LUKA B

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is one of the most popular Asian dishes and it's easy to make no matter where you are in the world. Friends have asked me for the recipe many times but it took my living along pre-college son's request to make me writing it down! (Yas & Claudia, I was thinking about you girls!:)

So here it is, my version of sweet and sour chicken. Cooking is an art. You can adjust the amount of any of the ingredients to please your taste buds!

Ingredients:

Chicken & marinade

About 2lbs (900g, let's say 1kg) of chicken thigh, or breast. Cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup of all purpose flour. You can replace 1/4 cup of flour with corn starch for lighter texture or just use only corn starch to make it gluten free.
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper (preferable, finely grinded black pepper would work too)
1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder (I forgot it when taking the photo!)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons of milk (or water with some clear alcohol)

Sauce

1 cup of water
2 tablespoon of ketchup
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of pineapple juice (optional, I just happen to have some)
1/2 table spoon of light vinegar (rice, apple, white wine...)
1 tablespoon of corn starch
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper (or finely grinded black pepper)

Steps:

Mix the "chicken & marinade" ingredients well and marinade for at least 30 mins or overnight in the fridge. the batter texture should be somewhat sticky not runny. You can keep the milk at the end to adjust the texture.

This is a home recipe so I want my people to eat chicken not batter. I add just enough batter to coat the chicken, which you can still see the chicken.

Fry the chicken in medium high heat oil first for 3-5 minutes until light brown.

Then double fry in high heat for 10, 15 seconds until golden brown.

Stir-fry your veggies accordingly and lightly salt and pepper them. Keep them aside.

Where I live now we are in the crisis of getting fruits and vegetables distributed. I considered myself lucky to find these yellow peppers. But really, any non leafy vegetable is good to use.

Mix all the "sauce" ingredients except the vinegar. Cook it in medium low heat to boil and continue for 2-3 minutes for all the flavors to blend together.

Add the vinegar then slightly stir to mix well. Add the chicken and let it boil again then turn off the heat.

It's done! Enjoy!

Monday, December 2, 2019

Canadian butter tarts with Maple syrup

Another classic Canadian treat. This recipe is with firmer filling.

Ingredients
Pastry

21/4 cups pastry flour
1tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening. Very cold and cut in cubes
1/2 cup(115g) butter. Very cold and cut in cubes
about 6 tbsp ice water.

Filling

3/4 lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup butter, melted
1large, or 2 small eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
optional:1/2 cup raisins, pecans, walnuts

To prepare the pastry

Mix the flour, sugar and salt together
Cut the butter and shortening into flour mix until the fat is reduced to pea sized pieces.
Sprinkle the water over the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork until the mixture is sticking together. Lightly work with the dough to form into an inch thick disk.
Wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out on lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 inch rounds and fit into muffin cups. Chill in the fridge while preparing the filling to ensure flaky shell!

To prepare the filling

combine all filling ingredients except raisins and mix well.
(Sprinkle raisins in a single layer in the bottom of the pastry lined muffin cups)
Fill 2/3 full with syrup mixture
Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 425 degrees F (or 220 C) for 12 to 15 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack and remove tarts from pans

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Dumpling workshop: dumpling recipe

Dumpling workshop May 8th, 2018.

It was absolutely fun to share my way of making dumplings with a group of fun and enthusiastic ladies!

Here's the menu:

Dumpling workshop: Hot n sour soup recipe

Dumpling workshop May 8th, 2018.

Veal dumplings

Hot and sour soup

Cucumber salad

Soy sauce stewed eggs

Garlic peanuts

Mango/pineapple ice cream with coconut crumble toppings

Hot n Sour soup

Serve about 6-8 people

Maple cookies 楓糖餅乾.

如需中文食譜請留言!

This is the 2nd year that I baked these cookies for my kids' school cultures day event. Using the real maple syrup is the key. Kids love them!

Banana Almond muffins 香蕉杏仁馬芬

(中文食譜馬上來喔! )😀

Almond is an unusual nut to add to banana muffins in comparing to walnut or pecan. However almond is lighter in texture and almond slices give a lovely presentation when sprinkled on top of muffins.

I adapted the banana muffin recipe from allrecipes.com and added vanilla extract and almond slices.

Greek Almond cookies 希臘杏仁餅乾

Holiday Greek almond cookies that are good to enjoy anytime!

摩洛哥塔吉雞佐綠橄欖及醃檸檬 Moroccan tagine chicken w olives & preserved lemons

轉眼間外派來摩洛哥也快一年. 來前的小目標之一就是學習做摩洛哥料理. 料理嚐了不少, 自己做了也有些心得. 加上朋友們的要求, 就寫在這跟大家分享.

椰子奶酥麵包作法/食譜 Coconut bun (bread with coconut stuffing) recipe

Coconut bun 椰子奶酥麵包

This is a variation of the milky stuffing bun (奶酥麵包) that can only be found at Asian bakeries here in North America.

Happy 2016!!!

This is such a belated post.

Still, I want to wish whoever you are a wonderful and exciting 2016.
First of all, I had a much needed trip back to Taiwan just now. I've not visited Taiwan alone (without my kids) for the last 4 times (10 years). My agenda was packed with doctors' appointments and friends reunions, but still I was able to observe changes that I haven't noticed from my previous visits. You can find the photos from this trip here. https://www.instagram.com/lukab0073/

There is a major plan involves many plannings and changes for us in 2016. Not sure if I will/be able to continue my reviews of beauty items, and there will surely be changes of content after our plan is settled. So wish us luck, and please continue to check up my Instagram account!

Monday, November 30, 2015

Holiday must have: red lipsticks for medium olive skin tone

It's officially holiday season! A good red lipstick is a quick way to dress up your look....

Twitter art exhibit

Recently one of my acquaintances tagged me for this challenge from Twitterartexhibit.org

I wouldn't even consider myself an amateur artist, as I only started doodling this spring using mostly the leftover art supplies from my kids. While feeling flattered that someone thinks I'm qualified for this task, I genuinely think that this is a creative way to fund raise and encourage art creations.

Happy Halloween 2015~~~

This Halloween fell on Saturday, so kids had two full days of fun for their favorite event of the year!

No One Deserves to Die at Sea. ‪#SaveLivesNow #MOAS

In reacting to the recent refugee crisis, my sister asked me if I know any organization that provides the most direct way to help refugees. Shortly after, a friend of mine share this video (click for the video) on Facebook about MOAS, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. I decided this is the one.

I am not affiliated with MOAS, I just think that I want to do more than just my share of donation and I want my son Uno, who soon will turn 10, to get involved with the world events. Therefore I encourage him to build the rescue boat of MOAS (click for the boat plan) and use it to as a visual aid to spread the message at school. I think he did a pretty good job!

To know more about MOAS, please visit

http://www.moas.eu/

To see more Uno's lego MOC, visit legouno.blogspot.ca