Short Ribs Stew with Vegetables

This short ribs stew taste light and heart warming.     I enjoyed the variety of vegetables I added to it - carrots, onions, mushrooms, pearl onions, tomatoes, roasted peppers to give a bit of heat, sachet, and turnips from my own garden.    Straining the soup produced a clearer liquid.     It probably qualifies more like braised dish, but I used both methods to produced this versatile stew with clearer soup.      After the second day, I added ravioli to go with it to create another dish. 

 

Colorful Baby Carrots

They are cute and grows well in a small garden.     Good for salad,... cook it whole with stew, or saute them, or use them as garnish.

Fresh Beets Salad with Egg, Dried Cherries, Asian Pears, and Cherry Tomatoes

How fresh can a salad be?  Made with a fresh beet right out of the garden and prepared right in your own kitchen.    Imagine this beet is regenerated from the beet's own 'head / crown'.     I purchased a beet from the market, and cut the crown off with leaves still in its place.     I planted it into the ground the next day.      After a month, I notice the new leaves started to grow.     After another month  and half, voila, a new beet growing a top the head/crown that I chopped off originally.     It tasted wonderful.     It has so much less 'earthy' taste than the store bought ones.    

Chinese Fried Sesame Balls

There are so many different types of Chinese snacks and desserts that I don't think I can finish  trying all of it.    My mother's list of her favorites are just mind boggling - some I have never seen or heard of her regional specialty snacks.    For fun we wanted to try making the Chinese fried sesame balls at home.     We figured that we know how to make the YAKI DANGO and DAIFUKU MOCHI, we certainly could handle this one.      The ones that we really enjoy is the one sold at the SF China Town.      Sold at the third restaurant up the hill from the main parking lot after the bakery.    Sorry, I don't even know the name of the restaurant.    The sesame balls sold there is about the baseball size, $1 for one.    The dough is made of sweet rice.    It has the consistency of the OMOCHI - guewey and yummy, filled with red bean paste, etc.    Not knowing which recipe to use, my son found a recipe from the internet.    This recipe required baking soda and powder. . . hmmm, very interesting.     The dough's texture turned out 'cake' like.     Not OMOCHI consistency - guewey that we are looking for.    Nevertheless, we enjoyed every bite of it.

Polly's GAZPACHO - Fresh cold tomato soup

With so many fresh vegetables from the garden in my kitchen, I wanted to try this Spanish GAZPACHO soup.  When I first encountered this recipe, I did not know that none of the vegetables are cooked.     Nor does it get heated up.    I was quite surprised with the fresh V8! you can make at home.
At the end, I actually end up with another personal tapas - Smeared GAZPACHO spread over a toasted Ciabatta slice.

 

Not sure where my GAZPACHO soup picture went,.... I think I ate it before I took the picture!

BBQ Short Ribs - No Grill

Surprisingly this no-grill BBQ Short Ribs are succulent and tasty that it added another dimension to my culinary adventure.
** Try not to use Teflon coated pan.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

Eggplants - how we all love it.     Most of us love eating eggplants, but yet we try to avoid preparing it at home.     It's an oil hungry sponge!     Well, sort of.    It drink oil right into it before it is cooked.  And it wants more.    I think we all love to eat the Chinese EUSHANG-CHIEZE  I am not sure how you spell its pronunciation, but basically I think it is translated as Szechwan style fried eggplants?
   I learned a couple of ways to tackle it without using much oil - Microwave it (no oil needed) or roasting method.    For this salad, I roasted all the vegetables.     Peeled, cut, and tossed all together in a large bowl with lemon vinaigrette.