Discoveries from My Local Pak n' Sav aka Safeway Supermarket

Yesterday I was at my neighborhood grocery store in Emeryville. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of Asian produce and products it carries.

Asian supermarkets can be tough on our noses plus there may not be one in your neighborhood. Anyway, Pak n' Sav carries very fresh lemongrass at a very reasonable price. +L You can get your lemongrass here or your neighborhood Safeway :)


I also found other Asian kitchen cooking essentials in the Asian aisle. I found Aji-mirin, a common seasoning wine in many Japanese recipe, and of course rice vinegar. Kikkoman is a very reliable brand for many Japanese sauces and seasonings.

The item that I was most surprised to see on the rack was S&B Japanese curry cubes :) Way to go Safeway !!

Hopefully with Asian cooking ingredients more accessible, people can enjoy the cooking of cooking Asian food in the comfort of their own homes :)   

Japanese Curry Pot カレー 鍋 (日式咖哩鍋)

Japanese Curry Pot カレー 鍋 (日式咖哩鍋)

The Japanese curry pot is my go- to quick fix for a cold winter night. Wholesome flavors of the vegetables and pork belly melt into the curry sauce which makes it and my side of rice a happy union on my taste buds :)

The preparation time for this recipe is about 30 minutes. This recipe is very easy to make.

Ingredients

• Sliced pork belly
• 2 organic carrots (Organic food doesn't always carry a hefty price tag. I got my organic carrots from Trader Joe's for 79 cents a bag. You will find out I prefer organic vegetables especially for root produces.) 
• 5 stems of organic oyster mushrooms
• 1 pack of enoki mushrooms 
• 2 pieces of Japanese rectangular fried tofu pockets
• 4 Japanese aged fish balls
• 1 pack of Japanese yam jelly aka konnyaku (This is a great source of fiber)
• 1 tablespoon of grated garlic
• Some greens of your choice (I use organic spring mix)
• Some chopped green onions
• Bowls of steamed rice

Seasonings

• 3 tablespoons of bonito seasoning soy sauce (This item can be found at Chinese or Japanese supermarkets. The soy sauce I use in this recipe also contains kombu also known as kelp.)
• 2 tablespoons of Mirin, a Japanese sweet cooking wine with no alcohol content
• 2 of your favorite Japanese curry cubes (I use House mild curry with honey and apple. I haven't learned how to appreciate spicy food yet. You can find Japanese curry sauce mix in any Chinese and Japanese supermarket.)

• Pinches of salt

Tools

• A clay pot
• A portable gas range if you would like to make the curry nabe/ hotpot style

Preparation

1. Rinse all the vegetables, yam jelly, and mushrooms thoroughly. Slice the oyster mushrooms and the yam jelly. Cut the carrot into pieces. Cut off the base of enoki mushroom cluster. We do not use the wood-like part of the enoki mushrooms. *It is important Not to split the enoki mushrooms into straws; leave them in sizable bunches. This will make getting them out of the pot much easier.* 
2. Cut the rectangular fried tofu pockets into halves turning them into squares. Then, cut the tofu squares diagonally into triangles. Remove the aged fish balls from the package. 
3. Grease the clay pot with oil and heat it. Put in the grated garlic and let them brown. When you can smell the aroma, put in the curry cubes. Move the cubes around so that they won't burn. Don't worry about the cubes not turning into a paste, we will add water to it and it will dissolve nicely. We want to infuse the garlic into the curry cubes at this point. 
4. Fill the 2/3 of pot with water. If you don't have a clay pot, pour in about 700 ml of water into your pot. Add soy sauce, mirin, and salt to the mixture. Bring the broth to a broil.
5. Add in the carrots and yam jelly for they take longer to cook. Next add the tofu triangles, sliced oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, pork belly, and fish balls. Add the greens last. Top the pot with green onions for garnishing. 
6. If you can going for the curry pot nabe style, you can save some ingredients on the side for that. Just add water to the pot when the sauce gets too thick for your liking. Otherwise, make sure all the ingredients are cooked thoroughly and serve as a curry sauce with rice. 
7. *Porridge Option for Curry Nabe* Once you have finished all the delicious food in the pot, you can add the rice to soak up all the goodness in the pot. Just put the rice in the pot and bring it to a boil.  

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much I did :)

Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chop ( 越式香茅豬扒)

Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chop ( 越式香茅豬扒)

I am absolutely in love with this lemongrass pork chop recipe. It was a great, delicious way to start my 2014. This will definitely go on my food truck menu if I have one lolol :) I would love to hear from you all. I welcome questions and comments to make this blog a better place for good recipes.

This recipe is easy to make. (Please rate the level of difficulty of this recipe) Time is your biggest helper for this recipe requires overnight refrigeration.

Please feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients in this recipe to your liking.

Ingredients 

• 4 pieces of pork butt chops; they shouldn't weigh more than 1 lbs. If they are more than 1 lb, you will have to adjust the amount of seasonings accordingly ( I personally prefer this cut to regular pork chops because pork butt has a higher fat content and in my opinion are more tender) 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons of grated garlic  (I love garlic and I tend to put more of it than other recipes out there)
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh lemongrass ( The finer the lemongrass, the stronger the aroma; plus you won't have to split out hard to chew lemongrass pieces later when you enjoy your cooking)
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper   
• Dashes of red chill powder  

Tools

• Meat tenderizer
• Grill pan for the beautiful grill marks
• A otoshibuta (wooden drop lid) / a potato masher

Preparation 

1) Whisk all the seasonings together in a mixing bowl 

2) Tenderize the pork chops with the meat tenderizer. Make sure you pound both sides. Ideally the pork chops should get at least 1.5 times bigger than their original size. This steps makes the pork chop more tender and on top of that this helps the pork chop to absorb all the wonderful flavors from the sauce we combined from step 1.

3) Place all the pork chops in the mixing bowl containing the marinating sauce. Make sure all the pork chops are submerged in the marinade.   

4) Refrigerate overnight. 

5) Let the pork chops stand in room temperature for at least 15 minutes before cooking them. Drain off all excess sauce from the pork chops before putting them on a hot pan. Grease the pan. Your pan is ready when it sizzles with drippings of the marinade.

6) Place the pork chops evenly on the sizzling hot pan. Do NOT flip them until you see the pork chops start to turn white. Meanwhile, drop the wooden lid on the pork chops. This helps the pork chop to cook evenly with beautiful grill marks. If you don't have a wooden drop lid, you can use the potato masher. No matter which tool you use, DO NOT keep pressing the pork chops for this will cause all the juices to drain from the pork chop leaving the pork chops dry and tough. 

7) Open the lid from time to time to observe the pork chops. When the edges of the pork chop on the side facing your is white, flip them. Try to limit your flipping to no more than 4 times.

8) Serve with a side of rice and salad.

Happy 2014 :)

Happy New Year :)

Many of my friends encouraged me to start my own blog about my cooking hobby. What would be a better time to start anything than the beginning of the year?  So here I am now to share the love and joy I get from cooking and entertaining my friends and families :)

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank other passionate chefs for sharing their recipes on the internet. I have been learning tremendously from you all. Hopefully, I can pass all delicious knowledge forward to my fellow foodies and home chefs who happen to stumble upon my blog.

May you all have a healthy and yummy 2014!