Corned Beef

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, here’s a method to prepare corned beef. Rather than just boiling the corned beef on the stove with water, add a bottle (or more) of beer and braise it all in the oven. In this case I used a corned beef round rather than brisket, but either works.

Since this is the day before St. Patrick’s Day, it also happens to be the birthday of one of my friends from high school. He asked that I cook something today and call it Tyrone! Well, Tyrone, here’s your dish.

Enjoy!

Corned Beef Pastrami

This recipe was updated on 23 Jul 2014. I updated the instructions and method to cook this dish after trying a new way to setup the charcoal grill. I not only used this method to remake this dish, but originally tried the method using the Grilled Dry Rub Pork Baby Back Ribs recipe.

Instead of making the usual boiled corned beef, you can use your barbeque to make smoked corned beef pastrami. You have to soak the corned beef in water overnight to reduce the salt from the brine used to make the corned beef and then use a dry rub to season the corned beef before smoking. I used a corned beef brisket to make the pastrami.

Enjoy!

Cashew Asparagus Prawns (腰果蘆筍蝦仁, Jiu1 Gwo2 Lou4 Seon2 Haa1 Jan4)

 

This recipe was updated on 24 Jun 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Asparagus is available now and pairing the asparagus with shrimp/prawns and cashew nuts makes a classic Chinese-American restaurant dish. I used a basic sauce to make the dish, but you can also make the dish using salted black beans and garlic, see the Cashew Asparagus Shrimp (腰果蘆筍蝦仁, Jiu¹ Gwo² Lou⁴ Seon² Haa¹ Jan⁴) recipe.

Enjoy!

Red Curry Seafood

Well it’s been a while since I last posted a recipe. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking (in fact I have a large backlog or recipes that I have to post), but I’ve been busy with hosting the family for the Holidays, planning for travel in the USA and Canada, and then taking the trip with my girlfriend from Korea. So posting recipes took a backseat to other more important tasks.

I choose this recipe to start this year’s postings because I prepared this dish for Valentine’s Day. It’s really a very simple recipe and it doesn’t take long to prepare. My usual habit for posting recipes is to prepare a dish and then take pictures, recounting and recording the recipe at a later date. In the meantime, while taking pictures, the dish gets cold. In this case, it didn’t seem very practical or particularly romantic to tell my girlfriend to wait and not eat until I took pictures while the dish gets cold. So we ate and I took the pictures of the leftovers the next day. Luckily we didn’t devour everything or there wouldn’t be anything left to take a picture of.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Asparagus Dough Sliced Chow Mein (蘆筍雞炒刀削麵, Lou4 Seon2 Gai1 Caau2 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 25 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Here’s another variation, using chicken and asparagus, for making chow mein with dough sliced noodles. Unlike the dish at the local Chinese Muslim restaurant, this version uses spicy black bean chili sauce. Dough sliced noodles are aptly named since the noodles are sliced from a block of dough. The noodles are also called knife-cut noodles. The noodles have a chewy doughy texture, unlike normal chow mein noodles. I always wondered how to get or make these noodles. Now I don’t have to go to a restaurant to get this dish since I found the dough sliced noodles in the freezer section at my local Asian market.

 

The dough sliced noodle package contains 5 packs of noodles each weighing 200 grams (for a total of 1 kilogram). While the package says that you don’t have to thaw the noodles before cooking, I defrost my noodles overnight before use. You can always use the microwave to defrost the noodles if you forget to defrost them (1 minute on high works for me). Once I forgot to defrost the noodles, and I put the noodles in boiling water briefly to defrost them. The noodles definitely get defrosted, but the texture is not as chewy after being boiled. If you can’t find dough sliced noodles, you can substitute another flat noodle.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Cauliflower Yellow Curry

This is a very simple dish to make. The yellow curry is available as an already prepared paste (I used Mae Ploy brand). The amount of curry paste you use depends upon the level of spiciness that you desire – use more for more spicy and less for less spicy. You add coconut milk to the chicken, vegetables, and curry to complete the dish. The trick is to incorporate the cauliflower and potatoes into the dish towards the end of the cooking time. If you put them in at the beginning, you’ll get mushy cauliflower and potatoes.

Enjoy!

Winter Melon with Dried Shrimp (冬瓜蝦米, Dung1 Gwaa1 Haa1 Mai5)

 

This recipe was updated on 03 Nov 2015. Some instructions and ingredient measurements were changed.

Here’s another simple winter melon stir fry dish, this time using dried shrimp. Chinese winter melon is not a melon but a gourd with what looks like a white powder covering the outer surface. It’s usually available, eaten, and stored over the Fall and Winter months. It is typically used in soups, the classic being a soup with winter melon and dried oysters either with or without the winter melon’s outer skin.

Enjoy!