Asian Inspiration

COMING THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT

(2023)

The Asian cultures have always inspired us.

Each one brings such creativity, intelligence, and inspiration, and not to mention, great food!

One of our favorite things to do is to visit our local Asian Supermarkets and stroll down every isle looking for great ingredients to use in our foods.

We are so very happy to bring you some of our recipes based on these delicious ingredients.

We thank you for being here and we hope you will come back.

Julie and Gordon Whann

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Grilled Chicken w/ Rice Noodles and Vegetables

(Chicken made with Julie’s Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce)

Click Here For: Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce

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Casual Dining on the Coffee Table

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Lotus Salad w/ Asian Vinaigrette

Bulgogi Pork and Pineapple Wraps

Gordon’s Teriyaki Wings

What an Excellent Dinner!

Just Sunday Chillin’

I’m Digging IN!

(Recipes Down Below)

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Black Sesame Ice Bars (for dessert)

These are a Favorite of Ours 🙂

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Leftover Bulgogi Pork Wraps

We love leftovers, so we always make extra.

These are so good! And what a presentation that they make!

Here we have tied these lovely bundles with Yellow and Green Chives

We have the recipe for these down below.

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These could also be done as some sort of Bulgogi Wrap Bar.

Kind of like a Taco Bar.

Place lots of ingredients that your guests can add to create their own.

We Added Our Roasted Brussels Sprouts Here

Don’t They Look Delicious?

So Caramelized. 🙂

Asian Inspiration at it’s BEST!

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Also, Our Leftover….

Grilled Chicken w/ Rice Noodles and Vegetables

(Chicken made with Julie’s Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce)

Topped With Thai Basil

Leftovers Turned Into The Chinese Wan Symbol

Our last name is Whann, pronounced the same as Wan, the Chinese Symbol Above.

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Our Year of the Rabbit Dinner (2023)

Gordon and Julie’s Asian Inspired Pad Thai Dinner…

with Hawaiian Teriyaki Grilled Chicken Various Noodles, Vegetables, and our Peanuku Sauce

Delicious!

Excellent as Leftovers Too!

Chop Stix Anyone?

(Recipes Down Below)

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Recipes Start Here

Lotus Salad w/ Asian Vinaigrette

Ingredients Fresh From The Asian Supermarket

Ingredients:

1 Head Butter Lettuce

1 Cup Thai Basil

1 Bunch Flowering Garlic Chives

1 pkg. Enoki Mushrooms

16 oz. Lotus Root Slices

2 Cups Spinach Leaves

1/2 Green Bell Pepper – sliced thinly

1/2 Red Bell Pepper – sliced thinly

1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper – sliced thinly

2 Cups Baby Carrots – sliced lengthwise into quarters

1/2 Small Cabbage – sliced thinly

2 Cups Broccoli Heads

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Salad Vinaigrette Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Honey

2 Tbsp. Aji-Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning

2 Tbsp. Sushi Unagi Sauce

1/4 Cup “Aloha Brand” Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

1/2 Cup Black Vinegar

1/4 Cup “Splenda Brand” Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp. Black Sesame Seeds

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Remove the core of the Butter Lettuce by using the tip of your knife and cutting around the core. Then use your palm and push down on the core to break it free. Remove the core, then remove the lettuce leaves and wash them individually under cold running water. Place them on paper towels to dry them.

Wash the Thai Basil, Spinach leaves, and Flowering Garlic Chives as well.

Slice your Bell Peppers in half and remove the seeds. Then slice them thinly in long strips.

Slice your Scotch Bonnet Pepper carefully as its juices are hot, so wash your hands and knife directly after you touch it.

Slice your Baby Carrots in half or in quarters depending on their size.

Enoki Mushrooms come in a bundle as shown, so simply cut off the base roots as shown.

Slice your Cabbage in half, cut away the core, then slice it thinly as shown.

Slice your Garlic Chives in 1 inch sections leaving the top 3 inches to use as a garnish.

Slice the larger Broccoli Florets if needed.

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands.

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Time To Make The Vinaigrette

Our Asian Inspired Vinaigrette Salad Dressing ingredients.

Pour your Honey and Aji-Mirin into a medium sized Ball or Mason Jar that has a lid and ring to seal it.

Place your Unagi sauce in the jar. This gives and nice sweetness to the Vinaigrette.

Add your Soy Sauce of which the Aloha brand is one of the best!

Now add your Sesame Oil to the jar which provides a well known Nutty flavor.

This is an unusual ingredient I found at our local Asian Market which has a great flavor to it.

Add your Splenda Brown Sugar to the jar.

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Close the jar and shake it well to thoroughly mix all the ingredients.

We don’t place Salad Dressings or Vinaigrette’s on our Salads until we have placed the individual serving sizes on our plates.

That way, any leftover Salad won’t be all soggy.

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Gordon’s Teriyaki Wings

When I took my Teriyaki wings to work, they won “Best Overall Wings” in which there were 18 types of wings entered into the contest. Pictured are my wings after they have been marinated for 24 hours. The marinade consists of ~32 oz. of Aloha Brand Soy sauce, ~1 Cup of Splenda Brown Sugar, 2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil and sliced Garlic and Ginger.

Preheat your oven to 400’F and place the wings on a sheet pan that has been lined with aluminum foil and topped with a cooling rack. The cooling rack will allow the high heat to penetrate the entire wing.

Top the wings with the sliced Ginger and Garlic which was in the marinade.

Sprinkle the wings with some Roasted White, and Black Sesame Seeds…

and roast them for about 35 min. or until they reach an internal temperature of 160’F.

Because the wings are on a rack, there is no need to flip them.

Julie got close to the steam coming out of the hot oven. It’s a great shot of it.

The Aroma is Wonderful!

I love how the Sesame Seeds look on the wings. Also, the now roasted Ginger and Garlic that are stuck to the wings make them quite flavorful and a favorite of mine. I do make these quite often and they are featured on many of our website pages.

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Aloha Wahine Jezebel Grilled Chicken with Rice Noodles and Vegetables

Ingredients:

3 Chicken Breasts – flattened to 1/2 to 3/4 inch

1 Cup Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce

(See Recipe Above)

20 Small Carrots – sliced into small rounds

3 to 4 Garlic Cloves – chopped to a mince

2 Tbsp. Fresh Ginger – grated

1/2 Cup Yellow Chives – chopped to 1/2 inch sections

6 Green Onions – sliced thinly

1/2 Cup Pickled Yellow Radish – sliced into rounds and then halved

Bag of Rice Noodles (14 ounces)

~3/4 Cup Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Red Bell Pepper – sliced and then chopped into medium sized cuts

3 Tbsp. Honey

Salt to taste

1/4 Cup Parsley – chopped

1/4 Cup Whole Cashews

Zest of 2 Limes

Juice of 2 Limes

1/2 Cup Enoki Mushrooms

Garnish with Thai Basil Sprigs

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Remove your chicken breasts and rinse with cold water to remove any blood and bone pieces. Remove any pieces of loose fat with your knife as well. Set the breasts aside on paper towels.

Here are the Pickled Radish, and Yellow Chives that we used.

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Place a chicken breast into a large plastic bag and spray with olive oil to help the chicken slide as it is being flattened.

Using a kitchen mallet, firmly hit the chicken breast starting at the center and working your way out. Continue until your chicken is ~1/2 inch thick.

Place the flattened chicken on a plate to later be grilled. Here you can see the difference in size flattening the chicken makes. This is done to help evenly cook the chicken and to help the sauce from running off.

Flatten the other two chicken breasts and place all the breasts smooth side up on the plate.

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Preheat your grill to medium high heat for about 5 min. to ensure a good initial sear of the chicken. Spray the grill grates with a high temperature oil to help the chicken from sticking.

We Used a Cooking Oil Spray for the Grill

While the grill is heating, pour a little of your Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce over the smooth side of the breasts and coat with a sauce brush.

You always want to cook the presentation side first. When flipped, this allows you to place more of the sauce on top as the underside cooks making for a great presentation.

Here I am cooking the smooth side down of the chicken. This is a great time to now lightly coat with sauce the other side of the chicken. After about 8 minutes, and you have a good sear on the chicken, turn the chicken over onto a new area of the grill. Doing this will ensure a good sear.

Hear you can see the nice grill marks on the chicken’s presentation side. Now, add more of your Aloha Wahine Jezebel Sauce to the chicken and turn your heat down a touch to let the sauce cook down and become thick and sticky.

Here you can again see the cooked chicken which should be ~160’F. I don’t use a temperature probe as I have been doing this so long. I gauge the chicken’s internal temperature by how stiff the chicken is. At this point the chicken will be very stiff when picked up have just a slight bend to it. When set aside for about 10 min., the chicken’s super heated (~350’F) outside juices will flow back to the center of the chicken cooking it further to ~165’F where chicken is safe to eat. This flow of juices is why you don’t cut the chicken shortly after removing it from the grill as the juices will just flow out and onto your cutting board.

A little bit of a mess, but it is well worth it.

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Letting the chicken rest.

Slice your juicy chicken into long 3/4 inch strips… and see, no juices running out onto the cutting board.

Slice all chicken breasts the same way.

Be sure to have a bit for a job well done!

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While the chicken is cooking and resting, slice your carrots into rounds.

Then slice your garlic to a mince size.

Like So

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Here we washed the yellow chives and parsley.

Peel your fresh ginger with a spoon as shown and slice your yellow chives to 1/2 inch slices.

Then slice your green onions thinly.

Now, slice your pickled radish into thin rounds then slice them in half.

The Year of the Tiger

Here are the noodles we used.

Cook as the bags instructions… Heat to a boil enough water to submerge the noodles. Place the noodles in the water for around 1 to 2 min.

Remove the noodles and place them in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the noodles from cooking.

Using kitchen shears and tongs, lift up a section of noodles and slice the noodles into three inch sections. Do this for all the noodles.

Once the noodles are all cut, add ~ 3 Tbsp. of sesame oil to your noodles to help prevent them from sticking. Also pictured is the honey I brought from Jordan. It is very dark and flavorful. It tastes like our honey, yet a bit different. A very unique taste.

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Place your olive oil in a large wok and heat to medium high.

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Slice your bell pepper in half and remove the stem and seeds.

Slice the bell pepper into long strips…

and then into a medium dice as shown.

Now that the wok and olive oil are heated, add your carrot rounds to the wok.

Then add your freshly grated ginger to the carrots.

Mix the ingredients with a spatula and let them cook for a few minutes.

Now add your garlic to the wok and if needed, add some more olive oil to prevent the items from sticking.

Let those ingredients cook for another few minutes, then add your diced bell pepper.

Now, your honey to the wok and mix well.

Add some salt (~1/4 tsp.) to enhance the honey and natural sweetness of the carrots and bell pepper.

While the vegetables are cooking in the wok, slice your green onions thinly.

Then slice your parsley.

(Although I am the main photographer, I also cook, and help when needed.)

Remember to mix your wok’s ingredients and cook them until slightly tender.

When cooked and still slightly tender, add your noodles to the wok.

Turn the heat down to low.

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Add your parsley and yellow chives.

Also add your pickled radish and cashews to the wok.

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Now it’s time for the lime zest, and lime juice to be added here.

Carefully mix all the wok’s ingredients.

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Add more of your sesame oil to the noodles and again mix well.

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Adding our Enoki Mushrooms

Here I felt the noodles needed more sesame oil.

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Store in an Airtight Container and Refrigerate

(We made the Chicken and the Noodles the day before we were going to eat them.)

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Bulgogi and Pineapple Pork Wraps

Here is the Asian BBQ Pork Lettuce Wraps which are garnished with Enoki Mushrooms, Green Onions, and Roasted Sesame Seeds.

This Korean Bulgogi Marinade sauce is what I used to make this great BBQ wrap.

Gathering The Ingredients

Ingredients:

Butter Lettuce Leaves – as needed

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 pkg. Hot Italian Sausage “Johnsonville Brand”

1 (12 oz.) pkg. Jimmy Dean Sausage

9 Garlic Cloves – sliced thinly

1 Cup Shaved Cabbage

1 Cup Carrot Sticks

1 1/4 Cups Bulgogi Sauce

1 tsp. Ground Ginger

1/4 Cup Pineapple Juice

1/2 Cup Crushed Pineapple

1 tsp. Hot Pepper Flakes

1/4 Cup Chopped Green Onions

1/2 Cup Bean Sprouts

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Garnish with:

1 pkg. Enoki Mushrooms

Green Onions – sliced

Sesame Seeds

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Here are the Enoki Mushrooms which I simply sliced off one inch of the bottom root section.

In the bowl are the fresh Bean Sprouts.

This is some really good sausage as we like the heat it provides.

To start, add your Olive Oil to your Wok or large saute pan and heat it to medium high.

Crumble your sausage into the pan when the oil is heated to temperature.

Use your spatula to break up the sausage as it is cooking. Stir the meat so it cooks evenly.

Open your crushed Pineapple and drain out some of the juices and set them aside.

While the meat continues to cook, slice your Garlic thinly. Here you can see the meat is cooking evenly.

Add your shaved Cabbage to the meat and mix in well. After it cooks for about 5 min. …

Drain the meat using a splatter cover as shown. Now that most of the grease/fat has been drained, reduce the heat to medium.

Add your Carrot Sticks to the pan…

Then add your Bulgogi Sauce.

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Now add the Pineapple Juice and Crushed Pineapple to the dish. Mix the ingredients together.

Lastly add the Powdered Ginger, Hot Pepper Flakes, and more Bulgogi Sauce if you feel it needs it. I added more as I love the flavor of this sauce. The total amount of Bulgogi Sauce was about 1 1/4 Cups.

Mix the ingredients well again and taste the mixture. Add any ingredients you like to have it taste the way you like.

Add your sliced Green Onions.

Then add your Bean Sprouts…

..and mix everything well.

Here you can see when I moved the ingredients away from the center, I had a good amount of liquid. This is the main reason I used a Wok as when you push the ingredients up the sides, it leaves the liquid in the center. Cook this until the liquid is evaporated by half, which will take about another 5 min. or so.

When done, mix all the ingredients well and turn off the heat. The liquid in the center will become thick and provide a great sauce for the dish.

Arrange your Butter Lettuce Leaves on a large plate or platter then add some Enoki Mushrooms towards the end of the leaves as shown. Spoon a heaping amount of the Bulgogi BBQ Meat into the Lettuce leaves and garnish with some more sliced Green Onions and Roasted Sesame Seeds.

This was a great tasting meal!

You can also use a Bean Sprout of a Chive to tie it into a bundle and eat it that way.

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Our Year of the Rabbit Dinner

Gordon and Julie’s Asian Inspired Pad Thai Dinner…

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We started this meal the day before by washing the chicken with cold running water to remove any residual blood or bone fragments.

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and place them into a large seal-able plastic bag. Wash your hands well then add enough of the Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce (marinade) to cover all three breasts. Mix the breasts in the marinade to ensure the sauce will cover them well. Move the breasts to the bottom of the bag, then fold the bag over the breasts, pressing the air out the bag. Seal the bag tightly, creating a vacuum, which will help the marinade to penetrate the chicken. Place the bagged chicken in a bowl in case the bag breaks, then place the bowl and chicken into the refrigerator overnight.

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Here are the Thai Basil and Chives with Flowers we used as a tasty garnish.

Wash them using a colander and set aside to dry for later use.

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Our Peanuku Sauce

Ingredients for this smaller batch of Peanut (Peanuku) Sauce

~1 1/2 Cups No Sugar Added Peanut Butter – (Jif Brand)

~1 Tbsp. Raw Cane Sugar

3/4 Cup Cashews

1 1/2 tsp. Mustard Powder

1 Tbsp. Black Vinegar – Possible Substitute (Rice Wine Vinegar or White Vinegar)

1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

1 Tbsp. Black Garlic Shoyu or Soy Sauce – Possible Substitute (Aloha Shoyu or Datu Puti Soy Sauce) or any Soy Sauce you enjoy

~3/4 Cups of Water

I thought I might use the Powdered Rice shown in the Ground Cumin seasoning container, but then I changed my mind. Ground Powdered Rice is used as a thickener.

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All the Ingredients Assebled

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Gordon Ready to Get Started

I first placed the Peanut Butter into the Smoothy Sized mixer attachment, then added the Raw Cane Sugar.

Then I added the Cashews and the Mustard Powder…

the Black Vinegar, Sesame Oil, and Black Garlic Shoyu.

Lastly add your water which I started out with using a little as I didn’t want to add too much making it too runny.

Blend the mixture until the Cashews are ground down and the mixture is smooth. Taste the mixture and add more water and some of the other liquids to get the consistency and taste you like.

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Time to Grill the Chicken

To grill your Teriyaki Chicken, turn your grill on high for about 5 min. to remove any old food particles. Clean your grill if needed. Then turn your grill down to medium high heat and spray the grill grates with a High Temperature Grill Cooking Spray. Add your Chicken top of the breast side down, and grill the chicken for about 8 min.

So, while the chicken is grilling….

It’s time to start your Asian Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

1 10oz. Bag Carrot Sticks

1 tsp. Sea Salt

2 Tbsp. Butter

~4 Tbsp. Sweet Soy Sauce

~1/2 Cup Water

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Simply add your Carrots, Butter, Sea Salt to a large saute pan…

along with the Sweet Soy Sauce and your Water.

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After about 8 min. cooking time, flip the chicken over to another hot spot on the grill and cook them for another 8 min. I love those grill marks.

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Here, I am cooking the carrots with the lid on at my grill’s side burner over medium heat.

Bring the carrots up to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, then remove the lid.

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Here you can see those great grill marks on the chicken.

Let the chicken rest for about 10 min. to let the super heated outside juices return to the center of the meat, cooking the chicken more to an internal temperature of 165’F.

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Here are the ingredients for our Pad Thai inspired dinner

3 Bundles Spinach Flavored Noodles – or as much as you need

4 Bundles Ramen Noodles – or as much as you need

2 Bundles Lo Mein Noodles – or as much as you need

4 Green Onions – sliced thinly

~2 Cups Snow Peas

Pickled Yellow Daikon Radish – sliced thinly

Shiitaki Mushrooms

Blanched Peanuts

~2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

1 Bundle Seafood Mushrooms (they resemble Enoki Mushrooms)

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Here I cooked the carrots down to where most of the water is gone, leaving only the sweet soy glaze.

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To begin, use two pots large enough to cook the noodles in.

Add your water then a good amount of Sea Salt to the water.

Bring the water up to a boil on high heat.

While the water is coming up to temperature, I sliced the Green Onions thinly as shown.

Place your Spinach Noodles into the boiling water and cook as prescribed on the package.

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In the other pot I placed the Ramen Noodles and cooked them as directed.

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I blanched the Snow Peas by placing them into a colander, then I place another colander over them and poured the noodles and boiling water on top of them.

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I then poured more water into the large pot and set it to boil. When at temperature, I added the noodles and cooked them as directed.

When done, I poured them out and blanched the Snow Peas a little more.

I poured about 2 Tbsp. of Sesame Oil over the noodles and mixed them in to help the noodles from sticking together.

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Here I sliced the Daikon Radish into thin rounds.

This has a wonderful sweet pickled taste and goes well with this dish.

Using a large platter, I arranged the Thai Basil with some facing up and some facing down around the edge as shown to show both colors of the leaf.

Here you can see by adding a touch of Peanut Oil to the noodles will prevent them from sticking.

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I placed the various types of noodles in the center of the platter.

The Colors are Beautiful!

I then added the Snow Peas and Glazed Carrots to the platter.

Now add the Daikon Raddish, and center the Peanut Sauce with a spoon.

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I then cut the chicken in thin strips…

and placed it on the tray.

Drizzle some of the Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce over the chicken and I added some to the peanut sauce as well.

I also chopped some of the Chive Flowers as they were very long and added them to the platter. I sliced some of them thinly and added a tsp. of them to the top of the Peanut Sauce.

Lastly, I added the Seafood Mushrooms to the platter and garnished the Teriyaki Chicken with the sliced Green Onions.

I topped the Peanut Sauce with a handful of the Blanched Peanuts.

This was a great meal.

I made my plate and had some Japanese Asahi Beer to go with it.

The noodles tasted so good when mixed with the peanut sauce.

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If you would like to view our other Asian pages:

Click Here For: Whann Way Asian

AND,

Click Here For: Whann Way Asian, E Ho ‘Omau (Continues)

AND,

Click Here For: Julie Loves Asian

AND,

Click Here For: Asian Edible Gifts

AND,

Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety

(Note: Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety is the same post as Asian Edible Gifts. I have both listed here for accuracy, but one is a Page and the other is considered a Post. Confusing, I know.)

AND,

Click Here For: Our Asian Easter