Minced Pork Rice

I apologize for the blogging hiatus. I blame part of it on my trip to asia! I understand that only explains one month of absence... and I probably could have posted all the "sees"to balance out the taste aspect of this blog. I BLAME HUNGER GAMES for the rest! Anyway, I'm back now and I'm going to give blogging another shot!

So today I have my own recipe for Lu Rou Fan (Minced Pork Rice) for you.  This is one of my FAVORITE things to eat in Taiwan and I had lots and lots of it during my two week there. I think the reason why I like it so much is that I hardly let myself have it... I rarely order it at restaurants in the states because... well the meat is usually REALLY fatty and the sauce makes it extremely hard not to down an entire bowl of white rice... Anyway, this is a low fat version of the traditional lu rou fan! And the best part about this recipe is that you keep it in your fridge for roughly 2-3 weeks and use it as topping on rice, noodles and/or sautéed/boiled veggies!

Low Fat Lu Ruo Fan (Minced Pork Rice)
serves 8

Ingredients:
2 Shallots Minced
8 Shitake Mushrooms Minced (I used dried because it gives a great mushroom flavor)**
Olive Oil
1 lb 97% fat free Ground Pork
3 tsp Michiu (rice wine)
2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Dashi
6 oz Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
2 cups of Water (I used the water from my boiled mushrooms)

**boil dried mushrooms in 2 cups of water until soft, keep the boiled water for later use**

Directions:

1. Season pork with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp of michiu then set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a non-stick saucer and add minced shallots and cook using medium heat until shallots are caramelized and brown. Then switch to low heat and add mushrooms.
3. Add ground pork and turn the heat to medium high to brown the meat.
4. After most of the pork is browned add the soy sauce,  michiu, salt, dashi and sugar, stir well. 
5. Then add the mushroom water half cup at a time to reduce. Then cook on low heat for 2 hours... or garnish with cilantro and eat right away :) (the sauce gets better with time)
6. I added hard boiled eggs after step 5

If you love Oreo Mcflurrys and Cookies-n-Cream Ice Cream

You'll love these! I've been on a cookie craze lately so I busted out my list of all the cookie recipes I've wanted to try. I let one of my good friends choose for me since I was going to bring them to a group event and chances are that my friends would end up eating most of them. Unfortunately, when I pulled them out of the oven... I couldn't help but eat.. Not one... Not two.. But three.. Almost immediately.. But in my defense they were the less perfectly circular ones :)

Cookies and Cream Cookies adapted from Erica's Sweet Tooth

Makes 28 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

6 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 Oreo's, broken up into small pieces (I used a ziploc bag and pounded the cookies with my fist :)...)

Directions

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy

3. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well mixed.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

5. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.

6. Gently fold in Oreo pieces.

7. Scoop 1 inch dough balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges barely start to brown. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes and they'll flatten and become beautiful.

Mint Chip Cookies!

My aunt is visiting from Taiwan and she was telling me about this mint/chocolate cake from Singapore that was the best thing she ever ate...and after hearing her say that, I thought to myself as Barney Stinson would say, "challenge accepted!" However since I'm heading to Tahoe for a weekend snowboardng trip I figured I would make cookies instead as they are easier to transport to NorCal. These are your average cholocated cookie with the addition of mint chopped mint chocolate. I had Hershey mint truffles but go ahead and use andres. These cookies taste like a softer version of thin mints.. Pop them in the freezer for a cool treat!

Mint Chip Cookies
Makes 30 cookies

Ingredients
1 stick and 2 tbs butter softened
1 cups white sugar
1 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened Hershey cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped min chocolate

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Then beat the egg and add the vanilla into the sugar mixture
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt
5. Gradually combine dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Scoop with a tablespoon and roll into a ball shape 1 inch in diameter. Slightly flatten before baking for 8-10 mins.

Cranberry Lemon Scones

This past weekend I hosted four young sisters from my church for a winter break bible school thing and I figured it would be a great opportunity to bust out the stand mixer! I had a can of whole cranberries on my shelf since thanksgiving so I decided to put them to use. I've been ridiculously busy and haven't had much time to bake so it was nice heating up the oven again... so nice that I also baked some bread and cookies.. Anyway, back to the scones. I am a huge blog fan of smitten kitchen and found this recipe on there. The scones were wonderfully light and creamy and tasted awesome out of the oven with some fresh whipped cream. Unfortunately, the dough was really moist and hard to work with according to the recipe. I dropped a blob on a baking sheet and baked it to see whether adding flour to dry up the dough would make a difference in the end product. I added approximately 1 cup of extra flour and it allowed me to work with the dough, rolling it into a ball and flattening it so i could make scone wedges. In the end, with the extra flour or without the scones still tasted the same. I'm going to continue experimenting with scone recipes but this recipe will get the job done when you've got a craving!

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream
Accompaniment: whipped cream
Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.
2. In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.
4. In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
5. On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round, cut into 6 wedges. 

The craving I had to satisfy!!

I was in Vegas this past weekend and one of my girlfriends had french onion soup as a midnight snack.. I never actually saw the soup... But just hearing about it made me think about it this entire gloomy day! Luckily lakers were playing clippers tonight so we couldn't go out to dinner.. Which meant I would get to satisfy my craving all... Just the way I liked it! With EXTRA CHEESE!!! Mmmmm yum! I started first by looking through several allrecipe and used a combination of the French onion gratinee recipe, the French onion V recipe, some improvisation and imagination. I loved the soup a lot... And it totally hit the spot... I didn't want to risk it getting too salty.. I would advise adding a little more salt though and I've made changes to the recipe below. Also..  I decreased the amount of onions from 4 to 3 for future reference, because it was too much for my liking.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients
3 onions ( I used a combo of red and yellow)
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp ap flour
1 tsp peppeR
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup red or white wine
1 14.5 oz can beef broth
1 32 oz carton chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp bayleaf (or one bay leaf)
1 loaf of French bread
12 slices of Swiss cheese
8 oz shredded asiago

1. Brown onions with butter in a deep non stick pot for about 15 minutes.
2. Add flour, pepper, sugar and mix into a pasty mixture.
3. Add wine and vinegar to the pot and allow it to cook for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in beef and chicken stock, parsley, salt, thyme, bayleaf and bring to a simmer.
5. Turn oven on broil and toast both sides of sliced bread.
6. Divide soup into individual portions filling bowls 2/3 of the way.
7. Top each bowl with one slice of toasted bread, two slices of Swiss cheese.
8. Cover cheese slices with 1/4 cup of asiago cheese and sprinkle parsley flakes.
9. Place under the broiler for 5-7 minutes or until cheese bubbles and browns.

Testing... 1...2...3

After a wonderful birthday weekend filled with friends family and fun I decided to give my new toys a test run! As usual I spent the entire day thinking about what I wanted to make first and tossed a couple ideas around.. and eventually settled on something safe. I was short on ingredients and the rain kept me from visiting the grocery store. However, I did have a new bottle of cream of tar tar that I had purchased last year when one of my best friends was in town. I was set on making her a batch of her favorite snickerdoodle cookies but her trip came and went too quickly.. and the tartar remained unopened.  The recipe is below and is from all recipes and is pretty similar to the one from smitten kitchen. I stuck with only butter since thats all I had.

As for the stand mixer... the same friend mentioned above asked me today.. "what exactly does it do... besides.. mix..." It is a baker's best friend... usually I make a huge mess when I bake.. which is why i prefer to do it when no one is awake.. no one to nag me about the drippings and clean up... and no one to fight for space. Anyway, point is.. it does all the grunt work.. in a clean and simplistic manner.. it uses only one bowl and all the measured ingredients go directly in. No mixing, no kneading! I'm IN LOVE! thanks guys!

Snickerdoodle Cookies 

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup white sugar

1 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose

flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

You have scaled this recipe's ingredients to yield a new amount (24). The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield (48).

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

3. Mix the 1 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Thick like Molasses

Every time I bake with molasses, I remember a college friend telling me "our friendship is thick like molasses..." At the time I had no idea what molasses was and if you don't know, think fragrant dark honey. Anyway,  after watching hours and hours of "The New Girl" and "Gossip Girl," to celebrate my well earned free time, I finally ran out of episodes to watch.  It suddenly occurred to me that I needed to redeem the time and enjoy the holiday season before it slips away like summer did...What better way to celebrate the holidays than with some holiday cookies! These are a little different from the ones I encountered in the past. They did not require flattening before entering the oven and they spread A LOT!! so spread 'em!

Molasses Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger

1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, 1 cup sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses add lemon zest and fresh ginger. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger; blend into the molasses mixture. Cover, and chill dough for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Roll dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks