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Pasta for 2-3 servings 2 large eggs 1½ cups all purpose flour Follow the instruction in pasta making by machine or hands in this blog making about 10 oz of fresh pasta. Sauce 8 oz fresh picked crab meat 4 oz cherry tomato, cut in halves 1/4 cup white wine, dry sherry or your favorites ( skip it if cook for kids) 1/4 cup coarse chopped shallot or yellow onion 1 large garlic clove, minced 2 Table olive oil or vegetable oil 2 Table lemon/lime juice  1 handful of flat leave parley or basil or mint, thinly sliced but save some whole for decoration 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese 1 small red hot Thai chili, seeded and minced Salt and pepper to taste Make dough 30 minutes or 1 hour earlier. Wash, peel, cut chop veggies.  Grate cheese if needed. Cook pasta in boiling salted water ( 2 quarts water with ½ table kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt) Knead and cut pasta when start boiling water if use a machine.  When pasta is soft enough to your liking. Drain and save 1 cup o...

I just came back from visiting my children in California few day ago.  As you know I write this blog because of them. I did not teach or force them to cook at home.  Hmm it was considered as bad parenting in Vietnam. Somehow my children love and able to cook some delicious home cooked meals.  My youngest boy who will be graduating from college next year took me by surprise that he has been cooking some recipes in this blog and love them. This recipe is used for pork contained of salt solution at grocery stores.  It has about 1/2 teaspoon salt for each pound of pork. If you are lucky to have fresh pork, increase fish sauce to 2 tablespoons and omit dark soy sauce/ caramel sauce.  Fresh pork will have a beautiful light red/candy color when being grilled. Pork Marinate 1 lb boneless pork loin or pork shoulder/butt, cut into 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick 2 medium garlic cloves, coarsely chopped  about 1 tablespoon 1 Tablespoon finely minced shallot or 2 Tablespoon fine...

The serving size in this recipe is a little big to Vietnamese in Vietnam but that is how we eat here and now.  It is hard to believe that we had only 2-3 eggs for the family meal at times.  Do not worry about the golden brown here because we all think and know that well cooked egg white will take longer to digest than soft cooked egg.  Maybe it makes this dish really filling?  If you are new to Vietnamese food.  Fish sauce is an acquired taste and used as salt in most dish. I use Three crab brand from Thailand for all my recipes.  The most famous and expensive is Red boat brand from Vietnam.  Feel free to use what brand you have but the level of salt in each branch slightly different may make the dish more or less salty. Ingredients for 3-4 servings For the shells 6 large eggs 1 tablespoon (15 ml) fish sauce 1-2 tablespoon/s vegetable oil For the filling  8 oz ground pork 1 medium tomato, diced 1/2 small onion or 1 large shallot, coarsely chopped ...

Pan-seared Lemongrass Chicken serves with vermicelli here but you can serve it with anything you want-bread, rice; potato, angle hair pasta, etc.   Ingredients  for 4 servings For chicken  1.5 pounds boneless/skinless chicken thighs (about 4 large ones)  2 T fish sauce 1 T Tamari soy sauce or any regular soy sauce 2 T brown sugar Juice from a large lime 2 medium garlic cloves-finely minced 1/2 small yellow onion- grated or finely minced 1/2 t ground black pepper;  One lemongrass stalk-white tender part, finely minced 1 T vegetable oil to sear chicken in the pan Slit and open up the thicken part of chicken thighs (like butterfly) or use a meat pounder to even out the thickness about 1/2 inch or less.  Mix all them together for at least one hour on the counter or overnight in the fridge.  Heating one tablespoon vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat .  Remove chicken from marinade place chicken in one layer a few minutes until golde...

Shepherd's pie or Cottage pie is a comfort dish original from British (United Kingdom) consisted of a layer of ground meat underneath a layer of mashed potatoes.  This recipe adapted from Rachael Ray and Alton Brown . Ingredients for 4 serving (2 cup each) Mashed Potatoes 2 pounds potatoes (my favorite is Yukon) 2 Tablespoon unsalted butter 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 egg yolk 1/4 cup of whole milk Meat filling 1 pound ground beef 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil 1 small yellow onion about 1 cup coarsely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely mined 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced into small pieces 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon Kosher salt 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour 2 Tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon chopped Thyme leave about 3-4 sprigs, fresh or frozen 1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1 cup chicken broth or beef broth 1/2 cup frozen peas 1/2 cup frozen corn Topping 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parley 1/4 cup grated cheese like mixed cheese...

  This recipe adapted from Today Food  and China Dumpling wrappers .They are dumplings steam-fried in a pan. The bottoms are golden brown and crisp.  This recipe made about 60 pieces.  They are freeze well too. Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce: 1/3 cup soy sauce 2 Tbsp rice vinegar 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro 1 green onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or crushed 1 tsp peeled, and finely grated/minced ginger, fresh or frozen 1 small red hot chili pepper or chili sauce, optional Mix all ingredients together in a glass or non reactive container.  Covered and store in the fridge up to a week.  You can mash garlic and hot pepper first then add to other ingredients.  Rice vinegar can be replaced with lemon/lime juice and add a little sugar at times to suit your taste. Dumpling: For dumpling wrappers 420 gram all purpose flour,  unbleached or bleached about 3 cups unsifted; dip and sweep. 210-220 cc water, room temperature or warm w...

This recipe got inspired  by Gyudon-Japanese Beef Bowel without Dashi. Make 2 servings  1 Tbs vegetable oil 1/2 medium yellow onion, thickly sliced 2 tsp soy sauce 1 Tbs Sake or white wine like Sherry; etc. 1 Tbs Mirin or Aji Mirin 1 tsp sugar 6 oz beef (rib eye, or tenderloin) thinly sliced 1 green onion, thinly sliced 2 cups of cooked rice. Heating oil in a 10 inch pan over medium high heat.  Add onion, stir until soft.  Add wines; soy sauce, sugar and meat stir well.  Turn the heat down to simmer 2-3 minutes until beef is cooked.  Serve beef over a bowl of rice with some juice.  Sprinkle some green onion.

Dough : ingredients and method in Cinnamon Bun.   Except 1 tsp yeast. 1 cup milk 3 Tbs butter 3½ to 4 cups all purpose flour (stir, spoon flour into a measured cup and leveled ) 1 egg 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp rapid rise yeast  1 tsp salt 2 rimmed baking sheets  In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter until very warm 120-130 oF.  In a mixing bowl of a standing electric mixer, add 3½ cups flour,sugar, salt & yeast.  Stir well.  Attack dough hood, add warm liquid and egg to the bowl, beat with low speed and scrap the bowl occasionally until combined.  Increase speed to speed #4 and beat until the dough leaves the side of the bowl  but still stick to the bowl at bottom about 6 minutes total .  If the dough still sticks to the side of the bowl after 4 minutes beating add flour 1 Tbs at a time, scrap the bowl occasionally.  Beat 2-3 minutes more until the dough smooth and elastic.The dough should be soft and tacky.  When you pick it up w...