Beef-up to the Sweet Memories

There may be a lot of sweet memories for everybody. Some nice and beautiful thing stay in our heart with love and warmth. To earn these fond memories we have to build up with love and patience over time. From these, memories, a lot of vivid memories are related to food, one of which is the Beef. Might sound awful for vegetarian and some religious believers!

In my family, we do not have many restrictions when it comes to food, for daily living. To make the well-balanced diet. One funny thing about my college memories is that every morning I ask mom to add more food and variety to my lunch box to share with my friends. My mom joked, "This girl is in trouble with love."

My husband was my friend at that time and sometimes I felt sad to see him eating only stew beef tirelessly. This was his Dad's signature recipe and was also liked by his brother's friends. At that time his Mom was working as a civil servant ( Education Sector) was in England. Their Dad who worked in (Health sector) for the government was taking care of their children's daily meal. I admire every small single act of love within the family.

When I moved to Singapore after my marriage, our Mom packed her homemade authentic dishes such as fried beef with chili pepper, smoked fish with chili pepper which was our comfort food in another country. Also, precious and delicious food for us while we were away from home.

After I moved to the United State, I made some close friends through our children and my husband's work. Some friends from my husband's work were from Singapore. One winter the whole family fell sick with the flu. I made dry fried beef for them to eat with porridge. They ask me " How do you make those?". I said, " I just tweaked my mother's recipe of Love".

In our country and culture, most families send their kids to college and they usually pack the dry food option for their optional meal. This act of love passed down from generation to generation regardless of financial status. I always respect the single act of small kindness everywhere I go.

Dry Fried Beef with Chili Pepper

Ingredients

2 lb     Beef Sirloin ( cut in the big chunk, 4-5 inches cubes or Thick slices)
2 cup  Thinly Sliced Shallot
1 cup  Thinly Sliced garlic
3 Tsp  Turmeric powder
1 Tbsp Sliced Ginger
1 Tsp   Black Pepper
1  Cup  Canola Oil
1 Tbsp  Salt
2 Tbsp  Fish sauce
3 Tbsp  Dried Chili pepper flake
1 Tbsp  Chili Powder ( or paprika powder)

Instruction

1. In the 4 qt dutch oven, add the beef together with salt, 1 Tsp of turmeric powder, ginger, black pepper and add water about 2 qt. to cover all the meat chunks.

2. On the stove top, with medium-high heat, let this pot boil first, then simmer with low heat till all the water in the pan is at a shallow level. Then test the meat whether it is fork tender.

3. While the beef is boiling, on another stovetop heat oil in a wok with medium heat. When the oil is hot, add sliced shallot and garlic together with turmeric powder.

4. When all the shallot and garlic are golden brown, strain it from the oil and let it sit on the paper towel.

5. When the beef is ready, we could slice whichever sizes we want. But I prefer to shred with fork or hand ( if it is cooled down).

6. We may marinate with a little splash of fish sauce.

7. In the onion flavored oil used for frying shallot, fry the beef with medium heat till fragrant about 5 to 10 minutes. We may need to stir continuously. Transfer the fried beef to a cool and dry plate.

8. In the same pan, add a 2 Tbsp oil if there is no more oil left after frying the beef.

9. Heat the pan with medium-high, add Chili (a mixture of paprika and crushed dry chili pepper flakes with 1 tbsp of water) fry till fragrant but do not burn. It is easy to burn the chili flakes. Then add the fried beef and stir. Add the rest of the fish sauce and stir for 5 more minutes till fragrant. Then turn off the stove.

10. When the beef is cooled down, add all the golden fried shallot and garlic. We can have it with Jasmine white rice or bread sandwich. It can be stored in the fridge for at least one month.

( We may skip the chili part for a fried beef without chili option.)

Fried Shrimp Cheese Wonton

Another Version of Wanton named Crab Rangoon

Since I arrived in the US, I saw crab Rangoon wonton in the freezer aisle. I did not know what was in it. Later I found out that the stuffing consists of creme cheese and imitation crab sticks. Those imitation crab sticks are used in sushi and other seafood soups. Sometimes I love to have those as accessories in the salad or soup.

In Burma, The fried wonton we once had, has no cheese in it and just meat or shrimp.
But in the food courts of most American shopping mall, the creme cheese wonton is available in the Asian or Chinese eatery as an appetizer. I thought that if I made the shrimp with cheese wonton, it could be a delicious appetizer too.

I just want to experiment with a filling of a shallow-fried ground shrimp mixed with creme and spring onion can be good with tamarind chili sauce.
Most of the Burmese cooking does not use the vinegar or white wine. We use tamarind as the sour ingredient in authentic dishes.
It is also the fruit-based sauce which is not harmful, but good for your body.

Shrimp Rangoon ( Serve 5)

Ingredients

1    Cup     Peeled Deveined Shrimp ( About 10-12 Medium size shrimp)
1    Tsp      Salt
1/2 Tsp      Sugar
1    box      Kraft garden Vegetable Creme Cheese ( 8 oz)
1/2 cup      Thinly Sliced spring onion
1/2 Tsp      Black Pepper
1 pk           Wonton Wrapper
2  cups       Oil

Instructions

1. Chop the shrimp with a knife or chopper to get the finely chopped shrimp paste.
2. In the nonstick pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil into the pan and heat on the stove with Medium-high heat.
3. Stir the chopped shrimp into the heated pan and add salt and pepper. Cook till all the chopped shrimp pieces are separated, pink in color and also fragrant.
4. In the bowl, add the whole packet of creme cheese, sugar, chopped spring onion and cooked shrimp then stir and mix with the spoon or hand.
5. To prepare the wonton, place a half teaspoon of shrimp and cheese mixed filling into the wonton wrapper and seal the edges with the water-cornstarch mixture.
6. In the pan, add the rest of the oil and heat with medium-high heat and fry the cream cheese wontons that we prepared ahead of time.
7. Fry till golden brown. It is really a nice lunch or appetizer for dinner or parties.

(Note: We can make about 25-30 wonton pieces out of this shrimp cream cheese mix)