Cassidy's Sweet 16

Valentine's Treat

Kimberly and I wanted to make some treats for our friends for Valentine's day so we made these cute white and dark heart brownies from smitten kitchen /http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/02/white-and-dark-hearted-brownies/. It was really fun to cook with Kim; I never thought she would turn out to be so interested in domestic affairs; I mean the measuring, the mixing, and cutting duties. She was always interested in helping so she can sample her way through the cooking process. ; - )

It was not so easy to cut the brownies into the exact same size; we wonder if the smitten kitchen had rulers and squares rulers on hand to measure and cut. I also decided that we need a "thicker"heart shape cookie cutter; our cookie cutter is not quite as tall as the thickness of the brownies and it was a trick to cut all the way through and remove the cookie cutter from the middle of the brownies. However unevenly our brownie squares were, they turned out pretty cute. The kids love the brownies; I did not have any since I am not suppose to eat milk product or cane sugar. It was fun to give these Valentines away!

Chinese New Year

I love Chinese New Year celebrations; probably because it always bring me memory of great Chinese dishes of my mother. For the last few years, we got together with my friend Chris's family and cooked a lot of food and did a lot of chit-chatting for the Chinese New Years dinner. Last year a few of Kimberly's friends came to the dinner and this year she invited even more friends. In stead the usual 10-12 people we had about twenty. I put them to work as soon as they arrived to wrap the egg rolls and make pot stickers and it was a lot of fun. 

Cashew Chicken - 腰果雞丁

Cashew Chicken in Taiwan looked and tasted very different than the ones in the United States. My kids like the American version since they are not too excited about cucumber or celery. This recipe is loosely base on the cashew chicken dish from the Mandarin Restaurant in Bountiful, Utah (from Good Things Utah on Channel 4). I heard people rave about this restaurant but have never ate there. We did ordered take-out once while we were at some kind of family gathering in Bountiful, but I was not particularly impressed. I should give the restaurant another try sometime; but it is just hard to drive more than 30 minutes to get dinner when I "think" I can produce pretty good Chinese food in my own kitchen.

Chicken

2 chicken breast halves cut into 1" pieces
1 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of white pepper
2 teaspoon of brown sauce (see the blog about Stir-fry Seasoning or use equal parts of soy sauce and water)
Marinate chicken pieces with corn starch, white petter & brown sauce for 15 - 20 minutes in a bowl.
Sauce - mix all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside

1/4 cup of chicken stock or water
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sauce
1 teaspoon of mushroom soy sauce

Spices & others ingredient
a pinch of chili pepper flakes (optional)

1 clove of garlic, crushed, and chopped

1 teaspoon of ginger, grated

1/2 cup of cashew, roasted, unsalted or lightly salted

2 teaspoons of cornstarch + 2 teaspoon of water mixed in a small bowl

Vegetables
1 small or medium onion, cut into 1" cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1" cubes
1 small carrots, thinly sliced
a handful of water chestnuts, cut into large slices
a handful of sugar snap peas or snow peas
3 - 4 asparagus, cut into 2" pieces on the diagonal (optional)
I usually stir fry the vegetables separately. Kimberly always complain that this make the dish more oily. Alternate way is to blanch the vegetables briefly, strain, and then stir fry them. Be careful not to blanch them too long since each vegetable requires different length of time to reach the desired tenderness/crunchiness.

Heat wok to med-high, add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil and coat the wok evenly with oil. Sauté the chicken until almost cooked. Remove the chicken to it's original bowl. Lower the heat to medium, wipe the wok clean, and add 2 teaspoon of oil to coat the wok evenly. Sauté chili pepper flakes, garlic, and ginger for 10 seconds and add the onions. When the onions start to soften a bit, add the red bell peppers and stir fry for 1 minute, and then add the rest of the vegetables. When the vegetable are almost done, add the chicken and the sauce and stir gently to mix well. Add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add the cashew to the wok and stir just until cashew is mix in. Transfer to a bowl or serving plate and serve.

You can adjust the vegetables depending on your preference or what is available. The two vegetables I always use are onions and red bell pepper; the others I add them if I happen to have them.

Beef and Broccoli - 芥蘭牛肉

Even though this is a highly praised dish from my friends and family, I never can guaranty that it would turn out exactly the same every time. The official instruction from my trusted Chinese cookbook always give instructions to blanch the vegetables for the stir fry. I never bother with this step unless I am making a big batch for a party. I just sauté the vegetables with a little bit of oil and add a little water if needed until the vegetable is cooked to the desired tenderness.

1 bundle of broccoli, or 1 pound of broccoli crown, cut the floret into smaller pieces

Blanch broccoli in boiling water, remove, drain and rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside

1/2 pound flank stake, slice across the grain in 45 degree angle

1 teaspoon of corn starch

2 teaspoon of soy sauce

2 teaspoon of water

Marinade beef in the above ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoon Oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

Heat wok to medium-high heat and add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil. Coat the wok with oil evenly. Sauté the marinated beef for a few minutes until it's almost cooked. Remove beef and set aside. Sauté the broccoli for a minute or two until the desired tenderness. Add beef back to the wok, add the oyster sauce and sugar and stir until beef is cook. Do not over cook the beef so it does not get tough. Transfer to a serving plate and serve.

Spareribs Cooked with Rock Sugar - 冰糖排骨

Since February 3, 2011 is the Chinese new near, I thought I'd share the recipes of a few of our favorite Chinese dishes this week.
Everyone in the family loves this dish; I have to confess that these ribs alone can persuade me out of wanting to be a vegetarian. Kimberly always complain that it's kind of fatty, which Cassidy usually echos, but we never have any leftovers. . .
Spare ribs is usually less expensive than back rib but it's a little more fatty and less meaty. According to the Wikipedia, the spare ribs is more tender than back ribs because of the fat content. I used to ask the butcher to saw the ribs into two or three sections and then I cut them into "riblets" at home. Nowadays I'm too lazy or too busy to ask the butcher to cut the ribs so I serve "longs ribs" instead of the shorter ribs you see in traditional Chinese dishes.

1 1/2 lb. pork spare ribs (side ribs) or back ribs, cut into riblets
2 tablespoons rice wine or cooking wine
2 tablespoons or 1 oz rock sugar (can substitute with regular sugar)
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
4 tablespoons of soy sauce

Wash the ribs and pad dry. Place them is a medium pot and add the all of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then cover with lid and turn the heat down to low to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the liquid has almost completely evaporated. Stir occasionally to prevent the ribs from burning. If the liquid has not almost completely evaporated after 40 minutes of cooking, turn the heat up to high and stir until the liquid has almost completely evaporated.

Simply Cioppino

I had forgot about this delicious and simple soup for a long time. It was from the April 1994 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications - Low Calorie Recipes. Kaydn went snowboarding with his school on Tuesday and it was a cold cold day. He had a great time snowboarding even though it was his first time and he loved it.  I was surprised that he snowboard the whole day!!! When we went skiing, he was ready to be done for the day at 11am even though we started at 10am.  Any way, when he came home, he wanted soup for dinner and I had to think of a soup that was yummy and can be made in a very quickly. Needless to say, this soup saved the day. Kaydn loved the seafood and the flavor, not so much the peppers and tomatoes, but the rest of us enjoyed every byte of it.

4 oz fresh or frozen cod, thaw if frozen, cut into 3/4 in cubes
1 14 1/2 oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes
2 table spoons prepared pesto
1/2 of a medium green pepper, cut into thin bite size strips
6 oz peeled, deveined fresh or frozen medium shrimp

Stir together tomatoes and pesto in a medium saucepan. Stir in green pepper, shrimp, cod and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 2 to 2 minutes or till shrimp turn pink. Serve in bowls. Make 3 servings.