Hot and Spicy Bite-size Potato

Yellow potato is my favorite potato now. It tastes much better than regular potato.

I bought some bite-size yellow potato. The original plan was roasted them in the oven, but I really didn’t want to deal with the hot oven, so I decided to cook it in a different way.

Ingredients:

bite-size potato, white sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, green onion, crashed pepper, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Put potatoes into pot, cover with cold water. Bring to boil on medium high heat, then simmer for 15 minutes.

           

2. Drain potatoes, then rinse with cold water.

3. Press on potatoes to make them some flat.

4. Meantime, chop green onion and mash peanuts, then put in a bowl with sesame seeds and crashed pepper.

5. Heat up skillet, pour some oil, then start frying potatoes, flip until one side is golden brown, lay on plate when they are golden brown on both sides.

        

6. Heat some oil with a small pot on medium heat. Pour oil into the seasoning bowl.

The oil can’t be too hot, otherwise the pepper will be brunt out. If you are not sure about the temperature, you can sprinkle a couple of pieces of the pepper to test the temperature. Turn heat off when temperature is right, and pour into bowl right away.

7. Let the seasoning cook for a minutes, then Add salt, pepper and any seasoning you want to add into the bowl. Sprinkle on top of potatoes.

Now it’s time to serve!

山寨凉面

来了美国之后我才知道,原来朝鲜凉面也分南北的。我在国内东北吃到的是北朝鲜的风味,而美国这里卖的多是南韩风味。南韩风味的明显要稍微豪华一点,虽然都是酸甜味的,但汤里面含有梨汁。而北朝鲜风味的,则朴素一点,感觉上就是普通的水兑上糖和醋。
前几天去度假的时候,在马里兰大学旁边的一家小餐馆居然吃到了北朝鲜的凉面。久违的味道让我觉得很亲切。快30年没吃到过了呢,于是我起了自己做的心思,家里没有凉面,也没有适合做凉面的醋,不过,味道还算是接近,我觉得就山寨版来说,已经算是不错了。

材料:
挂面,黄瓜,西红柿,鸡蛋,调味料

做法:
1. 挂面煮熟,用凉水过两遍冲凉,沥干水分。
我喜欢比较筋道的面条,所以家里的挂面都是宽条面。
2. 鸡蛋煮熟,剥去蛋壳,切成两半。
3. 醋和糖按自己的口味拌匀,加一点盐,让盐和糖化匀。
我在网上搜了一下,醋和糖的比例应该是2:1. 不过各人口味不同,所以可以按自己的口味适当调整。
4. 把凉水(矿泉水)倒进大碗里,再倒入适量的糖醋汁搅匀。
5. 把沥过水的面条盛到碗里。
喜吃芝麻的可以撒一点芝麻在碗里。
6. 黄瓜切丝,西红柿切片,和切好的鸡蛋一起铺在面条上面。
7. 把面和菜拌匀即可开吃。

我最近喜欢素食,所以没有放肉。喜肉的同学可以放点卤肉什么的。

Cold Soba (North Korean Style)

This cold soba tasted like what I had when I was in Northeast China. Since it tasted quite different from what I had here in those Korean restaurant, I assume this is the North Korean style since what restaurants here serve is the South Korean style.

I never thought about cooking it until I order it in a Chinese restaurant in College Park, Maryland. It brought me lots of old time memory, so I decided to repeat it at home.

Ingredients:

Chinese Spaghetti, cucumber, tomato, tea egg, cold bottled water, sesame seeds, seasoning

Methods:

1. Add cold water into pan, bring to boil on medium high heat, cook Chinese Spaghetti according to package directions.

2. Pour spaghetti into a drainer, rinse with cold water, then drain.

3. Meantime, peel tea egg and slice into half, chop cucumber into sticks and slice tomato into small slices.

4. Have a big bowl ready, set spaghetti at the bottom, then lay cucumber, tomato and egg on top, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5. Use a small bowl, mix the seasoning together. Vinegar : sugar should be 2 : 1, but you can adjust it according to your taste. Add some salt, stir until sagar and salt is melted.

6. Pour vinegar mix and cold bottled water into bowl to have everything in bowl covered. Now it’s ready to serve.

五香茶叶蛋

前几天无意中发现这里的程序更换了新的编辑器,功能比以前增加了不少,解决了一个困扰我一段时间的一个问题,所以我又爆发了更新菜谱的热情,所以最近可能会更新的多一些。

这次的茶叶蛋纯属意外。

我本来想做一碗凉面来吃,然后想到凉面里面需要一颗煮蛋。身为资深懒人的我,觉得一次煮一颗蛋太过浪费,怎么也得煮一锅才值得我折腾一回。一锅白煮蛋太容易坏掉,所以白煮蛋变成了茶叶蛋。

材料:

鸡蛋,红茶,酱油,盐,糖,花椒,八角,桂皮

为了喝菊花茶,我买了一些空茶叶袋,这些袋子煮东西的时候用来装香料是再好不过了。

过程:

1. 鸡蛋放入凉水锅里,水中略加一点盐,中大火烧开,然后关火。

盐水煮蛋可以避免鸡蛋壳裂开之后蛋液外流。

传统的鸡蛋煮法是开锅之后转小火,再煮将近 10 分钟,然后关火。我觉得那样煮出来的蛋有点老,再加上这次的蛋回头还要再煮的,所以我把水烧开之后就关火了。

2. 煮蛋的同时,另外用一口锅,倒入足够的凉水,放入红茶和香料包,加入适量的酱油,盐和少量的糖,中大火烧开,然后转小火。

这一步可以和步骤一重合,直接把调料和香料加入步骤一的锅里。

当然水一定要够多,一定要没过鸡蛋才行。

我家里没有红茶了,直接就用茶叶包代替了。

酱油分老抽和生抽的同学,建议用老抽,颜色深一些。

3. 煮好的鸡蛋用勺子背敲碎蛋壳,然后放入调料锅里。

可以直接把蛋捞出来敲碎,也可以把蛋留着锅里然后敲碎。中心思想就是蛋壳必须碎。

4. 鸡蛋全部放入调料锅之后,中大火把水烧开,然后关火。鸡蛋继续浸泡在香料水中入味,不过随时可以捞出来食用。

我不喜欢香料味道太重,所以关火大概 10 分钟左右就把香料包捞出来丢掉了,只留下了茶叶包。喜欢香料味道的,可以把香料包留的久一些。

5. 茶叶蛋凉吃热吃都可以,浸泡的时间也没有要求,具体操作看个人的口味。

我刚停火的时候捞了两个蛋出来,一个做凉面吃掉了,一个留下来比较颜色用了。图片里面的两个蛋,颜色浅的是没有浸泡过的,颜色深的当然是浸泡了三四个小时之后的样子。

Tea Egg

Tea Egg

I’m not sure why this is called ‘tea egg’, I’d love to call it ‘tea flavored egg’.

This is one of the traditional snack in China. It reminds me of my college life everytime I see it. It was very popular being the before-bedtime-snack back then, I think there was more than 20 tea egg booth around the campus at that time.

Ingredients:

eggs, black tea, seasoning.

Method:

1.Lay eggs in pot, covered with cold water, add some salt into water, bring to boil on medium high heat. Then turn heat off, let eggs sit in pot to keep cooking.

salty water can prevent cracked eggs to spill out when cooking.

2.Meantime, add cold water into another pot, and add seasoning to it, bring to boil on high heat.

For seasoning, I used black tea, cinnamon stick, star anise, zanthoxylum, soybean sauce, salt and sugar. You can add more seasoning as your taste, such as orange peel, bay leaves, etc.

I put the dry seasoning into a tea bag, so they won’t get loose in pot. And I don’t like the strong taste of them, so I took the bag out of pot 10 minutes after I turn off the heat.

3.Crack egg shells with back of a spoon without taking them out. Or you can take them out of water, do it the way you like.

4.Transfer all the cracked eggs into the seasoning pot. Bring to boil again on high heat, then turn heat off. Let eggs sit in pot until it cool off.

Some people like to stick holes on eggs so the flavor can get to the inside of eggs.

5. Take eggs out of pot, peel. Then eggs are ready to serve.

You can serve them hot or cold. They taste good either way.

Picture below shows a darker color egg and a lighter color egg. The lighter color egg was taken out right after turning off the heat, the darker color egg was taken out after soaking in pot for several hours. Of course the darker color egg has a stronger flavor.

Star Anise

Star Anise

Star Anise is one of the popular spice when doing braise. At lease I hardly use it for something else.

It has a strong flavor, so I normally would let it stay in pot for about 15-20 minutes, then I would take it out and throw away.

I don’t really know much about it. luckily, we have wiki, HA!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illicium_verum

For dishes using Star Anise, please clikc on following link:

Zanthoxylum = Pepper?

Zanthoxylum
Zanthoxylum

This is what I called ‘Chinese Pepper’. Today, I looked up online, and found out that its offical name is Zanthoxylum.

It is a very popular seasoning in Si-Chuan dish or Hunan Dish, anything hot and spicy. It is the spicy!

This is one of my favorite seasoning when it comes to slow cooking or braise. But since it has a very strong flavor, so I won’t let it stay in pot for a long time.

Zanthoxylum
Zanthoxylum on Plant

I happen to have a Zanthoxylum plant, so you can see what it looks like when it’s still fresh.

Here is the wiki link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum

For dishes using zanthoxylum, please click on following link: