Tofu Meatballs (You read it right, TOFU)

Been few days since I blogged last. I don't know how most of food bloggers can post everyday..hats off to you guys! :) Work has been up to my neck lately, I love my job very very much (thus, I will never complain about work load) and love food and cooking. However, these past few nights, by the time I hit home and done cooking, eating and cleaning up - and sometimes work for couple more hours. I just want to crawl under blanket in my pjs and not to move a single finger. I want to blame the weather. Yet, I secretly love cold weather. Odd, huh? Anyhow, I am truly impressed with fellow bloggers who manage to blog everyday.

Well, so I was doing some fridge purging over the weekend. With Thanksgiving coming, I got to empty up my fridge so that I have space you know..to put Thanksgiving related food. Been thinking about whipping up Derby Pie. Though it is way up there on 'too sweet, too sugary' stuff for my taste buds, Derby Pie has such a special place in my heart. Growing up, we made apple pie and some savory pie but that's basically it. It never occurred to me that there were gazillions different pie out there. Long story short, the family I stayed with during my early years in the States always make one or two home-made pie a week. Derby pie was 'our' first pie together. That was my first time even seeing pecans!!! Derby pie just brings back good memories.

Anyway, not sure why I am rambling about Derby Pie!! Maybe because I want a slice at this very moment...

So after major wiping, disinfecting, et cetera - there were not too many random things actually, but enough to make couple meals. I have half block of tofu and some 1/4 cup of ground chicken in freezer, yeap..1/4 cup, it was a leftover from some dumplings I made last week. Almost sad looking chives. Few packets of plum sauce - from those Chinese take out joints. 2 wrinkly looking long red chillies. Hmm...Vik is not a huge fan of tofu. I LOVE tofu, it's one of very few things I can eat in daily basis. However, I long learned that if I mix up the tofu with something spicy and almost like hiding it - he would not mind as much. Tofu meatballs then!! My gradma used to make a version of this with shrimps and we'd dunk these meatballs to sweet sour sauce. It was so good that we would keep counts on how many the other person has eaten, just to make sure it's all fair and square!! Hey, we were kids!!

What:
Tofu meatballs
- 1/4 cup ground chicken
- 1 cup of tofu, mashed
- 5 sprigs of chives, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp five spice powder
- 1 small egg, lightly beaten
- salt and pepper

Spicy Sour Sauce:
- 1/2 small onions, chopped
- 1 tomatoes, quarters
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 red chillies, slit to half
- 1/2 " ginger, julienne
- 4 packets of plum sauce
- 1 tbsp hot sauce/ sambal ABC
- 1/2 cup of pineapple nectar
- dash of sugar
- salt and pepper
- 1 green onions, chopped (for garnish)

How:
- Make meatballs by mixing all the ingedients together, shape into small balls. Either deep fry it, or panfry with little oil. It will be okay to bake them, but for not having no fat in this meatballs mixture (tofu and ground chicken), baking may dry them up pretty badly.
- While frying up the meatballs. Pour 1/2 tbsp oil in another pan. Toss in garlic, chillies, tomatoes, and onions. Stir until they get all soft and nice.
- Add in plum sauce, hot sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir and let it gets to quick bubble. Pour in pineapple nectar.
- Toss in tofu meatballs. Stir and when it starts to boil, turn off heat. Garnish with chopped up green onions.

We opted to sit outside on our balcony for dinner - regardless it was about 11 celcius. Told ya I love cold weather. It wasn't too bad with such spicy hot dish and steaming bowl of jasmine rice. Oh, and I made quick broth (tips: when making home-made broth, always always freeze them in ice cubes tray, they work wonder!) with some random chopped up veggies. Soup slurping, spicy tofu meatballs. 11 celcius...was alright. Though few minutes after we done eating and all the heat from chillies were all gone, we literally pushing each other trying to get back inside. Hee..

Taro and Shrimp Spring Rolls

To accompany the savory rolls, I quickly whipped up these easy spring rolls. Lately, I have been craving taro and been using it few times for this same recipe, mixing it with different ingredients. Mushrooms and taro, shrimp and taro, or taro with any ground meat. Some water chestnuts to add crunch is yummy too. Super easy to make and the frying part is not too bad with its tiny size - I just use small frying pan and just rotate it to get even browning. Or, of course a huge pan and do it all at once. But then I got to use more oil and I am not particularly fond on having some leftover frying oil. Feel bad to toss it after one time use, as bad as having it sit there in a container. Ick.

What:
- 15 spring rolls wrappers
- 1 taro, peeled and either cut to small cubes or shred.
- 1 cup shrimps, deveined, shelled and chopped coarsely
- 3 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked and choped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 small onion, minced
- 1/2 tbsp five spice powder
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2-3 spring onions, chopped
- pepper
- dash of sugar

How:
- Heat a little bit oil in pan. Pan fry taro. Once tender, set aside on a platter.
- Toss in onion and garlic to pan. Saute until onion is soft.
- Add mushrooms, five spice powder, soy sauce, green onions, pepper and sugar. Stir and mix thoroughly.
- Add taro back to the pan and toss in shrimps. Cook just until shrimp turn color. Turn heat off and stir in sesame oil.
- Take a wrapper. Put about 1 1/2 tbsp of filling to the edge and roll it like a cigar. Seal with mixture of corn starch and water.
- Fry until golden brown.

For dipping sauce, version of Vietnamese style sauce is perfect, nuoc nam with lime juice, sprinkle with warm water and thinly sliced bird eyes chillies with garlic. Or, just bottled hot sauce. Hoisin sauce whisk together with lime juice and few teaspoon of hot chili sauce is a pretty good pairing also.

Savory Asian Rolls

Having a work-session at our place this weekend. Depressing enough that we needed to work on weekend, on top of that, the weather was not the best - gloomy, humid, semi-raining, semi-sunshine! So everybody decided to bring some snacks to keep going and motivated (to keep eating). I decided to make some rolls - bread rolls and spring rolls!

I have been thinking a lot about baking rolls/bread, especially after religiously checking out Elra's blog! Something about bread baking has always been somewhat intimidating. Which is rather silly due to the fact that I grew up watching a lot of dough kneading and some involved slapping dough to air and counter top - still not quite sure whether it was some anger management session taking place or that type of high level slapping was truly needed?!! Ooh, we don't do any fancy breads, just simple basic savory/sweet filled buns and rolls - I loveee coconut buns!!! And occasionally, some Chinese steamed buns. In short, I should feel okay with the bread ordeal, yeah? But I am just not.

However, enough whining, so I leafed through family's recipe and realized that there is another reason why I feel reluctant!! High protein vs low protein flour?!! Most of these recipes combine both. And I suddenly remember that in Indonesia - they kinda use the brand name to identify it, isn't it? Or that's just my silly judgment? Cakra as high protein (typically used for bread making) and Segitiga as......low protein? Or is it just all purpose flour? It's for everything kind of flour, yes? Can I just use bread flour then? King Arthur? One day I will figure this out and my oven will be spitting out toasty delicious rolls and buns like no tomorrow! :)

Then I came across another stash of recipes that I kept from random sources and this one sounds good. The picture in magazine looks like what I have in my head, savory filled buns. Big plus it only calls for all purpose flour. Bigger plus, it does not seem too demanding - effort and time.

Savory Asian Rolls
adapted from Korean Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls, Cooking Light, January 2008.

Filling:
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp fresh ginger
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
- 1/2 lbs ground chicken

Dough:
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp baking pwder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp canola oil

Eggwash:
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

How:
- Heat a little oil in pan. Toss all filling ingredients together. Cook until chicken is done. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Combine dry mixture in one bowl: flour, baking powder, and salt, stir with a whisk. Combine 1 1/3 cup water, honey and canola oil, whisk. Add water mixture to flour mixture, stir until a soft dough forms.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic about 5 minutes. Cover and let stand for another 5 minutes. (This is where I jumped into making this recipe, 10 minutes in a making just sounds extremely doable, isnt it?!)
- The recipe calls for rolling the dough into a 16 x 12 rectangle, 1/4" thick, on lightly floured surface. Cut dough to 12 squares. But with limited counter space, I just eyeball and portion out 15 dough-balls. Rolling each ball to a 1/4" disk.
- Cover dough with damp cloth. Work with 1 square/disk at the time, spoon about 1/4 cup filling into the center of dough. Moisten edges with water and bring corners to center. Pinch to seal.
- Place rolls, seam side down on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Mix lightly beaten egg with water. Brush top of dough. The recipe suggests sprinkling sesame seeds on top of dough. But..I don't have any, so plain top it is.
- Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until rolls are lightly browned.

Well, the outcome is not too bad. Not exactly great either. The dough part is somewhat bland and has crusty/crispy top as opposed to pillow soft like. Not quite what I wished it would turn out to. But maybe if I want these rolls to be the type that I want them to, I should have used the recipe that is meant for it, right?! :) To say the least, for such little time it took to make these mini rolls, I feel quite happy with the result. Plus, there was no leftover, so I really can't complain much.

Now that I am blogging this, it just occurred to me that I did not take any photos of the fillings!!! It was the best part of these small buns. Geez!

Simple Easy Fried Noodles

I can eat noodles just as often as rice. That's what we grow up accustomed to in Indonesia. All kind of noodles, fried, soup, gravy-ish. Fancy with all the trimmings or very plain: noodles, with garlic, beansprouts and eggs, soy sauce of course. For the latter, if it's being whipped up with very well-made noodles - oooh..it tastes just heavenly!!!

That said, my usual is full to the brim trimmings. Shrimp, fishball, veggies, eggs, chicken, et cetera!! Mhhmhh. At first, Vik just did not get this deep love I have for noodles. Even after gentle (and later, grumpy) explanation of that's just what 'we' eat!! He always thought noodle is either those ramen type or Pad Thai!! Just imagine my exasperation. I knew he'd changed his perception as we traveled through S.E.Asia. He was in awe to see noodles in various thickness, form, taste and the 1001 ways of it being cooked. I said I told you so in every chance I got. ;)

Anyhoo, weather has been gloomy - I sort of love gloomy rainy weather. It's just perfect for sitting on balcony, reading and falling asleep weather, ya know? Vik, on the other hand, detests this weather. He prefers either hot days, or just cold snowy days. Nothing in between. What perfect food to cure his moody day? A plate of fried noodles!!! Hot out from wok, sitting on the balcony. With a cup of jasmine tea.

What:
- 250 gr noodles
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp chillies in oil
- 3 handful of beansprouts (we love beansprouts)
- 1 cup of green leaf vegetables, chopped coarsely (I use romaine lettuce)
- 6 beef meatballs, cut thick
- 1/4 cup boneless chicken (or shrimp)
- 3-4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 1 egg
- cilantro, chopped (optional)

How:
- Heat oil in pan. Toss in garlic. Stir fry.
- Toss in chilies. Toss in chicken. Fry.
- Add meatballs. Stir. Add in eggs. Let it set for a while before scrambling it.
- Toss in lettuce. Stir well with everything.
- Turn the heat up to high. Toss in noodles. Pour both salty and sweet soy sauce. Stir quickly but try to do it lightly. Overworking the noodles can break them apart. Wok tossing-flicking skill is very useful in dishes like this.
- Toss in beansprouts. Stir and mix thoroughly, just for a minute or so. Turn off the heat.
- Stir in fresh cilantro.

Beef with Lemon Grass

I have this one lonely stalk of lemon grass in my fridge. The thought of making some fruit juice and use the stalk as stirring stick came to my mind. When I visited Indonesia after haven't been for so long, the first place my aunt took me was this Balinese Restaurant and when the drinks came out, each glass had this gigantic lemon grass stalk in the glass (which is very small compared to the stalk, really). Seen celery stalk, umbrella stick, what not, but never lemongrass stalk! I was skeptical on its functionality until I took a sip of the juice and it has a very faint refreshing lemon grass taste to it.

Anyway, I only have bananas and dragonfruit in my kitchen. So, no fruit juice. That was just me daydreaming of cool refreshing tropical juice! ;) This beef dish is really super easy. I don't marinate the beef for very long; being it so thinly sliced.

What:
- 1 lbs flank steak, cut thinly across the grain
- 1 stalk lemon grass, thinly slice the roots part, tough stalk removed
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 inch ginger, grated
- 1/2 small onion, cut to thick slices
- 1/4 cup nuoc nam (fish sauce)
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 8 dried chillies (soaked and once plumped up, cut to half - optional)
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- splash of water
- dash of black pepper

How:
- Toss together beef, black pepper, lime juice and some of the grated garlic. I just let it stand for about 20 minutes.
- Heat wok with 1 tbsp oil. Toss in garlic, ginger, onion and chillies. Stir until onions are translucent.
- Put wok into medium high heat. Toss in beef, stir quickly. When beef is halfway cooked (about 2 minutes), low the heat to medium.
- Add the rest of ingredients. Let it come to quick boil (beef should be cooked by then).
Note: The way I make it has very watery thin gravy; for thicker gravy, just mix small amount of cornstarch with water, add it at the end, and let it come to quick boil.

Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai

I love noodles dishes. I guess being Asian, it's hard not to love noodles. Our bread and butter, yes? At first, Vik was not much into noodles - once in a while, but not at all close to my sudden craving for wok-fried noodles. Until he visited Asia that is - Medan is the highlight, he literally could eat noodles for every meals. Yeap, the abundant varieties and they are just delicious ! Yum!.

Though I can make any noodles as often as I wish, it's just not the same. Largely, it is due to the wok and gas burner, or even better, coal type of stove (the name escapes me). My grandpa was super awesome when it comes to these type of wok frying: open fire, flames shooting up from the side of wok. Oh my! The beauty of having outdoor/ wet kitchen is Asia.

I've been to Thailand couple times but couldn't remember seeing Pad Thai - hawker style. Maybe I was too young, all I remembered was the fun festive night market. Upon conversation with this one gal, her description of hawker style Pad Thai in Thailand reminds me of wok fried noodles back in Medan. It should be on drier side - nothing too oily or gravy-iesh.

Most of the ingredients for making Pad Thai are staple in my kitchen - fish sauce, tamarind, rice stick noodles, sprouts. Except for tofu. Vik is not big fans of tofu - unless I 'hide' it somewhere in the dish. I LOVE TOFU. So, coming home from work, I grabbed a pack of extra firm tofu from store.

There are couple techniques on how to go about frying/cooking up Pad Thai. The dump and fry all of them sorta way - typical hawker style, I think. They don't have the time to do things in batches, do they. Or, cooking it in batches - fry up tofu, prepare scrambled eggs first.

I learn that, eggs part is always tricky when one has smaller work. Adding eggs at the end (which that's how it should be done), while using smaller wok, risking the noodle getting covered/ sticky goey with eggs mixture. Cause there is not enough working space in wok to work up/scramble the eggs before mixing it with noodles. Some people may like slightly egg-coated noodles, but .... hm....

So, might as well prepare the eggs part first (if using smaller work), and set it aside and add it at the end of cooking process. My wok is about 15" and at that, I am just fixing it up for two people, so I just dump and fry. :)

What:
- 250 gram rice stick noodles (soak or slightly cook according to package, it should be slightly hard and not thoroughly cooked) - I also use thinner version of rice stick, instead of the flat thicker version served in most places. Just because that's all I have in the pantry.
- tofu, cut to squares
- handful of shrimps, shelled and deveined
- 1/2 chicken breast, slice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots, minced
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 3 tbsp tamarind juice (either from canned juice or soak tamarind in hot water)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 4 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tbsp sambal ulek (or sriracha hot sauce, optional)
- 2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional - we love ours very spicy hot, so adjust to taste)
- 2 stalk green onions (or chives) chopped to 1 inch lengths.
- 1-2 handful of fresh bean sprouts
- cupful of broccolis (optional, I just happen to have 1 small crown of it in fridge) chopped up to its florets
- crushed peanuts

How:
- Mix together fish sauce, tamarind juice, lime juice, palm sugar, sambal ulek together. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the wok. Make sure it's hot before tossing in cut up tofu. Fry until golden. Push to the side of wok. Toss in shallots, garlic and crushed red pepper. Stir.
- Add chicken. When chicken is half cooked, splash some water to wok and add in noodles. Stir.
- Add in the liquid mixture to wok. Stir and mix thoroughly.
- Toss in broccolis and green onions. Stir.
- Push noodles to the side of wok and add shrimps to center of of wok.
- When shrimps are almost cooked, mix noodles to shrimp. Toss together.
- Last, make a well (or push noodles to the side) and add whipped up eggs to center of wok. Let it set for a while, then scramble it. It is matter of preference here, I like the eggs on chunkier side, so I let it set first before 'separating' it out. For smaller 'crumblier' egg bits, scramble it right away.
- Serve with crushed peanuts on top (and some coriander - I don't have any of them at the moment)

Siu Mai and Green Onion Pancake

Had a friend over to 'inspect' our balcony and to give me some ideas about so called urban garden. Beside my poor photography skill, my gardening skill is not that great either - when cactus dies on me, I know I am not cut for any gardening. But I do want some herbs and such, just not brave enough to start them.

Then we decided to have some afternoon snacks with minted cold iced tea. So after quick peek to fridge, she spotted a pack of dumplings wrappers that I just got day before and suggested some siumai. Once the package is opened, I found out how thick the wrap is. I tend to pick up different brand once in a while, just to test it out and this time is maybe the thickest one ever. My mom or grandma would say something like 'You could have just made it from scracth and be consistent in its thickness.' If only.

So we were doing some prep work, dragging my stools so I can reach to the top shelf of my kitchen cabinet - only to realize I don't have my bamboo steamer. Used it as container/serving dish for pot luck dinner few months ago and it's still at friend's house. So, thick dumpling skins and no steamer. We then opted to pan-fry it like gyoza.

To pair it up, thin onion pancake (crepe) filled with carmelized onions and mushrooms.

Siu Mai
- 10 wrappers
- 5 shrimps, chopped coarsely
- 5 shrimps, minced
- 1/4 cup ground chicken (or pork)
- 2 shiitake mushroom, finely chopped
- dash of chinese cooking wine
- dash of sesame oil
- pinch of five spice powder
- 1 garlic, minced
- garlic, grated
- soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp of rice flour/ corn starch
- carrots, diced to tiny cubes.

How:
- Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (except wrappers and carrots).
- Make a very loose fist of left hand (as in making a letter C), place one wrapper on top of fist, over the hollow part. Push wrapper down a little bit to fit the hollow of fist.
- Put 1 tbs of filling onto it. Slowly (or quickly) shape it to sio may shape, with the help of spoon on top to pack it down. Top it with carrot cube.
- Traditionally, steam it in bamboo steamer, with layer of napa cabbage underneath it. But we have to pan fry it, by putting a touch of oil to the pan, once the bottom part is browned, pour a little bit water to the pan. Cover. It will steam through very quickly, 10 minutes top.

I wish I could describe better on shaping these open top basket like dumplings. Maybe, I should draw them up? Hmm. We sort of forgot about the siu may while it was pan fried, by the time we lift the lid to pour the water, the bottom side of the dumplings started to brown towards super crispy almost burn stage. It doesn't prevent us from chowing all ten of them down.


Green onion pancake/ crepe - was decided at last minute. Basically just rice flour, water, chopped up green onions, salt and pepper, whisk. It resembles thinner version of breakfast pancake batter, like crepe batter. Heat up some oil, pour pancake batter, tilt the pan so batter coat the pan nicely. Only flip when one side starts having golden brown specks. We fill it with caramelized sweet onions and mushroom.

Mix up a quick dipping sauce: hot sauce, touch of chili oil, hoisin and sesame oil.

Salmon Baked in Parchment Paper

There are easy dishes. Then there are lazy dishes. This recipe here is both easy and lazy dish category, for sure. Just throw everything in parchment pouch, slide it in oven. No mess, no pan to wash, neither baking sheet. If accustomed with slicing things without cutting board, then no board to wash.

What:
- 500-600 gr ( 1/2 lbs) salmon
- 4 shiitake mushroom, sliced
- 1 inch ginger, julienne, cut into thin strips
- 2 cloves garlic, cut to thin slices
- 1 jalapenos, julienne
- 1 tbsp black beans sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- salt & pepper
- dash of sesame oil
- dash of vegetable oil/ canola oil
- dash of rice wine vinegar

How:
- Lie a piece of parchment paper on baking sheet. Make sure it's big enough to wrap the salmon and enough to be folded.
- Score the skin of salmon. Seasoned with salt and pepper.
- Scatter few pieces of mushroom on the paper; reserve some aside. Put the salmon on top of it.
- Mix the rest of ingredients in a bowl. Pour on top of salmon. Try to tuck in few pieces of ginger and garlic inside the score mark.
- Put the reserved mushroom slices on top of salmon.
- Wrap the parchment paper, but lifting one end to meet the other end. Fold at least two times. Do the same with the side. Fold down the edges, just to make sure the pouch is all sealed up.
- Slide it in to preheated 350 degree oven. Depending on size, it'll cook very quickly. Mine is done in 20 minutes.
- Once taken out from oven, just let it rest for couple minutes. Bring it with table, all in parchment paper.
Note: Some baby bokchoy is nice addition to the pouch, or as matter of fact, any vegetables. It can be easily made to one pouch meal.

Asian Style Short Ribs

There is this restaurant in Lville that we frequented when we still lived there. Always always ordered their BBQ Ribs. It's a Chinese restaurant, so supposedly, this is kinda Chinese BBQ Ribs, yeah? But then, any other places we find such ribs, usually Korean joints. So, Asian Style Short Ribs it is.

Make this so often that I just absentmindedly mix the ingredients together. The ratio of each ingredients is pretty much adjustable to taste though, I may say. Those simple 'dressings/marinade' that one can taste along while whipping it up. If you like it sweeter, hit more honey. We like tons garlic and ginger.

What:
- garlic, minced
- ginger, grated
- soy sauce
- honey
- sesame oil
- rice wine vinegar
- brown sugar
- pepper
- scallions

How:
- Mix all the ingredients (except the ribs) in a bowl. Whisk well.
- Put the ribs to the marinade. Make sure all ribs are nicely covered with marinade. Cover.
- Let it marinade for at least 4 hours in the fridge.
- Heat grill, or pan. Cook ribs until it has some crisp and char. Try not to flip the ribs too often. Just flip once, when one side is nicely grilled, flip to the other side.
- Garnish with chopped scallions.


Note:
- Grill is the preferred method. Though honestly, the only time I bother to start up grill, clean and scrub the grill, etc, is when I cook this in massive amounts for party. Otherwise, I just heat my pan in high heat (it has to be sizzling hot to get the charred effect), and pretend that it is a grill.

Do not overcrowd the pan. I have a big pan that fits 5-6 ribs comfortably at once, thus I only have to do two rounds of 'grilling.' If few more time of cooking needed (smaller pan), lower the heat between cooking (when transfering the cooked ribs to putting in fresh ones to pan). The high heat will char/ burn the next round very quickly.

Cold Vermicelli Salad

It's hot day and we were still stuffed from our dim sum lunch. Tonight dinner menu was going to be Korean style short ribs, but not anymore. Will do that over the weekend instead.

What:
- vermicelli
- carrots, julienne or shred with mandolin
- jicama, julienne, or shred
- napa cabbage (red cabbage or green cabbage is fine too), cut to thin strips
- green peas (optional)
- shrimp and calamari (optional) , cooked and chilled.

sauce:
- grated ginger
- garlic, very finely chopped
- shallots, very finely chopped
- sesame oil
- soy sauce
- honey
- lemon juice
- hot sauce (to taste, optional)
- salt and pepper

How:
- Mix all sauce ingredients in bowl, whisk. Cover and put in the fridge.
- Cook vermicelli according to package. Usually it calls for something like emerging vermicelli in boiling water for couple minutes, drain and in this case (to make cold noodles/salad), run under cold water to stop its cooking process immediately.
- Mix all the salad ingredients together - vermicelli, veggies and seafood. I like to drizzle only half of the sauce, and toss well, making sure everything is coated thoroughly with sauce.
- Put back in the fridge (both salad and leftover sauce) for 15 minutes or so. Mix the other half of sauce just right before serving.

Shrimp in Spicy Tamarind Sauce

It's a good dish for a little bit windy, chilly, rainy night. Tangy sourness from tamarind, spicy heat from the bird eye chillies.

What:
- shrimp
- 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
- 1/4 tsp of grated ginger
- 2 bird eye red chillies
- 1 small tomatoes, quarter
- 2 shallots, chopped finely
- 1/2 cube of beef bullion (mix to little bit of warm water)
- 2 leaves of napa cabbage, chopped roughly
- 3 stalk chives, chopped to 4 cm length

How:
- Heat oil in pan, stir in garlic, grated ginger, shallots and chillies. When shallots start to soften, stir in tomatoes.
- Pour in beef buillion mixture, stir. Toss in napa cabbage, stir, follow with shrimps. The napa cabbage should still be crispy, hence, once the cabbage goes into the wok, just stir once before adding the shrimp.
- When shrimp is half-cooked, pour in tamarind juice. Let it boil quickly.
- Right before moving the wok from heat, toss in chives and stir.

Pan Fried Pork and Chives Dumplings

What:
- 20 dumplings wrapper
- 2 cups ground pork
- bunch of chives, chopped
- 2 tablespoon chopped water chestnuts
- 1/4 cup finely chopped napa cabbage
- 1/2 inch grated ginger
- 1 clove grated garlic
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- soy sauce
- pepper

How:
- Mix everything together (except the wrapper) until well combined. Heat pan and spoon a small bits of the mixture to the pan - just to taste, whether it needs extra spices.
- Once it tastes right, start assembling the dumplings. Place spoonful of filling onto the center of wrapper, dab water/egg white around the edges of wrapper, fold and crimp. Usually there is some instruction at the back of wrapper package.
- Heat pan with 2 tablespoon of oil. Once hot, place the dumplings in the pan. I use quite big of pan and can fit 20 dumplings at once. If using smaller pan, do not overcrowd pan to prevent any sticking between dumplings.
- Don't move around the dumplings. Once the bottom part of dumplings are crispy and golden brown, pour 1/4 cup of water to hot pan, cover. The steam will finish up the cooking process. It will take only couple minutes.
- Serve with sesame oil mixed with soy sauce and hot sauce.