Pan-fried Dumplings

Pan fried dumplings (guotie) also known as "potstickers" in N. America, (鍋貼; guotie), also referred to as "dry-fried dumplings" (煎餃;  jianjiao)

Common dumpling meat fillings include pork, beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion (spring onions), flowering garlic chives, and Chinese chives. Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar, garlic, ginger, rice wine, hot sauce, and sesame oil.  This time I had the dipping sauce that includes soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and sesame oil.  It tastes very good.  Another essential feature of good pan-fried dumplings it to have thin and crispy bottom crust.

Ingredients:

1. 300 g ground pork

2. 1-1/2 cups finely chopped flowering garlic chives

 
3. 3 cups finely chopped Napa cabbage
4. 2 tablespoons minced ginger
5. 1 egg
6. 2 teaspoons Less Sodium Soy Sauce
7. 1 tablespoon wine
8. 1/3 teaspoon salt
9. 2 tablespoons sesame oil
10. 2 tablespoons cornstarch
11. 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
12. 1/2 cup chicken broth (or cold water）
13. 50 Dumpling wrappers (approx.)
14. Flour/water mixture for pan-frying: 1-1/2 cup water + 1-1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour


Directions:
1. Add 1 teaspoon salt to the chopped Napa Cabbage and mix with hands, let sit for 20 minutes, This will make most of liquid in the vegetable to come out.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix ground pork and ingredients item 4 through item 11 with a wooden spoon. Gradually add in chicken broth, stir energetically after each adding until all chicken broth has been added and mixed well with ground pork. Now, the ground pork will become moisture, soft and sticky.

3. Add Chinese Leek Flower to ground pork. Squeeze off juice from Napa Cabbage and add the cabbage to ground pork. Mix well ground pork, Chinese Leek Flower and Napa Cabbage to make the filling for dumplings.

4. Prepare a cup of water for wrapping dumplings. Place 1 tablespoonful of filling in the middle of a dumpling wrapper, moisten the edge of the wrapper with water, fold wrapper in half, press top and bottom edges together, and leave left and right sides slightly open, gently press down the dumpling while pressing the top edge to make the filling evenly distributed at the bottom. Set aside the wrapped dumplings on a tray dusted with flour or lined with baking paper.

5. In a non-stick skillet, heat up 3 to 5 tablespoons oil (Oil usage is depending on how big the skillet is and how many dumplings are to be cooked in each batch) to medium high. Place dumplings side by side lined up in skillet, lower the heat to medium and fry for one to two minutes (no stirring). Pour the flour/water mixture into the skillet and fill up to 1/3 of the dumpling’s height, cover with lid and lower heat to medium low, cook about 6 to 7 minutes, or until the liquid in the skillet is almost dry out. Open the lid, continue to cook with low heat, cook until the bottom is turning golden brown and liquid is all dry out. Remove dumplings with spatula or just cover with a plate and flip the skillet over to let the fried dumplings drop in the plate (Tip 1).

Tip 1: Do not stir or flip over dumplings during the whole process of cooking.

Spring Roll with Beancurd Wrapper

This is one of the favorite dishes of my family. It seems to be complicate in preparing, but each step is simple.  This dish always rewards me with lots of compliments from its great taste.

Fresh beancurd wrapper (fresh beancurd sheet) used in this dish is normally sold at the oriental supermarkets in their freezer section.  It contains 4 or 5 sheets each package.  Before cooking, just take out from freezer and let sit in room temperature for about 15 minutes, and then it becomes soft and workable.  Each sheet can be opened up to a circle about 65 cm in diameter.  Cut each sheet into smaller sheets as the figure shown below.  Place filling on each small sheet and roll up just like regular spring roll.  If the beancurd wrapper shows cracks or holes, just add another sheet and wrap up both sheets at the same time, this won’t affect the taste at all.  Use a damp paper towel or damp cloth to cover un-used sheets or wrapped rolls to prevent the wrappers become stiff.  Place un-used small sheets or original sheets in a freezer-safe storage bag and store in the freezer.

Ingredients:
1.  150 g ground pork
2. 1 egg
3. 1 tablespoon minced ginger
4. 1~2 green onions, chopped
5. 2 teaspoon light soy sauce
6. 1/3 teaspoon salt
7. 1 teaspoon wine
8. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
9. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
10. Ground pepper
11. ½ piece cased tofu (200 g)
12. 12 small sheets beancurd wrapper
13. cilantro

Seasonings for Gravy Sauce:
1. 3/4 cup chicken broth or water
2. 1 tablespoon vegetarian mushroom oyster oil
3. 1 teaspoon sugar
4. dash of salt
5. 1 tablespoon wet cornstarch (mixing with water ratio 1:2)
6. 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:
1. Put ingredients item 1 through item 10 in a mixing bowl, stir and mix well. Press tofu into fine pieces and mix well with ground pork to make the filling.
2. Cut the fresh beancurd wrapper into smaller pieces. Place a tablespoonful of filling on the pre-cut wrapper, roll and wrap it up like a spring roll. Seal the end opening with wet cornstarch and place in plate with the sealing facing down.
3. Heat up 3 tablespoons oil in a non-stick pan to medium high.  Place spring rolls into the pan with the end opening facing down, pan fry each side for about 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown on both sides.  Place the fried spring rolls in a deep dish.

4. Steam the pan-fried spring rolls at medium high for about 20 minutes (or steam with rice cooker).
5. Before serving, heat the pan to medium high, bring chicken broth (or water) to boil, add oyster oil, sugar and dash salt. When it's boiling again, pour in wet cornstarch to make the gravy sauce, add sesame oil, mix well, remove and pour over on steamed spring rolls.  Serve with chopped cilantro.

Note: I made 12 rolls with these ingredients and separate them in two dishes.  Do not steam the second plate if it’s to be served later or the following day.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator.  Only steam it before serving and cook another gravy sauce.  If total quantity is to be served at one time, the seasonings for gravy sauce needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Stir-fry Shrimp with Rice Stick Noodle

Though I call this dish “Stir-fry Shrimp with Rice Stick Noodle”, since it’s a quick and easy one dish meal, I add many colorful vegetables and egg to enhance the taste and make it not only healthy but even more interesting.  Soy sauce is not used in this dish, which people normally use dark sauce in stir-frying rice noodle, instead, I use ketchup and sugar to make it taste sweet and sour.  It just looks so appealing and tastes so refreshing.

Ingredients（for 2 servings）:
1. 6 extra jumbo shrimps, shelled and deveined
2. 2 eggs, lightly beaten
3. 1 cup onion strings
4. 1 cup snow peas，both ends removed
5. 3/4 cup carrot slices
6. 2 cup Napa cabbage in 1.5 cm wide strips
7. 2 green onions cut in sections
8. 225 g（8 oz.) rice noodle（also named rice stick）
  

Sauce Seasonings:
1. 1 cup chicken broth
2. 2 tablespoons ketchup
3. 1-1/5 tablespoons sugar
4. salt
5. ground pepper

Directions:
1. Clean the shrimps and cut in half from the back, marinate with dash of salt and wine.
2. Lightly beat eggs, stir-fry in the pan with 2 tablespoons hot oil to make scrambled egg.  Cut in small pieces with spatula and remove.
3. Soak rice noodle in boiling water for 5 minutes (or when it’s just turn soft), drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
4. Stir-fry shrimp with 2 tablespoons hot oil, remove when the color changed.
5. Heat up 3 tablespoons oil to medium high, in the sequence to add in onion, then carrot and stir-fry briefly.  Add Napa cabbage, stir-fry until it turns slightly soft.  Add all sauce seasonings, snow pea, green onion and shrimp, cook until boiling, add rice noodle and scrambled egg, mix well and serve.

Fried Pork Chop with Dipping Sauce

This is one of my family’s favorite recipes.  With right preparation and a good dipping sauce, the pan-fried pork chop tastes very appetizing.

Pan-Fried Pork Chop Ingredients:
1. 2 pork chops（with or without bone）
2. ½ cup sweet potato flour
3. 6 tablespoons oil for frying

Marinade for pork chop：
1. 1/4 cup soy sauce
2. 1 tablespoon sugar
3. 1 tablespoon wine
4. 3 gloves garlic, chopped
5. dash of ground pepper
6. dash of salt

Dipping Sauce：
1. 3 tablespoons soy sauce
2. 2 tablespoons black vinegar
3. 2 teaspoons sugar
4. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
5. dash of ground pepper
6. 3 gloves garlic, minced
7. 1 small red chili pepper, sectioned (optional)

Directions：
1. Tenderize pork with a meat mallet.
2.  Mix marinade seasonings, then marinate pork for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat 6 tablespoons frying oil (or just enough oil to reach half thickness of the pork chop) to medium high.  Place sweet potato flour in a shallow dish.  Coat pork chop both sides with sweet potato flour, then pan-fry pork chop until golden brown on both sides; remove.

4. Place the fried pork chop on paper towel to absorb excess oil.  Let cool for 10 minutes, cut pork chop in 1.5 cm wide strips.

5. Mix dipping sauce seasonings, pour over the fried pork chop and serve.

With the sweet potato flour coating, it gives pork chop little crunchiness outside, but tenderness inside.  The dipping sauce makes the fried pork chop taste even more flavorful.

No Knead Bread - Cranberry Walnut Wheat Bread

Kneading dough is a labor-intense task that doesn't always guarantee 100% satisfactory results.  When I first discovered the no knead bread making method, it was such a great surprise to me.


I was skeptical at first, but this recipe has never failed to produce delicious results.  All you need is a casserole dish and the following ingredients:

1.      330 g bread flour

2.      60 g whole wheat flour

3.      ¼ teaspoon salt

4.      1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast

5.      10 sugar

6.      330 g ice-cold water

7.      30 g dried cranberry

8.      60 g chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Combine the bread flour, wheat flour, salt, yeast, and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add in water and mix with hand or a dough whisk.  Very wet dough is formed when dry ingredients are completely incorporated with water.
2. Add dried cranberry and chopped walnut, and fold in with a rubber spatula.
3. Cover the mixing bowl with a plastic bag and seal the opening.  Let it sit in room temperature for 12-16 hours (no more than 20 hours).  At the end of the rising period, the dough is filled with big bubbles and great sweet fragrance.
4. Transfer the dough onto a well-floured surface, dust some more bread flour on the dough, pat the dough or roll with a rolling pin to make flat oblong dough (about 1 cm thick).
5. Fold the dough at one-third to center from both sides of the long end, and fold it in half, dust some more whole wheat flour on the dough, cover loosely with a saran wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Shape the dough into a round dough and transfer to a well floured (whole wheat flour) cloth (or into a well floured mixing bowl).  Cover with towel and let rise about 1-1/2 hours.
7. When the dough has risen for 1 hour, preheat oven with covered casserole dish in it to Fahrenheit 430 degrees.
8. Transfer the risen dough into the casserole dish, and bake with lid covered for 30 minutes.
9. Remove cover; bake for another 8-10 minutes.
10. Let cool completely on rack.

The bread comes out with crispy crust, soft and tasty inside.  I love it and plan to make more.




Reference - No Knead Bread Making: Breadtopia

Deep-fried Mixed Vegetables

It was in Indonesia when I had this dish for the first time. That was many years ago, my husband had a job assignment in Indonesia and our daughter was only few months old, we resided there for less than a year. We had very nice easy life there with housemaid and chauffeur.

One day our maid made this dish, my husband and I both liked it very much.  The maid told us it was called “goreng sayuran” in Indonesian, it means “deep-fried vegetables” in English.  This is a very common fast food sold at local street vendors.  Normally Indonesian they like to dip with hot chili sauce that was made with various chili peppers.  For us, we like it simply dip in soy sauce with chopped garlic.  This is the best dish I’ve learned in Indonesia though, one because the ingredients needed are very common, secondly, our whole family all love it.  Until now, every time I made this dish, it reminds us of our Indonesian maid, a lively and courteous young woman with very dark skin.

Normally, I like to use carrot (red), potato (yellow), green bean (green) and onion (white) these various vegetables with different colors.  Have them all cut or shredded into strings at about the same size.  These will not only look colorful, have the same texture, and they all get cooked in about the same time.  Sweet potato can also be used to substitute carrot (orange flesh) or potato (white flesh).


Ingredients:
1. 2 cups shredded carrot
2. 2 cups shredded potato 
3. 1 cup green beans, cut in 1.5” long sections
4. 1-1/2 cups onion strings
5. ¾ cup flour (all-purpose flour or cake flour)
6. ¾ cup ice-cold water
7. ½ teaspoon baking powder
8. 1 tablespoon oil
9. Frying oil

Seasonings:
Dash of salt and ground pepper

Dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

Directions:
1. Have all vegetables cut and shredded, mixed in a big bowl (soak shredded potato in cold water for about 30 seconds, drain and pat dried with paper towel before mixing with other vegetables, this will prevent it turns brown before cooking)。
2. Lightly mix ingredients item 5 through 8 to make batter in a small mixing bowl (stop mixing as long as there’s no big lumps).

3. Heat the frying oil to very high, and then lower to medium high.  Add dash of salt and ground pepper in mixed vegetables and mix them well (don’t add too much salt and don’t add it too early, this will prevent too much liquid coming out of vegetables).  Add half of flour batter into the big bowl of vegetables, mix well with a big spoon, make sure every piece of vegetable is coating with flour batter.  A little more can be added until every piece of vegetable is coating with a thin layer of flour batter.  Pick up some batch mixed vegetables with a shallow cooking spoon (about ¾ full, don’t pick up too much batter, Tip 1).  Slowly let the vegetables slide into the oil against the siding of wok with a little pushing by chopsticks, hold the batch with chopsticks for several seconds until the vegetable is being set and formed.  Push the small batch away from siding of wok when one side is turning golden brown, flip side and continue frying (about 1-2 minutes each side). Remove, drain oil, dry excess oil on paper towel.  Do the same for all vegetables, little batch after little batch.
4. Best to serve with dipping sauce while it's warm.

Tip 1: Every small batch of vegetables should weave and stick together consisting of various colors.  Do not fry with too much batter in each spoonful that will form a thick cake at bottom and won’t get the crispy taste.

(pieces on the right are the bottom look with minimum batter)

Fried Bun with Sesame and Green Onion

This is an easy making bun which requires limited ingredients and simple procedures to follow, almost impossible to fail.  This bun is pan-fried with some oil at medium low heat, so the outside of the bun tastes crispy.  However, the inside of the bun is slowly cooked though during that time (like baking procedure), it tastes soft and fluffy. With sesame and green onion in every bite, it comes with unbelievable fragrance and flavor.  You can have it go with a meal, eat as a snack or as breakfast.

 
Dough Ingredients:
1. 600 g all-purpose flour
2. 315 g milk
3. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4. 2 tablespoons sugar
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
7. 1 cup white sesame


Bun filling ingredients:
1. 3 cups chopped green onions
2. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. ½ teaspoon ground pepper


Directions:
1. Have all dough ingredients (Tip 1, except white sesame) mixed in the mixing bowl, mix them well and knead into a round and smooth dough (or using Stand Mixer dough hook to knead for about 15 minutes).  Leave the dough in the mixing bowl covered with a damp cloth, and let it raise for 30 minutes.


2. Mix all filling ingredients in a small mixing bowl.

3. Cut the dough into small pieces, about 65 g to 70 g each. With a rolling pin, roll out the smaller dough to a oblong flat dough (about 6”x 7”), place one tablespoon green onion filling at one-third of the long side near your body (crossing the short side), brush the dough surface with some of the filling juice  (leave the edge dry), start wrapping up the filling and rolling the dough from your body toward outside.  Round the wrapped dough into a snail-like shape or gently tuck one end under another one.  Place the snail-like dough on a surface generously dusted with flour or lined with parchment paper to raise for 30 minutes.

4. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil to medium low temperature in a frying pan.  Place white sesame in a plate, pick up the raised dough while holding both ends together, dip in the sesame to have both sides covered with sesame, then place it in the frying pan.  Fried until one side is turning golden brown, flip over to another side and continue frying at medium low.  When second side is turning golden brown, gently press the bun with a spatula to see if the inside is still soft.  If both sides are brown but the inside is still not firm enough, lower the heat to let it stay in pan for another few minutes to make sure the dough inside is thoroughly cooked. You can also pick up the bun with a pair of tongs and roll the bun vertically at bottom of the pan to have siding slightly browned as well.  Remove and place it on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.  Do 3 or 4 buns each batch, add oil if needed.

See the layers inside the bun!

Tip 1: Keep 20-30 g milk and add in gradually while kneading.  Various brands of flour may need different quantity of liquid.  Adjust flour and milk quantities until you can have a soft and smooth dough.

Udon Stir-fried with Shrimp and Mixed Vegetables

This is a quick and easy meal and you can take this opportunity to clean up all the small quantities of vegetables in your refrigerator.  Have some meat or shrimp.  Find some vegetable in various colors.  Always keep some individually packed Udon (Japanese style thick noodle) in stock.  You can have this meal done in 30 minutes.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

1. Udon 2 servings, with soup base packet
2. 6 jumbo shrimp
3. 2 eggs, slightly beaten
4. 1 carrot
5. 1/3 yellow onion
6. handful of snap beans
7. 3 brown mushrooms
8. green leafy vegetable (small Chinese cabbage, bok choy, cabbage or napa cabbage)
9. 4 slices Kamaboko (Steamed Surimi Seafood)
10. 3/4 cup chicken broth

Seasoning:

Salt, pepper and wine

Directions:

1. Have shrimps peeled and deveined, sliced in half from the back, marinated with dash of salt and 2 tablespoons wine.  Cut Kamaboko slices in half.  Peel and slice carrot. Slice yellow onion.  Remove both ends of snap beans and cut in 1.5 in. sections.  Remove stem of mushrooms and slice them.  Wash leafy vegetable and cut in 1.5 in. sections.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil, drop beaten eggs, stir-fry to make scrambled egg, cut in smaller pieces with spatula and remove.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil, add shrimp, stir-fry until cooked and remove.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil, stir-fry briefly onion, carrot, snap bean, add chicken broth, one packet of soup base, brown mushrooms, leafy vegetable, shrimp, Kamaboko, udon noodle, season with salt and pepper, cook until udon is getting soft and loosened.  Add scrambled egg pieces, mix well, remove and serve.

Tofu Ball with Ground Pork and Mushroom

Ground meat is mainly used when we make meat ball. I called these tofu balls because tofu is used as primary ingredient and ground pork is acting as a secondary one. In addition to tofu and ground pork, some finely chopped Enoki mushroom and chopped dried mushroom were used to give it more taste and texture. The ground pork takes up only about one-third of the total weight. This is a great and healthy way to cut down meat consumption.

Ingredients:
1. 1 case medium firm tofu
2. 150 g ground pork
3. 120 g Enoki mushroom
4. 2 dried mushrooms
5. 8 heads Green Baby Bok Choy (or 4 heads regular Bok Choy, quartered vertically through the head)

Seasoning A : 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt, ground pepper
Seasoning B : 2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce, ½ tablespoon sugar, ½ cup water, ½ tablespoon wet cornstarch (mixed with 2 tablespoons water)

Directions:
1. Remove the root of Enoki mushroom, drop Enoki in boiling water for few seconds, remove, drain and rinse it in cold water, squeeze off excess water and chop it in fine pieces. Soak dried mushroom in warm water, remove the stem when it becomes soft, chop mushroom in fine pieces. Press and cut tofu in fine pieces with a spoon (or press it through a strainer). Chop ground pork to make it even finer. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

2. Add everything in Seasoning A in tofu mixture, mix well. Heat up oil in a deep fry pan to high temperature (a tiny drop of tofu in the oil will sizzle right away), then lower to medium high. Place a tablespoonful of tofu mixture in one palm, shape it with a tablespoon and form an egg shape ball, drop the ball in the hot oil gently. Do the same with the rest tofu mixture (several ones in each batch). Deep-fry these balls until they turn golden brown, and float at surface. (Tip 1)

3. Boil Green Baby Bok Choy in boiling water for 30 seconds (Tip 2), remove, drain and rinse in cold water. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil in wok, stir-fry Bok Choy briefly, remove and arrange it at outer rim of a big plate.

4. Boil Seasoning B in wok, lower to medium low flame, add tofu balls in the gravy sauce, mix well, remove and place in the plate surrounded by Bok Choy.

Tip 1: It might stick at bottom of pan when it was just dropped into the oil. Don’t move it until it turns slightly brown.
Tip 2: Add ½ teaspoon salt into the boiling water will help keeping the green of the vegetable.

Lemon Chicken Slices

Most of time soy sauce is used to marinate chicken or is used as sauce base for stir-fry chicken. Today I am thinking of a different way of cooking chicken, soy-sauce-free. Lemon is used as the sauce base. The tender chicken goes through your taste buds with sweet and sour taste, and you smell the fragrance of lemon in every bite. It sure will give you a good appetite.

Ingredients：
1. skinless/boneless chicken breast 250 g
2. sugar snap peas 100 g
3. 1 carrot
4. 3 brown mushrooms

A. Marinade seasonings for chicken breast:
1. 1/2 tablespoon wine
2. 1/4 teaspoon salt
3. 1/2 egg or 1 egg yolk
4. 3/4 tablespoon cornstarch

B. Seasonings for lemon sauce:
1. 1 slice lemon, quartered
2. 3 tablespoons lemon juice
3. 3 tablespoons sugar
4. ¼ teaspoon salt
5. 1/3 cup water
6. ½ tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:
1. Cut chicken breast in thin slices, use seasoning A to marinate chicken for about 15 minutes。
2. Trim both ends of sugar snap peas; peel carrot and cut it in thin slices; remove mushroom stems and cut it in slices.
3. Heat up 4 tablespoons oil in wok to high temperature, add chicken slices and stir-fry briefly. Remove from wok when the color changed.
4. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil, briefly stir-fry sugar snap peas, carrot and then mushroom, one after another, mix well and remove.
5. Boil lemon sauce in seasonings B except lemon slices, add chicken when it’s boiling, add vegetables and lemon slices, mix well and serve.

Spaghetti with Shrimp and Red Onion

This simple yet tasty spaghetti is always placed on the high priority in my quick-and-easy recipes collection (can be done in 30 minutes). As an Asian, I prefer this kind of cheese-free or low-cheese Italian food. It just seems to be lighter and healthier. The combination of shrimp and cooked red onion tastes so sweet and yummy.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
1. 200 g Spaghetti
2. 12 jumbo shrimps
3. 1 medium red onion（around 400 g)
4. 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
5. Vegetable oil (or olive oil)
6. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Seasonings：
1. Salt
2. Cooking Wine
3. Ground pepper
4. Parsley Flakes


Directions:
1. Use a deep pot to boil water. Add spaghetti when water is boiling; add 1 teaspoon salt for seasoning and 1 tablespoon oil to prevent spaghetti stick together. Boil the spaghetti at medium high heat for about 15 minutes or until the spaghetti is getting tender. Drain the spaghetti and set aside (1 teaspoon olive can be mixed with spaghetti before the sauce is ready)
2. While boiling the spaghetti, have the shrimp peeled and deveined, slice the shrimp open on the back. Season the shrimp with dash of salt and 1 teaspoon of wine.
3. Cut red onion into thin strings.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in pan, add chopped garlic, stir-fry until fragrant. Add shrimp, stir-fry until the color changed. Remove the shrimp.
5. Heat 2 tablespoons oil; add red onion and salt stir-fry until it turns translucent. Add shrimp and mix well, Season with ground pepper and parsley flakes. Before it gets ready, add butter and stir-fry until the butter melts, mix well. Remove; pour over the spaghetti and mix well to serve.

Ketchup Fried Rice with Omelet

This is a dish that always reminds me of my childhood with my grandma.  When I was very young, I found out that grandma can turn a Fried Rice into this delicious dish, Then, I’d ask her to cook this dish as a special treat for us whenever she came to visit us.  Though she is a vegetarian, but she would cook this dish with meat and vegetables to make it a nutrition-balanced dish for us.  Best of all, grandma always cooked it with the right taste and made it look so professional.

After I have my own family, I try to replicate how she did this dish in the past, and learn to make this special dish for my family.  They always appreciate it when I present it with a “Happy Face”.

Fried Rice Ingredients: Please refer to Egg Fried Rice with Sausage (Tip 1) reduce to 3 cups rice for 2 servings.

Directions:

1. Follow the directions in Egg Fried Rice, except leaving the eggs out.  When meat and vegetable are cooked and mixed, add 3 tablespoons ketchup and 1 teaspoon sugar, mix well.  Reduce the heat to low, add rice and salt to taste.  Mix well and remove the Ketchup Fried Rice.

2.  2 to 3 eggs can be used for 2 servings.  Beat eggs and add 2 teaspoons wet cornstarch (mixing with 1-1/2 tablespoon water).

3. Clean and dry the wok.  Heat up 1 tablespoon oil in wok to high, tilt the wok to let oil cover a circular area about 25-30 cm in diameter.  When the wok is very hot (Tip 2), remove excess oil, reduce the heat to low, pour half of the egg mixture into wok and start tilting the wok, so the egg mixture will form a circular egg sheet at bottom of wok.  When egg sheet is almost become solid, use a cereal bowl to take half of the Ketchup Fried Rice, carefully flip the bowl, let the rice fall out onto the egg sheet and form a dome shape.  

Use spatula to loosen the edge of egg sheet and fold the siding inward to cover the rice.  Flip a plate upside down to cover the rice and omelet.  With one hand holding the plate and the other hand holding the wok, flip the plate and wok upside down at the same time.  Give the plate a little twist, now the fried rice and omelet should easily fall onto the plate.

4. Use ketchup to draw a happy face for the diner or let the diner to design what they like showing on the omelet.  This can be a fun meal.  Serve a soup at the side will make this a complete and delicious meal.

Tip 1: Kernel corn, green onion, shrimp or meat can all be used or substituted with in the fried rice.

Tip 2: Make sure the wok is very hot before pouring in the egg mixture, this will ensure the egg sheet won’t stick to the wok when it’s flipped over.

Pumpkin Soup with Leek

It’s filled with Halloween spirits everywhere in October. In North America, pumpkin is a very important, traditional part of the autumn harvest. It is used not only in Halloween decorations; it is also often made into various traditional festival foods, such as pie, bread or soup, for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday.

Pumpkin is not only loaded with Vitamin A, it’s also a very good source of Vitamins B6, C, E and Dietary Fiber. This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. Passing by the loads of pumpkins on sale, I cannot help to get one for the pumpkin soup I’ve been craving for. I use two other ingredients, leek and celery, to balance out the heaviness and richness in pumpkin taste without adding much seasoning.

Ingredients:

1. 1 small pumpkin (around 2.5 lb.)
2. 1 bunch Leek
3. 1 stalk celery
4. 1 can (14 oz.) low sodium chicken broth
5. salt, ground pepper

Directions:
1. Put the whole pumpkin in steamer to steam for about 50 minutes or until tender. Cut the pumpkin in half, spoon out and discard the seeds and stringy portion. Peel the pumpkin, cut it into small pieces, put them into a food processor or a blender; puree with 1 can of low sodium chicken broth.
2. Cut leek diagonally in thin strings. Soak in water for a while and wash off the dirt.
3. Cut celery horizontally in 0.5 cm thin sections.

  


4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in pot. Drain the leek and add it into pot, stir-fry until tender and fragrant. Add celery pieces, stir briefly. Add pumpkin puree and one can of water, season with salt and ground pepper. Once the soup comes to boil, lower the heat to medium low and simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove and serve.

30-minute Chicken Noodle Soup

It starts getting rainy and chilly in this early autumn. As I returned home from GYM in this gloomy and damp morning, an idea with a hot soup for lunch has crossed my mind. Hope it will warm my body and my heart.

This soup is made with No Yolks Noodles which claimed to have no cholesterol. It comes with different shapes and sizes.  It can be cooked with other ingredients without pre-cooking.  The leftover is also easy to re-heat that noodle won’t stick together.  I use it quite often to make this quick and easy dish.

Ingredients for Chicken Noodle Soup (for 4 servings):

1.    1 boneless/skinless chicken breast (250 g)

2.    2 carrots

3.    4 stalks celery

4.    1/3 head cabbage

5.    170 g No Yolks Noodles (extra broad dumplings)

6.    1 can (14 oz.) low sodium chicken broth

7.    salt

8.    ground pepper

9.    2 teaspoons dried Mediterranean Oregano Leaves

10.  2 teaspoons dried Parsley Flakes

Directions:

1. Cut chicken breast into chunky cubes.  Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a deep pot, add chicken cubes, season with salt and pepper, stir-fry until chicken turns white.  Add one can chicken broth and four cans water.

2. Peel carrots and cut them into chunky pieces. Add carrots to the pot.

3. Cut celery horizontally into 1 cm wide sections and add them to the pot.

4. When water in the pot is boiling, add Noodles.

5. Cut cabbage into pieces (2 cm square).  Add cabbage to the pot.

6. Season with salt, ground pepper, Oregano Leaves and Parsley Flakes.  Cook until noodle and cabbage are tender, remove and serve.

Tip: Some water may be added if it needs to be re-heated.

Sweet Potato Muffin with Walnuts

 

Sweet potato, this sweet vegetable loaded with many good nutrients, is in season now.  Last weekend, we went to a Sweet Potato Festival in the adjacent town, of cause we have to bring home some freshly picked sweet potatoes.  After having roasted and boiled sweet potatoes, I decide to make some muffins out of it, for a change.

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Muffin with Walnuts:
1. 1/2 cup cake flour
2. 1/2 cup self-rising flour
3. 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5. 1/8 teaspoon salt
6. 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
7. 2 eggs
8. 3/4 cup sugar
9. 3/4 cup cooking oil
9. 1-1/2 cups meshed sweet potato
10. 2 tablespoons honey
11. 1/2 cup raisin
12. 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Combine item 1 through 6 in a bowl, sift and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and sugar, until the egg mixture becomes creamy white.
3. Alternate adding in the cooking oil and the sifted dry ingredients.  Mix well after each addition.
4. Mix meshed sweet potato and honey well with a pastry blender.  Add the sweet potato in to the batter and mix well.

5. Add raisin and ½ cup walnut, mix well.  Using a big scoop to fill the batter into the muffin pan lined with cupcake liners.  Add more pieces of walnut on each muffin batter.

6. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 degree for 25 minutes, or when the muffins turn light brown and the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy the yummy Sweet Potato Muffins!

Steamed Tofu with Shrimp

I discovered this dish several years ago at a local Chinese restaurant. There are very few Asian families in my town so the food at Chinese restaurants tends to be more Americanized. When we came in for a meal, the owner decided to try out some experimental, more authentic dishes on us. I felt honored and excited to be a food critic. Surprisingly, he brought out a plate of steamed tofu with a very fragrant clear sauce. It looked like a piece of white marble decorated with flowers (pink shrimp), leaves (green onions) and some white clouds (egg white). We gave it a high mark by emptying the plate in a swift. And now, this tofu dish is always a hit at our dinner table.

Ingredients:
1 case of soft or medium Tofu
7 jumbo shrimps
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup chicken broth
Cornstarch
1 egg white, beaten
1-1/2 tablespoons chopped green onion

Seasonings:
Salt, wine and ground pepper

Directions:
1. Evenly cut the tofu into 8 rectangular boxes. Soak the tofu in salty water for 10 minutes. Drain the water and lay flat the tofu boxes in a deep dish. Scoop off the center part of the tofu boxes to make it a pocket.

2. Remove shell and veins of the shrimp and chop it to fine. Mix the shrimp with minced ginger, cornstarch, and season with salt, wine and ground pepper.
3. Scoop the shrimp mixture to fill out the tofu pockets. Steam tofu for about 20 minutes.

4. Heat up the chicken broth (or the excess liquid coming out of tofu after it’s steamed) with medium flame in a pan; season with salt and ground pepper. When the chicken broth is boiling, add the wet cornstarch mixture (mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 3 teaspoons water), slowly add the beaten egg white into the gravy sauce, add chopped green onions, and mix well. Pour the gravy sauce onto the steamed tofu and serve.

With the look of the dish and the appetizing smell, it will make you want to try it at the first sight.

Eggplant in Si-Chuan Style

I planted two Ichiban eggplant (Japanese eggplant) shrubs in my vegetable garden the past spring. They did grow well and provided us with good crop all summer long. Normally, I’d like to steam the eggplants to preserve its natural taste and nutrients, and eat with soy sauce and minced garlic dip. Though the eggplants I grew didn’t look very outstanding, but we had fresh pesticides-free crop all the time, and we always enjoyed the fresh sweetness of the eggplants in every bite.


Now the season has come to the end, and I’d like to cook the last few eggplants in a different way, Eggplant in Si-Chuan Style (yu-xiang-qie-zi 魚香茄子).  As I know, many kids don’t care for eggplants very much.  In order to introduce this good vegetable to them, I try to cook the way that they can accept it.  Ground pork is added when I cooked this Si-Chuan style dish and I used some red chili peppers to bring out the mild spiciness that they can tolerate.  I didn’t use Hot Bean Paste in this dish, so it’s neither too greasy nor too spicy, and it’s suitable for both old and young. 
This “Yu-xiang, 魚香” dish sounds like it has something to do with fish (魚), actually it does not.  It just has all the ingredients used in cooking fish in Si-Chuan style, such as green onion, ginger root, garlic and hot peppers (fish doesn’t have to be one of the ingredients).  This is one of the representative ways of cooking in Si-Chuan cuisine.

Ingredients:
4 Japanese Eggplants (about 300g)
150g ground pork
2 tablespoons minced ginger root
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons green onions
1 red chili pepper, chopped (adjust quantity based on personal preference）


Seasonings:
2 tablespoons wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch


Directions:
1. Remove stalk of eggplants and wipe them clean. Cut eggplants into thumb size pieces. Heat oil in deep-fry pan until it’s very hot.  Put eggplant in to deep fry until it’s soft (Tip 1). Remove eggplant, drain and squeeze out the excess oil and set aside.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in frying pan, add minced ginger root, minced garlic, chopped red chili peppers and green onions, stir fry until fragrant. Add ground pork, stir fry until it’s cooked.  Add wine, soy sauce, sugar and 1/3 cup water and bring it to boil, add eggplant, lower the heat to medium high and cook about 1 minute. Add wet cornstarch (ratio of cornstarch and water is 1 to 3) and bring it boil, add sesame oil, mix well and serve.


Tip 1: Eggplant can be stir-fried with 6 tablespoons oil instead of deep-fry.

Stir-fry Chicken and Bell Peppers with Black Pepper Sauce

Bell peppers are rich sources of vitamin A and  vitamin C.  They are also good sources of B1, B6. Thus they can enhance human immunity and can promote fat metabolism; protect eyesight;  promote healthy skin; prevent cholesterol attached to blood vessels; prevent arteriosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes; reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and many other diseases.


The time of cooking bell peppers should not be too long. Best way to cook them would be stir-fry or deep-fried as tempura. With its high sweetness, bell peppers are also very suitable for fresh consumption.
 
With the help of abundant rainfall during this summer, the bell peppers crop has been good.  In market, you often see the large and fresh brightly colored bell peppers are on sale at half of the regular price.  Besides, I have planted two bell pepper trees in my vegetable garden this year; my friends also sent me more peppers from her garden, so bell peppers have always been stocked in my refrigerator all summer long. We seem trying to intake all the nutrients needed for the whole year in one summer.  In order to keep its nutrients and sweetness, I especially like to cook them with chicken (or any other type of meat) in a quick stir-fry.

Ingredients:
225g boneless chicken breast
1 cup chopped bell peppers
1 cup chopped onions
1-1/2 tablespoons Black Pepper Sauce
salt

Marinade for chicken:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon wine
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Directions:
1. Cut chicken breast in cubes, marinate chicken cubes with the marinade for about 15 minutes (preparing bell peppers and onions while waiting).
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil, stir-fry chicken until color changed, then remove.
3. Stir-fry onions in remaining oil until fragrant, add bell peppers and dash of salt, stir briefly.  Add chicken and Black Pepper Sauce, stir to mix well for about 2 minutes.  Remove and serve.

Sometimes, I would cut all the ingredients into strips, or add other peppers (such as sweet banana pepper), there'll be another dish then.

Egg Fried Rice with Sausage

Don't feel bad if you are going to use the leftover rice and trying to serve a decent meal for your family.  Check your refrigerator and pantry, you might still find many ingredients that you can use to make fried rice that's good enough as a main dish.  It can be not only color-appealing but also nutrition-balanced.  Besides, the secret to good fried rice is starting with cold cooked grains.  If you don't have leftover rice, then cooked rice needs to be planned in advance.

I like to incorporate ingredients in my fried rice with as many colors of vegetable as possible (red, yellow, black, white or green).  And if it's for main dish, I would include one kind of meat (sausage, pork, chicken, ham) or shrimps.

Ingredients (2 servings):

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup soaked and diced dried mushrooms (or fresh mushrooms) (Tip 1)

3/4 cup diced carrots
1/3 cup diced onion

1/2 cup frozen peas (or chopped green onions)

1 cup diced Taiwanese sausages (can substitute with pork, chicken, ham or hot dog) (Tip 2)

4 cups cooked rice (long grain or brown rice)

cooking oil
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Bring 1-1/2 tablespoons oil to hot, add eggs and stir-fry to make scrambled eggs.  Break them up into smaller pieces with spatula and remove.
2. Bring another 3 tablespoons oil to medium high, stir-fry dried mushrooms until they are lightly browned and fragrant, season with dash of salt, push them to side of wok.
3. Stir-fry carrots, add dash of salt, cook until soft, also push them to side of wok.
4. Add sausages and stir-fry until cooked, push them to side of wok.
5. Stir-fry onions until they are transparent, then mix all the ingredients in wok, add green peas and dash of salt, stir-fry until all ingredients are cooked and soft (Tip 3).
6. Lower the temperature to low heat, add cooked rice,  Stir-fry rice with other ingredients in wok, break up big chunks of cold rice with spatula but don't press them too hard.  Add scrambled eggs pieces.  Season with more salt (just enough for the rice), mix well and serve.


Tip 1: The sequence of adding vegetables is depends on the cooking time needed for each different kind of vegetable.  The one that's hard to cook will need to go in first.  If fresh mushrooms are used, they go in after the onions.


Tip 2: If raw meat or shrimps are used, marinate (soy sauce for meat/salt and cooking wine for shrimps) and stir-fry them first, remove before cooking other vegetables.


Tip 3: Make sure there's still some extra oil in vegetables before adding rice.

An Easy Hot Dish in 15 Minutes - Ground Pork with Kernel Corn

Looking for a quick-and-easy dish that no washing and no cutting works (except chopping the green onions) are needed? Then this is the one that doesn't need much preparation work except opening a can of Whole Kernel Corn.  How hard can that be?  You can have this tasty dish served in 10 minutes, and guess what?  Everybody would love it.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. ground pork
15-1/4 oz. can whole kernel corn, water drained
4 dried red peppers
1 chopped green onion (optional)

Seasonings:
2 tablespoons oil
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon wine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water

Directions:
1. Heat the oil to hot in wok, stir-fry the dried red peppers (Tip 1) until they turn black.
2. Add ground pork and stir-fry until cooked.  Add soy sauce, sugar, wine, then bring to boil; reduce heat to medium, cover and cook 3 minutes.
3. Add kernel corns, water and salt, stir-fry to mix well, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with green onions, mix, remove and serve.

Tip 1: If the dried red peppers are cook whole, the spiciness is mild.  If a spicier taste is preferred, cut one, or two, or all red peppers in half before stir-fry them, then it can be a very spicy hot dish.