Vegetable Garden in Progress

I have an aunt who lives near Chinatown in Los Angeles and she has an incredible vegetable garden. She's a vegetarian and grows most of her own food. She's my inspiration for what I hope my garden would be someday. 

I have basil, Japanese eggplant, sage, rosemary, Thai chili, lemongrass, roma tomatoes and shiso. $1 each from the Hollywood farmers' market. 

Kevin built the planter boxes. 

Look at how big the avocado is getting!!! 

~Ray

Prima Taste Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hands down, chicken rice is my absolute favorite food in the entire world. I can eat chicken rice every day. It's almost impossible to find decent chicken rice in Los Angeles, so I'm taking things into my own hands. I've experimented with many recipes but still can't figure out the correct way to make the rice part of chicken rice. Until I locate the perfect rice recipe, I'm turning to Prima Taste to satisfy my cravings.  


During her last visit, my lovely aunt Judy brought me boxes of the Hainanese chicken rice mix.  

The directions are pretty easy, and it even comes with the dark sweet soy sauce. 

It is essential to use the freshest free-range chicken you can find. I always go with Healthy Family Farms from the Sunday Hollywood Farmers' Market. Healthy Family Farms' chicken tastes like the way real chicken should, which is important when you're serving something as simple as poached chicken. 

My technique: 

1. Rub chicken with shaoxing wine and salt.

2. Stuff chicken cavity with scallions, knobs of ginger and smashed garlic cloves.

3. Bring a pot of water to boil.
4. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and submerge the chicken in the water. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. 

5. Remove cover and lift chicken out of the water. Make sure the water drains out of the cavities. Then submerge the chicken again, cover and let stand for another 15 minutes. 

6. Remove chicken from pot. Bring water back to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and submerge the chicken. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. 

7. Repeat step 5. 

8. Total "cooking" time should add up to about an hour.

9. Remove chicken from pot and dunk it into a bowl of ice water. Let stand for 5-10 mins. 

10. Remove from ice water and cut up chicken. 

11. Serve with soy sauce mixture (from the Prima mix) and sliced cucumbers. 

Enjoy! 

~Ray

Sunday Dinner: Fried Tilapia and Lentil Soup

The last time I made fried tilapia, my husband dubbed it the unfortunate "fish mush incident." I had gotten tilapia from a Mexican market and wanted to make fried fish tacos. I've never cooked tilapia before but figured it couldn't be too hard. Maybe the tilapia was not fresh or maybe the pan was too hot. Either way, the entire fish disintegrated into a mushy mess. It was the first and last time I cooked tilapia; that was almost seven years ago. My mom and I were at Fresh & Easy last week and she picked up some frozen tilapia. I was hesitant at first, given our sordid history, but I decided to give it a shot. 

Panko-fried tilapia

4 tilapia filets 

4 tablespoons Japanese Kewpie mayo

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons garlic salt

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

White pepper to season

Oil

Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Pat dry 4 tilapia filets with paper towels. Mix mayo, mustard, thyme, garlic salt, vinegar and white pepper in a bowl. Coat fish with marinade. Leave fish in the fridge for 1-2 hours. 

Heat oil in a pan. Coat tilapia with Panko and pan-fry fish until cooked through. 

Fried tilapia with pasta salad, farmers' market cucumbers and tomatoes. I also made a honey-mustard dipping sauce. 

Dipping sauce

2 tablespoons mayo

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

Stir mayo, mustard and honey in a small bowl. Serve with Panko-fried tilapia. 

My husband is a picky eater. He hates most vegetables and anything remotely healthy. But, he likes my lentil soup =) 

Lentil soup

2 tablespoons oil

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 cup fresh lentils

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup ham, diced

Heat oil in pot. Add onion and stir for 2 minutes. Add carrot and stir for 1 minute. Add lentils and chicken stock. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add milk. Blend soup using an immersion blender. Add diced ham. 

It's not the prettiest soup, but it's so good! 

~Ray

How to Season a Wok

This year, I'm determined to learn Chinese home cooking the correct way. And in order to do that, I needed to start from the basics ... I needed a wok. During my last trip to Singapore, I picked up an authentic cast-iron wok. Just like a cast-iron skillet, you'll need to season it properly to create a natural non-stick surface. 

I admit, I was very disappointed when I first picked up this wok. It's steel grey and barely resembles the gloriously black version my grandma cooks with. But my mom assured me that all the cast-iron woks look like this at first.


$10 cast-iron wok from Best Quality House Ware in Ang Mo Kio

Step 1: Rinse with water

Step 2: Stir-fry old vegetables and scallions with pork fat

Step 3: Discard the veggies and reserve the pork fat. Wipe the wok with paper towel. 

Look at how dirty it was! So, I had to rinse and repeat steps 2 (using the reserved pork fat and more veggies) and 3. It took about three tries before the wok is ready. 

~Ray

Goldilocks

Last Sunday, I trekked out to Eagle Rock in search of the famed Filipino strip mall, home of the holy trinity: Seafood City Supermarket, Goldilocks, and Jollibee. Although the smell of fried chicken at Jollibee was irresistible, we decided to have lunch at Goldilocks instead. It's been years since I had Filipino food and Goldilocks did not disappoint.



Calamansi juice. Calamansi is a Southeast Asian lime that's more reminiscent of a sour tangerine. It's very rare in the U.S. So good!



Teeny tiny spring rolls.



Sticky balls of rice.



Pinakbet: eggplant, okra, squash and string beans sautéed in garlic, onion, tomatoes and shrimp paste.



The pork adobo was tangy, savory, fatty, and delicious.

We were too stuffed for cake. Maybe next time.

Secret Burmese Restaurant

When I first heard about this "secret" restaurant, I was immediately intrigued. Although I grew up in Southeast Asia, I've never actually tried Burmese food. The restaurant operates out of a home kitchen, which leads out to the backyard dining area. Calling the place rustic is an understatement: a couple picnic tables and fold-out chairs, Tupperwares filled with onions and cilantro, and flasks of complimentary tea. The food is home cooking at its best.



The menu is entirely in Burmese.



Condiments



Coconut noodles comes with hard-boiled egg, shredded chicken, and crunchy split pea fritters. And the tangy noodle salad is the perfect balance of texture and flavor.



Prata and chicken stir fry



Prata is an Indian flat bread with a flaky croissant-like texture.



The dry curry chicken, with onions and tomatoes, is eaten with the prata.



Two very satisfied customer.

Roasted Duck with Soy-Lime Syrup

I was watching Simply Ming a few weeks ago and Ming Tsai made this roasted duck. Since I've been looking for a good duck recipe, this looked promising so I made it for our late Christmas dinner with friends. It turned pretty good. Here's the recipe with my suggestion for modification.



Serves 4

2 tablespoon minced ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup naturally brewed soy sauce
8 limes, washed, halved, juiced, reserve halves
1 cup brown sugar
3 sweet potatoes, peeled, roll cut
1 large onion, minced
1 5 to 6-pound whole Long Island duck, eviscerated, rinsed, dried
Canola oil for cooking
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large, oven-proof sauté pan over medium heat, add oil to coat and sauté ginger and garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Deglaze with soy sauce and add lime juice and sugar and stir to dissolve sugar. Bring to a simmer and reduce by 25%. Pour syrup into a bowl over a bowl of ice to cool. Rinse out the pan and place back over heat.

In a large bowl, combine potatoes and onion, season and lightly drizzle oil over. Dump the potato mixture into the pan. Massage the duck with the cooled soy syrup inside and out and stuff cavity with reserved lime halves. Top with duck and roast until brown, about 30 minutes, then cover loosely with foil to prevent burning. Cook the duck about 30-40 minutes more. (See note below) Let rest 10 minutes before serving on a platter surrounded by the cooked veggies.

What I would have done differently
1) Roast the sweet potatoes in a separate pan and drizzle the soy syrup before serving. Duck is really fatty and I thought by cooking the sweet potatoes with the duck, it made the sweet potatoes really greasy.

2) The suggested cooking time for the duck was not accurate. My duck ended up cooking for 2.5 hours. Click here for Roasting Time Conversion

3) The duck did not turn out as crispy as I would have liked. So I think the next time, I might broil the duck last 10 minutes.

~ MW