Various Eats, Wild Birds, and Bye to July
- sixstrings17
- Aug 2, 2016
- 5 min read
Running out of breakfast ideas? Here's a good recipe for "overnight oats" that is both wholesome and delicious. We're all familiar with hot "quick oats" a la "Quaker", but on hot summer mornings, make it a cold breakfast made from scratch the night before. Due to the high fibre contents, this will keep you full most of the day. Add nuts, seeds, fruits, as we do, and go easy on any sweeteners (we use maple syrup or honey) and you have a winning formula every morning. Great for blood sugar maintenance, digestion, and so easy to make.
Overnight Oats/Muesli
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 1
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (120 ml) unsweetened plain almond milk (fresh cow/goat milk works, too)
3/4 Tbsp (9 g) chia seeds or flaxseed meal
1 Tbsp (15 ml) maple syrup (or sub coconut sugar, organic brown sugar, or honey to taste)
1/2 cup (45 g) rolled oats (bekak, uncooked)
TOPPINGS (Everything here is optional, depending on what you like or available)
Sliced banana, strawberries, raspberries, blackberry, blueberry (sliced kiwi, etc)
Grated apple
Granola
Nuts like sliced almonds, ground peanuts, etc.
Raisins, sultanas, dried cranberries
Pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Instructions
To a small bowl add almond milk, chia seeds, and maple syrup (or other sweetener) and stir with a spoon to combine. Sweeten to your taste.
Add oats and stir a few more times, then press down with a spoon to ensure all oats have been moistened and are immersed in milk.
Cover securely with a lid or plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least 6 hours).
The next day, open and enjoy as is, or garnish with desired toppings (see options above).
Overnight oats will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, though best within the first 12-24 hours
Hokkien (Amoy) Lumpia
A couple of weekends ago, we did fresh or "Amoy" style fresh spring rolls, typically known in Fujianese as "lumpia". Aside from Manila or Taiwan, (excluding Fujian in China) we've never come across this version of non-fried spring rolls that beats all other versions found in other ethnic cuisine. The master of this dish is diko-tiu with his fine chopping skills as the texture of the veggies come out just right. The trick with this dish is to hand-chop all the veggies to just the right size, cook each veggie at a time, then mix it all up to stir fry before serving. Ingredients aside from veggies include chopped shrimps, pressed tofu (Tokwa), some ground pork, and topped up with ground sugar peanuts that makes it all very appetizing. If anyone wants the recipe, just email me. Unlike other wraps, this dish is eaten as if a ritual. Everyone sits around the table, making their lumpia exactly the way one likes em, using whatever ingredients preferred. It's a lot of chopping that makes it one elaborate dish the whole family can sit around and enjoy. This is another great example of a Fujianese that is naturally wholesome, delicious, and completely unknown outside of South East Asia and China. In Manila, eateries such as "Ha Wan", and "New Po Heng" all around Binondo specialize in this dish. As a child, I remember going to "Amoy Lumpia" to eat this with Diko and Diko-Tiu after our Friday night trips to watch Chinese movies in Ongpin. If you've not had this in years or have never had it, you're missing out. So come on over, and we'll make it! We make it better than the places in Ongpin!
How about some cha bihon?
Not having an idea what to make one afternoon, I decided it's high time to make some "cha bihon" for dinner. This rice vermicelli dish is known as "pancit bihon" found in most eateries in the Philippines. It's also regularly cooked at most Filipino-Chinese homes. Another good example of a dish not well known in North America but found all over South East Asia with a large Fujianese-Chinese population. This is a typical Fujianese dish that uses fresh natural ingredients that lets the natural flavours come through. In other words, I'd say that Fujianese cuisine is very understated, lacking the bolder, flashier flavours that Cantonese cuisine has evolved into in North America. The simplicity and natural flavours make the dishes timeless.
Ingredients:
400g pack of bihon/rice vermicelli
2 TBSP vegetable oil
Half pound Chinese bbq pork or cha siu. You can use fresh ground pork, canned pork leg, etc.
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
Half a shredded cabbage, chopped up
3 sticks of carrots, sliced up
1 cup of shitake mushrooms, soak in water until you can slice into strips
1 cup peeled shrimps, sliced or minced
2-3 TSP soy sauce or to taste
1 TSP sesame oil or to taste
1 TSP black pepper or to taste
.5 to 1 cup water or broth
Choppsed green onions as condiment
To do:
1) Put noodles into a large bowl of cover and leave for about 10 minutes to soften
2) Add oil in a wok, stir fry garlic and add all veggies until cooked
3) Add shrimps and pork, stir fry until cooked. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper
4) Add the soften noodles, and stir fry, adding broth or water so the noodles are not too dry
5) The noodles should glisten a bit from addition of water or broth but it should not be soupy
6) Dish should be cooked when noodles are soft but not mushy. Add soy sauce, pepper, to taste
Serve with slices of lemon. I served the dish with pan fried black cod garnished with crispy basil cooked in olive oil, also with steamed rice on the side.
Hollyburn Trail Hike
With the last Saturday in July, we hiked up to Hollyburn mountain on a 2 hour long trail. It's only about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver and thought we'd get up there to see what the view was all about. As luck would have it, we were met with heavy fog and had no view from the top. All wasn't wasted as we had a good 4 hour long hiking session and found wildlife up there that weren't afraid of humans. Birds would come right up and sit beside you, and would pluck a bite from our sandwiches. Peace and quiet, beautiful trees, mysterious fog, and pools of water along the trail made it a lovely hike. It is what makes living in this part of the world so great; nature abounds. The top of the mountain is a small pointy rocky outcrop with a small pool of water its crater. The road to the mountain has a lookout overlooking the City.
Steveston, Fish N Chips
At the southern tip of the city of Richmond lies the fishing village of Steveston. Went there one day to take some photos and to eat at Pajo's fish n chips. This eatery juts right out into the water and is popular with locals and tourists alike. Nothing beats a nicely cooked cod fish n chips eaten with malt vinegar and tartar sauce, wrapped in traditional paper. The fish was crispy and tender, not too greasy. A place to return to. Steveston is popular for its old time feel being a small town with heritage architecture. It is what a town used to be like 50 years ago. Plenty of movies or TV shows are shot here depicting a time long gone. It has good restaurants, being a mix of traditional and modern, so there's plenty of choice for every taste. Being in a fishing village, fish n chips is the way to go.
Comments