Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but please HOLD the raisins!

I love oatmeal cookies.
I love chocolate.
I can't STAND raisins.

Therefore, I must make my own oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips.  What's more to be said about these delicious morsels that also happen to be packed with good fibers?  You will not only be able to enjoy these amazing, soft, chocolatey, raisin-free cookies, but you will also find yourself to be much more "regular," if you know what I mean. Please share if you love Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies! =)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (1 standard stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt (optional; I accidentally used salted butter instead of unsalted butter so I left this out)
1.5 cup quick oats
1+ cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet preferred)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 375F

1) Cream your butter with your brown and white sugar until you get a nice crumbly mixture.
2) Stir in your egg to get a creamier product, then add in your vanilla extract.
3) Sift together your flour, baking soda, and salt.  Then add your dry ingredients to the wet mixture.
4) Stir in your oats and mix well (but don't overmix! Make sure you just get the ingredients evenly distributed but avoid over-mixing as this could flatten your cookies)
5) Stir in your chocolate chips (I use closer to 1.5 cups of chips because I love chocolate!)
6) Make one tablespoon ball of dough and keep them an inch apart on the cooking sheet

Bake for 12-13 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool before serving.

Asian-style Steamed Mexican Rock Fish

Eating fish is one of the healthier ways of getting your proteins for the day and simply steaming it is usually of the best ways to eat it especially when they are fresh. I got a fresh local Mexican Rock fish from my nearby grocery store and steamed it for about 9 minutes. The best indicators of when the fish is cooked is by looking at its eyes; once you see a white ball and it is kind of popped out then it's ready! Also you can also tell by looking closely at the fish skin and seeing it rip a little.

Ingredients:

Mexican Rock fish (~ 1lb)
Cooking Oil
Soy Sauce
Ginger
Green Onions

Instructions:

1) Assumption is your fish monger already cleaned and gutted the fish for you; throw your slices of ginger and green on the inside and outside of the fish

2) Steam for about 9 minutes (or until eye ball goes clear and fish skin is starting to rip)

 

3) Heat in a small pan some oil to splash over the steamed fish once it's done. This gives the fish a smoother texture

4) Splash soy sauce over it and serve!

Beef Lengua from Scratch!

This is the first time making beef lengua from scratch and boy was it rewarding. I took out my awesome pressure cooker again to cut the time. The ingredients are relatively straight forward and you can either make tacos with it or just eat it with rice! Here's what I did!

Share if you like this post! =) Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Ingredients:

2.5 lb of Beef Lengua (Tongue)
Cooking Oil (used Avocado oil)
Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cilantro
Lemon
3-4 Garlic Cloves
Worcestershire sauce
Water

Instructions:

1) Wash and rinse beef tongue with cold running water and pat it really dry
2) Generously salt, pepper, splash Worcestershire sauce on the beef tongue all around

3) Dice loosely some cilantro to insert in the pressure cooker
4) Cut half a lemon to insert in the pressure cooker
5) Splash some cooking oil and mince the garlic cloves to flavor the beef tongue before searing
5) Heat your pressure cooker to medium-high and sear the beef tongue on all sides

6) Pour enough water such that it fills up to half of the beef tongue vertically

7) Pressurize and set timer to 60 minutes

8) Once time has elapsed, depressurize and remove the thick outer skin and discard

 

9) Now dice them into cubes and the smaller the better as it may get too chewy if not diced small enough.
10) Serve!

Crispy Roast Pork Belly (Hong Kong Style)

Where I live, it's pretty difficult to get good Chinese food.  So imagine how awful it feels when I have a sudden craving for HK style BBQ and am unable to satisfy my desires without having to drive >100 miles!!!  The only solution was obvious: make it myself.

Now I used to be very daunted by the very prospect of having to make BBQ items, especially things that classically require a rotisserie oven or high heat commercial grade broiler.  After doing some research on the web, I found that people all around have figured out ways to make crispy pork belly at home in a conventional oven.  The recipe I am about to share is an amalgam of various techniques I read from fellow home cooks.

Ingredients:
- a slab of pork belly (~2 lbs); WITH skin on, of course
- 2 tsp five spice
- 2 Tbs Shiao Xing rice wine
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp powdered white pepper
- 1 Tbs white vinegar
- 1 cup coarse salt
- a sharp, thick needle

Instructions:

1) Thoroughly clean and dry your slab of pork belly
2) Rub five spice, fine salt, sugar, and white pepper on the meat side of the pork belly.
3) Then rub in the rice wine.
4) Allow the pork belly to marinate in these spices overnight, skin side up
5) The following day, pat dry the skin side again.  Start poking holes ALL OVER the skin (only to the thickness of the skin, without going into the flesh)
6) Brush the white vinegar over the top of the perforated skin.  This helps to dry out the pork skin as you cook it, allowing it to become crispy.
7) Using foil, create a foil tray for the pork belly, making sure that the side "walls" of this foil tray are flushed up against the sides of the pork belly.
8) Apply coarse salt over the top of the pork belly. This salt is not intended for seasoning your food, but rather to create a salt crust over the skin.  The purpose of the salt is to soak up moisture from the pork skin as you cook it.
9) Bake in the oven at 395F for 50 minutes.
10) Remove from the oven, and remove the salt crust.

11) Place the pork back in the oven, skin side up, and BROIL on high for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and CRISPY.

12) Serve with Hoisin (Seafood) Sauce!!

Hainanese Chicken Rice at Home!

Not going to lie, I'm pretty sure I just made the best if not one of the best Hainanese Chicken in San Diego and maybe perhaps all of SoCal. The white meat was so tender and juicy that you could get confused that you were eating dark meat! It was that good! I don't think I'll be craving to eat out for Hainanese Chicken Rice anytime soon. Here's what I did! Share if you love Hainan Chicken Rice!

Ingredients:

4 lb fresh whole Chicken
Salt
3 Green Onions branches
Ginger slices
Water
3 Garlic cloves
1.5 cups of Rice
Chicken Broth
Sesame Oil

Instructions:

Chicken:

1) Rinse the whole chicken with running cold water
2) Clean the chicken by pouring generously salt all over the chicken as well as on the inside
3) Now rub the salt against the skin and on the inside with some pressure (should sound sandy when rubbing)

4) Now rinse the chicken with running cold water again and pat it super dry with paper towels
5) Sprinkle salt again all around the chicken (inside as well) for seasoning
6) Cut green onions into 2" lengths
7) Slice ginger into 4" length (1/4 " thickness)
8) Stuff the green onions and ginger inside the chicken

9) Place the whole chicken (breast side up) into a pot and fill it up with cold water with ~ 1" above the chicken and cover

10) Set temperature to HIGH to bring the water to a boil
11) Once it has started boiling, lower the heat to LOW/SIMMER and set timer to 34 minutes (8.5 min/ lb)
12) They'll be some foams of bubbles surfacing on the top layer and be sure to sift them away!

13) Once time has elapsed, quickly pick up the whole chicken and dunk it in a pot of cold water to stop the cooking process and firm up the chicken

14) Before you commence portioning the chicken, pour 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil all over the skin.

Rice:

1) Mince the garlic cloves and ginger and heat them on a pan with cooking oil to bring out the aromas for the rice

2) Cook the rice in your rice cooker and use chicken broth (or broth from cooked chicken) and water (70-30 ratio), throw in the minced cloves and ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil into the mixture.

Soup:

Simply filter out the fat from the chicken broth and serve as soup! Salt if required. Mine turned out just fine without any modifications.

Abalone Awesomeness in under 1 hour!

Did I mention already how much I love my pressure cooker? I'll say it again! I LOVE MY PRESSURE COOKER! Today I decided to try something new and pressure cook Abalone! If you don't know what it is, it's one of the best tasting mollusk you'll ever have. I consider Abalone to have a very similar strong natural flavor to Conch! This is a very simple recipe but full of flavor and it's very fool proof! It will not be chewy or mushy at all; just perfection. Here's what I did. Share if you like it! =)

Voila!

Ingredients:

Chicken Stock
Fresh Abalone
Cooking Oil (used Avocado oil)
Carrots
Green Onions

Instructions:

1)  Rinse the Abalone with running cold water

2) Shuck your fresh Abalone from the shell; simply treat it like scooping ice cream and you want to apply force on the shell as you scoop the Abalone.

Scoop it out!

Tada!

2) Heat your pressure cooker on HIGH  and splash cooking oil and chicken stock high enough such that it covers at least half of Abalone when it's submerged

3) Now dice some green onions and carrots when the broth has started boiling

4) Gently place the shucked Abalone foot side down and pressurize!

Abalone just chilling away

5) Set timer for 1 hour

6) Once 1 hour has elapsed, serve and enjoy!

Pressure Cooked Five-Spiced "Lo Shui" Duck in 30 minutes!

Move along chicken, time for a new poultry in town! I decided to buy a whole duck at my nearest supermarket and take advantage of my awesome pressure cooker.The results were pretty good and I'd make it again for sure! Here's what I did!

Ingredients:

~4 lb Whole Duck
Five Spice Powder
1/4 cup Honey
1/4 cup Cooking Wine (Shiao Xing Rice Wine)
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Light Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar
Salt
4-5 cloves of Garlic
5 slices of Ginger
3 sticks whole Green Onion

Instructions:

1) Poke many holes and slits throughout the duck's skin; this allows the marinade to seep into the duck better as well as allow the duck fat to release as duck is pretty fatty naturally

2) Mix all the ingredients aside from the duck and pour it all over the duck in some pan

3) Ladle the marinade often all over the duck and also on the inside.

4) Optional: Let it marinade overnight in the refrigerator

5) Now before you commence cooking the duck, rub the inside of the duck with salt

6) Get your pressure cooker out and set the heat to medium-high

7) Sear the duck on both sides to brown the skin and to seal the juices

8) Once searing of the duck is complete, pour in the remaining marinade from the duck into the pressure cooker and let it pressurize!

9) Once pressurized, set timer to ~ 25 - 30 minutes (3 - 4lb)

10) Voila, delicious fully infused five-spiced whole duck!

Let me know what you think and please share if you like it! =)

FRY me some Crispy Chicken!

I was defrosting a pack of chicken drumsticks, getting ready to make my usual soy sauce chicken, when I thought to myself, "hey, why not change things up a bit tonight?"  I dug around my pantry and found some leftover Panko bread crumbs from my crab cake recipe... and ding ding ding! WE'RE HAVING FRIIIIIIED CHICKEN TONIGHT!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups panko
- no-salt seasoning (contains onion, garlic, carrot, thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc)
- salt
- pepper
- chicken thighs or large drumsticks
- lots of oil
- wok or some kind of pan to fry your chicken in

1) Prepare your dipping stations: one plate of flour, one bowl of eggs (beat thoroughly), and one plate of panko with seasoning.  I didn't measure how much seasoning I used... use your own judgement :)

2) Debone your chicken thigh or drumstick (I used a very large drumstick here) such that you get a nice steak of out it.  Proceed to pound it down with a mallet to achieve even thickness.  This allows for even cooking and for less shrinking in the fryer.  Pat the chicken very dry, and season with salt and pepper.

3) Now it's time to bread the chicken!  Have a designated "wet" hand and a designated "dry" hand to avoid getting gross and clumpy all around your fingers.  First, dip into the flour for a light event layer on both sides of the chicken, then dunk into the egg wash and shake off excess egg.  REPEAT the flour and egg step for extra crunchiness.  Finally, coat with a layer of seasoned panko.

4) Now to fry, heat your oil up to 350F in a pan or in a wok.  Gently lay the chicken down into the oil and fry each side for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown.

5) As with all fried foods, don't forget to rest the chicken on oil-absorbing paper (I just used paper towel on top of a roasting rack) to avoid having oily, soggy crusts.

**~ ENJOY! ~**