Yuanjia's Cuisine

LOL Baking vegetables again!

Baking corns is very simple and the crispy while watery taste of the baked corn makes kids who hate vegetables go crazy! Want to try out the recipe yourself? Here we go!

You first need to open the husks (don't remove them as they can help trap water in so that the corn won't dry out) and remove the silks. Then you brush some butter on the corn. Sparkle some salt and black peppers on it. Then re-cover the corn with the husks.

Next, you want to roll heavy duty aluminum foil lengthwise around corn and twist ends. Bake at 450 degree for 25 minutes. Serve immediately!

I'll upload the pictures later tonight as I'm studying in a classroom without my camera with me..

Today, I repeated the chilli fried rice, and here's the picture! Yea I told ya it looked appealing right?


So while I was chopping the pork, I actually saw two kinds of meat, or in a more scientific way, two kinds of muscles (forgive my nerdiness) - red and white muscles. I'm sure you all have heard of that, but what exactly are they?

Well, essentially, red muslces are red is because that they contain the oxygen binding protein - myoglobin. They use oxidative metabolism to generate ATP (an energy source). And they are very resistant to fatigue. White muscles are white is because of the absence of myoglobin and a reliance on glycolytic enzymes. They use both oxidative metabolism and anearobic metabolism to generate short bursts of speed and power.


Though most people believe that eating white meat (or white muscles... eerr sounds wierd) is healthier, those who have anemia and especially women should actually eat more red meat because red meat has myoglobin which contains ion. This is what you need when you are suffering anemia.

Well, the only thing that I'm not sure about was the white thing between white and red muscles when I had a hard time breaking it. It is very elastic and strong. I assume it is bundle collagen fibers.. Anyone knows?

I need to go to class soon, so I'll just type the ingredients this time. Enjoy!

0.5lb steak
1 yellow onion
1 green peper
1 table spoon light soy sauce
2 table spoon heavy soy sauce
3 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon corn starch
some black peppers

Fry sliced onion first until it turns yellowish, then add cut green pepper to fry until it changes color slightly.

Fry chopped steak till median (or to your taste), add onion and pepper, soy sauces, and sugar. Till the onion gets the dark color, add corn starch (it should be fully mixed with a little bit of water), and you are done!

I apologize for this late update. I just got back home from the beginning of intensitive study for this summer. Sign.

Ok so, today I did something real simple but elegant enough (well at least for me it was really elegant) to keep me awake till 1am - baked sweet potato!



I still remember when I was little, I used to have 1 baked sweet potato everyday after school. The astonishment and joy of having the first taste of it is still so fresh that I cannot forget about it even in a foreign country. You know, I love sweet food and how can I refuse to have it as it just feels like warm sweet feather?

Actually baking sweet potatoes is really easy. Easier than I thought. You simply just need to wash the sweet potatoes without pealing them. Then pierce them a little bit to allow gas coming out while baking to avoid blowing up in the oven. Preheat the oven to about 375 degree. And bake the sweet potatoes for 55 minutes or until they soften. Serve immediately.

Hope you will enjoy it as I always do! :)

Ok, today was a huge success!! I finished a huge plate of chilli fried rice. It's mainly because the fried rice not only tasted special - crisp and soft all combine in one with a little bit of chilli sauce that evoked my taste buds, but it also looked refreshing - the green of chinese borccoli, the orange of carrot, the yellow of fried egg, and the fleshcolor of pork. Plus I was starving so badly after I got back home - I woke up at 8am to take the first MCAT course this summer, which was a diagnostic test that lasted for about 5 hours; Then I rushed to a computer lab for work with only a pack of chips in my hand and that was my lunch.

This meal was the gift of today :)

Of course I know you must be dying to know what recipe made this meal so appealing. And there it is:

Sticky white rice
1 Carrot
0.5 lb chinese broccoli
2 eggs
0.3 lb pork
2 table spoon of salt
2 table spoon of cooking wine
1.5 table spoon of spicy bean sauce
Note: Again, all measurements are estimated!

First, cook sticky white rice properly. I know you all know how - use a rice cooker!
While cooking the rice, take a big pot and pour some water in. While waiting for the water to boil, wash the chinese broccoli, and cut into small pieces (about the length of your thumb =p). You can also start pealing the carrot and cut it into small cubes (about 1'' x 1'' x 1''). Cut pork into the similar size as that of carrot.
When water starts to boil, put cut broccoli in briefly until they change to dark green. Then take them out.
Add some oil to your pan, and some cooking wine and fry your pork. Also, fry eggs and carrot, seperately.
Lastly, fry your cooked sticky white rice (you can add some water if the rice is too dry) with boiled broccoli, fried carrot, meat and egg. Add salt, spicy bean sauce. And you are done!

You see, I even forgot to take a picture of the dish today because I couldn't wait to taste it and I totally forgot about photos lol

Bon appetite! :D

Remember my grand failure yesterday? Yup. I just added one more sauce today and it tasted so good. Guess what was it?


The answer is Char Siu Sauce! tada!

So the ultimate sauce ingredients are:

3 table spoon of char siu sauce
2 table spoon of light soy sauce
1.5 table spoon of vinegar
1 table spoon of bean sauce
1 table spoon of ketchup
1 table spoon of honey
1 table spoon of corn starch
2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
some black pepper (optional)
Note: all the measurements are estimated! I never use table spoon or teaspoon for eastern cuisine cooking..

Go ahead and try it out! Don't be afraid to make it sweet!

I will try to use the sauce to treat chiken wings over night and bake them the next day in the oven for 1 hour. How excited!

After a whole day of work, I was exhausted and starving. Thinking of all the food in the fridge, I frowned. What should I cook today? Hmmm I have eggplants, carrots, mushrooms, chinese broccoli, and pork fillet. I googled and found a dish called chilli and sour eggplants. Sounds yummy! And what's exciting about it was all my childhood memory about chilli and sour dishes my mom made. It just made my mouth watery.

After I got back home, I started my third job today immediately - cooking!

And here's my work...


Actually I was looking for soy sauce, vinegar, and chilli sauce. BUT, after tipping the whole closet off, I still could not find anything that can be chilli enough. Remember, without chilli sauce or hot sauce, the sour vinegar would taste really strong and I definitely don't want that. So instead, I put in a whole lot of sugar and sweet sauces: ketchup and honey. As a worst possible substitute of hot sauce, I used bean sauce, which turns out not bad. Corn starch is also necessary to thicken the juice.

I hope I could make this dish better, but it was my first try. And it was eatable..