Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Hawaiian sweet bread has a unique tropical taste. It includes pineapple juice and coconut oil to replace some butter. The King Hawaiian rolls sold in the supermarket cannot compare the taste of this one. The recipes are numerous, but mine is simple using a bread machine to assist. The dough a little soft, but do not use any flour to shape the dough. This recipe is manageable and makes a lovely light bread for eating alone or serving with dinner.

Ingredients:
6 oz pineapple juice
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
Zest of one lemon
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp active dry yeast

Baking 13” x 9” pan
Egg wash

Directions:
Place all the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed above. Select the dough setting and press start. When the dough has risen long enough, the machine will make a. Remove dough and let dough rest in a bowl for 5 minutes.
Butter a 13” x 9” pan . Divide dough into 12 portions.

Dust your hands lightly with flour and roll each portion into a roughly shaped ball. Place each ball into the prepared pan. 

Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise until double in size (a5 minutes). Beat an egg with a little water.

Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash on the top of rolls.

Preheat oven to 350° and bake roll for 20 minutes. Remove rolls from the oven and cover with a kitchen towel to cool off (this will keep dough soft when cooling).

Fish Fillets with Mango Sauce

The Vietnamese cuisine has been greatly influenced by major factors from neighbors such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and China. However, when cooking with tropical fruit, such as pineapple or mango, the names of prepared dishes always come up as being either Mexican or Thai. Most Vietnamese recipes are unique and should be recognized as being Vietnamese. I hope my recipe here will eventually earn respect and something special to be shown off as part of the Vietnamese cuisine.

Ingredients:
Two 6 oz salmon fillets
2 tbs olive oil 
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs soy sauce
Pepper to taste (1/4 tsp)
Freshly chopped cilantro
Mango sauce ingredients:
1 large ripe mango
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp honey
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.
In a shallow oven-proof dish, place a fish fillet and drizzle with oil, lemon juice, and sprinkle with cilantro. Season with soy sauce and pepper.

Cover fish with foil and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

To make mango sauce:
Peel and dice mango. Place the diced mango in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add lemon juice and hot sauce. In a small sauce pan, heat oil and cook the onions and garlic until fragrant. Pour the mango into pan and simmer. Season the mango sauce with honey and salt. More lemon juice or sugar can be added to make a more sweet and sour taste.

Remove foil from the dish and pour the mango sauce over fish. Garnish more with chopped cilantro.

Chicken Stew in Tomato Sauce

This recipe is like the famous Italian Osso Buco casserole made with veal, tomatoes, and white wine. I love the sauce, and I like to make the casserole with chicken instead. The cooking time for chicken will be shorter, and this recipe will be a winner because it makes an easy, healthy meal.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into 4 pieces
2 large tomatoes
1 small white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

For the topping:
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Directions:
Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and slip off the skin and then chop both tomatoes into small pieces.
In a sauce pan with lid, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil. Fry chicken until brown. Remove.

 Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cook until softened (about 5 minutes).

Return chicken into the pan and pour in the wine.

Let simmer to reduce a little before adding the tomatoes and tomato paste.

Season with salt and pepper.

 Cover the pan and lower the heat. Cook gently for about 50 minutes. Remove the lid and let sauce reduce.

Before serving, make the topping. Mix all the topping ingredients, and then sprinkle over the chicken. with bread or mashed potatoes.

Nan Bread

Nan is Indian flat bread baked in a brick oven called a tandoor. I learned a few lessons about how to make nan bread at home. Basically, baking nan successfully requires an extreme temperature in the oven and a pizza stone. It is interesting to observe the way Indians make nan. It is the similar to how Mexicans make their tortillas or Italians make pizza. Nan will stick to the walls of the tandoor oven while baking, and it only takes about 3 to 4 minutes to bake a nan. Some methods just grill the nan on a hot grill. I tried many ways making this bread and came up to a simple way by using my bread machine for kneading the dough.  I like to flavor nan with dried onions and some garlic powder, and the nan tastes wonderful.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
2 tbs oil
2 tbs nonfat yogurt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tbs dried onions
1 tbs garlic powder

Oil and flour for shaping the dough

Directions:
Combine the first eight ingredients in the order listed above in a bread pan machine. Select the dough function and press start. When the dough has risen enough, the machine will beep. Turn off machine and remove dough. Place dough in a mixing bowl and cover with a kitchen towel, and let the dough rise for another hour.

At about 30 minute before the rising time is finished, place a pizza stone into the oven and increase the temperature to 500°. Punch down dough and divide dough into about 6 portions.

 

 

The dough will be a little sticky; therefore, roll each dough portion into flour and use a rolling pin to roll dough into 6 inch oblongs.

 Top each nan with onions and garlic powder.

 Oil the hands of little before picking up dough oblongs.  Place two nans on a pizza stone and bake for 3 to 4 minutes.

 Remove nans and brush with melted butter. Serve hot. Let oven reheat to 500° before baking additional nans.

Easy Fried Fish Cake-Noodle Soup

Vietnam has a long coastline, so most of the cities that are on the coastline have their own famous soup called "Bánh canh chả cá” or fish soup. "Bánh" means cake, "canh" means soup, and “bánh" in this translation means rice noodles. Nha Trang, Phan Thiết, Phú Quốc, and Vũng Tàu are cities with this soup’s recipe. The type of the rice noodle is medium size and round shape. It is sold in most Vietnamese grocery stores, or Japanese Udon noodles  can be substituted for it. Making these noodles at home is quite simple too. They require equal amounts of rice flour and tapioca starch with some hot water. These ingredients are mixed by hand or with a KitchenAid stand mixer. One regret is that I never had a chance to taste this soup when I was in Vietnam, but by my reading most of the recipes that teach how to make this soup, I am confident to create my own recipe. Some recipes thicken the broth with cornstarch, and some others use clear broth. Even though I describe my soup’s preparation as easy and lazy, the result is fantastic. If you want to make an impression on guests, this soup is the one. They will think that only working all day in the kitchen could produce this kind of meal.

Ingredients:
For the fish cake:
1 lb. fish paste, homemade or store-bought
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onions, finely chopped
For the soup:
8 cups quality chicken broth
2 ripe plum tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp Korean chili powder
1/2 cup chopped white onions
1/2 tsp sugar
Shallot oil
5 shallots , thinly sliced
1/4 cup oil

1 lb. cooked rice noodles

Garnish with rau ram, cilantro, and green onions

Directions:
To make shallot oil:
In a small sauce pan , add oil and shallots. Fry slowly on medium heat until the shallots are crispy. Drain and reserve the oil for making fish cake.
To make fish cake:
Combine all the fish cake ingredients and mix well.

 In a large sauté pan, add shallot oil and place the fish cake onto the pan. Use a spatula to flatten the fish cake, and fry cake on both sides until golden brown.

 

 

 Let cool before cutting cake into thick slices or any shape that you want.

To make broth:
In a pot, add some oil. Add onions and cook for a few minutes. Add Korean chili powder and tomatoes. Stir in sugar and salt. Cook until the tomatoes are softened (about 5 minutes).

Add broth and bring to boil. Add the fish cake and simmer for a few minutes.

 Add noodles and season again with more fish sauce, salt, and black pepper. Bring soup  back to boil. Divide noodles and fish cake equally into each serving bowl. Sprinkle with crispy shallots, cilantro, rau ram, and green onions and ladle the soup broth over them. Serve.

To make Bánh canh:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup tapioca
1 cup hot water (more or less)
1/2 tsp salt
In a mixing bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca, and salt. Make a crater in the center and slowly pour in the hot water. Use a wooden spatula to mix well. Cover  the dough with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Roll out dough and cut into long strips (about 6 inch lengths). Add some flour to prevent the noodles from sticking together. Bring a pot of water to boil. Drop the noodles in boiling water; The noodles are cooked when they float on the surface. Use a slotted spoon to remove the noodles and place in cold water.

Sweet Bread with Fresh Fruit

Most of the recipes for sweet bread use dry fruit. I have been making sweet bread and rolls for quite some time and get bored with the same old recipes. Today, I will go out of the ordinary by creating a sweet bread using a combination of fresh fruit. This is yet another remarkable way to use a bread machine that takes the kneading, proofing, and frustration out of baking bread. The end result is a moist, sweet bread that can be sliced and served with jam and butter to satisfy to all people.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups of water and milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
Fillings:
1 cup finely-cut combination of fresh fruit, such as pear, apple, and tangerine 
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
Place all the ingredients except the filling in a bread machine pan. Select dough setting, and press start. When dough has risen long enough, the machine will sound. Remove the dough from bread pan and mix the filling into the dough until all the fillings are mixed with the dough.
Grease a 11” x 6” loaf pan with coconut oil or soft butter. Fold in dough to fit inside the loaf pan with the seam side down. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for a second time (about 40 to 50 minutes or until double in size).
Preheat oven to 350°. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let bread cool.

 

Pasta Primavera

Primavera in Italian means “spring” and can also refer to spring vegetables. Most Italian pasta dishes are very heavy with lots of cheese and cream sauce, but pasta primavera is very light. Some recipes have chicken, and others add shrimp instead of vegetables only. There are so many ways to prepare this pasta dish – some roast the vegetables and toss the pasta with roasted vegetables. Others stir-fry or steam the vegetables. In the springtime, this pasta dish is so delightful with all kinds of vegetables that available. For a healthy, meatless meal of superior taste, this pasta dish is the one.

Ingredients:
Two cups Penne pasta
1 cup julienne-cut carrots
1 cup green beans
1 cup cut asparagus
1 cup julienne-cut red, green, and yellow peppers
2 button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup onions
1/2 cup pasta water
1 tsp Herbs de Provence
1/4 tsp pepper flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter

Directions:

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add generous amount of salt to the boiling water. Quickly blanch carrots, asparagus, and green beans.

 Remove the vegetables from the boiling water and plunge into cold water to stop cooking further.

 Add penne pasta and cook for 7 to 10 minutes or until the penne is “al dente” (soft on the outside and firm in the inside, not mushy). Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.
In a sauté pan, add olive oil and butter and cook until hot.

 Stir in garlic and chili flakes. Cook until fragrant (stir the garlic so it does not burn).

Stir in onions and Herbs de Province.

 Add fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

 Cook for 3 minutes. Add cooked vegetable and red, yellow, and green peppers.

Stir in the cooked penne and add pasta water. Mix the pasta and vegetables well.

Pour into a serving plate and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and basil. If desired, Parmesan cheese can be added at this point.