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Tomato and Egg

Tomato and Egg

Happy Sunday! Back when I lived in China during my childhood, my nanny used to make this for me all the time. It's very easy to make, with relatively easy to find ingredients.

Servings: 2-3

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 15 min

Ingredients

4 large eggs

3 medium sized tomatoes

2 scallions

1 clove of garlic

Canola oil

~1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil (Japanese or Korean)

1 tsp oyster sauce (If you don't have oyster sauce, just be sure to add some extra salt)

This is just a side note, but if you decide to put sugar / salt in jars like I did, make sure to label them - I've had to try a pinch from one of the jars every time I use them to identify which one is which, and it almost killed me every time I ended up trying salt first..

How to prepare the tomatoes

First, cut off the top part of the tomato. 

Then, cut the tomato horizontally into two pieces as shown above.

 Holding the two pieces together, cut the tomato vertically into eight pieces

(think slicing a pizza)

You should end up with something like this.

Mince the garlic and chop the scallions into very thin pieces.

In a bowl, mix the eggs with sesame oil, salt, and oyster sauce.

Pour about 1 tbsp canola oil into a frying pan over medium - high heat. When the pan is hot, pour in the egg mix.

Try to let the bottom cook first (you can gently shake the frying pan a couple of times) so that we can get big chunks of eggs at the end. 

When the bottom looks cooked,  fold the egg using a spatula or chopstick and break the mix into several large chunks. Then, put the scrambled egg aside after cooking for another 10-15 seconds. 

Don't cook the eggs for too long - we want it to be slightly undercooked as we will be cooking it further with the tomatoes later!

Pour canola oil into the frying pan again, and cook the minced garlic until it turns slightly brown.

Toss in the tomatoes, and add 1 tbsp sugar. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes turn very soft.

If you have a large pot lid, cover the frying pan to cook the tomatoes more evenly. The pot lid that I had available at the moment failed me, as it was just.... not big enough.

When the tomatoes become soft, add the scrambled egg that you put aside earlier. Mix everything together and cook for another 15-20 seconds. Add the scallions at the end as you turn off the heat.

 Enjoy! :)

Lemon Squares

Lemon Squares (no recipe)

I baked one of my favorite desserts, lemon squares, using my friend Elli's recipe. Since it was my first time baking, my kitchen got completely destroyed from all the flour and confectioner's sugar exploding everywhere, but it was a great experience nonetheless!

Lemon squares are the best.

Just a verse that I would like to share:

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me."

-Galatians 2:20

Mat-tang

Mat-tang (Korean Caramel Sweet Potato Bites)
This is my sister's favorite food - although I personally am not a huge fan of sweet potatoes because they always make me so THIRSTY, I decided to make these since we used to have it all the time when we were little. This one involves a little bit of deep-frying, so please be careful!

Servings: 2-3 (as an appetizer!)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min

Ingredients
2 Korean sweet potatoes
4 tsp black sesame seeds
4 cups canola oil

Syrup
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp water
2 tsp Aunt Jemima's Syrup (or Korean corn syrup if you have access to it)

Directions

Our ingredients for today.

I tried making it with yam as well but it didn't taste like mat-tang, so please try to find Korean sweet potatoes if you can!

Aunt Jemima's Syrup can be used as a substitute for Korean corn syrup.

Peel the sweet potatoes using a vegetable peeler.

If you're making this for yourself, you don't need to be too thorough, but if you're making it for your loved ones, be sure to peel thoroughly (and get rid of all the spots such as the one shown above).

Slice the sweet potatoes into 1 to 1.5 inch thick pieces, and then cut them into 4 pieces as shown above.

Leave the chopped pieces in cold water for about 10 minutes to get rid of some of the starch.

Use paper towels to dry the sweet potato pieces. Make sure that they are dry - otherwise they'll explode when you deep fry them!

Heat up a pot filled with about 4 cups of canola oil on high heat. When the temperature is at around 330F, gently dump all the sweet potato pieces into the pot. 

Be REALLY careful not to splatter the oil! 

If possible, wear a long sleeve shirt to protect yourself. Oil burns are not very pleasant..

Fry the sweet potato pieces until they turn golden brown (as shown above). It took me about 9-10 minutes to get to this point. At this point, it should smell very yummy and you should be getting hungry!

Drain any excess oil once you take them out of the pot. Put them aside while you make the syrup.

In another small pot (or the same pot, if you're like me and you only have one small pot!), heat 4 tbsp sugar, 4 tbsp water and 2 tsp Aunt Jemima's Syrup (or Korean corn syrup) on low heat. 

DO NOT MIX OR STIR THE MIXTURE - it will cause the sugar to clump up! 

When you heat the syrup on low heat for about 10 minutes, the sugar should melt by itself and you should have a very smooth syrup.

Mix the syrup with deep fried sweet potato pieces. Add some black sesame seeds.

You're done! Very simple, right?

Enjoy :)

(Be sure to let the oil in the pot cool before you get rid of it)

Bulgogi

Bulgogi (Korean barbecued beef)
This is the first dish that I learned to cook, and the dish that I enjoy cooking the most. I remember that I was asked to cook for one of the student group events during my freshman fall term. I had no idea how to cook at all, so I called my mom and asked her how to make bulgogi - to my dismay, she told me to put "enough soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil." After experimenting a number of times over the past few years, here is the finalized recipe:

Servings: 1-3
Prep time: 40+ min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients

1 lb beef chuck roast or sirloin sliced as thinly as possible

1 medium sized onion 

1/2 bunch scallion

2 cloves of garlic

Canola oil

Sauce

75 ml  soy sauce (you can use a little bit less soy sauce if you want it to be sweeter)

135 ml Coca Cola

1/4 cup sugar

3-4 tsp sesame oil 

Directions

Prepare the vegetables by cutting the onion in half and then into thin slices, and scallion into 1-inch slices. Mince the garlic.

Try to drain any excess blood from the meat using kitchen towels. Hopefully the beef was cut very thinly! 

Mix the sauce in a bowl. Make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved

In a large bowl, combine everything together, and let it marinate for at least 20 minutes (if you're in a hurry, you can cook it right away, but it tastes better when you let it marinate!)

Pour canola oil into a frying pan over high heat - heat the oil until it's hot

Place the marinated mix into the frying pan. Try not to pour in all the sauce from the marinade

Cook for about 5-10 minutes on medium - high heat, or until the meat is fully cooked. Then, remove from heat and serve

Enjoy! :)