Hainan Chicken

Hello, you. Work, life, has been insanely busy for me. My internet is down, it's like 9:30 at night and I am crashing from 4 cups of coffee. I don't need help, I need sleep! But, I had a little time after work to grab a quick beer with a coworker.

Blue Moon

Just a quick gulp and catching up before headed home to deal with cleaning and cooking, but mostly cleaning. We grabbed our beers from "Rounds" in Pasadena on North Lake Avenue. 

Ok as I am writing this blog, my mom literally sent me like 10 food images. Wondering where I get my passion from.  

Going back to being busy, and tired. I was using the excuse that maybe I have allergies, and that's why I'm so tired because my eyes feel heavy, swollen, and small. But no. I need to come to realization that sleeping past 12 to wake up at 6am doesn't work anymore.  

So with that said, I needed to make something fast. Easy. Without making a mess. Something I can get done quickly, so I can eat it, and tell you about it. YOU. See how important you are? 

HAINAN CHICKEN

I got 3 Cups of white jasmine rice, rinsed 3 times. I then filled it with chicken broth as you would for 3 cups of rice. If the palms of my hands is touching the rice with my fingers flat, the liquid should come up slightly above my knuckles.

I took one slice of lime and about 6 slices of ginger to cook together with the rice. Leave it. It's done and wait for it to cook. 

The ginger scallin sauce is simple. I grated (and you can always finely mince) 4-5 tablespoons of ginger, finely chopped one large bundle of green onions (about 6 stems), and minced 2 cloves of garlic. Combine these ingredients together and dash 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Heat 1/3 of a cup of oil, I used Thrive Algae Oil because that's what I've been using lately, but you want a flavorless oil. When the oil is heated, just simply pour it into your mixture, and add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Your sauce is done!

For the chicken, I got a 4-5 pound thigh pack from the market. I trimmed off as much fat as I could so I wouldn't have that much trouble with cleaning. I boiled 1/2 a pot of water, enough to submerge the chicken, 2 tablespoons of salt to season the water, the rest of the lime slices that I didn't use, 6-8 large slices of ginger, 3 large cloves of garlic, 2 stems of green onion, and 1 tablespoon of white pepper.  Now, let the chicken boil and simmer for 30 minutes on medium.

Now. The recipe is literally something I threw together. No science. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't spend the time to tell you about it. Laying here awkwardly writing this on my phone, sucking away my data. You eat this chicken and tell me you love it!  

Anyways, check your rice. If it turns out a little dry, pour in more chicken stock from your pot of chicken. When ready to serve, scoop some rice, take your chicken, and then slather the ginger scallion sauce over the chicken. The sauce is everything eaten together with the rice and chicken. My dad used to put the sauce in a can of sardines. Don't ask. I don't know. I don't like that. But he does. 

This is another huge staple of something I grew up eating. Quick and comforting, and as always, extremely affordable. 

now it's 9:54pm. I can still make it to sleep now! Just need to brush my teeth! 

Happy cooking and let me know what you think. 

remember that food should always be accessible!  

Daisy  

BBQ PORK HAWAIIN ROLL

With the 8 hour slow roasted pork I had left over (click here for recipe) I had enough to make 8 BBQ pork sliders. I just can't even begin with what you can make with leftover slow roasted pork. Even though my kitchen was a literal mess, the finished product was definitely worth the clean up.

I went to Ralphs grocery store after work today since it was just up the street to pick up the ingredients I needed to make this into another dish. I purchased a bag of original Kings Hawaiin rolls and a bag of "Dole Sunflower Chopped Salad" - tastes like sweet coleslaw.

In the bag of salad, it comes with a pack of bacon and sunflower seeds. I mixed the chopped salad with the sweet onion dressing that came with it, and set the sunflower seeds to the side (not used in this recipe). With the pack of bacon, I heated a hot pan to crispy the bacon up a bit. I then threw in the leftover pork butt, and watched it dance in the pan a little bit. It gets a little mesmerizing watching the cold fat slow render and melt around like lava. Now, the spices.

I added 1 teaspoon of Ancho chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cayenne, and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika. There is no need to add any more salt since the pork is already salted. When the pork is heated through and starts charring up, add in your favorite barbecuesauce. Make sure you don't over sauce your pork.

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yes. I have a pork chalk board. I love pork, what can I say.

I toasted the Hawaiin rolls on the inside until it gets nice and crusty. Now, start layering. Beware if you are very hungry like me. You will want to pile as much of everything as you can. The crispy onions strings you see were leftovers from The Counter Burger that I reheated in my Breville convectional oven.

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I'm not a huge sandwich gal. But if I were to order a sandwich, I would want it to have a lot of meat. No turkey. No roast beef. I want it hot and heavy. Give me a steak sandwich or non type of deal. I die a little when people want to get sandwiches for lunch. But, most sandwiches I do have are the ones I make. Just because I can put whatever the F I want and no one can say otherwise. Besides John. John will give me a hard time later when he sees this. 4 humungo sliders that I devoured. Was full after the 3rd but I kept going.

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There you go with 3 pounds of pork but. That's 4.5 plates of carnitas and rice, and 8 bbq sliders. Not bad at all. Though I am a bit depressed seeing all these Victorias Secret models in their "Train like an Angel" mode. And here I am. Making pulled pork, laying on the couch watching the Matrix. What is this life? What is this life.

But at the end of the day. I cannot give this up. I cannot go on any diets, because I would die early from depression. There are things I need need to have: white rice, hot cheetos, french fries, burgers, steak, tacos. Beverages is all the above minus diet sodas.

Now. Going to not do anything but brush my teeth and head to bed. And dream about BBQ pulled pork. I deserved it. I've been winning on this low and slow game.

Sincerely your pork lover,

Daisy

low and slow 8 hour pork butt

After getting a Crockpot recently, I've been on this crazy low and slow cooking mood. I made a pot roast the other day and then this pork butt yesterday. I am in love with how simple this was. I kept the flavors extremely minimal so I can alter the pork according to the types of dishes I want to use it for.

Recipe

• 3 pounds of pork butt
• 1 white onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• Salt and Garlic powder to season pork (salt according to your preference)
• 6 large cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper
• 1/4 cup of chicken stock

Equipment:

• Crockpot

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I got one pork butt around 3 pounds. I trimmed off the fat from the pork. This cut of pork itself has a lot of fat running through it, so don't be afraid of cutting it down or you will end up with a big pot of fat. I cut up the meat in a large chunks, seasoned it with salt and garlic powder, and then seared it in a screaming hot pan with Thrive Algae oil. The smoke point on this oil is fantastic giving these buddies a nice golden hue.

As the pork was tanning, I sliced up 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, and 1 white onion. I also peeled 6 large cloves of garlic, smashed. All the ingredients were thrown straight into my Crockpot with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of white pepper. Layer the pork on top, and Isplashed the top with a little chicken stock. Lid it, and then set it on low for 8 hours.

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MMmmm nothing like pork cooked low and slow, bubbling in it's own fat drippings. I left the pieces of pork chunky, and didn't shred it until I dropped a few in a hot pan. I let the pork crisp on the edges. What you can always do is add spices as it's searing in the pan. Sometimes I like to add cumin, and sometimes I add a little cayenne and paprika. Again, it really depends on the types of flavors you are going after. But this came out so good like this I just left it alone.

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I cooked 3 cups of Jasmine rice because that's what I had. I like to cook extra rice to have enough for work. I chopped up 3/4 cups of cilantro, and squeezed 1 whole juicy lime (you might need 2). Adding 2 tablespoons of butter is optional, but I drizzled a little bit of the pork fat instead.

I quickly mashed up an avocado with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt as a side. Lastly, I popped open a can of Jalapenos in Escabeche. This was SO GOOD I even washed the dishes after.

With the left over meats, we will have BBQ pork sliders with coleslaw!

Now, go and get a Crockpot and pork butts.

Daisy

Hong Kong Baked Pork Chop

Ok. This is a really simple recipe with what I can find at home (and you should too). Baked Pork Chops are one of the dishes I order when I would dine in at an Asian Cafe in Alhambra/San Gabriel area. Why? Because it's always one of the safest dishes to order. Kind of like.. ordering Pad Thai at a Thai restaurant or Pho in a Vietnamese restaurant. Get it?

Back to pork chop.

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I got 4 slices of pork probably totaling 2 pounds. I seasoned both sides with salt, white pepper and a little garlic powder. The chops were dusted light with some flour.

Heat up your pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil (or your oil of preference) and cook pork until nice and golden on each side.

For the rice portion of this dish, I made fried rice. Just a very basic garlic fried rice. I sauteed some minced garlic in the same pan as my pork (I have a large Scanpan), and dropped some white Jasmine rice that I made (3 and a 1/2 scoop was rinsed and cooked on the dryer side). After most of the moisture is cooked out of the rice, 6 eggs were beat before dousing it over the rice. The rice was just seasoned with salt, soy sauce and white pepper. Feel free to throw in some frozen peas and carrots if you have any, I was just salvaging what I had at home. 

The fried rice was cooked on high heat until the most of the moisture was gone. This is not my official fried rice recipe, so chill if you don't like this. Feel free to use plain white rice as well.

The tomato sauce was made from:

• one 28oz (or around this size) can of crushed tomatoes
• mixed with 1/2 a cup of ketchup
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of sugar (the tomatoes I had were tart)
• 3-5 minced garlic (depending on how large your cloves are)
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper

Everything was cooked down for about 15 minutes.

Layer your fried rice (or plain rice), top with a layer of your tomato sauce, layer your pork, add more sauce, top with cheddar cheese, and then put it in your broiler for 10 minutes.

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Enjoy while it's still hot!

Yes, there isn't anything crazy about the recipe. This again, is something you should be able to find in your kitchen. For the tomato sauce, you can find more ingredients to add in and the same goes for the fried rice. The tomato sauce for this is supposed to be sweet, so don't freak out. I love to add carrots to the to the tomato sauce and let the sweetness of that carry over the sauce. You can also splash a little cream in your tomato sauce to thicken it a bit as well.

Honestly, this dish is basically fried rice, with sweet tomato sauce, fried pork with cheese melted on top.

Feel free to share your recipe. I've been really busy, so a dish like this where I don't have to think hard on specific ingredients is my go to. There are many versions to make this, but I don't have time to marinade anything, and I definitely don't have some seasonings that recipes asks for... but this was comforting! So yeah, I don't care.

I have enough for lunch it it only costed be less than $10 for 4 meals. Stay tuned for a fried rice recipe.

Daiisies

Mini pounder with macerated strawberries and lemon cream

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I must be crazy to bake in 99 degree weather. But we all need to satisfy our cravings somehow. I wanted to find a simple pound cake to use for this recipe. Unfortunately, the world currently loves pumpkin, banana, and zucchini pound cake at the moment, because I could not find any plain loafs. I decided to make my own, and if you have a local bakery near you that serves awesome pound cake, feel free to use that.

Recipe Pound Cake (2-3 servings):

• 4 tablespoons of butter. Softened / room temp.
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of cream
• snibble of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for this. I creamed together the sugar and butter. The egg yolks are then added followed by the cream and vanilla. All the dry ingredients can be mixed in a separate bowl to be poured into your wet ingredients. Once your batter is finished, pour in a small baking dish that's been buttered.

Depending on your oven, this was baked for 30 minutes at 350 in my Breville Smart Oven (best oven ever).

Recipe Lemon Cream:

I used the pastry cream recipe from my Pear Tart. With that recipe, I added 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, and 1 whole juicy lemon. (The lemon flavors will be reinforced with the macerated strawberries). The pastry cream recipe will make more than you will need, but I like to keep some laying around to make quick tarts or vanilla wafer dishes.

Macerated lemon strawberries Recipe:

• 1/2 a lemon of juice
• Zest 1 tablespoon of lemon
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 cup of strawberries (tops removed and halved).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and let it sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

I'm not a professional baker and mostly create random things on the go. I'm sure there are plenty of delicious recipes out there, but these are quick, easy, and ingredients you can probably find in your kitchen.

Happy Baking! Just one more week of heat before it cools down!

Daiisies