facestuffings

Eggs en Purgatorio. A gorgeous, rich tomato sauce made with some leftover canned tomato sauce, two farmers market tomatoes, basil, lots of pepper flakes, chili powder, and salt and pepper.

Some delectable home-baked apple pie, made with love and Andy's careful handiwork with cutting. I like to leave the skins on for extra fiber and crunch! :) 

My favorite part about baking apple pie is actually eating the apples after they have soaked in lemon juice, cinnamon and extracts. Our filling this time included:

3 large fuji apples, thinly sliced 

1/2 TBS of cinnamon

1 TSP of almond extract

1 TSP of vanilla extract

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 TBS brown sugar for color

Juice of 1 lemon

Egg drop soup, A-choy, and Ants up a tree! Ants up a what, you said? This is one of my favorite dishes from childhood and it goes something like this:

3 bunches of bean thread, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes or until soft and drained

1/4 lb of ground pork

4-5 shitake mushrooms, finely diced (fresh or dried are fine, if they are dried, soak until soft)

2-3 stalks of green onion: finely chop the white portion and thinly slice the green portion. Keep them separate

1/2 TBS of ginger, minced

1/2 TBS of gariic, minced

1 TBS of sweet rice wine

1/2 TBS of bean sauce

1 TBS of Lao Gan Ma hot sauce

Salt to taste

By fun chance I got to go to a dragon boat festival this year and actually participate as a rower-person (see how expert I am at this? :D). Most importantly, of course was the fact that Andy and I got to stuff face.

The Koreans have their version, but this version is my Mom's signature Ja Jiang Mien. One of my favorite dishes, we also used "fresh" noodles from the refrigerator section of our 99Ranch. It was mind blowing.

Recipe for 6 servings of sauce:

4 pieces of 5-spice bean curd (a whole pack), cubed

1 large carrot, cubed

1/2 cup Szechuan peanuts (optional)

1/2 TBS of ginger, minced

1 stalk green onion, diced

1/4 lb of ground pork (optional)

1.5 TBS of LaoGanMa hot sauce

1.5 TBS of Dou Ban Jiang (Bean Sauce): I usually get the ones produced in Tainan, Taiwan because those peeps know their eats.

1/2 TBS of brown sugar

1-2 TBS of soy sauce

1 TBS of sweet rice wine

1/2 TBS of corn starch

3-4 TBS of water

Salt to taste

Mix the bean sauce, lao gan ma, water, soy sauce, sugar, and corn starch in a small bowl and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil in pan (I use a wok at home now). When hot, put in the ginger. When the ginger is aromatic, put the pork in and stir frequently to break up the pork. Add the rice wine when the pork is half cooked to ensure a clean taste. When pork is mostly done, add in the carrot and bean curd. When pork is fully done, pour the sauce mixture over and mix well. Add salt at this time and taste to your liking. Reduce the heat until sauce is at a simmer and then cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your noodles and drain. I also like to pair the mien with cucumber, so I julienned those to put on the side. Check on the sauce frequently and ensure that it is not too dry. If the sauce is too dry or sticky, add more water and stir well to ensure that the flavor has time to sink into the pork, bean curd and carrot. 

When the sauce evenly coats the bean curd and carrot, taste to ensure the flavor has successfully penetrated. Turn off heat and stir in the peanuts. 

A savory fresh pasta from our local European-style market called the Milk Pail. The texture is just unimaginably better than any pasta I have ever made at home.

This was another adventure I took with my good friend that Andy didn't get to attend (sorry buddy)! 

We went slightly crazy the second day of our vacation on Labor day and decided it would be a fantastic idea to drive down to LA to Din Tai Fung, a restaurant famous for its soup dumplings (pictured above).