Happy Birthday, Blog! It’s been exactly a year since I first started this blog and I’m thrilled that the blog is still breathing, still alive and not filled with spider webs!! Thank you to all of you readers out there who’s been religiously (or not) visiting this humble blog of mine……
OK…my fridge was not exactly empty…but I did came close to running out of groceries to make dinner. I was clueless of what to cook a few nights ago as I was almost no meat in the freezer, had only one egg in the fridge, very limited fresh vegetables and etc. I could have run to the grocery store to stock up…but I was feeling lazy.
Staring right at me was remnants of some Korean sliced beef marinated in some kind of sweet sauce. We bought the marinated beef (from H-Mart) almost a week ago to make some Korean BBQ at home when my brother and his gf was in town. And then I saw this bottle of Kimchi in my fridge. Next thing I know, I was cooking some rice and had fried rice in mind. Kimchi Fried Rice it is. I seem to have all the ingredients to make it!
Kimchi is a Korean pickle made from different kind of vegetables and assortment of seasoning. The type of Kimchi I used in my fried rice is the common “Baechu” (Napa Cabbage) type which is a lil’ on the spicy type. Although you could make your own Kimchi, I just rather buy it from the store. I don’t think I have the patience to let it ferment! =P
The Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokumbop) is pretty easy to make. I googled for a recipe and found one HERE. I cooked my Kimchi Fried Rice with ingredients based on that recipe, adding a little more stuff and also changing the proportions of the ingredients. I used a little over a cup of chopped Kimchi and 1 cup of chopped marinated beef. Also added some chopped celery as well as frozen peas (and carrots) to the fried rice.
The result: the fried rice was edible I guess. Good, not great! Hubby and I both thought something was missing but wasn’t sure what. The fried rice wasn’t really spicy (and I did add quite a bit of juices from the Kimchi) and was more on the sweeter side.. most likely due to the marinated beef I used. Maybe it was because we’re missing the fried egg!! =) And maybe the kind of Kimchi I used were more on the mild side.
(Sweet) Sesame Balls are one of my favorite dish at Dim Sum. Sesame Balls often have either sweetened red bean paste or lotus paste as the filling. My favorite ones are the red bean paste filling. The dough is made from glutinous rice flour, coated in sesame seeds then deep fried. Who wouldn’t love some deep fried goodness??
The other day, I was itching to make some at home. How hard could it be? Without doing any research, I went for it and mixed the glutinous rice flour in water, stuff them with sweetened (store-bought) red bean paste, rolled them in sesame seeds and deep fry them until black they float.
My sesame balls were a disaster. For a start, it took me quite a while to deep fry them until they float (which means they are cooked). By then, the sesame seeds have turned so so so black…it’s no longer recognizable and definitely no longer appetizing. And then, for some reason my sesame balls will poof up then crack and they ended up looking almost like Japanese Shitake Mushroom caps. I tried frying the sesame balls in 3 different kind of heat……. none really helped….the sesame seeds still turned black.
After some deduction, I concluded that I may have used the wrong kind of sesame seeds; I used the toasted ones. Perhaps, if I were to use the raw ones..it would have looked better. Well, definitely will reattempt this (this time following a recipe!!) or just head to my favorite Dim Sum place for some!
The moon was so bright and yellow last night (at about 10pm EST), I couldn’t resist whipping out my camera for a shot! Too bad it wasn’t full moon! The shot would have been better! =)
While hubby and I were shopping for food at H-Mart, we came across many food sample stands. One of them was giving out tofu noodle samples called “Tofu Shirataki”. We’re at first reluctant to try it as it did not look quite appetizing but it sure sounded different that we decided to give it a try.And we got sucked in and got 2 packets of the noodles for $0.99 each packet. I’ve actually seen these noodles being sold at many Asian stores but have never thought to try it.
Tofu noodle is made from tofu (obviously), yam starch and water. It apparently is vegan, low carb, no cholesterol, no sugar and is gluten free. This noodle would be a great pasta/noodle substitute and it comes in 3 different sizes; angel hair, fettuccini and spaghetti (which is what we got).
Each packet of noodle (already cooked) is packed in water and serves 1-2 people (I cooked 2 packets for hubby and I). The noodles when drained somehow looked like cooked ramen noodles. 
I made cooked some soup (with vegetables, dumplings and fish cake) to go with the tofu noodles. All I did was drained the noodles, quickly reheat it in the microwave and pour hot soup over it. And serve it immediately!! The noodles has a little bite to it, not those al-dente kind of bite though. It’s got this springy bite that ordinary noodles or pasta does not have. The noodles itself is quite flavorless, but when eaten with hot soup it’s actually pretty good. The instruction on the back also suggest to stir fry the noodles. Maybe next time, I’ll try a stir fry tofu noodles! 
Look for the tofu noodles at the refrigerated aisle (where they sell noodles or tofu) at your local Asian grocery store. The noodles are not supposed to be frozen, so when you get some..just keep it in your refrigerator!
