Cuban Cuisine

Last week was probably one of the most busy and tiring weeks Nhat and I have had in a long time.  With Nhat's car accident and being short one car, all the driving I've had to do made it difficult for me to have the energy to cook.  As a result of last week's schedule, we ate out EVERY single day last week!

I was actually happy to finally have time and energy to cook today and not have to eat out.  Living here, I haven't actually found a place nearby that I think is a great and affordable restaurant.  But last week we decided to try a Cuban Restaurant that we've always passed but never tried.  And now I don't know why we never tried it.  It's probably one of the most decent restaurants that Nhat and I have eaten at since we've moved here.

I ordered a slow roasted pork dish and Nhat got a beef dish.  Delish!

Slow Roasted Pork

Beef Dish..(I forget what it's called)

Korean Beef Short Ribs, Galbi

Ahhhh....It feels great to make some money right now...even though it's just minimum wage.  So far I have 64 bucks to my name baby! = p

I really love where I'm working right now.  I love that it's so close to my place.  I love that the environment is so laid back.  I love my hours. And I  LOOOOOOOVE that the people I work with and for are super nice.  The business is owned by this nice Korean couple who  have genuine love for each other that I can see.  He calls her "Hunnie" and she tells me 'He always make me laugh".  It's refreshing to see that kind of pure and loving relationship.

Beef Ribs, kind of pricey, we may have gotten ripped off

Ironically, this past Sunday I made Korean BBQ Beef Short Ribs, Galbi.  And it was good. =)  I used the recipe from trifood dot com.  The only change I made was instead of an Asian Pear, which we were told by the produce clerk, in a DUH sort of way, was "not in season"....so we got a large Fuji Apple.  The point of using this fruit is to tenderize the meat and I think it worked perfectly fine.  You're suppose to use thinly sliced rib pieces for this recipe and luckily we went to a Korean grocery store which sold thinly sliced meat pieces! =)  It's actually not hard to make...just a lot of preparation.

Find recipe here

Pork Shogayaki

I'm always looking for new, unique, and homey dishes to cook.  When I watched this video on Cooking With Dog Youtube Channel, I wanted to try it right away.  It's a pork dish cooked with the usual Japanese flavors of mirin, sake, and soy sauce.  It's so simple and easy but the flavors taste very warm and comforting.  I doubled the sauce because I like a lot of flavor and I think I used a bit more garlic also. =)

Pork Shogayaki from Cooking With Dog Youtube Channel
slightly adpated
4 thin slices of pork
1 1/2 T flour
salt and pepper
2 t of crushed garlic
1 t of minced ginger
 2 t soy sauce
2 t sake
2 t mirin
1 t sugar

Preparation
Sprinkle a litle bit of salt and pepper on both sides of meat.
Lightly dust flour on each side.

Prepare the sauce
Mix ginger, garlic, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and set aside.

On medium heat add about 1 tsp of sesame oil on skillet and move around  to spread the oil.
Add pork. Once brown on one side, flip over to other side.
Add sauce and move pan around to have sauce cover all the meat.
For the best instructions watch the video from CookingWithDog.

Super Fluffly Pancakes and a little more

I feel like it's been quite some time since I've last blogged.  It's really because I haven't cooked much lately and when I did cook, the meals weren't too special.  Lately I've felt a bit lazy and kind of out of it.  I'm not sure why but I feel that part of me has passed for now.

Despite my under the weather feeling, I've done some exciting things recently.  Nhat and I went hiking for the first time (unplanned and unprepared and NOT advisable), but we survived since it was only a short hike.  At least we had a bottle of water hehe.  The most important thing I remember from all the survival shows I've watched is to STAY ON TRAIL so we made sure we did that.

This is a little waterfall we saw on the hike.

Unforgiving mountains

And some exciting news...(kind of), remember that list I made a while back of all the jobs I've had?  You can add Jewelry Assembler to it now.  It's a part time job working in a warehouse, but at least I'll be able to save up money for baking school or a wedding....kekeke. ;)

I made fried chicken last Sunday with buttermilk and the results weren't great, but I had left over buttermilk.  So today I decided to make some pancakes.  I found a recipe on foodnetwork dot com and I really think this is the easiest and best pancakes I have ever had.  The recipe is for blueberry pancakes so I just left out the blueberries since I didn't have any.  I also cut the recipe in half because it was just Nhat and me.  Cutting the recipe in half, I made 5 pancakes, which was a perfect amount.

Buttermilk Pancakes for the Cookworks on Foodnetwork dot com. 
1 cup all purpose flour
1/8 cup sugar
1 1/8 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 cup melted butter and extra for cooking

Preparation
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

Beat buttermilk, eggs, and butter.

Combine dry ingredients to wet.  Be careful not to over mix.  My batter was lumpy and very thick.

In a skillet on medium heat add a little bit of butter and scoop 1/3 cup of batter into pan.

Cook pancakes on each side for about 1-2 minutes.

You can see I need to work on flipping the pancakes. =)

Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterward.  Your kind of chance makes no sense, it is only an excuse not to blame yourself.  If you don't take a chance, someone else will give you his luck.  And if you get bad luck, then you need to take another chance to turn things from bad to good.  Of course everything is connected. - The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

Salmon Cakes

I woke up at 8:30AM today, and it's been a LOOONNGG time since I've woken up that early on a weekday. I went to a job interview today but it's not as serious as you think. It's for a small project that consists of lots of filing. Not sure if I got the job or not considering the interview was really short...but we'll see. It's not a big deal if I don't get it. He said he will call this weekend to inform those who have been hired.

On a far more important note, yesterday I made salmon cakes. I've made salmon cakes before but the ones I made yesterday were by far the best. Maybe it's because I got some tips from Ina Garten, well not personally of course, I actually went on the foodnetwork website and found her recipe for salmon cakes.  Her show Barefoot Contessa is probably my favorite show of foodnetwork.  Her recipes always seem so flavorful and fresh.   I didn't use her exact recipe because I didn't have all the ingredients, but one major thing I've learned since I've started cooking is that you must learn to adapt in the kitchen.  A major concept that I took from her recipes was sauteing the veggies in some butter before you mix all the ingredients.  Cooking veggies first brings out the sweetness of the vegetables and gives you a much more complex yet flavorful cake.

So here's my version of Salmon Cakes adapted from the fabulous Ina Garten:

Salmon Cakes makes 4 salmon cakes
1 salmon fillet about 6-8 ounces
1/2 cup diced onions
1/3-1/2 cup diced bell peppers
1 heaping T capers, chopped
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t lemon pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
pinch dried parsley
pinch dried dill
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 T butter
fresh basil for garnish
mayo lemon sauce
salt and pepper

Preparation 
Season salmon fillets on both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat a pan on medium heat.
Add about 1 T of olive oil and fry salmon on each side until just cooked.
Allow to cool then put in fridge.

On the same frying pan, melt the butter then add the chopped onions and bell peppers.  Add the pinch of dried parsley and dill and cook until onions because soft and chopped capers and turn off heat. Put veggies in bowl medium bowl and set aside.

With a fork, flake the cooked and cooled salmon into little pieces.  Add to the bowl of veggies.  Add the cayenne, lemon pepper, garlic powder and chopped capers and mix.  Add the bread crumbs and mix.  Add the egg and mix again.  With your hands form three inch patties and pack tightly.  Allow to sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Mean while, mix 1/3 cup mayo with half a juicy a lemon and some zest.  Stir until smooth. That's your sauce!  So simple and so good (trust me).

When you're ready to fry your salmon cakes, take out the cakes and season the top side with salt and pepper.

On a skillet on medium heat, add olive oil, and fry the side that has been season with salt and pepper first.  Cook for about 3-4 minutes.  Season other side with salt and pepper then carefully flip over and fry other side.  Seasoning the cakes on the outside with salt and pepper gives it a nice crust.

 

Are You Happy?

Happy - A Documentary Trailer from Wadi Rum Productions on Vimeo.

Pho, need I say more?

I cant believe we're already well into August!  I feel like summer barely just started and now fall is quickly making it's way in.  I'm not really complaining though, autumn is my favorite time of the year.  But I'll save my rants of autumn once we actually hit autumn.

This weekend was a good weekend.  It was Nhat's first weekend off in a while so we had plans to do a lot of things like go to the beach or take a drive to the Vietnamese district about 50 minutes away, but instead we just stayed in, rented a total of three movies and went out to eat.  The highlight of my weekend was on Sunday, when Nhat requested Pho.

Now Pho holds a very special place in my heart.  It is one of those dishes where since learning how to make it, it has made me feel as if my life, since I've moved away, has not been a complete waste.
I think why pho is so special to me, as it probably is to many other people, is because when I think of pho, I think of my family.  I think of my parents working in the kitchen to perfect their broth, and I think of my family sitting together, slurping the broth, and enjoying the addicting flavors of our culture.  So I'm happy that my first food post on this blog is Pho.

I've made pho three times and each time I'm learning more and more of how to make it better.  This  time, my efforts has been my proudest.   Pho is actually very simple to make, it is just a matter of combining the right combination of spices, sugar, and salt to get the perfect broth to suit your taste buds. Although I'm happy with my Pho broth, I'm actually still working on it to make it even better, so no recipe yet.  But I have posted pictures on how I enjoy my Pho!

Spices- the right combination and amount of spices is crucial in the broth!

 

 Plate of herbs to is essential: Basil (preferrably Thai, but another will work also, we had Sweet Basil), Saw Tooth Herb (also called culantro or Ngo Gai), beansprouts (I'm not a fan, so I don't buy it), limes.

 About one onion thinly sliced then soaked in vinegar.  Chop up some cilantro and add to the onion mixture, you can also add scallions but I didn't.  This adds great texture and DELICIOUS tangy crunch to the Pho.

About 1 T of Hoisin Sauce and 1/2 T of Sriracha Chili Sauce to dip the pieces of beef.  To me, this is essential.

One of the best things about Pho is that you usually always make enough to have it a second day. =)

Welcome...again. =)

hello! And once again I've changed my blogging platform.  Tumblr was good, but I feel blogger allows me to do more with my text and formatting.   Thanks for still following me despite my tendency to jump around!  I promise (I hope) that I will stay at this blogging platform.