Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Bowl a.k.a "Lu Rou Fan" Recipe

Lu Rou Fan is one of our favorite Taiwanese dishes, which we enjoyed during our month-long stay in Taipei last year. Our favorite was from a little stall called 天天利 'Tian Tian Li' in the middle of Xi Men Ding district. It always has a long line unless you come during a thunderstorm at 3 p.m. like we did. 

Once we got back home, I immediately went on a mission to remake it at home. Finally, after many trials, here is the recipe I use when I make this dish once every two weeks. 

Egg White Soup / West Lake Beef Soup

I always look for ways to used up my egg whites. Some people use egg white for face mask but with all the ice cream I make, I would never be able to finish my left over egg white even if I used it on my face every day. My baker friend, Bertha often make this soup for her family so I was thrilled when I hear she uses egg whites to make this soup. Yay!

One of the ingredients is shiitake mushroom, you can use the dry in, just soak it in warm water first for about 30 minutes or if you use the fresh one, you can use it right away. 

Green Tea / Matcha Ice Cream

We love matcha ice cream especially after tasting the very good one in Japan. We bought some green tea powder from our trip Japan and so excited to try it.

First thing first: cook the milk, cream, salt and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. In another bowl, stir together the egg yolks and green tea powder then pour some of the milk mixture into the yolks. Pour the milk and yolk mixture back to the saucepan and reheat it while continue stirring until it reach 80 degree Fahrenheit.

Cooking Indonesian Beef Stew a.k.a Rendang with Instapot

According to CNN' survey on 2017, Rendang is the world's most delicious food. How blessed I am to grow up eating this dish. I used to cook this using instant seasoning but out of so many brands, I only like one particular one. Unfortunately, our local Asian Supermarket no longer carry it so I had to make it from scratch. Turned out it is not that hard. I don't mind making it any day as long as I have chopper and instapot.

First thing first: cut the beef meat then brown them. Pressure cook it with beef bone and water for 35 minutes (or use the meat/ stew setting on Instapot)

Purple Yam / Taro Bread

My second born loves eating purple yam as snack. I usually just baked them in 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes. After that voila, it's ready to be eaten. When we went to Big Island couple years ago, we ate Hawaiian Taro Bread that we love so I thought of making that but using purple yam instead of taro. You can use taro if you prefer just add about 10 grams sugar since taro is not as sweet as purple yam. 

Just combine the bread ingredients in the kitchen aid or bread machine. Then add 100 grams of soft baked taro. Here is what the dough looks like after the kneading and first proofing:

How to make Risoles

Risoles was my favorite Indonesian snack growing up. I'm so glad that my boys like it too. I just wish it is easier to make so I can make this often. Anyway, I was making some last week and planning to save some in the freezer but all are gone within 3 days. My mom' sister made the best risoles I ever taste but as typical older Asian woman she doesn't measure her ingredients just approximate she said. Well, approximate doesn't work well for me. I got to make this a few times to get the result turned out as how she made it. Thank you auntie for the inspiration.

Step 1: make the filling

Step 2. Make the flour mixture for the skin

What we eat and not eat when recovering from stomach flu

One by one each one of us was hit by stomach flu since last weekend. It always stinks no matter how many times we experienced it in the past;  the diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, fever, we just has to let it run its course. Thankfully, my mom was here the first and second day I got sick. She cooked porridge and made sure I got plenty of rest and liquid.

I thought I wrote down here what we eat or not eat while recovering from stomach flu for future reference.

What we eat/ drink
Day 1:
Most likely they won't be able to eat anything this day. Wait until the vomiting stop before giving the person food to eat because the stomach is still too weak to digest. Do not worry because once they recover they will get their appetite back. Instead make sure they get enough liquid. The doctor here recommends Smart Water/ Pedialyte/ Gatorade/ Vitamin Water diluted but my boys do not like those drinks so instead we give them honey and chrysanthemum tea.


Day 2:
Once they are no longer vomiting and ready to eat, start with easy to digest food such as:
Porridge

Plain bread or cracker

Roasted Brussels Sprout Recipe

I have been seeing these beautiful Brussels Sprouts lately whenever I go to Farmer Market but I don't know how to cook them so I went to Mr. Google to look for a recipe. I found two recipes, one uses fish sauce and the other uses balsamic vinegar. Since I like them both I decided to use both. The result: super duper yummyyyy Roasted Brussels Sprout:

Do you know Brussels Sprouts grow on stalks? Little Max was helping taking them out of the stalk

First, cut each of them into half, then put them inside a bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients then place them on a baking pan

 

Optional: spread bacon bits on top:

Bake in 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 35 minutes

Done! Eat as is or drizzle some honey on top before eating

Roasted Brussels Sprout
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound of Brussels sprouts

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves - minced

3 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

4 teaspoons sugar {more or less as prefer}

Dash of salt and pepper to taste

Optional: bacon, cut into small bits  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 to 425 degree Fahrenheit (depends on your oven)

Rinse the Brussels sprouts, cut off the brown end, and pull off any yellow leaves. Cut them in half vertically then place them inside a bowl

Toss in the rest of the ingredients except the bacon and mix them together

Place an aluminum foil on top of a baking pan then transfer everything from the bowl into the pan

Place the bacon bits on top

Bake for 30 minutes or until the sauce is caramelized and the sprouts are soft and ready to eat

Hope you like it as much as I do.

You may also like:

Stir-Fried Bitter Melon

Spicy Egg Plants

Stir-Fried Snow Peas

Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

I have been back at making lots of Homemade French Bread with Balsamic Vinaigrette during Thanksgiving week and people always asked for the recipe so here it is. We use this for Bruschetta or as salad dressing.

Fettuccine Alfredo with cream cheese

This is one of those meals that I cook when I have little time to prepare, mostly for lunch with the kids because my husband is not a big fan of cheese and he usually eat salad for lunch at the office.

Max has been enjoying fettuccine since he was a toddler

Roasted Okra

I have been hearing the health benefit of okra so when I saw them at local's Farmer's Market, I couldn't wait to cook with them. My last attempt of cooking them wasn't so successful. None of us like its slimy texture so this time I tried roasting them in the oven. No more slimy texture and even the boys can eat them. Yes!

First thing first: rinse them then let them dry

Cut them into smaller pieces

Hainan Chicken Recipe

I haven't cooked this dish for a long time. My friend posted this dish on her Instagram, which made me cook this dish again. The boys love it. The ate until there is nothing left on their plate, which makes me very happy because it is a super easy dish to make.

My boys loves this dish. It's very quick and easy to make because I am using this:

Plus some other ingredients:

Cooking Chicken Soup with Instapot

I don't know about you but hearty chicken soup is one of those meals I long for when I am not feeling well, when the weather is cold, or whenever I miss home. Unfortunately, my chicken soup is not the same kind that my husband grew up eating. "There's something missing," he said and he didn't know what it was. Until last month when we went home to Indonesia, my sister in law was cooking chicken soup and my hubby tasted it. He told me that's it tasted the same as chicken soup his mom used to cook. We finally figured out the  missing ingredient: candlenut, a nut commonly used in Indonesian cooking. This is optional ingredient though. I didn't use it for years and the soup taste just fine.

Ingredients:
chicken with bones, carrots, potatoes, salt, and white pepper
Three main spices: shallots, garlic

and candlenut

mince/ grind them

Banana Blueberry Muffins

My husband loves Sweet Tomatoes restaurant's blueberry muffin. So I thought I should try making it at home. I tried too make one with banana and another one without banana. We agreed that the one with banana was the clear winner both the texture and taste.

Chewy Chocolate Chips Cookies

One of the reason I bake is because most of the store bought cookies or cakes are too sweet to my taste. So if you have a sweet tooth, you may want to add the amount of sugar or chocolate chips on this recipe. We rarely bake cookies except during winter time to be enjoyed with hot chocolate, milk, coffee, or tea; the choice is yours. 

First thing first, the ingredients: I use dark chocolate chips instead of the regular semi sweet chocolate chips on mine. 

The boy who hold the background:

Getting snack after working:

Process the ingredients in the mixing bowl: