I love traveling but sometimes, when I get back, all I want is salad. I was in Miami for work last week and when I got back yesterday all I wanted was a salad. So we made some brook trout with this Make-Ahead Radish Fattoush Salad. And then I also had a salad for lunch. Tonight for dinner I wanted something relatively light, but flavorful. I also wanted something that didn't remind me of all of the buffet meals (some of them were pretty decent, but most were pretty blah) I had all last week. This dish was basically the antithesis of the random meats, pastas, sandwiches and salads I had last week. The best part of each meal was the desserts so I had more than my share. Strangely enough, one of the best meals I had last week was the shrimp po' boy that I had at the Fort Lauderdale airport. How random is that? Granted, it had coconut shrimp in it - and who doesn't love coconut shrimp? Given the number of desserts I ate and the shrimp po' boy, it's no wonder I feel like I gained 5 lbs while in Florida.
This post has been weeks in coming. I keep planning to make more Chinese meals for my very very belated Chinese New Year meals. I'm 3 months late at this point, so I guess another few weeks won't make much of a difference. I really am going to try to finish all of the posts up by the end of May. I actually had another tofu recipe picked out for Chinese New Year but I decided in the end to make this dish because it looked easier (and healthier). Everything in the dish worked together in a really interesting way. I loved how soaking the celery, cilantro and scallions in an ice bath made them crisp and refreshing. The sauce was really savory - nutty, spicy and funky. It wasn't my favorite sauce, but it was one of the more interesting Chinese sauces we have made recently. One thing I might recommend is another cooking/heating method for the tofu itself. Microwaving it made it release tofu water which diluted the sauce. So I would either microwave it in another bowl and then transfer it (minus the water) into the serving bowl. Or I would try steaming it. Steamed soft tofu ends up with a better silkier and more custard-like texture to it.
Recipe after the jump!
Pesto usually leaves me feeling a little... blah. I like it on a sandwich or as the sauce on a pizza, but there has to be more stuff going on. A plain pasta tossed in pesto has always struck me as being a little boring. This pesto is far from boring. The combination of basil, mint and fennel seeds (who puts fennel seeds in pesto?) makes things a lot more interesting. And I really like the addition of serrano chilis and dried chili flakes - they give the pesto great kick. You don't want to make this pesto if you are afraid of a little heat. The post on Serious Eats suggests that the sauce has "gorgeous hints of subtle spice" but this isn't a gentle hint of background heat. It should also be said that this pasta doesn't have the level of spice you would expect from a Sichuan dish either. All things considered, this was a pretty interesting take on a simple pasta tossed in pesto that is relatively easy to throw together. There are other pasta dishes that would make my easy mid-week pasta repertoire before this one (including this Pasta with Caramelized Cabbage, Anchovies and Bread Crumbs, this Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes or this Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil). But I could see myself making this variation of pesto again. And this pesto might make me reconsider pesto as a delivery method for any number of different seasonings and ingredients. Overall I consider that a win.
Recipe after the jump!
There are a few cookbooks out there that I have been thinking about buying for years. Some of them are by cookbook authors whose cookbooks we already own. One cookbook that I have been thinking about buying for years is Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. But everytime I convince myself that I don't need yet another cookbook. We easily have 30-40 cookbooks in the apartment, some of which we have never used. I tried to make a deal with myself a few years ago that I wouldn't buy another cookbook until I made at least one recipe from each cookbook. Clearly that never happened. Earlier today I was trying to find a recipe for Uyghur laghman noodles and after finding out that Beyond the Great Wall had a recipe for laghman I went ahead and ordered it on Amazon. My compromise was to buy the cookbook in Kindle format so it doesn't clutter up the apartment. I thought it made a lot of sense (although it does make it more difficult sometimes to find and use the recipes).
This dish is one of the dishes that I remember fondly from China, but haven't eaten since I left. You don't get a lot of Uyghur food in the United States. And when I showed Alex the recipe, he was a little shocked by how un-Chinese it all was. This dish screams Italy more than China - it's like a pasta with a tomato and meat sauce. It's a relatively homey and simple flavor combination - no spices (although we added cumin), no heat, just lamb, bell peppers and tomatoes.
Recipe after the jump!
Alex and I love dumplings and wontons enough that we use the word "dumple" as a verb. It usually means that we are going out to eat dumplings, but every once in awhile we get ambitious and decide to make dumplings at home. These big wontons were our last attempt at "dumple-ing". I have been waiting for a little while to make these Big Wontons and the Little Wontons (both available on Serious Eats). I was originally planning on making the little wontons, but I wasn't sure how thin our dumpling wrappers were so I didn't want to take the chance that they would be too thick. But I'm pretty sure that they were plenty thin enough so we will go for the little wontons and make some wonton noodle soup next time. Yum. What I liked best about these wontons was the addition of the bok choy (or cabbage) and chives in the filling - I like nice meaty dumplings but sometimes it's nice to have a little more veg mixed in. I took a quick look at my Andrea Nguyen Asian Dumplings cookbook and tried a few different folding methods. The one that I had the most luck with this time was "nurses caps" (my "flower buds" were a little wonky). Actually, both Alex and I commented on the fact that my dumplings were unusually well-formed this time. None of them broke apart while cooking, nor was there any filling ooz-age out the sides. I was pretty impressed with myself. We made 50 dumplings and only ate 20 or so (and froze the rest). I can't want to make some wonton noodle soup with some of the leftover Asian chicken stock we made for our Khao Tom Thai Rice Soup! Even more yum. I am also tempted to try pan-frying them, although the skins are thin enough that I am a little nervous to pan-fry. But let's be honest, when has that ever stopped me in the past? Wish me luck.
Recipe after the jump!
Given how much I always thought I hated congee, I find it pretty shocking how much I now enjoy it. I haven't tried it in many restaurants because I'm still a little weirded out by ordering rice gruel with a potential surprise inside, but I love making it at home. We don't do it very often, but that's because I tend to forget all about it until hit with an intense congee craving. Usually that happens when it is cold out and I am feeling under the weather. I swear this stuff is almost better than chicken noodle soup.
This congee is in some ways not that different from the Rice Soup, Khmer Style we made a year ago (both use ground pork and Southeast Asian ingredients like fish sauce and lemongrass), except that this congee added tofu and was even more flavorful, which I expected given we used a homemade broth that was very flavorful in and of itself. I also liked the texture of this congee better because it wasn't quite as thick. You could totally play with this recipe to adjust the seasonings and ingredients if you felt like playing around in the kitchen (or if your kitchen is simply missing one or more ingredients). If you're not a fan of pork you could use ground chicken or turkey and if you wanted to be a little more Chinese (and less Southeast Asian) you could use ginger instead of lemongrass, peanuts instead of fried shallots and a combination of soy sauce and salt instead of fish sauce. You could also omit the Thai chili if you're not a fan of spicy food. Personally, I thought the dusting of Thai chili gave it the perfect kick, which was muted by the congee, but gave it a little extra zing.
Recipe after the jump!
Last weekend after Alex and I returned from Whistler we went on something of a baking bonanza because we returned to an entire bunch of overripe bananas. I was originally planning on making banana bread but we always make banana bread so I decided to be a little more creative. Let's just say that Alex wasn't thrilled with the whole idea but I was pretty pumped to be in the kitchen. It has been so long since I had time to bake/cook that I got a little excited and overambitious (we had stock going and dinner to prep while I was baking). These cookies were the perfect breakfast cookie - they weren't too sweet and who doesn't love oatmeal and bananas for breakfast? I have no shame in admitting that I ate one or two cookies most mornings before work. I also had a few after work, but that's beside the point. Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of mixing the dough (it is a pretty thick dough and I got a little lazy) so the distribution of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips wasn't very even, but I thought the cookies were still pretty delicious.
Recipe after the jump!
Oops. I totally missed Chinese New Year again. That's ok. We all knew it was going to happen. And I swear that I will post a week's worth of Chinese meals eventually. It might take me a month or so to get through it all, but I do have a lot of recipes picked out and/or ideas on tap. I want to make some noodles (I'm thinking Uyghur laghman with lamb), some dumplings, some seafood... The plan is to make another Chinese recipe tonight (provided that we can find everything we need at the grocery). Sadly, we made this meal last weekend (it was one of the first things we cooked upon our return from Whistler) but I just haven't had the time to post about it. Fingers crossed I will be able to post about tonight's meal a little more promptly.
There are a number of different simple Sichuan chicken dishes in Land of Plenty: Authentic Sichuan Recipes Personally Gathered in the Chinese Province of Sichuan that I love to make because they are easy and tasty. You can easily poach a few chicken breasts (or a whole chicken if you want to make some stock, which is what we were doing) and then shred the meat and toss them in one of several different dressings that vary from this sauce, which is very sesame-y or others which are full of Sichuan peppercorns. It's all a matter of what you have in the kitchen and/or what you are craving. The last time we made one of these recipes we made the "Hot and Numbing Chicken Slices (Ma La Ji Pian)", but we the shredded chicken on top of a bed of broccoli and just made a little extra dressing to coat the broccoli as well as the chicken. It was delicious and easy. I actually might prefer the hot and numbing sauce, which is lighter and spicier than this heavier, more sesame-y sauce. Either way, I find these dishes to be perfect for summer when you really want something light, but flavorful that doesn't involve an extended period of time in the kitchen. It's a nice alternative to yet another salad.
Recipe after the jump!
