FFF (Friday Flickr Favorites)

Completely smitten with smitten kitchen. It had me at hello, what can I say?

Her photostream here. Her recipes here.

Grilled Pork with Vermicelli Noodles

One reason I like keeping a blog is merely for that fact that my brain retains memory like an elephant. A bad quality indeed for a future medical student! But it's also bad when I have to recall recipes, such as which ones that I like, what I should change next time, and so on. And you can imagine it's even worse when my mother recites her from-memory-authentic-Vietnamese-recipes to me. Since I always, always have my beloved Macbook with me (it's like my conjoined twin), blogging has made it easier for me to record, store, and organize things I've made, enjoy looking at, or plan to make in the future. It makes me happy that when access to my mom at all times ceases, I will have her heart and her recipes buried deep within the archives of the internet. 

This grilled pork dish is one of my favorites. Whenever we have large family gatherings (and they are very, very large), we often cook this dish. It's simple, easy, healthy, and delicious. The charred grilled pork is balanced nicely with the refreshing and crisp lettuce and mint while the sauce (Nuoc Cham) is slightly sweet, spicy, salty, and pungent (and trust me, in a good way). 

Grilled Pork with Vermicelli Noodles and Nuoc Cham

Yields: Enough for 4

For the pork:

2 lbs. of pork shoulder, thinly sliced

8 cloves of garlic, minced

4 tbsn. sugar

5 tbsn. fish sauce

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

For the sauce (also known as Nuoc Cham):

1/4 cup sugar

the juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup water

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, thinly sliced or julienned (depending on your preference)

1 -2 tsp. chili paste, I used Sambal Oelek (pictured below)

1 package of rice vermicelli, also titled "Bean Thread"

1 head of butter lettuce

1 bunch of mint

olive oil

Mix the thinly sliced pork with the rest of the ingredients. Let it marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes. If you let it marinate for longer than 1 hour, set the meat in the refrigerator. Before cooking the meat, allow it to come to room temperature. When ready, heat up your grill to medium-high and place the meat on it. Cook until the pork is cooked through and charred well on both sides, about 5 - 10 minutes. 

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the vermicelli noodles and cook until tender, about 2-4 minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process, set aside.

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients and mix well. Keep in mind that this sauce can vary from family to family so use my recipe as a starter, and adjust to your liking by adding more of less of each ingredient. Add the carrots and allow them to soak within the mixture. If there is extra you can jar it and keep it in the refrigerator for several days, it is great with eggrolls! (Don't be afraid by the strong smell, it's VERY delicious!)

To assemble, find a plate or bowl and place the noodles in the bottom. Top with the grilled pork and tear a bunch of lettuce and mint on top. Drizzle with the sauce and enjoy!

Jason Nocito Photography

One photographer I really enjoy is Jason Nocito. His photography is unique and extremely refreshing. He photographs a wide array of subjects that vary from fashion to people to lots of random things (which I love the most). You can find his portfolio here. Or you can buy his newly released book, Loads, here. Here are some of his portraits:

Mary Kate Olsen

Cat Power

Emile Hirsch

Bat for Lashes

My favorite images of his come from his other website, The Ego Has Landed. On this website, he takes his photographs and juxtaposes them in order to suggest new, and often very playful meanings, as quirkily demonstrated by their titles. He takes something so banal out of our ordinary, everyday lives and makes it seem absurd, interesting, and contemplative. 

L.A., Lay.

Plastic Tree.

5:55

Elevate me later.

And my personal favorite (that I also used as my header), FLowerRock. 

Turkey & Cilantro Chutney Pressed Pita

B is always hungry, and I mean always. I have to feed that boy at least 5 - 6 times a day. Crazy huh? It's a wonder to watch him scarf down so much food without gaining a single ounce. So for one of his late night cringes of hunger, I had to dig deep. And I mean deep! There was absolutely nothing in my refrigerator, so I took some random ingredients and was extremely surprised with my result. He loved it, I loved it, what more could you ask for? 

I actually got my fresh cilantro chutney at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Francisco, but I've heard that Trader Joe's actually carries some (another reason to love it eh?). But if you can't find it there, a recipe can be found here. Sounds simple enough and trust me, it's good on everything, and boy do I mean everything!

Turkey & Cilantro Chutney Pressed Pita

Yields: Enough for one

2 Pita Breads

4-6 Slices of Turkey

3-4 slices of smoked cheddar cheese

3-4 tbsn. cilantro chutney

garlic powder

freshly ground pepper

salsa or pico de gallo

Tapatio

Note: I have ranges on mostly all of the ingredients because it really depends on your preference to how spicy, how garlicky, or how cheesy you want it. 

Lay one pita slice on your counter and spread the cilantro chutney over it. Next layer half of your cheese, then your turkey, then the other half of your cheese. Sprinkle with pepper and garlic powder. Grill (preferably by a panini press or a George Foreman). Cut into fourths and serve alongside some salsa. I like to mix Tapatio in my salsa for some extra kick! Enjoy!

My best sous chef.

My love, companion, and helper. It has always been there for me.

Mixed Berry Almond Cobbler

I've been wanting to make cobbler for a while now after I had this glorious piece of peach cobbler at The Gypsy Den. This weird hot-in-the-middle-of February weather has permitted an abundance of berries at my local markets and at a great price too! I've been pretty busy with school and stress from upcoming midterms, but this recipe was so easy and quick that I decided to give it a go ahead. 

I used a mixture of blueberries and boysenberries for my cobbler. But you could really try this recipe with tons of other types of fruit as well. I made a mini-cobbler just to make sure the recipe was blog worthy but I doubled the recipe for you all. 

My cobbler turned out really well. The crust was nice and moist and crispy on the edges. Truthfully though, I think it could have done with a little less almond flavor or even none at all, since it kind of overcame the light flavor of the berries, but the scent from the almond was heavenly. Why wait for summer for this beauty when you can have it all right now? Flaky crust, warm juicy berries, cold creamy ice cream all swirling on your taste-buds... are you drooling yet?

Mixed Berry Almond Cobbler

Yields: 4-6 servings

You can find the original here, which I tweaked slightly. 

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsn. all purpose flour

4 cups mixed berries (I used boysenberries and blueberries)*

1 tbsn. vanilla extract

1 tbsn. lemon juice

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 egg

1 tsp. almond extract

3-4 tbsn. almond paste, crumbled (depending on your preference to almond flavor)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium sized bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the berry mixture and toss well to coat. In another medium sized bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Next, add the whipping cream and almond extract, mix well but do not overmix! Next add the almond paste and incorporate well. Pour the berry mixture into a 9x9x2 inch pan, then pour the sticky dough mixture all along the top of the berries. If desired, you can add some crumbles of butter for some extra goodness. Pop into the oven until golden brown and bubbly, about 30-35 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream and enjoy!

* Try to avoid strawberries because they tend to be too watery for cobblers and make it soggy.

Allll mine!

FFF (Friday Flickr Favorites)

Happy FFF everybody! As you can see, I am still obsessed with Bokeh which predominantly takes over my favorites this week. But the top row of photos is from my best friend, CC, check out her photostream here.

To locate these pictures, peruse through my favorites section here.

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

The bananas at my house are regularly thrown into the garbage. We buy them, we forget about them, they start to turn a hideous brown color, then we remember their presence and quickly discard them into the trash. It makes me sad to waste so much food all of the time so I decided that it was time to make a change... and that change came in the form of Banana bread! 

Banana bread is by far the best way to use up uneaten and overripe bananas. It makes the perfect breakfast with a nice cup of coffee and is great because the bananas keep the bread so moist. I even burned mine a little and it tasted as if nothing had gone awry at all - that's the beauty of it all. And P.S., another way to save your bananas from the dumps is to freeze them. If you know you won't be eating them, just slice them and put them in your freezer for quick smoothies!

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

Yields: 1 loaf, serves 8 - 10

modified from Over the Hill and On a Roll

For the cake:

3 - 4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 extra yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups of flour

For the crumble:

1/2 cup walnuts, plus extra

2 tbsn. brown sugar

2 tbsn. flour

2 tbsn. cold butter

1 tsp. instant coffee

1/4 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350 F. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the mashed bananas, then the baking soda, salt, and flour. Only mix until combined, if you over mix the bread will be tough. Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan.

In a food processor, mix 1/2 cup of walnuts, brown sugar, flour, cold butter, and instant coffee. Pulse until the mixture starts to come together and form little pea-sized crumbles. Top the batter with the crumble, then sprinkle on the cinnamon. If desired, you can add some roughly chopped walnuts for extra crunch. Bake until a inserted toothpick comes out clean or until nice and golden brown, about 50 - 60 minutes. Once done, let cool completely, slice and enjoy with a nice cup of hot coffee!

P.S. Try Laura's fantastic version done with pecans, you can find it here.

Lily Allen covers The Clash

Click below to listen to the song:

Sprinkles {Newport Beach, CA}

I've been to Sprinkles a couple of times before. The flavor that first broke my Sprinkles virginity was a strawberry cake with strawberry icing. I've had strawberry cupcakes before and had horrible, and I mean really horrendous experiences. They tasted so phony and full of ingredients you couldn't even pronounce let alone find the origin of. But sprinkles was different, all I could taste was pure intense strawberry flavor. It won me right then and there.

Their simple display:

Simply tucked away:

Chai Latte on the left, Pumpkin on the right:

It's calling you, "EAT ME."

And eat it, we definitely did:

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a Sprinkles die hard fanatic. I can definitely live without them. We all could live without a lot of things, but life isn't about what we need, it's about what we want. Going through life without wants is like not going through life at all. It's just a cupcake when you think about it, just a damn cupcake, and a $3.25 cupcake at that! But they are delicious and there is no denying it.

The other day I decided to try some more flavors. Though I was heavily inclined into buying their famous red velvet, my love for chai and spiced pumpkin wooed me over. Though the chai flavor wasn't the kick in the mouth that I had hoped for, the nicely spiced cake became friends with my mouth immediately. The pumpkin was all I could have asked for: moist, earthy, delicious. Usually I am not the greatest fan to frosting; I absolutely hate overladen cupcakes! But what is special about Sprinkles is that their cupcakes and frosting combinations are perfectly sweet, at least for me. I lick the frosting till the last spot is gone, and that's pretty rare for me.