Bibimbap 비빔밥

 One of my favorite foods is bibimbap.  Bibimbap is a Korean dish.  Bibim (비빔) means mix and bap (밥) means rice.  I can't remember when I first ate it, but after that first time I always craved it.  I've always wanted to try making it myself, but then all the veggies that are required scared me away from trying out the recipe.  I wanted to buy every single ingredient required before I attempted making this.  Because of this, it took me a few months before I actually tried making it myself.  However, I ended up making it with only a few veggies.  The veggies I used were bean sprouts, carrots, and spinach.  I didn't have any zucchinis, mushrooms, gosari, garlic, or sesame seeds.  I was worried it wouldn't turn out well because I was lacking so many ingredients, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Also, I used some ground pork that I had left in the freezer for a year.  It was still good! Hahaha.

I followed Maangchi's recipe for bibimbap and used Korean Bapsang for the red pepper paste sauce.


College Student's Version of Bibimbap
Slightly adapted from Maangchi's recipe.

 
 Before mixing.


After mixing.

Garlic Knots

One day, after eating at a restaurant called Mama...cita?, (I'm not sure if that's the right name.) That place was a pizzeria.  I really wanted to try making some garlic knots.  I tried theirs and it was delicious.  So in hopes that I would be able to reproduce something similar, I tried this recipe posted by Brown Eyed Baker.

The recipe was fairly simple and the bread was really fun to make.  However, it is the type of bread that becomes chewy and hard to eat after only one day.  It doesn't taste that bad the next day, but it's better to eat it the day of.  Also, there ended up being too much sauce leftover for me.

Garlic Knots
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Pan Pizza

After a long time of having this pizza in my to-do list, I can finally cross it off.  I have always wanted to try making some pizza, but I never got the chance until my mom's off day (the day she takes a break from cooking).  

The pizza was really easy to make and it reminded me of Pizza Hut's pizza. It had a nice crispy crust that tasted just right, due to the generously greased pans.   If you had a tiring day, you can make this pizza for an easy dinner.  I actually got the recipe from my book, America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  The recipe also happens to be the same one that Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures used.


Pepperoni Pan Pizza

 

California Sushi

On the day of Mother's Day, my dad and uncle planned to make dinner for our moms (my aunt, my mom and my grandma). After I discovered that my uncle was going to make sushi, I rushed over to his house to learn how to make it. When I was little, I thought sushi was disgusting. However, after trying my uncle's sushi and tasting the weird, orange fish eggs, I found that sushi isn't that bad. Now I even go to eat sushi buffets!  I still don't like sashimi though.

The most complicated part of sushi is prepping. Cooking the rice, slicing the cucumber and avocados, cooking eggs, and etc. I think it is totally worth it though. If you go out to buy sushi, you spend $5 on a few pieces alone. If you make it yourself, you can make several rolls with $5 of ingredients.

California Sushi
Recipe from my uncle, who got it from a church friend

Makes 10 rolls, each roll may be sliced into ~10 pieces

Fettucine Alfredo

One day my mom didn't know what she should make for lunch, and we happened to be at Trader Joe's. I knew that my brother had been craving fettucine alfredo, so I decided to try making it myself. Instead of using fettucine, I ended up using linguine because I couldn't find it. These noodles are really easy to cook. All you have to do is melt the ingredients together and then mix it with the noodles and you're done. My brother liked it, except he thought it should have a bit more taste. I think he also thought that there was too much sauce. I kind of forgot because this was a few months ago.

Fettucine Alfredo
Recipe from Pioneer Woman.

Whole Wheat Loaf Bread

I've had this recipe bookmarked for the longest time! I didn't want to make the bread because the long proofing times made me a bit impatient. I don't like waiting for bread to proof because I want to know how the bread turns out as soon as possible. But after making the steamed buns and having to wait for 5-6 hours total, I realized that 1 and a half hours isn't too long. So on a school day, I made this wheat bread and some Boston cream cupcakes. Wow, I'm writing the post on August 3 August 13 and that seems like such a long, long time ago.

I liked how the wheat bread turned out. It was soft and it made a very good sandwich bread. The only con was that the bread gets soggy easily. However, this bread recipe is worth keeping. It's a very simple recipe with very good results.


Whole Wheat Loaf Bread
Recipe from Lena of Frozen Wings



My changes in pink.

小 牛牌 Little Ribs

When I was little, my mom would cook this pretty often. However, now we only eat this once in a while. The ingredients below are estimates because my mom adds ingredients by eying the amount, not measuring like me. Hopefully, I will learn how to cook one day without measuring ingredients. Sorry, but I don't know the English name for this dish...so my translation may sound a bit weird.

小牛牌 Little Ribs
Recipe from my mom

some ribs
BBQ sauce or black pepper sauce -2-3-4 tbsps
Soy sauce around 1 tbsp or more, depending on the amount of meat

Directions
Cut ribs, get rid of the fat by peeling it off. If there is too much fat, cut it off with a knife.

Marinate the ribs for around 30 minutes in the BBQ sauce or black pepper sauce. Use enough sauce to marinate all the meat.



When cooking it, no oil is needed for the pan because there will be a lot of fat coming out.

Add the meat to the pan by laying it on its side. Cook on medium heat for a few minutes so the meat won't become tough.
Cook on one side for a few minutes, then flip over to the other side.

Then cover the pan with the lid, checking from time to time to see when it is done on that one side. After it is done on that side, flip it over to continue cooking. This will only take a few minutes and then you're done!


The remaining sauce leftover from this dish is good for noodles. Just cook and drain the noodles, then mix the sauce with the noodles.

Btw, these pictures were taken with the old camera, before it died.

Braided Hot Dog Bread

I got this recipe from Daily Delicious. I believe that this is the first time I tried a recipe from her blog. I always see her updates and everything she bakes looks so professional, like it's from a bakery.

I enjoy baking bread more sometimes because it's healthier than cookies and cakes. But, I also despise how the temperature needs to be warm for the bread to rise quickly. I have to rely on my preheated oven, but I'm afraid of drying the dough out. I can't wait until the weather here is warmer.

I made this bread with packing it as lunch for my brother in mind, but he gets hungry easily eating the bread I make, so he prefers bakery bread. Also, my dad has a sweet tooth; so unless the bread I make is sweet, then I end up with bread stuck in the freezer. So I guess I'll be trying more sweet breads from now on.

Fresh from the oven, the bread tastes so soft and bakery-like. After one day, they still maintain the same freshness, although they become a bit drier. To resolve that, all you have to do is re-bake the bread for a few minutes. I only made 7 pieces of bread with this recipe because I wanted larger sized bread.


Braided Hot Dog Bread

炸酱麵 Bean Paste Pork Noodles

炸酱麵 also known as zha jiang mian or bean paste pork noodles (my translation), is a dish where bean paste is used to make a sauce and cooked with minced pork. My mom also adds 豆乾 (dried tofu) that is diced into this dish, which is a childhood favorite of mine. Whenever my mom made this dish, I would eat one bowl after another until I felt like my stomach would explode. XD After a really long time of not cooking these noodles, my mom decided to make them for me on 10/9/10. I was soo happy! It was actually to celebrate the end of my SATs because I don't want to take anymore SATs after the one I just took on 10/9/10.

My mom usually cooks these noodles with hand pulled noodles bought from a supermarket, but last week she made them with regular thin noodles.





I'll share the recipe one day when my mom makes them again.

Next time, maybe I'll try making homemade noodles too with this recipe. :)

Chicken Quesadillas

The first time I ever made quesadillas was during the summer before freshmen year in high school. I was taking a cooking class at my high school for summer school. In that class, I learned how to make several new things and I discovered a new food that I had never heard of before and that food is one of my favorites now (spam musubi). I'll share the recipe another time, when I get to make it. But today, I have the quesadilla recipe. Actually, my brother made these for Father's Day and I helped (to his annoyance b/c I became too bossy). He's currently taking the cooking class and I think he enjoys it.


Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado & Pico de Gallo (fresh salsa)


Quesadillas

Serves 4, 2 each
Ingredients
8 tortillas
around 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese
around 2 cups of cooked chicken cubes
1/4 avocado, sliced (optional)
butter, to spread on the tortillas (optional)

Directions
Cube chicken and just cook it.
Butter one side of each tortilla, if you don't want too much fat, just don't butter the tortilla.
Prepare the avocado by cutting it in half, twisting the 2 halves to separate them, using the knife technique to extract the seed, then quartering it lengthwise. Lightly slice each quarter into lengthwise strips.

Now, heat the pan. If you like using butter, butter the pan, if not, use something like vegetable oil. Personally, I dislike using to much butter, so I just use vegetable oil to oil the pan and I do not butter any of the tortillas at all. Put one of the tortillas on the pan, once the pan is heated up.

Start adding cheese to one side of the tortilla. The amount of cheese you put is actually up to your own tastes, that's the good thing about making these yourself. If you like cheesy food, add a lot of cheese, if you just like a little, put a little. After a few seconds or so, the cheese will start melting and then you can add a portion of chicken onto the quesadilla. Fold the quesadilla in half and you're basically done.

When the tortilla is crispy and the cheese is all melted, the quesadilla will taste really good. They are really easy to make and you can give the recipe a twist by adding chunks of pineapple with bbq chicken, or steak with cheese, it basically works with anything. :) Serving them with salsa will make this a very delicious and easy meal.

Pico de Gallo

Ingredients
1 tomato
1/4 onion
1/3 bunch of cilantro
[1 jalapeno chili]
1 lime
a pinch of salt

Directions

Dice the tomato and onion, put in a small bowl. Add in the coarsely chopped cilantro leaves to the bowl. Add in chopped up jalapeno if you like spicy stuff. First slice it lengthwise and remove the stem, membranes and seeds. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the bowl and add one pinch of salt. Mix around and you're done.

Tip: Rolling the lime around on the table top while pressing down will make it easier to squeeze out the juice because the cells of the lemon will break down.

Simple Wraps

My grandma made this for lunch one day. She decided to make them after seeing them made on this tv show. I thought that they were pretty good and easy to make. So here's the recipe. It's going to be a rough estimate of everything since I wasn't there watching how she made it, but here are my guesstimates.

Simple Wraps



Serves 4
Ingredients
8 tortillas
2 cucumbers, cut into long strips
4 eggs, scrambled
2 hunks braised beef, cut into thin slices
(they can just be cooked, doesn't need to be braised)

possible variations:
pork floss instead of beef
braised pork, sliced thinly

Directions
Whisk the eggs and cook them. Cook them so that they turn out in thin sheets. It would be easier to cook the eggs in four equal portions so that there is 1/2 an egg in each tortilla. Set the cooked eggs aside.

Slice up the cucumbers into thin strips and set aside.

Slice up the cooked meat and start arranging a few slices on each tortilla. Add the cucumber strips and eggs. Each ingredient is distributed evenly so that the tortilla may be smoothly rolled up. Now, roll up the tortillas with their filling. Use a toothpick and poke it through the skin of the tortilla to keep it in place. Cut the finished rolls/wraps in half and serve or just serve them whole.

My First Fried Rice

I made my first fried rice last Friday for a Chinese school project. I had to cook it the night before Chinese school, the next day it still tasted good even though it became 2 days old rice. Here's the recipe. As you can tell, I added a lot of veggies.

So I just followed all the directions and it turned out good. The only problem I had was the rice sticking to the pan...it eventually became this "chip". This is what happened.


Now the step by step instructions.

First, I prepared the marinade.

Here's the ground meat with the egg.

I then added the amount of meat needed for the recipe into the marinade and mixed it together.

Also, remember to refrigerate the cooked rice a day in advance, to ensure that your rice won't become soggy when it is cooked.


Then I heated up the pan and then added oil. When it was ready I started cooking the meat.


Keep cooking it until it's almost done, but not really.

I realize now that I might have overdone it, but the overall product turned out fine.

Put the meat in a separate bowl.

Prepare the veggies, I used cabbage and spring onions.


Cook the egg, and when the egg is almost done, add the rice. Mix.


Add the soy sauce.


and the cabbage and meat.

After I stirred in the cabbage I was worried that it wouldn't cook because it wasn't in contact with the pan. However, after a while it cooked, so don't worry if that happens to you. I am still a beginner cook though, so I doubt it will happen to other people. :)

Then, we're done! Yay! Mission accomplished.


Funny short story: This rice was for the Chinese school project right? Well, the project was cook a dish, get the recipe, and give a report on how to cook it. It ended up with half the class bringing fried rice cuz it's one of the easiest thing to make. Lol