Stocking your freezer - part two

It's getting late, and this heat is making me sleepy! I'm going to make this a quick one...another post on how I stock my freezer! We love dumplings around here, all kinds, steamed, boiled and pan fried! I'm always a bit weary about buying frozen dumplings, since I don't know what kind of meat they use, I prefer to make my own. Making dumplings are super easy, only a few ingredients and a little go a long way. They are good served with noodles, but equally good just on it's own! We love them and so does our little guy!

I made two different kind this time, one is a meat filled wonton and one is our stable pork and chives dumplings.

 Wontons
1.5 lbs of ground pork
10 medium size shrimps (chopped into small chunks)
2 stalks of green onions (finely chopped)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
1/2 tsp chicken powder
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp sesame oil
50 sheets wonton wrapper

1. Mix all ingredients together, stir in one direction until they bind together
2. Put 1 tsp pork mixture in the middle of the wrapper. Fold one corner to the center, roll one more time.
3. Dab some water on one side of the wrapper and fold with the other side. Press to seal.
4. Freeze the wontons separately on a cookie sheet, and once frozen, they can be put into a freezer bag.

One of the ways to use these wontons is to make Wontons in Red Spicy Sauce, it is a classic shanghai recipe. It's nothing fancy, basically just cooked wonton mix in a spicy sauce.

Wontons in Red Spicy Sauce  
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp chili oil
1 tbsp chinese black vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil

1. Bring water to boil and put in wontons, boil for 10 - 15 minutes.
2. Mix all ingredients for the sauce together
3. Take out the wontons and put several into each bowl with a little boiling water
4. Mix a few tbsp of sauce with the wonton and serve.

You can adjust the taste accordingly, we like it HOT!

Pork & Chives Dumplings
1.5 lbs of ground pork
1 package of chinese chives (finely chopped)
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
100 round dumpling wrappers

1. Mix all ingredients together, mix with a fork until the mixture is well blended, the mixture should be moist.
2. Put 1 tsp of mixture in the center of the wrapper, fold the wrapper in half, seal the edge with water.

3. Crimp the folded side to seal the side.  Freeze dumplings separately, and store in a freezer bag.

Portuguese Chicken - HK style

I started taking an interesting in cooking when I started dating hubby 10 years ago (OMG! 10 years already?), it started with some baking, then went on to a full blown obsession! As I have mentioned before, my inspirations usually come from other food blogs, cooking shows and cook books, but before all of these, there was my mom. My mom was also a working mom, but she always managed to put a yummy dinner on the table.

This week's recipe is definitely an inspiration from my mom, she always made this for my sister and I growing up, and that taste is always on my mind. I don't really know where the name Portuguese Chicken comes from, I wonder if it is really a Portuguese dish or not, all I know is if you grew up in Hong Kong, you must know about this dish. It is similar to curry chicken, but it is not spicy and the creamiest comes from the coconut milk. It is a really easy dish to make and perfect served with rice.

Portuguese Chicken - HK style 
Adapted from http://hungerhunger.blogspot.com/2007/08/portuguese-chicken.html

8 pieces of chicken thighs (cut into chunks)
2 brown onions, in small chunks
2 carrots, in small chunks
1/2 package of mushrooms (cut in half)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of tumeric powder
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup milk
3 to 4 cups water
Salt and pepper to season

1. Mix the tumeric into the chicken, season with salt and pepper. Pan fry the chicken and onions in a little bit of veg oil for 4 to 5 min, add the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, water and simmer 15 min.

2. In a separate pan, put in butter, then turn heat on to medium (so butter won't brown) and when butter has melted, add the flour, stirring well. It will form clumps but continue to fry it under low heat for 1 min. Do not let it brown.

3. Add the coconut milk and the milk a little at a time, stirring well, till a thick cream is formed. Use a whisk to eliminate any lumps.

4. Stir in the milk mixture into the pot with the chicken and vegetables once the chicken is cooked. Let the sauce bubble, then let is cook for about 5 min.


5. Spoon the mixture into an over proof dish, and broil (on HIGH) for 5 min or until top is brown.

Serve with rice!

Stocking your freezer - part one

To me, the key to stress free work night dinners is to have a well stocked freezer and pantry. I like to stock our freezer with tons of "meal starters", which makes cooking dinner after work much quicker. I won't lie, this takes time and planning, but the reward is worth it. I've prepared a few of our freezer stables in the past weeks, and one of them is Freezer Meatballs! This meatball recipe is slightly different than the spicy meatball recipe I've previously posted, this one is just as good and with a surprise in the middle!


Freezer Meatballs
Adapted from Martha Stewart

1/2 lb of ground pork
1/2 lb of ground beef
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Italian seasoned dried breadcrumbs
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, diced
1 tbsp dried parsley
1/4 cup of milk

Mix all of the ingredients (except for the cheese) together until well blended.

Roll a scoopful (similar size to an ice cream scoop) of meat mixture into a ball, stick a piece of cheese in the middle, and roll it back into a ball to make sure the cheese is not expose.

Freeze the meatballs individually on a cookie sheet, once frozen, the meatballs can transferred to a freezer bag for storage.


This is such a time saver, all I have to do when I get home is to preheat the oven to 375F, place the frozen meatballs (right from the freezer) on an oiled oven proof dish. Bake for 25 minutes, and served with any homemade or store bought pasta sauce! Viola! This is a definite 30 minutes meal, move over Rachel Ray!! =P

And the beauty of having these meatballs handy is, they are good with pasta and also as a meatball sub. You can even make smaller versions for soups and little pastas for the kiddies.

Weeknight udon with caramel chicken

The reason why I haven't been blogging much lately is because between my several failed dinner attempts: Way too sweet teriyaki noodles (which my toddler splat out and kept saying NO NO!) and too sticky pad thai (AGAIN!), I really didn't have much to blog about. But I'm backkk, and with a few new yummy recipes in hand! This one is back to the basics, soup udon served with a caramel chicken. I bet you are thinking "what the heck is caramel chicken, sounds more like a dessert"! But caramel chicken is actually a way of cooking chicken that results in a sweet, deep flavored and very savory chicken.

Caramel Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken legs, skinned and chopped into pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced
1 package of brown enoki mushrooms (or any type of mushrooms you can find)
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce


Fry the chicken pieces in the vegetable oil until lightly brown, remove from pan.

Reduce the heat to medium and fry the onion, mushrooms and garlic, cook for 5 minutes

Return the chicken to the pan, add the soy sauce and stir to combine. Cover pan and reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes.

Now, for the important part, increase heat to high, add the sugar and stir to combine, cook uncovered for 30 4 minutes, or until the sauce is dark and syrupy. Remove from heat and stir in fish sauce.

See, easy right?? It's delicious, it really is! The sugar is caramelized, it's slightly sweet and just the right balance with the fish sauce. I served this in a simple soup udon (miso soup based, udon noodles, my fav - fake crab meat and a soft boiled egg, YUM!), but this would be really good served with rice to soak up all the savory sauce. A great quick weeknight options for you and your family!