During weekdays, I’ve been struggling to strike a balance between work and rest.  Then I remembered a friend of mine saying a while back that she reserves Sundays for rest. No plans, no activities, just a day to take stock.  She also begins the week by baking bread, one to share with friends and one for herself. So, today I did my own form of taking stock by making some home food.

This is a dish I fell in love with as a child in Texas.  My parents and I used to frequent a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in Houston called Guanyin and they had the most delicious herb spiced tomato soup with pho noodles.  I’ve tried many a time to recreate it in my own kitchen but something has always been missing.  Yesterday, I went to Super 88 to pick up some Asian greens (I need my Asian greens) and stumbled upon a mysterious herb in the produce section called Ngo Om and on a hunch, bought a packet.   Lo and behold, a quick search through google produced the recipe for this dish I’ve been craving since our big move from Texas. Apparently there was another missing ingredient as well: tamarind.

Here is the modified version of this recipe from the recipe book “Hot, Sour, Salty Sweet: a Culinary Journey through Southeast Asia” by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Buddhist Sour Soup (cahn chua dau hou)

3 blocks tofu

1/4 cup of tamarind pulp, dissolve in 1 cup hot water

5 cup water

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 medium tomatoes, diced

soy sauce (to taste)

Garnish and Flavorings

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped shallots

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 ro 3 cups bean sprouts, rinsed drained

12 leaves Asian basil, coarsely torn

6 sprigs rice paddy herb (ngo om)

2 to 3 bird or serrano chiles, minced

 

To make garnish, fry shallots and garlic cloves in vegetable oil with a bit of honey and salt. Fry until golden yellow. You may either use this as a garnish or directly place in soup.

To make soup, place the tamarind pulp and water into large pot to boil. Boil vigorously for 3 minutes, then add the sugar, salt, and tomato wedges.  Bring back to boil and add tofu cubes and soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes. You may add the shallot and garlic garnish here if you wish. Taste adjust the balance of seasonings if you wish. Let the soup slowly boil so that the broth become a bright red and thick with tomato and tamarind pulp.

A few minutes before serving, place the ngo om herb in sprigs into the pot. Let the herb cook in the pot for about 5 or 6 minutes so its flavor seeps into the broth and then remove the sprigs from the pot and discard.  Some people prefer serving them with the soup but because of its strong taste, I personally like the soup without the herb. Served the soup atop rice or rice noodles. Garnish it with basil, bean sprouts, fried shallots and minced pepper.

Serves 4-6 with rice or rice noodles.

Pizza in the Round

1 medium green bell pepper
1/2 C. onion, chopped
3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1 garlic clove, pressed
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded (1 cup)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pkg. (235g each) refrigerated crescent rolls
2 T. grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F. Chop pepper to make 1/4 cup; cup onion.

Cook and stir ground beef, green pepper, onion and garlic over medium-high until meat is no longer pink. Remove from heat; drain using colander.

Shred cheese.

In a bowl, combine meat mixture, mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup of pizza sauce, Italian seasoning and salt.

To assemble ring, unroll crescent dough; separate into 16 triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on a round stone with wide ends of triangle overlapping in the center and points toward the outside. (There should be a 5 inch diameter opening in center of Stone). Using a scoop, scoop meat mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck wide ends of dough at center of ring. (Filling will not be completely covered.)

Bake 20-25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Grate Parmesan cheese over top. Heat remaining pizza sauce and fill green pepper bottom; place in center of ring. Serve with pizza sauce. Yields 8 servings.

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(Delicious and Easy) Cream Puffs! -Joy of Cooking

1C flour                                     Filling: make pudding or use ice cream.

1Tbs sugar                                Opt: melt chocolate and drizzle on top of pastries (yum!)

1/3 C butter (room temp)

1/8 tsp salt

1C water or milk (i use milk)

4 eggs @ room temp

1. Preheat oven to 400*; lightly grease baking pan.

2. Boil butter and milk (or water). Add flour, sugar and salt. Stir quickly as adding! (The consistency is thick.)

3. After this is mixed, take pan off heat and quickly whisk in eggs. Mix dough until it is firm enough to hold shape (when you make a peak, it stays up.)

4. Plop dough onto cookie sheets in 1 1/2″ balls (or bigger if you feel daring..echlair sizes work too!).

5. Bake @ 400* for 10 mins and then 350* for 25 mins (or until golden brown along edges/peak of dough.)

6. Allow cream puffs to cool.

7. Cut a slit into each puff and squeeze pudding in with a bag that has a corner cut out. (note: middles are a little doughy..this is normal!)

8. Drizzle melted chocolate ontop as a garnish..(1 1/2 C semisweet on high for 30 seconds, mix and then 30 more seconds.. until melted)

9. Enjoy!!

love it.

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Ahaha hi duck, here you go – carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Is so good.  I cut out the coconut and had no nuts, and baked it as a cake instead of muffins but was devoured by hungry fam.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/CarrotMuffins.html

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You have been invited to be a part of a recipe exchange
Please send a recipe to the person whose name is in position 1 (even if you don’t know them) and it should be something quick, easy and without rare ingredients. Actually, the best one is the one you know in your head and can type right now. Don’t agonize over it, it is the one you make when you are short on time.

After you’ve sent your recipe to the person in position 1 below and only to that person, copy this email into a new email, move my name to the top and put your name in position 2. Only my and your names should show when you send your email. Send to 20 friends BCC (blind copy). If you cannot do this within 5 days, let me know so it will be fair to those participating. You should receive 36 recipes.

It’s fun to see where they come from! Seldom does anyone drop out because we all need new ideas!

The turnaround is fast, as there are only 2 names on the list and you only have to do this once!

1.      XXXXX@xxx.com

2.     XXXXX@xxx.com
Thanks so much! and…HAPPY COOKING!

The first recipe I’ve received so far is included here. It sounds yummy

Chocolate on top of the Stove Cookies

2 teaspoons of vanilla

3 cups of oatmeal (709 mL)

½ cup of butter (118 mL)

2 cups of sugar (473 mL)

½ cup of milk (118 mL)

½ cup of dark cocoa (118 mL)

½ teaspoon salt

Mix butter, sugar, milk, dark cocoa, salt in 2 ½ quart pan.  Bring it to a rolling boil over medium heat.  When it comes to a rolling boil, let it boil on medium heat for 6 – 7 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add 2 tsp of vanilla and 3 cups oatmeal.  Stir.  Place on cookie sheets while hot.  Place in fridge.

and am keeping this one for food.

Onion Pancakes (蔥油餅)

Onion Pancakes (蔥油餅) 

Onion pancakes are crispy fried pastries that have chopped spring onions folded into the dough, perfect for an appetizer or snack. It is veggie friendly and vegan friendly without the eggs.

Ingredients
Spring onions (diced)
All purpose flour
Boiled Water
Room Temperature Water
Salt
Oil
Eggs ( Optional)

Cooking Utensils
Rolling Pin
Giant Bowl
Small Bowl
Clear wrap
Spatula
Frying pan

- Measure out as much flour as needed into the large bowl. Then begin by putting one cup of hot water into the mixure, mixing the flour and hot water with a chopstick. Alternate between hot and cold, a cup each time. The ratio hot:cold should be 1:1. Continue adding until the dough is soft to touch but not sticky. For the first few tries you might come out with stickier dough but don’t despair. As a beginner its best to mix the dough a little stickier because then all you need to do is add flour to get the right consistency.
-All the while, knead the dough with the heel of your hand. Knead until the dough stops sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Afterwards, shape the dough into a round ball. Sprinkle some flour into the bottom of the bowl and set the dough inside. Put a cover over the bowl and let it sit for at least half an hour. (The longer it sits, the better the dough will taste later. )
-Dice the spring onions and put them into the small bowl. Set that aside for later.
- After the dough has sat for the appropriate amount of time, shape the dough into little balls, a little smaller than the size of your fist.
-Take a ball and roll it out into a flat oval shaped crust. The thinner you can roll it, the better. (It creates more layers in the pastry.)
- Pour a teaspoon size amount of oil and spread it onto the surface of the crust. (Add more if the oil doesnt spread over the whole surface area.)
- Take a salt shaker and sprinkle salt all over the surface area of the crust.
-Finally, sprinkle green onions all over the crust. Make sure the crust is decently covered with onions.
- Begin at one end of the oval and roll the crust up. The end result should be a long dough roll.
-Then roll the dough strip up so that it forms a snail shell shape. Make sure the end sticks firmly onto the side of the circular shape.
- Flatten the dough down with your palm, flat side up.
-Roll the shape flat with your rolling pin until the pastry is about a centimeter thick.
-Pour oil on the frying pan, wait till the oil warms. The stove should be on medium fire.
-Set the pastry in and flip both sides until golden brown.
- If a flaky consistency is desired, use chopsticks and scrunch opposite sides of the pastry, rotating the pastry around with this action. This should loosen the layers so that it has a flaky consistency.
* A tasty addition to this dish is adding an egg. Once you have thorough fried the pastry, pick it up with your spatula, add a little oil if necessary and crack and egg onto the pan. Then set the pastry on top of cracked egg. Once the egg is thoroughly fried, remove it from the pan and serve while hot.

Get this: too many hookworms can cause anemia but the presence of a small amount calms down the immune system, stopping the immune system from overreacting to allergens, effectively eliminating seasonal allergies and asthma for some people.

I am utterly fascinated. Check out the podcast but beware, a stomach of steel is required.

Taipei street after a rainstorm.

Empty taxis. Packed buses. Wet passengers.

A driver running on empty.

A woman in blue.

Lights in the distance.

Approaching bus.

Heading home.

I’ve been doing alot of this lately.