Scallops with Peanut Broth and Fried Chrysanthemum Greens

Okay, let's get serious for a minute: I really want my own restaurant some day. I'm thinking a soup and sandwich kind of a place. But honestly, I feel like I'd be happy working in a restaurant kitchen every day (provided I get to sample A LOT). I feel like sometimes I need to prove myself by making a restaurant-worthy masterpiece at home and then amazing my family with it.

Enough of the touchy-feely nonsense, here was our lunch today-

Need:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp of peanut butter
1/2 tsp of gochujang hot sauce
drop of sesame oil
some grated ginger
1 grated clove of garlic
1 C of water
1/3 package of dashi broth powder
1 tbsp of honey

some scallops
s+p

some chrysanthemum greens
oil

 

Put the first nine ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer until slightly reduced, about 15 minutes. This will be the broth for the scallops.

 

Sear your scallops. Don't forget to dry them and season with s+p. When the scallops are done, pull them off and set aside to rest on a plate.

 

In a large pot, add some oil for frying and drop in a handful of chrysanthemum greens. Let them fry until crispy, a good 3 minutes or so. Pull them out to rest on a plate with a napkin on it and lightly salt them while they are still hot.

BAM!

The chrysanthemum greens are bitter, but frying them makes them quite delicious. The scallops and peanut broth complement each other nicely.

Breakfast Pizza

On my last day of my staycation (I've been home for almost two weeks now, doing nothing), I decided to make an interesting breakfast to ensure that my family will miss me greatly when I go back to work. No two pizzas of mine are ever the same.

Need:
pizza dough
marinara sauce
cheese (today, I had some ricotta)
crumbled, cooked breakfast sausage
prosciutto
sliced onions
2 eggs

 

Assemble your pizza and then crack a couple of eggs on top of the pizza. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes.

 

Look at how yummy this is! A little parmesan and red chili flakes to top it off makes it perfect. The prosciutto gets nice and crispy and the eggs are fully cooked through. The kids really liked this and so did Joe.

Meatballs and Marinara

Man, you guys are so lucky. This was super delicious. It got a "nyum!" and a smile from my daughter and a "I need more meatballs, mommy!" from my son.

The marinara recipe I jacked from my dad, because he's awesome. BUT, he thinks his meatballs are the best... I think we can all stand to learn a little from the older generation AND from the younger generation. There. I'm diplomatic now (he'll stop cooking for me if I talk too much).

Marinara:
large can of tomato sauce
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1-2 anchovy filets
1/2 C white wine
some grated white onion
red pepper flakes

Meatballs:
ground beef
ground pork
grated onion
1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg
some breadcrumbs
some ricotta cheese
some parmesan cheese
oregano
garlic powder
s+p

 

In a pan, add some olive oil, the garlic and the red pepper flakes. Saute for about 2 minutes on medium-low, then add tomato sauce.

 

Grate your onion and chop the anchovy very finely. You won't even notice an anchovy-fishy-flavor. It just adds a certain "awesome" to the sauce. Umami.

 

Add the onions, anchovy, and white wine to the tomato sauce. Let simmer on low for about 20 minutes. DONE.

 

Throw together all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

 

Mix well with your hands. If it seems a little dry, add some milk. The moisture content of my balls was perfect (that's what she said).

 

Make meatballs. I like little ones because the kids get to have a bunch of kid-sized meatballs and I get to have lots and lots of meatballs all over my pasta.

 

Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Another perk of small meatballs? Less cooking time. We snacked on these to make sure they were good. Quality control.

 

Good idea for a party: roll the meatballs in a little panko while they're raw and FRY them. Then serve with marinara.

Shrimp Cakes

I wanted to eat shrimp for lunch today and decided that making shrimp cakes was going to be a great idea. Hint: I was right.

Need:
shrimps, minced
1/4 onion minced
1/2 green apple, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
some grated fresh ginger
mayonnaise (btw, Miracle Whip is NOT mayonnaise)
Chinese hot mustard
a drop of sesame oil
a drop of soy sauce
minced cilantro
panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp of butter

 

Put all of ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.

 

Shape shrimp cakes like so and pat the outsides with more panko bread crumbs. In a skillet, add some oil and a tbsp of butter for frying. Fry until cakes are golden and done.

 

I served these with a wedge of lemon and some salad on the side (I was feeling fat, so salad and fried thing for lunch, lol).

 

 

Left-over Beef Stew

It's rainy today, and I had a ton of left-overs in the fridge that needed to be eaten. A small amount of broth, some wine, beef short ribs, and a potato. Sounds like stew to me. I wish I'd had more vegetables to put in it, but I made do with what I had.

Need:
left-over beef short ribs
1 C of red wine or beer
2 C of chicken or beef broth
2 C of water
1/2 onion, chopped
1 potato, peeled
some dried thyme
a bay leaf
dried porcini mushrooms

Would have added, if I'd had them:
chopped carrots
sliced fresh button mushrooms
chopped celery

 

Chop your potato into bite-sized pieces.

 

Chop your meat into bite-sized pieces. The beauty of this is that you already did the work the first time to get nice, tender meat. You don't have to do any of that nonsense this time around. AND you get to flavor country much faster.

 

Throw it all in a pot and bring to a boil. Then simmer on low for an hour. Done and done. Bonus points if you cool this and save it for the next day so that the flavors have time to develop. We were having this for lunch, so no bonus for me.

 

Enjoy with a crusty piece of (warmed) bread. I had an english muffin.

 

Remember, to taste before serving. Theoretically, you've done the work before and made sure your meat and your broth were salted enough. Add, if necessary. I did not have to add a single flake of salt to this and it was perfect. I did, however, add a $hitload of Tabasco sauce. I like Tabasco with beef stew.

Shabu Shabu

This is the other famous Japanese hot pot. Secret Japanese grandmother idea: wait until everyone has eaten their fill before you eat yours. The broth becomes super rich and flavorful by the end to dip your own food into. So good, that I like to go back at the end and just put some broth in my bowl with a little s+p. Talk about yum!

Need:
dashi stock (water/dashi stock powder or bonito flakes if you're a boss)
various vegetables and meats
tofu
fish cakes
ponzu sauce

 

This is the box the dashi stock powder comes in. Follow the directions for making a large pot of stock.

 

Ponzu sauce. Usually has a picture of a citrus fruit on the front. I think its supposed to be yuzu.

 

Udon noodles for the end. Fun fact, I have no idea what any of this shiet says. I just copy my MIL's purchases.

 

Yam noodles. These are awesome. Try these in other applications too.

 

We actually have a hot pot machine for this application because we're (white-looking) Asians. You could also do a hot plate with a large pan on it. That strainer hanging off of the pot is super useful for grabbing hot, falling-apart tofu.

 

I have two types of mushrooms here: enoki and something else I found at the store. The "something else" mushroom is super flavorful. Use it in mushroom stocks or other soup stocks. Also, sliced tofu on this plate. PS: It might be called a maitake mushroom. They come in a bunch. Try new things, people!

 

Fish cakes (3 kinds!) and the yam noodles. The pink tinged fish cake is classic. The cylindrical white ones are neat. The cylindrical brown ones have squid in the middle of them. Yummers.

 

These are called shingiku. Or that's a train line in Tokyo. Pretty sure it's the first one. They're edible chrysanthemum greens. A little bitter, but tasty.

 

MEAT! This is beef sliced specifically for this application. You could slice your own too, but I'm a lazy, lazy (wo)man.

 

Put the dashi broth in the hot pot machine. Bring it to a boil, load it up, and wait until stuff cooks. Put ponzu in an empty bowl waiting nearby and pile the finished foods in. Enjoy with rice. Holy cow. If you're still eating and the broth is getting low, add more or some water to mellow it out. FYI.

 

At the end of the meal, pour some of that broth into your ponzu sauce bowl and add a little s+p. Slurp that shiet up, suckas!

Chicken Soup and BBQ Wings

Okay, so this recipe isn't new to my family. In fact, its really my mom's invention but I thought I'd share this with you guys because its an awesome, lower calorie way to enjoy hot wings and get some delicious chicken broth at the same time. My mom usually does hot wings, rather than BBQ wings, but there's no way I could replicate that recipe. I've tried numerous times.

This recipe is also a win for my family. My kids LOVE chicken soup and rice, which is why I always have home-made broth lying around the house. Joe loves chicken wings, as all men do (they pretend that they are T-rex's that are picking the bones of their prey clean. Truth.).

Need:
chicken wing parts (big bag of frozen ones from Costco, baby!)
2 chicken breasts
water
whole onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 inch knob of fresh ginger root

 

Boil the wings and breasts in water with the onion (chopped), garlic cloves, and ginger. Simmer on low for about 2 hours. Remove the chicken wings and place onto a cookie sheet with some melted butter.

 

Add your sauce and seasonings for BBQ or hot wings. I did s+p, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and my home-made BBQ sauce. Put in oven at 375° for about 10-15 minutes. Turn over wings and re-apply seasonings/sauce. 10 more minutes. If you want a little cracklin' on that skin, turn on the broiler and watch the wings closely.

 

I strain my broth in a fine mesh sieve. So this is what it looks like when finished. Add salt here. Remove the chicken breasts and shred.

 

Wings for Joe ready to be eaten.

 

My chicken soup. We eat it with rice, the shredded chicken breast, a squeeze of lime, some chopped fresh onion and cilantro. The red thing in there is chipotle, fresh from the can. We open a can, and then save it in a jar for future uses. I always eat a chipotle pepper in my chicken soup. It's legit.

Biscuits and Gravy

Stressful morning. Stressful mornings call for sodium and fat-laden breakfasts from the South. Computer was going wonky and we all needed a little something comforting.

Biscuits:
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp of salt
3/4 C of milk

Gravy:
breakfast sausage
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp of butter
1.5 C of milk

 

For the biscuits, put flour, baking powder, and salt into your mixer and blend together (we're sifting the lazy man way). Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a baker.

 

Cut your butter into little cubes like this. I don't know why, but it seems right. Add to the flour mixture, cover and turn on. Then stream the milk slowly into it. Get floured up and knead the dough. It will be wet.

 

Then get out a cutter of some sort to make them round, like so. My silpat is stained because I put curry powder on my pumpkin seeds this year. Note to self: curry powder stains stuff. Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes.

 

Funny story: one day I decided to buy cookie cutters. Here was my thought process: "hmmm... cookies are generally round so... round cookie cutters make perfect sense. I'll use these all the time!" Yeah, I use these all of once a year. Also, the cookie theory pretty much works for sugar cookies and is boring for that application. Dumb-ass.

 

Cook the breakfast sausage in a large sauce pan.

 

Then set them aside when finished.

 

Add some butter to the sauce pan and then the flour. Heat for about a minute.

 

Add milk and whisk. When it is brought to a boil, it will thicken. I had to do it twice because I screwed it up the first time. You can season this with a little garlic powder, paprika, and oregano. Or not. DO add s+p though. Then add the sausage back in.

 

Split the biscuit (OMG, that's what she said) then ladle on the sausage gravy. Add a little black pepper to finish. Surprisingly, my son loved this. He usually gets upset when things aren't "regular."

For example: "What kind of sauce would you like on your spaghetti, son?"

"Regular sauce."  -- oy.

Prosciutto and Egg Cups

We just got some prosciutto yesterday, which I was very excited about because I haven't had prosciutto in months! I know, I'm ridiculous. Anyway, I didn't feel like making my usual eggs benedict (very delicious with this meat product), so I decided to mix it up a little bit. I did this two different ways: I made one set with just an egg. The other set, I sauteed some mushrooms and onions together and made it almost quiche-like. You decide which one you like better.

Need:
prosciutto slices
eggs

chopped mushrooms
chopped onions

 

Very lightly oil your muffin pan, then layer a slice of prosciutto into the cup.

 

The right one has the sauteed mushroom and onion, the left one has the egg on top of the mushroom and onion (whisk egg). The middle is just the egg. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes.

 

I made a parsley pesto while I was waiting for the eggs to cook (Parsley, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil in a food processor). Watch the salt here because the prosciutto is salty enough.

 

After 15 minutes in the oven, these are what they looked like. Perfect.

 

Joe's plate. Some token tomatoes for garnish.

 

My plate with more of the tomato and onion salad (tomato, thinly sliced onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, s+p). Gorgeous, huh?