Catfish with Black Bean Paste

This is one of my favorite dish that my mom makes. I'm adding some heat to it.

a pound and a quarter of catfish nuggets
a couple spoon fulls of black bean and garlic paste
some minced ginger
2 stems of green onions
1 jalapeño pepper



Chop up the green onions and pepper. Toss the green onion, ginger, and jalapeño in a skillet with oil in medium heat and toss it for a few minutes. Add the fish and the black bean paste mix is well so all the fish pieces are covered in sauce. Saute for about 6 to 7 minutes.



This is delicious, it's a bit salty so I served it brown rice and green beans.



Just like home, but with a bit of heat which I think makes it even better. This is awesome and cheap to make too. I'm going to end up making this every week.

-a

Shepherd's Pie

I made Shepherd's Pie over the weekend.

4 lbs of premade mashed potatoes (it was on sale at the store, otherwise I would try to make my own, and I felt lazy)
2 lbs of grounded beef.
1 can of corn
1 can of green peas
a couple cloves of garlic
1 can of mushroom gravy.
3 shallots



This is another easy and cheap recipe. First I brown the ground beef in big skillet. I added some cumin, salt, and grounded pepper on the beef as it browned. While the beef was browning, I chopped up the shallots and garlic. Put the browned ground beef and all of the vegetables in a casserole tray and mix them up.

Pour the gravy evenly on top of the beef and vegetables. Then layer the mashed potatoes on top of everything. Smooth it out so it is nice and even.



Bake the shepherd's pie for 45 minutes at 350.



This is much better tasting than it looks. The picture above looks kind of gross.
Every ingredients in this just fits together. I probably could use an extra can of gravy. Actually the next day after I put it in the fridge, it stay together better and it wasn't a mixed up blob like the above picture.

This is something that I can try and experiment with different vegetables, different spices on the meat or even different types of beef. I can see pot roast working great on this. Maybe next time.

-a

Corned Beef and Cabbage

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day besides drinking myself silly, I'm making corned beef and cabbage. I found this recipe through Google and it seem very easy.

a 3 lbs piece of corned beef brisket
a big head of cabbage
5 carrots
7 red potatoes.



First, I put the corned beef and the flavor packet that came with in my dutch oven. I put enough water in the dutch oven to cover the brisket. I let that simmer for about 2 and half hours.

I then put in the chopped carrots and potatoes. The recipe said to put in the potatoes whole, I had to chop mine because they are bigger and my dutch oven is not that big. Everything have to fit. I let that cook for about 20 minutes.

Then I took the brisket out and put the chopped cabbage in. Again, I have to do this because my dutch oven is not big enough to fit everything. Cook all the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes.

Let the brisket rest for 10 minutes, then carve.



Put everything together and eat.



This was very easy to make and pretty damn good too. One of those can't mess it up recipes. I might do this more often than just having it during St. Patrick's Day.

-a

Chinese Mushrooms on Bok Choi

This is a pretty common dish when I go out with my family to dinner in Chinatown.
I'll try to make it with my own little twist (bacon).

A big bunch of baby bok choi
three hand full of dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked overnight)
a half pound of bacon
2 cloves of garlic
some green onions
a bit of oyster sauce
a couple cups of beef broth
a bit of corn starch



First cut the bacon slices into little pieces then brown them in a medium skillet. Take the bacon out and leave the bacon fat in the skillet for later.

Mince the garlic and put in the bacon fat. Add the bok choi, add a bit of water and salt, cover and let simmer for about 6-7 minutes.

Now the mushrooms, put them in a pot add the browned bacon, chopped green onions, and beef broth. I also added some of the water I used to soak the mushrooms in. The water smelled good and I thought it would be good. Let it come to a boil, then in a separate little dish mix the oyster sauce, corn starch and a couple spoon full of water and mix them. Add that into the boiling mushrooms. Continue to let it boil and reduce it to about about 2/3.

Uncover the bok choi and toss it a bit for a few minutes and put them in a plate. When the mushroom sauce reduced to a nice thick sauce, pour it over the bok choi.



I served it with rice.



This was pretty good, the sauce is different from what I have had in restaurants. I think they didn't use beef broth and just cooked in water and oyster sauce and corn starch. I like what I made though. I was impatient and didn't brown the bacon enough. I would have liked it to be more crispy. Next time, I'd brown the bacon more and maybe use less beef broth and more oyster sauce to change th sauce up a bit.

-a