Asian is as Asian does

Nothing says a summery Saturday night like endocrine physiology, a fried brain and knowing that the blood pumping through your veins is slowly freezing into an icy sludge due to the blasting A/C of the school's lecture hall.

But the highlight of this summer night lies within a handful of mint, a walk through the dark and sitting alone on the couch with the page open to glucocorticoid hormones and their effects on carbohydrate metabolism - something that will come in handy after this meal.

It's a little labor intensive but totally and completely worthy every second, every minute, and sadly, every hour of work.

First off, something to warm up my blood and make it a true Caribbean weekend night.

Ginger Mojito
*ok... it was supposed to be a strawberry ginger mojito, but I didn't get a chance to go by the store and buy a carton of strawberries

2 oz. light rum (or 4 tbs, if you have measuring spoons like me and no shot glass)
1 oz. ginger simple syrup (recipe to follow)
Handful of mint leaves
1/2 a lime
1/2 cup club soda

In a tall glass, combine mint, half a lime cut into slices and simple syrup. Taking a wooden spoon, muddle the ingredients together. This will bring out the essential oils in the mint and help all of the flavors begin to combine. Add rum and top off the glass with club soda. Add more simple syrup to taste if you like it sweet like me. =) Garnish with a lime wedge, toss in a bendy straw and have a happy night!Ginger Simple Syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
~3 inch piece of peeled ginger root

In a small pot, combine sugar and water. Peeling the ginger root, slice into 1/4 cm pieces and add to the pot. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and let simmer for 5 minutes. Turning off the heat, let the ginger steep for ~10 minutes before removing and pouring the simple syrup into a resealable container.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls
6 - 50g. packages of Lungkow mung bean vermicelli noodles
40 - 50 size 31-35 frozen headless, de-veined shrimp
8 - 10 leaves of lettuce
3 carrots
2 cucumbers
1 package of 3 Ladies Spring Roll Wrappers
2 large chicken breasts
1 bunch of cilantro
fresh basil/mint
2 cups mung bean sprouts

Preparation
1) Filling a pot with water, heat until a rolling boil is achieved and cook vermicelli noodles according to package, ~3-5 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside in a large bowl.2) Wash lettuce. (I used romaine lettuce) Tear into about 3-4 inch long pieces.3) Wash and peel carrots. Julienne into pieces about 3-4 inches long.
4) Wash, peel and de-seed cucumbers. Julienne.
5) Wash and chop cilantro. (I used both stems and leaves, discarding the bottom portion of the stem that was woodier.)
6) Wash fresh herbs. (I used basil)7) Poach or grill the chicken breasts, seasoning with salt/pepper to taste. (I tossed them in a pot of water with some garlic salt.) Let cool and shred into bite-size pieces.8) Poach shrimp until they're pink and cooked through. Drain. Let cool for a bit before shelling them and splitting them in half.9) Wash mung bean sprouts, take off the both ends, leaving the center stalk.Rolling the Spring Rolls
Gather all of the ingredients together in one space. Set out a plate larger than the diameter of the spring roll wrapper for assembly. Taking a large mouthed pot or aluminum bowl, fill with warm water. Not boiling because otherwise the wrappers will get soft too quickly and stick together into a giant mess.

This next part is where it gets a little tricky to explain. Taking one of the wrappers, wet it completely in the warm water. You'll figure out if the water is too hot when the wrapper gets soft too quickly and sticks to your hands in a giant web. Just add cold water if that happens. Continuing on... When you've moistened the wrapper, place it on the plate. Arrange 3 shrimp halves on the X as in the next picture, approx. the top 1/3 of the wrapper, leaving room at the top to fold the wrapper over. Layer herbs, vermicelli, carrots etc. on top. Be careful of overstuffing the rolls. If it's too much filling, it's harder to roll. Makes for a great snack for the cook though. I call those my discards and eat them as I prepare another wrapper. ;)

Anyway, taking the top, fold it over the filling. Taking the sides, fold those over. Pressing down lightly but firmly to prevent the filling from squishing out, continue rolling. Hopefully the ghetto paint picture coming up will be of more assistance in explaining. It takes a few funky looking rolls to get the hang of it if you've never used the rice paper wrappers before, but if you've made a burrito, you have the basic concept.Just keep repeating the process until you a) run out of wrappers or b) run out of ingredients and are too lazy to make more. =P I get about 35-40 per package of wrappers since they're sold by weight not number.For a dipping sauce, I just threw together a few things in my fridge since I haven't seen hoisin sauce on the island in a long time.

Dipping Sauce
4 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs chili garlic sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakesCombine everything in a small bowl and dip away! I also added a dash of habenero lime hot sauce I had in my fridge since I like it spicy. If you want this to be gluten free like the rest of the meal, use a gluten-free soy sauce and make sure that the fish sauce you purchased is also gluten-free (which it should be if it were made properly).

See, saturday nights alone can be quite yummy. ^_^

C's here, C's there, C's everywhere

And so I continue with using the letter "C," alliterating when I shouldn't. But the cookie craze has discontinued, leading into a coup by chicken curry.

It's been on my mind for quite some time to grab some panko crumbs and make chicken katsu. I even contemplated tonkatsu when I had 5 lbs of pork chops in my freezer, granted that was made into Regency sunday dinner instead. Finally, I bought a canister of panko crumbs, eggs always reside in my fridge as does flour and I pulled out 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a fit of allergy-induced sickness.

Mind you, I'm not often brought down by allergic reactions minus that induced by those evil little blood-sucking fiends that carry dengue but this flowering peacock apparently has much to answer for.

In any case, I still had some Japanese curry leftover that I made earlier so what better to go over rice than some pan-fried chicken katsu reminiscent of eating lunch at Kitaro's in San Francisco right before going to the Main Library downtown across from City Hall for a few hours of knitting.
Chicken Katsu

3 chicken breasts, 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
salt/pepper to taste
1 cup panko crumbs
oil

Taking the chicken breasts, pound each one to 1/2 inch thickness. This will allow the chicken to cook quickly and evenly in the pan, making for a fast dinner option that looks like it took a long time to prepare. Place the flour on a plate or shallow dish. Beat the egg and place in a bowl or shallow dish. Spread the panko crumbs into a third dish.

Season the chicken as desired before dredging in a coat of flour. Tap off the excess before dipping into the beaten egg. When the chicken is coated, allow excess egg to drip off and coat in breadcrumbs, pressing lightly to coat. Repeat for all the pieces of chicken.In a pan, heat a few tablespoons of oil, coating the bottom of the pan. When hot, add the breaded chicken, cooking for 5-10 mins on each side until cooked through and lightly golden brown. With the oven turned to 200 degrees, store fried chicken on a baking pan as you cook each piece so it stays warm until ready to serve.

Slice into strips and place over rice with homemade curry or a favorite sauce. =D

Cookie Monster Cravings

The more I stay up late, the more I feel a need to bake cookies. Not to eat them, only to make them. I suppose that means I'm more a cookie craver than a cookie monster. Sorry for disappointing you, my dear blue furred cookie loving monster. =(

But I think he would be proud. Not only did I use up ingredients that I had in my fridge but the resulting confection was soft and chewy, perfect on its own or with a glass of cold milk in the middle night. So if you're in the Caribbean, have some coconut on hand, haven't quite gotten to the point of rum and don't have any lime, here's a tasty suggestion.

Chewy Coconut Almond Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2-2 1/2 cups shredded/flaked coconut, sweetened

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and almond extract (I ran out of vanilla so I used almond, but either is acceptable and yummy) and mix until combined. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt, sifting the ingredients together before adding to the butter/egg mixture. Stir until mostly combined before adding the coconut. The batter will seem a little dry at first but keep mixing until you get a butterscotch colored cookie dough that smells of coconut and almond.
Preheating the oven to 350 degrees, line a pan with foil or parchment. Form teaspoon sized mounds of batter on the pan; they will spread so have them about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 (I baked them for 8 min). When you take them out, they'll still be very soft. Let them sit untouched for 5-10 minutes to cool and get a little harder before transferring to a plate.