Tôm Hùm Xào Hành Gừng - Lobster with Onion and Ginger

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Lobster is a specialty in Vietnamese cooking.  You normally only see it during big celebrations and weddings.  Canadian lobsters were on sale for Valentine's Day and I took this opportunity to make this dish for my family to eat.  It is a very simple dish to make with lots of favor.  Unfortunately, these lobsters didn't come with the head, so the "guts" wasn't available to make the sauce a little extra special.

2 - 1.5 to 2 lb Lobster

1 medium onion

1 inch nub of ginger

2 stalk green onion scallion

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp oyster sauce

1/4 cup broth or water

Clean the lobster.  Remove the head and split down the middle, exposing the "guts" and scoop it into a separate bowl.  Take the claws and with the back side of the knife, hit the claw hard enough to crack the shell but keep the structure of the claw intact.  With a pair of scissors, cut the little legs off the underside of the lobster and cut down the underside to open up the tail and carefully remove the underbelly skeletal structure.  With a knife, cut the tail into segments about 1-inch wide.  Half the onion white onion and slice it and cut the green onions into 1 inch pieces.

In a hot deep pan or wok, heat up enough oil to cover the bottom.  Saute the garlic for a little color before adding the ginger and the "guts".  Toss the lobsters in, cook it until there is a little color and before adding in the broth.  Cover and let cook for about 3 mins.  Add the white and green onions and let them cook for a little before you season it with the oyster and fish sauce.  When you add the sauce, let it cook for a little before you taste it.  You want the flavors to meld together before you make adjustments to it.  You can adjust it with a little sugar if you find it too salty. 

Serve this up with some rice and same sauteed bok choy, ong choy, Chinese broccoli, or snow peas leaves.

Sườn Bò Nướng Tẩm Gia Vị Hàn Quốc - Korean Galbi - 갈비

My version of the Korean galbi

Galbi served with Boston leaf lettuce, shiso leaf, pickled carrots and ssamjang.

Difficulty: Medium

The LA style of the beef ribs were on sale and I was inspired to make some Korean galbi for my family.  I don't cook Korean food or even eat it often, but  I had fond memories of sitting around the table eating Korean food on a Friday at an office I use to work at.

I usually get my marinade from a bottle because I wasn't very familiar with the flavors components to come up with a marinade myself. This time I wasn't going to pay $5.00+ for a bottle.  So I went to ol' Maagchi's webpage to get some inspiration.  I am looking at the recipe and thought that there is no way I was going to pay $3.00+ for an Asian pear for this recipe!!!  We are on a budget.  So I pondered for a few moments and I know that the majority of the marinade is a soy sauce base and every Korean swears on sesame oil.  So this is the marinade I came up with from all the ingredients that came from my kitchen.  I personally like the flavors better than any Korean restaurant I have been too.  I hope you enjoy.

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

1 tsp sesame oil

1 inch nub ginger root

2 stalks green onion, white parts only, smashed with the side of your knife

4-5 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup organic apple juice
1/2 small organic apple, peels and cored

Ssamjang paste

3-3.5 lbs of beef ribs

Take all your solid ingredients and placed them into a mini chopper and chop until you have a paste.  Add all your liquid ingredients and set aside.  If you don't have a chopper, smash everything together in a mortar and pestle or smash everything with the side of your knife and rock the knife over it and scrap them over your cutting board to make a paste.

Wash you beef ribs well by scrapping the exposed parts of the bones with your knife to remove any bone fragments.  Also remove the membrane from the underside of the bones.  Afterwards, rinse several times to ensure that it is well cleaned and allow for it to sit in a strainer or colander to remove any excess water.

In a large zip top bag, place the well drained ribs in with the marinade.  Let it sit for at least 4 hrs, preferably overnight.  Take the ribs out of the fridge for at least 30 mins before grilling.

When grilling you want the grill very hot.  Depending on the thickness, you will be aiming between 3-7 mins total.  Look for shrinkage around the bones and also the meat will bounce back a little when you press on it.

I like to eat mine wrapped in lettuce with pickled daikon and carrots with some fresh cucumber slices.  You can use the Korean soybean paste with the hot pepper paste as a condiment for this dish.  I prefer the Vietnamese nuoc cham.

soybean paste

Hot pepper paste