First, The Maca-Wrong, then later My First French Macarons.

Then, the Maca-Wrong

I've never paid much attention to these pretty pastel color French cookies before, it's never been in my baking desire, I don't know why, even though I've seen them everywhere around NYC, until one day I happened to read the ingredients of the Macarons, and thought, "Is that IT?...only three major ingredients - almond powder, egg white and powdered sugar?.....Well!, that sounds easY!

Without any much thought, and know-how, I went on making them with those 1-2-3 steps basic how-to, and Bamm! I got the Maca-wrong instead of French Macarons.

Now that, the Macarons

Those Maca-Wrong sent me back to sitting in front of the computer with the little voice in my head "Who are you, Macarons??" I started spending times searching and reading more about making the Macarons including all of those the Facts and the Myths about making them along the way, and gave it a try one more time.

By searching, I found BraveTart the oh-so-inspired pastry blog run by Stella and friends. Stella' s blog fills with many yummy and beautiful pictures of Macarons she made, in that, there is the interesting article she wrote, about the Macarons Myths that made me go back to the kitchen, and whipped my first French Macrons, three days later after my first Maca-Wrong. 

As you can see, they turned out not too bad compares to the first Maca-Wrong, well, actually, it might not be that " professionally-perfect ", but, at least I now know what I did wrong at the first time.

I'll be making them again soon because I'm now hooked by them already.

Lotus Roots Soup With Baby Pork Ribs

Noom mentioned that he missed the caramelized lotus roots his mom used to make as a summer dessert when he was young, they are super delicious eating with ice cream.

Lucky Noom!, there are a lot of lotus roots coming out on the vegetable stalls in Chinatown during this time, but, since the weather outside isn't 80F, instead of caramelized lotus roots with ice cream, let's have a warm delicious soup with sweet fragrant of Chinese herbs and tender baby pork ribs better.

Lotus roots are consumed in most Asian countries with different ways of cooking in their own regions. This time I slow cooked them with some Chinese herbs with the names I couldn't pronounce, really, I only know them by the shapes and smells.

These good and weird looking roots have good health benefits, containing much iron, vitamins B & C. and lots of fiber content that help relieves constipation. In Thailand we also made them into dessert and a cool drink to cool down the body temperature.

- 1 lb. baby pork ribs
- 2 lotus roots
- Shiitake mushroom
- 2 cilantro roots
- Mixed Chinese herbs

- 2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar

The set of Chinese herbs I use for the soup.

Just two pieces of each and a handful of Goji berries goes along way. They give a very sweet smell, and your body will love them.

1. Marinate the pork ribs with oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar for 15 minutes.
2. Clean all lotus roots, peel the skin off, cut into 1/4" thick, and rinse one more time.
3. Put baby pork ribs, lotus roots, Chinese herbs, cilantro roots into a pot, covered with water, bring to a full boil.
4. Reduce the heat to low, add shiitake mushroom, and let it simmer for 1 hr. - keep skimming out the oil foam floating on the surface.
5. Taste the soup,  if desired, season it with a bit of soy sauce, check the ribs, they should be tender - almost melt in your mouth.
6 Turn of the heat and enjoy, to this point your house will be filled with a light sweet smell, just like what you get from lotus flower.

Steamed Pompano Fish With Soy Sauce

Pla Nueng See-Ew

Recently I only cook one time a day, which is normally dinner, and then the leftover will be reheated for lunch the next day. So, most of my foods haven't met the natural light for me to have fun  photographing them anymore.

This delicious steamed Pompano with soy sauce, fresh ginger and shredded scallion was also our dinner, and was taken in a kitchen light, it might not produce a salivated pictures, but it's a great fish dish I so want to share, so let's go along with the fake light for a while.

It is such a light and good dish for dinner with easy preparation and takes about 20 minute steaming - depends on size of the fish, but, most of the time 20 minutes will do just fine.

Preparation

- one good size fresh Pompano fish, cleaned.
- 8 spring onion, cut off the green part and save them for other cooking use, use a knife or folk to shred the white part spring onion
- 1 cup, julienne fresh ginger.
- 1/4 julienne red chilli for some colors (I didn't have them this time, so I left out.)

Sauce ingredients

- 1 cup stock
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. Mirin wine
- 1 tbsp. white pepper powder

Preheat a steamer, have it ready to steam the fish.
1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together, set aside.
2. Put half of the ginger and scallion on the plate as the base then put the fish on top.
3. Pour all the mixing sauce on to the fish, topped with the rest of the ginger and scallion, and send them to a steamer.
4. Steam for 20 minutes, use a fork to check if the fish cooked through. Turn off the heat. Serve.

Thai Little Egg Cake

Kanom Kai

Once we have been bombarded with the luxuries for the extended period of times we tend to crave for the simpleness as an antidote. Just like making this our childhood tiny yummy "cake" Thai call ka-noom-kai ( ka-nom=dessert, kai=eggs) to offset the "In The Moment" sumptuous desserts found around here in NYC, and that, my husband asked for kanoom kai instead of cupcakes lately.

I don't know if these Thai dessert could be fit into Western cake category....there is no butter or any shortening nor baking soda in the batch, just tiny air bubble beaten into the eggs that do the rising.

Originally, they are not oven-baked, which is how most Thai desserts are made, I believe these dessert is one of the Portuguese influence, since there are eggs in it, again, traditionally Thai desserts don't have eggs as recipes. That's why some people also call them Kanom Farang, which is what we call the people who comes from the West since the colonial times.

How they are made is to slowly bake them in a preheat brass mold set over an open fire charcoal stove with low heat until they start to rise and are golden crisp giving a texture of cookie-crisp at the outside and cakely soft at the inside.

Since I have to baked them in the oven, the end result wasn't that perfect as the authentic way of making them, but it's good enough to tame our craving for things from our home country.

Make 48 pieces mini muffin size.

- 1 1/2 Cake flour
- 3 Eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- butter for the pan

1. Preheat the oven at 350F, butter 2 mini muffin pans, set a side.
2. In electric mixer on high speed, beat the eggs until fluffy.
3. Gradually add sugar, and continue beating until the batter turns white at the soft peak.
4. Turn the speed to low, add flour ( divide it to tree times adding) mix the flour just to incorporate, do not over beat it. Turn the machine off.
5 Spoon the batter to the mold, 1/4 inch to the rim of the mold.
6. Bake for 12 minutes or more, use the toothpick to test if they are done.
7. Unmold. These egg cakes are more delicious when eat right away after bringing out of the oven.

Fresh Rice Noodle With Asian Sauce

Gauy Teaw Lhord

This is another delicious noodle dish, and yet easy to make. I love making them for Sunday lunch. The sauce can be made ahead, keep it in the fridge, and just reheat it when you are ready to eat.

The first time I found this fresh noodle at the corner of Bowery and Hester st. in Chinatown, I was so happy. It made me think of Guay Teaw Lhord (Lhord means tube or straw in Thai) at home in Thailand.

The broad flat noodle are made fresh, rolled in with the tiny dried shrimps and chop fresh scallion forming small rolls of noodle. I don't know what the Chinese eat this soft yummy noodle with, but I know it's going to be my Guay Teaw Lhord, and it's delicious!!

If you can't find fresh noodle just like this, you can buy dried broad flat noodle - boil them up until they are soft - just like boiling pasta, and have them ready for the sauce.

Making The Sauce

- 1/3 cup dried shrimp
- 1/2 cup fresh pork, small, thinly sliced.
- 5-6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water, or fresh shiitake, cut into small strips.
- 1/2 cup bamboo shoots

- 1 tbsp herbal paste
- 2 cup of water + 1/2 cup of soaked shiitake mushroom water
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

1. A pan on medium high heat, saute herbal paste with sliced pork, add a bit of water into the pan to degrease the pan. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add in dried shrimp, and 2 cups of water and the rest of shiitake mushroom water. Let it reaches a full boil.
3. In goes bamboo shoots and shiitake mushroom.
4. Start seasoning with oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Stir to incorporate.
5. Taste it, and adjust the taste you like. The taste should has a balance of sweet and salty. If it was too strong, you can always thin it out with a bit of water. Turn off the heat - ready to serve.
6. Ladle out the sauce on to the fresh noodle.

This noodle isn't a "soupy-noodle", just a little of sauce goes along way to a yummy land. I recommend adding 1 tsp. of white vinegar to the noodle before eating. It'll make the taste more complete and deliciously balancing.

Craving for Cupcakes

Even though I am not a sweet tooth person, still, there is a day that I was craving for yummy cookies and cakes, especially chocolate cakes, and this time my craving for chocolate cupcakes came at night, I checked the pantry and there were no any of chocolate supplies for my cakes, so I just had to go with what I already have in the kitchen.

The easy yellow cupcake was the winner that night. I took the recipe from Martha's, and killed my craving right there.

I 'm not a fan of the icing frosting, wayyyy to sweet for me. So the frosting was just for the show, and was scraped off when I ate it. Happy tummy!!

Stuffed Cucumber Clear Soup

Gang-Jeud Tang-Gwar Moo-Sub

The temperature here in NYC has dropped suddenly - It' s cold, wet and windy - we even got snow....in OCtober! You are bit early Mr. Snow.

It makes me needed something to comforting my belly, and the clear soup with light taste like this stuffed cucumber with shittake mushroom is the best.

As we know, eating Thai way is that we have a few dishes at once on the table, and we eat them all together - each dish has its own distinctive taste, and will complement each other, and that all the tastes will be balanced.

This soup is one of a perfect soup to tone down some spicy dishes like this dish or some curries.

Preparing the cucumber.
Choose one good size cucumber, clean it, cut into small cylinders, scoop out all the seed and peel off the green skin

Marinate the pork stuffing.
- 1 cup ground pork (You can use ground shrimp if you like)
- 1 tbsp. of herbal marinade paste
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. corn starch

Mix all ingredients well, and let it marinaded for 10 minutes then stuff the cylinder cucumbers with the marinaded ground pork.

Making the clear soup.
- 2 cup water or stock
- soy sauce
- green onion, cut into 1 inch long
- shiitake mushroom

1. On high heat, bring water to full boil.
2. Turn the heat down to medium heat, carefully put stuffed cucumbers into the pot, add shiitake mushroom.
3. Cover a pot with a lid for three minutes.
4. Start seasoning with soy sauce, put the lid on - leave it ajar- for three more minutes.
5. Taste, and adjust the taste. Use a small fork to check if the pork stuffing is cooked through.
6. Add green onion, and turn off the heat.
7. Serve....in a serving bowl, add a small spoon of garlic oil, and sprinkle with powder pepper.