Spicy asian cucumbers

I have really been wanting to try my hand at pickling...but I am too intimidated ad I am not ready to invest in the equipment needed. So when I saw this recipe in my Foodnetwork magazine I thought it was a pretty good second? I don't know, they seemed like pickles and they were tasty, so I am ok with it. I do recommend that you eat these pretty soon after making them as they do tend to continue to release liquid so they can get sort of soggy.

What you'll need:
1 English cucumber
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 sliced scallions
1 minced garlic clove
pinch red pepper flakes




1. Cut cucumbers into 1/2 inch chunks and remove seeds. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Whisk together remaining ingredients in a bowl.
3. Drain cucumbers and toss with the dressing.

These are so simple and have HUGE flavor. Like I really recommend having gum on hand if you are going to eat these....lots of flavor.

Snow peas and beef stir-fry recipe

So I make stir-fry ALL THE TIME. It is literally the best meal, all you do it take all of your favorite things, soak them in soy sauce and stir them together! I have never actually followed a recipe when making my stir-fry. I really do just take all my favorite veggies and protein and cook them up and add a good sauce. The reason this recipe from Taste of Home caught my eye was because they made their own stir-fry sauce,which I have never done and would like to try. Not to mention that picture...it is irresistible.






What you'll need:
1 beef top sirloin steak (1 1/2 lbs), thinly sliced
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sherry or water
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lb sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, sliced thin
8 oz cooked fresh snow peas
hot cooked rice

1. In a small bowl whisk together soy sauce, sherry, cornstarch, and sugar. Transfer 1/4 cup of the mixture to a large bowl; stir in 1 tbsp oil and garlic. Add beef, toss to coat. Let beef mixture stand for 15 minutes.
2. Heat large skillet over med-high heat. Add half the beef mixture, stir fry for 1-2 minutes until no longer pink. Remove from pan and repeat with remaining beef.
3. In the same pan, heat remaining oil over med-high heat and add mushrooms and onions. Cook and stir until mushrooms are tender. Add snow peas, cook 2-3 minutes longer or until crisp tender.
4. Stir in remaining soy sauce mixture into pan. Bring to a boil, cook and stir 1-2 minutes until sauce is thickened. Return beef to pan, heat through. Serve over rice.

Sounds awesome. Wouldn't change a thing! So if you are looking for a good stir fry recipe but aren't sure where to start, I think this should be the place.

Sweet and sour chicken recipe

I got a good one for you guys tonight! During my house sitting adventure last week I was staying in my bosses house while she was away and she has a big beautiful kitchen so I was just having a field day trying a bunch of new recipes. The first dinner on the menu was a huge Asian feast per Eric's request. I am talking rice kitchen #3 combo meal type of feast. The only thing that would have made it better would be if it was 3am and I was stumbling home from Rick's! All my fellow EL friends will get that one ; )

What you'll need:
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 eggs
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1-2 cups oil for frying

1. Chop your chicken up into about 1/2 inch chunks. Start heating your oil (about 1 inch deep) on med-high heat until it is rippling on the surface. While your oil is heating set up two separate bowls, put your cornstarch into one and your 2 eggs beaten into the other. Start by dipping your chicken in the eggs and then coat in cornstarch then carefully place into the oil. You will want to do this is batches, making sure your oil comes back up to temp in between batches. You just want the chicken to brown on the outside, it should not cook all the way through.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. As your chicken pieces are browned place them onto a greased baking sheet.
3.To make your sweet and sour sauce combine your ketchup, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar in a bowl.
4. Now you can drizzle about half of your sweet and sour mix onto the fried chicken pieces and give them a toss around. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the sweet and sour sauce has caramelized and is sticky on the chicken. You will want to give these a stir a few times during the baking.
5. While the chicken is baking take the other half of the sweet and sour mixture and put it into a small pot over med heat and let it get bubbly and sticky, should take about 5 minutes. Use this as a dipping sauce for the chicken.

I really could not believe how AMAZING this was. Eric said it tasted just like Chinese take-out but better because the meat didn't have weird stuff in it haha. As you can see I also whipped up some fried rice and some of my famous potstickers. This time the pot stickers were stuffed with snow peas, broccoli stems, and carrots. The fried rice is really simple; brown rice, soy sauce, sesame oil, carrots, peas, corn, egg.

Wonton noodle soup recipe

I think I have offically found my favorite blog ever, besides mine I guess. Jaden is the author of Steamy Kitchen which features her own recipes, specializing in modern asian cuisine. I was browsing around her pages and I was just floored. Everything sounded so good and actually feasable for a home cook! This wonton noodle soup looks especially good today since its cold out and all I want is to be cuddled up in bed with a big bowl of hot soup. After you try this soup make sure you go to her website and try all her other recipes!

What you'll need:
1/2 lb ground pork
2 stalk scallion, finely minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 pound wonton wrappers, at room temp covered with damp towel
1 tbsp cornstarch+1/4 cup cool water (slurry)
2 quarts chicken broth
8 oz dried wonton noodles (or thin egg noodles)
1/2 lb bok choy, leaves separated and washed well

1. In a large bowl, combine the pork, scallions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, cornstarch, sugar and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Mix well. Put a scant teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper, brush cornstarch slurry on all edges. Fold over to form a triangle, press to secure edges, encasing the filling. Brush cornstarch slurry on one tip of the triangle, bring two corners together and press to secure. Place on clean, dry plate in one layer and cover loosely with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Repeat with remaining.
2. In a large stockpot, add all but 2 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. The 2 cups of reserved broth should be room tempurature or just slightly chilled. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the wontons. Bring pot back to a gentle boil. When it reaches a boil, add 1 cup of the reserved broth. Bring back to a boil and again, add the remaning 1 cup of resrved broth, then bring back to a boil again. That is when you know your wontons are cooked.
3. keep the heat on the pot on while scooping out the wontons to distribute amongst your serving bowls. Cook the noodles in the pot according to instructions. Add the bok choy to the pot during last minute of cooking noodles, let simmer until cooked through. Ladle soup into bowls and drizzle with a drop of sesame oil.

The only thing I would change here is that I would do a vegetarian wonton filling like I did with my pot stickers.

I made the potstickers!

Well I knew it wasn't going to be long before I made those chicken potstickers but as predicted I made LOTS of changes. These were such a hit only 6 of them even made it to our plates, 3 each. We ate almost all of them right out of the pan before we could even finish cooking the rest of the meal! That is when you know you got something good going on!

The original recipe I found called for ground chicken, a jalapeno, rice vinegar, and ginger. I used none of those ingredients. I took a vegetarian approach to these and I wouldn't have changed a thing.
What you'll need:
15 wanton wrappers
6 stalks of asparagus
1 large carrot
5-6 baby bella mushrooms
1/2 small onion
olive oil
soy sauce
sesame oil

1. Dice up all of your veggies very very fine and cook in a satuee pan over med-high heat with a spash of soy sauce, sesame oil and olive oil (about 1 tsp each). Once cooked down this should make you roughly 3/4 cup of the filling.
2. Place about 1 tsp of the filling in the middle of the wanton. This is where things got interesting...I have no idea how to make them look like a proper potsticker...so I just folded the corner over to meed the other corner and I ended up with a small triangle package. Dip your finger in water and run it along the edge of the wanton to make the edges stick together when you fold it over. Press the edges together to make sure they are sealed.
3. Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan over med-high heat and put in your prepared potstickers. Crisp them up for about 3 minutes each side then pour in about 1/4 cup water and cover your potstickers and let them steam until all of the water has evaporated.

They didn't even need any Hanna sauce! They were perfect just the way they were. I was kind of annoyed at first that the wantons were only sold in a package of like...100. But now I am THRILLED because I know I can make more of these tasty morsels! I know the finished product doesn't look quite as appetizing as the original picture, but they were delicious and that is what really matters...right?

Enjoy!

Spicy sesame chicken pot stickers recipe

I am honestly surprised that I have never tried to make these before. Every time I go out for sushi I have to get an order of pot stickers, also known as Gyoza. I have never had them made with chicken before, and to be honest I don't know that I would make them that way. Typically they are made with pork and vegetables. I would most likely stick to veggies just because the meat just seems weird to me. But let's be honest, if you can get the outside nice and crispy it really doesn't even matter what is on the inside, it is going to be delish either way.

I also think some Hanna sauce would be the perfect accompaniment.

What you'll need:
4 cloves garlic
2 green onions
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1 jalapeno, minced
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/4 tsp ginger
1 lb ground chicken
20 wanton wrappers
olive oil




1. Mix together the first 8 ingredients
2. Place about 1 tsp of the mixture in the middle of the wanton wrapper. Dip your finger in water and run around the outside edge of the wrapper to moisten. Fold edge over filling and pinch closed.
3. Put about 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet over med-high heat and put in the wantons until the bottoms are nice and browned. Then add about 1/2 cup water to the skillet and turn down to medium and cover. Let them steam for about 5-7 minutes.

Any changes?

• So I definitely would not make this many
• I said I would not use the meat. I would use very finely shredded carrots, maybe finely dice up some asparagus? I don't know, whatever I have around.
• I also never had ginger or rice vinegar on hand so I would skip those. But if you do have them, I would suggest using them. I think they would add a good flavor, but these could survive without them.
• Lastly, I would not use a jalapeno. I don't think that would be the spice I want. I would add sriracha though of course.

Crispy fried tofu bites recipe

Now keep an open mind all of you non-believers. Tofu CAN be delicious, I promise. If I can get Eric to eat it and LOVE it...then it is possible. This recipe came from my all time FAVORITE restaurant in the whole world. It is a Japanese restaurant owned by my ex-boss at my first job. He is the person that inspired me to go into Dietetics in the first place and when he left our old place of work and opened his new restaurant there was just no question that he is an absolute GENIUS. I am telling you, whatever great sushi you think you have had, this will blow it out of the water. I mean look at that artwork!

Sorry, I could talk about that place all day. Back to the recipe. If you have never had tofu this is a great way to give it a try without and chance of ending up with jiggly tasteless blobs, because that can happen if you are experimenting with tofu for the first time. This is guaranteed to be crispy and flavorful, I mean its fried so how can you go wrong right?

What you'll need:
1 block extra firm tofu
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1 cup vegetable oil

1. First step should be to set up your breading station. You will need to put the cornstarch in a large bag, the egg in a shallow bowl and whisk it, the panko in another shallow bowl.
2. After your stations are set up you should start heating the oil over med-high heat. Use enough oil so that it is about 1/4 inch deep in your skillet. Do not leave the oil unattended. If it starts smoking it is getting too hot. It is perfect when you see a slight ripple on the surface of the oil.
3. Now cube your tofu into about 1/2 inch cubes. I like small cubes because they are nice crunchy little nuggets. But you can cut them to whatever size you see fit. Put your cubes into the bag with the cornstarch and give it a shake to coat them all. Then a few at a time dip them into the egg and then coat them in panko.
4. Now they are ready to be fried. put about half of your cubes into the oil and let them brown for about 3 minutes on one side and then flip them over so they can get crispy on the other. When they are nice and brown take them out and put them onto a paper towel.

Ok, now I am going to give you my secret recipe for Hanna sauce(creative name I know). This is the perfect combination of all the asian condiments that you most likely already have in your pantry(at least I know I do, because we put this stuff on EVERYTHING).
What you'll need:
1/4 cup kikkoman's terriyaki sauce(or whatever your favorite stir fry/terriyaki sauce is)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sriracha

1. Stir ingredients up and eat it with everything!!

So pleaseeeee if you are ever curious about tofu but don't know where to start TRY THIS RECIPE. You will not be sorry. Eat it as a side dish or just a little snack. Enjoy : )