05.30.08
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 12:27 pm by julie
I don’t like ribs. They are way too much work and mess for hardly any payoff. They don’t fill you up, you have to gnaw on the bones (which gives me the willies), and you always end up with sauce smeared in the corners of your mouth. I only bought pork babyback ribs last week because they were on sale at the grocery store, and I wasn’t much looking forward to cooking them. However, I set to work on a recipe from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet in order to finally get some use out of my bottle of black vinegar, substituting the babyback ribs for spareribs.
Well, I loved this recipe. Unabashedly. I gnawed rib bones, people. It took me a while to finish, because I had to do it in stages as Nolan’s temperament allowed, but we ended up with a saute pan full of sticky, chewy, aromatic ribs that were quickly devoured with platefuls of rice. If I’d known how good they were going to be, I would have considered doubling the recipe. I meant to steam some veggies to go along with them, but there just wasn’t time; I weighed my priorities and made white chocolate ice cream and brownies instead (recipes forthcoming, maybe tomorrow).
Pork Ribs with Black Vinegar Sauce
I think this sauce, simmered down to glaze consistency, could be adapted to work with many cuts of pork or chicken, maybe even salmon… I certainly intend to give it a try in other applications myself.
2 lb pork spareribs or babyback ribs, cut into individual ribs
1/4 C cornstarch
About 12 cups peanut or vegetable oil for frying, divided
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
2 T very thin matchsticks of peeled ginger
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2 T Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/3 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 C Chinese black vinegar
1/3 C reduced-sodium soy sauce
Blanch ribs in a 4-quart pot of boiling water 4 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Whisk 1/2 teaspoon salt into cornstarch in a large bowl. Add ribs, cover bowl with a plate, and toss.
Heat 3 inches oil to 400°F in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot, then fry ribs (in batches if necessary) 5 minutes per batch. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, shallot, and ginger, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cook, stirring, until dissolved, about 1 minute. Add wine and boil 1 minute. Add ribs with broth, vinegar, and soy sauce and simmer, covered, stirring and turning ribs occasionally, until tender, about 1 hour.
Transfer ribs to a platter. Boil sauce, whisking, until thickened and emulsified, about 2 minutes; pour over ribs.
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious
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05.27.08
Posted in Beef, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats at 1:18 pm by julie
I’ve been craving a lot of Asian food lately. We’ve been eating so much curry that we decided to invest in a quality rice cooker—our old one was a cast-off from friends. After doing a bit of research, we ended up purchasing a Zojirushi Micom Fuzzy Logic 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker
, and we’ve already used it at least half a dozen times. It takes up a bit more storage space and requires slightly longer to cook rice, but it is lightweight and has a useful handle, rice paddle, and shockingly nonstick bowl…and did I mention it cooks and warms rice perfectly? Because it can keep rice warm for up to 12 hours if necessary, I can pretty much get the rice going anytime in the afternoon that I have a free moment, and it will be ready to eat whenever I get to dinner.
Anyway, I think part of my current interest in Asian cuisine may stem from the fact that, once the ingredients are prepped, it often cooks rapidly—even more rapidly if I just send my husband for take-out. Heh. My favorite Chinese restaurant dish is the one that goes by the name of orange chicken at Panda Express (but is sometimes called mandarin chicken or even sesame chicken at other restaurants I’ve visited): you know the one, with bits of chicken deep-fried and coated in a sticky-sweet, tangy, and often slightly spicy sauce. So I tend to gravitate toward trying recipes that promise crunch and tangy orange-flavored sauces. I’ve made two in the past few weeks, as it happens.
My first stab was at the Shun Lee Palace’s Crispy Orange Beef, and it was alright. I did use pre-cut stirfry beef instead of cutting my own, so the meat was probably not of the quality it might have been, but hey—time is a precious commodity around here these days. The beef was incredibly crispy after coming out of the oil, but not so much after having been tossed with the sauce, despite serving it as quickly as possible. I’d like to know how the Chinese restaurants keep their deep-fried meats crunchy. I also stir-fried a few snow peas with the beef right at the end for some green veggies.
Crispy Orange Beef
1 lb sirloin steak, cut for stirfry
1 T baking soda
6 T water
Zest of 2 oranges
4 C vegetable oil
1 egg white
1 C corn starch
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C red wine vinegar
2 T sherry
1 T soy sauce
2 tsp corn starch
½ cup scallions, sliced diagonally into ½ inch pieces, white part only
1/2 lb snow peas
2 tsp sesame oil
Juice of 1 orange
1 T Ginger People sweet ginger chili sauce
In a bowl, mix the steak, baking soda and water, and marinade in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. The baking soda will tenderize the meat.
In a wok, heat salad oil until smoking. To the steak, add the egg white and corn starch, and mix thoroughly. In a bowl, mix sugar, vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of corn starch.
Fry the beef in the hot wok for 20 seconds, remove, and drain. Clean the oil with a slotted spoon. Return the beef to the wok, and fry again for another 30 seconds, remove, and drain.
Discard the oil, and to what remains in the wok, add scallions, beef, sesame oil, sherry-soy sauce, orange rind and juice, and chili paste. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and serve immediately over rice.
Source: Adapted from StarChefs
My other recent stab at these flavors took the form of the Sesame-Orange Chicken from Elise at Simply Recipes. I didn’t manage to snap a photo of this meal, but it came out alright. My chicken was a bit burned on top and a bit soggy underneath; I can’t remember now exactly what I was doing while it cooked, but I imagine it had something to do with a baby. Anyway, I served it with some fresh skillet-cooked broccoli, and boiled down the marinade to drizzle back over the finished chicken and rice for sauce. It tasted good, and was easier to make than the beef dish, but every time I make an orange chicken dish that involves marmalade, it comes out with a bitter edge that just doesn’t quite work for me, and this was no exception. I’d still probably make it again—especially since I have an open jar of marmalade in the fridge now—but I’m still on the lookout for a recipe that reaches closer to my ideal. Maybe this one should be next on the list?
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01.10.08
Posted in Appetizers, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pastas, Pork and Ham at 5:10 pm by julie
We made a run by LifeSource the other night for some essentials, and I decided, upon seeing the huge organic Napa cabbages, to make pork potstickers for dinner again. We made our way around to the refrigerated cases last, and lo and behold, no wonton wrappers in sight. Turns out they hadn’t been selling, and are no longer kept in stock—good to know, but not much help to a woman with the makings for potstickers already in her shopping cart. When I got home, I sat down and decided to try making the wrappers myself. You can use wonton wrappers as substitutes for fresh pasta in ravioli recipes, so how different could it be from making pasta dough?
Not much! I started with this recipe as my base, but halved it, using an egg white instead of a halved whole egg. My primary concern was producing a dough that wasn’t too sticky, and I ended up having to add quite a bit of flour to get something that didn’t leave residue on my fingers when I gave it a pinch. Next time I will add less water more gradually. The dough ran through my pasta maker up to the finest setting without a hitch, and I made sure to sprinkle the sheets very liberally with bench flour to keep them from sticking to the counter-top and each other. I overlapped them and covered them with a damp towel while making the potsticker filling, and they stayed nice and pliable until I was ready to fold my stickers. I just uncovered a few at a time, as I was ready for them.
The dough behaved very well, and definitely felt similar to the commercially-produced wonton wrappers I’ve used in the past. It was a tad softer, but that just facilitated folding and pinching into shape (a good thing since I don’t have a clue what I’m doing in that department!). I made about a dozen at a time, because that is all that would fit in my little nonstick pan. They responded to steaming and panfrying just as they should, with a good chew on top and a crisp brown crust underneath. The amount of dough I made produced almost exactly the right amount of wrappers to use up all the filling, amounting to about 3 dozen potstickers. They were so tasty that Jeremy commented, while tucking away his second helping, that now we won’t have to worry about finding wonton wrappers at the store anymore. I guess that’s true, but it wouldn’t hurt to look—potstickers are fiddly enough as it is, thanks!
This is my somewhat unorthodox entry for Presto Pasta Night #45, hosted by the lovely Ruth.
Wonton Wrappers
1 large egg white
About 1/3 C water
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour and salt. Add the egg white and mix with the paddle attachment over medium speed, slowly adding water until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the water. Continue beating the dough with the paddle for several minutes, or remove from the mixer to knead by hand. You want a smooth elastic dough that isn’t sticky, so adjust the flour and/or water content by increments as necessary. Mine was rather more pliable than my usual egg pasta dough. Note: This was not a large amount of dough, so I didn’t bother with my dough hook.
Cut the dough into four equal parts and run through a pasta maker up to the thinnest setting, or roll out by hand using a liberal amount of bench flour. Cut the sheets into roughly 3″ squares, and make sure they are well sprinkled with flour on both sides before stacking or overlapping to prevent them from melding together again. Use immediately or cover for a short while with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Makes about 3 dozen squares, enough for me to use up nearly all of the spectacularly delicious filling from Shawnda’s recipe, here. Or use in any recipe that calls for wonton wrappers.
Source: Adapted from AllRecipes.
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09.04.07
Posted in Beef, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Meats, Pastas, Thai at 11:01 am by julie
I’m still cooking and and taking pictures, but for some reason lately it seems like a great effort to translate that information into a timely blog post. Consequently, I’ve got a backlog of post fodder building up, and I’ve decided to just unleash all of it on you at once.
A week or so ago I was really wanting some beef and broccoli: not just any beef and broccoli, actually, but the version I used to have at a now-closed Vietnamese restaurant, which had little wedges of noodle pancake tossed in with the rest. I used a recipe from Cooking Light, and sort of made up the noodle pancake thing using some boiled chow mein noodles. It turned out pretty well. The beef was thinly sliced flat-iron steak, and it was incredibly tender; the sauce tasted alright, but I found the presence of ginger really distracting and unlike local restaurant versions; the noodle pancake was too thick and a bit charred on the outsides. If I tried this again, I would leave out the ginger, and make a thinner noodle pancake with rice noodles. But if anyone has a more authentic recipe for beef and broccoli, share the love!
We’ve been making lots and lots of pasta this past week, since it’s my go-to meal when I haven’t made advance plans and gone grocery shopping. We had Noil’s Noodles for lunch one day (that recipe deserves its own post when I can get some pictures; it’s like my ultimate comfort food) using rotini because we were out of plain egg noodles. Also, Jeremy seems to have developed some sort of snobbish dislike for ordinary wide egg noodles. I don’t get it. Another night, I made a version of Jaden’s garlic scallion noodles, using Barilla Plus angel hair pasta, our last two chicken tenders, half a tiny Napa cabbage that I found in the bottom of the crisper (surprisingly fresh for its age), and some julienned carrots. Turned out to be a really tasty something-out-of-nothing meal, and one I’ll keep in mind for similar occasions.
I should note that I’ve been using a lot of the Barilla Plus pastas lately because they have a boosted protein and omega-3 content, and we like them a lot. We can’t tell the difference at all as far as flavor goes, which is great. We have tried several types of whole wheat pasta also, and while they are very tasty, they definitely have a noticeable flavor and texture difference that doesn’t work equally well with every sauce. So I would recommend the Barilla Plus option, but I’ve noticed that it wants more of a flavor boost than your standard pasta, so be sure to taste it and up the sauces and seasonings a bit if you find the same.
Finally, and more recently, I made a linguine carbonara for dinner at the end of the week, based on Mario Batali’s recipe in Molto Italiano. We didn’t have spaghetti, so I used linguine, subbed in bacon for guanciale (although I would happily use the latter if I could just find it somewhere), added peas to the pasta for the last two minutes to give the dish a veggie component, and didn’t bother separating the yolks out to nest on top of the dish (maybe another time, though). For a tense moment I thought I had scrambled the eggs instead of carbonara-izing them, but it all worked out in the end, as you can see from the photo.
Soon to come, I promise: our Labor Day dinner of roast duck, spaetzle, and haricots verts. Mmm, duck…
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06.29.07
Posted in Appetizers, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 9:16 am by julie
Since I got serious about cooking a few years back, I have mostly been concentrating on Italian cooking, which suits most of my tastes perfectly. I would like to branch out to other cuisines, and do so here and there, but my pantry has a strong Italian bent and I’m missing out on some of the equipment and basic cookbooks I’d need to really do justice to them. I’m building up slowly, so for now I’m just taking it one dish at a time.
For instance, on Tuesday night, following a trip to LifeSource for a few items, I decided to be brave and try making homemade pork potstickers for dinner. I based the meal on a recipe at Confections of a Foodie Bride, and for the most part, it worked out really nicely. The filling was easy to make and had great flavor, and although I doubt that I folded them into anything approaching a traditional potsticker shape, they held together pretty well on the stove. I prepped a plateful of potstickers, and got them going in my biggest skillet while I worked on the next batch.
When the time was up, I checked on them… and discovered they were all irrevocably stuck to my stainless skillet, despite the oil. Guess they don’t call these things potstickers for nothing! I ended up scraping viciously at the pan with a turner, dumping the mangled potsticker remnants on a plate and the wonton-encrusted pan in the sink. A taste-test of the broken ’stickers indicated that they would indeed be worth the aggravation of making more, so I gave it another go using my only nonstick skillet, a little 8″ guy that worked perfectly for a much smaller batch of ’stickers (really need a larger nonstick skillet). I had some rice steaming away in the rice cooker while working on all this, and served the ’stickers with that and some sweet ginger chili sauce from Ginger People for dipping, although it turned out to be a little too spicy for me.
Were they worth the trouble? You better believe it! They were the best tasting potstickers I’ve ever had—even the broken, potstuck ones—and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to know for certain what was in the meat filling I was eating: ground pork, Napa cabbage, green onion and chives, and a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil. I think I might be able to recruit Jeremy’s assistance with prep next time, and would even consider making a double batch and freezing them for future meals.
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