Category: Gluten Free

Yogurt, cucumber dipping sauce

3/18/2015

Using this yogurt relish as a dipping sauce for Chicken Tandoori is the best. I personal use this dish to dip anything in it. The reason I love it so much is because it is healthy, feels good to eat and more importantly, it adds both nutritional value and flavor to all meals that I serve it with. You can keep this relish dish in the fridge up to 4 days.

Ingredients:

1/2 pint plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 inch cucumber peeled and grated
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint

Methods:

Stir the yogurt with a spoon until it smooth.

Add salt and cayenne pepper.

Fold in grated cucumber and chopped mint.

Cover and refrigerate for at least half hour before serving (for the purpose of all ingredients is to blend flavors)

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Tandoori - Style Chicken

3/11/2015

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Tandoori-Style Chicken is an Indian dish that is very healthy and tasty. Nothing better than eating a piece of good chicken and knowing that it is healthy for you. Gluten free, low in fat and packed with spice. I served this dish with mint cucumber yogurt dip (which I will share later on another post), rice and stir-fried green beans.

Ingredients
For the first step of marinade
2 pounds of skinned, boned chicken thighs
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lime juice
For the second step of marinade
2 cups of fat free plain yogurt
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 shallots, chopped (optional)
1 piece of fresh ginger (about 1 inch) chopped
1/4 piece of jalapeno pepper seeded, chopped
2 teaspoon garam masala

Methods
Fist step

Cut the chicken thighs into equal sizes.

Mix salt and lime juice together.

Pour into the meat, mix well and cover with saran wrap.

Set aside and prepare the second step of marinade.

Second step

Mix all the rest of the ingredients together. Put them into the blender and blend well.

Pour the mixture into the meat that marinated with salt and lime juice.

Cover up and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Note: You can let it sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours (ideally for working mom or dad who also cook, right?)

Cooking

Turn the oven on broil.

Place the meat into to the broil pan (has holes in it for the juice to drip down, and also has the pan to hold the juice) in one layer.

Put the broil pan on the top shelve.

Bake for 10 minutes each sides.

Serve with rice, mint cucumber yogurt dip and vegetable dish.

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Stir-Fried Green Beans

3/9/2015

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      Having 2 kids helps me understand how difficult it is to convince children to love eating vegetables. It takes time, effort and patient for children to volunteer to eat healthy. However, in my experience, most of the children I know do not reject stir fried green beans. So, I am here today introducing you to the method of cooking green beans that are healthy but still crispy and tasty, and both adults and children love it.

Ingredients:
      1 pound green beans
      1 pot of water (about 3 cups)
       2 gloves of garlic
       1 head of shallot (optional)
       2 table spoons of olive oil
       salt and pepper to taste.

Methods

Heat up the water until boiling point. Add 2 teaspoons of salt.

Add green beans and wait until the water to be at the boiling point again. Let it boil for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a big bowl with cold water and ice.
After the green beans boil for 2 minutes, discard the hot water and put the green beans in the icy-cold water. Wait until the green beans and completely cold. This method helps keep the green beans to stay beautifully green and crunchy.
While waiting for the green beans to be cold, chop the garlic and shallots. Heat up a frying pan in medium heat and add 2 tablespoon olive oil. Stir in the garlic and shallot until brown. Now, rinse the green beans and add to the frying pan. Stir fry the green beans on high medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Bun Bo Hue (Spicy beef noodle soup)

3/5/2015

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      Nothing better than a warm bowl of soup on a cold day. I love cooking soup in the winter for two purposes. The first one is to deliver goodness, healthy and plenty of liquid for the body. Secondly, it makes sense to cook soup which takes a long time, and helps to warm up the house.
      For that reason, today, a very cold and snowy day I cooked a very special beef noodle soup for my family and here I am sharing the recipes as well as method of cooking it.

                                              Recipes

Broth base
    Ingredients
      4 pounds pork neck bones
      1 beef shank (about 3 pounds)
       2 pounds oxtail (preference, you don't see it in the picture because I didn't have it)        2 to 6 lemongrass stalks (again, I only had 2 left but it works out fine)
   8 quarts of water
   5 shallots
   5 pieces of fresh ginger
       5 white parts of scallion (spring onions)
   1/2 cup of salt
1 table spoon of rock sugar
   Methods
In a large pot, put all the bones, beef shank, oxtail and cover it with water. Bring everything to a boil and let it boil for 2-4 minutes. Discard the water and rinse the bone and meat with cold running water.
Place the bone and meat back to the pot and cover with 8 quarts of water. Bring to a boil. Skim off scum on top and reduce the heat to medium.
   Meanwhile, char the ginger, lemon grass, scallions and shallots. Put everything including the salt and rock sugar into the stock and let it simmer for at least 2 hours until the beef shank is soft and tender.

         Broth
           Ingredients
                  3 tablespoons of olive oil
           2 teaspoons minced garlic
        2 tablespoons fine chopped lemongrass (from 2 stalks)
        2 teaspoons sweet paprika
                    3 teaspoon annatto seeds
           0-4 teaspoon chili pepper flakes (I omit it here because my kids cannot eat spicy)
                               I make the spicy chili paste separately and add it to my own taste)

Methods
               Heat up a frying pan with olive oil. Add annatto seeds for about 1 minute until the annatto seeds produce a beautiful reddish color. Discard the seeds. Keep the oil back in the same frying pan. Add chopped lemongrass, stir it for about 1 minute and then add garlic, paprika and chili pepper flakes if you want to add it in (prepare to cough like you never cough in you life because of the combination of heat, oil and spiciness).
                 Put the cooked spice and herbs into the broth base that still simmering. Cook for half more hour.
                 After 2 and half hour of simmering in medium heat. Take out the beef shank, neck bone, oxtail and dip the meat into a cold ice water to keep the meat color nicely.
                 Discard the lemongrass, shallots, gingers in the broth. Add more salt and rock sugar as your desire. The broth now re ready to serve.

           Last steps

                 Ingredients
                   1 bag of rice noddle
                      1 pot of cold water
                      1 teaspoon of salt
                      1 bag of bean sprouts
                      3 spring onions
                       Thai basil
                       Sawtooth herb leaves (optional)

                     Methods
                       Boil water and add rice noddle with salt. Cook like pasta cooking method for 15-17 minutes. Rinse the noodle in cold running water. Let it sits until all the water is gone.
                       Chop all the herbs.
                       Slice the meat after cooled down in the ice water bath

                     Garnish
                        In a serving bowl, place the noodle in the bottom. On top, place meat, bean sprouts and herbs.
                       Pour the boiling broth to the bowl enough to cover. Serve immediately.

2 Comments

Yogurt, cucumber dipping sauce

Tandoori - Style Chicken

Stir-Fried Green Beans

Bun Bo Hue (Spicy beef noodle soup)

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