Big Piggy Belly: rice

Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Ever Seen These Little Guys??

Welcome to the 4th day of the year 2014! yay~ it already seems like the year is going by fast!! (I know.. it's ONLY been 4 days..but still.)

My day started off by waking up at 11am after being drugged by Nyquil the night before.. Woke up with a pretty bad sore throat and a sexy(?), husky, manly voice followed by a dry cough. Not the best way to wake up, but I did. haha I ended up getting ready to go to Tranquil Tea Lounge with my fellow OT sisters (Don't know what OT is? A friend of mine, and fellow future OT, sums it up great on her blog! --> As Told By Cathy) Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the food I ordered but! No worries, I have 300+ pictures of food on my phone that I have not uploaded yet! So Here it goes!!

My mom decided to make some Onigiri which is a Japanese comfort food that looks somewhat like the pictures below! It was actually tough to make in the beginning but after couple of them, we got the hang of it! I got silly and started to make faces on them hahaha

Real easy to make! All you need is cooked rice in a bowl, sprinkle some Furikake (Japanese seasoning flakes), and pieces of roasted seaweed to wrap around. My mom bought the triangle shaping tool for the rice from Marukai (very inexpensive) so it wasn't THAT hard to make those triangle rice shapes. Is that all it is? Rice and seaweed? NOPE. You can be SUPER creative and put whatever you want inside! In some I put kimchi I fried with some sesame oil and tuna and in another I put in fried spam. Usually, if you get these at a Japanese market or Japanese foodstore, they have all sorts of stuff in it. If you are ever in Southern California near Costa Mesa, there is a Japanese market called Marukai Market. Inside the market is a food court with several Japanese restaurants where they sell these lovely Onigiris. I highly recommend trying these for yourself, even making these! It's fun and delicious!

Well, until next time! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

-Ms. Piggy.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Week 8 into my Cooking Class!

Hello Hello!

Time is flying by so fast! It's already week 8 into my cooking class! Couple more weeks and we are done with the semester. I always look forward to my Monday class.. why? I have my cooking class on Mondays!

Well, this week, we learned about Beef! Which means, we cooked lots of food that has BEEF as it's main ingredient! (YES!) We had short ribs, steak in lettuce rolls, shepherd's pie, skirt steak, and grilled beef tenderloin! I will be posting up what our group was in charge of right below here, along with pictures of all the food we made!

Our group was in charge of making the Short Ribs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Gremolata with Polenta! (mouthful, I know!) It was such a great dish! This is a MUST TRY AT HOME dish! :) Enjoy!!

Like always, if you want to know the recipes of any of the food we made in our cooking class, shoot me an email with the name of the food and I will gladly post that up! :)

SHORT RIBS WITH TOMATOES, OLIVES AND GREMOLATA WITH POLENTA

INGREDIENTS:

6 lbs Short Ribs
1/2 Cups   All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp   Olive Oil
3 Tbsp   Unsalted Butter
2      Medium Onion, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
1      Small Carrot, finely diced
1      Celery Rib, finely diced
2      Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1 Cup   White Wine
1 Cup   Beef Broth
1      28 oz can whole plum tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped
1 Cup     Kalamata Olives, pitted and halved
1 1/2 Tsp   Fresh Thyme, chopped
2      Flat-leaf parsely sprigs
1      Turkish Bay Leaf
2      Strips of lemon zest, cut into fine julienne
1 Tsp      Salt, or to taste
1/2 Tsp   Ground black pepper, or to tase

FOR GREMOLATA:
3 Tbsp   Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsely
1      Garlic Clove, finely minced
1 Tsp     Finely grated lemon zest

FOR POLENTA:
4 Cups   Water
to taste   Salt
1 Cup   Medium-grain yellow polenta
4 Tbsp   Butter
1 Cup   Cream Cheese

PROCEDURE:

FOR MEAT:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Pat dry short ribs and season with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, make sure to shake off excess flour, and seared in a oil/butter combination in a skillet until evenly browned. Do meat in batches, and transfer to a plate.
3. Then once meat is seared, pour off searing fat from skillet, and add remaining butter.
4. Add Sweet onions, carrot, celery, and garlic, and cook until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring.
6. Arrange short ribs in a pot in 1 layer and return to a simmer.
7. Cover pot and braise short ribs in middle rack of oven until very tender, about 2.5 hours.

FOR GREMOLATA:
1. Stir together gremolata ingredients in a small bowl.

FOR POLENTA:
1. Heat water lightly seasoned with salt to a boil over high heat, about 5 minutes.
2. Quickly whisk in the polenta until fully incorporated.
3. Lower the heat to a low simmer, add the butter and allow the polenta to cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
4. Finish by stirring in the cream cheese and salt to taste.

I.C.A.
Ms. Piggy.

Final Product of the Short Ribs with Tomatoes, Olives and Gremolata with Polenta

In process of making the Short Ribs

Short Ribs. Short Ribs. Short Ribs.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Asparagus and Roasted Red Onion Vinaigrette

Shepherd's Pie

This was my favorite! :)

Deliciousness...

Grilled Garlic-Marinated Skirt Steak with Lime!

Same as above!

Steak in Lettuce Rolls

Short Ribs with Gremolata and Polenta!

Same as above

My Plate!

close up! :) Everything was so delicious!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Week 5 into Cooking Class!

Hi guys!

It's already week 5 into my cooking class and I am enjoying it more than ever! Food has always been my favorite thing in life! I love trying new things and this class is definitely giving me the chance to try lots and lots of variety of food!

This week, our group made the Poblano Potato Gratin! We made so many different type of food from different cuisine such as Mexican, American, Italian, Etc.

Here is the recipe and directions for the Poblano Potato Gratin! If you guys want the recipes for the other food we made in class, leave a comment or email me and I will gladly post them up! :)

POBLANO POTATO GRATIN

INGREDIENTS:
3 lbs Fresh Poblano Chile
2 lbs Onions, cut lengthwise into 1/4" strips
2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
6 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
3 Cups Heavy cream
1.5 cups Milk

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 400° F with rack in the middle.

2) Roast chiles on their sides on racks of gas burners on high, turning with
tongs, until skins are blackened all over, about 10 minutes. Immediately
transfer to a bowl and let stand, covered tightly with plastic wrap, about 10
minutes.

3) When chiles are cool enough handle, peel or rub off skin. Slit chiles
lengthwise, then stem, seed, and devein. Cut lengthwise into thin strips.

4) Cook onions in oil as needed in skillet over-medium-low heat, stirring
occasionally, season with salt, and cook until golden, about 8 minutes.

5) Stir in chiles and remove “rajas” from heat.(Rajas = roasted julienne onion and chile) Reserve 1 cup of rajas for topping.

6) Then, generously butter a 3-quart baking dish.

7) Peel potatoes, then cut crosswise into 1/16 inch thick slices with slicer.
Transfer to a small heavy pot. Add cream, milk, and 1 teaspoon salt and
bring just to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally (liquid will
thicken). Stir in rajas, then pour mixture evenly into baking dish. Sprinkle
reserved 1 cup of rajas on top.

8) Bake until potatoes are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes
before serving.

Here are the pictures of the food we made!

Enjoy!

I.C.A.
Ms. Piggy.