Food from home: Comforting eclectic

     Here's a collection of what's been cooking since the holidays. Most of these dishes are newbies, which mean new loves. <3 <3 <3

Kimchi fried rice

     One of the shows I've been watching is The Kimchi Chronicles (I watched the whole season 1). One of the recipes shown was Kimchi rice. It looked easy to make just by sauteing onions, sesame oil, rice and kimchi and you're good to go. Simple yet yummy!

Tteukbokki

     A popular Korean street food, which is spicy rice cakes. It seems rare to find this dish around the metro. When I found the recipe, I had no hesitation cooking it. Love these soft and chewy rice cakes! Some ingredients can only be found in Korean stores. This also has hard boiled eggs, onions and leeks. Sometimes it has noodles too.

Pasta with tomato sauce, basil pesto and Ricotta cheese

     I recreated one of Mom's favorite pastas. I surprised her by cooking this for dinner and was she surprised! :D

Smoked salmon BLT sandwich

     I love deli type sandwiches! I found this recipe in one of my favorite cooking shows. This has lemon dill dressing too. The combination of the smoked salmon and bacon is interesting!

Ebi fry*

     A new family favorite. This is different from tempura because of the use of Japanese bread crumbs. Tartar sauce is a must. I used Japanese mayo which turned out yummy and not overwhelming. 

Strawberry shortcake

     This is Japanese style. This was a second attempt. I got the taste but need to work on the consistency of the sponge cake... almost there. 

Chocolate dipped strawberries

     Chocolate and strawberry combined is heaven! I used Driscoll's strawberries and experimented with 2 chocolates: Ghirardelli semi sweet and Callbeaut dark (sorry didn't take a pic of the latter). The white chocolate was Callbeaut. The result... Mega yum!

Disclaimer: All of these were taken at different times.

ebi -shrimp