Salmon with glazed persimmon

Salmon with crispy skin, served with rice, glazed persimmon and sauteed green bean.

Pickled watermelon

Yes!!! I know, who eats the white part of the melon? I took this idea from my dad when he had me to peel off the skin of the watermelon.  He wanted to pickled the white part of the melon.  This old man was crazy, who does that and for what?  Well, it turned out that it tasted pretty good and I want to share it with you on my take of this pickled melon.

Making something with leftovers

 Very simple: I had fresh pizza dough,  clam chowder as my sauce, leftover rib-eye steak, steamed broccoli, mozzarella stick, tomato and onion.  I made pizza!!! Weird??? Turns out that it was not bad at all.  Good eating.

 Again, leftover mash potato with crispy bacon, fried chopped garlic, and fried chopped onion.  I rolled it into a ball and coated with bread crumbs.  After I deep fried it, I used the leftover clam chowder as gravy!  Awesome!

My take on Dad's Burger

          I had leftover beef round steak so I decided to make a burger inspired by a burger from Dad's Kitchen in Sacramento, CA.  Beef round steak is really lean and could be dry at times if cooked too well.  The burger patty is made up of beef round steak, polish dog, and butter (to help from being dry) grounded in a food processor. Then I added some crispy applewood maple bacon on top of the cooked patty to give it some seasoning and texture.  I used an onion cheese bun to give it more flavor.

My take on Crawfish!!!

I have gone to four different places to eat crawfish (crawdad) in Sacramento: The Boiling Crab, Sac Crawfish, Firehouse Crawfish and a friend's house (Hiep Vu).  After trying all these different flavors, I've come up with a new sauce this year for the crawfish.  Stay tuned for the instruction video.

Here are the ingredients:

9oz Chorizo
2 cups Garlic
1 cups Onion
1 cups Lemongrass
1/2 cups Carrot
2 1/2 tbs Smoked Paprika
2 tbs Louisiana seasoning
2 cups White Zinfandel and 2 cups Orange Juice
2 sticks of Butter
1 tbs Fish sauce
Sugar candy
Lime powder
Curry (optional)
Jalapeno (optional)

 

What to do with a roasted pig's head....

There were a lot of leftover food from my sister-in-law's wedding; roasted pig's head being one of it.  I decided to take it home and make some soup out of it.  Again, another noodle soup added to my blog!

 Fat rice noodle soup.

 Making base of soup using the head.

Ribeye with special sauce

Awhile back, I went to a friend's house (Hiep Vu) to have steak.  I was introduced to this nice savory sauce on top of my steak.  It was different and also good so I've decided to share it with you.  Here is my take on the sauce.

I roasted about 10 cloves garlic to get the texture like bananas.  Then I stir-fried some grape tomatoes (sliced in half) and some green onions (about 1 inch chopped) on high heat to get it caramelized.  II added the garlic, grape tomatoes and green onions into a medium-sized bowl.  Then I added the juice of half a lime, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, some sugar and salt for taste.  That's it!!! You can add some cilantro and jalapeno if you'd like.
Ribeye was rubbed with coffee, sesame seed, salt and pepper.

Thanks HiepVu

Banh Xeo

Wonton

 

Fish Springroll with Mam Nem sauce

 

Mam nem (Vietnamese fermented anchovy dipping sauce) is mixed with fresh pineapple, caramelized onions and garlic, white wine and sugar.  (Add chili as needed)  

 

 

 

 

 

 With a rice paper, add lettuce, noodle, fish, bean spouts, cucumber, carrot, mint, and cilantro.  Then roll it up.