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.