab meat into small patties (about 1 ½ in. thick).

In a skillet, heat oil and fry the crab cake patties (about 3 minutes on each side) or until golden brown.

Transfer the fried crab cake patties to a serving plate and serve with some lemon wedges.

 

Easy Dried Fruit Muffins

After the holidays, most of us will have some dried fruit remaining. Turning the dried fruit into wonderful muffins will make us very happy. A muffin is like a little cupcake, and there are endless choices of filling it with fresh and dried fruit and/or nuts. Most of the time, I like to cut back the on the fat content in these recipes and just make healthy muffins. Today, is New Year’s Day so, let’s celebrate a new day with these muffins. Throughout the year, we will all usually worry about our weight, money matters, or other troubles in life, so we should just let ourselves enjoy this one day worry free.

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp.baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1/2 cup superfine sugar
Dried fruit:
1 ½ cups dried fruit, roughly chopped
1/4 cup orange juice 
Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup milk (skim or whole)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Line a 12 muffin tin with muffin paper liners and set aside.

Soak the dried fruit with orange juice for 1 hour.

Sift all the dry ingredients except the superfine sugar in a mixing bowl and then add the sugar. Mix well and make a well in the center.

In another bowl, add all the wet ingredients and use a handheld mixer to beat all the ingredients together.

Pour the beaten liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the soaked dried fruit into the mixture. Stir gently just until combined (do not overmix).

Scoop the batter 2/3 full into the muffin tin liners and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

 Remove muffin tin from oven and then allow muffin tin to cool before serving muffins.