Đậu Phụ Xốt Cà Chua - Tofu in Tomato Sauce

Difficulty: Easy

1 pkg medium to firm tofu

1 large tomatoes, diced
1 shallot, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp sugar
Salt

Pepper
2 Tbsp water or chicken stock
Cilantro, optional

Drain tofu well and wrap in some paper towels.  Place a plate on the tofu to make sure you get any excess water out.  Cut into cubes.  Heat up a small saucepan with some oil and fry the tofu until golden brown. Place tofu on paper towels after frying to remove any excess oil.

In a frying pan, heat up on high with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.  Toss in garlic and shallots. Saute until they are fragrant.  Toss in the dice tomatoes with a pinch of salt to draw the liquid out of the tomatoes. Stir well and add the sugar.  Add water, reduce to low heat and cover the pan.  Allow for the tomatoes to start breaking down into a sauce.  It will take about 4-5 minutes for it to start breaking down. Add the fish sauce and taste.  It has to be on the salty side, but still pleasant tasting.  (When you add the tofu cubes, the salt will mellow out.)  Add the tofu and combine well.  Finish with some black pepper and cilantro.  Serve over a hot bowl of rice with an herb platter.

Spicy Eggplant

1/2 lb of ground pork or  chicken
3 large Japanese eggplant, cut into 3 inch long wedges like cucumber spears
8-10 cloves ginger, minced
3 inch knob ginger, julienne
Water or stock
2 Tbsp corn or wheat starch and 2 Tbsp water, stir to make slurry

Sauce:
1 Tbsp chili sauce
5 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 stem green onion, chopped


Combine all the sauce ingredients and set aside.  Heat up pan with oil.  When the oil is hot, add the ginger and garlic.  Stir until fragrant.  Add the ground protein and brown until the pink is gone.  Add the sauce and combine well.  Drop in the eggplant, add enough water or stock to cover the eggplant mixture, and the cornstarch slurry.  Allow for it to simmer on medium heat until the eggplant is translucent. 

This can be made vegetarian by substituting the ground meat for tofu and woodear/black fungus mushrooms.

Krab Rangoon

Difficulty: Medium (wrapping)

1lb krab, imitation crab, preferably not made with pollock fish

1-8oz package cream cheese

2 Tbsp shallots, minced

1 tsp black pepper

1 Tbsp dried minced onion, optional

1 package dumpling skins, round Hong Kong style preferred (picture below of the brand I use)

Mince the krab into small pieces.  Add all the remaining ingredients except the wrappers together and combine well.  You can put the mixture in the microwave for a minute to soften the cream cheese to aid you in combining it.

For the wrappers/skins, you can use the round or the squares.  I prefer the round because they don't end up with burnt edges as often.  Place skin on a flat surface and add a little filling.  I use a little less than 1/2 tsp.  You want them to be fat but no so fat that they don't close.  Wet half of the edge and and fold the other end to close it and make a half moon shape.  If you are lazy, you can stop at this stage.  But if you fold it like a tortellini, it makes a scoop for your dipping sauce.  Take the two pointy edges and bend it back so they can meet.  Wet one point and lay the other point on top and press it together.

In a saucepan, heat up so oil on medium-high heat.  You want to make sure that it is hot before putting it in.  It will cook very quickly.  You are looking to cook the wrapper and heat up the filling.  It takes about 1-1.5 minutes to cook both sides.

For the sauce, you can use duck sauce or the springroll sauce.

Korean Fried Chicken

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

If anyone has gotten to really know me, knows that I am a bit of a scatterbrain. Becoming a mom made it worse with my children distracting me. Googling pandan waffle recipes made a right turn to fried fish, which lead to Malaysian style fried fish, which lead to a Malaysian fried chicken, which lead to Southern fried chicken, which made me think of Roscoe's chicken and waffles, which lead to Korean Fried Chicken. Oh I have left over coconut that taste good with pandan. Yes, Korean fried chicken with coconut pandan waffles.

For the fried chicken (inspired and adapted from Maangchi's seasoned and sweet and crispy)
20 pieces wings
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp adobo seasoning
1 large egg

For sauce:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1 tsp ginger powder
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp of hot pepper flakes


For sauce:
Add all ingredients into a saucepan and simmer until thicken.


For chicken:
I know that there is a proper method to breading chicken, but I found for this recipe, you get extra crunchiness from breading ignorance. I threw the wing pieces into a large bowl. I combine the dry ingredients and blend well. Threw it on the chicken and mix well. Then I threw a beaten egg in and mixed it all up. It was clumpy and just a plain ol' mess.

I heated up a deep frying pan or wok. Added some oil, just enough to cover the chicken when frying in the pan. Fry them for about 10-12 minutes and pull them out of the pan. Allow 2-3 minutes to rest. Scoop out any free floating pieces and fry the wings an additional time to get it to be extra crispy. Place them on a paper towel to remove any excess oil. Toss the wings with the sauce or have sauce on the side.