Baby Bok Choy and Gai Lan stir fry

Got some goodies from my local favorite Asian market. Baby Bok Choy and Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli)

I purchased other items that I never tasted before, like Fish Sauce. I made a pork stir fry with it.
I honestly did not like the way fish sauce smells, it was off putting.
Other than the smell, the fish sauce gave the pork stir fry a nice flavor to it. The smell blends in with the rest of the ingredients and its barely noticeable. So if you decide to try it out, do not let the fish sauce smell intimidate you. Note: A little goes a long way, it's salty.

I began by sautéing the baby Bok Choy in a hot pan with a bit of coconut oil, added garlic, then removed the bok choy and set aside. I sautéed the pork, added chili oil, a few drops of fish sauce and then added back the baby Bok Choy and stir fried it until the pork was thoroughly cooked.
The dish was quite tasty, hot and a bit spicy.

This dish is vietnamese :)

I made the same recipe with the Gai Lan except I substituted the fish sauce with oyster sauce.
Gai Lan tastes to me like broccoli and asparagus, slightly bitter.

Both of these dishes are delicious, you can make the stir fry with chicken or thinly sliced steak.
You can also just steam the baby Bok Choy separately instead of stir frying it. Then once steamed incorporate it with the stir fry.

Try something new, explore different ingredients from other countries.
Get out of your comfort zone.
I love and enjoy doing that.
I feel like I traveled to the place the dish comes from and back!
So make new dish if you get bored of cooking the same old thing in your kitchen.

It's quite tasty and fun!

Enjoy!!

Dulce de Lechoza, Candied Papaya

My mother always made this around Christmas time and it is associated with that time of year in Puerto Rico.
The scent takes me back to that time. I used to watch my mother make it. She loved this stuff so much and so did I.
I found the recipe in her old cook book but it didn't have the ingredients she used to add, like cloves and cinnamon and brown sugar. So this version is my mothers version. I hope you all enjoy this sweet delicacy as much as my mom did.
This is the first time I ever attempt making this. I never made it around Christmas cuz I couldn't find green papayas but I found some now! So here you go :D

Ingredients

2 lbs sliced Green Papaya (remove the seeds)
2 liters of water
1 cup sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tsp cloves
1 dash of salt
1 tsp of vanilla
Add all the ingredients into a large pot, simmer on medium high heat covered for 30 minutes, then cook on low heat for 1 hour to 2 or until the papaya is very tender and the water is reduced to a thick sugary consistency. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle a dash of salt, add vanilla. Use a candy thermometer it should read 222 degrees.
Let cool, store it inside a mason jar, or air tight container.

Refrigerate.
Tastes delicious cold!
Enjoy!!!

Paleo diet dish with Salmon

Going full force with CrossFit and the Paleo Diet

Salmon with coconut cream sauce and sautéed green beans

I found the recipe on another site about Paleo diet. I wanted to make a different dish that has similar ingredients so I combined some of them into this one. The other recipe I'm talking about is called Parrot Fish in Calypso sauce and the recipe has peppers and thyme so that's what I added into this one. Just tweaked it a bit into a slightly different version and different cooking process like pan frying instead of baking the fish. I just love to hear the pan sizzle! So that's why I skipped baking.

Ingredients

1 lb salmon fillet
1/4 sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp coconut oil
1 large shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 Tbs basil
3 small red orange and yellow sweet peppers, chopped or sliced
A few sprigs of fresh Thyme
2 cups of fresh raw green beans

Season both sides of the Salmon with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add some coconut oil. Sear the Salmon on each side, skin side down first, pan fry until desired doneness, or until salmon has reached desired temperature.

Coconut cream sauce:

Heat a pan, add coconut oil, garlic and shallots, peppers. Sauté until garlic and shallots soften, about 3-5 minutes.
Add some lemon zest, basil, salt to taste, coconut milk, and bring liquid to a low boil, add thyme. Reduce the sauce until is a slightly thick consistency. Remove the thyme.

Green Beans

Sauté the green beans on the same pan where you pan fried the salmon. Drizzle some olive oil, salt and pepper.

I like my green beans to have crunch so I only sauté them for a little while( you can cook them longer if you like)

Serve green beans and place the salmon on top of the green beans. Top with the coconut cream sauce.

Enjoy!

My adventurous appetite

I was sick all week and St. Patrick's day weekend. I wanted to cook something that had a bit of Irish in it. Guinness beer was sold out at my local supermarket so I used Malta instead. I will though make it with the actual beer in the future.
I didn't have to struggle to adjust any bitterness from a stout beer, since the Malta was sweet already I only tweaked and adjusted the saltiness of the broth. Just a little it's still came out slightly sweet. I really enjoyed this stew, even though I'm still a little under the weather. My kids enjoyed it too :)

I substituted just some of the ingredients. Not a big change from the original recipe I saw on YouTube(where I see most of the recipes that make me cook).

Maple Bacon 1/2 pack cut into small pieces
2 cups Malta (India or Goya)
2 cups of chicken broth
3lbs Beef cut into cubes
2 cups of carrots
1 large onion diced
Thyme
Two Tblsp Tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine it all in a large pot and stew!!

Ha ha ha just kidding. I got a migraine and do not feel like typing. Just follow the recipe and my crazy rushed steps. Trust me.

Start by frying the bacon. The aroma of the maple bacon its so delicious! Oh my gosh! you can seduce me with it! Remove the bacon the fat and put in a large pot. Render the fat. Put the beef cubes and brown them on the bacon fat. Remove the beef and put in the pot with the bacon. On the same bacon grease put the onions and sweat them until slightly caramelized, then pour the malt.
Stir it around (the onions and bacon fat with the malt) pour it over the beef in the large pot. Add tomato paste, chicken stock, add the thyme and carrots. No need to make a roux, the sauce will thicken on its own! Mmmhmm.
Cook on a low simmer for two hours. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!!

Super Bowl Guacamole

I Love my Guacamole!

Ingredients:

3 ripe small avocado, peel and cut into small pieces
1 tblsp chopped small red pearl onion
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tblsp minced fresh cilantro leaves
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 Tblsp Sour cream
1/8 teaspoon salt

A sprinkling of Black pepper to taste

Cilantro leaves and Red pepper flakes for topping

Mash up the avocado with the back of a fork and combine the chopped ingredients, black pepper, salt, lime juice, and sour cream.
Salt and pepper to taste!!

Refrigerate for 30 minutes, serve cold with chips!

Enjoy :)!!

Takoyaki

I love seafood but this time around not so much. See I had to chop up raw octopus and it just messed up my appetite. It also had ginger among the ingredients, didn't like the flavor of the pickled ginger. I pretty much lost the urge to cook and got very discouraged. I'll be making this recipe just this once unless I like the sauce next time I make them.
Anyways I gathered my strength to finish the recipe which was incomplete because I didn't have the sauce (Takoyaki sauce) nor the ingredients for it. But I had all the ingredients for the Takoyaki.

I didn't quite like this recipe, turned out too salty not sure what caused it but it was probably to much bonito flakes. Only my oldest liked the recipe and my lil one was scared of the lil octopus tentacles.

Tako- means octopus in Japanese
Yaki- means deep fried, I don't understand cuz they're not deep fried lol
Takoyaki is a popular street food in Japan.

Here's the recipe:

Takoyaki

Batter:
Takoyaki flour 7oz
1 1/2 cup water 3 cups- batter will be a milky consistency
2 eggs

Topping:
Takoyaki sauce
Japanese mayonnaise
Seaweed flakes

Filling:
Pickled ginger-lots of flavor add lil bits!
Spring onion (chopped)
Bonito flakes-lil pinches its salty!
Chop sticks for turning the Takoyaki
Octopus chopped( raw or cooked)Cooked!
Shrimp cooked or chopped sausages if you don't like seafood


Takoyaki Dutch oven ( Cake pop maker is perfect and it's what I used but heat didn't distribute evenly, so watch out for temperature, mine was probably defective)

Mix the ingredients for the batter. It will be milky. add the water a little at a time for no lumps. Preheat the Takoyaki maker. Grease the holes individually and all over the pan.
Pour the batter in the holes careful not to overfill then add the chopped ingredients in lil bits and pinches at a time. Pay attention not to burn them and in about 3 minutes start to turn them with the chopsticks. They should be done in about 6 minutes depending on how hot the pan gets.

You can purchase most of the ingredients at an Asian market. I couldn't find the sauce but here's us the recipe for it.

Takoyaki Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup catsup
1/2 cup worchershire
1/2 cup sake
2 tablespoons ginger
2 tablespoons garlic
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup mirin
Mix these ingredients and top the Takoyaki balls with the mayonnaise, sauce and seaweed flakes

On my picture I have a bottle of Oyster sauce but do not, I repeat DO NOT use it for topping. I found out the hard way it didn't taste good with the Takoyaki.

Serve hot!

Check out this video on YouTube: copy paste sorry got lazy :)

Turning the Takoyaki

http://youtu.be/p1LBYei0mbo


Enjoy!

P.S. I'm thinking of different recipes to make in the cake pop machine so stay tuned, they will be sweet treats!!!!!!

Juicing and Raw food

Just try it it's good for you!!!