Piggy's Kitchen

Welcome to Piggy's Kitchen＼(^o^)／Here you can find recipes of most Vietnamese dishes and other Asian dishes as well. I, sometimes, do cook some Western dishes but not often. One thing that you will not be able to find on my blog is baking recipes. Since I am not good at baking (horrible actually (⌣_⌣”)), I will not share any recipes involving baking. I do not want to disappoint my viewers ^_^ However, I will share with you photos of my failed baking dishes. Thank you and HAVE A NICE DAY ζ*♡ε♡*ζ

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Something warm for my beloved family on a chill day <3

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Family reunion time! Hot pot time!

https://myfoodaholicblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/hot-pot/

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A great way to refresh your appetite (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

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Sweet Potato Fries

I went to a restaurant last week with my family. OMG! Their sweet potato fries were delicious. They were crispy. They were crunchy. They were so good that I just kept ordering and ordering more. Today, when I went to the supermarket, I saw them selling sweet potatoes. They were very fresh and looked delicious. I immediately thought about making sweet potato fries so I decided to buy some. In my opinion, if I can make sweet potato fries at home, I can eat them whenever I want to without going to the restaurant. Imagine you do not need to wear jeans and shirt, just your favorites pjs, sitting on the couch, watching movie while enjoying your crispy sweet potato fries. That's life! (*´▽｀*)

We have sweet potato. We are energetic. Let's get to work (ง’̀-‘́)ง

Ingredients:

- 1 lb of sweet potato

- All purpose flour

- Oil

Directions:

- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into long, thick strips. Put the strips into a bowl of water with a little bit of sugar. This will prevent the sweet potato strips from being oxidized and getting brown.

- Drain the water.

- Put all the sweet potato strips into a big zip lock bag (or you can put them in a plastic bad and tie the bag) with all purpose flour. I do not give a specific amount of flour here. You just put enough flour to cover ALL your sweet potato strips.

- Shake the bag.

- Heat the oil.

- When the oil is hot (there are bubbles around your chopsticks when you put them in the oil), put the sweet potato strips into the oil one strip by one strip so that they do not stick to each other. Lower the heat to medium.

- When the sweet potato strips turn into golden brown, take them out and put them on a paper towel to get rid of excess oil.

OPTIONS: You can choose one of these or none

- Sprinkle the fries with sugar while they are still hot

- Sprinkle the fries with paprika This dish is best when served right after you make it. You can reheat the fries by putting them in the oven and baking for just 5-10 minutes. Just like french fries, you can dip sweet potato fries with any dipping sauce that you like. However, for me, I just eat them the way they are so that I can enjoy the sweetness of the potato mixing with the crunchiness. You can try my recipe and make delicious sweet potato fries for your family, especially your kids. This is a delicious snack (yet safe because you make it yourself (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧) that they cannot resist. My mouth is salivating while I am writing this post. I need to warm up my beloved sweet potato fries then enjoy them. I can't wait. See you next time! (⁎ ✪͡ ◡͐✪͡ ⁎)ﾉ”

[piggyskitchen]

Jelly Milk Cake

We just had braised beef tendon for dinner today. It was kinda salty, so I needed something sweet to balance the saltiness. I decided to make agar milk cake.

Agar is made from red algae. If you are a vegan, you absolutely can substitute gelatin with algar. I will show you how to make 100% vegan agar milk cake.  However, agar cake has different texture than gelatinous cake. Gelatinous cake is more jelly while agar cake is harder. It is firmer, more crispy (well not crispy like potato chips). I prefer using agar than gelatin because agar becomes solid more quickly than gelatin so it saves me time to decorate the cake. If you wonder what I mean by saving decorating time, I will show you how to do that in another post (BUT not 3D decoration like Japanese agar cake. It is way to hard for a clumsy girl like me. Besides, we need tools for that, just like you need decorating tips for your cake.)

It is enough for babbling. Let’s get to work !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Ingredients:

– 1 package of agar powder (25g – 0.88oz per package). You can find it in most Chinese or Vietnamese supermarket. If they do not sell it in your area, you can buy it on Amazon. The price on Amazon is similar to the price in the supermarket. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Telephone-Product-Thailand-Powder-Ounce/dp/B01KMHY2OU/ref=pd_sim_325_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01KMHY2OU&pd_rd_r=C8N2Q3RB5TNVWPM4GBYP&pd_rd_w=8igxk&pd_rd_wg=qoEqT&psc=1&refRID=C8N2Q3RB5TNVWPM4GBYP

– 6 1/2 cups of water. On the package, they say that you should use 12 cups of water per package. However, I reduced the amount of water by half because I wanted to have a firm texture. The amount of water you add depends on how firm you want. The more water you add, the softer you cake is.

– 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14oz)

– For vegan version: substitute water and condensed milk with 6 1/2 cups of soy milk. You can also use coconut milk (remember to dilute it with water because coconut milk is very thick), but I do not like coconut milk. I just do not like it.

– Fresh fruits. Here I used blueberries and raspberries because they were on sale (˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)

Directions:

– Pour the agar into a small bowl and add a little bit of water to the agar, just enough to make the agar wet. Let it soak for 10 minutes to soften the agar.

– Boil all the water.

– Add the condensed milk to the boiling water and stir well with medium heat until the condensed milk is completely dissolved.

– Add the agar to the milk and bring the mixture to boil with high heat. Stir well until the agar dissolves. Lower the heat to the lowest level.

– Pour the mixture into mold. You can use any mold, or even bowl. Let it cool down and put it in the refrigerator. While you are pouring, remember to keep the mixture warm by keeping it on the stove with lowest heat or it will become solid very fast. If it becomes solid, you just need to reheat it again and it will melting.

You may be curious why I let it cool down first before I put it in the refrigerator. Actually, cooling it down outside then putting it in the refrigerator will help you save the electric (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

– When the cake becomes solid, take it out and serve with fruits. This dish is best when served cold.

Ta-da! Super-easy-to-make cake but still delicious >.^ Add this dessert to your family’s meal and I am sure they will love it (and love you too) Thank you and see you next time ( ˘ ³˘)♥ (*＾▽＾)／

[piggyskitchen]

Mung Bean Sprout Salad

Today, when I went to the farmers market, I saw them selling very very fresh mung bean sprouts. I suddenly thought of mung bean sprout salad, a very delicious Korean side dish. Gosh! I could not resist so I bought 1 lb of mung bean sprouts and some green onions to make the salad.

We have the ingredients here. What are we waiting for? Let's do it.

Ingredients:

- 1 lb of mung bean sprouts.

- 1 tbs minced garlic

- 2 tsp fish sauce

- 1 tsp salt (I like salty food so I use 1 tsp here. However, you can adjust the saltiness to your taste)

- 3 chopped green onions

- 1/2 tbs sesame oil (since this is a Korean dish, sesame oil is needed. However, you can reduce the amount sesame oil if you do not like its smell)

- 1 tsp toasted sesame seed

Directions:

- Boil a big pot of water.

- Blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for 1 minute.

- Strain and rinse the blanched bean sprouts in cold water to keep them crispy.

- Shake the bean sprouts in water to remove their skins and put them in a basket.

- Mix the minced garlic, fish sauce, salt, chopped green onions, sesame oil and sesame seeds in a big bowl.

- Add the bean sprouts to the mixture and mix gently.

- Transfer them to a serving plate and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top.

This dish can be served cold. You can keep it in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

This side dish only takes you about 10 minutes to make. Very quickly but very delicious. A perfect side dish for your family's meal or your lunch box 😉

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Fried Meat Patties

Hm…My refrigerator is full again. And I am going to the grocery store tomorrow to buy food. How can I “partially” clean up my refrigerator? *Ding 💡* Why don’t I make something from what I have in the refrigerator? What a great idea! Then I can clean up my refrigerator while I don’t have to think what to eat today 😼 Let’s see what I have: meat, a piece of tofu, carrot, eggs, wood ear mushroom, some vegetables…What should I make? *Ding…Ding…Ding* Fried Meat Patty. Yayyyyy! We have all the ingredients we need. Let’s get to work 👏

Ingredients:

– 1/2 pound ground pork (you can use beef or chicken. If you are a vegetarian, you can use shiitake mushroom or king oyster mushroom or both)

– 4 oz of tofu

– 2 cloves of garlic – minced

– 1 minced shallot (you can use onion instead)

– 2 tbs chopped carrots

– 1 egg

– 2 tbs chopped wood ear mushroom

– 1/2 tsp salt

– 1 tsp soy sauce

– 1/2 tsp sugar

– 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

– 2 tsp corn starch

– Cooking oil

Directions:

– Put the tofu in a paper towel and squeeze out any excess water.

– Mix all the ingredients, except the oil, in one bowl until it gets a little sticky. This will make the patties a little chewy (not chewy like gummy bear :3 )

– Divide the mixture into 16 pieces.

– Make each piece into a ball and press it until it is 1/4 inch thick. Slightly press the center of the patty so that when we fry the patty, the center  will pop-up and make the patty look beautiful.

– Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat.

– Add some cooking oil and tilt the pan to spread the oil.

– Wait until the oil is hot (dip the chopsticks or turner into the oil. If you see small bubbles around the chopsticks or turner, the oil is ready), put the patties into the oil.

– Remember: work in batches so you can control the patties.

– Fry the patties for a few minutes until they turn golden brown, then flip them over and fry for a few more minutes until the bottom is golden brown. Add more oil if needed.

– After the patties are cooked, transfer them to a serving plate.

The fried meat patties can be served hot with rice as a side dish or you can serve them alone.

Voilà! Our fried meat patties are done. Very easy to make, but very delicious to eat. Let’s make some hot patties for you family today and I’m sure they will love them (and you!)

[piggyskitchen]

Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Noodle

  Yesterday, I was craving for noodle soup, but I could not find a good noodle restaurant near me. 😭Haiz! It seemed like I had to make the noodle soup myself.😩 I searched the Internet and Google-sama had helped me to find an easy-to-make noodle soup recipe. However, I adjusted the recipe to make the noodle more chewy (Well, I like chewy food :3.) And Yahooooooooo I succeeded.😮 My noodles were chewy, not soggy. The soup was tasty. My family loved it so much that there was no leftover 😏 And today, I want to share the recipe with you so that you can also make the chicken noodle soup for your beloved family ^_^

    Ingredients: (4 servings)

* For the noodles:

- 3 cups of all purpose flour

- 1 cup of potato starch

NOTE: The total amount of flour is 4 cups. However, you can adjust the potato starch and all purpose flour ration. It depends on how chewy you want your noodles are. For example, if you want chewy noodles, you add more potato starch. And vice versa.

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 1/4 cup of water

* For the stock: (If you do not have time to make the stock, you can use chicken broth instead. The soup still tastes good.)

- 1 lb chicken breast (I used chicken breast here but you can use chicken drumstick or any part of the chicken)

- 16 cups of water

- 16 peeled garlic gloves

- 1 large peeled onion

* For garnish:

- Chopped green onion

- Chopped coriander

- Ground black pepper

* For seasoning:

- Salt

- Fish sauce

    Directions:

- Mix all the ingredients needed for the noodles into a mixing bowls.

- Knead the dough by hand until it becomes one lump.

- Put it in a plastic and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes.

- While waiting for the dough to get softer, put all the ingredients needed for the stock into one big pot and boil for one hour with high heat.

- After 10 minutes, take the dough out of the plastic bag and knead for 5 minutes, then put it back into the bag and let it sit for another 10 minutes. Kneading it in stages like this, and storing it in the plastic bag between sessions will make it soft and pliable.

- After 1 hour of boiling, strain the stock. Add salt and fish sauce to stock to taste. Set aside.

- Pull the chicken into small pieces.

- Mash the garlic cloves, mix with 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper. Set aside.

- Knead the dough again for 5 minutes.

- Roll the dough until it is 1/16 inch (1-2mm) thick. Remember to sprinkle some flour when rolling the dough to prevent it from sticking.

- Fold the dough and cut it into thin noodles. Sprinkle some flour to the dough when folding so that it will not stick when we cut.

- Sprinkle some flour to the noodles so that they do not stick.

- Bring the stock to boil and add the noodles. Stir with a spoon.

- Cook the noodles until they float and the stock boils again. Turn of the heat or turn down to very low heat.

- Put the cooked noodles in a large bowl with the stock. Place the pulled chicken on top.

- Garnish with chopped green onions and coriander.

- Add ground black pepper.

This dish should be served while it's hot  ♨

Above is the recipe for chicken noodle soup. I hope it can warm you and your family up this cold winter. Enjoy the dish and see you next time 👋