ACL and Meniscus Injury

This sucks.

I'm out of commission for a few months.

I'll try to cook ASAP and post photos.

For now, surgery on Valentine's day and recovery into Spring.

<3

Quinoa with Green Beans and Red Peppers

In organizing my pantry, I found a nice box of quinoa from Trader Joe's.  I have never made quinoa before but I have definitely eaten plenty of it - courtesy of the Whole Foods' Food Bar.  Oh yeah.  I cooked the quinoa according to the box's instructions, which was quite simple.  It directed me to treat quinoa like I would with rice.  Since I made chicken broth in my previous posts, I just used that to cook my quinoa.  

I added hand shredded chicken meat, diced bell peppers, candied sliced raw almonds and sauteed green beans with candied garlic.  I also grated a ton (a 1/2 cup) of parmesan cheese into the quinoa for a nice subtle salty and creamy flavor.  So, go easy with the salt as well.  I prefer to season as I serve instead of seasoning the entire bowl of quinoa before serving.  

I topped mine with some sliced scallion greens just because... it makes it tastier and prettier.  

These grains are tiny. 

1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of broth.  Easy? Easy.  I cooked it covered.  It took about 10 minutes on low heat. 

These are some beautifully poached chicken thighs if I can say so myself...

Hand shredded then chopped for smaller bites. 

Two diced red peppers. 

Candied raw almonds.  To candy: add some oil about 1 T, heat it up, sprinkle some sugar about two pinches, heat it up, then throw it 1/4 of sliced almonds.  Stir often and cook until the almonds are coated and sticky.  I don't like to have them super sweet so add more oil/sugar depending on your candied preference. 

Heating up the garlic with some sugar and thyme.  I needed some herbs in there.  I don't wait until the garlic are brown because the green beans take a year and half to cook.  So don't worry, the garlic with brown as the green books cook with it. 

I love the texture of crisp cooked green beans and candied almonds.  Delicioso. 

Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. 

Then mix. Mix. 

Then admire and devour. 

Organized Spice and Tea Pantry

Ahh!  I organized my pantry today!  Finally, I made a list of all the spices and teas I have in there because I'm a serious offender of buying duplicate spices.  I seem to always have that moment where I am convinced I have the spice but I actually don't or that I don't have the spice but I do because I can't find it.  Now, there is a handy list of spices that I HAVE taped on my pantry door so no more going through these jars one by one for hours (exaggeration, I know).  And seriously, tea boxes take up a lot of space.  I de-boxed them and put all my tea bags into sandwich bags - I did the same with loose leaf teas that were in large containers.  I, now, also have a list of teas I have so it's much easier to name them when guests ask what kind of teas I have.  YAY!!!

I am sure I could easily make it all into one list, make it prettier, make it bigger, but for now, I'm just so happy it is organized! 

Roasted Rice Congee with Pork and Ginger

I am convinced that congee is something one can only cook with soul.  This means, there is no exact recipe that one should follow... yes, seriously.  One must go with the flow, taste as you cook, and decide when the flavor is just right.  I guess it is more a philosophy of cooking congee? In any case, there are always some useful tips one could benefit from such as using half the amount of rice one would need to make regular steamed/boiled rice.  To yield a pot-full (I know, I'm so technical) of congee, one of would probably only need a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rice - depending on how thick or watery you like your congee.  You can't go wrong with how you season or flavor your congee - adding salt first or last does not matter but do go slow and easy because the congee cooks for a long time so a little salt goes a long way.

I like to make my own broth and trust me, it's super easy.  You will need bone-in meat like chicken thigh - I'm definitely a leg and thigh kinda' girl.  Here, I roasted the rice with ginger and scallion whites before I added the broth.  I do think that it adds more flavor to the congee and also changes the color so if you prefer your congee snow white - don't roast your rice.  Simple, right.

Be prepared to watch and stir the congee often for the next couple of hours.  This is definitely not a low-maintenance dish, but it's worth the effort.

It's nothing too sexy but two bone-in chicken thigh allowed me to render about 8 cups of chicken broth so I used about 3/4 to make congee and the rest to make quinoa.

Minced ginger.  Use as much as you like depending on your gingery preference.  How minced?  Enough to make an Asian grandmother proud.  On another note, my photography skills is terrible - these photos are blurred and out of focus.  Fail.

Here, I added 2 T of canola oil, threw in my knob of minced ginger and two stalks of scallion whites.  Cook for about 3-5 minutes of medium heat.

Add in your 1/2 cup of rice and cook for another 3-5 minutes.  It's sorta' like roasting nuts - stir often and making sure that all the grains are roasted.  If not, your congee will not be awesome.

I kid.

Broth.  Yes, in the middle there is a 1/2 cup of ground pork.  I like to add it in after the broth because I think it adds nice flavor to it instead of cooking it first with the ginger and scallions.

Always need a little fish sauce.  Here is about 2 Ts of fish sauce to add more depth to the congee.  Delicious!

Stir, stir, STIR.  Of course, I also seasoned the congee with some sugar and salt.  Again, go easy on the salt.  Think pinches not teaspoons.

After an hour, it started to look like this.  I did add a 1/2 cup of water during the first hour because it seemed to be getting too thick.  Trust your instincts.

Giving it a little stir.  I do like my congee thick but even here, it's not quite done yet.  It will probably need to cook on slow heat for another hour or so.  Remember, stir often or you'll have burnt chunks of congee at the bottom half of your pot.

Will post the final product tomorrow.

BTW, I like to top my congee off with some sliced scallions and chopped thousand year old egg.  And if calories wasn't an issue, I would definitely pick up some fresh yau ja gwai from the local Chinese bakery as well.