Mixed Fruit and Lichee Jello

Hearing the jingle, J-E-L-L-O reminds me of the Bill Cosby commercials. I enjoy having Jello, it's light and a great treat for a hot day. Since the weather is becoming warmer, I thought I would attempt to make a different type of jello. This type of jello is made with Agar agar powder instead of the standard gelatin. To provide you some background knowledge on this product, I've done a bit of research. Agar agar is derived from seaweed or sea algae instead of animal fat. Since it is derived from a vegetable, it is suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Another difference is that agar agar will harden in room temperature with no refridgeration needed unlike gelatin. I'll be making a mixed fruit jello and lichee flavored one. I've always loved lichees so I thought I'd incorporate this in with the recipe. Stay tuned for the final product and I'll be sure to post the recipe.


Lichee Jello




Mixed Fruit Jello



Recipe:

1 box of agar agar powder (follow directions according to box)
2 cans of fruit (your choice--I chose Lichee and Mixed Fruit)
fruit juice from canned fruit

Make sure to save the fruit juices from the can so you can pour it in the boiled agar mix.
Once you are done boiling the agar agar, immediately pour it into your molds. The agar will slowly begin to thicken. Pour in some of the fruit juice you saved into the same mixture. Next slowly put in the fruits into the same mix. Let it sit at room temperature till it hardens. Refrigeration is not necessary for the mold to harden. However, it is optional. It should be ready to eat within 2 hrs. Enjoy!

MIL's Birthday

A few weeks ago was when I started spending more time in my kitchen. It all started when I found it was my mother in law's (MIL) birthday. I wanted to make her a cheesecake since my dh had told me that his family loves cheesecake. I didn't want to make the traditional New York Style cheesecake. So I thought, why not make something different.Therefore, I looked around online to see if there were any other varieties out there. I came upon finding an asian style cheesecake from another cooking blog. I'll make sure to reference the site once I remember which blog. I can honestly say, I'm not much of a cheesecake fan. I think it's the creamy cheese that I'm not too fond of. So on Friday night, I attempted to make the cheesecake from scratch. It took a little longer than expected since the recipe required that it sit for 25-30 minutes to cool before pouring it into the graham cracker base. Then additional time to cook before placing it in the fridge. I even managed to try some filling while I was putting in all the ingredients. The filling tasted pretty good. Not too creamy at all. It kind of reminded me of Porto's Bakery and their cheese rolls (yum!). Everything was all done and ready and I had placed it in the refridgerator to cool down. The time was about 10:30p.m. or so. Stay tuned to my reviews and pictures...

Asian Style CheeseCake

Okay, it turned out appetizing. However, I think it was a little too sweet for me. I followed the recipe to the T and it ended up too sweet. Next time I'll have to reduce the amount of sugar to half or a little less than that. I'll find the recipe and post it up. Also, the texture of the cheesecake was a little softer than the usual New York Style. I'll have to attempt to remake this to find out when I can do to change this.. But overall, it was a great experience for me. I enjoy learning new things.

What's for Dinner Tonight?

One thing that I love is fish. The odd thing is that I grew up not liking it at all. But now, I don't think I can live without it. So just to stick to the theme, I'm making steamed fish tonight as well as an egg custard soup. Yummy, one of my favorites and it's also quite simple.

Here are the few ingredients you need in preparation.

Steamed Fish

• 2-4 Fish Fillets (white fish: e.g. Tilapia, Catfish..) serving size depends on how many people you are planning to feed
  
• 1 tbsp Julienne ginger (feel free to add more if you like)


• Bamboo or Aluminum Steamer


• 1 tbsp Julienne green onions


• 2 1/2 tbsps Lee Kum Kee Seafood Sauce
  

Make sure to clean your fish prior to steaming. Place your fillets in the steamer and let it steam for 15-20 minutes (cooking time depends on the thickness of fillet.)
In a saute pan, put a little bit of oil and cook the julienne ginger. This will allow the oil to be infused with the ginger flavor. Next, slowly pour in the seafood sauce into the ginger oil and let simmer. I usually add one tbsp of water to the sauce to reduce the sodium level . Once the sauce comes to a boil, add in the julienne green onions. Turn off the heat so the green onions are not thoroughly cooked.

Once your fish is done, top it with the seafood sauce. Serve it with rice.

For the soup dish. I'll be making Steam Egg Custard. I've added the recipe below.

Steam Egg Custard Soup

This is a traditional teo chiu dish my mom makes at home. The consistency is similiar to soft tofu. However, there is no tofu involved.

Here are the ingredients:

• 2 large eggs


• 2 cups of water (previously boiled and cooled to room temperature)


• 1 tsp salt


• 1/2 tsp of black pepper (optional)


• 1 chopped green onion
  
• 1/2 tsp of chili oil (optional)

Whisk the eggs in a bowl slowly making sure not to form any air bubbles. Add salt and water to the eggs. Once you are done mixing it well. Pour it into a bowl that is suitable for steaming. Bring the water to boil in the steamer. Place the mix into a steamer and close the lid of the steamer. Reduce the heat to medium low. Steam it for 20 minutes before removing from the stove. Sprinkle the egg custard with some fresh chopped green onions, black pepper, and some chili oil. Similiar to tofu, make sure to serve it hot. Viola! Enjoy!

Note: Most of the time, I do not measure my ingredients. I base it on my taste preference. You'll figure your own taste preference as you continue to explore the world of cooking yourself.

Be-lated Vday Dinner

Since DH and I have been pretty busy with work, we decided to have our be-lated vday dinner today instead. This will be the first year we will be celebrating it as husband and wife. For tonights menu, I'll be making him a 4 course meal.. Yea, lucky hubby huh? You're probably thinking shouldn't he be doing something for me? Well, he took the day off of work just to take me out on the 14th to a nice restaurant and I enjoyed every moment of it. Well, here are the dishes I will be preparing tonight..

• Spinach salad with blasamic vinegarette sauce topped with glazed walnuts





• Seared scallops with black pepper sauce topped over snow peas sprouts
  



• Dry rub slow cooked baby back ribs
  
  
  
• Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Yum, blogging about it is making me hungry. I've already done some prepping this morning. Stay tuned for my reviews and recipes for the meal.

Ok, here's the recipe for the dry rub ribs. This was for 2 1/2 lb of ribs.

Dry rub slow cooked baby back ribs

• 3 tbsps brown sugar
  
• 1 1/2 tbsps paprika


• 1 1/2 tbsps salt


• 1 1/2 tbsps ground blk pepper
  
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Cook at 350 degrees. Make sure to check occasionally. It should be ready in 15-20 minutes dependent on thickness of meat , make sure to wrap the ribs in aluminum foil to prevent the meat from drying.
Feel free to reduce the amount of salt according to your taste. My ribs were a little thicker and I only had enough time to let it sit and marinate for 2 hrs. Next time I'll marinate for 4 hrs to ensure the marinade can fully soak in.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

While shopping for the ingredients to this menu, I found a great product at Costco for my chocolate dipped strawberries. Here it is.


Pretty convienent, I must add. All you have to do it pop the container in the microwave for 1 minute and the chocolate pieces will begin to melt. Make sure to stir the chocolate mix to allow them to melt evenly. Continue to dip your strawberries in the chocolate holding the strawberries by the stem. Tip: I used some kitchen knives to hold the strawberries in place while dipping. (Do not refrigerate final product) They should be ready to serve within 1-2 hrs. Enjoy!

Pandan Cake

I love how Pandan smells . It's so fragrant. Most Thai and Vietnamese desserts contain this ingredient in their desserts. A few weeks ago, I found a sponge cake recipe online and modified it to my liking, of course. So I thought I would try it out. It will be my first time making this and to my surprise it turned out really well. I've heard that spongecakes are difficult to make since most of the time turn out dense. I think the most difficult part of this recipe was getting the eggs fluffy. It took me about 30 minutes to beat. Keep in mind, this was using an electric mixer. Our entire home, was infused with Pandan aroma from the oven. I loved it. Here's a preview of my final product. Dh was kind enough to take some pictures for me. Yum! It turned out perfectly. I ended up bringing half of it to my mom since there's only Dh and I and we're not be able finish it. I have a feeling I'll be sharing a lot of my creations.

The Kitchen Nazi beginning

So, where do I start? I just been cooking quite a bit lately. After my wedding on 01/05/08, I realize I now have plenty of time on my hands. No more wedding planning on weekends, so Why not cook and create my own blog? I thought it would be fun to experiment with new recipes at the same time learn from them and feed my dh at the same time. So that's how this started.


A few have asked me how did I come up with the name "Kitchen Nazi." I believe I acquired this name some time in college when I moved into the dorms on campus and started cooking for the first time. I hosted some gatherings for my friends where we would make different types of dishes. I remember being called a Kitchen Nazi by my friend Linda. I think we were cooking pasta and I insisted it had to be a certain way. And made sure when she was away from the kitchen, I modified the recipe to my liking. I guess she was right. I guess I can be a bit anal as to how things should be. From then on, I tend to think I am a bit of a Nazi in my own way.




Note: Dh (Dear Hubby)