Paaast Dinners

Hoooooowwwdddyyyy!!!! It's been a hectic week for me, so I haven't had time to cook everyday, and when I have cooked, I've forgotten to post them up! Aiyah!

Without further ado...here's what I've cooked this past week

This magnificent dish is called "niu rou mian!" Translation: beef noodle! It's really delicious...especially since I made it hehehe. It's the perfect blend of beefiness and spiciness. Plus, I added baby bak choy to give the dish some nutritional value. Niu rou mian is very popular in Taiwan...I believe....or so my daddy (who's Taiwanese) tells me. He's very smart....

The second dish is:

A medley of deliciousness.
To the left is Brown Rice with Mao Po Tofu! Yummy!
Center: A variation of my sexy-salmon-swimming-in-sake dish and Shake N' Bake's Dry Buffalo Styled Wings
Right: Stir-Fried Bean sprouts with leeks sprinkled within.

That was a scrumptious meal...and I left the table afterwards with a ginormous food baby. Getting pregnant of deliciousness....no big deal!

Until the next time....keep it real

My Football Dinner!!!

The Texas Rangers are returning to the World Series as the Reigning American League Champions!!! And the Stars won last night 4-2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Unfortunately, the Cowboys could not get the job done against the New England Patriots. Good thing I had my delicious dinner to distract me from the tragedy that is Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys!

Ingredients:

Pre-marinated chicken breasts from Albertson's, Romaine leaves

Alexia oven fries -- yummy! So delicious!

1) The chicken is to be served over "wilted Romaine." So we first prepare the latter. Basically, add olive oil and lots of garlic to your wok and stir fry the heck out of the Romaine leaves-- oh, add salt and pepper. Afterwards, place them aside

 * this picture turns me on. The leaves look soo crisp, and I love how the garlic's artfully scattered along the wok.

2) To prepare the chicken breasts: preheat olive oil on a high setting in a fancy skillet. Then, add breasts skin side down.

 * make sure your chicken looks like the one in this image!

3) Next, put aluminum foil over chicken and put another heavy skillet on top-- or if you have a fancy skillet cover (heavy!) like me, put it on top. Cool for about 5 minutes .
Then flip the chicken over and cook for 5 to 8 minutes.  This step will help tone your arms and gain strength! GRRRR!!!

* This looks like a panini maker. Or a modern day ufo.

4) So, after cooking the fries according to package directions and making extra edamame, I served myself the yummy chicken over my wilted Romaine lettuce, with edamame  and the wonderful fries

* Jealous? I would be. I actually ate 2 of the chickens already before taking the picture. Oops!


I hope this makes your day even better...or brightens up your gloomy day. Either way, it should enhance your livelihood. Until manana....au revoir!

Wednesday's Dinner

Hello again! After yesterday's feast, I decided to take it easy and cook dishes I'm familiar with. Therefore, it won't be a picture fest...but hopefully it'll bring back some smiles as I regale ya'll with my past creations.

Can you guess what this is?

Ok, I'll tell you. It's my sexy salmon swimming in sake dish. It sits upon my homemade salad, complete with Wishbone Italian dressing, Edamame (so I can get my protein), and cilantro.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my other dish today. It was Kroger's premade ribs (St. Louis style) and frozen fries. They were delicious. Hopefully, I'll remember to take a picture of everything I eat tomorrow...and not be a forgetful old man...because I do like to believe I'm still a young man.

Keep eating ya'll, and I will be back tomorrow!

Dong Po Rou!

I know! What is that gibberish in that title? Well, literally, it means Dong Po's Meat ;D.

*disclaimer: please leave your filthy minds somewhere else

It is a Huangzhou dish which is made by pan-frying and then red cooking pork belly. Red cooking is a slow braising cooking technique that imparts a red color on food.

So now it's STORY TIME!!!!
Dong Po Rou is named after the famous Chinese poet/writer Su Dongpo. Legend has it that while Su Dongpo was banished to Huangzhou, he made an improvement of the traditional process. He first braised the pork, added Chinese fermented wine and red cooked his pork. He  then slowly stewed it on a low heat setting. This dish was first launched in Huangzhou, then spread to Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, flourished, and then became one of Huangzhou's most famous dishes (yea, check Wikipedia).

Now that you're well educated on the history of this dish, I present to you MY VERSION of this classic dish.

Evan's Stupendous Dong Po Rou!!!! 

Ingredients:

2 small bunches of green onions, chopped up into 2 inch strips. (The recipe calls for 5 stalks of scallions, but y'all know me -- I love my green onions)

5 pieces of ginger -- smash them with your knife

1 1/3 cup of soy sauce -- I mix dark and light soy sauce -- my grandpa taught me about dark soy sauce. It brings the taste of soy sauce to a totally different stratosphere.

4 lbs of fatty "Berkshire pork" -- yes you will clog up your arteries, but you can make this an annual event, like me
(recipe calls for 1.3 lbs, but you know me again ...)

3/4 cups of wine -- I use whatever cooking wine I could find in the fridge. This particular brand is called "Shao Shing" wine

12 heaping tablespoons of sugar!!!

1) Boil a big pot of water. Once the water is done boiling, CAREFULLY dump the slabs of Berkshire pork into the water. I don't want anybody burning their hand off on account of my blog. I don't want that on my conscience.  Bring the pot to boil again. Boil all that fat off the pork for about 20 minutes

 2) After 20 to 30 mins, take the slabs of fatty pork out. Let them cool and then cut them into 1 centimeter strips.... Well I'm lazy so this looks more like 1 inch strips.
Now is the time to preheat your oven to 275 degrees. The recipe asks for you to simmer things over a hot stove for about 2 hours or so, and you have to watch over this process so nothing catches fire. Fuck that! I'm creative and lazy, so I decided to utilize my oven instead.

3) In a fancy wok or Dutch oven (it has to be something you can stick in an oven), heat the ginger and scallions using a medium- high heat.  when you smell the aromatic concoction, add in the fat pork strips and wine.  When the concoction starts to boil, add in soy sauce...(Whoops, I forgot to take a picture of one of the most important ingredients:  a bottle of dark Guinness beer, plus half a cup of water!), the beer and the water....when this new concoction boils again, lower the heat to medium. Then add sugar.

* A dutch oven is a thick-walled (usually cast iron) cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid. It is NOT the urban dictionary definition....

4) Then cover the Dutch oven and stick it in the oven, like so. Stick it in there for 2 hours or so, taking it out to stir the contents halfway through. Your house will smell so great, it will make your dogs salivate and bark....

*seeeecxxxxxaaaayyyyy!!!!

5) Once the 2 hours have elapsed, take out the Dutch oven, take a giant whiff of the delicious aroma, and celebrate. The dish is now complete!

* the finished product, complete with stir-fried romaine lettuce!!!

Yummy. I cooked myself a feast and must now indulge in the fruits of my labor. Toodles.