BBQ Meatballs

Recently, I found a recipe website called BigOven. This website offers the possibility of posting your recipes, it is not as elaborate as allrecipes.com. I like it a lot as you can easily find dishes that are usually made at home and that are not complicated to make.

One of the featured appetizers was the BBQ Meatballs. Just by taking a peek at that picture, I was tempted to make this dish, because it was saucy and I never did homemade BBQ sauce in the past. When I looked at the ingredients, I never thought that there were ingredients such as tomato sauce, cider vinegar and mustard. I always thought that the sauce consists of some kind of meat-based sauce, as the sauce is usually applied on meat. I changed a few ingredients from the original recipe and I made the sauce slightly thick with cornstarch. This is my first succesful attempt for homemade BBQ sauce.

Serves 6
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 40 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 garlic, minced
Salt and pepper

BBQ Sauce

1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
4-6 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook the small onion until transparent.

2. In a large bowl, combine beef, egg, onion, bread crumbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Shape meatballs about 1'' in size.

3. In the same skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cover and cook meatball until all browned, about 20 mins. Drain oil.

4. Meanwhile, combine sugar, tomato sauce, cider vinegar, water, Dijon mustard, onion, salt and cayenne pepper.

5. Make a slurry by combining a few tbsp of the sauce with cornstarch. Simmer for 15 mins.

6. Add sauce to meatballs. Simmer until all hot. Serve.

Taiwanese Sesame Chicken Soup

I have quite a collection of Taiwanese recipes on this blog. Seasonings such as soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, ginger, chili peppers, cilantro and basil are very common. My Taiwanese friend made an interesting soup dish which requires a fair amount of sesame oil and rice wine. The quantities here are readjustable, especially the soup alcohol content.

Serves 2-4
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 40 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

8 chicken tights
1/2 ginger, sliced
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup rice wine

Procedure

1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat and stir fry ginger until edges curved.

2. Add chicken tights and drizzle a tsp of sesame oil. Cook until meat is white on all sides. Season with salt.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, combine rice wine and 1 1/2 cup of water. Heat over medium heat. Do not boil.

4. Add chicken, sesame oil and ginger into pot. If necessary, add more water or rice wine to cover chicken.

5. Simmer for 30 mins until tender. Serve.

Chinese New Year Cake - Nian Gao

It is finally Chinese New Year, the year of the Tiger. Strangely, Chinese New Year coincides with Valentine's Day. So what will you celebrate?

There are several desserts which one can find during Chinese New Year and usually my mother bake these goodies. A famous dessert is Nian Gao, which translates to "sticky cake". Depending on the Chinese character used, it can be read as "year high" to describe "prosperity every year". This recipe varies from one region of China to another, but glutinous rice flour is the common ingredient to obtain the sticky texture of the cake. The ingredients shown here are usually found in Asian supermarkets.

Makes 2 cakes
Preparation Time : 20 mins
Steaming Time : 40 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

4-5 slabs brown candy sugar
2 cups water
1 lb glutinous rice flour
vegetable oil to brush
5 red dates, cut in half

Procedure

1. Melt brown candy sugar in water over low heat. Cool the syrup for 15 mins.

2. Mix in gradually glutinous rice flour into syrup. This is a very thick batter.

3. Lightly oil an 8-inch shallow baking tin. Pour batter into tin and top with red dates.

4. Steam for 40 mins until the edges pull away from the tin. Remove cake and cool.

Chunky Monkey

Sometimes when hosting appetizers night, you don't have to think outside the box. It can be as simple as picking up three ingredients available at home, combine it and serve it in small portions. A few days before the cooking session, my Taiwanese friend and I usually discuss the number of guests that are coming and dishes we will be making. So, for appetizer night, he told he wanted to make Chunky Monkey, which is, at first guest, an ice cream flavor available at Ben & Jerry. In fact, it is peanut butter and banana, rolled in a tortilla. This recipe is adapted from Chef at Home by Michael Smith.

Serves 2
Preparation Time : 2 minutes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 large banana, peeled
creamy peanut butter
1 whole-wheat tortilla

Procedure

1. Spread peanut butter uniformly over tortilla. Place one whole banana at the edge of the tortilla. Roll tightly and cut it crosswise into 1'' slices.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Have you ever organized a dessert night? This means no soup, no appetizers, no main dishes, only desserts... We were very surprised that we have lots of desserts left at the end of the night, and everyone of us didn't eat that much even though they were heavenly delicious. So, when organizing a dessert night, just make small portions, everyone will be high in sugar at the end.

Who can't resist the taste of chocolate eclair? Here I will share a great family recipe made by American friend. She also made in the past, candied yams.

Serves 12
Preparation Time : 20 mins
Cooking Time : 15 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 package instant french vanilla pudding mix
8 oz. Cool Whip
Graham crackers to cover

Chocolate Frosting

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure

1. In a large bowl, make vanilla pudding according to package instructions. Fold in the Cool Whip.

2. Line bottom with graham crackers in a 9'' x 13'' baking pan. Spread with pudding mixture over the graham crackers. Repeat this process one more time and finish with a graham crackers layer. Refrigerate.

3. Prepare chocolate frosting. In a saucepan, mix cocoa powder with sugar. Add milk and butter, heat over medium-high heat. Stir until butter melted and let it boil for 1 minute.

4. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract. Stir constantly until it starts to thick, frosting consistency.

5. Spread chocolate frosting on top of the cake.

6. Refrigerate if necessary. Serve.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Have you ever been to any Asian Fusion restaurant? When you look at their menu, some items tend to be overpriced and usually they are also found in Chinese Restaurant for a cheaper cost. Such as a simple pineapple chicken dish worth $18 in a fusion restaurant compared to $7-8 in Asian restaurants. You can get a sweet and sour dish even cheaper if you can make the sauce yourself. My friends loved so much the homemade sweet and sour sauce for the fish fillet dish that I wanted to make the sauce again with another meat. We were impressed how accurate the taste matches the one made in restaurants. This batter step was an experimental step by simply coating the pork with cornstarch after dipping it into eggs. I didn't find any big difference from dipping the meat into a viscous batter, other than extra crispiness.

Serves 4

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

4 pork chops, cut into rectangles

2-3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup cornstarch

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 small onion, chopped

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup pineapple juice or water

1/4 cup ketchup

2 tbsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Dip pork in egg and let it drip back. Coat with cornstarch.

2. In a skillet, pour enough oil to cover the bottom. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry pork until golden brown, about 2 mins per side. Set aside and drain oil.

3. Add onion and green pepper cook until soft in the same skillet. Bring back pork chops to skillet.

4. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, orange juice, pineapple juice and ketchup in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 mins.  Mix cornstarch with a few tbsp of the liquid to make a slurry.

5. Pour slurry to the saucepan and stir until thick.

6. Pour sauce to skillet and stir to coat. Serve with rice.

Pan Fried Marinated Spareribs

I have to admit that the past few weeks, I have been posting quite a few Asian dishes, each with its unique way to prepare and to cook Asian food. Here is another Chinese cooking preparation, marinade meat with soy sauce and rice wine.

Serves 4
Preparation + Marinating Time : 6 hours
Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs pork spareribs, washed
3 green onions, chopped
4 slices ginger, julienned
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup rice wine
2 tbsp ketchup

Procedure

1. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the ketchup. Cover and marinade for 6 hours.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Pan fried spareribs until all browned.

3. Add in the marinade sauce and ketchup. Cook until all the sauce is absorbed about 20 mins. Serve.

Wat Dan Har Fan - Rice with Shrimp Egg Sauce

This dish was made 2 weeks ago and I was struggling to find the correct English name for this dish, but I knew the Chinese name for it. It is sometimes hard to find the right terminology. My Taiwanese friend called it "Asian Risotto" and a few food bloggers called it "Jade Rice". I can't figure out why these names should be valid as it doesn't have the texture of a risotto and "jade" might be just a fancy name for such a great dish. Finally, a recent post from Soup Belly made a version of our dish and the name "Egg Sauce" seems to be the most appropriate. My version contains shrimps, tomatoes with wine reduction.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp, deveined, mix with a dash of rice wine
1/2 small onion, diced
2 garlic, minced
1 small ginger, fine julienned
1 large tomato, skinned and cubed
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup rice wine or white wine
1 tsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add in garlic and ginger until fragrant.

2. Add tomatoes and wine. Boil and simmer for 15 mins.

3. Add in shrimp and cook for 3-5 mins until it starts turning orange. Season with salt.

4. Make slurry with cornstarch and 1 tbsp water then pour it onto skillet.

5. Turn heat to medium. Once boil, turn off and stir in egg until cooked, about 30 seconds.

6. Pour sauce over rice. Serve.

Cooking Technique : Skinning Tomatoes

For newbies, here is an interesting way to remove the skin of a tomato.

First, start boiling water over medium heat and gently drop the tomato.

In less than a minute, the skin starts to detach. Remove with a slotted spoon and remove skin by hand.