Green Bananas Stew with Tofu and Shitake Mushrooms

Ripened bananas are special to create many recipes. However, green bananas are almost as familiar to everyone who cooks, especially preparing Asian dishes. Green bananas have many uses, such as for medicinal, intoxication, and healing etc. However, delicious dishes with green bananas are not known to everyone. So what can we cook with green banana as the main ingredient? The main ingredients of this delicious dish with green bananas are tofu and mushroom. After being washed and prepared, the green bananas are soaked in lemon water to prevent darkening. The tofu can be bought ready fried or are easy to fry at home and cut into pieces that are not too small so as not to be crushed. This dish is for vegans, but it serves well for someone who wants to lose weight. 

Ingredients:

2 green bananas (plantains)

One 8 oz. tofu, cubed

2 oz. mushrooms (fresh shitake or your choice)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tbs turmeric powder

2 tbs vegetable cooking oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar or tangerine juice

Salt, sugar, soy sauce, and vegetarian seasoning powder

Other ingredients:

Perilla and scallions

Rice or vermicelli optional

Directions:

Peel off the thin green skin on the outside of the bananas, soak in lemon water for 15 minutes to prevent darkening, then cut into bite-sized pieces.  Before cooking, pour into a basket to drain.

Heat a pot of water to boil and cook the bananas for 2 minutes, then drain.

Slice the ​​tofu and fry until golden brown.

In a heated deep pan, add vegetable oil until hot. Add the white part of the green onions and garlic cloves. Stirfry until fragrant about 1 minute. Stir in turmeric powder.

Add tofu, bananas, and mushrooms.

Add vegetable broth and bring boil. Season with salt, vegetable seasoning, soy sauce, and sugar to your liking. Cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes.

Add rice vinegar or tangerine juice. Adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Add perilla and scallions, finely chopped, then stir and let it boil again, and then turn off the heat.

Serve hot with rice or with vermicelli.

Shrimp Paste or Shrimp Cakes

In the Vietnamese cuisine, delicious dishes from shrimp are always loved not only for their sweet and nutritious taste but also for their beautiful shape and easy-to-make methods. Therefore, shrimp is selected in a variety of menus from rustic low income families to luxurious high-class societies. Today, I want to share a recipe about shrimp paste with a simpler method. With shrimp paste on hand, it is easy to create other recipes that require shrimp paste. In coastal areas, fresh shrimp is the best choice for this recipe. However, to make it simpler, frozen shrimp is not a bad choice.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs frozen shrimp

1/2 tbs salt

Seasonings:

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 tbs cornstarch

1/4 cup oil

Directions:

Thaw shrimp. Then peel and devein. You also can buy the frozen shrimp without shells.

Drain and dry each shrimp . This step is important for this recipe. It will help shrimp paste have ductility.

Add salt onto shrimp and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.

After 3 hours, season shrimp with the seasonings and mix well.

Place shrimp in a food processor and blend well into paste. Do not turn the food processor on the full power speed. Instead use the pulse function until the shrimp become a paste but still cold when touched.

Now you can shape the shrimp paste the way you like or put the shrimp paste in a Ziploc bag and freeze until ready to use.

To make shrimp cake:

Wash your hand and then dry your hand.

Use oil to wet your hand. This will help to form shrimp paste without sticking to your palm. 

I make shrimp paste into a round shape – about 1 inch thick and 2 inches diameter.

In a nonstick pan, add oil and bring oil to just barely hot.  Add shrimp cakes and fry over medium heat. Turn the shrimp cakes to the other side after turning golden.

Serve with rice. 

Tip: to flavor the shrimp paste, add green onion and cilantro.

Easy Cheese Potato Muffins

Welcome to my kitchen today, and I know that all my easy baking recipes help to create a good healthy breakfast. Because breakfast is the most important meal before starting the day, we should not skip this meal regardless how busy we are. Although I personally love to cook, I always think that I don't have patience when it comes to baking.  However, there are many recipes for making breakfast cakes or muffins for the family that are delicious and can also be called healthy when the ingredients in the recipe do not have too much fat or sugar. Today, I will share this recipe using leftover mashed sweet potatoes from other dishes, or leftover oat porridge can also be added.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup cheese (your choice – I use 5 Mexican cheese)

1 tsp salt

2 tbs sugar

1 green onion, sliced

1/4 tsp black pepper

Wet ingredients:

1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil

1/4 cup skim milk

1/3 cup mashed sweet potato or oatmeal porridge

1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 6-count muffin tin with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cheese, salt, sugar, black pepper and green onion together. Set aside.

In a small blender, such as Vitamix, Ninja, or whatever you have on hand, combine all the wet ingredients and blend well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a handheld beater to beat the ingredients on low speed until just about combined. 

Spoon the batter evenly into each cup or liner, filling each all the way to the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins come out clean.

Serve warm.

Tip: you can add more cheese on top the muffins at the last minutes before the muffins are completely done.

Panfried Tuna with Yum Yum Sauce

Yum Yum sauce is a very popular Japanese sauce. In Japanese restaurants this sauce is always served on the side with grilled dishes, such as shrimp, fish, or chicken.  Making this sauce at home is also simple because the ingredients in this sauce are easy to find, such as mayonnaise, ketchup, sugar, and vinegar, but today I just want to introduce to you marinated and grilled tuna on a non-stick pan with the Yum Yum sauce sold at the Costco. I call it semi-homemade to save time. It doesn't mean sacrificing the taste, and with a few small techniques will make the Yum Yum sauce as much as it makes at home or served at a famous Japanese restaurant.

 

Ingredients:

2 tuna fish fillets, cut into 2 inch cubes

Marinade ingredients:

2 tbsp mirin (Japanese cooking wine)

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp soy sauce

For the Yum Yum sauce:

1/3 cup Costco Yum Yum sauce

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp soy sauce

Other ingredients:

Chopped green onion and cilantro

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, place tuna and pour the marinade over it. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In small bowl, combine the Yum Yum sauce and mix well. Adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Heat a nonstick wok or pan containing 2 tbs oil until hot. Add tuna in pieces as you grill them on the grill. 

Pan-fry tuna on both sides for about 3 minutes on each side. Then pour the Yum Yum sauce over it.

Cook for 1 minute and sprinkle chopped green onion and cilantro on top. Turn off the heat and serve.

Mushroom Stock

 Mushrooms are wonderful earthy treats. There are a thousand different varieties of mushrooms. Be careful if you are not a skilled mushroom hunter; you are better off buying mushrooms in a supermarket. Some mushrooms are very expensive and making them into stock is not a practical choice to make.  However, mushroom stock is very helpful to have on hand especially for vegans. I like to make mushroom stock using the button mushroom or baby portobello mushrooms. These kinds of mushroom are inexpensive to make stock. Mushroom stock is ideal to have around. It can be used as a base for mushroom soup or a sauce for making stir-fried dishes to go with meets three or vegetables. Mushrooms are also very healthy to consume daily. So let's make mushroom stock now.

 Ingredients:

2 lbs. button mushrooms, cleaned

4 garlic cloves

2 cups chopped sweet white onion

3 quarts cold water

1 tsp salt

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a stockpot and simmer for 2 hours. 

Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour the broth into a glass jar with lid and then refrigerate, or it can be frozen until needed.

Tip: store mushrooms in the refrigerator covered with a damp paper towel to keep them moist. Do not store them in plastic bags, or they will become slimy.

Multipurpose Marinating Sauce for Meats

Summer is the season for BBQ, so I would like to introduce to those who always visit my kitchen a very unique marinade for all kinds of meats. I also use this marinade for seafood dishes like mackerel, tuna, and salmon. To add more flavor for this marinade, I add garlic oil to it.  I will provide a garlic oil recipe instruction below this recipe. In the Asian kitchen, garlic oil plays a big role for preparing Asian dishes. With this kind of marinade source in your hands, you will not hesitate to show off your cooking skills.  I guarantee that any type of meat preparation will have a super result after marinating with this sauce. 

Ingredients:

 1/4 cup soy powder sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1/4 cup garlic oil*

2 tbs garlic powder

1 tbs onion powder

1 tbs 5 spice (ngu vi huong)

2 tbs blak pepper or white pepper

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs seasoning (chicken powder or mushroom powder)

1/4 cup corn syrup

2 tbs honey

1 tbs brown sugar

1/4 cup cooking wine** 

 Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store the sauce in a glass jar with lid. It will last for months in the refrigerator.

I use 1/4 cup of the sauce for 2 lbs of chicken. You can adjust the sauce according to your family’s taste. Also adjust the sweet and salty to your liking.

*Garlic oil recipe:

1/2 cup minced garlic

1 cup oil (I use 1/2 peanut oil and grape seeds oil)

In a sauté pan, cook garlic and oil over medium low heat until the garlic turns golden brown. Keep your eyes on the garlic near the end of cooking because it is easy to burn it. Store the garlic oil in a glass jar with lid. I will share many easy recipes later using this oil.

**The cooking wine that I use for this recipe is called "Ruou Mai Que Lo". I will share the recipe at a later time. However, if you live near and Asian grocery store, this wine is sold there. 

Learn to forget the past

The word "Forget" sounds lightweight, but it actually weighs a thousand pounds. "Forgetting" is not easy, especially for those who hurt us.

The misery of human life is often entangled in thoughts because of these words: Let go of it, think uninformed, see not clearly, and cannot forget.

During a lifetime, one can meet so many people, experience so many bittersweet stories. But if everything was kept in their hearts, how tiring would it be?  Especially the nostalgia or the obsession often tends to reappear, making us sink in sad emotions, which is hard to let go of. That is called the past and one cannot forget.

To be happy, we need to put aside the past, strive for the present fully so that in the future, when looking back at the present all the beautiful memories have become that pass. Now the past is all happy moments and satisfaction.  Let's cherish each day we live because this is the true meaning of life. The past can be a good lesson for our future, but it should not be a burden to bear throughout life. So what can be forgotten should be forgotten, so that not only will our heart will be peaceful but also our mind will be enlightened. Your letting go of the past is a great gift to yourself.

Everyone is born and raised. No one will always be lucky enough to have success the first time they do it. Edison failed thousands of times before making the light bulb, but what he got after each failure was experience for the next experiment. But people only know him when the light bulb was actually made, and that process of failure is not well known. So when you try and still have no success, use it as a springboard to try harder in the present and build the present for the best.

So what is the word "forget" here?  If the past failures are the springboard of future success, why do we still forget the past? However, “Forgetting" here is forgetting the feelings of sadness, pain, and depression when failing, so that you always maintain your ideals, believe in yourself, and give yourself more motivation to dare to continue to fail the next time.

There is an English saying that "Freedom is not free”. Yes, everything we have in life is obtained by ourselves. However, there are also things that are destined not to belong to us, like someone who does not love us. Forget about the person who doesn't love us and look around us; there are still more worthy people. Forget about a desire too far out of reach to have peace of mind; instead enjoy the achievements of the present.

Happiness almost always exists in small things, maybe just a beautiful morning seeing the light in the sky, or maybe a friendly smile from a passerby when suddenly meeting each other's eyes. There is no need for high aspirations. Choose a simple life, strive for positive things and know how to ignore aspirations and ambitions that make us no longer ourselves.

The biggest obstacle between you and your happiness is wishing. You always wish for bigger things, different things, the things you don't have for the best. This is a completely wrong mentality. You have the right to dream, the right to strive for that dream. But that does not mean that those dreams are the only things that deserve to be grasped by you.

Life is multifaceted, and things need to be seen in many directions to get the best judgment. Think about when you are old, weak, and sick. What is the most important thing for you to preserve? Is it family love? Fame and fortune cannot be brought with you after death. True friends are ready to be friends both in difficult times and in happy times.

The answer is already in your heart. What you have to do is just grasp it boldly. "Forget" the frivolous things and focus on a good future with a sincere more conscientious attitude.

When our mind is peaceful, our life is immediately peaceful.

 

Psychological perspective