Dry-Fried Green Beans (Gan Bian Si Ji Dou)

This dish is one that I love to order at Sichuan restaurants and one that I really rely on to judge the quality of a Sichuan restaurant along with Fish-Fragrant Eggplant aka Yu Xiang Qie Zi (which is way better than it sounds) and Ma Po Tofu.  If a restaurant can't prepare dry-fried green beans than it really has no hope of mastering some of the more complex Sichuan dishes.  This version of the dish is what I would call the home cook version.  It doesn't have the bells and whistles of the restaurant versions - no chilis or Sichuan peppercorns, no sugar, no ginger or garlic.  But it's deliciously homey and satisfying.  Alex and I shared a plate of the green beans and a bowl of rice for lunch and it was a perfect lunch.  If you're cooking dinner for a few people, I would totally recommend this as your side dish.  Next time I make the dish I might toss in a pinch of ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns or a little chili paste and sugar to give the dish some heat and a hint of sweetness.  I don't know.  But as I told Alex "I would super make this again."  And yes, I know that doesn't make any sense, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Recipe after the jump!

Scrambled Eggs with Chives and Ricotta

I have been making different versions of this dish since I first discovered adding chives to scrambled eggs back in high school.  I was over at one of my friends' houses after school and she made us scrambled eggs for an after school snack and tossed in some chives.  I'm not even sure I knew what chives were at that point in time, but I loved them.  Prior to that the only thing I had ever added to scrambled eggs was sauteed onions (my dad is firmly of the belief that you can never have too many onions in your eggs).  I had never cooked my scrambled eggs in butter prior to that either, but I totally stole that from her as well. After that I started stocking jars of dried chives and packets of frozen chives in the kitchen, both of which work in a pinch, but I really recommend using fresh chives whenever possible.  Anyway, the dairy I use in this dish varies.  Sometimes I use ricotta, sometimes I throw in a tablespoon of heavy cream in my eggs and add a pinch of Parmigiano-Regiano, sometimes I use creme fraiche.  But I always use some sort of dairy because I really like the creaminess that a bit of dairy adds to scrambled eggs.  I also love serving some nice toasted bread (baguette is my personal favorite, but we used ciabatta this time) with my eggs.  So go ahead and play with it - but definitely try the chives because they are fantastic.

Recipe after the jump!

Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad

I have to thank Tastespotting for providing me with the inspiration for this salad.    A few days ago I was scrolling through the recipes and pictures on Tastespotting and this recipe for Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad caught my eye.  We had some nice fresh peaches from the farmers' market that I had no idea what to do with.  Neither Alex nor I like peach cobbler so that would have been a waste.  Nor do I typically like peaches enough to just eat one.  And Alex dislikes anything peach-flavored (which means that he has never eaten a raw peach before), so I was justifiably nervous about what we made with the pretty peaches I picked up.  This recipe seemed perfect because it showcased the peaches, but toned them down a little by combining them with ingredients like arugula, fresh mozzarella and great bread that we already know and love.  

This salad really blew me away.  When I tasted the dressing by itself I thought the balsamic was overpowering.  And then I tossed it all together and it was marvelous and wonderfully balanced.  It was delicious.  It was so summery and fresh.  After this I think I might be able to convince Alex to try more peach recipes.  I might even get him to eat a peach by itself!  That in and of itself would make the salad an unqualified success.

Recipe after the jump!

Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Calzones

 Now that we have used up all of our CSA produce (or at least the vast majority of it) we are on a mission to use up everything in our freezer.  I periodically stock the freezer up until it's ridiculously full and then go to the other extreme and try to empty everything out.  After awhile you start to forget just what you have in there.  I know I do.  The other day when I was trying to reorganize the freezer I realized that we had a ton of hanger steak and random cuts of pork in there, as well as a variety of sausages.  Who knew?  We also had a few balls of pizza  dough.  So I decided that at the very least we should use a ball of pizza dough and a hanger steak.  When you start to find forgotten and buried treasures in the freezer (some of which are so freezer burned to no longer be treasures in any sense of the word) it is time to clean out the freezer and start over from scratch.

The inspiration for this recipe came from a recipe for Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita that I found on Epicurious.  I liked the idea of turning cherry tomatoes into the sauce for the pizza, but I wanted to make calzones instead of pizza.  We make pizza all the time, but we rarely make calzones.  To be fair, the last time we made calzones we made one giant calzone and it exploded and oozed everywhere.  Oops.  So I was very careful sealing the calzones this time in order to prevent them from forming another oozing, soupy mess.  And it worked!  I know they're not exactly pretty to look at (and they didn't turn as golden as I wanted them to, but I was afraid to cook them any longer for fear that they would explode), but they were pretty yummy to eat.  Actually, the calzones came out looking a lot like samosas...  Oh well.  My favorite thing about the calzones was definitely the fennel seeds in the tomato sauce.  It gave the calzones a truly unique and delicious flavor.  I also liked the addition of the crushed red pepper flakes.  The sauce is very flavorful - fresh and sweet from the cherry tomatoes and basil.  The sauce is so good that Alex and I were actually discussing using it with pasta in the future.  I think it would work really well with pasta.  And I would definitely use it with pizza.  The sauce is so easy and flavorful that there is absolutely no reason to ever use canned pizza sauce or marinara sauce again.  You could substitute the fennel seeds if fennel just isn't your thing, omit the crushed red pepper flakes, or try oregano instead of fresh basil.  There are all sorts of ways you could adapt the basic recipe and make it work for you!

Recipe after the jump!

Grilled Halloumi with Watermelon and Basil-Mint Oil

One of the best things about cooking is when it surprises and interests you.  You come across a recipe, you decide to give it a shot and you are wowed.  Sometimes it's a good wow, sometimes it's a bad wow.  But it always teaches you something.  This recipe for instance - the combination of halloumi cheese plus watermelon, tomatoes, mint and basil could either go really right or really wrong.  But somehow it all works.  We have combined salty cheese and watermelon before, so I know that combination works.  But adding in tomatoes?  And drizzling them with basil and mint infused evoo?  It's all a little weird.  But like I said, it works.  It's surprising, interesting, and it works.  I've said that about ten times, but it does.  I'm just not sure what else to say.  Alex said the dish would have been better if the cheese had stayed warm (it cools and hardens until it has a consistency similar to cheese curds) and the watermelon had stayed cool.  I get what he means.  The salad would be a little more striking with the contrast in temperatures.  But it still wouldn't be my favorite watermelon salad.  Because the salad has hot cheese and tomatoes it's nowhere near as refreshing as this Watermelon, Cucumber and Feta Salad.  And when I want a watermelon salad I want something light, fresh and delicious. This is delicious.  And interesting.  But it loses points when it comes to being light and fresh.

Recipe after the jump!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Sometimes when you're me recipes come about by accident.  Take this cake for instance.  I wasn't planning on making a cake this weekend.  It was actually the very last thing I had in mind this weekend.  But when I went to break off a banana from our bunch on Sunday for breakfast I ripped the stems off the entire bunch.  Oops.  Which meant all of those four bananas had to be used or eaten.  Stat.  So I was going to make banana bread, but after making a loaf of Zucchini Cornbread Saturday I wanted to do something a little different.  I decided that the logical thing to do was to make the banana cake that I remembered from Susan Spicer's cookbook.  I grabbed the cookbook to make sure we had everything and somehow we did.  It was clearly meant to happen.  Everything from the unintentional banana demolition to the Zucchini Cornbread was pointing me towards this cake.  So I baked a cake.  And for the record, this was my very first attempt at a layer cake  So any issues with frosting, etc. should be excused.  I tried.  It might not be pretty but I should get some points for effort.  One thing I will say is that I wish I had just a little more frosting to spread between the layers of cake.  There just wasn't enough to cover the whole cake and still have a nice layer in there in the middle.  Oh well.

My cake was yummy.  Really yummy.  I had two pieces.  And I know that I have a sweet tooth, but I never have two pieces of cake.  I typically don't like cake that much.  Cupcakes yes, cake no.  Cakes are never moist enough for me and I don't like most frostings.  But this cake was very moist and the peanut butter cream cheese frosting was delicious.  I licked my fingers after frosting the cake.  A lot.  I love peanut butter and chocolate together.  With or without banana that flavor combo is a winner in my book.  But when you add in the banana here it all just comes together so well.  It's delicious.  I briefly considered eating a piece for breakfast, but I decided that was entirely too gluttonous.  I guess that I'm just going to have to wait until after dinner.

Recipe after the jump!

Spicy Coriander Salad

So here I am again with more of those posts that I promised you.  This recipe for Spicy Coriander Salad comes from Fuchsia Dunlop's Hunan cookbook rather than her Sichuan cookbook.  My default Chinese cookbook is her Sichuan cookbook and I have to remind myself from time-to-time that her Hunan cookbook deserves love too.  Somehow it has become the ugly stepsister that never gets any attention.  But everytime I make a recipe from the Hunan cookbook I am reminded that it is full of delicious recipes that I have been neglecting.  Take this recipe for instance.  It doesn't sound like much.  And I'm sure that most people are puzzled by the use of cilantro as a salad green.  But it totally works.  We had a nice big bunch of cilantro from the farmers' market that I used for the recipe, but a bunch from the grocery store would work just as well.  The recipe is super easy to put together if you have all of the ingredients on hand.  With a few exceptions, most of them are available in any grocery store.  Chopped salted chilis are a different matter, but once you find a jar of chopped salted chilis at an Asian grocery store you can keep it in the refrigerator forever and ever.  Alternatively you can make your own chopped salted chilis because low and behold, this cookbook also contains a recipe for those.  A little spoonful of chopped salted chilis goes a long way; keep that in mind while you are whipping up the dressing.  Also think about the spicyness of your chili oil.  We made some homemade spicy chili oil (also from Fuchsia Dunlop, but from her Sichuan cookbook this time), which can pack a lot more kick than the "chili oil" that you pick up at the grocery store.  Now that I think about it, we should post that recipe.  I promise I will post it later.  It is really simple and delicious.  You can whip up a big batch one afternoon and have enough chili oil to last out the year.

So with this dish you need something aromatic and somewhat assertive like cilantro to toss with this dressing.  A more delicate green would be totally overwhelmed by the chilis and vinegar.  I thought that the salad was refreshing, but spicy and totally fun.  I really appreciated that it was very different from anything else we have ever made.  And it's more than enough to inspire me to make more recipes from this cookbook.  For real this time.

Recipe after the jump!