Salt Pepper Smelt

This is easy and yummy, my boys absolutely love them because you can eat the whole thing, including the bones!

Ingredients: 
Smelt
Salt
Sugar
White Pepper
Cornstarch

Cooking Steps:
1. Pat dry smelt with paper towel.  Prepare a bowl of cornstarch on the side.
2. Sprinkle very little salt, sugar, white pepper on fish.
3. Heat up frying pan on high heat, add enough oil for shallow fry.
4. Dip smelt in cornstarch, make sure fully cover both sides.  Put into frying pan and fry until golden color.  Make sure you dip one at a time.
5. Put fried smelt in a plate lined with 2 paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

Enjoy the golden, crunchy goodness!

Hot Dog Fried Rice (Great for quick lunch)

Ingredients:
2-3 hot dogs
Frozen Peas
1 can of corn
2 eggs
White cooked rice (best if saved from night before)

Steps to cook:
1. Cut hot dogs into thin slices.
2. Wash peas and drain.
3. Heat up frying pan in high heat, add hot dogs.  Cook until hot dogs and brown and crispy.
4. Add corn and peas.  Stir fry for 5 mins until peas are soften.
5. Add rice.  Sprinkle salt and sugar for taste.  Stir fry until hot dog and veggies are mixed well.
6. Add in the eggs and continue to stir until egg is evenly coated throughout.
7. Done!

Honey Pineapple Chicken Wings

Ingredients

Chicken wings

1 yellow onion

Fresh pineapple (cubed)

Marinate: soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, corn starch

Steps to cook:

1. Marinate wings for at least 1 hour.

2. Cube pineapples, slice onions.

3. In wok with high heat, stir fry wings until brown, about 5 minutes, remove from wok and put aside.

4. Add onions in wok, add salt and sugar, cook until onions caramelized.  Remove from wok and put aside.

5.  Put wings back into work to finish cooking, turn heat down to low.  Cook for 15 minutes.

6.  Add onions back into work with wings, add pineapples.  Add about 2 tablespoons of honey (depends on your preference) and stir and mix well.  Ready to serve!

Curry Chicken with Japanese boxed curry

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients
Chicken breast (5 pieces)
1 yellow onion
6 potatoes (small to medium size)
Carrots (6-7 sticks)
Golden Curry sauce (3 cubes)

Marinate: soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, corn starch.

Steps to cook
1. Marinate chicken and put aside for 30 minutes.
2. Dice onions, potatoes, and carrots.
3. In a large pot, cook chicken until half done.  Take out and put aside.
4. Add in onions, potatoes, and carrots in pot.  Sprinkle some salt and stir fry a little more.  Add water until covering all veggies, cover and wait for reboil.  After reboil, turn heat to medium.  Cook for another 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
5. Add 3 cubes of Golden Curry into pot, turn down heat and stir until cubes dissolve.
6. Pour in the chicken again, turn heat back to high and cook for a few more minutes to fully cook the meat.
7. Ready to serve with Japanese or Jasmine rice.

Mahi Mahi in a Pouch

Ingredients
3 mahi mahi fillets                  Pepper
2 stalks of celery                    Sugar
1 red pepper                          Garlic
Mushrooms                           Olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
6 stalks of green onions
3-4 slices of ginger
Balsamic vinegar
Soy sauce
Salt

This is the best way I found to make mahi mahi, which is a more dense kind of fish.
                                                           
To cook: 
1. Marinate mahi-mahi with salt, sugar, soy sauce, and 3 drops of balsamic vinegar, set aside.
2. Slice celery, red pepper, mushrooms, yellow onions, green onions and ginger. Mince garlic.
3. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Cut a large sheet of parchment paper and place on a cookie sheet.  Put vegetables on parchment paper. Add salt, pepper, and minced garlic to vegetables, mix well.  Splash olive oil on veggies.
5. Put mahi mahi on top of the vegetables. Place ginger on the fish,  and add green onions on top of the ginger and fish. Splash olive oil on top.
6. Put one more piece of parchment paper on top of everything and close it up by folding in sides.
7. Put pouch on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 20 minutes.

Note: The veggies turned out to be more al dente and crunchy.  For softer veggies, I would pre-steam them first next time.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients
Fish paste (can be bought in Chinese grocery store's freezer aisle)
2 big green peppers
Corn starch (1 tablespoon)
Lee Kam Kee garlic and black bean sauce (2 tablespoons)
1 egg white
White pepper (1 teaspoon)

Steps to cook
1. Cut green peppers in halves, then for each half, cut into quarters, then half of the quarter resulting in about 6 pieces from each half.
2. Scoop out fish paste from container, mix in white pepper, egg white, and corn starch.  This mixture helps to bind the fish paste together and stick really well.  Since you'll be using the garlic and black bean sauce, you don't really need to add any more salt or soy sauce at this point.
3. Prepare some additional corn starch in small bowl for next steps.
4. Before stuffing, coat the inside of pepper with a little cornstarch, this will help the fish paste to stick the peppers.  Then, use a small spoon to stuff fish paste into the pepper.  Make sure not to stuff too much or it won't cook through.
5.  After stuffing fish paste, coat a little corn starch onto fish paste side.  This will help the fish paste not to stick to the pan when frying.
6. After stuffing all the peppers, now frying time.
7. In a non-stick pan, heat up wok in medium heat, put peppers in pan fish paste side down.  Pan fry for a few minutes until golden brown, then flip to other side and cook for a few more minutes.  Flip a couple more times until fish paste feels firm when you press with spatula.  This indicates the fish paste is cooked.  After all peppers are done, remove from wok.
8. Add garlic and black bean sauce in wok, then add the peppers back in, stir fry in sauce for a few minutes, remove from wok.  Done!

Steamed Egg Made Easy

This is the perfect dish to make whenever you need to add a "third" dish, or just want something other than meat and veggies.  It only takes 5 mins to prep and it's absolutely great for kids.  It has this smooth custard-like texture that's super yummy.  You can add any other ingredients from ground pork to Chinese mushrooms to dried shrimp to this.  It's great when you mix with rice, my kids would just finish their bowl of rice in 5 mins and ask for seconds!

Ingredients
3 eggs
1 salted duck egg
1 cube of chicken bouillon (optional)
A pinch of sugar
Sesame oil
Green onion





Steps to cook
1. Crack salted duck egg and put into bowl.  Use a spoon to mash egg.
2. Crack 3 eggs and add into bowl.  Add bouillon, sugar, then beat everything together with a fork or chop sticks.
3. Add 1.5 cups (exact measurement) of warm water to eggs.  Continue to stir the egg while pouring water.  The ratio is 1 egg to 0.5 cup of water.  This ratio will ensure great consistency.
4. To remove the bubbles on top, lay a piece of paper towel on surface of egg mixture, lightly dab around the whole surface, especially around the rim where the bubbles reside.  Carefully lift towel off.  This will get rid of all the bubbles!
5. Drizzle a little sesame oil on egg mixture, then add chopped green onions.
6. The trick to perfectly smooth looking steamed egg: wrap bowl tightly with plastic wrap (microwavable kind).  This will prevent residual water of the steam from dropping onto the egg making it look like a crater!
7.  Boil water in wok with steam rack in center.  Once water is boiling, put your bowl in wok, covered and steam for 14 minutes.  Voila!  You will end up with the best looking and tasting steamed eggs!

See!  No air pockets inside either!