Tim's Special Chicken Mushroom Congee

Two and a half hours of sweat, love, and hot cooking led to 4 bowls of happiness. Yup, that is right 4 bowls, that's how many I had after cooking this dish. Congee is a dish that the Chinese and Vietnamese people are very well aware of. We consider it as a comfort food, much like Americans consider clam chowder as one of their comfort foods. Congee is perfect to consume on a cold day, especially with it rains or snow. It calms and sooths the soul when it's hot right from the bowl into your mouth. I wouldn't consider congee to be a soup although it looks like soup but it's actually not depending on who you ask. Congee can be made thick or watery and anything in between, it's almost like chowder for a lack of better term. I love congee, mom makes it when anyone in our family is down with a cold, flu or fever. It's just a very easy dish to consume and it goes down easy depending on what you put into your congee. Congee can be made as simple as plain (like tomato soup) with nothing in it, to flavorful and hearty with many added condiments and types of meat (like New England clam chowder).

The prepartion wasn't that hard at all. I used 5 chicken thighs, washed, cleaned and put into a pot of boiling water, this will cook the chicken and turn the water into a wonderful chicken broth. I didn't measure how many cups of water, but I just used a normal size pot with good depth (I don't even know the size) and filled the pot with water up to about 3/4 of the way. Cover the pot with a lid and let the chicken thighs simmer for about 30mins on med-low heat. After that, add in one whole white onion (peeled, cut in halves), let the onion settled in the pot and release its flavor for about 20mins. Remove the onion, add in 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice, but becareful of how much rice you put in. the MOST important thing is know how much rice is to put in the pot. Too much can turn into a very thick mud-like congee and too little could lead to watery congee. I usually start out with 1 cup of rice to be safe but for beginners, i suggest starting out with cooked rice and add them into the boiling pot as cooked rice takes faster to cook into a mooshy creamy consistency. You can always add more rice if you think there is too little of it in the pot. Whatever else I add in the congee to give it the taste is a secret so I won't be elaborating on that. Sorry! However, as you can see in the picture that there are chicken pieces of course from the chicken thighs that I boiled, mushrooms, bean sprouts, red chilli paste, cilantro and green onions. Enjoy

Tim's Special Lemon Pepper Cod with Garlic Fried Rice

By dinner time I was hungry and forgot to thaw the meat that I wanted to eat for tonight's dinner. After digging through the freezer, I found that I had a filet of white cod. Since I had left over white rice in the fridge, I wanted to have rice and cod for dinner. Since seafood defrosts 100x faster than beef, chicken or pork, I had my work cut out for me. Without planning too much or preparation, I knew I wanted to fry the cod and also the fry the rice. This was litterally a 10 minute recipe from start to finish.

I started out with white rice right out of the fridge, and then straight into the frying pan. I find it easier to fry rice when it is cold because it is easier to break up than when it is hot or warm. The white rice went in with chopped garlic cloves, salt, sugar, ground pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce, dried shrimp, dried fried onions and green onions for flavor and taste. I fried the rice until the the rice takes up the color from the soy sauce and add in the green onions last.

For the white cod, it was very simple, no special marinade was done. All I did was put a dash of garlic salt, ground pepper, sugar to cover both sides of the cod. It then went right into a hot frying pan with some veggie oil. Cooked each side for approx 5mins on med-hi heat until the top looks golden brown. To top off the cod, i used chopped green onions and dried fried onions with some sirachi red chilli sauce and garnished it with a couple of cilantro leaves and 2 pcs of lemon. This turned out quite good for a 10 minute recipe. I wasn't full but it was enough food to get me through the night.

Stuffed Ground Pork Rice Paper Roll (Banh Cuon)

A very simple recipe to make although it does look very complicated. The prep time to make the mixture for the rice paper was really easy. Making this recipe to me is a pain in the neck, you sweat and your hands get very oily just standing infront of the stove for long periods of time. I was craving for this recipe and haven't had it for almost a year so I decided to cook it right after work. I started around 5pm and finished as you see in the picture right around 7:30pm. The two most important thing about this recipe is #1. to have a very good non-stick frying pan #2. the fish sauce has to be tasteful which means you would have to get the ratio of fish sauce, water and sugar right. That is 1fs:1s:2w (in cups). If one of these three things is not correct, plan on having a very unsucessful dinner and take out is probably the only resort after you have struggled.

Everything you see in this picture was made from scratch, which means I went to 99 Ranch Market and gathered the ingredients. They consist of cucumbers, bean sprouts, cilantro, green onions, Vietnamese pork sausage, and ground pork. This is a very traditional dish from northern Vietnam. It is a crepe-like roll made from a thin, wide sheet of rice flour filled with ground pork and minced wood ear mushroom. There are many different variations of this dish with many different ingredients used as stuffing or just plain. I've always liked mine with the ground pork, minced ear wood mushroom and chopped onions filling. Here in california, the best place to have "banh cuon" is at a restaurant in Garden Grove " Banh Cuon Tay Ho". They are actually well known not just here in California but all over the country. A lof of their pork sausages like the one I bought are at your local asian grocery stores such as 99 Ranch Market. This has to be my 4th time making this dish, the first time was horrific as I was making it for a VSA (Vietnamese Students Association) Thanksgiving potluck. Couldn't quite figure out how to make the thin rice roll, but after several attempts I was able to get it to work. Normally I would blog about how to prepare a recipe but with this one, I would have to hold off on that because it's just too long. Just comment me and ask. Cheers and good eating!

Tim's Zesty Lemon Chops

11:45pm- The 11 O'clock dinner!  Had a busy day today, so I wasn't able to start making dinner for myself until 9pm.  I knew what I was going to make so when I got everything laid out, I was missing a grater and some rosemary.  So I drove to Vons and pick them up (that was 20min wasted).  

So I was watching the Food Network the other day and came across a cooking show "Barefoot Contessa". She was preparing some marinade for the chicken and used a couple of ingredients that I thought it could be an addition to my own marinade for my pork chops.  They we're lemon and rosemary.  Had some pork chops in the freezer and decided to give it a shot to see how well it goes with my marinade.  Working with rosemary and lemon, I thought I would hold back some of other ingredients that go into my marinade.  This is because I wanted the flavor of the rosemary and the taste of lemon in the chops to come alive when you bite into the chops.  This actually turned out great and tasted wonderful, I asked one of my roommates to try it and she loved it!  It was my first time making this kind of marinade.  I will try this on chicken to see how well the lemon will turn out.  

The marinade-  I used 1/2 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), 1/2 cup of chopped green onions, 2 tbl spoons of salt 2 tbl spoons of ground pepper, 4 table spoons of sugar, 6 garlic cloves (minced),  1/4 cup of lemon zest, 2 lemons and 1/4 cup of oyster sauce. 

Preparation- wash chops with salt water, dry with paper towels.  Make slash marks on both surfaces of the chops so that the marinade can obsorb faster.  In a large mixing bowl, mix in all of the marinade ingredients, then squeeze in 2 lemons.  Stir well, add in 4 pork chops, make sure the marinade is on both sides of the chops.  Let it sit for about 30mins to let the flavor soak into the chops.  When you start seeing the chops fading from a redish color to more of a brownish tan color, that means it is good to go.  The longer you leave it in the marinade, the better and more flavorful it will come out.  I just had to eat dinner because I was starving so I marinaded for 30mins.    For frying the chops, put EVOO in a sauce pan with high heat on.  Then add in 2 chops and reduce heat to medium, let each side cook for about 5 minutes for a medium rare center or to desired doneness.  If you want the chops throughly cooked,  cut through the center of the chops to see if its still raw/pink inside.  

Tim's Special Egg Noodle Soup

The fridge was getting a little empty and I was left with some Chinese baby bok-choy (chinese baby cabbage), shrimp and some beef neckbones.  Didn't have anything in mind at first and to make something out of just these base ingredients, just seems boring.  Kept second guessing myself that I could make something for dinner tonight and looking through the fridge, I was lucky to find one package of egg noodles.  That is when I was like "I can whip up my special egg noodle soup".  The Pham family has always been in love with any kind of noodle soup.  Growing up, mom usually makes Pho on a saturday morning and I remembered running downstairs before brushing my teeth to have mom prepare me a bowl.  I usually eat two bowls of Pho leaving just enough for a couple of bowls later in the day.  Even with my cousins on my dad's side of the family, they're big fans of noodle soup.  With lots of aunts and female cousins being "the" cook in their households, they too can whip up an excellent bowl of Pho, and many types of egg noodle soup.  The Pham family has always been big when it comes down to cooking.  I'm no where near one tenth of a percent of my mom, aunts and cousins.  But I'm blessed just to be able to cook.  

Anyhow, enough about my family right (lol)?  Now back to this recipe for tonight's dinner.  This didn't take me all that long because I was working with only a few ingredients.  I started out making the broth for the soup by adding beef neckbones to half a pot of water with some salt.  Be sure to rinse the neckbones with salt water, it will help lower the amount of foamy residue coming off of the meat will boiling.  I always do this with any kind of meat that I prepare whether I'm boiling them or not.  Once you have the neckbones boiling, set heat to medium and let it simmer for about 20mins.  Meanwhile, wash the chinese baby cabbage (baby bok-choy), break off each clove and cut in half.  Add in dried shrimp for flavoring the soup, salt, sugar, pepper and fish sauce to bring out the broth to taste.  Turn heat to low heat and add in the shrimps and bok-choy.  Cover pan let simmer for about 5mins.  Then garnish broth with chopped green onions and dried fried onions.  For the egg noodles, you can use any type.  I just like the thinner one because it is faster to cook and has a better texture when you bite into them.   Boil water, then add in one package of egg noodles and stir for about 10-20 seconds.  DO NOT over cook, or the noodles will turn pale from its golden yellow color and becomes soft.  Be sure to add enough water when boiling because the starch coming from the noodles will thicken up the water.  Rinse egg noodles under cold water let it sit for about 5 mins before serving.  This goes well with some hoison sauce and sirachi red chilli sauce to dip the vegetable, and shrimp.   I ran out of the sirachi sauce =(.  Enjoy

Ingredients - 1 package of beef neckbones, 1/4 cup of chopped green onions, 1 tbl spoon of dried shrimp, 1 cup of thawed cocktail shrimp, 1 package of chinese baby cabbage (baby bok-choy), 1 package of egg noodles, 2 tbl spoons of dried fried onions, salt, sugar, pepper, fish sauce to taste.  

Vietnamese Braised Pork with Eggs

6:45pm - This particular recipe ismy all time favorite. Not only that it's easy to make but it doesn't require a lot of time to prep and cook. This could be put together in less than 30min. As you can already sense by now that I like to whip up recipes that taste great and quick. You could find this at your local asian grocery stores that has a deli section. I've had Vietnamese braised pork from these delis and they dont' taste that great. The sauce can be very thin with no texture and tastes bland with no flavor. For the pork meat, it's really dry with limited fat part of the meat on. For this recipe to taste the way my mom or aunts make it, it has to have a lot of flavors. The only way is to make it yourself and I did that. For great tasting Vietnamese braised pork, starts with marinating the pork cubes with oyster sauce, garlic, soy sauce, green onions, fish sauce, pepper, salt and sugar for about 10 minutes. Be sure you buy the pork cubes that has fat on the ends, this will add a lot of flavors when simmering. If you're a health freak, you can go with the pork cubes with less fat. I always like to add in several boiled eggs because it goes well with the pork. I have no explanation why but trust me. I usually make this a little bit spicy, so i add in chopped red chillies to give it that spicy kick. Overall, this recipe is easy to make, and it is paired with white rice.

Preparation - Rinse pork cubes with salt water, in a mixing bowl add pork cubes with minced garlic, chopped green onions, 1 tsp of grounded peppers, 2 table spoons of sugar, 1 table spoon of salt, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/4 cup of oyster sauce. Mix well, let it sit for about 10min.

In a sauce pan on high heat, pour in marinated pork cubes, stir fry for 5 mins. Then add about 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 tbl spoon of dark soy sauce for color, then add in 2-4 boiled eggs (peeled), let it simmer for 15mins. With a tablespoon, remove the soapy like content along the top of the sauce. Add in salt, fish sauce and sugar to taste. Finish with chopped red chillies (optional).

Pork stuffed tofu and bitter melon soup

9:15pm - Today I woke up and wanted to eat something healthy but also has subtance. Decided that I want to make two of my favorite recipes. Starting out with the bitter melon soup which I've never made before. I'm not a big fan of bitter melon due to its bitterness (duh), however, the way my aunt makes it, it decreases the bitterness where it's not so strong. All I know is that my aunt makes great bitter melon soup. I went to 99 Ranch Market to buy the bitter melon and attempt to prepare for the very first time. It turned out wonderful and tastes very pleasent. the bitter taste of the melon is still present, however it was just enough to give it that kick in taste. To help reduce the bitter, boil the melon for about 20mins before cooking.

As far as the sateed tofu stuffed with pork filling, this is my dad's favorite recipe. Mom has always been making this while I was growing up and it's one of my favorite tofu dishes. I make this dish quite frequently although frying fresh tofu is a little time consuming ( can be substituted for pre-fried tofu ). One reason why I like to make this recipe frequently is that besides deep frying the tofu, that it is easy and quick. I can complete this recipe in about 30mins. Below is a snippet of the ingredients used to make these two dishes. If you have any questions on how to prepare this dish, please feel free to contact me. Enjoy!

Pork stuffing - Ingredients: ground pork, dried black fungus, vermecelli (bean threads), minced garlic, chopped green onionssalt, pepper and sugar.

Bitter melon soup - Ingredients: 2 bitter melons, pork filling, chicken broth, dried shrimp, pork ribs, water, green onions, salt, pepper, sugar and fish sauce to taste.

Sateed pork stuffed tofu - Ingredients: Tofu (pasteurized, firm), pork filling, tomatoes, dried shrimp, green onions, fried red onions, salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce to taste.