Texas BBQ Pulled Pork
By jaylivg77 | January 20, 2012
I have not been updating or cooking that much lately , due to relocating . No i haven’t settled yet , but this one dish is super easy to make , and with how delicious it tastes , i think everyone should give it a try . Even the person who cannot cook , will be able to make this !! So , here we go .. i present you Texas BBQ pulled pork .
You will need :
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3.5 lbs pork shoulder
- 1 cup KC Masterpiece Honey BBQ sauce
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey mustard
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 extra large onion, chopped
- 4 large cloves garlic, crushed
- About 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1. In your slow cooker , add the olive oil , then add the pork and pour the rest of ingredients in . Stir well , and cook on high for at least 5 hours .
2. Once it’s done , it should be easily to be pulled apart . To serve , butter the buns a little bit , and put it on the skillet for a minute until it’s brown , and add your pork and serve .
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Spaghetti alla Carbonara
By jaylivg77 | November 1, 2011
Made this dish couple of times already and they’re super delicious and easy . This dish doesn’t even take that many ingredients , most of the ingredients should be available on hand , even if you have to run to the store , it won’t cost you too much money . If you’re too concern about the raw eggs , don’t be , because the super hot pasta will cook your raw eggs automatically , you just have to make sure you have everything ready right on time and serve it immediately .
- 3 tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- 8 ounces thick sliced bacon
- 1 pound Spaghetti
- 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 4 large Eggs separated
- Freshly ground Black Pepper
1. In a skillet , cook the bacon until it becomes crispy , set aside . Leaving some of the bacon grease on the skillet . Add garlic minced , cook for 1 minute . Meanwhile , cook your spaghetti al dente ( make sure you salt the water before adding the spaghetti )
2. Drain the spaghetti , and reserve some of the water , and add the spaghetti into the skillet with bacon and garlic , mix well . Then pour the spaghetti into the eggs and cheese mixture , stirring quick so it won’t curdle ( heat off ! ) , sprinkle with lots of black pepper .
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Sesame Chicken
By jaylivg77 | October 31, 2011
I know this is typical Chinese food that you can get everywhere in the restaurant , including fast food chinese , such as panda express LOL , or chinese buffet .. But instead of doing that , why not trying it yourself . It is super easy and doesn’t take that long , and plus , it’s healthier since it doesn’t have MSG like most chinese restaurant does their food . So here it goes ..Picture doesn’t look as good because my regular camera for some reason isn’t working
For the batter :
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons white wine
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 dashes sesame oil
- 1.5 lbs of boneless chicken thighs , you can replace it with chicken breasts too if you want . I prefer dark meat
For the sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon chile paste
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
Mix the batter ingredients together with whisk , cut your chicken into bite size , marinade for 1 hour or so in the fridge . Then deep fry for about 3-4 minutes . Set aside .
Bring the mixture for the sauce to boil , and then add the cornstarch mixed with water . Or you can skip this , and add the chicken into the sauce .. and it should thicken the sauce because of the chicken batter has flour and cornstarch . Serve warm with jasmine rice !
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Chinese Meatballs ( Bakwan Goreng Babi )
By jaylivg77 | September 25, 2011
When i was back in indonesia , this was one of my favourite food , meatballs . Unlike americans / italians meatballs , chinese meatballs that i know was deep fried , and they usually used pork and shrimp , sometimes my mom would put ” bengkuang ” i can’t remember what this called in english . But yes , always delicious with spicy hot sauce on the side .. I love this meatballs , they’re crunchy and yummy , you can always eat it with rice , or just alone as a snack ..
Here is my recipe
1 lb of ground pork , ( taco pork would be good because it has more fat than regular ground pork )
1 lb of shrimp , peeled and deveined , then chopped
0.5 lbs of white fish fillet ( could be tilapia , cod or anything white fish )
fish sauce
3 eggs
salt , pepper and sugar
tapioca flour
cornstarch
1. In a food processor , pulse the fish fillet until it’s smooth like a paste . Then add the ground pork , pulse until it’s all mixed well . Add the chopped shrimp , you can always put the shrimp and let the food processor do the chopping , but chances are your ground pork will be too smooth .. i like a little texture on my meatballs , so it’s your up to your preference .
2. Transfer to a large bowl , add 3 beaten eggs , salt , pepper , sugar and fish sauce . Add the tapioca flour , and cornstarch . The cornstarch will help your meatballs to be really crunchy . And stays crunchy for a while even when it’s in room temperature .
3. Deep fried in a large pot with oil , enough corn / canola oil so that the meatballs would submerge . Cook about 5-6 minutes , medium heat .
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Halloween Theme Cupcakes
By jaylivg77 | September 15, 2011
The boys asked for me to make some cupcakes today , with its famous yummy smooth icing , french butter cream icing . And i ended up making a huge mess , playing with fondant . The icing was very quick to make , which wasn’t a big deal at all . But we’re just having fun making the pumpkins , the tombstones and the ghost . It took time , but wasn’t bad at all ..
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Autumn Pumpkin Cupcakes
By jaylivg77 | September 10, 2011
Originally was just going to make regular cupcakes for my family , no fancy stuff , just regular cupcakes and slathered some icing on top . Well , it never went that way , although i was so distracted earlier while i was making the french butter cream icing , i turned the sugar into caramel .. LOL , yes i had to redo it , wasted 2 eggs and sugar !! So my chocolate cupcakes , ended up with beautiful orange icing from yellow and red gel coloring that i used , and why did i choose orange ? Because my son loves the color of orange , and then i thought hmm .. why not playing around with added pumpkins there .. so there i was .. making the pumpkins using fondant . Not my favourite thing to do , but heck i was in the mood for it ..
For the cupcakes :
1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp.baking powder
1 tsp.salt
2 eggs
1 cup of strong coffee
1 cup of buttermilk
1 tsp.vanilla extract
1 capfull of kahlua
1/2 cup of veggie oil
1. Preheat oven 350 F , in a large mixing bowl , mix together the dry ingredients , make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients , make sure your coffee is cool enough before adding into the batter . Mix medium speed for 2 minutes . Pour into the cupcakes liner , and bake for about 18 minutes .
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Rigatoni w/ sweet tomatoes , eggplant
By jaylivg77 | September 2, 2011
Another great recipe from Jamie Oliver , i think i hardly found anything that’s bad from Jamie’s cookbook . This one , although it has no meat , it tastes really yummy . I think this was pretty easy dinner for weekdays and quick too . You can always add mozzarella at the end of cooking or just don’t use it at all if you’re a vegan !
- 1 ripe eggplan
- olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
- 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 (14 ounce) cans of good-quality plum tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 pinch of sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 2 fresh chili peppers or 1 dried chili, chopped
- 1 bunch fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 lb rigatoni pasta or 1 lb penne
- 7 ounces cow’s milk mozzarella cheese
- 1 piece parmesan cheese, for grating
1.Cut up the eggplant into 1/2 inch dice , chopped the onion and minced the garlic . Heat up the olive oil , add the eggplants , stir quickly , and cook for 7 minutes , medium heat , keep stirring . Add onion and garlic , cook until it has color , and add salt and pepper .
2. Add the balsamic vinegar and plum tomatoes , and the stalk of basil that has been shopped . Bring to boil and cover , simmer for 15 minutes .Add the chilis before simmering them .
3. Cook the pasta , reserve a lil of the water , and drain , return to the pot , with lil olive oil and the pasta water . Add into the sauce . Mix well , shred the mozzarella and parmesan and torn basil leaves .
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Japanese Black Sesame Ice Cream
By jaylivg77 | August 29, 2011
This is one delicious nutty ice cream . The color of the ice cream might not be so inviting , but believe me , looks can be deceiving sometimes . I really think this has become my favourite ice cream , on the top list .. more than the vanilla ice cream !! It’s not hard to make , just make sure you watch it closely when you roast the sesame seed because it might get burnt easily since it’s black and you wouldn’t be able to tell . So anyway , here it is
You need :
1/2 cup of roasted black sesame seed
3/4 cup of sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup of low fat milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1. In a bowl mix well the sugar and egg yolks until it’s creamy and pale .
2. Meanwhile , warm up the milk and cream , and then pour into the egg mixture ,while keep whisking . Return the mixture into the pot , and cook until it’s thick enough to cover the back of a spoon , do not boil or it will curdle .
3. Grind the sesame seed , and then pour into the mixture , let it chill in the fridge overnight , and churn in the ice cream machine the next day .
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Carrot Cake
By jaylivg77 | August 21, 2011
I have been looking for a better recipe of carrot cake . I used to have this recipe , that needs 3 sticks of butter to make a 2 layers of carrot cake . No i don’t have any complains about it , but the 3 sticks of butter plus another stick for the cream cheese icing ,doesn’t make me feel better about it . Luckily i found this one recipe that does not even require any butter !! And it tasted so good , i don’t even bother to make it into a round cake , but i made it into cupcakes and loaf cake . And since i didn’t have plain yogurt on hand , i used whatever yogurt we had and the closest that i could think of was Orange Creme Yogurt .. and i was right , it turned out to be really good . So here is recipe ..
12 oz. of all purpose flour
12 oz. of grated carrot, i used about 4 medium size of carrots
1 tsp. of baking soda
1 tsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. all spice
10 oz. of sugar
2 oz of brown sugar
3 large eggs
6 oz of plain yogurt
6 oz of vegetable oil
1. In a small bowl , mix together all purpose flour , baking soda , baking powder and salt . Set aside .
2. Grate carrots in a large bowl , once it’s done , pour the flour mixture into the carrot , and toss until it’s mixed well .
3. In a food processor , mix well eggs , yogurt , sugar and brown sugar . Once it’s mixed well , drizzle the vegetable oil while it’s still running , and then pour this mixture into the grated carrot mixture . Stir until just combined .
4. Bake for cupcakes at 350 F about 15 minutes or for a loaf pan for 40 minutes .
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Couscous au Poulet
By jaylivg77 | August 20, 2011
Or you can always call it chicken couscous , either it’s Tunisian dish or Moroccan dish .. not quite sure about it . But all i know is , that this dish was delicious . Despite that it’s not that hard to make . Me and my family love couscous , we really enjoy couscous every once in a while . And usually we pair it with some grilled chicken or some fish . Couscous au Poulet , was easy to make , it’s not really hard .. except you need some spices for sure . And if you have saffron , it would be even better , unfortunately i did not have saffron threads on hand .. ( saffron supposed to be very expensive , as expensive as gold !! LOL ) , so i skipped saffron , thankfully , the dish still turned out delicious !
You need :
1 package of whole chicken , or chicken thighs ( i used chicken thighs )
olive oil
2 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4 tsp. saffron thread
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 garlic cloves , minced
6 cups of chicken broth
2 carrots , cut about 2 inches
2 celery stalks , about 2 inches cut
1 medium turnip , quartered
2 leeks , half cut and cut into 2 inches
8 small white onions
1 1/2 cup of quick cooking couscous
1 zucchini
1 can of chick peas , rinsed and drained
In a dutch oven , heat up the olive oil , and then add the chicken , sprinkle with the spices mix all over . Turn the chicken and sprinkle on the other side too . Don’t have to brown the chicken , just cook few minutes , and then add the 6 cups of chicken broth , mix well . Then bring to boil , add the onions , carrot , celery , turnips , leeks , cook about 30 minutes , on simmer , til the chicken is done . Then add the zucchini and chickpeas , cook for extra 5 minutes . Then take out about 3 cups of the broth into a small pot , bring to boil , and then turn the heat off , and add the couscous and then cover and let it sit for 5 minutes .
Serve the couscous with vegetables and the chicken , and harrisa on the side .
Harissa recipe :
6 oz of bird eyes chilis
6 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. ground coriander
1/2 tbsp. cumin
1/4 cup of cilantro
Mix this all together in a bowl of food processor , add olive oil if it’s too dry , and mix until it’s mixed well . My harissa wasn’t quite the original harissa because i didn’t have enough birds eye chilis , i mixed the chilis with some of the jalapeno and also sweet pepper too , although it tasted really spicy and delicious !!
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