PaJeon (Pa Jun)

Here’s a recipe for Pa Jeon (Pa Jun) Pa means Scallions and Jeon are the actual battered ingredients. It actually has a variety of versions and names depending on what you put in it. Another version would be Hae-Mul Jeon which is the seafood variation and is the most popular of the “Jeons”. I haven’t really tried making it yet so I can’t provide this blog with a recipe for it…yet. Since my husband is Korean and he had the Hae-Mul Jeon back in Korea and he loved it, he requested for me to make them this weekend. So I’ll be posting that soon.

Pa Jeon or Korean Scallion Pancake:

2 cups of flour
2 cups water
2 eggs
5 stalks of scallions
Oil or cooking spray, salt and pepper       
         
For the dipping sauce:                            
 ¼ soy sauce                               
½ tbsp. vinegar                               
1 stalk scallion                               
Chili flakes                               
1 tsp Sesame Oil                               
½ tsp brown sugar Directions:
Combine all ingredients and whisk until it has a pancake like texture. You may add more water to reach your desired consistency. Let it sit to incorporate all the ingredients for about 8-10 minutes. Heat up a non-stick pan and put in oil or cooking spray for about 5 minutes. Scoop about 1/2 a cup of a ladel full of pancake batter this will give you about 5-4-5 inch size pancakes. Cook for about 7 minutes or until golden brown in medium heat and flip and let it cook for about 6 minutes.  This batch makes about 8-10 pancakes.
For the dipping Sauce, just mix all the dipping sauce ingredients together and serve in a small container on the side. Dip pancakes and enjoy!!

Spicy Miso Sauce

My hubby, myself and two of our close friends went to this Restaurant called Gorikee located in Woodland Hills, CA. One of our friends, Mike, ordered “Black Angus Rib eye steak topped with spicy miso…” Soooo good! My husband loved the Spicy Miso sauce so much that I thought I make my own version of it. So I did the other night and hubby loved it! So I want to share my own version of this spicy miso sauce. I’m sure  the ingredients are a lot different from Gorikee’s but…my hubby said it came pretty close! So here it is:

 Spicy Miso Sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 a cup of warm water
1 cup of water
1 1/2 tbsp of Miso Paste which you can buy at your local grocery store in the   Asian/Ethnic food section
1 tbsp Sriracha Chili sauce ( I used 2 tbsp for my husband because he likes his food spicier than normal people)
a pinch of pepper to taste.

Directions:

Place water in sauce pan and add the miso paste, whisk until miso paste has dissolved. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir regularly. Add dissolved cornstarch while whisking so the cornstarch will not clump up and add pepper. Add Sriracha and whisk for about 2 minutes till everything is well incorporated. Let it simmer again for another 10-15 minutes until sauce is reduced and thickens.

This Miso Sauce recipe is good with Steak and Pork. I’ve never tried it with chicken yet and fish, but I’m sure it’s gonna taste mighty good too!

Just to give props to Gorikee and their wonderful restaurant, click on the link below to see their menu and location:

http://www.sporq.com/woodlandhills/gorikeerestaurant/21799venturablvd?view=zoom

I rate this restaurant 5 stars for exceptional food! Also try their Sauteed Shrimp with white Truffle sauce….OMG!!!

Party Food Cookbook

I went to TJ Maxx today and bought a bunch of cook books for really cheap. I got cookbooks about Japanese cuisines, Tappas, Healthy food, Low Carb, Easy 30 minutes meals and the best part… Exclusively Chocolates…yum! But this book I loved right away and thought I must share it. I read most of it and filled the pages with yellow sticky notes for all the recipes that looks sooo appetizing. Since I’m going into the small home-based catering business, I thought this cook book was pretty good. I’m sure there are other party food cookbooks out there but this one is I think top shelf! Check it out.

You can find this at Barnes and Noble online at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com

and enter this ISBN # in the search area: 1405472480

My work RULEZ!!!

Last week, our Technology Services Director was out for the whole week, so my co-workers decided to re decorate his office:

Hillarious!! So I had to take a picture of it! He came in a day early so we were all bummed because we wanted to add more stuff to it! I wanted to bring my huge Hello Kitty doll along with this huge Helicopter and some Star Wars toys. But he loved it and was laughing histerically.

So basically the photo has a life size R2D2 with his picture in it and a chef’s hat, a wip, a neck tie and a foam finger. Ahhh I love my work!

And oh yeah…the best part is my co-worker is giving me that R2 for free! Since he doesnt have any room in his place anymore…hehe

Cube (Square) food(s)

 So I went to Google’s search engine and typed “cube food” and came across this image. I’m like…talk about “cube food” this photo was located in:
http://www.jupiterimages.com/popup2.aspx?navigationSubType=itemdetails&itemID=22888403

I thought it was an appropriate theme to post in my blog since it is CubeFood. Then again this blog isn’t about Square food. But heck! I can do that too! I can find some interesting food that are square and funny looking…because theyre square! Here’s another funny photo of a square food:

 You can find this photo here: http://www.thegreenhead.com/2004/07/pyramid-square-shaped-watermelons.php

 Pretty interesting eh?

Planning

There’s a lot involved in opening up a business. Even this small home-based business that I’m planning to open takes so much of my time and not to mention, energy. From licenses, to menu planning etc. I already did my research on licensing, trademarking my business name, logo design, keeping up with health department standards and a whole lot more. I have been reading up some tips and tricks of the trade for “newbies” like myself on starting up a small home-based catering business. And so far, all the information I’ve been reading are really helpful.

My catering business is more for office folks who do not have that extra time to prepare healthy, nutritious meals for lunch… plus meals will be delivered to you instead of going out, and waiting an extra 15-20 minutes for your food and I plan to cut that time.

Right now, I will be providing great meals that you can easily microwave. And I have selected a handfull of people from my office to try them out for 30 days or so. If they like it, ie: presentation, taste, texture, prices etc. I will then think about expanding my business to not just one company but TO and Westlake office deliveries.

 It’s no easy task I tell ya. I even read about food poisoning… if one consumer complains….oh my! That’ll be the end of my career in the catering business!! YIKES!!! So this business needs to be planned well…. REALLY WELL.

 I’m getting there though, I just need to apply for trademarking and copyrighting my business name for now that way, no one else can steal it and claim it their own idea….that would really suck if someone else got to it.  Still in the process of planning out menus and if you measure my brain activity right now… I bet you it will be off the charts because on top of my regular job, I think about my future business as well.

 I don’t know how my mom does it. She’s very good at this, planning your own business. I wish she was here to help me out.  I would say she has done it all, My parents used to own a Resort in the Philippines and my mom would cater for our guests. She did real estate (which I think she still does), co-owned and partnered a bunch of other business…I seriously don’t know how she did it!! She’s a wiz and my hero!! Planning this with my husband is fun too, but sometimes even more frustrating because he has a different view and our heads and ideas collide when I bring up something…even if it’s just an idea….uhhgg!

 Well we’ll see…. **crosses fingers** Till next time!

CubeFoodMenu – coming soon

CubeFoodMenu will be launching soon. This blog will have recipes and cooking tips for the not-so-kitchen-savy people. I currently run another blog on a different page, but this blog will be solely about anything that is FOOD. My name is Florence and I’m planning on starting up my small home-based catering business. I wanted to recreate some of the recipes I have grown to love and was passed down from my dear Mom, Soledad… the best cook in the world!! My recipes will be the healthy side (and some not so healthy side) of Filipino, American, Korean, Italian, Spanish fusion… and more! Some recipes you will be familiar of, but jazzed up my way.

 I’m still in the process of planning everything out so please be patient. www.cubefoodmenu.com will be launching soon too! Lots to do…lots to do! Well…better get crackalakin’!

 See ya soon!