Pan fried Salmon

Salmon from Costco, cut into smaller pieces, added some salts and black peppers, pan fried with butter, medium rare.  Crispy outside, soft inside.  Very tender and tasty!

Cast Iron Rice (or Clay Pot Rice or 煲仔飯)

Clay Pot Rice, as its name suggests, is usually cooked with clay pots.  Mine was broken years ago, so, I used my combo cooker (a cast iron) instead, hence, the name Cast Iron Rice :)

The readers should know me by now, I don't usually follow the recipes to the letter.  There is no exception in this case as well.  The top 2 pictures above, I used Chinese sausages, and the 3rd one I used a pack of Italian sausage from Costco.  In other occasions, I used Costco rotisserie chicken (yes, cooked), pork (also cooked) or any leftover meats (yes, also cooked) in my fridge.

I like Cast Iron Rice (or Clay Pot Rice) because it has rice, meats, veggies and I often crack a couple of eggs as well.  The cooking usually takes about 20 minutes.  I don't usually bother to soak the rice in water  in advance because I enjoy harder rice better.  The first 10 mins is the time to cook the rice.  During which, I usually prepare the sauce, veggies, slice the meat or debone the chicken.  After that, I add all the ingredients into the plot, wait for another 10 minutes.  That's it.  It even has the burned rice at the bottom.  

It's a quick and predictable way of having a nice meal during a hectic day.

Youtube:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDd1lJN9VPE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkrRX6ub-J0

Liangpi (Cold Skin Noodle or 凉皮)

 

Liangpi literally means cold skin, but, it's made from wheat or rice flour.  Despite its name, it is served all year round and very popular in China.

In a nut shell, the whole process took about 5 to 6 hours, mainly waiting for the gluten separated from the starch.  Again, I bought the chili sauce from a local asian supermarket or online to make things a little easier.  Also, I didn't usually follow the recipe to the letter; I used whatever veggies I had left in the fridge, in this case, green peppers and carrots instead of cucumbers.

Youtube:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru8F4vesAUo (this is a Chinese video, be sure to turn on closed-caption for English speakers)

Cantonese-style Chang Fen (腸粉)

Instead of mixing the rice flour, wheat/tapioca starch and potato starch, I bought several ready to use mixed flour packages from a local asian supermarket.  For the rest, I followed the instructions from the youtube video.  As you can see from the pictures, I did the pork Chang Fen and the sauce was a very nice touch!

Youtube video:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wy6d9H3UHg

 

Wet Chow Ho Fun (滑蛋虾河粉)

 

In my previous blog, I made Dry Chow Ho Fun.  Today, I made Wet Chow Ho Fun (shrimp version).

One thing to watch out for is to pan-fry the shrimps to about 70% done.  The reason being that we will need to thicken the gravy with shrimps in it at the end with cornstarch and eggs, and the shrimps will be fully cooked there.

Youtube video:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHn7OiE8O-s (Cantonese version, be sure to turn on English closed caption for English speakers)

Pastrami Sourdough Sandwich

 

Store bought pastrami + Homemade sourdough bread = Yum!

Red Bean Sourdough

 

Have some red bean paste leftover from the previous Baked Red Bean Rice Cake?  No worries, use it for a red bean sourdough.

I started the red bean sourdough the same way as a traditional sourdough bread, except before the shaping, I stretched the sourdough wide open, laid the red bean paste on top, then wrapped the sourdough into a dough ball and into the proofing basket.

There are many sourdough making videos.  I'd watched so many and made many, but, I'm listing only one below for your reference.  The red bean paste was simply my addition.  In the next few days, I'll document my sourdough journey.  For now, enjoy the red bean sourdough.  

Youtube:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg5nLQVg4VY