An Almost All American Dinner!

Today, I decided to make dinner for my family, which included my Parents, Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, and Little Cousin. I wanted to make something that goes well with silky smooth Whipped Potatoes. So I thought maybe Pan-seared Steak, Pot Roast, or Braised Short Ribs. Unfortunately two of them would take all day to make and one of them is very pricey for my budget. Since I'm on a budget and need a quick fix, I turned to Meatloaf. Not the most elegant dish, but it sure is quick cooking and cheap.

At the end of this post, I will mention how much I've spent on this meal that served 8 people with leftovers for tomorrow. So lets begin with the menu for tonight's dinner:

Entree: Meatloaf
Side Dish: Whipped Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, and Boiled Vegetable.

The dish looked something like this:

I put my own spin on the Meatloaf recipe, by placing a few thinly sliced bacon on top of the meatloaf, which kept it really moist and delicious. The overall dish was Delicious and very All American except for the Boiled Yu Choy. I will apologize for how the gravy was poured but the food still tasted delicious. 

Here are the other pictures I've taken of the Meatloaf:

Now for the pricing, the whole meal was about 25-30 dollars. Not so bad when it can feel 8 people. 

Let me know what is your go to "cheap and quick" meals. I'd like to learn and save some money while doing so. It's a win win situation!

My Love for Cantonese Cooking (5)

I haven't posted anything for the past few days because I haven't found anything interesting I can photograph, but I assure you that I'm still cooking. 

Today I wanted to make delicious Steamed Turnip Cake. Steamed Turnip Cake or Pan Fried Turnip Cake are common dishes in Dim Sum. I adore the Oyster Sauce that they pour out on the side of the plate. It pairs well with it for some reason. 

I have to give some credit to wantanmien. They provided the recipe for me to use and the end result was a soft, slightly bitter taste from the turnip cake. Its enjoyable. Especially when it was pan fried (Sorry I didn't take that picture, TOO DELICIOUS), the crust and the oyster sauce took it to a new level.

In the picture, you will see bits of dark red, black, and some light green. Those are the ingredients for the filling that I've mixed into it. They are my favorites. It consisted of Dried Shrimp (Re-hydrated), Dried Chinese Mushrooms (Re-hydrated), Chinese Sausage, Chinese Cured Smoked Belly, and Green Onions. The combination is good, but I will change the ingredients for the filling soon to incorporate Fermented Vegetable, and Fresh Ground Pork. The filling should be a lot "meat-er". 

The quality of the pictures are poor, I'm sorry. That's just the iPad 2 that I have. 

If you'd like to see me try to make something, Please leave it in the comment box below and I'd be happy to experiment with it. I think I need more inspiration from others. 

What I had for lunch today

Waking up today, I didn't think I wanted to make anything, but turns out I had to make lunch for my family. So I made a quick trip to my local supermarket and I picked a few ingredients to make my healthier spin of a classic Italian tomato sauce called Amatriciana. 

Before I begin, I wanted to show the picture of what I use at home to cook my sauces. I know it's not the best pot, but I use what I have just to save some money for more dishes to post on this blog. It also shows my stove, so all the dishes I've made, its her babies (and I'm the godfather haha). 

Now I know many people like to use their own type of tomatoes whether its fresh or canned, I'd like to show what I use for the past few months. Every tomato sauce that I've create that took about 30 minutes to put together, used Pomi chopped Tomatoes. You can check their site about their product, Pomi Product. Pomi isn't canned; it's actually in a paper container. (Very Green!) The product is good for quick sauces because they don't contain a ton of tomato juice that can dilute a quick sauce. Pomi also doesn't need much sugar, so if you like your pasta sauces a bit on the sweeter side, use this Pomi and you cut out on the calories from the sugar. Try it out. There's also another Pomi product that I've just came across; it's the Pomi Strained Tomatoes. I will one day try that product out to see if it makes a even quicker sauce. 

Now the final product of all that I've talked about, the Amatriciana. Amatriciana is a tomato based sauce that usually consist of cured pork cheek, Pecorino Cheese, White Wine, and Tomatoes. This is one of my favorite Italian pasta dishes and will try it anywhere I can. Unfortunately I didn't plan on making lunch and I couldn't get my hands on cured pork cheek, I simply used turkey bacon (I thought it would be healthier and it was on sale.) At the beginning I said that this isn't the traditional Amatriciana, so the turkey bacon was my first substitution. I didn't use Pecorino, so I used Parmigiano-Reggiano. I didn't have white wine at home, so I used leftover beef stock (just a splash). Lastly the tomatoes from Pomi. Those are all the ingredients for the dish that I've took pictures of below.

My apologizes, I forgot to mention one ingredient. The Pasta. This pasta is special because when I was young, I've learn that one pasta shaped can hold on to this thick and rich tomato sauce. The name of this pasta is called Bucatini. This long pasta actually has a small hole, which soaks up the thick sauce that a Amatriciana is. So in restaurant menus, you would see this dish written as Bucatini alla Amatriciana. I love it.

The green bits are finely minced scallions or green onions. They're just for decoration to make the sauce brighter and look appealing. If you were to serve this, please use finely minced parsley. The grassy flavor pairs better in this dish.

After lunch, I was bored, so I decided to make Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are really small cookies that pack a nice note of sweetness, and silky rich milk chocolate chips. I ate like 4 of them already. I used a tablespoon scoop and they flatten a bit, but they are so worth it. Best snack I've had in a while.

If you want the recipe of any dish above, leave me a comment and it will be up on the next post.

My Love for Cantonese Cooking (4)

When I was young, it felt like I was in a Dim Sum Restaurant almost everyday. Every time I'd go to the restaurant, I'd get the Mini Egg Tart when I see them. They were like candy to me. Combination of crisp crust with the silky egg filling, it was heaven to me. Unfortunately, eating one plate of Egg Tarts isn't so good for one's health, so I don't get it as much in dim sum restaurants now. 

Fortunately today I was craving them, so I decided to make Mini Egg Tarts. Unfortunately I didn't have any of the molds for it, so I went out to the city and bought a couple of them. I was trying a new recipe from wantanmien. (Click on the link to see the recipe) So after an hour, these Hong Kong style mini Egg Tarts came out like these:

They were puffed and they smelled delicious. Unfortunately I couldn't eat them since they were too hot and if I took them out too early, they will fall apart on me. Just in case you didn't see the video, a pro tip to getting out the egg tarts is to take the same empty mold and enclose both tart mold together. Then flip the mold with the egg tart upside-down, and give it a tap. It should pop right out very easily and then place them into your serving platter. I decided to place them on the plate below:

They remind me of the same ones I usually eat at dim sum restaurants. It brings me back to my childhood. And best of all, they are SIMPLE! Try the recipe it out.(I'm going to try the recipe out tomorrow again, but a bigger batch. Those who live close to me, you know what that means) Let me know how it went.

Special Food Blog

I mentioned on my last food blog that I'd make a Cantonese dish, but unfortunately I made that certain dish and forgot to take a picture of it. It was delicious and full of flavors. I will make another batch and remember to take a picture this time. 

So instead of the Cantonese dish that I love so much, this post is pretty special to me because it marks the time well spent with my Grandma. My Grandma is the first person to really get me into the kitchen by having me help her make these dumplings below.

If I remember correctly, when I was a little boy, I helped fill these dumplings up and pressed the dough balls into round circles. Now I'm learning how to make these dumplings from start to end, but I can definitely say that I'm no where near perfection because my Grandma can tell whether the dough is too dry, too wet, or will collapse when cooked. I want to perfect this so bad, just to have a piece of Grandma when I grow old. The picture above has a combination of both my Grandma's work and my work, based on this picture, I can't tell the different which is my Grandma's and my work, but when I was making it with her, I could tell that my dumplings needed work. 

After steaming the dumplings in a basket for 7 minutes, they look like this.

These dumplings where soft while retaining a "bite" or in Italian "al dente". The filling was a mixture of broccoli stalks, Chinese Radish (Chai Tou; they are a flat circular root vegetable that has a green skin and stalks emerging from the top center of the root), Fermented Vegetable, Chinese Sausage, Fresh Pork loin, and Seasonings. 

I thought this post will help me remember my Grandma's cooking and how special it is to receive it. 

First Dining Blog

As I mentioned in the first post I've ever made, I said that this is a blog dedicated to everything related to food and dining. Since the last 4 post were all the foods I've made, I've decided to write a blog about dining. On this particular day, I came back home stuffed to a point of a "food coma". ("Food Coma" - the feeling that you cannot talk to anyone and trying to discreetly digest the food that you've so much enjoyed slowly) I will describe this exciting day only mentioning the restaurants with photos to accompany them.

Beginning with lunch, my friend (who's name shall not be mentioned) and I went to a place called Caracas Arepas Bar on E 7th street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. The space is really small like a typical Manhattan 1 1/2 room apartment, but the decor makes up for it. The surrounding environment is comfortable and rustic as well. We went at the right time where we got bar seats (it is actually a good place to sit in; I'll let you know what happened). The photos were taken in poor lighting. I want to apologize in advance.

We order the following from the menu:
Sidekicks (Appetizer) Croquetas
Arepas - La de Pernil, La Surena (2), Leek Jardinera

Croquetas (We didn't take the picture because it was half eaten and we were hungry!)
These small fried potato cakes had a nice flavor, but there was a flavor that wasn't really pleasant. We couldn't but notice that the oil that they used to fry our Croquetas was old. I hope they changed it after our order. All in all its worth trying, maybe you wouldn't have the old oil like we did. Beside who doesn't like mashed potato formed in the balls and then deep fried with a thin crust. Reminds me so much of french fries but bigger.

La Surena (also didn't take the picture; We were too hungry)
This is my favorite! It has big flavor and a kick that makes it really delicious. At the end, there was large puddle of gorgeous flavor that was use to moisten the crusty corn flour buns.

La De Pernil
This was a mild flavored Arepas, it was also a bit spicy which made it very delicious but not as good as the La Surena. There wasn't juice that spilled out of it, but all in all, its worth a try.
                               

Leek Jardinera
A vegeterian sandwich with a very mild flavor. The leek flavor was muted by the sun-dried tomatoes, but with company of the soft white cheese, the sandwich is pleasant. Not one of my favorites, but it is my friend's favorite.

                              

The link to the menu is here, but you have to click on the Dine In Menu.

Now the good part about sitting at the bar, during our lunch, we watch the bartender mix drinks for the other customers and we mentioned that those drinks looked good. Little did we know, the bartender made more of one drink and gave us a sample of one banana milk shake with a touch a cinnamon. It was slightly sweet and the banana was fresh, but the cinnamon was what made it over the top. I think we just love cinnamon, which is good since it has a lot of good antioxidants.

After that somewhat large lunch, we went out for a walk and a few hours later we went to Eataly, which is E 23st between 5th and 6th Avenue. This place is always packed but the wait time for a table was only 20 minutes. The actual wait time for us was about 10 minutes. The service was excellent, except for the part where we didn't get bread and oil.

We had:
Papperdelle con Panchetta e Funghi
Tagliatelle al Ragu di Manzo
and 2 glasses of Barolo 2007

Both pasta were very hearty and filling. Paired with a good quality wine; the flavors were magnificent. The wine was surprisingly dry for a red, while still having the acidity, which gave it a well rounded body. My friend surely enjoyed it.

Tagliatelle had pieces of short ribs which made the dish hearty and very filling. The pieces of short ribs were about the same thickness, but not the same length, so the dish seems cohesive.

Papperdelle reminds me very much of Chinese Ho Fun, which is the same shape but its made with rice flour. The flavors were meaty as well because of all the Wild Mushrooms (Oyster mushrooms, Cremini mushrooms, and one more that I couldn't pinpoint). This pasta was good overall, but when it started to get cold, the sheets of pasta started to stick, so either eat fast or keep the pasta moving.

The menu for Eataly is here.

This whole day was enjoyable and I would go back to the two restaurants again and again for the foreseeable future. I will post more dining experience my friend and I have and review about. I also incorporate some of my friend's criticisms so you'd get more point of view toward one restaurant.

Let me know your favorite NYC restaurant and maybe we'll try it out. Til next time, I hope you give the two restaurants a try.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year all!
Hopefully this New Year will bring tons of joy and happiness to everyone, as well as making all the New Year's resolutions come true. If you are one of the people who says to lose weight, I would say on this day, "NOT YET! But afterwards, you can." Its still the holidays, we can still splurge the some extra calories.

My idea of a simple splurge would be to make a Croquembouche (Cream Puff Tower). This seemingly simple and very elegant dessert consist of a somewhat dry exterior "puff" with a custard filling, then it is drizzled with hot burned sugar (known as Caramel), so everything can stick together.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to make the custard filling, so I decided to go with a whipped cream filling. I used the cream puff recipe from Gale Gand (Cream Puffs) and I added a few more steps to the process to make a drier product so the whipped cream filling doesn't soften the exterior puff too quickly.

Once all the cream puffs were cooked and cooled, the caramel must start cooking since you need hot sugar to stick everything together. In the meantime, make the cream filling and start piping everything. Lastly, line a cake round with wax paper and then start building. Depending on how many cream puffs you have made, that will decide how tall the tower is. In this particular day, my best friend and I made 3 batches of Gale Gand's Cream Puffs recipe (which came out to be about 40+ puffs). The tower was made with about 20 of the cream puffs. After building the tower, my finished product looked something like this:

This New Years day party I attended a Potluck hosted by one of my close friends. We were able to choose which course to bring, so I've chosen the Pasta course and the Dessert. Little did I know that there were going to be more than one dessert but it's always healthy to share the stage with everyone's creations. When everyone came in, the table looked something like this:

The buffet menu consisted of:

Bacon wrapped Quail Eggs

Chicken Drumstick Curry

Medium Shells in a Homemade Meat Sauce

Tomato Mushroom Fettuccine in a Alfredo Sauce

Pizza Hut Tuscan Pasta

Muffin Size Egg Tarts 

Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs Tower

No bake Cheesecakes (which were in the fridge)

and then some drinks.

There was a whole Roasted Chicken that was bought on the later part of the party.

It was fun and I enjoyed the party. Hope everyone learned a bit. Feel free to comment! The upcoming post will be the continuation of my love for Cantonese Cooking. You will have to wait and see what I come up with.