Easy Asparagus Tart

This asparagus tart is very easy to make. If you can't get fresh asparagus, frozen ones will work fine. Pair with a salad, or a nice juicy piece of steak.

INGREDIENTS:

1 sheet of puff pasty
1 box (5.2 oz) Boursin cheese (Garlic & Fine Herb)
1 bag of frozen asparagus spears (you can also use fresh ones)
PAM butter cooking spray
Lemon zest
Black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Thaw puff pastry.

Unroll and spread Boursin cheese on top of the pastry. The cheese spreads much easier when it is in room temperature.

Leave about half an inch on each side.

Arrange asparagus spears on top of the cheese. You can arrange the spears in alternate orders.

Continue arranging the asparagus spears until you have covered all the cheese.

Fold the sides and tuck them neatly to form a square tart. If the edges are not sticking, try using some water to moisten the dough and then crimp them. Spray PAM Butter cooking spray evenly on top of the tart. A quick dash of black pepper on top of the asparagus.

Bake at a 400°F for 20 minutes. Add lemon zest on top once the tart finished baking. Serve warm.

Vegan Stuffed Peppers

These stuffed peppers are easy to make and the filling can be quite versatile. You can swap out different veggies or add different types, but these are my husband's favorite. To make ones with meat, use 2 cup of browned ground chicken, turkey, or beef. I like to use Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef for this recipe but you can use your favorite vegan ground beef, as long as they hold up when cooking. I like to use stale brown rice for this recipe. I freeze brown rice that I get from Chinese take out and use them for this recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

6 bell peppers (use different colored ones for a colorful presentation)

1 cup chopped onions

2 cups chopped mushrooms 

1 packet (12 oz.)Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef (or 2 cups of browned ground chicken, turkey, or beef)

2 tablespoon oil

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp paprika

1 cup brown rice

1 cup vegetable stock (or chicken, turkey, or beef stock)

2 cups tomato sauce

I recommend using this, but you can also use your favorite ground meat substitute

Mix vegetable stock with tomato sauce. Set aside for later use.

Cut the top of the bell peppers, take out all the seeds. Wash thoroughly.
You can either keep the top of the bell pepper to be cooked with the stuffed peppers, or you can chop them up and use as stuffing. I like the former because it has a better presentation.

In a pot, saute onions with oil in medium heat until it starts to brown. 

Add in garlic and continue cooking until onions and garlic are browned.

Add in mushrooms. Continue to cook in medium heat.

Sweat your mushrooms. Use the liquid to scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Saute until liquid almost dries out.

Add in the Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef (or browned ground meat). Stir evenly.

Add 1 cup of the vegetable stock and tomato sauce mixture into the pot. Add in oregano, basil, and paprika. Stir evenly.

Stir in brown rice. At this point, your brown rice should soak up most of the liquid. If it is too watery, you can leave it in the stove for a few more minutes.

Turn off the heat and let mixture cool for a few minutes.

In a casserole dish, stuffed and arrange your peppers neatly so they do not tip when you transfer them into the oven. Pour in the remaining of the vegetable stock and tomato sauce mixture. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Braised Eight Treasures

Grandma used to make this on special occasions when the family gathers around for dinner, especially during Chinese New Year. Some of these ingredients are auspicious for Chinese New Year because their names in Chinese are homonym for auspicious words. To me, this is just another delicious dish grandma made. I was in charge of cooking the Chinese New Year dinner for grandma in my teenage years. I wish I could still make this for grandma.

From left to right: (Top) Dried scallops, dried oysters, shiitake mushrooms and sea cucumber. (Bottom) Fat choy, giant topshells, Pacific clams and enoki mushrooms.

The dish is called "Braised Eight Treasures" because the eight treasures are sea cucumbers, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, dried scallops, dried oysters, giant topshells, Pacific clams and fat choy. Of course you can make this however many "treasures" you want but avoid four because it's inauspicious, although that doesn't really matter unless you have a very superstitious family. Sea cucumbers can be purchased dried or frozen. I usually just get the frozen ones because it's pre-cleaned. All you gotta do is rinse them and they are ready to be cooked.

Ingredients:

4 cups sea cucumber (cut into 2 inch pieces)

Water

3 inch ginger, bruised

3 cloves garlic, bruised
2 inch ginger, bruised
3 small pieces of rock sugar (or 1 teaspoon white sugar)
2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 cups water (or chicken stock)
4 cups soaked shiitake mushrooms (cut off the stems)
1 package of enoki mushrooms
1 cup dried scallops
1 cup dried oysters
1 can (16 oz) giant topshells
1 can (15 oz) Pacific clams
2 cups soaked fat choy
Some chopped scallions for garnishing

You should prepare the sea cucumbers first. Once you thawed the sea cucumber, wash over cold running water until water runs clear.

Cut sea cucumber into about 2-3 inches pieces. It shrinks as it's cooked so be careful not to cut them into small pieces. In a pot, add ginger and enough water to cover 2/3 of the pot.

Once it starts boiling, add in pieces of sea cucumber. Cook for 2 minutes.

Drain the sea cucumber and set them aside. Discard ginger pieces.

Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger. Fry until it starts to browned, then add in shiitake mushrooms. Saute for a minute and then add in soy sauce, oyster sauce, rock sugar and water. Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low, cover and let it slowly braise for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add in dried oysters and dried scallops. Add another cup of water if it's too dry. Braise over low heat for another 30 minutes.

Add enoki mushrooms. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Then, add in sea cucumbers, giant topshells and Pacific clams. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes.

Make a small dent on the middle of the pot. Add in fat choy and cook for about 2 minutes over high heat.

Dish and sprinkle some chopped scallions on top. Serve warm.

Steamed Meat Patty with Salted Fish

Steamed Meat Patty with Salted Fish (咸鱼蒸肉饼) usually uses ground pork but since I'm not too keen on pork, I'm using ground chicken breast instead. For those that like moist patties, you can use a combination of lean and fatty ground pork or even ground chicken from dark meat. This dish is delicious over a bed of warm white rice. Grandma would sometimes pan fry the leftovers, IF there are leftovers. :)

There are 2 different kinds of salted fish; "dry" and "wet". I prefer using the wet ones for this dish because it melts into the patty. Well, not "melts", but blends pretty uniformly into the ground meat whereas the dry ones are more fibrous. The bottle of salted fish above is what I used for this recipe. You might ask why I'm using a lot of ginger in this recipe. Besides giving this dish a nice aroma, the ginger also makes the salted fish less "fishy".

Ingredients:
1 lb ground chicken
Salted fish
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon chopped scallion
1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger
1/2 tablespoon white pepper
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
3 inch ginger, julienned

Chopped scallions for garnishing
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

Set up your steamer. Place a metal rack in the middle of the wok or a pot. Add in about 3 inches of water. Cover your wok or pot and let the water boil over high heat. Lightly grease a baking dish (I used a glass pie dish).

Deboned, skinned and chopped salted fish. You can use up to as much as 2 tablespoons of chopped salted fish.

Mix everything except julienned ginger.

Form a large patty on the baking dish and sprinkle julienned ginger on top.

Cover the dish with plastic wrap. Steam for about 25 minutes over high heat.

Once the patty is cooked, topped with chopped scallions, soy sauce and sesame oil. Serve warm.

Easy Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Fettucine

Got some fresh Fettuccine and Parmigiana Reggiano at Chelsea Market today so I'm making this for dinner. This recipe calls for brown beech mushrooms because I like to use them with bacon. You can, of course, substitute any mushrooms like sliced bellas. I love creamy Alfredo sauce but not too much with the calories that comes with butter and milk. Campbell's canned cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken) works great and is relatively low calorie.

This recipe is not low calorie but if you omit bacon (or use bacon bits), it should be fairly low. If you're not watching calories then go to town and use as much bacon as you want*. (*not responsible for clogged arteries and heart attack after ingesting this meal)

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked Fettuccine
2 cups brown beech mushrooms
1 cup chopped bacon (about an inch wide)
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom
1/2 cup water
Some Parmigiano Reggiano

In a pan, cook bacon without oil over medium heat. You should be rendering the fat from bacon and when the bacon starts to brown transfer them to a paper towel. Throw away most of the oil except for about 1/2 tablespoon. Don't clean your pan! You want those brown bits on the bottom.

In a bowl, combine cream of mushroom and water. Whisk until smooth. Sauté mushrooms over medium heat for 2 minutes.

Add the soup mixture into the pan and let it get all the drippings from the pan.

Once it starts to boil, add in cooked fettuccine.

Turn off the heat and mix well with bacon. You can reserve some to top the pasta. Serve with a few sprinkles of Parmigiano Reggiano.

Roasted Zucchini Squash with Parmesan Cheese

Zucchini squash are best roasted, or at least that's what Vance told me. If you are roasting this on a roasting pan, you should half the time because it requires less time to roast on a roasting pan than a baking dish.

Ingredients:
3 cups sliced zucchini squash (green or yellow, or both)
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano 
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Add sliced zucchini squash into a baking dish.. Add dried basil, dried oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper into the zucchini squash and mix well. Roast for 20 minutes. Stir zucchini squash and bake for another 10 minutes.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano on top of zucchini squash. Serve warm.

Vegetarian Sambal Edamame

This is a vegetarian version of Sambal Edamame with Shrimp. I also added in 1/2 cup baby corn cause Vance likes them and I have it leftover from making curry the other day. You can use or omit the baby corn. Be careful when choosing your sambal, make sure there are no shrimp in it. Any types of soy strips would do, even rehydrated ones. I have a packet of seasoned soy strips in the pantry so I used that instead. I washed the strip in cold water to wash off the seasoning (would probably taste weird with conflicting taste profile).

Soy strips (left) and sambal tumis (right)

Ingredients:

2 cups edamame

1 cup soy strips 

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 packet of sambal tumis 

1 tablespoon oil

some water (if too dry)

Add oil to wok or pan over medium heat. Add in chopped garlic and soy strips. Cook for a few minutes until garlic starts to brown. 

Add in edamame. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add in sambal and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes. If it gets too dry, add in some water. Serve warm with rice.