Tag Archives: Beans

American, Lamb, Vegetables

Braised Lamb Shanks with Garlic and Vermouth

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You’ll swoon over these lamb shanks in buttery braised garlic sauce.

Braised Lamb Shank

For some reason, it’s really hard to find good beef here in Kuching. Last year when Nate was hankering for some steak for his birthday, I went to the store and got some ribeyes to grill up for him.

They were not good.

They were tough and did not have enough marbling. I had bought a big hunk of ribeye frozen and when we thawed them out, we had a feeling they weren’t going to be good. So, we’ve pretty much given up on getting good steaks here. The rest of that hunk ended up being sliced up and used for Niku-jaga which was a better application of that quality beef.

Anyway, why am I going on about beef when the title of this post says lamb shanks? Well, it’s because I want to let you know that even though we can’t get good beef here, we can certainly find good lamb!

The same place I got my beef, I also found some vacuum-packed lamb shanks that were super meaty. I got myself two shanks the first time; made this recipe and regretted not buying more. So the second time around, I made sure to get four shanks.

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Pork, Thai, Vegetables

Stir fried Pork with Long Beans

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Delicious Thai flavors infuse this dish of long beans and pork.

Stir-fried Pork with Long Beans

We’ve been eating a lot of yard-long beans at house of Annie lately. They are a hardy bean and are full of protein and vitamins. We eat them almost once a week in this house.

One of the reasons I love them is that they keep very well in the fridge. I find that now that I live in very hot, humid Kuching, a lot of my green leafy vegetables spoil faster than when we lived in California. And now that I’m working, I have less time to shop for groceries—this means I have to buy most of my veggies on the weekend when I have time to market. Being hardy, the long beans are my go-to vegetable near the end of the week when I’ve cooked up all the leafy vegetables.

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Chinese, Pork

Pork, Lotus Root and Black Bean Soup

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This healthy soup is so delicious, you’ll be begging for more!

lotus root and black bean soup

We were having dinner in a Chinese restaurant the other day. Nate wasn’t feeling very good and so he wanted some herbal chicken soup. But the waitress said they only had two soups for that day—one was a black chicken soup and the other was this lotus root and black bean soup.

I remember that the Chinese believe that chicken is not good when you are coughing. Strange eh? I also remember another friend who had recommended black beans as a cure for coughs. So we agreed and ordered it. I told her that Nate’s throat wasn’t feeling very good and she immediately pointed to the black bean soup.

When the soup came, the whole family drank it up in no time at all. It was seriously good! The pork bones and the lotus roots were tender, the black beans were creamy and the soup was just comforting in flavor besides being very delicious. Esther actually wanted some more soup at the end when we were all done. We tried to get her to do an Oliver and go to the kitchen with her bowl and ask for more but she was too shy 🙂

We didn’t want to order another big bowl just for her so I told her I would try to make the lotus root soup for her the next day. Good thing this restaurant was next to a grocery store so I picked up some black beans and lotus roots. I already had pork bones at home so I was good to go.

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Chinese, Egg, Vegetables

Egg Fu Yong with Green Beans and Daikon

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A simple, yet satisfying dinner dish.

house of annie egg foo young

When I was growing up, eggs were not just something you had at breakfast. As a matter of fact, we probably had eggs more often at dinner time than we did at breakfast. I love all types of egg dishes. And I don’t really care what people say about eggs—they are the most economical and perfect food. One day, when I have my own place, I plan to raise my own chickens and get me some fresh eggs everyday!

So anyway, getting back to egg dishes, my mom would make egg fuyong every so often and we loved it. As a matter of fact, the simplest recipe—sauteed slice onions with beaten eggs (onion egg fuyong) is still one of my favorite egg dishes today. And my kids wolf it down too everytime I make it.

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