Yuanjia's Cuisine

It is said that corns can help one lose weight. Women especially like corns because they can also help maintain breast health. Corn seeds - the white little stuff inside each corn - is an amazing antioxidant. Surprised? haha EAT MORE CORNS!

Today I mainly just wanted to intake some starch, so I decided to use corn, potato and cream / milk / butter to help me with my goal. This side dish turned out very tasty and I believe I will do this again.

All you need is:
1 can cream style corns
3 red potatoes
1/2 cup of milk (doesn't matter what kind)
1/8 cup of butter
some salt

Peel and chop potatoes into little cubes. Boil them in small amount of water with some salt until it tendered. Remove all the water, add corns, milk and butter. Heat and mix until it boil gently. Add salt to adjust to your taste.

Though I heard someone said catfish is for fry but never for bake, I did enjoy today's baked catfish. It is REALLY simple and won't take you more than 5 minutes to prepare!

Wash your catfish. Apply some salt on both sides of the catfish fillet. Put it on heavy duty aluminum foil. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil, 1/8 cup of melted butter, some black peppers and grounded garlic. Bake under 450 degrees for 15-18 minutes. DONE!

It was gone in a minute...

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Procedure is exactly the same as chocolate chip cookie except that you should put oats along with chocolate chips into the big bowl. Here's chocolate chip cookie's procedure. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 sliced onion
2 chopped tomatos
1 cup sliced mushrooms
5 pieces of bacon
cheese

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Stir the eggs till they are uniformly mixed. Pour egg mixture onto the glassware, and bake it until it solidifies.

Fry onion, tomatos, mushrooms and bacon. Then transfer them on top of the egg layer. Spray some cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

This is one of the best dishes I've done so far! The chicken skin is stretchy and a little bit crispy while the meat is delicate. The char siu and honey flavor is totally absorbed by the chicken wing thus the flavor is uniformly presented at each layer of the meat.

To marinate the chicken wings, you need:
Char Siu sauce 3 spoons
Honey 2 spoons at least
Heavy soy sauce 1 spoon

Marinate in the fridge airtight for at least 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake each side for 30 minutes. To get a cripsy chicken skin, you can bake a little bit longer. Done!

My first time try baking cookies! I originally did not plan to make cookies until next week. However, when I got back last night, I was hell starving - I just had a bit of bread as lunch.. As such, I started making cookies in like 20 minutes. Believe it or not, this is actually super easy! I will make some oatmeal cookies and whatever cookies next time, cuz IT IS JUST THAT SIMPLE!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 - 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Cup shortening or 1 Cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1/2 - 3/4 Cup packed brown sugar (total sugar should equal 1.5 cups)
• 3/4 - 1 Cup white sugar (total sugar should equal 1.5 cups)
• 1 - 2 tsp. pure vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 - 3 Cups chocolate chips
• 1 Cup chopped walnuts (optional)

This is a simple but tasty dish. It does not need lots of time for preparation. Highly recommended for people with busy schedules :)

Ingredients:
mushrooms
bacon (doesn't matter which flavor)
white or sweet onion
2 tablespoon of butter
cheese (doesn't matter which flavor)
salt
cooked rice

Slice bacon, mushrooms and onion. Fry with butter. Add cooked rice, mix well. Salt may be added to adjust to your flavor. Then transfer all the materials into a glassware. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Add some cheese on top of the rice. Bake for 5-10 minutes till cheese melt.

Enjoy!

Another Shanghai cuisine - Sweet Fried Shrimp. Shanghai cuisine is famous for its delecacy and sweet flavor. This dish appropriately demostrated shanghai cuisines character. The crust of the shrimp is crispy while the shrimp's flesh is soft and stretchy. Let's follow the recipe and try it out yourself!

15 Freshwater shrimps
5 thin slices of ginger
1-2 green onion
3 table spoon of heavy soy sauce
3 table spoon of cooking wine
1 table spoon of sugar
6 table spoon of oil

Heat the oil till about 430 degrees. Fry shrimp till the crusts crack or desociate from flesh. Take out shrimps, and remove the oil with only 1 table spoon left in the pan.

Heat the oil till about 400 degrees. Fry green onion and ginger. After 10-20 seconds, add cooking wine, heavy soy sauce and sugar. Mix the sauce well, then put in the fried shrimp and mix with the sauce. DONE!

Remember to turn off the cooking gas early so that the sugar won't get darken and overcooked. :)

Woot!! Chicago is really hot and humid recently. I don't even have a fan with me. This is intolerable!!! I apologize that I did not post anything in the past few days, but it is really the weather that was erasing my motivation to try new recipes and write blogs. However, this drink made a total difference! I feel so refreshed now and I'd like to share the joy with you guys!

All you need is:
strawberries
regular yogurt - I used peach flavor, my favorite!
milk
ice

You can adjust the relative amount according to your flavor. Blend them, and here you go!

This is another traditional Shanghai Cuisine besides Braised Pomfret. I almost failed today because I added too much water and did not realize that I need to boil off all water in the end. As a result, I ended up boiling a whole pot of water and waited for half an hour ( I was starving to death an hour ago, so while waiting, I ate two loaves of bread.. :( )

Here's how I cooked...

Beat an egg and prepare in a small bowl.
Prepare some cornstarch in a small plate.
Use the back side of the blade of a knife, tap two sides of the pork rib vertically and then horizontally. This way, connective tissues in the muscles will be broken and this will result in a better texture of the meat.
Immerse the pork rib in the beaten egg, then lay the pork rib on cornstarch to add the cornstarch to two sides of the pork rib.
Fry two sides of the pork rib till they turn white.
Take the pork ribs out.
Fry green onions and gingers.
Add cooking wine, heavy soy sauce, pork ribs, and water (cover the pork ribs)
NOTE: Do not add too much water even though it cannot cover all the pork ribs. Otherwise, you will end up waiting for all the water to be boiled off for half an hour as I did tonight..
Cover the pot, wait till water starts to boil.
Flip the pork ribs and wait for another 5 minutes.
Then add some sugar, use high temperature to boil off the water.
If you see the sauce becomes viscous, then you can turn off the gas and enjoy the Shanghai Braised Pork Ribs!!