Gung hay fat choy & happy year of the dragon!

To get into the New Year spirit, we came up with this little play time potsticker craft, cobbled out of  some scrap fabric we had lying around. These potstickers are sealed with velcro making them fun little pouches for storing your special knick knacks. In Luca’s case, that means a few sticks of gum — or maybe that first tooth for the tooth fairy when the day finally comes. Do you think the tooth fairy likes pot stickers? A paper version, sealed with a glue stick, would be a fun little wrapper for a small gift.

We were loving our faux potstickers, so we decided to keep going with our Chinese take-out theme. We cut out some circles of fabric to stand in for our dipping sauces (dark brown for the standard soy-vinegar sauce and some fun red fabric for either chili sauce or ketchup depending on your taste), a few shreds of green fabric for sliced scallions, and muffin papers as containers to hold our sauces. To complete our tableaux we grabbed a pair of bright orange chopsticks, wrote up an order slip and decorated a paper Chinese take-out container with our restaurant logo “Lucky Potsticker Co.”

When we finished our pretend snack and had a chopsticks lesson, we tucked everything into the take out container and put it away for next time. We are already scheming about what to create next.

Play Time Potstickers

• A small bowl or cup (about ~5″ diameter) to trace a circle pattern
• 6″ square light colored scrap fabric
• 6″ square of lining fabric
• 5″ x 3″ scrap of brown fabric.
• 4″ sew-on hook and loop closure (velcro) — we had a strip 3/4″ wide and cut it half lengthwise so this is enough for 2 potstickers
• thread, needle and pins

Instead of writing up a complicated instructions, I made a little slideshow to show you how to make these. Feel free to get in touch if you need more details.

[PS: I found this great article by author Amy Tan about making pot stickers with her sisters and it includes her family recipe. Enjoy!]

I hardly needed another use for coconut milk especially since it isn’t a particularly “low-fat” ingredient.  And then I found this coconut cake recipe, and now, I now have another wonderful use for coconut milk (and coconut flakes)

Coconut milk works wonders in our Coconut Mango Pancakes and Stacie and I are also tinkering with a Cambodian Waffle recipe that uses coconut milk.  So why not a cake?  It was quite a hit with my friends and their kids who tried it.  I may have slightly over-mixed the batter and the next time I make it, I will be more careful.  Good one for a tea party or just to have lying around for an after school treat or snack.

Coconut Cake from “Life, in Recipes”

Makes two loaves

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 5 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup sweetened flake coconut

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325, and grease two loaf pans
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the butter until light and fluffy
3. Slowly add the sugar to the butter and whip on high until light in color and increased in volume
4. Whisk together the milks, eggs, vanilla
5. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
6. With the mixer on low, add the flour and liquid mixtures to the butter/sugar mixture, starting and ending with flour
7. Fold the coconut into the batter
8. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans
9. Bake at 325 for 55-65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

For the glaze (optional)

Combine 1/2 cup coconut milk with 1/4 a stick of softened butter and 3/4 cup powdered sugar.  Whisk to combine and until smooth.  Pour glaze over cooled cake.

This dish could have been made milder and I am pretty sure my little munchkin who has been trained to eat a moderate amount of spice/chilli would have enjoyed it.  However, I was not in the mood to make this milder and more palatable to kids.  I wanted fiery hot and tangy and actually added more chillies that the recipe called for while making the soup.  Sometimes, I get tired of “dumbing down” spices, so I can make one meal that everyone can eat.  I remember as a child, I could eat a fair amount of chili and always was in awe of my mother who ate “numbing” amounts of chilli.  I wanted to be more like her in that regard and I think I succeeded.  Ria unfortunately holds no such aspirations, which is very disappointing.

I used a vegetarian tom yum paste that I bought from an Asian store (New May Wah on Clement Street & 8th).  I used to swear by making my own pastes (kid friendly green curry) but have somewhat eased up on that front, especially now that I have found some pastes that work well.  Making your own pastes is more important if you want to make the dish more kid friendly, and also preferred if you want something fresh and without preservatives or have allergy issues.  In a pinch, store bought pastes make your life so much easier and get dinner on the table in a jiffy.

We savored our tangy Thai soup with some steamed rice and Tiger Beer.  Forget the takeout – for an at-home date night, this stuff is good!!

Lemongrass Chicken and Coconut Soup – adapted from Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

Serves 4 as part of a multi-course meal but 2 as dinner

Ingredients

3 cups store bought or home-made chicken stock

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced into thin coins

2 stalks lemongrass (use the bottom 6″ of the stalk, smash with side of cleaver or cut in half lengthwise)

4 fresh kaffir lime leaves, torn in half

1 fresh chilli pepper of your choice, sliced

1 cup coconut milk

3 tablespoons tom yum paste (or to taste), divided

1 tablespoon fish sauce (I used soy sauce)

2 tsp sugar

6 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast thinly sliced (can substitute with shrimp)

1 cup straw mushrooms, sliced in half lengthwise (I used shitakes and some others)

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

Small handful of fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Method

1. In a pot, add the stock, ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and chilli pepper and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in coconut milk, half of the tom yum paste, the fish sauce and sugar and let that return to a boil, still on low heat.  Taste the soup and add the remaining tom yum paste per your taste.  (if you like you can use a skimmer and fish out the ginger, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and discard)
3. Turn the heat to high and add the chicken and mushrooms
4. When the soup returns to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 4-6 minutes (I cubed my chicken so it took longer)
5. Stir in the lemon juice and garnish with the fresh cilantro and slices of chilli pepper

It turns out that making your own super yummy, customized, much better than the store bought stuff, instant oatmeal at home is a pretty darn easy. I’ll call this one “an hour and you’re done”- type activity which makes it perfect for an afterschool project or a weekend quickie. It would also be a great one to do as a foodie playdate with a few buddies. Even though ziplock bags or old yogurt containers will do just fine for storing your awesome artisan oats, we highly recommend going the extra mile and making your own groovy DIY packets from recycled lunch bags — that is if you don’t find a few zips on a sewing machine off-putting. We loved the oatmeal we made, but in the end I think we loved our handmade packets even more.

Gather your ingredients:

• Oats — plan on 1 cup of oats per ~8 packets . Quick oats will be most like the instant oatmeal you know and love, but you can use rolled oats too. We found we needed to give rolled oats a little zap in the microwave after adding hot water to really soften them up to our liking.
• Dry nonfat milk powder
• Other no-cook or quick cooking whole grains and seeds (optional): puffed rice or wheat, whole wheat couscous, bulgur wheat, amaranth seeds, flax seeds, etc.
• Dried or dehydrated fruit, chopped nuts, shredded coconut, etc. Scissors work great for snipping larger pieces of dried fruit into small slivers.
• Spices and Sugar (we like a sugar with some flavor like turbinado or vanilla sugar made by storing a vanilla bean in  small jar of sugar)

If you are making your own packets:

Grab some old lunch bags and for each packet, cut a rectangle 10″ x 7″. Fold the rectangle in half so you have a 5″ x 7″ rectangle doubled over. [We used a 4" x 6"-sized packet which worked for the amount of oatmeal described here, but it was a little tight.]  Sew a straight stitch along 2 of the open sides, leaving one side open so you cal fill your packet (this took me less than a minute per packet). Decorate your packet and then fill it up. To close up your filled packet, push the oatmeal away from the open side and hold it there while you make a quick seam along the open end (sounds harder than it is). You’ll be able to tear into the un-sewn side when it’s oatmeal time.

Mix up the oatmeal base for each packet:

After some tinkering, we decided that we like this base for for our oatmeal packets. This is just the right size for a kid-sized portion:  1 TBL whole oats, 1 TBL oat powder, 1/2 TBL dry milk powder, 1 TBL whole grain of your choice (we used a combination of bulgur wheat and puffed wheat). To make oat powder, just pulverize whole oats in your blender or food processor.  If you like more texture, just increase the ratio of whole oats to oat powder. Definitely mix one up and doing a taste test before assembling the rest of your packets.

To each packet add your favorite extras. Here are some of our favorites:

• Tropical Fig: slivers of dried fig, toasted coconut, toasted sliced almonds, turbinado sugar, a pinch of ground ginger (pictured below, topped with cara cara oranges and a splash of milk)
• Apricots, Apricots: tiny slivers and bigg-ish chunks of dried apricot, vanilla sugar
• Strawberries n’ Cream: dehydrated strawberries, brown sugar, and a little extra dry milk powder
• I Love Apples: tiny pieces of dried apple, cinnamon, teensy pinch of allspice, brown sugar (mix in apple sauce and a dash of apple cider syrup after adding hot water)
• “Hi Mom/Hi Luca”: dehydrated strawberries, dehydrated blueberries, vanilla sugar, chopped up dried cherries (and a tiny pinch of coconut thrown in while Luca wasn’t looking)

Hungry for more? You might also like these other breakfast favorites: Granola-yogurt Fruit Towers, Snack Attack (or Anytime) Granola, Orange Vanilla Creamsicle Smoothie, Becky’s Carrot Zucchini Pineapple Muffins

We visited Shanghai Dumpling King a while back, but I never got down to writing about our adventure to this mecca of dumplings in the Richmond.  Perhaps what we remember more than the dumplings, are the baseball sized sugary egg puffs.  Probably best described as a Chinese take on a donut, but far superior.  Fresh out of the fryer, they are light and airy and disappear in your mouth.  It is tough to stop at one, and even harder to tell your children to slow down as you stuff your face with this delightful treat.  As I describe them, I am starting to desperately crave some.

Ok, back to dumplings since the restaurant is really about dumplings.  Ria and I love Shanghainese dumplings (known as xiao long bao) which this restaurant specializes in.  Xiao long bao is a dumpling full of soup and minced meat.  It took me a good many years to figure out how the soup got into the almost translucent dumpling.  Then finally after years for being befuddled (this was before the world wide web could answer almost every question one had), a dear friend told me that they freeze the meat and soup in cubes and envelope it with the dumpling.  Genius!  The heat from the steaming melts the “ice cube” and it becomes the soup that explodes in your mouth when you bite into a xiao long bao.

Aside from a wide array of delectable dumplings, the traditional Chinese food is pretty good as well.  We are partial to scallion pancakes, kung pao chicken and absolutely love the wok-fried string beans.  We haven’t been back for a while and writing this post, is making we want to be there right now!

Gratuitous Blood Orange Picture

Tis the season for wonderful citrus. My whole family has been, as my friend Shani would put it, on a serious Clementine bender. We just can’t seem to get enough of those sweet little orange bundles of yum. I’ve been falling deeper and deeper into my obsession for pink grapefuit, and just yesterday I snagged a hoard of gorgeous, jewel-like blood oranges at my favorite produce store. Then there are the bags (bags!) of meyer lemons that my mom has been bringing by from her prolific front yard harvest (along with the occasional lemon meringue pie — keep ‘em coming, mom!). I think my whole family is in heaven right now.

The sight of a pile of juicy meyer lemons in my refrigerator jogged my memory about a recipe that I haven’t made since my husband and I were dating. “Chicken with Roasted Lemon & Rosemary Sauce” from Michael Chiarello’s Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the California Wine Country. I can vividly recall the night we cooked this in his minimally equipped, bachelor kitchen by the light of a fluorescent bulb. I believe we also made our own pasta that night, and drank copious amounts of wine — we were probably listening to Green Day. Isn’t it amazing how a certain recipe or taste can bring you right back to such a specific time and place? Roasted meyer lemons = hubby’s bachelor apartment; steamed fish and wintermelon soup = my childhood kitchen table, Hungarian goulash = my first collage apartment.

So with fond memories of our breezy single days, we uncorked some wine and enjoyed this easy, delicious dish all over again — this time around our family table. I’m not quite sure why we waited so long to reprise this one, but I’m glad we did.

Chicken with Roasted Meyer Lemon, Rosemary and Garlic

(adapted from “The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the California Wine Country“, by Michael Chiarello)

• 2 Bone-In, Skin-On Split Chicken Breasts
• 3 Meyer Lemons (or substitute regular lemons as in the original recipe), cut in half, drizzled in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and broiled for 5-7 minutes until tops are very lightly charred
• 3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
• 1 Sprig of Fresh Rosemary, Leaves Finely Minced
• 2 Cups Chicken Broth
• Several Sprigs of Parsley, Leaves Finely Minced
• ** 10-12 Small New Potatoes, Steamed Until Tender and Sliced in Half ** (optional)

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put the broth in a pan on a back burner to let it reduce while you start cooking everything else.
2. Season chicken with salt an pepper. Heat an oven-safe skillet on the stove and add 1 Tbl of olive oil. Sear chicken in the hot skillet until golden brown on all sides. [At this point, the original recipe calls for you to remove the chicken, crisp the steamed potatoes in the pan, then return the chicken skin side up back to the pan on top of the potatoes].
3. Baste the chicken with a little of the pan juices and turn the pieces are skin side up. Then move the skillet into the oven until chicken is cooked through. A thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken should reach 165 degrees. Remove chicken to a platter and cover it loosely with foil to keep it warm while you finish the sauce. (Keep a pot holder over the skillet handle so you don’t accidentally grab it while it is still hot. I speak from experience here!)
4. Pour off most of the fat from the pan then add the garlic and minced rosemary and saute until the garlic is lightly golden, about 2-3 minutes. Be sure to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan and if they or the garlic start to get too dark, quickly add some broth and stir.
5. Squeeze the roasted, cooled lemons into the pan through a fine mesh sieve. Add 3/4 cup of the warm, reduced broth (you should have some left over) and let the sauce simmer for several minutes to let it thicken to a saucy consistency. If you remember, add in the juices that have collected on the platter with the chicken as well. Taste and season with salt and pepper. You can add additional chicken broth to balance the flavor if needed (or a little hot water).
6. When the sauce is to your liking, drizzle it over the chicken and sprinkle with minced parsley.

You might also like these citrus-y posts: Pink Grapefruit Granita; Sweet Lemon Thyme Crisps; Bar Jules Lamb with Preserved Lemons; Pickling Project: Preserved Lemons; Keeping Lemons Fresh and Other Tasty Tidbits

The dan dan mein below went over well at our house and made a good leftover school lunch (packed in a thermos).  Literally translated “dan dan mein” translates into “peddler’s noodles”.  It is a classic dish from Sichuan in China and usually consists of a spicy sauce with minced pork and scallions over noodles.  I reduced/omitted some of the spicy elements to make it kid-friendly.  The recipe below uses tahini (sesame paste), but peanut butter (a bit Americanized) works as well.  Instead of pork, which my husband is not fond of, I used minced chicken.

I also made a triple batch of the noodle sauce – one for right away, one for keeping for another meal and one for Stacie for her family dinner.  Making an extra batch of a sauce or a marinade and giving some to a busy friend in a jar, along with a recipe is a wonderful way to help someone get through the daily grind of figuring out what to feed the family.  It’s something I hope to do more of in this New Year and hopefully, some good sauces/marinades will come back our way.

Dan Dan Mein – adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 2

Ingredients

Here’s an easy little cooking project to start the new year that will sweeten up your pantry: old-fashioned apple cider syrup. It’ got all the cozy, sweet-tangy flavor of apples wrapped up in a gorgeously glossy, caramel-colored, drizzle-y package.

We love apple cider syrup as an alternative to the usual sweeteners because it satisfies our sugary cravings while packing in a lot of rich flavor. We’ve been loving this as an accompaniment to oatmeal and on our pancakes (mixed with maple syrup or on it’s own). It’s delicious swirled into yogurt or as a sugar substitute in our favorite muffin recipes. We’ve used it to sweeten our granola and have even called it into service in a sweet- sour reduction (alongside dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar) for pork chops. As I write this I’m imagining an apple-cider-salted-caramel dipping sauce for apples or pears, and apple cider syrup dappled on one of Anya’s Farmhouse Cheddar Muffins or brushed over the top of a tarte tatin. This would be a great foil for a sharp, salty cheese on a cheese plate on tucked into a grilled cheese sandwich. I’m officially drooling now!

Apple Cider Syrup

This one is so easy, I don’t think it even qualifies as a recipe. Buy a jug of apple cider. Bring the cider to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer it slowly until you have a thick syrup. It will take anywhere from one to two hours. You don’t have to hover over it, but do give it stir every 20 minutes or so to avoid any scorching on the bottom of the pan.

That’s all there is to it. Starting with 8 cups of cider you will end up with about one to two cups of syrup depending if you want something the consistency of honey, or more like jam. It will keep in your refrigerator in a well sealed container for at least a month.

You might also like:

• Cheese Plate Play Date
• American Grilled Cheese Kitchen & South Park Excursion
• Gadgets we Like: Apple Peeler and Corer (+ Wiki Wiki Microwave Applesauce)
• Snack Attack (or Anytime) Granola
• Yummy Raw Apple Muffins

A good one to make with the little kids.  You can lay out a variety of fillings (or any leftovers) and let the kids have some fun making their own puffs.  Good way to use left over nubs of cheese that languish in our fridge forever.  A handy portable lunch for little hands.  Assemble and freeze individually and pull out in a pinch, bake for longer and serve with a side salad or steamed vegetables.  How’s that for an easy dinner?

Filling ideas:

Cooked Italian Sausage, Caramelized Onions (optional) and Sharp Cheddar

Spinach and Feta

Leftover tandoori chicken/chicken tikka masala

Variety of leftover cheeses and cooked mushrooms

Pan-fried meat with taco seasoning and any kind of melty cheese or goat cheese.

Roasted vegetables and a little marinara

Leftover meatloaf or lamb keema

Ham/Salami & cheese & Dijon mustard

Indian spices potatoes and peas (fast samosas!)

Roasted squash, blue cheese and sage

Puff pastry with Nutella & hazelnuts

You get the concept – basically anything works!  Do share your ideas with us.

We couldn’t quite engineer the three decker part, so we went for more of a canape which we think would be perfect for the Grinch’s next cocktail party. Basically a fun sweet sandwich. A little hard to eat without it tumbling over, but I think the Grinch would be cool with that. While these might be more of a once a year affair, this experiment is definitely inspiring us to get creative with the idea of sandwiches for dessert.

I can think of a few ways to get roughly the same effect, but here’s our version.

• The Bread: we used a simple pound cake, but I think I would prefer a thick slice of rustic sourdough, toasted.
• A spread of toasted hazelnut butter, for a bit of slimy sludge
• A sprinkling of crushed up pretzels for a bit of itchy scratchy
• Matchstich-sized apples (use a tart, full-flavored apple) for the stinky sauerkraut
• The pièce de résistance, our fancy meringue toadstool (will post recipes and video soon!)
• A drizzle of salted caramel sauce, tinted a disgusting shade of green for the arsenic sauce.

Hope you have a fantastically un-Grinchy holiday!