Vegetable Stir Fry and Coconut-Mango Sticky Rice

Round 3! Ding ding ding!

This third cooking lesson with Randi was Asian inspired. The vegetable stir fry was so easy and quick to make it was ready in about 15 minutes. If you have any left over vegetables in the fridge you can add them into the stir fry. I knew I wanted to teach Randi how to make mango sticky rice because she's only had it once before at a restaurant. Verdict says...Randi will be making this a lot at home!

Vegetable Stir Fry
Adapted from Shape Magazine

• 2 tablespoons Asian (toasted) sesame oil
• 1 1/2 cup (1/2 pound) mushrooms, stems removed and sliced. We used a variety pack of shiitake, button, and oyster mushrooms.
• 1 of any color bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 cup (1/2 pound) sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 cup brown or white rice, prepared according to package directions

Directions

1. In a large skillet or wok, heat sesame oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, bell pepper slices, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring constantly so the ingredients don't burn. (If they start to brown, pour a little vegetable broth into the skillet.) Continue to cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the snap peas and scallions to the skillet. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into soy sauce, then add the mixture to the pan.
3. Pour in the vegetable broth; cook for about 2 minutes, until the mixture comes to a boil and starts to thicken. Serve over brown or white rice.

Coconut-Mango Sticky Rice
Adapted from Food.com

• 1 cup jasmine rice or 1 cup other sweet Asian
• 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 mango sliced

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions, but substitute coconut milk for half of the water, and add 1/4 cup of sugar. What we did here was filled the pot with water to the top of the rice and put half the can of coconut milk in the pot.
2. It should be fairly dry when you finish cooking it, without any liquid visible in the pot.
3. In a medium saucepan, boil the rest of the coconut milk with the second half of the sugar.
4. Keep this at a full boil until the rice is cooked, or until it reaches a thick, syrupy consistency.
5. Arrange the cooked coconut rice in a bowl or plate with the mango slices in some kind of pretty formation and dribble a bit of the sauce over the whole thing.

Green Milk Tea Bubble Drink

While at the Asian grocery store I decided to pick up a package of tapioca pearls and eventually think of a dessert to use with it. I was watching Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade and the theme was Asian food. At the end of her show she made a bubble drink but with...get this...vodka! No way jose I thought! haha So I remembered I had a package of tapioca I could use to make my own bubble drink...sans vodka. My favorite summer drink is a bubble milk tea from Maria's Hong Kong restaurant in Rockville, MD. Since the weather is getting warmer around here I thought I'd make it today.

If you're not familiar with what bubble tea it's a colorful blend of sweetened tea or juice with sweetened cooked tapioca pearls or coconut jelly and often a creamy addition or flavoring syrup or powder. The bubble teas you usually get at the store are big black pearls but I only had the small ones on hand. This would be great to prepare for a summertime bbq that's refreshing and your guests will love!

Prepare the green tea or any tea of your choice

4 cups water
Green tea, any brand

1. Boil the water and steep 5 bags of green tea
2. Let cool

How to cook bubble tea tapioca pearls

2 1/2 cups or approximately 6-10 servings
Use shorter cooking time if you plan to refrigerate the pearls several days

1 cup large black or white tapioca pearls
6-8 cups water

1. Never use less than 6 cups of water for each one cup of dry tapioca pearls. 8 or 10 to one is better.
2. Most people like the pearls a little soft on the outside but a bit chewy. If you like your pearls tender all the way through, measure them, then cover with water and soak them for a few hours before draining and cooking.
3. Bring the cooking water to a vigorous boil in a large pot.
4. Stir in the tapioca pearls slowly, so they do not stick together or sink into a clump. The tapioca pearls will soon rise to float in the water.
5. As soon as they float, boil covered for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the tapioca pearls. Stir two or three times during cooking.
6. Turn the heat off and let the tapioca sit in the cooking water for another 25 minutes. Stir two or three times during soaking.
7. Rinse the cooked tapioca pearls in tap water until the water runs clear and drain.
8. Cover with bubble tea sugar syrup or brown sugar syrup, stir to coat. Refrigerate covered if not used right away; they will keep three or four days before they get too mushy.
9. When you want some bubble tea, boil a cup of water and warm some refrigerated tapioca pearls for about 3-5 minutes. Then stir into the drink. Enjoy!

How to make bubble tea sugar syrup

This syrup is used BOTH to cover the cooked tapioca pearls and to sweeten the freshly made drink. Use all white sugar to flavor pearls for delicate fruit flavors and green tea drinks.
Use 1-2 tablespoons syrup for each 16 ounce serving.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups water

1. Mix sugar and water in a large pot.
2. Cook at medium to high heat.
3. As soon as the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils remove from heat.
4. Let cool and refrigerate or serve.

Pearl Bubble Milk Tea

This is the classic bubble tea drink. The most popular flavors are black tea and green jasmine tea. The cream may be omitted.

3/4 cup strong tea base 

2 tablespoons creamy ingredient 
(milk, creamer, etc.)
1 tablespoon bubble tea sugar syrup

1 cup ice
3 to 4 tablespoons cooked Bubble Tea Tapioca Pearls

1. Put tea, creamy ingredient and bubble tea sugar syrup in shaker and mix well.
2. Add in ice, cover shaker and shake for a nice froth.
3. Add tapioca pearls to the glass, and pour your drink over. Stir and enjoy!

Lulu's take on Pad Thai

So last week some family from the mommy's side crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to visit. It was an interesting week filled with a lot of food (mostly out) and a lot of excuses of why I didn't want my uncle to cook for me (polite excuses). I'm sorry, but there are very, VERY few men in my family that can cook. Well, let me rephrase that, there are very few men in my family that can cook well. Its why they're all married. 
ANYWAY, on our last day we went to this Thai restaurant in midtown Savannah called The King and I. I ordered the pad thai w/ tofu (without the egg) and LOVE IT! Well, honestly, it was the first time I ever ate pad thai so I'm sure there's better out there, but I really enjoyed my meal and cleared my plate. I have to admit, it was a little sweet (even when I asked the waitress to ask the chef  to make it hot) because I think there was quite a bit of brown sugar and peanut butter. Eh, still enjoyed it enough that I decided I would try and re-create the dish at home. So the moment we left the restaurant I pulled out my trusted iPhone and started Googling (yeah, I just don't care for Bing, sorry) and found a pad thai recipe from vegetariantimes.com. Well, I went to the store, bought the ingredients, but for some reason it just didn't taste right when I made it last night. It was missing that PA-POW!. So I made the dish again tonight, but made a few changes and HELLO! we had success. I hope you guys enjoy my version of the original.

Tofu Pad Thai
8 oz of rice noodles
2 tsp olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
1 thinly sliced bell pepper
1 cup of halved grape tomatoes
4 oz of snow peas
4 oz of tofu (firm)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp natural crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp pickled chili (from the Indian grocery)
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp sliced green onion
chopped cilantro
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 oz mung bean sprouts


Bring a pot of water to boil and add rice noodles and cook to soften. While the noodles are cooking, in a hot skillet (unless you've a wok) add the olive oil. Add the garlic and bell peppers and cook until soften. Next add the tomatoes, snow peas, and tofu and stir fry them. Add the soy sauce, peanut butter, and pickled chili, and lime juice and stir well. Cook for  203 minutes. Add the rice noodles and mix well. Turn the heat off and add the green onions, cilantro, mung sprouts, and almonds and toss well. Divide the pad thai into four bowls and serve. 


The King and I
7098 Hodgson Memorial Drive
Savannah, GA 31406
912.355.2100

Ele Fine Fusion

So like two weekends ago my friend P stopped me in the middle of the street while I was walking my dog on a scortching Saturday afternoon (well, actually she saw me walking puppy and texted me). Her friend was having a birthday party at an Asian fusion restaurant on Wilmington Island called Ele Fine Fusion.
The restaurant is actually a very beautiful building. With a glass floored entrance above water (lol, I was a little hesitant to make the first step thinking I was going to fall into the water) and interesting layout- one side regular diners sit in individual closed off booths while the other side is the party room. We, of course, were in the party room. Large and lovely, the room's walls had paintings on the wall that had a modern flair as well as a wall of wine bottles.
Ok, so the food. Well, first of all, you better bring a fat wallet if you plan on having dinner here. The prices are definitely on the higher end- which actually I expected considering what was on the menu and how it was presented. The menu had everything from lamb, vension, mahi mahi, king crabs, bbq chicken.... well I had the mahi mahi special which was pan-seared and served with organic vegetables. The mahi mahi was then stuffed with fresh pulled crab meat. Overall, the dish was beautiful, but I have definitely had better at local seafood restaurants (so remember, expensive doesn't necessarily mean better). The fish itself was actually cooked really well, and the vegetables were really nice. I found that the crab was kind of dry and the overall dish was too oily (which isn't good for someone like me who eats very healthy and isn't used to such oily food). P, her sister, and I also ordered the sampler plate of appetizers which included sauteed beef, tempura shrimp, and dumplings. I stuck to the beef because I don't eat pork or deep fried food. The beef was tasty; however, we all noticed that the peanut dipping sauces were definitely on the sweet side.

Anyway, if you're in Savannah and you decide, "Hey, I want to go to Wilmington Island for dinner and Uncle Bubba's is too packed, AND I don't mind spending the $$" then by all means go to Ele. The food was decent.

Ele Fine Fusion
7815 East Highway 80
Savannah, GA 31410
(912) 898-2221