This is a Mexican staple drink. It is so good, it makes me feel sinful every time I have one of these.. But who knows how simple it is to make at home?! Let’s try it out.
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup of white rice
5 cups of water, divided
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup of milk of choice (I had vanilla soy milk, that’s what I used, tastes AMAZING!)
1 TBSP vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup white sugar
Method:
In a good blender, blend white rice, 2 cups of water and cinnamon sticks until roughly blended. Then add the remaining water and blend another minute.
Pour everything into a glass pitcher and refrigerate over night.
Strain the rice water mixture the next day and discard all solids. Add milk of choice, vanilla, sugar and ground cinnamon. Mix well and serve chilled, or over ice.
Enjoy a cup of home made horchata on a hot summer day is just heavenly.
Let me tell ya, this is definitely a keeper. It’s so quick, easy, yummy, and so versatile. Change it up to use whatever you have on hand, the flavor is amazing! Even our pickiest carnivore gobbled down the greens!
Let’s get straight to the recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 package of Cantonese style noodles
1 medium size onion, sliced
1 zucchini, julianned
1 carrot, peeled and julianned
2 cloves of garlic, peeled, minced
1 bundle of any greens, I used half of a package of yu choy and Chinese lettuce
2 TBSP oyster sauce
2 TBSP Hoisin sauce
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 TPSB dark soy sauce
1 handful of thinly sliced green onions
Method:
In a large wok, heat up about 1 TBSP oil, brown ground pork and sausage until the liquid is evaporated. In the mean time, bring a medium pot of water to a boil, get ready for the noodles.
Add sliced onions and carrots, since they require a bit longer to cook. Stir for about 1 minute until the vegetables are slightly softened.
Add minced garlic and zucchini, and stir fry for a minute or so.
Once the water is boiling, put the bag of noodles into the boiling water, immediately turn off the heat of the pot. Move the noodles around to avoid a clunk of noodles. Let the noodles sit in the boiling water for 15 seconds or so. Do not over boil the noodles.
Fish out the noodles from the pot and add into the pork and veggie mixture directly. Add all seasonings and sliced greens. Use two spatulas or a pair of tongs thoroughly mix the noodles with the veggies and meats and evenly distribute the seasoning and let the flavors mingle.
Yes, Ramen Noodles are getting a makeover in our household! We are, frankly, noodle freaks, we love noodle dishes, but it also means, our expectation for noodle dishes are quite high. This Korean version deluxe Ramen Noodles certainly put a giant smile on everyone’s face.
Here is how to make this super simple, yet super satisfying Ramen dish.
Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, sliced into bite size slices, marinate chicken well with the marinade mix listed below, set aside for about 10 minutes while preparing the rest of the ingredients
1 lb small raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb sausages, any kind would work, even hot dogs. I had a package of chicken sausages, so I sliced them at a diagonal for larger surface area, so the flavor blends better into the broth
6 cups of broth (if you have any), or good old plain water would do – which is what I did.
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
about 1/2 inch of fresh ginger, minced. Freeze your ginger! And use a grater to grate it than try to mince fresh ginger, it saves you A LOT of hard work!
3 green onions, sliced and save for garnish
white toasted sesame seeds, white or black, for garnish, totally optional
4 packages of Korean style Ramen noodles, any flavor, but I used chicken
1/2 small head of cabbage, roughly chopped, you want to be able to find the cabbage leaves after they are cooked, probably one of the best part of the dish in my opinion
1 heaping TBSP of Gochujang – Korean chili paste, this will really give you the warmth, in my mind, not very spicy
1 heaping TBSP fine Korean chili powder, this will give the vibrant red color. OK, here is my confession, I didn’t find mine, so I left it out. That’s the reason why my noodles turned out more of an orange color than red. Even though the flavor is still amazing, color could be better. But for the sake of this recipe, it is also totally optional
about 6 pieces of kimchi, roughly chopped – Korean fermented cabbage. This is also key to give the dish signature Korea flavor. It can be spicy, so be sure to taste your kimchi and decide how much you want to put into your pot.
4 eggs
Chicken marinade:
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP Gochujang
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 TBSP corn starch
Method:
1. put about 2 TBSP vegetable oil or any kind of mild flavored cooking oil into your trusty heavy bottomed soup pot. A dutch oven is my recommendation. Just imagine when the noodles are done, they sit nice and warm in the dutch oven, with the amazing steam elevating from the pot for a while… anyway.. cook your minced garlic and ginger for a minute or until fragrant. Add the Gochujang and Korean chili powder (if using) and let the hot oil toast the spices while moving the paste around, about 1 additional minute.
2. Add marinated chicken slices into the pot, move chicken around to cook for a minute. Don’t worry if chicken isn’t fully cooked, they will be boiled for a while.
3. Add sausages into the pot, to give it a chance to render any fat and flavor the soup base. Stir fry for about a minute or two. Add broth or water into the pot. Add cabbage. Close the lid, bring the liquid to a rapid boil.
4. Open Ramen packages, add all the flavoring base into the pot, including the sesame packages. Stir the soup to mix well. Add Ramen noodles into the pot, push down a bit to make sure all the noodles are being cooked. Flip noodles as needed. Skim off any foam as needed. Lower the heat to medium low, and let the soup cook for a couple of minutes with the lid on.
5. Stir the noodles. Once the noodles are al dente (be careful not to over cook at this point), or just softened enough not to be crunchy, push noodles down to form 4 dents on the surface of the noodle layer. Crack one egg into each dent, do not disturb the soup. Lid goes back onto the dutch oven and let it cook for another 2 minutes. This allows the eggs to be gently cooked from the bottom and steamed from the top. And final dish would have perfectly soft poached egg. Or, if you prefer, leave the eggs cook a bit longer so it’s fully cooked in the center.
6. Lid off, kill the heat. Use a pair of tongs to serve noodles and fixings into a bowl, use a spatula to serve a soft poached egg or hard boiled egg on top of the noodles, and ladle some amazing hot and glossy broth over everything. Top it off with chopped green onions and toasted sesame seeds.
My mouth is watering again, just to go through this cooking process again in my head…Enjoy!
This noodle dish is such a comforting, healthy yet flavorful dish. You can easily make it a non-spicy version for kids. Such a quick treat!
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 roma tomato, sliced into wedges
1 small bundle of asparagus, bottom trimmed and cut at an angle about 1.5 inch pieces
a bunch of napa cabbage leaves, washed and torn into large pieces
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 chicken bullion
3 servings of thin dried Chinese noodles
2 spicy chilies, optional
Method:
Heat up about 2 TBSP vegetable oil in a medium size nonstick soup pot, pour the lightly beaten eggs into the pot, scramble for a minute or so, until the eggs are just set.
Add in minced garlic and tomatoes and stir fry for a minute or two until tomato wedges are softened and falling apart. Add garlic and chilies if using, stir fry until fragrant.
Add about 4 cups of water, bring it to a rapid boil. Add the chicken bullion to dissolve.
Add the super thin noodles into the soup. It will look like there isn’t enough water, but bare with it. Use a pair of chopsticks and move around the noodles constantly, so they don’t stick together. The noodles would soak up most of the liquid. Don’t panic. Add all the leafy greens into the pot too, yes, it will seem impossible… Looks like something like this:
Patiently and carefully turn the noodles over, on top of the leafy greens. Leaves will soon wilt into almost nothing.
Taste for flavor, add salt as needed. Add sliced green onions and serve!
Yes, this is another version of egg drop soup. Look at it this way, this could be a healthier version, simply because there is tomato and cucumber as vegetables. Yet, tomatoes add a very surprising depth to the flavor, and cucumbers add freshness. This is such a quick and easy summer treat!
Ingredients:
1 roma tomato, peeled, sliced into wedges
1 cucumber, peeled, sliced thinly
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 green onion, thinly sliced
2 heaping TBSP of corn starch
1 cube of chicken bullion
salt to taste
Method:
Heat up about 4 cups of water in a soup pot, add the tomatoes first to bring to a boil. This step is crucial to let the tomatoes fully cook through, soften up and almost melting into the soup. This not only takes out the raw tomato taste, sometimes not everyone likes, and also this deepens the savory flavor of the soup and sweeten up the tomato pieces a bit.
Add cucumber slices and chicken bullion into the soup, and let it boil for a minute or so. Dissolve corn starch in about 1/4 cup of cold water and pour into soup. Stir the soup to evenly distribute the corn starch water. The soup will ever so slightly thicken up a bit but not too much.
Pour in beaten eggs, stir the soup as the eggs are being poured. Thickened soup and moving liquid will ensure the eggs will form very thin and small pieces and suspend in the soup like snow flakes.
Add thinly sliced green onions, kills the heat, taste for seasoning, add salt to taste or a bit more water if it is accidentally too salty.
Dish up and serve. You will be amazed how simple yet tasty this soup is, and everyone will love it.
All I had to say was WOW. This dish was way better than I expected. Frankly I did not expect both of my kids tear up this dish over rice. Give it a try, it is quick and easy enough for a week night dinner. And yes, I had jalapeno, onions and tomatoes in this dish normally kids would shy away from.
Ingredients:
1 package of ground bison meat
1 large russet potato
1 jalopeno
2 Roma tomatoes
1 medium size yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 beef bullion cubes
Method:
In a large nonstick pan, brown bison meat over medium heat, break up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes. Be patient. If the meat seems watery, the liquid will evaporate as the meat is browning. In the mean time, peel and mince the garlic, dice the yellow onion. Seed the jalapeno pepper and mince, dice the tomatoes, peel and dice the potato.
Add garlic and onions into the browned meat, cook for about 3 minutes until garlic and onions are softened. Add diced potato and jalapeno pepper. Add about 2 cups of water and beef bullion cubes. Lid on and let the potatoes cook through, about 5 minutes. Ensure the water is not fully evaporated during the 5 minutes. Add more water as needed to ensure the potatoes are cooked through and tender. Add tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add all seasonings and stir thoroughly to combine and let the flavor develop.
Serve over rice, inside of a home made tortilla, inside of a savory version naan bread, or simply spoon from the pot, anyone would love this dish!
Y’all, this one is one of my childhood favorite! If you can take spices, you will love this one! It’s super appetizing, you can serve it as an appetizer or a vegetable main dish. You can leave out the spicy oil and make it more kid friendly.
Ingredients:
1 American egg plant, or 2 Japanese eggplants. I prefer the skinnier version Japanese eggplants for this dish because it’s tenderer and the skin is softer too. But all I had was 1 ginormous eggplant, so I used that one.
about 4 TBSP of my signature spicy sauce. Leave out the spices if you prefer mild version.
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Method:
Cut the eggplant into roughly 2 inch slices. Put eggplant slices into a large bowl and steam in a steamer (if you have one) for 10 minutes.
If you don’t have a steamer, do what I did, put a wire tray, or 3 aluminum foil balls at the bottom of the large pot, fill water to about 1 inch deep – you only need about 10 minutes anyways. Put your eggplant bowl on top of the wire tray or aluminum foil balls.
Once eggplant is cooked, kill the heat, take the bowl out carefully to cool. Pull the eggplant into strips, or cut into strips. If you are using Japanese eggplant, you will be able to pull it into strips, I find the large American eggplant it is harder to pull, you can cut with a knife though.
Put all egg plant strips back into the bowl, after dumping out the liquid accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Drizzle with my signature spicy sauce, top with green onion. Mix well and serve!
Another simple yet scrumptious dish. Super easy to make and very satisfying.
Ingredients:
1 bundle of asparagus
1 yellow bell pepper, use yellow for color contrast. Red or orange would do too.
4 slices of fresh ginger
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Method:
Prepare asparagus properly. By properly, I mean you have to snap each asparagus towards the bottom part, so the tough portion of the asparagus would naturally fall off. I can not stress enough, a tough bite of asparagus REALLY kills this dish. But don’t worry, you are not really wasting anything. Save the tough pieces in a Ziploc bag in the fridge for next soup you make. They add a nice refreshing flavor to the soup.
Cut the asparagus at a diagonal, roughly 2 inches long. Clean the bell pepper, remove seeds and the white membrane inside. Cut into thin strips, this way asparagus and the bell pepper will be roughly the same size.
Thinly slice your ginger and mince garlic. Then you are ready for the fire.
Pan on fire, medium high heat, about 2 TBSP vegetable oil into the pan, heat up the oil for about a minute. In goes the ginger slices and garlic. Move the aromatics around for about 30 seconds without burning the garlic.
In goes the prepared asparagus and bell pepper. Stir fry for about 3 minutes. You don’t want to overcook the vegetables, all you want is slightly soften them, that way the vegetables preserve the nutrients and the crisp texture.
Add salt, pepper and ground cumin, and mix well. Kill the heat and dish up. The cumin is the secret ingredient here, it gives the dish a little extra oomph, and also a bit of a smoky and almost fajita like taste. It’s quite nice.
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 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!
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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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