Hot and spicy rice cake (ddukbokkie)

Last month, my friend took hubby and I to a Korean BBQ buffet. We had so much Korean food, they were yummy. I noticed one of the dish was ddukbokie, hot and spicy rice cake. She told me it's really simple to make. Then last week, I went to a Korean grocery and saw some lady gave out sample of ddubokkie. I had a piece and decided to get all the ingredients and make it. Of course I don't know what goes inside the dish. I sort of have an idea, but not sure exactly. Thanks to Maangchi's blog. I was able to make it. Thanks again, Maanchi. I added some baby clams and shrimp balls since I love seafood.


http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ddukbokkie

Yesterday was a perfect weather for this dish. It was so cloudy, and all I want to do is curl myself up in the blanket and sleep. Anyway, I wanted some comfort food. A bowl of this baby, it will warm you up. It's fun to cook different types of food. You should try it.


Enjoy!

Chicken Satay & Peanut Sauce

This is another great appetizer, Chicken Satay. Some folks made them with chicken breasts, but I like dark meat better. Therefore, I used chicken drumsticks.



Here is one platter for my first visitor. :-)


Close up at different angle with pickled veggies and peanut sauce.


I made the whole tray for the party.


Aren't they amazing?

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts or chicken thigh (I prefer chicken thighs since they are much juicer.)

1/3 cup of peanut butter

1 tpsp of red curry paste

2 tbps curry powder

1 cup canola oil

2/3 cup of brown sugar

1-4 tbps of coconut milk

1 tsp of corn starch

2-3 tbps of oyster sauce

1 tsp of fish sauce

1-4 tbps of lime juice

garlic & onion (diced)

pepper

and dark soy sauce

Method:

1. Deboned the Chicken thighs .
2. Cut into long strips.
   
3. Add all the ingredients together and marinade the chicken for 2-4 hours.
4. Use kabob sticks and put chicken onto the sticks.
   
5. Bake at 375 degree until golden brown.
6. Brush the rest of the marinade over the kabob half way through.
   

Peanut Sauce:
1. In a bowl, add little bit of coconut milk, oyster sauce, curry powder, water, oil . Mix well.
2. Put on the stove, and stir for several minutes.
3. Cool and serve with chicken satay.

Enjoy!

Baked Chicken Chive Biscuits - Ba'nh Xe^'p He.

It was such a nice day yesterday. I went out to my garden to clean up the mess from the winter, and I saw my chives are growing very nicely. I picked some of these organic garlic chives.




Organic Chives from my garden



I have no idea that I was going to make this snack. I looked in my freezer and saw 6 chicken legs. I decided take the meat out and put in the food processor with some seasoning. I used shallot, onion, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, pepper, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. And of course chives. And voila, look what I made? Ta ta................... Baked Chicken Chive Biscuit. Nice huh?


One can of Pillsbury, flaky layer of reduce FAT biscuits, can make 16 of these yummy baked chicken chive biscuits.


I always have a can of Pillsbury in my freezer. There are 8 pieces of big biscuits in this can. I divided each piece by two and made 16. It doesn't take long to make this snack at all.


Here is a closer look.


Yummy! These will go well with a cup of coffee for breakfast.



Ingredients:
1 can of Pillsbury biscuits
1 small onion (minced)
1 small shallot (minced)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 TB of sugar
1/2 salt & pepper
2 TB of oyster sauce
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
handful of organic chives
6 chicken legs (take out the meat)
1 TB of tapioca flour
2 egg yolk (to use for egg glaze)

Method:
1. Extracted the meat from the chicken legs (I only use half portion of the meat fillings for 16 biscuits. You can use 2 cans for 32 biscuits with the meat from the 6 chicken legs.)
2. Put the chicken meat in the food processor and pulse 3 times.
3. Marinade chicken with salt, sugar, pepper, onion, garlic, shallots, sesame oil, and tapioca flour
4. Take one piece of the dough and divided into half.
5. Scoop the filling into the dough.
6. Fold them together.
7. Brush with eggs yolk glaze
8. Oven 350, bake for 10 minutes.
9. Turn down the oven to 300, and bake until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Stuffed Crab Claws

I just made this yummy new appetizer. Last week I made this dish and brought it to a birthday party at my parents house. Everyone loved it. It was gone in second. I owed it to Ms. Chom Chom. Her recipe was so easy to follow. Below is the link to her recipe.

http://chomchomslittleworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/cang-cua-boc-tom.html



Four pounds of shrimp, I can make about 32 shrimp stuffed crab claws.


After you stuffed the crab claws into the shrimp paste, you want to steam them for 3 minutes so they stick together.

Then they can be fried in canola oil.

Pat them dry on a paper towel.

Check them out.
The whole platter of shrimp stuffed Crab claws. Yummy!


Since the recipe is in Vietnamese, I will translate it in English.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of shrimp (size 30-35)
- 8 crab claws
- 2 scallion head (only use the white portion)
- 2 teaspoons tapioca flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 TSP olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, salt, pepper and minced garlic (Add more if you like)
- bread crumb ( I used Japanese panko bread)
- 1 egg white
- Canola oil (for frying)

Method:
1. Wash and devein shrimp.
2. Rinse Shrimp with salt and cold water until clean.
3. Dry shrimp with paper towel
4. Add the following ingredients (white portion of scallion head, tapioca flour, olive oil, sugar, salt, pepper, and minced garlic) to shrimp and use the food processor and make them into a shrimp paste.
5. Scoop out the shrimp mixture and put in a container (I put overnight in the freezer.)
6. Put the shrimp mixture back to the food processor the next day, and pulse it a few time.
7. Divide the shrimp paste into 8 portions, and stuffed the shrimp paste with crab claws.
8. Steam them for 3 minutes
9. Dip the steam shrimp stuffed crab claws with egg whites and coat them with panko bread crumb.
10. In a small saucepan, pour canola oil in. When the oil is ready, fry the shrimp stuffed crab claws.
11. Serve with plum sauce. Done. Good Luck!

Vegetarian Jade Boat or Savory Cracker

We had four birthdays last week at work. Instead of going out, we decided that each of us made some dishes and brought them in. I decided to make a vegetarian dish since one of my colleage is a vegetarian.



First I just have to share with you my orchids. Pretty huh?



I have this orchid for the longest time, and it always bloom during this time of year.

This dish is consist of different types of mushroom, onion, water chestnut, carrots, spring onion, garlic, vegatarian oyster sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. You can add shrimps or ground pork or beef if you want to make them non-vegetarian.

I have some colorful crakers at home so I decided to fried them. Then added a spoonful of the savory fillings and garnished some cilantro, spring onion and sesame seeds.

Here was one platter that I put together for our birthday luncheon. The gang at work loved them. I love to use the craker as a cup since it gave you the crunch texture once you bite into it.

I bought English Cucumbers at Costco and cut them into small size. Then I took out the inside and topped with the fillings. Don't they look like tiny little Jade boats? These are wonderful light appertizers.

Ingredients:

-English Cucumbers/Celery Sticks/Lettuce Wraps/Crackers (Anything can use to hold the fillings)

-Mushrooms (any types of mushrooms you like. I used shiitake mushroom, and butoon mushrooms)

-carrots

-1 medium size white or red onion

-red peppers (any colors you want - red, green, yellow)

-1 small can of water chestnuts (This give you the crunchy texture.)

-5 spice flavors Tofu -- Savory pressed Tofu.

-3 cloves of garlic (minced)

-1 tsp of sesame oil

-3 tsp of vegetarian oyster sauce

-pepper and sugar

garnish:

cilantro

green scallion

sesame seeds

Method:

1. In a pan, add 1 tsp of olive oil.

2. Throw in the minced garlic and white onion.

3. Add all the ingredients from above

4. Mix well and make sure everything is incorporated well.

5. Add more salt/pepper/sugar to suite your taste

6. Scoop some fillings to the crackers or cucumbers

7. Garish with sesame seeds/cilantro and scallion

Enjoy!

Healthy Chicken & Shrimp Quesadillas

It has been a while since I had Mexican food. Also, I have not use my Quesadilla maker for a long time. A few days ago, I asked my hubby to buy all the ingredients so when I have the time I can make it.
Check it out. It's so good. This dish is easy to make and it's quite healthy if you ask me. It has green pepper, onion, garlic, red pepper, shrimp and chicken. Of course you will also need cheese, totillas, fat free sour cream and salsa. I am done with the fillings. See below.

Step 1 : Put the totilla in the quesadillas maker. Then add the cheese.
Step 2: Put the fillings in , and spread them evenly.

Step 3: Add another layer of cheese.

Step4: Put another totilla on top.
Step 5: close the quesadilla maker, and wait for a few minutes.

And voila`, it's done. I made my own salsa, and bought fat free sour cream. Look good huh? :-)


It's a quick, and healthy meal. My hubby had two yesterday.

Healthy Quesadillas

• 2 tablespoon of live oil
  
• 1/4 cup red onions, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup of white onions, chopped
  
• 3 small garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup green bell peppers, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup of red bell peppers, chopped
  
• 2 chili peppers , minced (optional - if you don't like spicy, you don't have to put it in.)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• pinch of salt & pepper
  
• 1 pound of shirmps, deveined.
  
• 10 flour tortillas
• 1 cup low-fat cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken
• fat-free sour cream
  

Salsa:

• 1 tomato, diced
  
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• bunch of cilantro, cut into smaller pieces
• 3 stalks of scallion, cute into smaller pieces
  
• 1 lime, use the zest and juice
• pinch of salt & pepper
• mango (optional, but this taste really good)

mixed all together. Add more salt or pepper to suit your taste.

Method:

In a medium-heavy skillet, add olive oil, and saute the onions, garlic and peppers until soft. Add the chili peppers and the cooked chicken. Then simmer for a few minutes. Next add the shrimp and stir well to combine. Add cumin, salt, pepper, and the rest of the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place a tortilla in the quesadillas maker pan and sprinkle with 1/8 cup cheese. Add about a quarter of the chicken & shrimps mixture and top with another 1/8 cup cheese.

Cover with another tortilla and cook for two to three minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cut into edges. Serve with salsa and fat-free sour cream.

Enjoy!

Deep Fried Imitation Crab Legs Tempura

While cooking the Thai curry chicken dish, I have to fry the sweet potatoes in advance. Since I was frying food, might as well look for something else to fry so I can use the left over oil. I have some imitation crab legs in the fridge that I want to use for the longest time, but I did not have a chance to do so. So here it is, deep fried imitation crab legs tempura.

This would be a great appetizer wrap with lettuce and a variety of herbs like mints, basils, ect. And dip in lemony, garlic fish sauce. The word "YUM" comes to mind just thinking about it.


Ingredients:
-pre-season Tempura flour
- 1 egg
- a little bit of water
- dash of pepper
-Imitation Crab legs

Method:
1. Add about 1/2 cup of the pre-season tempura flour into the bowl.
2. Add 1 egg.
3. Add 1/2 up of water
4. Add a little bit of salt and pepper to taste.
5. Dip the imitation crab leg in the mixture.
6. Fry the crab leg until golden brown.
7. Use paper towels to take the oil out
8. Wrap with lettuce and variety of mints
9. Dip with garlic, lemony fish sauce

Yummy Appetizer!