Recipe thread?

Well, here's a couple that I posted earlier on that other thread (I hadn't thought of this one yet):

Chinese Mustard in Soy Sauce
This recipe originally called for Chinese cabbage, but I wound up using Chinese mustard my first time because I had it available. You can use pretty much any green, but the mustard worked best, for my taste. Even my mustard hating sister loved the stuff, but I think that's because she didn't know it was mustard when I served it to her. All credit to Ken Hom for the recipe.
Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients
1 pound Chinese mustard
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oil, preferable peanut

Cut the mustard leaves into 1 1/2-inch strips and blanch them in a pot of boiling salted water for about 1 minute. Drain thoroughly, and put the blanched leaves onto a platter. Dribble the soy sauce over them.
Heat the oil in a wok or skillet until it is almost smoking and then pour the hot oil over the leaves. Serve at once.


Fancy Sliced Tomatoes
I've never been extremely big on tomatoes, but the seasonings make this a great hit for a hot day. Can't remember which cookbook I got this recipe from.

(Fix this a few hours ahead if you can, so the flavor has a chance to burgeon.)

Ingredients:
Tomatoes
Onions (Any kind)
Salt
Pepper
Dried Basil
Sugar
Vinegar
Olive Oil

Instructions:
Put a layer of sliced unpeeled tomatoes in a shallow pretty bowl about eight or ten inches in diameter, and put a layer of sliced onions (Bermuda, green, or what have you) on top of it. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper around, a pinch of basil, a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and one teaspoon each of vinegar and olive oil. Add another layer of tomatoes and onion slices and repeat the seasonings. Keep going in this fashion, depending on how many people you're serving and how tired you get.

Personal notes on this recipe: Double amount of seasonings. Keep garlic salt on hand to apply liberally to individual servings.

Behold, the GREATEST RECIPE EVER. Courtesy of my mother, who stole it from someone else, but made her own adjustments.

The envelopes of tamarind soup base is this stuff: tinyurl.com/ya838yqn

Vietnamese-Style Sour Soup with Shrimp

Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
7 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons tamarind soup base (2 envelopes)
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 (16 oz) can quail eggs (yield about 18 eggs) (or fresh eggs-boil 4 minutes, peel and put back in)
20 black tiger shrimp, peeled & devein (about 1 lb)
3 cups pineapple (1 large can)
1 jalapeños, sliced
1 small shallot, sliced
1 cups diced tomatoes (or use cherry, grape or any little tomato)
1 cup bean sprout
1 cup chopped sawtooth herb and/or rice paddy herb (Can't ever find, so I use basil and cilantro)

Method:
Heat oil in a small sauce pan/pot. Test oil with a piece of garlic. If it sizzle right away then it’s ready. Add the remainder and fry until brown. DO NOT WALK AWAY! Garlic brown very fast. Stir it so they don’t clump.
Next, in a pot bring water to a rolling boil. Add sugar, tamarind soup base and fish sauce. Give it a stir to combine.
Add quail eggs gently so the soup doesn’t splash on you. Technically, the eggs are cooked so you are just warming them up again.
Add black tiger shrimp, sliced pineapples, jalapeños, shallots, diced tomatoes, bean sprouts and chopped herb. Give it a stir and allow it to come back to a boil.
Ladle to a severing bowl and E-N-J-O-Y!

I've made this for three years running and I'm still tweaking the recipe (in fact, I got into cooking because I saw this on a TV show and wanted to eat it), but this is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. Apple season is over now, so if anyone actually reads this... well, you won't be able to make it for a year or so. It's worth the wait. Trust me.

Honey Pickled Apples
1 quart water
1 1/2 cups honey (or to taste, I often add a lot more during cooking)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sherry vinegar
2-inch piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
3 whole star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
Grated rind of 1/2 lemon
Apples, peeled, cored, cut into wedges -- As many as will fit into your mason jars (probably around 12-14)

1. Have on hand 3 clean 1-quart mason jars.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the water, honey, sugar, salt, vinegar, ginger, anise, cinnamon, and lemon rind. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Divide the apple wedges among the jars. Carefully ladle the hot liquid over them. Set aside for 15 minutes. Screw on the lids. Refrigerate for up to 3 months. I'd say refrigerate for no less than a month and a half to let the flavor develop. I make mine some time during early to mid-November and now I serve them at Christmas.


The dish is very sweet. Although it is pickled, the prevailing taste is of honey and sugar, which melds with the apple and creates something indescribable. Make sure to let it pickle long enough to override the natural tartness of the apple: The goal is to pull a slice out, stick it in your mouth and taste all of that honey flavor melting onto your tongue.

Cheap, hearty and pretty tasty. I threw in some nori and salt to my finished product (I also used Japanese tamari, which is far weaker than the Chinese soy sauce you find in most stores) and it really worked well. A good dish to make if you're broke.

Edit: Furikake is your friend.

A couple of top-tier recipes I made recently. The first is a great breakfast (prepare beforehand, the eggs will keep for a few days - serve with rice and a drizzle of sesame oil). The other is a great dinner (I improvised with the vegetables - mushrooms and water chestnuts do a WONDERFUL job of soaking up the flavor).

I haven't tried it, but I do know that Food Wishes made a video 7 years back that looked really good (although he tends to use more easily available American ingredients when he prepares international food):