CHICKEN MANCHURIAN IN GARLIC SAUCE

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken .... 250gms.

Egg ................. 1

Baby corn .... 2-3

Mushrooms .... 2-3

Ajinomoto .....a pinch

Soy sauce ..... 1 tbsp.

Corn flour .... 1 tbsp.

Garlic paste .... 2tbsp.

Salt .... to taste.

Green chilli paste .... 2 tbsps.

Black/White pepper ...1 tsp.

Oil to fry.

1. Mix all the above ingredients with the chicken and marinate for 6-8 hrs.

2. Drain the excess liquid from the marinade and deep fry the chicken pieces.

For the Garlic sauce:

Garlic paste .... 2 tbsps.

Water ...... 2 cups.

Corn flour .... 1tbsp. made into a slurry

Salt .... to taste

Green chilli paste .... 1 tsp.

Black pepper ........... 1 tsp.

( Chillies could be increased or decreased according to your choice)

Ajinomoto ...... a pinch

Soy sauce .... 1 drop.

1. Take a wok and heat 1 tbsp. oil. Add the garlic paste. Stir fry a little and add the water immediately (before the garlic becomes red)

2. When the sauce boils add the chicken pieces and simmer. Now add the desired vegetables and the ajinomoto, salt, chilli paste, black/white pepper and a drop of soy sauce.

3. Finally stir in the slurry to make a thick gravy....Serve hot with fried rice.

Diabetes + Vegan

It was news to me that positive results from vegan diets are being seen among the diabetic populations. For those that aren’t familiar with veganism, it is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Therefore, vegans consume no animals or animal products including eggs and milk.

Traditionally, the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes treatment is diet, as many type 2’s do not require oral hypoglycemic agents or the use of insulin. Diet modifications include the use of portion control through measuring foods and counting carbohydrates which fuel blood glucose so readily, and thus, are of particular interest. A new approach to diabetic diets includes the adopted lifestyle of veganism which evolved from a comparison of world populations. People whose diets consist of plant-derived foods such as rice, noodles, beans, and vegetables were less likely to develop diabetes when compared with a traditional Western diet which is high in meatier, fattier dishes [1]. Likewise, when Easterners (i.e. Japanese) move to and adopt the Western diet, their relative risk of diabetes goes up.

Studies show that the adoption of a low-fat, plant-derived diet improves insulin sensitivity, helps with weight loss, and reduces both blood sugar and blood cholesterol. Specifically, such diets are extremely low (many times void) of saturated fat which is traditionally found in meat, dairy, and tropical oils (coconut, palm, and kernel). In order to effectively remove fat from the diet, one much reduce consumption of animal fats and also reduce the use of vegetable oils [1].

In order to eat in accordance with this recommended regimen one must [1]:

- avoid red meat

- avoid poultry and fish

- avoid dairy

- avoid eggs

- avoid added vegetable oils and other high-fat foods

- avoid fried foods

- avoid avocados, olives, and peanut butter

Next, glycemic index is addressed. The glycemic index is a number identifying foods which increase blood glucose rapidly. High glycemic foods include: sugar, white potatoes, most wheat flour products, and most cold cereals. Good news: pasta is actually a low glycemic index food because of the way it’s processed!

High fiber foods are encouraged and the recommended daily intake for fiber is 40 grams. Recommended sources of fiber include beans, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains (barley, oats, quinoa, millet, whole wheat pasta, etc.). On labels, aim for foods containing at least 3 grams of fiber and for meals containing at least 10 grams of fiber [1].

And this is new to me….VOLUMETRICS. If the grams in a portion are greater than the number of calories in the portion, it is said to be a “heavier” food which is low in calories. Such foods can increase satiety and decrease overall caloric intake. This concept was developed by Barbara Rolls, a researcher at Penn State University. Foods that are volumetric-friendly include: soups, salads, and foods cooked in water (i.e. oatmeal) [1].

Worried about protein?

Plant foods contain protein. According to this research, post-menopausal women require 10% of their calories from protein. Most vegetables contain this amount or more. Beans, lentils, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, and mushrooms are high in protein.

Worried about calcium?

Plant-based diets actually reduce one’s calcium requirements. A vegan diet requires less calcium intake to maintain calcium balance. Good sources of calcium include: broccoli, kale, collards, mustard greens, beans, figs, fortified orange juice, fortified cereal, and fortified, nonfat soy or rice milks.

Worried about B12?

B12, traditionally found in meat, can become depleted in those following vegetarian and vegan diets for longer than 3 years. A B12 supplement of 5 mcg per day is recommended. Most commonly found multi-vitamin supplements will provide this amount.

Show me the RESEARCH!

So, can a vegan diet REVERSE type 2 diabetes? Prior to the below mentioned study, no vegan diet study using a comparison group had been performed. A grant provided to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine by the Diabetes Action and Research Education Foundation allowed the control-case research to be completed. A high-fiber, low-fat, vegan diet was compared to the standard American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet (think “carb counting”). Non-insulin dependent diabetic (type 2’s) were invited to follow one of the two diets for three months. Caterers prepared take-home lunches and dinners so the food could easily be heated and consumed in the home [2].

The vegan meals contained 10% fat, 60-70 grams of fiber, 80% complex carbohydrates, and no cholesterol. The ADA diet contained 30% fat, 50% carbohydrate, 30 grams of fiber, and 200 milligrams of cholesterol per day [2].

The results showed that the vegan group decreased their fasting sugars by 59% when compared with the ADA group. The vegan group also required less diabetic medication than prior to the start of the study while the ADA group required the same dosing. Likewise, the ADA group lost 8 lbs and the vegan group lost 16 lbs [2].

[1]. The Vegan Diet How-To Guide. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

[2]. Nicholson, Andrew. Diabetes: Can a Vegan Diet Reverse Diabetes? Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. February 15, 2005.

Summer Food

I love summer entertaining. I mean, what's not to like? It's easy, casual and you get to wear shorts. You can even go barefoot and pull your hair back in a ponytail (well, not if you're bald like my husband, Henry. You get my point, however). It also requires nothing more than marinating some chicken in olive oil, rosemary and lemon juice and throwing it on the grill. Top it off with some lemon-pepper-shallot butter (1 stick of butter, juice and zest of 1 lemon, 1 chopped shallot, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste) and it becomes really memorable.
Then all you need to do is shuck a few ears of corn, drop them into boiling, salted water, cover the pan, turn off the heat and it's ready whenever you are.
Next? Thickly sliced gorgeous summer tomatoes, seasoned assertively with salt and freshly ground pepper. You can guild the lily if you like, with stuff like fresh basil, olive oil, pesto or fresh mozzarella but none of that is really necessary since your tomatoes are really, really ripe and juicy and can easily stand on their own merit. (Of course, all bets are off if you can get your hands on some fresh burrata, but that's another post, since I just ordered some online today!)
Now all you need is dessert. Here's my solution: I call it Like Watermelon for Chocolate. It's cool, it's refreshing, it requires NO HEAT OR BAKING (essential for summer food) and it's delicious. It's also ridiculously easy.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and invite the neighbors for dinner in the backyard this weekend!

Like Watermelon for Chocolate (adapted from "Verdura" by Viana La Place)
4 cups cubed watermelon
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cognac or brandy
Best quality bittersweet chocolate bar
Place watermelon in a shallow dish. In a small bowl, combine sugar and brandy. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then pour over watermelon. Refrigerate until very, very cold - at least 3 hours.
To serve, use a slotted spoon to place watermelon into individual serving glasses (well, alright, if you are me, you will add some of that good boozy liquid also). Serve with slabs of good chocolate.
Serves 4 (or two, if you live in my house)

Hawaii epilogue: My airplane neighbors

August 25

I had a smooth flight back to New York from Denver yesterday. A window seat, just a slight delay in our departure, and a polite, tiny young woman in the middle seat who curled up and went to sleep right after takeoff and pretty much stayed that way.
It reminded me that I had one blog entry left to do about my recent trip to Hawaii.
My journey started in Newark, where rain storms delayed the flight enough to put the possibility of my connection in Phoenix very much in doubt. Worse, it gave my neighbor a chance to strike up a conversation with me.
Because people rarely start talking to each other in the air. It's on the ground, during a delay in takeoff, that the camaraderie of perceived mutual misfortune helps people to form a bond that risks keeping them inextricably linked for many hours.
Also, I had a middle seat.
In the window seat was a nurse from California in late middle age who had lived on the East Coast for many years but still thought that California was better in every way. Why she thought she should share that with me, a willing immigrant to New York from the mountain states, I don't know. Why anyone thinks that it's friendly conversation to say that where they're from — geographically, culturally, psychologically — is better than where the person they're talking to is from, or lives, or likes to be, is beyond me.
But she came from the Bay Area in the 1960s and was under the misapprehension that California is a relaxed, mellow, laissez-faire kind of place where people can do whatever they like without judgment from others. I pointed out that her native land currently has a very arch, politically correct culture that does not, in fact, encourage people to do whatever they like, whether it's drink bottled water, eat eggs that don't come from free range chickens or smoke tobacco cigarettes in public.
She had lived in Hawaii, though, and gave me the same advice that many people gave me when I told them I was going to O‘ahu.
“You should go to the Big Island!”
Well, okay, but I was only going to be in Hawaii for a few days and was, in fact, a guest of the island of O‘ahu. And, in fact, since I am a city person who enjoys exploring the cultural culinary diversity that is bred in urban cultures, Honolulu was the place for me.
Still, I thought her advice might be sound until she told me about the kukui nut lei that she bought from a merchant. It was so special to her, she said, because the merchant blessed it. Well, why wouldn’t she bless it? I’d bless it, too, if it meant you’d buy it from me, and I’d send a whole lot of aloha to go with it.
But I didn’t tell her that. Let her enjoy her kukui nut lei. I enjoy mine (not the faux one mentioned earlier, which didn't make it back to the mainland with me, but the hefty one I'd gotten some years before and lurks somewhere in my apartment).
I made my flight from Phoenix to Honolulu with minutes to spare and found myself in a middle seat, which I shared with a tremendously fat woman who had the aisle seat.
In the window was a young man who wore those little ear buds to listen to music. I didn't know they could be turned up so loud that the people around you can hear your music, but, indeed, they can be.
So that was a long flight.
The first half of the return leg was a snap, really, I had a window seat, and in the middle was an extremely limber woman from a German-speaking country. I assume that from her English-German dictionary; we didn't speak.
How did I know she was limber, then? To try to sleep better she simply folded herself in half, at the waist. This seemed to alarm the woman in the aisle seat, who would periodically interrupt her attempted repose whenever a flight attendant came by to see if she wanted anything to drink. But if she did want anything, she would merely unfold herself and ask for it.
We were delayed in Phoenix again, giving entrée for my neighbor in the middle seat (I had the window) to befriend me, which he would have done anyway as he was a very jocular conspiracy theorist of a Jehovah's Witness.
And I have to say, living as I do in a world of food writers, it was actually kind of refreshing to have someone tell me that the devil was the devil instead of high fructose corn syrup.

QTV 11 Food Fair

This is my long over due post. It took me how many months to remember that I had this fun and exciting experience at The Beat's TARA LETS Food Fair last October 18, 2008. The event took place at Eastwood City, Libis. I cooked several foods and brought to the venue. I didn't earn much but I gained so much fun with this happy experience.

Chicken Curry Fried Rice PHP 100.00
Chorizo Jalapeño Fried Rice PHP 100.00
Veggie with Mango Penne Pasta PHP 150.00
Mango Jelly Brulee PHP 100.00
Eggplant Caviar PHP 100.00
Lemon-Cinnamon Pastillas PHP 120.00

The hosts of the TV program THE BEAT
Tonipet Gaba & Ivan Merina

The interview and the I.D.

It was really dead tiring selling my food but on the contrary I was happy despite being tired. This experience is something new on my part and another additional adventure to my library of The Artist Chef memories.

These two Chinese dudes just checked out on me and asked several questions and I was reminded that these two guys didn't purchase any. Hehe! :D

With the very nice and accommodating Macoy. Thanks for always remembering me and making me part of QTV 11 event and TV shows :-)

Aside from my family who came to grace my food fair, good friends Marni & Pam visited and purchased some of my foodies. And I was very glad that they came. I gave them some foodies for FREE!

Thank you so much QTV 11 and to the TV program THE BEAT for not forgetting me. Thank you also to good friend Tonipet Gaba and Macoy. This experiece was very memorable, it added another joy and learning on my part.

Am I going to have my next FOOD FAIR here in Saigon? :)

hugs,
joanie xxx

sy bahagia. anda?

hari - hari bz sy dah bermula. sejak jumaat lalu. macam - macam bnda jd. sampai dari hari ke hari tak jd nak update. ni, cubaan utk update setelah tah bape lame tertangguh. hurm.

last wed, 19th august.

abah call mlm. dgn satu, berita kurang best.

"abah ada keje dkt kl ahad ni. seminggu"

dang~ x kan nak ddk srwk sorang2. tinggal 2 hari sebelum jadual penerbangan sebenar. abah ke airport, cuba utk selamatkan ticket dr burn. tp, tewas. uhuu. boleh je nak blk srwk jumaat ptg, balik kl semula ahad pagi. tp, tak pela. buat penat sy je. maka, burn lah RM450++ tu. terkedu jgk. terase kehilangan duit tu, even, tu duit abah. ya, tak jadilah sy pulang ke srwk.

khamis. dah lupa ape jd. betul, lupa.

tp, yg penting time ni, saudara mara dah bertandang. masih lg mereka di sini.

rumah sy sgt penuh. dan pelbagai bnda jd. drama pelbagai genre jgk sy saksikan.

jumaat, 21st august.

sehari sebelum ramadan. sy tak makan sehingga 3 ptg. keluar dgn seorg kwn. akhirnya sy dpt melepaskan rasa kempunan nak mkn menu-menu baru KFC. owh best, sy mkn sgt3 bnyk. cheesy wedges, toasted twister, baked cheesy potato, and shrimp stick. mmg bnyk kan? ya, sy pun sedar bnde yg same. kemudian, dia bwk sy ke taman layang2 di selayang / kepong. kemudian, ke damansara. jrng sungguh ke damansara. otw pulang, traffic jam sgt teruk. btw thanks sbb bwk jalan2. sukeee. =]

sabtu, 22nd august.

sy nak jmpe classmate lame, izzah. mmg da lame sgt x jmpe. last skali time dia ddk depan sy dlm class 5g. huhu. berhajat utk ke bookfest @ KL convention centre, kami da merancang jmpe d

sane. plan sy, x berjalan mcm diharapkan pd mulanya. tp, pd sy, kalau sy dah plan bnda tu, sy kena teruskan jgk. sy benci kalau rancangan tu x berjalan mcm sy rancang. maka sampailah jgk sy ke situ. seronok. heaven gle bookfest tuh. tp, sy berpada jgk, duit terhad. jmpa classmate lame - arinie & izzah. berkenalan dgn amy, kawan izzah. =] pulang selepas asar.

izzah sgt cantik. makin cantik. muka dia nmpk lebeyh tenang. harap makin kuat~ hee. terima kasihhhh bnyk2 utk selendang purple + keychain unta tu. comel n cantik sgt!!!

amy & nadia izzah

6 buku yg sy beli, yg mmg lari dr wishlist

1. the time traveler's wife

2. mister god, this is anna

3. my sister's keeper

4. thing i want my daughters to know

5. for one more day [yg lama, hilang]

6. wish upon the star

ahad, 23rd august

abah sampai kl. berbuka beramai - ramai. sgt ramai. dgn saudara - mara. =]

isnin, 24th august.

maka bermulalah semester 6. hari pertama. sy tidur blk selepas sahur pd pukul 7;45am. ok. utk pertama kali, hari pertama kuliah, sy datang sgt lambat. kelas pukul 9pagi ye, sy bgn pukul 10:30am. haha. sampai di studio 1130am. nasib la ade kwn - kwn yg mengkaburi mata en raj supaya sy dpt masuk. haha. selamat~ maka, melukislah kami plan studio dan tak sangka, terus dpt project. grrr~~~ shoot berita. 1 group - 10 org. in 1 week. then, rehearsal, and shoot.

pembahagian kerja, semakin berat, group baru. tp, masih jg classmate yg same. hee. and dgn tak diduga langsung, sy jd director. owh tidakkk. tp, bnda lain pun ssh. maka, kami ttp akan cuba bekerjasama lg. insya allah~ tamatlah perbincangan ptg itu. dan ye, utk tatapan cik nora ye gmbr d bwh ni. hasil air tgn mama.

kuih mek comey

selasa, 25th august.

tiada kelas. hanya diskusi. [hahahahah.... gile skema]

tamat wkt petang, dan dpt berehat seketika saja utk esok.

rindu baca blog - blog kamu - kamu

curi - curi masa utk baca. =]

ahad lalu. buat pertama kali seumur hidup.

sy da pandai, BALUT BUKU

hahahahahha XD

sy sedar pengalaman / pemerhatian terhadap org sekeliling,

kesilapan mereka yg lain, sejarah sy yg lalu,

yg bnyk mengajar sy utk bersyukur

dan jadi lebih matang.

hidup sy pun bnyk asam garam. mcm kalian.

cuma jalan ujian kte berbeza. tp, sy bahagia

anda?

mudah.

hargai org yg syg anda.

lupakan mereka yg tak hargai.