Hot Cocoa

中文菜谱: 热可可

During the freezing cold winter, we could all use a cup of hot cocoa from time to time O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

4 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant coffee  (optional)
2 cups of whole milk
1 to 2 teaspoon sugar
chocolate sauce
caramel sauce
mini marshmarrows
chopped nuts

Directions:

Brush the mugs’ edge with syrup or honey, and then coat them with chopped nuts.

Add cocoa powder, instant coffee and sugar in a large cup.

Add the milk to a small pot .  Heat over medium heat until it boils.  Or you can also microwave the milk on for minutes high until it boils.

Gradually pour 1/2 cup hot milk to the cup while whisking.

Add remaining milk.  Whisk  until everything comes together.

Divide the hot cocoa between mugs.

Top with mini marshmarrows.

Broil in a toaster oven  for 3 to 4 minutes or until the marshmarrows are golden brown

Sprinkle with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce.

I would highly recommend to enjoy them fireside with a good book O(∩_∩)O~

Spicy Venison Chili

中文菜谱：鹿肉CHILI

I usually make chili using beef.  It doesn’t occur to me until recently that venison chili is also very awesome too!

 The venison came from one of friend who loves hunting.  She hunts every year and is really good at it.  She sent me one bag of ground venison which I make venison chili with, and another bag of chunky meat which I am planning to grill. 

Ingredients：

1 pound of ground venison
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 large or 2 small size onions, peeled and diced
2 to 3 jalapeño peppers, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 to 2 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 can diced tomatoes  / tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can cooked kidney beans
2 to 3 cups chicken stock
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Directions:

Heat a cast iron pot over heat.  Add minced garlic, chopped onion and jalapeno peppers.  I use 4 1/4 quarts Le Creuset soup pot which is perfect for stewing.

Sautee until the onion becomes semi-transparent.  Add ground venison.  Continue to sautee for a couple minutes.

I grind chili peppers, cayenne peppers, coriander seeds and cumin seeds together with a coffee/ spice grinder

Add ground spices and black pepper

Mix well with a wooden spoon

Add diced tomato/ tomato sauce and tomato paste. 

I make my own dice tomato which is thicker and more flavorful. 

Add chicken stock and salt.  Cook over high heat until the mixture boils.  Reduce to simmer for about 2 hours.

Stir with a wooden spoon occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom.

Drain cooked kidney beans

Add the beans and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve hot immediately. 

That is why I love to cook and serve with Le Creuset cast iron cookware.  Not only it looks good on table but also keep the food hot for a really long time.

These thin naan bread goes really well with hot chili.

Come pull up a seat and have a bowl of hot spicy venison chili! O(∩_∩)O~

Cappuccino Coffee

中文：卡布奇诺

Like many coffee enthusiasts, we love roasting and grinding our own coffee beans for espresso drinks.  The fresher they are, the better creama and taste we can get. 

I posted how to roast coffee beans at home with cast iron pan before.

We usually roast several kinds in small batches so that we can compare different flavors from different roast and varieties.

 These are medium roast Guatemala coffee beans

These are dark roast Columbia coffee beans

24 to 48 hours after the beans are roasted which is a reasonable time for them to degas, we can start to brew.

My beloved Breville 870XL  is exacting double shot espresso

Frother the milk; pour and enjoy! O(∩_∩)O~

Grilled Chicken Salad

中文菜谱：GRILLED CHICKEN鸡肉沙拉

We enjoy making our own salads at home.  The most frequent one I make at home is grilled chicken salad.  Sometimes I use drumsticks; and some other times I use chicken breasts.  

For chicken breasts：

2 pieces of chicken breasts
freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon McCormick grill seasoning of your choice
salt to taste

For the salad：

Romaine lettuce
1/2 to 1 avocado
walnuts
almonds
sunflower seeds
dried cranberry
grated parmesan cheese

For salad balsamic vinaigrette dressing：

1 part of honey
2 to 3 parts of aged balsamic vinegar
2 parts of extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Directions：

In a large bowl, add chicken breasts, along with black pepper, soy sauce, rice cooking wine, sesame oil, grill seasoning and salt.  Rub the chicken with spices until it is evenly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple days.

I don’t remove the skin because chicken skin can help chicken meat to stay tender and juicy.  You can remove it after the cooking if you like.

Take the chicken out of refrigerator an hour prior grilling.

Preheat the oven to 450F/232C. I use a toaster oven here because it heats up faster and more efficient.

Heat a cast iron grill pan  over high heat until it gets really hot.  Add chicken breast to the grill pan, skin side down.  Grill for 2 minutes.

That is the good thing about chicken skin for grilling.  I don’t even need to grease the pan or chicken and they don’t stick to the pan.

Flip them over.  See how beautiful the grill marks are? O(∩_∩)O~

Grill for another 2 minutes.

Send the chicken along with grill pan to oven to bake for 6 to 12 minutes depending on the sizes and thickness of the chicken.

When the chicken is in the oven, I resemble my romaine salads.

Add honey, balsamic vinegar, salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil to a small bowl or jar.  Whisk until everything is well combined.

Dice the grilled chicken breast and add to salads.  Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese.

Add salad dressing and these amazingly delicious grilled chicken salads are all done!

 Bon appétit O(∩_∩)O~

Houston Weekend Eats

中文: 休斯顿HOUSTON的美食之旅

Last weekend, my husband surprised me with a weekend getaway trip to Houston.  We are both foodies.  So it is no surprise that our weekend trip turned into a culinary adventure. O(∩_∩)O~ 

I did some homework right before we leave.  Every star on the map stands for the restaurants on our to eat list.

We went for a hair cut in Chinatown after arrival.  So we had our dinner at a nearby Sichuan cuisine restaurant named Mala Sichuan Bistro. 

We ordered crispy and water boiled beef, sour and spicy noodle, dan dan noodle, spicy pork intestines.

Water boiled beef came first.  It was really far away from authentic Sichuan style.

Neither of us enjoyed it at all.  The beef was coated in thick and mushy starchy batter and boiled into a bowl of beef soup.  

Sour and spicy noodle was bit heavy on the sour side.  The broth was kind of flavorless despite of heavy dose of chili oil sauce.

He thought it was ok.  I agreed to disagree O(∩_∩)O~

Don’t be scared by the name of spicy pork intestines.  They were actually a delicacy in Asia. 

It was the only dish I found ok.  It was hot and spicy.  The intestines were a little bit crunchy and crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. 

Dan dan noodle was also far away from traditional and authentic.

Dinner didn’t go well, so we treated ourselves with dessert at Star Ice & Teriyaki.

Matcha shaved ice was really good. 

Although it was named shave ice, it was just like eating fine ice cream. And you can pick four toppings.  

Milk tea was ok.

The second morning we went to Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q for breakfast.  This one is conveniently located close to the Houston Space Center.

They had breakfast menu.  I asked if they had BBQ, and yes they did! O(∩_∩)O~  They were sold by pound.  We ordered 1/4 pound lean beef brisket, 1/4 pound moist beef brisket, one jalapeno smoked sausage. 

Lean brisket was good; tasty and smoky. But they were so lean that they taste a little bit dry.

There was a seasoning basket on every table.

The moist beef brisket was so much better than the lean one.  They were smoky, juicy, tender and loaded with tons of flavors.

Each piece came with beautiful smoke ring.

The sausage was surprisingly tasty!

We spent most of our day at Houston Space Center.

We went toJinya Ramen Bar for lunch.  It has two locations in town.  This one is really close to Space Center too.

I am ordered number 2 Cha Cha Cha

The pork broth is very thick and rich, just the way I like it! 

He ordered NO.3 Jinya Tonkotsu Black

The noodle was thicker than mine.  Brussel sprouts were added to the broth to create rich and refreshing flavor which was also quite tasty.

We continued our tour back at Space center for the afternoon.  And then we headed back to midtown for dinner. 

We made a reservation for two at 6:15 at Pappas Brother Steakhouse.  The parking was already full although we arrived before 6: oopm.

The restaurant atmosphere was great, elegant and upscale.  A gentleman in suit was playing piano next to the entrance. 

My attention was soon distracted by the meat counter.  There was a huge display of all kinds of dry aged meat.  I was drooling like crazy inside. O(∩_∩)O~

Numerous waiters and waitress greeted us on the way to our table.  Too bad it was so dark in there that every photo blurred even though I bumped up the camera ISO to 2000.

The bread was really good.  It was crunchy on the outside but with a soft and light inside texture. 

Pappas is famous for their wine collections.  I couldn’t drink at the time.  So he ordered a glass of cabernet sauvignon.

We ordered bacon-wrapped scallops, steak house salad and 18 oz dry aged prime ribeye.

The scallops were very amazing.  They were wrapped in crunchy bacon but stayed tender and juicy inside. 

Salads were a bit too sweet for my taste.

Maybe I had held my hope too high for the steak that I was slightly disappointed by the steak.  Yes, it was grilled to medium rare just the way we like.  And it was good steak, juicy and tender.  But I didn’t find the beef flavor intensified by the dry age process.     

What I am trying to say is that I prefer my husband’s version of fire grilled ribeye over Pappas’. 

Dun Huang plaza became our new favorite hang out spot in Houston.

We went to Gong Cha for tea.

It was late in the night.  There was still a long line.

One bubble milk tea and one red bean milk tea.  The tea flavor was really good.  But both of them tasted too sweet for me.  I should have asked for half sweetness. 

It was only 11:00 pm.  The night was still young. O(∩_∩)O~

What would you do when you see somebody is selling rolling ice cream?  Join the line!

It looked like they were making crepes.  The ice cream batter was spread evenly on a flat pan.  It cooled and frozen very quickly, and then they scrape and rolling the ice cream from one end towards the other. 

It tasted no difference from regular ice cream.  But it was really fun to watch the whole making process.

The next morning, we drove to Fung’s kitchen for dim sum. 

The restaurant was spacious and clean.

Pu erh tea

Dim sum is served in a traditional style here.  Food carts loaded with all kinds of snacks and dishes come and go.  You can stop the waiter or waitress any time if you’d like something from their food carts.

Shrimp noodles were great.  The silky fine texture made it one of my favorites.

Beef tendon was very tender and seasoned in traditional Cantonese way. 

I added a couple teaspoons of chili oil sauce to spice it up.

Tofu skin rolls were ok

Shrimp dumplings sucked.  The dumpling wrap was really thick and sticky.  The shrimp filling felt out when we tried to pick it up with chopsticks.

Chicken feet with black beans sauce were good. 

Egg tarts were good too.  They would have been better if served hot right out of oven.

The layers were very light and flaky.

These were one of their signature dishes: salted egg yolk custard buns

He found it ok but I didn’t like it. 

First of all, they are cold. A lot of Chinese snacks need to be served hot to remain their taste and flavor.  Salted egg yolk custard buns definitely should be served immediately right out of oven.  Second, the filling taste greasy and lack of flavors. 

After dim sum, we went shopping.  And then we went back to Dun Huang Plaza for desserts. O(∩_∩)O~

I ordered taro flavor shave ice.  It was not as creamy the matcha shaved ice as I had before.

You can pick up to four toppings.

And then we went back to Gong Cha for tea.

Two cups of bubble black milk tea on ice was a must for a 90F muggy day!  We asked for only half syrup this time so they tasted a lot better!

We drove to airport after the milk tea.  The amazing weekend getaway trip was over.  But I know I will be back soon!  O(∩_∩)O~