Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

I wanted to find a quick, after-work recipe for dinner, and this stir fry recipe is just that! You can interchange the meat and veggie to whatever you want. BenjiManTV's video explains it very well. I used beef and broccoli, and changed some of the potions.

Tips:
-Buy a wok.
-Prep all ingredients before cooking. Stir frying is fast, high heat.
-Keeping the beef, onion and broccoli around the same size for even cooking.
-Don't use stew meat, it gets chewy. I've learned the hard way.

Ingredients:
1 lb Beef (sliced)
Half a chopped Onion
1.5 c Broccoli
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
1 Tbsp of Fresh Ginger, chopped
Chili Pepper Flakes (depends how spicy you want it)
1 Tbsp Chili Paste (depends how spicy you want it)
6  Tbsp Vegetable Oil
4 Tbsp Teriyaki Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 Cup Water

1. Heat oil on low heat, throw in ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir for about 30 secs and remove the ingredients and 1/2 the oil. Put it to the side.

2. Turn heat on high, add beef, salt and pepper. Cook until about 1/2 way cooked. Remove beef from pan. Put to the side.

3. Add the saved oil (not the garlic/ginger chunks) to the pan, and add the broccoli. Stir, then add the water and cover for 15 secs. This will steam to help soften the veggie.

4. Add the onions (I didn't have any this time) and garlic/ginger/chili flakes. Stir for 15 secs, then add beef, chili paste and teriyaki sauce. Stir until meat is fully cooked.

5. Dinner is served!

California Roll

Hi Everyone! One of my many New Year's Resolutions (I have like 15...) is to cook twice a week. It's a great way to save money, eat healthier and keep the bf happy. I decided to try something new and make California Rolls! I am obsessed with sushi and figured I should learn to make my own. Using raw fish at home still makes me nervous, so I'm going to stick to imitation crab for a while.

Making the rolls is very easy. The prep work is what takes the most time. I used Just One Cookbook's tutorial as my guide and switched it up a little. It's an amazingly helpful post!

Ingredients:
9 cups prepared Sushi Rice (3 cups uncooked Japanese rice)
1 pack of Imitation Crab (around 15 sticks)
2 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
1 sliced (length-wise) English Cucumber
2 sliced Avocados
9 Nori (seaweed) sheets
Toasted Sesame Seeds

Sushi Rice:
1/3 cup rice vinegar
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt

Tools:
Bamboo Mat
Plastic Wrap

Don't forget Tobiko (flying fish roe), Pickled Sushi Ginger and Wasabi for garnish.

I never knew you had to season the rice, but it makes it taste awesome!

1. Mix together rice vinegar, sugar and salt.

2. Pour the rice vinegar mixture onto freshly cooked rice and mix well. Let it cool.

3. Mix mayonnaise with the imitation crab. I could have used more to get a creamier consistency, but I wanted to keep it healthier. I think I'll omit it completely next time because it wasn't that noticeable.

4. Wrap bamboo mat with plastic wrap.
5. Place nori sheet shiny side down and spread a thin layer of sushi rice.

6. Add rows of cucumber, avocados and crab on the bottom of the nori.
7. Lightly sprinkle toasted sesame seeds all over the rice and ingredients.

7. Roll slowly but firmly starting from the end with the ingredients. Stop every third of the way to compress the roll to ensure it's packed tightly.

8. Run your knife under water and slice into thin pieces. 

California rolls are easy to make and can feed a lot of people for little money. With this being my first attempt, I learned a lot! I cut the pieces too big, bought too much imitation crab, didn't add enough sugar, etc. So don't worry if your rolls don't look like something from a restaurant. Still tastes delicious! I was able to find everything at my local Korean store (H Mart). Enjoy!

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Pecan Cookies

I enjoy making a ton of cookies during Christmas to give away. This year I made 9 dozen! I was debating between making the Nuoc Mam Chocolate Chip Cookies again or trying something else, and I went with the latter.

Smitten Kitchen's Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Pecan post intrigued me with the added orange zest. Plus, I always trust her insight and tips so I was excited to try something new. In 2 days, ALLLLL of the cookies were eaten. As Smitten Kitchen points out, they are a more "grown up" cookie, so the adults ended up liking them more then the kids.

They stayed soft all weekend and had a nice balance of flavors. I think I might switch up the chocolate and nuts next time just to try something different too.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 3 dozen cookies (made 4.5 dozen for me)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2 cups chopped pecans
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (I only added 1 tsp after reading comments about 2 tsp being overpowering. I thought 1 tsp was perfect.)
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat (nonstick baking mat).

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes.

3. Stir in eggs, one at a time.

4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half.

5. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips.

6. Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

7. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies

Is it unfair that when I want to bake I turn to the amazing Smitten Kitchen? Perhaps I should give other bloggers a chance...eh, maybe later.
The bf loves these brownies and so do I. They may look fancy, but whip up in no time. FYI: These taste the best cold! No one likes hot cheesecake (eww) so same principle applies here.

Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies (adapted recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

Brownie batter
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Cheesecake batter
8 ounces cream cheese, well softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (use whatever kind you want)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Heat butter and chocolate in a double-boiler  (Heat an inch of water in a small pot, place a heat resistant bowl on top and let the steam melt the ingredients. No need to boil or let the bowl touch the water)

3.  Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in flour until just combined and spread in baking pan.

4. Whisk together cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

5. Dollop over brownie batter, then swirl in with a knife or spatula. Smitten suggests folding the brownie batter over the cheesecake batter too. Works great!

6. Sprinkle white chocolate chips over the batter.

7. Bake for about 35 minutes. Chill the brownies in the refrigerator and ENJOY!

Thai Iced Tea

It is HOT outside and feels like summer is already upon us. The best way to cope with the heat is a tall glass of Thai Iced Tea.

Every blog post I have about a Thai restaurant includes me ordering this AMAZINGLY delicious drink. It is strong-brewed black tea with other spices, which can include orange blossom water, star anise, crushed tamarind seed or food coloring. After adding sugar and dairy, it is a very refreshing and addictive drink.

I bought this kit at the Bangkok 54 market after lunch one afternoon for around $5. It makes 65 servings, which will save me a lot of $. The brand also sells the tea in individual tea bags, but only makes 30 servings. I'm sure you could find different brands of the tea at other Asian markets too.

This kits comes a bag of ground Thai tea leaves...

...and this cloth tea strainer (aka Spongebob's jelly fish net).

To make 8-10 servings:
1. Measure out 1/4 cup of the tea and pour it into the cloth strainer.

2. Brew it in 4 cups of very hot water (boiling is not necessary) for 3-5 minutes. It should turn a deep orange.
3. Add 1/2 cup of sugar.

4. Pour into a pitcher and let it cool.

5. Serve it over ice with a splash of half and half and ENJOY!

I found that it is better to double the recipe because it goes fast!

The box suggests trying the sweetened tea with lime, pineapple or lychee juice too. I haven't tried those yet, but sounds interesting.

If you don't have this strainer, I'm sure you could brew the tea like you would with any loose leaves. Or try using a tied up coffee filter or simple strain the leaves out before you serve.

Nuoc Mam Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is a twist on the classic Chocolate Chip cookie. The salt has been replaced with...Fish Sauce! Nuoc Mam means fish sauce in Vietnamese, and I found this recipe one year off Anh Oi (an awesome 'apparel line designed in the spirit of Vietnam' located in the DC area, woo hoo!)

This is a very simple recipe using many common baking ingredients you'd probably already have in your house, except for the fish sauce.

Fish sauce is liquid derived from fermented fish. Appetizing, huh? I know it sounds gross if you've never had it before but it's a staple ingredient in many Asian foods, so you get used to it after a while. It has a very pungent smell and salty taste.

You can use any kind of fish sauce you like. I bought Squid brand because that was the brand always in my house while growing up.

Nuoc Mam Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Anh Oi)

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 to 3 teaspoon nuoc mam (depends on your taste, I used 2)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (I used some PB chips too)
1 cup chopped nuts(optional, which I omitted)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. Stir together flour and baking soda.

3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy.

4. Add eggs and nuoc mam; beat well. This part gets stinky... you're gonna be like "why did I just add fish sauce to my cookies?!" but I promise it won't smell during or after baking.

5. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. I baked different batches for different times, and found the cookies with a shorter baking time were still soft the next day.

They taste really good! Honestly, they don't taste any different from regular chocolate chip cookies. The BEST part of this is watching your friends and family's reaction when you tell them what they're eating. It's PRICELESS. I do plan on making these again with a higher amount of nuoc mam in it, just to test the flavor.
Try it out and enjoy!

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

After being with the bf for 6 years, we've had so different many occasions to exchange gifts that after a while they become more practical. This time he got me an ice cream maker! Woo hoo! I got him a video game, so now we're both happy.

For my first flavor I chose vanilla because I didn't want to make anything fancy in case I didn't know what I was doing. I chose David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream recipe because this was the perfect opportunity to try one of his recipes.

Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

This was my first time using a vanilla bean, and they're a lot longer than I thought. Being the second most expensive spice because of the extensive labor used to grow them, they are kinda pricey but well worth it. I went to a local spice store and got 3 for around $7. Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds out.

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Add the vanilla bean seeds and pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks.

3. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

4. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl. Our ice maker is broken, so I just used a  bag of frozen fruit to chill the water.

5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.

6. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. I'm using a Cuisinart ICE-21.

It took about 20 minutes, and I put it into a container so it could harden more in the freezer. I've heard a few hours but it took like 6 hours for me.

Serve and enjoy! You can also keep the used vanilla beans by drying them and flavoring sugar or coffee.

Next flavors on my list are pumpkin and pistachio!