Category Archives: Cooking

Roast Garlic

March 28, 2013 – 07:00

Roasted garlic is so easy and simple, you can prep a large batch at once and reap the benefits months later.

Take a bunch of garlic heads and lop off the top. Not too much, but just enough to expose some surface area. Keep the skin, it’ll help with the removal later on.

Put the garlic cut side down in a oven safe dish and drown it in olive oil. You’ll want to roast it at 350-400 for maybe 20-30minutes.

When it’s done, you’ll know. Your kitchen will smell absolutely glorious, the garlic will be this nice medium brown colour. Take it out and let it cool slightly and remove the garlic heads. As for the oil, strain it to get rid of any bits and save it, for now it’s infused with that garlicky goodness.

Now, carefully squeeze the cloves of garlic out. They’ll pop just like pimples, except that’s gross and this is delicious. There’s a multitude of options with your now slightly sweet-soft-browned cloves of garlic. Mash it in with your potatoes, add to your pasta sauce.. or do as I did, mixed it in with some butter. Thoroughly mix it in, and then spread it out on some saran wrap. Roll it up and wrap it, throw it in the freezer to reform. Now you’ve got garlic butter whenever you want!

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Cooking

Peking Duck Congee

March 18, 2013 – 00:00

Remember at the end of the Hot Chefs Cool Jazz post I put up the picture of Grace posing with a Peking duck like it’s her baby? I made good on my promise to make some Peking duck congee with it, as I had taken not one, but TWO ducks.

First order of business, break down the duck as much as possible. Start with removing the skin, meat, and then breaking up any joints. Reserve the meat for nibbling, topping, stir fry, whatever.

Next, I grabbed some secondary items, some sliced ginger and Chinese mushrooms for flavour.

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Cooking

White Castle Microwaveable Burgers

April 20, 2012 – 00:00

I spotted these in the freezer section while down in Washington in January, and thought I’d pick them up since I’ve never had White Castle.

White Castle Microwaveable Cheeseburgers

You see, they’re only out on the East Coast, and therefore nigh impossible for me to attain.

This box came in three individually sealed bags, two sliders each. Instructions said to either microwave or bake. I did both just to compare. Microwaving sucked, they were slightly soggy but the cheese was nice and melted.

Baking them actually took a bit more work, as it asked for a tray with a layer of steaming hot water, then to cover the burgers in foil on the slotted top part. When you got the munchies..I’m pretty sure you won’t go through all that work.

Popped these bad boys in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes. That’s a lot of waiting…

End result? A crispier bun but the cheese less melted. I guess I could have had them in longer, but 20 minutes compared to a whopping 2 minutes in the microwave? I’ll take the latter .. it gets the job done.

Of course, this is not a true representative of the real White Castle burgers (I sure hope so!) so until the day I’m out East….

Harold and Kumar, this one’s dedicated for you.

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Asian Chinese Cooking Cuisine Taiwanese

Tea Eggs 茶葉蛋 chá yè dàn

March 25, 2011 – 18:03

I love eggs, I have one almost everyday when I’m pressed for time for breakfast. I usually have a boiled egg cause it’s the easiest to prepare and I can cook a bunch at the start of the week. So it’s no wonder that I love tea eggs. They are hard boiled eggs that are simmered for hours in a tea and spice broth that infuses and permeates throughout the egg.

In Taiwan, tea eggs are present in all convenience stores, and according to reports, an average of 40 MILLION tea eggs are sold each year, and that’s only from 7-11. If you took into account the other convenience stores such as Family Mart, Hi-Life and Ok Mart, that figure would probably be more than double! It’s one of the most profitable items that 7-11 sells, which is amazing considering it’s just a simple egg.

My mom uses these prepackaged tea egg spice bags for convenience, and you can find them in any Asian market.

Just for giggles, here are the Chinglish directions printed on the back of the box.

Put twenty eggs into a cooking put and put water. In the amount sufficient to cover all eggs. Into the pot.
Add flavouring bag and tea bag (keep the two bags as a whole) and a teaspoon of salt into the pot.
Cook in mild oven for 20 minutes [what, who boils eggs in the oven?!] Take out the eggs and break the egg shells gently to enable the flavouring to penetrate into the eggs. Keep cooking the eggs for one more hour.
Turn off the oven, keep soaking the eggs in the flavouring fluid for another hour. Then you get the wonderful flavoured tea eggs in excellent look, taste and smell.
Enjoy flavoured tea eggs accompanied by “Jen Hao Jia” peppered salt for added delight to your palate.

An easier recipe can be used with ingredients you probably have at home. Measurements are approximated, it’s cooking, not baking!

1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tea bags (Black Tea or Pu’er Tea)
1 star anise (or 5 spice powder)

Method:

Make hard boiled eggs. When cool, lightly crack each egg all the way around.
Put the eggs back into a new pot of water, enough to cover the eggs and add the tea bags, soy sauce, anise, and salt.
Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour. If the water level drops, turn the eggs so all surfaces are covered.
Leave to soak overnight or simmer on low heat for another 2-3 hours for maximum flavour.

A good tea egg has a nice lacy web-like texture all over the egg, with dark lines and lighter patches. The longer the eggs are soaked, the stronger the flavour and they can keep well up to a week. Pack some for lunch, eat it with some minced meat on rice for a simple meal, or just eat 4 of them a day (not recommended, I’ve done it though).

Hope you enjoy this simple recipe, I’ll be rolling out more in the future.

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Cooking

Microwaved Nutella Mug Cake

March 23, 2011 – 09:00

Ingredients
* 4 tablespoons self rising flour
* 4 tablespoons sugar
* 1 egg
* 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
* 3 tablespoons Nutella
* 3 tablespoons milk
* 3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a large coffee mug.
2. Whisk well with a fork until smooth.
3. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 – 3 minutes. (Time depends on microwave wattage. Mine took 1 /2 minutes.)
4. Top with whipped cream and a little chocolate sauce if desired.
Makes 1 very large serving.

Source: The Family Kitchen

Found this beautiful mug cake circulating around Tumblr and I tracked it down to the original site. The last time I tried making one of these microwave mug cakes, it was so ugly and overflowed over the cup even though I gave it time to settle. However, it did taste awesome, so that’s really all that matters!

Have you ever made or experimented with one of these quick-n-easy mug cakes before?

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Cooking

Seared Chicken Breast on Mushroom Risotto with Pomegranate Sauce

March 21, 2011 – 09:00

Back in November, Chicken Farmers invited some bloggers to a night of cooking a Quince Studio. This was not the typical foodblogger event where we were spoiled silly and served food all night, instead we had to get our hands dirty and prepare our own food. I had these pictures uploaded on flickr, but somehow forgot to post them. So…..here ya go.

CFC @ Quince - Vancouver Food Blogger Meetup-20

While the kitchen finished all the prep work for us, the crowd in front mingled and drank wine. As an added bonus, the tables were already set. Even better, we didn’t have to wash dishes after.

CFC @ Quince - Vancouver Food Blogger Meetup-02

The kitchen in the back of Quince Studios.

CFC @ Quince - Vancouver Food Blogger Meetup-03

After a short talk from Chicken Farmers of Canada and the head chef of Quince Studios, we were divided up into groups to start cooking.
My group consisted of…

Dawna from Always In The Kitchen
Tana from Cheap Appetite
Marianne from french fries to flax seeds

CFC @ Quince - Vancouver Food Blogger Meetup-06

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Cooking

Homemade Banh Cuon

June 22, 2010 – 10:00

After Tung Hing and lazing about at the beach, we came back to Victor’s house to kill some time before dodgeball and found that his mom was making banh cuon!

Sweet, I’ve never had homemade banh cuon before so it was nice to see it being made. His mom went and bought a 5lb bag of plain rice noodles from Hon’s Wonton House, and just panfried some pork, mushroom, shrimp and wood ear as filling. Of course, your fillings can be anything you want to accomodate your dietary needs. She would take a sheet of rice noodles, lay it flat out on the saran covered counter and start making little rolls. Once she filled up a plate, then it would go into the wok to steam for a couple minutes.

Plenty of bean sprouts.

Fish sauce, carrots, sugar…essential!

Deep fried shallots…mm the smell is so fragrant and intoxicating, I would eat this entire bowl of shallots just by itself…

Just pile everything into a bowl, and slop some fish sauce on top, mix and go nuts…I had 12 of these suckers in one sitting.

I would post a recipe but honestly, everyone makes it slightly different. You can save time by buying the rice noodles pre made, or you can take the time to actually make the rice noodles, either in the traditional way of a cheesecloth over a pan, or the more new school way of making it in a teflon coated baking pan. The latter way is how you’ll see cheung fun or ho fun being made now.. such as at the Chinatown Night Market.

Just Google up “banh cuon recipes” and you’re more than set. I found that this thread from Chowhound was MORE than helpful and intensely detailed and descriptive.

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Cooking

Shao Bing from Taiwan!

April 27, 2010 – 01:31

Shao Bing, or 燒餅 literally means “roasted pastry“.

It is a typical baked and layered flatbread in Chinese cuisine. They can either contain savoury or sweet fillings, or they can be empty. In Taiwan, it is very common for breakfast and they’re usually filled with You Tiao 油條 (chinese donuts) and served with warm Dou Jiang 豆漿(soy milk), just like the picture below.

Source – Colin Woon on Flickr

I have such vivid memories of lining up in the morning at this place near my aunts in Taipei. As a kid, I would watch them prepare it from start to finish. They would roll out the dough, flatten it out and then reach into the hot round upright oven (?? I don’t know what they’re called, I’m just describing it as I remember how they look like) and literally smear it onto the walls to bake.

Recently, my mom went to Taiwan for a short vacation. She actually left a day after I got back from Whistler at the end of March. Now, every time my mom comes back from Taiwan, we’re guaranteed two thing in her luggage. A case of Taiwan Beer, which I looooove, and Ziploc bags full of freshly made shaobing bought just before she boarded the plane.

Going to guess that this is a list of other locations? Pretty sure…someone want to read it for me?

Peeking out of the paper bag.. oh there’s so many things we can do with you. Plain and dipped in dou jiang, filled with whatever you want..

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Cooking Kelowna Location

Kelowna – Steak and Veggies

October 15, 2009 – 06:18

Not wanting to go out and spend more money for dinner, a couple of us decided to stay home and cook dinner. A quick trip to the supermarket before heading back to our resort and we were set. Broccoli, carrots, onions, potatoes, steak, and a couple cream of mushroom soup cans.

Steaks on the grill, medium rare please.

Keeping our soup, potatoes and vegetables warm on the other side of the grill.

Steaks are done, time to plate.

Sauteed onions on sirloin tip steak with pan fried potatoes, broccoli and carrots. All this split evenly amongst 4 of us was only $5 . Oh and a 2Litre Asahi for me. What a dinner!

Tags asahi, broccoli, carrots, cream of mushroom soup, onions, steak, vegetables | Permalink | Comment (1)

Cooking

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothies

June 20, 2009 – 22:00

Now that it’s summer, I find that I’ve been making a smoothie almost everyday. Smoothies can be very healthy or not AS healthy depending on what you put in, fruits, ice cream, etc. ..I’m sure you all understand what I mean by that. It’s just a very quick and easy way to get your daily fruits.

Golden Kiwis! I took this last week when they weren’t ripe yet.

Been eating them the last week, and I saved the last two to make a smoothie. I like the Golden Kiwi’s more than the normal green ones because they’re not as tart and sour. There also isn’t a lot of fuzz on them, and you could scrub it off and eat just like that. I however prefer to use my nifty spoon for eating kiwis..it’s got a “knife” to cut the kiwi in half an the opposite end is a spoon!