Category: Cook

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

Yes, I tried to make and eat a vegetarian burger. Yes it was good, but NO I WILL NOT CRAVE THIS. I love burgers. I love the beef, I love the bacon. This will never replace a juicy, bacon-y burger with crunchy tangy pickles and oodles of cheese. Nope, not for me. But some of you did ask how I did it (via my instagram) and I am happy to oblige!

Portobello Mushroom “Burgers”
Makes 6

Ingredients:
6 portobello mushrom caps, stem removed
2 tbsp olive oil
Coarse Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Steak Seasoning (optional, your favorite kind will do)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425F. In a roasting pan, toss the mushrooms, and olive oil with a little seasoning. Place is stem side down and add 3/4 cup of water. Cover pan loosely with foil. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender.

Add it to a toasted bun with your favorite toppings and enjoy! You might wonder why I chose this way versus grilling. I feel like grilling it would make it lose its juiciness, and yeah it would have that charred taste you love from a burger, but its not the same kind of protein so it won’t work.

Posted on by miemo 0

Meatless Quesadilla

Remember how I am trying to eat less meat, and attempting to only eat meat on the weekends? Yeah I’m struggling. But this is one of the deliciously simple, quick meatless meals I made. Here’s how:

Enjoy when done! You can added any kind of cheese you like, I also threw in a slice of pepper jack for an added kick of flavor. I don’t like to eat the garlic, so you can just discard that (that’s why I leave it whole, and smashed versus mincing) or put it in someone’s quesadilla that wants it!

Meatless Quesadillas

Ingredients
4 white mushrooms, sliced
1/4 of a medium onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, smashed or minced
1 tbsp of butter or olive oil
1-2 tsp adobo seasoning
cheeses of your choice
2 flour tortillas

Directions
Melt butter, or heat olive oil in a skillet. Saute onions and mushrooms with adobo seasoning until mushrooms are cooked and onions are clear and caramelized. Remove mushrooms and onions from pan and set aside on a plate. Keep the remaining butter in the pan.

Add the tortilla to the pan, put desired cheese on one side, then top with onions and mushrooms. Fold over the opposite side and the the cheese melt and seal. Then flip the quesadilla to brown the other side. Repeat this with the second tortilla.

Posted on by miemo 0

Suki Yaki at Mama Miemo’s

A few weeks ago, I scrounged up the confidence to make my mom’s suki yaki sauce. From that I made a delicious soup, my most favorite noodle soup dish that she used to make. And I made it, and it was good. Very proud of myself. It brought in a swirl of warm comfort and memories of my mom. But more on that in another post.

When you make this sauce you get a huge pot of it, and so I froze some for later use. This was the later use.

Traditionally, Suki Yaki is the term used for a hot pot meal in Japan. I call this meal sukiyaki because of the sauce. We grilled meat instead of cooked it in a hot pot. This is how we did it at my house.

I marinated some beef, cut up some pork belly, and cleaned and deveined/shelled shrimp. I washed some napa cabbage, sliced up onions, green onions, and mushrooms. Everyone gets a little dish of suki yaki sauce, a plate of rice and chopsticks.

..and butter… a small bowl of cut up butter. We gather around the griddle, butter it up, and throw the meat and veggies on there, and everything just cooks together. The onions caramelize and it just smells awesome. It was great to have everyone over, gathered around the table enjoying the meal, sharing laughs and love.

I am working on writing all these recipes, so if you see anything that I make that you’d like to know how to make, let me know!

Posted on by miemo 0

Homemade Funnel Cakes

This happened, at about 11:40pm. My dear little brother was craving funnel cakes so bad, that he was starting to barter for me to make them. I don’t even remember the last time I had funnel cake. I prefer my deep fried and sugar powdered goodness to come in the form of a beignet. When I think of funnel cakes, I think of my summer with a theme park season pass.

Anyhooo. I was a little daunted with the idea of making it though. Funnel cakes, there’s got to be some kind of difficulty to it right? Or else people would make it everyday instead of eating it only at county fairs and carnivals? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

I had everything to make it with in my cupboards. So simple, and quick! Whisk together your wet and dry ingredients, put it in a squeeze bottle, squirt into a design in hot oil…

..et voila! You have funnel cake. Dry on paper towels and sprinkle on powdered sugar. Enjoy while hot!

Homemade Funnel Cakes

Ingredients:

1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
In a small deep pot, heat about two cups of oil over medium-high heat until hot.

While that is heating, beat egg and milk. Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the wet ingredients, whisk until smooth.

Using a funnel, a squeeze bottle, or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped, drop into hot oil working from center outwards in an overlapping pattern. Flip until evenly browned on both sides. Set on a plate with paper towels to catch excess oil. Serve with powdered sugar

Posted on by miemo 0

Chili Oil

I don’t really know how to describe this condiment, other than its a spicy garlicky oil used to dip stuff in or stir into your soups. My mom always had a jar in the spice cupboard. I don’t really eat A LOT of spicy (shocking I know), but I guess I do prefer things more spicy than your average American, I’ve got cajun roots after all!

Going through my emails of recipes that my maman has sent me through the years, there were two things I haven’t made yet. Suki yaki, and this. Obviously I chose to do this chili oil first because that other sauce looks daunting (pickled garlic!??)

Anyway, this is my interpretation of my mom’s recipe. Enjoy!

Chili Oil

Ingredients
Dried Whole Red Asian Chili Peppers, enough to make ½ cup when ground
4-5 garlic large cloves, smashed
1 Cup of Vegetable Oil

Directions
Grind the chili peppers finely in your food processor until there is about ½ cup to use. Smash the 4-5 garlic cloves (your choice, I prefer 5 for a stronger garlic flavor) in a mortar and pestle or with the back of your knife.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over high. Add the garlic. When the garlic turns golden, remove saucepan from heat. Burnt garlic is bitter. Don’t cook it too long. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the ground chili pepper.

The longer it sits the better it tastes. When cool, store in a tightly closed jar with your spices.

 

Posted on by miemo 0

Pho Real This Time

A lot has happened since I made my first pot of pho. I’ve actually gotten a lot better, and I think will continue to get better in the kitchen. There might even be the recipe for it at the end of this post, *gasp, I know. This is the ultimate comfort food for cold days/nights or even hangovers. Knowing how to make a delicious pot of pho is just good for the soul. Also, I did the math, making it at home the way you want it, is still A LOT cheaper, like less than $3 a bowl CHEAP.

With the cold weather being more stable, I will be making a lot more hot comforting foods at home. Warm bellies make for a good night sleep! Be sure to follow me on Instagram, I usually do play by plays in real time there. Or maybe not follow me if that’s not your thing!

First you are going to need a gigantic pot. But this really depends on how many soup bones and oxtail you want to use. I have a gigantic one because I use about 4-5lbs of soup bones AND a couple pounds of meaty oxtail!

As you can see, my bones roughly cover the bottom of the pot. So if you use a smaller pot, that’s one way to eyeball it. Make sure that you parboil the bones first to get rid of excess fat and blood that will make your pho water murky.

Once everything is ready for that pot, let that baby boil! While it’s doing that, this is prime time to get your extras together.

Ok I lied. There’s no recipe. This is a lot more complicated to explain than I thought. But I’ll keep working on it!

Posted on by miemo 0

Pork Belly Sliders

I make these pretty often. They are a party favorite, and just so delicious. It’s crunchy, tangy, savory and bites back a little. I love making these as much as I love eating them. I try not to make them too often because pork belly isn’t really the healthiest cut of meat…says the girl who makes everything bacon.

It’s pretty simple to make, pickled daikon/carrots, and marinate the meat, then pile it all together. Deliciousness for your whole family. I used this recipe from Spoon Fork Bacon.

Pork Belly sliders
Makes 16

Ingredients:
pickled daikon and carrots:
2 carrots, peeled and julienne
1 cup daikon radish, peeled and julienne
2 tablespoons salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup rice wine vinegar
¾ cup water
marinade:
¼ cup hoisin sauce
1 ½ tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
black pepper to taste
½ lb thinly slice pork belly
green onion mayonnaise:
½ cup mayonnaise
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced

½ seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
16 sweet Hawaiian Rolls

1. Place carrots, daikon and salt in a colander over the sink and mix together. Allow to sit for an hour, tossing together every 15 minutes. Thoroughly rinse and
place into a mixing bowl.
2. Place sugar, vinegar and water in a small pot and bring to a simmer until sugar dissolves. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Pour sugar mixture over carrot and daikon and place in the refrigerator for an hour.
4. Place marinade ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add pork belly and toss together until well marinated. Place in the refrigerator and
allow to sit for 30 minutes.
5. Place 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil into a grill pan and heat over medium-high heat. Sear and cook pork belly on each side for 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and set aside.
6. Place mayonnaise, green onions and garlic into a small bowl and stir together.
7. To assemble: Spread a small amount of the spread onto the tops and bottoms of each bun. Place a couple pieces of pork belly into each bottom bun and top with cucumber slices followed by a small amount of daikon and carrots. Place tops on each slider and gently press. Serve.

Posted on by miemo 0

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin with Bacon Sprouts

Yep. That really happened. What we have here is a bacon wrapped pork loin, with a jazzed up bbq sauce and bacon sprouts. Yes BACON SPROUTS. The best way to get your man to eat veggies (if you have that problem, I don’t).

The best part? It was pretty easy.

It all started, because I found these at our local Trader Joes. I had NO IDEA that brussels sprouts came from a stalk. Nuts! It was 3 bucks so I was like hmm, why not?!

I didn’t realize I was going to end up with so many sprouts. Chopped in half and I had twice as much…I literally only make about 10 sprouts at a time. I was intimidated. But I calmed down and just made a meal of it. Everything tastes better with bacon right? And that’s how it all began.

This is the first time I cooked a perfectly moist pork loin. My chops always end up dry. But this is why I like cooking over baking. Baking is an exact science, where as with cooking, I just put my heart into it, and it always works itself out. No recipes needed!!

What have you made lately? I am always curious to try out new foods!

Oh and remind me, that my sauce is just bbq sauce, vanilla apple cider, and chipotle hot sauce. WIN.

Posted on by miemo 0

Coconut Cake with Berries and Cream

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Summer is great. It has lots of fun fruits, warm weather, and lots of things to do outside. Nobody REALLY wants to be inside baking right? Right. Well I baked something. My older brother “supposedly” loves coconut (according to his wife). And since he was staying with me for awhile, I decided I wanted to make him a coconut cake. It was going to be cool, creamy and topped with delicious fresh fruit.

Guess what, he doesn’t really like coconut THAT much. He only liked the coconut vietnamese dessert that I made a little while back. Oops. But he still had some. I thought it was delicious! But I definitely made too much. I guess coconut is an acquired taste. Maybe next time I will make a smaller batch!

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Use the link above to get the recipe and see her step by step instructions and pictures. I followed it and it was pretty easy!

Posted on by miemo 0

Soy Hoison Orange Salmon

Yes. I did it. I finally cooked a fish right…without battering and deep frying it. What we’ve got here is an oven baked salmon over baby bok choy with a side of shrimp. Here’s how I did it.

Ingredients
2 5oz pieces of salmon
Baby Bok Choy
Grated Fresh Ginger
1 Orange
Soy Sauce
Hoison
Cilantro
1 Green Onion
Salt
Ground coriander

How I did it:
Preheat the oven to 425F. In a foil, lay down a enough bok choy to place the salmon on top (each piece gets its own foil). In a separate bowl, mix zest from the whole orange, about 2 tbsp of fresh grated or minced ginger, 2 tbsp of hoison sauce, 1 tsp of soy sauce, the whole orange’s juice and the thinly sliced green onion. Stir well. Spoon the sauce over the salmon to fully coat, sprinkle a little bit of salt, then rip a few pieces of cilantro and top the salmon. Shake some ground coriander on top, then wrap it up into a package in the foil, place the two packages on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes (my pieces took 18 minutes to cook so it depends on the size of your fish), or until the center of the salmon is opaque.

This was adapted from We Are Not Martha They have more pictures and detailed instructions. But you know me, I barely followed it and put my love into it. So that always makes it better right?!

For the shrimp I just rubbed some seasoning on it and threw it in the oven until pink. SERVE WITH RICE.

NOM NOM.

 

Posted on by miemo 0