Category Archives: Recipes

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Spicy Sliced Lamb with Snow Pea Leaves and Green Onions

After deliberating on what to do with a 1.25lbs of frozen sliced lamb that I purchased from my local Asian grocer, I opted to create two dishes from this earthy-flavored meat. Because the lamb is thinly sliced, it is not overpowering like heartier cuts of lamb. But if you don’t have good ventilation in your kitchen (and you dislike the smell of cooking lamb) then I recommend throwing the windows open or turning up your vent hood on high.

I chose to present the more successful of the lamb recipes I cooked. Preparing this recipe requires two steps, marinade then stir fry.

For the marinade:
1/2 or 3/4 pound thinly sliced lamb
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp shaved fresh ginger
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp of fresh lemon thyme, chopped
ginger powder
garlic powder

Mix all of the dry ingredients: garlic, ginger, thyme and soy sauce together. Pour the marinade into a resealable freezer bag with the lamb. Refrigerate overnight.

For the stir-fry:
6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
3 green onions, sliced
5 thai chiles, julienned
half a bunch of snow pea leaves
1/4 cup of soy sauce
peanut or vegetable oil

Before cooking, remove the stems from the snow pea leaves, unless you like the stringy parts (young snow pea leaves do not have the tough, stringy stems, a typical preparation found here). Brown the garlic in vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Toss in chiles and stir. Add the marinated lamb, making sure that the meat is separated and cooks evenly, about 4-5 minutes. Toss in the snow pea leaves and cook until slightly wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Add soy sauce and a little water (to deglaze) if more liquid is needed for a sauce. Reduce heat, toss in green onions and stir fry until tender. Remove from heat, then serve over a bed of steamed rice.

Another upside to thinly sliced meats is the relatively fast cooking time. Stir frying this dish took no longer than 15-20 minutes, not including the overnight prep time. And using sliced meats gives you a better handle on portion control.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Pork Belly Adobo

Truly the most decadent, richest part of the pig…pork belly usually stars in recipes that evokes the guilt of eating such a fatty piece of the beast. Ever since I cooked up this adobo dish, I’ve been trying to find more ways to cook pork bellies. Filipinos have a love affair with all things pork, and to serve it up in one of their staple dishes, only reinforces this idea.

1 pound of pork belly with skin
12-15 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of dark sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of peppercorns
1 bay leaf
water

Slice the pork belly into 1-2 inch cubes. Cook skin-side down in oil over medium to high heat until slightly crispy and a little fat has rendered out. Add vinegar, peppercorns, garlic and bay leaf. Boil until dry, then add sweet soy sauce. Add water to your preference (depending on how much liquid you want in your adobo). Lower the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour, making sure that the pork remains tender. Continue to add water if the stew becomes too dry. After removing from heat, served with plain steam rice.

Dining, Recipes

Things I learned while making a Decadent Chocolate Flan

Despite moments when it looked like my chocolate flan experiment was doomed to the garbage disposal, the end result was fantastically yummy and delicious.

  • Tripling the amount of chocolate that a recipe calls for is a sure way to make the taste buds happy
  • Brown sugar doesn’t caramelize like white sugar, better to melt it on the stove top than in the oven, with less water if any
  • Don’t attempt to re-melt the chocolate/milk mixture with eggs in it because the eggs will cook
  • Double boiling semi-sweet chocolate chips is a long, painstaking process–use a microwave next time (remember to melt at half power)
  • Use shallow dishes or single-serve dishes for flan, otherwise the flan will not descend gracefully onto its final plating

So armed with those warnings, we proceed to the actual recipe.

6oz (or less) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1-2 cups of milk (less milk means denser custard)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Caramelize brown sugar on stove top in a nonstick saucepan or in the oven in a baking dish. In this case I used a 5×9 glass loaf dish in a 375 degree oven…took forever, even with a little water added in. When the sugar melts, transfer to its baking dish and coat the bottom evenly. Set aside to cool and harden. Melt chocolate chips with milk until incorporated. Remove the chocolate milk mixture from heat and slowly mix 4 beaten eggs in. Add vanilla extract and stir gently. Heat the oven to 350 degrees, pour flan mixture into baking dish, then bake for 60-70 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes away clean. Remove from oven and let cool (especially if you’re using a glass baking dish). Afterwards, refrigerate overnight.

To serve, take the flan and microwave in the oven for 30 seconds or less (just enough to melt the caramel). Invert the dish on plate. Garnish with powdered sugar, brown sugar, or even mint leaves and berries for a decadent chocolatey custard. What’s the difference between custard and a flan? Not much, if you read this article on the subject.

Dining, Recipes

Shimeji Mushroom Rice

My local asian grocer had a sale on shimeji mushrooms, so I picked up 2 packages of the brown variety. A little web surfing revealed that shimeji mushrooms paired well with rice. So, along with my Beef Ribs dinner this weekend, I cooked up a side of shimeji mushroom fried rice.

1 8oz package shimeji mushrooms, separated
2 tbsp chopped ginger
8-10 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup sliced green onions, sliced 3/4in long
1.5 cups cooked jasmine rice
sweet soy sauce for color and flavor
3+ tbsp vegetable oil
salt, pepper, garlic powder

Saute ginger then garlic over medium-high heat until golden brown. Toss shimeji mushrooms into mix, saute lightly, until tender and coated. Add cooked rice, drizzle in soy sauce and toss until rice is separated and colored evenly. Turn off heat and toss in green onions. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and serve.