Harris - Asian Delights: The Tess Harris Cookbook

Tess Harris aka bisayanqueen

Tess Harris is a home cook, blogger and author of The Tess Harris Dessert Cookbook and the best selling Asian Delights - The Tess Harris Cookbook .

Tess currently resides in Northwest Florida with her husband of 25 years and their son. She loves to cook spending 6 to 8 hours a day developing and testing new recipes. When she is not in the kitchen, she reads cookbooks as if they are romance novels! She also enjoys reading biographies, memoirs and foreign language movies (European, Japanese and Korean).

In 2004, Tess and her family left their fast paced, stressful life in Las Vegas, Nevada and moved to a small town in West Texas. While in the process of figuring out what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, she started cooking and experimenting with different recipes. And then her husband introduced her to Yahoo!360 blogging platform thereby starting her own blog in March 2006. She started showcasing her recipes with full-color photos, revolutionary at a time when even the giant FoodNetwork.com did not have photos paired with recipes and people did not freely share their recipes online as they do now.

It did not take long before her blog was featured as one of the Most Interesting Pages on Yahoo!360.

You can contact her at tessharris@gmail.com

Copyright 2014 TESS HARRIS

All efforts have been made to ensure this cookbook is free from errors or problems. I do not take responsibility for loss or action to any individual as a result of the material presented here.

ASIAN DELIGHTS THE TESS HARRIS COOKBOOK. Copyright 2014 by Tess Harris. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of the text maybe reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1497367340

To my husband, Willie, for his wholehearted support and for having a clear vision of what is possible. To our son, Ramon, whos very articulate and wise for his age, for having the ability to explain things in the simplest way. Thank you son for enriching my life. To Nanay, my very first kitchen mentor, for teaching me the importance and the magic that sea salt brings to all dishes, especially in sweet concoctions and desserts.

Acknowledgments

Book Cover Design by WHJ

Cover Photos by RCH

INTRODUCTION

MY INTEREST AND CURIOSITY ABOUT FOOD and cooking was motivated by learning how to cook for my husband. I was 19 years old when I met him and my cooking skills were mediocre. I only knew a few simple Filipino dishes, and he was not fond of Filipino food. So when I moved in with him, I knew I had to learn how to cook so I could impress him. Whenever we were invited over to his friends house, I would pay attention to the food being served, following the American wives around like a puppy and asking them detailed questions about what was in the food and how it was cooked.

My first attempt at impressing him was making Pork Stuffed Chicken Breast which I pulled from Cooking for One by Betty Crocker. That recipe required ground pork and a boneless chicken breast. I did not have ground pork, so I cut them into pieces and loaded them up in his Black & Decker Blender. I barely finished grinding the pork when smoke started coming out from the base of the blender! I blew the blender motor and rendered it unusable! I did not grow up with kitchen equipment and didnt read the instruction manual. I didnt know I wasnt supposed to grind pork in a blender! At 19 I was still inexperienced and naive. Despite a totally blown-out blender, I managed to cook the stuffed chicken with pork and was extremely surprised that my husband liked it. He still remembers that dish to this day!

Twenty seven years later, I still cook to impress him. Except now I have to impress him and our son, Ramon.

This book is a collection of mouthwatering recipes I serve my family and friends regularly. Each one has been tested over and over again. Many of the recipes are Asian restaurant favorites including Shrimp Fried Rice, Egg Drop Soup, Pork Egg Rolls, Hot Pepper Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce, Sushi Rice, Salmon and Avocado Rolls, Filipino Lumpia, Pancit, Pad Thai, Korean Cucumber Kimchee and much more.

Two of the recipes: Bulgogi and Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam) were listed #23 and #45 respectively on the World's 50 Most Delicious Foods by CNN Go in 2011.

Additionally, this book reveals Chinese restaurant cooks tips and secrets on how to successfully prepare dishes that melt in your mouth. Each recipe contains easy to understand, step by step instructions to guide you through from beginning to end. I also included photos of ingredients you may not be familiar with to help you find them at your local Asian markets and stores.

There is one ingredient I use in almost all of my cooking and the recipes included in this book and that is Thai hot chili peppers. I use them fresh, dried, and/or ground. This is because my husband loves hot and spicy foods. However, do not let the words hot and spicy scare you. All recipes can be prepared without cayenne or hot peppers, with the exception of hot pepper powder and hot pepper paste called for in the Korean recipes. This is because hot pepper powder and hot pepper paste are necessary ingredients to achieve the taste that is inherent in Korean cuisine, especially Bulgogi and Kimchee .

I can guarantee that the recipes in this book are going to make you famous with your friends and loved by your family as they come back for seconds or thirds. They will get you extra kisses and hugs from your loved ones with easy, lunch box friendly recipes such as Barbecued Pork in a Bun , Buns of Sweet n Spicy Pork, Rice Muffins , Kimbap and many more.

I hope you turn to this book whenever you feel like indulging yourself and treating your family with mouthwatering Asian Delights.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Contents

Youre only as good as your ingredients, the tools at your disposal and your creative imagination.

The Basics

Kitchen Tools and Equipment

If theres a vice that I could freely have, it would be buying all the cookbooks in print, buying pots, pans, plates and other kitchen tools and gadgets I want. Not need. Want. But since I do not have the luxury of doing this As a home cook I only have the basic kitchen tools and equipment I need to prepare, cook and serve foods to my family and friends.

The best place to buy cooking equipment and other kitchen utensils is at a restaurant supply store. You might spend a dollar or two extra for each item, but the equipment and utensils are made and designed for restaurant use. They are sturdier and made to withstand heavy, everyday use compared to the ones you will find at supermarkets or superstores. In the end, you will get more for your money.

If theres one in your area, Sams Club carries limited supply of restaurant equipment and utensils for a bit less. The quality is not par with the quality of equipment at a restaurant supplies store, but for the price, they are great.

Baking sheets or sheet pans are invaluable kitchen tools. I use them every single day. They are multipurpose, made of stainless steel. I use them as baking pans, shallow roasting pans, cookie sheets, broiler pans, trays to hold prepared ingredients, and whatever else I need them for in the kitchen. A pack of 2 baking sheets usually cost $11, depending on what region you are in.