2009/7/28

Honey Drink and Almond Tea 蜂蜜水和杏仁茶

Chinese recipes 中西食譜

106 F today. It is time for honey drink.

Honey Tea is my favorite summer drink. I used to buy several kinds of honey every year. For instance, poison oak and maple honey, blackberry honey, blueberry honey, wild flower honey and so on. They are like red wines with different flavors.

It is easy to make a honey drink. Just take 3 TBSP of honey, put in a 1 quart pitcher, add some cool water, stir it until it mixes evenly. Then add more water. Leave it in the refrigerator. Use more honey if you like it sweeter.










Another kind of drink I used to have in summer is almond/walnuts tea. It is not really a tea but more like almond/walnuts milk.

 





The ingredients are:
one cup almonds (or walnuts), 5 cups water, 5 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup melted butter.

 






Blend almond and water together in a blender. Skim off the chunks with a strainer and put back in the blender, several times until all the nuts are a fine powder. Use a sauce pan to heat milk and cream to a boil. Pour almond water in the boiling milk and keep boiling until they melt together well. Add sugar. Leave it till cool.

 









今天氣溫高達華氏 106 度
約等於攝氏 35 度蜂蜜水和西瓜當然是夏天最好的消暑水果和飲料啦這裡的西瓜絕對比不上台灣不是太沙就是太白
 








不過有羊兒雞兒就不怕浪費食物了切成小塊餵羊寶







雖說山羊祖先來自沙漠
理當不怕炎夏高溫但經人類世代飼養的奶山羊就是和野生的 Kiko 不同








Kiko 毫不在乎
照樣在草坡上吃草們只要留意隨時添滿水桶裡的涼水即可瑪琪塔和糖糖就不同了一直喘氣尤其瑪琪塔自小被娘家媽媽去掉能幫助調節體溫的頭角,一到天氣太冷或太熱,她就受罪了,我只好親自端一盆涼水餵它喝。才早上 10 點左右就都躲到陰涼處直到晚上六七點才會露臉了

藍莓
野黑莓、毒橡木野花蜂蜜,是當地的名產之一,每年都買四五加崙分裝小瓶分送有氣喘或注重養生的親友

蜂蜜水很簡單
用一個大玻璃瓶將 3 大湯匙的蜂蜜與一點涼水拌勻再把瓶子加滿冷水即可

杏仁茶
(或核桃茶),夏天喝也很營養。

杏仁 (或核桃) 與液體的比例是 1:10
換句話說如果你用一杯的杏仁就要用 10 杯的液體 (五杯牛奶五杯水) 去處理。因此,這裡先用一杯的杏仁和五杯的水,倒入果汁機打碎,每打一分鐘停一下再開開關打一分鐘一次不要打太久機器容易損壞。可以分批打,打好後用篩網加紗布過濾把不夠細的杏仁放回果汁機重打直到成為很細的粉末

另外用一個鍋子
煮五杯的牛奶煮滾後把剛才打好的杏仁水倒入,繼續煮,再滾後加一杯溶化的鮮奶油半杯糖 (甜度視個人口味增減),若覺得杏仁味道不夠濃則可加一滴杏仁露 (若喜歡天然健康的,則可省)。趁熱與油條一起食用,或像我一樣直接當奶喝放冰箱冰過亦可

2009/7/26

Giant Zuchini "小" 黃瓜

夏秋蔬果就是這樣一不注意就會長成巨瓜雞兒都來不及吃我們吃小條的巨人瓜就洗乾淨切成小塊給羊寶吃啦每天都吃得肚子鼓鼓幸好是吃素否則還真擔心他們得高血壓糖尿病呢


















為彌補生日午餐
吃錯家昨天趁到圖書館當義工賣書之便到附近小城的墨西哥餐廳吃飯這家餐廳開的位置比上次的冤大頭家可差多了可是菜很道地裡面從廚師到侍應生都是墨西哥人這樣一餐才 $5.75 喔每次有親友來訪都帶來這家前面的開胃脆餅是現炸莎莎醬 Salsa 好好吃而且可以再叫兩籃三籃都沒關係免費朋友看我這麼捧場搞不清楚我是來吃莎莎醬還是來吃飯的。不過我自製的 Salsa 莎莎醬也很有名呢








2009/7/24

Cold Dish and Millet 涼拌花生與小米粥

Chinese recipes 中西食譜

I often think about finding ways to make cooking simpler, easier and healthier. The following cold dish is one of them.
 






The ingredients are:
3 TBSP white wine/rice vinegar (or lemon juice), 2 TBSP dark brown sugar, sprinkle some salt, 2 TBSP sesame oil (or virgin olive oil), 2TBSP cooking or rice wine, garlic or hot pepper (add each to your own taste),

Cut a cucumber (and a red/orange sweet pepper, half Walla Walla Onion, some radishes) into halves, take out seeds and cut halves to small square pieces. Smash garlic. Mix these with ingredients above. It will taste better if you leave the dish in the refrigerator overnight.

Peanuts can be added to this cold dish. The way to prepare peanuts is:






 



Soak two cups of raw peanuts with skin overnight, pour out water, put them in a big bowl, steam peanuts in rice cooker (no water in the bowl and add one cup of water in the cooker). Leave cooked peanuts in the cooker (don't open the cover) for another 20 minutes after the cooker shuts off. The peanuts will be just right, not too hard or too soft. You can also use a sauce pan to boil the peanuts if you don't have a rice cooker.









Add cooked peanuts to the cold dish above.

(Friends ask about the rice cooker I use. It is made in Taiwan and has two colors: green or red. The brand name is "Da Tong". This is so far the only multi function rice cooker which can be used to cook rice,
boil, steam, stew, fry meat/vegetable and even make bread/cake. It is not made in HK, China, Japan or Korean although they all are called rice cooker. The picture is as follows).














This cold dish can be served with millet. I used to call millet "bird rice" since I fed my birds with it in childhood. Millet is a nutritious food and can be grown on poor soil.

Use double the amount of water than what you use to cook regular rice. Millet can be eaten hot or cold. It is also a good companion dish with green onion flat bread or Chinese dumplings.










自從來美求學由於經濟窘迫兼打三個工於是千方百計在兼顧口味和營養之餘儘量簡化做飯時間和方式涼拌花生與小米粥即是其二

做法十分簡單: 小黃瓜
(保留綠皮)/甜椒去子切段2 湯匙麻油與米酒3 湯匙醋 (或檸檬汁) 與黑糖少許鹽大蒜辣椒 (隨自己口味酌量) 拌勻即可也可以加花生營養更高

兩杯的
帶皮花生泡一夜 (皮上營養豐富不要搓掉)濾乾裝在大碗內放電鍋蒸碗內不放水外鍋放一杯水跳鍋後不要開蓋讓它悶 20 分鐘左右軟硬度應該就會剛好若喜歡吃軟的就再加一杯水同法再蒸一次和剛才拌好的小黃瓜加在一起即可(電鍋是用台灣製的大同電鍋可煮飯燉肉/蔬菜甚至做蛋糕麵包其他電鍋皆無此多功能)

這道菜可以和小米粥搭配小米粥煮法同米飯只是因為是粥內鍋的水要比米飯多一倍小米粥可以吃熱的也可以吃涼的蔥油餅餃子搭配都很爽口

2009/7/19

疏果 Thin Fruit

每張圖片皆可點擊放大觀賞 Click on any picture to enlarge

每年夏天,此地都平均有三天的高溫,今年的第一次發生在國慶日前一天,溫度驟跳到 100 度,但是慶典當天反而氣候宜人,不冷不熱、不雨不暑、涼風習習,才 70 度左右;接著一星期都是這種好天氣,中間還下了兩天大雨,補給了乾熱大地
充裕的水分,讓蔬果以驚人的速度生長。









水梨、葡萄、梅子、李子、蘋果、草莓、無花果‧‧‧已結實纍纍,為了讓果子長得好,這時就要忙著疏果了。



















疏果,就是在水果尚青時,摘除過密的幼實,一根枝枒上只留兩粒,其他的都必須捨棄。








如果有瑕疵、或發育不良的,當然很好決定,但多半時候,果子都一樣完美,這時就考驗自己的取捨功力了;如果狠不下心或貪多,秋收時一定没好收成,一顆都長不飽滿。


















不過幸好我們有羊兒幫忙,每天摘下百餘顆的青梅綠李,它們可是吃得個個鼓腹
肚,一連五天無限制供應水果,羊寶是給它神仙都不當的。

















雖然
小小羊是第一次吃有核的食物,可竟然個個天生會吐子,媽媽没教過喲。









連平常得自己找食物,我們不提供飯菜的貓熊都有份,怎不讓它歡喜異常。









菜園裡,每天當作生菜沙拉的各式蔬菜,野草般盛長,無論是綠色、紫色的生菜、香草、辣芥茉、胡蘿蔔、青椒、番茄、南瓜、玉米、各式品種的大蒜,都爭先恐後的竄高。



















生菜沙拉的蔬菜,更是已播種兩次。每天兩餐有機蔬菜,滋味很是鮮美,甚至不加橄欖油就已經各有風味,很好吃了。



















一天下來,工作多又瑣碎,一接著一,要認真說起來,其實是做不完的,但是生活嘛,還是要有調節,體力勞動了六七個小時,生日大餐還是不應虧待自己,國慶日當天懶得出門的那一餐,就在今天補囉。








去大城裡據說開了 28 年很有名的父子檔餐廳,報紙說有法國、韓國、墨西哥菜。唉,結果韓菜是泡菜 (老闆兒子乾脆招認那不是真的韓菜),法國菜其實是義大利蕃茄肉丸麵,我們就點了它最出名的漢堡。喔,就這樣呀,價錢還不便宜耶,將近 50 大元,老實說,自己在家同樣搞一下,肯定本錢不要 $1,還比他好吃,早知去那家正統的墨西哥餐廳。不過當然不能跟出錢的人抱怨啦。幸好甜點還可以,黑巧克力蛋糕滿純正的,不過八塊美金還是有被敲詐的感覺,那位寫報導的記者不知是不是沒吃過中國美食,還是因為敬老,才如此吹捧。台灣人真該來這裡開店的。