Ambitious Deliciousness – Dont Eat Lazy.

I love to eat summer rolls. Summer rolls are an excuse for me to eat avocado, crab meat, and crunchy cucumbers. More importantly, summer rolls allow me to indulge my love for sauces. I realize this is bad for me, as a lot of sauces have high amounts of sugar and sodium. The only bad thing is, whenever I’m done eating summer rolls, I have sheets of rice paper that I don’t know what to do with!

Thankfully, I came across this recipe from Chef Julie Yoon’s blog. You create a mixture made of herbs and ginger, then you wrap salmon steaks in rice paper, then dip it in some hoisin and lime sauce. What a delicious and clever idea!

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Exactly a month ago, we first learned of the tsunami and earthquakes that devastated Japan. It was really disturbing for me to watch the videos of the natural disasters, and I felt helpless, because all I could do is send prayers their way, and maybe some money.

It was around the same time that I came across this recipe from No Recipes. Marc, who is Japanese, had posted a traditional Japanese mackerel recipe in light of the natural disasters. And it involved cooking with a pressure cooker.

I have a pressure cooker but have only used it to make brown rice and beans (as opposed to white rice), for its health benefits. (And it’s actually my sister’s.) This might be obvious to you, but it never occurred to me that I could make anything else in it! So I was excited to add a new mackerel dish to my collection of recipes, as well as show my support to the Japanese people during a difficult time.

And that was the last time I cooked with the pressure cooker.

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I have fond memories of my mom making this dish known as mackerel Jjorim for me when I was growing up. The word Jjorim means slow cooked in Korean. The radish pieces were my favorite because it sat on the bottom of the pan, soaking up all the flavors! The use of low heat seasons the fish perfectly without making it salty.

Just a tip: be sure to use chopsticks to pick out the skeletal bones and make sure you don’t swallow them by accident! If you end up swallowing, the trick is to swallow a spoonful of rice  so that the bone doesn’t get stuck in your throat. I realize the possibility of this happening isn’t gonna make you want to try this recipe, but what can I say – I’m a realist.

What’s your favorite way of cooking fish?

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This photo is from the next day, using fresh fish instead of pan fried fish all because I did not like any of the photos I took earlier. (For those of you who care about that sort of thing!)

Inspired by this month’s cover of Food & Wine magazine, I have been hankering for some tacos lately. Not just any tacos (though I must confess Taco Bell every once in a while is my guilty pleasure), but those made from our friends who reside in the sea.

This post is a compilation of two separate days, consisting of two different kinds of tacos – first with shrimp, and then with pan fried sole. I also had the opportunity to make this for some friends who were at my place, helping me with a special project. But more on that in a future post.

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[I want to thank each and every one of you for clicking away for Haiti! Unfortunately, I'm unable to know how much was raised until later. I promise to keep you all posted!]

I recently came across this interesting article in the Huffington Post called Why My Food Is Always Gonna Look Better Than Yours. The author, Denise Vivaldo, states that her food pictures look so good that they “make vegans crave meat and forget about their animal friends.” Sounds great, right?

But if try to eat her food, “you will die of food poisoning.”

She points out that a lot of inedible ingredients are used to get the photos to look just right. After all, her goal is to get people to go out and buy the food she photographed! Fortunately for me, there is no shoe polish or glue in my kitchen, and I’m glad that I can eat the food afterwards!

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As promised, here is the rest of my meal from that fun night of cooking with friends. The rest of the meal was so simple – I brushed some balsamic vinegar on the salmon then grilled it on a pan.  Read more to find out what the “secret” ingredient in the dressing for the salad was! It tastes totally better than what you would imagine!

Photo by Edmond H. Lee*

Once again, here are the beautiful photos by Edmond, followed by the recipes! I’m sad that I have to go back to my normal photos. Back to reality!

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The springtime is upon us and it’s time to put away the bulky sweaters, scarves, and the boots with da fur (da fur!). I’m so tired of my winter clothes and can’t wait to break out the flip flops!

Interestingly enough, I made a similar dish a while back, waving goodbye to summer. Now I’m creating the dish with similar ingredients and welcoming spring!

I prepared the salsa in advance so that it could sit in the fridge overnight. A little bit of planning goes a long way! The mango is sweet and refreshing, with just the right amount of acidity to complement the fish.

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I totally lost some of you fish haters with this title, didn’t I? But since you’re already here, please hear me out.

This simple dish is often found in Korean restaurants and is usually served in a stone plate to keep it warm. Mackerel is full of good oils and tastes great. It’s buttery and totally melts in your mouth!

The Korean grocery store actually cuts the fish for you so that you don’t have to deal with the fish guts. After my traumatic chicken experience, I was happy to let someone do the cleaning for me. This is so easy to make that I feel like things that taste this good shouldn’t be done so quickly! 

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Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Talk about hard times! I’ve managed to roast chicken, make soup with the bones, and save some of the stock for the rice.

This dish is super duper yummy and is one of the easiest dishes you could make! It’s a great weeknight meal, especially when you’re welcomed by an empty fridge at home after being away for the holiday.

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I picked up some cilantro, some yellow squash, red heirloom tomatoes and zucchini from my favorite place ever (the farmers market) the other day. =) I can’t wait to see what great autumn produce they have this week!

While reading Serious Eats, I had bookmarked this recipe for pico de gallo with Tilapia and thought I’d give it a shot. I ventured out to a Chinese grocery store in my ‘hood. It was about 9 pm, which clearly means that the fish is not as fresh as it would be earlier in the day. However, I decided to take my chances (I’m such a rebel) and chose to go anyway.

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