Bánh Xèo

March 3, 2019 10:20 AM

My friend came over and we tried to make Bánh Xèo. We used this recipe from Hungry Huy. Here is a progression of how things went as we tried to make yellow pancakes.

Attempt #1

We poured too much batter in this.

Attempt #2

I don't know, we probably still used too much batter again. And the heat may have been too high.

Attempt #3 & #4

Heeey, look the third one didn't totally fall apart. And I think we finally figured out that the meat and onions needed to be on only one side of the pan, so it was easier to fold the pancake in half.

Many attempts later...

Yeah! We finally made it look nice! I'll have to make this again in the future, but I'll probably see if I can find a different recipe. Or at least cook the meat separately from the pancake.

Oh yeah, we had extra batter so we cooked the rest of the pancakes the next day.

Meatballs and Veggies

February 27, 2019 11:30 AM

We're running low on veggies again. I don't know how we eat them so quickly.

Yesterday we made Beef Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables from Budget Bytes. The veggies we roasted were a zucchini, a pint of grape tomatoes, a red onion, and a head of broccoli. We should really double the veggies from now on. Also, roasting for 40 minutes is waaaay too long. Next time I think I'll roast for maybe 20 minutes and then broil for a few minutes.

I really like the flavor of these meatballs though. The recipe said to cook half at a time, but my sister was convinced all 16 meatballs would fit in the pan at once. She was right, but flipping them was kind of a struggle for me.

We barely had any vegetables left over! I need to restock again.

Shrimp Fajitas

February 26, 2019 11:30 AM

I made shrimp fajitas for my mom when she visited, but my sister wasn't there so I had to make it again.

I saw this Adobo Shrimp Fajitas recipe while browsing How Sweet Eats, and saved it in my head as one of the recipes I wanted to try out. When my mom asked me to whip up something for lunch for her I thought it was a great opportunity to try it.

It was really good, but I think the shrimp needed a little more salt. And one pound of shrimp is not enough for four people. It's a good thing I doubled the recipe and had lots of veggies left over. When I made this for my sister and friend, we added guacamole and roasted sweet potatoes.

I love eating things wrapped in tortillas.

We really like dumplings

February 25, 2019 11:30 AM

We just keep making them and eating them!

Dumplings are just such a good lazy meal. I'll usually make a batch of about 100 and then have about 8 meals of dumplings in the freezer that I can just take out and cook. Since I try to also consume a decent amount of veggies, I made Budget Byte's Thai Cucumber Salad.

We also had dumplings twice when my mom was here! My sister even made the wrappers from scratch. I don't think that's something I'd ever do if she weren't here.

And speaking of dumpling-like things, we also took the rest of that huge batch of mashed potatoes and turned them into pierogies. We threw mozzarella cheese in it just because we had some. Yeah, it tasted weird. It wasn't too bad though.

Poke

February 24, 2019 11:30 AM

I love poke. It's one of my favorite things to have for a meal, but it's something that I always thought I had to go to a restaurant (or Hawaii) for. But as I was scrolling through food blogs, I stumbled across Ahi Poke Bowls with Pineapple and Avocado from How Sweet Eats. And I thought, if she can prepare poke at home, I can do it too!

I went to a bunch of different grocery stores, and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that most of them didn't have sushi-grade fish. Even Whole Foods didn't have any! I also learned that sushi-grade isn't even a standard thing. It's just the grocery store's way of saying "I think this is good enough for sushi." Luckily I was able to find some "sushi-grade" tuna for $10.99/lb. I bought just under a pound, which is way more fish than you need for two people.

It's a good thing we like raw fish so much. I just chopped up whatever veggies and fruit I had that made sense. We did a make-your-own poke bowl with these ingredients (listed in the same order as in the photo):

• Furikake
• Imitation crab
• Carrots
• Cilantro
• Sushi rice
• Ahi tuna
• Cucumbers
• Cara cara oranges
• Jalepeño peppers
• Green onions
• Ginger soy sauce

I definitely want to have a poke party with friends at some point.