Month: June 2017

Avocado Toast

IMG_3098When I first heard about avocado toast, to be completely honest, I wasn’t intrigue. I’m not sure why, I guess just the thought of putting avocado on toast didn’t appeal to me. But that all change one day when my husband offered to bring home breakfast from the cafe at his work and he said they had avocado toast. Sure, I’ll give it a try. I might have been pregnant at the time (I don’t exactly remember why I was so laze faire about what to eat) but anyways, he brought home the toast, I ate it and I so pleasantly surprised at how delicious and flavorful the avocado toast tasted!

Ever since then whenever I have avocados at home I enjoy making some avocado toast for breakfast. It so easy and customizable. You can just have it with some salt and pepper or dress it up with more toppings if you fancy. Sometimes I’ll even put an egg on top. My first avocado toast was more like guacamole with onions and garlic. But the simplest method for me is to just add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and some tomatoes. Spread it on top a nice toasty bread and viola! Breakfast!
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Avocado Toast
1 slice of bread, toasted
1 large avocado
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 tsp salt and pepper (can add more to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

1. In a medium size bowl combine avocado, garlic, onion, salt and pepper
2. With a fork, gently mash together to desire consistency
3. Gently fold in tomatoes
4. Add more salt or pepper to taste
5. Spread on top of toast and enjoy!
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FullSizeRenderIf you’ve had your reservations about avocado toast (like me), I strongly encourage you to put your reservations aside and try it just once…who knows, you just might find your new go-to breakfast dish!

Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts With Balsamic Tomatoes and Red Onions (Video)

If this recipe sounds familiar it’s because I’ve made a post about it a while back! But this week I decided to make a video of the written recipe.

If you’ve seen any of my videos Thank You for watching them and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoy making them 🙂

Japanese American Potato Salad (Hybrid Recipe)

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I love potatoes. I love salad. I love potato salad. And I really like Japanese potato salad. It’s simple and I love that it uses cucumbers. I also like American potato salad. It’s flavorful and I love pickles (which are also cucumbers!). So after making different potato salads for a while, I decided to combine my favorite of each into one recipe and this is now my go to potato salad recipe.

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Japanese American Potato Salad
4 cups cooked potatoes, cubed (about 6 small gold potatoes)
1 carrot, quartered and cut into small pieces
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
½ white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cooked corn
3 tbs chopped pickle (about 1 spear)
2 eggs, hardboiled and chopped
1/2-1 cup mayo
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp pickle juice
1 tsp rice vinegar
¼ tsp salt, another 1/2 tsp divided into half for cucumber and onion

  1. In pot bring water add about 1 tbs of salt and cubed potatoes
  2. Bring to boil (uncovered)
  3. Lower heat to medium and cook for approximately 10 minutes or until knife pokes through w/o resistance.
  4. Reserves about 1/3 of cubed potatoes and mash up the rest. Set aside.
  5. In another small pot, bring water to boil and add cut carrots, cook for about 2-3 minutes depending on thickness of pieces.
  6. Remove carrots and set aside.
  7. Add eggs bring to boil, uncovered, once roiling boil, cover turn off heat and let sit for 7 minutes.
  8. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt over cucumbers.
  9. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt over onions.
  10. Let sit for 15 minutes, rinse and gently squeeze out excess liquid.
  11. Add potatoes and sprinkle about 1/4 tsp salt over potatoes,
  12. Add mayo to the potatoes. Start with half a cup and add more as necessary to get your desired consistency. Limit at 1 cup.
  13.  Add sugar, vinegar, pickle juice and mix.
  14. Then add carrots, cucumber, onion, pickles, corn, salt and mix.
  15. Add eggs and gently stir to combine.
  16. Adjust seasoning as necessary.IMG_2955

 

Bo Luc Lac (Shaking Beef)

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Shaking Beef is one of my favorite ways to cook beef. It’s fast, flavorful and when served with fresh watercress salad and tomatoes, it’s a complete meal for us at home. I loved it when my dad made it for us when we were young, so when I moved away with my husband I knew I had to learn how make this for us. I don’t want to hype this up too much but I will say one last thing, when I first made this dish for my sisters they both asked me for the recipe and now they make it at home too 🙂

There are many variations of this recipe, some with oyster sauce, some with dark soy sauce, some using bell peppers, onions, etc… but my favorite recipe is simple and uses only fish sauce and soy sauce. I actually adapted the recipe from Nancy Mcdermott’s Everyday Vietnamese Bo Luc Lac recipe. Her recipe is the closest to how my parents make it, but with her I actually had measurements to work off versus my parents’ very vague directions =P. I hope you enjoy my adaptation.

Bò Lúc Lằc, Shaking Beef (Adapted from Everyday Vietnamese by Nancy Mcdermott)
1.5-2 lb beef, cubed preferrably ribeye but I used a good quality flap cut from Costco
1.5 tbs fish sauce
2.5 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
black pepper
1 tbs minced garlic

For the Salad
4 cups watercress
1/2 cup thinly slice red onion
2 tomatoes, sliced
2.5 tbs vinegar
1.5 tbs vegetable oil
1.5 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt and black pepper
1. Cut steak into bit size cubes about 1-1.5 inch thick
2. Add fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, pepper, and garlic
3. Marinate 30 minutes
4. Wash and dry watercress
5. Combine vinegar, oil, salt, sugar, black pepper
6. Add sliced onions to the vinegar dressing
7. In target skillet or wok heat oil on med high heat till oil become smoky
8. Add beef and let sear for 2-3 minutes (Work in batches if necessary to achieve a nice sear on the beef)
9. Continue on all sides of beef (even if you don’t get a sear and the meat releases some liquid that’s ok…the liquid provides a nice sauce for the final dish and it’s still very tasty!)
10. Remove from heat
11. Toss watercress with dressing and arrange on plate.
12. Add tomatoes slices
13. Top beef on top on top of salad
13. Enjoy with white rice

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So I’m trying something new and made a cooking video! I had a lot of fun making it and I hope to make more in the future 🙂