Pureed Sweet Potatoes with Real Maple and Nutmeg

Last Thanksgiving we were invited to an intimate dinner at a former SoupGroup member's home. She had to withdraw from SoupGroup because of the new babe. She is pretty awesome. She is vegetarian but ended up cooking the turkey. Her husband (who is a proud meat eater) was in charge of the turkey, however he was called to perform emergency surgery for a dog that swallowed something...I can't remember what but it became solid in the dog's stomach and he ended up removing a mass that was a mold of the dog's stomach.

We all brought a few dishes to share. One of the dishes the hostess made was this delicious puree of sweet potatoes. I didn't make a leftover plate to take home since we were both heading out of town. The bf was on his way to see his parents and I was on my way to California for my friend's one-month baby celebration. When I returned from California, I immediately emailed her for the sweet potatoes recipe. It is quite delicious. I made it for a potluck for work and several people asked for the recipe.

• 5 pounds sweet potatoes, unpeeled
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375° F.
2. Pierce the sweet potatoes several times with a fork and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake until softened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on size; let cool.
3. Slice each sweet potato in half lengthwise. Scoop the flesh into a saucepan and discard the skins. Add the maple syrup (to taste), butter, and sour cream. Using a wooden spoon or potato masher, mix until smooth. Season with the salt and nutmeg. Place over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through, about 5 minutes

Glenn's (the Burrito Guy) Green Chile Breakfast Burritos

Every office needs a burrito guy or gal. We used to have one. His name was Glenn. He made these awesome green chile breakfast burritos filled with eggs, potatoes, cheese, pork and green chile. His burritos were awesome. When we moved our offices, we lost Glenn. We have a new breakfast burrito lady but hers are not as yummy. Her burritos are salty and dry.

Glenn’s burritos were never dry. His green chile sauce kept the burritos nice and moist. I made these burritos to replicate Glenn’s awesome burritos. These are a little saucier than the typical breakfast burrito. Glenn didn’t add sausage or bacon to his burritos. The meat came from his pork green chile sauce.

I caught Glenn off guard and he shared his family’s green chile recipe with me. I used his recipe to make the green chile sauce. If you don’t want to spend the time making your own green chile, 505 brand green chile will work in a pinch. It is a little expensive and you do need quite a bit of it so I prefer to make my own when I make breakfast burritos in bulk.

I made 60 burritos but kept 10 for myself. I gave the bf 20, dropped 20 off for the new parents and gave 10 to another friend. They are a real lifesaver when you need breakfast (or dinner) in a hurry. Just pop them in the microwave for two minutes and you have yourself a delicious portable meal.

3 pounds potatoes, small dice
olive oil, as needed
30 large eggs
½ cup milk
Salt
Pepper
Butter, as needed
2 pounds cheese, grated
8 quarts pork green chile (recipe below or use jarred green chile with 6 pounds of diced pork shoulder or butt)
60 flour tortillas

Wax paper (buy the heat-safe kind)
Aluminum foil

1. Toss the diced potatoes with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in oven until soft and golden.
2. Beat eggs with salt, pepper and milk. In batches, scramble the eggs and leave them in large curds.
3. In a large stockpot or bowl, gently mix together cooked potatoes, scrambled eggs and green chile. You should have a slightly liquid mix.

4. Place some filling on each tortilla and wrap. Wrap each burrito in wax paper and then in foil. Place burritos into large Ziploc bags. I reuse the zippy bags that the tortilla came in and fit about 10 burritos in each bag. Freeze.

5. To reheat, remove burrito from aluminum foil and microwave about 2 minutes. Remove from wax paper immediately to prevent sticking.


Pork Green Chile sauce

- 6 pound pork shoulder, small dice
- garlic powder
- cumin
- mexican oregano
- ancho chile powder
- sea salt
- black pepper
- bacon drippings or oil
- flour
- 2 onions; diced
- 3 cloves garlic; crushed
- Water
- 3 jalapenos; roasted, peeled, deveined, de-seeded, and diced
- 5 poblanos peppers; roasted, peeled, deveined, de-seeded, and diced
- 2 cups roasted peeled green chile or two 4 ounce cans green chile
- 5 diced tomatillos (or a 7 ounce can of Herdez salsa verde)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (I think it was a 14-15 ounce can.)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup chopped cilantro

1. Make a blond roux using equal parts bacon drippings or oil and flour. Set aside.
2. Season pork with garlic powder, cumin, Mexican oregano, ancho chile, black pepper and salt. In a sauté pan, brown pork in batches. Transfer to large stockpot when browned.
3. In same pan, sauté onions and garlic with a little oil or bacon fat. Transfer to stockpot.
4. Place stockpot on medium heat. Add jalapenos, poblanos, and green chile. Add tomatillos or salsa verde, diced tomatoes, water, and bay leaves. Simmer about two hours or until pork is tender.
5. Add roux and bring to a boil. Roux will thicken chile when it comes to a boil. (I usually will make the roux with about half a cup of flour and add in small quantities until I get the desired consistency.) Stir in cilantro and adjust seasoning.

Egg Rolls: Ambiguous Origins...Perhaps China?

No recipe for this. I basically used the same filling for these egg rolls as I used for the Vietnamese egg rolls. The only difference is omit the sugar, use carrots instead of sweet potatoes and use cabbage instead of potatoes. These egg rolls keep better, are less temperamental and are easier to make but in my opinion are not as tasty as Vietnamese egg rolls.

I usually make them the same time as Vietnamese egg rolls and either freeze them uncooked or sometimes cooked. They actually fry up better straight out of the freezer. The only reason I sometimes freeze them cooked is out of sheer laziness. I don’t particularly enjoy heating up a pot of oil to fry up a few egg rolls. I simply place them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for about half an hour or until crispy.

Serve with Nuoc Cham and green leaf lettuce.

Coco Rico Nuoc Cham

Okay this is a bastardized version of the Vietnamese dipping sauce nuoc cham. I use a coconut soda called Coco Rico. Coco Rico is a Puerto Rican soda. I sometimes make and even more bastardized version using Coca Cola as the base. I cannot take the credit for this sauce. My aunt said her Vietnamese friends told her their little secret.

Sometimes I will mash fresh Thai chilies and garlic with a mortar and pestle but I have jars of chili garlic sauces in the fridge and they are so convenient. I used a tablespoon from each jar. One jar is the Huy Fong brand. The bottle is plastic and has a green lid. The characteristic rooster is the trademark of the company. Huy Fong also makes the original Siracha sauce. The other jar I use comes in a glass bottle. It is a Thai company called Jack Hua. The sauce has large chili chunks instead of a paste. Both sauces are vinegar based.

Nuoc Cham is great for egg rolls, bun (vermicelli noodle) bowls, Vietnamese broken rice dishes, Vietnamese crepes (banh xeo), banh cuon and other Vietnamese dishes. I love pouring an entire bowl of it on top of my vermicelli noodle bowls.

Bastardize Dipping Sauce:
½ can Coco Rico coconut soda or Coca Cola soda
¼ cup fish sauce (Three Crabs brand)
1 lime, juice
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch MSG
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (Huy Fong or Jack Hua brand)
or
1 clove garlic, minced
2 thai chili peppers, smashed

optional:
shredded carrots

Mix everything together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let sauce sit a few hours or overnight before use.

Malisa's Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Cha Gio)

Let me preface this by saying that this is my take on Vietnamese egg rolls. I’m not Vietnamese and I didn’t use a recipe from a Vietnamese cookbook. This recipe is from years and years of experimenting. I try different ingredients and in the end this is what works for me.

Some people might find the use of sweet potatoes and potatoes strange ingredients but I find them integral in the texture of my egg rolls. The sweet potatoes are a substitute for carrots. I am not too fond of cooked carrots and whenever I can find a sub, I will opt for the sub. You can use carrots instead of the sweet potatoes.

I also like to use potatoes to help lighten the filling. The potatoes help prevent having hard fried meat rods. I also use potatoes in my empanadas. Many people will use shredded cabbage as an egg roll filler but as much as I like cabbage, I prefer not to use it in my egg rolls. They contribute too much moisture and then start to ooze out of the wrappers. My friend told me that in order to prevent this, you can shred the cabbage the night before, put it in a strainer and weigh it down to remove much of the liquid. She said that restaurants put their shredded cabbage in one of those mop buckets to squeeze out the liquid. I’m not sure if this is true.

Egg Rolls

Filling:
1 pound Ground Chicken, Pork or Turkey (I used ground chicken because I just got a great deal on organic ground chicken breast.)
½ pound Shrimp, chopped
2 Eggs
Fish sauce
Salt
Pepper
MSG
sugar
1 bundle Cellophane Noodles, soaked in hot water until soft
¼ cup Sliced Dried Wood-Ear Mushroom, soaked in hot water until soft
2 Potatoes, shredded (Russets are fine but I used Yukons because that is what I usually buy)
½ pound Sweet Potatoes or Carrots, shredded
1 Yellow Onion, shredded
3 cloves Garlic, minced

50 Banh Trang Spring Roll Wrappers (Rice paper wrappers)
Oil, canola or peanut

1. Start by soaking your cellophane noodles and wood-ear mushrooms. I use the pre-sliced mushrooms.
2. Mix all filling ingredients together. Take a spoonful of the filing and microwave it about a minute. Taste the filling for proper seasoning. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Refrigerate if not planning on using immediately.
3. To wrap: Heat a large skillet of water. Don’t let it boil. The water should be hot enough to rehydrate the dried wrappers but you should be able to dip your fingers in the water. Soak the wrappers in the water until slightly soft. Don’t soak them too long or they will start to fall apart. The wrappers should be malleable.
4. Place filling on each wrapper and wrap as shown below.

Place filling in the center but about a third of the way from the bottom edge.

Fold in the sides towards the center.
Starting from the bottom edge, roll up toward the top edge.

Your Vietnamese Egg Roll: Slightly stout and pudgy.

Vietnamese Egg Rolls are on the left and Chinese Egg Rolls are on the right.

5. Heat oil in a wok, chicken fryer or electric deep fryer to 350 degrees. Fry egg rolls in batches until slightly golden; about 10 minutes. Vietnamese egg rolls will not completely brown and are a little more difficult than regular egg rolls to work with. The egg rolls will stick together. Let them stick. Once they are almost done they can easily be separated. Tip: Let the egg rolls dry out a bit and they will be easier to work with.

Vietnamese egg rolls are delicious wrapped in green leaf lettuce and dipped in Nuoc Cham sauce or cut up and served on top of vermicelli rice noodles, chiffonade lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and other assorted crunchy veggies and drizzled with Nuoc Cham sauce.

Mexican Rice like Casa Guadalajara

A few years ago I set out to make Mexican rice like my favorite Mexican restaurant in San Diego. Casa Guadalajara makes my favorite mole and my favorite rice. Their rice includes celery and frozen mixed vegetables. It doesn’t look traditional but is very delicious. The bf even approves of the recipe.

Mexican Rice
2 tablespoons bacon drippings or oil
2 cups long grain rice
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 can diced tomatoes
2 stalks celery, chopped
salt
pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

1. Heat bacon drippings or oil in a large dutch oven. Add the rice and cook until slightly toasted and golden. Add the onion and garlic and cook about a minute longer. Add the tomatoes (including liquid) and cook until liquid has evaporated.
2. Add the jalapeno, celery, salt, pepper and chicken stock. (I usually use the juices from cooking chicken guisada meat and add chicken broth to make 4 cups. This time I used the meat juices from the carnitas.) Bring to a rapid boil and then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook about 15 minutes and then add the frozen mixed vegetables but do not mix in. Cook another 5 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed and rice is tender. Turn off heat and let the rice rest at least 15 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

Carnitas

We had suite tickets for Dane Cook on Sunday night. Before going we met up with some friends at their house. Since my friend’s husband was planning on staying behind to watch the new baby, we decided to bring dinner over. I made carnitas.

Carnitas are traditionally slow cooked in its own fat in a large copper pan called a “caso.” Some methods of cooking are not well suited for the modern kitchen. If I was at my parent’s or my grandparent’s home cooking chunks of meat in a large pot of fat would not be a problem at all. My mom used to do this all the time in large 10 gallon pots. So here is the compromise. I slow braised it with a little water for about 2 hours, let the meat cool, brown the pieces in its own rendered fat plus more rendered bacon fat. (My Boston butt was not very fatty so I needed a little more fat to help with the browning.) I served them as the filling for soft tacos.

3 to 4 pounds Boston butt, sliced into 1 ½ inch slices)
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon Mexican cut oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
2 cups water
bacon drippings or oil, as needed

Accompaniments:
corn tortillas
guacamole
salsa verde
bottle taco sauce
cheese, shredded

Method:
1. Marinate sliced pork with salt, pepper, ancho chile, Mexican oregano, garlic and bay leaves overnight or at least 4 hours.
2. In a cast iron dutch oven add the marinated pork and water and bring to a simmer. Braise for two hours. After two hours, drain the liquid but reserve the drippings. (I use the pork liquid to cook the rice.)
3. Shallow fry the pork in the reserved drippings plus additional bacon drippings or oil, if needed. Fry until the pieces are crispy. Cut the meat into small chunks.
4. Serve with tortillas, guacamole, salsa, cheese and any other taco garnishes.

iPhone and Gmail Unlock Captcha

This is totally not related to food but I just discovered a solution to a problem that quite a few iPhone and gmail users may be experiencing. It has something to do with gmail's captcha feature. What the hell is a captcha? It stands for: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. You know those distorted word verification boxes with strange phrases that you have to retype? It is designed to test if you are human.

I suppose that when you access your email through iPhone and AT&T G3 network you somehow trigger gmail's security feature designed to block automated spamming. Once you trigger gmail's system, you have to log in and unlock your POP3 or IMAP access. You have to log in, sucessfully complete the captcha puzzle and essentially prove that you are human and not a malicious computer spammer. I notice that this only happens when I check my email using the AT&T network and the IMAP feature. I have no problem if I am connected using wifi or navigate to the gmail page on Safari.

Below is the link to the page you have to go to to prove that you are human:
https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

So if you get this wonderful message: "The connection to the server imap.gmail.com failed" after having successfully accessed gmail on the iPhone mail client in the past, it probably means you have to go and prove that you are human and not computer.

It is likely that you will have to prove yourself human many many times because by accessing gmail through your iPhone on a regular basis you will trigger the block over and over. I read that you have three options. 1. Stop accessing your gmail too often (I don't know what gmail considers too often.) 2. Change your password to a stronger password. (I have enough passwords to remember that I cannot create yet another one that is 9 characters long using both numbers and letters plus one symbol.) or 3. Stop using the iphone mail client for gmail. Instead have your gmail forwarded to your outlook, yahoo or other mail client and access it through the other email. What a drag. I love my gmail and have since let go of other email addresses through other email services. I use gmail for personal and outlook for work emails. I don't even have my mac mail set up because I don't want to manage another mail account or calendar. My outlook calendar is synced with my outlook calendar and every is synced with my phone.

I'm not a computer whiz so I cannot explain it in computer whiz terms. I am just a master googler who believes that the answer is somewhere out there on the world wide web.

Chinese Birthday Cake Take Two

Although I was satisfied with the génoise cake that I used as the base for my Chinese birthday cake, it was not exactly the cake that I was looking for. The génoise with the Chantilly cream and fresh strawberries was quite delicious but I was still on the search for the sponge-y cake found at Chinese bakeries.

When I was in Vegas last weekend, we stopped by the bakery next to the Pho restaurant. We bought quite a few snacks including a slice of this wonderful cake. I’ve been searching for this elusive recipe but I only found web pages with people requesting the recipe. Lucy Zhang blogged about this cake but the picture on her page shows a cake with a coarser crumb.

I decided to give another recipe a try in hopes of finding an even better Chinese birthday cake. I found this recipe on a message board. I decided to sub a little AP flour for some of the cake flour because I don’t completely trust cake flour to act properly at high altitude. If you’re at sea level you should be fine with using all cake flour.

I even forgot to add the vanilla and it came out delicious. The recipe is for a tube pan or a 9x13 pan. Since I wanted two cakes because I wanted one for home and one to take over to a friend’s house, I baked them in two 9-inch pans. The finished cakes were not tall enough for me to slice and layer so I simply topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries. I will make a 9x13 version or adjust the recipe for two 9-inch pans this weekend.

Chinese Sponge Cake (aka Chinese Birthday Cake)
(Gai Don Go)
9 eggs, separated
1 cup cake flour, sifted
½ cup all purpose flour, sifted
½ tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
½ c. water
¼ c. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Beat egg yolks until thick, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, water, oil and vanilla and beat until creamy. Set aside.
2. Beat egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
3. Fold a third of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold the rest of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture until incorporated.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. If using a 9x13 pan, bake for about 20-25 minutes. If using tube pan, bake 35-40 minutes and invert the pan while cooling.
5. When cool, top or layer with fresh whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

Cake in my cupcake carrier and ready for transporting:

This is not a good picture of the cake but it shows the color and texture of the cake. This is a slice from the cake that I kept for myself. I sprinkled the almonds on top instead of on the side.

Chinese Sausage Fried Rice

I usually make a pot of jasmine rice every few days. As the rice starts to get a little old, I usually make fried rice or porridge. Fried rice is best made with old rice but I have on occasion made fried rice with freshly steamed rice. If that is the case I will cook the rice with slightly less water and after it has cooked and had time to rest, I will spread the rice in a thin layer and fan it until it cools.

For the longest time good restaurant style fried rice has eluded me then one day I dared to stray from my usual soy sauce and oyster sauce seasoning. I simply seasoned it with a little Maggi sauce and fish sauce. Voila! My fried rice tasted like the kind I order at the restaurant.

I make this with different meats and vegetables depending on what I find in the fridge and what I am in the mood for. I was planning on making it with shrimp this time around but I forgot. I was scooping up a spoonful of fried rice when I remembered the shrimp.

Ingredient Note: Maggi seasoning sauce is a popular sauce made by Nestle. There are several versions found in various countries. The kind you want to use in this recipe is the product of China version. Here is a blog about the various Maggi sauces. The one you want is version C on the blog. Here is another blogger blogging about Maggi sauce. The sauce I use is the second from the left. It reads, "Maggi Seasoning Improves the Taste." Golden Mountain seasoning sauce is the Thai equivalent but I think it tastes different. I also have Golden Mountain in my pantry and for some reason I only use it on my fried eggs with rice (the bf thinks it is a strange breakfast).

Choose one or two or as many as you like from meat group:
- 3 links Chinese sausage (lop chong), sliced
- 3 hot dogs
- 1 boneless chicken breast
- handful of shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 slices bacon, diced
- 1 cup char sui, diced
Choose one or two or as many as you like from the veggie group:
- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
- handful broccoli florets
- 2 cups carrots, dices
- handful sugar snap peas
- 1 tomato, concasse
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 cup shelled endamame

Rest of ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 to 4 cups leftover jasmine rice
- msg
- fish sauce
- maggi seasoning sauce
- black pepper
- 3 large eggs

Optional:
- Cilantro, chopped
- Thai basil, chopped

1. Choose your ingredients and prep them.
2. Using a wooden spoon, break up the rice grains and season with msg, fish sauce, maggi sauce and black pepper. Set aside.
3. Add about 2 tablespoons oil to a heated wok. Heat oil on high heat and then add meat and cook until done. If using shrimp, set them aside. Add veggies to wok. It is important to cook out all the liquid if using frozen veggies.
4. When liquid has evaporated, add the seasoned rice. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. I actually like to let it sit a bit to form a crust on the bottom. Move the rice to one side, add a little more oil if it has been absorbed by the rice. Add the eggs and scramble them until cook. Incorporate everything together. Turn off heat and add cilantro and/or thai basil, if using.
5. Let rice sit in wok for about 5 to 10 minutes. The burnt bottom rice grains will release from the wok. The burnt rice at the bottom is my favorite part of fried rice (and paella).

Hokkaido Milk Loaf in the Bread Machine

I haven't cooked much since returning from Vegas. I made this bread the weekend before but haven't had a chance to blog about it. I used the same recipe for the taro bread I made a while back. I reduced it by 25% in order to make it "work" in my bread machine. I find that standard 2-loaf recipes need to be reduced 25% to 30% in order to fit into the 2-lb pan. I forgot to change the crust setting from medium to light so the crust is a little too dark for my taste.

This is the bread found in many Chinese bakeries. I saw it on the shelf at the Chinese bakery in Vegas this past weekend. The bread is cottony soft, fluffy and slightly rich.

Hokkaido Milk Loaf
Ingredients:

By weight:
405 grams bread flour
45 grams cake flour
7.5 grams instant yeast
22.5 grams milk powder
60 grams sugar
6.75 grams salt
1 large egg
187.5 grams milk
112.5 grams heavy cream

Directions:
Toss everything in the bread machine and bake using the basic cycle on the bread machine.

Bellagio's Mother's Day Buffet

I spent a long weekend in Vegas for my brother's fiancée's graduation. On our last evening in Vegas we went to the Bellagio buffet. Since it was mother's day, they had a special holiday buffet. The buffet was actually really good. They even had Chinese roast duck.

They had two different kinds of crab legs. My friend Bear is showing off the two. The one on the top is Alaskan King Crab and the one on the bottom is Opilio Crab. It was my first time eating opilio crab. All I could think about was Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. I thought the opilio tasted better. The meat was sweeter.

The desserts were amazing. Look at those HUGE chocolate covered strawberries.

The BF’s Chorizo, Potatoes and Eggs

This dish is the bf’s favorite breakfast dish. He makes it all the time. He calls it “Chorizo, Potatoes and Eggs.” I asked if there was an official name. He said nope. We bought a pound of fresh chorizo at Sunflower Market the other day so he decided to be the chef on Saturday morning. I watched and took notes.

2 teaspoons olive oil
4 yukon gold potatoes, diced
½ onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
pepper
½ pound chorizo sausage
6 large eggs
splash milk
jack or cheddar cheese, shredded
4 flour tortillas

1. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil and add diced potatoes. Cook until potatoes are cooked through and crispy. Add onions, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook until onions are tender. Transfer cooked potatoes to a bowl.
2. In the same pan, brown chorizo sausage. When sausage is cooked, return potatoes to pan. Meanwhile crack eggs into bowl and add a splash of milk. Pour eggs in the pan and let set a few minutes before stirring. Continue to cook until eggs are done. Top with shredded cheese.
3. Reheat tortillas on open flame. Serve chorizo, potatoes and eggs with tortillas.

Mango and Sticky Rice

The last time I had mango and sticky rice was when we all flew in the Bay Area for my little sister’s graduation. I flew from Denver to Oakland. My aunt and uncle flew from Denver to San Diego. Then they flew up to Oakland with my parents. During our trip we took a jaunt down to the Chinatown in Oakland. SF’s Chinatown is great for out-of-towners who want to sight see but we wanted food. My mom purchased a case of 18-20 ataulfo mangoes. (If we didn’t fly to Oakland, my mom would have purchased 15 cases like the time 99 Ranch had cases of ataulfo mangoes for $6 a case. We brought along a case whenever we visited family and friends.)

I had a craving since someone at worked mentioned it. I still had half a can of coconut milk in the fridge leftover from when I made pandan chiffon cake. I also had a few mangoes. Mango and sticky rice tastes better when made with ataulfo or champagne mangoes but regular mangoes still taste good. I don’t discriminate. I love all mangoes.

My mom likes to make her mango and sticky rice on the saltier side. I like to make mine with less salt and use a lower coconut milk to rice ratio. I mix a little of the coconut milk mixture with the rice and let it absorb.

I'm not doing another primer on cooking sticky rice. Here is a link to a previous post on preparing sticky rice. I like to make at least three cups of sticky rice and leave some for other meals. I have some chicken larb from the Cambodian restaurant.

2 cups cooked sticky rice
200 ml (half can) coconut milk
¼ cup sugar
pinch salt
mango, peeled and sliced

1. Start making the coconut milk mixture during the last ten minutes of the sticky rice steaming. In a small sauce pan, bring coconut milk, sugar and salt to a simmer. Cook about 5 minutes until the coconut milk is slightly reduced and sugar is melted.
2. When rice is done steaming, scoop out about two cups of rice and spoon about ¾ the coconut milk mixture on the hot rice and stir. Let the rice absorb the coconut milk.
3. To serve: Spoon the rice mixture onto serving plates, top with mango slices, the rest of the coconut milk mixture and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. You can also thicken the reserved coconut milk with a little arrowroot or tapioca starch before drizzling on top. I don’t think it is necessary.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer (Antibacterial Hand Gel)

I was planning on blogging other recipes but in light of recent events, I decided this recipe was more suitable for the moment. Last Friday I decided to step up our office’s cleaning and disinfecting supplies. I volunteer to make occasional runs to the store to purchase cleaning supplies because our office supply company has a very high mark up on their cleaning supplies and I am much too frugal to pay the mark up. Lately I have been purchasing earth-friendly items such as Method, Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyers but with the impending pandemic, we had requests for the good old Lysol and Clorox. I also had requests for hand sanitizers for each of our meeting rooms and lobby.

I went to Target. They were out. I went to Walgreen’s. They were out but the stock guy directed me to these clearance bottles of purifying anti-bacterial hand gel made by one of those drugstore brands of bath and body products. I grabbed a few bottles. I headed to Walmart. They were out. I went to Costco. I didn’t see any. I then came home and thought, “I can probably make my own. It can’t be too difficult.”

I did my research and found a recipe. The recipe lists 1 cup aloe vera gel, two teaspoons alcohol and 2 teaspoons of glycerin…interesting but 2 teaspoons of alcohol doesn’t seem like much. After more research I discovered that many people agreed. You need at least 60% alcohol (ethyl alcohol is better than isopropyl but I couldn’t find denatured ethyl alcohol and Everclear, because it is sold as an alcoholic beverage, is too expensive.) I found 91% isopropyl.
My pharmacist had a little bottle of glycerin. I love my pharmacist. He is so friendly and helpful. He suggested Walgreens. I went to the Walgreens near my house and found bottles of glycerin. They also had one large bottle of Germ-X for $4. Yay! I grabbed it.

I couldn’t find clear aloe vera gel at the store but I have a huge bottle of it for treating my burns after I over-indulge in the tanning bed.

I went to the trouble of gathering all these ingredients but I don’t actually like using hand sanitizer. The only time I ever used it was during my younger days of raving and because I couldn’t stand the smell of Purell, I bought bottles from Bath and Body Works.

Many essential oils are antibacterial. Tea tree oil is best for its antimicrobial, antiseptic and antiviral properties. Lavender is second best but is a good all-purpose oil. I don’t have any tea tree oil and didn’t feel like going to a store that sold essential oils. I have a whole collection of lavender oil for when I was “searching” for my favorite lavender scent. (Aveda’s lavender oil makes me gag.)

The below formula yields just under 64% alcohol. It is 2:1:7 (glycerin, aloe, alcohol). You can also do a 1:1:5 ratio of aloe to glycerin to alcohol to get a 65% alcohol content.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer
yields 1 liter

1 cup glycerin
½ cup aloe vera gel
3 ½ cups 91% isopropyl alcohol (isopropyl is easier to find than ethyl)
10 - 20 drops of essential oil such as tea tree, lavender, oregano or lemon

Mix together and use a whisk or hand blender on high to aerate. The resulting liquid is not as thick as Purell or Germ-X. Both products use thickening agents called carbomer. The glycerin and aloe vera gel provides some thickening needed to slow down the evaporation of the alcohol on your hands.

I doubled the recipe and made 2 liters and filled up two empty conditioner bottles.

Grandma's Homemade Soy Milk

Homemade soy milk was a rare treat for us because we lived in California and fresh soy milk can be purchased at almost every Asian grocery store in California. Even though fresh soy milk is very good, it does not compare to grandma's homemade soy milk. Fresh soy milk and homemade soy milk tastes nothing like the soy milk found in American grocery stores. I like the taste of Silk soy milk but when I drink it I don't expect it to taste like real soy milk. I swear they do something to the soy beans to get rid of the soy flavor. It is either bland or vanilla-y. Silk also adds something called carrageenan to increase the viscosity and make it more milk-like. By adding the carrageenan, they make the soy milk less soy milk-like. For most Western taste, this works well because Westerners tend to drink soy milk as a cow's milk alternative.

I can't remember how I learned to make homemade soy milk. I think I was experimenting in the kitchen, found a bag of dried soy beans in my mom's pantry, called up my grandmother and asked her to walk me through the process. The process included a blender. I thought, "how did grandma make this when she lived in China?" I didn't ask.

I still use the same method for making soy milk. Last year while we were in San Diego, my aunt found a soy milk maker at 99 Ranch Market. She picked it up and held it tightly against her chest. She had been eyeing the soy milk maker for quite a while now. She said she saw it in a catalog for $100 and 99 Ranch had it for $50. She read the specs and deemed the 99 Ranch model superior to the catalog model. She said she would carry it on the airplane.

When we got home, I suggested that she test it out just in case there is a defect. We don't have 99 Ranch Markets in Colorado. My mom pulled out a 5-pound bag of soy beans. I forgot how much they swell up. I soaked all 5 pounds. We made the soy milk in batches as the machine would only hold about a cup or so of the beans at a time. The machine ground the soy beans, boiled the liquid and strained out the pulp. The first batch was pretty cool. It didn't make very much soy milk and it took quite a while to make the measly 4 cups. Still I proceeded to make batch after batch. We ran into trouble during the 5th batch. The machine ground up the beans but never heated up the water. We tried restarting, turning it off, unplugging it and cursing it. It never came back. We ended up having to make several gallons by hand.

I don't have exact measurements. I make it and judge by the opacity of the milk. I call it intuitional cooking. My grandma never cooks with measurements. I asked her how to make fresh chow fun noodles. She said, "take a bag of rice flour, the one with the green writing (or was it red?), and add two and half bags of water..." If you want a recipe for soy milk, go here to Martha Stewart's website. I don't use her recipe but it sounds pretty close to my grandma's method.

Grandma's Homemade Soy Milk
yields 2 to 3 quarts

1 pound dried soy beans
water
sugar (optional)
vanilla (optional)

1. Soak beans overnight or until soft. Rinse beans. (You can shell them if you want. I read that it makes the soy milk taste less beany but I happen to like the taste of the soy milk made with the shells.)

Soy beans before soaking:

Soy beans after soaking:

2. In batches, blend soy beans with water and pour into a large stock pot. (I don't measure the water. I just add enough to aid the blending.) Rinse out the blender with a little more water and pour into the stock pot. Check water to pulp ratio. You should have enough water so that you can easily stir it.

3. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes. Be very careful and monitor the simmering soy milk. The soy milk has a tendency to foam and overflow. You may have to continually stir the soy milk to prevent it from overflowing.

This pot of soy milk nearly overflowed. Originally the pot was only 2/3 full.

Look at the foam on top.

4. Let sit until cool enough to handle.

5. Set a strainer in a large bowl and line the strainer with cheesecloth (or in my case flour sack towel). Let the liquid drip and then squeeze the remaining liquid through the cheesecloth. Don't toss the pulp. The pulp is high in protein, fiber and other nutrients. You can use it for many other dishes like meat balls, polenta, tuna salad, cookies, stif-fry, etc. I'll share some of my favorites later.


6. Add more water if soy milk is too thick. Optional: Add sugar and/or vanilla to taste. (I only added sugar.)

This is the way I was taught to make soy milk. I read other methods and many tell you squeeze the "milk" out of the soy pulp prior boiling the milk. This may be easier to do but I don't think you are able to extract enough of the "milk". By boiling and steeping the pulp, you achieve maximum extraction.