Mápó dòufu (hot spicy tofu)

This dish is commonly regarded as one of the signature dishes of the Szechuan province in China. It is pretty easy to prepare. I'm not a fan of this dish, but after watching this prepared in an episode of the comedy anime series Chuka Ichiban (Cooking Master Boy), I got awfully interested in cooking it. Everyone else in my family is proficient at cooking it. 

My mom tells me that it isn't complicated at all... "You fry the pork and green onion. Put in the tofu and fry it. Add the sauce and you're done." 

My dad's recipe, as it was told over the telephone, went like this: "Take one box of tofu and chop it into whatever shape you want. Fry ground pork until crispy with soy sauce. Add some chicken broth. Put a little salt on it. When it starts to bubble, put the ground pork in. Add 1/2 tsp black pepper. Cook with medium-thick cornstarch until it is a little shiny and sticky. If you like it hot, chop up a red pepper. Put spring onion on it. Add a few drops of sesame oil. Add the hot bean sauce last so that it's not too hot." 

My brother's recipe had less of the how and more of the what to put in the dish: sauce is 1/4 c. stock, 1 tbsp hot bean sauce, 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce; green onions, minced ginger, minced garlic, tofu, 1 lb ground pork, and Szechuan peppercorns (btw, these are no longer a banned ingredient in the USA). 

Here's what transpired on the stove tonight... 

Ingredients: 

1 box soft tofu (should be firm, but this is all I had in my pantry) 
1/4 pound ground pork 
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced 
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1 stalk green onion, sliced, for garnish 
1 tsp sesame oil (optional) 
1/4 c. chicken broth 
2 tbsp olive oil, for frying freshly ground black pepper 
Sauce thickener (optional): 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp cold water

Sauce (mildly spicy): 
1 tsp hot bean sauce (1 tbsp for very spicy) 
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (up to 1 1/2 tsp salt) 

Directions: 

1. Cube the bean curd into 1/2" pieces and set aside. 

2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and fry the ground pork until almost no pinkness remains. Set aside. 

3. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the garlic and ginger. When these start to lightly brown, add the tofu and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the pork, chicken broth, and sauce. Simmer for about 3 minutes. 

4. Dissolve the cornstarch with the cold water and pour this into the pan. This will thicken the sauce. 

5. Stir in the sesame oil and sprinkle with green onions. 

6. Remove from heat and serve. Looked like mapo tofu, tastes like mild mapo tofu. Well, it has all the flavor and very little of the hot spicyness. This can be converted into a vegetarian dish by omitting the ground meat and using a vegetable broth instead.

The Asian shopping list - Dec '07

I only just realized that today is pretty much the last week before Xmas where everyone tries to do as much shopping as possible before that day. I had expected a large crowd at Ranch 99 and was not disappointed when I got there. While maybe 75% of the Chinese population or more in southern California does not celebrate the day, they still like to eat food a lot and any holiday that grants them extra time off to cook even more food is a good thing. Always write down what you think you need before you go to any Asian food mart. Things will be on sale that aren't on your list and you can easily find yourself overbudget and without any fridge space to accommodate it all.

I really only needed a few things from the store. Sure, it is 25 miles away, but these are kitchen necessities. Besides, how was I going to attempt mapo tofu (hot spicy tofu) without hot bean sauce?

A few things came out of this shopping trip. For one, I found that the Ranch 99 carries whole rabbit meat so that'll be an interesting item to pick up next Easter when every kid on the block is out hunting for eggs, I'll be roasting the iconic rabbit. Mmmm. Sounds like a plan. The second thing I found was that I was much less inclined towards the tempting items not on my shopping list. I think mostly it's because I know I could make the item myself but am too lazy to do it. Buying the item pre-made doesn't make me any less lazy, it just makes me fat and lazy. So, I have opted to not toss items like shao bing (flat sesame bread), green onion pancakes, chiao siu bau (?), and fried gyoza into the cart.

The list included ground pork, hot bean sauce, fresh shitake mushrooms, green onions, vegetables (I just pick up my favorites), ginger, garlic, large shrimp, and xiao xing wine (red rice wine). Of the vegetables, I got on choy, baby bok choy, bean sprouts (the mung bean variety, not the soy bean sprouts), a green cabbage, and Taiwan bai chai. Not on the list but also picked up were fresh giant enoki mushrooms (3/pk), normal enoki mushrooms, preserved duck eggs, chestnuts, two frozen ducks, three cans of the litchi-flavored grass jelly drink, and some red bean mochi.

The total bill? $50.

apple picking in calif

I'm told this is an East coast or Pacific northwest autumn activity, but it would appear that there are apple orchards within a 1.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. I went to an orchard that allows you to pick your own apples called Willowbrook Apple Farm. It's in Yucaipa where there appears to also be a lot of new housing communities.

Having grown up with fruit trees in my backyard, it was an interesting experience picking apples. Some urban adventurer friends pressed 20 lbs of apples into a gallon of cider. According to the staff helpers, there are two uses for the leftover apple bits.. pig feed and compost. Since they don't have any pigs, it's all composted in some huge bin for a year then spread out under the trees.

Pumpkin Soup

Somehow I think a regular jack-o-lantern pumpkin would be better for this recipe than a sugar pie pumpkin. But, most squash-like objects will work for this soup in lieu of the pumpkin. Butternut or acorn squash seem likely suspects as a substitute. This recipe is fairly generic, with the exception of steaming the raw pumpkin instead of baking it. I like to steam pumpkin since it cooks much faster. If you wanted to make this vegan, you can always omit the butter and replace the chicken broth with a vegetable broth.

You'll find that fresh cream or crème fraîche (not really the same dairy "product") just adds to the robustness of the flavor and does very little to thicken the soup. Often I find that restaurants put way too much cream into the soup. Anyhow. Cheers!

1 small pumpkin
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup shallots, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium rose or yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks
3 1/2 c. chicken broth
a sprinkling of salt, pepper, nutmeg, dried oregano (to taste)
crème fraîche or fresh whipped cream (optional)

Cut pumpkin into quarters or halves and remove the seeds and fibers. Steam in a steamer for 45 minutes or until malleable. Let cool. Scrape pumpkin meat into a bowl and set aside. Discard the rind.

Melt butter and olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add diced shallots and sauté until the shallots turn slightly translucent (about 2 minutes). Add the pumpkin flesh, cubed potatoes, and chicken broth.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes. Using an immersion blender, purée soup until smooth. Season the soup to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and/or a toasted wedge of French or sourdough bread.

Tea cookies

This is one of those recipes that is so easy to do that I haven't written it down until now; and I'm doing so because I'm always hunting around the kitchen for the recipe only to realize that I haven't written it down; so here it is. The recipe is adapted from the Joy of Baking's "Mexican Wedding Cakes" and has many names: Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cake, an Italian Butter Nut, a Southern Pecan Butterball, a Snowdrop, a Viennese Sugar Ball, and a Snowball. But, none of those names mean anything here since I don't use nuts in desserts. The adaptation is that I use crushed granola in lieu of the nuts.

This is a crowd favorite and always popular among my co-workers. For simplicity, I just call them tea cookies because they are sweetened just enough to be eaten with unsweetened hot tea.

Ingredients:

1 c. crushed granola bars (I use the oat & honey variety of the Nature Valley granola bars)
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. + 1/4 c. powdered sugar, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. unbleached white flour
1/4 tsp salt
Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, 1/4 c. powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour, salt, and crushed granola. Mix until well combined.


2. Refrigerate the cookie dough until it is firm, about 30 minutes to an hour.


3. Scoop out dough with a teaspoon and form into rounded 1-inch balls.


4. Slightly flatten these onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray. These cookies will expand a little bit, so you can probably fit 12 cookies to a tray.


5. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly toasted on the bottom. If you can press them lightly with a finger and not leave a noticeable impression, these are done.


6. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.


7. Dust the cooled cookies with the remaining 1 c. powdered sugar. I use a soup strainer for this step to evenly coat the cookies with the sugar.