Showing posts with label Rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rice. Show all posts

Friday, January 2, 2015

hangover food - vietnamese rice porridge recipe

i know i know, sometimes those two words just shouldn't be in the same sentence.  the thought of food makes you want to snuggle up more under those sheets and close your eyes in hopes of all the pain going away by the time you wake up.... 

anyone else have that feeling yesterday morning? that feeling where you start questioning yourself on everything you did the day before. why didn't i eat a solid breakfast? why did i drink champagne at work?  why did i accept that free shot of tequila from the bartender?  wait, why didn't i eat a solid meal all day on a day that i drank more than i ever do?

by the time you reach age 27, you should have this plan mastered by now, you KNOW how to avoid a hangover.....  but sometimes a big hangover creeps up on you like you just got smacked upside your head.

so here comes the best hangover food to the rescue.  i just thought it was a delicious bowl of rice porridge, until my mother-in-law convinced me it's hangover food. simple as this, she said "when my kids go out drinking all night, they need to eat this in the morning."  ok, we'll do just that.  mama knows best!

Vietnamese Rice Porridge Recipe


vietnamese rice porridge
(aka best hangover food ever)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1/2 medium red onion, diced

8 1/4 cups of water
1 cup white jasmine rice
2 chicken bouillon cube
1 tablespoon sugar

3 cloves of garlic, grated
3 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 stalks of green onion, chopped
 
heat large pot over medium high heat.  add olive oil, then add ground pork and diced red onion.  add about 1/4 cup of water to the pot so the ground pork gets cooked, but not browned.  while pork and onions are simmering, rinse rice in a fine mesh strainer.  when pork is thoroughly cooked and onions are translucent add rice, chicken bouillon, grated garlic, fish sauce and ground white pepper to the pot and stir.  once all incorporated, add remaining 8 cups of water and bring to a simmer until mixture begins to thicken, stirring every few minutes, about 15 minutes total.  once mixture begins to thicken, stir continuously until mixture becomes a porridge texture, almost like a thick soup or a runnier oatmeal texture.  should take another 5 mins.  stir in chopped green onions, then serve immediately.  sprinkle cracked black pepper on top if you want (or not, depending on your hangover situation :P)

the mixture will continue to thicken in the pot once it cools.  when you reheat for leftovers, you just need to add some water before reheating, and you'll be back to that silky texture from the first day!

sorry this wasn't given to you YESTERDAY, like when you actually needed it, but i'm eating it until the whole batch is gone, even though i'm no longer suffering from the nasty hangover.  i AM suffering from lack of sleep though.  i tried staying up until the end of the sugar bowl, slightly napping on the sofa until 1:30am!! yikes!  good thing it's friday, my friends (at least i have good leftovers to eat for lunch :P)

cheers.
jenn

Sunday, November 25, 2012

thanksgiving road trip

i could just post a bunch of pictures from thanksgiving to show you how the big day went...

or... 

i could  tell you that we were too busy spending quality time with the family in ohio that i didn't even take a single picture of any thanksgiving festivities.  camera never came outta the bag.

well... except twice ;)

once to snag a seemingly-rare photo of just my mom and i... just before heading over to my cousins' house for thanksgiving #1  ON thanksgiving.

once to snap a picture of some food at thanksgiving #2 in cleveland ...this is one of my FAVORITE mama P dishes, fried rice with eggs, veggies, and special sausage... after she TAUGHT ME TO MAKE IT!!! now i've got some big shoes to fill... because this stuff is good .

instagram sufficed for the rest of the weekend ;)





1. drinking games with mr p's siblings. someone made me take TWO moonshine cherries at once :/
2. my snuggle buddy for the night... lil miss ellie.
3. my little buckeye watched the game all the way from florida! (ironically, with 4 men in mr p's family, mama p and i were the only 2 watching the game at that house...)
4. there was no hesitation in setting up the christmas tree. "after thanksgiving" MEANS "after thanksgiving", people!! 'tis the season :)
(p.s. it hardly looks any different from last year ! just the way i like it :P)

hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend, too!

cheers.

Monday, April 9, 2012

vietnamese summer rolls

Summer Rolls:
boiled shrimp (quartered)
boiled pork loin (julienned)
cucumber (julienned)
mint
cilantro
cooked rice vermicelli noodles
rice paper rounds
Peanut Sauce:
hoisin sauce (3 parts)
creamy peanut butter (1 part)
water (1/3 part, or more depending on the consistency you want)

Instructions (Summer Rolls):
put each ingredient in a bowl (rice papers in a pile) and set out a large bowl of room-temperature water, so that you have a "station" and a space to fill the rolls.
dip 1 rice paper in water.
shake off excess water.
fill 1 side of rice paper with remaining ingredients.
wrap up rice paper tightly like a burrito (roll up end near the goodies, fold in sides after 1 full wrap, then roll up the rest of the way).
try to do this quickly, as the rice paper will get really slippery and difficult to roll up after a few minutes! it's ok if the paper feels stiff and sort of dry while you are folding, it will eventually get to the right soft texture after it sits for a few minutes after you've made the roll. also, don't let the rolls touch each other, or they will stick together and you won't be able to get them back apart!!


Instructions (Peanut Sauce):
mix ingredients together :D
enjoy!  we surely did!  we took them over to our friends' house for an "international dinner".

christina's italian bruschetta

mr p's vietnamese summer rolls

nick's hungarian chicken paprikash

jo's indian potato cakes (don't remember the name!!  JO?? help here!)

jo's potato cakes dressed with plain yogurt, red onions, green chutney, and siracha!

the spread

we had such a great time!! LOVE nights like this :D

toodles.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Dinner for 10

who says having a tiny apartment means you can't entertain?  we surely tested our limits this past weekend by having 8 people over for dinner, making it 10 total with us.

the key to it?  making everything re-heat-able and making things that are ideally eaten out of a bowl with a spoon or a fork, no knives needed (when 1 hand is holding the dish, it's pretty hard impossible to cut something with a knife..)  we surely don't have "dining" seating for 10 people, so everyone ate on the couch or on a chair in the living room.  eating while holding your plate is just not fun (and is asking for something to spill to the floor), so we served everything in bowls!

pasta and meatballs it is, then!  i knew mr p would enjoy making this, because he LOVES making things from scratch that most people wouldn't dare to try (or, at least, they don't get on a regular basis).  he made his sauce from scratch, meatballs from scratch (including grinding the meat in the new meat grinder attachment to the kitchenaid mixer), pasta from scratch, and homemade plain white Italian bread.

before the prepping began, though, mr p and i went to the grocery to pick up food for the night, grabbing some good ole Shoprite sushi while we were there:

who says grocery store sushi isn't good?? i surely like my spicy tuna in brown rice
(well... coming from the NON sushi connoisseur)

mr p's regular tuna with white rice


let the REAL festivities begin!!

started the night with some homemade guac and blue corn tortilla chips


mr p's pasta-making in action

fluffy bread's ready :D


everyone's pappardelle ready, just wating on the meatballs and sauce!
check out the bowls with the raised sides, new dinnerware additions from sur la table

mr p's bowl :D

thanks to everyone for bringing the booze!

thanks to jo for making the BEST "better than sex" choco cupcakes.
(with her AMAZING addition of melting cookies and cream hersey bars on top!)

needed a new chalkboard drawing now that christmas is over

"sign-in sheet"

after eating delicious food, drinking lots of coronas and lots of wine, playing countless rounds of catch phrase and the game of things, and staying up past 2am (ha, it's not exactly college days anymore, 2am is LATE!!), we slept in and made breakfast with leftover bread, leftover rice, and DEEEELICIOUS sausage my mom got from the butcher and sent back with us at christmas time (well, mr p made us breakfast, really, thanks babe!)

smoked mutz. (i.e. mozzarella)

my brown rice, sausage, and runny egg with frank's.

mr p's goodies that obvi wouldn't fit in his siracha-sprinkled sammich bread he had prepared.

zack's sausage and egg sammich with frank's.

thanks to everyone who came!  hopefully it will all happen again soon, and those who couldn't make it will make it for the next feast!

cheers to a great week ahead :D

toodles.
j&h

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Week 3 Detox Update: Adding in Gluten-Free Whole Grains

Starting Tuesday night, I began introducing carbs back into my system. NOT eating carbs wasn't so bad after all! But, I definitely couldn't go on forever eating like that.

Tuesday night we made red thai curry a different way than we have in the past (see original post here) This time we added cabbage, onions, bamboo shoots, water chesnuts (ahhh my fave!), lentils, baby corn, and shrimp, served over brown rice.  I suppose the first thing I learned after eating the rice, is that I REALLY need to watch how much I put on my plate!  After going without carbs for 2 weeks, it seems that my body learned to be full after much less food, and adding rice to the mix made me full even quicker!  I feel sort of silly putting such a miniscule amount on my plate when we ate leftovers last night, but I didn't feel nearly as stuffed as the first night.

(not exactly the prettiest meal, but it was pretty tasty!  hit lots of tastebuds with sweet, savory, and spicy, and incorporated lots of texture, with the baby corn, water chesnuts, lentils, and cabbage)

I haven't tried any other gluten-free grains yet (since we made such a huge amount of curry and rice that we're still eating it), but I hope to incorporate quinoa and farro in the coming week.  We also bought tapioca flour after eating AMAZING cassava rolls in Chicago, and we want to try out hands at making something with that awesomely sticky, gummy, chewy dough.

Conclusions from the Detox:

1. My portions used to be WAY oversized (probably why I always felt so grossly full after eating dinner)

2. I don't really need caffeine, and coffee will be a treat on the weekends instead of a necessity to start my morning.  I still enjoy having a hot drink in the morning (and at night too sometimes), so I have replaced my weekly coffee with caffeine-free teas such as mint and chamomile.

3. I enjoy eating a animal-protein free (vegan) diet, though when Mr P cooks up some fresh bacon (the GOOD kind from the butcher in Ohio) in the morning for his bacon egg and cheese sammich, it really makes me lose my appetite for the cantalope and apple breakfast I have packed (yep, picture that scene, it happened this morning).

4. Eat what I need, nothing more, nothing less.  If I am going to be working out after work, I need to eat some carbs and protein or I won't make it to mile 2, but if I'm just going to be sitting in my cube at work all day and then be a couch potato all night (everyone needs those days once in a while, right?), then maybe I should cut back on them.

5. The detox is a limited time for a reason.  Living in the NYC area, it's HARD to be social with a diet that I can't eat meat, dairy, or drink alcohol.  Even most garden salads have cheese on them, and it's definitely no fun when everyone else around you is having a beer or a glass of wine and you are not.  Plus, like I told Mr P a few nights ago when I ate roasted broccoli for dinner and he ate something else, doing this whole thing takes all the FUN out of cooking together at night.

All in all though, I'm looking forward to eating normal again, but eating the "detox don'ts" in moderation. Hoepfully I will give at least some conscious consideration before stuffing the Friday work bagel into my mouth, or debating whether or not I can get through Target without picking up a sweet treat!

Wish me luck on the 2 weeks left!

Toodles.
j&h

Sunday, January 1, 2012

merry new year.

Happy New Year!  ...Philly style... where New Year's Day is MUCH bigger than New Year's Eve.

Why? (you might ask)

THE MUMMER'S PARADE! (what the heck is that? you might ask)

well.... we're still trying to figure that one out.  But what we can tell you is that there is a LOT of drinking in public, random strangers wishing you a Happy New Year, and people dressed up in crazy costumes dancing, singing, and strolling through the parade and throughout the streets of Philadelphia.  

Sounds like a good time?  It surely was!

First, however, we celebrated New Year's like the rest of the world... on New Year's Eve!  Getting dressed up, spending time with good friends, watching fireworks, and drinking our butts off.

starting the morning off with some carbs

...hitting the road with more carbs.

Zack's cats are too adorable NOT to take pictures of them.


first time eating Ethiopian food at Almaz Cafe on 20th St. in Philly.  Great food and WONDERFUL service.


everything came with this spongy moist sourdough pancakes called Enjera.  Its used to tear off pieces and grab the food (instead of using utensils)  SOOO good! I could eat just the bread if I had to.

spiked eggnog and baby Riesling bottles to start off the night.
(notice my awesome super sparkly nails!  i can only get away with so many sparkles on NYE, so why not!?!? )

the shoes.

year 3 for my "annual" New Year's Eve super-sparkly dress

Mike and Dana know how to entertain.

...it helps that their apartment has the best view of the fireworks on the Delaware river.

debating who's taller (I think I win by a hair... or a hair "poof")

Enough with NYE.... now onto New Years Day and the Mummer's Parade! (sorry, we didn't get great pics of the performances and costumes, there were sooo  many people and getting a good picture was nearly impossible)

impromptu liquor shot chocolates and breakfast at the future Mr. and Mrs. Dottin's loft :D

normally I hate it when things like Cheez-Its say they have "real" cheese, but I realized I never had "real" maple syrup until a few months ago... I guess I always ate "pancake" syrup ( totally not the same, and totally not nearly as good as "real" maple syrup... so... you gotta try it)

no words.  just.... no words.

Mummers!

City Hall.

the crew.


it was in the 50's! In PHILLY! In JANUARY!


future Mr. and Mrs.



After an exhausting weekend of NYE festivities and Mummer's Parade madness, we ate at Pietro's and ate good Italian pizza and pasta before heading back to NJ.






Hope you had a fun, safe, NYE, and cheers to a great 2012!

Toodles.
J&H