A Lazy Cook's fall-of-the-bone Baby Back ribs

This is a super-easy Baby back rib recipe. I got it from Allrecipes.com.

2 lbs baby back ribs

1 bottle of store bought BBQ sauce

Salt and pepper

1. Cut ribs into single pieces

2. Sprinkle some salt and pepper onto the ribs

3. Cut about 4 pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil (about 15" long)

4. Put 3-4 ribs in each of the foil and smother BBQ sauce all over, fold over into small pouches

5. Marinate for 4-5 hrs or as long as you can (overnight is preferred)

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees

7. Put the aluminum pouches into an baking pan (in case the sauces spill over).

8. Bake for 3 hours

9. Carefully remove the ribs from oven, and the ribs out of the pouches. Discard the remaining juices inside the pouches

10. Brush additional BBQ sauce on the rib and serve!

The meat will be super tender and will fall off the bone!! Absolutely delicious!! I personally like to use the Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce, but you can choose any you like. There is a lot of variety in supermarkets to select from.

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HK-style Baked Pork Chop over Rice (焗豬扒飯)

Baked Pork Chop over Rice is a very popular dish in Hong Kong style cuisine. Every restaurant will have some variation of this dish, but for the most part, the main ingredients include pork chops, rice and a tomato sauce. This dish is baked. My all-time favorite restaurant in the Bay Area that serves this dish is VIP Coffee and Cakes in SF Chinatown. They do it right... their pork chops are tender; sauce is excellent; and it is served with fried rice rather than plain white rice. I attempted to make this dish for dinner tonight and I must say that it turned out not too bad at all!! Husband-approved! Yay! So here I'll share with you my recipe. Sorry I didn't do exact measurements!

Ingredients: (serves 2-3 people)
For the pork chops

• 1.5 lb Thin Cut Pork Loin Rib Chops (about 5 pieces)
• 2-3 TBS of light soy sauce
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1 TBS of rice flour
• oil for frying
  

For the tomato sauce

• 1/2 of small onion, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
  
• 3 TBS ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp rice flour
• 2 TBS sugar
• 1/2 cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese
  

For fried rice

• 1-1/2 cup rice, cooked
  
• 3 eggs, beaten
• about 6-8 large mushrooms, sliced
• 8-12 baby carrots, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste
  

Directions:
1. Cook rice, set aside
2. Marinate Pork chops (can do this in advance or day before)
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. For the sauce - using a small pot with some oil, fry the onions until limp (about 5 mins). Add in tomatoes until soft and broken
5. In a measuring cup, add water, ketchup, oil, rice flour, sugar, mix well. Then add mixture to the onions and tomatoes. Bring it to a boil and set aside
6. On a frying pan, fry pork chops until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes on each side). Remove from pan
7. Using the same pan, fry 2 beaten eggs until done. Add mushrooms & carrots. Stir-fry until mushrooms become cooked but not brown (about 5 minutes). Do not overcook
8. Add cooked rice, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes.
9. Add remaining beaten egg onto rice until the watery party is cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste
10. Pour the fried rice into a deep baking dish. Add the pork chops on top. Pour tomato sauce on top of the pork chops.
11. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Put into oven for 20 minutes for cheese to melt

The recipe above is my simple version. This is not a hard dish to make, but quite time-consuming due to the different parts and prep time.

Enjoy!

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super Easy Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

The recipe is SOOOO easy for this savory pork tenderloin!

Ingredients:
5 TB soy sauce (low sodium if you have it)
2 TB olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
1 lb pork tenderloins

Directions:
1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combined the first 6 ingredients; add pork. Seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight

2. Drain and discard marinade. Place the tenderloins in a baking pan (Pyrex works best). Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with pan drippings.

Home-Made XO Sauce

SQ and I made some home-made XO sauce this past weekend. The XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce primarily used in Cantonese cooking. Contrary to what people might think, this sauce does NOT contain the XO liquor. XO stands for "Extra Old," which is derived from the XO liquor, as it is well known for its prestige and exclusivity. The sauce is considered to be a chic, prestigous and luxurious product, similar to the XO liquor, due to the expensive ingredients used to make the sauce.

Some Asian companies make pre-made XO sauce that are sold in Asian supermarkets. They range in prices, but the Lee Kum Kee probably has the most expensive ones. $9 for a very small jar and close to $20 for a medium sized jar. We wanted to make our own instead - and it turned out really well!! Below are the basic steps and the main ingredients. I didn't include any portions on the ingredients because it's really up to YOU how you like it. There is no strict rules whatsoever. That's the beauty of home-made sauces!

Ingredients:

• Dried scallops, soaked in water for 45 minutes and then steam until soft
• Dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
• Shallots, chopped/sliced
• Garlic, chopped
• Jin Hua Cured Ham, steamed into soft and then chopped
• Dried Chili, chopped
• Oil

Directions:

Steam the cured ham and scallop until soft. Soak dried shrimp in water until soft. Chop up shallots, garlic and dried chili.

Once the dried scallops, dried shrimps, and cured ham are soft, roughly chop them up.

On a pan, add oil, sautee the garlic, shallot and dried chili first. After they absorb most of the oil, add in the cured ham, dried shrimp and dried scallops. Add in more oil (don't be stingy)...

Pan-fry all the ingredients in high heat until they turn brown. Wait until the mixture is cool, then transfer into a jar for future use. Store in refrigerator. Again, don't be stingy on the oil, add excessively. The oil also acts as a preservative for the ingredients.

Here are some snow peas cooked with the home-made XO sauce! Yum Yum! Believe me, it's convenient to have the XO sauce in the fridge. It really comes in handy!

Bun Rieu

My first attempt at making Bun Rieu, a Vietnamese shrimp/crab paste tomato noodle soup. Quite satisfied with the results - but of course it still needs work and more refinement before I can make it for anyone else! So right now, only my hubby SQ is the guinea pig!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• A pot of chicken stock
• 8 medium tomatoes
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 eggs
• 3 TBSP corn starch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp pepper
• 1/2 jar of crab paste (picture below) - you can find it in Chinese supermarkets
• 1 pack of dried noodles

Optional ingredients:

• Cilantro
• Green onions
• Onions
• Cha Lua (Vietnamese Fancy Pork)
• Bean sprouts

Crab paste

Preparation:

1. Boil a pot of chicken stock using chicken bones under medium low heat for as long as you can (at least 1.5 hrs) to get flavor.

2. Finely dice 5 tomatoes. Chop in bigger pieces the remaining 3 tomatoes (set aside). Tenderize ground pork by pounding the meat with a cleaver.

3. Add corn starch, crab paste, eggs to pork. Season with salt and ground pepper. Mix well.

4. On a small pot, cook the finely diced tomatoes until they become limp and appear sauce-like. Remove any chicken bones from the chicken stock. Then pour the tomato sauce into the chicken stock. Wait until mixture boils again.

5. Using the same small pot, pour 3 ladles of the chicken stock into it. Scoop a spoonful of meat and let it cook in the small pot. Try not to break the meat mixture. If the mixture falls apart, add a little bit more corn starch and mix it up again.

6. When the meat is cooked, transfer it into the big pot of chicken stock. This extra step is to make sure that you don't ruin the big pot with raw meat. Just safer...

7. After all the raw meat has been cook, disgard the small pot of chicken pot.

8. Add the chopped bigger tomatoes into the chicken stock. Boil for a couple of minutes and then turn off the heat.

9. Boil water on a separate pot to cook the dried noodles. After noodle is cooked, add in the soup.

10. Garnish with cilantro, green onions, etc.

Here is the final result of the dish. It tastes quite good.

This is a good start - at least the meat/crab paste is tasty, tender and soft. I think next time I will use cans of tomato paste as well so the soup will be more reddish color (now it's kinda pinkish). It will blend with the tomatoes more. And I will add in more ingredients such as fried tofu (dou-fu bok). There is more experimenting to be done!

Banh Cuon

I'm a bit late on posting this... but I made some Banh Cuon for my family on New Years Day. Banh Cuon is basically Vietnamese rice roll with ground pork inside on it. It is really really delicious. It's not hard to make it but it is tedious work...so actually, not many Vietnamese restaurants in the Bay Area have this dish on their menu.


Here are some step-by-step pictures of how it's done : (the below portions serves 16):


Here are a couple of main ingredients - the Banh Cuon rice flour (4 bags) and wood ear (black fungus) - 1 bag. You would also need ground pork, onions, shrimp, water, oil, salt, pepper and fish sauce.




Chop up wood ear, 1 lb shrimp, 2.5 large onions with food processor. Tenderize 2.5 lbs of ground pork






Mix up all the above ingredients except for the onions. Add salt, a little bit of fish sauce and ground pepper. The seasoning is up to your taste. I like it with a lot of pepper. Remember that you serve this w/ fish sauce so you don't have to make it that salty.

Sautee the onions first until limp and then add in the pork mixture. Cook fully.

For the Banh Cuon skin, use 1 bag of the rice flour and add 4 cups of water, drizzle of oil, and a pinch of salt. The instructions on the bag ask you to add in 3 cups of water, but I find that it tastes much better with 4 cups. The wrap then beccomes much thinner. Mix well until all the lumps are gone.

After you're done mixing the Banh Cuon mixture, scoop 3/4 of a ladle of liquid into a small non-stick frying pan. Depending on the size of your ladle, you may need more or less than 3/4. The goal is to get the liquid to be evenly distribute around the pan thinly. Cover the pan with a lid to cook.



After a 1 minute of cooking or when the skin is loose from the pan, transfer the skin into a non-stick surface (I use a cookie sheet) by flipping the pan in a 180 degree motion. Technique is somewhat tricky but after a while you'll get it. The goal is to have the skin lying flat. Place a scoop of cooked meat in the middle


Fold the skin on the sides then on the top and bottom to form the Banh Cuon into this shape. Be careful, the skin is really hot!! Use a chopstick if necessary.






Repeat the steps and do one Banh Cuon at a time until you finish all your mixture. Place them onto a tray and serve with condiments of your choice.




The typical dish includes the following sides:

1. Sliced Cha Lua (Vietnamese Fancy Pork)
2. Sliced Cucumber
3. Bean Sprouts
4. Fish Sauce
5. Green Onions & oil
6. Fried or dried shallots

You're DONE! Enjoy your dish!!

Butternut Squash Soup

I tasted my first Butternut Squash soup at Wolfgang Puck Express Cafe in the basement of downtown Macy's. I had just got my braces adjusted and my teeth was too sore to eat anything and I was hungry. So I ordered this soup from the menu... and my oh my, it was sooooo good! I have never had butternut squash soup before, so this was definitely a nice surprise. Ever since then, I am in love with this soup. And everytime I see it on any restaurant's menu, I would almost guarantee to order it! But today, I've decided to try making it...so I searched online for the best recipe. I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. It's a very good recipe - very easy and exact. The soup has a good consistency and seasong. This is my deliiissssh homemade butternut squash soup!!

In case you don't know what a butternut squash looks like - it's like this!



Recipe (serves 6)
Ingredients

• 6 cups of butternut squash (2 lbs)
• 6 tablespoon of chopped onions
• 4 tablespoon of butter or margarine
• 3 cups of water
• 4 cubes of chicken bouillion
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 4 ounces of Cream Cheese

Instructions

• Cut the butternut squash into 1/2. Remove seeds and pulp. Face down, put the squash into a baking pan & into the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees
• After it becomes soft, scrape squash out from skin
• In a small pot, melt butter and sautee onions until tender
• Add water, chicken bouillon, marjoram, ground pepper, cayenne pepper
• Transfer the mixture into a blender, add squash and cream cheese
• Puree for 30 seconds
• Transfer the mixture into the small pot and heat to a simmer (do not boil)
• Serve and enjoy!

Satay Chicken

Yesterday my sister hosted a 2008 Olympics Open Ceremony Viewing party, so what better opportunity to try out a new recipe with a group of guinea pigs? Sorry let me put a disclaimer out there - this is one of those "cheating recipe," and not one made by scratch.

It is super simple - Soak the Skewers in cold water for 1 hr (so they won't burn when you grill). Brine 2 lbs chicken breasts also for 1 hr. Flatten chicken by pounding it with a mallet or a cleaver. Slice into 1" strips. Marinate with Lee Kum Kee Satay Sauce (about 6 tsps). Add into diced green onions. Skewer the chicken and grill. It comes out perfectly done! You may want to also buy the pre-made Thai peanut sauce at your local Chinese market. Serve the sauce warm.

The satay chicken was a huge success! The best part is that it is super-easy to make! Something to think about for the next potluck.

Honey Ginger Chicken

My mom passed along this recipe to me:
Ingredients:

• 6 Chicken Drumsticks (or about 20 Chicken Wings)
• 1 TBSP Ginger Juice
• 2 TBSP Soy Sauce
• 1 TBSP Sugar
• 1 TBSP Honey
• 1 TBSP Rice Wine
  

Directions:

• Squeeze Ginger Juice out of Ginger
• Marinate Chicken with Ginger Juice, preferably for 1/2 hour
• Cook Chicken until done & golden brown
• Take cooked chicken out and dab with towels to rid of excess oil
• Mix Soy sauce, Sugar, Honey and Rice wine in a bowl
• Put mixture into pan to heat
• Add in Chicken
• Turn Heat to Medium Low
• Heat until sauce is reduced and is thoroughly mixed with chicken
• ENJOY!!
  

Lee Kum Kee Sauces

People often assume that because my husband is a better cook than I, he cooks. The truth is that I cook 4 days of the week. Once a week we go back to my parents' place and during the weekends, we go out to eat. In fact, my husband rarely cooks.
I am not a good cook, but I am able to put decent, edible meals on the table. I admit, a lot of times, I cheat. I take short cuts. I only do stir-frys and use prepared sauces. Thank goodness for prepared sauces!! In our world filled with long work days, I have no shame in using prepared sauces! One of my all time favorite is Lee Kum Kee's "Sauce for Fried Cod Fillet." It's a dark, soy-based sweet sauce. It is excellent for a lot of meats, but I like to use it with Sea Bass. It is super-easy!

After cleaning up the sea bass (I like to remove the skin & scales), lightly salt the fillet. Pan-fried in low heat until done. Remove sea bass onto a plate. Heat up the LKK sauce & add in green onions. Pour sauce over sea bass. And OMG! You have the BEST-tasting sea bass ever! It's delicious and the good news is that it NEVER fails! Better news is that you don't have to worry about how much sauce to use. The pouch is enough for 1 meal. No measuring at all!! All that convenience for only 89 cents. Genius!

P.S. I'll share more cheats later on!

Mochiko Chicken

Googi asked me for the recipe for Mochiko Chicken so I thought to share it with everyone as well. Mochiko refers to the mochiko flour used in the recipe. The flour looks very much like baking flour except it's whiter in color and finer in texture. It also has a slightly sweet taste to it. You can buy the mochiko flour is any major supermarket. Mochiko Chicken is a Japanese dish, and works very well as an appetitizer. It's delicious and very easy to make!


Ingredients:
2 lbs of chicken thigh or breast chopped into 2" cubes
5 TBSP mochiko flour
4 TBSP cornstarch
5 TBSP soysauce
4 TBSP sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup green onion chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic
Oil for frying

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (except for the oil) and add in chicken. Mix well and marinate chicken for 1 hour. Deep Fry marinated chicken in oil until golden-brown. Drain oil from chicken on paper towels and newspaper. Eat!

Super-easy Japanese Cucumber Salad

The weather is warm and you want to munch on some snacks while watching TV. What is better than chips and cookies is a quick, easy, refreshing and healthy cucumber salad! It is super-easy to make. Plus, it's cucumber season so they're selling like a dime each. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 Medium cucumbers (seeded)
2 tsps Salt
1/2 cup Lemon juice
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp MSG (optional)
1 tbsp White wine vinegar
2 tsps Sesame seeds (toasted)

Preparation:
1. Peel cucumbers lengthwise, leaving thin green stripes. Slice very thinly into a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Add salt and mix with hand until cucumber slices are quite limp. Set aside in fridge for 45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix lemon juice, sugar, MSG and white wine vinegar. Transfer cucumbers to a strainer and squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the cucumbers. Discard salt water.
3. Add cucumbers to the lemon juice mixture. Ground the toasted sesame seeds and stir into the salad. Serve.

Comes out perfect each time. You can't go wrong with such a crowd-pleaser. ENJOY!