Red Bean Mochi - 紅豆麻糬

Did you know that mochi in Japanese means cookie in Chinese?

This was my first attempt at mochi, based on mom's recipe. I'm still looking for the perfect recipe.

This cooks about 15 large mochi.

Ingredients
1/2 box mochiko rice flour
1.5 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 can chunky red bean paste (tsubu an)
potato starch

Instructions

1. Mix your sugar and water together in a large bowl.
   
2. Slowly add your mochiko flour in with a bulb-shaped wisk will it's completely mixed.
   
3. Pour your mix into a rice cooker container. That's the container you put into your rice cooker.
4. Put that onto a steamer and steam on medium boil for 30-40 minutes. It is done when you stick a chopstick in and it comes out clear.
   
5. Wait for it to cool a bit. You don't want it completely cold though.
6. Prepare two plates. One with potato starch, the other covered with parchment paper to avoid dough sticking to plate.
   
7. Wet your hands. Stuff the red bean paste into your mochi dough.
   
8. Toss it into the potato starch. Cover well.

Notes

1. From my research, the flour to water ratio is 1:1. I havn't figured out the sugar to flour ratio yet. You can cut down on the sugar since the red bean paste is really sweet.
2. My steamer could not accommodate the rice cooker container. So I used the little container that you can put on top of that instead. According to mom, the time varies depending on the type of container you use, how thick its walls are, etc.
3. Some water may form at the top when your mochi is cooked, just pour it out.
4. To stuff mochi, I wrapped it as I would a pork bun. You try to form a little ball, flatten it with the edges thinner than the middle. Scoop a large spoonful of red bean paste. Usually in an amount that seems too big for the dough. Then push the paste down while you bring the edges together into the middle. Twist the middle shut.
   
5. When you toss it into the potato starch, cover it as much as possible and you can then shape it into a rounder ball with the ugly side on the bottom.
6. It's up to you to figure out if you like big or small mochi and make them accordingly. I've found that it's better to make smaller ones because the paste is very sweet and the mochi rice makes you feel stuffed if you eat too many.
   

Shrimp Pasta

Okay, so totally not mom's recipe. But we cook this a lot cuz it's very simple. Takes 5 minutes and feeds 2 people for dinner.

This is adopted from Barefoot Contessa's Linguine with Shrimp Scampi dish.

Ingredients
1/2 - pound of headless shrimps
2-3 - cloves of garlic
1/2 - lbs linguine
1 - medium lemon
red pepper flakes
1 tbs butter
olive oil
1/2 - 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Peel and devein the shrimp.
2. In the meantime, start on your linguine. Linguine cooks for 7-10 minutes, pasta takes 5 minutes. Time it so that when the pasta is done, your shrimp is done too.
3. Chop up garlic into tiny pieces.
4. Heat up a flat pan on medium low heat.
5. Put in butter and olive oil. Wait till it heats up a bit.
6. Put in garlic, let it brown a little. Put in shrimp.
7. Add your salt and squeeze in half of your lemon, stir.
8. Flip shrimp over after 3-4 minutes. The contessa says to stir often. I find it easier to just leave it in the flat pan, spread out, and flip after a few minutes. Don't overcook your shrimp! When it looks mostly pink, immediately turn down or turn off your heat.
9. Put in your pasta and stir. Now's the time to add more olive oil if you need to, red pepper flakes to taste, and squeeze in the other half of your lemon.

Notes

1. You can look at the Barefoot Contessa for butter and olive oil portions. I cut way down on the butter and added more olive oil. The idea is to add ENOUGH oil/butter so that after you add the pasta, it coats the them well and separates them. It does not taste good when the pasta isn't greasy enough. The butter definitely makes it taste better than just all olive oil.
2. Make sure you don't overcook the shrimp. When it starts curling up a bit, and is pink, then it's mostly done already. The residual heat on the pan usually will cook it a bit more. If you turn off the heat after it definitely looks done, then it's usually too done and the shrimp is too chewy.
3. If you butterfly your shrimp a bit while you're de-veining, it'll definitely curl up easier as it cooks. So it'll help you see when it's done.
4. Make sure you drain the pasta well. If the pasta has too much water left, then the whole dish is too slippery and watery.

Instant noodle

Testing out this multi user blog.

Instant noodle

1 - instant noodle pack

1 - bean sprout pack

1 - egg

1 - hot bamboo sprouts

1 - salted fermented bean curd

1.25 - bowl of water

directions

1. boil water
2. add noodle to water, use seasoning pack as desired.
3. add egg
4. add bean spout
5. pour noodle from pot into a bowl
6. add bamboo sprouts on side
7. enjoy with 1 square fermented bean curd

okra

Okras are really easy to make and pretty nutritious.

Ingredients
15 okras. See notes on how to pick them.

Instructions

1. Boil a pot of water
2. Put your okra in and cook it for 5 minutes. 3-4 min if you like firmer okras
3. Take it out and cover it w/ a little bit of hoisin sauce and soy sauce.

Notes
From
http://www.africhef.com/Okra-Recipes.html

"If you buy fresh Okra you should get young pods without any signs of bruising. The Okra pods should be tender but not soft. You shouldn't buy pods if they are any longer than 4 inches, as this is a sign that they have been left too long before picking.

You should prepare Okra as soon as possible after it has been picked. However, if necessary you may store the Okra pods in a refrigerator after first placing them in a paper bag or wrapping in an absorbant paper towel. Do not attempt to keep them in closed plastic bags or containers as the pods will weep and become messy. Do not keep fresh Okra for more than 3 days under refrigeration."

Chow mein - 炒麵

So many ways to make chow mein. The best thing about homemade ones is that you get to add lots of ingredients so that it's not heavy on the noodle or overly greasy like in restaurants.

This should make enough for 2 people over 2-3 meals.

Ingredients
some fried onions (chinese kind, optional)
3-4 large shitake mushrooms
chinese noodles (alternative: sphaghetti)
1 large carrots or 2 medium carrots
1 medium size napa cabbage or cabbage
bbq pork (alternative: ham, stir-fry pork)
low sodium soy sauce
black pepper

Instructions

1. Soak your mushrooms in hot water. Cut them into thin strips. Save your mushroom water!
2. In the meantime, cook your noodles. You want about 2 fistful of noodles. Add some oil to the noodles so they don't stick. When they're done, pour them out and rinse the noodles in cold water.
3. Cut up your carrots into thin strips
4. Cut up your cabbage. You can either do medium chunks or do medium strips too.
5. 2-3tbs of oil in wok. Wait till it's hot.
6. Put in your mushrooms and onions and stirfry. You want them to soak up the oil and omit some good smells.
7. When they're slightly brown, put in the carrots and stirfry. You can put in some mushroom water as you cook the carrots.
8. Put in the cabbage when the carrots are 75% done. Stirfry. You'll need to add some more mushroom water.
9. Cover wok till they're mostly done.
10. Add a bit of salt. Not too much because you'll add soysauce later too.
11. When the food mostly cooked, add the noodles and bbq pork. Mix them together. Add the soy sauce now and the black pepper. Mix will and serve.
    

Notes

1. You want noodles that are wide enough to be able to soak up the soysauce and mushroom juice.
2. It really doesn't matter how much of the ingredients you put in. Too much vegies? Add more noodles. Too much noodles AND vegies? cook them in 2 batches. :D
3. You want to make sure that most of the water you put in is evaporated when you put in the noodles. Since the noodles will soak up any juice, you don't want to have too much water, or else the noodles become really sticky and limpy.
4. Add enough soy sauce to make the noodles slightly brown in color. That's usually enough soy sauce for taste too. If it's the right color, but still not salty enough, add some salt.
5. Alternatively, you can add ham, or cook your own pork. For ham, add it in when your vegies are done cooking, before noodles. For pork, cut it into thin strips and add it in after the mushroom. Add enough just to make it look pretty.
6. To chop carrots, cut them in diagonals so you get longer slices. Then cut them into thin strips. Not super super thin, just thin enough so that it doesn't taste like you're biting into a chunky carrot when you eat it.

Tomatoes and Eggs - 番茄炒蛋

I made my first tomatoes and eggs dish today!

This should be enough for 2 people for 1 meal.

Ingredients
1 medium size tomatoes on the vine
2 AA organic eggs
salt
sugar


Instructions
1. Beat your eggs in a bowl with chopsticks. Add salt.
2. Cut up your tomatoes.
3. Lots of oil in the wok. 2-3 tbs? Stir the eggs around so they become small chunks. Take them out when they're almost completely cooked since when you dump them back in it'll cook a bit more.
4. More oil, 1tbs? Put the tomatoes in with a bit of water.
5. Add your eggs in when the tomatoes are done. Add sugar.
6. Take them out when you've mixed them. Don't leave it in the wok for too long or it'll overcook the eggs.


Notes
1. You know they're done when you lift your chopsticks from the bowl and the eggs aren't goupy anymore. Instead, they're kind of watery.
2. Cut tomatoes in half vertically, then keep halving them vertically till you've got 1/2 inch slices. I then cut them in half horizontally though the recipe book says not to. I think it's however big you like when you bite into them. But don't cut them too small or else it'll just all melt and become mushy when you cook them!
3. The more cooked eggs are, the firmer they get. So take them out right when the eggs aren't runny anymore. If they're not cooked enough, you can always cook them when you add them back in.
4. You want enough water so that it'll cook all the tomatoes and have some juice leftover to mix w/ the eggs. Mom says to now cover the wok and cook it till it's soft. Longer if you like softer tomatoes.
5. Depending on how sweet the tomatoes are to begin with. The eggs will cook w/ the tomatoes and juice and it'll be slightly gummy and runny, which is just perfect consistency!
6.