M's Congee

M's Congee

Poor M's been sick and it's hard because she makes the best congee (ultimate comfort food). Her Cambodian congee takes a long time, has many components and has a soupier quality than the Chinese congee most of us are used to. I decided to take a chance and you know what, it's really close.

M's Congee
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs medium dice
- fine dice 1 thumb fresh ginger
- fine dice 1 large garlic clove
- shitake mushrooms (I'm in love with the frozen ones from the organic market - fresh and dried work as well)
- 1/4 cup rice wine
- 1 cup rice (uncooked)
- Coarse kosher salt

Put all ingredients in the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker and fill up to 10 cups with cold water. Set the cooker on high pressure 10 minutes. When done, use natural or quick release. One option is to add small dice Chinese sausage. You can also top with bean sprouts and/or white pepper.

Meatball Noodle Soup

Meatball Noodle Soup

This is another favorite dish my mom used to make. It's so satisfying on a cold day.

Meatball Noodle Soup
- 1 lb ground pork
- fine dice scallion (1 stalk)
- fine dice ginger (half thumb)
- soy sauce
- rice wine
- sesame oil
- Asian noodles (linguini size)
- Watercress

Mix the ground pork, ginger, scallion, 1/4 soy sauce, splash of rice wine and sesame oil. Roll into balls and place in Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker. Pour in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine, and fill cooker up to 10 cups with cold water. Set to high pressure and 10 minutes. Cook noodles and wash water cress. When meatballs are done, use quick or natural release. Put noodles, watercress and a couple meatballs in a bowl and pour soup over it. Enjoy!

Beef and Potatoes Panang Curry

Beef and Potatoes Panang Curry 

It's been awhile since I've made something new to add to the blog but I threw this together one weekend and the family loved it. I told them that I couldn't recreate it (there's a weird ingredient) but that didn't go over very well. Thank goodness I was able to replicate it today.

Beef and Potatoes Panang Curry
- garlic, fine dice
- shallot, fine dice
- ginger, fine dice
- 3 potatoes, large dice
- beef stew meat sprinkled with salt and pepper
- 1 Lipton onion soup pack (weird, I know, but I think it's why the family likes it so much)
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 can of tomato paste
- 2 tbsp Panang Curry paste

1. Set Cuisinart electric pressure cooker to "Browning", add some oil and brown the beef
2. Add garlic, shallots and ginger
3. Turn off pressure cooker and add the rest of the ingredients and mix
4. Put cover on and set to pressure cook. Set on "High", set timer to 10 minutes and hit start
5. Allow to naturally release pressure after cooking
6. Serve with rice or french bread

2013 Fortune for Snakes According to My Mom

As usual, M and I participated in the largest human migration on earth - people who celebrate the lunar new year travelling to celebrate it with their families. 2013 is the year of the water snake and I was worried about my fortune as a fire snake. When M and I came back to see my family on New Year's Day, my mom handed me a typed up fortune which I thought was so cute and sweet. Here it is in its entirety.

2013 Fortune for Snakes according to my mom

"Job Related: Snake Year is the best year for your job, especially female snake. Promotion opportunity is more than male snake. No matter male or female snake, please pay more attention the relation with government's affairs; be more carefully involved with politics. After June 27, 2013 your luck is getting weak, think more when you make decision.

Fortune: Snake Year's fortune is moderate. Unfortunately, most money spending are for medical care. Married snake will easily get money from your better half, or your spouse's will support you financially. In General, this Snake Year's fortune is moderate (not too bad, not too good either). Besides your fix income, there is no much chance get lottery or losing money. Finically is smooth year.

Health: Because you are a Snake and fall in Snake Year, pay more care when you go out, accident may happen easily. Do not go out at late hours; try not to go to lounge bar (night club) at night. This Snake Year not suitable to go out at late night to void accidents. Go home as early as possible if there is no necessity activity.

Household: At this Snake Year, family dispute will increasing. Please keep in mind, if argument can not be avoided, try not to keep in your heart for a long time. Remember parents and siblings are your lucky stars this year."

Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta

Caroline made this incredible dish for me a few weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it. She served it over orechiette, I tried the fusilli and made a chicken version for teenager. It was a huge hit with the family and was even better eaten at work the next day!

Serves 6| Hands-On Time: 15m| Total Time: 40m

Ingredients

• 5  large tomatoes, cut into eighths
• 3  tablespoons  olive oil
• 2  tablespoons  minced garlic
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2  pounds  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2  cup  chopped fresh parsley
• 2  tablespoons  lemon juice
• 1  cup  Feta, crumbled
• crusty bread, for serving

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450° F. Place the tomatoes in a large baking dish and spoon the olive oil and garlic over them.
2. Sprinkle with ¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper and toss. Roast on top rack of oven for 20 minutes.
3. Remove baking dish from oven and stir in the shrimp, parsley, and lemon juice. Sprinkle with the Feta.
4. Return the dish to oven until the shrimp are cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with the bread.

By Cynthia Nicholson , September, 2004
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/roasted-tomatoes-shrimp-feta-10000000780294/index.html

Red Curry Lobster and Crab

I really wish you could smell this amazing dish. The first time I went to Orlando to spend time with M's family, the smell of this dish greeted me as I walked through the door. It is one of the most amazing dishes I've ever tasted (and one of the messiest to eat!). The ingredient list is daunting and hopefully, I can convince the fishmonger to cut up the live lobster and crab for me.

Red Curry Lobster and Crab
- finely diced garlic, shallot and galangal
- 4 oz Maesri red curry paste
- 4-5 stalks of lemongrass pureed
- Chiffonade kaffir lime leaves
- 1 13.5 oz can of Chef's Choice coconut milk
- sugar
- oyster sauce
- cut up live lobster and crab with mustard set aside
- 1 small yellow onion rough chop
- thai basil leaves

In a large wok, heat a high heat oil. Add the garlic, shallot and galangal. Add the entire can of red curry paste. Add the pureed lemongrass and half of the kaffir lime leaves. Add the coconut milk, sugar and oyster sauce and stir. Add lobster and crab (hold the mustard for towards the end). Add onions, mix and bring to simmer. Add the lobster and crab mustard and cook for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and add the rest of the kaffir lime leaves and the thai basil. Enjoy with rice.

Hot Day? Cold Sesame Noodles!

We've found a way to beat the Temp-Rapture - my mom's cold sesame noodles! I was just throwing it together so apologies for no specific measurements.

Cold Sesame Noodles
1. Cook egg noodles (we used thin spaghetti), rinse with cold water and toss with sesame oil. Put in refrigerator.
2. In a blender, add:
- Sesame paste (we only had peanut butter so that worked)
- Soy sauce
- Rice wine vinegar
- Sesame oil
- Chicken broth
- Siracha (or wasabi)
- Garlic
- Ginger
3. Blend sauce until smooth and to your preferred seasoning. Toss with noodles.
4. Prepare toppings. We had left over chicken and scallions. Other toppings: julienne cucumber, scrambled egg, ham, etc.

Grace through Jewelry

I wanted to create pieces that have a clean aesthetic, made of the best quality materials, easy to wear and had helping/ healing properties. I also love ancient and religious jewelry that have their own power and meanings. Wearing the pieces have made me so happy - beyond the "I made it" but they remind me of gratitude and grace.

The first craft involved the red string concept that has meaning in Kabbalah, Hindu, Tibetan Buddhism, and Chinese legend. The red string has protective properties and brings people together. I added 8 silver seed beads to represent the 8 limbs of yoga and 8 is a lucky Chinese number. I'm playing with this really gorgeous red silk string so more bracelets coming.

Heather and I went to bead heaven - Potomac Bead Company in Hagerstown, MD. I love the mala (prayer bead) bracelets used by Buddhists and made 3 sets of bracelets: green jade with green aventurine rose, rose quartz with pink candy jade, river stone with quartz. Jade attracts love and money, protects against accidents and misfortune and heals kidney, heart and stomach issues. Aventurine brings good luck, protects the heart, and heals heart, lungs, adrenal glands, etc. Rose quartz is a love and heart chakra stone like jade - enhancing love and lowering stress. It heals a number of ailments. River stone protects property and the quartz provides power, clarity, and is the Master Healer stone.

Whether you like the jewelry because how they look, because they can help with an issue or enhance a quality, because they refer to historical/ religious ideas, I'm happy to work with you to make a perfect piece for you.

Let me know:
- Type of jewelry (I'm making bracelets these days but it would be fun to make other kinds of jewelry)
- Size/ length: The common bracelet length is 7 inches but I have thin wrists so I use 6.75 inches. I can make the bracelets bigger or smaller.
- Color
- Any qualities/ properties of the stones

I may not have the stones/ materials on stock so it might take awhile for me to get everything together but it'll be worth it because you'll have the exact piece you want!

Birds Hate Me

I have been pooped on 4 times in my life. There's an overpass that I had to walk under on my way to elementary school and a pigeon dropped one on my head. Side note: the poo in the overpass smelled like grapes and so I associate grapes and raisins with bird poo. I was hit in Middle School and High School as well. It's always on the way to school so that I could start the day with poop in my hair. There's another time as an adult.


Even if they don't hit me, they try. There have been multiple poops on the windshield on my side of the car. There are poops on the side window of the car where I sit. There were poops on my bedroom window. They keep trying.

There have been 2 more recent attacks. I took my parents to Brookside Gardens and there was a particularly raucous goose barking at anyone in the Japanese garden area. When we passed it, it was chasing and biting another goose so we just thought it was protecting it's space from other geese. My mother and I posed on the small wooden bridge and just before my dad snapped the picture, the goose dive bombed us and dropped a poo 3 inches from us into the water. That was the scariest attack - especially since the poo would've been very large.

Last Saturday morning, I was driving to drop the car off at the mechanic and as I turned out of my street, I heard a loud plop on the windshield. A bird had dropped a huge worm right at my head. It was squirming and sliming up the glass.

It'll be interesting to see how many more attacks I can log.

Vietnamese Beef Salad

I can't verify that this salad is indeed Vietnamese but that's what M calls it. It's an awesome night when I look in an empty refrigerator and have all the ingredients for a good dish (I haven't gone grocery shopping in a long time and have been trying to eat all the food in the fridge and pantry because we are moving on Saturday). This will feed 2-3 people and we eat it over rice. Yes, lettuce on rice - like bibimbop!

Vietnamese Beef Salad
- Lettuce sliced in thin strips (butter, bib, red leaf and even watercress works)
- 1 tomato medium dice
- 2 thinly sliced hard boiled eggs
- 1/4 lb eye of round thinly sliced against the grain mix with soy sauce and oyster sauce. Heat olive oil in wok, brown quarter of onion and 1 clove of garlic, add meat mixture, sautee.
- 1 lime

Place lettuce in bowl. Add eggs (I like to put them in a circle) around the bowl. Heap cooked beef in middle. Sprinkle entire salad with lots of fresh cracked pepper. Squeeze juice of 1 lime. Toss and serve over steamed white rice.