Easy Date Night Dish

By David Hu

I have a standing date night with my wife every Tuesday. Sometimes we’ll eat out, sometimes we’ll catch a movie and sometimes we’ll cook at home. When it’s my turn, I always like to make something special – but because date night is mid-week, whatever I cook can’t take too long.

One of my favorite ingredients is mussels; they’re elegant, require very little prep and the best way to eat them is steamed, which doesn’t take a lot of effort. My favorite mussel dish is Moules Marinière. It’s a classic dish with only five ingredients so prep and cook won’t take more than 30 minutes.

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Impress with Panko

By David Hu

Panko, Japanese breadcrumbs, is a hot ingredient these days, having moved out of Japanese kitchens and into the mainstream, appearing on fine dining menus across the country – and now even at Wendy’s! The difference between panko and western breadcrumbs is that panko has ragged, craggy surfaces, making for a crispier and lighter coating.

A classic Japanese dish that is synonymous with panko is tonkatsu – thin slices of pork that is coated in panko and fried until golden. While I often order tonkatsu when I eat out, it is extremely easy to make at home. It only requires five ingredients plus bottled dipping sauce, and shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Tonkatsu is usually served on a bed of shredded cabbage with a dip of tonkatsu sauce, available in most Asian markets or in the International products aisle of your supermarket. If you can’t find it, you can make a sauce with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce as a substitute.

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Soup in a Hurry

By David Hu

There’s nothing quite like a nice, comforting bowl of soup when it’s cold outside. While many soups are time consuming, today’s Mexican-inspired chicken potato soup is not. From start to finish this recipe should take about 30 minutes.

If you have the time, let the soup sit for a day to allow the flavors to develop. But if you’re like me, you simply won’t be able to wait that long because it smells so good. I particularly love serving this soup with baked tortilla strips, which I like to add a little at a time to enjoy a nice crunch before it goes soggy.

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Potatoes on the side, please

By David Hu

Often when I’m cooking, I get so caught up in the main dish that I run out of time or forget to make a side. There’s no excuse for skipping a side dish with these Parmesan Potato Wedges. The dish is extremely simple so you can work on it in between tasks for the main course. The other great thing is that this dish is cooked in the oven so I don’t have to watch it constantly and it frees up precious space on the stovetop.

Red bell peppers add color and a bit of sweetness and the Parmesan adds a nice cheesy tang.

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If it’s Friday, it’s Video Blog Day on Special Fork

By David Hu

All this week, we have been re-introducing our bloggers by re-posting their very first post for Special Fork. On Monday we’ll be back blogging with more cooking insights, helpful tips and delicious recipes that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time, all to solve your daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now!

Today we feature Dave Hu’s early video blog post on cooking tilapia. Dave was inspired to found Special Fork, a mobile recipe website, when he was tempted to buy tilapia at the market because it was cheap. However, he refrained because he didn’t know how to cook it. Dave realized having tilapia recipes easily accessible on his smartphone would have enabled him to buy and cook tilapia or any other unfamiliar ingredients that he’s like to try cooking.

Dave, a competent novice cook, is CEO and Co-Founder of Special Fork. He is responsible for the design and features of the mobile recipe website and runs the Special Fork business. Dave has over 10 years of experience in the high tech industry, his last three years focused on the mobile space. Most recently Dave was the Manager for Mobile Devices at Virgin Mobile USA where he oversaw special edition handsets.

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