Clams with Sake

I had a housewarming several years ago and I had an Asian theme so everyone, and I mean everyone, brought me a bottle of sake. I am not actually a huge sake drinker (I prefer soju) so it's taken me a while to use these bottles up. I cook with wine often so I decided to cook with sake and I absolutely love it. I chose to steam clams with sake and the end result has a great flavor- it's even a bit sweet. The first time since I didn't know quite what I was doing a used frozen clams. Here are the ingredients:

-package of frozen clams

-sake (enough to fill bottom of pan and cover at least half of the clams)

-onions

-chopped scallions and togarashi spice for seasoning/topping 

I sautéed some chopped onions in butter until they were clear, added the frozen clams and sake and covered. I left them covered for about 15 minutes and my clams were defrosted and steamed. I usually like to mix the clams with the sauce one more and let simmer for another few minutes. There should still be plenty of "sauce" in the bottom of the pan.

This is a picture of what was left in the pan after taking a couple of bowls of clams out. The clams taste good enough to eat just like this but I like the clams with a little spicy to balance out the sweet so I too with sliced scallions and togarashi. And the finished product:

I'm sure this method would taste great with any kind of seafood. 

Chef George Catering: A Cooking Class

I have taken several cooking classes before but nothing compares to Chef Jorge's cooking class. Everyone gets to participate and have fun when cooking. Chef Jorge demonstrates how to do/make things and then has the people in the class try it for themselves. I took a sushi making class with Chef Jorge. The atmosphere is very laid-back - maybe in part due to the "cordial/beverage per person" that Chef Jorge serves/teaches students how to make in class. Which ends up being multiple cordial/beverages per person... I had a really good time learning how to make sushi and the saketini that he taught us to make. The classes are also super affordable - actually less expensive than any other cooking classes I have taken. The class is located in Hollywood, FL so if you live in the area (I drove over an hour to go to this class and I would definitely do it again!) you should check it out. See below for some pictures from my class and a link to classes and dates :

http://www.meetup.com/homemadechefs/
Chef George Catering - 8338 West State Road 84 Davie, FL



What the empty table looked like when we got there - just waiting for all of our yummy sushi!!



The table with (most of) our sushi on it! We made so much there were plenty of extra's for everyone to take home with them!



Demonstrating how to make a lychee jalapeno saketini -mmmm! I really am not a fan of lychee or sake so imagine my surprise when I loved this drink! There is a lot of flavor in it - sweet, spicy, salty, bitter and it all works together well. I actually made this at a japanese cinema party I went to and it was a hit.



I hope Chef Jorge doesn't mind me posting the recipe but so many people have asked me for it.



Me and the Chef - I was helping to make dessert - which was also amazing by the way!



Some of the sushi I made myself!! I was so proud of myself...ok maybe I used a little too much rice...



The whole class sitting down to eat after making everything.

I can't wait until I get to take another class - next time they do Peruvian food I think I'm in!

Asian Feast

I took a little break for a while from blogging...my camera broke so I couldn't get all of my tasty creations up...I started cooking again a few weeks ago and I have been slow to get pictures up. I will be posting a lot in the next few day to catch up!



It's been a while since I have cooked some Asian food so I thought I would really cook it up last night: I made a version of Filipino lumpia that they serve in a restaurant close to my house, some Japanese chicken katsu with tonkatsu sauce over white rice with some yaki udon on the side.




It's all pretty easy to make and if you cook alot or cook any asian food you will probably have a lot of the ingredients lying around.

Lumpia:
*depending on how many you want to make you need to increase the amount of ingredients - I just wanted to test it so I only made two Lumpia (wish I made more)


Ingredients:

spring roll wrappers (2)
ground beef (1 cup)
1 carrot chopped into small pieces
green peas (1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
a couple of dashes of hot sauce
(I also threw in a dash of powdered ginger)
*thai sweet chili sauce for dipping

Directions:
1. Brown beef in skillet or wok...while you are browning beef boil water and add carrots and green peas. Continue to boil until they are soft. When vegetables and beef are cooked through add to bowl and mix with the rest of the ingredients


2. Take one spring roll wrapper with point facing you and begin to fill by spooning mixture 2 inches from point of wrapper facing you. Begin to wrap, folding corners into the inside of the spring roll as you wrap. close spring roll by pressing firmly or sealing with water



3. Heat oil in a non-stick wok and add spring rolls one at a time - they cook fast so watch them!



4. Take spring rolls out of wok when brown and crispy and drain on a paper towel. Enjoy with thai sweet chili on the side.



Yaki Udon:
I just made veggie yaki soba but you can really add anything to yaki udon: meat, chicken, scallops, pork...


Ingredients:
dry udon noodles
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 inch of ginger (shreeded)
shreeded cabbage to your liking
shreeded carrot to your liking
1 packet of yaki udon/soba sauce


Directions:
1. boil water and add udon noodles (do not add salt to water as udon is very salty already)

2. while udon noodles are cooking add garlic and ginger to a heated and oiled wok - note that they will brown fast so be ready with veggies to throw into the wok

3. add any desired vegetables - like carrots and cabbage

4. drain noodles and add to wok

5. after noodles have cooked for a few mintues add powdered yaki udon sauce

6. you may need to add a little water to the wok at this point to evenly distribute sauce and make it more...well....saucey..mix well and cook for another minute or two and then you are ready to enjoy



Chicken Katsu:


Ingredients:
chicken cutlet
white flour
salt
oil
egg
panko (japanese bread crumbs)


Directions:
set out four plates:
On plate one: mix flour with salt to taste
on plate 2: one beaten egg
on plate 3: panko
plate 4 leave empty for breaded cutlets


Dredge cutlets in flour, coat with egg and then cover with panko. Press panko into cutlets and then place on empty plate and repeat.


Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry cutlets until golden brown on both sides.


Slice and serve over white rice. Traditionally Chicken Katsu Don is the cutlet sliced served over fried egg and white rice. Drizzle tonkatsu sauce over chicken.

Enjoy!!

Pero Sweet Pepper Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

I work in sales at a produce company. My company's name is Pero Vegetable Company. We grow peppers, squash, cucumbers and all sorts of other produce and we sell anything from blueberries to rain chard. If you live anywhere on the east coast of the United States, the mid-west or even in Canada chances are you have eaten at least one of our peppers before. We are most widely known for our 3 count peppers trays:

We write recipes using our products and we send these to customers and put them out in trade publications. Unfortunately, the end consumer doesn't usually get ahold of these recipes. The following recipe is using Pero mini sweet peppers. If you havent cooked with mini sweets before you must really try them-they are packed with flavor! I have sliced them on home made pizza's and stuffed them with rice, beans and cheese as appetizers.

Pero Sweet Pepper Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

1 lb of chicken tenderloins

3 oz. of seasoned corn starch

(add a pinch of salt, pepper and garlic starch)

3 oz. of vegetable oil

1package of Pero's Mini Sweet Peppers (sliced into strips)

6 scallions (white tops only)

1/8 cup of carrot sticks

1 clove of minced garlic

1 tsp of grated ginger

5 tbsp of roasted crushed peanuts (garnish)

Sauce:

Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl

1 tbsp of creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp of coconut milk

2 tsp of brown sugar

1 tsp of 5 spice powder

1/2 tsp of rice wine vinegar

pinch of garlic powder and salt

Procedure:

Heat oil in a large saute pan (medium high heat). Dredge tenderloins in the seasoned corn starch and saute until golden brown. In the same pan add mini sweet peppers, carrots, garlic, ginger and scallions and saute lightly. Incorporate the peanut sauce and serve immediately.

Mongolian Beef:

I recommend Lee Kum Kee Mongolian Beef Sauce. Actually, I recommend all of the Lee Kum Kee Sauce mixes. If you don’t feel comfortable making a sauce yourself or picking ingredients to add to a dish but want some home cooked Chinese food, Lee Kum Kee is a great choice. When I first began cooking for myself in college I would pick up a bottle or sauce packet and just follow the recipe on the package. It would always come out great. They even have single serving size packets of sauce. You can find them in any asian market and now a lot of chain grocery stores are starting to carry their products in the ethic aisle. A lot of their sauces are certified kosher as well. I promise these are authentic, I actually heard about them from a Taiwanese girl and my Chinese friend loved the black bean sauce so much he took some packets home to China to cook for his parents!
For this recipe you would use the Mongolian beef sauce:

Like I said I used to just follow the recipe on the back of the packet but it only gets better the more you add to it!

Other ingredients:

-1 onion sliced into long strips
-bell pepper, red or green diced
-one bunch scallions, white part chopped and green parts sliced into long pieces
-2 cloves garlic minced
-1 teaspoon ginger minced
-1/4 of a poblano pepper diced
-strip steak (the kind used for charrassco) sliced into long strips – if you aren’t big on steak then chicken tastes just as good
- a couple of pinches of crushed red pepper (optional – go for it if you like some heat, this is a mild sauce)
-olive oil for frying

1. Fry steak and garlic in olive oil until cooked through, if using the strip steak this shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes

2. add ginger, onion, bell pepper and poblano pepper and fry until onions are translucent

3. add sauce, crushed red pepper and scallions and simmer for a 5 minutes

Eat up with some jasmine rice – yum!

Mrs. Nomura's Japanese Curry

I’m so lucky to have friends from other countries and occasionally they share their family’s recipes with me. The following is a recipe shared by my friend Togo. It's the one recipe that his mother sent him off to college with. It calls for a package curry roux. This can be found in any asian store and they are even starting to sell the milder version in Publix here in Florida. This is the kind my friend recommends :

S&B Golden Curry – I recommend the hot version as it is not very spicy and the milder versions don’t have much taste to me.


Ingredients:

-one block curry roux (usually there are two in a box)
-carrots sliced into long, thin, bite size pieces
-one yellow onion sliced in long strips
-one or two bell peppers of any color sliced in long pieces
-one whole head of garlic peeled
-one cube of either chicken or beef stock
-meat of your choice: chicken, beef or pork will do (I love chicken so that’s what I usually use) chopped into bite sized pieces
-olive oil to fry

1. Fry meat of choice in olive oil until cooked medium (you are going to simmer this meat so it doesn’t/should be cooked all the way through)


2. Add veggies and garlic and fry for about 2 minutes


3. Fill frying pan with water – only enough to cover contents of frying pan and no more. Crush cube of chicken or beef stock into water and cover. Let simmer on low for 20 minutes.

This is what it should look like before you simmer it....mmmm....chocolate peppers, my fav!

4. After 20 minutes take off cover and look at amount of water in pan…it should have reduced to about ¾ the amount of water…if not you may want to disgard some of the water.


5. Crumble block of curry roux into water and stir well…if not you will have chunks of curry in your meal.

6. Let simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Let stand only a few minutes…Sauce will thicken as it stands.

Mmmm...finished product!

You can serve this meal with either rice or Japanese Udon noodles (I love the noodles personally, they are pretty salty though). If you were eating this dish in Japan a main dish of the curry would be placed in the center of the table and everyone would be given a bowl of rice. You would just grab what you wanted with chop sticks and add to rice as you go. I personally love the sauce and ladle it over my rice or noodles….

If you have any leftovers I recommend making curry bread…so delicious!
You can stop by closetcooking.blogspot.com they have a great recipe for curry bread.