working late all week
too hungry to be fancy
five minute dish yay

much past midnight
crispy, crunchy, runny, sweet.
spicy egg porn.

gobbled eggs all up
perfect, it sure hit the spot
zzz zzzz zz zzzzzz burp

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Steamy Kitchen on ABC7

Last month’s appearance on ABC kinda snuck up on me - I didn’t have time to solicit votes on which blogger dish to cook! Sorry about that, I ended up making Rice & Noodle’s Firecracker Shrimp, a dish that I can practically make in my sleep. Well, I practically cooked it in my sleep - as I had to wake up at 4:00am to get to the station by 5:30am to be on-air at 6:40am. WHEW!

I’m getting better and better each time I go on. There are so many things to remember when you are cooking live on-air - including looking pretty, sounding intelligent, not cutting my fingers off, not burning the food, timing, pacing, not being nervous, more timing (it’s not like they can cut a news story just so I can finish my damn Firecracker Shrimp!), smiling and LOOKING AT THE CAMERA (ahem.).

Wanna see the video?
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After a month, I FINALLY got this dang video up! It’s my first time cooking LIVE on television - ABC morning news.

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I witnessed something yesterday that compelled me to post something that was NON-ANIMAL:

At stoplights, most people will chat on the phone, daydream or play air drum to the radio. Me? I sit there and rehearse different apologies to say to my kids’ daycare teachers, “I am SO sorry Mrs. so-and-so….my Mom warned if I ate too many spicy chilies during my pregnancy that my kids would turn out the same…sadly, I did not listen.”

For those of you who have small “energetic” children, I doubt I need to explain that having not one but TWO 3-foot tall firecrackers is like a cowboy trying to walk with 30-pound spurs on each leg….

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Here is my recipe for Crab Fried Rice. I did write another post on fried rice with some similar material and goes a little more in-depth, its a must read The Secrets to the Best Chinese Fried Rice. Fish sauce is used in a lot of Southeast Asian cooking, especially Thai and Vietnamese. It has a nice salty-sweet flavor to it, and you use it very sparingly, like Anchovy paste. A little goes a long ways! There are several brands of fish sauce, the best one I’ve found so far is called “Three Crabs” Good fish sauce should be the color of brewed tea. Anything darker (like the color of soy sauce) is a lower quality brand.

Chinese sausage is a wonderful ingredient. Its sweet, salty, slightly smoky. Unopened in its package, it will last 3 months refrigerated. After opening, wrap it up and refrigerate. The sausage will last for another month in the refrigerator. Dice the sausage into ¼” cubes. For the best flavor, start with a dry sauté pan or wok set on medium heat. Add sausage and turn to low. The fat will melt (render) and in 7 minutes, remove the sausage leaving the fat. This is where a ton of flavor is! Use this fat to fry the rest of the ingredients. The sausage is smoked, preserved, dried and sold in packages of 10-12 links. The Chinese word for this is: “Lap Cheong” I brought this sausage back home from a recent trip to California (to celebrate Chinese New Year with family). My mom drove us to a friend’s house to pick up a large bag of Lop Cheong. Her friend hand-makes these sausages without any artificial preservatives.

Crab & Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage) Fried Rice

Crab & Marinade mixture
1 can crab (6-8oz)
1/2 t grated fresh ginger (grate on rasp grater)
1 teasp cooking wine
1/4 teasp sesame oil
Salt & Pepper
2 Eggs, beaten
3 cups cooked rice, break up the chunks
2 stalks scallions minced
1/2 cup frozen vegetable mixture (peas/corn/carrot) – defrosted for 15 min
2 teasp fish sauce 2 teasp soy sauce
1/2 cup diced Chinese sausage
1 teasp cooking wine

1. Marinate the Crab: Drain all the water from the can of crab meat. Marinate with list of ingredients above.

2. Fry Sausage, Crab & Eggs: Heat up your wok to medium-high. Add the Chinese sausage to the wok, turn the heat down to med-low. Cook until the sausage releases its fat – about 5 minutes. Remove sausage, leaving as much oil in wok as possible. Turn heat to med-high. Add eggs to wok. Add crab to wok. Fry the mixture gently until eggs cooked through but still very soft. Remove, leaving as much oil in wok as possible.

3. Fry Rice: You should have about 1T of oil in the wok. If not, add cooking oil to the wok. Turn heat to high. Once the wok is hot, add scallions, stir fry for 15 seconds. Add the rice – breaking up as many chunks at possible. Let the rice heat up in the wok. Add vegetables. Stir-fry until all is hot. Add fish sauce, soy, salt & pepper Add the Chinese sausage, egg/crab mixture. Stir fry until all ingredients are combined and steaming hot. —- If you have the time, read my other post on Secrets of Making the Best Chinese Fried Rice