Savory Cambodian Crepe

For as long as I can remember, I have had chronic allergies and difficulty breathing. As a child, I got sick often. As an adult, I still get sick often. Doctors could never identify the problem. I didn't have asthma. Allergy shots didn’t help. It wasn't a severe issue, just uncomfortable and inconvenient. 

When I was 9 years old, my mother, my sisters, and I ran away from my abusive father. We left California and found ourselves in a tiny studio apartment in the suburbs of Boston. We made ourselves a home with hand me down furniture. I shared a full size bed with my mother, while my 2 sisters slept together in the bed next to us. Every time we ran away from my father and moved into a new place, I had issues breathing. My nose often bled. The air was always too dry.  It was never quite right.

One night, I woke up complaining to my mother that I couldn't sleep because I couldn’t breathe. I may have also been sick. My mother led me out of bed and into the kitchen. I immediately resorted to what always soothed me when I couldn't breathe; I climbed onto a stool, stuck my head out of the kitchen window in the middle of a Boston winter. I distracted myself by watching my breath form clouds in the air as the snowflakes gently caressed my face. The cold air calmed me. 

As my head hung out of our kitchen window, my mother pulled out leftover banh chao from dinner earlier that night. She assembled two plates of the savory crepe, mixed it with fresh vegetables and herbs, and smothered it with sweet Cambodian fish sauce. She summoned me over to our dining table. Together we sat in silence, side by side, eating banh chao with our hands. Both of my sisters slept soundly in the open room next to us. 

My mother and I didn't speak. We just ate. In that dimly lit dining room, surrounded by darkness. In the middle of a cold, winter night. In that small studio apartment. Away from my father. And finally, I could breathe again.️

Breakfast Egg Muffins

I just started a new job...after my 6.5 month hiatus and it definitely is an adjustment!  It's hard to balance work with my LA women's social club, my cookbook, hanging out with my friends, and trying to fit in ME-time in between all of that.  I'm also the type of girl that needs to eat often and if I don't have food packed and ready to go, I end up skipping meals, forgetting to eat, or rushing to pick up whatever sub-par food is nearby.  

Last week, I prepared for the work week by making egg muffins for breakfast.  I sort of just threw a bunch of things I already had in my fridge together and it worked out quite nicely!  I used onions, scallions, mushrooms, and Chinese sausage in my egg muffin.  It was easy to pack for breakfast at work and it was a lot more filling than your usual yogurt or granola.  I also made fried cauliflower pineapple rice with the rest of the Chinese sausage to bring for lunch, but that only lasted a couple days.  Meal prep is a lot of work!  I need to get more creative and prepare more options for the week.  What are your go-to packed lunch dishes for work?

Egg Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

8 eggs

1/2 cup onions, chopped 

1/4 cup of scallions

1 cup of cremini or button mushrooms, coarsely chopped

2 Chinese sausages (or an alternative sausage or bacon), chopped

2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Saute the chopped onions until they are slightly brown and place aside.  In a frying pan, cook the Chinese sausage (or an alternative meat) and place aside.  In a big mixing bowl, whisk 8 eggs together.  Pour in the onions, Chinese sausage, and mushrooms.  Add soy sauce, salt, and sugar and stir.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tray with non-stick oil and fill the cups with the egg mixture.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Fire-Roasted Salsa

I am obsessed with salsa.  I love it on everything—Mexican food, eggs, salad, grilled meats.  I love loading tortilla chips with so much salsa that bits of it fall off my chip before it even makes its way to my mouth!  I could just eat an entire bowl of salsa!  

I spent last night making a batch of homemade salsa because it was just one of those nights when I was craving chips and salsa for dinner.  Homemade salsa is so much better than the pre-made stuff you can get at the store.  My recipe below is pretty easy.  You can make a batch to eat immediately or jar it and save it for later in the fridge.  Warning: wash your hands thoroughly after touching the jalapeno peppers!  I accidentally touched my mouth afterwards and my lips burned for awhile!

Fire-Roasted Salsa - Mild (makes about 30oz)

Ingredients:

·      6 medium size tomatoes (6 Roma tomatoes, tomatoes on the vine are okay too), sliced into chunks

·      2 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half length-wise, deseeded and sliced

·      ½ sweet yellow onion, cut into chunks

·      1 cup of cilantro, coarsely chopped

·      3 garlic cloves, cut in half

·      1 lime (approx. 2-2.5 tbsp juice)

·      2 tsp salt

·      1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

·      ½ tsp chili powder (more if you prefer spicier)

Directions:

1.)  Preheat oven for 15 minutes.  Set on broil.

2.) Cut Roma tomatoes in half length-wise, lay face up on a baking sheet. Add de-stemmed and deseeded jalapeno peppers, onion chunks, and garlic onto the same baking sheet. Broil for about 30 minutes. You may need to remove the garlic sooner to avoid burning. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes. 

3.)  In a food processor, blend the tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, onion, cilantro, and garlic thoroughly.

4.)  Pour the mixture into a bowl. Squeeze all of the juice from 1 lime into the bowl. Add salt, black pepper, and chili powder.  Stir thoroughly. Eat immediately or jar the salsa (refrigerate or freeze) to save for later!

Hello 2018! New Year's Eve in Sedona.

This post is a little late because I'm still adjusting to being back in LA, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  Happy 2018!  2017 was not only a year of personal growth and transition for me but also the year that I discovered how much I love the desert.  It seemed only fitting that I celebrate the end of the year by going on another desert road trip.  My friend and I decided on exploring Arizona.

We started out our road trip by stopping in Vegas for lunch to break up the long drive.  We had Hainanese chicken at Chef Sheridan Su's restaurant Flock and Fowl.  I love Hainanese chicken!  This dish is hard to find in LA (at least the Singaporean style that I like) unless maybe if you venture a bit outside of the city, which I don't do very often. 

Our first stop was Page, AZ.  Horseshoe Bend was my favorite part of that leg of the trip.  It is an easy hike (more of a stroll really) with stunning views of the bend.  We also did a tour of Antelope Canyon and enjoyed the incredible colors and lighting of the canyon!

After Page, we drove down to Sedona to spend a few nights and celebrate New Year's Eve.  Sedona had great hikes and amazing views everywhere!  We only spent 3 nights in Sedona so we didn't get to do all of the hikes but we got a nice preview of the peaceful life in Sedona.  We hiked Doe Mesa Mountain and the airport loop, walked up to the Chapel, explored a bit of the pathway to Bell Rock, went on the Coyote Canyon Pink Jeep Tour, and visited a nearby ghost town called Jerome.  Apparently there are vortex sites in Sedona that are conducive to healing, finding balance, and peace.  We visited a couple of those sites.  Even though I didn't feel the energy, I definitely felt at peace.  I silently set an intention into the universe anyways.  Why not?  I need all the help I can get to start the new year right!

After almost 8 miles of hiking, we had a lovely last meal of 2017 at Cress on Oak Creek at L'Auberge de Sedona on New Year's Eve.  It was a full 5 course meal.   We were also treated to a complimentary bottle of champagne from the restaurant manager!  It was a wonderful last day of 2017!

Amuse Bouche

Wild Mushroom Bisque

Heirloom Tomatoes, Beets, & Strawberries

Foie Gras

Lobster Risotto

Lobster & Kobe Beef

Bison Tenderloin

Macarons, Gelato, & Ganache

Goodbye 2017!

How many of you were ready to say goodbye to 2017?  I definitely was ready!  2017 was a challenging year for me.  But I believe that everything that needed to happen in my life happened because I had some lessons I still needed to learn.  Even though 2017 started out a little rough, it ended very nicely... I am so grateful that all of the decisions I made last year led me to Boston for 3 weeks to cook with my mother.  It is not often we get an extended amount of time to spend with our mothers as adults!  Even though I felt like a child again living back at home (and I probably stressed my mom out), the time I had with her this past December was very special.  I also fell back in love with Boston (although, I did not fall in love with the cold).  I was fortunate to get to witness this winter's first snowfall, enjoy a white Christmas, eat delicious food, cook with my mother, read bedtime stories to my nephew, host a small baby shower for my older sister, catch up with my old high school friend, reconnect with an old college friend, reunite with friends that I made in Costa Rica last July on a yoga retreat, and surprisingly, make a new friend in the short amount of time I had in Boston.  I felt ready for 2017 to end but I also felt nostalgic to say goodbye as I reflected on that journey. 

2018, I am ready for you!!!

Cambodian Cooking with Mama in Boston

Since I was planning to return home for the holidays anyways, I decided to spend the month of December cooking with my Mama back home in Boston.  After only 4 full days with her, we have already worked on 8 recipes!  It has been quite a productive trip so far!  We have been busy grocery shopping, learning about different Cambodian herbs, discussing dishes step by step, taking lots of notes, and food plating for our photo shoots.  It has been a lot of fun and also a lot of work!  I've learned so much watching her cook and explain each nuance of her cooking in detail.  I am grateful that I have the time and opportunity to be here with her in person learning her art.  I am excited to share everything I learned with my mother in the upcoming cookbook!

Within this first week home, I also experienced this winter's first snowfall.  It was enchanting but also so very cold!  Because I had been spending all my time with my mother cooking, I hadn't had a chance to venture into the city until yesterday.  Boston is such a beautiful, historic, and charming city!  It was even more scenic with the remnants of snow that still lined the trees, cars, and buildings.  I wandered around Newbury Street and strolled through the quaint quarters of the South End.  

Here are a few shots from my first week back in Boston.  I included pictures of my nephew because he's just the cutest.  

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

Yuca Pizza Crust

I love pizza! Who doesn't? Thin crust and gluten-free too? Even better. Made entirely out of yuca? AMAZING. I first learned about yuca pizza crust in Costa Rica on a yoga retreat that I went on back in July. The retreat was inclusive of all healthy gourmet meals. One of the activities I signed up for during my stay was a cooking class with the retreat's chef. He taught us about the versatility of yuca. He had used it in our meals as croutons, gnocchi, and mash. I was so amazed because it had never occurred to me before to use yuca as a healthy substitute in meals.

After returning from Costa Rica and playing around with yuca, I created my own yuca pizza crust recipe. It tastes better and works better as a pizza crust than the popular cauliflower pizza crust alternative. Cauliflower pizza crust, in my experience, is too cakey and falls apart when you try to pick up a slice. Yuca pizza crust does not require a binding ingredient and you can actually pick up a slice! Sounds simple, huh? Give it a try! I have 2 suggested pizza flavors listed below but you can play around with whatever toppings you like.

Yuca Pizza Crust (Serves 2-3.  Makes about 2 nine-inch diameter pizza crusts)

Crust

·      2 lb yuca

·      2 tsp dried oregano

·      1 tsp dried basil

·      1 tsp salt

·      4 tbsp olive oil

Topping Options

Margherita Pizza (2)

·      6 tbsp tomato sauce

·      2 medium size tomatoes or about 10 compari tomatoes, thinly sliced

·      10 mini mozzarella balls, halved 

·      ½ cup fresh basil, chopped

·      fresh ground pepper

·      red pepper flakes

BBQ Cauliflower & Pineapple Pizza (2)

 ·     6 tbsp or more BBQ Sauce

·      shredded mozzarella cheese

·     ½ small red onion, thinly sliced

·      ¾ cup of freshly sliced pineapple

·      ½ lb - 10 oz of cauliflower cut into small florets, premarinated in a bowl of BBQ sauce while crust cooks

·      chopped cilantro

·      red pepper flakes

Directions: Peel outer layer of yuca, cut into large segments to fit into a pot of water (make sure there is enough water to cover yuca), and boil for about 45 minutes. Allow yuca to cool for about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

Cut up yuca into smaller chunks. Place in a bowl. Add oregano, basil, salt, and 2 tbsp olive oil. Mix thoroughly and then throw into a blender or a food processor to convert the yuca into more of a mash. It’s okay if there are still small clumps of yuca in your mix. If you blend it longer, it should be smoother. I think I must have gotten lazy in the picture below.

Pour yuca mix back into the bowl. Add 2 more tbsp of olive oil and massage into the mix with your hands. Taste the mix. Add additional salt if needed. I think the mix is delicious on its own and could be served as a side instead of mashed potatoes. Divide the mixture into 2 portions. Using a baking sheet and parchment paper or a pizza stone, roll into 2 round pizza crusts, about 9 inch in diameter, with your hands. Flatten out as much as you can so that the crust is thin. You may need to add additonal olive oil to prevent it from sticking so that you can roll it out flatter.

Before

After

Pre-bake in the oven for 15 minutes on each side. Your crust should be lightly browned on both sides. If your crust is on the thicker or larside, you may need to cook it longer before you are able to flip it over without it sticking to the surface.

For the Margherita Pizza: Add about 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce on each pizza. Top with several tomato slices and 5 halved mini mozzarella balls on each pizza. You can use other ingredients but be careful about adding too many toppings. The crust is thin and will fall apart if it is weighed down by too many toppings. Return crust to oven and cook for about another 15 minutes. Then broil for about 2-3 minutes to give the toppings a nice crisp. Oven times may vary so you may need to adjust the time. Sprinkle with freshly chopped basil. Serve with pesto drizzle, red pepper flakes, and ground pepper.

For the BBQ Cauliflower & Pineapple Pizza: Add bbq sauce on each pizza. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Add cauliflower, pineapple, and red onions. Return crust to oven and cook for about another 15 minutes. Then broil for about 2-3 minutes to give the toppings a nice crisp. Oven times may vary so you may need to adjust the time. Sprinkle with additional fresh cilantro. Serve with red pepper flakes.