Cooking Chinese, Ordering Sushi

This post is about the actual Chinese food I make at home. I've got an assortment of food I'd eat more often, food I'd make much less often, and food to order when you're just craving.

First off is a simple stir-fried bok choy, sliced beef and vermicelli in the bottom there (though you can't really see it). Super simple, serves my veggie/protein needs, and relatively tasty (just add soy sauce).

On this day, I went full out making Chinese food you'd find in a restaurant. Little did I know how much salt and oil and that requires! This is why I don't make restaurant-style Chinese food on a daily basis, it is TOTALLY different from what Chinese people actually eat at home. However, on this day I pan-fried some chicken thighs marinated in oyster sauce, stir-fried asparagus and olives, and used the leftover oil from frying the chicken to crisp up some noodles. It was SO salty, and VERY oily, and I actually didn't feel very good after (or during the meal for that matter...I had to drink tons of water). It will be quite a long time before I fry noodles again.

On another night, my roommate and I decided to order sushi! It's always pricey and this one came out to around $35 dollars if I remember correctly....but it gave me the excuse to pull out these Japanese dishes that I rarely use. It also came with shrimp sushi (that was put in a separate container...due to my allergies).

Mmmm....

PS...I LOVE the Korean sushi roll (that's the one in the front with the fake crab, egg, cucumber, radish, and beef).

Sometimes I get frozen dumplings (though not often anymore), and decide to be lazy one night so I them out of the freezer. You simply boil them until they float (and I also cut it open because I'm still a novice at telling when it's cooked through). I had some Chinese vegetables that I stir-fried to complete the dish. I believe this is Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan). What's important is that it's green.

The New Nutrition Program

During a long absence out of town and watching the World Cup, I picked up a nutrition program that I'm semi-following right now. It's basically the 5 meals a day, protein every meal, 2 servings of veggies every meal, carbs for breakfast and after exercise only, etc, etc. I've become even more health conscious now that I've been doing this exercise training course. I also bought protein powder! But, it tastes kinda like fish so it might not the best one out there.

So this morning, I had Vector cereal with milk before my workout, and made myself a smoothie (with my new protein powder) for a meal. Cooked up salmon and deglazed it with balsamic vinegar, which is it looks so dark in the picture below.

It was kinda underdone but I don't actually mind it (thank you Japan). Threw some spinach and cucumbers underneath and ate it at work (which is why its in a handy box).

For dinner, I stir-fried some bok choy with a smashed garlic clove and ginger, deglazed with chicken broth and a little salt. Boiled some pork dumplings and voila!

The dumpling that's open was my tester. I like to know I'm eating something fully cooked...and since no one's marking me on presentation I frequently do it. But if you think about it, good chefs always taste their food before serving it to their clients, and since I'm my own chef and client, this would be justified :)

On Mangoes, Steak, and Fried Rice

So I grabbed a mango the other day and decided to just skin out and eat it like an apple. I think it's much more amazing when you sink your teeth into an entire mango (don't bite too hard on the pit) and chew. Wouldn't you agree? Either way it doesn't matter if you agree because I'll keep peeling my fruits and bite them   (and yes, I've done it to an orange :D )

The unlucky mango.

Before I left for my soccer game last night, I defrosted a steak and let the rice cooker go until I got back. Got back and stir-fried some bok choy (see http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/health/food-guide/bok-choy/~default) with a mashed clove of garlic and some ginger. De-glazed pan with 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup water. Rubbed some Montreal Steak Sauce on the red meat and seared each side for 2 min. 

                  

I'm still getting used to my new stove which is super powerful, so I'm gonna have to adjust next time by turning it down and cooking it longer. It was nice and tender on the inside, but a little too red because I felt my stomach mad at me today haha...

                  

Saved 1/3 of it for a sandwich the next day. Sandwich didn't happen. I just ate the leftovers out of the bowl with a salad haha.

And so we come to tonight's dinner: Fried Rice. You'd think Chinese people eat this stuff everyday because that's what you see at our restaurants. Well surprise surprise, it takes a lot of oil to make and since I don't want to acquire heart disease at age 25, fried rice doesn't happen too often.

I first fried an omelette and saved it on a plate. Fried what we call "lap cheung" which is technically a Chinese sausage but that just sounds weird to me. It's kinda sweet and also oily and bad for you (but soo good...it's like bacon to me). So I fried that, added chopped shallots, some more oil (there wasn't any oil when frying the lap cheung because....they fry in their own fat just like bacon...see how bad this is for you??), added chopped cucumber, corn, mushrooms, and whole scallops. Added some chicken broth for flavour and let it cook for a minute or so. Then added in the rice from last night (this is important: you can't add rice you just made because it's too gloopy. It has to be a little drier and you can do that by saving it in the fridge overnight). Drizzled in sesame seed oil, soya sauce, and added the eggs in at the end (so they wouldn't dry up). And voila:

                        

Heaven in my mouth.

Sad news: as I got the bowl of rice from my fridge, my hand hit the freezer door and I dropped the bowl. The rice wasn't touching too much of the floor but it had a bunch of shards on one side. Had to throw out half of it D:

                    

On a happy note I still have enough fried rice leftovers for another meal :) And omg I need to get to class now.

So Much Food, So Little Time...

So it's really hard to keep up a blog, especially one about food (which you eat EVERYDAY - hand down again anorexic guy). Since blogger.com has a new, annoying way to upload pictures, and the fact that it takes forever to upload them, I'll try my best to fight the urge to yell at Rogers (which would take me 2 hrs just to get in touch with a real human being). That being said, here we go:

Just cooked dinner, pulled the dumplings from the freezer and they took quite a long time to boil before being done. After cutting open the first tester, I found it was still cold inside...and pinky. Had to test a few more before I could tell they were cooked (better safe than sorry!). It was still delicious, with Taiwanese cabbage stir-fried in garlic and chicken broth underneath.

                               

Hmm so I guess this blogger won't center portrait-style pictures either...wait I can use the space bar to push it over....haha silly me, anyways, I woke up super early today (7am...after sleeping at 10:30pm) and went to the gym (I had some Vector cereal with milk and a banana). When I came back I made an omelette with peas and corn that turned into a scrambled egg...because I couldn't flip it all in one go. Better safe to have it cooked through though, runny eggs gross me out. Added an orange, plum, and apple juice to finish it off.

                      

Watching Toy Story 3 is a pretty good way to kill time as pictures load :P
I always wanted an excuse to use balsamic vinegar in a savoury dish and I got my chance. Made a salad yesterday for lunch, using arugula, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. Topped it off with a pan-seared salmon to which I added balsamic vinegar to the pan at the end, and a little on top of the salad as well. Delicious.

Toy Story 3 cut out on me, time to study for a midterm this Saturday :S I had a pita with the salmon salad to fill me up, and used some good 'ol salsa. I was chowing down on a tub of hummus every week and I felt it was a bit unhealthy, so I switched over to a healthier option (although I think it does have more sodium...)

Alright time to backtrack a bit. Went home for the weekend, my brother made ribs using a dry spice rub, apple wood to smoke it, indirect heat, probably 3 hours in the barbecue, and this picture does NOT give the size of this dish justice. It was piled a good foot above the dinner table (there are 3 racks in there). Good stuff bro.

                     

Alright last one for now. The day after the barbecue we went to 168 Sushi Japan Buffet on Dundas St., west of Erin Mills. I was SO stuffed afterwards. But then again I worked out once we got home, to my surprise. Their food is pretty good for a buffet. Try it out! (It will put you back about $23.00 with tax and tip on top for dinner).

Kay gotta study now, thanks for reading if you got this far! I would like to do shorter blogs so that my labels don't become super long (so I can reference what I ate/build ideas of what to cook in the future). Ciao!

Keep Fishin'

And we're back after an extended absence! I apologize, as I away for several reasons:

1) Midterms/projects due the past week

2) My mom was here and cooking, so I felt like it wasn't an honest representation of what I make, but I now that I think of it I should share anyways

3) Not only is the title of this entry representative of what I cooked, but it's also a great song by Weezer (there are MUPPETS in the video. Need I say more?)

Just had a great Kenpo X workout from the P90X series, and wasn't craving anything too heavy (and I also got a pull-up bar that came with a nutrition guide suggesting not to have starch after 12 pm!) so, I stir-fried asparagus and whole tomatoes topped off with a fish fillet.

Everything was going fine when I cooked the veggies, until the water all evaporated at the bottom and starting burning/smoking D: As I panicked to shut off the smoke detector and turn down the heat, the fish fillet got a little burned as well. Had to throw out half the veggies :( My new stove is way too powerful on full heat.

However, topping off the fish with my hometown neighbour's garden-grown chives and using cilantro with the veggies made it so much better. Can't tell if it's a burnt taste or the Greek seasoning in the veggies haha.

Anywho, I've added some other things I've eaten in the past week:

Here's a steak I made two nights ago, with the first batch of asparagus and mushrooms and a side of potatoes. I just simply boiled the potatoes with a little salt, stir-fried the veggies with garlic and ginger most likely, and the steak with Montreal Steak marinade. I used an electronic temperature sensor to get my steak to medium-well but it was super bloody and red when I cut into it. Threw it back on the grilled-pan some more and it got to the texture I really like, but was interestingly still REALLY red. I suppose I like it more medium than I thought?

Finally, here's some typical Chinese food I have: dumplings and a veggie bun. I got these minced chicken dumplings from Wal-Mart, and I feel like I've betrayed Chinese supermarket brands haha. The veggie bun came from T&T Supermarket back in Sauga when my parents came over. The filling is a little sweet, but not like dessert.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! This was a long update since I've been gone, but I'll hopefully keep updating more often :D

I could really use a glass of white wine or sparkling juice after that fish fillet haha

Cheers,

Jay