Korean Short Ribs (kabi)

This uses the same marinade as the recipe for bulgogi. I was trying to be a little more adventurous by trying a different marinade recipe. Should've just stuck to what I know is good. I tried a different recipe today and the meat turned out too salty. It was still yummy, but too salty. I would've liked it to be sweeter. Part of the reason is probably because I also tried out a new soy sauce instead of my usual lower sodium soy sauce and the recipe called for less sugar than one I used earlier. Also, I bought the kimchi from a non-Korean grocery store, and it did not taste as good as the one I previously bought. The kimchi was also too salty. All in all, the meat and kimchi were too salty, so they did not complement each other as they were supposed too. I would make this again, except I would just use the recipe I made in my earlier post for bulgogi.

Here is a good post on how the flaken-ribs should look like when you look for it at the store, but I do not recommend the recipe. It turned out too salty for my taste. It didn't even have ginger or regular onions so I added them on my own. I wanted to add more sugar too, but wanted to "trust" the original recipe. I think it's time I trust my own cooking instincts. I'm getting better at cooking now, so why not?? :P If I did, I wouldn't have thrown up when trying this other recipe I found a while back when it called for one or two tablespoons of shrimp paste. Gross. I mean, the only time I use shrimp paste is in my papaya salad and I only use a little, itty bit of it. Again, I should've known and trusted myself! I guess I thought the thought of using that much shrimp paste would've been okay since that is how curry paste is made, but this one wasn't a curry dish. The picture looked so good too. Oh well, this blog is a food adventure-blog after all. No (more) regrets! :P

Ingredients:
4 lbs flaken-style beef short ribs (I found mine at Dragon Star oriental store)

Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 Korean pear or Asian pear, grated with juices
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1/2 small white onion, grated or sliced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (20-ounce) bottle lemon-lime soda, optional (recommended: Sprite or 7-Up)

Method:
1. Mix all marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Add meat to the bowl and mix well. Transfer the marinated meat to a Ziploc bag and marinate overnight. Make sure to let out all the air from the bag.
2. Grill meat on grill for about 4 minutes, or if using oven, set to BROIL at 500 degrees and broil each side for about 4 minutes or until slightly charred. It should not take very long to cook these since they are cut thin.
3. Serve with rice and kimchi. This would also go well with sides of veggies. Yum!

My Attempt at Making French Macarons

I wish these were mine. They're actually from the site mytartelette.blogspot.com. I attempted to make French macarons. Twice now. The first ones were chocolate, the second ones just a plain recipe with pistachio middle like my favorite ones from Cocoa and Fig. The chocolate ones I had no problem whatsoever removing them from the sheet, but the second ones I could not move a centimeter without messing them up. They tasted so good though. I didn't throw them away. I scrubbed them off the baking sheet and ate them as is. They weren't cookies anymore, but some odd shape. lol They also turned out flatter than what I've seen. I think it's because I just didn't' have the exact measurements. The recipe I used was in grams, but I don't have a food scale to measure in grams. I tried converting it, but it's too off. Baking is not like cooking. If you're off by one speck of flour, then the recipe is ruined. At least that's what it seems for me. So, as soon as I buy my scale, some powdered food color and other things, then I will attempt these again. I know I can get these right! Darn it! I was so excited when I put them in the oven and they formed feet.

Look how flat and ugly mine looks :( :

Malaysian Enche Kabin Boxing Chicken Wings

I've been meaning to try and make these for a while now since I've discovered Lily's blog last year. I guess it was the deep-frying that delayed it. As much as I don't like deep frying foods, I have deep fried foods 3x now in the last two weeks. One of those (orange chicken) did not turn out. Guess I'll just stick to Panda Garden's orange chicken lol. There might be a 4th deep frying session coming soon since I've been meaning to make some egg rolls. Those are too tedious though! :P

Ok, back to this recipe. This was very good. I couldn't find a meat curry powder, so I just used like two different kinds of curry. A powdered one and a paste one. I just mixed it all together with the other stuff. I think it still turned out good. I don't think I would bother deep frying these next time though. I might just pan fry it first and then bake it in the oven or vice versa. When the wings were done, I thought they tasted good, but nothing spectacular. It was when I dipped it in the sauce was when I thought to myself, "Yum, these are good!" I really liked the sauce. It went well with the wings. To think I was going to skip making the sauce! Good thing I didn't. I have a new favorite dipping sauce. The dijon mustard made a difference. I rate this recipe 4/5. Anyway, here's the recipe from Lily's blog.

Thai Basil Chicken

There's a small fast food Thai restaurant in the Minneapolis skyway where I work where I first tasted this dish. I originally ran into a recipe from Thai Foodcast, but was not impressed with it. It didn't taste like the one I had at the restaurant. Not only was it too salty, but it didn't taste "Thai" to me. The one at the restaurant had grounded chicken, but the sauce was much better. I guess I should've known when the recipe called for four tablespoons of oyster sauce. I didn't remember the dish to taste like oyster sauce at all. So, since I had some more basil on hand and since I've been buying a lot of chicken breasts, I decided to try a different version of this. One of my new favorite food blogs that I just recently encountered is Rasa Malaysia. That is where I got the recipe for the second attempt. This version tasted much better and more closely resembled the restaurant that I tried. It uses fish sauce instead of oyster, which is more authentic Thai. My picture doesn't look that good since I took it at night time, but I thought this dish was good. I'll give it a 4/5. Easy to make and tastes good. It might be too salty/spicy for some, but then again, this is Thai!

The other version that I didn't like:

Malaysian Curry Puffs

Wow, been away for almost a month now. I've been cooking off and on still, but just haven't bothered to post anything. I was planning on making some egg rolls two weekends ago, but then came upon a recipe for these curry puffs, and decided to try making these instead since I've never had them. For the dough, I tried two different recipes. One from Rasa Malaysia and then another from Lily's Wai Sek Hong. I intially tried Lily's first, but the dough just didn't look right. It was not soft nor what's the word? Flexible? It was too dry. I tried adding a little more water, but it still didn't look right. Fortunately, I went back to other recipe from Rasa Malaysia and the dough looked much better. Since these were my first time making them, it took me a while to get the dough rolling and wrapped correctly. The first one I made, I used too much dough and so it didn't cook thoroughly. It works best if you just use a small ball and then roll it out with a roller pin. The oil had to be just the right temperature as well. You want it hot, but not too hot. When I finally got done, these didn't blow my mind away like "Ymmmm, these are so good! I just have to make them again!" Unfortunately, no. They were just ok. I don't consider myself a picky eater either. Overall, I would rate these a 3/5. I would recommend making these if you like to try something different and if you like fried foods. I really liked how the crust turned out though. It was buttery and flaky. Boy, did I use a lot of oil for this recipe. A lot of oil in the filling, and of course, the deep frying. That's why I hate deep frying. Too much oil. I also ate these as leftovers the next day, and for some reason, I thought it tasted better the next day.

Meatloaf

I made this a while back, but just never posted it. Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest fan of meatloaf. I decided to just make it for my husband since he likes it. This recipe was good, but it didn't change my mind about loving meatloaf. I like meatballs, but for some reason I don't like meatloaf. They're similar, but not exactly the same. I guess I would give this recipe of 3. Not great, but not bad either. The sauce or relish for the meatloaf is different though. Much different than your regular ketchup. I actually liked that part of the recipe. The potatoes I've made before (from scratch of course) and the beans were just drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with S&P, then baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes until tender but still crisp.

Recipe from Food Network.