Horchata

2013/09/05Andrew Leave a comment

Homemade Horchata recipe

Ingredients

1/3 cup raw long-grain white rice
1 cup raw almonds
1-2 cinnamon sticks
3 cups hot water
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup syrup (dissolve 2 parts sugar into 1 part water)

Blanch almonds then rinse in cool water. remove almond skins. toast skinned almonds in pan until lightly browned.

Pulverize DRY rice in blender until its a nice fine powder.

Combine almonds, rice powder, cinnamon sticks, and hot (boiling) water in a pot/bowl/jar/etc. leave to cool and stand on the counter/stove overnight (do not put in fridge).

:: The next day ::

Put cooled mixture into blender with 2 cups cold water. Blend until smooth. Filter mixture through a fine mesh or use a french press to get the big chunks out. Stir in syrup.

Serve chilled and/or over ice.

Dry Rub for Fish Tacos

2013/06/24Andrew Leave a comment

This is a good dry rub for fish. I use this on Tilapia for fish tacos.

1 1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t sugar
1 t oregano
3/4 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cumin
1/4-1/2 t red pepper

Rub mixture on both sides of fish. Grill or fry hot.

Flour Tortillas

2013/04/24Andrew Leave a comment

4 Cups Flour (a mixture of wheat and white works out well)
1/2 Cup (~110g) Lard (butter is yummy, but doesn’t turn out as well)
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Warm Milk or Water

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend in lard until flaky like pastry dough. Add all the water and work dough until it holds together in a nice moist ball and is not dry or sticky. Let stand covered 10-15 minutes.

Break dough into balls, and place on a clean surface so they do not touch. Cover with a warm damp cloth and let stand for 20-30 minutes.

Press balls into circles on a floured surface, then roll into tortilla. Cook tortillas on a hot skillet until bubbles form on top and golden brown spots appear on the bottom.

Let tortillas cool wrapped in a cloth to keep them moist when cooling.

Cheese Quesadillas made from these Flour Tortillas

West Lake Style Fish Soup

2013/04/22Andrew Leave a comment

9 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Lb White Fish
Ginger
3 TBsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Peas
1/2 Cup Corn
2 Eggs
1 TBsp White Pepper
2 TBsp Cornstarch
1 Cup Cilantro
1 TBsp Cooking Sherry or Wine (optional)
Glass noodles or thin rice noodles

Combine and heat chicken stock, soy sauce, and pepper. Add fish and cook until fish is crumbly. Mix cornstarch with a small amount of COLD water to dissolve, then mix into soup to thicken. Scramble eggs then stir into hot soup. If peas and corn are frozen, defrost then add to soup. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve immediately. Optionally add some thin rice noodles (a must for my wife).

Refried Beans

2013/04/14Andrew Leave a comment

Homemade Refried Beans
To make refried beans that are a bit easier on the intestinal tract (less gassy), soak beans in baking soda water overnight. The baking soda gleans out the raffinose sugars that tend to make you a bit gassy after eating ;)

3 Cups Pinto Beans – Presoaked
9 Cups of water
1-3 Chopped Peppers
3 Onions – Chopped
3-6 Cloves Garlic – Chopped
1 TBs Cumin
1-2 TBs Salt

Combine beans and other ingredients into slow cooker. Cook on high for 8 hours. Drain but save water. Mash beans adding saved water to desired consistency. Contrary to the name, they don’t need to be fried. Serve as is or fry as follows..

Heat 2 tablespoons oil with some freshly chopped chilis. The idea here is to get the flavor of the chilis into the oil, then fry the beans in the flavored oil.

Spicy Refried Beans

Homemade Kimchi (version 1.0)

2013/04/13Jennifer Leave a comment

Ingredients:
1 head of napa cabbage (about 2 and 1/2 to 3 pounds)
1 pound of radish, cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup sea salt
1 and 1/2 cup water
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of ginger, minced
3 stalks of green onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes, or 2 tablespoons of cut-up fresh chilis
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Chop up the cabbage into bite-sized pieces, and cut up the radish into medium-sized thin sticks. Mix together in a bowl.

Dissolve the sea salt into water. Pour over the cabbage and radish.

Let sit for at least 2 hours, mixing occasionally.

Drain the vegetables, but keep the liquid. Add the garlic, ginger, green onion, red pepper flakes, and sugar.

Mix well for several minutes.

Put vegetable mixture into large seal-able containers. Leave about 1 inch of space from the top. Pour salt liquid over the mixture until the liquid just covers the top of the mixture.

Seal the containers and keep at room temperature in a dark, dry environment. Leave for 1-3 days (depending on how fermented you like kimchi). After bubbles start appearing in the liquid, or gas starts pushing the container lid upwards, the kimchi is ready to be stored in the refrigerator.

Oven Apple Pancakes

2013/03/25Andrew Leave a comment

3 Apples – Thinly Sliced
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon
2 TBsp Butter

Saute apples, sugar, and cinnamon in a sauce pan with butter until slightly soft. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, and flour until smooth. Add apple mixture to baking pan, then pour in batter mixture to cover. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until its risen and golden brown.

Hot and Sour Soup (with Hand-cut Noodles)

2013/03/11Jennifer Leave a comment

What happens when your gas runs out for your gas stove? One answer is that you could find out how to use your rice cooker in more efficient and variety-filled ways than you ever have before. Our version of this, was to make Chinese hot and sour soup. The soup can be optionally served with hand-cut noodles, which I’ll also describe how to make below.

Ingredients:
10 cups water
about 1/2 kilo of ground beef, pork or chicken
large bowl of cold water
3/4 cup dried Shiitake mushrooms
1 and 1/2 cups lettuce or Nappa cabbage, chopped into slivers
3/4 cup dried orange flower (optional)
1/2 cup dried Chinese wood ear mushroom (optional)
4 slices ginger
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
red pepper flakes or rooster sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons corn starch, mixed in a little cold water
2 eggs, beaten
a bit of green onion (optional)
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
salt to taste
1 cup carrots, cut into slivers (optional)
1 cup bean sprouts (optional)
3/4 cup bamboo (optional)
3/4 cup baby corn (optional)
1/2 block of tofu (optional)

Soak the Shiitake, the orange flowers, and the wood ear mushrooms in the bowl of cold water. Let sit for half an hour.

Chop up the lettuce, ginger, garlic, and any other vegetables.

Bring the 10 cups of water to a boil in the rice cooker. Stir in the ground beef. After stirring briskly for several minutes, the meat should break apart into pieces.

Pour in the soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar. Mix in the sugar.

Chop up the wood ear mushrooms into large pieces, and cut the Shittake into slivers.

Mix all of the vegetables into the pot. Let cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Pour in the beaten eggs, stirring the pot while pouring. Then mix in the red pepper flakes and white pepper. Add salt to taste.

Serve the soup on top of hand-cut noodles. Sprinkle a bit of chopped green onion on top.

Hand-cut Noodles
(if you only have one rice cooker, pour your prepared hot and sour soup into another pot, and wash out the rice cooker pot in order to cook the noodles)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water

Stir and knead the flour and water together until a dough is formed that’s not too firm and not too soggy. Add extra flour or water as needed.

Knead the dough for another 2-3 minutes. Then split the dough into halves.

Roll out a half into a large, flat piece. Sprinkle flour over it generously.

Fold the flat piece into thirds. Then cut up the piece into slivers. Unfold each sliver. The result should be long noodles.

Boil a pot of water. Throw the noodles into the pot while boiling. Do not overfill the pot with noodles.

Stir slightly while the noodles are cooking, so they don’t stick to each other or to the pot.

After 10 minutes of cooking, take the noodles out of the pot. Serve immediately. For more noodles, use the other half of the dough, or save the other half for leftovers.

Sautéed White Bush Lebanese Squash

2013/03/07Andrew Leave a comment

4 Squash
1 Onion
Handful of Mushrooms
1 Clove Garlic

Chop onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Sauté in olive oil until slightly caramelized. Chop squash and sauté in olive oil until slightly softened. Add onions, mushroom, and garlic mix. Sprinkle a touch of salt and finish sauté until squash is tender.