Very Quick Recipes

In an effort to make a New Year resolution to eat properly without eating out all of the time, I'm trying to alter my approach to cooking. I haven't quite figured it out, but ideally any dish that requires few ingredients, or ingredients with long shelf lives (so I can minimize grocery store trips), that requires little preparation, and that uses few dishes (so I can minimize cleaning time) would be great. That seems nearly impossible now that I write it out, but... maybe I can figure something out.

• Cream biscuits
• Congee! (Juk)

Tea Eggs

Since I'm anticipating moving out in 4 months, and will soon need to cook for myself, expect a lot more food posts up on this blog! I have been craving tea eggs as well for a while... I know I can easily just go to an Asian market nearby and pick up a dozen of these, but for later, when they're not so easily purchased, this recipe will be handy.

Recipe from Tiny Urban Kitchen and The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook.

Ingredients (Version 1)
1 dozen eggs
2 tea bags (I used Lipton's black tea bags)
1 star anise
2 tsp salt
Water

Ingredients (Version 2)
8 eggs
water
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 star anise
3 black tea bags, strings removed (English Breakfast, Assam or for a smokier flavor, Lapsang Souchong)

In a (3-quart) saucepan, place the eggs in a single layer. Cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once water boils, remove pan from heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain off water, cover eggs completely with fresh cold water and let stand.

Once eggs are cool enough to handle, tap each one gently with the back of a teaspoon to make fine cracks on the surface of the shell. Try to keep shell intact. Set eggs aside in a bowl.

In the same saucepan, bring 3 cups fresh water to boil over high heat. Add remaining ingredients. Carefully lower eggs one by one into the “tea” and reduce heat to medium-low. If eggs are not completely submerged, add more water. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Remove from heat and let eggs sit in tea liquid on the stove for 1 hour. Then transfer to refrigerator to steep for at least 2 more hours or overnight.

Deep-Fried Bananas

Anyone who has gone with me to a Thai restaurant where a fried banana dessert (with ice cream! and honey!) is served knows that I love this dessert!

Recipe from Seasaltwithfood.


Ingredients
12 Ripe Bananas, peeled, halved lengthwise and cut into 2 pieces (the sweet Burro banana or plantains)
Peanut or Vegetable Oil for deep-frying

120 g All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sugar
½ tsp Sea Salt
25 g Desiccated Coconut
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
300 ml Water

Directions
Combine all the ingredients for batter and mix well.



Pour enough oil into a saucepan or a in deep-fry on medium to high heat. Coat the bananas with the batter and fry until golden brown in color. Remove the fried bananas with a slotted spoon and drain on papers and serve warm.

Kettle Corn

Kettle corn is probably one of my favorite things to eat. =)

Recipe from SavorySweetLife.

Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels (mushroom kernels!)
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt

*Special Equipment – A large pot with lid

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add popcorn and sugar giving it a quick stir and then cover with lid. Once popcorn starts popping, pick it up and give it a quick shake every few seconds until popping slows down, between 3-4 minutes. Remove immediately from heat and pour into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately. Do not make the mistake of removing the pot from heat without transferring to a bowl. Due to the high heat of the pot, if you don’t transfer the popcorn it will caramelize and perhaps burn.

Tips
3 kernels of corn should be added to the oil in the pan at the very start. Only after those kernels pop should the rest of the corn and other ingredients be added to the hot oil. Do this instead of adding the popcorn to cold oil and heating it together (which saps the popcorn of needed moisture).

More so than any other popcorn, Mushroom Popcorn kernels are very heat sensitive. They need higher heat (over 400F) to pop with the explosiveness necessary to get that big puffy ball shape, and to get it from the overwhelming majority of the kernels in the pan (which should be the result).