Japanese Beef Curry with Breaded Chicken

Need to whip up dinner in half an hour? Here's a quick meal you can make. Japanese curry with rice and breaded chicken, well, sort of.

Start off by making a pot of rice. Then take some frozen chicken burgers, which you might have in the freezer, and pop them into the oven. Now, peel and cut up some onions, carrots, and potatoes. Thought you had carrots and potatoes but can't find any? That's fine, just chop those onions. Great, now grab the Japanese curry roux cubes in your cupboard and open up half of it. Cool. Dissolve the curry roux into hot water and set aside. Your mise en place is done.

You can make your Japanese curry with just vegetables or you can add either cubed meat or ground meat. If you feel like adding meat, brown your meat in a pot with a bit of unflavoured oil. Add in your onions (and potatoes if you found some) into the pot before the meat is fully browned. Pour in the dissolved roux and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Tidy up the mess you've made in the kitchen. Fluff the cooked rice. If you have carrots, add them into the pot of curry and cook until desired tenderness. The chicken burgers should be done. Take out the chicken burgers and slice. Now assemble and enjoy. That all made sense, right?

Badaboom, badabing!

Banh Xeo: Do You Wrap or Mix

Banh xeo is a Vietnamese savoury pancake. We fill it with a meat mixture of ground pork or chicken, onions, toasted shredded coconut, soy sauce and fish sauce. Then we add blanched beansprouts before folding them over.




Since we grow our own thai basil, mint, and fish herbs, we usually eat banh xeo in the midst of a heatwave -- when the herbs grow like crazy. Now, depending on personal preferences, you either wrap the banh xeo in lettuce or chop/rip everything into a bowl and mix it up. Mom says it tastes better when you eat with your hands. I agree -- only in the summertime though. Where do you stand on your banh xeo?

Do you wrap it or mix it?

Cinnamon Scones

After an early routine ultrasound at the Civic Hospital, I needed breakfast or at least a snack. I wandered over to the cafeteria and was immediately drawn to the cookies, muffins, and scones. Unsure of what to get, I grabbed a cup of coffee first and then returned. Staring at all the options for a bit, I picked the cinnamon scone because it stood out. Remembering the scones I had in Toronto, I excitedly paid for my breakfast and tried to find a clean table that was well lit -- for the photos, of course.


I took a bite and began to chew. Not too dry, not too sweet. Woah! I bit into something sweet and slightly crunchy. Cinnamon bark? No, it's soft and sweet. And that's when I realized that there were cinnamon sugar pearls in it. I thought I had picked up a cinnamon raisin scone. This was so much better than that!


On my way home, I tried to remember if I ever made a tasty scone. There was this one time when I attempted to make buttery biscuits. They ended up turning into scones because of over mixing. Other than that, I couldn't recall making scones.


Then one rainy day, I woke up with the urge to eat cinnamon scones again. With a few quick searches, I realized that I actually had to buy the cinnamon sugar pearls. I'm sure I could've made something like it, but it would probably take too long. Instead, I thought about using Skor toffee pieces to make *drumroll* cinnamon toffee scones. Doooone!




I found a recipe, added more cinnamon into the dough, replaced the cinnamon sugar pearls with toffee bits. I made both regular-sized scones and mini-scones. When these were in the oven, the house was filled with the perfume of cinnamon and sugar.



Boom. They turned out d-e-ricious! I'll definitely be making more scones from now on.

Sfiha: Another Spin on Meat Pie

These were the finished product of my version of the Lebanese meat pies. We didn't have all of the ingredients in some of the recipes I found -- shocking, I know -- and so I just relied on the smell and the taste of the meat topping. This was the first time I made it, so I was a little worried about the final product.




Before I mixed the meat, I whipped up a double-batch of a yeast dough recipe I found. It almost had a 1:1 ratio of water to oil. The dough was wrapped up and allowed to rise. Then I focused my attention to the meat.

These were some of the ingredients in there: ground beef, ketchup, salt, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, and diced tomatoes. Legit, I know.


Once the dough was allowed to rise after a few hours, the dough was divided into portions, rolled out, and topped with the meat mixture. We don't have a pizza stone or anything, so I turned one of our oven pans upside down and used that as a cook top in the oven. We didn't have a pizza peel either, so I looked around the house and just used a long piece of cardboard from our Mama Instant Noodles. The cardboard was then wrapped with tin foil. Although it looked funny, it worked.




They didn't take longer than 10 minutes each. Once out of the oven, they were allowed to cool before being devoured. We probably ate half of what we made. The sfiha actually tasted similar to the real stuff at the Aladdin Bakery. The dough turned out like a crispy crumb crust, which reminded me of Joe's Pizza's aromatic crumbly dough. They were so addictive!

Quick Shepherd's Pie

Last Wednesday, Lucy and I planned to go skating on the Rideau Canal. Prior to dinner and our evening skate, I ran some errands which brought me to the Byward Market. There were so many better lunch options than the one I chose.


What a poor decision. I regretted it as soon as I opened my mouth and ordered a big mac meal.

Fast forward to dinner. Shepherd's pie was on the menu. Using two parts ground beef and one part ground pork, some diced onions, beef broth, crushed crackers, salt, black pepper and bay leaves, the bottom layer was ready in less than 15 minutes. The other layers were Green Giant corn and Lucy's mashed potatoes.


The two pans were broiled for a couple minutes until golden.


Lucy also made an addictive prosciutto and goat cheese salad to go with dinner.

Dinner was so comforting. I was actually surprised how quickly it was made from start to finish. Gotta make this again soon.

2013 Xmas Holiday Baking

Let's start this by saying that I'm not much of a baker. I'd rather cook something instead. Don't you find that you're also baking a lot during the Christmas holidays?

For our Christmas dinner, which we held at Aunt IS's house, I knew I wanted to make at least two kinds of cookies. I was thinking of trying to make the DoubleTree chocolate walnut cookies again, and maybe some Biscoff cookies, or some chocolate chip cookies.

I used more chopped walnuts, less chocolate chunks, and less oatmeal flour for this batch of DoubleTree cookies. After I got started with the DoubleTree cookies, Richard into the kitchen and was also in a baking mood. He wanted to make Mom's chocolate chip cakey cookies. I suggested the Serious Eats' Food Lab recipe for "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies." We made the cookies on Christmas Eve and then put them in the fridge to bake on Christmas afternoon.

Both bags of cookie dough were taken out to warm up a bit. After popping them into the oven, the remaining cookie dough was put in the freezer. Once the cookies were done and had cooled enough, we dug in. The results of the DoubleTree cookies were great! The ratio of walnuts to chocolate was perfect for me and they were slightly crisp on the edges while being chewy in the middle.

As for the cookies Richard made, they were disappointing. When he browned the butter the night before, the house smelled like caramel. It was so promising. The baked products were not only short on that depth of flavour, but they needed more flour (human error) too.

~

For the Xmas party with some friends, VN and I were thinking about attempting to make macarons again. Our last experience didn't turn out the greatest -- visually, that is. We thought we had everything, but we realized that I had forgot the icing sugar. Oops. We postponed it until Boxing Day.

After having lunch at the Authentic Vietnamese Pho House, we picked up some things to make macarons. We went to Bulk Barn and then went back to the kitchen. I had forgotten the icing sugar again. So fail. There was luckily a small bag of icing sugar left in the cupboards. Phew! The almond meal wasn't fine at all. We tried using a blender. Fail. We tried a coffee grinder. More fail. And then finally we resorted to a mortar and pestle to try and crush them finer. That didn't work too well either. We went on though.

Everything was gently mixed together and we were almost ready to pipe the macarons before VN brought something up. We had forgotten the icing sugar! Wow. I tried folding in the icing sugar in 20, 000 times as delicately as I could. But it didn't work. We had enough ingredients to make only one final batch.

It looked great. All the ingredients were added.

After a quick exchange, we agreed that it wouldn't be a big deal if we piped the macarons directly onto the pan. It was non-stick after all. It would be okay? Right? Riiiight?

We nervously popped the two trays of piped macarons and put it into the 280F to bake. That's what the recipe we used said. The macarons didn't like the high oven temperature. The macarons not only cracked but they weren't fully cooked through. When I took out the tray, this was what I saw. It was like tunnel vision.

Upon further inspection, there was one that looked perfect! Enhance!

Enhance! What a beauty. It was smooth on top and had feet! Unfortunately, all of the macarons -- including the pretty-looking one -- was under baked.

After the 4+ hours that it took VN and I to make macarons, I still tried to make it work. We were going to eat these macarons with some chocolate mint icing! So I grabbed the tub of chocolate icing and as I slid my fingers around the lid to open it, a piece of tinfoil that poked out sliced my fingers.


Yup. I sliced my fingers by trying to open a container of icing. You'd think that after all of those bad omens, VN and I would've stopped. But no. Clearly, me and macarons don't go well together. Just like me and Scrabble.

Despite two failed attempts at making macarons, I'm determined to make at least one good batch. This is not the end.

~


Yesterday (December 30th), I went over to SM's place to hang out. We also did some baking. I brought along some cookie dough from the Christmas Eve batches. I baked the cookies before the World Junior game began, that way we could enjoy them warm when the game began. We were watching Canada play against Slovakia. By the time I brought the cookies downstairs, they were already announcing the starting goalies. Once I got back to my seat and took a bite out of a warm chocolate chunk cookie, Drouin took a major penalty for hitting the head of a Slovenian player. Lame. But the game got better and Canada managed to earn a win with the help of a great hardworking shift by the Lazar-Patan-Reinhart line in the second period.


Once the game had finished, we went upstairs and began to make sugar cookies with a recipe given from SM's co-worker. We had a lot of fun using the cookie cutters to make feet, stars, snowmen, and hearts. There weren't any angels. No angels! SM also had some leftover icing so she topped off some of the cooled sugar cookies. When we were mixing the dough, it looked like the cookie dough needed more liquids. I wasn't sure what to do about it, so we didn't do anything about it. We put it in the fridge to let it set for an hour and hoped that it would turn out. And it did!

The end of December involved lots of baking. There were some successful batches and some that didn't work out. It's all good though. It's not always about the journey, it's about the results. Wait. Uh... whatever. Never mind. Scratch that. Rewind.

Wurch-ch-chi-chi-chi-chit!

The end of December involved lots of baking. It was fun to bake and cook for my friends and family, and even cook and bake with my friends and family. I hope the new year will continue to be full of new adventures, even if they don't turn out the way I want them to. To good health and lots of fun times ahead! Happy new years everyone! Cheers! *raises a glass of watered down juice* *clink*

Leftover Prime Rib: Tacos

With the leftover prime rib meat that we had for dinner a few weeks ago, I shredded some for an open-faced hot beef sandwich. It's just too easy. That was my quick lunch. We still had quite a bit of meat left. I thought of turning it into tacos. Actually, I was first tempted to chop it up and turn it into some kind of dip but thought otherwise.


Tacos. We didn't have any tortillas. Using Taste of Home's homemade tortillas recipe as a guide, I made some homemade tortillas. I didn't use as much olive oil and it still turned out soft. We rolled them out instead of pressing them.


While cooking up the tortillas on the griddle, we decided to make some cheesy quesadillas by stuffing them with mozzarella prior to cooking. They were tasty dipped with salsa.

The tortillas themselves were tender and looked good. Richard and I didn't like the taste of cheap olive oil that I used in the tortillas though. I'll try using vegetable oil instead olive oil.


For the star of the dish, the prime rib was chopped up, mixed with caramelized onions, a sauce that I made, and then reheated in the toaster oven before eating.

In the words of Richard: "Who eats prime rib tacos? We do."


What would've you done with the leftover prime rib meat?

Oven Baked Chicken Stuffed with Ham and Swiss

Andrew and I were going to make some breaded chicken stuffed with ham and swiss cheese. We couldn't find the breadcrumbs, so we just made the chicken without it.

We baked the chicken in a pan and then once the chicken juices ran clear, we took the chicken out to rest a bit. I was thinking about making a gravy or something but the pan drippings wasn't that flavourful. Then I remembered that you could reduce pan drippings to concentrate the flavour.


The pan drippings were poured into a small pot and simmered down. I should've stopped reducing at this point.


But I thought it needed a couple of more minutes. When I checked the drippings again, it turned into a chicken pan dripping paste with the fat floating on top. At that point, we could've made a gravy but we just used a little with our chicken.


We rarely reduce pan drippings, instead, we usually just use the drippings in the sauce. By reducing the drippings, not only does the flavour get concentrated, but the oils will separate which will make it easier to scoop out.

The chicken with the pasta didn't taste great together. It felt like the chicken fell into the plate/bowl of pasta. They were good separately though.

Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops

Around 2am in the morning, I was in the middle of watching an Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon when the scene in Naples (season 7, episode 11) transitioned from a marching band to the sound of "... slow simmering of meat in red sauce." It was like music to my ears. I wanted to eat some of the pasta tossed with the ragù and braised meats.

The next day, I found a package of lamb shoulder chops in the fridge. Mom told me that I was making dinner that night. After researching on Google for ideas, I began to get frustrated because nothing appealed to me. My mind kept wandering back to the clip of the ragù though. Done. That's what I'll try to make. I knew I wanted to slow cook the lamb and serve it separately from the pasta.


I began with dicing up onions, carrots, and garlic for the sauce. Then the lamb chops were seared with a little flour and vegetable oil. They were set aside while the sauce/braising liquid was made. Onions, and carrots were sautéed first, then the garlic was added in with some broth. A can of plain tomato sauce was poured into the pan. The sauce simmered on the stove top for a few minutes. Then the sauce and seared lamb chops were layered in a baking pan. It was put into the toaster oven at about 360F for about 3½ hours.


Richard had actually made a loaf of bread in the new bread maker. Not sure what happened with the giant air bubble at the top.




The bread was airy and moist. A little too moist though. But that didn't stop all of us from eating half of the loaf of bread before starting dinner. I guess it was the complimentary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar you get at some restaurants.


I asked Richard to make a bean salad. Unfortunately the yellow beans, despite being rinsed a few times,  still tasted strongly of the can. It ruined the, otherwise good, bean salad.




Just like they did in the Naples episode, the pieces of braised meat was plated up and set aside. Most of the oil floating on top of the sauce was scooped out. The penne pasta finished cooking in the remaining sauce. At this point, I was getting excited at how dinner turned out.


Here was Mom's dinner plate with cognac to drink.


The lamb meat was really tender. Some of the cartilage was still a bit crunchy though. I really should've baked the lamb longer. The pasta tasted great in the sauce. It tasted even better the next day when I took it to work for lunch.


One plate of food was good for dinner. I needed a bonus round though. Just a couple extra bites.

The braised lamb shoulder chops turned out quite well. If there are tough cuts of meat on sale at the grocery stores, whether it's more lamb shoulder or even beef, I'll try to make this again cause it was a big hit with the family.


Future Tweaks:

• Cook the lamb shoulder chops for longer (over 5 hours)
• Add more tomato sauce
• Carefully go through the sauce to get rid of shards of bones
• Season the pasta more aggressively once the sauce is mixed in
• Make more bread
• Make a double batch for more leftovers

Rice Noodles Two Ways

Whether it's homemade or at a restaurant, Grandpa really loves his lobster with ginger and onion sauce.

Last week, Mom and I happened to have the same day off. We did some grocery shopping and went over to visit Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa bought some lobsters that were on sale. Mom decided to make rice noodles with chinese broccoli and beef with a side of lobster. I requested rice noodles with lobster with the ginger onion sauce.










Mom and I started with some of the prep for both dishes. They're actually both easy to make.

Side note: do you keep the green onion stems like we do? We let them re-grow their roots and then add them into our herb garden or indoor pots.

Since most of the prep was finished, the only thing that really needed to be made before cooking the rice noodles with beef and chinese broccoli was to make a slurry for the sauce. It was made of water, cornstarch, oyster sauce, cooking wine, sugar, and salt. Oh and the sliced beef was seasoned with some soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar, and cornstarch.


Mom and Dad cooked while I helped out in the kitchen. The chinese broccoli was blanched and then rinsed off in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then in a smoking hot pan containing vegetable oil, the minced garlic and sliced onions were added into the pan to cook for about 30 seconds. Some of the stalks of the broccoli were tossed in for a few seconds before the rice noodles were added in and stirred together. Some water, dark soy sauce, sugar, and salt joined in the mix to season the noodles. After another five minutes, the noodles were transfered onto a plate.




The sauce started off the same way as the noodles -- a smoking hot pan with vegetable oil, garlic, and onions. The rest of the blanched broccoli was added in. After a few seconds,  the marinated beef was added in and cooked for about 30 seconds before the slurry was added.

Whenever we (the kids) help out in the kitchen, we're usually good about knowing what our parents need next. That's what happens when you're involved at a young age, I guess. But that evening, I was a little slow and Mom had to ask for the slurry.

Yeah chep! -- From the South Korean drama, Pasta. See the clip here.

We adjusted the sauce to taste with some sesame oil and then added some eggs. The eggs were broken and were gently stirred into the sauce after being allowed to cook for a minute. That's it.






The chunks of lobster pieces were tossed in some cornstarch and then deep-fried. They were taken out when fully cooked, drained of oil, and then placed in a paper towel-lined plate. One batch was left in for too long and the pieces of lobsters shrunk like overcooked shrimps. Sad.

The ginger and green onion sauce for the lobster was stupidly simple. Unlike the other sauce, the sliced ginger was added into the smoking hot pan with vegetable oil. Once the aroma came out, the garlic was put in and stirred until it started to change colour. The onions went in and then the rest of the slurry joined the party. Dad added eggs to the sauce, which is optional.




We tasted and adjusted the flavour before the green onions and fried lobsters were tossed in.


There wasn't enough sauce for some reason. But with the little sauce that there was, the rice noodles tasted amazing. Fancy, huh? I have no idea why we've never done rice noodles with lobsters before. It was definitely luxurious. We'll definitely be making this again -- and I can't wait!