Pork Chop with Tomato-Herb Sauce

Hello Everyone!

I am back to blogging after I have graduated from UCLA with a degree in BS in civil engineering. Man ... my senior year was one hell of a trip. Rocket propulsion class ... woot woot I want to be a rocket scientist.

Anyways, after finishing my last research paper, I decided to cook up some pork chops because that is one of my favorite cuts of meat ever. This herby pork is healthy and really delicious!

Pork Chock with Tomato-Herb Sauce

Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature(yum fattiness)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)
1 tbsp Marjoram (fresh and chopped)
1 tbsp Parsley (fresh and chopped)
1 cup Cherry tomatoes
2 Pork chops
Salt and pepper
Corn Starch

Directionals of tons of prepwork (not really)
1. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half
2. Finely chop the herbs and garlic
3. Use a fork to mix in butter and herbs and garlic
3. Punch pork chops and sprinkle corn starch all over the pork chops
4. Salt and pepper pork chops

Cooking Directions
1. Add about 1 tbsp of the herb butter in a pan
2. Wait for butter to heat up and add the pork chop
3. Brown pork chop on both sides for about 4 minutes on each side on low medium heat
4. Add tomatoes to the pan and stir until juices run out of the tomatoes
5. Add remaining butter in the pan.
6. Plate pork and tomatoes
7. Optionally use a blow torch to char the tomatoes.

Enjoy this !!

Maverick Grits from S.N.O.B

O wow ... I haven't touched this blog in awhile. Well, it is the start of a new year! I will be blogging whenever possible. Grad school apps have been quite a pain, but I have been going through them decently.

During the break, my sister, Jennifer, made these awesome grits and shrimp etc. stuff when I came over to her condo. When grits come to mind, I think of breakfast, sweetness with brown sugar and raisins.

On a side note ... COOKING RAGE!! THEY DO NOT HAVE OLD FASHION GRITS IN WESTWOOD!! WHOLE FOODS ... NONE, TRADER JOES ... NONE, RALPHS ... Instant Crap!

I guess polenta, cream of rice from Whole Foods, or instant grits work just as well...
Maverick Grits from S.N.O.B

Ingredients
Grits of not really grits for my case:
4 cups Water
3 tbs Unsalted butter, divided
1 cup Stone-ground grits (polenta, cream of rice, instant grits workish)
3/4 cup Heavy cream

Topping:
2 tbs Unsalted butter, divided
1/4 lb Country ham (1/4 cup)
3 Italian Sauages
20 medium Shrimp
1 tsp Cajun spice blend (recipe below)
1/4 cup Green onion
2 Garlic cloves
2 Vine tomatoes
1 tbs Vermouth

Cajun Spice Blend
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Garlic powder
2.5 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Ground black pepper

1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Dried oregano
1 tsp Thyme powder
2 teaspoons salt

Directions for Cajun spice mix:
1. Mix it all together!

Prep work for the main dish
1. Dice ham and place in a container
2. Slice green onions
3. Seed and dice fresh tomatoes
4. Mince garlic
5. Slice sausages into 1/4 in thick rounds
6. Peel and devein shrimp

Directions for cooking the grits!
1. Boil water and add grits
2. Stir until all the grits are incorporated
3. Add butter and cream and cook until desired consistency (Depending on what type of grain your cooking it can take from 3 minutes to 40 minutes)
4. Keep warm until you finish cooking the toppings!

Directions for cooking the topping!
1. Melt 1 tbs of butter in a pan.
2. Add sausages and cook until cooked
3. Add shrimp and cook until almost done (1-3 minutes)
4. Add garlic and Cajun spice blend and cook for 30 seconds
5. Add tomatoes, green onion, and vermouth and cook for 1 minutes.
6. Serve topping over grits.

Enjoy the new year!

Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

Guess what everyone?? Classes have started, and damn, is everything busy these days. On the other hand, I have unofficially started a club called Food at UCLA. Check out the blog: foodatucla.blogspot.com. So far, I'm trying to keep the number of members down because my apartment is sooo small. Until the club can be an official club, it will be limited to 20 members :(.

To celebrate classes, I have made steak with pomegranate sauce. I never knew pomegranate can be used for so many things. It goes so well with the steak by bringing out the flavor of the meat through the sweet and sour taste.

Before I start, people have been asking me how I can tell how done my steak is. Well, I tell them to poke it. If it is very squishy like a sponge, then it is still raw and probably cold on the inside. If it is like the feeling of poking your cheeks, then it should be medium rare to medium. If it is like pushing into a thing of clay, your steak is definitely well done or overcooked. It is all based on experience.

Wine pairing: This goes well with a Syrah

Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

Ingredients
1 lb Ribeye steak
1 cup Pomegranate juice like POM
1/2 Orange
2 tbs White sugar
1/4 cup Golden brown sugar
2 Shallots
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp Orange zest
salt

Prep and Cooking the sauce
1. Slice the shallots thinly
2. Bring pomegranate juice to a boil
3. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 orange into the pomegranate juice
4. Add both sugars into the pan and stir around making sure the bottom doesn't burn
5. Add bay leaf, shallots, and orange zest into the pan
6.Stir until reduced in half.

Cooking the steak
1. Heat a oil in a pan on high heat
2. Sear steak on both sides for 30 seconds each side
3. Turn over and turn heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 4 minutes
4. Turn over, cover, and cook for 4 minutes
5. It should be about medium to medium-rare, so take the steak and slice it into strips
6. Plate and drizzle sauce over the steak strips.

Rib-eye Steak with Cheese Butter and Walla Walla Onion Rings

I have returned to America to find rib-eye on sale at Ralphs. Oh boy, I miss a big ole American steak. My recent trip to Taiwan has lacked a huge juicy steak. I've only had petite sized sirloins from Australia. Though I have to say, Australian beef is quite delicious.

To my surprise, I had two issues of bon appetit magazine welcoming me back from Taiwan. The front page of the September issue had a rib-eye steak with blue cheese, which sounds so amazing and fatty goodness. Also, this recipe had onion rings, which are one of my favorite food items.

Blue cheese has always been to mysterious. It has a crumbly texture and sharp taste that makes people like it or not.

Rib-eye Steak with Cheese Butter and Walla Walla Onion Rings
Courtesy of Bon Appetit Magazine September 2010


Ingredients for the steak and blue cheese butter
1 lb Rib-eye steak
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tbs Thyme powder
1 tbs Salt
1 tbs Ground pepper
3 tbs Unsalted butter
3 tbs Blue cheese
1 tbs Paprika

Prep work
1. Let butter and cheese set at room temperature
2. Mix the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme powder.
3. Lightly sprinkle the mixture on both sides of the steak.
4. Mix the blue cheese and butter with the paprika.

Walla Walla Onion Rings

Ingredients
1 large Sweet onion
1 cup Cake flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3/4 bottle Beer, about 3/4 cup (I used Blue Moon)
2 tbs Vodka

Prep work
1. Mix the cake flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Add the vodka and beer and mix until pancake batter consistency. (add more beer if too thick).
3. Let the batter sit in the fridge up to a day.
4. Cut the onion into thick slices.
5. Dip the onion rings into the batter.

You can multi-task and cook both at the same time. Start on the steak first, then after 2 minutes you can start on the onion rings too.

Cooking the beef
1. Heat up the pan and add oil of choice
2. Sear both sides of the steak for 30 seconds each.
3. Turn on medium-low and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare.
4. Put a tablespoon of the butter cheese on top of the steak and allow it to melt.

Cooking the onion rings
1. Heat up a lot of oil.
2. Shake off excess batter.
3. Gently drop the onion rings into the oil.
4. Fry until golden.
5. Place paper towels on a plate to soak up the oil.

Enjoy. The onion rings taste so good like tempura onions. The steak is also delicious with buttery cheesy goodness. School is in session!

All Purpose BBQ Sauce

I just love this BBQ sauce. I use it for everything from burgers to hotdogs to chicken to dipping my fries in it. For your next BBQ, you should add this sauce to your ingredients for marinating meat or a condiment.

All Purpose BBQ Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 tbs Molasses
2 tbs Brown sugar
1 tbs Cider vinegar
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs Soy sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Liquid smoke
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Onion powder
1/2 cup Dark beer (like Blue Moon)

Directions
1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
2. Put the mix in a saucepan and bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
3. Turn down the heat and simmer to reduce down to a about a cup or until sauce thick-like consistency.
4. Chill and store for up to a week.

Beef Ribs with Chipotle Cheery BBQ Sauce

I was reading through Bon Appetite magazine and saw a recipe for Dinosaur Bones with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce and decided that this dish would be an excellent addition for my July 4th BBQ. What is a BBQ without something with BBQ sauce and of course ribs. I made a few changes to the Bon Appetite recipe because GOD DAMN the one they had is super spicy and unbalanced, sorry for whoever wrote that recipe.

Chipotle-Cheery Barbecue Sauce adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine July 2010

Ingredients
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup Cheery preserves
2 tbs Fresh lemon juice
2 tbs Molasses
3 tbs Golden brown sugar
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs Soy sauce
1/2-1 can Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce and 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can. (HOT HOT SPICY and I have a spicy tolerance of the sun)
1 tsp Liquid smoke (I found this at the top shelf at Ralphs after no one knew what I was talking about)
1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions of pretty simpleness
1. Mix everything in a bowl and bring to a simmer in a sauce pan and remember to stir occasionally.
2. Set aside and can be stored for a week in the fridge.

Beef Ribs with BBQ Sauce
3 lbs Beef rib rack
1/4 cup Paprika
1/4 cup Brown sugar
3 tbs Kosher salt
1 1/2 tbs Onion powder
1 1/2 tbs Garlic powder
1 1/2 tbs White pepper
1 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 tsp Cardamom
Cherry juice or apple cider enough to fill spray bottle

Prep work
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Rub spice mix on the ribs
3. Fill spray bottle with cherry juice or apple cider
4. Heat up grill and line grill rack with aluminum foil (beacuse I'm Asian and I like to save the trouble of cleaning)
5. Place ribs on top of the foil and cover grill
6. Turn ribs and spray with juice or cider
7. Grill ribs until browned and repeat spraying every 15 minutes. (Note: the meat will shrink away when cooking)
8. After 1 hour or so the ribs will be cooked.
9. Brush ribs with the BBQ sauce and turn ribs over to fire side
10.Heat ribs until the sauce will make it slightly charred.
11. Cut the ribs into individual pieces and serve.

Oven method
Something that Bon Appetite did not mention was an oven method. I also tried making these ribs with the oven.

1. Rub spice rub on the ribs
2. Heat oven to 325F and cook in the oven for 15 minutes
3. Take it out of the oven and spray with cherry juice or cider
4. Put back into the oven for 30 minutes and rotate
5. Repeat process of spraying every 30 minutes for 3 hours
6. Brush BBQ sauce on top of the ribs and cook for another 10 minutes
7. Rotate and brush with BBQ sauce again and cook for another 10 minutes
8. The ribs should be done by then.

Sage Rosemary Burgers

Fourth of July was yesterday. Didn't really do much except had a decent sized BBQ party at my apartment. It was quite fun, but we didn't watch any fireworks because we were all too busy doing other stuff more fun and exciting than watching fireworks aka. manning the grill and keeping my guests entertained.

I made quite a lot of food. I will start with burgers, the true American food. No matter where you travel in the world, the word "burger" is associated with fat, greasy, American food. What a great way to celebrate America with hard core American food full of grease. Yes, this burger I made is pretty greasy, but it tastes so good!

Sage Rosemary Burgers
.
Ingredients
1 lb Ground sirloin
1 stick Butter at room temperature
2 tbs Freshly chopped sage
2 tbs Freshly chopped Italian parsley
2 tbs Freshly chopped rosemary
1/2 lemon
1 tbs sugar
Salt and peppers
Onions
Tomatoes
Arugula
Hamburger buns
Ketchup
Pepper jack cheese

Prep for things better than fireworks
1. Chop all the herbs using knife or food processor
2. Add to softened butter and mix well
3. Squeeze lemon juice into the butter and mix well
4. Wet hands with water and take a handful of meat and form into a ball
5. Form a thumb indent in the center of the ball and stuff enough butter in there
6. Then fold corners of the indent to fold inward and flatten to form patty
7. Slice onions, tomatoes just like how it is found in any American burger.
8. Spread remaining butter on burger buns

Grill work
1. Heat up grill to normal grill like manner
2. Put beef patty on top and grill on both sides for 5 minutes each
4. Put cheese on top
5. Toast burger buns on grill
6. Put together the burger the way you like it.

Fried Chicken - Quick and easy

Finally summer is here xD!!! Now then ... my apartment is quite filthy. I guess it is time for another kitchen cleanup --> throw away moldy onions and garlic : /.

I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. To start off break. I was in the mood for fried chicken and biscuits after watching an episode of Diner's Drive-ins and whatever that long show name is called. Guy went to a fried chicken joint in Oklahoma that has been serving fried chicken for quite some time. After watching a demonstration, I decided to give this mehod try.

To my surprise, this fried chicken recipe did not take long to create because it requires no marinade.

Fried Chicken - Quick Method

Ingredients
5 Drum sticks with skin on
1 cup Wheat flour
1/2 cup Corn meal
3 tbs Paprika
2 tbs Salt
1 tbs Sugar
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tsp Red chili pepper powder
1 tsp Green peppercorn powder
1 tsp White pepper
1 tsp Baking powder

Directions of pre-grease
1. Mix all the dry ingredients well
2. Pat the chicken dry
3. Throw in the chicken into the dry mix and coat the chicken well

Frying directions
1. Make sure the oil is hot like 350F. I used canola oil.
2. Throw pieces of chicken into the deep fryer and cook for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove from deep fryer and put on a tray lined with paper towels to soak up the oil.

I found this recipe to be just alright . The chicken was not the type of crispy I would find in fried chicken. I prefer the type of crispiness I find at Popeyes or KFC. It was quite flavorful though.

BBQ Chicken Pizza Bagel

As stated in my previous post, "Plain Bagel Recipe", my friend, David, suggested making a pizza bagel place. I came up with making a BBQ chicken pizza bagel because that is my favorite type of pizza in America. I have also made my own BBQ sauce, but I am not going to share that until I have consistently made it; so far, I have been getting different results for my BBQ sauce. With whatever tools you have, this is really simple.

BBQ Chicken Pizza Bagel



Ingredients
1 Chicken breast
6 Bagels of choice (heck ... you can even go with chocolate chip, though I don't guarantee it will taste good)
2 cup BBQ sauce (set aside 1 cup for marinating the chicken)
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
2 Carrots
1/2 Red onion
1 batch Cilantro

Prep work
1. Dice onion
2. Chop cilantro
3. Shred the carrots into thin strips

Chicken preparation
1. Chop the chicken into 1/2 cm (tiny) pieces
2. Marinate in BBQ sauce
3. Put chicken in baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 350F

Assembly
1. Cut the bagel in half
2. Spread BBQ sauce over the bagel
3. Top with onion, carrots, and chicken
4. Add the cheese
5. Broil in a small toaster oven or your big oven on high for 2 minutes or until cheese melts
6. Garnish with cilantro

Enjoy this bagel pizza. This is absolutely delicious. I am still wondering why no one has started the pizza bagel trend yet.

Corndogs ... Preparation for National Corndog Day!

I heard from my co-worker last week that National Corndog Day is coming up in late March; thus that got me in the mood for corndogs for the entire week. Finally, I found some time to make these delicious pancake warped hotdogs during my study break. I might as well make the best out of these beef hotdogs I bought on sale at Ralphs. I think this is the only time I would actually buy and eat hotdogs from the supermarket because not to be a food snob ... but I do not see hotdogs to be appetizing for dinner or lunch due to the numerous amounts of bad grade meats and chemicals they stuff into those pink rubber sticks.

As for this case ... since I haven't had a corndog in awhile, I decided to make them.

Corndog


(looks like eggrolls on sticks XD)

Ingredients of processed foods
1 package Hot dogs (8 count)
120 g Cornmeal (about 3/4 cup)
105 g All purpose flour (about 2/3 cup)
30 g Cake flour (about 1/4 cup)
1 cup Milk
1/4 tsp Baking soda
2 tbs Maple syrup
3 tbs Brown sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1 Egg
Cornstarch (for coating)

Preparation for an American heart attack!
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Mix all the wet ingredients together
3. Combine dry to wet ingredients
4. Pour in a tall glass
5. Dry hot dogs and coat with corn starch
6. Stick chopsticks or skewers through the hot dog and dip them into the batter

Cooking in fatty goodness
1. Pour some oil into a pan thats good for frying
2. Cook the corndog until all sides are browned

Man ... now I feel stuffed ... I better get on those vegetables soon ^_^ ... not anytime soon though xD.

Buffalo Hot Wings ... Superbowl!!!

It's the Superbowl, and I decided to waste my studying time to make buffalo wings. Yea... I need a break from studying about channel flow etc. In order to prep for the Superbowl, I made my own buffalo wings.

Buffalo Wings



Ingredients of football winners.

Part 1: Chicken
3 lbs Chicken wings
1 cup Flour
1 tbs Cayenne pepper
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tbs Paprika
Salt and pepper

Prep work for tackling chicken wings

1. Prep the chicken by cutting the wing from the joint
2. Add flour, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to a bowl and mix
3. Toss the chicken in the bowl until it is all covered with flour mix

Directions for an interception
1. In a pot put oil enough to cover wings
2. Add the chicken until both sides are brown (approx. 5 minuets)
3. Preheat oven for 425F
4. Place chicken inside the oven for 5-7 minutes
5. Set aside on a plate

Part 2: Sauce
1/2 cup Butter (-_- rawr so fattening)
1/3 cup Tabasco sauce (I like hot spiciness)
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/3 cup Ketchup
2 tbs Tomato paste
1 tbs Paprika
2 tsp Cayenne pepper (varies depending on spice level)
2 tsp Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper

Directions for touchdown
1. Throw butter into a sauce pan and melt
2. Place brown sugar, ketchup, tomato paste and mix well until a simmer
3. Add rest of the ingredients and adjust your spice tolerance
4. Add the chicken and let it coat on both sides
5. Serve to football watchers ^_^

Well back to studying, I hope I can get some time to watch the Superbowl.