Happy Lunar New Year with Chinese Hot Pot

I grew up calling it Chinese New Year. I loved spending all day lighting firecrackers. I thought everyone did it, until I went to school in a small New Hampshire town. No one knew what I was talking about. I was confused when I realized you get Christmas and 'American' New Year's off from school but not Chinese New Year. Then I moved to Hawaii. Lo and behold! They dedicate whole weeks and block parties to the day. Go Hawaii!

It wasn't until I was quite a bit older that I realized Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and pretty much all of Asia celebrates Chinese New Year... er, or what I call Lunar New Year. Mainly because Asia New Year and Oriental New Year isn't really as catchy. So sorry New Hampshire, half the world celebrates Chinese New Year, so I'm not as strange as you made me out to be.

There is a ton of traditions that you can happily look up on the handy, dandy web. But my friends and I made up our own tradition, which is Chinese Hot Pot night. Also known as Japanese Shabu-Shabu and as I drove by a place on Kapahulu, found out there's a Thai version too.

But this isn't your regular restaurant version. We are making hot pot at home because this is a party. But you can make it for regular dinner, just make sure there's at least 8 hearty eaters at the table.


Things to note:
- There is a major amount of prep and making things look good. This is easy but extremely time consuming
- Surprise: Asian ingredients abound, so you need an Asian grocery or Chinatown nearby
- Technically, this isn't a recipe, it's a framework for a party so you can make substitutions as necessary
- We have 2 hot pots because we had someone who was allergic to shellfish. So there was a shrimp and a non-shrimp hot pot. Every guest was told upon entry because this was a family event and no heavy drinking was involved, everyone remembered. Put a sign up if your friends are prone to forgetfulness moments.
- As much as I love this growing up and was completely satisfied with it, my father would insist on another course because 'soup is not dinner.' We always have jai (a traditional New Year's Dish) and a few other things. Plan accordingly for your guests.

Jai, I don't make it but I can tell you its delicious

Ingredients:
-meats shaved thin such as chicken,beef, pork. Can be found prepped at Asian markets, try the meat counter but sometimes they are in the frozen section.
-fish, a firm white fish is fine (avoid salmon) cut into bite size pieces
-shrimp, cleaned but shell and head still attached (if you are traditional)
-beef balls
-fish balls
-chicken balls
-chinese noodles, fresh or par boiled
-cabbage, spinach or kale (or any hearty green that looks good and fresh at the market)
-chicken broth or stock

Suggestions for saucing station:
The basics are soy sauce and oyster sauce, but there's usually a huge variety of sauces at the store. If you are still stumped call up all your friend and have them each bring 1 Asian sauce from their pantry, it can actually get overwhelming if it is a 14 person or more party.
-eggs
-soy sauce
-oyster sauce
-hot sauce
-garlic oil
-sesame oil
-chili oil
-hoison sauce
-sweet and sour

Hardware:
-rice cooker (or electric wok or an hot plate with a wide pot)
-Spoons
-Chopsticks
-Ladle
-Every plate/platter in your house
-Individual Bowls
-Giant Dining room table (or a folding 6' table, 2 if you got 'em)

Set up:
The night before (or earlier if you have freezer space) start making platter of stuff you want in the soup. Take a platter, put down greens on the bottom of the plate and very prettily place raw food on top. I've seen restaurants go really fancy with this and you can check out photos here, here and here.

We ended up with:

Hot Pot Table

Not the Hot Pot Table

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate or freeze if more than 2 days away.

Day of party:
Put the rice cooker or electric wok in the center of the table. Fill it with broth, wine and broth, bland soup, water with ramen packets and hot sauce or anything besides straight water. Turn on the heat before guests arrive to get it to a boil.

Put out platters of raw food. Now there's some brains that are necessary for this part. RAW FOOD ITEMS SHOULD NOT TOUCH COOKED FOOD ITEMS. Potentially can be bad. Really bad. Don't risk it. This can be challenging for children and non-foodies so if you have to give a lesson do, but chopsticks for raw chicken should stay with the raw chicken and not pick up that hot beef ball that fell out of the ladle. Bad.

Also bad: using your eating chopsticks to fill up the pot with raw food then eating
Also bad: putting your food on an empty raw food platter because you are waiting for someone to eat it

I know it sounds hard but after a few hot pot nights everyone will get the jive, just keep lots of utensils and bowls readily available and put empty platters immediately in the sink.

Directions:
Get everyone to stand or sit around the pot. When it is at a boil start loading it up with items of your choice. I go to the platter closest to me and put in 3-4 times the amount I plan to eat because this is family style. Hopefully everyone else does the same. When there's a good amount of stuff in there, close the lid and wait for it to come back to a boil. I use this time to mix up a sauce and have a drink.

Sauce:
Take your favorite sauce additions and mix it around in your bowl.
Personal favorite: Mix oyster sauce, roasted garlic, sesame oil and a dash of hot sauce. Then crack an egg on the bottom. The hot soup cooks the egg but the yolk stays runny. It is delicious. But feel free to vary yours as you see fit, experiment and make suggestions to other people. 

When the pot comes to a boil take off the lid. It's now a first come, first serve in goodies. I actually will only take a few bites in the beginning round because I like when the soup starts getting flavored from all that food. Then I go in when other people are full and get a ladle of soup and all the goodies.

Eat until pot is empty. Fill up with food again. Top with more broth if it gets to low. When everyone is full do one more load where you cook everything, wrap up the leftovers and give it away as people leave or freeze for future use.

Party on!  
新年快乐
Gong hay fat choy!

A Proper Thai Curry

Not to sound too full of myself but I like to cook. Moreover, I'm pretty good at it.

So when I go to a restaurant to eat a meal I think, "hell, I can make that at home." Not only that, I can probably make it better... And cheaper. I don't mean to brag or anything, but it's true... most of the time.

Except for Thai food

I was having a cooking crisis because I love curries, pad thai, tom yum, everything on that Thai menu. Occasionally, I wanted to skip the lines and crowds and just make it at home.

Well, I tried to make it at home.
Hard.

I researched the only way I knew how. The internet. Every recipe I found online just didn't taste the same as some of my favorite restaurants. (Ok, there's only 1 favorite restaurant and a couple of decent restaurant.) Nevertheless, it was driving me nuts. I had tried  the internet recipes, I tried instructions on the back of packages. But everything I made... it just wasn't right. It was watery, flavorless or just m'eh. A few times I try to compensate with extra curry paste... The burning finally stopped 3 days later. 

So I did what any other person on the brink of cooking insanity would do. I joined an adult education class for cooking Thai food.

Ah-ha! I'm a genius. I know.

It pulled me back from the brink of cooking insanity. Finally, authentic recipes and ingredients. There's a few cooking techniques that are new but nothing overly complicated. The best part is that it turns out the ingredients are relatively cheap... if you stick to Chinatown.

I hate Chinatown.

They close too early for me to get there after work/weekend morning fun stuff.

And parking pisses me off.

Luckily there's an Asian ethnic store on my way home from work. Cheap ingredients, good food, everyone is happy.

I made this curry for a potluck so this is a doubled recipe. And it was a Friday dinner so I had to cook while I was at work, so here comes the slow cooker, again. The photo is messy because I tried to use the smaller crockpot, but should have known better. You need a 6 quart slow cooker for the double recipe.

Also, you can always make it on the stovetop, those directions are included too.

This is the mess you get when you try to cram all the ingredients into a 4 quart slow cooker. 

Thai Green Curry with Chicken and Tofu

Can be halved for a family dinner, or doubled again for a really large crowd. This recipe easily fed 12-15 at a potluck with leftovers for lunch.

2 cans Coconut Milk (not Cream of Coconut and not low-fat, both common mistakes)
1/4 cup green curry paste, (more paste if you like more heat, less if you can't handle)
1/2 cup Tamarind Sauce (I use prepared jarred concentrate, but boil and strain if you are using the real stuff)
1/4 cup Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Cane Sugar
2 Large Potatoes, peeled and cubed (or 5 small potatoes, which is all I had)
3 Large Carrots, peeled and cubed (or 4 small carrots, which is all I had)
1 Medium Onion
1 package Tofu, cubed
2 large Chicken Breast, sliced
1 Cinnamon Stick (or a pinch of cinnamon powder)
6 Cardamom Pods (optional - I don't really care for the flavor)
1/4 cup of peanuts or cashews, for garnish

Let the cans of coconut sit without moving to let the cream rise to the top and the milk to sink to the bottom. I leave it in the back of the pantry, but an overnight rest on the counter works too. Heat a small pot or frying pan. Open the cans carefully and skim the coconut cream off (about the top 1/4) and into the hot pan, it will sizzle and hiss. Move it around the pan until it looks a little dry. Some instructions say the oils will separate from the cream. (But as many times as I made this I never really noticed that, just cook a few minutes more after it stop sputtering) Add the curry paste and stir around until it dissolves in the cream.

In an 6 quart slow cooker mix the leftover coconut milk, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and the curry/cream mixture you just cooked. Stir.


Add in potatoes and carrots, turn slow cooker onto low, cover and go to work.

Come back and add in tofu and chicken. Turn onto high for about 15 minutes. Throw on clean clothes and a fresh coat of makeup. Unplug slow cooker, grab a serving spoon and head to the party.

Let everyone compliment you on your cooking greatness

Stovetop instructions:
Let the cans of coconut sit without moving to let the cream rise to the top and the milk to sink to the bottom. I leave it in the back of the pantry, but an overnight rest on the counter works too. Heat a small pot or frying pan. Open the cans carefully and skim the coconut cream off  (about the top 1/4) and into the hot pan, it will sizzle and hiss. Move it around the pan until it looks a little dry, some instructions say the oils will separate from the cream. (But as many times as I made this I never really noticed that, just cook a few minutes more after it stop sputtering) Add the curry paste and stir around until it dissolves in the cream.

Heat a large pot over medium high heat. Mix the leftover coconut milk, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and the curry/cream mixture you just cooked.

Add in potatoes and carrots, once the mixture comes to a boil, lower heat to a simmer. Cook until carrots and potatoes pierce easily with a fork.

Add tofu and chicken. Bring back to a gentle simmer until chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice or pasta or naan or whatever you like.

Fruits and Vegetables, and eating them

According to my nutrition tracker, do you know the recommend amount of fruit I should be eating each day?

It's 2 cups

Did you know the recommend amount of vegetables I should be eating each day?

It's 3 cups

I thought I was close but when I actually had to enter in my normal daily diet to the nutrition counter ...I was a little short...

Maybe a lot short.

Nutritionally speaking I'm missing quite a few cups of fruits and veggies each day. I have spent the last few years working on my health, weight and good-looking-ness (hence the nutrition tracker). My biggest challenge is adjusting the diet, as a child I loved bread and french fries, then I grew into a teenager that loved carbs and deep-frying, then an adult that loves the term "carbo-loading." Until my clothes stopped fitting. Ugh! Adulthood - now I don't have the growing child excuse for eating a whole loaf of bread. Straight... Okay, maybe there was some butter... And honey.

The online nutritional guide is a tool and much cheaper than hiring a personal chef or nutritionist. So far it hasn't suggested anything new but is helping me examine everything I eat and makes suggestions. Step 1 - healthy habits stick if they aren't drastic. Meaning, I've got to start small. Surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I added a portion of fruit to breakfast instead of my regular bacon or ham. I added a small salad to my lunch. Instead of chips, bread or chocolate I try to have a piece of fruit in the afternoon (Occasionally chocolate will call my name- loud. Nutritional Tracker (or Nancy True as I like to call her) says that's okay.). Dinner has a lean protein and little less grain, and instead of my standard 1 vegetable I shoot for 2. It's actually getting to be an effort to eat all my food because the calorie count really hasn't gone up but the volume is almost a 1/2 cup more of food at each meal. This is also a good tip for people cutting weight through diet, more food doesn't have to mean more calories. 

Adding a salad to lunch was so easy - mix greens, carrot, tomato and cucumber. If I feel really generous I'll add some avocado and/or an egg. I really love salads, it's fresh and palate cleansing.

But do you ever feel the need to change it up?

I mean, lettuce is great, but it starts to feel old after 3 weeks.
I needed something new.
Something delicious.
Something that still fulfilled my vegetable quota.
Then I also wanted it to be easy to make and easy to transport for work.

Cue Vietnamese Pineapple, Cucumber and Tomato Salad and grand entrance music

Easy- check
Transportable- check
Veggies- check
Delicious- check
Fruit - bonus!
Low-fat- bonus!
No-cook- bonus!

Give it a try, it's completely addicting. I had to portion for my lunch and hide it in the back of the fridge to keep from picking at it and having no lunch. When I finally was able to eat it co-workers wanted to know what that delicious looking salad was, and stared in amazement as I inhaled it all then drank the pineapple/dressing pooled at the bottom afterwards.

Luckily my co-workers find me amusing and not at all socially weird.

Back to the salad, I love it after a few hours in the fridge, the pineapple starts shedding juices and perfumes the whole salad. 

Vietnamese Pineapple, Cucumber and Tomato Salad
 Dressing:
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp neutral oil, such as canola (but I only ever have Olive Oil)
1 fresh chili, seeded and minced (I went with 1 Thai chili, but go as hot or as mild as you want)
1 tsp fish sauce (to taste- all brands are varying strength, test if you've never used it before)

Salad:
1/2 large, fresh pineapple; peeled, cored and cubed
1 medium cucumber, sliced into bite size pieces
2 tomatoes, wedged
1/2 cilantro, roughly chopped
1/4 cup mint, roughly chopped

Start with making your dressing in the bottom of a large salad bowl. Place the garlic on the center of a large cutting board. Sprinkle the salt on top. Using the side of a large knife smash the salt into the garlic until you get a paste. (If you are having a hard time try chopping it into small pieces first). Throw into the large bowl. Add in lime juice and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in oil and then fish sauce to taste (optional, but I love the stuff).

As you finish chopping everything else up, throw in the bowl. Toss thoroughly. Taste. Try to control yourself from gorging on the whole bowl. Chill until ready to eat.

Leftover Pulled Chicken Enchiladas

I have always lived with someone. First it was my family, then college dorms and college apartments, then a variety of post-college apartments and houses that most often came with a roommate. It those years I've had my fair share of wonderful, fun and perfect-for-me roommates. I've also had my fair share of non-cleaning, rude, inconsiderate roommates. So these last 6 months have been in a new experience for me, as I am doing something I've never done before:

Be roommate free!

It's a different feeling when someone doesn't yell at me for not doing dishes or leaving my stuff all around. Actually the good roommates understand and sometimes would do my dishes or put my stuff in my room for me. So I'm sad I don't have a good roommate but I'm glad I also don't have a bad roommate yelling at me for leaving my purse's insides all strewn about while I was searching for a certain something for 20 minutes.

Because I can get a little obsessed/crazed like that.

I currently reside in a 600 square feet, 1-bedroom apartment (yes, that measurement includes the lanai). It has been liberating to empty out my purse all over the place and not have to worry about it. However, the weirdest change is I've had to drastically reduce how much I cook, as in volume. I use to live with other professionals, which meant a full house of working-full-time-plus-the-overtime-you-don't-get-paid-but-expected-to-work people. As such, leftovers were always welcome after a 12 hour workday. It use to be whenever I cooked I always wanted to fill the largest storage container and stash it in the fridge. Now I'm living alone. I have to adjust down the measurements or end up eating turkey chili for every meal... 2 weeks straight.

In the adjustment period the first thing I learned was to re-purpose my leftovers, since I hate throwing good food away. In this case 2 lbs of chicken breast in the last recipe turned out to be a pulled chicken overload. So I had to change it up. And enchiladas are the perfect leftover user upper.

Leftover Pulled Chicken Enchiladas
1 lb leftover pulled chicken (or you can use any leftovers you have such as beef or pork)
1 can of pinto beans (or black, or kidney)
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
10-12 corn tortillas
1 large can enchilada sauce (or homemade about 3 cups)
1 cup of cheese (or more)
Taco Bar Garnishes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together the chicken, beans, corn and cilantro. Get a baking sheet and pour 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce on the bottom to prevent sticking.

I was in front of a massive grill that was still hot so I threw all the tortillas on there and gave them a 30 second grill on each side. Alternatively, you can heat tortillas by wrapping in a moist paper towel and microwaving for 1-2 minute(s) until they are soft and pliable. 

Take a heaping tablespoon of the chicken mix, put it into the  warm tortilla and roll into a cigar shape. Place seam side down in the baking dish.  Do this until the baking dish is outta space or you run out of filling.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the top. Make sure to wet all areas of the corn tortillas. Top with cheese and stick in the oven.

Bake 20-30 minutes until the cheese is all melted, everything should look golden brown and delicious.

Pull out of the oven and let rest for 15-30 minutes. This is important unless you want tortilla to fall apart while you are scooping it out. It will still taste good, but it will look like a pile o' mess. If you are like me you will spend hours picking at the burnt cheese in the corners of the pan, because I had some spare time.

My choice of garnishes are fresh cilantro, a dollop of greek yogurt and some diced avocado while the enchiladas are still hot out of the oven. But the leftovers I took to work for lunch were plain and just as delicious.

Note: you can make this ahead and freeze it. Or make 2 and freeze 1. Or make 1 and portion it into lunch containers and freeze for work. If you can't tell already this is a great freezable recipe.

Pulled Pork in a Slow Cooker

In general, there's just certain things I expect to be expensive, like Grey Goose bottle service at the club, prime rib at a Morton's Steakhouse, 20 year old Pride Cabernet Savignon. There's certain things I expect to be cheap. Like pork- pork is normally cheap. Especially when we get into cuts like pork shoulder or pork butt. Look at the name, it doesn't even sound nice, it totally sounds cheap.

I will warn the non-locals. Here in Hawaii cheap is relative. Overhead, labor and insurance is twice the amount you'd expect, so prices are twice what you would see on the mainland. Then slap on an extra $1 for a gas surcharge. It's really tough to pinch those pennies and still be sociable. So when I am invited to a potluck or tailgating or any event that I want to cook for a crowd I go for a tub o' cheap food, like turkey chili or pulled pork. I got the supermarket circulars and I was in luck, pork butt was on sale this week at Foodland for $.99/lb. I will block out the fact that it is probably $.59/lb on sale at my parents' local grocery store on the Mainland. $.99/ lb is reasonable in Hawaii. I can feed about 10 people for $5 +few other ingredients. I get in my car and go to the store. I find out that they are out of pork... And there is no butcher today... And there is no substitutions... *SIGH* I go to see if there is another porky product I can use, there is.... at $2.49/lb. I start to get irritated. Then it is Friday night and the lines are long because I was smart enough to go to the store closest to the college campus. Everyone in line had a case of beer and a bag of ice. Except me, the old lady trying to ask about pork butt and ketchp. Finally, after quizzing the service staff for 10 minutes, I gave up. I got in my car and drove to Safeway, which was totally worth it. They had pork shoulder for $1.49/lb. I bought a 5 lb hunk of meat and saved myself $5. Freakin' Foodland, $2.49/ lb for PORK? What are those pigs eating? Shrimp Cocktail? I'm going to Safeway strictly on principle now.

I love you Safeway Kaupulehu. I really don't know why I go anywhere else, you are in the game with very competitive prices and above average stocked store and friendly service. You always have what I need and a pretty awesome meat clearance bin. Which reminds me, I have to start eating more steak, but not today. Today we do pork.


I play this recipe really fast and loose. I go into my fridge and pantry and start pulling out anything related to BBQ. No oregano, bay leaf or liquid smoke? Have that ginormous jar of streak seasoning you bought from Costco for 4th of July? No problem, rub it on. Only have BBQ sauce in the door of your fridge. Awesome. Throw it on. This is what I had, but when you try this recipe just go with what you got.

Pull Pork in a Slow Cooker

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 bay leafs
- 1 Tbsp hot sauce (optional)
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
- Salt and Pepper

- Big hunk of pork cut in half, shoulder or butt is best, 3-5 lbs depending on the size of the crowd

Put all the first 8 ingredients in the slow cooker, mix. Taste. Add more stuff. Taste again.
When you are happy, get the pork out of the package, cut in half, trim off excess fat if you want (I didn't, it was late and I was tired).
Cook long and slow, I did this at night, so I went to bed.

Get up in the morning, unplug the slow cooker, pull out meat and put in bowl.
Stop, do some morning ablutions or situps or something.
Really.
Go.
For a while.

That meat is hot, and its easier if you give it a minute to cool down.
When a little cooler, shred with 2 forks.
Pour sauce into a glass or defatter. Strain off the fat. (Unless you like it, I don't.)

Recipe says: mix in 1/4 cup of ketchup into sauce and add back into the shredded pork.
This is what I did instead: Put in small saucepan boil down until thick, mix into pork.

Put in tupperware container and bring to the party.
Be the center of attention when everyone tries it.
Still have leftovers even after everyone is stuffed.

*Cue spotlight and grandoise music*


**I will revise when I get a photo- my camera won't focus anymore for some reason. Probably because it is over 10 years old. I bought it in China, I guess I should be happy it didn't give me lead posioning.**