Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

We spent our first Thanksgiving at home this year with a couple of good friends. I made some traditional Thanksgiving dishes such as roast Turkey, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, saute brusselsprouts with green beans and carrots, baked acorn squash and sweet potatoes and some homemade cranberry sauce! The meal was simply delicious with good company.

Fried Hawaiian Plantain

I had a big discovery yesterday while shopping at our local Asian grocery store. I saw this incredibly huge banana-like fruit in the fruit/vege section. Apparently not a lot of people had seen this type of banana before. We had a mini-size crowd around the banana and asking what was that? :) It turned out that this huge banana is a type of Hawaiian plantain. I certainly never came across it during my trips to Maui and Oahu last time. Surely, I grabbed one huge one right away. LOL

I turned this Hawaiian plantain into yummy fried plantain snack this afternoon by dipping it in the home-made flour/egg/sugar batter. To finish it up, I lightly powdered the fried plantain with some powder sugar and some maple syrup drizzles. The results was, YUM.

Mooncake

Mid-autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival falls on October 3th of this year. Mooncake festival is like the Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Normally you celebrate the festival with your family and friends with food. Of course, most common snack/pastry you enjoy during the festival is the mooncake.

We bought a set of mooncake (x4) made in Malaysia over the Internet a couple of weeks ago. I miss the simple taste of Malaysian mooncake with salty egg yolk inside. This set of mooncake is delicious! We have been savoring it since a week ago by cutting the mooncake into thin slices (calories distribution). LOL

If you come across some mooncakes in your local Asian store, you can get one and try it out! Most of them are from Hong Kong, China or Taiwan. If you would like to try out some Malaysian mooncake, let me know. :)

Banana Walnut Muffin

I love banana muffin and banana bread! I have a wonderful, irresistible, simple and yummy banana bread recipe. This recipe is a keeper! Today I try to use the same recipe to make some muffins. The results was great with shorter baking time! The perfect 30 minutes baking.
(12 muffins or 1 banana bread loaf)
Ingredient:

• 4 ripe bananas - smashed
• 1/4 cup walnuts
  
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar (I reduced it to only 1/2 cup)
  
• 1 medium egg
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder (*optional)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method:
1) Preheat the oven at 350F
2) Mix melted butter wit smashed banana in the mixing bowl
3) Mix in the sugar, egg, cinnamon powder and vanilla
4) Mix in baking soda and salt over the batter
5) Add flour to the batter
6) Fold in walnuts to the batter using a plastic spoon
7) Spoon batter into a dozen muffin tray OR a 4x8 in loaf pan (buttered pan)
8) Bake for 20 min till golden brown for muffin OR 1 hour for banana loaf
9) Remove from oven to cool

Enjoy your banana muffin over a cup of coffee or milk-tea! :)

Chile Verde Burritos

I made two delicious burritos out of the left over chile verde from yesterday. You can easily make your own burritos at home. All you need is a few key ingredients - poultry, beans, rice, cheese (of course!) and some vegetable based on your preferences. Tonight, I wrapped the burritos with shredded chile verde (pork), white rice, and some Monterrey Jack cheese. It was a scrumptious meal for J! Yum.

New Mexico Chili Verde

Entering my 4th year of living in Arizona, I am becoming more familiar to a huge variety of Southwestern New Mexican/Mexican dishes. It does take me a while to learn some basic Spanish named Mexican food and the cooking ingredient!

About two years ago, J received a wonderful Southwest - The Beautiful Cookbook in one of the school parties. We never tried to make any food out of the cookbook before. I was always attracted to the beautifully taken pictures and well-described Southwestern food history from the cookbook. (see picture)

I tried one of its recipes today - New Mexico Chile Verde. In Southwest, you can enjoy a bowl of hearty chile verde with almost anything from warm tortillas to rice! This recipe is a keeper. :)


Ingredient:
3 tablespoons bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 lb lean pork, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 tablespoon cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
10 New Mexico green or Anaheim chilies, roasted, peeled, cored, seeded and diced
3 cups chicken stock or water
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
1) In a large, heavy pot, heat the bacon fat or oil over medium-low heat.
2) Saute onions until soft, about 5 minutes
3) Add the pork cubes and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes or until the meat loses its pink color
4) Sprinkle the flour over the pork and onions, raise heat slightly and cook until the pork is browned and the onions are golden.
5) Stir in cumin, garlic and chilies, mixing well.
6) Slowly add the boiling stock or water and stir until well incorporated.
7) Add salt and peper.
8) Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, until the meat is tender, about 1 1/2 - 2 hour.
9) Serve with warm tortillas.

Enjoy!

Madeleines

I always like this little French pastry - Madeleines since I moved to the Western world. It comes in different sizes - from tiny little one to as large as your palm. Somehow I think that its seashell shape makes this little pastry looks more attractive! It is definitely a good pastry to go with your afternoon tea or coffee. :)

I came across this seemingly easy to make recipe from My Kitchen Snippets a few weeks ago. If you look carefully (LOL quite easy to spot actually), you can see some tiny holes on my madeleine's surface. I think that was due to the fact that I didn't let my batter 'sit' for a bit before I put the batch in the oven (to let the air rises to surface). Oh well, I tried to disguise it with a lot of powder sugar! :)

Ingredient:
8 tbsp of melted butter
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of cake flour
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
Grated zest of 1 lemon or orange
Powder sugar

Method:
1) Pre-heat over to 375 F, Butter and lightly flour the Madeleine pan.
2) Beat eggs, sugar together until pale and foamy
3) Add in vanilla and lemon/orange zest, then the flour and salt. Beat until just combined.
4) In a low speed, pour in melted butter
5) Spoon batter into madeleine pan, let the batter sits in the pan for 10 minutes
6) Bake for 8-10 minutes until its golden brown.
7) Turn over immediately onto cooling rack.
8) Dust with some powder sugar.

Enjoy!

Butter Cookies

I made a batch of butter cookies about a month ago for J and my good friend - P. The cookies turned out very delicious with buttery smell and taste. I adopted a recipe from Dailydelicious's blog.

I sprinkled some sugar on top of the cookies. The taste of this yummy cookies reminded me of the Danish cookies that my family used to get when we were little. You can make the cookies into different shape. It will be a great little gift idea for your friends and family too!

Enjoy!

Fresh Fig Prosciutto Pizza

This pizza was made last month when we had tons of figs on the tree. It was an excellent way to consume our figs. For this pizza, I had 2 different toppings. One with fresh fig + prosciutto + cheese, the other side was topped with Alaska dried salmon + cheese! Hmm.. the smell of the pizza was just irresistible! ;)

Time away from Khooking Time

I haven't been updating my blog recently. I have been having a busy schedule in the last few weeks. I just recently started a new job! This new job is much closer to my house. I used to travel ~25 miles one way to work. This new location is only 12 miles away. I am very happy for the change! J also has a busy work schedule recently. He has been traveling almost for a week for every week. When he is not at home, my kitchen also not working. ;) I don't want to cook a whole pot, and have to finish it up myself! Yes, you have to blame J for not seeing any update from my Khooking Time.

Fig Berries Cream Cheese Loaf

I came across this fabulous cream cheese loaf recipe this afternoon from My Kitchen Snippets. The recipe is so easy that you can really make it in less than 5 minutes (pre-baking)! Since I have some figs, blueberries and strawberries in the fridge, I decided to throw everything together in the loaf!

The results was wonderful. It will be a perfect afternoon tea snack for both of us or even breakfast!

Ingredients:
5 oz of low fat cream cheese
1 egg - yolk and white separated
2 tbsp of powder sugar (use more sugar if you have sweet tooth ;) )
1/2 cup fresh berries (use blueberries, strawberries) and fig
1 (11 oz) tube of bread stick dough (Pillsbury)

Glaze
1/2 cup of powder sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice

Method
1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) Mix together cream cheese, powder sugar and egg yolk
3) Unroll breadstick dough into a rectangular shape (you need to press the seam together - tightly!)
4) Spread 2) mixture on the center of the dough
5) Put berries and fig over the cream cheese evenly
6) Start from the top and bring and braid dough strip to cover the filling
7) Beat the egg white and brush it all over the loaf. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the loaf.
8) Combined the powder sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle all over the cool loaf before serving

Hope you enjoy it!

"Lion's Head" meatballs - 狮子头

I knew nothing about "Lion's head" meatballs before I met J. Ever since I met him, he has been raving about this particular dish that he had when he lived in China a few years ago. After he talked so much about this dish, he finally took me to a Shanghainese restaurant in town a few months ago to try it out. Well, I have to say that my first Lion's Head dish didn't leave any particular impression on me. Probably because we had a table fulled of wonderful dishes at that time. :)

I have this lovely cookbook from Williams Sonoma - Savoring China with Lion's Head recipe in it. I gathered all the ingredients needed last weekend and decided to give it a try tonight! Actually I would suggest you to try it when you have at least 1 1/2 hour. I made it in a rush tonight as I didn't start until ~6pm (after work).

My Lion's Head dish came out as yummy as what I expected... The meatballs were well-cooked with Chinese rice wine, soy sauce and the chicken stock. The napa cabbage's sweetness complimented the savory taste of the soy-sauce coated meatballs. Yum... It was delicious.


Adapted from Willian Sonoma - Savoring China cookbook
Yields ~10 medium size meatballs
Ingredients:
1.5 lb minced pork (preferred fatty pork)
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
1/3 cup finely chopped water chestnut
2 tablespoons of finely grated ginger
2 tablespoons of finely chopped garlic
cornstarch
soy sauce
3/4 of medium size napa cabbage - roughly chopped
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chicken or beef stock (heated)
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine
salt
pepper

Method:
1) Combine and mix well ground pork with chopped green onion, chopped water chestnut, ginger and garlic.
2) Add 2 tablespoons of the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce to 1). Mix thoroughly.
3) Divide the mixture into ~10 medium size meatballs.
4) In a bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to make a creamy paste, adding water if needed.
5) In a deep pan (preferred wok), heat the oil. One at a time, coat the meatballs in the soy sauce-cornstarch mixture and slip into the hot oil. Fry, turning as needed until the surface is lightly browned. Transfer the balls to a plate.
6) Add the napa cabbage to the hot oil and fry briefly just until wilted.
7) Add meatballs to the wok with cabbage.
8) Add heated chicken or beef stock, rice wine, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and a dash of pepper.
9) Cover with a lid for ~30 minutes in low-medium heat
10) Before serving, add a teaspoon of corn starch to the wok to thicken the gravy.

Serves ~4-8 ppl

Shrimp Summer Vegetable Wheat Pasta

Yesterday I went to the Sprouts and spotted some fresh summer vegetables such as zucchini, yellow squash and some sweet corn. I bought some of them! On one hand I am happy to enjoy summer fruits and vegetables, on the other hand I am not very thrilled about the summer in Arizona. It has been in at least 110F in the last 2 weeks. This weekend the weather will be at 115F. I am telling you... 115F is like the tipping point. After 115F, it goes from hot to hell. Argh, the summer. You got to love the heat to live in AZ. LOL

I made my tomato-based sauce from scratch today. I cut up a few medium size shrimp, some garlic, 4 medium size tomatoes, one small zucchini, and a couple of carrots. I didn't make my pasta (;P of course not, otherwise dinner won't be ready by 7pm and I didn't get back from work till ~6:15pm) but used half of pack of the wheat pasta from store. Oh yeah, my friend - Giuseppe brought me a piece of the Parmesan cheese from Italy in May! Thanks G! I grated a bit of the Parmesan on top of the pasta and served it hot.

Korean BBQ Short Ribs

Once in a couple of months, J and I would go to the local Korean restaurant to have some good Korean food. We certainly will get some bimbimbab, kalbi (J's fav!), seafood kimchi pancake and spicy seafood tofu soup (my fav!). Since we moved to the East side, we could not find a Korean place where we can grill our food on the table. We sure miss it!

Tonight, J grilled up some Korean BBQ short ribs for dinner. We bought some short ribs from the Mekong Supermarket a month ago. I marinated the ribs in the pre-made Korean sauce (time saving!) for a few hours before grilling. The grilled ribs were AMAZING! We had the ribs with steamed white rice and some home-made dumplings that I made this afternoon. What a satisfying dinner!

Fig-Berry Ginger Cookies

I came across this delicious-looking cookies on the Cookin' Canuck's blog a couple of weeks ago and had been wanting to give it a try. I made a small batch of fig spread using the figs from our tree last month. This recipe was an excellent way to use some of the fig spread that we have. For the recipe, you can refer to Cookin' Canuck's - Berry Tea Cookies entry. :)

Sardine Puffs

I made some sardine puffs using pre-made roti paratha/canai dough this afternoon. Instead of making my own dough and wrap, I took a short-cut by using the roti paratha skins. You can find Kawan brand (made in Malaysia) Roti Paratha (Indian Flatbread) easily in the U.S, particularly at the Asian markets.

The puffs came out great. It was very flaky with savory ingredients. What a perfect snack in the afternoon! J was impressed by my sardine puffs and had 2 immediately! LOL

Makes 9 puffs
Ingredients:
Roti Paratha - 3 pieces
Sardine - small can
Red onion - cube or slice
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Tomato ketchup - 2 tablespoon
Salt - a pinch
Pepper - a pinch

Method:
1) Cut 1 piece of roti paratha into 3 equal pieces
2) Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoon of sardine (mix with green peas, red onion, ketchup, salt and peper) in the middle of roti paratha
3) Seal the sides by using a fork or hand
3) Bake for 20 min at 350F

Enjoy this easy and savory snack!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

My kitchen has been closed for the last two days since J went on a business trip. When he is not at home, I usually don't make any fancy food in the kitchen... coz you know? It is really hard to make food for yourself, and all the washing after that. Plus, it is good to have J around to try my food and give compliments. LOL

Tonight when I was checking out Aunty Yochana's blog, I came across this simple recipe for chocolate chip muffins. I had just bought some cocoa powder and chocolate chips yesterday and I thought to myself... why not? Let's make a small batch of muffins tonight. I can surprise J with my muffins when he comes home tomorrow.

The recipe that I used was adapted from Yochana's Cake Delight blog. I halfed the recipe posted to make a small batch. Thanks Aunty Yochanna for sharing your wonderful recipe! My muffins came out great. It was moist, chocolaty, bitter-sweet (I used dark cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips) and all the wonderful things!

Makes 9 muffins
Ingredients:
125 gm. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
240 gm. castor sugar (I used 200 gm for less sweet)
a pinch of salt
15 gm. cocoa powder
60 gm. chocolate chips
125 ml. fresh milk (I used fat-free milk)
1/2 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
40 gm. canola oil

Some extra chocolate chips for sprinkling

Method:
(1) Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda , chocolate chips, salt and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl.
(2) Pour in the wet ingredients: fresh milk, egg , oil and vanilla essence.
(3) Mix till just combined.
(4) Spoon into muffin cups, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top and bake at 355F for about 20 min

Tip: I used a spatula to mix all the ingredients together without my electric mixer. You just need to make sure everything is well blended. No need to mix them too much. :) Try it out! I am sure you will love it!

Char Kueh Kak (Stir-fry Radish Cake)

When I talked to my sister online last week, she asked me to try to make my own radish cake because the it is rather simple to make at home (even in the US). I have been craving for some radish cake dimsum or stir-fry for a while and decided to gather the ingredient to make one last week. When I was at LeeLee Supermarket last week, I accidentally came across this already-made radish cake in a package. It has radish, shrimps, mushroom, and seasoning in it. Instead of making my own, I just bought a pack of the ready-to-cook radish cake from the market.

Making a good radish cake stir-fry takes some good cooking skills. Which, I haven't master. I just know that people have been saying that you need to use high heat to do stir-fry to get the 'heat' of it! I took this dish rather seriously as I already put myself up to a very high expectation and anticipation of a good plate of radish cake. I gathered all the necessary ingredients and gave it a try this evening. Viola! It came out great. J gave a pretty good compliment!

Ingredients:
Radish cake (cut in cubes)
Garlic - 4 cloves
Chinese chives - 1 bunch
Chinese sausage - 3-4
Egg - 3
Shrimp - ~10
Salty radish (dry) - 3 tablespoon (finely chopped)
Dark soy sauce (to taste)
Chili paste - 1 tbsp
Cooking oil

Method:
1) In a wok/deep pan, saute garlic. Add sausage and salty radish and saute for ~3 minutes
2) Add shrimps to the wok, mix well with 1)
3) Add eggs to the wok, stir-fry for 1 minute
4) Add seasoning - dark soy sauce and chili paste and mix it well
5) Add radish cake (in cubes) to the wok (in high heat), stir well until everything is well-blended for a few minutes
6) Before serve, add chives into the radish cake and mix it well

Enjoy!

Pandan Butter Cake

Growing up, we always have at least a pot or two of Pandan plants at our backyard. Pandan is a type of plant where you use the juice of the leaves to add color and fragrance to your bakery or cooking. You can also put a stalk of Pandan leaves in your dessert (or tong sui) to add some flavor to it. It is a very common Southeast Asian plant in cooking and baking.

It was a challenge to make anything with Pandan in the US. I wasn't able to find Pandan leaves until last week at LeeLee's Supermarket. Yipee! I was so thrilled when I found it at one of the frozen sections. Together with the Pandan leaves, I also bought a little bottle of Pandan flavoring (paste). Since I had everything on hand, I made a Pandan Butter Cake this afternoon. I refered to the Yochana's Cake Delight website for the recipe.

The cake came out fabulous! The smell of Pandan, butter and coconut was irresistable. Of course, the taste of the cake was excellent as well! We plan to make a cup of Vietnamese condensed milk ice coffee tomorrow with a slice or two of the cake. Yummy way to enjoy our weekend. ;)

Panko Chicken Breast with Couscous

TGIF! It is Friday again! I wanted to pamper ourselves tonight to celebrate the beginning of the weekend. Though it is just a regular 2-day weekend, it is better than none right?! ;)
I bought a bag of couscous on sale the other day and some panko bread-crumb from the Asian market. Panko fried pork or chicken was my favorite dish when I lived in Japan. It will be great to be able to make some at home.

Ingredients:
Panko Chicken Breast
Chicken breast - 2 pieces (I used a small pan to pound the breast into a thin slice for easy cooking)
Egg - 1
Panko crumb - enough to cover
Salt - a pinch
Pepper - a pinch
Oil - enough to fry

Couscous - 1 cup
Water - 1 1/4 cup
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Garlic - 3 cloves
Brocolli
Green peas - 1/2 cup

Method:
Making couscous
1) Boil water with 2 tsp of olive oil (you can substitute with butter), then put 1 cup of couscous into the boiling water
2) Stir the couscous to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pot
3) Immediately remove the pot with couscous away from the stove. Put the pot cover on
4) Let the pot with couscous sit for 5-10 minutes to absorb all the liquid
5) Use another pan, slightly saute garlic, broccoli and green peas for 5 minutes
6) Mix 5) into the couscous

Making pan-fried panko chicken breast
1) Dip chicken breast into the beaten egg with salt and pepper
2) Cover the chicken breast with panko crumbs (generously)
3) Use medium heat, slowly pan-fried the panko covered chicken breast for ~5-10 minutes
4) Cool it on a piece of paper towel after the chicken breast is done cooking

Viola! Another simple and delicious meal for dinner. Hope you enjoy it!

Bun - roti

I made some buns today using My Kitchen's recipe. I actually divided my dough into two batches, one was just the plain bun, the other type was mixed with walnuts and prune. It came out soft and fluffy as expected. I used bread flour this time instead of the regular flour! Results was amazing.

Pineapple Prawn Stir-fry

Other than the Tomyam fish, I also stirred-fry some pineapple with prawns and yellow bell pepper tonight. The flavor was wonderful. You can taste the sweetness of the pineapple with the savory taste of prawns. It was an easy meal as well. If you want to save time, you can just use a ready-to-eat pineapple chunks from can.

Steamed Tomyam Fish

Craving for some seafood tonight... I made a steamed fish with tomyam paste, mushroom, red onion and some cilantro. It was suprisingly easy to put together all the ingredients. I steamed the fish for ~25 minutes on the high steam. Viola! A flavourful, easy and yummy steamed fish for dinner.

Dark Soy Sauce Chicken with Sesame Oil

Dark soy sauce chicken (豆油鸡) is a very common dish in Malaysia. Usually my mom will make this dark soy sauce chicken dish at least once a month or so. Tonight, I made this soy sauce chicken dish with carrot and red onion. To add more flavor to it, I put a few drops of sesame oil and a big chunk of ginger. I also made a simple baby bak-choy stir-fry and steam rice to go with this chicken dish. ;) It was a good Monday night dinner!

Salmon Cheese Toast

I made some simple salmon cheese toasts using the left over bread from my fridge this morning... It was an experiment with everything that I could think of from my fridge - bread, salmon (in can), green peas, egg, and cheese!

The results was incredible. It was like eating a small pizza but instead of the pizza crust, it was with the toast. Very filling and satisfying snack on Sunday morning!

Cashew Nut Cookies

I came across this cashew nut cookies recipe on the Y3K Free Recipes website today and decided to try it out! It was time to clean up my pantry anyway... I have so much left over nuts and dried fruits that needed to be consumed fast.

This batch of cashew nut cookies came out great with the buttery, salty, sugary, and nutty taste to it. It reminded me of the Chinese New Year peanut cookies.

Makes ~35 cookies
Ingredients:
A:
125g butter
100g sugar Ingredient

B:
2 egg yolks
½ tsp salt

C:
175g plain flour
150g cashew nuts
25g tapioca flour

For glazing: 1 egg yolk

Method:
1. Beat ingredient A till creamy.
2. Add in ingredient B, beat till it is light and fluffy.
3. Put plain flour and cashew nuts of ingredient C into a food processor, beat till the nuts turn powdery. Remove it and add in tapioca flour, mix well.
4. Add no.(3) into no.(2). Mix well.
5. Remove the dough. Shape into cashew nut shapes. Put on a greased baking tray. Glaze with beaten egg yolk.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20 minutes till golden in color. Cool well before served.

Shao Bao - 烧包

Inspired and tempted by Lydia's Siew Bao recipe from My Kitchen, I finally gave it a try this afternoon! Thanks Lydia for your explanation. I haven't had shao pao probably for at least 3-5 years. I can't remember when was the last time I had it in Malaysia!

Lydia's recipe came out great. My shao pao probably will be more 'flaky' and more layers if I roll the dough a few more times next time. Today is my day off from work. I had the shao pao just came out of the oven right before J came home from work. What a nice treat for him! ;)

Curry Laksa

I bought a few packs of Malaysian Curry Laksa paste (田师傅 brand) last week from our local Asiana Market. I didn't feel like making a big mess and spending a lot of time in the kitchen tonight so I decided to make a bowl of curry laksa for us.

The paste is super easy to use, and surprisingly YUMMY. I bought a pack of Vietnamese flat noodle last week from the market. I steamed the noodle tonight, thinly (~1cm width) cut into keow teow shape. We had the noodle with some meat balls and hard-boiled egg. Boy-oh-boy, what a delicious dinner! We felt like we were back in Malaysia's hawker stall. ;) Love the paste! You should give this brand a try!

Note: We have some left over curry for today's dinner. I simple put some mihun in the curry, some enuki mushroom and meatballs to complete a meal! ;)

Paste - 田师傅 brand (made in Malaysia), 200ml