Chinese Herbal Rib

This dish was something my dad loved to make and another one of those dishes that I took for granted growing up. I'm glad that I am still young enough to appreciate it and not older. I wouldn't want to regret missing out all the comfort foods that I grew up eating with my family. Having breakfast with my dad every Saturday has been something that I've been doing religiously. No matter what circumstances, even if I'm hungover, I'll still meet him for breakfast.

-- Wow... a car drove by right now with "Hotel California" BLASTING. Just saying.. that person needs to chill.

One of the things my dad loves to talk about is the food that he makes. This is what brought us to this dish that I'm going to show you. The dish consists of a herbal mix and spareribs. I will be using Pork ribs for this because that is what I have.

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Herbal Mix

You can try to make your own, but honestly, unless you are trying to open a restaurant that specializes in this, just get the package. Don't trouble yourself because it's not worth it. You will probably find this mix at every Chinese market near you like 99 Ranch.

Water was filled about 1/2 way in a standard stock pot. While you are waiting for the water to boil, bundle the herbs that come with the package. I also peeled 6 cloves of garlic to be thrown in. Once the water boils, add your meat, garlic, some black fungus (Cloud ear fungus), and your herb bundle. As the ribs cook, you will notice some of the fat floating to the surface. Remove the top layer of fat with a ladle. I let it boil on medium high for about 30 minutes. I would then add about 3 tablespoons of salt and 1/2 a cup of Kikkoman soy sauce. I reduce the stove to low-medium and let it go with the lid on for 2 hours.

When the meat is fall off the bone or for tender, your dish is ready. Go grab some somen noodles and cook it with some boiling water, strain, and top it off with the herbal soup, rib and black fungus. I served this along with some pan seared baby bok choy.

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You may also add some pre-fried tofu that is sold in packages to the last 30 minutes of cooking. This dish is heavenly with some hot sauce. This dish has a strong renown herb flavor, but it's something Chinese people eat and also healthy for you.

If you make this and never had it before, I would love to know your thoughts and suggestions.

Happy eating!

Daiisies

Fish caper de provence

During Sunday, I had a weird epiphany that I was going to do a whole crap load of grocery shopping that will last throughout the next few weeks. This shopping consisted of purchasing a lot of protein from Costco which will be wrapped and tucked away in the freezer, and Veggies which will be purchased throughout the week if we run out. Not really sure what dishes I will create, but I wanted to prep some meals, without really prepping 5 daily meals in one day. With that said, I decided creating simple side dishes will be a leverage to assist me making home cooked meals throughout the week.

For a little over $1 a pound, you can get a huge bag of broccoli florets for around $4. That is extremely cheap. And since the florets are thoroughly washed, I literally place the whole bag in the microwave. 3 minutes on one side, flip, 3 minutes on the other. This will steam the broccoli getting the cooking process done quicker and less mess.

I take out a sheet tray and cram every single one evenly. I crushed about diced 5 cloves of garlic to top the broccoli. Drizzle with some olive oil, salt, and a little pepper. This was roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Once you see some dark char on your florets, it's okay to take out, let it cool, and store in a giant container to be left in your fridge until ready to use.

For the Garlic mashed potatoes, I went to a local Albertsons and purchased one of those $2.99 bags of russet potatoes. These were peeled, diced, and then rinsed. The potatoes were boiled with about 6 large cloves of garlic until tender, as you would with your mashed potato recipes. You can always reduce the amount of garlic or completely remove it if you are not a fan. I can really taste the garlic with just 6 large cloves. After the potatoes are done, strain the water, add 1/2 a stick of butter and about 1 cup of milk. This really depends on the texture that you like your potatoes. I started mashing and seasoning the potatoes with salt and dried parsley. After you are happy with your potatoes, let it cool, and then store in your fridge until read to use.

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Ok so I obviously made up the name. The seasoning I used was Herb De Provence which are obviously a a handful of herbs, but includes lavender. The lavender smell really stands out. The first time I purchased herb de provence, I was pretty intimidated by how it smells. But after trying it on chicken, I literally had a mind blown mouthgasm moment because I love putting that sh*t on everything now.

I seasoned both sides of the fish with Herb de Provence, garlic powder and salt. The fish was pan seared and finished with some capers. The mashed potatoes I made prior, was seared on both sides until golden brown. The broccoli was just heated and kissed with a little olive oil.

Going back to prepping your side dishes. It makes wanting to cook so much more convenient. Instead of frantically pulling out different pants, you might like I do, get discouraged to cook. But look at how you can transform delicious mashed potatoes into something even more heavenly.

Stay tuned for more recipes using prepped side dishes. You can either thank me now, or thank me later.

happy eating!

Daiisies

Baked French Toast

Hello Fall even though it feels like Summer in Asia. Seriously... Los Angeles needs to get it together! I can't stand it. I need to get toasty, and snuggly, and watch the rain pour from my window, while cooking something with cinnamon with the coffee brewing all day, with the coffee beans left out all night to perfume the living space.

That is what I call comfort living.

But no. We are heading into October with 90 something degree days, and rain in the forecast next Sunday? Oh joy! but what? It's still going to be in the 80s? What the hell am I supposed to do with that information? I went shopping recently ok? and bought a lot of cute snuggly coffee drinking looking clothes. So LA, I don't know what's up but you need to stop.

I'm in withdrawal from the cold. So this morning, I was up around 6AM (yes on a Sunday Funday), contemplating in bed about how I'm going to make my French Toast. I have a whole loaf of Brioche Bread that I bought from Fresh and Easy the other day (around $5), and a new Le Creuset casserole dish that I still need to break in. After much thought, I've decided to make baked french toast to kill all the birds you can think of with one slug.

Recipe:

1.  8 Eggs - I use "Happy Eggs"
2. 1 and a 1/4 cup of whole milk - I used Lactaid Milk.
3. 3 tablespoons of sugar - granulated
4. A pinch of salt
5. 1/4 Teaspoon of nutmeg - I used pre-ground from Trader Joe's (I believe it was $1.99-$2.99)
6. 1/4 Teaspoon of Cinnamon - also from Trader Joe's
7. A teaspoon SPLASH of Vanilla Extract
8. 1 Loaf of Brioche Bread

The loaf of bread I got was already pre-sliced. I had 3 layers of 4 making a total of 12 slices used. With everything else, I mixed in a large bowl before pouring in on top of the bread. It soaked up pretty quick and easy.

The oven was preheated at 325 with my Breville convectional oven (Click HERE the best thing you can buy). The french toast was baked for 40-45 minutes. The top may get a little dark due to the sugar, but once you top it with your syrup it will be ALL GOOD.

All Good in the Hood syrup.

Recipe:

1. 1/2 a stick of butter
2. 1/4 cup of light brown sugar
3. 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
4. 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
5. pinch of salt
6. 1/2 a cup of toasted pecans

Everything you see above minus the pecans, heat in the microwave until the butter has melted and your sugar is syrupy. Mix the sauce until everything has combined, then add the pecans and fold.

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Baked French Toast with butter brown sugar pecan sauce

After drizzling the Pecan sauce, I drizzled a little of maple syrup (Aunt Jemima, Duh) to balance the dish (it helps).

Lastly, don't forget the BACON.

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Bacon, you're a star!

This will definitely be a crowd pleaser. For a second, everything felt okay. I forgot about the weather, and all the errands that I needed to make (and it was a lot). The bacon, the sweet sauce with the nutmeg and cinnamon singing the holidays to me 'Tis the Season'. Enjoy this recipe with hot black coffee. You'll need something to wake you up right after.

As always, happy eating.

Daiisies

Gyoza diet

If you are on a diet, you are going to die. I mean, there's a sign that tells you pretty much. DIE-t. Diet sounds like quit it. So we should all quit diets. Please. Someone. AGREE WITH ME! Why can't I eat chili cheese fries and drop 10 pounds at the same time? WHY? Why must life be so hard! Shutup all you skinny fast metabolism mother f'ers because one day you will get grubby. Or you will have babies with someone with fat genes. (this statement ONLY applies to people who giggles, and say 'I can eat whatever I want and not get fat ho-ho-he-he').

Ok... ok ok ok I'm sorry for being so vulgar. Let me take a step back.. But I'm sure, we've all been, tried, or still on some kind of diet. The diet doesn't necessarily mean weight lost. Some can just be a way of eating habits. Some can be... on a cookie diet. I love cookies... and fries.. and chicken.. fried... and I am DEFINITELY one of those people that goes to a steak house, and look for the largest oz of steak on the menu. I don't believe in 12-16oz steaks... 24oz+ and I'm in HEAVEN!

*sigh* I digress.

GYOZA TIME:

Recipe:

1. ONE BAG OF FROZEN GYOZA.
2. 4 tablespoons of Olive oil (or vegetable).
3. 1/4 cup of water

I've been using a lot of canola oil after seeing Bobby Flay use a ton of it on his show "BBQ addict" shown of Food Network from 6:30AM-7:00AM pst. But, I realized that it had a strong flavor I wasn't too pleasant with. Normally, I can't really taste the difference between oils. But after using the Olive Oil from Costco for a LONG TIME (literally 2 large jugs for like, $24, a STEAL), I've grown to love the flavors it provided to my dishes. With that said, I could really taste the canola oil take over the dishes that I've made. So for this gyoza, I would honestly, use olive oil.

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This is the intense part. No one is allowed to talk to you in this moment of solitude. The sound of the sizzle, the oil splatters, the sounds of your heartbeat as you are scared to your buns that oil is going to pop your eye out. Don't worry, that will all end. I poured the water into the pan maybe about 2 minutes of watching it sizzle on medium high. After the water drops, close the lid for about 5 minutes. Once the lid opens, the gyoza should look translucent. But the real test is when you flip them.

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This is when I die. The crispy bottoms just makes me oh-so-happy. I tilt all of them to their side to get the slightest color on them before turning off the stove. During the process of waiting for the bottoms to color, I needed to add a little more water to make sure the dumpling was cooked throughout. But this really depends on your stove and how much your pan wants to work with you that day.

I ate this with a lot of Sriracha and some Broccoli sauteed in a lot of garlic.

So quick, so comforting, so happy.

Happy dumplings and oil splatters.

Daiisies

Hashbrown Breakfast

Here I go again. OK, so watching Homeland till like 2-3 in the morning has not been the best thing for me. I am groggy during the day and my blood pressure has possibly gone up from all the stress that has been going on from seasons 1-3. Now that I've completed season 3, I can relax for a bit, because there wasn't really a cliffhanger that begs me to start season 4.

Don't tell me I don't have a life. I have a life, and that involves watching whatever I want, eating whatever I want, and basically doing whatever I want. Don't you want this life too?

Breakfast was simple this morning. It consisted of Eggs, Bacon, and homemade Hash browns.

The video was shot on my iPhone 5S so please forgive the quality.

Everything is pretty much self explanatory. Eggs and bacon.  For the Hash Browns, I got one large russet potato which feeds 2 people and sometimes even 3 depending on how large it actually is. I scrubbed the potato under some running water making sure that it is clean. I didn't peel my potato, but you can always do so.

I grated the potato on the coarse side with a standard box grater (I used OXO < click for reference). A quick rinse will help relieve the starchiness of the potato. Make sure the potatoes are dried with a towel to relieve the moisture. On medium high heat with your choice of oil, layer on your hashes. I let it go for about 3 minutes before deciding to flip. You will know it's read to flip when the hash browns become a sheet from crisping on the bottom.

One important rule! Don't forget to salt your hash browns! I'd rather have NO hash browns than to have bland ones. AND! A nonstick pan was also used.

I sliced up a Spanish (Yellow) onion and sauteed it to pour over the hash browns. The dish is served with ketchup and hot sauce.

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Daiisies breakfast plate

This face was inspired by all of you. Because this is how you make me feel. I don't even know how to explain the way it looks. Kind of like the cookie monster right? Gosh I feel so freaking creative right now. Give me a moment....

I am forever turned to home making hash browns. If you are going to make a big batch, use a food processor. I decided to use a hand grater instead since I didn't feel like washing an appliance for one potato.

Good Morning ;P

Daiisies