Thanksgiving My Way

I've Been meaning to have my own blog about food ( cooking and eating) for awhile now. And when i watched the Julie and Julia, it inspired me to make my own. But i wasn't sure what to make and what to write about. And it seems like today is the DAY. I started one and cooked a meal out of it.!!!

You notice that i picked the name ChiKelChon, you might wonder what the heck is that mean. I actually picked the name of cooks that inspire me. Julia CHILD, Thomas KELLER, Joel RobuCHON. I  admire these chefs not because they were all French trained... but because each is known for different reason.

Julia Child ,as the woman that protest against no cookbook exist in the world at the time on french cooking in english and most chefs are male.
Thomas keller known for his talent and fresh ingredients and sauces.. his cook book French Laundry inspired me.
Joel Robuchon, known as the godfather of french food.

Ok back to speaking of Thanksgiving MY WAY...


Most people today would be working in the kitchen cooking gigantic Turkey. Our family never got into turkey i suppose. The thanksgiving i have were mostly when i was in college. In West Lafayette, IN, where my dad's friend Uncle Steve B.. took me to his house in South Bend, IN or to his cousin's house in Southern IN by Brown county.

I think people have stuck to the idea that Thanksgiving has to be Turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But to me, Thanksgiving is all about gathering with family and friends eating whatever is COMFORT to you. It's about gathering with family members you haven't gotten to see in awhile.

Although Thanksgiving with them was fun... but every Thanksgiving since then has been with my family we were eating chinese hot pot  or what most people known as Japanese Shabu shabu. This year my family was out of the country.. i resort to my own comfort food since i'm eating alone. I made myself a pot of Beef stew for Beef stew Noodle soup.

On this blog i will show you how i've made it with mom's recipe.

Ingredients:
Stock:
1-2 lbs Country style beef ribs ( from costco) or you can use tendons or other style of meat.
3 stalk of green onions
10-20 cloves of garlic
20-30 Szechuan peppercorns
2-3 Star anice
1 cup of rice wine
1 medium sweet onion/ yellow onion ( chopped into little cubes)
2-3 tablespoons Hot bean paste ( Dou Ban Jiang)
1/2-1 can of tomate paste
1/2 C Dark soy sauce

I chose the country style chuck short ribs because it gives you the marbling, tender, has fat but not too fat. I personally don't like tendons, so i chose regular type of meats.

Ok let's start with a  5 qt pot with water, boil the meat with green onions, 1 cup of rice wine,10 cloves of garlic in the pot. Boil until the meat is half cooked. Take out the meat, cut into little chunks, cubes to your desire size. Leave the stock in the pot. You might be asking, do i scoop out the goo that is on the top of the water? ( the cooked blood stuff? no, it's known that those eliminate the beefy smell and makes the meat tender). Old ancient chinese recipe.. lol...

In another pot, sauted the sweet/ yellow onion until translucent and lightly brown or charred.

Stir in half a can of the tomato paste, cook it for 2-3 min ( to get rid of the acidity of tomato paste from a can). Stir in the hot bean paste and add the dark soy sauce.

Now when ready pour in the stock that you made into the mixture and drop in the pouch of (peppercorns, star anise, garlics).

Throw back in the cut meat into the stew. And bring the heat to a simmering boil on low heat for 1 hr.

In a bowl, Put a dollop of Oyster Sauce, Chopped cilantro and chopped green onions

  And garnish with  chinese vegetable ( You Choy in this case.. like chinese brocolli :) ) and i always add 2 tablespoon of my garlic infused chilli oil that i make myself.

Happy Thanksgiving!!