Fine dining at Three Ravens – a reward for myself for the past stressful and music-less days. Must say, the beef tenderloin is delicious! Just the right portion for a girl like me.

Whenever we are too busy, Eric loves to order this kind of spicy pad thai (it’s not traditional but we like it) for take out. One day I decided to try it out (my own rendition of course), because I really love the taste of Thai basil in a stir-fried noodle dish.

So, here is the recipe as requested by my dear friend Jean (sorry it’s so late!).

You will need:

1/ one soup spoon (in Chinese cooking we measure with a soup spoon) of Thai red curry paste. this is the kind I use:

2/ fresh Thai basil
3/ string beans
4/1 red bell pepper, sliced
5/ if you like spicy peppers, you can put in some as well
6/ peeled shrimps (you can also substitute with poultry or red meat; the only meat I eat is seafood)
7/ juice of 2 limes (I didn’t happen to have them, so I used apple vinaigrette instead; white vinegar can also do)
8/ 2 soup spoons of fish sauce
9/ 2 soup spoons of soy suace
11/ 3 soup spoons of sugar
12/ Thai rice noodle (enough for the serving of two)

Preparation:
-  soak the rice noodle in lukewarm water before you do anything else

Now, cooking!
1/ (you will need a steeper pan or wide pot for this)heat up the oil, put in 1 spoon of red curry paste, mix well
2/ put in the string beans, stir well (maybe around 5min)
3/ put in the sliced red bell pepper (and other pepper if you wish), stir well
4/ now put in the soy sauce and fish sauce, stir and mix
5/ after about 5 minutes, put in the peeled shrimp, stir for about 3 min
6/ put in the lime juice and sugar, stir for another 4 min or so
7/ at this point, drain your soaked rice noodle and put them into the pan/pot (the noodle should be still a bit hard, but definitely much more softened)
8/ stir and mix well, until the rice noodle absorb all the liquid, add water if needed
9/ if you want to fold in an egg, just push everything to one side of the pan/pot, crack open an egg, after it cooks for about 1 min, fold it into everything else
10/ put in the fresh basil leaves (I like a lot of them, but if you don’t like the pungency, put in a few) and stir them in
11/ after the texture of the rice noodle is right, turn off the gas/heat and serve!

Had a long day.

Going out for a lovely dessert in the evening definitely relaxes me a whole lot. Decaf earl grey with red velvet cake is such a delicious combination!

This morning I took out the bitter melon and cut it open, only to realize it was RED inside. This startled me. But upon research (thanks google) my worry that the melon might have been some form of mutant was eliminated – the seeds are red because it’s over ripe, and the seeds are sweet (plus a hint of spiciness). :)

I am of the opinion that women (and men) look most beautiful (handsome) when they are healthy, and this salubrious consciousness doesn’t just display on the outside, but more importantly, it should be felt inside. So goes my personal story about a very fascinating (to me anyway) journey in the vicissitude of weight.

I was actually very lucky to be born with a fast metabolism which enabled me to eat anything to my heart’s content without gaining one single pound. So the whole weight gain/loss issue was something co-existed with my world in another parallel universe – until about a year ago. I still haven’t figured out why this happened, but I’m guessing being a woman in her mid-twenties, the age definitely has something to do with it. In any case, I gained about 10 pounds and because I had always been skinny before, my friends and family (especially my mother) were very happy to hear about this change in weight. I absolutely didn’t mind to begin with – as I stated earlier, I think as long as women feel and look healthy it’s all great. But after a while, sometimes I realized I eat too much before I go to sleep that I cannot sleep well, consequently the next day is met with less energy. The “Michelin” is starting to beckon at me in my abdomen area and of course this is not attractive and I didn’t feel good about it.

One day I met up with my good friend Effie who has begun her vegetarian diet a couple of months earlier, and I was telling her about my fascination regarding the weight gain originated from not eating well (remember this was never an issue for me before, so to see my body actually do that is somewhat of a slight miracle to me) as well as some of my concerns. She mentioned about her diet and her friends’ “success” stories in losing weight (I cannot deny that some of them are a bit too extreme for me, losing weight drastically just to look super skinny) by implementing a vegetarian diet.  Right then and there,  I listened to it as a story from one of those magazines – after all, what does vegetarian diet have to do with me anyway? I am world’s last carnivore standing and am proud to eat meat every meal, three or more times a day, even for breakfast (I’m not just talking about sausages, I’m talking about red meat, that’s right) because I don’t consider a meal without meat a “meal”.

But one thing I did remember was that she said, give it a try for a month and just see how it goes, you have nothing to lose.

For the next few days, I still kept on eating my usual meal until one day while watching this Chinese TV dating show for fun, I saw a guy who came on stage and introduced himself as a vegetarian and talked about the pros of a vegetarian diet. I remember some of the things he said – which were the things that attracted me the most about a vegetarian diet – one being that it enabled him to think more clearly and move more swiftly and lightly (even though this sounded a bit like some zen exercise for me) and cultivated a good daily habit of treating things with equilibrium.

I don’t know how, but this along with Effie’s advice all came together and gave me the thought of starting to eat vegetarian meals.

Of course, the first few days were a little bit difficult to get through, but nothing so dreadful I couldn’t handle. Today I was digging out my fall/winter clothes from the closet, which included a few pairs of pants that I buried deeply underneath everything else because I just could not fit into them anymore. I summoned up the courage and tried them on – the zipper closed effortlessly! What can I say, 1.5 months of vegetarian and abstemious diet later, I am 6 pounds less and I feel great.

Some of my friends were asking me how I did it; honestly, I don’t exactly know how other than not eating meat. I guess this proves that it really wasn’t a big effort for me at all – at the same time, it worked. So here are some of the things after looking back, I realized what I had changed, and I’d like to share them with all you lovely ladies and gents out there.

(proclaimer: I never starved myself, because I am grumpy when I’m hungry. But of course don’t eat until you can’t walk either – you won’t feel good afterwards anyway)

1. As an Asian I eat a lot of rice, so whenever I made rice I added mixed grains (buckwheat, oat, mung beans, etc) to my white rice.

2. I stopped eating meat but ate lots of shrimp, and some fish. I still consumed milk and eggs (in moderation, of course)

3. I tried to have my dinner before 7pm and not eat anything after that (this one was actually the only difficult thing for me to do, more than not eating meat. but you’ll get used to it after a few days)

4. I ate a variety of veggies (this is really great because I never appreciated nature this much). Think green leaves taste bad by themselves? Try a light stir-fry with shallots and oyster sauce, works for me!

5. Tofu is good.

6. Fruits are good (apples!)

7. I had a lot of congee (again mixed grains) and soup (with mushrooms, tofu, etc.)

the next two are just things I think might also contribute to weight loss:

8. I was naturally born without a sweet tooth for chocolate, cookies, cakes, brownies, etc. and I don’t munch on junk food (I have no craving for it) so I eat nothing outside of my meals.

9. I don’t drink coffee (again it’s not a choice: my stomach feels weird if I drink it). Tea, however, is wonderful to drink. :)

The result? Well, more than the happiness of feeling great about my body, oddly I do think that I think more clearly. I believe more than anything it is also an attitude towards life, to give up something that is a cupidity frees up our body and soul and therefore we can act and think with a lucid mentality.

My dear readers out there, in my friend Effie’s words: give it a try for a month, you have nothing to lose (exception maybe a few pounds, if you don’t terribly mind ;) )

My dearest friend Zoe from Beijing who recently just arrived in UK to pursue her Master’s degree seems to find cooking (somewhat) authentic Chinese food over there an endeavor. She’s a girl with endless laughter and a picky appetite for tasteful dishes, albeit maybe not as much experienced in the kitchen itself (though I have no doubt she’ll be an awesome cook one day).

She has asked me for the recipe for this fillet dish I made a couple of days ago, and so as promised, here it is – for her, and for anyone who is interested in trying this out, and hopefully it won’t disappoint too much. =P

(disclaimer: I have never tried explaining Chinese cooking in English, so if there’s anything that you don’t understand, please feel free to ask – or you can try to google translate the Chinese yourself but I can’t guarantee how efficacious that would be.

Also, another very interesting thing I have found in Chinese recipes in comparison with Western recipes is that Chinese recipes would often states things like “salt to taste” or “oyster sauce to taste” and never the EXACT amount such as “a tea spoon of soy sauce” or “2 tea spoons of sesame oil” – therefore, honestly speaking, I don’t remember how much of the seasoning I’ve put in it; you might really just have to trust your inner gastronomic instinct ;))

ingredients:

1. fillets (I believe I used catfish), enough for the serving for one person.

2. one pepper, diced. (I used 1 of the congo pepper that I am growing at home – the first fruit of the plant! – and it’s extremely hot. so if you like spicy, go for more peppers) 一只红辣椒就够了，如果爱吃辣的就多放点。

3.  two leeks (别忘了是大葱不是韭菜，亲爱的，哈哈; 还有，大葱不用叶子的部分，只用白色的根部) ，cut into ~1cm long sections

4. 5-6 mushrooms, sliced. (any of the commonly seen mushrooms from your grocery store would be fine) 蘑菇，普通菜市场买的圆蘑就行。

5. 1 scallion (小葱), diced.

6. Chinese cooking wine (料酒), salt, pepper.

cooking procedures:

1. put the fillets in the cooking wine to marinate for about 10-15min (while you do this you can get on with the rest of the stuff, obviously.) I would say, enough cooking wine to soak the half of the fillet on a plate.

2. cut the leeks, scallion and mushroom.

3. heat up the non-stick pan, then put some cooking oil (not extra-virgin olive oil) in it to heat up for about 1-2min. use medium heat.

4. put the diced scallions into the pan, stir to let the essence of the scallion come out.

5. put the diced pepper into the pan, stir for about 2-3min (or for as long as they can be stirred without becoming burnt; the time might be different depending on the different pans). save some pepper for garnish if you wish. 如果想用辣椒点缀一下就别把所有的辣椒丁放进去。

6. put the leeks in; do the same until the leaks start to soften.

7. put the mushrooms in. do the same.

8. now put the fillet as well as the cooking wine all into the pan. sprinkle salt and pepper to taste on the one side that is facing up, then immediately turn this side down to have this side sear on the pan; and sprinkle walk and pepper on the other side.

9. let one side sear for about 6-10min, and then turn to the other side and let sear.

10. put a lid on the pan to let it steam until the fillet is ready, turn the heat down a little.

11. (garnish with the rest of the pepper if you wish) serve! (看一下鱼是不是都熟了；注意不要焖得时间太长，要不然就老了）

Feedback welcomed!

Secondly, my wonderful fiancé came home and surprised me with an iphone! Sure I’ve heard a lot about how amazing the phone is, and even though the only two cellphones that I owned are all free that came with the contract (because I for some reason have not much desire for high-technological gadgets) but this is definitely a gift highly treasured! (and hopefully will be an aid to my lack of blogging and photo-uploading etc.)

Tonight, as a gesture of gratitude, I made spinach pesto pasta with shrimp and a touch of almond essence (as inspired by Olivier a couple of days ago!).

I co-hosted the party with my good friend Olivier, whose passion for culinary art is needless to be mentioned.  I made a cold Asian-fusion noodle with a sweet/sour taste as a starter, but I didn’t keep any photos of it because.. well, I was hungry and I believe my guests were, too.

We had mussels, tangerine cake followed by a cheesecake. ..and espresso (home-made by the Italian!).

Some photos from the dinner:

]]> http://zhangsophie.com/blog/archives/1487/feed 0 http://zhangsophie.com/blog/archives/1480 http://zhangsophie.com/blog/archives/1480#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:03:58 +0000 Sof http://zhangsophie.com/blog/?p=1480 .. and just in time for Irene’s visit! Where I am in Manhattan, however, seem to be relatively unaffected as I opened my window on a peaceful Sunday morning, there was only the playfully ferocious breeze coming through, no more rain and even a bit of sunshine. I know it is absolutely a blasphemy to say that I am slightly disappointed that Irene didn’t come as hard as they proclaimed it would, considering there are so many people who lost lives in Katrina and the most recent tsunami in Japan, but at least I had hoped that the rain would go on all through Sunday. Please forgive my demonic thoughts – don’t we all have a little bit of that sadistic contradiction in us?

In any case, a long and complicated story short, they let me cross the border into the States and prior to coming back to the big apple, I had taken a week off to spend at a wonderfully cozy cottage at the shore of Lake Eire. Magnificent sunset accompanied by wine on the private beach, my heart was filled with so much thanksgiving for the obvious luxury of being set in such a poetic scenery, but also, above all, the mere fact of living. What a month of lesson-learning and soul-detoxing.

—————

When I came back, half of my plants already died (my heart cringed at the sight of lifelessness); however, my mettlesome congo pepper produced a fruit! I was elated. :)

And with my first pepper, I created this dish which is light for the summer, but super spiecy.