I didn't have any meat in this Pad Thai as it was served as a side dish. As an entree, you can add chicken  or shrimp at the beginning of the stir-frying step.  I have to confess that I much prefer our  "pho*? xao` ap' chao? "  as an entree, will have to give it a try soon.



 Ingredients:

Preparation:
1. Soak noodles in ocld water for and hour or more until soft. Note: do not cook in boiling water, or it will be too mushy in the end instead of slightly chewy
2. Heat oil and add garlic. Fry until light brown. Add tofu or chicken/shrimp and saute until still slightly pink in the middle.
3. Add beaten egg  and cook for only a few seconds. Will still be runny
4. Add noodles and sauces and toss.
5. Add green onions  and bean sprouts and toss until softened, about 2 minutes.
6. Garnish with peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges on the side.

 I was able to salvage these couple of recipes from 2002  from my first recipe blog that Geocities has deleted I just found out :{ NO Ai Ni Geocities!

Nigiri, sushi,  I love them all  :)


                                     




Sushi Meshi - Vinegared Rice

Ingredients:
2 cups sushi or short grain rice
2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice
2 tablespoons japanese seasoned rice vinegar or
to make your own:
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons super-fine sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Preparation:
1. Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear. Let the rice drain for 30 to 60 minutes. This will allow the grains to absorb moisture and start to swell.
 
2. Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
 
3. To make the seasoned rice vinegar: combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds.

4. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and slowly add the vinegar mixture. Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi. Pic 7,8

This recipe will make one quantity of rice, which is sufficient for
2 uncut large rolls (futomaki-sushi)
or 4 uncut small rolls (hosomaki-sushi)
or 16 finger sushi (nigiri-sushi)

Futomaki Prawns Sushi

Ingredients:
- 8 prawns
- 1 avocado
- 1 japanese cucumber
- Sushi Meshi - Vinegared Sushi Rice
- 1/3 cup sake
- 1/4 cup Mirin
- Fresh squeezed lemon juice
- Pickled ginger, for serving
- Wasabi, for serving
- Soy sauce, for serving

Preparation
1. To keep the prawns straight stick a small toothpick down its length just behind the legs.
Boil the sake and mirin, drop the prawns in. Remove when they turn orange and drop them in iced cold water to stop the cooking and keep the colour bright. Shell them and set aside. (pic 1,2,3)
2. Wash and cut the cucumber lengthwise, remove the soft center and seeds and cut into
2 1/2 inches long by 1/4 inch thick pieces and marinate them into a bit of japanese seasoned vinegar (pic 4 and 5)
3. Peel and cut the avocado into half, then 1/4 inch-thick slides. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. (pic 6)
4. In the mean time cook and prepare the meshi rice. (pic 7,8,9)
5. Cover a bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap. Cut nori sheets in half crosswise. Lay 1 sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the plastic covered mat.  (pic 10)
2. Wet your fingers with water and spread about 1/2 cup of the rice evenly onto the nori. Leave 1/2 an inch of nori at the far end uncovered, to use as a flap to 'seal' the roll. (pic 11)
3. Place the cucumber, avocado and prawn in the center of the sheet. Grab the edge of the mat closest to you, keeping the fillings in place with your fingers, and roll it into a tight cylinder, using the mat to shape the cylinder. Pull away the mat and set aside. Cover with a damp cloth. Repeat until all of the rice has been used. (pic 12, 13, 14, 15)
4. Cut each roll into 8 pieces. Cut the roll in half first, then cut each cut-half in half and so on.
5. Arrange the sushi on a platter and serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. (pic 16)






Nigiri Sushi

Ingredients:
- Sashimi grade Salmon
- Sashimi grade Tuna
- Sushi Meshi - Vinegared Sushi Rice
- Wasabi

Preparation
1. Slice up some salmon or tuna for toppings. (pic 2)
2. Wet both hands well with vinegar, then take some vinegared rice in your right hand and squeeze to make it oblong and bite-sized. (pic 3)
3. Add a bit wasabi on top and cover with a salmon or tuna piece. (pic 4)
4. Arrange the nigiri on a platter and serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

This is the 3rd course of the Asian Fusion Menu. The orange-apricot sauce is what makes the difference as well baking the fish en papillote with some orange juice..




Ingredients:
- 4 Sea bass filets 
- 1/2 a red bell pepper julienned
- 1/2 a  yellow or orange bell pepper julienned
-  8 snow peas julienned
- 1 piece of ginger about the size of a small thumb
- 1 orange
- salt and pepper
Sauce:
- 4 T apricot jam
- 2 T  japanese seasoned vinegar
- lemon juice to taste
- 1 tsp hot sauce w/ garlic "con ga`"
- Mix all together, adjust seasonings to taste and set aside.

Preparation:
 0. Preheat oven to 400F
 1. Remove skin from sea bass, rinse and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper (pic 1)
 2. Remove the rind from the orange, make sure you cut off all the white bitter part, and slice into very thin strips (pic 2). Squeeze the juice out of the orange, remove any seeds and set aside.
 3. Peel the ginger and also slice into very thin strips (pic 3)
 4. Cut a piece of parchment paper 22'x8 and fold in half
 5. Place on the bottom half of the parchment paper piece, a handful of the julienned bell peppers, peas,orange peel and ginger. (pic 4)
 6. Place a fish fillet on the vegetables and top with a bit  more orange peel and ginger (pic 5)
 7.  Season with  2-3 T of the squeezed orange juice (pic 5)
 8. Fold the parchment flap over into an moon-shaped sealed bag (pic 6)
 9.  Repeat steps 4-8 for the other 3 pieces of fillet.
10. Place the parchment bags on a baking tray and bake for 10'. The paper will turn brown in spots. (pic 7)
11. Serve the fish fillet in the bag on individual dishes, cautioning your guest to be careful when opening it because it will be steaming hot.
12.  Pour some apricot  sauce on top of each fillet and enjoy! (pic 9)



Preparation:
 0. Preheat oven to 400F
 1. Remove skin from sea bass, rinse and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper
 2. Remove the rind from the orange, make sure you cut off all the white bitter part, and slice into very thin strips. Squeeze the juice out of the orange, remove any seeds and set aside.
 3. Peel the ginger and also slice into very thin strips
 4. Cut a piece of parchment paper 22'x8 and fold in half
 5. Place on the bottom half of the parchment paper piece, a handful of the julienned broccoli, bell peppers, peas,orange peel and ginger.
 6. Place a fish fillet on the vegetables and top with a bit  more orange peel and ginger
 7.  Season with  2-3 T of the squeezed orange juice
 8. Fold the parchment flap over into an moon-shaped sealed bag
 9.  Repeat steps 4-8 for the other 3 pieces of fillet.
10. Place the parchment bags on a baking tray and bake for 10'. The paper will turn brown in spots.
11. Serve the fish fillet in the bag on individual dishes, cautioning your guest to be careful when opening them because it will be steaming hot.
12.  Pour some apricot  sauce on top of each fillet and enjoy!

For the second course of the Sun Star Orange menu, I wanted to make orange coloured pasta by adding puree carrots... well,  I got orange-speckled pasta instead. And my lesson learned with home-made pasta is to make it the day before, keep it in the fridge and boil/use it the next day. Cooking it only a few hours after it's made tends to give really soft pasta ... which is how my orange pasta with prawns came out :( 

The next day, I boile/drained the pasta and tossed it in the oive oil and juices from the just cooked filet mignon and it was much better.

Follow the pasta recipe for a medium batch of pasta and just add 1/4 C cooked puree carrots to the egg mixture (pic 3) in making the dough.

For the pasta with prawns, I just stir fried some garlic, hot dried chili, plum tomatoes quartered, sliced orange bell peppers with the clean and deveined prawns. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and serve hot.

Z 's signature lobster salad is fantastic!! I think that i's the secret maggi, dijon mustard,  balsamic and olive oil that does it as well as the fresh lobster of course.  It's a meal in itself, if you don't like lots of dressing cut it down a bit because it is very well dressed :) indeed.


Ingredients:
- (2) 2-lbs "live" lobsters (small lobsters are actually better, best around 2-lbs each
- Escarole or mixed salad (thicker/crunchier salad is better as it will be very well "dressed" :))
- 6 small plum tomatoes
- Dressing:
  - 3/4 Cup Modena extra-virgin olive oil (use the best that you have)
  - 1/2 Cup balsamic vinegar
  - 1/8 Cup maggi (key ingredient)
  - 2 heaping tsps Dijon mustard (Amora is the preferred choice)
  - freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:
- Boil some water in a big pot with a dash of salt. When water is rolling -boiled, drop the poor lobsters in head first for sudden death :)) and cook for 15' or so (rule of thumb 5-7' per lb of lobster)
(pic 1,2, 3)
- Remove lobsters and let it cool enough to handle. (pic 4)
- Use the "Boston maneuver" to removel the lobster tail in one move of the fork. Stick fork in deep and pull the body of the lobster out following the curve of the shell (do not twist), then quickly yank the tail out.  If the lobster is fresh and cooked properly, the entire tail should come out easily.
- Save the whole lobster head and tail shell for decoration later on. (pic 5,6,7,8
- Cut lobster meat into medallions (pic  10,11) to be marinated in the dressing (sauce) before serving.
- A lobster or crab cracker is a must. Crack claws 'gently' and pull out claw meat whole if you can.
- Crack off head and scrape eggs, tomale, and juice into dressing. Cut head in half and salvage meat.  (pic 9, 12, 13,14)
- Chill lobster meat along with the dressing and salad in refrigerator for 30'  or so  - this course should be served chilled if possible.

- For the dressing, start with a good olive oil, add vinegar, maggi and Dijon mustard into a bowl. Add the lobster eggs, tomale and salvaged meat. Mix well, add the freshly ground pepper. Refrigerate the dressing.  (pic 15,16, 17,18)
- Wash and spin dry the salad, cut the tomatoes into wedges or halves if they are really small. (pic 19, 20)
- Place the salad into a large bowl, add the chilled lobster medallions and claws, then the dressing and toss well. (pic 20, 21)
- For plating, start with the lobster head and tail shells. Place them artfully on the plate, add the mixed salad, and tomatoes.  (pic 22, 23,24,25, 26)
- Serve IMMEDIATELY otherwise the salad will go limp.


- Serve with a well chilled good Chardonnay white wine, such as the Montagny "La Grande Roche" from Louis Latour (pic 27), or Chateau St Jean " Gauer Ranch". While the Bourgogne style goes well with this dish, you can substitute a sancerre, or a Sauvignon Blanc, or even a Pinot Gris, but do not servie this dish with a Riesling as the sauce will overpower the wine.