I tried to plan ahead when possible so that I can pull the meat out to defrost and marinade to the full extent which was what I did with these chicken pieces.  This is a very quick and easy dish to put together. I had to wait for my rice cooker to switch to warm before I began cooking. It doesn’t take long to cook so you don’t want the stir-fried to be waiting on the rice. It should be vice versa.

HAVE A SAFE & HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Stir-Fried Black Pepper Chicken
(Cha Mon Marich Kmao) ឆារម៉ាន់ម្រេចខ្មៅ

Ingredients
1 lb chicken thigh, skinless & boneless, cut into bite size pieces
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorn
cilantro sprigs for garnish

Marinade for chicken
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (sweet)
½ teaspoon tapioca flour (or corn flour)

Method:
Combine ingredients for marinade and add to chicken pieces. Marinade for at least 30 minutes.

Use a mortar & pestle and lightly pound the whole black peppercorn. It should be coarse.

In a hot pan add the marinated chicken pieces. Spread them out evenly and allow to caramelized for about 3 minutes before moving it around. Cook until chicken pieces are cooked. The sauce will start to thickens.

Toss in coarse peppercorns and stir to coat with chicken pieces. Add onion wedges and stir it around so it picks up all the yummy sauces on the pan. Continue to cook until the onions are soft but not mushy. You still want a little bit of crunch on them.

Dish out when ready. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and serve with hot steamy rice. ENJOY!

As mentioned in my previous Chinese Roasted Pork Belly with Crackling post I anticipated left-overs for another (one of my experimental) dish. While enjoying the roasted pork belly out of the oven with hot steamy rice my mind was already brainstorming another dish. That evening I also made Sichuan popular Fish Soup with Pickled Mustard Greens (which I will share in the future once I get the perfect balance) so as I looked to dishes on table it crossed my mind. How about joining some of the ingredients from the two dishes? I finally locate the Sichuan peppercorns at my local Asian supermarket. I am so addicted to that spicy, numbing, tingling taste right now and so very eager to put it to the test in my Cha Jruk Spey Sach Jrook Kwai ឆារជ្រក់ស្ពៃសាច់ជ្រូកខ្វៃ​ (Stir-Fried Pickled Mustard Greens with Roasted Pork).

Since the pickled mustard greens and roasted pork belly are loaded with flavors already it was important to try to balance them out and join them by not having to add additional salt. Spicy was the flavor that I used to bring these two together. I was pleased with the outcome.  I believe my use of the Sichuan peppercorn was spot on in this stir-fried dish.

Ingredients
2-3 cups sliced pickled mustard greens
sliced Chinese crackling roasted pork belly
½ tablespoon Sichuan peppercorn, crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon full roasted chili
julienne red jalapeños for garnish

Method:
In a hot pan reheat the sliced pork belly by laying them down evenly. This will not only reheat the meat but add a little crunch and make it crispy again. Flip it once then remove and set aside. Use the fat that was left behind and add minced garlic, roasted chili and Sichuan peppercorn.  Fry until fragrant. You might want to turn on the fan at this point. You will be able to tell when your nose starts to tickle and you feel like sneezing.

Add pickled mustard greens and stir to coat with the rest of the other ingredients. Cook another 2 minute before adding back the roasted pork belly. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar and then stir again to combine.

To serve, dish it out and garnish with some julienne red jalapeños. Serve with steamed rice.

Over the weekend we just want to get out of the house because it was so hot. This was at 7pm already! Without any plans we headed to Wal-mart knowing that we can always find sometime or walk around and study the product labels. LOL After about 40 minutes we were hungry and have yet to determine what we wanted to eat. So off we go to the Warm Spring district in Fremont, CA and landed at iPho. The name sound very catchy even their logo using an apple in place of the “o”. Flop their menu opened and didn’t find anything I really like. The menu use the same image and price like many of the other Vietnamese restaurants so I’m like… okay, here we go again. I still dislike pho so I usually get their chicken or seafood noodle soup. But since it’s hot, I’m not feeling soup so I opt to try their Garlic Shrimp Noodle. It was on a separate menu and no detail was provided so when ordered I asked that the noodles be rice and not egg. The server seems puzzle, like it’s not possible or sometime. So I had to like describe to them that everything is the same just sub the noodle. When I got my order it was SWEET! WTH? They took a long time to get my water and not to mention my order so I just chow down for the heck of it and just get it over with.

So yesterday after window shopping I came home and thought about that experience. The fact that it use very little ingredients got me wanting to try making it myself but adjusting the taste, not making it sweet like what they did. The results? Satisfied! LOL Because it’s my dish and I’m making it I get to add and take anything I want. I put a lot of garlic I mean after all it is a GARLIC dish right? I also used olive oil (a lot more than usual) to saute the garlic. Try my garlic shrimp rice noodles recipe (Cha Kuy Teav Bongkear & Ktum Saw) ឆារគុយទាវបង្ការនឹងខ្ទឹមសរ and it might just leave you with a satisfaction smile like it did to me. Mmmmmmm

Ingredients
3-4 oz large size dried rice noodles
5 cups of water
8 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 stalk green onion, chopped
8 large shrimp, shelled and devein
2 tablespoons olive oil

Seasoning
¼ cube chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce

Method:
Bring 5 cups of water to a boil and reserve 1 tablespoon to dissolve the chicken bouillon. Pour the remainder to cover the dried rice noodles. Allow to soften for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Heat a pan and add olive oil. Once the oil is hot add the chopped garlic and saute briefly making sure they don’t burn. Add the shrimp and let it brown slightly followed by the the seasonings. Stir to combine and allow to thicken slightly.

Drained the rice noodles completely and add it to the pan. Toss to coat with the garlic sauce. You will have to work quickly so that the shrimp and noodles doesn’t get overcooked. Turn the heat off and throw in the green onions. Transfer to a plate/bowl and serve immediately.

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Due to the hot weather we’ve been experiencing here in California for the past few days I tried to distance myself from the kitchen. I’ve been eating my Mother homemade salty sun-dried fish with either watermelon or plain rice with water for the past several days now. Today the weather was a bit cooler and so I was happy to be back in the kitchen . I have a big head of cabbage left in the fridge and been waiting to make cabbage soup for a while now, this was the perfect time for me to make my yummy Cabbage Soup with Pork (Sngor Spey Sach Jrook) ស្ងោរស្ពីសាច់ជ្រូក. It was light and  flavorful.  D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S !

There are two variation to the soup. Both use the same ingredients but presented in different ways. Take your pick. The dumpling version will be the quick and easier version. The stuffed version will take some time. It does make a nice presentation though. You can also add bean threads in the pork mixture. If you have the time you can make a rich broth with pork or chicken bones. Another way to flavor the stock is by using dried shrimp.  The soup can be eaten alone or part of a meal.

Ingredients
½ cabbage leaves
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
toothpicks or green onions to secure roll
cilantro leaves for garnish

Pork stuffing/Dumplings
1 cup ground pork
1 tablespoon dried shredded wood-ear mushrooms, soaked in water til soften then chopped
1 stem green onion, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black paper
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Soup Stock
4 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar
½ chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce

Method for stuffed cabbage roll:
Start by blanching the cabbage leaves in hot boiling water with a little bit of salt until soft. Trim away hard stems and set aside.

To make the pork stuffing/dumplings combine chopped green onion, mushrooms, ground pork and remainder ingredients. Mix well.

Place one tablespoon of stuffing at the stem end of each leaf, and fold in the sides. If the leaves are small, you can layered them. Roll each leaf tightly, and secure with toothpick.

Make the stock by bringing 4 cups of water to a boil and add chicken bouillon. Add stuffed cabbage roll and cook in the stock for 5-10 minutes until tender. Then season with sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce.  Remove toothpick. Garnish with cilantro leaves before serving.

Method for cabbage soup with pork dumplings:
Follow the steps above for blanching the cabbage leaves. When it’s cool to the touch roll and slice the cabbage. Set in a bowl.

Prepare stock by adding all the ingredients in boiling water.

Combine ingredients for pork stuffing. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of pork filling and roll into a ball. Drop into the stock. Cook about 10 minutes. To serve ladle pork dumplings into a bowl of shredded cabbage follow by some stock. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

…….. and if you happen to have left over stuffing you can turn it into another simple and delicious stir fry glass noodles. Using the same ingredients with the addition of mung bean noodles that has been soaked.

Spicy Beef Basil Sandwhich

It’s the weekend and I was out an about in San Francisco playing tourist and hitting Twin Peaks which is a must-stop on every tourist’s list of places to go when visiting San Francisco, CA. Why there? Twin Peaks offer a magnificent view of San Francisco. It is situated almost at the geographical center of the city.

My friends and I used to refer to Twin Peaks in Cambodian as “Phnom Ow-Tronorb” which literally translate to “Bra Mountain” because of the identical hump. LOL Okay, minds out of the gutter. Anyways, I left home with short sleeves and the AC in the car blast on med-high. It was pretty toasty. However as soon as we got to the top of the summit it was like we were in North Pole. Luckily we have extra jackets in the car. It was very very cold, windy and foggy up there. A bit hard to get the city view due to the fog that was coming in from the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, we managed to take a couple of pictures and headed back down where we took our jackets off and turned the AC back on again.

When I got back home it was close to dinner time. Didn’t want to get all elaborate on my dishes I decided to whip up something quick. Checked the fridge and saw some beef and immediately thought about combining it with the fresh jalapeños and basil in the garden. Looked to one side and saw some left over French Baguette. Perfect! I put it all together and came up with this extra Spicy Beef Basil Sandwich នុំបុ័ងសាច់គោជីក្រហម. Maybe the new Cambodian Sandwich shop that opened up in New York (Num Pang Sandwich Shop) would consider adding this to their menu? LOL I must be dreaming in broad daylight. The stir-fry is great with steam rice too but I wanted to use the bread before it gets all hard and crusty on me.

Beef Basil Sandwich Ingredients

Ingredients
½ lb beef, thinly sliced
5  jalapeños, thinly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a handful of basil leaves
1 foot long french baguette

Marinade
½ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon oyster sauce
½ tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Method:
First marinade beef and set aside. In the meantime prepare all the other ingredients.

Heat up a  non-stick pan and throw in the slice shallots and onions. Turn the heat down to medium and saute them until soft and caramalized. Remove and set aside.

Turn the heat back up and return the pan add garlic and cook until brown then toss in the beef. Cook for 2-3 minutes and add slice jalapeños. Once the jalapeños softens add basil and turn off the heat. Mix in the basil until it starts to wilt.

Cut bread lengthwise and remove (hollow-out) some of the bread. This will make room for the stuffing.  You can also toast the bread briefly for that extra warm crunch. Add stir-fry beef basil and some caramelized shallots and onion. Then top it off with the other half of the bread. The sandwich is now ready. To serve you can either cut it in half or quarter them.