Speech on Bibimbap

I have a power point presentation due for my speech class. And how luck am I that it has to be on a cooking recipe? SCORE! I better get an A on this speech. And of course I'll need too work on sounding "natural." During my last speech my instructor told me I sounded "unnatural" and "robot-like." I get excited about food so I shouldn't have a problem this week. :P

I'll post my bibimbap.. err, my mom's bibimbap recipe later this week.

Oster 10-Cup Rice Cooker

Spelt, egg, rice cheese, & tomato breakfast sandwich

My mom use to make us egg, cheese, and tomato sandwiches when we were younger. That's probably why it's one of my favorite breakfast meals to make. Hmm, now that I think about it, I think it's the first meal I made for Dillon when we were first dating. But, I haven't been making it lately because I'm trying to eat less dairy and wheat products, but once in awhile I'll spoil myself by making one. And this version will let me cheat more often!
I, like most Asians I know, am lactose intolerant. Of course that usually doesn't stop me from eating cheese (Lactaid to the rescue!). But I do try to use alternatives whenever I can. I recently discovered rice cheese. It's supposedly vegan and also soy free--another thing I'm trying to avoid--and it actually tastes okay. Well, it tastes okay after it's been melted. The rice cheese crumbs a little and you can tell it's not real cheese if you just eat it cold.

Gluten is another thing that I'm trying to avoid, although I'm having little success. I'm a total bread lover, but I know that if I'm going to eat anything with gluten I'll have to deal with the consequences. Why is everything that is bad for you, tastes so good?! Gluten-free bread is so expensive so I'll only purchase it once in a while. I haven't really had a problem with spelt bread even though spelt is in the gluten grains family. I love Trader Joe's organic spelt bread. It's reasonable priced at $2.99, the bread is not dense, only has 2g of sugar per slice, and is really tasty.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of spelt bread, or any bread of your choice
• 1 slice of rice cheese
• 1 fried egg, you can just use egg whites too
• 1 fat slice of tomato, I like beefsteak tomatoes
• mayo (optional)
• salt & pepper to taste

The egg will melt the rice cheese or you can just pop the rice cheese on the egg before you take it off the pan. And I usually just put a little bit of salt & pepper on the tomato instead of sprinkling it on the egg. Enjoy!

"Cooking with Trader Joe's Cook Book Skinny Dish"

Korean Pancake

I don't know if I would consider myself a foodie, but I love cooking, eating, and drinking--so maybe I am a foodie. I, by all means, do not think I am the best cook in the world (Dillon thinks I am, but he thinks I'm great at everything *mwah*) but I have been trying to be better at it. First of all, it is always cheaper to cook at home than it is to go out. And second, I'd rather hang out at home. Maybe in a few months when I have the svelte body I want (hitting the gym & hitting it hard) I'll be more up for going out.

This first recipe is my version of the Korean pancake. NOBODY makes it better than my mom, but unfortunately she is 2,338 miles away (yup, I know the exact distance, I miss her lots). I've watched YouTube videos, read blogs, and dissected the pancake that I've had at restaurants and I've come up with my version which is easy and tasty (well, all of them are pretty darn tasty).

Ingredients:

• 2 green onions, sliced (diagonally, makes it look pretty)
• 1 medium, red onion, sliced (or white, yellow....i just like the color and the peppery taste)
• 1-2 red chili pepper, chopped (again, it's more about the color. jalapenos would work too) 
• 1 medium to large zucchini, julienne (with a mandolin or just julienne it yourself)
• canola oil for frying
• half cup to cup of Korean pancake mix (depends on how much batter you want)
• water (errr...1 to 2 cups... maybe more!)

(just a side note, i don't really measure.. maybe i will in the future if i get serious about this, so pls. bear with me. :P)

chop, chop, chop!

Step 1: chop, slice, and julienne all the veggies. Oh, and feel free to use whatever veggies you want. Most recipes call for zucchini, but you can use whatever veggies you love.

Step 2: mix the batter up in a large mixing bowl. You don't want the batter to be like the pancakes you eat with syrup, it needs to be a little bit more fluid than that. (oh geez, i'm terrible at giving directions.. hahah..)

Step 3: mix in all the veggies with the batter!

Step 4: put a generous amount of canola oil in a heated pan. I might have gone a little over board on the oil when I made these, but it wasn't too bad. I made some pancake size ones and some smaller patty-size. I think that the larger size came out a lot better, but I just need some practice. :X So anyway, fry until golden brown. Or crispy brown, whichever you prefer.

Step 5: EAT! Well, first you want them to drain & cool on a cooling rack OR just on some paper towels. The only problem with paper towels is that the pancakes are a little sticky. 

YUM, i ate it all!

I was too lazy to make a sauce, so all I did was dip the pancake in ponzu sause (citrus soy sauce). I enjoyed making this and of course eating it. :P

yeaaah.. stool in the background..hmm..