Cooking for 20

So I'm going to attempt to cook for around 20 people for my small group Bible study this upcoming Tuesday. Here are the recipes that I'll be using:

Ham on bone (in oven)
http://howto.yellow.co.nz/food-drink/cooking-and-baking/how-to-cook-ham-on-the-bone/

Corned beef and vegetables (slow cooker)
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-corned-beef-and-cabbage/?scale=16&ismetric=0

Pulled pork - from shoulder meat (slow cooker)
http://www.chow.com/recipes/30356-easy-slow-cooker-pulled-pork

Will upload photos and what additions and tweaks that I used later.

Making baked chicken

This site apparently claims the world's best chicken
http://dashingdish.com/recipe/the-worlds-best-baked-chicken/

Alternatively there's also the Asian baked chicken:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/30350-asian-marinated-baked-chicken

1 lb	Boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 4 medium size chicken breasts)
1/2 cup	Plain low fat Greek yogurt
3 tbs	Grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp	Garlic, chopped (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp	Dried minced onions (or 1/2 tsp onion powder)
Pinch	Salt and Pepper
1 tsp	Dried herb mix (such as Mrs. Dash) or dried parsley

Pork with noodles and yummy green beans

So tried impromptu cooking the other day (like a week ago).

Here are the ingredients that I had:

Onions & garlic
Can of pineapple
Lots of pork chops
Frozen green beans
Noodles

So basically here are the things that came out:

This was just the pork chops with green beans. I marinated the pork chops for around 2 hours though and it came out taste great :)

This was the noodles that I cooked next. I think the pineapples were an after thought but actually it did taste pretty good :)

A tale of traditional Chinese dishes

Yesterday was cooking for a friend. Sadly, these aren't quite worthy of photos just yet. Willl post when I make them again:

These are the dishes that you will usually not find in the American-Chinese stories. Despite what we say, no General Tso's chicken does not exist in China.

Chicken Congee

http://www.chinese-traditional-food.com/chicken-congee.html

Ingredients:
100g lean chicken (1 piece, do not slice/chop)
1 scallion (finely chopped)
2 shiitake mushrooms (soak in water and sliced finely)
1 small piece of ginger (sliced finely)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1.5 cups rice
Salt to taste
Sesame oil to taste


1. Cook the rice into congee for 1 hour. Make sure the water do not dry out, keep adding water when the water is running out.

2. Cook the rice until it was fully soften and then add in the salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and cook the lean chicken. Use a fork to poke through the chicken, if so then it is fully cooked.

4. Tear the chicken into slices by using your bare hand. It will not look nice if you use knife or scissor

5. Boiled the shiitake mushrooms until it was fully cooked for 30 minutes.

6. Heat up the oil and stir fry the garlic until it turn golden brown.

7. When the rice fully turn into congee, fill up a bowl. Mix in the chicken, shiitake mushrooms and garnish it with ginger, garlic and scallion.

8. Add some sesame oil with give you some aromatic fragrance.


This is usually a breakfast food. I used to remember eating this and being really comforted when I had an upset stomach or anything of that nature. It's very soothing.

Zha Jiang Mian

http://www.beijing-kids.com/blog/ellisf/2013/06/09/Do-Try-This-At-Home-Zha-Jiang-Mian

In a bowl, pour out the contents of one packet each of tian mian jiang and huang jiang. Add 6 tablespoons of water, mix well until free from lumps. Set aside. In a frying pan, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil, sauté some chopped shallots and 50 grams of ground pork or shredded chicken.

When meat is brown, add the sauce mixture, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a dash of pepper and mix well together. Let simmer on low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. If the sauce starts to dry out, add more water a spoonful at a time. Maintain a thick consistency, the sauce should not be runny.

Meanwhile, boil the noodles the same way you would cook spaghetti. Bring half a liter of lightly-salted water to a boil, add a teaspoon of oil, then place 200 grams of noodles for two minutes. Bring the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another six minutes. Check that the noodles are cooked throughy, and when they are, drain the noodles and rinse in cold water. Serve noodles in individual bowls, and top with two tablespoons of the sauce. Have some cold julienned cucumbers and radishes on the side, as well as chopped spring onions. Go wild with some crushed peanuts on top.


I made this with ground beef which came out well. Definitely should have used more scallions though.

Yes, the Korean has a version of this called Jajangmyeon. This dish is actually native to the province that I come from in China which is right next to North & South Korea.

Green tea ice cream recipes

After trying several recipes I finally found a good one

Matcha powder I got from nuts.com

This recipe is from: http://justonecookbook.com/blog/recipes/green-tea-ice-cream-matcha-ice-cream/

Here's what I did to make a batch that could serve 4-6 people
Ingredients
3 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp matcha (green tea) powder
pinch of salf

 Prep:
Get your ice cream machine ready (put the bowl into freezer)
Whisk the half hafl, sugar, matcha powder and salt in saucepan.
Heat the mixture til it is hot but not boiling.
Put it into referigerator (about an hour)
Put mixture into your ice cream machine (churn 20-30 minutes)
Freezer for at least 12 hours

2 cups Half and Half, or 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup cream (Half and Half is basically a mixture of one part milk to one part cream and is sold in the US.)

½ cup sugar

3 Tbsp. 100% natural green tea powde

- See more at: http://justonecookbook.com/blog/recipes/green-tea-ice-cream-matcha-ice-cream/#sthash.ZLrLBkli.dpuf

I also tried the following recipes:
http://koreanfood.about.com/od/snacksanddesserts/r/Green-Tea-Ice-Cream-Recipe.htm
Came out tasting a lot of egg but creamy

I should probably try this one sometimes also:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/green-tea-ice-cream-recipe/index.html

2 cups Half and Half, or 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup cream (Half and Half is basically a mixture of one part milk to one part cream and is sold in the US.)

½ cup sugar

3 Tbsp. 100% natural green tea powder (matcha powder)

Pinch of salt

- See more at: http://justonecookbook.com/blog/recipes/green-tea-ice-cream-matcha-ice-cream/#sthash.ZLrLBkli.dpuf

Curry chicken

Originally the recipe calls for sweet potatoes with vermicelli but I lef them out as the previous attempts with them were a mess.

Ingredients
1 chicken
2 tbsp veg oil
1 onion finely sliced
3 garlic loves, crushed
2-3 tbsp Thai curry powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp fish sauce
2.5 cups coconut milk
12 oz dried rice vermmicelli, soaked in hot water until soft (optional)

Prep:
1. skin chicken, cut meat into small pieces
2. Heat oil in largesaucepan. Add onion and garlic and fry until onion softens.
3. Add chicken pieces and stir-fry until they change color. Stir in curry powder. Season with salft and sugar and mix thoroughly, then stir in fish sauce.
4. Pour in the concout milk and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.
5. Add in starch if mixture is runny.

I made some rice and paired up this with it. It actually looked pretty good prior to adding the coconut milk. 

Curry and hot garlic beef steak with vegetables

Felt adventurous yesterday and cooked a bunch of stuff.

Had a ton of these shanghai bok choy like vegetables that I never cooked with before. Be aware, they are very bitter. However, when you cut the ends off it turns out there's God's masterpiece of a pretty flower:

I tried two different varieties, one with just the hot garlic sauce and the other with red Thai curry and curry powder.

Curry -
Used Chinese noodles
Curry powder
Onion and garlic
Beef steak cubes
Thyme
Basil leaves

Hot garlic sauce
Had pretty much the same ingredients minus the thyme and basil

Reviewing these I think the noodles tended to clump together way too much.

I definitely overcooked the vegetables. 

Pork and green beans supreme recipe

Got this recipe from a random book at the house that I'm living in.

16 oz lean pork tenderloin or steak cut into cubes
2 cups cut green beans
3 cups hot cooked noodles
10.5 oz cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp chili seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper

Spray skillet with butter flavored cooking spray.
Brown meat, stir in green beans and noodles.
Add in the soup, milk, sour cream, chili seasoning and black pepper.
Lower heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Should serve about 6 people.

I think I unfortunately overcooked the noodles and substituted soy milk instead of skim milk but it still came out ok. I also added in a bit of onion in the brown the meat process. Here's what I had.