Vadai

One of my favorite Indian snack. I first learn to make this yummy treats when I was in Home Science class. It is pretty simple to make Vadai. Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients

200g dhall (lentils)
a bit of water
1/4 tsp cumin
1 green chili-finely sliced
1 red chili - finely sliced
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp rice flour

1. Wash and soak dhall overnight. Drain well, then put into a blender. Add water and process until dhall is coarsely blended.
2. Combined all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Heat oil for deep-frying.
3. Wet your hands and take a spoonful of dhall mixture, place the mixture on the palm of your hand. Make into a round then flatten slightly.
4. Drop into the hot oil. repeat until all the dough is used up. Fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

Note : Vadai is best eaten hot.

Siew Mai

My family back home love having dim sum breakfast on Sunday but we can't do it here because we have to go all the way down to Philly if want to have some and Philly is about an hour drive from home. So the best thing to do is to make it myself. It much healthier and is not too difficult to make either.

Ingredients :

300 grm of ground meat (pork or chicken)
200 grm of shrimp (roughly chopped)
5 water chestnuts (diced small)
3 dry shitake mushroom (soak still soft and diced small)
2 stalk of spring onions - finely chopped
1 stalk of coriander (optional) - finely chopped
1 egg white
2 tsp of corn starch
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

Some wanton wrappers
some green peas or carrot cubes (for garnish)

1) Combine all the ingredients together except for the wanton wrapper and mix well. Set it aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2) Trim the wanton into round shape.
3) Put one teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper and press the wrapper up around the filling so that it almost meet at the top. Make sure the bottom is flat.
4) Press a green pea or a carrot cube into the top. Arrange the siew mai in a grease plate and steam over high heat for 10 - 15 minutes.
5) Serve warm with chili sauce.

Chicken Pot Pie

I always like the idea of chicken pie or any kind of savory pies. When you are baking it the whole house just filled with the sweet scent of the pie and when you dig into this dish it never fails to please. This is a very easy recipe which anyone can make. I used the store bought pie crust and you can either use the short crust or puff pastry.

Ingredients :

2 pcs of pie crust
2 cups of cooked chicken meat
2 carrots - cut into small cubes
2 stalk of celery - cut into small cubes
1 cup of green peas
1 potatoes - cut into cubes
1/2 onions - finely diced
1 cloves of garlic
1 can of low sodium cream of chicken or mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg - beaten

1) Heat up the pan and lightly brown the onion and garlic. Then add in the celery and carrots, saute for 2 minutes.
2) Add in cream of chicken or mushroom soup and add in about 2 cups of water. Mixed well and bring to boil and add in the potatoes. Continue to simmer until potatoes soften and add in the chicken and green peas.
3) Stir well, cook until sauce thickens. Check seasoning. Dish out and let it cool.
4) Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Prepare a pie dish. Roll out the pastry 1" larger than the pie dish.
5) Put in the filling and cover the top with another piece of roll out pastry and crimp the edges. Cut a few slits on top of the pastry for venting air.
6) Brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
7) Let it cool down for 10-15 minutes before serving.

A few of you asked how I make the lattice design on top of the pie. Here is my secret :) I used this gadget I bought a few years ago from a kitchen supplies store.

(Front view)

(Back view)
Note : You can add extra water if the filling gets too dry before the potatoes is soft.

Spicy Beef in Dark Soy Sauce

I was trying to surprise Carlos by grilling him a steak last week. I took out a piece of meat from the freezer thinking it was his rib eyes steak. I marinate it and grill it just in time for his dinner. He was so looking forward to his juicy steak until he took a bite out of it and told me 'Sweetie, this steak is so hard and tough as a leather' I was like how can that be. This is the steak we bought from Sam's Club. I took a bite and man it was really tough. I make a mistake by taking my chuck beef for my stew instead of his rib eyes. This shows how much I know about meat :) Poor Carlos had a sandwich for his dinner that evening. I felt so bad and make him his steak again the next evening and this time I used the right beef and it came out perfect. I think from now on I should not cut my stewing beef like the steak start labeling them before freezing it.

So what I did with that piece of cooked meat? I sliced it thinly and make a dish out of it the next day :)

Ingredients :

1/2 pound of lean beef - slice thinly
2 tsp of turmeric
3 tbsp of flour
1 red chili- slice thinly
1 green chili - slice thinly
1 onion - quartered
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 stalk of lemon grass - finely chopped
2 tbsp of sambal oelek or chili boh
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1) Mix the cut beef with turmeric power, salt and pepper and then lightly toss it with the flour.
2) Heat up some oil in pan and fry the beef until golden brown. Drain and remove oil from pan. Leave only about 2 tbsp of oil in pan.
3) Add in garlic, onions, lemongrass and stir fry until fragrant and lightly brown. Add in sambal oelek, dark soy sauce and stir fry of 10 second.
4) Add in beef and the cut chilies. Check seasoning. If the dish is too dry add in a few tablespoon of water. Stir until well mix and dish out.
5) Serve with warm rice.

Note : My beef was a bit dry because I already pre-cooked it before frying them. Beside that this dish tastes really good. If you find the sambal oelek too spicy you can always replaced it chili sauce.