Mushrooms and Cream Cheese Omelette

This dish doesn't look particularly good or appetizing but looks can be deceiving!  The combination of fresh oyster mushrooms and cream cheese with the egg is fantastic!

The first thing is to saute a handful of fresh mushroom oysters in a little butter.  Meanwhile, scramble 2 eggs (season with salt and pepper as you like), when the bottom of the eggs are set, arrange the sauteed mushrooms on the eggs and smear about 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream cheese on top of the mushrooms then fold the omelette into thirds or half.  (mine got a little crumpled and hole-y but that has nothing to do with its taste!)

Mushroom, Pepper and Cheese Omelette on English Muffin

English Muffin Breakfasts, Again!  Yes!

This time, it's a thick single-egg omelette with a lot of mix-ins - a large pinch each of thyme and salt, 3 tablespoons cream cheese, 1 red chili pepper (sliced) and a handful of sliced mushrooms.

I like using a very small non-stick pan.  The pan is really an egg pan, it even came with a spatula in the form of a fried egg! The diameter of the pan is about 4.5 inches!

screenshot from Google images

And it is the perfect size for a dish to put on top of an English muffin.

Sauteed Pork, Taro and Korean Mushrooms

This is another example of cooking without a recipe...

1 small thumb of ginger, sliced thinly
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 piece of pork tenderloin, cleaned, trimmed and sliced into matchstick strips
1 piece of taro, cubed or sliced in strips
1 pack of Korean shimeji mushrooms
2 pieces Korean King Mushrooms, sliced
light soy sauce
oyster sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

Marinate the pork strips in soy sauce and oyster sauce (a 350-gram piece with 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, as well as ground black pepper) for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the taro pieces until almost cooked and lightly browned.  Set aside to cool slightly.

Saute the ginger and onions.  Add the marinated pork and cook until half done.  Throw in the mushrooms.  Add chicken stock, 1/4 cup at a time, so the mixture is not too dry.  Finally, add the taro.  Season to taste.  Simmer until done; thicken with cornstarch slurry.

Done!

Braised Chicken with Chestnuts and Mushrooms

Once in a while I cook for my mom and when I do, I always try to make the dish no-salt-added.  Why?  Because she developed hypertension early (in her late 30s I think) and since then she has tried to reduce her salt intake.  So her taste buds (and ours, too because she cooked reduced salt for everyone!) favors the blander side of food. 

Of course I have to use soy sauce and other condiments, but if the dish is for my mom, I would never add table salt or sea salt, or fish sauce.  Of course it goes without saying, we don't use MSG.

It is not easy to please my mom, but somewhere along the way, I stopped trying.  I just send over the dish and if she has no complaints, then it's good news to me!

Braised Chicken with Chestnuts and Mushrooms, no salt added.

400 grams boneless, skinless chicken wings
12 pieces dried shitake mushroom, rehydrated, reserve soaking liquid
100 grams cooked chestnuts
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
about 8 thin slices of ginger, cut into thin matchsticks
5 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 pieces star anise
1 piece cinnamon stick
1 to 2 pieces dried chili
3 stalks leeks, sliced diagonally, white and green parts separated
boiled eggs, optional

Rinse the chicken thighs and remove the fatty membranes.  Slice each into 2 or 3 chunks.  Marinate for at least 30 minutes in the mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of mushroom soaking liquid, half the ginger, half the garlic, star anise, and cinnamon stick.

Saute the remaining garlic and ginger, onion, dried chili, and white part of the leeks.  Add the chicken and marinade.   Add the mushrooms and chestnuts.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  If the mixture seems too dry, add reserved mushroom liquid by tablespoons.  Simmer for about 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.  Add the boiled eggs in the last 3 to 5 minutes, if using.  Thicken with cornstarch slurry.  Garnish with the green part of the leeks.  Serve immediately.

The secret to the dish is the very flavorful mushroom soaking liquid!

Faux Scallops...

I'm always on the lookout for the giant mushrooms in the weekend market!  This time around, however, the mushrooms were not-so-giantish...  definitely bigger than the regular ones, but by no means as big as the one I got a couple of months ago.

I followed a friend's suggestion and made 2 dishes from the mushrooms...

the first one a simple saute dish of sliced mushroom caps, ground pork and shrimps in XO sauce...

The second dish?  The highlight of hubby's lunch... faux scallops in garlic and butter!

Slice the mushroom stems into rounds.

Over very low heat, melt butter and cook finely minced garlic until the garlic is lightly browned and crispy.  Put the sliced mushroom stems in the butter and cook gently.  Season lightly with sea salt.  When the edges of the mushrooms are lightly toasted, remove from the pan and serve immediately!

Braised Chicken with Chestnuts

I couldn't get out of cooking dinner.  As much as I preferred to eat out (just to escape the heat)... hubby insisted on having dinner at home.  He was tired of eating out and (he says) he missed my cooking.  So, fine.  If I had to cook, I wanted something that was fast... maximum of 15 minutes on the stove!

This is what I came up with...

250 grams boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 thin slices of ginger
6 pieces dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated, stems removed
100 grams cooked, shelled chestnuts
splash of rice wine
water or stock
2 pieces star anise
1 piece siling labuyo (red chili)
light soy sauce, to taste

Rinse the chicken thighs and remove any excess fat.  Slice each thigh into 2 or 3 pieces.  Marinate in soy sauce and sesame oil for at least 2 hours (in the fridge).

Saute ginger then quick fry the chicken thighs (pour in all the marinade also).  Add the rehydrated mushrooms (slice in half if they are too big) and chestnuts.  Splash with a little rice wine.  Add enough water or stock to barely cover everything.  Throw in star anise and chili.  Season to taste.

Simmer about 15 minutes or until the chicken is done.  Thicken with cornstarch slurry, if desired.  Serve over rice.

Braised Abalones and Mushrooms

Abalones are rare treats.  Usually, the only ones available are the dried ones or the canned ones and they're very expensive!  But lately, I've seen fresh ones in our specialty market and there are frozen ones too.  As for the price?  Well, in any form, abalones are costly!  Let's leave it at that.

Anyway, previously, I'd make do with faux abalone, which is really sliced mushrooms.  And, for weekend dinners, the faux abalone did nicely.  Special occasions requires the real thing, though.

So, for this Chinese New Year, I was really happy to find a pack of frozen abalones in the special market.  There were 5 pieces in the pack and despite the high price, I bought them.  And paired them with shitake mushrooms!  Yum, yum, yum!

This is actually an simple recipe.  What is complicated is the cleaning of the abalones and, if using dried mushrooms (which I used), the pre-soaking,

For the fresh or frozen (thawed) abalones, scrub them and remove the "fishy" membranes (sides and bottom) then pressure cook for 20 minutes (or more until tender) in a mixture of chicken stock, lots of ginger and a bit of soy sauce.  As for the dried mushrooms, pick the ones with nice tops or what they call "flower" design and soak the mushrooms for at least 12 hours, changing the soaking liquid once or twice.

Of course it is easiest to use canned abalone and fresh shitake, which take almost no preparation at all.

Here's the recipe:

1.  Soak 10 dried mushrooms overnight.
2.  Clean and pressure-cook the abalones (if using fresh/frozen ones).
3.  Saute 4 thin slices of ginger in some canola oil mixed with a little sesame oil.
4.  Remove the ginger and saute some sliced onions (remove also after)
5.  Saute about a teaspoon of abalone XO sauce then added the cleaned and rehydrated mushrooms.
6.  Pour in about 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1 tablespoon each of shao xing wine, light soya sauce and oyster sauce.  Simmer for about 30 minutes (at least).  Stir once in a while.  If the liquid evaporates fast, add up to 1/4 cup more chicken stock.  Adjust seasonings (especially if your soy sauce is very salty).  In my case, I added about half a teaspoon of brown sugar, to temper the saltiness a bit.
7.  Thicken with cornstarch slurry and top with some sesame oil.
8.  Fish out the mushrooms and place decoratively on a plate with the abalone.  Pour the sauce over.