Penne Pasta

20100531:
Today I helped Stephanie make penne pasta.

Ingredients:
Prego Fresh Mushroom + Barilla Penne + Mushroom, Tomato, Scallion, Garlic + Seafood Mix

Steps We Took:
Bought the mushrooms.


Crushed the garlic cloves - still inside the skin. Then we peeled the skin, which was now easier to peel off after smashing them. Then I diced the garlic - a little over half a clove.


We boiled the water to cook the penne. I like my pasta cooked al dente; we watched the time carefully.


Tiffany washed the mushrooms and cut up the tomato. Stephanie chopped the scallions, bacon, and mushrooms.


We threw some oil in the pan, followed by the garlic, and then some bacon.


Then we threw in the tomatoes, mushrooms, and scallions.


Next we added the tomato sauce.

Stephanie also put in a frozen seafood mix. Its ingredients were as follows: Wild caught: Cooked Mussel Meat, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Surimi (Sea bream, Starch, Egg Albumin, Natural Flavoring, Sugar, Salt, Natural Spices, Carmine, Paprika) Farm raised: Shrimp. READY TO COOK.


For additonal flavor, we threw in some garlic powder.


To go along with the pasta, we prepared some garlic bread.


Finally, we poured the sauce onto the penne! Yum!

[20100602][20150909 Edit][20161015 Edit]

Rau Muong

20100530:
Today I watched and listened as my dad made Rau Muống.

Steps:
1) Get beef (steak, filet mignon, or tri-tip)
2) Cut the beef into small pieces
3) Marinate with pepper, some oil, and garlic (1 or more to taste)
4) Wash the rau muống.

My dad said I probably won't find this vegetable on the East Coast, or at least where I live, so he suggested I try spinach as a substitute.

5) Cut the vegetable to size; choice of long or short pieces.
6) Put one or two tablespoons of oil in the pan and let it warm.
7) Add the beef, cook to brown. Remove to plate.
8) Add garlic (again, 1 or more to taste).
9) Add vegetable. The rau muống on the bottom will become soft and it's necessary to toss the vegetables so that everything cooks evenly.
10) (Optional) add soy sauce or fish sauce.
11) When the vegetable is about three-quarters done (about a minute left to finish the vegetables), add the beef back in.

Basically, add the beef back in such a manner that the timing allows the beef and vegetable to cook to desired cooking stages at the same time (e.g., slightly raw veggies with well-done beef, well-done veggies with medium-rare beef, etc.).

[20100530][20161015 Edit]

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Relevant Links:
Ipomoea aquatica (Wikipedia.org)*
*Ipomoea aquatica is known as Rau Muống in Vietnamese and Ong Chow in Chinese.

Okonomiyaki

20100527: Today I helped Steph make Okonomiyaki with help from Tiffany.


T: Peeled sweet potato.


S: Chopped cabbage. S: Chopped onion. S: Chopped sweet potato.


T: Diced sweet potato in blender.


T: Chopped pork into about 1 cm by 1 cm by 3 cm pieces. T: Cut two strips of bacon into thirds.


S: Mixed flour, onion, cabbage, eggs. T: Measured two cups water. S: Mixed water in.


T: Mixed pork in.


Cooked bacon on grill.


Put two thirds of bacon on the grill. Put the mixture on top of the bacon. Made a third pancake without the bacon. Cracked an egg on top of the bacon ones.


Flipped them over when ready.


Flipped them again. The eggs had been enveloped! It was amazing.


The first ones with bacon, we poured sauce and added this thinly sliced dried fish flakes. Delicious. Okonomi Sauce. Katsuo Bushi. The Katsuo Bushi (the flakes) move when you put them on the pancakes. They move because of the steam from the pancakes.


Started making the rest of the batter, some with bacon, some without.


Thoughts on Taste: I tried a piece with sauce and a piece of the pancake without. With the sauce was definitely better. Some pieces I ate with mayonnaise and some without. It was good both ways. Overall, it was a delicious dish.


Other Comments: A whole lot was made; probably enough for eight people. I guess we should have resisted pressing down on the pancake when we wanted it to cook faster. I don't know why, but it seems like a reasonable temptation to resist.
 
Another thing is the addition of the egg and the cooking of the bacon. We should have cooked the bacon on one side and then, when that side is close to being cooked, flip it over and add the batter. Then we could have added the egg on the side and flip the batter over onto it.* *Our method was to make a dimple, put the egg on top, and then flip both over. This method was met with success but we were trying to think of alternative methods.

[20100527][20161015 Edit]

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Relevant Links:
Okonomiyaki (Wikipedia.org)