Sloppy Joe Slider

This has been sitting in my draft for a long time but I made it last night with new photos so I thought I'd finally post it. But really, who doesn't like Sloppy Joe's?! It's the perfect balance of sweet and tangy rolled up in a bun. The combination of the sweet gherkins and the tangy pickled onions also helps enhance the flavor profile of this slider.

Ingredients:

3 lbs ground chuck

2 bell peppers (diced)

1 yellow or white onion (diced)

1 roma tomato (diced

1/8 cup pancetta (diced)

2-3 garlic gloves (minced)

4 cups ketchup

2 tablespoon yellow mustard

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 yellow or white onion (paper thin slices) for pickling 

3 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/4 cup water

3-4 baby gherkins for garnish

12 whole wheat slider buns

Directions:

Start by rendering the pancetta in a large skillet until it's brown and crispy. Next add the diced onions, bell peppers and garlic. Cook until garlic is translucent. Then add the ground chuck and continue cooking for 8-10 minutes on high heat or until meat is cooked through. At this time you should also drain most of the liquid from the pan. Next add the mustard, ketchup, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and tomatoes. Reduce heat to a simmer and let it cook for another 30 minutes so that all the flavors will come together. Stir every 5 minutes to keep the bottom from burning.

To pickle the onions, add the red wine vinegar, the other 1/2 tablespoon of salt, sugar and water to a bowl and add the thinly sliced onions. Mix well and let it sit for 20 minutes and then drain the liquid.

There's nothing left but to layer your buns with the Sloppy Joe, pickled onions, and gherkins! Enjoy!

 



Tom Yum Poached Chilean Sea bass

This is one of the ways I have combined one of my favorite soups (Tom Yum) with one of my favorite fish (Chilean Sea Bass) The concept is pretty simple - first you make the soup and then you slowly poach the fish until it's cooked through. Because I was making three dishes at the time I was making this one, I opted to make a very quick Tom Yum soup with easy ingredients.

Ingredients:

Chilean Sea Bass (4 ounce cut)
1 stalk lemongrass
2 inch piece of galangal thinly sliced
1 quart chick stock
4-6 kaffir lime leaves
4-6 Thai chili peppers (roughly chopped) or 2 tablespoon Nam Prik Pao (Thai chili paste consisting of fried garlic, shallots, chili peppers, and shrimp paste)
2-3 tablespoon tamarind powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3-5 tablespoon fish sauce
1 can straw mushrooms
3-4 Roma tomatoes (quartered)


Directions:

Add chicken stock, lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves in stock pot on high heat and bring to a boil. Once the ingredients have come to a boil, reduce the heat down to medium low and add salt, tamarind powder, chili peppers or nam prik pao, fish sauce, tomatoes and mushrooms. Adjust the tartness by adding or reducing the amount of tamarind powder. You can also adjust the spiciness by adding or reducing the chili peppers or nam prik pao. I suggest that you add half the amount listed above for both ingredients first and then add more later to please your palette.

This is the base of all Tom Yum soups, so if you decide to add shrimp, chicken, tofu, etc. this is the time to add it. Your final step is to reduce the soup down to a simmer and place the fish in the soup. Depending on the size of the fish it shouldn't take longer then 6-10 minutes for the fish to fully cook in the soup.

Yam Neua (Thai Beef Salad)

Normally you would see this beef salad tossed with all the vegetables to incorporate the meat and the sauce. However, I prefer to eat this as an appetizer and have displayed it as such in the above picture. I don't go to Thai restaurants very often but when I do, this is one of my favorite dishes. The thinly sliced beef and pungent vegetables pair perfectly with the spicy sesame vinaigrette.

Steak Ingredients:

1 pound beef (skirt steak, rump roast, or sirloin)
2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon lemongrass (finely ground)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients above and let the beef marinate for at least 2 hours. You then have different choices of cooking methods; obviously grilling is preferred but if you live in an apartment like me, using the broiler in the oven isn't a bad option. You'll want to cook the beef to your desired doneness (rare, medium-rare, medium, etc.) I would recommend to not cook this cut of meat well done; as this will definitely dry out and become tough to chew and eat. Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine the time to cook the beef since the cut and thickness of the beef may be different. When the meat is at your desired doneness; let the meat rest for at least 5-10 minutes before cutting - as all the juices will run out if you cut the meat without resting. To cut: slice the beef as thin as possible against the bias.

The best way to check for your desired doneness of the meat is with a thermometer. Here is the temperature range:

(Temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit)
Rare 120 - 125
Medium-Rare 130 - 135
Medium 140 - 145
Medium-Well 150 - 155
Well Done 160 - above

Spicy Sesame Vinaigrette Ingredients:

2 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon palm sugar
2 tablespoon sesame oil
4 Thai chili peppers (finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves

Sauce Directions:

Combine the lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, and palm sugar and mix well. Next, slowly drizzle the sesame oil into the mixture while whisking. Lastly, mix in the chili peppers and garlic.

Salad Ingredients:

5-7 green leaf lettuce leaves (roughly chopped)
1/2 white onion (thinly sliced)
1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)
1 tomato (thinly sliced)
1/2 cucumber (halved and thinly sliced)
1 scallion (roughly chopped)
8-10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped).
2 jalapenos (thinly sliced)
Handful Vietnamese coriander (just the leaves)

Plating:

Add the salad mixture to the bottom of your serving vessel (plate, bowl, etc.) and place the thin slices of beef on top of the salad. Now drizzle the dressing on top of the beef. This dish can be served warm or cold. However, if you are serving warm, try not to place the hot beef on top of the salad as this will wilt the vegetables.

Baked Shumai Stuffed Mushrooms in Tomato Sauce

As you can probably tell by the title, this dish has a Chinese and Italian inspiration. Shumai is one of my favorite dim sum dishes and how can you ever go wrong with Italian style tomato sauce. The mushrooms are a perfect vessel to bridge the two dishes together. This shumai is made of ground pork and shrimp and the tomato sauce has a hint of cream to help balance out the natural acidic flavor of the tomatoes.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

1 can San Marzano tomatoes (28 oz)
4 garlic gloves (minced)
1 large shallot (minced)
5 sprigs fresh basil (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry crushed chili peppers
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces mozzarella cheese (thinly sliced or grated to spread on top of dish)

Preheat a stock pot with olive oil on medium high heat for 1-2 minutes. Then add the garlic and shallots, cook until shallots are translucent (about 3 minutes). Add the tomatoes with the sauce from the can and begin crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon in the pot. Add the basil, thyme, oregano, chili peppers, salt, black pepper and bay leaves. Bring the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot. Let this continue cooking while creating the shumai stuffed mushrooms and stir every 5 minutes. Stir in the cream in the last 5 minutes before adding to the mushrooms.

Shumai Ingredients:

9-10 large button mushrooms (stem removed and saved for stuffing)
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp (finely chopped)
2 scallions (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Accompaniments:

Pasta (Spaghetti or Angel Hair is perfect for this)
Garlic bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Finely chopped the stems of the mushrooms and add to a mixing bowl. Then add the pork, shrimp, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, salt, and black pepper. Gently mix all the ingredients in the bowl. Take the mixture and stuff the hollow area of the mushrooms, I like to over stuff mine and have quite a bit of the stuffing stick out from the mushrooms.

Place the mushrooms in a cast iron skillet (I like using a cast iron skillet because it retains heat and keeps the food nice and hot while serving) or casserole dish with the stuffing side up. Add the tomato sauce and cover entire contents. Bake for 30 minutes and then add the mozzarella cheese on top of each of the mushrooms. Continue baking for another 20 minutes to allow the cheese to melt into the dish. Carefully remove the dish with oven mits and serve with pasta and garlic bread.

Egg Salad

 



I know what you're thinking already, egg salad? Where's the abundance of egg? Well, the egg is in the dressing. This is dish is a take on a classic Laotian salad, "yam salat", that my mother use to make. I believe her dressing was a mixture of thousand island and something else. I really can't remember on the top of my head right now. But I basically made this dish because I had tons of veggies left and didn't want it spoil. Of course, you may all know of the many variations of lettuce wraps that I usually make when dieting, well, that started to get boring. The dressing I created is actually a basic aioli with egg yolks from the hard boiled eggs. As I stated earlier, the egg is all in the dressing.

Ingredients:

1/2 head green leaf lettuce (roughly chopped)

1/2 cucumber (peeled and thinly sliced)

4 scallions (cut into 3 inch pieces and then julienne)

8-10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)

2 Roma tomatoes (seeded and julienned)

5 eggs (hard boiled)

1 egg (raw)

1 cup canola oil

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/8 cup water

Directions:

Mix the lettuce, cucumbers, scallions, cilantro, and tomatoes well in a large bowl, the bigger the better.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 5 eggs to the boiling water and cook for 10-12 minutes. Discard the hot water in the sink and begin adding cold water from the faucet to help cool it down. Once the eggs have cooled down, peel the shells of the eggs and discard. When all of the eggs have been peeled, gently cut the eggs in a circular motion (do not cut all the way through, only to the yolk) until it is split in half. Remove the yolks and set aside in a bowl. Thinly cut the egg whites and add them to the salad mixture.

This is probably redundant but I'll show you how to make an aioli again. In a food processor add the egg whites of 1 egg. Set the speed to mix. Slowly drizzle half a cup of canola oil until the mixture thickens (4-5 minutes) now add the raw egg yolk and continue drizzling the remaining oil. You mixture should look like mayonnaise  (that's what it is at this point). With you setting still on mix, add lemon juice, salt, and vinegar. Now add your garlic and set your speed to process for about 1 minute (now it's an aioli). Add your hard boiled egg yolks and water to the mixture with your speed set on mix. The texture of this dressing shouldn't be thick like mayonnaise, if it is add a little more water. Your dressing shouldn't be to runny either so be careful when you add the water. Remove the dressing from the food processor and chill in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

To serve, add dressing to the salad and toss until everything has been properly dressed.

Side note:

My mom likes to add stir fried beef in the salad as well. If you would like to add this to the salad here's how to make it. You'll need 1/2 pound paper think slices of beef (doesn't matter which cut), 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1 garlic clove (minced), and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. Heat the oil on medium high heat and add your garlic and then your beef. Add your oyster sauce shortly afterwards and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until well done. Let this cool before adding to your salad. It's also customary to add all of the sauce from the stir fry to your salad as well, it'll give it the extra saltiness that pairs well with the slightly tart dressing. In the picture above I actually used thinly sliced pork shoulders and cooked it the same way.

Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa (Jeow Mak Len)

I've been asked by several of my friends to cook and post this, so here it is. Normally, this would be part of an ordinary lunch for Laotians. All you need see some sin lot/sin savanh (beef jerky) and some sticky rice to go doing with it. I've also paired this sauce with tamales to give it an extra kick. With the right equipment this can be made very easily.

Ingredients:

1 pint cherry tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 Thai chili peppers
10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)
2 scallions (thinly sliced)
Juice of half a lime
3-4 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Fold a piece of foil that's about a foot long at the edges about 2 inches on each side to create a box. Place the tomatoes, chili peppers, and garlic on three foil. Set you oven to broil with the rack on the second highest level from the top. Place the foil containing the ingredients on the rack and let it roast for about 4-5 minutes or until the contents begin to char. Remove the chili peppers and garlic and rotate the tomatoes to where the charred side is now in the bottom. Roast for another 4-5 minutes and remove from oven. Fold and enclose contents in foil and let it steam for another 5 minutes. If you have a torch, open the foil and begin torching the tomatoes for extra charredness.

In a mortar and pestle, add the toasted chili peppers and garlic along with the salt and begin mashing into a paste. Add tomatoes along with any juice that is remaining in the foil. Begin mashing into a paste. Now add the lime juice and fish sauce. You may want to add a little bit of each at a time and taste, adjust your tartness by adding more lime juice and saltiness with more fish sauce. Once you get the taste that pleases your palette, add cilantro and scallions.

This salsa is very versatile and here are few suggestions of how to use it.

-Dip with sticky rice
-On top of steamed jasmin rice
-As a sauce with tamales
-Toasted bruschetta
-Tortilla chips

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Sin Dahd (Korean Style Barbeque) with a Trio of Sauces

This dish always brings back good memories. When I was teaching and traveling throughout Laos I couldn't wait to get back to Vientiane just so that I could hangout with family and head out to the restaurant Poisan and enjoy a night of eating and drinking. This restaurant is known for their Sin Dahd or Korean style barbecue. They serve it with an assortment of vegetables and your choice of protein (pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, etc.). What was unique was the dome shaped griddle that was heated with hot coals, I truly believe that once the fat drips and singes the coals the aroma it creates is incomparable.

Unfortunately, I live in an apartment and I don't have the dome shape griddle to mimic this experience. Here in the States we tend to just use a regular non-stick flat top griddle. Many of you who have had this during a family gathering know all too much about the electric griddle. I'm probably not alone when experiencing the power outages and blackouts this creates at home, especially when you have two or more griddles cooking at the same time.

For dinner last night I went with simple and very basic Sin Dat. The vegetables included red leaf lettuce, cilantro, scallions, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, chili peppers, and garlic. For the protein I opted for pork and lamb, both thinly sliced for quick cooking. I prepared a trio of sauces for dipping that included tamarind infused chili soybean, sweet and sour soy, and savory and spicy pineapple.

Wrapping Ingredients:

1 head red leaf lettuce (or any lettuce of your choice)

1 package rice paper (from wrapping)

Several sprigs of cilantro,

2 scallions (roughly chopped)

10-15 cherry tomatoes (halved)

1 large onion (quartered and thinly sliced)

1/2 cucumber (julienne cut)

5 chili peppers (thinly sliced)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1 pound pork butt w/skin (it's actually the shoulder, paper thin slices)

1 pound lamb arm (thinly sliced)

Directions:

You'll want to separate the skin from the pork butt where the fat meets the actual meat. Save the skin and fat pieces, you'll be using this to cook you meat in. Set your griddle to 275 degrees and add your skin and fat pieces. Once the oil starts releasing from the fat start adding your proteins and onions. Cooking until done and being wrapping with your favorite ingredients and dip in your favorite sauce.

Tamarind Infused Chili Soybean Sauce:

4 tablespoon chili soybean paste

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

4 tablespoon tamarind paste (reconstituted)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and set aside for dipping. Because the chili soybean paste is fermented it has a very salty taste so use this sauce sparingly.

Sweet and Sour Soy Sauce:

1 large shallot (minced)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1/2 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

4 tablespoon tamarind paste (reconstituted)

Directions:

Add oil, shallots, and garlic to a sauce pan on medium high heat. Saute until shallots are transparent. Add soy sauce, sugar, and tamarind paste to the same sauce pan. Mix all ingredients in the sauce pan well and set aside. You can either serve the sauce as is or you can opt to puree the mixture for a smoother and more well rounded taste.  Add thinly sliced chili peppers and garlic for that extra kick.

Savory and Spicy Pineapple Sauce:

1 1/2 cup fresh pineapple (1-2 inch chunks)

1 large shallot (thinly sliced)

3 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)

2 Thai chili peppers

4-5 tablespoon fish sauce

Directions:

Add pineapples to a saute pan on medium high heat. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until pineapple starts to caramelize. Then add shallots, garlic, and chili peppers to the saute pan. Continue cooking all ingredients for about 3-5 minutes. Add the entire contents of the saute pan into a blender and puree. Add fish sauce for the added salty taste.

Cabbage Wrap (Panh Mieng)

My mom was in town this past weekend and she brought me some healthy goodies, tons of fresh veggies straight from her garden that consisted of fresh Thai chili peppers, basil, eggplants, lemongrass, rice patty herbs, Vietnamese coriander and also brought me a refill of pa dak (homemade fish sauce).

Last week I had some health issues causing the doctor to prescribe me a regimen of steroids. The medication caused some weight gain, so this week, I'm back on my wrap diet since this is an ultra low carbohydrate diet with minimal protein. Normally, the diet consists of lettuce but since I haven't had the cabbage wrap in years, I thought I would change things up a little bit (still the same concept, however).  Eating like this helped me lose 25 pounds in a 4 week period; thankfully I'm only looking to drop 7 pounds this week.

By now, everyone should know how to wrap things. If not, it's pretty simple, it is just putting your favorite ingredients on a base - this case it's cabbage - wrapping it up without over filling and enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage (quartered)
2 scallions (sliced)
Several sprigs of cilantro (roughly chopped)
5 chili peppers (sliced)
3 inch piece ginger (julienne cut)
1 stalk lemongrass (thinly sliced on bias)
10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
1/2 lime (cut into tiny 1/4 squares, with peel on)
1 bag pork rinds
5 Thai eggplants (quartered)
1 shallot (sliced)
1 handful vermicelli (cooked)
1/4 homemade fish sauce
4 tilapia filets (or 1 whole fish)
4 garlic cloves (thinly sliced)

Cooking the fish:

First, you'll need to lightly batter the fish with rice flour (all purpose flour is too dense for this application) so that the fish doesn't fall apart in the deep fryer.  You will then deep fry the fish in canola oil that has been preheated to 350° for about 4-5 minutes. Once the fish has completed frying, place on a towel to drain and cool.

A different and healthier alternative to cooking the fish is simply putting the whole fish (skin on) in a preheated 375° oven for approximately for about 15 minutes or until fish is crispy on the outside.

Dipping sauce:

The dipping sauce is basically a homemade fish sauce (using the whole amount listed above), chili peppers (half the amount listed above), and garlic (half the amount listed above). You can also add tamarind paste  for extra tartness or sugar for added sweetness; of course add these according to your taste.  Beware: this sauce is super potent so use it sparingly. If you don't have homemade fish sauce you can also try using the bottled unfiltered fish sauce from the store or contact me if you need some homemade fish sauce.

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Fish Tacos with Kaffir Lime Aioli

The other day I saw one of my friend's post on Facebook that his wife made him fish tacos. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't invited but that just made me crave it even more. This dish is pretty simple but has a lot of components. I'll try to break it down as easy as possible.

Fish preparations:

2 pounds tilapia filets
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon cayenne peppery
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix well, let it marinate for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake the fish for approximately for 15 minutes (be careful to not overcook, you want the fish to still look and taste moist).

Korean/Spanish rice:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 shallot thinly sliced
1 cup brown Korean rice
32 ounces chicken stock
2 Roma tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

In a deep sauce pan, sauté the shallots in butter and add rice once all the butter melts. Add tomatoes and all the dry ingredients. Then add 1/3 of the stock and cook rice in medium high heat and keep it covered. Once most of the liquid has reduce add another 1/3 of the stock. Repeat this again until all the stock is gone and the rice is cooked.

Cabbage aioli slaw:

1/2 head of red/purple cabbage (thinly sliced)
1 cup kaffir lime aioli

Directions:

Blanch the cabbage in a pot of boiling hot water for about 3 minutes. Strain and let cool. Add kaffir lime aioli (see previous post for this recipe) and toss.

Pico de gallo:

1/2 large onion (diced)
2 jalapenos (diced)
1/2 cup cilantro (roughly chopped)
1 medium tomato (diced)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and adjust salt and sour preference by adding salt or lime juice.

Assembling tacos:

You're going to need tortillas (I used flour) and lettuce. Simply layer the lettuce on top of the tortilla, and then just add the rice, slaw, and pico de gallo. Drizzle with extra ailoi and enjoy.

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Trio of Pizza Dough and Waffle Cut Parmesan Fries with Kaffir Lime Aioli

I'm heading Houston this weekend and still refuse to do any grocery shopping. I was going to just make pizza but that was too simple so I decided to utilize the pizza dough in 3 different ways. From left to right there's your standard margarita pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil, calzone stuff with mozzarella and pepperoni, and an open pizza roll stuffed with pineapples, mushrooms, basil, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. For an appetizer I made waffle cut fries topped with Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

Pizza dough ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

Add yeast to warm water and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then add yeast and water mixture along with salt, sugar, and olive oil to flour. Knead dough well and let it rest for an hour.

Pizza sauce ingredients:

14 ounce San Marzano tomatoes

1 large shallot diced
2 garlic cloves diced
2 sprigs fresh basil
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a sauce pan and cook on medium high heat. With an immersion blender blend mixture until it is all the same consistency. Set aside and keep on simmer until ready to use.

Margarita pizza ingredients:

1/3 of pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Roma tomatoes sliced

Fresh basil
Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Cut 1/3 of pizza dough, create a ball and begin rolling out the dough into a circular shape (you can make it as thin as you like it). Add pizza sauce with a ladle on top of the pizza in a circular motion. Then add your toppings, for this application simply add mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and basil. Bake for approximately 10 minutes at super high heat (500 plus degrees).

Calzone ingredients:

1/3 of the pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Pepperoni

Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Roll out pizza dough into a circle. On one half of the dough add, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Fold the empty side of the dough over the top of the filled side. With a fork seal the edges of the dough and brush with olive oil. Cook at 500 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve with a side of pizza sauce.

Open pizza roll ingredients:

1/3 pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Pineapples

Mushrooms

Basil

Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

This one is a little tricky. I was trying to find a way to roll the pizza dough into a cone shape and the only thing I could find was an empty tomato sauce can that I split in half and roll into a cone. Roll out the pizza dough and then cut it in half. Then wrap the dough around the metal cone and brush with olive oil. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 5 minutes. Retrieve the crust and let it cool down before pulling it off of the metal cone. Stuff crust with ingredients other than the pizza sauce and place in oven for another 3 minutes. Add pizza sauce into the roll prior to serving.

Waffle Cut Parmesan Fries:

1 russet potato

Grated Parmesan cheese
Parsley finely chopped
Canola oil

Directions:

Cut your potatoes with the waffle fry insert into a bowl of cold water. Heat oil to 375 degrees while drying potatoes on a towel; when oil is ready, cook potatoes for approximately 5 minutes. Immediately after you pull fries out of the oil add cheese and parsley and mix well.

Kaffir lime aioli ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise (store bought or homemade)
7 large kaffir lime leaves (spine removed)
2 garlic cloves

Directions:

In a food processor add garlic and kaffir lime leaves. Blend to very fine consistency and add mayonnaise. Continue blending until all ingredients are incorporated.

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Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

I used shredded cabbage here since I served all of the
bok choy and mustard greens to the guests.

This is one of those dishes that tend to work like magic on a Saturday or Sunday morning after drinking heavily the night before. With the knowledge that I would be hosting guests this past weekend I actually started this dish on Thursday so that it'll be ready for Friday night and Saturday morning. The true cook time of this dish is about 3-4 hours. I was first introduced to this dish at an Austin downtown restaurant, Chinatown. At that time my friend was a bartender there and after bar hopping all night long, this was the perfect dish to cure the hungriness that was a result of too much alcohol consumption.  There are many variations of this dish that use different noodles and vegetables, the Vietnamese have Bun Bo Hue and the Laotians have Kow Poon (both use vermicelli noodles). The variation that's presented here is closer to the Chinese version.

Ingredients:


2 1/2 pounds boneless beef shank (you can also use beef shanks with bones) (2-3 inch cubes)
1 large yellow onion (diced)
4 tablespoon granulated sugar
6 tablespoon chili soybean paste
6 garlic cloves (crushed)
12 cups water
2 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoon soy sauce
6 whole star anise
2 scallions (chopped)
5 Roma tomatoes (quartered)
1 tablespoon crushed peppercorns
3 tablespoon canola oil
1 package Shandong noodles

Directions:         

Add oil to a stock pot on high heat. Add meat and brown on all sides. Add
onions and garlic and half of the chili soybean paste. Cook until onions become
translucent. Add water and bring soup to a boil. Now add all other ingredients
and wait for water to boil again. Reduce heat to low to medium low and continue
cooking soup for another 2-3 hours or until meat becomes tender. Feel free to
adjust your soup with fish sauce for extra saltiness, sugar for sweetness,
chili soybean paste for spiciness, or lime juice for tartness. You'll also want
to precook the noodles in a separate pot of boiling water for 5-8 minutes prior
to building your bowl.

Accompaniments:

You can add almost any type of vegetables and herbs to compliment this
soup. I've listed the basic accompaniments and some other options as well and don't be afraid of using your own imagination to match with your palette preference.

Basic accompaniments:

Baby bok choy (blanched)
Pickled mustard greens (roughly chopped)
Scallions (sliced on bias)

Optional/alternative accompaniments:

Cilantro (roughly chopped)
Purple or green cabbage (paper thin slices)
Red or white onions (thinly sliced)

Greek Salad

I think my last post was lost in the blogger blackhole. It's always fun to repost stuff... Anyway, I'm still looking to lose some of the vacation weight I gained. With tons of fresh produce on hand I decided to make a variation of a Greek salad.

Ingredients:

6-8 Romain lettuce hearts (roughly chopped)
1/2 Roma tomato (quartered)
5 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)
Handful of bean sprouts
Several pieces of crumbled goat cheese
8 thinly sliced cucumbers
Sprinkle of kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
6 shrimp (boiled and peeled)
2 pepperoncini peppers
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 juice of lemon

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well. Drizzle olive oil and add lemon juice. Add salt and pepper and serve.

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Tomato Basil Soup and Black Truffle Buttered Grilled Cheese Sandwich

So I'm still trying to clean out my refrigerator and pantry before I go on vacation. That means the tomatoes have to go, the cream had to go and the bread has to go. The soup was inspired by La Madeleine and anytime you have any type of tomato soup you have to have a grilled cheese to dip it with.

Soup ingredients:

1 whole can of Cento Italian style whole tomatoes peeled
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 teaspoon kosher salt
3-4 sprigs fresh basil
1 cup chicken broth
Freshly cracked pepper

Directions:

In a sauce pan, add tomatoes and cook on medium high heat. Add chicken broth, salt and butter. With an immersion blender, blend all ingredients until tomatoes are no longer chunky. Roughly chop the basil and add to soup. Continue to blend again until basil is in very tiny pieces. Give it a taste and add salt as needed. Top off with freshly cracked black pepper before serving.

Grilled cheese ingredients:

4 slices Texas toast
2 slices sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoon black truffle butter melted (or regular unsalted butter)

Directions:

Brush butter on bread and place on sheet pan, add cheese and another slice of bread. Brush top of bread with more butter. Place sheet pan in a 475° oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Flip sandwich and cook for another 4 minutes. Slice sandwich diagonally and serve.

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Papaya Salad (Tham Mak Hoong)

This is obviously a party size papaya salad, but I'll do my best to help you make a regular portion of this dish.
As I said yesterday, this was requested for my friend's birthday party (I think the Vietnamese people enjoy this dish a lot more than Laotians do these days, maybe we just take it for granted because we grew up eating this stuff). The hardest part about making a party platter is the transportation of it to the party. I never realized how many hills and ungulations there were in Austin (especially on one road) until I had to transport this. Everyone knows you DO NOT want to spill this in your car. Someone must have been watching over me (maybe the Papaya Salad Gods) because not even a drop spilled in my truck while transporting this tray.

This dish may require some extra tools such as a clay mortar and wooden pestle (I'll post a pic later). If you don't have this I can tell you where to pick up a set. I've also seen people use gloves (or even zip lock bags) and a large mixing bowl.

Ingredients (for average portion):

1/2 lbs (or two handfuls) shredded green papaya
3-4 garlic cloves
3-4 Thai chili peppers (less or more depending on how much heat you can handle, my aunt would put 20!)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon crab paste (you can leave this out, but I love the extra salty kick it gives)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste (again, you can leave this out as well, some people can handle the odor)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
4-7 tablespoon fish sauce
6-8 cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
1 lime
2-3 Thai eggplants (you can leave this out if you can't find it, but I love the extra crunchy texture it gives the salad) thick slices

Directions:

Preparing the green papaya:

First you'll need to peel the papaya of course, then give it a quick rinse and pat dry with a towel (this will help it from slipping out of your hands). I shred my papaya the old fashion way (doing it this way gives it a better overall texture and a slight crunch factor) by using only a sharp knife and then chopping down at the papaya creating 1/8 inch slits and rotating the papaya until the whole surface has an abundance of slits on it. Then with your knife angled ever so slightly (1-2 degrees) you'll want to thinly slice those slits away until you have a clear surface again, repeat until you get down to the core of the papaya. This may sound difficult (and to some it really it is) but with enough practice you'll get the hang of it and if you cut too big of a chunk out, don't worry about it, just cut that chunk into thin slices. For those of you who think you really can't do it, you can use a mandolin set a the 2nd lowest level or even and julienne hand slicer (Kiwi brand makes one and shame on you if you're Laotian and use this) to create thin slices.

Directions on preparing papaya salad:

In a mortar and pestle combine garlic, chili peppers, and salt. Mash ingredients well to create a paste, then add crab paste and shrimp paste and continue making a paste of all these ingredients. Once paste is done, add papaya, tomatoes, 1/2 of lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and eggplants. Continue mashing all ingredients in the mortar and pestle until the color consistency is uniform (you'll see it turn a darker color). Give it a taste and you can adjust the saltiness or tartness by adding more fish sauce or lime juice. You're papaya salad should be somewhat juicy (my mom used to tell me that if you're papaya salad is dry, it means that you're stingy) from the tomatoes, lime juice, and fish sauce.

Hint: Keep a little bit of the shredded papaya on the side just in case it is to salty for you, by adding more papaya it'll help drown out some of the salty taste.

Once you're satisfied with overall taste you can start devouring this addictive treat. I like to eat my with accompaniments such as water spinach, cabbage, vermicelli noodles, and even more Thai egg plants. Oh and remember that juice from the salad? Don't let that go to waste, pour some on steamed rice or get your sticky rice and start dipping.

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Bruschetta - Zesty Tomato and Mozzarella

I've prepared this dish for a friend's birthday party tonight. Of course there was a lot more of it. I also made papaya salad, which I will be posting later. The initial reason why I came up with this recipe was because I had half a can of Cento Whole Peeled Italian Tomatoes and some bread endangered of going stale. Actually, a lot of my recipes come together at the very last minute just because I try not to let anything go bad or spoil.

Classic bruschetta

Ingredients:

1 medium can cento whole tomatoes
4-5 garlic cloves
2 small shallots
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
6 sprigs fresh basil (chiffonade)
3 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed Thai chili pepper
1 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 loaf french baguette
Several thinly sliced mozzarella cheese
Several pepperoni (julienne)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

In saucepan saute shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes and with scissors cut tomatoes into small bite size chunks. Add salt, oregano, bay leaves, chili peppers and black pepper. Let simmer for 15 minutes then add most of the fresh basil (save some for garnish). Slice bread on bias about 1/2 inch thick. Add tomato sauce on top of bread, then add cheese and pepperoni. Place bruschetta under broiler until cheese melts. Finish off by topping it with fresh basil, dried oregano and Parmesan cheese.

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Braised Short Rib Taco with Avocado Salsa

At first I was just going to eat leftovers and just call it a night. But I figured since I had to peel and prep some papaya salad for tomorrow's party I had some time on my hands to whip something up. Looked in the freezer and I found 3 boneless short ribs. Then I looked in the refrigerator and saw some avocados that I didn't want to go bad since I'm leaving town for the weekend. So this is what I came up with.


Short rib ingredients:

3 boneless short ribs (1 1/2 lbs)
3 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
4 Roma tomatoes (double quartered)
2 sprigs basil (chopped)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 medium shallot (diced)
2 garlic cloves (diced)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Several tortillas

Directions:

Evenly coat short ribs with salt and pepper. In a hot pan add oil and ribs until all sides are dark brown. add shallots and garlic. Immediately add chicken stock after shallots are transparent. Then add all other ingredients. I cheated and used a pressure cooker and cooked for 35 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker you can cooked in a regular stock pot with the lid covered until meat is fork tender. After meat is tender, continue to reduce liquid in pot until reduced half way. Stain liquid into separate bowl and mix in with short ribs. This will keep it moist and tender.

Avocado salsa ingredients:

3 medium avocados (diced)
5 cherry tomatoes (quartered)
1/4 white onion (diced)
Pinch of kosher salt
1/4 juice of lime
Several sprigs of cilantro (roughly chopped)
1 jalapeno (diced)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well but be careful and do not work it to hard. You want a salsa and not mushy guacamole.

Finally, combine meat and salsa on top of tortilla and enjoy!

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