Steamed Chicken with Bitter Melon and Jujube

Our family loves Bitter Melon with Chicken stir fried with black bean garlic sauce.

I decided to do something different this time, I've added jujube ( red dates) and steamed instead of stir fry.

Ingredients:

1 lb - chicken drums + wings

1- bitter melon

Handful - jujube -red dates

garlic

ginger

scallion

Marinade: 

soy sauce

black bean sauce ( LKK )

cooking rice wine

cornstarch

sugar

white pepper

water

* mix marinade together, taste to your liking then add to chicken

Put all ingredients together, mix well.

Marinate for an 1-2 hours or overnight.

When ready, steam for 30-40 minutes.

Steaming was a very good idea. All the flavors came together really well.

 Can you see the delicious sauce!

Ginger and Egg Fried Rice

Have any leftover rice in the fridge?

Here is a very simple way to bring it back to life.

This is one of my favorites with the nice fluffy eggs and heat from the ginger.

Let's fry some rice!

Ingredients:

eggs

ginger

scallion

leftover rice ( it's best to use day old rice to avoid mushy texture result)

Seasoning:

soy sauce

white pepper

fish sauce

Oil a well heated wok, add ginger and scallion for a few second to flavor the oil then add the rice and toss well, breaking the clumps of rice at the same time.

Move rice to the side of wok and add the eggs, let it cook while stirring it slowly.

When eggs are half way cook, toss with rice.

Add the seasonings and toss all evenly.

Tasty and simple.

It is light enough to pair with another dish or as is with some garlic chili.

Enjoy!

Mother's Day's Menu - Late Post

" Happy belated Mother's Day to the all the Mommies out there!! "
Sorry for the late posting.

Our Sunday Grillathon Menu for Mama Ng

Grilled Beer Infused Marinated Dancing Chicken
Marinated with Chinese marinade overnight, open your favorite beer and drink half,
insert the rest of the beer can in the bird
place on heated grill, covered and let it cook!

Grill Prosciutto Wrapped Sardines

seasoned with lemon juice

drizzled with truffle oil

Grill Baby Bak Choi

Grilled Young Red Snapper with

ginger, scallion, sesame oil, salt and pepper

look at them sizzle**

Great Purchase -

Charcoal Companion Grill Basket

Snow Crab Legs

We also had Steamers

Lemon always handy when it comes to grilling seafood

It was great night, Mom loved each dish.

She even cooked us some Chinese wine chicken which I did not have a chance to snap a picture

Ended the feast on a sweet note *

Creamy Chestnut Cake with fresh fruit

Hope you enjoyed this :)

Mama's Oxtail Tail Soup

How about a nice pot of soup....

and tonight we have one of our childhood favorites ..

" Mama's Oxtail Soup "

Went to my local butcher,

selected a tail in whole and had them slice it to preferred size

Basic soup ingredients

Ingredients:

• oxtail
• tomato
• celery
• corn
• potato -waxy ( starchy ones seems to just fall apart and thicken the soup)
• garlic
• salt + white pepper
• sour cream
• oyster sauce

1. Heat water in stock pot, bring to a boil

2. Par-boil oxtail for 2 minutes then rinse with water

3. Add all ingredients to the boiling water, bring it back to a boil then simmer on med-low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours- now isn't that easy!

Look at this bowl of goodness!

Each spoonful of hearty vegetables just melts in your mouth

and the oxtail meat almost falls off the bone.

Had oyster sauce for dipping on the side and a dollop of sour cream-yum!

This soup gets better the next day, add some rice and you 'll have a stew like soup.

My appetite just perked up from posting this !

toddler lunch idea

It has been so busy for papa and I that there has not been too much cooking going on. We've managed to get in a chicken stew and a turkey stir fry which is not too bad because that's really 4 nights of eating home cooked food since I always make enough for leftovers! From Monday to Friday I need to make sure Molly goes to day care with a nutritious and well rounded lunch. On busy weeks the ideas run short and it is too tempting to send PB&J every other day. While these toddler lunch ideas are not culinary gems, they hopefully will help inspire busy moms to keep giving good food to their kids for all their meals. Thank goodness Molly loves fruit and will always eat any fruit I send! I've been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and I'm so appalled at what moms put in their kids' lunchboxes! It was gross stuff like those Oscar Meyer pre-packaged lunches (coldcuts or chicken nuggets, crackers and cheese) which are full of preservatives and are really expensive! So I offer some ideas for quesadillas which all kids love. It is inexpensive to make and really yummy and good for your kiddies! Please share your toddler lunch ideas!

Quesadillas!!

always use whole wheat tortillas and good quality shredded cheese

filling ideas:

low sodium sliced turkey (we like trader joe's brand)

ground turkey sauteed with spinach puree and tomato paste

green peas (yes, Molly likes these now)

sliced hard boiled eggs