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.
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.
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.
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.
Lamb Stew
This is a recipe that I've been making every year for the past few years and always about this time of the year when the weather starts to turn cold and the maple leaves begin to shed their green foliage for a multitude of burnt autumn colors. The stew tastes somewhat sweet because of the ingredients used even though no sugar is ever added. If you see classic, traditional ingredients missing from my recipes, it is because I don't like them. Anyhow..
Ingredients & Directions
1 lb fresh lamb shoulder or chops
4 tbsp olive oil
1 quart broth
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 c. sliced carrots
1 raw sweet potato, cut into irregular chunks
6 oz tomato paste
1 c. sweet corn kernels
an unspecified amount of water to "thin" the stew
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c. red wine
1. Separate the bone from the lamb shoulder or chops and set aside. The lamb meat should be cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it up. Add the lamb meat and brown evenly. Set aside.
3. In an 8-qt stockpot, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it until the oil starts to thin. Add the sliced carrots and saute until tender.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the stockpot: the lamb, the broth, sliced garlic, sweet potato, tomato paste, corn, dried oregano, garlic powder, and a bay leaf.
5. Bring it to a boil, then turn down to simmer. The stew will be done when the sweet potato is tender. Everything else cooks pretty quickly.
5. Add 1/4 c. red wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off.
6. Turn off the stove and serve stew.
Side notes:
On pot sizes, I have an 8-qt and a 12-qt stock pot; I use the 12-qt if I'm cooking a whole 3 lb chicken and the 8-qt for all other soups and stews. Does this mean you can't cook this in a 4-qt pot? No.. it just means that I only have two sizes to work with.
On the wine, I used a 2003 Sangiovese from Bray Vineyards. It just happened to be a bottle in my fridge that was already open.
Ingredients & Directions
1 lb fresh lamb shoulder or chops
4 tbsp olive oil
1 quart broth
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 c. sliced carrots
1 raw sweet potato, cut into irregular chunks
6 oz tomato paste
1 c. sweet corn kernels
an unspecified amount of water to "thin" the stew
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c. red wine
1. Separate the bone from the lamb shoulder or chops and set aside. The lamb meat should be cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it up. Add the lamb meat and brown evenly. Set aside.
3. In an 8-qt stockpot, add 2 tbsp olive oil and heat it until the oil starts to thin. Add the sliced carrots and saute until tender.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the stockpot: the lamb, the broth, sliced garlic, sweet potato, tomato paste, corn, dried oregano, garlic powder, and a bay leaf.
5. Bring it to a boil, then turn down to simmer. The stew will be done when the sweet potato is tender. Everything else cooks pretty quickly.
5. Add 1/4 c. red wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off.
6. Turn off the stove and serve stew.
Side notes:
On pot sizes, I have an 8-qt and a 12-qt stock pot; I use the 12-qt if I'm cooking a whole 3 lb chicken and the 8-qt for all other soups and stews. Does this mean you can't cook this in a 4-qt pot? No.. it just means that I only have two sizes to work with.
On the wine, I used a 2003 Sangiovese from Bray Vineyards. It just happened to be a bottle in my fridge that was already open.
Wild mushroom and curry risotto
I read an article online that if you make risotto correctly, the rice becomes naturally creamy in the broth & wine when it cooks in due to its high starch content; and that you should never add butter or cream as the finishing step. I picked up some arborio rice from Whole Foods today. All the recipes that I came across seemed to have a similar theme going on...
Some type of oil + rice + broth >> Simmer >> Add other ingredients >> Add other seasonings >> Simmer >> Add wine >> Simmer >> Serve
For this experiment, I didn't use much curry since I only wanted to color the dish yellow and not have a curried rice dish; much like how saffron is typically used to flavor and impart color to the rice in a traditional risotto. This recipe makes 2 cups of cooked rice.
Ingredients & Directions:
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 c. dry arborio rice
Heat a skillet and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the rice. No, you're not cooking the rice in the butter. This is to keep it the starch in the rice from sticking to the pan. In a separate pot, rehydrate the dried mushroom with 1 c. boiling water. When softened, drain and reserve the mushrooms. Before the rice has a chance to burn and before all the moisture wicks itself away from the pan, add:
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. broken bits of dried mushroom
Cook on low-medium heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. If you're going to watch the director's cut of Dune while cooking, stir and check the rice frequently.
Add some white wine, no more than 1/4 cup or the alcohol won't burn off before its served
When this liquid has all been just about absorbed by the rice or cooked off, turn off the stove and stir in 1 tsp curry powder. The curry taste mellows out when the rice sits refrigerated for a day or so. Salt to taste.
Total cook and prep time: 40 minutes
Notes:
In the mushroom rehydration step, you can reserve the liquid as a mushroom dashi soup base for another dish. The curry powder could also have been added to the butter and heated until fragrant.
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