Quail Egg Sushi

I was afraid of quail eggs when I was first introduced, but they turned out to be delicious! Even raw! The yolks are creamy and the white is smooth. Nothing like chicken eggs. There are conflicting reports as to whether they are good for you or not. Asians think so! Click here for health benefits.

Here's my recipe: 1st wash the eggs in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Add two or three to a bowl or shot glass, add a few drops of Ponzu, (a citrus soy sauce), some sliced green onion, and a couple of spots of rooster sauce, (sriracha). These are not for everyone but I think they're spectacular!

My Little Window Garden

I found this great tip the other day about green onions. If you put the bulbs in water, the green shoots will continually grow back! Awesome! The only problem with this that I can see is that once you cut the onion, you have to rinse it really well or it tends to be slimy inside...
The middle plant is mint. This one seems to be doing really well, the last one died within days. Haha, I'm no green thumb.
And of course, there's my lucky bamboo on the left.
Sorry it's not a great photo. Click for larger version.

For my Feng Shui friends: My kitchen is in the Prosperity corner of my home. Note the natural cut amethyst rock, (purple), the golden bell, and of course the healthy growing plants. I also have several other enhancements in this area.

Vietnamese Seafood Hot Pot

 This is in no way meant to be a "traditional" Vietnamese soup, but more of a spin-off of things that I've eaten. My husband's mom was born and raised in Vietnam and she's been teaching me to cook for some time now. That being said, the best Vietnamese dishes that I make are the ones that I follow exactly. This one was sort of trial and error. Learn from my mistakes. :)
I wanted to make a hot pot at home after buying this awesome pot at the Asian market but I wasn't sure how. I decided to wing it. Here goes....Plain old chicken broth for the stock. I tried make soup from pork bones a few days ago but it was way too greasy, even after I continually skimmed and chilled. Down the sink it went!

The pic is of the chicken broth at a rolling boil.

I cut the tomatoes and blanched them in the broth, then I ran some cold water over them and removed the skins. 

 I put in the seafood and the onions. The seafood I had was a medley of mussels, octopus, shrimp, scallops, & calamari.  I added the cabbage, mushrooms, cilantro, nuoc mam, and juice of the limes. I used a slotted spoon to put the food into the hot pot and then ladled in the broth. 

Lighting the charcoals in the pot was hilarious. This particular pot has a hole in the middle where charcoal goes. You light it and it keeps the pot warm. When the charcoal turns to ashes, it falls down through the holes into the bottom and you just dump it out. Sounds easy, right? I think my first mistake was buying Match Light charcoals, my 2nd mistake was adding too many coals, third mistake was forgetting to put the lid before lighting. I put those coals in, lit a match and whoosh! a giant flame came bursting out of the top!! Haha! I wish I had a picture, that flame had to be about 4 foot high! Anyway, here's my finished product. 

What would I do differently? Well, since you asked....I would omit the scallops altogether, they made the overall dish very fishy. I would add crab. I would NOT use the pre-made medley again. The seafood was all so tiny! I would add broccoli or other vegetables and maybe some thin sliced pork or beef. What would you add?


If you like Vietnamese food, stay tuned, I will be adding a tutorial on traditional Cha Gio in the future.

Easy Valentine's Day Gifts for the Men in my Life

I decided to make these little "bouquets" after I saw them way overpriced at the grocery store. I already had half of the stuff I needed. I used packing tape to secure the treats to the dowels and stuck them into a bit of florist foam wrapped in holiday paper. I think they turned out kind of cute.

Decided to Drink my Lunch Today

It's another one of those days where I know it's lunch time but nothing sounds good. I decided to try something new with the juicer. Blueberries, strawberries, an orange, an apple, mint, all tossed into the juicer.

Added to yogurt and a soy nut blend in the blender with a couple of ice cubes. Excellent!