Salmon Stew with Pineapple

Salmon or tuna are fish rich in nutrients, especially containing protein and omega 3 fatty acid, which are very rich and delicious and sweet with pineapple. This simple dish is suitable for someone who chooses to prepare it for his or her family to enjoy with the satisfaction of knowing that this is delicious, nutritious for the whole family to enjoy. The combination of salmon and pineapple is a good choice to help improve the food intake for a healthy lifestyle. As all the studies have shown, pineapples have exceptional juiciness and a tropical flavor that balances the taste of sweet and tart. So, cooking pineapples with other ingredients, the dish is balanced without adding too much of sugar. Others benefits of pineapple are plenty of Vitamins A, B and C. All these vitamin are good for daily function. I am not a scientist, so let’s go back to cooking. I hope this simple recipe will become a must-have recipe.

Ingredients:
2 salmon fillets, about 6 oz.
2 cups fresh pineapple
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tbs oil
Stew sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1 tsp mushroom seasoning
1 tsp honey
1 tbs soy sauce or fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
 
Garnish with 3 green onions, cut into sections

Directions:
Peel, dissect the eyes from, and cut the pineapple into cubes.

Cut salmon into big chunks.
Combine the stew sauce in a bowl.
In a medium sauce pan, heat oil and sauté the shallot, garlic, and chili powder until fragrant.

Add pineapple, fish, and stew sauce.

Bring to boil and simmer (cover for 20 to 30 minutes).

 If you want the sauce to evaporate, then remove cover in the last 15 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to your liking and add the green onions.

 Make a quick stir and serve with rice and steamed vegetables.

Easy-Chocolate-Coconut-Oatmeal Cookies

I am not a nutritionist, but I like a snack to be as healthy as possible. Even though I try to use wheat flour whenever possible in my recipes over white flour, the taste is sometimes disappointing, but I am still trying. However, in this recipe, I use oatmeal and coconut oil instead of butter. I am very satisfied with these cookies. It is become my favorite healthy snack ever.

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup walnuts
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Wet ingredients:
1 eggs
½ cup melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
¼ cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Stir into the wet mixture.

Drop the dough by the teaspoonful, about 2 inches apart, onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and let them cool on a wire rack.

Five Spice and GingerFried Fish

The Chinese Five Spice fish dish is quite popular in most of the Chinese restaurants, but it is very easy to prepare at home. The whole fish of any kind can be used for this recipe. I want to have my own easy recipe for this dish, which is a mirror of the Chinese Five Spice fish. Serve with steamed rice alongside and steamed broccoli will complete a healthy meal.

Ingredients;
1 whole trout, cleaned and cut into big sections
Marinade ingredients:
1 small piece ginger, chopped
2 green onions, chopped into sections
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Five Spice powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
Sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup kelp broth
1 tsp each sugar, blackstrap molasses, and soy sauce
1 tbs each rice vinegar and cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
Other ingredients:
Oil for deep-frying
Steamed broccoli
Steamed rice

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the cleaned fish with the marinade ingredients. Marinate for about 2 hours. Remove and pat dry the fish. Save the marinade.

Heat oil and deep fry the fish for 5 minutes. Remove.

In a saucepan, bring the sauce to boil and add deep-fried fish and the ginger and green onions from the saved marinade. Turn the heat up and cook fish until the sauce has thickened or the liquid has completely evaporated.
Serve.

 

Stir-Fried Chicken in Oyster Sauce

Ingredients:
½ lb. Chicken thighs
Marinade sauce ingredients:
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs cooking wine
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs oil
Stir-fry sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp blackstrap molasses
1 tsp sugar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs cooking wine
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
Vegetables:
½ lb. broccoli florets
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 cup sliced white onions

Garnish with chopped green onions

Directions:
Cut chicken meat into thin, bite-size pieces. Place in a bowl and mix with marinade sauce well. Let marinate for 1 hour.

Combine the stir-fry sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
Bring a pot of water to boil and add some salt and the broccoli. Upon boiling, remove immediately and drain.

 

Heat 2 tbs oil in a large skillet. Stir in onions, ginger, and garlic. Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add chicken and stir and cook until chicken is cooked (about 7 minutes). Add the stir-fry sauce and broccoli.

Turn the heat up and make a quick stir. Remove and serve.

 

Cornish Hen Porridge

I had this idea after the last time my friend and I had dinner in a Korean restaurant. We ordered a dish called samgyetang or chicken ginseng soup. This dish is well known in Korea. I like to make it at home using the Cornish hen with some ingredients that are available to me. The difference for this recipe is using ginger instead of ginseng. Both of these ingredients are considered as the most healthy herbs that are used in the Eastern world. I am introducing this recipe today so my fellow bloggers can have a good, tasty and easy meal to create for their loved ones.

Ingredients:
1 Cornish hen
2 tbs dried fungus after soaking
3 garlic cloves
1 inch fresh ginger
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup total combination of sweet rice and Jasmine rice
6 cups chicken broth or kelp-vegetable broth

Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro

Directions:
Wash rice well and soak in water for 2 hours. Drain.
Wash the inside and outside of the Cornish hen under running water.
Pound the garlic and ginger into a paste. In a bowl, combine the soaked rice, fungus, mashed garlic and ginger, salt, and pepper.

Stuff the sweet rice inside the Cornish hen. Use a knife to punch a small hole on both sides of the legs skin.

Twist the chicken legs and insert the right leg into the left hole and the left leg in the right hole that you just created.

Use a long bamboo stick to close any opening of the chicken so the stuffed ingredients stay inside when cooked.

Put the broth and the prepared chicken into the pot and bring to boil. Skim off the residue that rises to the surface. Cover the lid and simmer for 1 hour. Adjust the seasoning with more salt or soy sauce or even fish sauce- your choice.

Sprinkle with green onions. Serve the whole pot as a family meal or cut chicken and divide in individual soup bowls.

Note – I added two button mushrooms into the soup. You can add another kind of mushroom that is also good for this kind of soup.

Easy Chocolate Cake

I like baking, but I do not want a complicated recipe for baking a cake. I enjoy baking with some familiar recipes with very few ingredients but still preserves the good taste. A piece of cake of any kind should always have a simple way to be created. Let the professional bakers do their wonderful jobs. Most of my recipes for baking cakes are easy and simply put together. Moreover, more than 100 years ago, most of the recipes for cake required the proper usage of hands and baking the cake in a simple oven, and the cakes came out great. Now, with the best equipment and a better choice of ingredients, we should be able to create a nice cake with less effort. Here is a newer recipe.

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
What ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
Topping ingredients:
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder well and combine with the rest of the dry ingredients and place in a bowl.

Combine all the wet ingredients in the container of a Vitamix® lender. Blend for 15 seconds.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Whisk by hand for about 50 strokes, I learned this from the book, 100 Year Cake Recipes.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the skewer or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean,

Cool in pan for 15 minutes and sprinkle powdered sugar on top before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

Quick &-Easy Hunan Chicken Rice

The Vietnamese have Tam ky chicken rice, which is similar to Chinese Hunan chicken rice. Most of the recipes for this type of meal use the free range chicken. However, I scaled down and created this recipe that is less complicated for people who are single and like to make it for themselves. I use a cornish hen, and the dish is easy to put together. This recipe is very healthy because the main spice ingredients are ginger and garlic. These spices are leading ways now for lowering high cholesterol and cleansing toxic wastes from the body.  All the ingredients are simple to find and most of them are already in your kitchen.
 
Ingredients:
1 cornish hen
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 cups water
1 carrot, cut into pieces
1 piece daikon
2 inch lengths of Kombu
1/2 white onion, chopped
For the rice:
1 cup basmati rice
Spices:
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs fish sauce
Salt to taste
 
Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro

Directions:
Wash and drain hen and then rub in salt and pepper. Let marinate for and hour or even overnight.

In a pan, place marinated hen with 5 cups of water, kombu, carrot, daikon, and white onion. Bring to slow boil. Skim off the residue that rises to water’s surface until the water is clear (about 5 to 10 minutes). Cover and turn the heat off. Let hen cook in hot broth for 1 hour.

Wash and drain the rice. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a sauté pan. Add rice, ginger, and garlic; Stir and cook until the rice turns opaque.

Put the rice in a rice cooker. Use about 2 cups of the broth from the boiled hen into the rice. Add fish sauce and salt. Close the lid and turn the dial to the cook position.

Preparing to serve:
Cut hen into bite size pieces. 
Place cooked rice on a serving plate. Sprinkle with green onions and cilantro. Top with hen.
Serve with Vietnamese ginger dipping sauce* on the side.
Others vegetable can be served with this meal, such as cucumber, lettuce, and tomato.

 

*How to make ginger dipping sauce:
Equal of 2 tsp sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, and water
1 tsp minced ginger
Fresh hot chili
Tip: the carrot, kombu, daikon are to flavor the broth and chicken. Omit them if you do not have them in your pantry.