Chicken Lu'au

Hubby received a Hawaiian cookbook, Best of the Best from Hawaii cookbook, a couple of years ago from friends of ours who went to Hawaii. They knew how much we loved Hawaii and how much I loved to cook. Their only request was for me to cook something for them out of the cookbook. I have yet to cook for them, but I have tried a few of the recipes, like the Chicken Lu'au. There were 3 versions of Chicken Lu'au. I figured Chicken Lu'au was a popular dish, so I decided to try it. This version seemed quite salty. And I realized that there might've been a typo when it asked for 1 1/2 Tablespoon of salt. At first, I thought Hawaiian food is usually salty. But then I saw the other version of Chicken Lu'au, and they each called for 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt. So I've changed the recipe on here so I won't make that mistake again.

2 lbs. chicken pieces
4 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
3 lbs. fresh spinach, washed
3 cups coconut milk

1) Melt butter in a stock pot on medium heat. Brown chicken in butter. Add water and salt and simmer until chicken is tender.

2) Remove chicken from broth. Add salt and pepper to further season the broth. Add spinach and cock on low until tender.

3) Add 2 cups of warm coconut milk and simmer for 2 minutes. Return chicken in broth and cook for another minute.

4) Transfer in a serving dish and pour remaining coconut milk over the chicken. Serve with rice.

Lemon Bars

I've been making lemon bars for years using this recipe. I used to make them out of a box, and like my other recipes, I wanted to learn how to make it from scratch. I'm fortunate enough to have parents who have a lemon tree. Whenever they have a huge harvest of lemons, I would ask for bags and bags of them so I can make fresh lemonade, lemon cake and lemon bars. They haven't had a large harvest yet this year, but I managed to pick a few lemons for this recipe.

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
4 beaten eggs
2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp. flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon peel
sifted confectioner's sugar

1) Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Cut butter into the 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar. Blend until mixture is crumbly. Pat mixture into ungreased 13x9x2 in pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

2) Combine eggs, sugar, 4 Tbsp. flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel and mix with a hand mixer. Pour mixture on top of hot crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Cut into bars and sift confectioner's sugar over the top while it is warm.

Crockpot Carnitas

I love Carnitas. I used to have a really good recipe that I made a while ago. Alas, I lost that recipe. So I tried searching for another recipe and found this one. Although it tasted pretty good, it isn't as good as my old Carnitas recipe. This dish actually lasted us 3 meals. I served this with my spin on tomatillo sauce.

3 lb. pork roast
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 bay leaves
2 cups chicken broth

1) Combine all dry ingredients together. Rub onto roast.

2) Place bay leaves on bottom of crockpot pan. Place roast on top of bay leaves. Pour broth around the roast. Slow cook on low for 10 hours. Shred roast with two forks and serve.

Pad See Ewe

Another Thai noodle dish I love is Pad See Ewe. This recipe is surprisingly easy. Easier than my Pad Thai recipe. I found several different ways to make Pad See Ewe, so I've altered them to come up with my own recipe. One thing that was pretty tricky was cooking the noodles. The noodles came out a little softer than I'd like, so I would suggest adding the noodles a little later in the cooking process or using the dry packaged noodles. The original recipe called for Chinese broccoli, which isn't readily accessible, so you can use regular broccoli.

3/4 lb. beef strips

1/2 Tbsp. fish sauce

1tbsp oyster sauce

a splash of dark sesame oil

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 Tbsp. oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. fresh, flat rice noodles

2 Tbsp. light soy sauce

1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1 egg

1/2 lb. chopped broccoli

1) Combine fish sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Pour over beef. Sprinkle cornstarch over the beef mixture and knead the cornstarch into the beef. Marinate for 30 minutes.

2) Heat a wok to high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. Drop in the chopped garlic and stir. Add the sliced beef. Stir to cook until the beef is almost done and is no longer pink

3) Add rice noodles. Stir to break up the noodles. Add soy sauces and sugar. Stir to mix the seasonings into the noodles and beef. Open a spot in the middle of the pan, and drop the egg in. Scramble the egg until it is almost all cooked. Fold in the noodles and mix well.

4) Add the broccoli and stir until it is cooked, turn off the heat. Serve hot.

Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies

Last week, I said I wanted to make brownies, and I found this recipe in the archives of the Food Network. But it called for 1 pound of butter, which I didn't have. So I made brownie cookies instead. Today, I had all the ingredients in hand so I decided to finally make it. I'm glad I did, because these brownies are pure chocolate heaven. So yummy! I modified this recipe a little and substituted the unsweetened chocolate with more semi sweet chocolate chips, totalling to 30 ounces of chocolate chips.

1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups diced walnut pieces

1) Melt together the butter, 1 pound chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

2) Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Grease and flour a 13 x 18 x 1 1/2 inch pan.

3) Stir together 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

4) Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Pancit Canton

As a lot of people probably already know, my daughter loves pastas and noodles. So when I was at the Filipino store the other day, I decided to buy the ingredients for Pancit Canton to make for her. Pancit Canton is the Filipino version of the Chinese Chow Mein. Its another staple in the Filipino kitchen. Its so common at many Filipino functions. I hadn't felt the need to make it myself because I ate so much of it at other people's places or at restaurants. And I'm somewhat of a Pancit Canton "snob." There's a certain way it has to be prepared, and a certain taste that I look for. Aristorcrat, one of my favorite restaurants in Manila, makes the best Pancit Canton. Its one of my favorites. I don't think I've ever had anything that can compare. Therefore, I have never really attempted to make it myself, for fear that it might not come out as good as I like it. Until now.

Again, I would normally use the powder stuff, but I found a recipe I wanted to try out. Its a pretty simple recipe and it came out pretty good. Its not as good as Aristocrat's, but it'll do. Hubby and daughter loved it, so I'll definitely make it again.

3 Tbsp. oil
1 cup sliced chicken
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chicken broth
10 pieces snow peas, sliced in half
1/2 medium carrot, sliced
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 cup sliced celery
1 can mushrooms
1 package canton noodles

1) Sprinkle fish sauce and cornstarch over chicken and thoroughly coat. Set aside.

2) Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic and onions and sautee for about a minute, making sure not to burn the garlic. Add chicken mixture and cook until it is no longer pink.

3) Add soy sauce, black pepper, salt and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add snow peas, carrots, and celery. Cook for about 3 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to your taste and add cabbage. Cook until cabbage is almost done.

4) Add the Canton noodles. Stir until noodles are done and most of the broth has been absorbed. Serve hot.

Crockpot Chicken Stroganoff

Its the first week of hubby's night classes. That means that I'm flying solo in the evenings for the next 2 years or so. That also means that I need quick and easy dinner recipes so that I'll have time to feed, bathe, and put my daughter to sleep myself, on top of getting everything ready for work the next day. While shopping at the grocery store last week, the first thing I thought of making was a huge batch of my bolognese sauce. That should cover at least 3-4 different meals (Spaghetti, lasagna, baked pasta, moussaka). Then I thought, "The crockpot!" I remembered glancing over some quick crockpot chicken recipes that I wanted to try out when the time came. So this was the first recipe I wanted to try from cdkitchen.com. It only had 5 ingredients and looked pretty easy.

When I made it for dinner today, I came home to an almost dried out crockpot. I guess that was my mistake, because the directions said to only cook for 6 hours. But I didn't get home until 4 hours later, so it sat in the crockpot. The color didn't look anything like the picture and didn't look too edible. I poured it over some cooked pasta, and when I finally had a chance to taste it, the chicken was very dry and tasted pretty bland. My daughter liked the pasta, though, and she ate quite a bit of it. I don't think I'll be making this again. I decided not to take a picture of it, but I thought to add it here anyway. Maybe someone else will have better luck with this recipe.

6 pieces boneless, skinless chicken
1 can condensed mushroom soup
16 oz sour cream (I used plain yogurt because I didn't have sour cream)
1 envelope of dry onion soup mix
water

1) Pour enough water to cover just the bottom of the crockpot pan. Place chicken on top of water.

2) Combine the remaining ingredients together and pour over chicken. Cook in crockpot on low for 6 hours. Serve over egg noodles or rice.

Beef and Broccoli

When I first decided to try to make Beef and Broccoli at home a long time ago, I used to buy the powdered mix stuff at the grocery store. I was never really satisfied with the powdered stuff. Then I got into making dishes from scratch and came across all kinds of ways to make Beef and Broccoli. I have easy versions and some that require a little bit more. This version involves a few more steps. Its also a little bit more salty than my other beef and broccoli recipes, but I think its got more flavor to it too.

1 1/4 cup oil

3/4 pound lean beef, cut into strips

Marinade:
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (substitute rice wine if desired)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Sauce:
4 tablespoon oyster sauce
4 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon water
2 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water

1 pound fresh broccoli, cut into small pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar, or to taste

1) In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the marinade, except the cornstarch. Stir in the meat to completely coat. Add cornstarch, using your fingers to rub the cornstarch into the meat. Marinate the beef for 30 minutes.

2) In another bowl, mix together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, water and cornstarch mixture and set aside.

3) Heat 1/2 cup oil in wok. Add the beef. Blanch the beef by letting it lay flat for 30 - 40 seconds, and then stirring to separate the pieces. Remove the beef when it changes color and is nearly cooked (the entire process takes 1 - 2 minutes). Drain on paper towels. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of oil.

4) Add the crushed garlic to the wok and stir briefly to bring out the flavor. Add the broccoli, salt and sugar, and stir fry briefly, turning down the heat to prevent burning. Add 1/2 cup water. Cook for 4 - 5 minutes, or until broccoli is bright green and is tender but still crisp. Drain all the liquids.

5) Add 2 more tablespoons oil to the wok. Once oil has been heated, add the beef and the sauce and stir quickly to thicken. Cook for another minute and serve hot over steamed white rice.