Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry煸炒芽甘蓝

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 pcs. thinly sliced bacon 2 clove garlic (minced) olive oil 200g - 300g trimmed brussels sprouts, halved 1½ to 2½ TBSP water salt and black pepper to taste ½ to 1 TBSP grated parmesan cheese

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Clean and halve brussels sprouts.	2. Cut bacon into serving size.	3. Heat up skillet. Cook bacon over medium high heat until bacon turns golden brown and crisp. Remove the bacon and leave bacon grease in the skillet.
4. Drain bacon on paper towel.	5. Add minced garlic to skillet. Saute for about 1 minute over medium heat until golden brown.	6. Add brussels sprouts and stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes over high heat until lightly browned.
7. Season brussels sprouts with salt and pepper to taste.	8. Drizzle about 1½ TBSP water over the brussels sprouts.	9. Cover skillet with lid. Cook brussels sprouts over high heat for about 1½ minutes or until water vaporized. Turn off the heat. Transfer brussels sprouts to a serving plate.
10. Top brussels sprouts with bacons crisps and grated parmesan cheese before serving.

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Recipe: Mashed Potatoes & Gravy肉汁土豆泥

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 clove garlic (minced) * optional 1 TBSP butter 450g - 550g / 1 to 2 potatoes chicken broth or beef broth salt pepper 1 to 3 TBSP fresh milk

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Mince garlic. Cut potatoes into small cubes.	2. Melt butter in a small stockpot over medium-low heat.	3. Saute garlic in melted butter until golden brown over medium heat.
4. Add potatoes. Saute for about 1 minute.	5. Add enough chicken broth to cover the potatoes by at least ½cm to 1½cm. Bring to a boil over high heat.	6. Reduce heat to medium. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Cover with lid. Let cook for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender. Turn off the heat.	8. Spoon potatoes into a bowl, leaving broth in stockpot.	9. Gradually add milk to potatoes in the bowl. Mash potatoes with a metal spoon or fork until smooth.
10. Stir in some mashed potatoes into the broth in stockpot to use as gravy. Re-heat gravy over medium-low heat if necessary. Serve mashed potatoes with gravy.

Lentil & Vegetable Soup

Recipe: Lentil & Vegetable Soup小扁豆蔬菜汤

Serves: 2 - 3

Ingredients

Ingredients A ½ cup green lentil ½ TBSP olive oil 100g / ¼ yellow onion (finely chopped or diced) 250g tomatoes (diced) 35g / 1 stalk celery (thinly sliced) 100g / 1 carrot (thinly sliced) 1 bay leave 150g / 1 zucchini (thinly sliced) 60g / ½ cup long bean or french beans (cut into 2" sections) Ingredients B 1 tsp. paprika 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Ingredients C 2 TBSP tomato paste 2½ cup vegetable stock Seasonings salt pepper

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Soak lentils in cold water for 2 to 4 hours then rinse and drain well.	2. Thinly slice celery, carrot and zucchini. Chop onion, cut beans into 2-inch sections and dice tomatoes.	3. Pour vegetable broth into a large bowl. Stir tomato paste into vegetable broth. Combine well and set aside.
4. Heat the oil in a medium stock pot. Saute onion over medium heat until tender, about 3 minutes.	5. Stir in ingredients B (paprika & oregano) and saute for another minute.	6. Add lentils and broth mixture C. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered.
7. Add celery, carrot, and bay leave. Bring to boil again.	8. Then reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes until soup has thickened.	9. Add beans, covered, continue simmer for 5 minutes.
10. Add zucchini, covered, continue simmer for 10-12 minutes, until vegetables are tender.	11. Remove bay leave from soup. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with crusty bread.

Yaki-Gyoza / Potstickers

Recipe: Yaki-Gyoza / Potstickers焼き餃子 / 锅贴

Yields: 20 pcs

Ingredients

Gyoza Wrappers 125g wheat flour & additional for dusting 50ml lukewarm water + 30ml water pinch of salt Dipping Sauce 4 TBSP light soy sauce 2 TBSP rice vinegar

Filling 180g ground pork ¼ cup finely chopped sweet onion ¼ cup finely chopped carrot 1 clove garlic; minced ¾ tsp. sesame oil 1 TBSP rice vinegar (sushi rice vinegar) 1½ TBSP light soy sauce ½ TBSP water 1 tsp. corn starch

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Gyoza Wrappers
1. Put flour and salt in a mixing bowl or a deep dish.	2. Stir in 50ml lukewarm water. Then, gradually stir in remaining water. Mix mixture with a metal spoon until mixture resembles coarse meal.	3. Knead dough with hand until you get a smooth. Cover dough with damp tea towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into about 0.01cm thick sheet.	5. With a 3-inch round cookie cutter, makes about 20 rounds.	6. Combine all the remnants and repeat rolling and cutting into rounds process.
7. Cover gyoza wrappers with cling wrap until ready to use.
Preparation
1. Mix filling in a mixing bowl. Cover bowl with cling wrap and let filling marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.	2. Pour some flour into a large clean baking pan. This pan will be used to put the wrapped gyoza later. Flour on the pan will prevent gyoza from sticking to the baking pan and helps to make the bottom of gyoza to be more crispy when cook later.	3. Place approximately 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper.
4. Moisten the edge of a wrapper with a dab of water.	5. Fold wrapper in half over filling. Pinch to seal one end for about ½-inch. Then, start to pleat and fold.	6. Make 4 to 6 pleats at about ½-inch interval. Press and seal any opening.
7. A gyoza is wrapped.	8. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for the rest. Place wrapped gyoza on the floured baking pan.	9. Heat up 1 TBSP oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Arrange as many gyoza as you can in the skillet. Cook gyoza over medium high heat for about 1 minute, until bottoms lightly browned.
10. Add some water to the gyoza in skillet.	11. Water level is about one third of the height of gyoza.	12. Cover with lid and cook gyoza over medium high heat for 5 to 6 minutes, until water start to sizzle.
13. Remove lid when you start to hear the sizzling sound. Let gyoza cook until water vaporized.	14. Immediately drizzle ½ TBSP oil or sesame oil over the gaps and empty edges. Tilt skillet to spread oil to the bottoms of gyoza.	15. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until bottoms of gyoza turn brown. Turn off the heat. Remove gyoza from the skillet with spatula.
16. Arrange gyoza browned side up on a serving platter. Mix dipping sauce. Serve yaki-gyoza with dipping sauce.

Notes

Wheat flour can be substituted with all-purpose flour. Gyoza wrappers are slightly thicker than wonton wrappers. However, you can use wonton wrappers as gyoza wrappers. Get a package of gyoza wrappers or wonton wrappers from Asian store if you are lazy to DIY. Use a cookie cutter to cut wonton wrappers into rounds.