Chinese Pasta Bolognese with Soft Fried Egg

One of my favorite seasons......
I know ( there's only four)
Fall has finally arrived...time to enjoy the crisp autumn air and the warm colors of the fall foliage to come...
And of course ....get out your favorite cardigan , boots , hats and recipes!

Spaghetti Bolognese....one of the world best comfort food especially on a chilly evening. And it is fun putting this dish together, you can recreate this wonderful traditional sauce in a snap!
By keeping the traditional base sauce/ ingredients and if you're not in the mood for beef you can just simply replace it with vegetables, any meat of choice, seafood, shellfish or just the sauce alone and of course top it of with your favorite sharp cheese - parmagiano reggiano and parsley
Buon Appetito!

Here's My Twist - Chinese Bolognese
Ingredients:

• ground turkey + pork ( mix together and marinate with soy sauce , oyster sauce, seasame oil, worchestershire sauce, chinese cooking rice wine )
• asian eggplant + carrot -chopped
• dried shitaki mushroom - soak in water then slice
• crush tomato and paste
• garlic - minced
• onion - chopped
• brown sugar
• milk
• udon noodle
• egg
• parsley

Sauce -
Heat pan, add oil until heated, add onion let it sweat then the garlic until fragrant ( dont let it burn)
add the meat , stir until in bits , remove and put to the side.
Keep the oil and juice in the pan , add the carrots, mushroom and the crush tomato with juice
let it simmer until carrots are cooked.
Time to put the meat back in to the pan, stir in the eggplant, brown sugar,tomato paste and milk. Let it simmer on low flame for a few minutes. Sauce is done!
Noodle -
Japanese udon noodles is what I used for this dish, I like the rice noodle with the savory sauce.
Bring a pot of water to boil add noodles , cook until done ( instruction on the package)
Take your favorite bowl (as it will keep everything together nice and warm)
First put noodle then the bolognese sauce.
You gonna like this one ,topped it off with a nice soft fried egg! ( i think it's a traditional Ng topping) and sprinkle with parsley...
slowly place the fork thru the soft egg and mmmmmm...let it just drown into the lovely bowl of goodness with hints of mushroom, eggplant and the lightness of the rice noodle, .....went for seconds ;)

Nice Soft Fried Egg- heat small pan with oil - medium heat , add egg, when you start seeing the bottom whitening add alittle water and lower the flame , cover ,and let it steam. There ! enjoy.....  

( care to share your recipe...pretty please)

Should I care?

I just got back from lunch from An Nhau where I was served by the very cute and feisty biggiefood. She was super cute in this cute restaurant. The food was very good. I had pho and a chicken salad. Both were yummy and fresh tasting. (See Annie's entry below for a more complete review). I even went next door to their sandwich stand for summer rolls and a sandwich for the plane. The fish sauce and pate is smelling strong and I'm wondering if anyone seated near me on the plane will be offended. Should I care?? I don't think so! There was another person buying sandwiches for her plane trip to California. Wonder if she'll be on my flight? Together we can permeate the plane with the wonderful aroma of our banh mi.

Sunday Dim Sum YUM YUM Cha

Sunday rainy afternoon,

Em's in town and what do we like to do when we're together...have DIM SUM! .....

( Cin's away at a friend's wedding :( )

We decided to go to Ping's Seafood Restaurant on Mott St. as it's been awhile since we last went.


Here are some of the goodies we ordered:

- sew mai .. shrimp pork mushroom dumplings

- choi sum with cripsy garlic flakes

cheurn fun - steamed rice rolls

can you tell how happy delicious dimsum make us...yes

-ngau pak yip - steamed ox tripe w/garlic scaillioin

and we finished with ....

- see yow wong chow mein crispy fried thin egg noodle w/ soy scallion bean sprouts

feeling food coma coming on .....need coffee

....... Mai Daan!

waiting for the check......

.............. got our coffee fix!

cheers!

too hungry and missed some dishes like fung jow - steamed chicken feet, hai gao - steamed shrimp dumplings, and steamed dry beancurd wrap pork roll.... etc..
Click here for full MENU*

Little vietnamese girl...

I haven't seen my baby sister for weeks so I decided to visit her one afternoon at work. She has been working doubles at this new vietnamese restaurant in Williamsburg, An Nhau. I nearly jumped on her when she greeted me at the door. You would too, just take a look...

The place is really nice. Imagine Indochine minus the fuss. She sat me in the garden where it felt like an indonesian resort until some annoying hipster started talking.

She took my order and made sure to check on me every 10 minutes. I couldn't have felt more VIP. Out of all people, She knows what a pain I am when it comes to dining out. Service was excellent.

The menu at An Nhau is traditional but modern. I really wanted to order the pork belly braised in coconut juice served with an egg. I am watching my cholesterol and weight ( I'm not 20 anymore) so I opted for vegetable summer rolls.

It was delicious. Normally this is with shrimp but the sauteed portobello mushroom substitutes nicely. The combination of the mushroom, bean sprouts, basil, mint and shredded cucumber and carrots topped with the homemade chili sauce was heaven.

My second dish was the classic pho...

(Sorry, this was half eaten. I was too hungry )

This is surely a classic. You have this wonderful soup served with rice noodles, thinly sliced beef, tendons and beef balls.

You can taste the hours the oxtail and pork bones simmered in the soup. It was rich and flavorful.

If this is the only way I get to see my sister and have good food, life isn't so bad.

Must experience:

An Nhau - Vietnamese Cuisine - Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

172 Bedford Avenue

(between North 7th and 8th Street)

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718.384.0028

Top Wah Wah

So can you believe Robin played the cancer card again?? You know I love to complain about the contestants but will watch the show every week anyway. And if you can't get enough of top chef, check out this funny blog http://www.pleasepackyourknivesandgo.com/

Are we foodiots?

Heeeelllll yeah!

http://www.observer.com/2009/food-amp-drink/foodiots

Saturday Lunch - Grand Sichuan

Going to share on what we had for lunch the past Saturday.
We had a very busy morning, so busy we skipped breakfast and a little pass noon , we were ready for lunch! and decided to go some where in the neighborhood.

We felt we needed to reward ourselve for being super busy with house stuff .....and in the mood for comfort food so......of course .....mmmm soup dumplings! Headed down to Grand Sichuan on St.marks.
The waitress was nice and sat us on nice table served us a pot of hot tea and here's our order:

We started with~
- pork soup dumplings ( siu long bao)
- Aah heaven..........

- 2 nd appetizer - Thinly sliced Conch with red sichuan chili oil and scallion

And finally - the Red cooking Pork in little hot wok! - pork belly, chunks pork loin , bean sheetsThe pork soup dumplings, do i need to say more....... mmmmm
and it's fun everyone has their own style and claims it is the first and best technique on how to eat the soup dumplings without making a sad mess.

This is our first time ordering the cold conch dish and it's abit odd in a good way, I am not sure it was a great dish but i couldn't stop myself ..... and i think i will order that again.

Ah finally the Red pork, wow it had the right amount of heat with it cooking at the table in a tiny wok and being spicy at the same time......oooh that's when the bowl rice come handy!

Anyone tried the Conch dish ? Let 's talk......









One of my favorite place to have soup dumplings was Goodies on East Broadway in Chinatown unfortunately they lost their lease....

A small message to all my friends that enjoyed the Soup Dumpling @ GOODIES- they moved!!! Here is their new address:
88 Fulton Street , New York - 212.766.0821 Hours : 11 - 10:30

ground turkey stir fry

We always have ground turkey in the fridge. We use it for turkey bolognese and this stir fry which we have every week. It is inexpensive and super quick & easy to make! We love it with rice and siracha. You can use whatever veggies you like. I like using long beans but have used kale, broccolini or cabbage. I also add carrots when I have them in the fridge.

• 1 lb ground turkey dark meat
• 1 bundle of long beans ( cut into 2 inch pieces and blanched)
• onion
• garlic
• 1 square preserved bean paste (fu yu) mix with water to thin
• 1 tablespoon black bean paste (lee kum kee is my friend)
• 1 teaspoon hoisin
• salt and soy sauce to taste

Brown turkey, unless you have an industrial strength stove like Annie, this takes a while. I drop the turkey in the wok in large pieces over high heat to get the sear. After I get some color then I break the meat up to smaller bits by pushing a wooden spatula through it. The meat usually gets a bit watery at this point. Just keep stirring until the water condenses and you hear the sizzling come back. At this point add a little more oil. I use olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and let it cook for a few mins. Then add the veggies. Once the wok is sizzling again, turn the flame down a little. Add the sauces and stir fry until veggies are at the tenderness you like! I put all the seasonings at the end because the turkey gets too salty if you season along the way.

Molly likes just the turkey and rice. I tried sneaking in the long beans cut into tiny pieces. She found them! "No"

Very Simple Grilled Whole Tilapia

Who is in the mood for delicous tilapia?

This is very easy to prepare and to cook, so you can kick back and enjoy a glass of wine, that's what I did...

With this recipe, you can grill, bake or just simply steam the fish.

Tilapia is a fresh water and non-oily fish, that way it was able to absorb the sauce and seasoning well.

What you need :

Fresh Tilapia - ( yes the fish market will do most of the hard work)

scallion

ginger

garlic & black bean sauce (LeeKumKee Brand)

salt . pepper

-clean fish inside and out, you might find some scale left, use a knife scape aganist the scale which is toward the head.

I usually have the head of the fish facing me and scaping toward my direction, that helps the scales fly to opposite direction to the wall of the sink (easy to clean) or do it under water.

lightly score the skin of the fish on both side

rub salt and pepper inside and outside

stuff the cavity with ginger and scallion

lay the fish on a plate and rub the garlic and black bean sauce on the entire fish ( can put some in the cravity) you can thin out the paste with anykind of stock

Set up a sheet of foil, lay stalks of scallions then lay the fish on top so it won't stick to the foil.

semi seal it and put on grill, about half way done spread the foil open so the skin is exposed (close lid) that way the skin can crisp. Tilapia is more on the meaty side compared to other fishes but each bite is like butter.....mmmm go on...give it try...

That night we realized we should've got 2 tilapias...

Here is a not so good photo but sooooooooo delish ....served with grilled veges ..

oh yes , foil is great btw ..... we had friends to enjoy our meal with ...

you look good! ---------------------no...you look good!

lisa-Congee with pork & carrot

I am really enjoying our new blog, posting old and new recipes along with stories.

It is like my filing cabinet has come to life and feels real good to share especially with the girls.

What is interesting is that we all sort of know how to cook similar dishes with its base ingredients, and with adding our own style to them it turns out to be a different or better dish. From that we will be able to adapt from each others recipes ..what fun!

Hopefully we will hear more from Annie and Cindy very soon

(and I know that Cindy has fantastic recipes that are vegetarian friendly ).

On my previous post, I had mentioned my love for congee but I have never tried it with carrot.

Here I made a pot of congee with the extra pork rib I salted when I was making the watercress soup.

Heat the pot with water , rice and pork ( boil pork sperately to remove impurities)

see: http://cookng.blogspot.com/2009/09/homemade-congee-jook-cantonese.html

Carrot- diced and boiled in a separate pot. I then add the ginger and cooked carrot to the congee.

Let the pot of congee return to a boil then let it simmer for 20- 30 mins.

Kept the water that the carrots was boiled in and used it to water down the congee if necessary.

Removed some of the pork chunks and shred them with a fork or your fingers, return them to the congee and stir.

Let it simmer, when done I add few drops of fish sauce, salt (might not need it as the pork is salted alrady) and white pepper and top it off with scallion and cilantro. With the flavors of the salted pork and soft cooked slightly sweet carrots, Yes I will definitely make this again.

Top Chef, snoozefest

Is it me or is this season a big snoozefest? I would expect a season in Vegas to be much more fun and exciting. Half the contestants shouldn't even be on the show. The Ngs can cook circles around them. I mean, maybe only Annie knows how to make a bernaise from scratch but still... The redhead made a romaine salad with shrimp and sausage (that she didn't case herself)!!??!!?? Is this Top Chef or TGIF???

lisa - Watercress Pork Soup

This is one of my favorite soups from childhood and is based on my memory of my mom's recipe. I started making this not too long ago. it's quite simple to make.

Ingredients :

Watercress - water

Pork ribs ( better flavor with the bone)

Carrot -Young potato

Goji berries or Wolf berries

Ginger- Garlic - Red Dates

Start a pot of water for the soup, and another for the pork, bring to boil.

Watercress- to clean, use a big pot under running water and sprinkle salt over the greens that helps to remove any sand or dirt. (standard salt ,don’t waste the good stuff)

I like to keep a portion of watercress aside and add that in after 45 minutes so you can still have some of the crunch.

Pork- put in boiling water for a few minutes to remove the scum and impurities and also the soup will be clear and not cloudy. ( see picture)

When soup pot is boiling, put in pork, watercress, ginger (sm knob), garlic, carrots, and the red dates. Bring to boil again then simmer for 45 minutes

45 minutes later
Add the potatoes, goji berries, and the rest of the watercress.

Simmer for 15 minutes.

Done, I like to add the seasoning on the side , salt, white pepper and oyster sauce. Can add rice or pasta - i like macaroni

This soup also works as a detox soup. Not only this taste great, is super good for you!

Frittata for Molly

This is one of the few moments when Molly is actually happy eating a vegetable! I did however thought of a clever way to hide some healthy veggies and also include protein, dairy and carbs! I made a "frittata" of sorts with eggs, cheese, spinach, mini elbow pasta, spaghetti squash and it was yummy! I don't really have any measurements since I winged it when I made this. I started with sauteing the squash in butter and olive oil. Then I added the spinach. In a bowl I whisked 8 eggs and added about a cup of shredded cheese. Then I mixed in the sautee mixture and a cup of cooked pasta, seasoned, put it in a baking dish and baked at 375 for about 20 mins. This isn't gourmet food exactly but great for kids obviously. I was surprised at how yummy it was. John liked it too!

Pig trotters!

One of my favorite things to eat are pigs feet (anything pig really) but hate the work that goes into getting the meat out of bone. Also gnawing on the bone isn't lady like especially in public. So one night at DBGB, I saw pig trotters on the Tete au Pied "head to foot" section on the menu. It read... deboned crispy pigs feet. I had to order it. It was amaaaaazing. It was meat, skin, gristle, and lots of fat rolled up and then deep fried. I ate everything. I must've gained 20 lbs but who cares! It was worth it.

where are the mysterious ones?

lisa- Marinated Pork Chop with Ginger Cilantro Lime Rice

This morning,
Rosie shared with me a recipe for brine cured pork chop, sounds good Thank you!
http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/8491/2004/03/14/Brine-Cured-Pork-Chops/recipe.html

how funny, i made pork chop just last night:
- boneless pork chop
marinated overnight with soy sauce,toasted sesame oil,worcestershire sauce, chinese rice wine and garlic , I pan fried them 2 minutes on each side with the lid half covered then removed them and sprinkle the chops wiht brown sugar, pop in broiler for 3 mins each side to sear the fat and carmelize the sugar...

- rice ( adapted from Closet Cooking blog)
Heat pan with oil, add scaillion , ginger, garlic until fragrant
add white rice in heated pan to toast for few minutes then add water ( i added 2.5 part from rice amt) lower the flame and let it steam since this is cooked stove top it will cook faster then a steamer. When done , I fluffed rice and added a few drops of soy sauce and the chopped cilantro , lime juice and zest. I also heated a alittle longer for the crisp.

This was served with a roasted tomato - tomato sliced in half , in the oven to bake ( this should start before the pork and rice)

It was nice, the pork was tasty and tender with the roasted tomato and it's juice with ginger lime rice.......
a fried egg on top might be good too......oh my!

Em's chicken stew

I love making chicken stew! And every time I make it, it is a little different. It's always a tomato and stock base alternating latin, moroccan and mediterranean flavors. Tonight I made it with mushrooms, carrots, green squash and olives. Got all the veggies from the farmer's market. Molly liked it but of course rejected the squash. However, she ate the sauteed broccolini that I made for a side. Go figure. Veggies are a challenge for the mo-ster.

Here's the recipe, its for a large pot. I love leftovers.

6-8 chicken thighs or 1 chicken cut up in 8-10 pieces

onion, garlic

1 can san marzano tomatoes hand crushed, use the puree they sit in too

chicken stock (use more for a thinner stew, less for thicker)

any herbs and seasonings you like (use coriander, cumin and paprika for morrocan style)

any veggies you like

brown chicken, add onion garlic, add seasonings and herbs, add tomato, add long cook veggies, simmer for half hour, add quick cook veggies, simmer until chicken almost falls off bone

Serve with rice, cous cous or noodles....

lisa - Avocado, Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Salad

I love Caprese Salad !

All fresh ingredients ripe tomatos, creamy mozzarella with slivers of basil....mmmmm drizzle with olive oil and drops of balsamic vinegar

and sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper.

One day i was craving avocado and had planned a caprese salad on the menu that night. Maybe I'll add some to the salad. Wondering if avocado will go well with mozzarella or end up having a confusion of texture ( also got the girls opinion on that - i think em was the only one that got back to me ?)....had to try it and ta ta it was delicious! enjoy!

lo fu gee - chon sin sian and dai fian suue

Lisa - Homemade Congee - Jook - rice porridge

Got some news today, Little Molly has a fever and a poor appetite. So I mentioned carrot jook and Em really like that idea. I actually found it on this Blog - great selections of soup and congees ( even for babies ) a must check out!
http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/congee.html
If I can I would have congee almost everyday, it just gives you an instant calming effect and also help restores your appetite. Great for hangovers , upset stomach, sick, or pissed off for no apparent reason... A simple yet versatile dish. The carrot jook does sound good!
Here is the recipe I make when we're not feeling well.
-rice / water - usually 3 parts of the rice amount
( remember you can add water or stock if you feel it is not your prefer texture)
bring to a boil then simmer with lid half off
add the following
-garlic - ( healing ) roasted so it's on the sweet side, squeeze paste into the congee melts right in.
-ginger - ( healing ) slice to thin sticks
-shitake mushroom - thinly slice
simmer for 20 - 30 mins

-fish sauce - few drops
-scallion and cilantro ( something about cilantro, it give it a fresh and smooth taste )
-salt and white pepper


and with that we get a good night sleep while the magic of congee is working the toxins out... always worked ! Congee is my friend

Ideas!

I know I'm not a fantastic cook ( geoff think so,thanks man!) but i do enjoy cooking, hopefully get some tips here and there and be nice girls ( i meant cooking tips )
Bought myself a little nice note book yesterday and started writing out some of my recipes.. realized I like to use the same ingredients for most of my dishes. Thanks Em ! going to be some new additions to my pantry..lisha

emily - chicken adobo

I made boring chicken adobo again. But John LOVES it! In case you guys want to do it, its easy...and you can use any kind of meat really....maybe not dog....dooog

meat

garlic

onion

black peppercorns

bay leaf

1 part coconut vinegar (datu puti brand, I feel very fillipino when i buy this)

2 parts soy sauce

stock or water if it gets too rich or salty

tomato if it is too sour

brown meat, add stuff, simmer till stuff falls off the bone

I'm not going to post national geographic pictures like lisa of this adobo since it was not very good looking this time. I made it with thighs but skinless boneless...beauty-less. it tasted damn fine tho.

Our Saturday Breakfast at Annie's

Don't worry we only have this on weekends ....( sure )
Bowl of ginseng chicken soup with rice and Annie's perfect overeasy egg - hopefully she can share her secret
with the warm yoke swimming in the soupy rice .. slurping away with bitesize porkbelly with pickle vegetables and of course chili oil and oyster sauce on side for the extra flavor.

ahh what a way to start the day ......actually we wanted to head back to bed.
Thank you Mama Ng for the Lovely soup and Pork dish. *

Lisa - Chicken Watercress Ginger Tomato Dish

Heat the wok and start!

-ginger, garlic and the dau se ( fermented black bean ) you can also use Lee Kum Kee Bean and garlic sauce ( Recommended)

- add the chicken ( I used wings and drums for this dish )
-soy sauce , rice wine , seasame oil , sugar , white pepper
-added cilantro along with diced stems and quartered tomatos with juice
-watercress the last touch to keep the crunch

served it with avocado slices over rice.
geoff had seconds!

i think it was mama ng fried red snapper that inspired me with this dish. YUM !

Welcome!

Let's start cooking!