Yummy Yummy Pancit

Jun 7, 2013 by Ben

So every Thursday night we go to the farmers market in downtown Oceanside.  Its near the beach and its more a tiny street fair than farmers market, but that is why we go.  The food is awesome.

We take the dog and he gets to say hi to all the other puppies and get attention from all the other people, but we mainly go to eat.  Did I mention the food is awesome?  Nothing matches the blue crab burrito.

But one of our favorite food vendors was this Filipino food stand that made the best pancit  and lumpia, and sadly they are no longer there.  There are a couple of other Filipino places that also sell pancit and lumpia, but they are no where near as good as this other place was.  So we’ve been missing our weekly pancit and lumpia and thus I set out to make my own pancit and holy cow was it easy.

If you’ve ever made any stir fry or fried rice, its basically the same thing.  This is so easy.

Here’s the final product and it is so tasty.  So lets show you how easy it is to make it

I don’t have a picture of all the ingredients, but here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• 1 pack of rice sticks (found in the Asian section of your grocery store)
• cabbage
• carrots
• pea pods
• onion
• celery
• green onion
• garlic
• soy sauce
• fish sauce (also found in the Asian section of your grocery store)
• pepper

First you want to boil your chicken breast.  I cut a couple slices to help speed up the cooking time.  Save the water from this step.  You’ll need it later.

Here’s a nice haul of veggies I got from my garden.  Yeah free veggies!

Here’s the rest I bought.

Here’s what the rice sticks look like.

Looking at this carrot from the garden it looked big and awesome and ready to be harvested, and then I get this cute little carrot ball when I actually pull it up.  Nice

Slice up all your veggies

You can use as much of each as you’d like.

I made a big double batch so here’s what I used per a single batch: (approximately)

1 cup cabbage

1 cup carrots sliced thin

1/3 cup green onion

1/3 cup onion

2/3 cup celery

2 cloves garlic

OK once your chicken has boiled for a bit, take it out and shred and chop it into small pieces.  Don’t worry if its not fully cooked, you are going to cook it again

In a large pan or wok, add some oil and throw in the garlic for 30 seconds

Next add the onions and carrots and cook for a minute or two

Next throw in the chicken and stir it up

Time to add the sauces.  Use 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon fish sauce.  I just pour it in and estimate.  Stir that all round and let it cook.

OK, I missed a picture, but throw all the rest of the veggies in and let them cook for a minute or so.  You want to keep the veggies crisp, so don’t over cook it.  Next separate and throw the rice sticks on top.

Now take that chicken stock from cooking the chicken breast earlier and pour that into the mix.  Some recipes call to pre-soak the rice sticks, but then they just soak up the water and not all this awesome flavor.  After you pour in the chicken stock, mix it all up so the noodles are at the bottom of the pan and soaking in the good juices.  You can add more soy and fish sauce here if you want or need to.  Stir it around for a few minutes letting all those flavors mix.  Add a bit of black pepper at the end and taste it to make sure the noodles are done.

You will end up with this awesome dish that took no time to make.  While I am not an old Filipino grandmother, I still think this turned out pretty good and will definitely make it again.  And of course I made way too much, so its great for leftovers.

Ben…

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How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard

Nov 3, 2011 by Ben

Here is a wonderful video by Roger Doiron about our growing food supply problem (pun intended)

I planted my garden for a lot of the reasons he goes over in the video.  I have access to fresh food that is good for me and tastes good and it saves me money.   All things I really like.

Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Ben…

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A simple marinara sauce – plus zucchini noodles!

Sep 24, 2011 by Ben

Been doing a ton of traveling lately and came back home recently to find my tomato plant overflowing with tomatoes.  Were talking TONS of bright little red cherry tomatoes.  I planted some beef stake tomatoes too, but those did not grow for some reason.  In fact I only got one single tomato plant to grow.

But boy did it grow.

So we’ve been eating tomatoes like crazy.  Caprese salads, on regular salads, an on anything else I can think of.

I decided to try my hand at a marinara sauce and it turned out quite well

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 3 Tablespoons basil
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 3-4 cups of tomatoes
• Salt, pepper, & dried oregano

The zucchini are for the noodles I made, Lets get started making the sauce

dice up your garlic

Cut up your onion and throw it in a large deep pan with some olive oil.  Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes

dice up the basil and throw it in with the garlic and onion.  This will smell delicious!

throw the tomatoes in your food processor and pulse them up good

add to pan and throw in the tomato paste

add in a healthy pinch of salt, pepper and sprinkle liberally with oregano.  Lower the heat and let it simmer for a while.  You want all the flavors to mix together.  I let mine simmer for an hour.

While that is simmering you can make these awesome zucchini noodles.

You’ll need a mandolin slicer or a peeler that will also slice into little noodle strips.  I have a mandolin slicer so I set the blade for 1/8th and add the julien blade and slice the zucchini on all four sides until you reach the seeded part in the middle.

You will get a nice pile like this. Use your fingers to separate the strands and place them out on some paper towels to soak up the moisture.  I also add a pinch of salt over the top to help draw out the moisture.  When you are ready to cook these, place another paper towel on top and get any excess moisture out.  You can either boil these very quickly or throw them in a pan with a little olive oil.  That is what I did.  Either way you only need to cook these for a minute or two, nothing more.

I also cooked up some sliced zucchini and threw it all in a bowl with the noodles and covered with the sauce with was awesome and a very good use for all of my tomatoes.   I’ll definitely be making this again.

Got any good recipes for tomatoes, please send them my way.  My garden still overfloweth.

Ben…

 

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I dig this greenhouse

Sep 23, 2011 by Ben

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a small greenhouse to start some plants in. Then I saw this greenhouse.

 

Get it?  Toying?  See what I did there?

Its a greenhouse made entirely of Lego’s.  About 100,000 legos.  Made by designer Sebastian Bergne, and unveiled at the London Design Festival, this thing is just awesome.

Now I want this greenhouse.  All I need is 100,000 Lego’s.

Ben…

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Will I go to jail because I have a garden?

Jul 14, 2011 by Ben

There is a story that has been going around the past few days of  a Michigan woman is looking at spending 93 days in jail because she planted vegetables in her front yard.  Yeah, that’s happening.

The town ordinance says that front yards have to be planted with “suitable, live, plant material.” and they are now spending time and money arguing over what “suitable” means.  Really?

The city planners say that her garden doesn’t count. “If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common,”

I love when people have to bring out the dictionary to argue.  I agree with the statement in the Consumerist, that all of her other neighbors should plant gardens, so that now the un-common thing would be a lawn.

I love my garden.  I planted it in the front yard for a reason.  First, I was so tired of my front lawn and constantly fighting off gophers and broken sprinkler systems.  Second, I wanted it to be a point of talk, thought, or inspiration for others to do something different.   I could have planted it in my backyard, and still plan to plant some things back there, but I really wanted to have it in my front yard, and so far EVERYONE in my neighborhood loves it.

I have not yet heard anyone complain about it yet, and its not just because I’m constantly bribing giving them tons of vegetables.

This whole things feels like an incredible waste of time and money and this women should be applauded with her choice not dragged through this mess.  This story has become very popular on the internet, so I’m hoping the righteous outcry of people will help throw this case out and get more gardens planted.

Speaking of gardens… Here’s an update on my garden.   I have so much great stuff growing now…

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