Dried Shrimp Patties and Coconut Curry Pasta (Vivi)

OK, so I was finally able to make those shrimp patties that Rana and I promised you, say, practically a year or so ago, and might I say, they came out delicious~ They're pretty simple and quick to make, and best of all, because ground dried shrimp is so flavorful already, you don't need to add any extra salt or spices :} It is originally a Mexican recipe I learned during the time I was working in a hospital kitchen, but I decided this time to serve it with coconut curry pasta.



To make 4-5 patties you'll need:
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup of ground dried shrimp
Vegetable oil for frying

You'll need two bowls: one large sized and one normal bowl that you can put the separate egg yolks. Beat the egg whites in the large bowl until they form stiff peaks, and then , still beating them, start sprinkling in the ground shrimp and egg yolks until the mixture is just blended. It should look somewhat like pancake batter.

Heat oil in a medium sized skillet on medium heat and then pour in a soup ladle's worth of the batter in just like you would a pancake. Let the patties fry on one side for about a minute (until they're golden brown) and then flip them over for another minute. Puck them out with a slotted spatula and let them rest on on a couple of paper towels to get rid of the excess oil.

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For the pasta, you'll need:
1 lb of spaghetti
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of coconut milk
2 tbsp Curry powder
and Cayenne Pepper and cilantro to taste

To make pasta, I always put in tome vegetable oil and salt into the water so that the pasta won't stick, and so that it can soak up some salty goodness without salting the whole pot of food. So aside from adding that, cook the spaghetti according to the directions on the box/bag, preferably to al dente.

Drain the pasta ad return to the pot, adding in coconut milk and stewed tomatoes, mix, and while it heats to a simmer, sprinkle in the cilantro, cayenne pepper and curry powder. Simmer in the coconut milk and tomato"juice" until the spaghetti is cooked as soft as you like it, and serve with the shrimp patties.

Easy as pie and delicious! Hope you guys like!

Happy Father's Day! (Rana)

Okay, so it has passed, but still, I wish all father's everywhere a happy Father's Day. Well, all deserving fathers. That aside, I woke up that Sunday morning to an unnaturally energetic attitude. I attacked the kitchen.

My family is trying to be big on health, both of my parents are working out and trying to eat right. Sometimes, though, that means just not eating. With my recent choice of pescetarianism I've found that I'm in similar circumstances. So my menu was basically trying to be a relief from that everyday feeling, mixed with true health benefits.

The menu(all homemade):
Blueberry Muffins
Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon
Buttermilk biscuits
Raspberries and Blueberries

The blueberry muffins disappeared before I could get even one shot of them. They were baked with whole wheat flour, though, and with fresh blueberries. It gave them a homey, wholegrain flavor. They tasted both delicious and healthy. I don't have the recipe, though.

Onto what I actually took tons of pictures of,t he Eggs Benedict. I made my own hollandaise sauce, and practiced poaching eggs like a pro. It wasn't too difficult, but my family called it amazing! I just wish they tried to poach an egg or two, they'd realize why I find it fun!

Hollandaise Sauce:
Ingredients
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
Pinch cayenne
Pinch salt

Directions
Vigorously whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl and until the mixture is thickened and doubled in volume. Place the bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water (or use a double boiler,) the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Continue to whisk rapidly. Be careful not to let the eggs get too hot or they will scramble. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat, whisk in cayenne and salt. Cover and place in a warm spot until ready to use for the eggs benedict. If the sauce gets too thick, whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.

As for the other aspects of assembly, I toasted some storebought English muffins, put a small slice of lox on the toasty chewy bread, and then topped that off with a delicious poached egg. I poured a dollop of hollandaise, sprinkled with paprika, and voila! An amazing Father's Day brekky!


Mmmm, eggs.

Here's some more shots, I hope everyone's Father's Day was much less eventful than mine.





Also, the cake we had later that night. Storebought, sadly, but it was a delicious mango mousse!

Barbecue with the Family!

Prepare yourself for some serious food porn. Every time I glance over these photos, I cannot help but drool. Two weekends ago I went home for a holiday and my mother was kind enough to assume I missed her cooking. So we fired up the grill.

I will simply say what the foods are, and you will assume they are all delicious and tender. Because they were.



Lamb chops on the grill.


Lamb and beef kebabs, fresh off the grill.


Lamb chops, onions, some filet mignon in the back. You can see some chicken on the side.


Sweet corn!


My brother eating a lamb chop.


Corn! Again!


Delicious chops, right off the grill.

Wimpy's (Restaurant Review)

Rana, here!

Just a couple months ago there was this restaurant called Perko's Cafe on a nearby street corner. We didn't have a chance to go there when it was still open, and within a week after it closed, Wimpy's was open!

The burgers are okay, they don't ask you how well you want them done, and I'm a medium rare kind of girl. I went with my friends Jasmine and Aron, and we enjoyed our food. Burgers and sandwiches for breakfast. Yum.


Aron and... well... just a funny shot of the menu.


Me and Jasmine got an Prime Rib Au Jus sandwich. The fries were pleasant enough, crispy and hot. The sandwiches meat was really flavorful and tender.


Aron ordered a delicious burger. I think it's called the California Burger and has avocado slices, mushrooms, and swiss cheese on it. Aside from the burger, the fries were the best part. So delicious.


We were really disappointed at the amount of avocado on the burger. I think it was two slices? Not nearly enough for all that bread, meat, and veggie. Still, it was really delicious.


All in all, an okay experience. A tad overpriced, but the ambience is enjoyable. They have nostalgic cartoons playing all the time, and the actual restaurant is themed after the Hamburger guy from Popeye the Sailor Man. If you didn't know, his name is Wimpy. Enjoy that fun fact for today. :]

Last nights dinner! (Rana)

Lemon-Garlic baked Salmon was the main dish, with a little dollop of pesto sauce.
Asparagus, mushrooms, and leeks broiled with brown butter was one side.
Rosemary-thyme Gold fingerling potatoes as another side.

I decided to give my mom a break and cooked dinner for me and my family on a visit from school.

I'll start with a recipe for the salmon!

Lemon-Garlic Baked Salmon:
Ingredients:
1 whole salmon fillet(half the fish, not a slice of half the fish)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large baking pan
Aluminum foil
Lemon juice, to taste

Steps:
First lay the aluminum foil out on the baking dish.

Then wash the salmon fillet and try and debone it if its not deboned already. It's not difficult, but if you don't know how you may end up like me and stab your index finger while searching for bones.

Pour olive oil all over both sides of the fillet and lay it down on its skin side.

Rub the crushed garlic onto the fish gently, just let it lay on top, it doesn't matter if they are big chunks of garlic, they'll bake into yummy garlic chips anyways.

Place in oven at 375 degrees, bake for about 25-30 minutes or until you can push the large end of the fillet and it seems firm. Remove from oven, serve, pour lemon juice on it to your hearts desire.


Brown Butter Vegetables:
Ingredients:
1 package of asparagus tips
1 leek
1 package of mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Rosemary, salt, and pepper

Steps:
Wash all your veggies. Leeks may be harder to wash because of their layers. I just slice them up and put them in a cool water bath, so the dirt falls to the bottom.

Dry your veggies, cut the mushrooms, and lay them all out onto a baking pan that has been oiled, buttered, or liberally sprayed with Pam.

Place 2 tbsp of butter into a heated frying pan, the pans heat must be low. Slowly swirl the pan and watch for the butter to start to brown and smell nutty. When that occurs, take it off the heat, and pour over the vegetables. Sprinkle veggies with some rosemary. Pour the oil and move the pan around to incorporate it.

Place in an oven heated to 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (or until the asparagus is nice and tender). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then serve.


Rosemary-Thyme Gold Fingerling Potatoes:
Ingredients:
1 bag/pound of fingerling potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Rosemary and Thyme (dried or not)
Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

Wash the potatoes. Cut the larger ones in half so they cook evenly with the smaller ones.

Oil the pan, put the potatoes in there, move them around to coat them in oil. Cut some of the butter onto each side of the potatoes/pan. Sprinkle with rosemary, and thyme.

It's smart to bake these before the fish AND the veggies, for potatoes take a while. Also, while baking, take the pan out and move it around so that more than one side of the potatoes get browned and delicious. Cook them at 375 degrees for around 35-50 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Salt and pepper, serve, and enjoy!

And there you have it! A delicious meal! If you want you can use some pesto to eat the salmon with, my family loves pesto so we do it for almost every meal. Use whatever pesto recipe you find, I usually just eyeball it all and it ends up tasting delicious!

Cabbage and Spam Soup (Vivi)

This is a really fast soup that I made when I was in a hurry to make dinner before my family came home. It's pretty dang healthy, and REALLY cheap, especially if you just toss in whatever vegetables you got on sale in the supermarket. It can also be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for chicken, and using firm marinated tofu instead of SPAM. Plus, the garlic and chili is good for sinuses, so it's a good recipe for cold weather or when the family starts exhibiting symptoms of cold.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (or whatever oil you like. I just use what I have)

6 cups of low/ no sodium chicken broth (I make my own from chicken bones, but canned is alright for other people's tastes)

half of medium cabbage, shredded

two cloves of garlic, crushed

one whole onion, chopped

two large potatoes

one can of Light Sodium SPAM, diced

any other vegetables you may want to toss in

pepper to taste

crushed red pepper to taste

oregano to taste

Directions:

1. Brush the oil onto a deep pot and saute/caramelize the onions and garlic, shredding the cabbage and chopping up your other vegetables. The vegetables should all be cut up about the same size so they all cook evenly.

2. pour in the 6 cups of broth into the pot and add in all the vegetables. Heat it to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer until potatoes are tender, but not mushy. Sprinkle in the spices to taste.

I made brown rice to serve with the soup, as the soup itself isn't very filling for a family of 5, as well as the fact that brown rice is delicious and very healthy for you. If you make it in the rice cooker, and you put it to make when you started the soup, that is the amount of time it should take for the soup to be done. Enjoy~

Deliciously served in my Kitty Soup Mug<3

Like flames right out of hell coming from your mouth! (Vivi)

OK, so I'm not sharing a recipe this time, but a life changing experience. I'm talking about Wing Stop's Atomic Wings. You heard me. Atomic. And they're not lying on the menu either.

The Atomic Wings

I might be a little late in reviewing this restaurant, as it's been out for years, but this is the first time I've been to one. And being the adventurous eater that I am, as well as being the proud owner of a 50% Mexican stomach that can take a jar of jalapenos without anything to wash them down, and eats fresh jalapeños or broiled Serrano peppers with tortillas for the kicks.

Regardless of that, This half beaner was still a bit nervous when, upon ordering 25 Atomic Wings the cashier looked at us dubiously and asked if we were sure we wanted Atomic. We were, and so she hesitantly wrote down the order and gave it to one of the cooks, who, upon looking at it, rose his eyebrows up to his hairline and asked us if we were sure we wanted 25 Atomic wings. Not to mention, many of the other customers were looking at us strangely, or giving us pitying looks. But this beaner was nothing if not confident in her abilities to take the heat, so I said we were sure, and sat down to wait for our wings.

Let me tell you, when we got them, I could already taste the spiciness coming from the bag as I opened it and smelled the wings, they were that spicy. We couldn't wait to get home, slather these wings with ranch and see what all the fuss was about. Well, it wasn't long until we found out.

I think I must have swallowed about a gallon of water thanks to these wings, and I finished two thirds of my ranch bottle trying to tone down the heat of these babies, but to no avail. My lips literally started hurting on my 5th wing, and by my 8th I had to call it quits for the day. It wasn't until the day after that I looked up the recipe to these little hellfire wings and almost cried when I saw that the sauce was made out Habaneros. Not just made out of them, but there were actual pieces of the pepper in the sauce.

If you don't know how hot a habanero pepper is, check this out. Not as hot as the ghost pepper, but still close enough that my ears were complaining to me about what I was eating.

The next morning, I made a soup, and hoping to tone down or dilute the heat from the wings, I added them to it and helped myself to a big portion. I was out of luck. I had to deal with Atomic flavored soup for the rest of the day as the rest of my family would have none of it.

I'm not saying I'll never go to Wing Stop again, but I will be more cautious next time when the cashiers ask if I'm sure I want what I ordered. And next time, I'll be sure to get only 10 Atomic wings instead of 25.

Throw-It-All-In Curry (Vivi)

Ok guys, in reality, I don't even use a recipe for this, as I've been making curry for about two years now, and no matter what random stuff I put in, it ends up tasting great, so this is just a basic "template" if you will of what I usually put in.

Ingredients

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, or 3 fresh jalapenos
2 tbsp. sugar
2-1/2 tbsp. curry powder
3 tbsp. tomato paste
salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (you can use a whole chicken too) or tofu
4 tbsp. oil
2 cups of chicken broth (I use my homemade chicken stock for this)
2 cups + 1 can of coconut milk
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 large onion chopped
3 medium potatoes
2-3 carrots, cut into large bite-size chunks

Any other vegetables or fruits(yes fruits. I've put apples in curry and it tastes great... just make sure they're not too ripe as that will make them too sweet for the curry. its all up to you with curry) that fit your whim. I put canned corn, mushrooms and yams in addition to apples in this curry.

Directions

1. In a bowl, thoroughly mix the salt, red pepper, sugar, curry powder, and tomato paste. Coat the chicken and marinate for 10 minutes. If using tofu, add a bit of milk to the paste so as to soften it and do the same as with the chicken.
   
   
2. Heat oil in a deep pot and stir-fry the garlic, onion, apples (if using them) ad jalapenos. Add chicken (or tofu) and stir-fry for a few minutes more
3. Add in the broth, 2 cups of milk, and 2 cups of coconut milk on top of everything, then stir in the potatoes, carrots, canned vegetables and yams and simmer until vegetables are tender. That's about 15-20 minutes depending on how large you chopped them..

And Voila! The result is delicious and easy to make curry!

I always serve it over rice, but that is up to all of you. As for the rice, I made it in my rice cooker, adding some spinach when it was just about done.