what to do with left over sofregit?

I found that I have some sofregit left over from august daring cooks challenge. What to do with it? It taste really good just by itself. But one can't possibly eat that alone for dinner, right? I rummage through the pantry and freezer and found some frozen shrimps, scallops and spaghetti noodles. Throw everything together and I have seafood pasta! The left over white wine goes really well with this dish too. Major YUM!

Sofregit

Seafood Pasta

Seafood Pasta

Sofregit (I have about more than half a quart left)
1 handful of spaghetti (about half a packet)
1 lb of shrimp, shelled and veined
1 cup of mini scallops
2-3 tbsp oil
a dash of white wine
salt and pepper to taste
Enough water to boil spaghetti

1. Cook spaghetti to al dente, per your spaghetti package instructions. Reserve one cup of spaghetti water and drain noodle. Do not rinse noodle.
2. In another pan, heat up oil and add shrimp and scallops. Stir a few times and add a dash of salt.
3. Add white wine and scrape the bottom of pan to release the wonderful flavor.
4. Add sofregit and cook till simmer. Add spaghetti and the reserve spaghetti water, you can skip the water if noodle is too wet. You just want to coat spaghetti noodle with the sauce. Turn off heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!

daring cooks: Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

My first daring cooks challenge! It feels good to something different than constant chinese cooking. The rice turns out great. I have substituted cuttlefish with squid because I can't get them in store. I was also pressing on time and skipped the Allioli

Ingredients for Sofregit

Sofregit

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichoke

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

by José Andrés

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)
• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
• 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions:

1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit
by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 Bay leaf
• Salt
• Touch of ground cumin
• Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

pan fried black pomfret with tomato

I usually cook a whole week's lunches on Sunday. My first dish is bitter melon and you can scroll down to read about it. Second dish is pan fried black pomfret with tomato


pan fried black pomfret with tomatoes

1 black pomfret (I got mine frozen from vietnamese grocery store), cleaned and wiped dry
1 tomato, cut into 8 wedges
1 inch piece of ginger, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 stalk of scallion
3-4 stalk of cilantro
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt (to taste)
5 -6 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil using medium high heat. Make sure pan is hot else the fish will stick. Gently, I mean really gently, lower fish into pan. Don't move the pan, don't do anything, and after 3 mins, lower the heat to medium. Leave the fish alone, don't try to move it. Let pan fry for 6 - 7 mins. and flip the fish. Once flipped, don't touch the fish. Let pan fry for another 6-7 mins or longer until fish is cooked. Remove fish and set a side.
2. Using the same pan, add a little bit more oil. Add ginger, garlic and tomatoes wedges for 3 mins.
3. Add sugar, ketchup and water. Stir and put a lid on the pan. Cook until tomato is soft. Add salt and lastly the scallion and cilantro. Turn off heat and pour over fish. Serve with rice.

bitter melon me

I spent whole day yesterday cooking and this is one of the dishes. I usually cook for the whole week and store them into containers. Everyday, I'll make lunch box picking from a combination of dishes.

One of my week's lunch is bitter melon with shrimp. Easy peasy to make and it doesn't taste bitter at all. Some people don't like bitter melon because they complained its bitter! Duh. But I admit some are more bitter than others. The trick of picking bitter melon is the picking a bitter melon with bigger ridges, those that with ridges that are farther apart. Try this when you picking out bitter melon the next time.



Bitter melon with shrimp
2 - 4 bitter melon, about 1.5 lbs, (see tips below for cutting)
1 lb of shrimp, shelled and veined
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ground bean sauce
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

1. Heat up oil with medium heat. Add garlic and ground bean and stir fry until fragrant, about 5 mins.
2. Add bitter melon and stir fry for a few mins. Add water and close pan with lid. Let cook for 6 mins.
3. Add shrimps and stir fry until it turns pink. Add salt to taste. Serves with rice.

tips:
bitter melon - wash and trim off both ends. Cut into half and scoop out the middle (seeds and white part). Cut into thin slices.
shrimp - I prefer to use shrimp with heads for this dish. Shrimps will need to be shelled but the orange color part in the head gives a lot of wonderful flavor to this dish. Not to mention some nice reddish color too.

vietnamese salad rules

I have to warn you that this post consists of animal parts that is not too frequently consumed in this part of the world. You can stop here if you are only chops and fillet eater.

OKAY. You are still here :-). My Saturday routine usually starts with the local farmer's market but I gave my routine a break this week. Since I am not going to farmer's market, I can sleep in late. That's a good start for me. I got up and did some running around and went to the vietnamese grocery store in town. They have tons of fresh asian vegetables, but some items can be a little pricey. Anyway, I picked up a week of vegetables and since I am running on an empty stomach, I picked up some ready made salad and noodle rolls. Noodle rolls are common but the salad is a little interesting. Its jicama/carrot/shrimp/pig's ear salad with fish sauce dressing!


Pig ears are actually quite tasteless. Its the gelatinous and crunchy texture that is so good and nope, its not hairy at all.

summer is hot

This is not an understatement today. Temperatures hovering into the 90s and I don't even want to mention the humidity. I came home from work and took a shower. Made myself a salad and thought, hey why don't I take some picture of it in the balcony where there's more light? I was barely 5 mins out there and already sweating. I don't know what I'll do if I go to hell...

This is what I had for dinner

Chicken Salad Veronique



Once I saw on foodnetwork Ina Garten's Chicken Salad Veronique and have been wanting to try this. Well, I finally did, 2 years later.

Here is my version
2 cups of leftover store bought roast chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 cup of green grapes, cut into half
1/4 cup of dill, chopped
2 stalks of celery, cut into cubes
2-3 tbsp mayo
salt and pepper to taste

Toss everything together and dinner is ready. I had some pita bread and one last glass of white wine to go with the salad. Perfect summer dinner.

Hearts Bokeh Wednesday! "Shin-chan"

Hearts Bokeh Wednesday! "Shin-chan"
Originally uploaded by eisha_romeo_4 (Busy)

Saw this in flickr and it just put a smile on my face.

Seafood Soup

Crab legs was on sale at Whole Foods today and I got myself 2 lbs. The first thought that came to my mind was seafood soup! The Chinese thick soup kind. I also bought some chicken breast bones and frozen scallop too. I came home and found some home-made chicken stock. Throw everything together with some eggs and corn starch mixture and I have seafood soup aka my style.




Seafood Soup aka my style

2 lbs crab legs, extract meat
2 quart chicken stock
2 chicken breast bones
1 inch piece of ginger
2 eggs (beaten)
1 cup scallops
1 cup of shrimp, peeled and de-veined
3 tbsp corn starch dilute with 4 tbsp of cold water
A dash of cooking wine (optional)
Cilantro
White pepper
Black Vinegar

In a pot, bring to a boil chicken stock, chicken bones and ginger. Bring down the heat to medium and simmer for 2 hrs. Fish out the solids after 2 hrs and add scallops, shrimps and crab meat. Bring to a boil and with one hand stirring the soup constantly, slowly pour in the eggs. (Egg drop soup style). Add salt and white pepper to taste and add a dash of cooking wine. Lastly, stir the soup and add the cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil for 3 mins. Soup is ready. Garnish with some cilantro, and I always like a dash of black vinegar and white pepper.

Artisphere

Pictures taken at the Artisphere in Greenville SC last sunday. Pretty neat but the art wasn't my cup of tea. Random pictures taken of things that tickle me..


He at one point before I clicked shoot, jumped up and scared the crap out of me.


Interesting art..


Colorful isn't it?


The mosaic piece is made out of tiles..


This guy has a sense of humor, he sells carved gourd..lol


I love these 3D drawings...

Pictures that I took when I am bored

One fine morning, before leaving to work. Ain't this family cute?


These two must be playing the court game.


Jade plant in my bedroom

Balcony Gardening

Is someone still reading this? I doubt it, I don't read this myself! Now I am crazy, I am talking to myself. Oh well..

Its Spring and I can't wait to have plants. I went to the nursery looking for herbs in the middle of March and people thought I was crazy. What can I say, I can't wait. Since last month I have been to Farmer's Markets, big box hardware store that sells plants and plant shows. This is what I have accumulated ..

Shasta Daisy, Mix Mesclun Salad and Spinach


Japanese Eggplant... the first flower.. it dropped the next day :( But I got 6 more buds. Hopefully it stays where they are long enough to bear fruit.


Pink Double Knock-Out Rose


Hydrangeas.. my husband got this for me and it was only branches and new growth. Now I have 1 bud. I am so happy.

Balcony Gardening

Is someone still reading this? I doubt it, I don't read this myself! Now I am crazy, I am talking to myself. Oh well..

Its Spring and I can't wait to have plants. I went to the nursery looking for herbs in the middle of March and people thought I was crazy. What can I say, I can't wait. Since last month I have been to Farmer's Markets, big box hardware store that sells plants and plant shows. This is what I have accumulated ..

Shasta Daisy, Mix Mesclun Salad and Spinach


Japanese Eggplant... the first flower.. it dropped the next day :( But I got 6 more buds. Hopefully it stays where they are long enough to bear fruit.


Pink Double Knock-Out Rose


Hydrangeas.. my husband got this for me and it was only branches and new growth. Now I have 1 bud. I am so happy.

Addi Clicks arrived today!

Ok. I admit. I got into the frenzy of people cooing how good addi needles are and I was looking for a set of interchangeable needles. I've looked at Denise and didn't like the feel of it. I drooled at knitpicks harmony, the colorful wooden needle. Then I saw addi and just wanted a set. I placed my orders on webs and it came. I am not as excited as I thought I would. The packaging was filmsy without padding and the box just look battered and dusty. You know, like you ship something without properly packaging it. For $149.99, I would think they will put a few form peanuts in it. The needles look like what's shown on the website. I tried connecting the needles with cable and it works fine. Until I start to use it I won't know how good they are, given that I have not tried any addi before. Here's a couple pictures.

       

 

MacBook: My Documents and Application folder back to the Dock

I accidentally delete these 2 folders from the dock and have been trying for the last few days dragging it back from the Finder to the dock and it just poof! goes into the trash. I have to go back to preference and check the Application to see it again. Anyway I found out how to put these 2 back to the dock so it stack. Drag to the right side of the dotted line and you can see how the trash can kinda move over to make room. Then only you drop and it won't go into the trash. This small detail cause me sooo many hrs of frustration and its just so easy. Ah, the surprises of MacBook, never-ending...

Is there a thing of too much Apple?

Well I got a MacBook and now contemplating on an iPhone. My husband's only reaction, Soooooooo Apple... Heck yeah, they are pretty :). So is MacBook and iPhone toooo Apple? I don't think so, I am paying and I buy whatever I like!  

MACBOOK

Alright! I am back in business. My old laptop died a few months back and I just got a new one. I bought a MacBook. I was/am a PC user and I have a hard time locating where everything is. Oh no, I missed the backspace button and End button already. Oh my, I haven't had time to find out what I missed about PC. Is this PC withdrawal symptom? Oh man, for the money I forked out, I hope I can get use to this machine. Took me a few hrs to find where my uploaded pictures are through Nikon Transfer. Heck I don't think I know but I found what I needed so I am a happy camper. Hopefully I will blog more since I have no reason not to.. well unless, you know its the holiday and got lots and lots to do...

Oh by the way, the trackpad is nice and all but I got sore wrist last night using it and I plucked in a mouse. I.MUST.GET.USE.TO.MACBOOK.

RIP Laptop

Yesterday the old faithful died. It didn't actually died die, I got virus through FireFox add-ons, the yahoo one and have to reformat but the laptop it got so hot in the middle of reinstallation that it shutdown by itself. I'll have to let it cool and put a fan on Hi towards it. Then I tried to do the reinstallation again and this went on for hrs. After 5 hrs and going nowhere, I have to declare it dead. I was already planning on an Macbook for Christmas and I'll wait till Christmas or at least November and try to live without laptop for a while. I am already feeling technology withdrawal what but heck, I can't cough up the dough and that's the price I have pay. Right now I am using my work laptop so I am not completely lost. Besides, MacBook's configuration is due for an update and looking at the trend for the past few years, it should be close now. So I am hanging in there and waiting patiently.

New Knitting Projects for Christmas

After putting down my needles for over 8 months and the knitting bug is biting me big time in the you know where. So last week I browsed Little Knits for hours and bought some yarn. I am now painfully anticipating its delivery. I ordered 3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina, 1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroha in Paprika and Cool Wool Big in Lovely Fushia.

Tentative project in mind:-
3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina - Abigail Tee for my lovely size 0 buddy that's getting hitched next month
1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroha in Paprika - Minimalist Cardigan for the bestest Mom in the world
1 full bag of Cool Wool Big in Lovely Fushia - Sidelines Top for my voluptuosly fashionable sista

Of course being the most selfish person in the world, I am thinking of:
3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina - Anisette shawl for moi
1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroho in Paprika - Kyra shawl-collar cardigan for moi
1 full bag of Cool wook Big in Lovely Fushia - Wicked cardigan for moi

Wicked aint I? Oh so much to knit, so little time, so little resources.....

New Knitting Projects for Christmas

After putting down my needles for over 8 months and the knitting bug is biting me big time in the you know where. So last week I browsed Little Knits for hours and bought some yarn. I am now painfully anticipating its delivery. I ordered 3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina, 1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroha in Paprika and Cool Wool Big in Lovely Fushia.

Tentative project in mind:-
3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina - Abigail Tee for my lovely size 0 buddy that's getting hitched next month
1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroha in Paprika - Minimalist Cardigan for the bestest Mom in the world
1 full bag of Cool Wool Big in Lovely Fushia - Sidelines Top for my voluptuosly fashionable sista

Of course being the most selfish person in the world, I am thinking of:
3 skeins of Kidsilk Night in Ballerina - Anisette shawl for moi
1 full bag of Noro Cash Iroho in Paprika - Kyra shawl-collar cardigan for moi
1 full bag of Cool wook Big in Lovely Fushia - Wicked cardigan for moi

Wicked aint I? Oh so much to knit, so little time, so little resources.....

Dentist or Salesmen?

Time has certainly change, or time has make my opinion towards dentist change.. to the worst. In early 2007 I went to have my teeth cleaned and I was given a clean bill of health, clean bill of teeth...it was in Tennessee and I truly like this dentist. Fast forward 1 year and I went to a different dentist (I have since move to South Carolina) and after the end of the half/pseudo cleaning, I was given a treatment plan, 4 gum treatments and 2 fillings. I didn't go for it because the reason I need gum treatment was because they wouldn't stop jamming x-ray apparatus into my Asian jaw. I can hardly close my mouth and they want me to bite down. Gums were still hurting after 2 days. So after 6 months, and many many cups of coffee and tea later, I went to a different dentist. And this time after a real cleaning I've had had since the first dentist I went to I was satisfied. Until the dentist came in and start checking my teeth sans x-ray (the second dentist didn't fax over the x-ray) and starts to roll call bad teeth, and its almost everyone single one of them. Finally I was given a treatment plan, 8 fillings! Amazing how 6 months can do your teeth or is it something that I need to investigate further, wait 6 more months and go to another dentist? Also, notice how the last 2 dentist in South Carolina loves dispensing treatment plan and its not quick one time treatment. The plans usually requires you to make at least 4 more visits. Don't worry, there are at least 4 pages of dentist listing in the Yellow Pages until my teeth all rot and falls off.