VIETNAMESE BLACK SESAME CREPE

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

1 tsp. cinnamon (or vanilla extract)

2 tablespoon black sesame

 

Directions:

Whisking two eggs in a mixing bowl.

 

Adding the rest of ingredients into the bowl and whisking well until the mixture become smooth.

 

Choosing a medium size of non-stick pan and warm up the pan at medium heat. Slowly pour a full spoon of crepe mixture into the non-stick pan, and make sure the layer of crepe is as thin as it can be.

 

When the edge of the crepe in the pan turn golden brown, flip it upside down to make sure both sides getting golden brown before taking  out to roll.

 

Using a wooden chopstick to take the crepe out and placing on a clean surface.

 

Slowly rolling the crepe with that chopstick to make a tube shape.

 

Repeat the whole process with the rest of crepe mixture. Rest on a cool rack. When the crepe cool down, it will become crispy and tasty.

 

 

Happy cooking! Happy blogging!

 

 

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ARTICHOKE, PANDAN LEAVES AND LUO HAN GUO DRINK

 

Ingredients:

• 2 Artichokes

• 6 frozen Pandan leaves (can find at any Asian supermarkets)

• 1 dry Luo Han Guo (can find at any Chinese herbal stores)

• 3 litres of water

 

Cooked artichokes, panda leaves and monk fruit in a pot.

Directions:

Pour water to a big pot at high heat.

Break Luo Han Guo open, take out fruit and divide into small parts before putting in the cooking pot.

Add Artichokes and Pandan leaves into the pot as well. Cover lid until water gets boiled, and then lower the heat to medium.

Continue cook at medium heat for 10-15 minutes before turn off the heat.

Let the liquid cool completely. Remove artichokes, panda leaves and Luo Han Guo fruit with a slotted spoon.

Add sugar or syrup at your preferred sweetness (I usually add 3 tablespoons of organic granulated sugar)

Pour the drink into drink containers and store in a fridge to keep cool.

 

My grandma always teach me how to eat healthy foods since I was a little girl. Artichoke and Luo Han Qua (monk fruit) drink is a well-known recipe in my family because they believe that it helps refreshing, detoxify, cool the liver, and drinking regularly help diuretic. When this recipe passed down to my generation, I still believe in it and I am now sharing with everyone because ‘sharing is caring’ . From the original recipe I add extra flavour from panda leaves that makes the drink taste sweeter, smell greater and get more benefits such as reduce stomach spasms and strengthen the gum.

I usually make artichokes, Luo Han Quo and pandan drink once a week and my husband even get hooked to this drink too. The only warning is that you may need to go to washroom more often than usual when drinking it, but that is how it helps you to detoxify your liver. It might be hard for you to find dry Luo Han Quo, but you can visit different Chinese herbal stores and make sure have pictures or name of the fruit since you might not enunciate the word right (that happened to me many times). Good luck and hope you like this recipe!

Happy blogging! Happy cooking!

CLASSIC POPOVERS

Ingredients:

12 Servings

• 3 large eggs
• 1  1/2 cup milk
• 1  1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

Notes:

* If you want the popovers more puffy, you can add 1/2  teaspoon of baking powder for this recipe, but I prefer to stick with the original recipe.

* You can add a tiny bit of cheese, bacon bits or onions to get extra aromas and flavours.

* I add a bit of cheese on top so my popovers have holes in the middle as you can see in the picture, but if you don’t add anything on top of each popover before baking, they all will come out perfectly.

Directions:

Whisk 3 eggs in a mixing bowl. Then add milk, flour and Kosher salt in and continue to whisk until all ingredients blend well together.

Apply thin layer of unsalted butter or spray the muffin tray with nonstick spray  (I don’t have popover pans so I use a muffin tray)

Fill the batter only half way or 2/3 of each muffin cup , leave some space so the popovers will have plenty of room to expand.

Put the muffin tray in an oven, DO NOT PRE-HEAT the oven before putting the muffin tray in.

Bake at 450 F for 25 minutes and DO NOT OPEN the oven during baking time to make sure all popovers rise at maximum level.

Carefully take the muffin tray out and remove Popovers to the cooling racks. Enjoy those Popovers with pâté, mayo, butter or jam.

Outside was snowing, having a hot and fresh Popover on hands is the best feeling.

A classic popovers is a delightful combination of eggs, milk, flour, salt, and just a touch of butter. They are so good, but they are even better when coming out of the oven fresh, hot, and golden brown. When your popovers are puffy and crispy on the outside, yet airy on the inside then you know that you have succeed in making them. Popovers are perfect addition to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even between snacks because it is so light. Now, go ahead and make some extra Popovers to treat families and friends, they will fall in love and thank you for that.
Happy cooking! Happy blogging!

[Quick post] How to whisk egg whites without a mixer

Put 2 egg whites in a large bowl – Use a big whisk to mix the eggs (big whisk always does a better job) – Stir side to side and sometimes lift the whisk up to check the consistency – Go as fast as you can (switch hands if you want) – After 3 to 5 minutes, the egg whites will get fluffy and at its ‘stiff peaks’ – Lift the bowl and turn it all the way up side down, if the egg whites don’t fall down, you got it – Congratulations!

Happy cooking! Happy blogging!

SALMON SPRING ROLLS

I love spring rolls and there is no words could describe how much of my love for Vietnamese cuisine. My guilty pleasure would be deep-fried pork or seafood spring rolls but recently I try to come up with some different ways to cook with nutritious, low-carb and healthy foods for my family, so I come up with an idea to play around with salmon and rice papers – Baked Salmon Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

• 12 small salmon slices
• 12 Rice papers (8 inches banh trang)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dry Parsley flakes
• Oil
• Baking tray

Directions:

Placing salmon on a cutting board nicely. Sprinkle a bit of salt, pepper and parsley.

Soaking rice paper under warm tap water (one by one).

Putting the wet rice paper on a clean, smooth and dry surface before working with it. Using chopsticks to place a salmon slice at about one-third diagonal of the square rice paper. Carefully folding all edges together to make all salmon spring rolls look like this:

Spraying oil on a baking tray and then arranging all salmon spring rolls nicely (make sure to give some space between each roll to avoid rice papers sticking to each other). Lightly spraying another oil coat on top of those salmon spring rolls before baking at  350 degree.

After 20 minutes of baking, use chopsticks to turn all spring rolls over to bake the other side evenly for 20 more minutes.

When salmon spring rolls are done, carefully take them out, place on a nice serving plate and enjoy with family or friends.

          

The spring rolls are crispy outside and tender inside, plus salmon is a great ingredient to provide Omega-3 that means eating salmon makes you smarter and happier. I hope you enjoy this recipe and try it out! If you liked this recipe, please take a moment to share it on Pinterest or Facebook page.

* You can serve Salmon spring rolls with Vietnamese dipping fish sauce too. It adds more aroma and flavour to the salmon.

GORDON RAMSAY’S CLASSIC FRENCH MADELEINES

I am a big fan of Gordon Ramsay. I think he is a very talented, passionate and generous man in creating beautiful foods. After watching his video clip on Youtube, I decide to try out his delicious recipe, Madeleines, and it turns out so fluffy with light golden brown colour and extremely tasty. The only one thing different in my madeleines are that they only have flavour of creamy butter and lemon zest because I run out of poppy seeds (I know…I really wish I have it so the madeleines will even tastier, but it is okay because I can see myself keep making more and more madeleines in the future. To be honest, in my opinion, madeleines are much easy to handle compare with classic French macarons)

After baking, remove the madeleines from the oven and make sure let it cool for 2 minutes before tapping to let those madeleines off the baking tray. Making madeleines is a new experience for me in baking, but they are my husband’s favourite childhood snack. We have something similar in taste and texture as Madeleines in Vietnam, called Bong Lan cake and you can find it anywhere on the street.  

Here is video and recipe on Gordon’s Youtube site. It is very easy to follow step by step and the final results just fabulous, come out exactly what he shows us. 

Happy Baking! Happy Blogging!

VIETNAMESE-THAI SWEET FRUIT DESSERT

Che is the best thing in the world and Vietnamese sweet fruit dessert would have to be my favorite out of them all. It is simply because there are all kinds of fruits in this recipe, especially jackfruit. All of my families and closed friends know that I am a big fan of jackfruit, and I could finish a whole big jackfruit in just a couple of days by myself.

There are many versions of this sweet dessert; some people would add coconut milk for extra creamy taste; others would mix vanilla flavour or add more variety of fruits, etc. This is a great party dessert to serve a big crowd when you don’t have enough time, just mix everything together and chill in a fridge until serve.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of Green Pandan or Black glass jelly (diced into small cubes)
• Half and half cold milk
• 1 can of Toddy palm
• 1 can of Jackfruit (cut jackfruit into thin slices)
• 1 can of Chestnuts (diced into small cubes)
• 1 can of Coconut gel
• Durian pieces (if you don’t like Durian smell or taste, you can skip this)
• Tapioca pieces 

Direction:

Mix all ingredients together in a big cocktail bowl, except milk.

Scoop into a nice clear glass/ mason jar. Add half and half milk and crushed ice when ready to served. Stir well all ingredients again and now you have a cold, colourful and tasty glass of sweet fruit cocktail dessert. Enjoy!

Happy cooking. Happy blogging!

BRAISED SALMON IN CLAYPOT – ANOTHER WAY TO EAT SALMON

This is a Vietnamese dish that people make with pork, cat-fish or shrimps, but I replace the main ingredient with salmon fish which is healthier and brings out more excellent results.  The thickness of the claypots retain heat and moisture, helping to soften meats when braised. You can find a clay pot at any Asian stores; it comes with different sizes, designs and colours. I bought mine at a Vietnamese-Chinese shop in China Town of Toronro, Canada at a cost of $5.99 for each.

Usually this dish don’t need wine but I still decide to add a little of Pink Moscato and Vintage Merlot Salt during cooking time for extra flavours; here is how you make it:

Ingredients:

• 400 gram Salmon (still have skin, cut into medium-small pieces)
• 1/2 cup avocado oil (or canola oil)
• 2 purple onions, minced
• green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. five spice
• 2 cup water
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce (My husband doesn’t like fish sauce’s smell so I replace with 1 tbsp. Vintage Merlot salt)
• 1 tbsp. Pink Moscato wine
• 1/2 tbsp. coconut thin sauce
•  chopped coriander leaves and hot pepper slices for decorating

…..

Directions:

1. Turn heat on medium-high. Add purple onions and garlic in 1 teaspoon hot oil until they turns golden brown. Pour in a small bowl.
2. On the same non-stick saucepan, pour 1/2 cup of oil. Place salmon slices on hot oil (make sure fry skin side first. It will keep salmon not falling apart) and cook until they are golden brown on both sides (it takes about 5 minutes each side). 
3. Transfer the fish to a clay-pot. 
4. Keep the heat at medium-low. Stir the brown sugar, coconut thin sauce and 2 cup of the water in a small saucepan until the sugar and coconut sauce dissolve. Add garlic & purple onion mixture, green onions to cook for 3-5 minutes; and then add the remaining ingredients (black pepper, cayenne pepper, five spice, Vintage Merlot salt and Pink Moscato wine). Bring to boil before pouring the liquid mixture over the fish in the clay-pot. 
5. Put the pot over very low heat. Let it simmer, uncovered, until reduced by about half.
6. Decorating with chopped coriander leaves and chilies. Serve with hot steaming rice.

Enjoy!!

Related articles

• How to Make Vegan ‘Fish’ Sauce (onegreenplanet.org)
• Dipping Fish Sauce (chopstickspoon.wordpress.com)
• Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwiches (theblackcatkitchen.wordpress.com)

HOW TO MAKE $1 INSTANT NOODLES TASTY

Instant noodle is well-known as a quick meal but you can make it tastier with some simple ingredients (It is also a great way to clean up leftover foods in your fridge)

1. Add chicken/ pork/ beef broth (Or even creamy curry broth would be fine too)
2. Add left-over meat (pull pork, shredded beef, butter chicken, etc.) 
3. Add cheese (make sure let it melt by pouring extra broth on top of cheese) 
4. Add sea weed and roast sesame seeds (If you are not a fan of sea-weed, you can skip this)
5. Add vegetables and herbs (water cress, spinach, bean sprouts, basils, green onions, fried shallots, etc.) 
6. Add a sunny-side-up fried egg
7. Add Siracha for hot-spicy taste

… And now you have your own version of an epical tasty-yummy noodle bowl soup, enjoy!!

SHORTBREAD COOKIES (TRADITIONAL WAY)

This recipe is adapted by CANADA Corn Starch via Joyful Jollies cooking blog. I have eaten  a lot of shortbread cookies but this is the best recipe of shortbread I’ve ever made and tasted. It is so easy to handle with only 4 ingredients and couples of kitchen tools

Shortbread recipe from Canada corn starch
[….] 1/2 cup Canada corn starch
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup butter, softened [….]

I use fork to gently press down on top of the dough for making simple design

The cookies come out so fine, smell so good, taste a bit like (edible) sand when eating right away but it becomes even better on the next day. I don’t usually bake so much compare with cooking foods, but after researching the BEST shortbread recipes on the Internet – some recipes don’t need corn starch, other ones need many more ingredients….but come down to it….Grandma’s foods are what I am looking for because it always taste good, so I decide to give it a try.

The first batch of shortbread cookies come out so nice.

After I mix all ingredients together, I put the dough into a large plastic wrap to make a roll then store in a fridge for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile I pre-heat the oven at 375 degree. I don’t have to spend too much time on rolling the dough out or use cookie cutters to make shapes. I just have to open the plastic wrap, use sharp knife to cut the roll into smaller round shape, place on cookie tray and make some simple design with fork. Here is the result:

You may realize some cookies are gone because I eat them during taking pictures 🙂

Now is your turn to give it a try to this recipe, guarantee you will be successful right at the first time of trying.

Happy Cooking! Happy Blogging!