The first time I had mango chutney, it was in NYC at Pomme Frites paired with their delicious belgian fries. They had a ton of other sauce choices to choose but my friends definitely recommended the mango chutney. It was pretty darn good that I wanted to try out this recipe for myself. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Ingredients:
3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 large mangoes, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup (125 mL) white vinegar
1 tablespoon (15 mL) lemon juice
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon each: ground nutmeg and salt
1/3 teaspoon cloves
Directions:
1. Combine apples, mangoes, onion, and vinegar in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, and boil gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until fruit is tender and mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally.
2. Add sugar, lemon juice, curry powder, cloves, cinnamon, and salt; boil gently for 5 minutes.
I love that this sauce can be used with several things; a dipping sauce, marinate sauce for chicken dish. Either way, you will have fun thinking up of different ways to use this. I have a dish in mind to use with this in the next post coming soon.
This dessert has got to be the most easiest one to do in a short time and you have yourself a nice treat. It's one of hubby's favorite cantonese dessert and I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. There are recipes out there to add green jelly or seaweed texture called Rue or literary translation "Stink Grass" (臭草) to the soup, but I prefer the dessert without.
I just did a quick search on the nutrition facts of mung bean since I always loved the dessert growing up, but now curious to know if this dish is healthy for you. In fact, I'm happy to say that it is! Asians have since claimed mung bean to be a perfect slimming food, because not only is it low in fat, mung bean is also a rich source of protein, and fiber which enables one to lower the high cholesterol level in body system. The high fiber in mung bean yields complex carbohydrate which improves digestion and the complex carb helps to stabilize blood sugar in our body by preventing rapid rise after meal. It keeps our energy at an even level. Frequent consumption of green bean is beneficial to diabetes and one who suffers from high cholesterol level.
Wow, I had no idea this mung bean packs a mean healthy diatribe behind it. Good to know and now without further ado, onward with the easy recipe tutorial.
Ingredients:
1 cup of Green Mung Beans
1 small container of coconut milk
3 T of sugar
Directions:
First, rinse the beans three times with water, then fill the pot 3/4 ways full. Bring pot to boil for about 20-30 minutes until beans opened up. Then, add your coconut milk and sugar and you're good to serve.
I must say hubby was the last person who I would turn for healthy eating, but he introduced me to this Southern American crop-like grain, quinoa (pronounced kinwa), and I've been obsessed ever since. This healthy grain seed, that when cooked has an al dente pasta zest to it, is packed with high proteins - the protein that is complete with 9 essential amino acids making it a great added choice to any vegans' diet.
Not only that, but this tiny grain is a great source of magnesium that helps relax blood vessels, so improves cardiovascular health and lessens migraines. See why I love this grain so much and I am glad hubby loves it too, since heart problems do run in his family. Better to eat healthy now to prevent future problems, that's for sure.
Ever since I had a little taste of this quinoa, I've been researching into different types of recipes that I could use it in. First one being chili - my first ever chili recipe as well as using quinoa for it. I adapted this recipe from Two Peas and their Pod and added my spin to it.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground turkey (optional)
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 package of chili mix
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan, combine the quinoa and water. Cook over medium heat until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Set aside.
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, jalapeño, carrot, celery, peppers, and zucchini. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
3. In a skillet, add your turkey over 1T of olive oil and brown. (optional)
4. Add the black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Stir in the cooked quinoa and turkey. Season with chili powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Simmer chili on low for about 30 minutes. Serve warm.
The best thing about cooking in a big pot is that you can freeze half of it for the following week. I hope you enjoy this and if you do try, please let me know in comment section.
So I was finally able to convince hubby to start eating healthy ever since we started P90X and the first step to that was eating more veggies and cutting out red meat. I absolutely love broccoli and all types of veggies, so decided to make this dish surrounding it.
This is a simple dish that did not take much prep time and tasted so delish. Hope you enjoyed this!
Ingredients:
5 pieces of chicken thighs
1 cup Ginger dressing
2-3 cloves Garlic
1T of Ginger slices
Two broccoli heads
2T of Oyster Sauce
1T of vegetable oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Next, prepped the chicken by trimming down most of the fat and create 2-3 slits on the thighs for faster cooking. Then, chop up garlic, slice up the ginger and add to bowl big enough to hold the thighs. Place the thighs in and add the ginger dressing. Salt and Pepper to your desired taste. Marinate for about 20 minutes.
Line your baking pan with foil paper and add thighs on top. Then bake one side for 20 minutes, turn thighs for another 20 minutes. To test if chicken has cooked through, you can poke at the thighs and if the liquid runs clear with no redness, then they are ready to serve.
Next, cut up the broccoli into smaller bite size pieces, wash and add to a pot of boiling water and stir for about 1 min or so. I like to flash boil broccoli or cauliflower prior to cooking them in a wok. Around this time, heat up your work with 1T of vegetable oil, add your oyster sauce and some water from the broccoli pot. Then with a slotted spoon, start transferring broccoli over to wok and toss around until they are covered with sauce. Remove from heat and start plating.
Happy 2012 everyone! I made these sliders after catching a show of "Easy Chinese: San Francisco" with Ching-He Huang for a friend's NYE's potluck dinner. Ms. Huang made it look so easy and in fact, it was. I had tweaked the recipe a bit since I didn't have some of the ingredients handy, but still turned out fine.
For the meatballs: In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the pork, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine, cornstarch, sesame oil, garlic, egg, scallion, salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into 8 portions and form 8 meatballs; set aside.
Fill a wok or large pot halfway with peanut oil. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F over medium-high heat. (Be careful not to heat the oil high because apparently peanut oil splatters quite a bit - you've been warned =P) If frying in a wok, make sure that the wok is stable on a burner or wok ring.
Fry the meatballs until golden brown and cooked through (an instant-read thermometer should read 165 degrees F), 5 to 7 minutes. (I didn't have a thermometer, so I definitely made sure I cooked them thoroughly, flipping few mins on each side, before removing) Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels.
For the sauce: Carefully transfer the oil to a heat-proof container and wipe out the wok. Heat the wok over high heat and add the peanut oil. Stir-fry the ginger for 30 seconds, and then stir in the hoisin sauce and honey. Bring to a simmer, and then cook for 1 to 2 minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, stir in a little water to thin it out. Return the meatballs to the wok and toss them in the sauce to coat.
For the sliders: Layer the bottom of the buns with shredded lettuce and a couple cucumber slices. (I didn't shred the romaine lettuce that I bought but instead just tore them into small sizes and place on buns.) Cut the meatballs in half and place half the meatball, cut-side down, on the bottom bun. Add the top bun. Skewer half a cherry tomato with a sandwich pick and insert into the slider to hold it together. (Completely forgot about the sandwich skewers, but used colorful toothpicks to keep all layers in place) Repeat with the remaining sandwiches.
Hubby and friends ate up several of these before heading to NYE's potluck dinner. This was such an easy recipe to make and definitely something that can be whipped together if you ever need to bring a dish. Bon Appetit! =)
When you hear the word compost, you would never associate that with cookies. However, the genius people at Momofuku decided to combine all your fave snack ingredients into one cookie. Ever since I was introduced to these compost cookies from Momofuku's Milkbar, I was hooked. Momofuku also published its second book, Milkbar, that features all the popular baked good recipes you would find in the store. Since I was home in Philly for the holidays, my little sister wanted to make these, so I decided to put together a recipe tutorial along with photo snapshots of how to create these yummy goodness. It's recommended to use glucose since light corn syrup is a lot sweeter and less dense. Since we didn't have glucose handy, which you can find on Amazon, we went ahead and used light corn syrup.
Also my parents don't have a Kitchen Aid mixer and it would be silly for me to bring mine from MD, so we made do with a handheld one. Using a paddle with the Kitchen Aid mixer will give you better results when ingredients together. Without further ado, recipe & tutorial below.
Ingredients:
2 sticks of room temperature butter 1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar 2 tablespoons glucose or 1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 egg ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup mini chocolate chips ½ cup mini butterscotch chips
½ cup graham crust 1/3 cup rolled oats
2 ½ teaspoon coffee 2 cups potato chips
1 cup mini pretzels
Instructions:
Combine the butter (room temperature), sugars, and light syrup in a bowl and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes. If butter begins to separate or turn into soup, put into fridge for 5 minutes and try again.
Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Place 1/3 cup of oatmeal into a ziploc bag and break apart the oats with a rolling pin, then combine into the bowl along with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust, and ground coffee. Incorporate the ingredients on low speed, about 30 seconds.
Add the chips and pretzels, mashed gently and combine on low speed. Be careful not to over-mix.
Using 2 ¾-ounce ice cream scoop or a 1/3-cup measure, portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature – they will not bake properly.
When you are ready to bake, pre-heat the oven at 375 degrees
Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle and spread. After 18 minutes, they should be very faintly browned on the edges yet still bright yellow in the center. Give them an extra minute or so if that’s not the case.
Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temperature, cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
Since we used light syrup instead of glucose, the cookies came out a little flatter, but they tastes just the same, which is an A in my book - yum! Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!
Whenever I think of potluck with friends, it always brings such warm thoughts to mind. Especially when you have great company and food. When Linda decided to come over one friday night, we decided to throw some yummy appetizers together and enjoyed them over a nice glass of wine. She brought over her pumpkin whoopie pies and crackers and I threw together a 7-layer taco dip and this baked brie below.
Spray baking pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice the brie in half and place one puff pastry sheet on pan. Lay bottom half of brie on puff pastry, add cranberry, honey and almond filling and add top of brie to sandwich. Then fold puff pastry over top of brie making sure all sides are pressed closed so no filling will ooze out. Brush egg over top of pastry and bake in oven for 20 mins, flip the brie, lower the oven temp to 325 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. Now you are ready to serve crackers. This easy recipe is perfect for any potluck gathering.
I've always been meaning to add red wine to my diet for the antioxidants, but I can't really stand any type of alcohol taste. Until this wine came along. You can find this at a fine wine store and it's dark chocolate-flavored red wine and it's as yummy as it sounds.
I got to hung out with some pretty great life-long friends with majority of them being filipino during my college years. During those times, we would always have pot-lucks and I grew to love the food that they bring. One of the dish was a banana roll dessert called Turon that was so delish. I don't typically like to eat ripe bananas raw so I decided to turn them into yummy dessert the other day . There's a recipe online that I modified using what ingredients I had on hand. I didn't have lumpia wrappers or langka on hand, so I used chinese egg roll wrappers and didn't add the langka.
The result tasted just great and made a fast and simple dessert in no time.
Bon Appétit or, as you would say it in Tagalog, Kainan na! =)
Whenever I pass by those stores in Chinatown that have roasted duck, soy sauce chicken and char siu pork hanging up, I always thought they were too complicated to make. Until now. I was at the store the other day and saw a packet of char siu dry rub and decided to go ahead and try it out.
I just followed the instructions on the back of the packet and it was so simple that I wished I'd had done it sooner. First though to prepare the pork for marinating, I cut any rind and fat off it. Then add half cup of water to the char siu mix and make sure that the pork is thoroughly marinated through and let sit in fridge for 4 hrs or overnight. Then preheat oven to 350 degrees and let pork cook for 20 mins, turn and cook for another 20 mins. I let the pork cooked another 10 mins longer just to be safe and the pork tasted just like the ones in the store. It's definitely hubby-approved! For extra flavor, I would probably rub the pork with the dry mix instead of adding water.
I haven't updated this site in awhile, but today I found some motivation to finally test out a recipe on one of my fave food ever - Korean Chicken Wings. I had bumped into fellow blogger's recipe on it and had to try it out. The recipe was easy enough to follow and prep time was minimal - perfect on days when you don't feel like spending hours in the kitchen.
I didn't really follow the recipe to a "T" and tweaked it according to my taste. Instead of Sriracha as the recipe called, I added korean hot pepper taste for authenticity sake and added half a cup of it. In hindsight, I would've added alot more hot pepper taste for that ultimate spicy-ness, because half was not enough. I also didn't add the green onions or the garlic cloves for the sauce, but the wings tasted just as awesome. I added another tablespoon of soy sauce, because the sugar seemed to overpower the taste a bit; either that or reduce the amount of sugar by half.
That's it! Simple enough and you have yourself some yummy crunchy chicken wings to satisfy your tastebuds. This was my first trial run with the recipe and turned out well. Hope you all enjoy! =)
This dish reminds me of childhood when my mom would always make it for us but I never really got the recipe down. Recently, my sister sent me this recipe that she had found and tried out, which of course I had try it out myself.
Ingredients:
Beef Marinade
1.5 lbs beef sirloin (or any cut you like) cut into 1″ cubes
2 tbs minced garlic
1.5 tbs sugar
2 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 ts thick soy sauce
Vinaigrette
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1.5 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs salt
Dipping Sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 ts kosher salt
1/2 ts fresh cracked pepper
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 bunches of watercress, long stems trimmed
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
Cooking oil for frying
Method:
Prepare marinade by combining garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce, thick soy sauce and sesame oil with the beef for at least half an hour, preferably 1-2 hrs.
Prepare vinaigrette by mixing rice vinegar with salt and sugar. It should be a balance of sour, salty and sweet.
Thinly slice the red onion and use about 3-4 tbs of the vinaigrette to pickle and set aside covered in fridge for about 10 minutes. Prepare bed of watercress and tomatoes in a serving platter and set aside.
Heat a large wok or pan over high heat. Add about 2 tbs cooking oil and when it begins to smoke, add an even layer of beef and allow to sear for about 2 minutes, before “shaking” to sear the opposite sides for about another 1-2 minute more to brown all the sides. Do this in batches to cook all the beef if necessary.
Transfer beef to bed of watercress and tomatoes. Drizzle another 3-4 tbs of vinaigrette over the beef and greens and top with pickled red onions. Lastly, squeeze lime juice over salt and pepper in a small ramekin.
This dish was so easy to make and so yum! I did however lessen the amount of fish sauce in the dish only because hubby is not too in favor of the scent. He still enjoyed it nonetheless and I definitely have to thank Ravenous Couple for the recipe. Try it out and let me know what you think! =)
I was visiting my sister in NJ two weekends ago and we were hankering for some korean bbq so she took me to this one. The place held about 6-8 tables for bbq grilling and it was filled up by the time we got there so we waited a bit. The host was extremely nice letting us sit at one of the empty tables and before long, we were seated.
We ordered one regular kalbi and another kalbi in the special sauce along with soondobu and japchae. Everything came out promptly and side dishes were aplenty. The meat is grilled over hot coals, which adds so much flavor to the meat.
If you haven't been to this place yet, it's a definite must. The prices are in the usual $18-$20 for each meat order and of course, you come out smelling like bbq, but I never really have a problem with that. =D
Also for a fraction of the price and if you don't have a great Korean bbq near you, you may want to try this recipe at home that I found online. It was super easy and you'll be grilling away in no time. =) I have a portable gas grill from years back and added a round grill top that I bought from local Hmart last year just for Korean BBQ.
Kalbi Marinade Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups soy sauce
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a medium yellow onion, chopped
3 large green onions, cut into small pieces
2 tbl toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
4-6 pounds of Korean short-ribs
DIRECTIONS:
Place ribs in a large ziplock bag or a dish that can hold them all (I used a large pot with lid). Combine all the ingredients together and stir for 1 minute. Pour the marinade into the pot, dish, or ziplock over the meat making sure ll the ribs have been coated. Cover and refrigerate over night. The next morning make sure to place the ribs that were on the bottom on top, and vice versa. Continue to refrigerate until its time to grill.
Heat grill to medium-high heat and when the grill is nice and hot add meat. Grill each side for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with additonal slices of green onion and toasted sesame seeds.
This has been a staple in the kitchen almost every friday for dinner and tastes great as leftovers too. You can alter the recipe to add beef, chicken or different veggies according to preference.
Ingredients:
Package of egg noodles
Choy Sum veggies
1 cup of pork
1 tsp of salt & pepper
1 clove of garlic
few slices of ginger
3 T of starch
2 T of soy sauce
1 T of oyster sauce
First, soak the egg noodles to wash off any flour and heat up non-stick wok. Add 1 T of oil to coat the wok and place the egg noodles on medium heat to fry. Continue to watch over the wok, adding a little bit more oil and flipping the noodles over to fry the other side. Repeat to cover all areas of noodles. Once done, place on dish and set aside.
Next, wash the veggies three times and set aside. Cut up the pork into thin slices, place in bowl, add soy sauce with 1 T of starch and mix it up. Chop up the garlic and slice the ginger then place them in 1 T of oil in same wok and stir over medium-high heat. Now, the lazy cook way of cooking which MIL taugh me (haha) to reduce cooking time is place the veggies in the wok, then scatter the pork slices over top. Add about 2 T of water in the wok and cover with lid over medium heat. Wait about 5 mins and uncover to stir then add a pinch or two of salt and oyster sauce for flavor. Stir and cover for next few mins. Next, add 2 T of starch to 1 T of water and mix then pour over veggie mix. Stir completely then pour veggie mixture over noodles. Pepper to flavor and ready to eat! Enjoy =)
Wanna know how to make these wings? It's actually easier than you think!
Ingredients:
5-6 wings
Char siu sauce (found at your asian grocery store)
That's it? Yep,that's all the ingredients you'll need - easy right? Now, preheat oven for 375. Then give the wings a good rinse. Next, open up the jar of char siu sauce, pour some over in a small bowl then either use a brush or hands, lather up each wing nicely then lay them on a broil pan. Set timer for 30 mins. Come back 15 mins later to flip the wings then once time is up, brush over more char siu sauce to the wings. Flip the wings and set timer for another 20 mins and voila! Now you have yummy wings that would be gone in a split second. Enjoy =)
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