How I Make Won Tons!

Long delay! *phew* Sorry. Been super busy (as usual), lots of personal struggles and traveling.

I did the Survivor Mud Run this past Saturday so now I am sore, sun burned, cut up, and bruised all over. Lovely eh? Super rewarding though. My tan lines are hideous. The photos from that aren't uploaded yet (obviously I wasn't able to take any on my own since I was running/wading through MUD) so I'll post those at a later date.

The weather has been yo-yo-ing back and forth in San Francisco. I've been trying to fight off a sore throat for nearly a week now. I was almost successful but then I went to Los Angeles and had tons of grilled and fried foods. I'm back in San Francisco now and the sore throat is back, along with a cough. I think I'll be on a liquid diet for this week: soups, noodle soups , coffee and Jamba Juice!
Since I am sticking to liquids for a bit, I decided to post up how I make my won tons! Sorry if you were waiting on the prime rib post, that will come later on when I make it again.

The Susyness' Family Won Tons

Ingredients:

Won tons:

• 1/2 pound boneless pork (the leaner the better, that’s how I like mine)
• 1 small can of water chestnuts
• A few stalks of green onions (optional as well.. I love green onions and grow them in my family’s backyard so I put it in everything!)
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• a few drops sesame oil (or more, depends on how much you like the taste of sesame oil)
• ground white pepper, to taste
• Wonton wrappers (one package will do ya good)
• Won ton noodles! Whatever brand you decide is up to you.

Broth:

• 2-3 large pots (1 to boil your noodles, 1 for the broth, 1 to cook your won tons)
•   Water
• Large can of chicken broth (1:1 ratio with the water)
• Optional: fresh ginger (to taste)
• Optional: cabbage / bok choy
• Optional: 1 bag of frozen fish balls (the kind pictured is Do Do Fishballs) I prefer the fishballs stuffed with fish eggs, but I didn’t have any on hand. If you’re wondering where to get them, you can usually swoop them up previously frozen at Ranch 99.

Directions:

-You’re going to pound out the pork to get it tender, chop it up.

-chop the green onions

-mince the water chestnuts finely.
-Combine the pork, water chestnuts, green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper.

 ^ told you I love green onion

-Crack the egg into the meat mixture (including the yolk..This helps bind the meat and will also help your won ton wrappers stay together when boiling)

-Mix well.

-Fill the wontons!

-Place about a teaspoon of meat mixture in the middle of the wrapper and twist to seal

oh. hai guys!

In the meantime, boil 1 large pot of water. When to boils, add your won ton noodles (if any) and cook it. You guys really don't need photos of this right? After reaching al dente, drain the noodles, rinse and set aside.

Also, in another pot boil more water + the chicken broth with ginger.

When it comes to a rolling boil, feel free to toss in your fish balls and any greens (bok choy or cabbage are my favorites.. I didn't have any on hand that day, sorry!)

In a separate large pot, again boil water.(this is to cook the won tons in. You’ll want a separate pot for the broth. .Trust me, this will keep excess starch from the wrappers out of your actual bowl of food)

Add the won tons but don’t make the pot too crowded. You’ll need room to stir them a little bit.

Boil for 5 - 8 minutes (give one or two gentle stirs) or until they float to the top.

Remove out of pot with a large spoon (that way they won’t break)

Put your won tons and noodles (if any) in a bowl; pour your nice scorching hot broth into it. Freshly chopped green onions to garnish.

and you're ready to get your grub on!!

bacon wrapped eggs

So I have made these bacon wrapped eggs a few times now. I have perfected the recipe.
The first time I made these, I pretty much followed this video

I didn't like my end result, so on my 2nd try I tweaked the recipe.
Here are photos from my 1st attempt.

PRE-HEAT OVEN TO 400*F

1/2 way cooked bacon to line the cupcake pan

use smaller chopped up portions to line the bottom of the pan

your end result will be a bacon cup

crack an egg into it

add whatever you feel like. I used sharp cheddar cheese, goat cheese, freshly chopped chives and seasoned with black truffle salt and pepper

and then pop them into the 400*F oven for 15 minutes

finished product

take a fork/spoon and gently rim the bacon wrapped egg and it should pop out smoothly.

voila!

so this was my end result in attempt #1.

It tasted magical and heavenly (I'm a bacon lover) however I didn't enjoy the yolk. It was fully cooked and dry like a boiled egg yolk.

SooOoOoOo 

during attempt #2 & #3, 

after lining the cupcake pan with bacon, I placed half cooked chorizo on the bottom

Did the other usual steps...

HOWEVER

this time I only cooked the bacon wrapped eggs for half of the required cook time.

So, instead of 15 minutes at 400*F, I let it sit in the oven for 7-8 mins at 400*F.

I apologize for not having better photos since I didn't bring my CanonG12 with me during my other trials, but I used my cellphone hahaha

garnished it with some pico de gallo, salsa and sour cream.  my friend's sister had suggested it since I put chorizo in the egg this time. Just a mini play on juevos ranchero!

Look at that beautiful runny egg yolk.. SooOOO gooooood.

I like my yolks jizzy.

I know you're probably thinking, "Why even go through all this trouble for bacon and eggs?"

It's a cheap, super easy way to entertain. I go to dinner parties and potlucks so this is something convenient since I usually have these ingredients on hand. Of course you can make this recipe your own by adding whatever you please! I'm thinking some chopped up onions and bell peppers would be good..

Anyway, I had gotten a lot of comments on FB/Twitter about these so there ya go!
If you make these yourself, post it up and link me so I can see!!

Boiling Crab leftovers..

Just a quick entry before I post about my Lasik experience (I swear I'll do it. It just involves a lot of typing)

Last Saturday aka Rapture Day Serena and I met up at Boiling Crab. If the world was really ending, I wanted to have a full, happy belly. Disclaimer: We didn't really believe that nutjob Harold Camping okay? I am being sarcastic.

Anyhow!

It was a short, 20 minute wait. I know, *gasp* what the heck right!? There are 2 locations in NorCal and both are in San Jose. The one on Curtner Ave is a much bigger spot with less of a wait.
When we sat down, I said out loud "dammit, I forgot to bring gloves!"
Why?
Well... I paint my nails a lot (thanks G, you turned me into a polish addict =P NUBS INC baby!) and I absolutely cannot stand it when my polish starts chipping...even the slightest bit. I will remove it and do another color.  Serena mentioned that her friends spoke of some Korean gloves for eating crawfish!??! I seriously need to wear gloves when I eat mudbugs because I have all these tiny little cuts all over random fingers :[

Okay.

I ordered 3 pounds of crawfish, the wholeshabang sauce, medium spicy. I know, the server looked at me like "dam girl what the fuck?! 3 pounds!?" I did not eat it all in one sitting, I swear. I ate about 2 pounds and took the rest home. YES I TOOK IT HOME.
While we were eating I mentioned to Serena that I usually do this so I can enjoy a pound the next day... then I save the sauce and make pasta. She inquired about my process and I sent it over in a brief e-mail. Well, did it today and shot some photos to go along. So here you go!
Serena, let me know when you test it out!

what you'll need:
your leftover Boiling Crab sauce, strained (meaning take out all the little leftover antennae, random claws and garlic bits. well, removing the chunks of garlic is optional. I leave mine in because I would love to kill Edward. Sorry, I had to toss that Twilight dig in there and if I offended any Twi-hards, IDGAF!)
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
3/4 cup of cream or milk - your choice of whole, low-fat whatever
a big sauce pan or a frying pan
a package of pasta - your choice of spaghetti, elbow macaroni, rigatoni, whatever. I just combined some elbow macaroni and some twists I had leftover from the last time I made pasta salad.

my strained leftover Boiling Crab whole shabang sauce

 heat your skillet on low-medium

 let your butter melt on low to medium heat. careful not to burn it, you want it to just melt

 slowly incorporate the 3 tablespoons of flour, maybe do a tablespoon at a time and stir/whisk

add your 3/4 cup of milk/cream and stir stir stir 

after fully mixing, you should have a paste that looks like the picture below

 congrats, you just basically made a roux!

 slowly start adding your leftover Boiling Crab sauce and remember to stir!

 I had some corn on the cob on hand, so I sliced the kernels off and added them. 

this is of course, optional. you can also add some chopped up andouille sausage if you would like. I imagine that would go well with this. 

 stir it. what the hell do you think I'm doing?!

 if it's too thick for you, you can always keep SLOWLY adding milk/cream, bit by bit and stirring until you reach the consistency you like. 

 tossed it in some cooked pasta

 packed it up as lunch for a friend. fay mao directly translates to "fat cat" in Cantonese. it's a nickname I have for a friend of mine.

 I gave him some Kit Kats too.. Because he always whines that I never give him any food when I cook.

Enjoy!

If you try this out, let me know!!!

prime rib

So. I've been wanting to make prime rib since.... November. My dad's birthday is just 8 days before mine but back in November, I treated my whole family to dinner. Since my dad loves prime rib and it was his birthday, I took my family to House of Prime Rib. Not only did they royally fuck up my reservation, I blew $300. After that, I decided to take matters into my own damn China[wo]man hands and make that shit myself!!! IRON CHEF MARTHA STEWART RACHEL RAY GIADA DE LARENTIIS THESE TITTAYS BABY! (  .  Y  .  )

So today is my youngest brother's birthday. He turned 19. My dad asked if we wanted to go out to dinner at a steakhouse, but I volunteered to cook prime rib at home. I had been DYING to do it anyway! So my youngest brother & I agreed that dinner would be set and ready to eat by 5pm. He was getting picked up at 6pm to return to his dorm.

Well... 5pm came, went, and no birthday boy. He strolled in at 5:45-5:50pmish and by that time the prime rib had still been sitting in the oven on warm.. As a result, it kept cooking *cries* I like my meat medium rare. Anything over that is BLASPHEMOUS.

I slaved all goddam Sunday making this feast and I am pretty fucking heated but I digress.. Here's what I did.

Mixed seasonings to rub into the roast.

This is:

1/2 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup rosemary

1/4 cup garlic powder

1/4 cup freshly cracked black pepper (this took forever)

and because i'm bourgeois like that, I added 6 pinches of black truffle sea salt from Dean & Deluca. Why? Because I can and wanted to!!

Rub it into, onto, all over your rib roast. Make sure to get every crack and crevice like you're wiping your bootay!  Then I popped this baby into a 375* oven for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, I shut off the oven and kept the rib roast in there for another 2 1/2 hours. DO NOT CRACK THAT OVEN DOOR OPEN <-- this step was extremely crucial. Then, 45 minutes before serving time, I turned my oven back on to 375* and let it roast for 45 mins. When time was up, I took it out of the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes - this is also important!! You have to let it sit so the juices can distribute evenly throughout the roast.. The rub of seasonings created a "shell" and you're not going to eat all that damn salt so of course, I scraped it off.

After scraping off the "shell" of seasonings, the pan looked like this:

I'm not including a picture of the carving.. It was blasphemy I tell you!! BLASPHEMY! But.. I digress.

But in the end, this is what my plate looked like.

pictured: mashed potatoes, wilted spinach and shallots, corn, prime rib w/ au jus and a dallop of horseradish. 

Everything was homemade with the exception of: corn [canned] and horseradish cream [store bought]

Making something like this is costly. It ran me about $50.. But, there's 5 people in my family so you figure you're paying $10 per head which is a lot better compared to the $300 I spent at House of Prime Rib. 

P.S. It was also my first time doing an au jus. That came out pretty bomb dot com so I am damn proud of that.