This Week's Menu and Shopping List

So, the first week of putting my recipe up on the Web is over!
Let's review this week's menu real quick...

(Sunday: Potstickers)
Monday: Asian fish ball soup with rice
Tuesday: Tuna pasta with olive salad
Wednesday: Cream of mushroom soup and steak with steamed broccoli and baked finger potatoes
Thursday: Pork and nappa cabage stir-fry
Friday/Saturday: Stewed sausage and cabbage

Shopping List:
Sardines (10) or fish fillet (2-3 pieces) - fish ball soup
Steak meat - steak
Pork (1/4 pound) - pork stir-fry
Sausages
Leek - fish ball, (potstickers)
Ginger (1) - fish ball, (potstickers)
Eggs - fish ball, hot and sour soup, (chocolate cake), (potstickers)
Canned solid tuna (2) - tuna pasta
Onion (1) - cream of mushroom, tuna pasta
Canned tomatoes (1 big can) - tuna pasta
Garlic (1) - tuna pasta, pork stir-fry, stewed sausage and cabbage
Mushrooms (2 packs) - cream of mushroom, pork stir-fry
Milk - cream of mushroom
Finger potatoes - steak dinner
Baby potatoes - stewed cabbage and sausage
Broccoli - steak dinner
Nappa cabbage - fish ball soup, pork stir-fry
Carrots - stewed cabbage and sausage
Cabbage (1 small) - stewed sausage and cabbage, (potstickers)
Frozen spinach - hot and sour soup
Salad greens (1 bag), olives in a jar, dressing

Things that may or may not be in your pantry/fridge:
Dashi no moto
Miso
Cooking wine (sake)
Soy sauce
Potato or corn starch
Chili peppers (a pinch)
Your favorite pasta
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Butter
Olive oil, vegetable oil
Chicken stock (a large pack)
Rice vinegar
Rice

Some of the vegetables on the list can last for more than one week like carrots, potatoes, and ginger. So, don't worry if you can't use them all. For meat, if you get a lot, just freeze whatever you didn't use. The goal is to use all the frozen meat up in one month, not one week.

Well, if you liked any of the recipes, just try making one and see what happens! Be creative and add whatever you have in your fridge into dishes.

Big Cook Book

I went to Borders today and got a book called The Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America. It's this 3-inch-thick book, full of cooking basics and recipes. It's very educational. I learned how to cook watching my mom cook and also trying to recreate things that I ate and thought were good. The problem is, I rarely follow recipes and am always making adjustment to get the taste right. I hope "studying" this book will help me get the basics right and improve my cooking!

Saturday Dinner: Stewed sausage and cabbage

Tonight, I made a super easy dinner that's perfect for a Saturday night. I used sausage, but you can also use corn beef, chicken, or even pork.




Stewed sausage and cabbage (for 2):
Sausage (2 large pieces) - Get uncooked, good-quality sausages.
Cabbage (1/2 of small to medium cabbage)
Carrot (1)
Potatoes (4 baby potatoes)
Garlic (3 cloves)
Chicken stock (2cups)
Bay leaf (1)
Vegetable or olive oil (2tsp)
Salt
Pepper

1. Cup up cabbage in about 2 inch-squares.
2. Peel the carrot and slice it, but not too thinly.
3. Cut potatoes in half and put them in a big bowl of water.
4. Smash and peel the garlic cloves.
5. Heat oil in a pot on high heat and grill sausages.
6. When the sausages are golden brown on sides, add cabbage, carrot, and garlic. Then add chicken stock.
7.When the stock boils, add bay leaf, pepper, and potatoes.
8. Put the lid on and cook on low-medium heat until there is only little liquid left and potatoes are nice and tender, about 20 min.
9. Add salt to flavor it.

I put on some mustard on the side for sausage. If you want to volume it up, you can add cooked pasta or more vegetables like broccoli.

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Technorati Tags:sausage, cabbage

Friday Dinner: Eat out!

Friday is always the hardest day to cook after a long week of work! My boyfriend and I went to Osteria in Palo Alto, CA. It was our first time going there, and I really liked it. They make their own pasta, and you can really tell the difference. The sauce wasn't heavy like many other places, which I really liked. So, tonight was my break day, and I'll try to cook tomorrow night!

Thursday Dinner: Pork stir-fry and hot and sour soup

Tonight, I used leftover nappa cabbage to make light stir-fry. I like the "sour" part of hot and sour soup, so my soup is pretty sour. Reduce the amount of vinegar if you don't like sour as much as I do.



Pork stir-fry (for 2-3 people):
Lean pork (1/4 pound) - Put as much or little as you want. You could also use chicken.
Nappa cabbage (15-20 small leaves) - It shrinks down quite a bit, so put plenty.
Carrot (1)
Button mushrooms (1/2 pack)
Potato starch (3tsp)
Chicken stock (3/4 cup)
Garlic (3cloves)
Vegetable oil (2tsp)
Salt
Pepper

1. Slice up the pork. If it's half-frozen, it's easy to slice thinly. You can put frozen meat in the fridge in the morning, and when you come home, it's half-frozen.
2. Chop up the nappa cabbage leaves. Peel the carrot and slice it up. Slice up the mushrooms. Slice up the garlic cloves.
3. Heat pan (that has a lid) with vegetable oil.
4. Stir-fry sliced pork with salt and pepper until the color of meat changes but you still see some pink parts.
5. Add all the vegetables together. When everything is incorporated, add the chicken stock.
6. Put the lid on and cook for 30 sec to 1 min until the meat is cooked all the way through.
7. Melt potato starch in a small bowl with the same amount of water.
8. While the mixture in the pan is boiling, drizzle in the potato starch mixture. Keep stirring as much as you can because the soup will start to thicken.
9. Add salt and pepper for desired taste.

I served it with rice.

Hot and sour soup (for 2):
Egg (1)
Frozen spinach (1/4cup)
Chicken stock (2cups)
Rice vinegar (1/4cup)
Soy sauce (2Tbs)
Chili peppers (a pinch)
Potato starch (2tsp)

1. Put the frozen spinach in a microwave for about 30 sec. Squeeze out any juice/water.
2. Boil chicken stock, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and chili peppers together.
3. When the stock boils, add the spinach. Beat the egg and drizzle it little by little into the soup. As soon as you put in the egg, turn the heat down to low and put the lid on.
4. Wait for 20-30 sec.
5. Melt potato starch with the same amount of water in a small bowl. Add it into the soup while stirring.
6. Add more vinegar or soy sauce as needed.

I used frozen spinach and egg for this soup, but you can really put anything you want like tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chicken, etc.

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Technorati Tags:stir-fry, sweet and sour soup

Wednesday Dinner: Valentine night dinner

Today is Valentine's day, so I'm making steak dinner. It's not a quick dinner, but we have Valentine's day only once a year, right?

Cream of mushroom soup:
Button mushrooms (1-1/2 pack)
Onion (1/2)
Milk
Flour (2Tbs)
Butter(1Tbs)
Salt
Pepper

1. Dice up the onion and slice up the mushrooms.
2. Sautee the onion with butter and a sprinkle of salt on medium high heat in a pot until tender.
3. Add flour to the onion and keep cooking until very smooth.
4. Add the mushrooms.
5. Add milk up to the level where everything is just covered. Keep stirring until the flour mixture is fully incorporated with milk.
6. Cook on medium heat until mushrooms are tender.
7. Use a hand blender or food processor to blend the mixture. I got a hand blender for last Christmas, and it really works like miracle... It's easy to use and easy to clean.
8. On low heat, stir in milk for desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to flavor it.

For this recipe, I used flour to thicken the soup and used low fat milk, rather than using cream like most of other recipes call for.

Roasted finger potatoes:
Finger potatoes (as many as you want!) - You can use small baby potatoes too.
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes into half and place them on cookie sheet, cut side up. I put my Silicone sheet on the cookie sheet. If you don't have one, you can use alumni foil. It makes cleaning much easier.
2. Drizzle olive oil over potatoes.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper over potatoes.
4. Bake for 25-30 min.

It's really easy to make roasted vegetables this way. Try zucchini, egg plant, etc.

Steak:
Your favorite steak meat - I made two pieces today.
Butter (1Tbs)
Salt
Pepper

1. Heat pan on high heat with butter.
2. Salt and pepper the side of the meat that is facing up.
3. Put the meat on the pan with the side that is salted and peppered down.
4. Salt and pepper the other side.
5. Don't touch them for at least 10 sec. When it's nice and brown, flip it.
6. If your pan is oven safe, put it in the oven for about 5 min. If your pan is not oven safe, grill the other side on the pan until golden brown, then put it in the oven on aluminum foil over a cookie sheet for about 5 min. How much you want to cook it in the oven is up to you.
7. Take it out of the oven and put it on your plate!

I made steamed broccoli to go with the steak and potatoes. I always use the microwave to make steamed vegetables because if you boil them in water, all the nutrients melt away in water. Just rinse your vegetable, put it on microwave-safe plate, and cover it with plastic wrap but not completely covered to let steam escape.

For dessert, I made mini chocolate cake and served it with vanilla ice-cream after warming the cake in microwave for 30 sec. I used the recipe that was on the Hershey's Cocoa box. Delicious!

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Technorati Tags:cream of mushroom, Roasted vegetables

Tuesday Dinner: Tuna tomato sauce pasta and salad

I know tuna in pasta sounds a little weird, but it's pretty good and really easy to make.





Tuna tomato sauce pasta:
Canned solid tuna (2) - I like to use tuna in water. It doesn't add any excess oil into the sauce.
Canned tomatoes (1 big can) - I like to use peeled whole tomatoes because they have richer taste, but you can use diced tomatoes too (but no seasoning should be in the can).
Onion (1/2)
Garlic (3 cloves)
Chili peppers (a pinch)
Your favorite pasta
Salt
Pepper

1. Dice the onion. I used my food processor, and it was really fast. I also found already-diced onions at Trader Joe's today. You could use that.
2. Boil a pot full of water.
3. Chop up garlic. Sautee diced onion, garlic, and a pinch of chili peppers on medium heat in a deep pan with olive oil until onion is translucent. Be careful with chili peppers. They can add a lot of heat to this sauce.
4. Add the whole tomato can. I squeeze whole tomatoes as I put them into the pan. It can get messy though so wear an apron if you are wearing your favorite shirt!
5. Add two cans of tuna into the pan without water/oil.
6. Simmer on low heat until sauce is not soupy anymore. Add salt and pepper to give it flavor.
7. Throw in salt into the boiling water and cook pasta.
8. Put the sauce over pasta.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce. It's probably enough for 4 people or 3 big eaters. I just save the leftover sauce by freezing it. I had simple salad with olives, raisins, and vinaigrette dressing with the pasta.

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Technorati Tags:Pasta, tuna, tomato sauce

Silicone Craze

Does anyone use Silicone cookware? I recently started using it, and my collection is growing because I love it! It's highly heat-resistant, so it won't melt. I use the pink one in the photo for stir-fry or scrambled eggs. It's nice because it doesn't scratch my teflon coated pan or melt like other non-Silicone ones I have. I used the loaf pan for making banana bread, and the bread came right out. It's also very easy to clean. The only thing is, because it is so flexible, banana bread dough's weight made the pan spread out a bit while baking. I think I need something to hold the shape. I haven't used the sheet yet, but will do on Wednesday~

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Technorati Tags:silicone, cookware

Monday Dinner: Asian fish ball (or meat ball) soup

I went to my local farmers' market yesterday and got some fresh sardines. So I made fish balls in soup on Sunday night, and all I had to do tonight was add some ingredients in the soup and make rice.




Fish balls
Sardines (10) - You could try any other already cut fish if you like
Dashi no moto - This is the Japanese version of bouillon. It comes in seaweed flavor, fish flavor, or a combination of both and is powder. You can get it at any Japanese or general Asian store - Make sure it doesn't contain MSG...(it usually doesn't though)
Miso (1Tbs) - secret ingredient..
Leek (2 inches of white part) - Could substitute it with green onions
Ginger (small piece)
Cooking wine - This is sake for cooking (much cheaper than regular sake for drinking). You can get it at any Asian store.
Soy sauce (1Tbs)
Egg yolk (1)
Potato starch or corn starch (1Tbsp) - This holds the mixture together.

1. Clean the fish and take the bone out. Meat is tender, so you should be able to pull the bone out. Then peel the skin - if the fish is fresh, it should come right off. If you don't like to do this, just get fish meat without bone, but without any seasoning on it.
2. Chop up leek and grind ginger.
3. Combine everything except for dashi no moto in a food processor until the mixture is kind of sticky.
4. Boil 4 cups of water and sprinkle in some dashi no moto. Adjust the amount of water according to how much soup you want to make.
5. Take two spoons. When the soup boils, scoop some of the mixture onto one spoon and use it other spoon to drop the mixture off into the pot (soup). Keep going until all the mixture is gone. When the balls float, they are cooked.

This is a recipe for fish balls. If you are not a big fan of fish, just try ground chicken, turkey, or pork, then you have Asian meat balls.

So, now, all you have to do is put vegetables you like in there and add a pinch of salt to the soup. I added sliced tofu, some nappa cabbage, pak choy, and dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in water to soften beforehand). Oh, and I also made some rice to go with the soup.

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Technorati Tags:fish ball, soup recipe

Potstickers - Not a quick meal, but OK for Sunday night dinner

Sunday night is pretty relaxing for me, not much going on. So, I decided to spend little more time than usual and make potstickers. I know you can get frozen ones from a Chinese market, but I like to make my own so I put different things in them. Today I just made basic potstickers.

Potsticker wraps (1 package) - You should be able to find them at major grocery stores. If not, try any Asian market.
Ground pork (1/2 pound) - You could also use ground chicken or turkey.
Cabbage (1/2 of a small one)
Leek (3 inches of white part)
Ginger (small piece)
Soy sauce (2 teaspoons)
Salt, pepper
Sesame oil (2 teaspoons) - optional. It gives nice flavor.

1. Chop up cabbage and leek finely - It's really easy if you use a food processor.
2. Sprinkle a good amount of salt onto cabbage and leek. This allows water to come out of the vegetables - You don't want soggy potstickers. After leaving for 5-10 min., squeeze the water/juice out of the vegetables and place them in a bowl.
3. Peel the ginger and grind it into the mixture of cabbage and leek (about 2 teaspoons).
4. Put ground pork into the mixture.
5. Put salt, pepper, soy sauce, and sesame oil into the mixture.
6. Mix the mixture well until everything is well-incorporated and feels little sticky.
7. Place a small spoonful of meat mixture on a wrap. Wet the edge of the wrap with water - this becomes the glue. Hold the wrap over and seal tightly.
8. Boil hot water.
9. Heat oil on a big pan (that has a lid), high heat. Line up potstickers on the pan. When the bottom is nice and brown, put 3/4 cup of hot water into the pan and close the lid, allowing the steam to cook the meat. When water is gone, take one potsticker out and put a tooth pick or chopstick into it. If juice runs clear, it's cooked. If not cooked, add some more water and keep cooking.
10. Dip them in soy sauce and enjoy! (You can also mix in vinegar, chili sauce, etc. into your dipping sauce)

It actually doesn't take that much time at all if you have a food processor to chop up the vegetables. Only part that is time consuming is the wrapping part.

I had my potstickers with seaweed soup and rice. Try salad with Asian dressing and rice. If you made too many, freeze them without grilling them and grill them frozen before you eat.

This is a recipe for basic potstickers, but you can also be creative and try different things. Try defrosted frozen spinach (make sure you squeeze out water/juice), chopped up kimchi (Korean spicy pickled cabbage), finely diced bamboo shoots, ground tofu, etc.

One key point about this recipe is using hot water to put in the pan, rather than cold water. If you use cold water, potstickers tend to stick to each other, and wraps break apart.

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Technorati Tags:potsticker, Chinese cooking

Healthy meals...

Am I the only who gets tired of having take-out food or eating out every night? Food at restaurants are so heavy and greasy.. I work 5 days a week and come home around 7:30 or so like a lot of people out there. I want to have a healthy life though and have decided to have home-made meals as much as I can. Good thing is, I like cooking. Bad thing is, I don't want to spend much time cooking after a long day of work! So, I started out with cooking 5 meals on Sunday and putting them in my fridge or freezer. Well, it didn't work out so well because I didn't want to cook for so many hours on Sunday and also what I could cook was limited since some dishes are just not good after preserved, like stir-fry.

OK.. what to do?? Well, I decided to make a menu for the week that consists of easy 20-30 min. meals, then make a shopping list, so I have all the ingredients I need at hand when I come home to cook and don't waste any vegetables or other ingredients that I couldn't use. For me, just thinking about what to make after work makes me not want to cook anything at all. But if I know what I'm making and have everything I need, it's not so painful (trust me).

I'll post one-week (Mon-Fri) menu with a shopping list next weekend that I used this week and how cooking went on each day. If you try any of the recipes or try the whole-week thing with the shopping list, please leave me a comment! My hope is that I can provide some suggestions about how to make home cooking easy for those people like me!

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Technorati Tags:healthy meals, cooking, Japanese cooking, Quick meal, Easy meal, Healthy food, recipes