Seared Halibut wth Asparigus

Normally we wouldn't have a dish like this as it is so expensive >< (I'm not even going to go into pricing), but since my parents gave me some, we had it. It was really good, especially since we don't eat fish that often here. Came out clear and fresh, the tastes adding but not hiding the flavors of the halibut or asparigus. Adapted slightly from this recipe (1), here's how we cooked it:

• 2 3/4 lbs Halibut Fillets (cut into 7 pieces)
• 2 lbs Asparigus
• 1 head + 5 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 2 Large Tomatoes (pealed, deseeded and diced)
• 2 Green Onions (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup Dry White Wine
• 1/6 cup Lemon Juice
• 1/2 cup Margarine
  
• Salt and White Pepper

In a large pan, heat oil to medium heat and saute 5 cloves minced garlic. Remove the garlic and pan fry the asparigus for about 6 minutes, when the vegetables have become soft and dark. Place into a separate bowl and toss with the sauted garlic.

Season fillets with salt and white pepper on both sides. In the same pan, heat oil to medium-high heat. Saute half a head of garlic (minced) until golden brown and set aside. Place enough fillets in the pan to cover it and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Reduce to medium heat and cook for another 4 minutes on each side. Repeat for remaining fillets

Scrape pan and remove oil. Place wine and lemon juice in pan at high heat and reduce to half (about 2 minutes). Add margarine one spoon at a time until completely added stirring all the while. Toss in tomato, green onion, and sauted garlic. Remove from heat.

Over a bed of white rice, place one filet and some asparigus. Spread a generous serving of the tomato and wine sauce over both. Serve immediately. Enjoy.

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Seared-Halibut-with-Haricots-Verts-Scallions-and-White-Wine-Sauce-104104

Braised Oxtail

Due to my family visiting and a some housemates being away, we haven't had to do much in the way of cooking recently. Last night we however made this little dish which I found quite delicious. Adapted from this recipe (1), the dish is flavorful and meaty and even the sauce itself seems full. Anyways, here's how it went:

• 2 1/2 lbs Oxtail (2-3" thick pieces were used, smaller would be better though)
• 8 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 2 Green Onion (chopped)
• 3 tbsp Ginger (minced)
• 3 Carrot (chopped)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 1 cup Dried Shittake Mushrooms (soaked for >1 hour)
• 2 cup Chicken Broth
• 3/4 cup Rice Wine
• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
  
• 3 tbsp Hot Black Bean Sauce
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• Water

In a large pan, heat oil to medium-high heat. Pan fry oxtail on each side for about a minute. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp rice wine, 2 tbsp ginger, 2 tbsp green onion, 3 cloves garlic, sesame oil and hot black bean sauce to the pan. Mix, coating the meat well, and fry for a few minutes. Transfer to pot and add chicken broth, the remaining soy sauce, rice wine,, garlic, ginger, and green onion, and enough water to cover all the meat. Bring to boil and dissolve in the brown sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add the vegetables and simmer for at least another 2 hours. Enjoy over rice.

After 3 hours, the meat should be tender and come right off the bone. The sauce is red in color due to the hot black bean sauce but the flavor is not that spicy. Chili Oil can be added to increase the heat. Sauce is also quite full due to the bones in the oxtail making broth out of the added water. Oxtail itself was ~$7, including the rest of the ingredients coming out to ~$10. Enough for 3 people with enough leftovers for 1 or 2 more. Cheers.

Cites:
(1) http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/chinese-braised-oxtails-with-root-vegetables-44689

Summer Dinner Get Together

Final get together of the summer, as a lot of people are going off for a bit before school starts anew. Hope everyone enjoyed the food. Here was the menu and how it all went down.

Calbi (Korean Short Ribs):
Korean short ribs were on sale at $2/lb at 99 ranch and seemed to be an awesome choice for a big dinner. I hope I was right. Came out a little salty, but seemed to be good overall. Based off this recipe (1).

• 12 lbs Korean Short Ribs
• 32 cloves Garlic (crushed)
  
• 12 Green Onion (sliced)
  
• 2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 cup Rice Wine
• 1/3 cup Sesame Oil
• 2 cup Sugar

On a large surface layout short ribs and rub with a total of 1 1/2 cup sugar on both sides. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl until sugar is dissolved. In large ziplock bags, place 4-5 short ribs and pour in 1/6 of total sauce into bag. Remove air and seal (total of 6 bags, hence 1/6 to each bag). Keep in fridge overnight (~18 hours total marination) flip over at some point (hours before cooking).

To cook, remove from the fridge and let warm to near room temperature. On a grill or pan heated to medium heat place 3-4 short ribs and cook for around 4-5 minutes on each side (or as wanted).

This was cooked during dinner with people taking turns being in charge of the meat. It seemed to work out pretty well. Fed 14 people easily with 1/4 of the meat left. $30 for the dish total.

Spicy Garlic Eggplant:
This dish was apparently spicy enough for the hot food lovers who came over, and it was quite spicy. Taken mostly from this recipe (2), but adjusted to be more wet and more spicy.

• 5 large Chinese Eggplant (sliced thin)
• 16 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1/4 cup Ginger (minced)
  
• 1 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 cup Rice Wine
• 1 cup Water
  
• 1/3 cup Sesame Oil
• 1/3 cup Chili Oil
• 1/3 cup Hot Chili Sauce
• 2 Green Onions (minced)
  
• Few stalks Cilantro (minced)
  

In a large pan, heat oil to medium-high heat. Saute 1/3 of the garlic until beginning to brown. Add enough eggplant to the pan to cover in one layer (about 1/3 of total) tossing in the garlic. Saute the eggplant until the garlic is browned and then add 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup rice wine, 1/3 of the ginger, and 1/3 cup of sesame oil, chili oil, and chili sauce mix. Bring to boil, making sure that the eggplant is well coated. Add 1/3 cup water and cover. Let sit, mixing every few minutes, until soft all the way through. Remove from pan and repeat with the rest of the eggplant. Garnish with green onion and cilantro.

Ended with around 1/3 of the eggplant remaining. Perhaps it was too spicy, but I felt it was flavorful through the heat. $7 for the dish.

Home Style Kang Kong (Kong Xin Cai):
Made this dish before on the blog, but I'll list it again. This one appeared to be a favorite - completely demolished by the end of the night.

• 3 lbs Kang Kong (Kong Xin Cai)
• 12 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 3 cups Chicken Stock
• 3 cups Rice Wine
• Garlic Salt and White Pepper

Trim the kang kong and then cut into 1-2" pieces. Heat oil in large pan on medium-high heat. Saute 6 cloves minced garlic until golden and then place in 1/4 of the kang kong. Pour in 1 cup chicken stock and 1 cup rice wine and mix. Let sit for a minute and add another 1/4 of kang kong along with 1/2 cup stock and 1/2 cup rice wine. Stir and cover. Let sit until the stalks have softened (about 8-10 minutes). Remove and repeat with other 1/2 of kang kong.

Simple and clean flavor and recipe. Came out to $7.

All the dishes were serve with steamed rice. Veggies eaten quickly as people were hungry while waiting for the meat the cook XP. $54 total for 14 people with quite a bit of leftovers. Hope everyone enjoyed it as much I enjoyed making it. Cheers.

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Korean-Barbecue-Beef-Marinade-1-109586
(2) http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/ubbs/archive/VEGETARIAN/Asian_Hot_and_Spicy_Eggplant_Stir-Fry_with_Ramen_Noodles.html

Orange-Soy Braised Pork

Ribs were on sale again, but instead of slow cooking them like usual, I decided to go with braising them. It turned out really well - savory and tender. Taken mostly from this recipe (1). Here's how it went:

• 4 lbs Country Style Pork Ribs (1/2" cubed)
• 2 heads Garlic (minced)
• 3 tbsp Ginger (minced)
  
• 2 1/2 cups Orange Juice
• 3/4 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 tbsp White Pepper
• 1 tbsp Salt
  

Cube and salt the ribs and set aside. Heat oil in a large pan (or two pans) to medium-high heat and saute 2/3 of the minced garlic in it. When the garlic begins to brown, pour in the rest of the garlic, ginger, orange juice, and soy sauce. Bring to boil and dissolve the sugar within. Sprinkle pepper and mix. Add cubed pork in one layer on the pan and bring to boil again (if one pan isn't enough, divide the sauce in two and use two pans). Lower heat to simmer and let sit for at least 1 1/2 hours.

Ribs on sale coming up to $5, including the rest of the ingredients, it amounts to around $7. Served with rice, feeding 5 people with seconds, with half a pan of leftovers remaining (we cooked the meat in two pans). Enjoy.

Cite:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Orange-Soy-Braised-Pork-Ribs-231363

Gluten Free Katsu!

So we had to try this eventually, and it came out beautifully. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that we used actual panko also instead of cereal. Definitely would make this again to confuse people with the outcome if they saw the raw ingredients.

• 4 lbs Boneless Pork Loin (1/8-1/4" slices)
  
• 1/2 box Corn Chex (ground with hands)
  
• 2 cups Corn Starch
• 6 Eggs

Slice the pork loin. For each loin, pat down in a bowl of corn starch and then dip into a bowl of beaten egg. Dredge through the ground corn chex. Proceed to do so with all slices. In a large pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan to medium heat. Place 4 slices of coated pork on the pan. Fry each side for 4 minutes. Remove from pan and slice into pieces. Continue this for the rest of the pork. Serve with rice with tonkatsu sauce, Japanese mayonaise, or use the Katsudon recipe from before with this tonkatsu to create gluten free katsudon!

Way more than enough for 5 people's dinner and lunch the next day (I had 3 cutlets alone!). Came out to around $8 total. I'm wondering if this is the first gluten free katsu recipe. Well - at least it's something almost everyone can enjoy =).

Jiu Cai and Pork Dumpling (Filling)

(Cooked Saturday) Great dumpling filling, but eaten in a completely different way as we can't use dough in our house. Covered in rice paper and enjoyed as mock spring rolls, but easily turned into a dumpling dish. Here's the recipe:

• 1 lb Jiu Cai (minced)
• 2 lb Ground Pork
• 1 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Rice Wine
• 3 Eggs
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil

Toss the jiu cai in the ground pork with hands. Toss in the remaining liquids and mix. Beat eggs lightly together and mix with hands into the pork and jiu cai. If used in dumplings, may want to use a little bit of corn starch to hold the dumplings together. Fill each dumpling skin with a heaping tbsp of filling and fold up, pinching the sides. Either pan fry or boil them. Enjoy with soy sauce with strips of ginger within.

We pan fried the filling since we couldn't make dumplings. Still great, with much leftover. Price for the dish came out around $8. I hope someone enjoys making great dumplings out of this stuff. Cheers.

Amazing Pork Chop

(Making up for posts lost...) This post was meant for last Wednesday. This was the first time we had made pork chop and it came out spectacularly. The meat was just right, and the sauce was amazing. We rarely make non-asian type foods, and this was a good surprise (courtesy of Shannon).

Garlic Orange Pork Chops:
Followed recipe here (1) with minor changes. Came out delicious and even better the next day after it had sat in its sauce.

• 5 1" Thick Pork Chops
• 1 head Garlic (minced)
  
• 1 Lime (squeezed)
  
• 1 cup Orange Juice
• 1/2 cup White Wine
  
• 1 Onion (chopped)
  

Heat up oil in a large pan to medium-high heat. Toss in as many chops as will fit on the pan. Fry until golden brown on that side. Flip over. Add half of the garlic and let fry in the oil. After both the pork and garlic are golden, add half of the lime, orange juice, and white wine mixture. Bring liquid to boil. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes. Should be cooked all the way through. Toss onion in the sauce. Repeat with the remainder (other half) of the chops.

Served with rice. Amazing taste, strangely reminded of tomato even though there was none inside. Enough for 4 and 2 lunches the next day. Smells as good as it tastes. Enjoy.

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Garlic-Orange-Pork-Chops-11520

Sweet Surprise

Today's dinner came out a little different than I had expected. I knew I had added a lot of sugar, but I didn't know that it would turn out so sweet. In a dish that I had thought would turn out more savory than it was, the sweetness was a nice surprise.

Sweet Stewed Pork:
Sweeter than I thought it would be, but probably could have been cooked a little more than I had made it. It was also a little dry, so probably could have used more liquid too, but turned out pretty well. The dish reminded me of Chinese sweet jerky (whatever the real name for that is called ><). Loosely based on this recipe (1). $7 for the dish enough for 5 people and a little more for lunch the next day.

• 3 lbs Pork Sirloin (sliced, but probably better cubed)
• 1/2 head Garlic (minced)
  
• 1 head Shallot (minced)
  
• 2 Green Onions (chopped)
  
• 3/4 cup Soy Sauce
• 3/4 cup Beef Stock
• 1/2 cup Rice Wine
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 3 tbsp Cornstarch (with water)
  

Everything but the pork into a pot and bring to boil, stirring to incorporate the sugar. Once boiled, add the pork and stir. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes (longer for softer meat, but we were hungry so we let it go for 30 minutes). Meat should be cooked all the way through (white the entire way). Remove the meat, and add cornstarch mixed in water. Bring sauce to boil. Remove from heat and add back meat. Stir, let the sauce thicken, and serve warm over rice.

Kang Kong (Kai Xin Cai/On Choy):
We've made this veggie before, but I called home to try that recipe. It came out lighter and fresher than the other stir fry. It also looked better due to the lack of soy sauce to make it brown XP. $4 for the dish and it was completely demolished at the meal.

• 2 lbs Kang Kong
• 1 cup Rice Wine
• 2/3 cup Beef Stock
  
• 1/2 head Garlic (minced)

Cut off the ends of the Kang Kong (the stems with white within) and then chop the rest of the vegetable in half. In a large pan heat oil on medium. Saute half of the minced garlic until starting to brown. Toss in half of the kang kong, and pour 1/2 cup rice wine and 1/3 cup beef stock on top. Cook for nearly 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leaves are wilted, but the stalks are still crunchy. Repeat for other half.

Sweet pork and savory veggies served over rice. Enjoy.

Stir Fry

You really can't go wrong with stir fry. Originally I had planned to make steamed chicken and Kang Kong (On choy/Kai Xin Cai), but the whole chicken had gone bad ><. I don't understand why though, today was the day the chicken said to use it by. Anyways, that led to the use of chicken breasts instead and a somewhat improvised recipe for it since we didn't want to waste the already cut ginger, shallot, and garlic.

(Improvised) Chicken and Onion Stir Fry:
Pretty good for something made on the fly, but could've used stronger flavoring. It wasn't bland, it just came out lighter than usual. Came out to $8 for this dish, serving 5 of us and still yielding a bunch of leftovers.

• 4 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 3/4 Onion (chopped)
• 1/2 head Garlic (minced)
• 1 Shallot (minced)
  
• 2 tbsp Ginger (minced)
• 2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1 1/4 cup Rice Wine
• 1 Green Onion (chopped)
• 3 tbsp Sesame Oil

Cut the chicken breasts into small bite size slices and place in a bowl with the chopped onion. Add 1 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup rice wine, and 1/2 chopped green onion and mix. Let sit to marinate. Heat oil in large pan on medium-low. Saute the garlic, shallot, and 1 tbsp of ginger until golden brown. Remove this from heat and set aside.

Bring in enough chicken and onion to fill the pan (about 1/3 of it). Add 1 tbsp sesame oil and 1 tsp ginger, stir, and let cook for 4 minutes (covered). Add 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine, and 1/3 of saute. Stir, cover, and cook for another 3-4 minutes. The chicken should be white all the way through by now. Remove from heat and set aside. Repeat for other 2/3.

Home Style Eggplant:
I called home for this recipe - I missed it a lot. Eggplant is one of my favorite veggies and I really like the way we make it at my house. Maybe next time I'll try cooking in a clay pot. This time the eggplant came out cooked but still a little crunchy as the slices were a little thick. It was still tasty though and I would do it again. $4 for this one and we still have half of it.

• 3 Chinese Eggplants
• 1/4 Onion (minced)
• 1/2 head Garlic (minced)
• 1/3 cup Oyster Sauce
• 1/3 cup Rice Wine
• 1/3 cup Soy Sauce
• Olive Oil

Preheat oven to high broil. Cut the eggplant into diagonal slices and arrange on a baking sheet. Cover with olive oil (I poured olive oil over it, coating it poorly. Probably better to do this with a brush). Broil for ~10 minutes, when the skin begins to turn brown and the eggplant is still firm but is more soft. In a large pan heat oil on medium heat. Saute the garlic and onion. Add the oyster sauce, rice wine, and soy sauce and stir. Add the eggplant and stir. Let sit for 2-3 minutes. Should be mostly soft through the eggplant slice when done.

Both dishes were served with rice and eaten together. Enjoy.

Ma Po Tofu

My brother can't stand spiciness. After a few days of him over, all the regular residents of the apartment were clearly craving spicy. So, after he left, we broke out this recipe, and we made it pretty spicy.

Ma Po Tofu:
The amazing spicy rice topping dish that just gets spicier with time. Tonight's was great, especially due to spiciness withdrawals. Here's how it was (approximately done, courtesy of Shannon).

• 1 1/2 lbs Ground Beef
• 2 packs Silken Tofu
• 1 head Garlic (minced)
  
• 2 tbsp Ginger (minced)
  
• 2 Serano Peppers (chopped, seeds removed)
  
• 2 Green Onions (chopped)
  
• 1/3 cup Beef Broth
• 1/3 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/3 cup Chili Sauce
• 3 tbsp Chili Oil
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• Salt and White Pepper
• Cornstarch
  

Heat up oil in a large pan. Cook the ground beef with some white pepper and salt until brown. Remove from heat and place in a bowl. Without cleaning the pan, heat more oil. Saute the garlic and ginger until golden brown. Add broth, serano peppers, green onion, and tofu. Bring to boil. Mix soy sauce, chili sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, and cornstarch in a bowl. Add mixture and cooked beef. Bring to boil again and simmer until serving.

This recipe is great. Although it changes dependent on ingredients we have (ie spiced with red peppers, more garlic or scallions, or chili powder) it's a pretty consistent dish at our place. It's cheap too. Tofu and beef compromise the majority of the dish costing about $7 total for 4 people and lunch the next day. Serve over rice and with something to bind the capsaicin to. Enjoy.

Adobo Daze

If there's one dish I'm critical of, it's this one. When I think of home, I think of food. Being Filipino means I think of Adobo. It's done one way: home cooked, the way your grandmother makes it. Everything else feels fundamentally wrong. When we decided to make adobo though, I felt that maybe it was a chance to try something new. So we did...

Pork Adobo:
Drawn mostly from here (1). The dish was... ok. My brother and I agree that it was too vinegar-y and needed more soy sauce. The rest of the people eating said it was good, but then again they haven't had my grandmother's adobo. Next time I'll give her an international call to show them true adobo.

• 4 lbs Pork Loin (1" cubes)
• 2 heads Garlic (minced)
• 1 Onion (minced)
• 1 cup Soy Sauce
• 2 cup White Vinegar
• 4 cup Water
• 12 Bay Leaves
• 4 tbsp Cornstarch

In a large pot heat oil on medium-high. Saute the minced garlic and onion in the bottom of the pan until golden brown. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins. Heat oil in a large pan on medium high. Remove the pork from the pot and fry in the pan for 5 minutes. Return to pot with the cornstarch (mixed first in water) and bring to boil again. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes before serving with rice.

If I were to do this recipe again, I would even out the amount of soy sauce and vinegar used (1 1/2 cups each) to cut the sour and increase the salt. I'd simmer it longer too and not quick fry the pork. The longer cook time would soften the pork more and let in more flavor. It was also a pain to remove all the pork just to put it back in. Total ingredients cost was $8 for 5 people and some lunch the next day. Took around 1+ hr to cook with preparations.

Cites:
(1) http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net/adobo.htm

Pork and Cabbage

Hey All,

We had a large head of napa cabbage that's been in our fridge for a while and I decided it was about time that we cooked it. Considering the only thing I could think of when thinking of napa cabbage was kimchi - I had to consult a little bit of help and found a recipe here (1). Working off this we built a pretty yummy dish for way more than enough for 6 people for around $9.

Stir-Fried Pork and Napa Cabbage:
Mostly taken from here (1) but changed as usual as time went on.

• 4 lbs Pork Loin (1/2" cubes)
• 2 lbs Napa Cabbage (1 1/2" slices)
• 12 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 3 tbsp Ginger (minced)
• 1 1/2 cups Soy Sauce
• 1 cup Rice Vinegar
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Corn Starch
• 2 Green Onions (thin slices)

Cube the pork loin and toss in 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup sugar, and corn starch. Heat vegetable oil in a large pan. Fry 3 cloves minced garlic until golden brown and remove from pan. Fry 1/3 pork in pan for 3 minutes each side. Remove pork into a bowl. Repeat with next 1/3 of pork. For last 1/3, fry 1 tbsp minced ginger until golden brown and remove from pan (add to fried garlic). Fry remaining pork same as before and add to rest of the pork.

Fry 3 cloves garlic and 1 tbsp ginger in the same pan (without cleaning) until golden brown. Add 1/4 of cut cabbage. Add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/2 tbsp sesame oil, and 1/4 of the remaining sugar (about 1/16 cup) to the cabbage and mix. Fry until slightly wilted, stirring occasionally (about 3 mins). Add another 1/4 of cabbage with the same mixture of liquid and sugar on top, mix and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan, placing in a large pot, and cook the other 1/2 of the cabbage similarly.

Add all ingredients to the pot (cabbage, cooked pork, fried garlic and ginger, and cut green onions). Mix and let boil. Serve hot over a bowl of rice.

All the repitition was due simply to the lack of an extra large wok. If we had an industrial sized one, I'm sure we could've made it all in one go! It should be fine if you reduce the size of the recipe to around 1 lb (quartering this one ><).

Cheers,
---Chris

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Pork-with-Napa-Cabbage-232797

Ribs and Kai Sin Cai

Hey all,

In a less themed combination we had slow cooked ribs and kai sin cai (a leafy vegetable with hollow stems). Seems it was done well enough and fed 5 well with lots of left overs for the veggies. Anyways here was the menu:

Ribs:
I really like just slow cooked ribs on its own. We were going to prepare a glaze but then we got hungry and ate it plain ><.

• 4 1/2 lbs Pork Spare Ribs

Preheat oven to 250 F on bake. Wrap the pork ribs in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 2 1/2 hours. Remove, cut and serve. Glaze can be added at this point (many sauces work such as sweet chili sauce).

Kai Sin Cai:
We haven't cooked this vegetable before, but it was rather successful. It was nice and crunchy, and more than enough for 5 for $2.

• 1 lbs Kai Sin Cai (On Choy)
• 18 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1 cup Soy Sauce (separated)
• 1/2 cup Rice Wine (separated)
• 1 Green Onion (chopped)
• 1 handful Parsley (minced)

Heat up oil in a large pan. Take 6 cloves of garlic and fry until brown. Remove from pan and fry the 1/3 of vegetables with 1/3 of total soy sauce and rice wine until soft (may turn brown but ok). Remove and repeat with the other 2/3. At the end fry all the vegetables (should fit in pan now that water has been heated off) with the fried garlic, green onion, and parsley for a minute. Remove from heat and serve.

Along with this we had steamed corn and rice. It was a pretty satisfying meal I feel. We ate all the ribs so we may be out of meat for tomorrow's lunch ><. Maybe we'll all just have veggies and rice.

Cheers,
---Chris

Too Much Food ><

Hey All,

So we've apparently have made way too much food this week and have spent yesterday and today mostly playing catch up on leftovers. We did however prepare the rest of our raw food so it wouldn't go bad ><. Here's how that went. London Broil: This is always a cheap, but tough cut of beef. For 6 dollars for nearly 4 lbs though - I'm not going to complain all that much. We prepared it quickly this time and, although tough due to the cut, it was still quite good.

• 3-4 lbs London Broil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 Onion

Set oven on high broil. Tenderize the broil with a fork (poking it all over). Salt and pepper as wanted. Place on a baking pan and place in the oven. Broil for 14 minutes. During this time, chop the onion. After 14 minutes, remove the broil and flip it over. Place the onions on top and let it broil for another 14 minutes. Check for doneness (we had it rare to medium rare) and serve.

Bok Choy:
This one's as simple as it gets, save for perhaps making salad. Cost is only the veggies and the oyster sause we used (totalling around $3).

• 1 bag Bok Choy
• Oyster Sauce

Broil water to boil in a pot with a steamer. Wash the bok choy and then place in the steamer. Steam for ~10-15 minutes (more if you want them softer). Remove from steamer and serve with oyster sauce.

Today's things were quite simple, but then again that was cause we had so much food left over from earlier this week ><. Hopefully we'll get through all that old food so more new things can be made.

Cheers,
---Chris

Gluten and Cheese...

Hey All,

Tonight was for Italian food, a rarity since we generally cook asian-esque food here. It was still great though, albeit more filling than expected ><. It came out really well, despite a few slight mishaps (we forgot we had the garlic bread in the oven... it came out a little on the dark side...). Enough for introductions though - on with the recipes!

Chicken Parmesan:
We were looking for a way to burn through the rest of the cheese and panko we had left over from the weekend and figured this was a good way to do so. Followed this recipe here (1). Although we ended up buying more bread crumbs, it still ended up pretty cheap in the end. ~$11 went into it for 7 servings. As only 3 of us were eating... it was quite a bit. Here's how it went:

• 7 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (cheaper to cut the bones out of half breasts)
• 2 cups Flour
• 5 Large Eggs
• 3 1/2 cups Bread Crumbs (1 cup Panko + 2 1/2 cups Bread Crumbs in our case)
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs together. In yet another bowl mix the cheese and bread crumbs. Take a chicken breast and dredge it in the flour. Next dip it in the egg, and then dredge through the cheese and crumbs mixture. Set aside. Do the same with the other breasts. Heat up vegetable oil in a pan on low heat so its not too hot. Place up to 3 breasts on the pan after the oil is hot. Keep there for 8 minutes and then flip. Wait another 8 minutes and then remove to a plate with paper towels on it to pat the breasts dry. Should be golden brown and cooked through (check!). Serve with Pasta Sauce.

Spaghetti:
For those of you who haven't made Spaghetti before, here's how we cooked the noodles:

• Box of Spaghetti
• Water
• Salt

Bring enough water to boil in a large pot to completely contain all the noodles which are going to be made. Add some salt (this helps prevent the noodles from sticking to each other). Add the noodles let sit for 10-15 minutes (depending on whether you like it undercooked, just right, or over - today ours was undercooked but done so intentially). Don't forget to stir (like we did ><) else it will clump together and some noodles on the edge won't cook. Bring off heat and pour off water. Cool with warm water and drain with a collander (bowl with holes in the bottom) if you can. If you don't have one, then hold the cap on the pot on enough such that water comes out, but not the noodles. This portion is as expensive as the noodles: about $3 for enough for 6 for us.

Pasta Sauce:
Pasta sauce is always fun. Mostly you start with a tomato sauce you buy at the supermarket, and then you make it better by adding your own ingredients. Almost anything will do (depending on how much there is and you want to put in), but here's our version:

• 1 medium jar or 1/2 large jar tomato sauce.
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 1 Onion
• 1 Shallot
• 1 box Mushrooms
• 2 cups Red Wine
• Garlic Salt

Bring sauce to boil in a pot on low heat. Mix in chopped mushrooms and minced garlic, onion, and shallot. Bring back to boil, add wine and let simmer. Garlic salt to taste. Serve warm. (Note: If I were to do this again, I would fry the garlic and shallot with olive oil in the bottom of the pot and then add the sauce everything else. The fried garlic would give a sweeter taste I feel.) End cost: ~$4.

Garlic Bread:
We always eat garlic at our place (can't recall the last meal with out it here) and this hits near the top of our one time garlic usage. What does this mean? Delicious is what. Would've been better slightly less burnt, but for $4 for a whole loaf of garlic bread I'd try it again. Anyhow this was the way it went down:

• 1 loaf French Bread
• 1 stick Butter
• 18 cloves Garlic
• Olive Oil

Preheat oven to high broil. Mince garlic and mix with butter. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the loaf. Spread over bread cut in half. Place on a baking sheet covered with tin foil and place in oven. Broil for (less than!) 15 minutes, or when the top starts to turn golden brown.

All in all everything goes together well. Mix and match to find your own favorite combinations (I personally found a sandwich made of chicken parmesan and pasta sauce flanked by garlic bread pretty fantastic). Probably easiestly/most normally served with the chicken over a bed of spaghetti with sauce on top! In the end, way too much food for 3 people (maybe enough for 7?) for around $22. I hope you guys enjoy!

Cheers,
---Chris

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Parmesan-Heros-107587

Flan

Hey All,

For once in a long time, we opted to go out to eat instead of cooking. It made me kind of sad that 4 of us could've ate for the price of one meal =(. Once we got home I decided to make some flan to eat up the many eggs we bought on super sale. It came out nice and soft, but a little bit curdled on the top as I didn't have a roasting pan large enough to set the baking pan in a water bath. In any case, following the recipe here (1), this is the flan I made:

• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Water

Place the sugar and water to boil under high heat in a small sauce pan while swirling. Let the syrup sit on heat after boiling until browns. If you don't have it on high heat it won't brown quickly/at all, which is what happened to me, and so I had to turn it up to hight after a long time of waiting to brown. Pour while still hot into the bottom of a large round baking pan.

• 1/2 + 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 cup 2% Milk
• 4 Large Eggs
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 2 tsp Vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Bring 1/2 cup sugar, cream, and milk to boil in a large saucepan while stirring over high heat. Reduce heat after boiling to low and let simmer for 3 minutes. Take off heat to cool to warm. Beat eggs in a mixer with other 1/2 cup of sugar until well combined and pale. Slowly add warm milk mixture to eggs while keeping the mixer on using a ladle. Add vanilla. Pour through a sieve into another bowl to remove chunks of cooked egg from the custard. Pour the custard into baking pan and set the baking pan into a water bath (larger bowl filled with water. (I could only use a pie pan and wasn't able to cover the entire height of the custard, which you should do if you can. A roasting pan as noted in the original recipe (1) would be recommended.)

Place the baking pan and water bath in the oven and bake for ~1 hr or until a knife comes out clean. Cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge, plastic wrapped, overnight. You can then either invert onto another plate or just eat it straight out of the baking pan, which you want.

I changed mostly the baking method from the original as I only had a large pyrex pan. Hence the need to baking longer. Also, since I had my syrup on low instead of high, I lost a bit of it through evaporation and couldn't coat the bottom. Costwise it was cheap. Cheap eggs and milk lessened the costs to around $4 for a large serving of flan. Hope you enjoy the recipe too!

Cheers,
---Chris

Cites:
(1) http://burntlumpia.typepad.com/burnt_lumpia/2007/05/leche_flan_less.html

Katsu Crazy

Hey All,

Last night was a Japanese food night for us. I thought it was pretty tasty and, for those who end up trying these recipes, I hope it turns out the same. So, here was the menu:

Tonkatsu:
Japanese breaded pork cutlet. I looked online in a search for a recipe, but didn't really follow anyone too strongly. I just followed the general trend and tested for doneness and it came out fine. This dish was slightly more pricy/lb as we bought the special pork cutlet for tonkatsu from a Japanese supermarket. I think next time I'm just going to cut my own meat from a boneless pork loin to make it cheaper. It ended up running around $7 for 6 cutlets in the end. Here's how it was done:

• 6 Pork Cutlets
• 6 Large Eggs
• 1 bag Panko (bread crumbs)
• Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 Large Head Cabbage

In a bowl beat an egg with chopsticks. Dip the pork cutlet into the beaten egg and then into a second bowl with a good amount of panko inside. Since I didn't think it was breaded enough at this point, dip the the cutlet back into the egg bowl to soak up more egg and then again into the panko to bread it more. Heat about 1/2 inch oil in a saucepan. Place the cutlet into the pan. Flip after 2 minutes. Flip a total of 3 times. The cutlet should be brown at this time. Check for doneness by cutting off a slice and making sure the meat is no longer red or gelatenous. Pat down with paper towels to remove the grease and cut into strips to serve over shredded cabbage. Do the same for the other 5 cutlets. Goes well with tonkatsu (bulldog) sauce and/or Japanese mayonaise.

Curry (for Katsu Curry):
It's hard to go wrong with curry, and this time was no exception. We basically just followed the directions on the back of the curry mix box (we used Golden Curry). Katsu curry seems to be more watery than regular curry from my own experience and that was the consistency that was obtained. Since it was just a vegetable curry, it ended up pretty cheap, around $3 (cost coming mostly from the curry packet). Anyways, here's how we did it:

• 1 Carrot
• 2 Potatoes
• 1 Onion
• 5 cloves Garlic
• 1 packet (Golden) Curry Mix
• Water
• Oil

Peal and cube the vegetables. Mince the garlic. In a pot or large pan, cook the vegetables and garlic in a little oil until browning. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and bring to boil. Add curry mix and stir. Bring off heat to thicken. Add water to gain the consistency wanted (watery in our case). Serve over rice and tonkatsu.

Katsudon:
I've been craving katsudon, so I found a recipe from here (1) and followed it. I followed it loosely however as I was only making one serving of katsudon and was too lazy to calculate the conversion I needed to use tablespoons. It ended up a little bit salty but still good (I'll add more sugar next time). Here's approximately how it went (I did it by eye, so approximately is the best I can do):

• 1/4 cup Mirin (Cooking Rice Wine)
• ~1/6 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Green Onion (green part only cut into long pieces)
• ~1 tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 Large Egg

On low heat, bring all ingredients but the egg to boil in a small saucepan. Beat the egg and add it to the middle of the sauce without mixing. When the egg is pretty much cooked, pour everything over a bowl of rice containing cut tonkatsu on top.

Miso Soup:
With Japanese food, miso soup is a must! This one was a rather simple soup as we didn't have many other ingredients appropriate to through in. For a total of 6 servings, the soup came out to be around $2 at most. Anyhow, here's the recipe:

• 6 cups Water
• ~1/3 cup Miso Paste (more if wanted)
• 1 package Firm Tofu
• 2 Green Onions
• Cilantro

Bring the water to boil in a pot. Remove some water and added it to some of the miso paste to be added and mix and then mix it into the pot (this helps prevent clumping). Do this until all the miso paste wanted to be added is added (taste it to make sure!). Drain the tofu and then cut it into small cubes (easiest in box). Add to the soup. After another minute, bring the soup off heat. Add chopped green onions and minced cilantro.

On top of this, we had white (short grain) rice, japanese pickles (bought from a Japanese supermarket), and fruit for dessert. Together this was enough for 4 college students for dinner and 2 ervings of lunch the next day with a bit more curry left over. For around $12-13 dollars, this was a lot of food. Hope you enjoy making these dishes as I did.

Cheers,
---Chris

Cite:
(1) http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/414/Pork-Katsudon/

Dinner Party

Hey All,

Tonight we had a bunch of people over for dinner and hence cooked quite a bit. From what I heard it was quite enjoyable (yay). Anyways - here was the menu:

Orange Soy Pork Ribs:
Slightly modified a recipe online (1) to be slow cooked and made a glaze out of the marinade. I like slow cooking as it lets the meat become extra tender and lets it fall right off the bones. (On the other hand, the melting fat can cause a problem if it falls to the bottom of the oven. Along with being a mess to clean, it may cause the oven to produce smoke from the burning oils, so use a baking sheet!) Since the ribs were bought on sale, the end product was pretty cheap for 13 college students worth of food (yay $2/lb). All together it probably ended up at $28. This was the recipe as performed.

• 3 racks (~12 lbs) Pork Spare Ribs
• 2 cups Orange Juice
• 2 cups Soy Sauce
• 9 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 4 Green Onions (finely chopped)
• Cumin
• Corn Starch
• Extra 1 cup Orange Juice

Mix the marinade (all but the corn starch and ribs) in a small bowl. Cut the racks of ribs in half and place into a ziplock bag with 1/6 (as there were 6 half slabs) of the marinade in each. Refrigerate for 3 hours (flip the bags halfway through). Preheat the oven to 225 F. Remove the ribs from the plastic bags (keeping the marinade) and wrap the ribs in foil and place in the oven on a baking sheet. Cook until serving (in this case 3-4 hours). Place the marinade in a saucepan and bring to boil. Add extra 1 cup Orange Juice (I also added a little bit of lemon juice to finish off a bottle of it in the fridge). Add cornstarch to thicken and cool. Coat the ribs with the sauce when serving.

Mixed Slaw with Orange and Cilantro Dressing:
I mostly followed a recipe I found (2). It may have come out a little on the sour side but it went well with the sweet orange ribs (I hope at least). Veggies were bought on sale (yay!). Totalled around $5 for everything. Here's how it was done.

• 3/4 large head Cabbage (it was bigger than I thought ><)
• 2/3 large Cucumber (accidently lost the other 1/3)
• 3 Japanese Cucumbers
• 1 large Carrot
• 4 Green Onions
• Handful Cilantro
• 3 ears Corn (steamed)
• 2/3 cup Orange Juice
• 2/3 cup Rice Vinegar
• 2/3 cup Vegetable Oil

Cut the cabbage into short, thin strips. Peel and grate the cucumber (I would actually chop into thin strips if I had to do it again). Cut the Japanese cucumber into thin strips. Peel and grate the carrot. Thinly slice the green onions and mince the cilantro. Place the veggies in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients and toss over salad. Cut the kernals off the corn and toss again after letting the slaw sit for a while (~15 mins).

Potatoes au Gratin:
This one was a tasty recipe which was based strongly off this recipe (3). It worked out really well, except for the fact that we over made this dish by quite a bit. I guess I need to learn how to gauge how much potatoes people eat XP. Anyways, this dish was slightly more expensive due to the cheeses and cream needed, amounting probably to around $15. Anyways, here's the dish as it was done.

• 12 Russett Potatoes
• 1 package Gruyere (block)
• 1 package Parmesean (grated)
• 1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream
• Salt and Pepper
• Red Pepper Powder
• Margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Margarine the baking pan (we used a pie pan and a bread pan). Peel the potatoes and chop into thin pieces. Grate the gruyere and mix with the parmesian. Organize potatoes as a layer and place a layer of mixed cheese over it. Interchange layers until running out of room. On the top layer pour whipping cream mixed with salt and pepper. Sprinkle red pepper powder on top. Bake for 75 minutes (when top begins to brown). Turn off oven and keep sealed within until ready to serve (sat for an hour inside before eating and it was still good!).

Steamed Sponge Cake:
In late celebration of my friends birthday, we had a cake. Based off this recipe (4), it was surprising light and not too sweet, a nice outcome as I hadn't actually made steamed cake before ><. Served with strawberries and cream. Don't know how much the entire dish costs as I used a lot of ingredients we already had (ie sugar, flour, etc). Anyways - here's the recipe as I ended up doing it (misread the recipe and ended up doing it in a different order ><).

• 8 Large Eggs
• 2 cup Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 2+ tsp Almond Extract
• 1 cup 2% Milk
• 8 tbsp Margarine (melted)

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat eggs in electric mixer. After eggs are well beaten, add melted margarine, milk, and almond extract (eye balled almond extract, was probably around 2 tsp though.) until combined. Add dry ingredients in thirds until well combined. Pour into a margarined baking pan and place into steamer. Steam for 45 minutes (until toothpick/chopstick comes out clean). Serve with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and cream (1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream, ~1/2 cup Powdered Sugar, and ~1 tbsp Almond Extract whipped until hard peaks. I accidentally missed soft peaks as I was doing the dishes ><).

That's all we had for dinner tonight. Fed 9 people present with 4 take servings being taken out for around $50-60. Finished everything but potatoes and slaw (not much of each left), and cream.

I know that today's post was really long, but that's cause of the party. Usually only 1 or 2 dishes are cooked along with rice so it shouldn't be this long again for a while. Hope you enjoy trying any of these dishes!

Cheers,
---Chris

Cites:
(1) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Orange-Soy-Baby-Back-Ribs-231986
(2) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cabbage-and-Corn-Slaw-with-Cilantro-and-Orange-Dressing-238803
(3) http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/b.-smith/potatoes-au-gratin-recipe/index.html
(4) http://chowtimes.com/2006/02/17/chinese-sponge-cake/

First

Hey All,

So I just started this blog to keep a list of all the recipes that have been prepared over the summer, and to share it with anyone who is interested. Being a college student means I'm usually lazy, stingy, and hungry, so meals are designed around this. I'll try to give a gauge on how much was spent about on each meal we prepare and how we thought it was. Hopefully anyone following this would also be able to pick up some easy meals for cheap.

Cheers,
---Chris