Jung (Sticky Rice)

My mom taught me how to do this recipe, over 25 years ago, so this is a tribute to you, Mom! It took me all day, but I was so excited and so proud that I could do this, remembering back from my childhood, and trying to do it just like Mom did.

Ingredients:-

Vietnamese or Thailand Sticky Rice

Bamboo leaves

Chinese sausage

Red beans

Black eye peas

Dry shitake mushroom

Green onions

Chinese 5 spice

Vegetable oil

Salt

Strings (for tying)

Methods:-

It takes some practise to get this done. However, it is fun to make Jung with friends, neighbours and family members. Will show it on my video.

Spicing Up Anything

Adding something to a store bought food makes it your dish. In this case, I was at our friend Carmen's house in seattle. She had bought some salmon pate that was very good, but I wanted to add to it, so I added:

Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Salt

1 tsp Crushed Peppercorn

a few stalks chopped Cilantro

a few stalks chopped Parsley

- I brushed the olive oil over some crostini

- Toasted the Crostini in the oven

- Then added the salt, peppercorn, cilantro and parsley to the pate

- Spread the mixture over the toasted crostini

Done! Serve this at a party and you've saved yourself a ton of time.

"No More Orida" Fries

Money can be tight. Don't buy frozen french fries, when you can make them for pennies. It's so easy to make french fries. And bake them, they're even healthier!

• Peel a couple potatos
• Cut them in julienne slices
• Put them right on the cookie sheet
• Add a little olive oil, salt and pepper
• Mix everything together
• Put evenly on the cookie sheet
• Bake in oven at 375 degrees until brown

Healthy...Simple....Inexpensive...Delicious!

Simple Salsa

Salsa's a very healthy snack that you can whip up in under two minutes. Again, here I added my leftovers - I had some extra golden raisins and believe it or not, some cocktail onions that were at the back of my fridge. I chopped some fresh tomatos and onions, took out my favorite Sun Chips and sat down and enjoyed a little tv with my healthy salsa snack. Go ahead, take a load off, rest your feet on your table, and crunch away!

Rice Wraps

Again, the next time you have leftover Chinese takeout, you don't have to just heat it up the next day. Turn it into something new. For $1.49, you can buy a package of rice paper, completely fat free. You simply place it in a little bit of water, to make it soft, then put a little bit of healthy greens, and in this case we had a little fried fish from the chinese takeout.

Roll it up, and if you have a little hoisin sauce to dip it in even better. These are simple and unique for a party as well. Enjoy!

Fried Rice and Sliced Pork and baby yellow tomatos

One of the most simplest leftovers to transform is rice. Next time you do chinese takeout, ask for extra steamed rice. You can easily turn it into fried rice with a little egg and some veggies. Here I served it with sliced pork and baby yellow tomatos.



Fried Rice
Leftover rice
broccoli
pesto sauce (optional)
Chopped onion
egg
Salt

Recipe
This is a piece of cake, or should I say, real easy fried rice:

• So simply saute some onions until brown
• Add egg, stir until done
• Add the leftover rice
• Stir fry until soft
• (Add a little pesto sauce if you like and blanched brocolli)
• Add salt (or fish sauce)
• Done!

Sliced pork with baby yellow tomatos
(The tip here is to filet the pork chop into two slices, so it's thinner and looks like more on the plate! :))

• Marinade the pork with paprika, fish sauce, sugar, pepper and soy sauce for at least 2 hours
• Sear it on medium heat until brown
• (Tips: DON'T OVER DO IT, just nicely browned on each side, flip it constantly every minute and a half. You don't want it to be chewy.)
• Take it out to rest
• Add onions into the same sauce pan and saute until brown
• Add in baby yellow tomatos and balsamic vinegar, sugar, fish sauce (Fish sauce is a great staple ingredient to have, a great substiute for salt, and you can get a huge bottle for a $1! in an asian market)
• Reduce until thickens
• Serve over the sliced pork and enjoy!

Seafood Mini Burger

Make this at a party, and you'll have people talking about it for a long time to come!