Homemade Thai feast!

Over this past summer, I got to befriend this super sweet and adorable korean girl who's fiancé also happens to be thai (I'm also Korean American and married to Thai American hubs). We got to bond over discussions of thai and korean recipes, our thai boys, and her upcoming wedding! We even agreed to teach each other how to cook thai and korean dishes. She would teach me more korean dishes and I would teach her more Thai dishes. Last night, omg...we got together and cooked the most delicious thai meal we've had in a very long time.

Inae made sticky rice, moo-ping (marinated pork skewers), and som-tam (papaya salad). I made Khao Mon Gai (steamed chicken with seasoned rice and sauce) and korean marinated galbi. Let's just say that we ate like kings and queens and our Thai significant others were VERY happy =)

Slow-Cooked Pork Tacos

Hi everyone! Eek! so sorry for the long absence....I'm so embarrassed that I've neglected this blog for this long...and I LOVE food and blogging. Sheesh, will be more on top of it next time.

So, tonight, my husband cooked up this AMAZING MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH slow cooked pork in this spicy adobo pepper sauce which then we made into pork tacos. For this dish, you will need a slow cooker. It just isn't the same without the slow cooker. It converted our tough 7 pound pork shoulder meat into this tender, juiciest meat ever! Anyway, I will shut up now and move on to the pictures and recipes below. By the way, you gotta make the pickled onions to go with this. It's a must!

Recipe: Slow Cooked Pork Tacos

Ingredients

For Pork:

• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 (15-ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 to 2 chipotle peppers, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 4 to 5 pound pork shoulder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For Pickled Onions:

• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

For Tacos:

• 24 corn tortillas
• 1 small green cabbage, shredded
• 2 avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
• Pickled red onions
• 1 (16-ounce) container sour cream
• Chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish

For Pork:

Directions

To the sleeve of a slow cooker add onion, garlic, tomatoes, chipotle peppers, Worcestershire sauce, and cilantro. Add pork and season with salt and pepper. Cover and slow cook on high for 4 to 6 hours until tender.

For Red Onions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes and salt, heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add onions and dried oregano. When mixture is cool pour into a quart container. You may need to add a bit of water just to cover. (Keep at room temperature for about 6 hours then place in the refrigerator.

Remove pork from slow cooker and shred using 2 forks. Toss with 1/2 cup of the liquid from the slow cooker.

To serve place 1/4 cup of the pork on a tortilla, top with cabbage, avocado, onions, sour cream and cilantro. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

basic sunday morning biscuits

Made some homemade biscuits for us on a sunday morning. Husband claimed they were the best biscuits he's ever tried. We cooked up some scrambled organic eggs then spread some butter and jam on the piping hot biscuits and hoovered it all in 5 seconds flat.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 1 tablespoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 8 tablespoon butter, cubed

- 1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In an electric mixing bowl fitted with a paddle mixer, add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cubed butter and mix in low medium speed for about 4 minutes, until mix looks like cornmeal. Put the speed to low and add 1 cup of heavy cream and mix just until combined.

3. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter, or in this case, I used an upside down cup.

3. Place in baking pan and cook for about 20 minutes or until the top portion is golden brown.

Biscuit Berry Cobbler

This sweet and juicy summer berry cobbler was out of this world! It's that time of the month again and I've been craving something super yummy and sweet. I didn't want the usual cake or cupcake...I wanted something berry-ish and tart. So I dug out my all time favorite dessert book, The Craft of Baking (a lovely gift from a friend), and got down to business. If you have a major sweet tooth like me, you definitely need to get a copy of this book.

Chicken + Bok Choy Soup Noodle

This dinner was sort of inspired by having random bits of veggies that needed to quickly be used or be tossed in the garbage. The broth is chicken stock (boiled from chicken hind quarters) and then I added organic white miso paste to flavor the broth a bit more. Added a splash of soy sauce, shredded chicken, veggies and cook. Put noodle in plate first and spoon soup over it.

Fresh caught trout

My husband recently picked up trout fishing and on a good day, he brings back few freshly caught rainbow trouts. I watched my husband clean, de-bone and gut it (not a very pleasant sight) and then he leaves me in charge to cook it.

Trouts are very light and clean tasting fish and so I didn't want too go crazy with it or anything. I sprinkled the filet with sea salt and ground pepper, then lightly coated it with flour. In a pan, melt a tablespoon of butter and squeeze some lemon juice with it. Cook the filet on each side for 3-4 minutes. After plating it, I squeeze some extra lemon juice over it. This dish was mighty scrumptious!

Currently reading...

I picked up this book from the library the other day and I am ENJOYING it SO much! I've been a big fan of Molly's blog, Orangette for a while. Her book is filled with amazing life stories as well as delicious recipes. You must check out her blog and book!

What I've made lately...

Apologies for the lack of posts and recipe! But here's a few dishes I made over the past week.

Lahd Nah (Thai rice noodle dish) - My husband's favorite

Korean style (with Pineapple puree) bbq pork ribs

Fried egg dipped korean sausage (I eat this with a bowl of steaming hot rice and miso soup)

Fresh fruit yogurt parfait for either midnight snack or breakfast

eateries in the neighborhood

I haven't been cooking much lately so I apologize for the lack of posts...but I definitely will be starting back up and will be cooking up a storm! In the meantime, my husband and I went back to Chicago and revisited a few of our favorite places. If you happen to be visiting in Chicago, you MUST try this place!

Pastoral
2945 North Broadway - Chicago Illinois, 60657

La Parisian (my favorite) and the Caprese (hubby's favorite) and to top it all off with Chicago's own homemade sea salt caramel nougats - YUM!

Our favorite spicy pasta

We asians love our food spicy! For me, the spicier the better (which I will be paying for dearly later on in the evening). For this particular spaghetti dish, I use thai chili peppers to give it that extra "oompf" and let me tell you...these tiny little things sure pack a major punch. One time, I was slicing these thai chili peppers into slivers and my fingertips were on fire for days. Anyway, back to this pasta. It's our absolute favorite chunky and wholesome spaghetti ever and we can't seem to go back to regular ol' pasta after this.

Spicy Eggplant and Sausage Spaghetti

Ingredients:
- 1 large can diced tomatoes
- 1 jar of marinara or plain pasta sauce
- 1 pound of seasoned ground pork or 4 pork seasoned sausages (casing removed)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 eggplant, chopped into cubes
- 1 box of thin spaghetti (I prefer the whole wheat kind).
- 3 to 5 thai chili peppers, chopped (you can get these at any large produce store or asian grocery store). Use 3 if you want mild. I like to use 5 for a good kick.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
1. Bring pot of water to boil for pasta. Once it boils, add pasta and sprinkle salt. Cook until al dente.
2. Add olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and thai chili pepper to oil and cook until slightly browned (1 minute). Make sure the garlic does NOT burn. Add sausage (out of casing) or ground seasoned pork to the skillet and cook until browned (8 to 10 minutes)
3. Add eggplant and cook until they look browned and wilted (3 to 5 minutes).
4. Add 1 large can of diced tomato and jar of marinara to the skillet. Put lid over skillet and cook for another 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
5. While sauce is cooking, drain the pasta, make sure pasta is not overcooked.
6. Heap a generous amount of chunky sauce over the spaghetti and enjoy!

tip: I also like to add an extra dash of dried oregano to the sauce while it's cooking.

Curried Rice with Shrimp

Snow, snow, go the F*&# away! Ugh...can we get anymore snow?!? Last night was a really bad night to drive out so I had to make do with whatever I had layin' around in our refrigerator. Hmmm, let's see, I had some frozen costco shrimp, carrots and onions and a bountiful amount of spices left over and decided to make curried shrimp fried rice. Turned out delicious and the husband helped himself to 4 helpings - he's got an obnoxiously huge appetite and I hate how he never seems to gain a pound from it all. Stupid metabolism.

Curried Rice with Shrimp

Ingredients

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 1 large onion, chopped

- 2 carrots, chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, chopped

- 1.5 tablespoon curry powder

- 1 tablespoon coriander powder

- 1 teaspoon cumin

- 2 cup long-grain white rice

- Salt and Pepper

- 1.5 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp

- 1 cup chopped pineapple

- 1/2 cup chicken broth

- 3 stalks of scallion, chopped

Directions

1. In a rice cooker or a small pot, bring 1/2 cup of chicken broth and 1 1/2 cup of water and rice to boil. Or set to cook in rice cooker.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, onions, carrots and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until soft.

3. Add shrimp, pineapple and scallion and the spices and cook for 3 minutes. If the mixture seems to get dry, you can add a bit of chicken broth to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for about another 2 minutes.

4. Add the cooked rice to the skillet and mix until the spices are thoroughly mixed in.

Tea cookies

I made these Earl Grey and Chocolate-Orange Expresso thins for Audrey's 1st birthday...big yummy hit! And so easy to make too.

Chocolate-Orange-Espresso Thins

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

- 1 1/2 teaspoons good-quality instant espresso powder

- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1 cup confectioners' sugar

- 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- Coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt into a medium bowl.

2. Put butter, confectioners' sugar, orange zest, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add flour mixture until just combined.

3. Transfer dough to a 12 by 16 inch piece of parchment paper to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Roll up in the parchment paper into a tube. Chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Cut log into 1/4-inch-thick slices; transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Brush tops with water; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until set, 15 to 17 minutes. cool on sheets on wire racks. 

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Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 2 tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (about 4 tea bags)

- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

- 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, tea, and salt in a bowl

2. Put butter, confectioners' sugar, and orange zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture until just combined.

3. Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment paper to 1 1/4-inches in diameter. Roll in parchment paper in a tube shape and refrigerate for 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Cut logs into 1/4-inch thick slices. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment.

5. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cookies

addicted to this stuff...

Mmmm...who would have thought green tea ice cream would turn out to be such creamy perfection? There's a party going on in my mouth as I am currently hoovering this tub of goodness....

Spicy Fried Chicken

Mmmmmm! My husband said this was the BEST fried chicken he's tasted in a long while! I will take his word for it since he and his family are from the deep south =). I made some garlic braised kale and roasted sweet potatoes to accompany this platter of greasy and super delicious buttermilk fried chicken.

(Recipe courtesy of The Neelys)

Mint Chocolate + Walnut cookies

I tried these at a friend's house about a month or two ago. She's a phenomenal baker and is about to be a mommy very soon! Last night, I've been having severe craving for these cookies so I whipped up a batch and finished half of it while watching HGTV. I love how our house smelled like minty chocolatey goodness! The hubs and I are leaving out of town for a wedding tomorrow so this shall be my last post for the week! Happy weekend!

(click to enlarge)

seaweed + rice = love.

I have never met any korean folks that doesn't like salted seaweed (gim) with rice. It's like...the BEST stuff out there. Even the most whitest koreans I know dig this super simple + humble pairing. I have fond memories of myself as an eight year old, making salted gim (seaweed) with rice for my 4 yr old sister and we'd eat as many as we could while watching Tom & Jerry until our mum came home from work. Fast forward to college, I have memories of making this for my, then boyfriend (now husband), in my dorm room when our meal points for the cafeteria ran out. And this morning, I checked our bank account and crap, realized I went a bit overboard in our monthly budget...so, this called for modest yet very delicious seaweed and rice meal =). Sucks living off a resident salary, especially when he gets paid only once a month.

Thai Red Curry...among other things

*Note* Recipe for this added below =)
Whenever we are craving thai food, I make this chicken and bamboo red curry dish. It's fail-proof and super easy to make. I learned this dish from Aunt Chinda (my husband's aunt who is a BRILLIANT cook!). I wish we lived closer to her so I can learn more yummy thai dishes. The other dish I made is chinese broccoli (gai-lan) sautéed in loads of garlic and oyster sauce. Again, this is fail-proof! And of course, my husband was whining for more greek yogurt with honey. He is such a child sometimes. 

Thai Red Curry with Chicken + Bamboo strips:


Ingredients:
- 1 can of coconut milk (double check the can and make sure it doesn's say "for dessert")
- 1 can of Bamboo STRIPPED shoots, rinsed
- 1 can of Maesri brand red curry
- 3 thai chili peppers, thinly slivered
- a handful of basil leaves
- 2 tablespoon fishsauce (optional)
- 1 medium pack chicken thighs (boiled and shredded into strips, throw away skin and cartilage)

> Over medium to high heat, add coconut milk to a large pot. Bring to simmer and add 3/4 of the red curry paste (or if you want it spicier, add the entire content). Stir frequently until the paste is completely dissolved. Keep simmering until you see red oil separation forming in the coconut milk for about 5 minutes.
> Add cooked chicken strips, bamboo shoots, and thai chili peppers. Let it simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Add basil leaves last and cook for about 2 more minutes. 
> Serve over jasmine rice.


Bon appetit!

spicy + simple fritatta

Polished off a plate of my spicy (with splash of Louisiana hot sauce) fritatta this morning. I just wish the sun would come out and melt all this damn snow. What to make for dinner?