Stir Fried Asparagus
It's Asparagus season! So rush out to your local supermarket and grab a bunch. Asparagus is a very versatile vegetable that can be eaten standalone or as a sidekick to some seafood (or just regular meats). The good thing about asparagus is that it will keep its firm texture longer than most vegetables so you don't have to worry about overcooking it. But having said that, you can overcook asparagus so beware.
Asparagus can be prepared quite easily. Hold the bottom with one hand and the botton 1/4 with another. Bend the asparagus until it snaps. The place where it snaps is the weakest point since that is the boundary of the soft ("yummy") part and the hard ("fibery") part. You can either do this for the entire bunch or you can use the first one as a template to determine how much to cut off from the rest. Discard the bottom part since that is not "good eats".
There are lots of ways to cook asparagus. If you're into grilling, just dab some olive oil on the the Asparagus, sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper and throw them on the grill. Once they are done, you'll see lovely grill marks on them.
I find grilling too messy since I have to clean it up afterwards so I often go for the stir fry option. Just add a bit of oil to coat the pan, then throw in some chopped Asparagus (cut in 1 - 1/2 inch length) and some diced garlic. Cook for a 3-4 minutes (depends on how firm you want it to be). Add the seasoning next (i.e. salt and pepper) and taste the veggie. Asparagus is all texture and no taste that's why I usually add "liberal" amounts of salt and pepper. Serve with any meat dish and you now have a well balanced meal. Carefree cooking? Or easy cooking? It's also healty eating.
Simple Dinner Party Ideas - Easy and Enjoyable
Have you ever wanted to invite your friends over but don't really want to spend the time and effort cooking for them? It's bad enough that you already have to spend a lot of time cleaning the house, so there might not be enough time for cooking. To address these concerns, you can hold one of the following: Pot Luck, Hot Pot, and Fondue Party.
Pot LuckIf you have a circle of friends who like to cook, then having pot luck is a great way to share each other's specialty dishes. In order to hold a successful pot luck, the organizer (i.e. You) need to determine what everyone is bringing. This is crucial unless you want multiple bowls of potato salad. Make sure you have some people brining appetizers and desserts to have a hint of having a three course meal. If you are bringing food to someone's house, be cautious when choosing a container. The container should be good at preserving whatever is in side. For example, if you have a salad, make sure that the container can keep the vegetables cool. If you are bringing a pot of stew, perhaps a ceramic container will be a good transportation medium.
Although pot luck will still require cooking effort in your part (unless you buy something from a nearby restaurant), it is a small price to pay for having a feast that rivals that of buffet restaurants in Las Vegas.
Hot PotA lot of people enjoy having hot pot especially during the cold months of winter. Going to a restaurant for hot pot is very expensive and doesn't really make sense since you question why you are paying so much for food that you cook yourself! The last time we went to a hot pot restaurant, we had an unwanted "secret ingredient" in our sour plum juice...a dead fly. Anyways, now that I have successfully killed your appetite, we can talk about Hot Pot preparation.
There are a couple things that you need to keep in mind when planning for a hot pot festivity: number of people coming, and what type of food people are allergic to.
The number of people required is important so that you can gauge how much food to buy. When we have hot pot, we aim for around $10 per person. So if there are 10 people coming, a total ingredients cost of $100 would be more than enough to satisfy the belly of those friends who have been starving themselves since breakfast.
It is important to know what food people in your invitee list are allergic to. I've been having hot pot for so long with the same group of people and just realized recently that one of my friends are allergic to shellfish (sorry Jane). So make no assumptions when it comes to this. You can either buy ingredients that no one is allergic to or prepare a separate pot. There are some pots that have built in divider which was made to support two types of soup base. This is perfect for preventing unwanted ingredients from finding themselves in unwanted places.
You can either ask your friends to bring some hot pot ingredients or you can designate a select few to do all the shopping. I've tried both methods and I think having a few people do all the shopping is both efficient and cost effective. It's good to place all the hot pot ingredients into a plate/bowl so that people can have quick access to it. Once the pot starts boiling, the eating doesn't stop until you see people rubbing their tummy. Depending on how fancy you want the hot pot to be, there are multiple options when it comes to the soup you use. If you want to go ultra cheap and are feeling lazy, you can just use plain water. As a step up to that, you can use broth or boullion (dissolved in water). There are also a wide variety of hot pot pastes that you can buy at your local asian supermarket. The best in my opinion is making your own soup using pork/beef bone.
Surprisingly, we have never had a hot pot where we finished all the food. Maybe it's because you tend to eat slower during hot pot so you get full easily. This is perfect for people watching their weight. And since it's mostly protein (if you just buy the meats and veggies), it's perfect for that friend who is on Atkins' Diet.
Cleaning up is not so bad after a hot pot party. Just exercise caution when handling the pots since they might be heavy (from the soup) and hot. Just stuff all the plates and bowls into the dishwasher and you're good to enjoy the rest of the night.
FondueContrary to what people might think, Fondue doesn't revolve around dessert items. You can have a three course meal that are all fondue based (with different dipping sauce of course). For the appetizer, you can cut some raw vegetables (broccoli, carrots, celery, etc) and place them on a platter. Cheese is probably the best accompaniment for these vegetables. For the main course, you can have slices or cubes of raw steak laid on a nice plate. Heat up some oil on the stove and transfer it to the fondue pot. Your friends can then dip the raw steak in the hot oil until it's cooked to their desired consistency. It's good to have a few selections of dips for the meat. This way, your guests will feel like they are eating more than one type of dish. Some suggestions for dips include a gravy type dip, tomado based dip, and a cream type dip. For the dessert course....should I even talk about it? I'm sure everyone has their own ideas when it comes to this. Fruits are a natural favourite. But whatever you choose, make sure each piece is dry. Otherwise it won't receive a good coat when it gets dipped into the fondue pot. Since cheese was already served for appetizer, chocolate might be a good for this course. But if you are a cheese lover, I won't stop you from having another cheese course :) Maybe you can even reuse the pot from the appetizer course. Kill two birds with one stone.
I hope some of these suggestions give you an idea on how to tackle your next party. Feel free to experiment with different ingredients. This is what makes cooking fun and exciting. These ideas are great especially if you want to have a house warming party. After all, you provided the venue, so they need to provide the fun.
Miso Fried Noodle
Fried rice is one of those dishes that allow you to clean up your fridge of leftovers. You can pretty much put anything with fried rice (as long as you cut them into smaller pieces). If you don't have anything, but still want to have fried rice, you can just use eggs (we all have that in our fridge right?) and any canned food you have.
Aside from fried rice, fried rice noodle is another dish that can be made up of any leftover food. Any noodle you have in the pantry will do, but just make sure you don't over cook it. Italians call it Al Dente, or "cooked enough to be firm but not soft". The easiest way to tell if noodles are cooked just right is to taste it. If the noodle feels firm but yo don't see any sign or taste of flour, then you're good to go. For pasta noodles, some people have different techniques. I saw once on TV that they would cut a piece and throw it to a fridge. If the noodles stay, then you're done. I prefer to just taste it, that way you don't feel like you're wasting food.
To make the fried noodle, I just boiled some dried noodles. While the noodles are boiling, you can start creating the flavouring for the noodle. I had some chinese sausage and asparagus so I cut those into little pieces and sauteed them with a little bit of oil. I set them aside and left the little bit of oil and fat (from the sausage) in the pan. Once the noodles are cooked, I placed them in the pan so that it can fry a little bit with the leftover oil from the sausage and asparagus. The sauce is what combines all the ingredients. I didn't have any "stir fry" sauce available so I knew I had to make my own. I took some miso paste (the same stuff you use to make soup), dissolve it in some soy sauce and add some oyster sauce and a little bit of Mirin. Ever since I got the bottle of Mirin, I've been trying to find recipes where it will go well in. In this recipe, I didn't taste any Mirin flavour so I don't think you should bother putting it. The sauce was a little thick due to the miso paste. This is necessary for the sauce to stick to the noodle. If it's too wet, then the sauce will not stick to the noodle and that won't be good eats. Combine the sausage/asparagus mixture into the noodle and cook for a minute or so.
One other trick when boiling noodles (or vegetables). After you take them out from the pot, rinse it with cold water. For vegetables, you can put them in a bowl of cold water. This will stop the noodles (or vegetables) from further cooking due to the residual heat. The culinary term for this is "shocking". Doesn't sound very "culinary" doesn't it. Anyways, feel free to experiement with your own carefree cooking dishes and remember to share your recipes and experiences.
Marinated Pork Ribs
A few years ago, there is only one way I know how to cook pork ribs: barbeque style. I think barbeque ribs is one of the easiest way to cook pork since it requires minimal ingredients and doesn't require marinating. Just boil the ribs so that they become soft and well cooked. Then stick it in the oven and brush your favourite barbeque sauce. I use different flavours of Bulls-eye sauce but any homemade or store bought sauce would do.
For this dish, I tried a different flavouring technique: marinating. I'm not an expert in marinating, but I think you can use any flavour ingredient you like as long as they are liquid base, or can dissolve in liquid. I use whatever is available in my kitchen cabinet: soy sauce, sesame oil, Mirin (from the teriyaki sauce), and osyter sauce. It's important to make sure all the ribs (or riblet) are coated thoroughly. I just left it in the fridge for one night to make sure that the meat absorbs all the flavour. One good way to marinate is to put them in a ziplock bag. That way, you can coat all the meat without actually having to touch it. You may need to mix them a few times while they are marinating to make sure all the meat gets an even coating. Otherwise some meat will end up being very tasty and some will be bland.
To cook the dish, I put some oil on the pan and throw in the marinated meat. I also put in the left over marinate to act as a sauce. If you find that the meat is not tasty enough, you can adjust accordingly (add salt, pepper, sugar, etc). It's your dish, so only you who knows what you like. But I like it salty so I put a lot of salt or soy sauce. I also chopped some onions and add it to the pan. Cook until the onion is translucent and the meat is tender. Garnish with some cilantro (or parsley).
There are many ready made sauce that comes in a small pack that is perfect for ribs. They have sweet and sour, spicy thai, etc. If you do not want to worry about marinating or deciding on the flavour agents, pick up a few of these flavour packs and try it out. After all, carefree cooking also involves trial and error. Isn't life like that as well?
Teriyaki Fried Rice
I've always wondered how japanese restaurants make their Teriyaki sauce. The sauce looks brownish in color and is very thick and sweet (if you know the secret, please share with us). But when I buy the prepared ones (that come in a bottle), they don't taste like the ones served in the restaurant. I was told that for authentic japanese teriyaki, there are only a couple ingredients: Mirin (japanese sweet rice wine) and soy sauce. Since I have never been to Japan, I don't know what "authentic" taste like, but it was worth a try to see if it will be as good as the ones served in japanese restaurants.
I searched for some teriyaki recipe on the web and I found one that is simple (and requires ingredients that I already have).
Teriyaki Sauce1/2 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Dark Soy sauce
3 tbsp Sake wine
1 tbsp sugar
Mix everything in a pan until sugar dissolves completely.
The sauce was not bad. It didn't taste like the ones from the japanese restaurant. So my search continues. In the mean time, I had a lot of leftover teriyaki sauce so I decided to make some fried rice with it. After all, fried rice is one of those dishes where you can dump all your leftovers (including sauces).
To make my fried rice, I sliced some chinese sausages and pan fried them with a little bit of oil. I find that cooking the chinese sausages in oil makes them smell even better and concentrates the taste. I added some rice and the teriyaki sauce. I didn't know how much sauce needs to go in the pan so I added a little at a time. You know you had enough when you don't see any more white rice color. To give it some additional flavours, I added some salt, pepper, and oyster sauce. I also added some store bought cooked peanuts to give it some texture.
I also fried an egg to go with this rice. I didn't know if the two would go well, but it was worth a try. The combination actually tasted good so I was pretty happy with the dish. The rule of thumb that I always follow is that you use the stuff that you like, and the end result would most likely be good. Cooking can't get any easier than that right? Is that Carefree cooking or what?
Banana Pancake
How many times have you forgotten to eat the last piece of banana you bought two weeks ago? That's what happened yesterday when we found that there were two pieces of banana left. The skin was almost completely black so it didn't look appealing by any standards, but it should be very sweet inside. Then I remember an episode of of "Chef at Home" where Michael Smith made some banana pancake. I also had some left over pancake mix so I decided to give that a try.
I didn't have enough pancake mix when I assembled my ingredients so a quick search in google gave me a lot of different pancake recipes. The main ingredients are actually very quite common: flour, baking powder, salt, egg, and water. I didn't have baking powder so I used baking sode instead (Arm and Hammer brand, I'm sure everyone has that sitting in their pantry). Mix all the ingredients until they are all well blended.
I cut the banana into small slices, but now that I think about it, I should have diced it instead (the smaller the better). That way, the banana can be evenly distributed and each bite will have a taste of banana.
To cook the pancake, apply a little bit of oil on the pan and pour a small amount of batter+banana. The batter absorbs oil like a sponge so make sure you don't put too much oil otherwise the pancake will be very oily. Serve with your favourite syrup and/or jam and enjoy.
Crispy Chicken Wings
I always use my George Foreman grill when I cook chicken wings. They always come out very tasty so why change what works right? Perhaps the planets where aligned in some weird way, but a few weeks ago, I decided to cook chicken wings using a slow cooker. The slow cooker that we got came with a recipe book and there was a recipe for Five spice chicken wings. I thought why not try it to see what it would taste like. After two hours of cooking, I can say that it was a bad move. The recipe asked for a bottle of plum sauce. That made the dish a little sweet, instead of the usual salty flavour that I'm used to. Needless to say, it was not very popular with my wife and sister, and hence it's still waiting to be eaten inside the fridge.
Not to be discouraged by the failed five spice chicken wings recipe, I bought more chicken wings to try my luck on another chicken wings recipe. To make the crispy chicken wings, I used the same mixture of seasoning as my grilled chicken wings: seasoning salt, paprika, and curry powder. Mix these well with the chicken wings and let it sit for a few minutes (I waited for half an hour) for the chicken to absorb some of the flavour. Pour some oil on the pan and put the seasoned chicken wings. You don't really need that much oil. One trick I learned from Bob Blummer (a.k.a. the Surreal Gourmet) is that you can apply some force on a meat to make the skin crispy. He used a brick (yes, construction brick wrapped in aluminum foil) to apply constant force to the meat when frying. Since I didn't have a brick, I used a smaller pan to apply some weight on the chicken wings. The end result was amazing, crispy skin and juicy meat.
The chicken tasted very good, my wife couldn't stop eating them (I had to stop her since I hadn't taken a picture of it yet). Feel free to change the seasoning since everyone has different taste. But I suggest you use the three ingredients I mentioned above first, and you can change it to suit your taste.
Steak Sandwich
There are many different type of people in the world. Some like wraps, some like sanwiches. There really is no reason why we can't satisfy both type of people. Creating a steak sandwich and steak wrap require pretty much the same ingredients. Since I cooked a whole bulk pack worth of sirloin steak the other day, I had lots of leftover meat. I also ran out of wrap since I didn't expect us to go through a whole pack (of 10) in one day. Otherwise I would have bought two packs instead. We do have some sliced bread so I thought why not have a steak sandwich instead.
I took out the usual suspects to make my steak sandwich: organic veggies, leftover sirloin, salad dressing. In addition to those, I wanted to have a mayonaise-type dressing to put on the bread. I could have gone for the bland tasting mayo, but I wanted something with a kick. Luckily I had some horseradish sitting in my fridge. You can also use some dijon mustard if you like. But if you don't have any of those, I suppose regular mayo/mustard will do. I recommend toasting the bread first since this will provide a nice crunchy texture. The secret to good food is that not only does it need to have a lot of different taste, but also have a lot of different texture. Toasting also prevents the bread from getting too soggy after you apply the mayo (if you are not serving it immediately).
I used up all my frozen fries the other day so the only acceptable item I have in my pantry are potato chips. Again, I still need to work on my presentation skills, but you get the idea.
