Chicken Hash topped with a Fried Egg and Hollandaise Sauce

Sunday morning was fun in the kitchen.  What started off as a chicken omelette so I can use up the shredded chicken turned into something completely different.

I started to do some prep work on some ingredients, and started brain storming.  I diced some potatoes, onion, red and green bell peppers. and garlic.

I got the potatoes started first because that was going to take the longest part to cook.  I tossed it with paprika, onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano and tossed it in the pan with some of the garlic oil from my jar of garlic confit.

For the chicken, it was some left over shredded chicken from a couple days before that was not seasoned with much.  I wanted a garlicy chicken so I added some more of the garlic oil and added in the chicken and fresh garlic and added some chicken broth to let it cook down a bit.  This was sauteed with the bell peppers and onion.  The mushroom was sauteed on the side for presentation purposes.

As for the fried egg.  This will be my first go around with it.  I was inspired by a homechef on Instagram for the fried egg.  The most difficult part of all of this is cooking the egg.  I had soft boiled the egg and this has to be done pretty precisely because too little time, the egg white is too runny to peel and too much then it turns into a hard boiled egg.  There really is no way to know how it looks on the inside until you cut into it so I just hoped for the best.

Like anything that is breaded and fried, I rolled the egg in some flour then into a egg wash and then into some panko.  I quickly fried it.

After looking back at my plate and realizing that it is too "dry" looking, I decided to make a hollandaise sauce real quick.

Ladies and gentlemen...here we have it...Chicken Hash topped with a Fried Soft Boiled Egg and Hollandaise Sauce!

Red Wine Braised Braised Short Ribs with Parsip/Potato Mash and Roasted Brussels Sprout

This dish was created for a couple reasons.  I recently discovered the short rib and have been in love with it since.  And two, I had a bottle of Cabanero which is a habanero infused red wine that I had purchased to drink and did not care for it as something to drink.

Anyways, the night before, I had marinaded the short ribs in the wine with onion, garlic, celery, and carrot.  The next day afterwork, I let the short ribs sit at room temperature for a bit.  I seared all sides of the short ribs and added in the marinade to begin the braising process.

I braised it for about 3 hours and pulled it and stuck it in the oven to keep warm while the red wine reduces.  While the short ribs was braising, I went ahead and started preparing the sides.

This would be my first go around with parsnip and decided to mix it with potatoes to make a mash.  I mashed it with some milk that I had simmered with butter and infused with garlic and parsley.  The brussels sprouts were simply treated with salt and pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar and roasted.

My first time with parsnip was a very positive experience.  I love the flavors that it gives to the potatoes.  To me, it reminded me of Christmas which paired well with my red wine reduction and short ribs.  Unfortunately, the heat was cooked out of the wine.  The wine itself had a nice little kick to it that I was hoping would have carried over into the sauce and short ribs.  The brussels sprouts ended up having crispy outside layers which was a big plus!.

Banh Mi Platter to Banh Mi Sliders

Dinner was suppose to be simple the night I had prepared this plate.  We had a long weekend and last thing I wanted to do on Monday evening is cook (shocker...I know).

We had all items to make a pretty decent banh mi.  I had a Vietnamese fried ham (cha chien), the pate I had made recently, cilantro, cucumber, and of course the bread.  The only thing I had to make was the pickled carrots (do chua) which was simple and a Sriracha aioli.

The second I started to slice the ham, I had the urge to want to turn it into something else.  Yes...a regular banh mi would have been awesome, but it is just a sandwich and so plain.  So I decided to make a banh mi platter...basically banh mi deconstructed.

Do not ask why.  I thought it would have been fun and it was.  But as I was eating it, I found myself building little "sliders".  This lead to another idea that I thought would have made a great looking picture and think outside of the box kind of plating.  

I ran back into the kitchen starving to the point that I was shaking, but I had an idea and I had to execute it.  Next thing I knew it, I stood back and realized, I had banh mi sliders! ( pictured above).

Pork Belly Confit Steak

I had a great time preparing and cooking the pork confit the week before.  It was a long drawn out process, but definitely worth it in the end.  

When I order pork belly at restaurants, it seems like it is never enough and it is always sliced pretty thinly.  So I wanted to prepare a "healthy" portion of pork belly and decided to serve it as a steak.  When I prepared the pork belly for the confit process, I had cut them in 4 inch squares.  

When I got home from work that evening, I took the pork belly out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature so I can scrape it out of the lard that it is sitting in.  

As I did this, I realized I needed a starch on my plate.  I had a gold potato and a sweet potato sitting on the counter. I cut those up into little dices so it cooks quicker, and steamed it.  I went ahead and heated some milk and butter and infused it with garlic and parsley and just let it steep in the milk.  I put the steamed potatoes through a potato ricer and whipped it with the milk.  

As the lard gets to room temperature, it makes it easy to get the pork belly out of it.  Keep in mind that the pork belly is very fragile and can be easily torn apart if not taken out of the lard carefully.  I scored the fat and let it render fat side down in a hot pan for a little while until it turned a golden brown and started to crisp.  I finished it off in the oven.  

For the sauce, I poured out some of the fat in the pan and sauteed some onion and garlic and deglazed it with some red wine and reduced it.  

To finish off the plate, I prepared some garlic confit to top it all off.

Pork Served 4 Ways

Ah...the pork.  Who does not love pork?  There is no bad way to cook it or wrong way to eat it!  With this mind set, I spent a 5 day process to prepare this plate.  I used a couple different techniques and different cuts of pork.

The plate for the night included several pork related components:

• Pork Belly Confit
• Cured Pork Tenderloin
• Chicken Liver Pate Stuffed with Pork
• Apple Bacon Jam

Pork Belly Confit

First off, I have never confit anything before.  Most recently I had it served at a Korean pop up.  With that in mind, I was all for doing some pork belly confit!  From what I have read online, confitting is one of the oldest techniques to preserve food.  Whoever invented this process is my hero!  

For the pork belly confit, I had to brine the pork belly, but it had to be done properly.  I could not let it sit in the brine too long because then it would get to salty.  I suppose all the fat in the pork belly is just like a sponge.  I did this the night before and rinsed it the following morning before work and just let it dry out in a way in the fridge throughout the day.  The key to a confit is low and slow.  When I got home from work, I began the long 6 hour process.  I had to use lard because I did not have any pork fat lying around.  I melted the lard and let the pork belly submerged in it and tossed it in the oven.  

After 6 hours of it, I let it cool and placed something heavy on the pork belly to compress the fat for two reasons: to press out the fat and to make a better presentation.  

The day of plating, I had let the pork belly confit get to room temperature because the pork belly is stored with the lard to keep it "preserved".  To serve it, I scored the fat and rendered it in a hot pan until the fat crisped and finished it in the oven.  

Cured Pork Tenderloin

For the second component of the plate, I cured a pork tenderloin.  I have been on a curing kick ever since I learned how to make my own bacon.  If I could, I would have cured meat hanging all over my apartment.  I did a quick cure and only did it for four days and slowly roasted it in the oven on the fourth day.

Apple Bacon Jam

The third component of pork is an apple bacon jam that I prepared the prior night before plating.  This came abouts because I had a couple apples lying around that needed to be used.  Compared to the pork belly confit and cured pork tenderloin, this was a quick process of only a couple hours.  

Chicken Liver Pate stuffed with Pork

The last pork component of this is the chicken liver pate that I had added some ground pork to in the middle.  This was the first time I have prepared a pate and cooking chicken liver in general.  I have always loved pate, but I do not see it readily available around the markets near me.  This did not take long to prepare.  I had to let it set overnight.  

Red Bean Cheesecake with Matcha Green Tea Powder Whip Cream, Raspberry Gelee, and White Chocolate-Sesame Brittle

Having been so inspired by making my first real dessert a couple weeks ago, I wanted to make another.  This time, I knew I wanted to make a cheesecake, but then thought about the plating as well.  

Plating a slice of cheesecake would just be so blah.  Imagine just a regular slice of cheese cake sitting on a plate.  Yes, it can be appealing because it is cheesecake and there are so many variations of it.  Lets face it, who would not drool over a picture of cheesecake.  I wanted to take it a step further with it.  This was the easy part for me compared to what kind of cheesecake I wanted to make.  I did not want to do traditional flavored cheesecakes so I thought outside the box a bit and went with Asian flavors.  

Red beans came to mind and I know I have never seen a red bean cheesecake because I have eaten my fair share of them.  What I did was, pureed some red beans and sweetened it and mixed it with a basic cheesecake mix.  I was hoping more for a deeper red color, but it turned out perfect because it would have just blended in with the other component of the plate...the raspberry gelee.

Thinking of more Asian flavors, I though of a green tea whip cream.  To achieve different colors ofnthe plate, I turned to matcha green tea powder for color and flavor.  

To go a little bit more of an Asian flare, I melted some white chocolate and added some sesame seeds to it and made a white chocolate sesame "brittle"

The cheesecake was of course prepared the night before for plating the next day.  I had a slight idea on how I wanted it to be plated, but did not expect it to turn out the way it did.  

All the flavors played very well together.  I thought it turned out pretty well considering my lack of experience with dessert!

Asian Braised Short Ribs with Daikon Cake

I recently had beef short ribs on the cruise I was on a couple months ago.  Was highly disappointed, but I have heard so many great things about beef short ribs.  I have been telling myself for a while now that I was going to make it at home, but never remembered to purchase when I am at the market.  

All I knew was that beef short ribs are tough piece of meat and requires a long slow process to prepare.  The other dilemma was what am I going to pair it with to make it a complete dish especially the Asian marinade that I had planned for it.  

The night before, I marinaded the short ribs and set it in the fridge.  I thought long and hard about what to pair the short ribs with.  Then something clicked in my head and it was to make the pan fried daikon cake found at most dim sum restaurants.  I luckily did have a daikon in the fridge that I needed to use and happen to have dried shrimp and Chinese sausage as well in the freezer.  

The daikon cake is a long drawn out process.  I grated the daikon and reserved the liquid and boiled it with some broth, the sausage and dried shrimp.  I let it simmer for a little while to fuse all the flavors together.  As the mixture is still hot, slowly add in the rice flour.  The mixture should be in a way, a very thick batter.  Pour into a mold and steam it for about 45 minutes it.  This needs to be done in advance prior to serving so it cools and sets.  Needless to say, I was up till about 2 AM preparing this.  

The next day after work, I began braising the beef short ribs for about 3 hours.  This was such a tease because I was starving and had to wait for it to braise.  

Once the short ribs are close to being complete, slice the daikon cake into rectangles and pan fry it until crispy on the outside.  

Between the daikon cake and short ribs, it was the perfect pairing.  Typically the daikon cake is served with soy sauce, but paired so much better with the marinade that I used to braise and then reduced to make the sauce.  The sauce was a perfect balance of salty and sweet and paired very well with the flavors of the daikon cake.  The beef short ribs turned out amazing too!  I am officially a believer in beef short ribs if done correctly!  

I could not decide which of the two plates looked better so I went ahead posted both.  I look forward to hearing some feedback on the plating!  

Beef Cooked 3 Ways

I was at my parents a couple Sundays ago.  While we waited for dinner, I ran down the street to TJ Maxx to go plate shopping.  I have been in need of new plates for pictures, but do not have much luck at the stores near my place.  My eyes laid on this one particular plate immediately.  It was a plate that had 3 separate bowls in it.  It was unique.

The next day, I was on a mission to create a dish so I can put this to use.  As I started taking the steaks out of the package, I started of coming up with ideas.  What if I did beef 3 separate ways?  The dinner that night took a while to prepare because I essentially was preparing three different dinners.

First, I cut a small portion and did a pepper crust to prepare the Pepper Steak Nigiri.  The most time consuming part of this was preparing the rice.  The rice has to be cooked then a solution of rice wine vinegar and sugar is added and needs to be cooled down to be "sticky".  The beef was simply seared.  I made a quick ponzu sauce for it.

Second, I thinly sliced the beef to prepare shiitake mushroom noodle soup.  The broth was composed of shiitake mushrooms and a vegetable stock that I had in the freezer.  I quickly cooked some bean thread noodles and laid thinly slices of beef on top of it.  The idea is to have the beef cook by pouring the hot broth over it.

And finally, we have beef kabobs.  I needed a protein to go with it, but wanted to be creative.  We have had a bag of quinoa laying around that we have not used.  On top of that, we have never had it before.  I read the basic instructions on how to cook it and started added my own ingredients to it.  I officially now love quinoa and love how it looks in pictures!

Breakfast Gnocchi

The following day after the Pork Marsala Gnocchi, I once again had some leftover ingredients in the fridge that I know I had to use before I had to toss it out.  I had to get a bit creative with this one because I did not have much to work with.

So I took some of my homecured Asian bacon and started slicing it up.  Cooked it down and set it aside.  With the bacon fat, I sauteed some onions and mushrooms.  I quickly poached an egg for breakfast.  As I started looking at the ingredients I had this great idea.

I know I needed a sauce for the plate, but had not come up with anything.  So then I grabbed the herb infused whip cream from the night before.

My idea was to break open the poached egg and mix the yolk with the whip to create a creamy sauce for the gnocchi.  The idea was executed properly and it was delish!  I will be making this again soon.

Pork Marsala Gnocchi with Herb Infused Whip

A couple Saturdays ago, we had laid around all day and all I did was play around in the kitchen.  A random thought came to mind in the kitchen when I saw some potatoes.  I had made gnocchi about a year ago, but it turned out to gummy because I overworked the dough.  I thought about it and was determined to try making it again but better.  I had taken some pork chops out of the freezer and was only going to make spring rolls with it.  Went a whole different direction with it instead.

The gnocchi was plain fun to make because I only made a small batch unlike the first time.  I did not know what I was doing and made gnocchi for days!  I boiled a couple potatoes and ran it through a potato ricer and started adding flour and eggs until it had the consistency I wanted.

The pork chops were simply seasoned and pan seared just to form a crust and set aside.  Then I thought about chicken marsala and grabbed the bottle of marsala wine and deglazed the pan with it.

 For the herb infused whip, I added parsley, garlic, and chili in some heavy cream and heated it up.  The second it started bubbling, I pulled it off the stove and set it aside to let all the flavors infuse.  I whipped the heavy cream to form a whipped cream.

For some added color, I took some asparagus and shredded it and simply seasoned it.

The dish was unique and flavorful.  The whip and marsala sauce was terrifc.  The whip cream added an awesome flavor from the herbs and made a creamy sauce.

Lemongrass-Ginger Pana Cotta with Raspberry coulis, Peach purée, Toasted Coconut, and Raspberry Whip

First off, I am not a big sweets person so I have never played around with it much.  But I was craving pana cotta for some reason.  My first experience with pana cotta was at Uni Sushi where they had a mango puree injection injected in the middle of it. 

I thought it was the perfect dessert.  I do not remember it being overly sweet which is great for me.  I think the perfect dessert is one that has a hint of sweetness in it.  

Well I had this bright idea one night to make a lemongrass and ginger pana cotta.  What can I say, I was on a kick with lemongrass.  The pana cotta was very easy to make, but then I had to figure what I would pair with it to top it off.  The one thing I was nervous of is the pana cotta not setting right.  I was excited a couple hours later after I stuck in the fridge, it had set!

The next night, I had a late night at work, but I had to plate this.  I had been thinking about it all day and had an idea of what I wanted it to look like.  I ran out to the store late to pick up the ingredients that I needed.  

I picked up some peaches to make a peach puree, raspberry to make raspberry coulis, and white chocolate to make a tuile.  Now the exciting part!  I had so many different things going on in the kitchen, I quickly tossed in some shredded coconut in my little toaster oven.  It started catching on fire!  Who knew that would have happened.  It was only a minor set back.  

This may be the beginning of my dessert adventures.  I enjoyed the plating of it so much from the different colors to the different shapes that are needed.  And it is beyond tedious.  The little dots all over took so much time and patience.  

The end result was fantastic.  Individually, the three toppings paired well with the lemongrass-ginger pana cotta.  And then when you get all the different flavors into one bite, it is just like an explosion in your mouth!

Ramen Steak Banh Mi Burger

My little brother had spent the night a couple weekends and we were going to watch the football games at my place.  We went to the store to pick up food for the week and of course the game.  For the game, I had picked up some steaks and I was just going to pan sear it with some sides and call it a day.

I got to thinking, my little brother would enjoy something fun and unique especially after I saw him making himself ramen noodles that morning.  The steak was marinaded more of a teriyaki style.  As the steaks marinaded, I boiled several packs of ramen noodles and started forming it into "buns" and stuck it in the freezer for cooling and molding.  At this point, my brother had no idea what I had planned, but was very curious.

The reason for the "banh mi" in the title is because I used similar toppings for the ramen burger.  I had some pickled carrots and daikon in the fridge already, sliced cucumber, made a sriracha aioli, and then finished it with a fried egg.

The ramen did not take long to cool down and form its "bun" form.

Time to assemble the ramen burger.  The "buns" were pan fried until crispy.  The steaks were pan seared to a medium-rare doneness.  And I started packing on the toppings!

My brother was definitely surprised by the concept because he kept talking about it and how it was like something he had seen on television.  The ramen burger was definitely a success.  One thing I would have done differently is make the "buns" thinner.  What can I say...I got a bit to excited!

Miso Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

I have always been one to not let food go to waste.  Although I am not a huge fan of eating leftovers, I am big on recreating it.  A couple days after I had made a ginger-lemongrass pork tenderloin, I had some extra for breakfast on a Saturday morning.

Breakfast was going to be interesting because I really had no idea what I was doing.  All I had in mind was a maple glaze for the pork and some potatoes.  After rummaging through the kitchen, I found some miso and put the maple glaze together with the miso.  I was definitely taking a chance on this.

I sliced some potatoes and fried them up.  Chopped up some mushrooms and sauteed it.  Soft boiled an egg for the first time (alot harder than it seems).  Thinking of  the red wine poached apple I had the other night, I figured a slice of apple would pair well with the dish.

There I am, a counter of ingredients and no idea on the plating.  I had my two plates laid out and started playing around with it and all of a sudden it started coming together.

All the flavors played very well together surprisingly.  The Miso-Maple glaze turned out very well with hints of salty and sweetness.  It went well with the leftover ginger-lemongrass pork tenderloin.

Ginger-Lemongrass Brined Pork Tenderloin with Red Wine Poached Apple

I was in Asiantown and happened to have bought some lemongrass.  I have always loved the flavors of lemongrass in pork.  Growing up, my Mom would add lemongrass to thinly sliced grilled pork called Thit Nuong.

Well this is not anything close to it, but I just wanted to bring back my childhood memories and cook with lemongrass.  This was the first I had made this, but figured brining is the best way to add moisture to meat and the flavors I want into it.  

The brine consisted of lemongrass, ginger, onion, parsley, whole peppercorn, salt and green onions.  When I do my brine, I make a very concentrated solution and let it all boil and infuse its flavors together for about 20 minutes.  The reason I make a very concentrated solution is that because I am impatient and cannot wait for the brine to cool down completely.  After about 20 minutes, I add in plenty of ice to dilute it to the concentration I need it to be and to cool it down completely.  

Here was my mistake, the reason I chose the brining method was because I thought I had purchased a pork loin and did not know I had bought tenderloin.  Oh well...I went ahead and did a 24 hour brine on the tenderloin.  I started it the night before and it was ready for me to roast the next day.

The next day, timing was perfect for the apple and the pork tenderloin.  By the time the pork got to room temperature to roast, I was finishing up poaching the apple in red wine.  

The pairing of the pork tenderloin and poached red wine was perfect.  I prepared a carrot puree to go with the plate as well.  The red wine that was used to poach the apple was spiced with a couple of spices that I had added.

Lemongrass Coconut Poached Salmon

The only fish that I usually eat on a daily basis is tilapia and the only reason for that is because my Dad likes to buy it in bulk and give it to me.  I wish I could eat different fishes more often, but it is not convenient since I am not too big on frozen fish and I do not get to the market too often to buy it fresh.

After months of eating nothing, but tilapia, I decided that I needed to stop by HEB one day after work to pick up some salmon.  I am weird with salmon.  I generally do not like it cooked and if it is, it really has to be done the way I like it.  Other than that, I would rather it is as sashimi at sushi restaurants.  

I already had my dinner planned out that day because I had picked up some lemongrass the previous night just to have on hand.  Lemongrass has an amazing flavor profile, but I never remember to buy it when I go to Asiantown.  This is something they need to carry at American markets more often.  I created a poaching liquid consisting of lemongrass, coconut milk, fish sauce, red bell pepper, onion and garlic and let that fused together for a little while.  

As the poaching liquid was doing its thing, I prepared the salmon and vegetables for the garnish.  For the salmon, I skinned it and simply seasoned it with salt because all the flavor will be coming from the lemongrass coconut liquid.  The skin was rendered to a crisp and set aside.  For the zucchini and squash, it was poached and the radishes and red onions were already pickled from a previous dish.  The tomatoes were simply toasted with salt, pepper and olive oil.  

The salmon was gently put into the poaching liquid and simmered very low so that the fillet does not break apart.  The salmon did not take long so I pulled that and reduced the poaching liquid.

This was going to be a fun presentation because I was going to wing it.  First I prepared the "salad" which took a while because I had to have everything in the right place so it would hold the other vegetables in place.  Then came the salmon.  I had plated one plate with the sauce on the bottom and the salmon on top, but did not care for that look.  Then I saw something on the Foodnetwork where they just poured the sauce over the fish and decided to go with that look and topped it with black and regular sesame seeds.  

The dish overall had a Thai flavor to it.  All I wanted was to use lemongrass and did not intend to make it Thai inspired, but it worked out because the dish was wonderful!

Sesame Soy Braised Chicken

I love chicken, but I was just stumped on what to do with chicken breast a couple weeks ago.  Not only was I stumped on how to cook the chicken, I could not figure out how to plate the chicken!  I have been following a home chef on Instagram for the past couple months and she recently went home to visit and took all these great pictures of all the delicious food that she had eaten at restaurants.  I find her food very inspiring.  I happened to stumble upon a soy braised chicken that she had posted at a Chinese restaurant and that sounded delicious.  

So for dinner that night, I made my own sesame soy braised chicken breast with a variety of aromatics.  For the braising liquid, I used sesame oil, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, with ginger, onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and oregano.  I let the liquid simmer to bring all the flavors together for about ten minutes.  I dropped in my chicken breast on medium high for about eight minutes and shut the heat down to low and covered it and just let it braise in the liquid.  

As I let the chicken stew in the sesame-soy liquid, I prepared my garnishes which included poached squash and zuchinni and pickled some red onions and radishes.  

After about 30 minutes of the chicken soaking in the liquid, I pulled it to let it cool a little bit before I sliced it.  The soy gave the skin such a beautiful color.  As I sliced the chicken breast, I noticed how juicy it was.  The flavors penetrated the chicken breast so well without drying it out.  

The overall flavors of the dish worked out very well together.  The vegetables were poached in a citrus flavored liquid.  The radishes and red onions gave the dish and amazing presentation with its bright colors.  At the last moment, I candied some ginger to top the chicken.  

Bacon with Potato Chips

It has been a while since I have posted once again.  I had someone ask me the other if I had been starving myself since I had not updated my blog.  I have been doing plenty of cooking, but needed some time to regather my thoughts and do some research on more great food.

I had cured some bacon a little while ago and still have a bundle in my freezer...good problem to have!  A couple weeks ago, I was out of fresh ideas on plating and remembered I had seen something on MasterChef where the chef had to recreate one of Chef Gordan Ramsey's dish with potato confit and scallops.  This is not exactly like Chef Ramsey's plate, but it was created base off of it.

The beauty of homecured bacon is that you can cut it any way you want to.  In this case, I had cut up some bacon and cooked it down.  I used the bacon fat (who wouldn't right?) to fry the thinly sliced potatoes.  I tossed the potato chips with garlic power, salt, parsley and Chinese five spice powder.  Why the Chinese five spice powder you ask?

The bacon was cured with Chinese five spice powder already and the bacon fat had a hint of the flavor so I went ahead and decide to enhance the flavor a bit more.  Phenomenal!

The plate on MasterChef had a salad that came with it so I made the "salad" as my garnish.

Comfort Cooking: Mock Steak with Red Wine Gravy and Sauteed Kale

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a post someone had posted of their dinner a couple weeks ago on The Woodlands/Spring Food Group on Facebook.  She had taken hamburger meat and did a bacon wrapped "steak".  From the looks of it, it looked like a filet mignon until you read the description.  I was so inspired by it that I had to give it a try.  I did a play on it and conveniently had some hamburger meat in the freezer.

I took the meat and lightly seasoned it with garlic and onion powder, basil, salt and pepper.  I formed it into the shape of a filet and pan seared it so it forms a nice crust and to render out the fat in the meat.  I pulled the meat and poured out some of the fat and reserved a bit of it.

While the pan was still hot, I tossed in the onion and garlic and cooked that down for a bit then added the mushrooms.  After the mix had been cooked down, I poured in the red wine that I had left over and let that cook down a bit then added back in the "steaks".  Most important part here is to let the wine cook down for a little while.  If not the alcohol is going to be overpowering and the beef flavor will not come through.  Caution: May get drunk from fumes because I may or may not have gotten drunk from the fumes.

Onto the challenge...how to plate this and make it look clean.  There really was no way.  I had two plates that I was working on and this was the cleanest look of the two.

There is something about a plate that is a hot mess with gravy...it is just so comforting.

The meal was overall very good.  The sauce was very well balance between the flavors of the red wine and the fat from the beef.

Fishcake with Cheese Crisp and Pea Puree

After being stuck eating out at restaurants and eating on the cruise for 10 days, I was ready to get back into the kitchen and start cooking again.  Do not get me wrong, it was nice to have a break from cooking, but nothing taste better than a home cook meal.

It is day 2 back from our cruise and I need to continue eating lighter meals, especially for dinner.  Only grocery shopping we did when we came back was just for some vegetables.

I was craving fish for dinner and the only fish we had was tilapia.  I wanted to do something creative with the tilapia instead of just cooking it as is.  So I made fishcakes for dinner tonight.  The ingredients in the fishcakes were mushrooms, onion, garlic, onion and garlic powder, dried basil, and breadcrumbs and an egg for the binders.  I dredged it in flour and stuck in the the freezer to hold its shape before I pan fried it.

For the side, I did not want to have a salad since we had a salad last night for dinner.  Tonight's veggie of choice was peas, but to just plate peas on a plate is just boring so I turned it into a pea puree with what I had.  I pureed the peas with garlic, olive oil and sour cream.

For additional garnishes and colors, I made a quick cheese crisp and fried an egg.

I have had withdrawals from cooking and plating since I have been on vacation.  So I wanted to have some fun with my plating.  I was very indecisive on how I wanted to plate my dinner tonight so I plated it two different ways.  I grabbed the roasted tomato sardine dressing I made last night for my salad and used that to add some flavor and color to my plating.  The pea puree was the difficult part on how I wanted it to look on the plate.

Please let me know which one you prefer...the one with the pea puree brushed on or the one with it spread.

Bacon Kebab with Mushroom "Duxelle" Omelette and Scallion Mash Potato Cake

I love eating breakfast food, but rarely get an opportunity to do so in the morning.  There is something about breakfast that I love that I cannot explain.  So tonight, I was craving breakfast for dinner aka brinner.  Plus it was another excuse to enjoy some of my home cured bacon I recently made.

The star of my dish tonight is my home cured bacon.  I sliced my bacon into thick chunks and cooked it off.  I started to think about the bacon as I stared at it on the plate after I cooked it and did not want to just put it on the plate.  So I grabbed a skewer and cherry tomatoes and started on my kebab.

The omelette was inspired by a picture I saw on my Instagram of someone making a striped mushroom omelette.  Which I have to make sometime soon, but I did not have all the right tools and ingredients tonight.  It is a very unique and artistic omelette that will make you wonder how it was prepared.

So I tried to do something artistic with my omelette tonight as well.  I had something else pictured in my head as I was preparing all the ingredients.  The "duxelle" part of the omelette consists of sauteed onion, garlic and Asian dried fungus.  Last minute, I added some red chili pepper for additional color and heat.  I originally was going to roll up the omelette, but after standing back and looking at it in the pan, I thought it would look more artistic if I cut it out and draped it on the bacon kebab.

For the mash potato cake, I used some leftover mash potatoes from last night.  I took the mash potato and formed it into a patty and crusted it with homemade breadcrumbs and set it in the freezer so it would hold better when I cook it.  This was topped off with scallions and served with sour cream.  The mash potato cake was cooked in the reserved bacon fat.  

For my presentation tonight, it was all changed last minute from what I had imagined originally.  I was going to plate the mash potato cake in the middle and have the little chunks of bacon surround it and have the omelette rolled up and set to the side of it.  I am much more satisfied and happy with the last minute changes I had made to my plate.

Huy's Bao (Steamed Buns)

Another one of my favorite food to eat growing up and till this day is peking duck.  I mean, I love duck like I love bacon...any way, shape or form.  Duck is like the fillet mignon of the poultry.  We would often order the peking duck at the Asian restaurants and it is typically served with a scallions, cucumber, hoison sauce and the best part...bao.  Bao is a white, light and fluffy steamed bun that is very versatile.  It is like the Iron Kid Breads in the Asian culture.  So I had a craving for bao and may have gone a bit overboard.

Over the course of a week, I served dinner with bao three different times and different ways.

The first day, I served the bao with a soy braised pork belly.  The braised pork belly was prepared the previous day.  I braised it in soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and coconut water.  Served with a sweet hoison sauce, scallion and pickled cucumber.

The second day of bao, it was a last minute decision.  I was preparing fish cakes and decides to have some fun with it and play on the fish taco.  Fish cake was prepared with flounder, Asian pesto, onion and garlic.  Plus I used some Asian seasoning.  Served with scallions, lettuce and Sriracha aioli.

The last day of bao, I did a play on banh mi.  I used ground beef and seasoned it like my Vietnamese burger.  Served with scallions, cucumber, do chua (pickled carrots) and Sriracha aioli.

Asian Bacon topped Asian Chicken with Asian Pesto Vermicelli

I created a dinner based on leftovers based from a comment someone made on a Facebook foodie group about not caring too much for leftovers.  Now I cannot say I enjoy leftovers, but there are some food that are best served best when it gets reheated over and over.  Anyways, I used this as a challenge for leftovers I had in the fridge.

In my fridge I had leftover chicken that I had used during the week on a different dish.  This was previously marinaded with Asian flavors and roasted in the oven.  I cut the chicken breast into large cubes and seared it in the reserved bacon fat.

Second, I had leftover Asian pesto I had used in my green glass noodles dish.  This was created the same way as your traditional basil pesto, but i used a Thai basil, cilantro and mint.  I tossed the Asian pesto with some vermicelli.

Last but not least, the Asian bacon.  This was not necessarily leftover, but yet it was.  I had finished making bacon the previous night and cut the slabs of bacon into smaller portions and carved off the uneven parts of the pork belly.  So I guess essentially it is the "leftover" part of the bacon.

Ladies and Gentlemen...I present to you, my fabulous dish created from a bunch of leftovers.

Green Glass Noodles with Asian Chicken

A couple months ago, I was watching Food Crawl with Lee Anne Wong on the Cooking Channel and saw a very interesting recipe that she stumbled upon at an Asian restaurant.  The chef was preparing Green Glass Noodles which was a creamy Asian version of your traditional basil pesto with glass noodles.  It sounded like a genius idea.  Ever since then, I have been wanting to make my own Asian Pesto.

It was perfect for tonight's dinner because I had marinaded a whole deboned chicken Sunday that I was going to throw on the grill, but my plans changed on Sunday.  So tonight I roasted it in the oven.  I was pretty excited because the chicken has been marinading in an Asian inspired marinade that I make since Sunday.  All I knew was that it was going to be an explosion of flavor.

For the Asian Pesto, I had the fresh herbs in mind that is served with pho at the restaurants.  I always loved the smell of all the herbs together so I figured this would make the perfect combination of flavors for my pesto.  The pesto consisted of Thai basil, cilantro and mint.  I did add some fish sauce, chili pepper flakes, garlic, and Parmesan cheese in it.

Glass noodles do not take long to cook so I waited till the last minute.  All you have to do is drop it in boiling water for a couple seconds and viola!  I drained it and tossed in the pesto while it is still hot so it is more easier to work with.  When cooled down, the glass noodles all stick together.

I had some fun with my plating tonight once again.  It was very simple, but very nicely put together in my opinion.  I have been on a green onion kick for my presentation lately because they curl very nicely when soaked in ice water.  We had some cherry tomatoes in the fridge as well so all this came together to give my my plating tonight!  Enjoy!

Pork Rind Bacon with Bacon Fat Potatoes

I had started to cure some pork belly with Asian flavors last Sunday to make bacon.  If this is not a tease...then I do not know what is.  Every time I open the fridge, was just taunting me.  I could not take it anymore this morning so I pulled a piece out a day or two early and started rinsing it.  As I was rinsing the pork belly, I decided to take it for a different spin.

Down in Asiantown, they sale this pork that that is roasted and the skin is rendered to achieve a crispy skin that is like pork rind referred to as Thit Heo Quay.  You have a meaty layer of tender meat and then you have the crispy skin of the pork.  It is amazing.

Well this morning, I took this route to put a spin on the bacon.  The pork belly has been curing for seven days now so it already has that bacon flavor.  The fun part of this is to get the skin extra crispy.

First thing I did was boil the pork belly and cook it to about 50% doneness.  I pulled the meat from the water and patted it dry especially the skin.  I took several toothpicks and pricked the skin all over and popped it in the oven.  After several minutes, I pulled the meat out and patted the skin dry from the fat that had rendered out and put it back in the oven.  I did this a couple more times until the skin started to crackle and bubble to form a nice and crispy skin much like pork rind.

I set the meat aside to cool and poured the fat from the pan into a frying pan and started frying my thinly slices of potatoes in it.

I present to you...Pork Rind Bacon!

The pork belly was amazing.  It came out the way I wanted it too.  I had my bacon and I had my thit heo quay all in one!  The meaty part of it taste like regular bacon and the crispy skin was just like pork rind.   And the potatoes were to die for.  I mean, everything taste better with some bacon grease added to it.

Vietnamese Shrimp and Pork Salad (Goi Tom Thit)

Well it is a couple weeks before we go on a cruise so I have to try to look "better" in a one piece.  So tonight's dinner was on the much lighter side.  Another one of my favorite dishes growing up is the Vietnamese shrimp and pork salad also referred to as Goi Tom Thit.  And I happen to just have everything in the fridge.

This is not your typical salad where it is served with lettuce.  The salad is served with a mix of carrots, daikon, and cucumbers. It is then tossed with shrimp and pork.  There are many variations of this dish, but this is the one my Mom made growing up.  The best part about this dish is the fried shrimp crackers, but unfortunately, I did not have access to any.  

Typically, all this is tossed together and just served on a plate.  Although it looks very nice with all the different colors, I wanted to make it look a bit more appealing.  

I grated the carrots and daikon together and tossed in some chopped up mint and cilantro.  For the cucumber, I sliced it as thin as possible long ways.  The radishes were sliced paper thin.  All of these were tossed in a lemon, lime and vinegar mixture.  After about ten to fifteen minutes, I squeezed the veggies to "dry" it out.

The shrimp was poached in a liquid with lemon, lime, garlic and herbs.  Once the shrimp was done, I immediately dunked in ice cold water.  With the same liquid, I poached the pork.  

I have helped my Mom make this growing up so I already had an idea how it was going to taste.  The important part of tonight's dinner for me was the presentation.  Typically, everything is tossed together and served on a plate.  Which looks nice with all the colors, but I wanted to make it a bit more appealing to the eye.  This has been one of my more fun dishes to plate.  Enjoy!