Carnitas

Pork Carnitas w/diced onions and chopped cilantro

At work when there is a party we will usually hire a taco man who will show up for about 3 hours serving some DELICIOUS: carne asada, carnitas, and chicken tacos.  The tacos are so yummy *drool.  So like everything else I have tried and loved or find that's too expensive to pay for I make an attempt to replicate it.  This time I decided that I wanted to make carnitas.  Carnitas is like a mexican version of a pulled pork.  After spending 2 days searching on the internet for a good carnita recipe that I liked I decided to make an attempt.  I tried following the directions I found online, but the only problem when it came down to making it was that after reading so many recipes I took a little from here and a little from there.  So therefore, I usually remember the list of ingredients and add as much as I see necessary.
 Ingredients:
4 pound of pork butt, which is really a pigs shoulder, trim the fat
3 tbs seasoned salt
2 tbs dried cumin
1 tbs black pepper
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
5 cloves of minced garlic
1 brown onion diced
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 6oz cans of salsa verde

Directions:
1. Wash and trim the excess fat off the pork then cut into cubes.
2. Season the pork for the seasoned salt, cumin, black pepper and brown in a skillet.
3. Remove the pork and place it in a crockpot.
4. Add the chicken stock, garlic, onion and salsa verde in the skillet along with all the burnt bits.
5. Pour all the sauce from the skillet in into the crockpot and set it on high for 3 hours.
6. After 3 hours remove the pork from the crockpot and by this point you should be able to easily shred the pork chunks with 2 forks.
7. Place the shredded pork into a casserole dish and pour about 2 1/2 cups of the sauce from the crockpot into the casserole dish.
8. Place the dish under the broiler for about 25 minutes or until the sauce has been absorbed.  If the meat starts to brown too fast then mix it a little.  I like the brown crispy parts so I left it a little longer.

I decided to serve the tacos on warm corn tortillas topped with fresh diced white onions and fresh chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lemon.  I would have used lime, but I only have a lemon tree ^_^

The carnitas turned out to be a big hit with my family.  I think everyone gobbled down a minimum of 3 tacos each!  Some are way more than that.  We were even thinking about hiring a taco man for my niece's birthday party, but I think that I can handle it now =)

On a Hot Summer Day

Lemonade

On hot summer days there is nothing more refreshing than a cup of ice cold lemonade.  The kids were first introduced to slush like lemonade when we went to Disneyland and we use to go every summer because my younger cousin loved and was a bit on the obsessive side of anything Disney.  Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy, you name it she either had it or wanted it.  Since we went during the summer the weather would be ridiculously hot at times and the best way to quench our thirst was to buy lemonade, but it wasn't cheap so of course I made it a goal to replicate its flavor and texture.  So here you go my version of a slush lemonade.


Ingredients:
(I always adjust the amount of lemon and sugar just because there are days I prefer my lemonade more sour and the kids prefer it more sweet)
2 lemons, freshly juiced
2 cups of crushed ice
3 tbs of sugar, more or less 
1 1/2 cup of cold water


Combine all the ingredients a blender or magic bullet and ta da you have slush like lemonade! So refreshing, cold and it'll definitely quench your thirst  =) 


I will post a soju recipe for the adults out there *wink wink

Saturday Mornings

I can definitely say that there is a definite routine to my Saturday mornings, kinda like the way we wake up Monday through Friday for work.  On any given Saturday you can find me....in the kitchen.  I will usually wake up, wash my face, brush my teeth then spend the next hour making breakfast.  Growing up in an Asian household our parents would normally make porridge (you all know what I'm talking about) to eat with maybe eggs, preserved vegetables or something salty.  Anyhow, my nieces and nephew aren't too keen on eating porridge.  So I usually make breakfast before they get up.  The spread usually goes a little like this: bacon or sausage, hash brown, eggs of some sort and waffles or pancakes.  I'm not sure if I actually enjoy making breakfast or I enjoy the fact that my family appreciates it.  I went out on a limb this weekend and made belgian waffles and a quiche.  Surprisingly it came out pretty good.

Belgian Waffle

Japchae

So I'm steering away from sweets in this post but I think that you'll like it (crossing fingers).  So for Memorial Day my family had a small barbecue.  We made galbi (korean short ribs), potato salad, thai chicken satay with peanut sauce, garden salad and japchae.  Some of you are probably thinking, "what the heck is japchae"?  Japchae is a Korean noodle dish.  The noodle looks like glass noodles, but it is actually a sweet potato starch noodle prepared with lots of vegetables.  I recently learned how to make this, so like everything else I am new to I make it a lot.  Luckily the family loves it!

Ingredients:
1 carrot, cut up to match sticks
1 small onion, sliced
1 package of button mushrooms, sliced
2 green scallions cut into 1" pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch spinach, blanched
1 package of potato starch noodles
1 tbs roasted sesame seeds
Sauce:
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs sesame oil
Dash of fresh ground black pepper
(Give or take, just season it the way you like)

Directions:
1. Stir fry the carrots and onions in a little sesame oil and a dash of salt.
2. Do the same with the mushroom and scallion, then spinach, garlic and sesame seeds.
3. Boil the noodles in a pot of water for exactly 8 minutes and no more, just 8 minutes.
5. Put all the ingredients for the sauce together in a separate pot, cook until sugar is dissolved.
4. Rinse the noodles in cold water then and drain.
5. Mix the vegetables, noodles and sauce all together over the stove until heated through,  then enjoy!

Macaron Recipe

Piped Macarons

I think the key to successful macarons is to prep everything ahead of time.  I usually have a mental check off list and it goes a little something like this:


Preheat the over to 310 degrees.  Measure out all my ingredients:
3/4 cup almond meal
2 large egg whites, aged
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup fine sugar


Prepare my piping bag.  Line my 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Have my food gel ready at hand.  Make sure that all my bowls and mixer are free of any oil residue, trust me this is necessary ( boil your beaters in water if you have to).  Separate my egg whites the night before.


Directions. 
1. Sift almond meal and powdered sugar.
2. Beat egg whites until stiff while gradually adding fine sugar.
3. Gently fold the mixture into the egg whites 1/3 at a time.  Add any color food gel at this point.  I usually use Americolor or Wilton.  
*Do not mix, beat, stir or whatever else that does not mean fold because they will not have feet.
4. Fill the piping bags with the mixture, it'll seem a little thick but it's okay.
5. Try to pipe dollar coin size circles as identical as possible.
6. Bake for 16 minutes give or take a minute or two.
(I usually don't wait for a "skin" to form and it still turns out good.)


Once the shells are done, you should be able to slide it right off the parchment paper easily.  Allow the shells to cool then it's time to pair them up add a filling of your choice.  Fill it with pretty much anything you want.  Caramel, preserves, nutella, ganache, cream cheese, custard, buttercream, anything I tell you.  So get creative!  Oh yeah store them in an air tight container for 2 days in the fridge before you eat them or give them away because then you'll get the right texture.  Crunchy and chewy all in one bite...If it doesn't turn out the way you want it to please don't give up because once you get it right, it'll all seem so easy, easy I tell you.  Let me know how it goes!  Good Luck ^_^

Macarons Galore

French macarons, not macaroons.  Not the cookies with coconut shavings, but the ones with the filling.  When I first discovered that people  were willing to pay $2 for a cookie the size of an Oreo I was like huh?  What made this cookie so special?  I could see that aesthetically it was beautiful and such an adorable treat to have, but I continued to question what made this cookie so special still?  So one day while I was at Santa Monica, I saw a place that sold macarons so I HAD to try one.  I ended up buying a dozen just because they were so pretty and I wanted one in every color and flavor they had to offer.  So like any other treats or dessert that I have tried I had to look up the recipe and make it.  I think like bread I failed the first dozen times or so, but hating to waste egg whites and especially almond meal I gave up...for awhile.  After much research and reading all the blogs that offered tips and recipes I made another attempt and tada I had feet!  Anyone who has made macarons knows what I am talking about when I said that I had feet.  Long story short from that point on I was able to make macarons with feet every single time =) I eventually learned to make caramel to fill my macarons.  I have filled them with:

• Caramel
• Salted Caramel
• Raspberry Preserves
• Green Tea Ganache
• Chocolate Ganache

I now know why it is so expensive and truth be told it is because of the almond meal.  I have resorted to even blanching my own almonds,  manually removing the skin and then grinding it; even then it is still kinda expensive.  However, even with that said there is no stopping me from making them.  Now I just gotta find someone to eat them! 

Until next time!

Cake Pops!

My very first attempt at editing pictures =)

I still have a long way to go and lots to learn.