(Belated) Chinese New Year Meal#6: Char Siu Noodle Soup and Smoked Tofu with Celery and Peanuts (Liang Ban Dou Fu Gan)

It turns out that it's a good thing that I made those two homemade stocks while Alex was sick.  Guess who caught the head cold now?  I guess it was hubris to assume that I would be immune to Alex's most recent cold.  In my defense, I only get sick about 50% of the time when Alex brings something home.  It just happened that my body decided now seemed like a good time to catch a cold.  When I have a cold the only thing I want is wonton noodle soup.  It is my absolute favorite cold remedy.  If I can't have wonton noodle soup (or I am too lazy to make the wontons) I will settle for a bowl of homemade Vietnamese chicken noodle soup.  Since I didn't have any homemade wontons and we had just made homemade dumplings the day before, I decided to mix things up and make some sort of Chinese noodle soup.  I didn't want to do a chicken noodle soup because we had just made matzo ball soup with chicken and we had homemade pork-chicken stock in the fridge, so I decided to go with a pork noodle soup.  Once I settled on pork I knew that I would make homemade char siu and make a char siu noodle soup.  For the char siu I used a combination of two char siu recipes that we have made in the past.  I know that I said that I would never make char siu another way after I made Char Siu Take 2, but I didn't want an entire pork shoulder worth of char siu for my soup.  I just wanted a few slices for each bowl.  Plus, the grocery store nearest our apartment only had pork tenderloin.  So I used the marinade from Char Siu Take 2 and the cooking instructions from Char Siu Pork (Chinese Roast Pork) which used pork tenderloin.  I threw the marinade together and put it in the fridge, went to the gym, took the dog for a walk, etc.  And later that night we made soup.  Once you had all of the components prepared, it really didn't take that long to make your soup but preparing each component takes awhile - the broth takes about 3 hours, the char siu marinates for at least 2 hours (although you could easily do it overnight as we have done in the past) and then cooks for 30 minutes... 

The thing I liked most about this meal was how homey it tasted.  Variations on both of these dishes are available in restaurants, but everything tasted comforting and homemade.  The flavors were there, the textures were there (particularly with the tofu with celery and peanuts), but it was all very simple and homey.  The char siu wasn't the best that I have ever tasted (or made) and I wanted a little more depth of flavor and richness to the broth, but it just made me (and my head cold) happy.  It reminded me of something my grandmother would have made for me.  Granted, she probably would have picked up some char siu from the local Chinese grocery instead of making it at home, but the point still stands.  It wasn't a perfect dish by any means, but it was very satisfying.  And sometimes that is exactly what you want/need.  It has been a long time since I have had any smoked tofu and I almost forgot how great it can be.  I love the meaty, smokey flavor and the extra firm texture.  It works really well with the crisp, grassy celery and the sweet and spicy sauce.  I brought in the leftover smoked tofu for lunch this week and I thought it made for great leftovers.

Recipes after the jump!

Nigel Slaters's Shrimp with Asian Greens

Look - another seafood dish!  Go us!  And this will officially be your last seafood post from us (and potentially your last post) until after Thanksgiving.  Turkey here I come!  I found this recipe during one of my various recipe hunting jaunts.  One day I pulled open my iPad and there it was.  I have no idea when I first found it, but it has been staring at me every time I opened up Safari on my iPad for the past few weeks.  So we finally gave it a go.  I don't have any idea who Nigel Slater is, but given how much we liked this recipe I might have to track down some more of his recipes.  I had this impression that he is the UK equivalent of Mark Bittman (lord only knows where I came up with that idea, but a brief Wiki session seems to substantiate it).  The recipe was simple and came together relatively quickly (once you finished prepping).  And it was more than the sum of its parts - the flavor of the basil and the aromatics (particularly the lemongrass and the ginger) came through really well and it had a lovely balance of sour, sweet, spicy and salty.  I was worried that the fish sauce and lime juice combo would lead to it being kind of one note, but it really worked.  And it was surprisingly spicy given that we only used one serrano chili for 3/4 pound each of baby bok choy and shrimp. I loved serving it with brown rice because I thought the nuttier flavor and chewier texture of the brown rice was a nice complement to the dish.  I know we made a good dish when Alex pours the rest of his shrimp juju over his rice and then cleans his rice bowl.  And he did it this time.  Even though he doesn't really like brown rice.  If my word that the dish was good isn't enough for you, I'm sure that you will find the Alex rice bowl test totally persuasive.  Now if only I had taken a picture of the empty rice bowl...

Recipe after the jump!

Salmon Bulgogi with Bok Choy and Mushrooms

Now that work has calmed down a bit, we have time to cook again.  I'm hoping that this entire month is on the slower side so Alex and I can cook and eat a bunch of meals at home, but we will have to wait and see what happens.  It has been so long since I had the time to really sit down and plan my meals that I find that I am a little rusty.  When I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner this week I literally had no inspiration whatsoever.  I couldn't think of a single thing I wanted to make, so I just dug through the freezer until I found a few proteins, picked up a few veggies at the farmers' market and then searched Epicurious to come up with some recipes.  This salmon dish was what resulted.  I do have an idea for some Chinese-inspired lamb burgers for this weekend, but we haven't made them yet so I can't take any credit.

When Alex took his first bite of the salmon he predicted I would have two thoughts - that the marinade was kind of salty and kind of harsh.  My first thought was actually that the marinade was almost ridiculously gingery.  We kind of eyeballed the proportions here so the abundance of ginger could be Alex's fault (he did the solids) and the saltiness could be my fault (I "measured" the liquids).  My second thought was that the bok choy and shiitake mushrooms were underseasoned.  But I found that when you tossed the veggies in the reduced marinade that the dish worked out pretty well.  The veggies on their own were kind of bland and the salmon with the reduced marinade/glaze on top was too highly seasoned.  When you put them together (and scraped some marinade off the salmon) it balanced out.  I was a little worried about cooking the salmon at such high temperatures, but that worked out pretty well too.  The salmon turned out to be very nicely cooked - still a touch pink in the center (which I like) and not dry like I had feared.  This will never be my favorite way to cook salmon, but with a few tweaks I think it could be a very pleasant weeknight meal since it is very simple to put together and doesn't require a ton of time, effort and/or ingredients.

Recipe after the jump!

Yunnan Greens

During our shopping expedition to Chinatown this weekend I ended up buying what amounts to 2-3 lbs of baby bok choy.  In case you have trouble visualizing that much bok choy, imagine an entire plastic shopping bag packed to the brim with vegetables.  So I had to do SOMETHING to use up some of the baby bok choy in the fridge, or risk it totally overtaking the entire vegetable drawer.  So I flipped through the cookbook we were using for our butternut squash soup and found this recipe, which calls for bok choy or Shanghai bok choy (aka baby bok choy).  Perfect.

Considering that there were only 3 dried, whole Thai chilis in the stir-fry for 1 lb of bok choy, this dish had a surprising amount of heat to it.  The heat was subtle, but it was definitely present.  My one complaint about this dish is that I think a couple cloves of garlic would have really added something to the dish.  Otherwise, it was an easy and tasty side dish.  And with the addition of garlic I would totally make it again.

Recipe after the jump!

Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Chicken Adobo with Sauteed Baby Bok Choy with Garlic and Ginger

I know I have written before about how much I love fried rice so I won't bother to go into it again.  The inspiration for this fried rice came from the bahay kubo fried rice we tried at Umi Nom a few weeks ago.  The fried rice there had chicken, Chinese sausage, shrimp, garlic, egg and soy sauce.  We had leftover chicken adobo from the other night, plus I picked up some Chinese sausage and other fun ingredients down in Chinatown this evening with fried rice in mind.  I'm actually really excited about some of my other purchases (including a whole duck, pork belly, and steamed buns like the ones David Chang uses for his steamed pork buns), which I will be using in future meals/blog posts, but we will get into those later.  Tonight is all about fried rice.  And baby bok choy, which I served to satisfy my rampant springtime cravings for fresh vegetables.

Along with the leftover chicken adobo and the Chinese sausage, my fried rice included garlic, ginger, Chinese chives, carrots, eggs, mushroom soy sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil.  I subscribe to the more the merrier philosophy when it comes to fried rice.  Can you tell?  Anyway, this fried rice was a welcome departure from my standard fried rice recipes.  I have never added fish sauce to fried rice before, but I though that the salty, funky flavor would go well with my other ingredients.  And this was my first time ever using mushroom soy sauce, so that was kind of exciting too.  Generally I don't add soy sauce or any other liquids to my fried rice, except for a touch of sesame oil, so this was a whole new way to make fried rice for me.  The reason we added so many liquids this time was because the fried rice at Umi Nom was wet, or at least more wet than my fried rice, and I figured if I was going to steal the idea of using Chinese sausage and chicken in fried rice, I might as well try adding some soy sauce, etc. to my rice as well.  The other thing that differentiated their fried rice from my fried rice is that they didn't make the egg pancake and then chop it up, which leaves the fried rice flecked with little pieces of fried egg.  Instead, they poured the beaten eggs down over the rice while frying it.  Doing the eggs that way ensures that each grain of rice is coated in a thin coat of eggy goodness, rather than each bite being seeded with fried egg.  Cooking the eggs in the rice also serves to make the rice a little wetter and denser, which sounds kind of strange but can be really nice.  Now our fried rice was by no means as crazily delicious as the one we had at Umi Nom a few weeks ago, but it was nice.  Or as Alex said, "most deliciously tasty."  

And if you're craving vegetables, try the baby bok choy.  It was faintly sweet from the oyster sauce, and seasoned with garlic and ginger.  This cooking method works for almost any Chinese greens, but I particularly enjoy it with baby bok choy.  

Recipes after the jump!

Udon Noodles with Shitake Mushrooms and Baby Bok Choy

Since Chinese New Year is a week away (it falls on February 14 this year), I have decided that we will cook Asian-inspired meals this entire week.  If I were fully Chinese, instead of just being half, I would try to prepare authentic Chinese meals all week, but I think that I can mix it up a little.  Alex claims that even if I were 100% Chinese that I would still cook other cuisines for Chinese New Year, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  So this evening's meal was a true mix of Chinese and Japanese flavors.  I took my inspiration from a recipe for "Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Baby Greens" from Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province.  Alex and I went through our selection of Chinese and Vietnamese cookbooks and picked out some meals for us to try this week, including homemade pork dumplings (a traditional New Year dish), noodles (another thing traditionally served for Chinese New Year), banh mi (not at all traditional and Vietnamese instead of Chinese, but delicious nonetheless), and a few other surprises.  This soup recipe was one of my picks, but we were missing a few ingredients and I wanted to jazz it up.  Instead of using rice noodles (which we were out of anyway), I wanted to use some udon noodles for a chewier, heartier soup.  I love udon noodles in soup.  And then, since I had already decided to use udon I decided to serve the soups topped with shichimi togarashi ("seven flavor chili pepper") to add another Japanese touch. 

I was a little worried that this soup would be a little boring flavor-wise, but it wasn't at all.  The flavors were both delicate and deeply savory (if I were more pretentious or Japanese I would say umami) at the same time.  Most of the savoriness I attribute to the dried shitake mushrooms, which imparted some serious flavor to the soup.  Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite "vegetarian" soup recipes I have ever made.  I say "vegetarian" because I did use chicken bouillion to make my broth, but you could easily use mushroom or vegetable broth instead.

Recipe after the jump!