Was in the mood for something different and this versatile dish nacho dish made for an easy quick meal!
INGREDIENTS:
-Package of Nachos (original)
-Grated cheddar/marble cheese
-sour cream
-1/2 can kidney beans
-shredded lettuce
-cubed tomatoes
-lean ground beef
-1 jar/can salsa
Optional Ingredients: corn, cubed cucumber, onion, black beans or remove beef for vegetarian option.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Brown lean ground beef in a pan. When mostly cooked, add kidney beans. Stir to prevent burning/sticking.
2. Add salsa sauce and continue to stir. When fully cooked, set pan aside.
3. Arrange on a plate; Nachos, lettuce and tomato. Add generous helping of salsa/bean/beef mixture. Sprinkle cheese and add a dollop or two sour cream on top.
**ENJOY**
 When one is not working; one has lots of time to do things that one may not usually do or have time to do.
Of late, I've been busy with volunteer work, picking up free Clinic facial serum samples, enjoying free coffees and McDonalds or Starbucks; participating in one competition or another...
Cathay Pacific is offering round trip tickets to Hong Kong; all one needs to do is submit and original noodle recipe in honour of International Noodle Month (March). The winning dish could also be served in economy class.
Thoughts of being the Chinese-girl version of Alan Bourdain flitted through my mind as with the idea of some passenger falling in love with my noodle recipe that I'm made heiress to their top-notch restaurant (the original thought was that I'd be hired as their top chef...But it seems a bit stressful after watching various cooking shows on TV). Anyway, I figured the way to go was to maintain an Asian flavour but with a twist. Thus born 'Seafood Angel Hair Pasta in light Wasabi Cream Sauce'.
Seafood Angel Hair Pasta
in a Light Wasabi Cream Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
-Angel Hair pasta
-Scallops
-Shrimps, peeled and clean
-Button mushrooms (white or brown). Washed and sliced
-Pea Shoot
-1 tsp sesame oil
-3 tsp oil
-Japanese sushi Flying Fish Roe or Capelin Roe
-Roasted seaweed, slivered (I prefer Korean style)
*Alternative ingredients: Hokkaido Surf Clam, Crab Meat, slivered asparagus
SAUCE:
-2 tbsp butter
-125mL heavy cream
-2 cloves garlic minced
-1 tbsp wasabi (if too dry, dilute with with a touch of water...You want something like toothpaste consistency)
-Lemon juice
**Healthier Sauce: Reduce cream by half and add flour to thicken sauce.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Rinse and clean scallops and shrimps. Pat dry with towel and put into a small mixing bowl. Add oil, sesame oil, cornstarch and a dash of salt and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
2. Heat a pot of water and cook desired portion of pasta as per instructions on packaging. Divide the pasta onto two plates. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add minced garlic. Slowly stir in cream and then add desired amount of wasabi; the more, the spicier. Continue to stir occasionally to avoid burning bottom. Squeeze lemon juice into the cream sauce. Reduce heat and stir until sauce is well combined. Set aside.
4. Heat a little olive oil in the pan and saute the mushrooms gently. Add shrimps then scallops and cook. These cook quickly so be careful not to overcook. When cooked, spoon over the pasta.
5. Add a little more oil to the pan. When hot, cook the pea sprouts until just wilted. Layer on top of pasta.
6. Add the desired amount of wasabi cream sauce over the pasta.
7. Garnish with fish roe and seaweed.
8. Serve hot and with enjoy with a glass of white wine!
Since coming back from NY, my low-carb diet flew out the window...And I was making reasonable progress! :( I decided the best way to get back into it is to too indulge in a sweet but low-carb friendly cake. The flourless chocolate cake fits the bill perfectly. After a bit of research, I settled for the recipe shared by blogger ' A Dash of Sass' which I recently used for my modified clementine cake. It turned out great and so I'm eager to try another one of her recipes and it'll kickoff my low-carb diet with a bang! INGREDIENTS:4 oz bittersweet chocolate 1/2 C unsalted butter 2/4C sugar 3 large eggs 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional) 1/2 tsp fine grind expresso (optional) DIRECTIONS:1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter and chocolate and mix until fully combined. 2. Add sugar slowly, mixing it well.
3. Scramble the 3 eggs and add slowly to melted mixture. Finally, add the cocoa powder and all other optional ingredients.
4. Pour mixture into an 8-inch cake pan (I use a springfoam pan) and bake for approximatley 30 minutes. Do a bamboo stick test. If it comes out clean, then it's done.
5. Let cool but it's delicious served warm with a scoop of your favourite ice cream and fresh fruit.
Rice rolls...Another one of my favourites. I love them plain, I love them stir-fried with chili sauce, I love them stuffed with meats or shrimp or with a crispy doughstick...I even love the Vietnamese ones.
I just have to share a few choice pics I found via Google Image. I'm hungry just looking at them! Rice rolls weren't regarded as classy food; made with watery rice water; a scoop was poured over heated bamboo slats and covered with a lid. In minutes, a solid hot rice sheet was made and rolled up, chopped into pieces and served with condiments such as sweet sauce, chili sauce, soy sauce and a sprinkle of toasted sesame. Restaurants roll scallops, shrimps or meats into them and serve them with some sweet soy sauce thereby elevating the lowly status of the rice rolls.
One small shop in HK specializing in rice rolls got an honourary mention by Michelin and since then, it's almost always busy and difficult to get in.
At my recent trip to New York, a delicious little restaurant was found tucked inside Chinatown. The rice rolls with liver and the rice roll with tofu was so good, a repeat visit was needed. But this yummy thought coupled with a delicious spareribs and rice roll claypot sampled at the Miliken Bar & Restaurant inspired the below recipe. Spareribs and Rice Rolls Claypot
INGREDIENTS:
1 pack of rice rolls (can be purchased at any Asian supermarket)
pork ribs cut into pieces
napa cabbage -slivered
spring onion - cut
soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, minced garlic
DIRECTIONS:
1. Rinse the cut pork ribs clean. Place in dish. Add sesame oil, soy sauce, minced garlic and cornstarch. Cover and marinate for 1hr.
2. Add meat to a slow cooker and cook until done. Or, cook on low heat in regular pot.
3. Add a little water to cover bottom of claypot. Add the napa cabbage. Cover and simmer on low heat for a few minutes.
4. Add cut up rice rolls and desired amount of spareribs. Cover with lid and cook on low for another few minutes. Be careful that the bottom does not burn. If it gets too dry; add some water.
5. Turn of heat and add spring onion, soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. Cover with lid and let the pot cook in its own heat for another minute.
6. Serve hot.
 The Chinese love their soups and differ from western soup in that ours is never creamy. It may be thick and chunky but never creamy. Most often they will resemble broths. Growing up, mom would always remind her bamboo girls to drink soup as it will nourish body and face.
The Chinese have this idea that if one is having stomach problem, one makes soup with a pig's stomach; if it's your liver or kidneys, make sure to make a soup with liver or kidneys. I'm not sure if a subscribe to this believe 100 percent but I do love soups.
Feeling particularly dry; perhaps from the dry winter weather or from having too much fried food; it was time for a pot of soup. A couple of bruised apples and carrots and some chicken was quickly boiled down and simmered into a nourishing soup. I usually use lean pork or pork bones for a more flavourful soup but there was only chicken in fridge so chicken it was.
INGREDIENTS:
4 apples - cut, cored, quartered
1 large carrot - peeled and cut into 3-4 pieces
quarter chicken or a large thigh (the more meat, the more flavourful)
a handful of dried apricot kernals
DIRECTIONS:
1. Boil a pot of water. If using pork bones, blanch the bones briefly to remove any dirt. Throw out the water and boil another pot of water. Add the blanch pork bones, lean pork or chicken. Bring to boil.
2. Add apples, carrots and apricot kernels. Bring to boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer for an hour.
3. Add salt to taste.
**NOTES
This soup is tasty with whole corns (broken in halves or thirds). Makes the soup even sweeter.
I have a sweet tooth. A terribly big sweet tooth. Fortunately, I am also reasonbly disciplined with this tooth of mine. But after a week of this low-carb diet and avoiding wheat, starch and carb, this girl needed cake. And cake that she can have seconds without guilt or regret. A quick search of on the Internet produced two good news. 1. Flourless Chocolate Cake and 2. Clementine Gluten-Free Cake. Munching thoughtfully on some Godiva dark chocolate, I decided to try the Clementine Cake first. Apparently you need to boil 4-5 clementines for at least 2 hours. We normally have some poor forgotten clementines at the bottom of our fruit basket. But as Murphy's Law would have it; the one time you truly need some bruised and battered clementines, it is the one time you don't have any. So what is a cake-starved girl to do? Buy fresh ones and kill them in the pot. I did feel a little bad for the clementines. This following recipe is taken from 'A Dash of Sass' who modified the cake recipe from one of Nigella's. I sort of combined the two recipe and ended up with that lovely cake in the photo above. The cake turned out delicious despite it being made with just a few ingredients. It was moist, flavourful and had such a vibrant colour. The nuts added a lovely overall crunch. Very delish! INGREDIENTS:-4-5 clementines -1/2C honey -1 1/3 C almond malt (finely ground almond which I bought from Bulk Barns) -3 eggs -1 tsp vanilla -1 tsp baking soda Chocolate Glaze (optional)-3oz dark chocolate -chopped or grated (I bought the darkest there was at Bulk Barns and it too bitter! Had to sweeten with 1 1/2tbsp of honey/sugar. Better to mix with some semi-sweet chocolate)
-1 1/2 tbsp butter (this makes it creamier but can be omitted depending how gluten-free you need to be) -1/2 tsp vanilla -1 tbsp table cream/milk -chopped nuts - icing sugar DIRECTIONS: 1. Rinse/scrub the clementines. Place in small pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and then reduce to medium heat and gently boil for minium 2 hours. This is to take the bitterness out of the rind. 2. When cool to touch, cut in half and remove seeds. Place in food processor/blender and puree. 3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 4. In bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Add almond malt, honey, vanilla and baking soda. Stir until well mixed. Mix in the clemetine puree. 5. Grease cake pan or muffin tins depending on how you want your cakes. For cake, you will need to bake for about 1 hour. Cover the top of the cake with tin foil after about 20 mins to prevent top from burning. This is what I made. In 'A Dash of Sass', mini-cakes or muffins were made and apparently it takes only 30mins. Will try it this way next time. I suggest testing the done-ness of the cake every now and then by sticking a bamboo skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done! 6. Glaze: While cake is cooling (we stuck it out in the porch...Toronto in March is still very cold!) Melt chocolate with the butter in a double-boiler. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and cream. If your chocolate is too bitter, add some honey/sugar. Stir until well combined. Spread of cake. Finish of with chopped nuts and powdered sugar. This was a delicious cake; made with just a few ingredients. The cake was moist, flavourful and had such a vibrant colour. The nuts added a lovely overall crunch. Very delish!
Was out running a banking errand and decided to stop by a store, part of a chain, which was closing down. There used to be one close to where I live but that must have been when I was still in elementary school. Over the years, they started closing them down, one by one, especially when Wal-Mart came in. Now that Target is coming, they just couldn't compete. Big box stores are great...When it's raining or snowing, there's lots of aisles to wander about...But it's the smaller guys that have their own indpendent character and contribute to the local neighbourhood identity.
Anyway, with everything priced to go, I indulged by buying some games; Game of Life and Battleship in card form. Hmm, it's been awhile since I played boardgames. Maybe I should host a games night one day. Too many kids and adults these days are glued to their electronic gadgets...Sometimes a good ole-fashion boardgame can be even more rewarding.
 After shopping about, decided it was time for a coffee. It's TIm's Rrroolll Up the Win time! Saw a newsclip of this guy who one big...Made me feel like I needed a cup of coffee too and see if I'd win anything. Nope...All I got was 'Please try again'. How discouraging.
So, Day 2 of my no-carbs diet saw me grating cauliflower as a rice substitute. Was not bad actually.
Stir-fry Cauliflower Rice with Tofu:
Ingredients:
-cauliflower, red bell pepper, onion, bok choy, ground beef,
-1 tube of smooth tofu
-crushed garlic, black pepper, salt
Instructions:
1. Roughly cut up a cabbage into several large pieces. Run each piece through a grater carefully creating small rice-like pieces. Set aside.
2. Dice the red pepper, onion and bok choy. Set aside.
3. Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Season with some salt, black pepper and chilli flakes as desired. Set aside.
4. Heat a little olive oil in the skillet. Add the garlic and brown lightly. Add the grated cauliflower and stir-fry lightly for about 5 mins, stirring occassionally.
5. Add the diced vegetables. When cooked, stir in the cooked ground beef. Add a dash of salt and black pepper. Once everything is heated through, dish out in to serving bowl.
6. Slice up tofu into 1cm think slices. Heat a little oil in the skillet and brown the tofu on both sides. Once cooked, layer tofu on the cauliflower rice.
TIPS:
**A variety of ingredients can be used such as diced carrots, peas or corn.
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