Clamming Fun

We went clamming for the first time and it was a lot of fun. We drove 1 hr 40 mins to NJ bay area to clam. The driving was well worth it. When it was still high tide which went in the water anyway. We used our feet to rub and dig down on the sand to feel the clams. Then reach down to grab it and place in plastic bags. We got so much clams that it took us 3 days to finish...and we gave most away to families too. We grilled the clams fresh at the bay area and it was so good with Texas Pete's hotter hot sauce. I fell in love with the hot sauce....lol. It was the perfect hot sauce for clams. Then at home I grill them again and ate that for a day. Still got so much left so I decided to make bun rieu (noodle soup) with them. I didn't really measure the ingredients so no recipe here. But it's the same way you make the regular bun rieu.

Sweet N' Spicy Lobsters

Shoprite lobsters are on sale. They had the 3-6 lbs average lobsters. These lobsters are the largest I've ever seen. I got two lobsters and one at 3.5 lb and the other smaller because they ran out of the large one. Both came to a total of over 5 lbs. I cleaned the lobsters and asked my husband to chop them in chunks. This is our first time cooking lobsters and his first time chopping lobsters. So we made a little mess...lol. I had to divide the lobsters in two since my wok is too small.





Ingredients:

5 lbs lobster
1 onion sliced
4 stalk scallions (sliced 2 inch long)
cornstarch
oil for frying


Sauce:

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
11 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp fish sauce
6-8 chillies
2 tbsp shrimp paste
1-2 tbsp XO sauce
400 ml water

Method:

1. Brush clean the lobster over running water to clean the shell. Chop lobsters in pieces and clean again. Divide the claw from the head and body. Larger sizes require more cook time.
2. Drain off water and coat the lobsters with cornstarch.
3. Heat enough oil for frying. Fry lobsters until 80% cook.
4. Mix all the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
6. Heat the wok with the XO sauce. Add in the shrimp paste. Stir for a second and add in the onion. Then add in the lobsters. Stir fry for a minute.
7. Add in the sweet n' spicy sauce and continue to stir fry. The sauce will become thick. Taste. Then add in the scallions and remove from heat.
8. Serve with rice.

White Fungus w/ Rock Sugar Dessert

White fungus is said to have similar medical value as bird nests. And it tastes pretty good with rock sugar, longan, and dried dates. I wanted to add eucheuma too but I will have to soak it for a day first. So I just cooked these four ingredients together and it's very good and it tastes very similar to bird nest. I cooked this a little longer so the soup got thicken a bit. This dessert is best eaten chilled and with a couple cubes of ice. So refreshing!



Ingredients:

50 grams white fungus (soak for 30+ minutes)
80 grams dried longan (soak 1+ hour)
70 grams dried dates (soak 1+ hour)
200 grams rock sugar
4 liters water

Method:

1. Cook soaked dried dates with water for about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Rinse the dried longan first to get rid of dirt and then soak with 2 cups of water. Save the clean part of the water to add into the soup later.
3. Clean the soaked white fungus and cut into small chunks. Remove the hard yellow center.
4. Boil the 4 liter water plus the clean longan water. Add in the white fungus. Bring to boil. Then add in the red dates and then on medium low heat to slow boil for 20 minutes.
5. Add in the longan meat and boil for another 10 minutes.
6. Add in the rock sugar to taste and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Cool and then refrigerate. Serve chilled with ice.

Chicken Stir-fry Chinese Broccoli Tips (Kai Lan)

Another stir-fry idea to eat with rice for lunch or dinner. Very simple dish but tastes great! Adjust the taste seasoning to the amount of vegetable and meat.



Ingredients:

1-2 lbs Kai Lan Tips
1 cup chicken breast shredded
1 tbsp XO sauce (optional, use garlic to replace)
1-2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp water


Method:

1. Marinate chicken breast with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp fish sauce, and 1 tsp oyster sauce. Marinate for 15 minutes.

2. Rinse kai lan well. Boil a pot of water enough to fit all kai lan in. Once the water is boiling, pour in kai lan. Wait for 1 minute and then drain kai lan. Rinse over cold water and drain.

3. Heat the wok and pour in XO sauce with some oil. Then add in the chicken to stir-fry. Stir until chicken is cooked.

4. Add in the kai lan and continue to stir-fry for couple (3-4) minutes until the kai lan is hot but not soft. Add in the water if the wok is dry. Add seasoning and taste.

5. Mix cornstarch with water and add to wok to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat.

6. Serve hot with rice.

Durian Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk

I bought a frozen durian today and it was so sweet and creamy. Durian is good by itself or with sticky rice. I learned to eat durian sticky rice in coconut milk from a frozen Thai dessert sold at the supermarket. It was so good I had to make some. :) This dessert taste best when hot. Leftover can be refrigerated and microwave later. Still tastes great after 2 days. :)



Ingredients:

2 cups glutinous rice soaked for 4 hrs
2 cups coconut milk
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together and cook in ricer cooker. Stir the rice after rice cooked.

Durian in Coconut Milk:

2 cups durian pulps
3 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup water
2-3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Heat the coconut milk, water, sugar, salt. Pour in 3/4 of durian and cook for 4 minutes. Then pour in the rest and cook for 1 minutes. Taste and remove from stove. *Can use some cornstarch if sauce too soupy.

Serve hot durian coconut milk on top of sticky rice.

Place left over rice in individual containers and then durian coconut milk on top. Refrigerate the dessert and microwave hot to serve later.

Mango Trees from Nipa Hut Gardens

After long research and reading about mango tree, I decided to get the nam doc mai and carrie mango trees. I ordered two mango trees from Nipa Hut Gardens. They are 2 ft tall. The trees came pretty fast with ground shipping. It came in 3-4 days and no damage. The nam doc mai is a newer graft than the carrie since the trunk is still green. I'm pretty satisfied with my order from Nipa Hut and their shipping is a lot cheaper than other nursery. Let's see how well I can grow mango trees in PA. :)

Left is Carrie, right is Nam doc mai

right NDM, left Carrie

Picked 1st Makok Sapodilla

I picked my first makok sapodilla on May 22nd. It was somewhat soft on the tree but I still have to let it ripe on the counter for couple more days. The taste is sweet but not as sweet as the alano. The smell is just like a sapodilla. The color of the inside is light brown. I think it's supposed to be a darker brown, but maybe being planted in a pot and no direct sun for a couple months in the winter affected the color. There might be a lack of fertilizer too. I would say the flower started around July of last year. So it took about 10 months for the fruit to ripe and ready to eat. I think it took this long because of not enough heat and sunshine. The fruit is larger than a large egg. The tree is flowering again.:)

I should have leave it for another day. Still a little green on the edges. But this is still good.

Tips for picking: To test if the fruit is mature to pick, try to scrape hard into the skin. If it's not ready then you will see the latex coming out. Also, when it's ready then it come off easily from stem.

Gefner Atemoya from Plantogram

I know I'm not suppose to get anymore tree but I can't help it because I'm addicted to tropical fruit trees. This is my first time ordering from Plantogram nursery. The customer service was fantastic with Mickey the owner. He is a really nice guy and I can call him anytime of the day...even after 5 pm. On their website they have a 24/7 service. The gefner atemoya is about 5 ft tall and he already topped some off. He also threw in a free barbados and surinam cherry trees. The barbadaos is a nice looking tree with really nice purple flowers. My overall experience is very good and their tree is larger than most nursery.



My trees came in this huge box without any damage.


Nicely wrapped so no soil falling out.

Cream Cheese Sponge Cake

I got this recipe from the web a while ago so I don't really remember where I got it. This is a really good sponge cake with cream cheese flavor. It is moist, soft and so yummy when hot. It's also good the next day or after refrigeration. We love this cake and I make this every once in a while. I modified the recipe a little since I want to use the whole stick of cream cheese instead of 190g.



Ingredients:

225 g cream cheese
155 ml heavy whipping cream
4 large eggs
150 g sugar
55 g plain flour
55 g self-rising flour
55 g cornstarch
2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)

Method:

1. *Using the double boiler method, heat the cream cheese and whip cream together until the cream cheese melt. Remove from heat and whisk or stir the cream cheese until smooth. Set aside to cool.
2. Sift the three flours together three times.
3. Heat the oven to 325 F at this time.
4. Beat eggs for about 1 minute and gradually add in sugar. Beat until creamy and thicken leaving trail of ribbon.
5. Gradually fold the sifted flour into the egg batter.
6. Now gradually fold in the cream cheese batter. Mix in lemon juice.
7. Pour in nonstick pan and bake for 50-55 minutes until cooked. (8 or 9" pan)
8. Serve hot or cool.

* Double Boiler- upper pan containing the substance to be cooked with the lower pot of boiling water at the bottom.

Alano Sapodilla

I ordered some Alano sapodilla from Harry in Florida. I got 7 lbs and they were delicious! My mom say this is better than the one we get from the supermarket. The Alano is very similar to the one she ate in Vietnam. The fruits came in different sizes and shapes. Some larger, some rounder, some more elongated. The inside is reddish brown and super sweet. I just have to eat one and I'll be all happy and energetic! There is a lot of sugar in this fruit and so yummy. Thanks Harry!

White Sapote

I ordered some white sapote with my cherimoya last week. I've never taste or seen this fruit before and nor did my mom. But the name sapote sound so similar to the sapodilla. In Vietnam, we call the sapodilla "sapote" too. But as you can see these are totally different fruits. The white sapote is green to yellowish and the sapodilla is brown. The texture of the two is totally different too. The one thing they have in common is that both are super super sweet! These white sapote are so sweet that I could only eat half of the fruit each time. No one in my family can eat more than half. If so, we need to have good health insurance like they have here just in case somebody goes into a diabetic coma.

The white sapote looks just like a green apple. The skin is very thin and smooth. The inside texture is very similar to an avocado, except more juice than the avocado. It's very buttery like the avocado too. The taste is like custard with a little of peach flavor. You can say it's somewhat creamy when you bite into it. There are 4 seeds in each fruit. The fruit is ready to eat when yellowish and soft.

Harvested June Plum in PA

Today I decided to harvest my dwarf june plum. The total weight of my harvest is 1 lb 7 oz. This taste very similar to the big june plum. The fruit is sour and crisp. The dwarf june plum is not as crisp as the big one but still good. A lot better when eaten with the sauce.





One dip is chillies w/ salt. The other is 2 tbsp sugar + 2 chillies + 3 tsp fish sauce.

Small seeds. Some seeds so small you can eat them too.

Late Season Cherimoya

The season for cherimoya is coming to an end soon. This is my second order for cherimoya. They are a little different in sizes and shapes compared to last week order. This could be because this is considered a late season for the cherimoya. I will have to wait until they are ripe to eat. This will take maybe 3 days. I will check them everyday just to make sure my cherimoya is not overripe. Feel and press the fruit to check if they are ripe or not. If it's soft when you press it then it's ripe. Make sure you check a couple spots on the fruit. Usually closer to the stem is where you can press to check. Then check the sides. Remember to wash before cutting the fruit!






The Pierce is sweet with some tart and graininess. Seedy compared to other varieties.