The Cooking World

So a resolution for 2011 was to try to start cooking since I am and will always be a terrible cook. On the other hand, my mom is the world's best chef in the world. I promise I am not being bias just because we are blood related, but because it is so incredibly true! If anyone knows me, they'd know the only food I have ever been successful at not screwing up is a grilled cheese sandwich and mac and cheese..from the box. So this will really be a test of my womanhood.

If you didn't know already, I work at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine and got inspired to make these amazing short rib tacos. I work closely with our chef partner so he gave me a few pointers on recreating something that I could definitely not go wrong with. With the help of my kitchen-saavy mom, here's what we came up with:

Beef Short Ribs: 5 lbs
Garlic: 6 cloves
Soy Sauce: 1 cup
Seasame Oil: 2 Tablespoons
Sugar: 1 1/2 teaspoon
Brown Sugar: 3/4 cups plus 3 Tablesppons
Peeled Ginger: 1/2 inch
Rice Vinegar (I used White): 6 Tablespoons

Spices:
Red Pepper Flakes: 1 pinch (or however much spice you like)
Salt: 2 pinches

Carrots
Cucumber
Red Chili Peppers
Cilantro

I used tortillas, but what makes it more interesting is using deep fried taro as the shell.

First place peeled ginger and garlic into a food processor along with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes and blend til mixed thoroughly.

Place short ribs into the crockpot and pour your mix over the short ribs. My family loves spicy foods so we chopped up red chili peppers that we grow ourselves in our backyard and add them into the crockpot. Next, turn on the crockpot and let it sit overnight for about 6-8 hours on low heat or until the meat is very tender and fall straight off the bone.

Let cool. Remove the excess fat over the top and use the leftover sauce at the bottom to use as a spread.

For your slaw, we used cucumbers and carrots and sliced them with a food peeler and mixed them in a mix of sugar, salt, red pepper flakes and vinegar and let it soak for a few hours. And there you go!

Let's just say my dad was our #1 fan as he always has been with my mom's cooking. He was quite surprised that I helped create an amazing dish (mostly my mom's doing). From now on, I'm sticking to a crockpot to cook everything...it does all the work for you (an my mom)!!