Stir Fried Luffa with Eggs

Luffa is one of my favorites, so I plant Luffa in the garden every year. Fresh vegetables always taste better.

Ingredients:

Luffa, eggs, black fungus, seasoning.

Method:

1. Soak black fungus in water, wait until it gets tender and spread out, rinse with water, drain well.

black fungus is not necessary, I just wanted to add some color to the dish. I wanted to add something red to begin with, but I didn’t have any at home, so I decided to use black fungus.

                    

2. Boil some water in a sauce pan, add a little bit salt, vinegar and cooking oil. Keep water boiling.

3. Peel Luffa, then chop into chunk, put luffa chunk into boiling water. Bring water to boiling again, then take Luffa out, put into a strainer, rinse with cold water. Drain well.

Some people say that you don’t have to get rid of all the green, but I prefer peel all of them off, just leave the white. If Luffa is some old, you can chop the seeds off.

3. Heat up a skillet on high heat, add some cooking oil. Beat eggs well, then pour into skillet. Stir constantly to cook eggs into chunk pieces, then get them out of skillet.

4. Adjust heat to medium high heat, add more cooking oil, cook black fungus for several minutes, then add Luffa into skillet, stir constantly.

5. Add eggs back into skillet, keep stirring, add seasoning, mix well.

                   

I’d like to keep its original color when cooking light color vegetables, so I normally don’t use soybean sauce.

I used white pepper, ginger powder, garlic powder, salt and sugar.

6. Mix a little bit corn starch with cold water, pour into skillet, stir quick until juice in skillet get thicker.

7. Add several drop of sesame oil, stir well. Serve when hot.

To view this recipe in Chinese, please click here.

南瓜蒸排骨

记得当年在国内的时候,一说南瓜就是那种大大圆圆的,金黄外皮的南瓜,印象里只有那么一种。后来来了美国,才发现美国的大南瓜不好吃不说,人家根本就不是拿来吃的,是拿来万圣节玩的。

正经的南瓜不能吃,只好转而吃其他的品种。虽然中国人都称它们是南瓜,但是美国人不认,美国人管这些叫 ‘squash’。

材料:

南瓜,排骨,蛋清,淀粉,姜,小葱(可以不用),调味料。

过程:

1. 姜切片备用。

2. 排骨洗净,冷水下锅。水中加入姜片,料酒和白醋,中大火把水烧开。开锅之后关火焖 5 分钟,捞出来用温水冲洗干净。

3. 把排骨略微晾干,或者用纸巾抹干水分。拌入姜片,葱段和调味料,放入冰箱腌过夜。 如果不想等那么久,至少也要腌几个小时,不然排骨不够入味。

4. 南瓜切去顶部,把中间掏空。

我用的南瓜英文叫 ‘kabocha’,中国人都叫它日本南瓜。这种南瓜熟了之后很甜很面,什么都不放,简简单单蒸出来就很好吃。

                  

5. 腌好的排骨取出来,拌上一点蛋清,搅拌均匀之后再拌上一点淀粉。拌好之后填在南瓜里待用。

加蛋清是为了让淀粉更好的附着在排骨上面。加淀粉是为了让排骨更滑嫩。所以蛋清和淀粉可以不加,看个人口味。

6. 蒸锅烧开,把南瓜放入蒸锅蒸 50 – 60 分钟即可。

其实蒸南瓜不止局限于这种日本南瓜,还有一种橡子南瓜也很好吃,就是橡子南瓜比较小,放不下几块排骨。

我觉得应该不只是可以蒸排骨,我想过些日子试试蒸鸡块。

我的每一份菜谱都有中文和英文两个版本,查看英文版的南瓜蒸排骨,请点这里

Steamed Rib in (Kabocha) Squash

 The Squash I used is normally called ‘Japanese Squash’ at Asian Supermarket. It’s called Kabocha Squash offically. It tastes sweet, and is my favorite squash. 

Ingredients:

ribs, squash, egg white, corn starch, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Clean ribs with water, then put into a saucepan, add water to cover all the ribs, add some cooking wine, white vinegar, and a few slices of ginger root. Cook on medium high heat to boil. Turn off heat, then let it sit for about 5 minutes. 

When cooking meat and seafood, I love to use some ginger root. I think ginger works much better than lemon juice. 

2. Rinse ribs with warm water, then dry with paper towel. Add seasoning to ribs, set overnight in refrigerator or at least several hours. 

For seasoning, I normally use soybean sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, ginger root, green onion and black pepper.

                   

3. Clean the squash, chop the top off, take all the seeds out.

4. Mix seasoned ribs with a little bit egg white, mix well with corn starch then. Fill ribs into squash.

5. Steam the squash for about 50 – 60 minutes.

6. You can top with chopped green onion. Serve warm. 

You can use other kind but similar squash, like acorn squash. Of course, you can use other kind of meat, too. I’m thinking of trying chicken one day. I think it would be good, too. 

To view this recipe in Chinese, please click here

蓝莓面包布丁

始终都记得第一次吃蓝莓面包布丁时那惊艳的感觉。蓝莓和奶油奶酪综合起来的酸甜和奶香总是能给我一种满足感。

材料:

8oz 面包片,2 杯牛奶,3 个鸡蛋,1 杯蓝莓,4oz 奶油奶酪(cream cheese),1/8 杯黄油,1/3 杯白糖。

另外,还需要适量刷烤盘的黄油。

做法:

1. 烤箱预热 350 摄氏度。

2. 烤盘内层刷一层黄油。

做这款布丁,我偏爱瓷质烤盘。如果用金属烤盘,可能要适当减少烤制的时间,和略微降低一点烘烤温度。

3. 面包片去掉棕色的边缘,切成比蓝莓略大的小块。取一半铺在烤盘底部。

面包不一定用切片面包,也可以用法棍什么的。

4. 奶油奶酪切成小块,和蓝莓一起铺在面包块上面,然后把剩余的面包块铺在上面。

5. 黄油融化之后晾凉。

6. 鸡蛋打散,加入牛奶,黄油和白糖,搅拌均匀。

嗜甜的人可以加 1/8 杯糖浆一起搅拌。

7. 把牛奶鸡蛋糊倒入烤盘,用手轻压表面,确保所有的面包块都被牛奶鸡蛋糊浸透。然后静置至少 10 分钟,也可以放入冰箱静置几个小时。

8. 烤盘上面盖上锡箔纸烤 30 分钟,去掉锡箔纸之后再烤 30 分钟,或者烤至表面金黄。

                  

这款面包布丁因为有蓝莓和奶油奶酪,味道比较丰富,是我比较偏爱的一款。我试做过几种不同口味的面包布丁,但是都败给了这一款。

Blueberry Bread Pudding

This is my favorite bread pudding recipe. Blueberry not just added color to it, but also added a good flavor on top of everything. I tried to replace blueberry with other fruits, but I think blueberry tastes the best.

Ingredients:

8oz bread, 1 cup blueberry, 4oz cream cheese, 2 cups milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/8 cup butter.

Addtional butter for baking pan coating.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° C.

2. Coat baking pan with butter.

I prefer ceramic baking pan. If you use metal pan, you might want to reduce the temprature and baking time. 

3. Trim edges off the bread, chen chop into pieces similar to blueberry size. Then lay half of bread on baking pan.

                  

4. Chop cream cheese into blueberry size pieces, sprinkle on top of bread layer with blueberry, then lay the rest of bread on top.

5. Beat eggs, milk, melted butter and sugar well together, pour over bread, lightly press with hands to make sure all the bread pieces are soaked. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes or several hours in refrigerator.

This bread pudding is not too sweet. If you like it sweeter, you can add more sugar, or mix 1/8 cup of cyrup into the egg mixture.

6. Cover the pan with foil, bake 30 minutes. Then remove the foil cover, bake another 30 minutes or until the surface turns golen brown.

          

 If you really like blueberry, you can serve it with blueberry and blueberry jelly, so it would taste more blueberry. 

 

山寨版地三鲜

传统的地三鲜是用菜椒和茄子土豆一起做的,可我是一个不喜欢菜椒的人,所以就一直喜欢用其他的食材来代替菜椒。这次选择的替代品是洋葱,茄子也略微改造了一下,所以是山寨版。

食材:

茄子,土豆,洋葱,鸡蛋,面粉,蒜,淀粉,调味料。

步骤:

1. 茄子和土豆洋葱都切滚刀块待用。

2. 炸锅倒油烧热,把土豆块炸成浅金黄色,捞出沥干油分。

3. 鸡蛋打散,和茄子拌在一起,让茄子表面都裹上蛋液,然后撒上面粉拌匀。

4. 把茄子倒入炸锅也炸成浅金黄色,捞出沥干油分。

               

5. 蒜剥皮拍扁,切碎块待用。

6. 用冷水调一点水淀粉糊待用。

                 

7. 炒锅倒油烧热,放入洋葱炒软炒香,然后放入炸好的土豆和茄子炒匀。

8. 把蒜末撒在上面,倒入淀粉糊拌匀烧开,然后按自己的口味加入调味料炒匀,滴入几滴香油即可出锅。

我做茄子,一般喜欢用蒜和香油调味,其他的调味料一般就用盐,糖,酱油,一点点醋。

Stir Fried Eggplant with Potato and Onion

This dish came from my hometown which located at northeast China. It was originally cooked with bell pepper. But I don’t like bell pepper, so I swapped it with some onion.

I did modified the way to fry the eggplant. Eggplant supposed to be fried naked, but I coated then fried.

Ingredients:

eggplant, potato, onion, egg, flour, garlic, corn startch, seasoning

Method:

1. Chop everything into chunks.

2. Heat up deep fryer with enough oil to fry potato and eggplant.

3. Rinse potato with tab water, then drain well.

4. Deep fry potato until lightly brown, set aside.

5. Crack eggs, beat well, then coat eggplant with it. Sprinkle eggplant with flour, make sure all the eggplant are coated with flour.

               

6. Deep fry eggplant until lightly brown, set aside.

7. Heat up skillet (wok), add some cooking oil. Cook onion for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

               

8. Add potato and eggplant into skillet, keep stirring until well mixed.

9. Chop garlic into small pieces, sprinkle on top, mix seasoning together with some corn startch and cold water, then pour over in skillet.

For seasoning, I used salt, sugar, soybean sauce, vinegar, sesame oil.

I love to use garlic and sesame oil when cooking eggplant.

10. Keep stirring until the seasoning mixture get thick, and all the pieces are coated.

11. Serve warm.

爱心煎蛋

七夕是个快乐的日子,希望每对有情人终成眷属,祝愿天下有心人心想事成。

送上一份爱心早餐,希望大家今天有一个快乐的开头!

材料:

午餐肉,小鸡蛋,调味料。

过程:

1. 午餐肉切厚片。

我切了四片,如果嫌厚,切五片应该也可以,不过不能再薄了。

2. 用心形模具把午餐肉切出形状。

可以用你喜欢的各种模具,未必一定用心形的。我是因为只有心形的是成套的。

3. 鸡蛋把蛋清和蛋黄分开,蛋清略打,不必特别打散,只要能分成小块就好。加入调味料拌匀待用。

因为心形空间有限,所以我建议用小鸡蛋,这样可以放入整个蛋黄。如果是打散的蛋黄,那就无所谓鸡蛋的大小了。我是觉得整个的蛋黄煎出来比较好看。

        

4. 平底锅中火烧热,把午餐肉略煎,然后翻面,在心形里面滴几滴油,倒入鸡蛋煎熟即可出锅。

Pan Fried Spam with Egg Filling

This dish is made with love, for who I know and I don’t know.

Ingredients:

spam, medium eggs, seasoning

Methods:

1. Slice spam into 4 slices.

I like the thickness of 4 slices, of course you can slice more or less.

2. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the sliced ham.

3. Crack egg, seperate egg yolk and egg white, slightly beat egg white. Add seasoning to it, then mix well.

I uesed large eggs, then realized the egg york is too big for the space, so I picked the smalleds eggs I can find. I think medium eggs should be better sized.

         

4. Heat up skillet on medium heat, or whatever heat level you use to fry eggs. Cook spam for a minute or two, then flip.

5. Add several drops of cooking oil, then fill eggs into the hole, cook until egg is firm.