Taiwan Street Food: Zhua Bing

One of the things I everyone misses most about Taiwan is the food. My absolute favorite thing to eat there is Zhua bing. It's a street food item that you can find almost anywhere but the best is on Yong Kang Jie.. Essentially it is a green onion pancake/puff pastry that is fluffed up with two spatulas during the frying process. You can have it plain but the best way and the way I have it is topped with an egg, soy sauce paste and sriracha! Here is my version of Taiwan's oh SO delicious Zhua Bing! Make it for your taiwanese moms, they'll love you for bringing them back to the motherland.. Mine did :)

Pull Apart Pancake/Pastry (Zhua Bing)

Ingredients:
Cooking oil
Springfield Roti Paratha 
1 egg
Green onion chopped
Soy Sauce Paste
Sriracha

Directions:
1. Heat a flat non stick pan with oil on high heat.
2. Scramble the egg and add chopped green onion, set aside.
3. Cook one side for a minute or until slightly browned then flip it over and reduce heat to medium. After 30 seconds, use two spatulas and begin squeezing together the sides of the pancake to fluff it up. ** the motion is similar to how you would toss a salad**
4. Remove the pancake and set aside briefly, pour egg mixture in the same pan and immediately top it with the pancake. Cook for about a minute and flip it over egg side up.
5. Brush sriracha and soy sauce paste on half of the egg and fold the pancake in half. Serve while it's still hot!

Strawberry Basil Jam

My post today is inspired by my visit to POP Champagne this past weekend. I went for their bottomless mimosa brunch and was pretty much thoroughly disappointed by everything but the bellinis and mimosas...oh and the strawberry basil jam. I've been a huge fan of strawberry jam ever since my study abroad roommate/ life long sister/ college across the hall mate... Prepared a piece of toast, smothered in strawberry jam, for me one late night when we were both studying for finals.. I know.. It sounds ridiculous that I was so hooked because of that I remember that experience so vividly... But I siously had a revelation... I grew up hating bread... Peanut butter.. And jelly... So I had never had jam and toast until that night! Thanks to her, I have toast and some type of spread every morning.. Religiously.. No seriously.. I'm quite grumpy without it.
Strawberry Basil Jam
Ingredients:
1 lb fresh strawberries hulled and sliced
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla zest and juice from half lemon 
4 basil leaves rolled up like a cigar and thinly sliced
 Directions:
1. Cook strawberries and sugar in a heavy bottom pan and medium heat. Stir occasionally.
2. After strawberries begin to bubble mash the slices into little chunks. Add vanilla and lemon to the mixture. 
3. When the jam begins to cling onto the spoon/spatula and you are at your satisfied consistency, add basil. Cook for another 2 minutes and immediately transfer to a jar for cooling.
** must be consumed within 5-7 days

Holy Guacamole with a Twist!

So summer is here and you're bound to be heading to plenty of BBQs... and whats better to bring to a BBQ than a homemade bowl of fresh guacamole! If you're not going to plenty of barbecues.. you can have this by yourself.. at home.. just because.. it's refreshing! The orange juice in the recipe gives it a really good flavor. I'm not sure why.. but I haven't been a big fan of limes.. since my college days.. the taste makes me cringe.. lol Anyway, try it-- this is an awesome recipe!

Guacamole
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 medium tomato diced
1/2 onion diced
2 large avocados diced
sea salt and pepper to taste

juice from half an orange

Directions:

1. Combine onion, cilantro, tomatoes and avocados in a large bowl. 

2. Add the orange juice and mash everything together. 

3. Sprinkle salt and pepper to your satisfaction! 

** if you keep the avocado seed in the guac, it prevents browning. 

If life gives you peaches, make peach pie

My mom picked a gazillion JUICY donut peaches from our backyard. They were all extremely ripe and even after giving them to our church, friends and friends of friends we still had a whole lot left. As usual, my mom looked to me and asked, "can you bake this into something?" CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! PEACH PIE!!! yes, I know SUPER exciting... !! but actually the REAL excitement comes from the fact that my best friend, Loretta Wang, spent the day experimenting with food photography with me. We were able to combine our interests as I baked and she took pictures! Her work is truly awesome and you should check out her blog! 

Back to the pie, so these peaches are not as sweet as your typical yellow peach and they don't have any tartness. As a result, I added more sugar than I normally wood, and I squeezed the juice of half an orange to give it a little tang! For the crust, I used a basic pie crust recipe and I had extra crust left over to make empanadas for the next day! 

Peach Pie Filling

Ingredients:

6 cups peaches pealed and diced/sliced

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoons starch (I used 4 tbs because it was very juicy)

Juice from 1/2 orange

1 egg yolk

Directions:

1. While the pie crust is being chilled, Combine peaches, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Make sure all the peaches are covered with the spices.
2. Add starch to the peaches, if the filling is too soggy (like mine was) drain some of the liquid so that it looks like peaches with shiny glaze, then squeeze the orange over the mixture and set aside.
3. Preheat oven at 400 degrees. 
4. Divide the pie crust dough into two equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, flatten and roll out the crust until it is about 1/8 inch in thickness. 
5. Place the flattened crust in a 9-inch round and trim the edges leaving 1/2 inch of excess dough along the edges of the dish.
6. Pour the peach filing into the pie shell. 
7. Repeat step 4 and cover pie with additional crust and seal the edges by pinching and rolling the bottom crust over the top. 
8. Brush the crust with egg yolk and bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes, the crust should be slightly browned and the filling bubbling!

**If you'd like to do a pretty lattice cut the flatten dough into 1/2 in strips. Spread them out in one direction (north to south) 1/2 an inch apart. Fold every other (north to south) strip back and place a strip (east to west) over the unfolded (north to west) strips. Unfold the (north to south) strip and repeat. It's like construction paper weaving we all did in kindergarten!

Strawberry Dream

This past weekend, I had a potluck to attend and wasn't quite sure what I wanted to bring. I had my eyes on something made with Strawberries because they were on sale at Ralphs for 88 cents per box all last week and continue to be that price until this Tuesday-- Go stock up! Anyway, I had a box in my fridge already so I decided to get to work. This is one of my favorite recipes that I have sent to several people through recipe exchanges. The muffin is so light and fluffy it's like biting into a cloud! The original recipe is made with blueberries but I wanted to use strawberries. I remember making some strawberry shortcake cookies when I was studying abroad, they were really delicious but a little too soft because of the moisture from the strawberries... since then I've always wanted to make a Strawberry muffin and this was my chance! Although this recipe came out great and the muffins were enjoyed by everyone, I prefer it made with blueberries. Oh and the best part about this recipe is that it has really simple measurements. The original recipe is here, but I'm posting the one with the changes that I made. 

I wanted to test out a buzzfeed tip on how to hull strawberries. It worked! :) I would suggest using a boba straw because it gets the whole stem out and it doesn't bend as easily.

Strawberry Cream Muffins

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sour cream

3 cups strawberries hulled and diced (or fresh/frozen blueberries)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 24 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In large bowl beat eggs, gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda.
3. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes

No Fuss Lasagna

Last friday, I volunteered to make the main dish for our weekly small group potluck. I instantly thought of lasagna because its great for big groups and like Garfield, I love lasagna. I rarely make lasagna because I hardly cook for large groups and if you make one, you're stuck eating it for the next 7 days... and I don't love lasagna that much. This is a pretty basic recipe that you'll find all over the web or even versions of it on the back of lasagna noodle boxes. I made a couple changes according to reviews and personal likes/dislikes about lasagna. The prep is really easy and took me about 30 minutes from start to finish, prepare it in the morning before work and save it to bake it work, maybe even have it with a glass of cabernet. Buon Apetito! 
Fun Fact: I made this lasagna for my italian neighbor and his mamma in Rome, they were very impressed  

Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles
1 pound ground turkey (italian seasoned)
1 red pepper diced (seeds removed)
1/2 medium onion minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon dried italian seasoning
2 jars of spaghetti sauce (total of 40 oz or so) I used a mushroom one and a basil one
1 (16 ounce) low fat ricotta cheese
2 pound low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded & divided
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

Directions:

1. Soak noodles in Hot water bath for 30 minutes. Personally I think hot water from the sink is fine.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute ground beef, onions, salt and garlic salt until meat is brown. Drain excess fat, add spaghetti sauce, oregano, and italian seasoning to beef mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Combine ricotta cheese with 2 eggs and 1 lb of shredded mozzarella.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch glass baking pan.
5. Line bottom of pan with four lasagna noodles, overlapping if needed. Spread 1/3 of sauce mixture over noodles. Layer 1/2 of the cheese mixture over the sauce. Repeat this layering process once more. On the last layer use meat sauce and top with remaining pound of shredded mozzarella. **should end up being, noodle, 1/3 meat sauce, 1/2 cheese mix, noodle, 1/3 meat sauce, 1/2 cheese mix, noodle, 1/3 meat sauce, 1lb shredded mozzarella**
6. Bake in the preheated oven for one hour. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. You can also let it sit in the fridge all day until you're ready to bake, lets the flavors mend together! 

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Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice

One of my best friends has been asking me to post some more easy "everyday" recipes to help her cope with having to cook for herself. This is definitely one of those lazy week night recipes because you don't have to run to the grocery store. I think you can make fried rice with just about anything in your fridge, as long as you have some eggs and some rice! In fact, I always like using old refrigerated rice because fresh rice tends to be too sticky and also the cold rice really picks up on all the oils and flavors as it slowly heats up. For this fried rice I decided to go with some taiwanese sausage, but only because we had a bunch in our fridge... I've done the same thing with chicken, hot dogs, frozen shrimp... and just about anything, stay tuned if you're interested in the kimchi fried rice version! Anyway, here is the recipe!

Ingredients:
5 Eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dashi (optional)
4 cups of day old rice (2 cups uncooked) *
5 Taiwanese sausages cut into slices
2 Tbs cooking oil
2 tsp salt
green onion (optional)


Directions:

1. Heat oil in a wok on high heat. While the oil is being heated, beat five eggs with 1/2 tsp salt and dashi. *Be sure to beat it in an upward motion rather than stirring... think of how you wrap a string around a yo-yo but double time speed! It makes your eggs fluffier* 
2. Check if the oil is ready by dropping a dash of egg mixture in the oil, if it immediately bubbles up then you're ready to go. Pour the egg mixture in the heated wok and let it settle for 30 seconds before scrambling the eggs. Once the eggs are no longer runny, remove and set aside. (I prefer dragging the eggs from one side to another and allowing the uncooked portions to run and cook up, it gives you big chucks on egg that you can later break up). 
3. Place all the sliced taiwanese sausage in the pan and stir occasionally without adding any more oil, the sausages will let out plenty of oil on their own. 
4. After you begin to smell the fragrant scent of the oily sausage, add the rice to the wok and stir fry the rice with the sausage. Cook the rice until it is fully reheated and season with 2tsp salt.
5. Using low heat, add the eggs and do a thorough mix! 
6. (optional) Garnish with green onion