Spicy Korean fried chicken

This is definitely one of my favorite Korean dish. This is really crunch and the sauce is delicious. We like to eat this during the weekend because it's just a great weekend dish.... Love it!! It's pretty simple to make this and the taste it's incredible. Here's my recipe:

6 pieces of drumstick
marinated with salt + pepper for 30mins

Coating
1/4 sweet rice flour
1/4 corn starch
1/4 tapioca starch
1 egg
salt + pepper + garlic powder

Coat these boys and fry them for 10mins. Then let it rest for 5 mins and fry them again for another 10mins. This is how you get the chicken to be really crunchy.

Sauce
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of garlic
3 tablespoon of ketchup
3 tablespoon of corn syrup
1 teaspoon of rice vinegar
1.5 tablespoon of hot red pepper paste
1 teaspoon of hot red pepper powder

On another pan fry the garlic and add all the ingredients until it's boiled.
Once the chicken finish frying, transfer them immediately to the sauce pan while the chicken still hot and has a bit of oil. Mix everything together.

Enjoy!!

House special flat fried noodle

About two weeks ago when I did my experiment with rice noodle, I decided to make some fried noodle. I mixed with some good and bad ones that's why they looked like small pieces. Who cares, what matter is that I had fun exploring in my kitchen and the fried noodle turned out to be delicious.
Here's my recipe, I hope I remembered all of them. At the time I didn't write down the ingredients. I didn't even start blogging so I just never write down my recipe...that's why my hubbie always tells me why every time your food taste different. I said, I don't know maybe I added something different...lol
When I read or see something online or on TV, I try to do the technique or what ever it is that I feel it will enhance my cooking. That's actually another reason why I never write down my recipe. I always think that I can find things out there that I can apply in my kitchen.
Anyways here it goes:

1lb of noodle
1/4 of ground meat (i used pork)
1 teaspoon of garlic
1/2 of medium size onion
2 eggs
1/2 cup of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of mushroom soy sauce or Thai dark soy sauce (I used this for the color)
1 tablespoon of sugar (if you like sweeter than add more)
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of chicken powder bouillon
some vegetables of your choice ( I used green mustard)

I think that's all I used. But what I'm trying to say is...., you don't have to copy exactly to this recipe. You should think about it and just be creative. It's actually fun because you're trying new things and maybe inventing new recipes...cool right??

You can serve it w/ Acar Timun

Enjoy!!

Lomo Saltado Peruano (Beef stir-fry)

This is another delicious dish from Peru. They called it Lomo saltado and English it means beef stir fry. This is the typical Peruvian food and you'll find this in every Peruvian restaurant. This is actually a very special dish because it's a blend of Asian and Peruvian ingredients. Since the migration of the Chinese and Japanese in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they brought with them Asian ingredients, cooking techniques and therefore new traditional dishes are being invented. One of them is Lomo saltado which I am going to share you my version that I always cook at home. The main ingredients here is Soy sauce....hope you'll like it.

1.5 lb of stir fry beef
2 potatoes
4 tablespoon of of soy sauce (I used Mushroom soy sauce, it's bit thicker and darker than regular soy sauce, Also it's not salty has a mushroom flavor.)
1 large red onion (cut wedges)
1 large tomato seedless
a pinch of cumin
1/2 teaspoon chicken powder bouillon
1/2 tablespoon of garlic
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1/2 medium size of bell pepper seedless
1 teaspoon of aji amarillo
1 teaspoon of cinammon
a bunch of cilantro
a dash of ajinomoto
salt + pepper to taste
3 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Season beef with salt + pepper + 2 tablespoon of soy sauce and let it sit for 30mins

Fry potatoes with veg oil until golden brown and add salt

On a wok fry the beef with 3 tablespoon of veg oil. Add Garlic + soy sauce + cumin + pepper + cinnamon + aji amarillo and let it shimmer. Then add red wine vinegar. Then add onion + tomato + bell pepper and let them all cook. Add a bit of water if needed. Add chicken bouillon + ajinomoto. At the end before turning off the heat, add fresh cilantro. Add The french fries on the wok.

All the ingredients

This is the mushroom soy sauce, it's a chinese product

Meat needs to be marinated

Frozen cilantro & bell pepper

Frying meat w/ veg oil

Add the french fries at the end

Serve this with rice. Enjoy!!

Korean style tofu side dish

I just made this dish today for my lunch... I am trying to be a vegetarian for few hours...haahahaha I know that will never happen. I am a meat lover... :)
I don't cook tofu too often because my husband doesn't really eat them. I don't feel like eating these tofu all by myself...lol I'm gonna become obese. This is really delicious though... and I am going to eat this by myself...uughh! I just can't help it.

Here's my recipe:
1 box tofu (extra firm)

coating
3 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon bread crumbs (i used my homemade bread crumbs)

sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon of hot red chili pepper paste
1 tablespoon of hot red chili pepper powder (add more if you like spicy)
1 teaspoon of garlic paste
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
3 tablespoon of water
2 spring onions (1 for garnish)
sesame seeds (garnish)

Fry the tofu until it's golden brown


Mix all the sauce ingredients on a bowl except for the sesame seeds
Add the spring onion at the end
On a pan cook the sauce mixture until it is boiled.

Let it sit for 15mins

mix all the ingredients

Let it shimmer

You can put your sauce like this or on a side

OR you can mix it all

Enjoy!

Homemade Fresh Rice noodle

I like all kinds of noodles but my #1 favorite is rice noodle. So I have been trying to make my own fresh rice noodle because they don't sell it in San Antonio, TX. When I was living in D.C. there was a Thai supermarket that sells it. Unfortunately I just can't find anywhere in here... it's sucks right?? My only solution is to do my own fresh rice noodle. The first attempt was a disaster..!!! Man, I was going nuts. Every time I made it, they were just too soft and gooey. It was too sticky, I can't even take it off of the Pyrex pie. So I knew something was wrong about the mixture. After so many failure attempt on that day, I decided to give up. Maybe I need to do more research before experimenting. I knew the mixture was wrong, at the time I was using sweet rice flour. After further research about different kinds of flour out there. Man... my mind was going insane! I found out that there were too kinds of rice flours. There were sweet rice flour which has more starch than a regular rice flour. So, there goes my problem... So, the other day I had bought my plain rice flour and I had so much confident that this time it was going to go well. My first attempt, I had the same problem. The noodle was again too soft. I was like battling with the mixture...goshh you had no idea! I was using 3 different kinds of flours which were rice, corn and tapioca. I was in the kitchen for hours trying to adjust the right measurement. At the end I finally think I had the right measurement of each flours. I was using two kinds of pie pans for steaming which were Pyrex and regular pie pan. The pyrex didn't work out so well with my mixture. The end result was still a little bit gooey however the pie pan worked out very well. Finally my mixture came out to how I wanted it...pheww
I guess this is what I love about cooking and baking... it's all about the excitement.


My recipe mixture:


1 cup of rice flour
2 tablespoon of corn starch
1 tablespoon of tapioca starch
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
a tablespoon of vegetable oil

First mix all the ingredients together.
Let it sit for 15mins
using a pie pan, spread some oil
steam it for 6mins
When taking the noodle out, use a plastic spatula and rub it oil prior.


You can make all different kinds of noodles such as pad khee mao, pad see ew, kwetiau, and etc.
I'll give you my recipe on my next blog...stay tune!!


Good luck!

Crema de Huacaina

Huacaina sauce is very creamy and delicious. We eat this with arroz con pollo, arroz tapado, spaghetti with tomato sauce and others. It is just so good that it can eaten with anything. It's very quick and easy to prepare this sauce. Here is my version:

1 big red onion
1 teaspoon of garlic
1 cup of Olive oil
2 tablespoon of aji amarillo ( I like mine spicy)
a dash of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of powder chicken bouillon
a dash of ajinomoto
salt + pepper
Fry all the ingredients
Once it's cook, pour this into the blender
Inside the blender add these ingredients as well:
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/4 of the fresh cheese
2 pcs of saltine crackers
1/4 cups of carnation milk



Serve with Potato and olives

Arroz con Pollo (Rice with chicken) serve with Huancaina Sauce

This is the most challenging meal to prepare however the taste pays off. The first time I tried this dish was with duck but it's kind of hard to find it so I substitute with chicken. This dish came originally from the northern side of Peru. They cook this dish inside a clay pot on a burning woods, I thought it was very interesting. You don't need a clay pot, you can actually cook this at home with regular pot. Here is my version of arroz con pato (duck) substituting pollo (chicken).

6 piece of chicken legs or thighs (cut the chicken in the middle so that the ingredients can absorb well)
a pinch of teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1 teaspoon of garlic
2 teaspoons of Aji Panca/Aji Special ( if you like spicier, add more)
1/2 teaspoon of powder chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon of lime juice
2 tablespoons of pisco
2 tablespoons of brandy ( I skipped this)
2 tablespoons of chicha de jora  ( I skipped this)
Marinate these ingredient with the chicken for a minimum of 8hours or overnight.

The next day,

Cilantro mixture
a bunch of Cilantro (if you find it to strong just mix 1/2 cilantro and 1/2 spinach)
1 teaspoon of aji amarillo
1/2 bottle of black beer (depending on the strength of the beer, I normally use modelo. ie, Guinness is very strong, use only 1/4 of the bottle)
1/2 cup of water
Blend all these ingredients together.

Fry the chicken for 10mins each sides with 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil and add chicken cube bouillon. (keep the remaining sauce in the bowl for later)
Add the cilantro mixture ( leave 1/4 of it for later usage)
Let it sit with the lid close until they are cook.

Rinse 3 cups of rice and drain
On a pot put 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Add rice + salt + black pepper + chicken powder bouillon + oregano + cayenne pepper (skip this if you don't like spicy) + ajinomoto
Let the rice and the ingredients blend together for 3 minutes.
Add the remaining 1/4 of the cilantro mixture
Let it boil, then add the chicken with all the sauce and add remaining 1/2 bottle of black beer but if you find it too bitter than just skip this.
Mix everything together and let close the lid.
Add frozen carrots + peas
Add red bell pepper
When the water is gone, turn the heat very very low and keep the lid cover all the time.
Once in a while stir it. Let the rice cook until they are soft.

Serve this with Huancaina sauce and boiled potato

I hope this didn't scare you to give it a try.
Good Luck!

Ingredients to marinate the chicken

Blend cilantro mixture

Add veg oil + chicken cube

Frying chickens

After 10mins turn to the other side

Added cilantro mixture

Arroz Tapado

Arroz Tapado means covered rice in Spanish. So one day I made Papa rellena and as usual I always have some left over of the fillings. I asked my hubbie, "what should I do with this leftover??" He called his mom and she suggested to make Arroz Tapado. The ground meat shares the same ingredients with papa rellena fillings. Here's the recipe: You can check out pictures from papa rellena's blog.

1lb of ground beef
1/2 large onions chopped finely
1/4 red bell pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic paste
2 teaspoon of tomato paste
1 medium size tomato seedless and chopped finely
1 teaspoon Aji Marillo (optional if you don't like spicy)
a pinch of papprika
1 cube of beef bouillon
a dash of Ajinomoto (optional)
a bunch of cilantro
salt+pepper+cumin to taste




Unlike papa rellena you put this aside, with arroz tapado you need to add these a minute before turning off the heat.
2 boiled eggs (crumble them)
a bunch of gold raisin
black olive

Shaping arroz tapado
On a cup or small shallow bowl, meat then rice then meat again.

We love eating this with Huancaina sauce ... yummie!!

Happy Cooking :)

Babi Kecap from my mom's recipe (Pork sweet soy sauce)

This is my old time favorite dish while I was growing up in Indonesia. A feast without Babi Kecap (Sweet soy sauce Pork) would be unimaginable. My families love to eat this dish with dabu-dabu (Manadonese spicy sour tomato and onion salsa) As you can see, Manadonese people love spicy foods due to pork being so sweet, you need to eat this with dabu-dabu. Both makes a really good compliment with each other. It's really simple and quick to prepare and the taste is unbelievable. Here is my recipe I got it from my mom. Oh man... my mom makes a killer Babi kecap...yumm!!

2lbs of Pork
you want you the belly and neck's pork, you'll have a combination of the fat and meat from the belly and the bone from the neck brings out the flavor. Marinate with salt + pepper for 30 mins. Then fry for 7mins each sides.

Sauce:
1 1/2 teaspoon of Garlic
5 tablespoon of cup of Kecap manis ABC (Sweet soy sauce) If you like your really sweet than add more
3 tablespoon of Kecap Asin ABC (soy sauce)
2 tablespoon of Sauce Inggeris (Worcestershire sauce)
1/4 of water
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
few cloves + a pinch of ground cloves
1 pork cube bouillon
a pinch of ajinomoto

Using the same oil you had fried the pork, fry the garlic let it brown. Then add kecap manis + kecap asin + sauce inggeris + water + add the rest of the ingredients. Add the pork and cover with a lid. Check the pork once awhile. Cook until it's ready.

Pretty simple right??

I used the left over sauce to make the rice

Enjoy!!

Salmon Teriyaki sauce

One of things I miss the most is living in New York City. You can find all different kinds of fresh fishes and seafoods. Since we moved to San Antonio, Texas our seafood and fish diets have gone down. First of all it's so hard to find fresh fish and seafood. Most of the supermarket we went they only sell frozen fish and seafood...how horrible is that???? There is one seafood market here in San Antonio, but all the items are over priced.
My favorite fish is fresh Salmon. The last time I cook salmon, I made a Teriyaki sauce. Here goes my recipe:

2 pieces of Salmon
1 tablespoon of Cooking wine
a pinch salt + peppper
Marinated for 15 mins
2 tablespoon of vegetable oil for frying

Sauce
1 teaspoon of Garlic
1/2 teaspoon of Ginger
1 tablespoon of Rice Vinegar
1 tablespoon of Honey
1/2 cup Soy sauce
2 spring onions
1/2 teaspoon chicken powder bouillon
salt + pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of sesame oil

sesame seeds (garnish)

First fry the fish with vegetable oil and next saute the garlic + ginger then add soy sauce and honey. And throw in all the other ingredients. Add sesame oil and spring onion 1 minute before you turn off the heat.

Let me know how it turns out...