Lemon and dill risotto

I always find risotto too sticky and rich. So, the one thing I thought to do was to cut the heaviness with a bit of citrus and dill. The results are PREFECTION! This recipe also freezes well.

Ingredients:

1 cup aborio rice
chicken stock (or stock of desired flavour. I like chicken stock flavoured with seafood)
1 bunch of dill chopped
rind of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 stalks of celery
1/2 onion diced
1 -2 tbsp butter
splash of white wine/brandy

Directions:

1. Wash and soak rice for 20 minutes. Drain.
2. Brown diced celery and onion in butter and splash of oil. Add dill and lemon juice. When the mixture is "al dente/ browned", add splash of brandy/wine.
3. Add rice to mixture, ensuring that rice is coated in the mixture.
4. Add stock and stir the rice mixture until liquid is absorbed. Repeat this step until rice is at desired texture. Make sure to keep stirring so that rice doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Voila! This risotto is tart and great with poached salmon, shrimp/scallop, mushrooms.

Freezing/Reheat instructions: Put risotto in a glass air tight container. Thaw in room temperature and reheat in the pan with a little stock. Add shaved parmesan and stir if increased thickness is desired.

Celery Parsnip Soup

I adapted this recipe from the one from Epicurious. As you can see, it was so good, there was hardly any left when i took this picture!

I was making beef stew which called for parsnips and had a few leftover. Ditto celery...so I decided to make a good soup. Curiously enough, I've never made western soup from scratch before, so it was a shot in the dark -- and a successful one too.

I also used a "Chinese Vacuum Pot" to cook this soup instead of over the stove. Totally saved stove space and I didn't have to watch it.

Ingredients:

4 ribs celery, chopped
5 small/med parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks (doesn't matter for soup b/c you're gonna blend it anyway)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
oil for saute
4 cups of chicken broth
1 cup water
splash of sherry brandy
3/4 tsp rice vinegar
1 cup of milk (skim)
pinch of black pepper

Directions:

1. Saute onions with celery in butter until softened. Approx 4 - 5 minutes. Add parsnip chunks and pepper stir for another two minutes. Deglaze with sherry and stir until liquid is absorbed.
2. Combine broth, water, rice vinegar and pour over the mixture.
3. Bring to boil then put it in the vacuum pot. Leave it overnight (or if you are in a rush, 30 minutes will do)
4. Use a hand-blender to emulsify the ingredients. Heat the mixture and stir in milk to serve.


This soup lasted 4 - 5 days in the fridge and was good till the last drop! Enjoy!

Which pork product is best? (or Fried Rice Battle - East vs. West)

So it's 11 pm and I need a snack. I look in the fridge and what do I find? Two pieces of precooked bacon and leftover rice. So, "Western" fried rice it is. (Since egg and green onions are staples, they don't make the "ingredients" list)
As I'm making this, I can't help but feel like I've betrayed my roots. Fried rice is either made with SPAM (preferred) or BBQ pork (plan B). This makes the outcome all the more intriguing as I just can't wait to compare the two once and for all.

I was pleasantly surprised that I loved my Western Fried Rice just as much..if not more! The taste is different but still true to fried-riced-ness.

Recipe for Western Fried Rice (for one or 1.5 (mom and baby))

Ingredients:
1 C leftover rice
1 egg scrambled with splash of sesame oil, soy sauce, and white pepper (the chinese scrambled egg trifecta)
1 tbsp chopped green onions
2 pieces of chopped bacon (precooked)

Instructions:
Heat wok, put in onions and bacon, let sizzle 5 seconds. Add rice. Stir and mix well. Pour scrambled egg mixture around the rice mixture. Scramble and keep heat high. When well mixed, leave the rice/egg mixture to brown (on the bottom) to desired taste/texture. Serve hot!

In the end, who reigns supreme? Even though I love my Western, I would still have to say that Eastern FR(fried rice) is better, but only a true battle will tell... To Be Continued.

Home-fried Fish Fingers, Coleslaw, and KD

This was a cool summer night's fun and easy dinner with Ian.

We had such a good time making this together. He looked up the coleslaw vinaigrette while I fried the fish. Both taking turns stirring the KD.

Fish
2 pc of basa fillet
cornstarch
panko breadcrumbs
salt, pepper, garlic powder
oil for frying

Instructions:
1. Thaw and pat dry (obviously!). Cut up the fish t0 desired size (finger-size)
2. Season with salt and pepper
3. Whip up egg mixture and add desired amount of garlic powder - usually just a few generous sprinkles
4. Line up the fish, cornstarch, egg, and panko assembly line style
5. Heat and test the oil - should be on medium
6. Take each piece of fish, coat it with cornstarch, then egg wash, then panko. Tip: make sure you coat with panko well - no lilydipping hands! coat, press down, coat press down, and repeat until the whole thing is generally covered in a layer of panko
7. Test oil again by putting in a small piece of panko, see how it fries. If the piece is frying vigorously, great! If not, wait a little longer. The way this small piece of panko fries should be the way you want you fish to fry. Alternatively, you can fry a few piece of shrimp chips (this creates a nice little appetizer as well. A thing mom my used to do!) When ready, place fish pieces in oil gently. Note: make your fish in batches, fresh, if you pre-panko the fish, it may get soggy, so this may be a good time to get a second pair of hands, or if you're doing this all by yourself, make sure you alternate monitoring the coating process and watching your fried pieces so that nothing gets burnt and you're not left behind with no inventory.

Ok.. so the fish is NOTHING if it isn't paired with this amazing creamy dill dipping sauce:

1 tbsp mayo
splash of lemon juice
3 tbsp (the more the better) fresh chopped dill
2 grinds of the pepper mill

Mix together. Dip fish generously on service.

Ian made the coleslaw at the same time, so here it is.

Coleslaw dressing
1/4 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup of White Vinegar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Toss with about 5 cups of other salad ingredients (cabbage, carrots and lettuce was in our salad) until well covered.

KD -- as per instructions on the box! No brainer! Actually you can also skip this as we found that our meal was actually quite large. Another bonus to not making the KD is that you may have more room for the fresh friend fish!!!

This recipe actually makes like 2 dinners.

Enjoy! I know WE did :).

Shanghainese Street Pancakes

I've been reading a book called "Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See and it helped me remember that I'm 1/4 Shanghainese. And of course what do Shanghainese people love to do? Eat.

The following is a recipe of a snack food that my mom (she's 1/2 Shanghainese) used to make sometimes in the afternoons on weekends. We sometimes even have this for a light lunch. When I experience Shanghainese food as an adult, I can definitely see the root of this recipe coming from the food vendor streets of Shanghai.

To make six:

Fine dice 2 tbsp of each of the following: ( you want this to be chewy in your pancake but not so big that it takes over)
- Scallions (green part)
- Pickled turnip
- Chinese sausage
- Dried shrimp (remember to soak properly!)

In a separate bowl, mix 2 cups of white flour with 1 tbsp of five-spice powder and 2 tsp of salt. Add water until desired pancake batter consistency.

Pancake Consistency: If you like your pancakes thicker, then use less water. If you like your pancakes thinner, then add more water (for a runny mix). But make sure you don't make it tooo runny, or the pancake may not be able to form. My mom's rule of thumb is to make it thicker, test one piece, and see. If you need to thin it, you can always add more water. Remember if you are reconstituting for the right thickness, you need to compensate the recipe with the equal amount with chopped ingredients, 5 spice powder, and salt.

Once you have the desired thickness to your pancake mix, add all the ingredients into the batter. Stir.

Frying: Heat a griddle/pan to medium. Note: It would be wise to use a large pan, otherwise you'll be standing there ALL DAY! When the pan is hot, add enough oil just to grease the bottom. Put the batter into the pan by forming small puddles. When each puddle start to develop a translucent "edge" then you know you're ready to flip the pancake. Once flipped, press gently down on the tops of each pancake to cook the batter underneath.

When both sides are a little browned and/or translucent, remove from heat and dry on paper towels to soak up the oil. Eat right away!

Enjoy! You can tell by the picture that it's good - this was the last piece and already has a few bites in it. Good thing I caught myself in time!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread

This is the perfect Banana Bread. Honestly, it's the recipe that I tried before and called "Good looking banana bread". I recently re-baked this recipe, and it's as good as it taste if not better. I couldn't even get a picture ... the bread was gone before I could take one.

I did deviate a bit from the recipe - about 1/2 c of both walnut and chocolate chips. And 1 tsp of baking soda.. this was by mistake.

That's all! We serve this bread warmed in the microwave (20 sec per slice) with "Heavenly Hash" Parlour Icecream. Divine!

Best Buttery Cinnamon Cookies

These melt-in-your-mouth diet-breakers were so good. You just HAVE to try this recipe. Actually a girl at work did try them and it worked for her too, so now it's not only good, but tried and true.

So I pulled this recipe off allrecipes.com coz I had too much cinnamon lying around.

Enjoy! Oh and they stored for DAYS afterwards. I just put them in my trusty tupperware and it was good for like over a week!