Leftover Mongolian Beef over Fried Rice and Chef Chong's Sambal Bagoong

Ok, here is the funny thing about Mongolian Beef. I never heard of Mongolian Beef in my country, Malaysia. When I got to the States, I was shocked to see the Mongolian Beef is actually beef and brocolli, of cos, with oyster sauce. Anyway, I got this leftover mongolian beef from work as well, Chef Neda made it. She is a wonderful talented Chef I ever met.
About the Chef Chong's Sambal Bagoong, my good friend, Edna Lee wanted me to make it for her BBQ party on the Memorial Day Weekend. So in my head, I said, just shallots and chilli paste is good enough. But then, I wanted to try using the shrimp paste which is Belachan in Malaysia and Bagoong in Phillipines. I mixed it with Mexican Dried Peppers, the mild one. The result was so good, not too spicy but still have the chilli taste of it. Gregg was eating it with grilled corn. What a good idea!

Method:-

Just re-cooked the Leftover Mongolian Beef (any kind of leftover meat dish from Asian restaurants), to reduce the water content. The result is a bit dry, add some pea pods or any other greens you want, to beautify the leftover.

For the Fried Rice, please refer to my other Fried Rice recipes.

For Sambal Bagoong:-
5-6 dried peppers mild (cut into pieces and take the seed out, boil in a hot water for few minutes until soft, then strained)
5-6 shallots
1-2 Jalapeno (take the seed out)
1-2 Tablespoon Bagoong or Belachan (Shrimp paste)
1 teaspoon Sugar
Salt to taste
2-4 Tablespoon cooking oil

Method:-

1. Put these ingredients in a food processor, make into paste.
2. Heat a non-stick deep saucepan with 2-4 Tablespoon cooking oil, at low medium.
3. Add the paste with Bagoong (Belachan) and sugar and cook for about 20-25 min, stir well until the oil turned red. Then add salt to taste. Remember, have to stir constantly, so that the paste won't stick at the bottom of the pan.
4. Once cooked, let it cool off. When serving, add some lemon or lime juice in the paste and mixed well.

Red Green Peppers Quesadilla

Honestly, I dont like burritos. But I love using the tortilla to make into something else, Chef Chong's style. I remember I worked at a Mexican restaurant for a month and learnt as much as I could there. One of them is making a Quesadilla, and it became one of my favourites. It is easy to make, using just few ingredients. Of cos, main ingredient is the cheese...... I love morzarella cheese alot. Light and fluffy. So I made red and green peppers quesadilla here.

White Ciopino

Gregg and I went to Blue Eye, MO to visit Jim Long and Josh Young. Of cos, Barbara (Josh's mom), Molly the dog and Squeeky the cat. Usually, I will cook for them, The Chef Chong's style. I cooked seafood ciopino that day for dinner because Barbara wanted to have some scallops. Well, in my head I was thinking of searing them with salt, pepper and some seasoning. However, I changed my mind the last minute, because the big scallops were not enough for all of us. So I used small scallops and shrimps in the freezer for the ciopino. You can soak the frozen in water to thaw.

Also that I used the peppers and cilantro grown in Jim's garden. See, it is simple and delicious.

Ingredients:-

Scallops and Shrimps (clean and pat dry)
One garlic (smashed and chopped finely)
Half Onion (sliced)
4-5 mini yellow peppers (cut into pieces, any shapes you want) will find out the name of the peppers later
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper to taste

Methods:-
1. Heat the pan with olive oil. Caramelised the sliced onion and peppers. Then put aside.
2. Use the same pan, throw in the seafood. Add salt and black peppers. You can see some juice coming out from the seafood after a min or two.
3. Add in the caramelised onion and peppers, the butter, garlic, wine, cilantro and green onion into the seafood.
4. Cook for another min or two, try one of the shrimp and the taste. Add salt to taste. You can put in the oven at low while waiting for your guests.

Bon Appetite!