Stuffed Cuttlefish (my way??)

 Our internet has been pretty sketchy lately. Actually, that's a serious understatement - it sucks. It's technically our fault because we are trying to share with the next door neighbors (we agreed to split the cost originally), but the signal just isn't quite reaching our end well enough. It's bad enough to really make me want to scream sometimes...most of the time...

To add insult to injury, I have recently discovered that almost all my old pictures have been deleted on Blogger!!! Ugh. Major damage control. So I've been a little MIA from the blog the past week because I've been desperately trying to re-upload everything once again.

This week has been pretty relaxing for me, which is great since I am sick. I've been working from the library for the most part, so my schedule is more flexible, meaning I have more time to devote to my blog. Ever since my blog got featured, I feel like it's been getting a little more attention (woohoo!). So it was awesome when one of my friends actually asked me to cook for him after the publication.

I actually had a little bit of dumpling/wonton filling left over from the last time I made wontons (a couple months ago, but don't worry it's been frozen), and I've been meaning to get rid of it somehow. In addition, I had recently gone to the local Hmart (Korean market) and bought a few frozen cuttlefish. So, naturally, it occurred to me then...ground pork stuffing + giant squid-like creature = stuffed squid! Except with a few changes...heh heh...

Anyway, it turned out relatively good. I grilled it over our George Foreman grill, maybe a little too much because I wanted to make sure the inside was fully cooked. Next time, I think I will cut slits on the sides before grilling so the insides cook a bit quicker (and the squid doesn't get overdone and rubbery). I think it also needs some sort of sauce to dip in; my friend mentioned that the taste of squid was still too strong.

Honey Walnut Shrimp (and pet barnacles...)

I’ve recently acquired a new and very unusual pet – a barnacle – in my collection of weird STUFF, and I would like to say that it is a surprisingly good companion to have around. I wanted to advocate buying one to keep with you, as there are many advantages to it. Most people looking for a pet usually want something flashy, like a killer whale or a dolphin, but once you look past the excitement of the big animals, there are a lot of things lacking that you can more easily find in a small creature like the barnacle. Here are just a few of the many perks:

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

It's been incredibly muggy in Philly lately, and I really can't get myself to eat much in the heat. However, in times like these, there is always one meal that I know I can always fall back on - Vietnamese spring rolls! Whoever thought of the concept of rice paper rolls is seriously a genius. These things are so convenient; they last forever dried in your cupboard, and the moment you want to eat them, you just dip them in water and turn them into a clear, versatile Asian tortilla. Props to you, ancient smart Vietnamese entrepreneur!

So back to my epic supermarket adventures. This past Sunday, I got my friend to drive me once again to the local H-mart Korean grocery store. It was a monstrosity of a place (as are most Korean supermarkets), and I almost couldn't control myself as I wandered in awe around the aisles. I don't think I've seen anything so grand in the way of supermarkets since I left the H-mart in San Diego more than a year ago. As you may have guessed, I had a lot of fun in there.

I've made Viet spring rolls for this blog before, but that was a while ago, and I think my photography has improved a bit since then. It's interesting to compare old blog posts with new ones and see the differences that have accumulated over time.

Cioppino

A couple days ago we actually saw crab on sale at the local Asian market, and if there's one thing our household will NEVER get enough of, it's crab. Seriously, there have been times where we literally ate nothing but crab for days straight (well, okay, maybe just dinner...but still, it was DAYS). It was a little odd actually because crab season is usually in the winter, so we were surprised to see it at only $3.99 a pound in the middle of July. But hey, who's complaining?

Anyway, Dad wanted to get crabs again today, (they seemed pretty angry about being bought) but we decided that, instead of steaming them like we always do, we ought to try a creative new twist on it. After some consideration, we settled on San Francisco Cioppino (Dad really wanted Singapore Chili Crab, but he says he has yet to find a legitimate recipe in NorCal...one day I'll go to Penang and try the real deal). I guess four years in San Diego hasn't completely washed out the Bay Area in me :)

Cioppino is supposed to be a seafood soup, sort of like a Bouillabaisse with an Italian twist. The first time I had it, our next-door neighbor gave us a bowl with an actual lobster tail in it...mm...unforgettable. Unfortunately, lobster is a little hard to come by, not to mention sore on the wallet, so we settled instead this time for crab. And, hey, it was still delicious. In fact, that's just the thing with cioppino - you can mix and match just about any kind of shellfish or seafood (except for certain kinds of fish, they might disintegrate in the soup) and still end up with fantastic results.

Pad Thai

So I think recently Dad has been trying to encourage me to cook more (I think he senses that I am getting restless at home), which is good news for me. I'm starting to get a little discouraged by Mom's criticism of me in the kitchen, but now reinforcements have arrived, and I re-emerge with renewed strength!

Yesterday, I was supposed to go out with Gordon for lunch and the library (he's working on his med school application, poor boy), but I decided to cancel and spend the July 5th holiday catching up on pre-medical school issues with Dad. Which means shopping for electronics (seen by me as nothing more than an unfortunately necessary evil - computers and I are not friends). Anyway, that meant I wouldn't waste my stomach on a big lunch and could therefore eat properly with my parents...which Mom hadn't counted on and so had nothing to cook. So Dad suggested I cook up my Pad Thai, which I've cooked a few times in San Diego and once for Dad in NorCal. I use Pim's recipe (seems like everyone does), which is surprisingly fast and simple. One major twist - we didn't want to buy limes, so we used the lemons from our backyard. It didn't have the EXACT same taste, but it was close enough.

Father's Day Part I - One crazy day in the kitchen

Father's Day this year was not just a day - it was a weekend. I'd have to say it was pretty fun, but seriously, in any other circumstance, I would say the effort was DEFINITELY not worth the result. Especially for my father, who places taste and quality far above presentation. But anyhoo, I was bored and had time to kill. Plus, I just borrowed an incredibly cool book from the library (hors d'oevres by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell) and it had so many pretty pictures, I couldn't resist.

So on Saturday, I made a Father's Day dinner that consisted entirely of appetizers. I will say one thing: I have new-found respect for caterers. Making appetizers both tasty and appealing is HARD. Even with my dad helping me in the kitchen, it took all day (well, half the day; we spent the morning making apple pie). But in the end, everything came out pretty well.

Actually, there were a few more appetizers (skewered shrimp with lemon mayonnaise, curry puffs, vegetable dips, etc.), but in my haste, I either forgot to take pictures, or the food wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough to be posted. 

Shanghai Shepherd's Purse Wontons

Yesterday Priscilla came over again...amidst a chaotic mess of flour and meat in the kitchen! Mom decided it would be cool to make wontons that day so we could join in (and then stuff Priscilla with a lifetime's supply for her family too). I think Mom has fun feeding visitors....so long as she gets the credit when they smile with their mouths full.

Now, I know when people think 'wonton' they jump to the image of the Cantonese pork-stuffed dumplings found either in soup or deep-fried and crispy (think Panda Express). But of course, Mom is a Shanghai girl, and the only wontons she will ever make are Shanghai style. And, of course, anything Shanghainese is bound to have the infamous Shepherd's Purse vegetables native to that part of China. I think the real wonton is supposed to be stuffed with a mixture of ground pork and shepherd's purse, but Mom's version is a bit healthier, with a higher percentage of veggies and the addition of shrimp.

Graduation dinner - Roasted Salmon

Actually, this post is a little bit late, but I've been so busy experimenting in the kitchen that I got too lazy to post up pictures of my graduation night dinner! It wasn't a big thing; we had a simple (but delicious!) dinner at our family friends' house in Escondido - Dad didn't even want to think of the lines outside of any restaurant within 20 miles of UCSD on the night of our graduation ceremony. But I wanted to post these pics because they were taken with a DSLR - our host is an avid photographer (though not of food). I got a little overexcited with the picture-taking during dinner preparation as I danced around Mom with the bulky camera while everyone else stared in bemusement.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

This is a continuation of my last post for Nuoc Cham or Vietnamese Dipping sauce. Like I said, today was a HOT HOT day. Man, just having the laptop on my lap for more than 5 minutes is killing me.

Anyway, like I said, hot food requires a special dinner menu - in this case, Vietnamese spring rolls. Trust a tropical people to know how to dine in heat. We actually have a few variations on it; for one thing, Mom insisted on stuffing in cilantro, which I know is not traditional. And for another, the basil at the market today looked half-dead, so we ended up not putting that in either. Fortunately, we grow our own mint in the backyard, so we have plenty of that.

I think half the magic of spring rolls is the fun you get making them together at the dinner table. Dad's spring rolls always look horrible, with the contents spilling out while he rolls them. Mom always manages to stuff everything in her mouth right before it explodes out of the skin, so it's funny watching her try to eat. I like to pride myself in the fact that mine are actually quite pretty - but then, I have a lot of practice making these for dinner during college.

Spanish Paella

I first made this dish during the very end of my senior year of high school (ages and ages ago) after happening on a random recipe of Paella on Mediterrasian. There was a night that my parents went out for dinner, and my friend and I jumped on the opportunity to lord over the kitchen. After hours of cutting, crying (from the onions), and haphazard stirring, I finally chanced upon a dish that actually did not turn out half bad. That was nothing, however, to my astonishment when my mom, trying out our leftovers, actually took a great liking to it. I mean, Dad will literally eat anything I give him, but when my viciously, brutally honest mom compliments my cooking, that's when I know I've hit the jackpot.

Shepherd's Purse and Tofu Soup

It's funny how you can eat something all your life and never know what it's called. There's this particular vegetable native to Shanghai that I've literally been raised on from my mom (being a Shanghainese-raised girl herself). To me, it's always been known as Ji Tsai. They only come frozen here in California, and the label always says "Chinese water spinach". However, I know that Chinese spinach is really kongxing tsai or onchoy, which is a completely different vegetable.

Malaysian Seafood Laksa

Well it's been a while since my last post...and I have a lot to update on. First of all...

GOT INTO JEFFERSON!!!! Looks like I'll be headed to Philly for the next four years of my life (for better or for worst). Good thing is I'll be within walking distance of the Liberty Bell, the original White House, Reading Terminal Market, and...CHINATOWN!! The people were really nice...the two adcom members Dr. Callahan and Brooks (the very same people who attend every interview day) personally call every admitted student to give them the news. Talk about personal. I think I may have given Dr. Callahan a headache. The conversation went something like...

Dr. Callahan: I just wanted to let you know that you've been accepted --
Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH OMGGGGGGGG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
DR. Callahan: -- to Jefferson Medical College...

Yeah...she probably went temporarily deaf for a second or two.

Shrimp Stirfry with Thai Chili Paste

It's been finals week, so I haven't had much time to cook or post on my blog. Actually, well, I have been cooking, but it's usually just very quick and sloppy stuff - throw everything in the pot, etc. etc.

This round of finals is actually not so bad. I think it's the senioritis talking here. In fact, I just learned a few days ago that next week was finals. Yea...I have a serious case of senioritis. I got it bad. Not that it really matters at this point. Though I won't rest easy until I hear from Jefferson.

Anyway...I did promise to find another use for the Nam Prik Pao I made before. I have some left over, and I know that when I move out, I'll probably have to throw it away. But it's such a shame...especially as this batch was one of my first blog posts too! But...I don't have time to search for a good recipe!

Solution: stirfry!

Tom Yum Soup

After our epic hot pot yesterday, we had an astonishing amount of food left over. This included half a bag of squid tentacles and a whole mountain of shrimp, fish balls, fish roe-filled fish tubes, shrimp balls, egg dumplings, fish dumplings, tofu, daikon...the list goes on. Anyway, I had accidentally left out a chicken breast because I thought initially that we would have a chicken-based broth. So in the end, I had to find a way to get rid of all this meat before it all went bad.

So I made tom yum soup...except that I dumped everything I could get away with into it. It was quite epic.

Tom Yum Soup

-3 cups water

-8-10 prawns with heads still on (or more)

-3 slices ginger

-handful of kaffir lime leaves, bruised

-2 tbsp nam prik pao

-fish sauce to taste (~2 tsp)

-2 stalks lemongrass, inner white parts only and chopped into manageable pieces

-5 shiitake mushrooms, dehydrated

-Any other type of mushroom (enoki, oyster, button, etc.)

-1 chicken breast, diced

-Squid tentacles

-Any other type of addition - fishballs, egg dumplings, shrimp balls, etc.

1. Remove shrimp heads and boil in water. Simmer for about 10 minutes before removing the heads. Now you have shrimp stock!

2. Add lemongrass, shiitake mushrooms, kaffir leaves, and nam prik pao, and bring to a boil.

3. Add meat, other mushrooms, and fish sauce.

4. Just before serving, add the lime juice. Don't add it any earlier, or the soup will turn bitter.

5. Dish out and serve!