This one is very tasty, yet so simple to make. Don’t pass it up without giving it a try. Yep, it’s the small bowl in the center of the feast.
Ingredients:
1 lb pork short ribs, cut into pieces
2 stalks of lemon grass, only top part and tough outer layers of bottom part, reserve the bottoms for pad kee mao
about 20 sichuan pepper corn pods
1 knob of ginger, about 1 inch, thinly sliced
2 green onions, only green part, reserve white parts for pad kee mao
6 shiitake mushroom stems only, save caps for pad kee mao
2 TBSP fish sauce and salt to taste
Method:
Thoroughly clean pork ribs. Put all ingredients into a large enough pot, fill up with cold water to completely cover ribs.
Bring it up to a boil, reduce heat to low, and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Once in a while, check on the water level, add more water as needed and push down any lemon grass or green onions sticking up, and skim off any foamy part on top.
As I was cooking pork ribs, I used some of the ingredients mentioned above for pad kee mao.
Once everything is cooked and dished up, kill the heat and fish out the pork ribs into a bowl, season the soup with fish sauce and salt to taste. Ladle the soup onto the ribs and enjoy! Pork ribs will be fall-off-the-bone tender, and the soup has a nice tangy flavor, just the same as your favorite Thai restaurant.
This is hands down, my favorite spicy sauce. It’s good with literally anything and everything. Rice, Noodles, Meats, you name it. This sauce is super easy to make, literally takes 2 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 green onoin thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 TBSP low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp dark vinegar
1/2 tsp chicken bullion powder
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds – optional
1/2 tsp sugar
1 TBSP or more home made chili oil
1/2 tsp ground Sichuan pepper – optional
Method:
Mix everything in a bowl, mix well and use it however you see fit!
Another classic dish from my home town. Adding some minced and roughly chopped shrimp into the pork filling gives this dish an elegant upgrade on both flavor and texture. Of course, I served it with my signature spicy sauce. Life is good!
Ingredients:
1 package of store bought thin wonton wrappers. Don’t buy the thick type for this dish. The thin type will be super soft and silky after cooking process and you taste buds will be focused on the filling and the sauce.
1/2 lb ground pork, I prefer the fattier type, if pork is too lean, the filling tends to be a bit tougher after cooking
16 medium sized shrimp, half roughly chopped, half minced.
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 knob of ginger, about 1/2 inch, minced
1 lemon grass stalk, about 4 inches long rough outer layers removed, ends removed, minced
1 egg
1 TBSP corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup water
Method:
Put all ingredients except for wonton wrappers into a large bowl.
Stir vigorously with a pair of chopsticks or a fork in one direction for about 5 minutes. The mixture will change texture to be a lot more smoother, but you can still see the chopped shrimp pieces.
Line up the work station with wonton filling, wonton wrappers and a tray. Put a small bowl of water nearby for sealing the wrappers.
Grab a piece of wonton wrappers flat on your left palm, put about 1 tsp filling in the center.
Fold the top half over the bottom half to enclose the filling, slightly offset a bit.
Keep the filling meatball around middle finger area, slightly lift middle finger to push meatball upwards, while use thumb and pinkie to keep the two sides down.
Dab a little bit of water onto the left corner, under the thumb. Bring the right corner over to the left corner and squeeze it on top of the left corner. Retract middle finger while doing that. Viola, you just made a authentic wonton.
Keep repeating the process until you exhaust either the wrappers or the filling. I tend to make slightly more filling than wrappers, just because the fillings can be easily turned into meatballs or be incorporated into some other dishes, while leftover wrappers, you really don’t have much other use for them, and they tend to dry out very fast.
Now it’s time to cook these bad boys and enjoy them.
Boil a large pot of water on high heat. In the mean time, make your sauces in a large bowl. You want to be able to mix the wontons in the spicy sauce when they are done.
Once water is boiling, carefully put in about 15 to 20 wontons per adult serving into the water, don’t over crowd them. Move wontons gently with the back of a slotted spoon. Bring the water back to a boil.
Let fresh wontons boil with lid off for about 5 minutes. They will float up to the surface once they are done.
Spoon the wontons directly into your sauce bowl, mix well and enjoy!
This is one amazing technique marrying one super easy recipe. The results? Super tasty!
Ingredients:
4 bone in skin on chicken thighs, or boneless skin on chicken thighs if you can find them.
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chili powder
Method:
In a medium size bowl, place chicken thighs and all seasoning together and mix well. I suggest use a spoon, or wear a glove to mix by hand. Turmeric tend to stain absolutely everything. Set chicken aside for about 20 minutes to marinade.
In a heavy bottom pan, heat up 1 TBSP vegetable oil, place chicken thighs skin side down into the pan. Cover chicken with a piece of parchment paper and place a smaller heavy pan on top. Or add some weight into a smaller pan to weigh the chicken thighs down. This way, the skin will be completely in contact with the hot pan to help crisp up the skin.
Keep the heat on medium and let chicken thigh cook for about 15 minutes bone in, or 12 minutes boneless. Remove smaller pan and parchment paper, flip chicken thighs over and continue cooking another 15 or 12 minutes until chicken is fully cooked through.
Dish up and serve. You won’t believe how crispy the skin is!
Another versatile dish, use your favorite vegetables and put your own spin on it. This is super quick and easy week night healthy meal. Your kids would love it too!
Ingredient:
Half a pound of lean pork, thinly sliced against the grain
1 TBSP corn starch
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 tsp Sichuan pepper corn powder, leave it out if you don’t have it
4 jalapenos
1 onion
1 green onion, sliced into 1/2 inch sections
1/8 cup of soy sauce
2 TBSP hoisin sauce
4 cloves of galic, minced
5 slices of fresh ginger, cut into strips and minced
Method:
Marinade pork slices in a small bowl with corn starch, 2 TBSP soy sauce and sichuan pepper corn powder. Mix well and set aside.
Cut jalapeno in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and white part using a spoon and cut into bite size pieces. Cut onion into bite size pieces, separate the onion peddles, that would make stir fry a lot easier later.
Heat up about 2 TBSP vegetable oil in a nonstick pan on medium high heat. Dump pork slices into the pan and cook the meat to medium rare. Take the meat out from the pan and back into the marinating bowl for later.
Add more oil into the pan, in goes the minced garlic and ginger and stir fry until it’s fragrant. There is no need to wash the pan or wiping it down.
Add the onions and peppers and stir fry for a few minutes to take the raw edges off the vegetables. Add the pork slices back into the pan.
Add soy sauce and hoisin sauce to the pan and mix well. The sauces will help pick up any brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Because the pork had corn starch in the marinade, the sauce will thicken up nicely too and become kinda glossy.
Kill the heat, add the green onion pieces and stir through. Dish up and enjoy!
The best part of this dish? Switch up the vegetable choices and you get a different dish, the possibility is endless!
Another week night dinner go-to recipe. It’s so easy, yet sooo good! You have got to try this one.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of long grain rice
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 lime
1 small bunch of cilantro
Method:
Heat up oil in a medium size pot on medium high. Add rice and toast the rice until it’s golden brown. This adds a lot of flavor to the rice and makes it super fluffy.
Add the minced garlic and stir the rice for another minute. You will almost immediately smell the fragrance of the garlic clove. But don’t worry, it will not linger in the rice in the end, just adding a very subtle hint of depth.
Add 2 1/4 cup of water to the pot. while the water is heating up, zest a lime directly into the pot. Use only the green part of the lime, don’t zest the white part, since it will be bitter. Add a dash of salt as well. Give it a good stir to distribute lime zest and salt.
Once water is boiling, lid on and lower heat to low. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Then turn off heat, leave lid on and let the rice sit in the pot and continue steaming for 10 minutes.
In the mean time, cut the lime zested, and finely chop the cilantro leaves and soft stem part.
Lid off the pot, squeeze in the juice of the lime and add chopped cilantro. Fluff the rice with a fork and mix in the cilantro. Dish up and enjoy!
Another quick and easy dinner, super versatile. Just change out the protein to whatever you like, or cut it out all together for a meatless version.
Ingredients:
1 lb pork ribs, ask your butcher to cut it into 1 inch sections, then cut them into pieces
1 yellow onion, half if it is large
1 orange bell pepper
a handful of asparagus
2 green onions
4 large eggs
1 Roma tomato
1 inch knob of fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of soy sauce
2 TBSP oyster sauce
1 TBSP Hoisin sauce
1 tsp chicken bullion powder
about 1 inch bundle of noodles of your choice. I used Chinese style dried noodles
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
2 star anise (optional)
1 bay leaf (optional)
Method:
Slice ginger into thin slices, reserve about 4 slices, put rest of the ginger, cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaf and rib pieces into a pot, fill with water, enough to cover everything. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 30 minutes. I snapped the asparagus hard stem part off and threw the hard parts into the rib pot.
In the mean time, I whipped up a dump cake, and threw the dessert into the oven to bake.
On the cutting board, I prepared all the vegetables. Thinly sliced the onion, cut the orange bell pepper into thin strips, cut asparagus at a diagonal, and lightly scored the tip of the tomato and put it into the rib water to poach for 20 seconds. I took it out with a slotted spoon, easily peeled it and cut it into small chunks.
I minced the garlic and cut the ginger into thin slices, then thin strips then minced it.
Once the ribs are fork tender, use the slotted spoon to take out all the solids from the pot into a large bowl. Rib pieces can be easily fished out later when needed. But the boiling water is needed to boil the noodle now.
Put about 4 servings of noodles into the pot and boil per instruction.
In a large nonstick pan, add oil and heat it on medium high heat. Once oil is heated up, crack the eggs directly into the pan, then stir fry using a wooden spoon. Poke the yokes first and stir it up. No need to dirty up another bowl, you will never tell the difference.
Once eggs are scrambled, push the eggs to the outer edge, add about 2 more TBSP oil in the center, dump the vegetables into the center and stir fry the veggies for a minute. Mix up eggs and vegetables. Add ribs from the bowl. Add all the seasoning into the pan and mix well. Stir fry until noodles are done. Fish out the noodles and put them directly into the vegetable and rib mixture.
Mix well and let noodles soak up all the flavor. Use 2 wooden spoons as needed. If desired, turn off heat and sprinkle some finely sliced green onions for garnish and flavoring. Dish up and enjoy!
This one is a fusion between staple Sichuan Spicy Salt and Pepper Shrimp and Japanese Ramen, married by stir fry. All I gotta say is try it, you will love it!
Without further due, here is how to make it:
Ingredients:
1 lb headless shrimp, peeled and de-veined
3 green onions, white and pale part thinly sliced, green part cut into half-inch sections
1 knob of fresh ginger, thinly sliced then cut into thin strips
about 10 dried chili, cut into half-inch pieces using a pair of scissors, keep seeds
Optional: about 2 fresh Thai birds eye chilies, if you like extra spicy
2 servings of fresh Japanese Ramen noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
6 TBSP soy sauce, divided
1 TBSP Chinese cooking wine (or use chicken stock if you prefer alcohol free cooking)
1/4 cup of plain all purpose flour
about 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
about 1 tsp Sichuan pepper corn, freshly ground after toasting
Method:
Combine 2 TBSP soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil with cleaned shrimp in a small bowl, set aside let marinade for a few minutes. Mean while, prepare ginger, green onions, chilies, and boil a large pot of water for Ramen noodles.
Heat up about 2 TBSP vegetable oil in a large pan on medium high. Put all purpose flour into a small bowl, coat each shrimp in flour and shake off excess flour. Carefully fry shrimps on both sides for about 1 minute. This gives the final dish a nice crust on the shrimps and a thick sauce to coat the noodles. Don’t over crowd the pan, shrimps will stuck together otherwise. Fry them in batches if needed. Set the fried shrimp aside. Don’t worry about if they are cooked all the way through, there will be more cooking of shrimps later on.
Add another TBSP or 2 of oil into the pan, after removing all shrimps. Heat up oil and in goes thinly sliced green onion white and pale parts, ginger and chilies. Move them around and give them about 30 seconds to a minute to become fragrant.
While large pot of water is boiling, add fresh Ramen noodles into pot and quickly move the noodles around so they don’t stick together. This happens VERY quickly, literally 30 seconds is enough. Drain noodles right away, otherwise the noodles will get very soft and soggy in stir fry process. No need for ice water bath, because it will go into the large pan shortly.
In goes remaining soy sauce and cooking wine. Mix well. Add shrimps back in. Immediately add salt and ground Sichuan pepper corn and sugar. Mix well. Sauce will thicken quite quickly. Add cooked Ramen into the pan with the shrimps. Add all but a few green part of the green onions into the pan. Save the last bit for final garnish.
Use 2 spoons or spatulas, move noodles around, and very well mix with shrimps and soak up all the yummy juices and sauces. Dish up, top with last bit of green onions and enjoy!
This is super satisfying. You have got to make the Caribbean Oxtail, and use the gravy or leftovers (if that’s even possible) for this super simple yet extremely comforting weeknight dinner, or mid night snack.
I am not going to waste your time talking about how to make the oxtail, simply refer to my other blog post. Here is how to make the Ramen:
Ingredients:
1 package of store bought Japanese style Ramen. Buy the kind that’s in the refrigerated section, fresh noodles, typically you can find these in Asian markets fairly easily. I normally buy a large pack and separate the leftover noodles into portions. They freeze very well.
3 TBSP light soy sauce
1 tsp dark Chinese vinegar, regular white vinegar will do too
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 tsp sugar
1 TBSP home made chili oil, if you absolutely have none, use garlic chili sauce or small amount of siracha
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
a pinch of ground sichuan pepper powder, leave it out if you don’t have any on hand
1 ladle of oxtail gravy, heated up if cold.
A large handful of any greens of your choice, if you like, or none.
Method:
Boil a pot of water on the stove. While water is boiling, mix all ingredients except for the noodles and greens in a large noodle bowl. You want to use a large noodle bowl which will make the mixing of noodles much easier.
When the water comes to a full boil, carefully drop in 1 serving of noodles into boiling water. Immediately use a pair of chopsticks to mix the noodle around. Add greens immediately.
Literally, it takes about 30 seconds to cook fresh noodles, 45 seconds if frozen. I know it sounds ridiculously fast, but that’s what it takes to get the right texture.
Fish out all the noodles and greens into the large bowl full of amazing sauce. Mix well and enjoy!
I had to make a cake for parents’ friends gathering the following day. Then I realized I did not have butter, or whipped cream. But I got the following ingredients that I could still make a killer Piña Coladas Tres Leches Cake!
Ingredients:
I box of yellow cake mix, plus oil, water and eggs or whatever the box calls for
1 can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 can of each: sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, coconut milk
1 bag of miniature marshmallows, or large ones, miniatures are what I had on hand.
Method:
Pre-heat oven as per instruction on cake mix box. Make the cake in a greased 9×13 pan according to instruction, but add the can of crushed pineapple into the batter before baking.
Once cake is done, poke the cake with the handle end of a spatula all over.
Combine the 3 cans of milks in a large bowl, whisk to ensure well incorporated. Pour milk mixture carefully all over cake. Don’t worry if it seems like too much milk, the cake will absorb it all, eventually.
Put oven on broil. Arrange marshmallows in a single layer, smugly on top of the cake.
Broil for about 3 minutes, turn the oven light on and keep an close eye on it, it will burn quickly.
Cool on the counter for about 10 minutes and cover the entire cake up with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge over night, to give the cake enough time to soak up the milk mixture. The cake will be so moist and tender the following day. My parents said the cake was all gone in about 10 minutes at their gathering, and they didn’t even get to take a piece.
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I am an American Chinese, mother of 3 wonderful children, senior engineer, but passionate about cooking, arts and crafts, travel, gardening, sewing…
I value honesty, sincerity, simple happiness in family and friendship. Life has its surprises all the time, the only thing we could do, is to keep a positive attitude, welcome every spin with a smile and make the best out of any situation.
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