I can't believe that I never posted an Instant Pot recipe or video of me making Japanese Beef Curry Stew. I first started making this when I got my IP two and a half years ago and it's WAY better in the IP. It only takes 25 minutes IP cooking time and the meat is so tender. There's no need to let it simmer for hours to get the meat soft. A few years back I previously posted the stove top version of this recipe and I'm happy to say that I now have an IP version. Ingredients are all the same, just with a few minor adjustments for the IP conversion.
INSTANT POT JAPANESE BEEF CURRY STEW
INGREDIENTS:
2-3 lbs. chuck roast, cut into cubes 2 tbsp. garlic, minced 2 cups baby carrots 1 cup celery, chopped 2 large russet potatoes, cut into large cubes 1/2 onion, diced
4 cups water 1 large or 2 small pkgs. S&B curry sauce
oil
DIRECTIONS:
Turn IP on to saute and add about 2 tbsp. of oil. Add stew meat and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and celery and stir. Add carrots, potatoes, and water. Cover with lid. Hit meat/stew button and adjust timer to 25 minutes. Be sure pressure valve is at sealing. When timer is over, let NPR for 10 minutes and then QR. If liquid starts to leak out of valve, just slowly release the valve to let the pressure release slowly. Once pressure pin drops, open lid and gently stir the pot. Turn off IP and turn on to saute. Let come to boil and add curry blocks. Gently stir until curry blocks are dissolved.
Over a year ago I experimented and made my very first batch of homemade kim chee. Kim chee is a traditional fermented Korean main dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings which can taste spicy and a little sour. Several types of vegtables can be used for kim chee such as Won Bok (Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage), cucumbers, or daikon (Japanese radish).
I decided to try my hand in making my own kim chee since it's pretty expensive for a small jar that can be eaten in one dinner sitting. I found two recipes online that seemed easy enough to follow and I ended up changing a few things through trial and error. I found two recipes online at umamitopia.com and culinonicles.blogspot.com that I used to reference, but I pretty much used the recipe off of umamitopia instead.
I followed the directions from umamitopia in the first step of brining the cabbage. They had a tsukemono maker to help wilt down the cabbage leaves which is something that I do not have. I have the option of purchasing one from my local Asian grocer but I wasn't about to spend $50+ for such a small item. So I improvised and used a heavy plate to cover the cabbage in a bowl and placed two-5 lbs exercise weights to help weigh it down.
My first batch of kim chee turned out good but I added too much chili powder and it was REALLY spicy for my taste, but overall it turned out pretty good. My second batch turned out even better and with just the right amount of heat. My brother (the chef) even compared it to the Kohala kim chee brand from back home in Hawaii. I've tweaked a few things here and there depending how large of a batch I'm making. The jars I use are ones with a flip open lid that I got from Ikea, but you most certainly can use those Kerr or Ball canning jars.
Here is the recipe with the tweaks that I made for myself.
HOMEMADE KIM CHEE: Ingredients:
1 medium sized Napa cabbage
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. kosher salt (I just used regular salt)
2 tbsp. dried chili powder
3 tbsp. kim chee base
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded daikon
1 cup chopped green onions
Directions:
Cut the cabbage in half and cut out the core. Then cut each half in 4 equal sections. Wash the cabbage leave and spin out water in a salad spinner if you have one. If not, just shake out water using a colander.
Place cabbage leaves into the largest bowl that you have. Add the sugar and salt, mix well without breaking cabbage leaves. Let sit for about 1 hours so the leaves can wilt a bit.
After it has wilted a little place into large bowl, lay a large but small enough plate to completely cover the cabbage, then place a heavy object onto plate to help weigh it down. In my case they were the two-5 lb. weights.
Refrigerate for several hours or overnight until you see the water covering the cabbage. When the cabbage is completely covered in water it is ready.
Squeeze out water form the cabbage and place into a bowl. Add the carrots, daikon, and green onion.
In a separate bowl add the chili powder, kim chee base, fish sauce, and garlic. Mix well.
Add the sauce to the vegetables. During this time I use food service gloves to mix all the ingredients by hand. Otherwise a wooden spoon will suffice. If your ingredients look a little dry, add more kim chee base by the tablespoon until they look wet enough.
Once thoroughly mixed place kim chee into glass jars or container. Let it sit at room temperature for 2-3 days. Then refrigerate.
One of my favorite things to eat from back home is laulau. It is pork wrapped in luau (taro) leaves and which is then traditionally wrapped in ti leaves and steamed till cooked. I could buy some frozen laulau at the Asian store here but it is expensive for such a small serving and the meat is so dry.
I've always wanted to attempt to make my own but I always worried about properly cleaning the fresh luau leaves correctly. If you don't clean the clean the leaves correctly by removing the stem and fibrous part of the leaves, you'll experience an itchy throat when eating the cooked leaves.
Well I took the chance recently after much convincing from my hubby to just try it and watching a few YouTube videos The one idea that seemed the easiest to do without me monitoring it while steaming to cook was the crock pot method.
I pretty much followed this YouTube video with a few minor changes of my own.
After this was done cooking with the wonderful smell permeating in the air, this came out a WINNAH! It turned out a lot better than I thought. Got the seal of approval from the hubby and my brother in law who was over for dinner too. If only I had a bigger crock put to make more since I was only able to fit about 9 small ones in there. So with that said here's what I did along with a few changes of my own but I pretty much followed the video.
CROCK POT LAULAU:
Ingredients:
2 lbs. Luau Leaves (Taro Leaves) with the fibrous parts taken out
2 lbs. Pork Butt or Shoulder cut into big chunks
1/2 lbs. Cod (Butterfish)
Hawaiian salt
Shoyu
1/4 c. water
Banana Leaves (Cleaned)
Directions:
1. Thoroughly clean the luau leaves and take out the fibrous parts.
2. Line your crock pot with the cleaned banana leaves with the shiny side facing up.
3. Cut up the pork into big chunks. Mix about a 1/2 tbsp. Hawaiian salt and 1/4 c. shoyu.
4. Grab two leaves into your palm and lay a few pieces of pork and butterfish. Wrap up meat with leaves (view video for better idea). Repeat with ingredients to fit as much as your crock pot allows (I wasn't able to use all of the pork and fish, so I made a very small batch of kalua pig and just threw the extra fish into the crockpot). Add 1/4 c. water over the laulau
5. Line another layer of banana leaves over the laulau and cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. The video says you could also cook it on HIGH for 4 hours but according to some of the reviews some people complained the leaves weren't cooked well and their throats itched a little.
6. All the deliciousness right here! My house smelled SO good and couldn't wait to eat this up.
This post isn't about Lady Gaga, but making my own homemade pom poms. Heh, that part of Bad Romance just popped into my mind and gave me the idea for the post title.
Anyway, it's college football season and we were lucky enough to catch the season opener game for the University of Hawaii on our recent trip home. Also, this weekend we get to watch another UH Warrior football game in Las Vegas. Whoot Whoot!! We got a bunch of Warrior gear and we're all good to go.
However, I felt we were missing something and after watching another game on tv it dawned on me that it was pom poms. I was watching the crowd in this particular game and they were shaking around pom poms in the school colors. Then it gave me the idea to make on my own so I went to the best tutorial site...YouTube.
I found some that were made with crepe paper and they looked pretty lame. Until I found a tutorial that really caught my eye and seemed really easy to follow. I can thank Pinellas County HIPPY Helps for this tutorial. I'm currently writing up this post on my phone so I'll have to update with the actual tutorial later.
For this pom pom creation it only cost me less than $5 to make and I just used three materials. Here's the how to with a minor addition.
Homemade Pom Poms
Materials:
Plastic tablecovers (In any color you like.)
Scissors
Electoral tape
Directions:
Open up the tablecloth completely, fold in half, and cut in half. Keep cutting the tablecloth in half until you get squares around the size of 12"x12" or 14"x14" depending on the original size of the tablecloth. When done cutting they would look like this below.
Next start layering your cut pieces in alternating colors using a total of 20 sheets. I used clothespins to help hold the sheets together so they don't slip around when cutting.
Once the sheets are clipped together start cutting about inch wide strips one half of the sheet stopping about a half inch toward the center. One half will look like this below.
Then continue to do the same on the other half.
Next take off one of the clothespins and start gathering the uncut center. I gathered the center in a fan like hold till I reached the end.
Once gathered, wrap the electrical tape tightly around the center about five times.
Lastly, start fluffing each piece on both sides. Separate each piece gently to alternating sides. Once done the pom pom will be full and you won't even see the electric taped center. Here's how they will look.
I'm going to make another set using the other UH colors. Can't wait to bring these to the game this weekend.
GO WARRIORS!!
Here's the tutorial video that you all can watch. Happy crafting!
Geez, I haven't posted anything in here since May! It's been a ghost town on my blog since then. Well I'm alive and well and a whole lot has happened since I last posted. I've been meaning to share some news that is quite exciting for us but haven't had the time to post it.
The BIG announcement is that Ancheta & Co. is EXPANDING!! Baby #2 is on his/her way this coming February 2012. I'm so far 17 weeks along and we get to find out the baby's sex in about three weeks. The Lil Booger is excited that he gets to be a big brother and can't wait to help out with the new baby.
Finding out that we're expecting Baby #2 happened a day before our 4-year wedding anniversary and it was a great present to the both of us. Now I can't wait to have enough energy and time to start making some baby craft items. We're home in Hawaii right now so I've already gotten some really nice Hawaiian print material and before we left Oregon I scored some cheap diaper cloths.
Our summer has been pretty busy with the Lil Booger in some sports camps offered through our city and parks recreation. Adding with me feeling completely exhausted and finally experiencing "any time of the day" sickness during my first trimester. We've had a fun filled summer I must say though with camping, sports, days at the park, and now to end it with a trip home to Hawaii.
That's pretty much why I've been M.I.A on my blog. Now that I've gotten most of my energy back and not taking 4-hour naps in the afternoons anymore, I should be able to blog a little more now. LOL!
So I'll see you all soon. Here's a pic to end the blog with that I took the other day. I was telling my hubby that I took a similar pic like this when the Lil Booger was six months old on our first trip home with him. Just to think in a year we could have Baby #2 doing the same post ^_^.
So I'm pretty new to the site Yelp. I've been only using it to find restaurants and utilizing that check in feature to places I've been. The other day I received an email from Yelp about 808 restaurants in the 503. I know there's a few Hawaii eateries around in the Portland Metro area but I usually frequent the same two places, namely L & L Hawaiian BBQ and Kauai Island Grill.
When I moved to Oregon nearly 11 years ago the first local eatery I heard of was Noho's Hawaiian Cafe. Since my boyfriend now husband moved to Oregon before I did, he got the opportunity to try that place first and said it was pretty good but pricey. So when I finally moved to Oregon I never got to try out the place till just recently. The only reason it took me so long to try the place is because of the location which is 20 miles from we live and I really don't venture out to Portland much either.
Anywhoo, about the email. It had Noho's as one of the "must" local food places to eat at. This now intrigued me more to finally go there any try it, so yesterday my hubby decided to finally take me there. It's a nice small place and we are greeted by the waitress who knew right off the bat was a local girl from Hawaii. We went in the late afternoon so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
We ordered the Blalah sized ribs and teri beef to share between my hubby and I and that buggah was HUGE! We later found out that the cook noticed that we were locals from HI and hooked us up. We even got a small bowl of shoyu chicken and rice for our son for free!
The only disappointment was the mac salad. The typical plate lunch is two scoops rice, mac salad, and entree....the mac salad helps make the plate lunch ONO. The consistency of the mayo was watery and the taste was lackluster. I know great mac salad when I've had some and sorry to say this didn't make the grade for me.
That was the only negative thing I had about their food. I must add though their staff was really nice. Our waitress came and talk story with us and we even got to meet the owner Noho himself. He sat down with us and chatted with us for a while as well. I was always under the impression the owner of Noho's was just a mainland person trying to bring Hawaii local food flavor to the mainland. My hubby and I were surprised to find out that he's a local boy from Niu Valley and he still get his pidgin accent after living in Oregon for the past 15+ years. He was a great guy to come talk story with us out of his busy schedule.
On my Yelp review I gave them 4 out of 5 stars....1 star short for their mac salad. I'd still go again though and try their other items. Here's a picture of what our meal looked like. We didn't get to finish it all, it was that HUGE....enough for our dinner that night.
