Kung Pao Shrimp/Chicken

So, you don't like shrimp? Mei guanxi (don't worry about it), no worry beef curry, the chicken is a, "winna-winna chicken dinna" too. My husband isn't a huge fan of shrimp but if it's done well he could eat a ton. He also hates onions, which this recipe calls for; so as you can guess this dish must be good if he requests it at least once a week.

As I have said before, I find a lot of my recipes online, I found this one and made a few adjustments. I like it spicy, as Mama Mai knows well. PS, I'm still scarred by that teppenyaki place.

Kung Pao Shrimp/ Chicken

2-4 dried chili (I used about 6 or 7)

1 1/2 TBSP peanut oil

1 lb chicken thigh; cubed/ shrimp 

(I used the shelled-deveigned-tail on/)

1/3 C raw shelled peanuts

1 medium sized onion; cubed

2 TBSP water

1 TBSP shoyu (soy sauce)

1 TBSP Chili bean sauce

2 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 garlic cloves; minced

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp sesame oil

 1) Heat the oil; add chili and stir. Allow the oil to soak into the chili a little to release the spice

2) Add in the raw peanuts and meat (the shrimp tends to release water when cooking. You might want to double to sauce recipe for it). In a small bowl, mix all other ingredients except onions and sesame oil.

3) Add in the onions (I didn't write fresh snap peas, but those are bomb in this dish. If you like, add it in now)

4) When the meat is almost done (the shrimp shouldn't be orange, when it has no more gray and is pinkish) add in the ingredients mixed in the bowl.

5) Bring to boil. The sauce will get thick so you might want to stir fry it.

6) After the sauce is thicker, reduce head and simmer. 

7) Add sesame oil

Serves 3-4. I know, not a lot. But dude, this is bomb diggity. 

Oh, and another thing, if you are planning on doing the chicken I would use thighs sooooo ono!

Enjoy my fellow food lovers

Fired

Have I mentioned how horrible I am at Blogging? I've recently decided that I'm not a finisher. I love starting new things but for some reason I can never finish them, unless we're talking about the songs I've written on the guitar, those get done pretty quick.

So now I'm back and ready to go. Per request I will spend the next couple posts talking about my AMAZING Chinese New Year feast. That was, as we say, onolicious. Or for those SNL and Will Ferrel (sp?) fans, scrumtrelescent. Honestly, we were so stuffed afterwards. From homemade guotie to pork hash and manapua bread to choy sum, our meal was complete. Here is a teaser of a pic for those of you who wanted to know how amazing it looked.

Okay, maybe it's been a while because for some reason it looked better when I was hungry. Oh well.

As you can see our menu was as follows:

Kung Pao Shrimp
Kung Pao Chicken (my friend doesn't like shrimp)
Guotie (potstickers)
Pork Hash (Almost the same as the guotie except it is steamed)
Manapua Bread (Baozi/steamed buns)
Taiwanese rice (mine turned out HORRIBLE so I won't share)
White Rice
Choy Sum

Yes my friends, we were in Chinese heaven. I felt like I was back home in Hawai'i. Today, let's start small; choy sum.

I believe for this night I used Ching Kai Choy. Honestly, I think that or bok choy are the best. I actually came up with the recipe at a girls night with some of my girlfriends. One handed me some bok choy and says, "make something". I'm not one to just throw something together, but I can honestly say we were all pretty surprised at the outcome of this dish. I just guessed on these measurements so go ahead and add or subtract to the amounts based on what you like.

Ingredients:

2-3 bunches bok/ching kai choy
1 Tbsp peanut oil
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 tsp sesame seed oil
1 Tbsp sugar
Sesame seeds (optional)

1) Cut off the ends of the "choy" and rinse the leafy greens

2) On medium-high, heat oil. Add in the greens and stir.

3) When the leafs begin softening add in the oyster sauce (it may smell). After stirring for a couple of minutes (seriously, only a couple => 2), add in the sugar and continue to stir.

4) Once the "choy" is softened and flimsy (yeah, my vocabulary isn't too impressive), add the sesame seed oil and stir for a little longer.

5) Add sesame seeds if desired. It already has sesame seed oil so it will be more for looks. Serve it up.

Like I said, this one may be a trial and error (or trial and success at finding what NOT to do, for all my "cup half full" friends) so try it out and add to or take away from this recipe.

**A Hui Hou**

Gongxi Fa Cai!!!

All my hot mamas, throw on you aprons because it's gonna get messy. (sorry, my photos won't upload. I'll try uploading them later on. Until then, enjoy)

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I have decided to post a recipe for almond cookies. If you have never heard of almond cookies and have seen the movie, Kung Fu Panda, these are the cookies that Po was eating when he found Monkey's stash in the kitchen.

This recipe was actually shared by my friend, Didi.

Yes, I definitely love my Chinese side; though I've only got a small percentage of it in my blood. My pops said that we are, so we are (right?!?). From my dad's side we get our Filippino, Spanish, and Hawaiian blood. It's awesome and I have been so blessed to be a part of the Kai (once Kahahawai) bloodline.

So may your crops be plentiful this new year my friends!

PS. If anyone tells you, "Gongxi fa cai" make sure you respond, "hongbao na lai" which means, "red envelope give me". If you have ever seen those red envelopes you know that there is money inside. So, if you are wished a plentiful new year, and respond with hongbao na lai, guess what? They owe you money. Shazam! And YOU are welcome ;)

Chinese Almond Cookies

(That Po made look so amazingly delicious)

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups shortening

1 1/4 cups sugar 

1 egg

2 tsp. almond extract

red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt

In a mixer bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Mix in the egg and almond extract

Add flour mixture; mix well

Shape into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased  cookie sheet

Press balls to flatten and dot each enter with red food coloring

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until light brown

Makes approx 6 doz.

**A hui hou!**

Mochi Ice Cream

If you've never had mochi before, well my friend, you're in for a treat. I grew up loving this sweetened rice flour dessert. It is an acquired taste or so I've heard. My fondest memories of mochi were during the New Years celebration. My mom would make us butter mochi; which I will show you on another occasion. I remember tag teaming with my siblings while my mom was preoccupied and we'd go into stealth mode and steal a few pieces here and there before they'd make it to the dessert table.

I can't really describe it in English. My Fijian friends did say it tastes like casava. Growing up speaking Pidgin, serving a church mission Taiwan where I had to learn Mandarin, then moving to the mainland where no one knows Pidgin (other than my local friends) has definitely taken a toll on what good English I had. (P.S I got a C in English in high school. So you are more than welcome to help me with my punctuations. Other than a winking smiley face, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to use a colon for ;)   <- You see?)

So here we go....

Ingredients:

• 1 small tub of ice cream. (I would say to be safe stick with vanilla or strawberry. Mango woks excellent as well)
• 1 box Mochiko Flour (3 C sweetened rice flour)
• 3/4 C sugar
• 3 C Water
• Corn or Potato starch (for dusting)

Other items needed:

• Small Muffin Pan
• Ice cream scooper
• Whisk
• Pizza cutter
• Saran wrap
• Food coloring
• Spoon
• flat/shallow pan

          1) Grab your hot mama apron and throw it on. It's your time, Gorgeous ;)

 

 

 

    2) Scoop ice cream into balls. I made them too big in this batch. But it turned out

        great and I'll tell you why in a bit

 

 

 3) Dust the pans with the corn/potato starch to keep dough from sticking

 

 

 4) Mix the three ingredients very well; making sure there are no clumps. You could use a hand held mixer or a whisk. Personally, I like the little workout my arm gets from using the whisk. 

   5) Add in the food coloring. Like a sillidiot (yes, I make up my own words) I like to match the color of the batter to the ice cream. Today I did strawberry

 

6) Whisk well until the color is even. Cover with saran wrap and cook in microwave for 4 minutes

 

7) When it's done, whisk swiftly to avoid clumping. When you've got out all the clumps then replace the saran wrap and place back in the microwave for another 2 minutes. Take it out and whisk swiftly. Do this twice more

 

8) When it's finished, scrape the mochi onto the shallow pan. Dust with starch and press down softly. You WILL get the starch everywhere and it WILL be awesome. After pressing down it will get a little sticky on the bottom. Just try your best to put a little more starch on the bottom if it does (pretend you're making the crust of a pizza)





 

 

 

 

*The dough should be stretchy. If it is not, then put it back in the microwave and heat it a little more.

 

 

9) Using the rolling pin, flatten out the dough evenly. My dough was still a little thick, but my ice cream scoops were a little larger. Having the right amount of mochi and ice cream is the deciding factor in this recipe; just ask my friend Karess

 



 

 

**CAUTION**

 

When taking the bowl out of the microwave your glasses may get fogged up. I learned that the hard way.

 

While waiting for the microwave to finish, take up a hobby. It's amazing how long 4 minutes is when waiting for something to cook in a microwave. I picked up my guitar and pretended to play something called, "music", while my toddler danced and spun around the room hippie style

 

  10) After the mochi has cooled for about 10-15 minutes, using the pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares big enough to cover the ice cream scoops (using the pizza cutters will help the edges stick together)

 

 

11) Place the square in your palm. After putting a scoop of ice cream on the mochi, pinch opposite corners together. Then quickly do the other corners. Using both hands, pinch the edges together and flip the mochi ball over, placing it in the muffin pan

 

 

**CAUTION**

 

I really am no pro. As you can see my mochi balls aren't even circle, but the ratio of mochi to ice cream was pretty darn good. Also, the mochi will probably tear when trying this out. A few of mine tore while trying to get the dough too thin. I'm not sure how the companies get the mochi so thin and perfect (maybe it's because I'm only a quarter Asian?!?), but this sure beats the heck out of buying a box of 6 for $6.00.

 

 

12) Finally, cover the tin with saran wrap (or tin foil or whatever you can find) and place it back in the freezer. Freeze it for at least an hour. Take it out a few minutes before you are ready to eat it

 

 

This recipe, depending on how thin you roll your mochi, should make anywhere between 20 and 40 servings. Last week I made about 45, but the ice cream scoops were small. Today my mochi was pretty thick and it made 22. Like I've said before I would rather learn how to make something than spend a ridiculous amount for someone else to do it for me. A box of this Mochiko flour was $1.57 here in Arizona and I'm sure it is not much more everywhere else. A buck 57 for 22 pieces of mochi ice cream as opposed to the $7.00 I would have spent at LeeLee for a box of 6.

 

 

If it doesn't turn out great the first time that's okay. Why? Because it gives you an excuse to try it all over again. My cute assistant was caught sleeping on the job. Whoever said sleeping while standing was impossible never met my 18 month old. Granted, his knee did give out right after this picture was snapped. Thank goodness for fast reflexes.

 

Enjoy, my friends.

 

 

 

**A hui hou**

 

 



Always a First

I love cooking. I love working out. I love people. My three favorite things in the world. My friends and family mean more to me than anything in the world. I always said that no one could make me do what I didn't want to do...unless it were my sisters. But they know me better than that. My friends are amazing and I love sharing my talents with them. It wasn't until recent that I found out that one of my talents is cooking. Not really inventing new foods, but more so finding what I like and making it at home. I'm the kind of person that would rather save money by cooking at home than spending 20 bucks at the nearest restaurant (unless it's a date).

Last week I taught my friends how to make mochi ice cream; a Japanese dessert. We used to buy it all the time while I grew up but now that I'm older and more resourceful I decided I would rather try and make it to save money. The first time was a disaster but it still tasted amazing. This time it was much, much better. Another friend saw my post of Facebook and asked for the recipe. After giving it to her she told me that I should start a blog and share the recipes I usually post. I am not good at blogging but I can promise you a new recipe every 1-2 weeks. I know, I know. But I can PROMISE you that you won't be disappointed in the taste. If so then you might need to get your taste buds checked ;).

I also love training people. I have started private training sessions in the mornings for some friends. It brings me great joy in seeing people feel more confident about themselves because of accomplishing these workouts. Yesterday morning I was training a friend and introduced a new workout at a playground. Then it occurred to me, why don't I share these workouts with others. You can do these around the house and at the playground. They are simple, quick, painless, and fun. I think they're fun anyway. Okay, so some of them might make you hate me. As a matter of fact, I trained a friend last week who, while doing one exercise said, "Yeah Krisha, I hate you." Obviously she loved me the next day after feeling like a million bucks.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoy. Don't forget to comment and let me know how these recipes/workouts turn out. If you have something you'd like to learn go ahead and request it. If I don't know how to do it then I will learn and then teach you. It's like I do when I'm giving ukulele instructions; "if can, can."

Take it eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy!