Recipe: Spicy Mandu & Vegetable Soup

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We are all craving comfort foods right now but many soups and stews take hours to prepare. But I partnered with Bibigo USA to come up with something that would give us that warm, comforting feeling for our bellies without that extra time and planning. This recipe includes a quick and versatile spicy broth base that provides plenty of flavor without having to simmer on the stove all day. With the protein component being taken care of using Bibigo’s convenient mandu—their Beef & Vegetable Dumplings are my favorite frozen dumplings!—the soup can be filled out with whatever veggie scraps you have in your fridge. This soup is a great refrigerator cleanout meal! If you want, cut your veggies into cute flowers to transform them into something special!

How to Make Spicy Mandu & Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
4–5 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soju or mirin
2–3 tsp gochugaru
2 1/2 cups bone broth or any prepared broth
1/2 large carrot
2 gray squashes
6 cremini mushrooms
2 scallions
6 Bibigo Beef & Vegetable Mandu

Procedure

In a small bowl, combine the Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, garlic, fish sauce, soju, and gochugaru and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

To prepare the vegetables, slice the carrot into 1/6-inch thick disks. Cut the gray squashes into disks or matchsticks. Slice the scallions on a bias, and set aside the softer green parts for garnish. (Optional: Use a flower-shaped vegetable cutter on the carrot slices. Then use a small paring knife to cut flower designs into the caps of the mushrooms.)

In a small pot, bring the broth up to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and stir in the spicy sauce mixture. Add the whites of the scallions and all the carrot pieces. Simmer for 2 minutes to allow the carrots to become more tender, then add the squash and Bibigo Beef & Vegetable Mandu. After 4 minutes, add the mushrooms. Simmer until mushrooms are tender and mandu are heated through, about 2–3 minutes.

Divide broth, vegetables, and mandu into 2 bowls and garnish with the green scallion slices.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Make Gimbap with Your Veggie Scraps

Gimbap (sometimes spelled kimbap) are Korean rice rolls, usually filled with a combination of fresh and sautéed veggies, and sometimes with egg or marinated meat. They are also a great way to use up random veggie scraps that you might have left over in your fridge from other meals. At a time when we are trying to make the most of the fresh produce we have at home, gimbap is a great way to avoid those miscellaneous veggie odds and ends from going to waste. All you need to do it cut everything in long, thin pieces so they are easy to roll up into your gimbap. CLICK HERE to grab a more detailed recipe that I wrote for my friends at Nomtastic Foods!

Recipe: GoChuJang Chicken Bibimbap with Purple Rice

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This is not your typical bibimbap! This recipe shows how to make a bold, spicy chicken using a convenient sauce from Bibigo USA. In place of the classic bibimbap vegetables are bright spring vegetables that make these bowls colorful and unique. However, this is a great way to use up any vegetable scraps in the fridge. The term bibim is in reference to the mixing of various ingredients, so really, anything goes.

Have you ever had Korean-style purple rice? I think it is so pretty. However, it’s not made from purple rice like you would expect. It’s actually made from cooking regular old white rice with a little bit of black rice (also known as forbidden rice) mixed in. Because of this, you can totally customize your perfect shade of purple based on the amount of black rice you add. I thought a shade of pale lavender would be pretty to go with the spring veggies in these bowls, so this recipe shows how to get that color. But I encourage you to experiment with different amounts of black rice to get the color you like. The most I have done along with 1 scant cup of white rice is 1/4 cup of black rice, which rendered a much more bold shade of purple than the one you see here. Just keep in mind that black rice is harder and cooks a little differently than white jasmine rice, so if you are using a lot of it, you may want to adjust the amount of water you cook it with. (At the same time, if you don’t have black rice in your pantry, you can certainly make this with white rice!)

How to Make Gochujang Chicken Bibimbap with Purple Rice

Ingredients for Purple Rice

1 scant cup jasmine rice
2 tbsp forbidden/black rice

Ingredients for Gochujang Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, plus extra for serving
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp mirin

Ingredients for Bibimbap Bowls

1/4 cup prepared kimchee
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 sheet seaweed paper, cut into thin strips
1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced
2 easter egg radishes, thinly sliced
1 cup snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cup microgreens or sprouts
2 eggs

Procedure

To prepare the purple rice, combine both types of rice in the pot of a rice cooker. Rinse the rice thoroughly in cold water and drain completely. Then add 1 1/2 cups of water to the pot. Set the rice to cook in the rice cooker. Then keep warm.

In a small bowl, combine chicken, soy sauce, and cornstarch and toss to combine. Leave in refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

To make the sauce for the chicken, combine Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, sugar, soju, and 2 tablespoons of water and whisk together until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil, add snap peas, and blanch for 1 minute. Drain and plunge snap peas in ice cold water to stop the cooking and keep them bright green. Slice snap peas in half on a bias. Set aside.

Heat up a wok on medium heat and add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Add some of the chicken in a single layer but avoid crowding pieces together. (And be careful, as oil may splatter!) Shallow fry for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on each side until chicken is golden brown and fully cooked, then remove and set aside. Continue to shallow fry all the chicken in batches. Once all the chicken is cooked, reduce the heat to low, drain the oil from the wok, and carefully pour in the sauce mixture. Once all the sauce becomes bubbly, add the chicken, toss to coat, and stir fry for 2 minutes.

In a skillet, heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Fry eggs as desired.

To serve, divide cooked rice into two bowls. Top each with 1 egg, then half of the other prepared ingredients. Serve with extra Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang on the side.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Blue Coconut Rice (in Your Rice Cooker)

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Blue rice has a wonderful wow factor visually, but it’s also a pretty typical part of Southeast Asian cuisine. In Malaysia, where my family is from, I associate it with sweet sticky rice desserts called kuih. But I have also seen savory coconut rice in other Southeast Asian dishes sporting this beautiful hue. The color is all natural, and comes from butterfly pea tea, which is just dried butterfly pea flowers. When steeped, they produce a rich royal blue colored liquid, that turns purple/magenta when combined with an acid like lemon juice. I don’t personally find that the tea has much flavor without adding sugar/honey, but it sure is pretty.

It’s really up to you how much tea you want to steep and for how long. Obviously, the darker the tea, the darker and more vibrant the color of your rice will be. The recipe below is just a suggestion; I like to get mine pretty seriously blue, but I also think that dishes like nasi kerabu look beautiful with a pale blue rice.

In San Francisco, I buy my butterfly pea tea from a great grocery co-op called Rainbow Grocery, but I have also seen it available online. If you are unable to find it, you can still make a very easy coconut rice by using regular ol’ water in this recipe.

How to Make Blue Coconut Rice in Your Rice Cooker

Ingredients

1 cup rice*
1/2 cup coconut milk, shaken before measuring
pinch of salt
1 tbsp butterfly pea tea
1 cup+ hot water (a little more than a cup will account for the loss of water absorbed and strained out by the tea)

*Note about measuring rice: Some rice recipes base their measurements on the small plastic cup that comes with many rice cookers. To avoid confusion, this recipe uses the standard U.S. measuring cup, which is about 240 mL.

Procedure

Combine the hot water and tea and allow to steep for at least 15 minutes, or up to overnight. (The rice in the photo at the beginning of this post used tea that was steeped for about 30 minutes.) When ready, strain out your tea flowers and use the liquid only. (You may still be able to get another round of blue liquid with the flowers you strained out, but it won’t have much flavor.)

Thoroughly wash and drain your rice and put it in the pot of your rice cooker. Add your tea, coconut milk, and salt. Stir to combine. Cook your rice as you normally would in your rice cooker. My tiny rice cooker literally only has one setting that says COOK, so that is the setting I use.

When done, fluff your rice with a rice paddle, because who fluffs rice with a fork?

You can use this same rice preparation as a base for my cheater version of mango coconut “sticky” rice! Find the recipe by visiting my friends over at Nomtastic Foods!

Birria Taco Slow Cooker Hack

If you follow me on Instagram you know that I am a proponent of the old school slow cooker. I know that kids are all about the Instant Pot these days, but I also know that an Instant Pot is just a smartly-branded pressure cooker, and those things are still terrifying to me. I, however, am perfectly willing to trust that I can turn on my slow cooker and go out and leave it unsupervised in my house all day, and I’ll come home to delicious, tender stew and a house that smells amazing but hasn’t been blown up.

When I make any sort of meat in my slow cooker, I always make enough for at least two meals, and one of those meals is always tacos. But I recently realized that said slow cooker meat could not be more perfect for birria tacos. “Birria” refers to a type of meat stew in Mexican cuisine, but apparently the hot new thing for the taco scene here in California is birria tacos, in which the corn tortillas are dunked in the glorious meat liquid of the stew before being stuffed with the tender meat and lightly crisped on the griddle/comal. There’s a taqueria near my house that takes it ones step further into the realm of awesome and melts a layer of cheese onto the tortilla before stuffing it. That’s the version that I recreated here.

In this episode of awkwardly vague recipes, I’ll attempt to explain how it did it. Also, please excuse the sub-par photos, which were only meant to be used for my Insta Stories before I started to get questions about how to make them.

How to Make Easy Birria Tacos from Leftover Stew

Simmer your leftover stewed meat and braising liquid/broth from your earlier slow cooker or Instant Pot adventure. I made this with brisket that had been stewed in a homemade BBQ sauce that had some notes of Mexican seasonings (mainly, canned chipotles in adobo sauce) but I honestly think it will work with most stews, and you can always add some taco-appropriate hot sauce at this step.

Heat up a non-stick flat griddle, which will stand in for a comal. Take a corn tortilla, fully coat it in the broth, and place it on the griddle. Top it with shredded cheese—I recommend mozzarella, jack, quesillo, or queso chihuahua.

Once the cheese just starts to melt, flip the tortilla and cook the cheese to your desired level of golden brown.

Flip the tortilla back over, top with stewed meat. Fold in half to form the taco and continue to cook until the tortilla shell reaches the desired level of crisp.

Serve with chopped cilantro and onion.

Recipe: Steamed Dumplings with Spring Onion Broth

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I partnered with Bibigo USA to develop an elegant, spring-themed way to dress up their Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings. These dumplings are super convenient and already so presentable with their lovely pleats, so I wanted to come up with a way of serving them that supplemented but didn’t distract from the flavor of the dumplings. I decided to make a broth with springtime alliums—chives, onions, and leeks—celebrating their flavor when they are young, mild, and sweet at this time of year. I was very excited that the chives growing in my backyard had just started to blossom when I shot this recipe! I think their tiny little lavender-colored flowers are so pretty on top of this dish, don’t you?

Note: I developed this recipe before my city, as well as much of the country, adopted stay-at-home protocols for helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I acknowledge that fresh produce and specialty ingredients may be less available with minimized grocery store visits, but that dressing up some tasty frozen dumplings may still be very welcomed at this time. Here are some recommended substitutions for ingredients in this recipe:

• If spring onions are unavailable, scallions, also known as green onions, are a good substitute.

• Soju may be replaced by any sweet cooking wine. This ingredient can also be replaced with 1 teaspoon of sugar.

• Any prepared canned or boxed broth may be used for this recipe in place of bone broth.

And speaking of scallions, most store-bought ones still have their roots attached to the bulb, making them very easy to regrow at home. The next time you use some, cut off and reserve about a 2–3 inch piece on the bottom, including the bulb and roots. Place these bottoms in a tall glass and submerge the bulb and roots in water. Give them a little time and sunlight and you’ll see new green shoots start to emerge.

If you have a bit of outdoor space, I also recommend growing your own chives! I bought a little seedling plant maybe 7 years ago or so, when I first started planting vegetables in my backyard, and I have had a constant supply of chives ever since. Because they bloom and the seeds easily self-sow, I’ve had little chive plants pop up all over the place, and they have done really well when transplanted into pots or other parts of the garden. They would do great in a small pot on a sunny balcony, and then in the spring and summer, you’ll have beautiful little flowers to garnish with, too.

How to Make Steamed Dumplings with Spring Onion Broth

Ingredients

4 packages Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings
1 large leak, washed and chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soju
2 1/2 cups bone broth
2–3 chives, chopped

Procedure

In a large saucepan on low heat, combine butter, leeks, spring onions, and shallot. Allow to sweat gently for 5 minutes, then add garlic and stir. Cover and sweat for an additional 10 minutes, stirring halfway.

Stir in soju and allow most of the liquid to cook away. Then add bone broth and simmer on low for 15 minutes.

Prepare steamed dumplings according to package instructions.

Divide spring onion broth into 4 shallow bowls. Arrange 6 steamed dumplings in each bowl. Sprinkle chives on top to garnish.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Mushy Peas on Toast

CLICK HERE to grab my recipe at Nomtastic Foods! I’m pretty sure many of us have an old bag of frozen peas lurking in the bottom of our freezers…this recipe transforms them into a vibrant spread. Your home cafe will be cranking out bougie toasts in no time, and you won’t even need avocados!

Recipe: Bulgogi Steak Tacos with Chimichurri & Spicy Pickled Root Veggies

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I love buying heirloom carrots in different colors. They usually are small and come with their beautiful greens still attached. But one thing I have struggled with in the past is what to do with the greens. While I have tried putting them raw in salads, the flavor is a little too earthy for me. I hate to waste food, especially now, when we are all trying to keep our grocery trips limited and make the most of what food we already have in our pantries and fridges. When Bibigo USA challenged me to come up with a no-waste recipe idea for Earth Day, I jumped on the challenge to resolve my carrot conundrum.

Because the texture of the carrot top greens are similar to parsley, I realized that a chimichurri would be an ideal way to use up the greens in a delightfully palatable way. The bold acidity of the vinegar in a chimichurri is just the thing to balance really well with the earthy taste of the carrot top greens. Since chimichurri is usually an accompaniment for steak, I thought steak tacos would be a fun way to use all these ingredients together. This recipe uses carrots and radishes in the form of spicy pickles, their green tops in the form on chimichurri, and steak marinated in Bibigo USA’s convenient bulgogi marinade to make no-waste tacos that are both beautiful and bright in flavor.

How to Make Bulgogi Steak Tacos with Chimichurri & Spicy Pickled Root Veggies

Ingredients for the Steak

1 lb sirloin steak
1/4–1/2 cup Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp butter

Ingredients for the Pickles

2 radishes
4 small carrots
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2–3 tsp gochugaru
3/8 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water, boiling
1/4 cup water, warm
1 tsp sesame oil

Ingredients for the chimichurri

1 cup carrot leaves, washed and dried
1/4 cup radish leaves, washed and dried
1 tsp dried oregano, finely crushed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp gochugaru
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp good quality olive oil
finely ground black pepper to taste

For serving

10 corn tortillas

Procedure

Divide steak into long chunks, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide. Place in a wide dish and add enough Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce to cover the steak. Allow to marinade in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the pickles, thinly slice carrots and radishes. Combine carrots and boiling water in a bowl and let stand for 1 minute to allow carrots to soften. Drain. Add warm water, salt, and sugar and stir until salt and sugar have dissolved. Add radish slices, gochugaru, and rice vinegar. Stir to combine and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the chimichurri, chop root vegetable leaves until very fine. Transfer to a bowl and mix in dried oregano, garlic, gochugaru, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir in vinegar and olive oil. Set aside and stir thoroughly again before serving.

Drain marinated steak and use a paper towel to pat dry. Heat a cast iron skillet on high. Add butter and swirl to coat skillet. Add steak in a single layer. Allow steak to cook undisturbed on one side and then flip and cook to desired doneness on the other side (2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side for medium rare). Transfer to a grooved cutting board and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

While steak is resting, drain liquid from pickles and add sesame oil. Toss to combine.

Heat corn tortillas in a dry skillet or over a gas burner until edges are lightly charred. Transfer to a tortilla warmer or basket with a damp cloth.

Slice rested steak into thin slices against the grain. To assemble tacos, place about 5 pieces of steak on each tortilla, add a small spoon of pickles, and drizzle chimichurri on top.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Toffee Bars

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My mom used to make toffee bars from an old Betty Crocker cookbook as part of her big Christmas cookie bakes, and being a child of sophisticated tastes, they were the ones I looked forward to the most. I never knew why they were called “toffee bars” though? The crust tastes like brown sugar shortbread because that is basically what it is.

While sheltering-in-place I’ve been baking a ton, but because it’s just me and my spouse (happily) trapped here together, I have been adapting recipes to produce smaller amounts. I took one third of the old recipe and swapped out the egg for Greek yogurt to make the right amount for baking inside a loaf pan.

The original recipe, as my mom used to make it, called for a topping of chopped walnuts. But I find that flakey salt is the way to go if you are gonna top a slab of melted dark chocolate with anything. Because I had some edible flowers that I’d purchased from the farmers market, plus more growing in my own back yard, I decided to add some of those plus some bee pollen to really dress these up. This ingredients have minimal impact on the taste, and are entirely optional. Just don’t skimp on the flakey salt.

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker.

How to Make Toffee Bars

Ingredients for Toffee Bars

1/3 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks*

Toppings

flakey salt
bee pollen
food-safe flower petals

* You could also chop up a baking bar or use chocolate chips. The less stabilizers in your chocolate product, the better it will melt.

Procedure

Cut a strip of parchment paper to match the width of your loaf pan and use it to line the pan lengthwise, allowing the excess to hang over the top. (While the pastry does not really stick after baking, it is helpful to have this as handles for lifting it out of the pan.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine butter, brown sugar, vanilla, Greek yogurt, and salt in a mixing bowl and cream until smooth. Mix in flour. Press into the loaf pan in a smooth layer. (I like to place a piece of wax paper over it and use the back of a spoon to smooth it out.)

Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown but still soft. Immediately sprinkle chocolate on top and allow it to start melting. Spread the chocolate evenly.

Sprinkle flakey salt and other toppings, if using, evenly over the chocolate. Allow chocolate to set for at least 30 minutes before lifting out of the pan, and then allow the chocolate to fully set and cool (about 2 hours at room temperature) before cutting into bars with a large knife.

Recipe: Dalgona Mocha

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Dalgona coffee is everywhere on Instagram and TikTok right now, and while it makes me feel a little like a sheep to have jumped on the trend, I also prefer to have a more warm and fuzzy perspective on it. From what I understand, this style of coffee first became popular in South Korea when people self-quarantining were looking for a way to capture Seoul’s wonderful cafe culture while not being able to leave their homes. While friends and loved ones can’t grab a cup of coffee together to socialize at the moment, I like thinking about how the explosion of dalonga coffee on social media means we are all having coffee together in a way.

The recipe for dalgona coffee is super easy to remember: equal parts of hot water, instant coffee granules, and sugar in a bowl, and then whisk the crap out of it and serve it on milk. But the other day I swapped out a little bit of the coffee granules for unsweetened cocoa powder to make a mocha version, and got several DMs about the proportions I used, so I figured I may as well make a blog post about it. The tiny amount of cocoa was enough to really change the flavor, even for my spouse who doesn’t like coffee and has the weakest sense of taste of anyone I’ve met.

Happy whisking!

How to Make Dalgona Mochas

This recipe makes 2 drinks with a generous amount of whipped coffee foam, piled high for the ‘gram.

Ingredients

3 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp boiling water
12 oz milk (I used full fat oat milk)
extra unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting, optional

Procedure

Combine instant coffee, cocoa powder, sugar, and water in a bowl that is roomy enough for some major whisking action.

Using an electric hand mixer, whisk the ingredients together, working your way up to the highest setting and rotating the bowl as you go, until everything is a homogenous foam with medium-stiff peaks. (I do not recommend a stand mixer, which has trouble when the volume of ingredients is so small. You could certainly do this manually with a regular whisk but you will be whisking a very long time to get the texture seen in these photos.)

Divide the milk of your choice into two small glasses and top with the whipped mocha foam. Dust a little extra cocoa powder on top. Take several dozen photos, then enjoy!

Recipe: Honey Butter Shrimp & Garlic Fried Rice

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We all know that you have to use leftover rice for fried rice in order to avoid a soggy, sticky disaster, right? This is great if you already have leftover rice lying around, but what about those spontaneous fried rice cravings? What kind of comfort food recipe expects you to plan for those cravings the night before? Not this one! When Bibigo USA asked me to develop a recipe for them using their Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice, I was honestly thrilled to learn that this product existed because it meant being able to make fried rice on the fly, no planning required! While I (like everyone else, probably) grew up on that fried rice with the frozen peas and carrot cubes tossed in, my adult palette has been loving a simple garlic fried rice—heavy on the garlic!—topped with some sort of delicious protein.

The inspiration for my honey butter shrimp comes from a couple different places. First, those big, buttery, succulent shrimp from Hawaiian shrimp trucks; the experience of indulging in something so luxurious whilst eating out of a takeout container in a car left a lasting impression that I needed to be able to replicate that experience in the comfort of my own home. And second, after seeing honey butter flavored EVERYTHING in South Korea—from almonds to potato chips to a dipping sauce for KFC—pairing it with shrimp seemed like a no-brainer.

The recipe below is for one hefty serving but can easily be multiplied. Just be sure to not overcrowd the pan for your shrimp. Allowing space for the shrimp to crisp up in their potato starch dusting is important to achieve that North Shore shrimp truck goodness.

How to Make Honey Butter Shrimp & Garlic Fried Rice

Ingredients for Honey Butter Shrimp

8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/6 cup potato starch
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp gochugaru
salt to taste

Ingredients for Garlic Fried Rice

1 package Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice
2–3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
salt to taste

For garnish

1 tbsp chopped cilantro
lemon wedges

Procedure

Open package of Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice according to package directions and microwave for 30 seconds. Fully remove lid and set aside.

In a large, shallow bowl, combine potato starch and pinch of salt. Add shrimp and toss together until shrimp are fully coated. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Heat wok on medium-low heat. Add garlic and butter and stir continuously, cooking garlic until golden brown, about 3–4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Increase heat to high and add oil to wok. Add Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice, soy sauce, and salt to taste. Stir-fry for 6–7 minutes. Add butter and garlic mixture, stir to combine, then fry for an additional 1–2 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, microwave butter for 15 seconds, or until just melted. Whisk in honey, sugar, gochugaru, and salt to taste. 

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Fry shrimp in a single layer for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden. Turn off heat and drain any excess oil. Add honey butter sauce and toss to coat shrimp.

To serve, plate fried rice and add shrimp on top. Sprinkle cilantro and garnish with lemon wedges on the side.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Pantry Puttanesca

CLICK HERE to visit my friends over at Nomtastic Foods and get my recipe for this pasta alla puttanesca. Right now, we are all looking for ways to reduce our time outside of the house and #stayhome to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This recipe utilizes flavorful ingredients that come in cans and jars to make a hearty pasta dinner.

Recipe: Crunchy Spring Salad with Sesame Vinaigrette

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I partnered with Bibigo USA to develop a spring salad recipe that is both pretty and fun to eat. Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Mini Wontons are an exciting alternative to salad croutons, with the benefit of added protein. Also, aren’t they freakin’ cute? Here, they are combined with spring peas and other crunchy veggies that hold up well against the heat from the wontons.

As someone who has unintentionally invested a lot of time already into developing good kitchen instincts, salad recipes always seemed a little silly to me. There is no wrong way to make a salad as long as you are making one that suits your personal tastes and, if you are eating salads for health, fulfills your goals. If you are like me and already comfortable with figuring such things out, I think salad recipes are much more for purposes of presentation instructions, serving as help and inspiration for how to dish out a salad in a way that puts the beauty of fresh produce in full display, perhaps in a way you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. Considering that when I was a little kid, I would love to go to salad buffet style restaurants and make my signature “salad” of peas, bacon bits, and a pool of ranch dressing, I would say I have come a long way on that front. I hope you think so, too.

How to Make Crunchy Spring Salad with Sesame Vinaigrette

Ingredients For the dressing

4 tsp tahini
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Ingredients for the Salad

15–20 Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Mini Wontons
1 cup snap peas
1 cup pea shoots
3 stalks celery, leaves included
2–3 radishes
1 zucchini
4–6 chives

Procedure

Prep the vegetables: Cut the snap peas in half, lengthwise. Separate the celery leaves from the stalks and set aside, then finely slice the celery stalks at an angle. Using a vegetable peeler, shave zucchini into thin ribbons. Finely slice the radishes (I used a mandoline for this). Divide cut vegetables, celery leaves, and pea shoots into two bowls. Finely chop the chives and set aside.

Pan-fry Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Mini Wontons according to package directions.

Whisk together dressing ingredients.

Top the vegetables with heated wontons and chives. Serve with dressing on the side.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Cauliflower Stir-Fry with Pickled Carrot Ribbons

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I partnered with Bibigo USA to create an easy, no-brainer recipe using their Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce—a super convenient marinade for that bulgogi flavor that I love. The sauce is delicious as a meat marinade, but in this quick recipe, I combined it with cauliflower, which acts as an immediate flavor sponge without any marinating time.

Almost everyone owns a vegetable peeler but doesn’t realize its versatility. Using this common kitchen gadget to shave a carrot into super thin “ribbons” means you can make a quick pickle to complement the tender stir-fried cauliflower. This recipe produces more than enough pickled carrot for 1 serving; store the rest in a jar in the fridge and enjoy it over the next couple days!

How to Make Cauliflower Stir-Fry with Pickled Carrot Ribbons

Ingredients For the Stir-Fry:

6–7 medium cauliflower florets, stems included
3 tbsp Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp coconut oil (or peanut/vegetable oil)
1/2 cup water

Ingredients for the Pickle

1 carrot
4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup rice vinegar 
1/4 cup hot water
salt

For Serving

1 cup cooked rice
scallions, finely sliced
sesame seeds

Procedure

Prepare quick-pickled carrot ribbons. Using a vegetable peeler, remove rough outer skin of carrot and discard. Continue using the vegetable peeler to shave thin “ribbons” of carrot. Rotate as necessary until reaching the core of the carrot. (Feel free to snack on the carrot core!)

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup hot water (does not need to be boiling; hot tap water is fine) and sugar; mix until sugar is dissolved. Mix in rice vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add carrot ribbons and allow to marinade while you prep the rest of the dish, tossing occasionally to make sure the pickling liquid coats the carrot.

Chop cauliflower florets into small pieces, about 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch in size.

Heat up a wok (or non-stick skillet) on high. When the wok is very hot, carefully swirl in oil, then add chopped cauliflower. Stir-fry constantly for 2 minutes until the edges char slightly. Add Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce and stir thoroughly to combine. Lower heat to medium and add 1/2 cup water; continue stirring until water is evaporated and cauliflower is slightly tender. 

To serve, scoop cauliflower over cooked rice and add some carrot ribbons. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds for garnish.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Everything Focaccia in a Cast Iron Skillet

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For those inexperienced with breadmaking, like myself, focaccia is a great place to start. And if you haven’t experienced the joy of eating homemade bread fresh from the oven, you most definitely should. I’m looking forward to making this again with all kinds of toppings (especially when it’s tomato season) but for now, the “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning from Trader Joe’s is a pretty great choice.

I was having a lazy Sunday over the weekend and decided I may as well use my being at home to make something that required a little bit of time. My husband was downloading something on our PS4—which gives off some heat when it’s on—and that is when I had the brilliant idea to use our media cabinet to proof the dough. So if you’ve got a place where you store your gaming consoles and electronics, put your dough in it to proof, and you’ll also have something to do while you wait!

A terrible photo of my brilliant proofing setup

This recipe was adapted from Gimme Some Oven.

How to Make Everything Focaccia in a Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients

2/3 cup warm water*
1 tsp honey
1 tsp instant yeast
1 3/4 cups + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
lots of olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves picked
1–2 tsp “everything but the bagel” seasoning
pinch of salt

* I have found that hot water from my tap works well for blooming yeast.

Procedure

In the bowl of your stand mixer, gently combine water, honey, and yeast. Allow the yeast to “bloom” for 5–10 minutes in a warm place until there is a fine foam on top.

Fit your stand mixer with the dough hook. Set the mixer to low speed and gradually add 1 3/4 cups flour, then 1/8 cup olive oil and salt. Turn up the speed of the mixer to medium-low and allow the dough to be kneaded for 4 minutes. If the dough has not pulled away from the sides of the bowl, add an additional 1 tablespoon of flour. Continue to knead for 1–2 minutes. Dough should be sticky but you should be able to easily remove it from the dough hook.

Generously coat the inside of medium mixing bowl with olive oil. Pull the dough off the hook and form a ball. Roll the ball of dough around in the olive oil until coated. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm spot to proof for 45–60 minutes, until it has doubled in size.

Coat the inside of a 10-inch cast iron skillet with olive oil. Turn the risen dough into the skillet and use your fingers to gently press down on the dough, forming an even layer in the bottom of the skillet. Cover with the damp towel again, and continue to proof the dough for 20 more minutes.

Meanwhile, place a rack one-third from the top of your oven and preheat to 400°F.

Use your finger or a chopstick to poke lots of holes in the dough—they should go all the way down through the dough. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil all over the surface. Sprinkle with seasoning and rosemary leaves. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. Slice and eat it as soon as you dare to touch it without burning your fingers.

Recipe: Easy Cheese Hash Browns

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The earliest job that I can remember my dad having when I was a really young child was managing the finances at a company that distributed frozen potato products. In hindsight, we did not get nearly enough free potato goodness to show for it; perhaps my parents never took advantage because making fried potato things was fairly unfamiliar to them at that time, having not lived in the States for all that long. Anyway, I am not sure if it’s because of this, but I have spent most of my life thinking that it was impossible to make hash browns at home. Despite being very experienced with cooking potatoes in a vast array of formats at this point, I always envisioned has browns as something that had to come frozen from the store. Until one day I was experimenting with making a breakfast-y ramen, and looking around the kitchen to see what I could add to build upon the breakfast theme. I had a potato that was sort of past its prime and thought, what have I got to lose? Here’s what I did.

How to Make Cheese Hash Browns

Ingredients

1 small yukon potato, refrigerated
1/4 cup cheddar, grated
potato or corn starch
oil for frying

Procedure

Grate the potato with a box grater, then toss with potato starch until very lightly coated. Combine with grated cheese.

Heat some oil in a non-stick skillet. Add a thin layer of the potato/cheese mixture in, forming the shape/size you want. Pan-fry on both sides until golden.⁣

Enjoy your hash browns however you like. To make the breakfast ramen shown here: Prepare 1 package of SamYang Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen according to the instructions, then toss noodles and sauce with grated cheese until melted. Top with slices of your pork configuration of choice (this is leftover Taiwanese-style braised pork belly, but char siu, Spam, or bacon would be great), hash brown, egg, scallions, and furikake.

Recipe: Date & Cacao Bran Muffins

CLICK HERE to visit my friends over at Nomtastic Foods and get my recipe for date and cacao nib bran muffins—a healthy grab-and-go breakfast, the perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea, or a sweet and chocolate-y dessert you’ll be proud of yourself for eating.

Easy Chili Oil Noodles

Welcome to the first installment of a series I am going to call “Awkwardly Vague Recipes by Lily Morello”. Most of the time, I don’t measure when I am just cooking for myself/my household, so when anyone asks me how I made something, this generally sums up the nature of my trying to recall and explain what I did after the fact. Except now people actually want to recreate the dishes that I share on my Instagram account, so I know I really need to get better at, at least, taking notes while I cook.

The problem is, some recipes are really not meant to be confined to a strict recipe. At least not with measurements and a specific order of operations, or any of those details. A lot of cooking involves seasoning and balancing flavors to taste—to match the preferences of the chef, or the eater. I may like things spicier or more sour than the next person, and I’m not going to be the one to dictate how much seasoning to put in a sauce for someone with different seasoning preferences than mine. In these cases, awkwardly vague is the only way to go.

I put together this recipe as a last minute idea for a Lunar New Year themed dish. I happened to have Hokkien-style noodles already open in my fridge, so that is what ended up in the dish. I grew up eating noodles at celebrations to promote longevity, and golden-colored things for prosperity, so I think these noodles fit perfectly in the Lunar New Year spirit.

This time, I took photos to help visualize all the unmeasured ingredients (please ignore the reflection of my camera mount). But seriously, feel free to add more or less depending on what you like!

How to Make Super Easy Chili Oil Noodles

Get a pot of water boiling. You can use this for your noodles, and any vegetables you feel like blanching to include in the dish.

Select a bowl from which you’d like to eat your noodles. You’ll be able to mix the sauce and eat out of the same bowl, so there’s fewer dishes to be done! To that bowl, add some black vinegar, a scoop of chili oil, some sesame oil, and a drizzle of kecap manis (Indonesian dark sweet soy sauce).

Mix everything together to make your sauce.

Add your piping hot noodles to the bowl, and mix everything together. You can really use any noodles you like, as long as you know how to cook them to the texture you desire. You could even use pasta!

That’s honestly it. At this point, you could add blanched vegetables (I used broccoli rabe), or a poached egg, or whatever toppings and mix-ins you desire. Maybe add a flourish of chopped scallions or herbs, or a dash of sesame seeds for garnish if you are plating it for the ‘gram, but otherwise, there are really no rules. Just yummy, spicy, tangy, sweet noodles.

Recipe: Holiday Fuel Cookies

Because Double-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Sea Salt Cookies Seemed like too much of a mouthful.

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When I was in college, I had a notebook where I’d hand-copied recipes from my mom’s old cookbooks to bring with me and make away from home. We most definitely already had the internet and laptops back then, so I am not sure why I did this. But I still have the notebook and one of the recipes in it is a oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever actually made it with raisins—because there’s nothing more disappointing in life than biting into what you think is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie only to learn those chocolate chips are actually horrible raisins—and over the years the recipe has completely evolved according to my tastes. Over time, I’ve reduced the sugar, tried different mix-ins, and even experimented with different types of oatmeal—and I have always just maintained these recipe adjustments in my memory instead of writing them down.

Until now! I was so touched to be invited by @cosetteskitchen to participate in a Virtual Cookie Party on Instagram this Sunday. To be considered an active part of such a rich community of home cooks and food bloggers means so much to me as my own Instagram account (@lilybubbletea) has really become such an important place for me to show who I am as a food stylist and photographer, but also who I am in general. I thought Cosette’s idea of having a cookie potluck party no matter where we are really reminds how great Instagram can be as a community builder; check out the hashtag #virtualcookieparty2019 to see what others are bringing to the party.

I’m sharing my tried and true oatmeal cookie recipe but with a few mix-ins to turn these cookies into an indulgent snack that is easy and tempting to grab while feeling extra frantic during the holidays. Big gooey chocolate shards are the highlight for me, but there’s also cacao nibs for crunch, dried cranberries for a little tartness, sea salt for a tiny touch of savory balance, and oatmeal…for health?

How to Make Double-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Sea Salt Cookies

Ingredients for the Oatmeal Cookie Base

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened but not melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2–1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp (or more!) ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup quick oats
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Holiday Fuel Mix-ins

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1-2 pinches flakey salt, for finishing

Procedure

Making chocolate shards: This is a totally optional step that requires some foresight but I think it gives baked goods a rustic, really gooey look. Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler and pour it all onto a parchment- or silicone-lined baking tray. Spread the chocolate into a thin layer and allow to fully set in the fridge or freezer, then cut or break into small shards. Alternatively, you could just use chocolate chips.

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

Cream together butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet but try not to over mix. Then gently fold in the chocolate shards (or chocolate chips), cacao nibs, and dried cranberries.

Scoop dough into golf ball sized mounds, 2 inches apart, on ungreased cookie sheets. Top each with a little sprinkle of flakey salt. (Makes about 20 cookies)

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottom edges start to look golden brown. Allow the cookies to set for 2 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.

Here’s what other bloggers brought to our virtual cookie party:

• Cosette’s Kitchen Tahini Pinwheel Cookies

• Kathryn Pauline’s Sesame Blossom Cookies

• Candice Walker’s Dark Chocolate Gelt with Matcha Mousse

• Tawnie Graham’s (Krolls_Korner) White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies 

• ¡Hola! Jalapeño Peppermint Mocha Milk Fudge 

• Rylee Foer (About to Sprout) Spiced Honey Cardamom Cookies with Orange Glaze 

• Gina Fontana (Healthy Little Vittles) Cookie Dough Stuffed Dates

• Christine Ma (Cherry on My Sundae) Southern Butter Pecan Skillet Cookie

• Alexa Blay’s (Key To My Lime) Gluten Free Vegan Sugar Cookies for Cutouts

• Tamara Giebel (The Herbalist & The Carnivore) Chocolate Espresso Dipped Hazelnut Lace Cookies

• Ashley Cuoco’s (ashcuoco) Stamped Citrus Shortbread

• Mike Johnson’s (MikeBakesNYC) Chocolate Peppermint Macarons

• Elizabeth Waterson (ConfessionsOfABakingQueen) Viennese Whirls

• Erin Kowal's (Down to a Simmer) Date Drop Cookies

• Kathleen Culver, The Floured Table Triple Ginger Molasses Cookies

• Taylor Carson (Crust and Confections PNW) Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

• Kimberlee Ho (kickassbaker) White Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches

• Cindy Feingold (saltandserenity) Chocolate Dipped Mint sandwich Cookies

• Tamara, Tina, Tara (ThreeTeasKitchen)  https://threeteaskitchen.com/lawzena/ 

• Jean Choi’s (whatgreatgrandmaate) Cranberry Pistachio Paleo Chocolate Cookies

• Tristin Rieken’s (onearmedmama) Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

• Kathryn (wornslapout) Rocky Road Chocolate Bark 

• Taylor (allpurposeflourchild) Mulling Spice and Orange Marmalade Thumbprint Cookies

• Dana (olivemeetscoconut) Cranberry Orange Halaweh Cookies

• KendellKreations Pecan Butter Balls

• Kristine Hinterkopf (TheEarnestBaker) Smoked Sea Salt and Bourbon Cowboy Cookies

• Anita (cookonawhim) Cranberry and Rosemary Tassies

• Casey Colodny (TheMindfulHapa) Paleo Soft Ginger Cookies 

• Emma Duckworth (Emma Duckworth Bakes Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

• Kat Higashiyama (Pasta Ragazza) Chocolate and Coffee Biscotti

Recipe: Chicken Parm Potstickers

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Last year, after a very stressful event in my career, I treated myself to a solo trip to New York. It was on this trip that my perspective on dumplings changed. And now, I am going to change yours.

But first, a brief history of my interactions with dumplings: As a kid growing up Chinese-American, dumplings in my mind were of two extremes—either incredibly tedious for my mom to make at home on only very special occasions or incredibly tediously made in superhuman volumes at the dim sum restaurant but still only worth ordering if they were priced super cheap. When I was in college, I started venturing into making very plainly folded wontons for my then-person-I-was-seeing, now-spouse; my housemates remarked about how I must have cared very much for the person I was cooking for, to go through the trouble. Much more recently, I became determined to master pleating dumplings to look like the cute dumpling emoji; to my surprise I was able to pick it up very quickly and even teach my kitchen-inept spouse, so now homemade dumplings are totally nbd but I still like to take credit for producing a special, time-consuming meal every time I make them.

Throughout all this time, my focus was so much more on the way the dumplings looked and the act of folding them, than on the filling. Many a cheap Chinese takeout order had indicated to me that dumplings, especially potstickers, were always filled with a nondescript pork mixture, and thus this is what I emulated in mine at home. But then in New York, I encountered something that caused me to completely rethink my approach to dumplings: Chicken Parm Potstickers. With marinara dipping sauce. You know, like that classic Italian-American dish of breaded chicken slathered in tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese...but in adorable dumpling form! Somehow, in all that time of thinking about and pleating those dainty parcels of food, I never noticed how dumplings are the absolute perfect vessel for literally any flavor combination to be delivered in one- to two-bite packages to my mouth, and the mouths of my loved ones. Maybe right now you are thinking “duh!” or maybe you are having a revelation of your own. It doesn’t matter as long as you are now aware that you can put ANYTHING in a dumpling. 

And since then, I have. But when Lucini Italia asked me to share a recipe featuring their handcrafted, organic tomato sauces, I was excited for the chance to develop my own version of the chicken parm dumpling—a loving homage to the ones I had last year, but also better. This recipe is for chicken parm potstickers with crispy crunchy bottoms (reminiscent of the breaded chicken of its source), filled with the umami of two kinds of cheese, the herbaceousness of basil, and a garden-fresh tomato tang from Lucini Italia’s Tuscan artisan sauce. Lucini Italia’s Rustic Tomato Basil sauce is perfect for this because it’s not too sweet (there is no added sugar) and it has the perfect-sized tomato chunks. They work with only one organic farm in Tuscany that grows and harvests in small fields to ensure the right ripeness of all the tomatoes going in the jar and their cooked-once technique prevents them from getting overly processed or altered, so the texture feels very homemade and you’ll be able to include a little tomato in every dumpling bite.

There are some things I never make from scratch at home. Tomato sauce is one of them even though it’s something we go through a lot of at my house (because we love Italian food!). So, something that tastes gourmet but isn’t crazy expensive is always a great find. Another thing I never make from scratch is dumpling wrappers. (Ready-made ones can be found at Asian grocery stores and I have even seen them in large chain supermarkets.)

Remember that I was able to teach my spouse, whom I can barely rely on to boil pasta, how to pleat dumplings in the style shown in these photos. And now that I have the hang of it, it goes very fast. Here is a visual step-by-step for how I pleat dumplings. You can find more instructions in my Instagram highlights! 

How to make Chicken Parm Potstickers

Ingredients for the dumplings

20–24 round potsticker wrappers
1/2 lb ground chicken
1/2 cup low moisture skim mozzarella, grated
1/4 cup parmesan or romano, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil sauce
salt to taste*
water, for sealing
flour, for storing

Ingredients for cooking

water
cooking oil (such as vegetable, grapeseed, or flaxseed)

Ingredients for the crunchy bottoms

1/4 cup water
4 tsp flour
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp cooking oil

*Note: 2 pinches of salt are recommended if you are using parmesan but I prefer the saltier romano cheese and didn’t need to add as much salt.

Procedure

Add all the dumpling filling ingredients to a large bowl and mix gently to combine.

Prepare a tray or some flat plates by dusting a small amount of flour on them. Fill a small bowl with water. Remove one dumpling wrapper from the package but keep the rest covered in the packaging or under a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying out. 

Add about a tablespoon of the dumpling filling in the middle of the wrapper. Wet a rim of water along the outer edge of the wrapper’s surface to help seal the dough. Seal the dumpling in your preferred style. Place the dumpling on the prepared tray. Repeat until all the filling is lovingly stuffed inside the wrappers.

Next, prepare the mixture for the crunchy bottoms by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

You will need your most reliable nonstick pan with a lid—they don’t call them potstickers for nothing! Turning your stove on to medium, heat enough oil to see a thin coat covering the surface. Carefully place some of your dumplings in the pan, making sure not to overcrowd them. Allow the bottoms of the dumplings to brown for 1 minute.

Add about 1/4 cup water into the pan and immediately cover with the lid to allow them to steam. Be very careful with this step as water hitting the oil in the pan will certainly cause splatter. Keep the lid on for 2–2.5 minutes until you no longer hear loud sizzling inside. Remove the lid and allow the remaining water to evaporate (if any).

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Gently pour the crunchy bottoms mixture into the pan and swirl so it is distributed evenly. Cover the pan with the lid and turn the heat back up to medium. Cook for 2–2.5 minutes and remove the lid. Cook until the lattice on the bottom of the pan turns golden brown throughout. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to rest for a couple of minutes, or until you see the edges of the lattice curl up away from the inside of the pan. Carefully remove the cooked dumplings with a spatula. Wipe down the pan with a damp paper towel and repeat with the remaining uncooked dumplings.

Garnish your dumplings with some additional fresh basil leaves and serve with lots of extra Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil sauce for dipping!

Thank you so much to Lucini Italia for sponsoring this recipe!