Jook

It is pronounced "joke" in Cantonese.   Most Asian countries have their own variations of jook (a.k.a rice porridge or congee).  It is commonly eaten for breakfast or when one is not feeling well.  Some make it thick and some make it soupy.  I prefer the soupy consistency.  There are many version of jook.  Fish flake, chicken, century egg w/ lean pork, vegetarian, etc.   Plain jook can be served with condiments such as fu yur, salted duck eggs, fried shallots, dried salt fish, youtiao, tianjin preserved vegetables, etc.  The plain version is the foundation of all other versions.  

Plain Jook

1/4 cup uncooked rice

3 cups water

Combine ingredients in crock pot and cook for 4 hours on low.

Or
Bring water to boil.  Add uncooked rice.  Cook over low heat for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally.  Add more water if jook gets too thick.

Grill On! Grilled Oyster Sauce Wings & Grilled Balsamic Bok Choy

Although we haven't been having the heat wave that has swept the rest of the US, last week was a little too warm to be cooking in my kitchen.  I invited some friends over to taste test my latest concoction of Grilled Oyster Sauce Wings and Grilled Baby Bok Choy with Balsamic.  This is a great last minute dinner.  I defrosted the wings in cold water and then whipped together a quick marinade.  I usually just drizzle some oyster sauce over my greens, but my marinade already had an oyster sauce base, I decided to use balsamic to balance out the flavors.  This went nicely with steamed white jasmine rice and chrysanthemum iced tea.  I also made a chilled azuki dessert soup, but it didn't turn out like I wanted.  I will post the recipe for that once I perfect the technique in my crazy kitchen lab.  Until then, here are the recipes for the main course:

Grilled Oyster Sauce Wings

1/2 dozen wings

1/3 cup oyster sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp five spice powder

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, five spice powder and garlic in a medium sized bowl.  Toss in the wings to thoroughly coat.  Refrigerate until ready to grill, tossing about halfway through to ensure even marinading.  Place on hot grill, over medium heat.  Brush on 1/2 of remaining marinade after 15 minutes and flip wings over.  Brush on rest of  marinade and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until done.

Grilled Baby Bok Choy with Balsamic

baby bok choy

grapeseed oil or vegetable oil

balsamic vinegar

coarse sea salt

Split the baby bok choy into halves, lengthwise.  This makes it easier to clean off the dirt that is trapped in between the layers.  Rinse and drain.  Lightly brush grapeseed or vegetable oil on both sides of the bok choy.  I used my handy Misto sprayer filled with grapeseed oil, which really does make my life so much easier.  Place the bok choy on the hot grill just until grill marks start to form.  Sprinkle on sea salt and balsamic vinegar just after flipping.  Don't need to go crazy with the balsamic, just a little splash will do.  Bok choy are done once grill marks start to form on the other side.

Cubicle Cuisine: Brats!

Lunch during the work week doesn't always have to be confined to frozen meals, reheated leftovers or eating out.  The office break room can become a pretty decent kitchen if you just modify some recipes just a little bit.  In this post, we will be having brats.  There was a lone survivor leftover from the weekend and I decided to bring that in for lunch the following Monday.  Not a dried out precooked brat to be heated up mind you.  I cooked it at work with the handy dandy microwave. 

I'm cheating a little on this post because there were already microwave instructions on the back of the packaging.  As per the instructions, I placed the brat in a container and filled it with hot water, loosely cover,  1 min and 45 secs, flip and repeat.  DO NOT try to nuke your brat without water.  Best case scenario, you'll be munching on dried out brat jerky.  Worst case scenario, you'll spend the rest of the day scraping off dried out pieces of brat that exploded all over the microwave.

After cooking in the microwave, place the brat link next to the bun in the toaster oven if you have one in your office kitchen. The surface of the link should sizzle up nicely as the bun toasts up.  Almost like it's fresh off the grill :o)  Remember, NEVER leave the toaster oven unattended while in use.  Nothing like subjecting the rest of your office to the smells of your burnt lunch experiments for the rest of the workday...