If I Can't Do It Chinese Style, Perhaps Thai Style?

As a kid my mom always made me rice porridge (usually with pork or abalone) whenever I was sick, so in my mind rice porridge is the ultimate comfort food. In college, I was living in apartment with a kitchen and I got really sick. My mommy was too far away to make me rice porridge, so I called her and wa-wa-wa-ed to my mom that poor little me, I'm sick and my mommy is too far away to make me rice porridge....She promised that it was really easy to make, fill the pot she had given me with water + 1 handful of uncooked rice, boil and wa-la: rice porridge. That 1 little handful of rice looked so lonely....so I added another handful, but then that was too much rice so i needed a bigger pot and more water, and 4 hours and 3 pots later I  had a gigantamongous pot of partially cooked, partially uncooked rice goop that I chucked in the trash.
Yes....that was the ULTIMATE FAIL. I tried making rice porridge one other time with almost similar disastrous results. I have given up on making Chinese rice porridge.

Two weekends ago, I was sick.....and really wanted some rice porridge....and I remembered this Thai style rice porridge that a co-worker made and gave me a recipe for.....I thought well, if I cant make it Chinese style, perhaps I'll be more successful w/ the Thai style rice porridge.....boy did it turn out delicious!


Recipe:

Thai Jasmine-scented rice (other types or rice will work too. I used brown rice)
1/2 tsp salt
1-3 tbsp fish sauce
1-3 tbsp soy sauce
2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin slices
1/2 onion
1 tbsp white pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

  

1. Steam about 2-3 cups of rice in a rice cooker (or however you make rice. I use the rice cooker because it was the easiest way to do it) 
2. Make chicken broth/soup by boiling chicken bones in water (or you can just use chicken broth or if you want you can do a vegetarian style by adding a bunch of veggies to it--onions, cabbage, turnip, etc.)
3. Add the onions, and the fish sauce, soy sauce, salt, and white pepper to taste
4. Add the chicken to the broth and cook for about 15 minutes (you can marinate the chicken for about 30 min or overnight with some salt, pepper, soy, sesame oil, garlic)
5. Add the rice and bring to a simmer and let cook for about 3-5 minutes. 
6. Serve with chopped green onion, cilantro, and fried garlic on top

 Not sure why, but lately I have totally been loving adding lettuce to soupy things and letting the hot soup cook it just a little so that its still crunchy but sweeter and more flavorful than raw lettuce. So I added it to the bottom of the bowl prior to adding the rice soup.

The rice porridge soup with the fried garlic on top (I bought this fried garlic for this rice soup. man it added great flavor!)  

Thai-style rice porridge (or rice soup) was a huge success! Ive had 3 meals of it and I'm not sick of it yet! 

Keep an eye out for several more posts, and as always stay consumed! :) 

You Don't Always Have to Go It Alone

So this blog is partially because someone, Goosey of Glamour of Tragedy, says she can never try my recipes or cook things I put up cuz they always have meat in them....sooooo.....this is an all vegetarian meal.

Although I have to be honest, I cheated....just a little bit....I let Wegman's help me out...but no one said everything on here had to be made from scratch right? Just delicious :P and this it was.

 I started with a box of Wegman's Mushroom Pierogies. I put them in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, take them up and put them in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil. I also heated up some frozen mix veggies....












Doesn't it look delicious? The Pierogies were deelicious! The dough was not too thick, and perfectly flavored. I like pan frying them because it gives them a little bit of extra flavor and crunch....but you could just as well boil them and eat them like that. The filling consisted of mashed potatoes and mushrooms. The potatoes were smooth and had a fragrant mushroom taste and aroma.

The entire meal cost me about $5 AND i had enough left over for a 2nd meal (so really...the meal cost $2.5--score!) 

Goosey...go give this a try :) and here's to hoping you're all (all 6 of my subscribers...haha!) are consumed by life! 

Mix and Match!

Was originally planning on doing a Richmond road trip + Thanksgiving post....but got waaay too busy....so will put that off for a couple of days....but today i saw something really neat and couldn't resist a short post.

Ever open your fridge and go "Hmmm...I have some *insert random ingredient here* what should I do with it?"

Well, have no fear....a team of Belgian scientists working hand in hand with some chefs have harnessed the power of matching flavors and charted it at http://www.foodpairing.be/.

The website is easy to use. You can either ask "What goes well with *random ingredient* or What can replace *ingredient*?

I haven't had a chance to try any of the pairings on the website...I did do a search for what pairs well with boiled eggs and got guava as one of the options...I'm curious if that will taste any good....maybe I"ll try it out soon.

For those adventurous/experimental cooks out there....this could be an interesting tool for mixing and matching ingredients......I'd love to hear about it if you try any of the pairings!

Have fun and stay consumed!

Ribs a-la-twitter!

okingI was actually going to wait until later in the week to blog this....but since Bou from Proof I Eat and... (who has some really great/innovative/amazing recipes!) said she was craving ribs and curry I'm posting this early.

Yesterday, was my brother, Warren's birthday and every year for his birthday, I usually make him dinner. He loves ribs so I thought I would try out this Curry Ribs recipe I saw a couple of weeks ago. This recipe is actually from Eat Tweet--whose author, Maureen Evans, takes recipes and condenses them into the 140 characters allowed for each tweet. I have been wanting to try some of the recipes and this turned out GREAT!

The entire recipe reads:
Curry Ribs: mix1/4c ketchup&cocntmilk&OJ/2T peanutbuttr/T honey&hotcurrypdr&soya.Top2lb porkrib,chill>2h.Cvr2h@325℉;uncvr~h (brush occas).

I did change the recipe just verrry slightly. I added about 1tsp of sesame oil and a pinch of Asian Five Spice Powder. I also rubbed some salt and pepper on the ribs prior to adding the marinade/sauce. I was worried that since I didn't have time to let the ribs marinate as it says in the recipe, that it wouldn't taste as good--but it turned out great!




The ribs covered in the sauce, getting ready to go into the oven.

While it was cooking, it filled the house with smells of curry....man--it smelled soooo amazing. I couldnt wait to get my hands on them. The ribs were done in about ~3H.  They came out delicious! Moist and juicy and flavorful. I did keep a little of the extra marinade (of course, not the marinade I used on the raw ribs) as a dip for the rib meat. Delicious!! 

There aren't a lot of pics as this was a very easy recipe....enjoy the pics below and as always....stay consumed!! :)

In Search of Inspiration

Lately, I have been feeling very uninspired to cook, to do much of anything....so I thought maybe I need something to "jump start" my excitement. I have been meaning to actually start writing in here for a while...so...I thought....OK....today is the day. I am going to write my first post...so here it is. Enjoy and try not to drool on your keyboard :)

So I have been craving stewed tomatoes with baked eggs for a while now.....

I decided that I would go all out and get the Organic Farm Fresh Brown Eggs. Brown eggs do taste better, but they are also more expensive so i rarely buy them, but i figured since the Eggs are the "star" of this dish, might as well.

(Hello...my little pretties.....destined to be sacrificed for my baked eggs ;P)

You can start with tomatoes from scratch and stew them, but it was late and I was getting hungry, so I used the can stuff :O I started with 2 cans of stewed tomatoes (the basil, garlic, oregano ones). 

I also wanted to use chorizo, but the market didnt have it, so I used a spicy andouille. I sliced it super thin and then pan fried them in a little tiny bit of olive oil . 

Now, on to the assembly. Pour the stewed tomatoes and sausages into your baking dish. The dish should be thick enough that you can "bury" your eggs in the sauce (like I've done here). {Don't ask me why its in this disposable metal pan >:{ the pan I was originally going to use is MISSING, but thats another story...grrrrr} Anyways, once you have poured the tomatoes in the pan, crack the eggs one at a time into a bowl/dish and using a large spoon dig a hole in the stewed tomatoes and pour in the egg. Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes then broil for about 4 minutes

I couldn't resist! Had to peek in the oven ;P












Done.....mmmm...doesn't this look delicious??

 Added a little bit of parmesan.








This turned out sooooo delicious :) I had 2 of the eggs for dinner, with a couple of pieces of crusty bread. I'm glad I pushed myself to go do the grocery shopping and cook this. My goal is to try and do at least 1 post a week--lets see how it goes! Stayed consumed! :)