a feast for mother's day

cooking for a party of 25 ain't no joke!

Since my family is quite big, we normally just cook at home, instead of dining out. Its more chilled, and quality time to eat at home.

This year I volunteered to cook the feast...so exhausting! Decided to give it a twist & have Korean for dinner. Had the Galbi, Bossam, Kim Chi jjigae, Bulgogi, but no bon chons (side dishes) I think I would have cracked if I made the side dishes.

The other day my boyfriend's sis-n-law made some Bossam. OMG it was my first time eating it and I'm freaking in LOVE. Like the sweet pork belly wrapped up in pickled cabbage..mm yum yum yum. And that's how I came up with my dinner menu for mother's day. We had a crawfish boil the previous week, tired of eating the same ol stuff we normally eat. I wanted to change it up and try to bring out my korean skills...haha jk. Bossam is a simple dish to cook, its like the Vietnamese version of goi cuon (spring rolls) with out any carbs. 

For more info on Bossam click me

Marinating overnight

Make sure to get the Pork Belly with out the skin. That part is tough and a pain in the butt to slice off. After marinating overnight, I boiled it for about an hr. Sadly, I over boiled mine and the fat belly got kinda smushy.

boil with lots of onion and few cloves of garlic

 

Next step was to pickle your Napa Cabbage. This process took me about 7 hours! It was worth it! FYI a lot of water will be used to pickle the cabbage. A few pages I checked out, some people eat Bossam with kim chi, red lettuce, or sesame leaf.

7 hours later....pickled cababge

I present you bossam-pork belly & pickled cabbage.

While I had my troops help me set up the tables, did some multi-tasking. For starters, I made some Korean Pancakes. What is Korean Pancakes? Click ME  The zucchini pancake is my favorite. Not a fan of the seafood, and haven't tried the kim chi yet. Very simple dish, Only if I can find the ones with direction in ENGLISH!

yum yum yum

Korean Short Ribs

Vietnamese Pork Belly- Thit Heo Nunog

Making Vietnamese Mayo

 I had to squeeze in a bmg creation~ I made a Bossam banh mi. Along with some other mixed of meats my cousin put together.

My cousin made a batch of his own korean bbq recipe. It was delicious!
We each pretty much created our own banh mi sandwich.

Ko-BAM! banh mi lol

Kim Chi & Jalapenos, the two ingredients I can't live without.
Just kidding....too deadly, but oh so good~





As you can see, I don't have many pictures for the other dishes I made....because we were all being pigs and couldn't help but eat! Cheers to good eats!

later gators,
bmg

Seaweed Addiction

Before I thought seaweed paper was only for sushi....

...Until I had roasted seaweed paper! It's quite addicting..it's like Lay's potato chips 'betcha can't eat just one'

My bf's folks brought some back from Korea for me, now I have tons of it in my freezer!

I like the little packaged ones, where you just open & eat it up..only flaw is you can end up eating more than a bag..maybe 2, 3, or 4?!

Anyways his folks gave me the big sheets of seaweed. Its all gravy...I just take out my cutting board & cleaver to make my own packaging by storing them in mini ziploc bags.
** don't forget to store them in the freezer...I guess to keep it fresh?! Who knows, haha I just followed their instructions**

One of my next mission is spam musubi! I've never had it with furikake seasoning. Curious to try it on something else besides sprinkling on rice *ding *ding (lightbulb lights up) I got a banh mi idea in my mind! Looks like I got to round up the troops for another tasting ^_^


Right now japanese shrimp tempura is on my mind...how can I turn it into a yummy banh mi?!? think.think.think.
Ahhh my semi eating healthy lifestyle is contaminating my thoughts -_-

bread(carbs)+ fried food+ greasy spread= bad eating
VS
Crispy baguette+shrimp tempura+delicious seasonings=party in your mouth

Hmm it's ok I'll just have my guinea pigs eat them for me...jk....they're welcome to eat at their own risk ^_^

I was lazy & also craving seaweed~
So I fried some eggs, rice & rolled it up with the seaweed...BAM! There you go egg sushi ~
I decided to pack up the extras for lunch! Oh Gosh I can't wait to see the look on my coworker's face.. They gave a funky stare to my spam musubis last time...I wonder what they're thinking now...oh well...yummy in my tummy,best of all cheap ass lunch!

They say seaweed paper is good for you but I'm not sure what's the info for the roasted ones -_-
It's kinda greasy with sprinkled salt.
Blah...I guess I'll google it later...

As for now, I'll keep eating them...I'm pretty sure it's healthier than a bag of potato chips?! :p

Seaweed away~

Later gators,
bmg

Eat, Drink, Brunch

My lets play in the test kitchen at a friend's Casablanca ended up being a brunch party with wonderful company. 

                There was banh mis, cheese party, delicious refreshments, Rudy's, and dessert (spelled with 2's')

I hosted a banh mi bar~I was occupied with the prepping & cooking, didn't get to take many pics. Thanks VMA for the pics~

Kneading & Rinsing the veggies

 A few days before the brunch, I got a start on my veggies. Do Chua aka Pickled Carrots.

My mandolin was defected, so I had to chopped up some julienne carrots & grated the daikons.

After 45 min of chopping & grating, the next step was to massage them..JK..Sprinkle some salt and I started kneading for a few minutes to get all the moisture out until it was flimsy carrot.

bathing time!

Next step was to rinse off all the salt.

Now the veggies are ready to be bathe in a glass jar. They say you can make this a day or few hours ahead of time. My batch was pickled for about 4 days.

My first meat filling is from the pig. I tried to make Vietnamese sausage aka Cha Lua. click me for more info. For Christmas, I'm so asking Santa for a bad ass food processor. Cha Lua requires a lot of grinding to where the the pork becomes paste. I had lots of air bubbles, and it was mistaken for vegetarian sausage. Next time, I will ask the butcher to grind my pork twice, hopefully that helps!

 Ingredients were simple:

Ground Pork, Baking Soda, Fish Sauce, Water, and Tapioca Starch.

The prepping process took about 1.5 days

  

I was not pleased with the texture, so I fried it. It helped a little bit. Frying gave it a crispy texture on the outside. When you fry cha lua its called cha chien

My second filling is from the cow. A few days before the tasting I made my own Bo Ne. It was delicious & tons of flavor. But sure was greasy from all the butter I used -_-

 However, at the tasting I was so disappointed at myself. I went the frugal route and used sirloin instead of ribeye steak. OMG it was so BAD. I'm so embarrassed to discuss about it.  The eggs were also dry as well...hahah because I didn't use as much butter or grease like Paula Deen. I had the skillet work its magic on low heat.

 

winner winner chicken dinner

My third filling is from the hen. I made ga ro ti, roasted chicken. Save the best for last. 

Thanks Sous Chef~

Baguettes catered from Parisian Bakery & Thim Hing

Made my own Vietnamese mayo aka butter. Will defiantly work on that..still wondering why fresh garlic changes some things. I Didn't have the guts & time to make Pate, so I cheated and bought some ^_^

Preparing the chestnuts.

For dessert, I made Che Thai. Simple make ahead dessert. My favorite ingredient is the f aux pomegranate, its chestnuts covered in tapioca flour.

 Enough of banh mi, time for other goodies!!

Beautiful & Delicious Cheese Assortment

Birdy made Wrapped Baked Brie filled with some kind of jam and topped with brown sugar..So delicious~

Delicious beverages provided by the 211 ladies. So bubbly and refreshing~

 Chinese Egg Tarts & Mochi Balls courtesy of Mr. Lam.

Our Test Kitchen Item that failed...Brazilian Cheese Bread

That's it for now....can't wait to plan the next party~

later gators, bmg