Beef Bourguignon

It has been freezing in Los Angeles lately. Hard to believe that we got hit with so much rain, a hail storm, and snow! Fortunately, the sun has started to show this week but the air is still quite cold. It has been hard to get out of my apartment and out of my sweat pants. I got my fireplace on and I just want to curl up on my couch underneath a big blanket. This is the time for comfort food and Beef Bourguignon is on my menu. It gives me all the cozy feels. I got leftovers. No need to leave my apartment for the next few days.

Ingredients:

·      1 lb beef stew meat

·      3 slices of bacon, diced

·      2 carrots

·      1 sweet yellow onion, diced

·      12 oz mushrooms, cremini + shiitake (or all cremini or white button mushrooms), halved or thick slices

·      10 pearl onions, trimmed and peeled

·      4 cloves of garlic, 2 minced and 2 crushed

·      1½ Tbsp flour

·      2 tsp tomato paste

·      4 sprigs of fresh thyme

·      1 bay leaf

·      2 Cups of wine

·      1 Cup of beef broth

·      salt + pepper

·      1 Tbsp butter

·      vegetable oil

·      parsley, chopped

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.    Pat beef stew meat dry. Season generously with salt and pepper.

3.    Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat on the stovetop. Add diced bacon and cook until crisp. Remove bacon and set aside.

4.    Pan sear the sides of the beef stew meat in the bacon fat. Remove beef and set aside.

5.    In the same Dutch oven, add onions and brown. Add carrots and garlic. Cook for a minute. If the pan gets dry, add a couple tablespoons of water.

6.    Add tomato paste and flour and mix thoroughly. Toss in bay leaf and thyme.

7.    Pour in wine and let reduce for a couple minutes, turning heat down as liquid starts to bubble.

8.    Add beef broth and stir.

9.    Carefully place the beef and bacon back into the pan, making sure that the meat is fully submerged in the liquid. Cover and place in the oven. Cook for 2 hours.

10. Meanwhile, heat a medium frying pan with vegetable oil. Add pearl onions and brown.

11. Toss in the mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt. When the mushrooms begin to shrink, add a tbsp of butter. Stir and allow the mushrooms to slightly brown.

12. When the beef bourguignon has finished cooking, add the pearl onions and mushrooms to the Dutch oven. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or noodles.

Hot & Sour Soup

Whenever I return from a trip, all I want is a hot bowl of soup. As you may know from following my Instagram account, I love all types of soup. One that I started making more regularly recently is the Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. It’s so flavorful. There’s something about the sourness, saltiness, and the spice that just hits the spot. I love the crunchy textures of the bamboo and water chestnuts as well as the softness of the tofu and egg ribbons. So yummy. It tastes so much better when you make it at home yourself. Restaurants sometimes overdo it on the cornstarch, soy sauce, or spice. I don’t use cornstarch in my recipe at all because I generally prefer thin, brothier soups. You may add cornstarch if you like a thicker texture. If you’re a soup lover, try my recipe!

Hot and Sour Soup (serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

·       32 oz low sodium chicken broth

·      1 quart & 1 cup of water

·       15 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrate in bowl of hot water for 30 minutes, thinly sliced

·       1 small 8 oz can of bamboo shoots

·       6 oz tofu, cubed

·       3 eggs, lightly whisked

·       1 small can of water chestnuts, sliced (optional)

·       1 clove of garlic, mashed

·       1 nubbin of ginger

·       4½ tbsp soy sauce

·       6 tbsp vinegar

·       ½ - 1 tsp chili flakes

·       2 tsp sesame oil 

·       ½ tsp black pepper

·       ½-¾ tsp salt

·      ¾ cup of scallions diced

Directions: Bring the broth with water to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes with ginger and garlic. Add tofu, bamboo, rehydrated sliced shiitake mushrooms, and water chestnuts. If there is not enough broth, add more water. Cook for 15 minutes. Season the soup with soy sauce, vinegar, chili flakes, sesame oil, black pepper, and salt. Cook for another 15 minutes. Create egg ribbons by slowly pouring in the whisked eggs into the pot. Stir the eggs in the pot of soup with a fork or chopstick. Toss in half of the scallions and then continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Top with additional fresh scallions when serving.

Rotisserie Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chicken soup is always good for the soul but especially during a cold winter night. I might be part of the minority who loves soup all year round though. Recently, I made chicken soup using a rotisserie chicken. Store bought rotisserie chickens are amazing. They are inexpensive, delicious, and usually around $7.99 and can last several meals. The only downfall for me is that I don’t really love white meat and I don’t want to eat chicken for more than a couple meals in a row. So I decided to save the dark meat to eat on its own and use the rest of the chicken to flavor a pot of chicken soup. I’ve never tried making soup this way before but was recently inspired by another food blogger. Typically, I make soup from scratch with raw chicken but this method was a lot easier and was still flavorful. It tastes even better the next day and it’s still delicious as leftovers after being frozen.

Rotisserie Chicken Soup (serve about 6-8)

Ingredients:

1 whole Rotisserie Chicken (store bought)

4-5 celery stalks, trimmed and sliced

3 whole carrots, peeled and sliced

1 small sweet yellow onion, diced

1 medium sized white potato or 2 small ones, peeled and cubed

1-2 cobs of corn (shaved) or 1 can of roasted or regular whole kernal corn (fresh is better and sweeter though)

2 cloves of garlic, mashed

1 chunk of ginger, peeled

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

2½ tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

dash of sugar (optional)

3½ quarts of water

Directions: First, I remove the dark meat from the rotisserie chicken. I love to eat dark meat with rice, soy sauce, chili, and cucumbers. I separate the dark meat from the bones, save the dark meat in Tupperware to be eaten later, and set the bones aside. Then I remove the white meat from the bones and break it up into shreds with my hands and set it aside, keeping all the bones. I usually use about 1½ cup to 2 cups of shredded white chicken meat in the soup and the rest I save to use in my salad.

In a 8-quart pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and lightly brown. Place all the bones from your rotisserie chicken (including some skin and wings, for more depth and flavor) into the pot and pour in 3 quarts of water. Make sure bones are mostly submerged. Toss in carrots along with bay leaf, ginger, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and a dash of sugar. I personally prefer to cut up 1 carrot into big chunks to use at the beginning and cut 2 carrots into thinner slices to be added in later. Because of the thickness of the carrot chunks, it can withstand being cooked longer while sweetening the soup early on. The thinner slices are added in later so it won’t be overcooked and mushy but will be better for the aesthetic and for eating, in my opinion. Simmer for 45 minutes on medium to medium low heat, covered with lid slightly ajar.

Remove ginger and discard. Add celery, potatoes and corn to the pot. At this time, you can also add in the thinner slices of carrots. Toss in shredded chicken. Pour in 2 cups of water. Simmer for 45 more minutes with lid slightly ajar.

Taste broth. Add more salt, if necessary, and cook for a few more minutes. Remove all of the bones with tongs and discard.

Enjoy!

Russian Cabbage Soup

I love a good hearty soup. It is my absolute favorite thing to eat. It’s always so comforting and soothing. But I never thought a cabbage soup would be so delicious until I had Russian Cabbage soup for the first time when I lived in Hong Kong. It might sound strange to discover Russian Soup in Hong Kong (or maybe it doesn’t sound strange because Hong Kong is closer to Russia) but that is where I first tried it. From a can too. And made by Campbells. Ever since then, I’d look for the cabbage soup on menus in restaurants all over Los Angeles, but it’s not an easy soup to find.

Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve been trying new recipes with all the time we have in quartantine. After 8 years since I returned to the U.S. from Hong Kong, I finally made Russian Cabbage Soup for the first time! It was pretty good but not perfect. I might have to make tweaks next time. Or maybe I just need to make it again without all the pressure of making it perfect the first time. In the middle of cooking and tasting and eating, it’s sometimes hard to tell. Sometimes I need to have a little distance from my cooking to know if it’s good enough or not. Anyway, this is the perfect soup for winter especially now that it’s starting to get cold. Hope you like it!

Russian Cabbage Soup (serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

·       1-1½ stewed beef cubes or sirloin steak cut up into large chunks

·       1 head of cabbage, roughly chopped

·       1 sweet yellow onion, diced

·       2 carrots, diced

·       2 celery sticks, diced

·       2 cans of beef broth

·       1 large can of San Marzano tomatoes

·       1 can of tomato sauce

·       ¼ cup of vinegar

·       ¾ - 1 cup of water

·       ½ - 1 tsp salt

·       ¼ tsp black pepper

·       3½ tbsp sugar

·       parsley, chopped (optional for garnishing)

Directions:

In a large pot over medium high heat, sauté onions until brown.  Add carrots and celery.  Cook for a few minutes.

Lower heat to medium.  Add beef and cabbage.  Sprinkle in salt and pepper.  Pour in beef broth, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Cover pot with lid, leaving a little room for steam to be released.  Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Once the mixture starts to bubble up, lower heat to medium low.

Add vinegar and sugar.  Stir soup and cook for another 30 minutes.  Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

Chinese Egg Drop Soup

This week I was craving soup. I’m always craving soup though. But I didn’t want to make anything complicated. Perfect solution: Chinese Egg Drop Soup. Requires very few ingredients—chicken broth, eggs, scallions, and ginger, and a few seasonings. If you have homemade chicken broth even better. I chose to add a few shiitake mushrooms and corn because I like a little variety in my soup, but it’s not necessary. This soup is all about the eggs anyways. It’s clear and soothing. It’s supposed to be a very quick soup to make, but I tend to cook it longer than most recipes because I prefer a stronger ginger flavor. However, 45 minutes for soup is still fairly quick. Even though I freeze almost everything, I wouldn’t recommend freezing this soup only because cooked egg doesn’t freeze that well. If you want though, you can freeze the cooked broth without the egg and add the egg when you’re ready to eat it. Hope you like the soup! Let me know what you think!

EGG DROP SOUP (makes about 6 small bowls)

Ingredients:

• 4 Cups of chicken broth

• 2 cups of water (1 hot, mixed with cornstarch)

• 1 tbsp cornstarch or flour

• 1 chunk of ginger, peeled

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 4 eggs

• 1 cup of canned kernal corn (optional)

• 4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, destemmed and thinly sliced (optional) 

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

• 1/2 cup of chopped scallions

• optional toppings: fresh ground black pepper, chili oil, or fried garlic

Directions:

Bring chicken stock with 1 cup of water to a simmer with ginger. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and pepper.  Cook for 30 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of hot water mixed with cornstarch or flour. Add mushrooms and corn. Cook for another 15 min. Pour in beaten eggs and slowly stir in one direction using a fork or chopstick. Allow eggs to cook for a minute or two. Add scallions and serve. You can also top your bowl of soup with fresh ground black pepper, chili oil, or fried garlic.

Creamy Wild Mushrooms & Asparagus Spaghetti

I know you’re not supposed to be going to the grocery store often or even at all during this pandemic, but I can’t help it. It’s my one simple pleasure during the lockdown and I need it for my mental health. I don’t like grocery delivery apps and I just find it challenging to buy groceries for 2 weeks. How do you know what you want to eat for 2 weeks? Plus, fresh produce doesn’t last that long and you can’t find everything at one store. I know that I’m fortunate to have the luxury of having food to eat (and getting to choose what I want to eat) and the health (and money) to buy my own groceries and for that, I am truly grateful. I take precaution when going to the grocery store. I get my walk in and I wear gloves and a mask.

I’ve been cooking almost every single meal and I had been getting kind of tired of it. This past weekend, I indulged and ordered delivery TWICE. Indonesian noodles with fried morning glory and Lebanese shrimp with rice and tabbouleh, in case you’re wondering. It was so nice to take a break from cooking and washing dishes. As you all may know, I have a tiny kitchen and I don’t have a dishwasher or a microwave. And somehow, I create so many dirty dishes throughout the course of the day at home. How does this happen?!

I decided to try a new dish this week. Normally, I’m a tomato sauce type of pasta girl. I often make a bolognese sauce or a light tomato sauce with shrimp or clams (ohhh, I need to to post that recipe). But I don’t ever make a creamy sauce. It’s just not my thing. I don’t usually order creamy pastas at restaurants. Anyway, I love mushrooms and wanted to do something with a mixture of mushrooms but also with a little green so I came up with this Creamy Wild Mushrooms & Asparagus Spaghetti recipe. I used four different types of mushrooms—maitake, cremini, shiitake, and oyster—but you don’t have to use that many. I did use butter but I skipped the cream and opted for coconut milk. You could probably skip the butter and the parmesan, and make this vegetarian dish entirely vegan if you want. And if you really want meat, I think this dish would taste great with chicken or even better, pancetta or bacon bits. Adding this new recipe to my rotation and sharing it with you below!

CREAMY WILD MUSHROOMS & ASPARAGUS (Makes about 3 servings)

Ingredients:

• spaghetti

• 12 oz of mixed sliced mushrooms (maitake, cremini, shiitake, oyster)

• 8-10 asparagus spears, thinly and diagonally sliced

• 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced

• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

• EVOO

• 2 tbsp butter (optional)

• 1/2 lemon

• 1/2 cup of white wine

• 1/2 cup of coconut milk

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1/4 cup of Parmesan, plus more for serving (optional)

• parsley, chopped for garnishing

• 1/4 cup of pasta water

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and slightly undercook the spaghetti and then set aside. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan w olive oil. Sauté onions until lightly brown. Throw in sliced garlic and lightly toast. Pour in mixed mushrooms and let them cook down for a minute. Sprinkle w salt and pepper. Add butter and stir. Let it melt into the mushrooms. Pour in white wine and let it simmer for a bit. Throw in asparagus. Stir in coconut milk and let it cook for a couple minutes. Lower heat. Using tongs, transfer cooked spaghetti into the frying pan. Add pasta water and mix pasta thoroughly into the sauce. Add parmesan and lemon juice . Top w more salt and pepper and toss again. The sauce may seem a little liquidy at first but it will thicken as it cools down. If you want it thicker, you can add more parmesan and maybe a little more coconut milk. If your sauce is too thick, add more pasta water. And that’s it! Upon serving, sprinkle w chopped parsley, a little EVOO, more parmesan, more salt + pepper, or more lemon juice—whichever flavor you fancy most!

Creamy Turmeric Chicken Soup

I love soup. Especially, a good chicken soup. I mean, who doesn’t? Chicken soup is the best comfort food and a cure-all for all illnesses. There are 2 types of chicken soup that I particularly love: Colombian Ajiaco soup and Indonesian Soto Ayam soup. Both are delicious and have ingredients that I enjoy so I created a recipe that combines the distinct flavors from both of these soups. It’s creamy and soothing with a touch of citrus. I like to serve the soup with rice but you can add broken spaghetti pasta to this soup to convert it into a chicken noodle soup. Try my recipe and let me know what you think!

Ingredients: (serves 6-8)

·      1 tbsp olive oil

·      1 tbsp turmeric

·      1 tsp cumin

·      2-2½ tsp salt

·      1 tsp ground black pepper

·      1 cup of coconut milk

·      3 cloves of garlic, smashed

·      4 tbsp fish sauce

·      1 oz chunks of ginger, peeled

·      2 stalks of lemongrass, cut into 3-inch sections

·      5 kaffir lime leaves, torn

·      4 chicken drums or 3 chicken thighs

·      ½ sweet yellow onion, diced

·      1½ cups of chopped carrots

·      1½ cups of chopped celery

·      2 cups of cubed white potatoes, skin peeled

·      2½-3 ears of corn, cut into 4-6 chunks each

·      2 cups of diced cilantro

·      2 limes, cut into wedges

·      3 quarts of water

Directions:

In a large 6-7 quart stock pot over medium high heat, add olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic until they have lightly browned. Add 2 quarts of water, chicken, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, 3 tbsp fish sauce, pepper, salt, and carrots. Cover pot with lid slightly ajar. Cook for 45 minutes, removing any fat and foam build up at the surface of the broth. You may have to lower heat to medium once the broth starts to boil.

Remove chicken. Meat should be fully cooked. Pull meat off the bones and shred into smaller pieces with a fork. Return bones to pot and set shredded chicken aside. Add celery, potatoes, coconut milk, remaining 1 tbsp of fish sauce, turmeric, cumin, and 1 quart of water. Cook for another 15 minutes, continuing to remove any fat and foam build up at the top.

Add corn. Cook for another 15 minutes.

Return shredded chicken to soup. Sprinkle in some cilantro, serve with a wedge of lime. The fresh citrus juice really enhances the flavor of the soup. Optional: eat with rice.

Lazy Comfort Food

What is your go-to dish when you don't really feel like cooking or grocery shopping?  After my week-long Thanksgiving break, I returned to LA feeling a little...hmm...how do I say... LAZY? 

Fortunately, I had a few things in my pantry and fridge that I could easily put together.  I always have frozen shrimp from Trader Joe's in my freezer.  I also had lime, garlic, and spaghetti noodles.  This week I decided to use those ingredients to make garlic shrimp with spaghetti noodles.  All I did was heat up olive oil in a pan with thinly sliced garlic and chili flakes.  Once the olive oil started to sizzle, I added the shrimp, salt, pepper, butter, and some lime juice (normally, I would use lemon but I already had lime in my fridge).  Then I ate it with spaghetti noodles to scoop up all of the garlic sauce.  Sometimes as an alternative to pasta, I make this same dish but serve it over quinoa.  If I had tomatoes on hand, I would also add a few small diced tomatoes into the pan as well.  Easy and delicious!

Another dish that I made this week was the simple Italian dish Cacio e Pepe.  The only thing I needed to pick up from the store was cheese.  All this dish requires is salt, pepper, grated parmesan and pecorino cheese, butter, olive oil, and spaghetti.  Pretty simple, right? 

Of course, if I really had nothing in my fridge and I was feeling super lazy, I would probably resort to eating a Cup of Noodles (which I always have on hand because you never know when you might be starving, especially late at night) or rice with a fried/boiled egg and soy sauce.  Don't judge.  What is your go-to lazy dish?

Cacio e Pepe