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Showing posts from November, 2013

BEST TURKEY RECIPE EVER!

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Citrus Chinese Spiced Turkey This is the best turkey recipe ever!  Well at least in my opinion. Possibly even better than my Photastic Vietnamese Turkey recipe .  This turkey was so juicy and tender.  There is a lot of prep work but you will end up with an amazing turkey that your guests will rave about.  I started off with a Citrus Chinese spiced brine and glazed the turkey with a hoisin glaze.  Ingredients: 1(16-20-pound) fresh turkey, rinsed & patted dry, with neck & giblets reserved for stock.  For the Chinese Spiced Brine: 12 cups (3/4 to 1 gallon) apple cider 1 cup kosher salt 6 cloves garlic, minced 6 whole bay leaves 8 whole star anise pods 3 Tablespoons whole black peppercorns 1 Tablespoon allspice berries 1 Tablespoon Chinese 5 spice powder 3 4-inch cinnamon sticks 12 cups (3/4 to 1 gallon) chilled water For the Citrus Onion Aromatics: 2 large oranges, cut into wedges with rind intact 2 large lemons, cut into wedges with rind intact 2 limes, cut into wedges with rind

Apple of Roses Cream Pie

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I found a beautiful pie on Pinterest and created my own recipe inspired by a lady named Yoli from Bulgaria .  I had to translate her recipe to english, change some measurements, and used substitutions. I made this pie for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit.   For the dough: 1/2 cup soft butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon grated orange peel 1 egg 1 cup finely ground almonds (almond flour) 1 cup flour For the cream: 6 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon grated orange peel 3 egg yolks 1 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup apple cider 5-6 apples apricot jam Directions: Beat soft butter with powdered sugar, vanilla, and orange peel. Add egg and ground almonds. Add flour gradually to make a soft dough. Dust a 9 inch greased round pie pan with flour. Spread the dough evenly in it. Place in refrigerator while preparing the cream. For the cream, in a sauce pan mix the flour with vanilla and orange peel. Add yolks and a little milk. Stir until smooth

Thai Fresh Spring Rolls

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These little spring rolls (cups) are healthy and nice looking food. They are good for a party like cocktail party or the mood that you want to make something special for yourself. The party season is coming so I had this idea came up making something nice and healthy. It basically is a bite salad. This healthy dish can be served all seasons as all the ingredients are available at the market. If you are allergic to seafood you can simply change shrimp to be grilled breast chicken, and if you are vegetarian you can just use grilled firm tofu sticks instead. In this recipe, I use Thai brown rice vermicelli but if it is not available in your area then you can just use ordinary one. Ingredients 30               Shrimp, peeled and deveined (size 31 – 40) 1 tbsp         Soy sauce 2 tbsp         Water 1 tbsp         Vegetable oil 150 g.          Thai brown rice vermicelli or rice vermicelli 5 pieces       Rice paper (for size 22 x 22 cm) or 7 pieces (size 15 x 15 cm.) 1                  Green

Montersino Rules for Bread.

These may well be 'Montersino Rules for Bread' but for me Montersino really does rule over the kitchen. So when I was watching one of his Accademia Montersiono programmes on Alive TV ( Italian language only) I gleaned several things form him that I think are important to note down here before I forget them. The longer the raising time the smaller the quantity of yeast needed. A biga must be left to develop for 18 to 20 hours.  Add the salt at the end of the kneading process as the salt crystals make the gluten strands rigid and inhibit their production. The amount of salt in the mixture affects the time that the dough takes to prove. If you want to lengthen the proving time of the bread add extra salt. This has to be within reason. I didn't quite catch the rule so I'll watch the programme again to get the formula right. Use a medium gluten content flour if you want to have a crisp crust. The protein in the flour absorbs humidity and makes even the crispiest crust go sof

Hoisin Glazed Salmon

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As always, I love combining my Vietnamese heritage with the Alaskan ingredients that my sister and I grew up with.  I am a lover of Hoisin Sauce, as my mother would disapprovingly tell you since she has witnessed me dump copious amounts of it into my  Phở  since I was a little girl.  Hoisin Sauce just makes it better! So check out this amazing Hoisin Glazed Salmon recipe and see just how good it is! Ingredients: 3 Tbsp hoisin sauce 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup 1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar 1 tsp fresh lime juice 1/2 tsp ginger powder 1 whole salmon fillet, divided into 4-6 individual portions sesame seeds to garnish Directions: Preheat oven to 400 ° F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with a non-stick spray. Place the salmon fillets on the baking sheet, skin side down.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Bake for 10 minutes. Whisk together the hoisin sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar, lime juice, and ginger powder to create the glaze. Remove the salmon from the oven an

Pad Cha Squid

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Pad Cha (literally, stir-frying with cha cha sound or sizzling sound of burning food from the hot wok.) is a very popular stir-fried spicy dish and commonly is seafood. Pad Cha dish has many different versions from different kinds of seafood for example squid, fish, shrimp, crab and or clam. Each kind of seafood may have slightly different flavors from different herbs beside the kind of seafood itself. This dish has a very nice and strong fragrance from herbs which is good as the herbs be able to cover the smell of seafood and at the same time the aroma and nice flavor delight the palate. This dish is not complicated to make, and it doesn't consume a lot of time to make either, to create a nice real Thai meal at home. *All the ingredients are available at Asian grocery stores. For 2 servings Ingredients 1                         Fresh squid (about 400 – 420g.) 3                         Fresh Thai chillies or Prik Kee Noo (adjustable) 3 cloves             Garlic ½ cup