Wonton Soup... brings back so many memories

While I was making today's lunch, I was thinking about all the things that I could say about making wontons. First of all, it is a common family activity to do together during holidays to wrap wontons together. Second, deveining and peeling the shrimp sucks... I'll probably tell my future kids that shrimps are poisonous if consumed at home...to avoid the taste :) and third, I remember the last time I had wontons was when I was in Chicago having lunch with my friend and his law school buddies.. because it was so cold outside, I witnessed an odd moment of group think where all four of us ordered wonton soup at a Thai restaurant... Anyway, as I suggested in my previous post, you can make wontons with the leftover meat mixture. I we're a little pickier at the Hsu household so I made two types of wontons. For my mom and dad, I made pork and shrimp wontons and for my brother who decided to quit red meat for 6 months... just shrimp. I think the 1lb meat and 1/2 lb shrimp ratio would have been perfect to get through roughly two packs of wonton wrappers.   I kept the meat and the shrimp separate so that each wonton would have a bite of shrimp!

Shrimp & Pork Wontons

Ingredients:
Meat Mixture from the previous post
1/2 lb of shrimp (50/60 count) deveined and peeled cut into 1/3
1/2 teaspoon of starch
1 teaspoon michu (cooking wine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon white pepper
2 stalks of green onion chopped
1/4 cup of chopped jicama (gives it a nice crunch) 
2 packs of wonton wrappers
bowl of water
** if you're making shrimp wontons, just combine everything besides the pork and you're ready to go!
Directions:
1. Combine shrimp with michu, salt and white pepper. In a separate bowl add the chopped jicama and green onion to the pork mixture. 
2. Lay one wonton wrapper down on a clean surface in a diamond shape in front of you, place a 1/4 teaspoon of meat in the top half of the wonton wrapper and add one piece of shrimp.
3. Using your finger and some water moisten the inner edges of the top half and fold bottom half up to form a  triangle shape (mountain). Seal the edges.
4.Pick the wonton up, push the base of the triangle upwards, making a little dimple in the wonton where the filling is and bring the two legs down and attach using water. 
** if the explanation I've given is unclear check out these, I do it this way because my mom taught me.. it's the "taiwan style."**
5. Repeat until either the mixture runs out or the wrappers. Freeze the wontons for 15 minutes before cooking, it gives the skin better texture! 
For the soup base I used green onion, a dash of salt, white pepper, dashi, sesame oil, and soy sauce. I use roughly 2 ladles of water from the pot that I'm cooking with wontons in.

Father Daughter Day Part 2

I showed my dad the Father's Oxtail post and he was so excited that I was making him "famous." He had me email his friends in the Philippines and his siblings so they could see our creation. For the entire last week he was telling me I should post about this and that... today he proceeded to drag me into the kitchen to have yet another father daughter day in the kitchen. He's SO cute :) if you know me, I'm sure you've heard me say this but I seriously think I have the BEST dad in the world! I'm really glad that I get to spend so much time with him now that he's back :) AND what better way to spend time than in the kitchen! "The recipe for today is simple and the ingredients are readily available in most kitchens... the best part is, you never have to use oil or a stove! A steam rice cooker is all you need." That was the tagline my dad advised me to use in my post. He's right, the recipe is really easy! Oh, and if you have leftover meat mixture (because I did) you can make home-made wontons!

Chinese Pearl Meatballs Zhen Zhu Wan Zi

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh ground pork
1 tsp salt
1 tsp corn starch
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp michu
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1 Tbsp potato powder
1 egg
1 cup sweet glutinous rice

Directions:
1. Soak rice in water for 3 hours, and drain before using.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Knead the meat mixture with your hands after everything is combined. Cover and place in the refrigerator for an hour.
3. Use teaspoon and roll the meat into a small ball, 1 inch diameter. Roll the ball in the rice, making sure the entire meatball is coated in rice.
4. Steam for 15 minutes.

Pesto Da Nonna Italiana

Pesto Da Nonna translates to pesto from your Italian grandmothers place.  I love pesto. It is the one thing that I always ask for in return for my travel tips to Rome. Just kidding, the advice usually comes for free but if people DO ask, my answer is pesto. I don't really discriminate but if you're thinking about getting me some, pesto from the Northern part of Italy is the best :) Anyway, I had seen this post on one of my favorite blogs back when I was studying abroad in Rome and surrounded by delicious pesto. At the time, I had no need to spend hours chopping in the kitchen to enjoy a delicious bowl of pesto made by an italian grandmother. Turns out, I still don't. Although I spent almost and hour chopping the the basil into bits to get the ideal texture Hiedi talks about, I can't say its absolutely necessary, next time I'll just toss everything into a food processor! I know, blasphemy!!! Anyway, it is a great recipe and everyone who had it was not only impressed by my effort but also blown away by the taste. Don't worry if you don't like cheese it's still good!My mom, who does not touch cheese (literally scrapes the cheese off her pizza) packed two days worth of lunch for herself before any one else could get any. You can choose to use your pesto for whatever you'd like, I made a pasta salad with TJ baby heirloom tomatoes... I wanted to add ovolino fresh mozzarella but they were out at ALL the groceries stores in the area. Quick tip-- if you're using grape/cherry/baby heirloom tomatoes that are not completely ripe, I boiled mine with the pasta for a minute or two.

Pesto Da Nonna

Ingredients:
1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Start chopping the cloves of garlic with 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once the basil is loosely chopped, add another third, chop more, repeat until all leaves are chopped. Took me 30-40 minutes
2. Add half a handful of the pine nuts and continue chopping. Once the pine nutes are fully incorporated and chopped add the other half.
3. Add half of the freshly grated parmesan and chop thoroughly. Repeat with the other half.
4. After all the ingredients are thoroughly chopped and can be scrapped to form a pesto mountain, transfer it to a small container and pour olive oil over. Refrigerate until usage!! Give it a quick stir before you actually put it to use!

Father's Oxtail

At my house, most of the time my mom cooks dinner, but every once in a while Master Chef Hsu (my dad) will make an appearance in the kitchen. Up until maybe last year, my dad's specialty was noodles.. But last year, he ventured out to all sorts of things, fish head soup, curry chicken, braised pork belly, and my favorite of all, braised oxtail. My dad was in the Philippines for the past year on business and I would always crave this comfort food. My mom didn't have the recipe and my brother only had a failed attempt at transcribing it last summer. After an entire week of nagging him about his delicious oxtail dish, daddy walked me through the process. I'm so glad I have this recipe to share now! It's a nice change from the yummy but common way of cooking oxtail which is in soup.

Father's Braised Oxtail

Ingredients
2 star anise
3 slices of ginger 
1 tsp peppercorn
2 stalks green onion quartered
2-3lbs oxtail
1/4 cup of michu 
2 tsp salt
1 stick of celery quartered
2 habenaro peppers stems cut
10 cups of water
1/4 cup dark soy sauce 
Dash of sugar
3 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dashi
1 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
3 Carrots sliced

Directions:
1. Boil water in a large pot add star anise ginger and peppercorn green onion
2. Marinate oxtail in michu and salt let sit for 10 minutes
3. Once the pot comes to a roaring boil place the oxtails into the pot. Stir and cook for 1 minute just until the meat is no longer red.
4. Drain the water, keeping all the other ingredients and transfer to a ceramic pot.
5. Place oxtail evenly in a ceramic pot with celery and habenaro peppers and add 10 cups of water or enough to cover all the meat.
6. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, cracked pepper and dashi, bring to a boil on high heat
7. Reduce heat to low and cook for 1.5 hours. Remove the blood/impurities from the top.
8. Add carrots and cook for another 15 minutes.
9. Garnish with Worchestire vinegar!

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.