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!

Pan-Seared Steak with Mushrooms & Asparagus

Sponsored by Aspen Ridge® Natural Angus Beef

I love a good steak and I especially love making it myself because it is super easy to do. It makes me feel kind of fancy and it looks really impressive too. I have partnered with Aspen Ridge® Natural Angus Beef to show you how to make a beautiful steak dinner at home. Their beef is Certified Humane®, has no added hormones, and no antibiotics ever. Because of its high quality, USDA Prime beef is generally sold in hotels and restaurants, but Aspen Ridge Prime beef is now available at your local Pavilions in Southern California!

I prefer a NY Strip cut and I like to cook my steak in a cast iron skillet to create a nice outside crust. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook the perfect steak at home! This is so much easier, more satisfying, and less expensive than dining out. Using Aspen Ridge Beef, you can create a delicious meal for that perfect date night in, special occasion, or celebration. In my case, it was a nice little weekend treat all for myself. My neighbor happened to walk past my door as I was cooking, and he immediately texted me to ask what I was making because he could smell my steak from outside and he thought it smelled so good! Even though I appreciated the compliment, I didn’t share my steak with him. I ate it entirely by myself! It was so delicious!

I paired my steak with a couple easy side vegetable dishes—sauteed garlic butter mushrooms and grilled asparagus. They cook quickly and complement the steak. If you have another vegetable you prefer or enjoy your steak with crispy roasted potatoes instead, that’s fine too. Pair your steak with whatever your belly craves.

Pan-Seared Steak with Garlic Butter Mushrooms & Asparagus (serves 2)

Steak Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of Aspen Ridge® Natural Angus Beef NY Strip, about 1¼ inch thick

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

• 2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• salt

• pepper

Garlic Butter Mushrooms:

• 12 oz of mixed mushrooms (I use a combo of crimini + shiitake), stems removed and thinly sliced

• 2 cloves of garlic, diced

• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• ·¼ tsp ground black pepper

• ¼ - ½ Tsp sea salt

• 1 tbsp butter

• 2-3 lemon wedges

Asparagus Ingredients:

• ½ lb of skinny asparagus spears, bottom stems trimmed

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• salt

Directions:

Place NY strip on a plate. Pat dry. Season generously with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. You may not need to finish the steak in the oven if your cut is no thicker than 1¼ inch and/or if you prefer your steak on the medium to medium-rare side. I like to have the oven on just in case the steak is thicker than I expected, or if the outside of the steak has already developed a perfectly brown crust but the inside is still not cooked to my desired temperature. Finishing the steak in the oven allows the steak to continue cooking without burning the outside.

Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with vegetable oil for about 5 minutes or until it starts smoking.

Place the steak gently on the hot skillet. Sear the steak for about 3-4 minutes on the first side, creating a deep brown crust.

Using tongs, flip the steak over and cook the other side for another 3 minutes. Add butter, garlic, and Rosemary to the skillet. Cook for another minute, tilting your skillet back and forth, so that the seasoned oil and butter fully coat the bottom of the steak. Turn steak onto its sides and sear all the edges as well. Flip the steak over a couple times. Repeatedly spoon the sauce over the top of the steak as it cooks.

Transfer steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes, loosely covered with aluminum foil, before cutting into it. This stove-top cooking method should yield a medium-rare to medium cooked steak.

However, if your steak has already developed a dark brown crust on the outside but the inside is still too rare for your taste, you can transfer the entire skillet to the oven and cook for about 5 minutes more. This is to avoid burning the outside of the steak on the stovetop while continuing to cook the inside. After 5 minutes, remove the steak from the oven. Transfer to a cutting board, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let it rest for about 5 minutes before cutting into it.

Meanwhile, in the same hot skillet, heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat for a couple minutes. Add trimmed asparagus spears. Sprinkle with salt and cook for about 2-3 minutes, flipping over halfway through. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a separate pan over medium high heat. Add mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lightly cook for a minute. Drain excess liquid. Add butter and garlic. Cook for another minute. Toss in parsley. Turn off stove. When ready to serve, add freshly squeezed lemon juice and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil.

Plate sliced steak with asparagus. Spoon over sauteed garlic butter mushrooms on top of the steak or serve on the side.

Note: According to foodsafety.gov, the minimum safe temperature is 145°F for steaks.

Happy 2021!

Happy NEW Year! I had been meaning to check in on the blog but then chaos ensued after only a few days into the new year. The riots at the Capitol were so upsetting. I had a lot of feelings and needed some time to process. I’m deeply saddened by the acts of ignorance, hate, racism, and white supremacy in our country. I can’t help but feel a little scared and nervous about the future with everything happening right now. While I think that having new leadership will help, as a country, we still have a long way to go and so much to learn.

Here in Los Angeles, we are still in a lockdown. I survived the holidays. It was a little lonely and isolating but I bounced back quicker than I thought I would. People all around me are still traveling and seeing their friends and carrying on as normal (or close to normal) and I’m wondering if I should be doing the same? I haven’t seen my family in a year and a half. I haven’t been on a plane in a year. I do see people occasionally for social distant hangs, walks, and hikes but probably not as regularly as I should to maintain my mental health.

I was starting to feel the isolation creeping in on me again as we entered the new year. So then last weekend, I made plans for 2 back to back hangs, 2 days in a row. One was a challenging 4 mile uphill hike to Sandstone Peak in Malibu and the other was a 5 mile walk along Zuma Beach in Malibu. I had also hiked 3 times that week leading up to the weekend and had a few back to back FaceTime calls the Friday night prior. That following Monday, I was completely exhausted and as a result, was not as productive as I had wanted to be. Plus, my body was completely sore from all the hiking and exercise. By Tuesday morning, I still had not recovered. I woke up with an allergy attack and was basically incapacitated on the couch for the whole day. My body did not like all of that action! As an introvert, too much social activity can be draining but now, in a pandemic, after becoming accustomed to quarantine and isolation, I must have hit a whole new level of social exhaustion combined with too much physical ventures. Anyway, because of that setback, I worked all of this weekend on my cookbook to catch up with the time that I lost during the week.

With my consulting at a halt at the moment due to my project ending last November, I finally have the time to refocus on my cookbook. It was hard to transition back to a creative and entrepreneurial mindset and schedule though. It took a couple of weeks of resistance in December before I found the momentum to get going again. In the last year, it was not possible for me to work on the cookbook while also juggling full-time consulting work, brand partnerships, content creation, and my blog. I believe this break from consulting is a blessing in disguise because now I can commit my time to the cookbook again. My passion project requires more energy. Creativity for me requires more energy. I notice that when there is too much space and time between each piece of the cookbook that I work on, it then reflects in my work. The quality, depth, connection, and flow suffer. I’ll forget why I wrote something or how I made a dish.

Since mid-December, I’ve been FaceTiming with my mom several days a week to discuss my recipes, photos, Khmer translations, ideas, and facts about our history. I’m going back through all my recipes and editing the writing, reorganizing the flow, and deciding which ones I need to reshoot. Even though I devoted the entire 2019 to cooking most of the recipes in the book (and thought I was almost done), I’ve just added more new recipes to my list and I still have desserts that I need to make. And I’d like to add more stories. I still have a lot to do and it has been so exhausting. One evening, I spoke with my mom for 2 hours just about herbs! HERBS! Each of our calls last 2 hours. There’s so much detail to go through and understand. But I know I can do it!

Last week, on a call with a new therapist, she asked me what I do for fun after I had updated her on all the things I’ve been working on and all the emotions I had been feeling. Her question made me pause and think. I had been spending all my time working on the cookbook, FaceTiming with my mom or sister to brainstorm about contents of the cookbook, going to virtual therapy, and attending virtual support groups. Basically, all my time had been devoted to either my cookbook or my mental health. It has been awhile since I’ve dedicated a day or even a few hours to doing something that brings me joy. I was diligent about allocating one day a week to joy last summer and I did do a couple road trips in November that brought me some joy. But I hadn’t really incorporated joy into part of my everyday life recently. I’ve kind of lost my balance again. And that’s okay. It happens. It’s hard to maintain balance all the time.

So this coming week, I’m going to be thinking about some new ways to spark joy for me and try to incorporate it more regularly into my life. I also think that we all need to show ourselves a little compassion and grace for just surviving everything that is happening in the world right now. It’s a lot. In the meantime, I hope you find some way to bring a little bit of joy into your life as well. And if you have ideas, please comment on this post and share! I’d love to hear!

Dutch Dutch Baby!

Have any of you had a dutch baby before? It’s SO good! It’s simple yet looks really impressive! I was inspired to make this dutch baby after learning how to make Yorkshire Puddings last year. The consistency and ingredients are pretty much the same. I’m more of a savory girl but this was a nice little weekend breakfast treat.

Mini Dutch Baby (Serves 2 using two small mini 6-inch cast iron skillets or one 10 or 12 inch cast iron skillet or alternatively an oven safe pan)

Ingredients:

2 eggs

½ cup of milk

½ cup of flour

½ tsp of vanilla extract

A dash of salt

1 tbsp butter or 2 tsp bacon fat, similar to Yorkshire Pudding which is my preference

 toppings: maple syrup, honey, powdered sugar, jam, butter, mixed berries

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Meanwhile, mix eggs, milk, flour, vanilla extract, and salt.  A lot of recipes include sugar.  Because of all the sweet toppings that are served on top of Dutch babies, I chose to skip the sugar.  Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Heat bacon fat in skillet in oven for about 5 minutes.  If using butter, do the same except it should only take a minute or two.  Be careful not to burn the butter.  Once butter is melted, swirl it around to coat the pan.

Remove skillet from oven.  Pour in batter.  Return to oven and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve with various toppings including maple syrup, honey, powdered sugar, jam, butter, and mixed berries.

Braised White Wine & Soy Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms

In my early stages of learning how to cook, I made many meals from a cookbook that I think was called How to Cook Everything. It wasn’t mine. It belonged to my live-in boyfriend at the time and it was a huge book! Probably the size of a dictionary. From what I remember, it had some good recipes. It has been awhile, maybe 15 years since I’ve last seen that book but I remember making a chicken dish that I really liked that had white wine, soy sauce, and mushrooms. And that is really about all I remember from the recipe. This week, I wanted to try to recreate it. So I played around with some ingredients and came up with this recipe. I think it’s pretty good. It’s simple and easy to make and it only requires a few main ingredients.

BRAISED WHITE WINE & SOY CHICKEN THIGHS WITH MUSHROOMS (serves 2-4)

Ingredients:
• 1½ lbs chicken thighs (about 4 small, bone-in with skin)
• 10-16 oz of white button or crimini mushrooms, sliced (depending on how much you love mushrooms)
• 1 sweet yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• ½ cup of white wine
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ Tsp salt
• ½ Tsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ cup of water
• parsley, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Season chicken w salt and pepper. In a braising pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat. Pan-sear chicken for a few minutes with skin side down, until golden brown. Then set aside.

Lower heat down to medium. Add another tbsp of olive oil. Brown onions and garlic. Add mushrooms and cook until they have shrunken.

Pour in wine and soy sauce. Add salt, pepper, sugar, and thyme and gently stir. Return chicken to the pan, skin side up. Cover pan, with lid slightly ajar, and cook for about 30 minutes.

Remove chicken and set aside.

Taste the sauce in the pan. It should be very flavorful and maybe even a bit salty. Add about ½ cup of water or less to dilute. Increase heat if need and let the sauce reduce and thicken for about 5 minutes.

Serve chicken over rice and spoon over a generous portion of mushrooms and sauce on top. Sprinkle w parsley.

Cajun Blackened Shrimp

After dating someone of Cajun descent, I became much more interested in Cajun cuisine even though the relationship did not last. I started frequenting (aka ordering delivery because we’re in a pandemic) Stevie’s on Pico and their Cajun food is DELISH! I really love their gumbo. While I do want to try making gumbo myself, I find it to be a little intimidating with all of the ingredients and fresh seafood. Someday though, I will try! Whenever I order delivery, I try to make it worth it by ordering enough food to last a couple meals at least. In addition to their gumbo, I’d order fried chicken and blackened shrimp. I love shellfish so the blackened shrimp really left an impression on me.

After researching recipes for blackened shrimp and experimenting a few times, I think I have a recipe that works! This dish is definitely going to make it into my weekly rotations. Super easy to make and so good!

CAJUN BLACKENED SHRIMP (serves 1 as a main)

Ingredients
• about 10 raw shrimp—peeled, deveined, tail off. Make a shallow cut along side the back.
• ¼-½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• cilantro, chopped for garnish

Directions:

In a bowl, combine all of the dried spices together (except for the fresh garlic) w ½ tbsp of olive oil. Add shrimp into the bowl and thoroughly coat with spice rub. Marinate for 30 minutes. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook one side for about 3 minutes. Flip over and cook for another minute. You may need to add more olive oil and lower heat. Then add sliced garlic to the skillet and continue to cook with the shrimp for about 1 more minute. Serve over rice with a wedge of lime. Sprinkle cilantro on top.

Alternative last step: After shrimp and garlic are cooked, remove from skillet and set aside. Keep pan on stove on medium low heat. Add a little olive oil or a ½-1 tbsp of water to deglaze all of the good bits left in the pan (that is if those bits aren’t too burnt). Cook for a couple minutes while scraping the bottom of the pan. Then add rice into the pan to scoop up all that goodness. Plate the rice. Add the shrimp and garlic on top. Sprinkle cilantro over the dish and serve with a wedge of lime.

Los Olivos Birthday Trip

For my last three birthdays, I’ve traveled abroad and went on yoga retreats and it has always brought me so much joy. Last year, I spent my entire birthday month in Cambodia and it was incredible. I’m very forunate to have been able to travel abroad as much as I have and explore the world, learn about different cultures, and connect with new people.

This year, my birthday is a little [a lot] different because of all the unexpected challenges of 2020. With all the challenges come new lessons and opportunity for growth. And there were definitely a lot this year! But it didn’t stop me from celebrating or going on my annual birthday adventure. While my adventure was a lot smaller this year, I’m so happy I was able to get away to Los Olivos in wine country for one day and one night with a friend. My birthday was a couple weeks ago in November but I hadn’t had a chance to sit down and share it with you until now.

Los Olivos is only a 2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. We stayed at the Fess Parker Inn right in the middle of the cute town. Unfortunately because of Covid, the town was quiet and a lot of businesses were closed but I still enjoyed the short getaway. One night at The Fess Parker Inn includes a free bottle of wine in your suite and two free tastings at the Fess Parker Vineyard and Ephiphany Winery. Service at the Fess Parker Vineyard was amazing. They treated me to probably almost 10 wine tastings outdoors on their patio because of my birthday. Afterwards, we took a quick dip in the pool at the inn and enjoyed pre-dinner cocktails and a delicious shrimp appetizer by the fire.

That night, we dined at the new restaurant at the inn called Nella and it was absolutely fabulous. We started dinner with a truffle flatbread, an entire plate of mortadella (it’s my favorite charcuterie meat as well as my friend’s), and mussels. Then we shared a duck entree and ended my birthday dinner with profiteroles and an espresso martini. My belly was very happy and my experience at the Fess Parker Inn and Vineyard was so wonderful.

The next day, we drove through the rolling hills, had our last tasting at Ephiphany, and enjoyed an outdoor lunch at Los Olivos Wine Merchant Cafe before returning to Los Angeles. It was a more low-key birthday than my previous years, but I’m grateful that I was able to do something to bring me a little bit of joy, given the circumstances of the pandemic this year.

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.