Organizing Kitchen/House

To start this post off, I must say, my house is messy. And no, I'm not one of those I'm-gonna-say-my-house-is-messy-even-though-it's-completely-not people. My house is truly a disorganized mess. I can barely stand to live here. So, I've decided that on top of my cooking experiments, I'm going to start a house organizing project. Just slowly adding onto my to-do list.

#3 雪耳木瓜糖水{Snow Ears Papaya Dessert}

So interesting to mention snow as summer is approaching... Of course, in the Bay Area, weather is as it always is. Slightly chilly with sunshine. Anyways, I decided to revisit my Papaya dessert and, this time, I will add all the proper ingredients that I lacked before. Since I've been home, I've been shopping at the Chinese supermarkets and found one of my missing ingredients, 雪耳.

My revised Snow Ears papaya dessert recipe, in addition to the papaya and the rock candy, contains snow ears, eggs, and ginger. 雪耳, which translates into snow ears, is a type of yellow fungus that provides a good assortment of health benefits, according to a very reliable source, my mom. It's texture is kind of chewy and sponge-y and crunchy. It may sound kind of strange, but it is pretty yummy and how can you say no to something that is good for you, right?

雪耳木瓜糖水

Ingredients (6-8 servings)

- 1 papaya (you would need a large Mexican papaya or 2-3 Hawaiian ones)

- 1 bag rock sugar

- 2 eggs, whisked

- 1 slice of ginger

- 3-4 pieces of dried snow ears

- water

Steps

1) Soak the dried snow ears in warm water for 1 to 2 hours before cooking with the papaya. After you're done soaking them, split the snow ears into small pieces with your hands. Each piece should be about the size of a quarter. You could really do whatever you want, but I find that larger pieces of snow ears can be pretty annoying.

2) Peel papaya and cut into small squares.

3) Place the papaya and the snow ears into the pot and add enough water so that everything is covered.

4) Heat the stove at high until the water is boiling.

5) Add the sugar and the ginger when the water is boiling. Then, turn down to low-medium heat.

6) Heat for about 15-20 minutes and add the whisked eggs. Turn off the heat after the eggs are added. This is  very important in order to make sure that the eggs aren't overcooked.

7) Serve warm or let cool for 1-2 hours before refrigerating and then serving cold. Make sure to leave the lid slightly open when cooling.

One of my failure this time was that I added too much snow ears. I put in about a fifth of the bag of dried snow ear and it expanded to fill almost half the pot. They were quite deceiving when they were dried. Also, I left the pieces too big and ended up chewing and chewing and chewing the snow ears most of the time while the papaya was painfully neglected. Of course, I'm still extremely happy with how the dessert turned out. The ginger was definitely a nice add and worked well with the dessert. Definitely matched what I remembered from my childhood. I will definitely make this is recipe and hopefully, it will be absolutely perfect! Third time's the charm, right? Happy chewing!

<3 Joanna Mei

Pan-frying Frozen Pot Stickers

Now, I can't really say that I "cooked" these, so I didn't give it its own number. However, I felt like it is one my significant milestones in the kitchen. Somehow, I never managed to successfully pan-fry frozen pot stickers, but after going through a bag full of pot stickers cooked in three batches, I feel like I've almost... come close to my mom's skills.... I'm sad to say that this is probably my first failure. I mean, seriously, it is hard... for me. I burned about half of the first batch, slightly burned some of the second, and almost burned some of the third. After I go through the proper way to pan fry frozen pot stickers, I will list some of my mistakes.

How to Pan Fry Frozen Pot Stickers

burning... :(

1. Heat the pan at high and pour a generous amount of oil in the pan.
2. Place the pot sticker in the pans. I put them all in with their bottoms down to make everything unanimous.
3. OPTIONAL: If the pot stickers are still too frozen/not thawed, pour some hot water in the pan and put the lid on. Wait until the water is gone before you finish pan frying the pot stickers.
4. Add a little bit of oil. Put the stove on low-medium heat and fry until the pot stickers are nice and crispy. I tried to fry each side, but my mom said that this wasn't necessary. One side is fine.
5. Serve w/ sauce. I use a combination of red vinegar, soy sauce and garlic chili pepper sauce.

Now, onto my mistakes...

1. I kept on forgetting to turn down the fire when I was pan frying. Note: If left on the high heat, they will burn VERY quickly.
2. I didn't wipe the pan after the first batch was burned, so the subsequent batches all had little black burnt remains on them.
3. I didn't add oil after the water was gone. This was also a small factor in the burning.

Hopefully, the next time I pan-fry pot stickers, they will turn out beautifully. I love pot stickers and it's so hard to resist the variety of pot stickers at the Asian supermarkets. They're really cheap and can last a couple of meals, so I may just stock up on some when school starts up again. Of course, I may just look for an actually pot sticker recipe, but before that, I will stick to the frozen sort. Either way, I love pot stickers and totally recommend them to everyone. Happy frying!

<3 Joanna Mei

#2 Grilled Cheese Egg-in-Hole

a work of art.

 When I saw Serious Eats' post about their "Grilled Cheese Eggsplosion" a couple of months ago, that recipe went immediately onto my to-cook list! Sadly, it was a bit hard to gather the ingredients in an economical way while I was in the dorms, so I waited patiently for the right time. Since the end of classes, I've moved out of my dorm and into my apartment! Of course, I definitely had to go back home and stay with my family, so I used this opportunity to make this amazing dish!

I love eggs. I mean, I seriously love eggs. I even go so far as to say that it's my favorite food. So, seeing an egg embedded in a piece of toast with a lovely piece of cheese wedged in between was like seeing heaven come on earth. Such a yummy piece of goodness should've been taken away during the rapture. ;)

Grilled Cheese Egg-in-Hole

Ingredients (1 serving)
- 2 slices of bread
- 2 eggs
- 1 or 2 slices of cheese (I used 2 slices of American cheese, but choose whatever you want!)
- Pam (the recipe called for butter but I didn't have any butter)
- a pinch of salt

1) Cut holes out of the bread. I used the lid of a peanut butter jar to get the perfect circles, but my sister cut out hearts with a knife and they were so cute! <3

2) Put the stove on high heat and spray some Pam (or butter or oil)
3) Place the bread on the pan and toast until slightly brown.
4) Flip the bread and crack your eggs into the hole.
5) Change to medium heat and add the salt.
6) Flip the bread and fry the other side. Place the slice of cheese on top of one slice of bread. Once the other slice is cooked, place that slice on top of the cheese.

slightly burnt :(

7) Leave at low heat until the cheese is sufficiently melted and you're done!

the finished product <333

I love the brilliance of this combination and how everything is kept really compact. I used the leftover bread to make a miniature peanut butter and sugar sandwich (ran out of jam). I will definitely keep making this over and over again. It doesn't take too much time and it's compact which is great for a college student. I leave the yolk uncooked, but I might just break it and let it cook, so that it won't be too messy. Either way, awesome dish! Happy egging!

<3 Joanna Mei


credit: Serious Eats

Much love <333

#1 - 木瓜糖水 {Papaya Dessert}

For several weeks, I've been considering starting a blog about my ventures into cooking. I thought that it would be interesting to document how well things turn out for a young female with little to no experience with cooking. I think that knowing how to cook is a beautiful thing. Not only is cooking fun, it will also give you a better appreciation for the things you eat. The amount of work that goes into a dish never ceases to amaze me and now, I will get to experience the joy of producing of good meal. Now, onward to my first dish!

In Chinese, this dish is called 木瓜糖水, which translates into Papaya Sweetened Water. This is definitely one of my favorite desserts and most importantly, it will always remind me of my childhood (which is not so far away, but still!) As soon as I thought of this blog idea, I went to my mom and asked her to teach me how to make my awesome dessert and it turned out to be quite simple.

木瓜糖水

Ingredients (3 servings)
- 1/2 papaya
- 1/3 bag of 冰糖 (rock sugar) (can substitute with sugar)
- water (can substitute with milk)

This is the rock sugar I used. Can be purchase in most Chinese supermarkets.

1) Cut papaya into small cubes

2) Place cubes in pot and fill the pot with water. My mom just told me to estimate the amount of water depending on how many people being served. This answer, I found, was incredibly vague. I just added until the water covered the papaya and they started floating.
3) Heat the water at high heat until boil. [7-10 min]
4) Add the sugar and change to low heat. [10-15 min]
5) Serve hot or cold. If you want to serve it cold, make sure to let it cool for 1-2 hours with the lid partially on and then refrigerate it. I prefer to have it cold, but go with whatever you like.

The finished dish! So yummy! ^_^

I will definitely make this dish again with more ingredients like eggs, ginger, and 雪耳, a yellow fungus. This was definitely a simplified, no-frills version of the recipe, but I had to work with the ingredients I had with me in my dorm. I made it on the night before I moved out of my dorms, so I really had nothing left, except for what I had bought on an earlier shopping trip. I'm still really happy with how it turned out. I think that this is truly the best way to eat papaya, other than by itself. Papayas will always be one of my favorite fruits. <3 So, this is the end of my first post! Happy eating!

<3 Joanna Mei

Watched Gossip Girl as I was cutting my papaya. >.<