Category Archives: Recipes

Mini Meatballs: Some Food to Go with Beer

Posted on September 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

Question: When was the last time I cooked something by myself or with wifey?

Answer: I don’t remember, which means that it’s been way too long.

So, after taking in some of wifey’s knowledge earlier this afternoon, I made some mini-meatballs.

And yes, as the post title and picture suggest, there was beer involved, in a special way. But that’ll be a separate post.

These mini meatballs turned out quite tasty, according to those who tried them. Yay!

The ingredients and directions are below:

Ingredients

  • One pound organic, grass-fed beef
  • 2 medium-sized onions, chopped in food processor
  • 4 garlic gloves, minced in food processor
  • 1 carrot, chopped in food processor
  • 4 crackers, crushed in food processor
  • 1 egg
  • Ketchup
  • Mustard
  • 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
  • Seasoning salt and pepper
  • Trader Joe’s 21 Seasonal Blend

Directions

  1. Mix ingredients together.
  2. Spray frying pan with olive oil and heat pan.
  3. Form mixture into mini meatballs.
  4. Fry in pan for about 5 minutes until golden brown on all sides.
  5. Enjoy. :)

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Recipes

Kimchi Fried Rice

Posted on March 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

Wifey recently declared, “I want kimchi bokkum bap.” I said, “That sounds great!” and thought, “God, I love this person!”

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil (we used a Misto spray bottle to lightly coat the pan)
  • 2 cups cooked brown rice
  • 1 cup kimchi with liquid
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

  • Heat a wok or pan and then lightly coat it with olive oil.
  • Add the rice and fry it for about 2-3 minutes.
  • Add kimchi with liquid and cook for about 5-8 minutes.
  • Add soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.

Note: We kept our meal extremely simple, but basically anything can be added to this dish, such as chopped garlic, onions, green onions, mushrooms, a protein source like chicken, gochujang sauce, etc.

On to some pics:

Preparing to plate.

Mouth watering.

Fried up brown rice and kimchi. Half a cup of kimchi might be fine, but we’ll likely go with the full cup again as we really like kimchi.

Getting close.

Topped with basil.

Getting closer.

And an egg.

Finally ready.

How’s it taste?

Oh yeah.

We already knew the answer. :)

Signal of approval.

Wifey and I prepared this dish together, and cooking together was enjoyable and so much fun. From now on, whenever possible, I’ll cook with wifey. I know I’ll be learning so much.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Breakfast, Lunch-Dinner, Recipes

Tagged

Fried Mandu

Posted on February 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sophia wrote about making mandu, which means dumplings in Korean, several weeks ago on her Burp and Slurp blog, and I commented that I was going to make some right away thanks to her post. And after seeking and receiving ideas from wifey, who had also been reading up a bit on mandu, we made some this past weekend.

Ingredients:

  • 1-pound organic ground pork
  • 1-pound grass-fed beef
  • 1 medium-sized onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3 green onion stalks
  • 20 stalks of Asian chives
  • 2 eggs
  • Approximately 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • Approximately 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Approximately 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon red pepper paste
  • Approximately 4 ounces tofu
  • 3 packs of jumbo dumpling skins

Directions:

  • Starting with chopped green onions, Asian chives, onions, and garlic in a large bowl, add in other ingredients less the dumpling skins to form the mandu filling.
  • Combine ingredients to form the mandu filling.
  • Spoon mandu filling onto mandu skins.
  • Makes for approximately 60 pieces of mandu.

The Proof:

Mandu ingredients.

Wifey happily did the chopping of the Asian chives, green onions, onions, and garlic here. It took her about a minute to do all the chopping, whereas it probably would have taken me at least 15 minutes due to my inexperience with chopping. But I’ll be practicing.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

Mandu ingredients. Mandu ingredients.

I had a small bowl of water and would dip my finger in the water and then run my finger across the edges of the mandu skin, as I tried to show in the picture above on the right. The water acts as a glue.

Fold and crimp. Fold and crimp. Fold and crimp…

Just about ready to get our food on.

These mandu were very, very delicious, and I definitely enjoyed making these homemade, fried up mandu. Wifey and I agree that adding more salt would likely have enhanced the taste of the mandu fillings. But I would make them exactly this way again and not put in the extra salt, mainly because a small dipping bowl consisting of soy sauce, vinegar, and some red pepper flakes typically accompanies a plate of mandu. We like ours with extra vinegar and red pepper flakes.

I grew up watching my mom make mandu. But I don’t remember helping out much. I wish I had. Will the toddler continue to be interested in spending so much time with us? Just as importantly, will he continue being eager to help with the mandu fillings whenever we make mandu? :)

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Appetizers, Lunch-Dinner, Recipes

Over Easy Eggs on Rice

Posted on February 1, 2011 | 1 Comment

Since first introducing wifey to fried up eggs on rice, she’s practically always been the one making it. I needed to get off my butt and make it. And I did just that this past weekend.

Ingredients:

  1. Butter (optional)
  2. Ketchup
  3. Sesame oil
  4. Red pepper paste
  5. Soy sauce
  6. Vinegar
  7. Roasted sesame seeds
  8. Bowl of rice
  9. Eggs
  10. Cilantro
  11. Green onions

There are no exact measurements here because everything is to taste.

On to the proof:

Gathered up the ingredients to be mixed in with a bowl of rice.

Green onions and cilantro to be chopped up and topped onto the rice. Eggs to be prepared over easy and put on top.

A couple of banchan items: seasoned shredded squid and pickled radish.

Wifey prefers not having any butter in her rice, so we compromised with this tiny amount. :)

Pour just a bit of the sesame oil – a lot comes out quickly.

I’m sure wifey would have enjoyed a bigger dollop of red pepper paste. She can really handle spicy well, but I think I’m slowly but surely catching up to her level.

Gotta have some soy sauce.

And we love rice vinegar.

Seems like we can never put in enough of these toasted sesame seeds.

Fold, pack down, fold, pack down, fold, pack down, and so forth.

We could probably just eat this rice.

But cilantro and green onions definitely enhance the meal.

Now, this we could definitely just eat.

But really need to put those over easy eggs on the rice.

And then get those eggs runny.

Going in for the first bite.

The fact that wifey really enjoyed this meal made the whole weekend for me.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Breakfast, Lunch-Dinner, Recipes

Guess What I Made?

Posted on January 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

As has been the case in recent years, time seems to be just zipping by. As usual, I haven’t cooked much. But I did cook a tasty dinner recently.

And true to form, I made crepes. Again. Yes, I’m one of those boring and predictable types.

At least I made a savory version, too, this time.

I pretty much stuck to the same recipe and directions as last time, except I made a mistake this time around – I poured too much batter into the frying pan. And since I made all the crepes at once, they were all relatively thick and not as light as last time. I won’t make that mistake again.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup milk; 1/2 cup water; 2 eggs; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1 3/4 Tbsp. melted butter; 1 cup flour

Directions:

  1. Whisk together milk, water, eggs, salt, melted butter, and flour until smooth.
  2. Over medium heat, pour about 1/4 cup of batter into a lightly oiled frying pan while slowly moving the pan around in a circular motion to spread out batter evenly.
  3. Cook crepe for about 3 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned; Turn and cook the other side and then serve hot.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make another crepe.

Let’s get on with the proof.

For some reason, I starting whisking with a spoon.

Hey self, use a whisk to whisk.

Much easier to whisk with a whisk. Go figure.

Too much batter.

Nutella, jam, banana, and mint leaves.

The sweet version.

Dang good. The bananas this time around made it much better.

Switching gears to the savory version now.

Chives, cheddar cheese, and mushrooms. We do love TJ’s.

Grated cheese and chopped chives.

Chopped mushrooms.

It took so long for me to cook, fry, grate, chop, and plate. It went from light to dark outside. Hence the poorer picture quality.

This savory version also hit the spot.

Nom nom nom…

Thank you for the approval sign and your patience, as I did take a long time in making these crepes. I’m confident I’ll get quicker in the kitchen as I cook more. Oh, and the toddler in the background was busy that evening practicing the craft of making snowflakes out of cutting paper.

I was quite happy with how the sweet and savory crepes turned out. But as I’ve stated, I’ll certainly make the crepes thinner and lighter next time by using less batter when frying.

Hopefully I’ll cook a bunch of different meals before making crepes again. But who am I kidding? I’m a creature of habit; plus, I really, really, really like the sweet version.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Lunch-Dinner, Recipes