Japanese Char Siu

Miso Ramen with half-boiled egg and homemade char siu

Kimchi Beef Jjigae

Hello all!

I recently purchased a clay pot from “Hawaii Supermarket” in San Gabriel and wanted to put it to work. It’s been a while since I’ve made homemade jjigae, and wanted to give it another go. I’ve tried so many different recipes and ways of making this tofu soup, but it never turns out exactly like the kind you would get at a tofu house. I’m not sure what it’s missing, but I’ve followed all of the other recipes to a T, and it still doesn’t turn out the same. I don’t know why my broth is a little lighter than the ones you would find in tofu houses. Either way, the result is still good, but I have to warn you that the flavor may not be authentic.

I’m using a similar recipe to an old recipe I posted a long time ago, back in 2010. However, I’ve made a few changes from then. I hope you enjoy this anyway!

Vegetable ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Pack of Enoki Mushroom
• 1 pack of soft tofu
• 1/2 zucchini (cut into one inch, quartered size)
• 1 green onion (chopped)
• 1/2 small brown onion
• 1/4 chopped Kimchi
• 1 tablespoon of red pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of red pepper powder
• 1 egg
• Sesame oil (to finish)

Beef marinade:

• 1/4 lb of ground beef
• 1 tablespoon of cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1/2 tablespoon of chili oil
• 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce

Red pepper paste and soft tofu ingredients

Directions:

Combine the ground beef and marinade ingredients. Set aside for 10 minutes. During this time, prepare your vegetable ingredients.

Marinaded beef with onions

Heat a pot over medium heat with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil. Add the beef and stir fry until beef is cooked through and onions are translucent. Stir fry the kimchi into the beef, onion mixture.  Add 1 cup of water and the sliced zucchinis. Bring the soup to a boil.

Adding in the zucchini

Once the soup is boiling, reduce it to low and add the mushroom, soft tofu, red pepper paste, and soy sauce. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Add the egg to the soup, and spoon the soup mixture over it–making sure that the egg will get cooked through. Add the chopped green onion over the top and allow the soup to simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and drizzle some sesame oil over the top to finish.

Kimchi Beef Jjigae

This was one of my favorite soups to make on cold nights in my old apartment. Something that I didn’t do in this recipe that I normally would do is add one chopped chili over the top. The flavor of this soup is lighter than traditional jjigae. Please feel free to add salt or soy sauce to taste.

If you have any recommendations for jjigae recipes I should try, please comment below! I’m still searching for the best jjigae recipe out there that will get me results closest to tofu houses! haha..

Enjoy!

❤ josie

Powdered Donuts

Powdered Donut Holes

Ingredients:

• 100 grams of flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of melted butter
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 tablespoon of sugar
• 6-8 tablespoon of milk
• Powdered sugar and cinnamon

Directions: Combine the egg, sugar, milk, and melted butter with a whisk. (Careful: do not add hot butter to the eggs, let it set to room temperature first..unless you want scrambled eggs).

Sift the flower and baking powder into a bowl. Create a crater and pour the egg mixture in the center. Mix the batter from the center outwards.

Add about 1-2 inches of oil to a pan. Heat the pan on medium, and let the oil come to temperature slowly. Take a little bit of batter and drop it in the oil. If the batter bubbles and floats to the top, the oil is at the right temperature. Warning: Do NOT heat oil on high!

Take a spoonful of batter and drop it into the oil. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes, then remove.

Let the donuts cool on either a rack or on a plate with a paper towel.

Once the donuts have cooled, take a ziplock sandwich bag and fill it with powdered sugar. Place a few donuts inside and shake the bag to fully coat the donuts. After the donuts are all coated, sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top. The donuts are ready.

I hope you enjoy this easy recipe, which was inspired by cookingwithdog the youtube channel. I love her! If you haven’t checked her out yet, you definitely should.

Enjoy all!

❤ Josie

Lobster time

Lobster time!

My mom brought home two 1 1/4 lb lobsters today. We were trying to think of the best/easiest way to cook it, so my mom suggested to just steam it. I’m not a fan of eating seafood with butter. I never got the hyped about it. I’m so used to eating it fried, and cooked in house garlic special sauce.

In Indonesia, seafood is usually steamed and eaten with a side sauce. I didn’t take a picture of the sauce, but basically crab or lobster is usually eaten with a chili sauce. The chili sauce that my mom made was just a combination of ketchup and a chili sauce we call “cap jempol” (pictured below)

It’s a nice garlic, chili type sauce. It’s very smooth, but packs a large kick to it.

It was really good and simple meal. I ate the lobster with some rice. It was a nice dinner on a cold day.

❤ josie

Egg Shrimp with Green Onions

Egg Shrimp with Green Onions

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs (scrambled)
• 1 green onion
• 6-7 jumbo shrimp
• pinch of salt and pepper
  
• pinch of chili pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 2 pinches of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of water

So my family and I often eat Tasty Garden in Arcadia. One of the dishes that my brother’s fiance likes to get is this fluffy scrambled egg dish with shrimp in it.I tried to recreate this dish when I was living in my apartment once, but overcooked the eggs. =( the key to this dish is adding water to make fluffy eggs. I made this for lunch today, and actually came out with better results.

Directions: Crack three eggs into a bowl. Add soy sauce, sugar, and water. Scramble with a whisk or a fork. Slice one green onion and add to egg mixture. Set Aside.

Take clean jumbo shrimp and marinate it in salt, pepper, and chili pepper powder. Heat up a pan at medium heat. Add a teaspoon of olive oil. Cook shrimp until it becomes pink. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Add tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Swirl the olive oil around so it covers the whole pan. Add the egg mixture. With a spatula, drag the edges towards the center, allowing the uncooked egg mixture to spread out to the edges. Continue pulling the edges towards the center, until about half of the egg mixture is cooked. Add the shrimp to the egg mixture and continue pulling, and slowly folding the eggs over the shrimp.

You have to do this quickly to ensure that the eggs do not get overcooked, and that you end up with fluffy eggs in the end.

It’s a quick and easy dish, and definitely filling.

Try it out!

❤ josie

Preserved turnip egg omelets (chhai po ng)

菜脯卵, aka chhai po ng
Preserved turnip egg omelets, eaten best with congee (糜)

Another easy and simple egg recipe! It’s a Teochew-style omelette that’s traditionally served with plain rice porridge or congee. Some of my earliest childhood memories have involved me eating this stuff. There are so few ingredients involved, but the preserved turnip (typically found at any Asian markets) really makes a difference in the texture and taste.

Fun fact: Eggs (the kinds you eat) are called nng (卵) in Hokkien and Teochew, not dan (蛋) as in Mandarin or Cantonese. Congee is me (糜), not zhou (粥).

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• Some salt and sugar to your liking
• Chopped slivers of preserved turnip
• Oil

Recipe:

1. Chop the preserved turnip into smaller bits
2. Break two eggs and whisk the yolk and the whites thoroughly and mix the preserved turnip bits in.
3. Sprinkle salt and sugar to your liking. I prefer them a bit sweeter, because the sweetness of the omelette really complements the salty-sweet turnip bits.
4. Fry the omelette with some oil until the omelette’s golden and firm.

Peace,
Justin

College omelettes

nitsuuj:

OMELETTES on a lazy Sunday afternoon. ♥

I typically don’t write recipes, but here goessss. This omelette recipe’s pretty quick and easy to make, given you have the ingredients on hand.

Alvin made these omelettes a few Sundays back for our brunch, but I never got to posting it on Food Coma! Anyway, it was amid midterms, hence all the highlighters and Phy Sci notes littering the dining table.
Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Diced ham
• Diced mushrooms
• Spinach
• A pinch of salt and pepper

Recipe:

1. Dice the ham slices, slice the mushrooms.
2. Fry the spinach, along with ham and mushrooms.
3. Add them to the beaten egg mix, along with the pepper and salt, to taste.
4. Fry together on a hot pan with an oil of your choice.
5. Draw a heart with ketchup et voila, la pièce de résistance est finis.

Recipe courtesy of Alvin 🙂

Peace, Justin

Pork sung sushi (肉鬆壽司)

Pork sung sushi (肉鬆壽司) has a special place in my heart, because all the Taiwanese moms would pack these as snacks for their kids. And we would eat them at the playground.

I decided to take a stab at it and try making it myself for a picnic and it was a fair success considering it’s my first time even making sushi.

Ingredients (top to bottom, left to right):

• Cucumber
• Black sesame seeds (for California style rolls)
• Sushi rice vinegar (added to rice after it cooks)
• Japanese rice
• Rousong (pork floss or pork sung)
• Seaweed sheets
• Sushi mat

Slice the cucumber into narrow strips to put into the sushi. Remove the seeds.

On the vinegar mat, lay the rough side of the seaweed sheet facing upward. Spread a thin layer of rice on top, and lay out the cucumber slices and pork floss.

Using the sushi mat, roll up the sushi firmly to form a nice and tight tube. Spread a few rice grains at the end to make the seaweed sheet stick.

To make California style rolls, I laid out some plastic wrap on the sushi mat and added a layer of rice above the seaweed sheet. After rolling up the sushi “tube,” I sprinkled some sesame seeds on the outside to make it prettier.

Tada! Looks delectable, doesn’t it?

Peace,
Justin

Bento for Lunch

Bento: Salmon, Spinach, and Curry

My lunch for today 🙂

Cheers
Josie

Chicken Wrap

Chicken Wrap

Ingredients:

• 1 whole grain panini wrap
• Mayonnaise and Mustard
• 6 pieces of sliced grilled chicken
• One slice of turkey
• Lettuce
• One sliced tomato
• 1 slice of Pepperjack cheese

Directions: Use your favorite type of condiment and put that down as the base. Add the lettuce (and all future ingredients) on the top to one side of the panini wrap and then add the tomatoes. Place the pepperjack cheese on top, and then add the turkey. Last but not least, add the sliced chicken. To roll it all up, take one end, and pull it towards the center. Roll it tightly together. This is why it is important to have the ingredients towards one end of the wrap, for a better grip and for better rolling.

This was my lunch for my first day of classes. Something really light and yummy. On the side, I had cheddar bunnies, similar to goldfish. However, they were organic and in the shape of jumping bunnies. So cute!

I love making wraps for lunch because they’re so versatile and you can always mix and match the ingredients. It’s a light lunch that will also fill you up.

Cheers

Josie

Beef broccoli with Zucchini stir-fry

Beef broccoli with Zucchini stir-fry

Just a quick post. What I made for dinner today. I don’t know why I keep wanting to make this now. I think I’m going to keep eating it until I get sick of it…and sure enough I’m slowly getting sick of it.

Josie

Spinach, sausage and egg breakfast burrito

Spinach, sausage and egg breakfast burrito

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 hot dog diced
• 1 whole wheat tortilla

Directions: Slice the hot dog, or if you have breakfast sausage, this would work better. Beat two eggs in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add some oil into a heated pan and fry the hot dog/sausage a little. Add the spinach and then pour the eggs over the spinach. Pull the cooked eggs from the side of the pan towards the middle, to make a nice scramble. Add cheese to the pan and let it melt before placing it on the tortilla

Made this for breakfast a weekend or two ago… forgot to post it.

Enjoy

Josie

Grilled Sea Bass with Vegetable Stiry Fry

Grilled Sea Bass with vegetable stir-fry

Ingredients:

• One sea bass fillet
• 1/2 lemon
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chili powder
• Garlic salt

Directions: Marinate the fish for at least 10-15 minutes. Grill the fish until the meat is flaky. If it is hard to pick the meat off with a fork, then it is undercooked. Do not undercook fish!!

The recipe for the stir-fry is in the previous post.

I can’t stress the importance of cooking fish thoroughly. I know that people have a fear of overcooking fish, but it is much better to overcook fish than to serve raw fish.

Why is it important to cook fish thoroughly?

Very few people know that fish naturally have a lot of worms and parasites on them, some of which are not visible to the naked eye. In order to make fish safe to eat and to prevent people from getting parasites from fish, you should always cook your fish thoroughly. Large amounts of heat kills the parasite. Also, if you freeze your fish before cooking it, extreme cold kills the parasites.

Why is it safe to eat raw sushi?

If you go to a good sushi restaurant or one that is popular, they tend to have chefs that are able to prepare raw fish meat properly. They are taught to recognize parasites and worms if it is present. Also, sushi restaurants that are very good will try to get the freshest fish out there. Fish that are fresh, when they are killed, the worms or parasites are still visible and have not yet embedded themselves into the tissue of the fish, therefore they could be removed during preparation.

How do I know if my fish is undercooked?

You can tell if your fish is undercooked if you take a fork and are unable to flake the meat off easily.Also, depending on the fish, it should usually turn white and no longer has that translucent sheen to it.

For more facts about cooking, feel free to drop us a question.

Cheers

Josie

Bento: Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry

Bento: Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 head of broccoli cut into florets
• 1 zucchini sliced
• 1/2 lb of sliced beef
• Soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chili powder
• 1 garlic clove, chopped

Directions: Cut the broccoli and zucchini and slice the beef. Marinate the beef in 1/2 tbs of soy sauce, 1/2 tbs of rice wine, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour. Heat a pan with some oil, and stir fry the garlic. Toss in the meat and cook half way. Add the zucchini and the broccoli. Add the garlic powder, salt, pepper, and another 1/2 tbs of soy sauce. Stir fry until meat is well done and the vegetables are a nice vibrant green color.

I made this a while ago but forgot to post it. It was for lunch a few weeks back.

Enjoy

Josie

Shrimp and Pork Dumplings

Shrimp and Pork Dumplings

I woke up Sunday morning, finding my mom sitting at the dining table. She had prepared some filling for some homemade dumplings. I do believe she put a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, corn, peas, and carrots. Not your usual dumpling.

I spent the morning creating these little dumplings. It took me about 20 dumplings until I was able to make them look nice. My crimping skills are not up to par, but finally I got the hang of it. Above is my best batch. They are all nice and chubby, full of yummy filling. All of the bad ones were cooked right away and consumed—getting rid of any evidence of their existence.

I froze these in the freezer and boiled them to bring for lunch one day. Yummy

Cheers

Josie