Korean Glass Noodles (Jap Chae)

Went to the Asian store and saw these noodles. I don't think I've ever had them before. Maybe I did and just don't remember. They taste familiar anyway. Anyway, I didn't have a recipe for this, so I was just going to cook it my way or imitate what was on the picture. Fortunately, I had a lot of the ingredients on hand already. I like meat, so I added meat. Most of the recipes I found didn't include meat, so it's up to you. I just used ground turkey and that tasted fine. I think just about any meat would do.

Recipe adapted from Food Network:

Ingredients:
1 package of Korean Glass Noodles (or potato noodles)
1 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
1 lb of ground turkey (or meat of choice)
4 eggs, 2 tsp of vegetable oil
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 small onion, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
3 scallions, cut into 1-inch lengths
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Method:
1. Boil the noodles according to package directions or until soft. Drain and then rinse with cold water. When the noodles are cold to touch, cut the noodles in half with kitchen shears. Leave the noodles drained while prepping other ingredients.
2. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms will expand. After soaking, drain them thoroughly. Cut into long strips and set aside.
3. Set a large frying pan on medium high heat and add ground turkey. Cook turkey until done, about 15 mins. Transfer the meat onto a plate and set aside.
4. Make omelette. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk a little. Heat a separate small frying pan on medium high heat. Add about 2 teaspoons of oil to the pan. Once pan is hot, add eggs and let it form into an omelette. Cook for about 1-2 mins and flip over to the other side. Cook the other side for another 1 min or until done. Transfer the omelette to a plate or cutting board. Slice the omelette into long strips and set aside.
3. Using the same large frying pan that was used for the turkey, add 2 tablespoons of sesame oil to the pan. Add the onion, carrots, scallions, mushrooms, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. Let cook for a few minutes, stirring, until the vegetables are cooked, but still a little crisp. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl.
4. To the same pan add 1 more tablespoon sesame oil. Add the noodles, meat, salt and pepper. Let cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add to the vegetables with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Stir fry for about 30 seconds. Toss in the egg strips and stir. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and then transfer to a serving dish.

French Macarons

Have you ever had a French macaron? I just had one today and I fell in love. I love sweets especially chocolate, cakes and cookies. There is a cute little store that opened up in downtown Minneapolis in the Gavidae common area called Cocoa & Fig. They have cute cupcakes, tarts and even those cake bites I made once. This was the 3rd or 4th time I stopped by and always noticed these sandwich-looking cookies (sometimes I just stop by to look :P). They had interesting pastel colors and flavors like pistachio and caramel. Today I tried the caramel and it was very yummy. I wanted another piece, but I only bought one cookie because it was $1.75 a cookie! I then looked up recipes for French Macarons and it clearly says, "Not for the beginner baker." Forget it then. :P I won't even attempt to or will I? Well, perhaps one of these days I will.

I made some more food, but just haven't felt like posting them. I've been too busy doing other things. I have such big dreams and ambitions that I just don't have enough time to do them all, but I really want to. I'm working on something else that's very exciting to me! I will probably post some more recipes this weekend.

"God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die." Yup, oh well. Maybe that's why I procrastinate because I don't want to die yet. :P

Purple Sticky Rice with Coconut Milk

Just about everyone I know that has tried sticky rice loves sticky rice. It was kind of weird how this one time I was at the laundromat with my mom and sisters, and out of the blue this man (white) came up and asked me if I knew how to make sticky rice. I don't remember my response. I think I was just surprised that he asked that. Actually, I thought he was kind of creepy and thought he was going to hit on me. lol :p  I was probably less than 15 back then. That just showed me how much people like this stuff.

When sticky rice is around and it's served next to regular white rice, the sticky rice is usually the first to go. I can usually eat it by itself as well, especially when it's just freshly cooked. Truth is I never made sticky rice until maybe a year or two ago. My mom or my grandma always made it for us growing up. Again, I didn't pay attention! When I finally wanted to learn, I had to call my mom and asked her how to make this. It was more simple than I thought. I think it's easier than making the regular rice (the old fashion way). I don't even remember how to do that either. :P I just remember there were a lot of steps. I think there are rice cookers now that can cook sticky rice, but I don't own one that does that. With the advice from a friend, I tried cooking sticky rice in my regular rice cooker, but it did not turn out! Anyway, I like to mix mine with coconut milk. It gives it a somewhat sweet and creamy taste. I also like my sticky rice mixed with the purple (or actually black) rice. I like the texture that it gives and purple is just an interesting and fun color for rice (I think so anyway).  You can certainly leave out the coconut milk for a more natural flavor; it'll still taste good regardless, but do try it with the black rice. 

Ingredients:
3 cups of sweet rice
1/3 cup of black rice
14 oz can of coconut milk
water





Method:
1. Pour the sweet and black rice into a large bowl.

2. Rinse the rice a few times until water is somewhat clear. I also do a wash by grabbing two handfuls of rice and rubbing it back and forth with my hands (I didn't have an extra pair of hands to take a picture of this). I don't know the official reason behind rinsing, but I think it gets rid of the extra starch, dust, excess powder, etc. This is what we've always done when cooking rice (so I just do it), although I don't do it anymore with regular rice in the cooker.

3. After rinsing, pour enough water to cover the rice (about 2-3 inches above).

4. Shake the can of coconut milk well. If it's still too thick, then mix it well with a spoon. Pour the entire can of coconut milk into the bowl of rice.

Stir well.

5. Let the rice soak for several hours or overnight at room temperature. You may cover the bowl with saran wrap to protect it from the elements. Soaking the rice is an important step because if it is not soaked long enough, the rice will not turn out. I don't know the exact minimum, but I do know that I tried it once without soaking it too long (2-4 hours I believe) and it still didn't turn out.
6. Once properly soaked and ready to cook, drain the rice. The rice would have soaked some of the water and will look similar to this:

7. Prepare the steamer by adding water to the pot (about half way filled). Set the temperature on high heat. Pour the rice into the steamer section and place this on top of the pot. Cover the steamer. Continue to cook on high heat for about 40 minutes. Rice is ready when it is tender (but not soggy).

This is the steamer I used and it worked fine. You might see ones specially made for sticky rice that comes with a bamboo steamer. I got this one as a wedding gift ages ago and I've put it to many uses already.


8. When rice is ready, stir the rice with a large spoon to loosen it up a little. Be careful, it will be hot! Serve rice immediately or pour into an insulated container or even a rice cooker to keep warm. Oh, and make sure to clean the steamer right away so the rice doesn't harden and stick to the steamer. ;)

Chicken Laab

Laab reminds me of the gatherings that my family and other Hmong families used to have when I was growing up. A cow or pig would be sacrificed in the early morning at a butcher shop or farm, and then a bunch of relatives would come over and help cook the meat into many different dishes. One of those dishes was usually laab or larb, however it's spelled. The men were the ones who always made the laab. I should've paid attention growing up because I don't know how to make laab as good as I had it back then. I haven't attended any of those Hmong gatherings in a long time. I'm not a bad daughter-in-law. At least I don't think I am. LOL I'm just not the traditional type, and luckily, my husband isn't either, so we rarely go to these events unless it's in our first family. I just remember two key ingredients that the cooks used and they were lime leaves and roasted rice powder. Since I don't live in St. Paul anymore, I don't have access to the wide variety of herbs and veggies usually available in the Cities, so I didn't get any lime leaves. I used lemongrass in this recipe instead and it worked fine.

Laab is generally a healthy dish, since it is made with the leanest parts of the meat. My version is even healthier because it's made with baked chicken breasts and the rest of the ingredients are pretty low in calories as well. Growing up, we mostly had beef laab and sometimes pork laab. I always liked the white meat laab more. There are many versions of laab, but I don't like it when laab is made into a bitter dish (with some gross ingredients IMO). It's even made raw and I never eat it that way. Laab is meant to be eaten room temperature or even cold and served with greens such as lettuce and of course rice.

Ingredients
3 chicken breasts (about 3 cups once chopped)
1/3 cup of cilantro, finely chopped
1/3 cup of green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup of mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup of lemongrass (white part only), finely chopped
1 tbsp of chopped fresh or frozen Thai chilli peppers

2 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 tbsp of fresh lime juice
1 tbsp of roasted rice powder

Optional: 1/4 cup of shallots, finely chopped
Note: shallots or onions weren't typically used in Hmong laab, but since I had a bunch around I added it and it added a nice flavor

Method:
1. Bake chicken breasts in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside.
2. Meanwhile, prepare (chop) fresh herbs.

3. Once chicken is cooked, slice the chicken into large chunks and put into a food processor to chop or chop chicken manually.

I actually over chopped my meat with the food processor. Generally, the meat shouldn't be as fine as this, but it still tasted good to me.

4. Add all the fresh ingredients except the chillies to the chicken. Mix well. Add the rice powder, then add the fish sauce, lime juice and chillies slowly (1 tbsp at a time or 1 tsp of the chillies at a time) to adjust to your liking. I am just listing what I used exactly and that's how I liked it. You may like yours less salty, sour, or hot. Make sure to stir everything well.


This is the rice powder I used (found at the Asian markets). You can make your own by roasting dry rice kernels in a frying pan until brown, and process it in a processor until it turns into a fine powder (or use a mortar and pestle to ground). Just make sure you don't burn the rice.


5. Put laab on a serving plate on top of some lettuce as presentation. I used red leaf lettuce because I like it, and the more color, the better for your health. Serve with an additional side of lettuce and a bowl of rice.

Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken

I made this for dinner tonight and it was quite good. I would rate this a 4 out of 5. Few recipes will get a 5 so 4 is still pretty good. I didn't change anything to this recipe and followed it pretty much exactly. The chicken turned out very moist and tender. It was quite lemony, garlicky and thymey. You get it...the flavors were good. It tastes similar to the rotisserie chicken that you would find at the stores, except it's all home made. I didn't make the gravy though. Once you pop this in the oven, your house will smell delicious. :) Next time, I would make this with some roasted potatoes, carrots and onions (all in the same pan with the chicken).

Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten from Food Network: