Category: Recipes

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.

 

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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.

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Coconut Cake with Berries and Cream

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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!

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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!

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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.

 

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Mulled Wine

I’ve heard of this before, but never tried it. Had no idea what was in it. Just knew that it was a warm holiday drink. Since the holidays are in full swing, I figured…why not?! Armed with my slow cooker cookbook, I tried to find a recipe that sounded good. (I like to do food math in my head before actually trying the recipe…like tasting it in my mind). After I found the similarities in all, I decided to just wing it and hope for the best. Continue reading →

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