Satay Beef with Ong Choy

 

I love this dish so much. Sometimes I just crave the flavor of it and I just really want to eat a bunch of it, with fluffy white rice. Documenting the recipe here, so I don't ever forget how to make it. Note that the "satay sauce" is Taiwanese barbeque sauce, and not the Thai satay sauce. Bullhead is my favorite brand.

Satay Beef with Ong Choy

Serves 4

Marinade:

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1.5 tsp soy sauce

1.5 tsp satay sauce

8 oz thinly sliced beef, pork or lamb

10 oz ong choy / water spinach

3 cloves smashed garlic

3-4 Tbsp satay sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1 chopped red chili pepper

Combine the meat with the marinade ingredients. Let sit for 10-15 minutes. Add in 1 tsp of oil before cooking, so the meat separates more easily while being cooked.

Heat a wok over high heat and add 2 Tbsp oil. Add garlic for about 10-15 seconds, then add meat and stir fry until almost fully cooked. Remove from wok. Add in ong choy and stir cry constantly until the leaves are dark green, which happens very quickly (within 1-2 minutes). Make sure to mix constantly.

Return the meat to the wok, add the remaining ingredients and mix to combine well. Taste and add more satay sauce, if needed.

Lions Head Meatballs

 

I loved lion head meatballs as a child. The sauce was oftentimes thick and sweet, which provided a great component when I mixed it all into my rice. Now that I'm older, I'm also very into the napa cabbage that cooks with it as well (always napa cabbage > bok choy).

One of the recipes had a great tip to forming the meatballs, because the meat mixture is pretty soft and runny. After portioning it out (eyeballing it) into six portions, I scooped the portion out and put it into a rice bowl for formation, and then into the oil. No messy hands!

I did a shallow fry on it because I didn't want to deep fry. Am I trying to be healthier? Maybe. My friend told me that she bakes hers sometimes but I feel like the oil makes it taste better haha. Even if it's a marginal amount of oil.

I cobbled two recipes together for this recipe, and added enoki mushrooms because I had them. I think I'll make adjustments next time; the Shaoxing wine taste was strong. My mom said that just smelling the meat made her feel drunk LOL.

Lion Heat Meatballs

Adapted from Woks of Life

Adapted from Red House Spice

Ingredients:

2 stalks scallions, chopped in 1-inch pieces

1-inch piece ginger, sliced

500g ground pork

1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

2 Tbps light soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 large egg

1 Tbps cornstarch

60g canned water chestnuts, minced

Soak scallions and ginger in 7 Tbsp hot water, set aside to cool. After about 20 minutes, remove the ginger and scallion, set aside for the soup.

In a bowl, mix together all other ingredients, minus the water chestnuts. Stir constantly with 4 chopsticks (bundled together in your fist) in one direction. Add the scallion ginger water a little at a time while stirring, until fully absorbed. Whip together for at least 3 minutes, ideally 10 minutes. Once the meat is sticky/jiggly, add the water chestnuts.

Heat a large pan with about 1/4 inch of vegetable or canola oil (something neutral, so not olive oil). Divide the meat into six portions, shape in the bowl and add to the oil after each shaping. Fry over medium high heat until they develop a golden brown crust, and remove to a plate. Do not crowd the pan!

1 small head napa cabbage

Previously soaked ginger and scallions

6 large dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in 500 mL warm water for at least an hour

1 bunch enoki mushrooms, trimmed

1/4 tsp salt

Ground white pepper

Remove shitake mushrooms from water, squeeze out excess water into the soaking cup (you want to retain all that flavor!) and slice mushrooms.

In a large pot, layer the bottom portions of the napa cabbage. Add meatballs over the top, then the sliced mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, scallions and ginger. Season with salt and white pepper. Pour in the mushroom soaking liquid over the top, ensuring not to pour in the solid bits at the bottom of the liquid.

Bring the soup to a full boil, then turn the heat to low. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes, then remove the cover and put the leafy part of the napa cabbage over the top. Continue simmering for 5 more minutes, then stir to submerge whatever possible in the soup. Simmer for 5 more minutes, then garnish with finely chopped scallions and serve! Warm rice is a must.

Three Cup Mushrooms

 

Every time I get take-out pho now (cause we're still in this pandemic, guys - get vaccinated please), I always have a bunch of basil left over. But now, I just use it to make three cup mushrooms! It's a great way to use up the extra herb instead of throwing it away. And Thai basil is key; the Italian basil just doesn't give the same punch/effect.

I tried making this in a cast iron Staub and the sauce was thick and reduced, but when I tried making it in a regular pot, it just wasn't the same. The mushrooms leeched a lot of liquid - but that may also depend on the type of mushroom used? In any case, if that happens, boil vigorously at the end over medium-high until the liquid reduces.

Three Cup Mushrooms
Adapted from Rasa Malaysia

2 lbs assorted mushrooms (I've used sliced king oyster plus shimeji and baby king oyster plus shimeji - but the sliced king oyster was the one that had a lot of liquid with the pot. Must experiment)
2 Tbps dark or toasted sesame oil
1 inch chunk of sliced ginger
6 cloves peel ginger, left whole
1 Tbps soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbps dark sweet soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbps Shaoxing wine
Handful of Thai basil leaves

Heat sesame oil in a heavy bottom cast iron pot (or clay pot, ideally) over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic, cook until lightly golden and aromatic. Add mushrooms and mix thoroughly.

Add the rest of the liquids and mix again to comvine. Cover the lid, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Once cooked, add the basil leaves and stir well. Serve hot with rice.

Notes: You can substitute the 2 lbs mushrooms with 1.5 lbs dark meat chicken. Cut into bite sized pieces and rub them with 1/2 tsp baking soda. Marinade for 10 minutes and then rinse off completely. Pat the chicken dry and then continue the recipe method above.

Hong Kong Oxtail Borscht

 
There's Russian borscht with beets and Hong Kong borscht with beef/tomato/cabbage. I abhor the first and love the second. My old co-worker used to try to get me to eat the Russian borscht whenever she brought some in for lunch and I always refused.

However, I find HKB very comforting. Sometimes they give out little cups of it at Hong Kong cafes, though those are mainly broth and a few wisps of cabbage. If you were truly lucky, you'd get a random tiiiiiinnnyyyyyy slice of beef.

No matter how much I've scaled this recipe down, it is a COMMITMENT. Like, soup for 8-12 people, depeding on if it's eaten as a meal or as a side. Considering how much time is spent preparing it though ... makes sense to make a lot.

Hong Kong Oxtail Borscht
Adapted from Christine's Recipes

Serves 8-12

Large pot boiling water for blanching
Approx 5 lbs oxtail (can use strips beef brisket or beef bones for soup)

1 can beef broth (approx 2 cups or 500ml)
10 cups water

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 stalks celery, 1/4 sliced
3 medium red potatoes, 1/2" cubed
1 onion, 1/2" diced
3 tomatoes, 1/4" diced
1 carrot, sliced into coins
1/2 head small cabbage, 1/2" cubed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
10 to 15 white peppercorns
3 bay leaves
3 Tbsp tomato paste
Zest from 1 lemon

Lemon juice/zest, sugar, kosher salt, white pepper to taste

Heat a large pot of water over high heat. Once boiling, blanch oxtails (or whatever beef you're using) in boiling water for approximately 3 minutes to remove blood and impurities. Let cool slightly and trim any fat away from the meat.

In the largest pot you have (and I mean largest), combine oxtails, beef broth and 10 cups water. Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 90 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté garlic until aromatic. Add onion and cook until translucent, approx 5 minutes. Add celery and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and sauté until softened, approx 15-20 minutes.

After the 90 minutes, combine all the vegetables into the stock. Add tomato paste, whole white peppercorns and bay leaves. You can tie the peppercorns into a cheesecloth for easy removal, if desired. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for another 60 minutes.

Grate lemon zest into the soup. Season well with kosher salt, sugar, white pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Pork & Napa Cabbage Dumplings

So I've never made dumplings at home before! My grandma always kicked us out of the kitchen and wrapped all 1000 of them herself (give or take on the number of dumplings). I've only made wontons before (and it was almost ten years ago), shaping them into "nurse hats" the way my grandma taught me. It's pretty calming and meditative to wrap them too.

The complaint that my mom and brother had with my wontons were that the meat was "too hard" instead of being soft and tender. Looking back, I probably should have added more water to the pork, and some vegetables. My grandma told me her recipe in that classic way - get some pork hind butt meat, make sure there's enough fat, add some ginger and white pepper, make sure you add some water, take four chopsticks and stir clockwise, then wrap your dumplings. SMH.

I scoured the internets to look for a bunch of recipes, then Frankenstein-ed something together. Feel free to change things around but make sure there is a 40% ratio of meat to vegetable and a 5:8 ratio of meat to water (LOL now I sound like my grandma, but with just vague numbers).

I also didn't try to make my own skins, but that's also something you can do if you want. There is a recipe for dumpling skins here. It's definitely easy to buy them (freeze whatever you have left over for the next wrapping session) and keep in mind ... dumpling/potsticker skins are the same (round), wonton skins are different (square).

I need to learn how to pleat dumplings the "gyoza" way ... these were done by M and I thought he would do different than the mash-in-half-then-pleat method haha

Pork & Napa Cabbage Dumplings
Makes approx 35

Napa or regular cabbage

2 tsp sea salt

Chop the cabbage into tiny pieces, like almost-minced. Season with 2 tsp salt and let it sit for 10 minutes to draw out the water. Scrape into a paper towel or into a kitchen towel and then squeeze out all the water possible. Measure the weight and use 40% more ground pork than the amount of cabbage and adjust the measurements below

150 grams dehydrated cabbage
210 grams seasoned ground pork
1/2 tsp sea salt
50-60 milliliters water
Pinch white pepper powder
1/2 tsp white or dark sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp grated ginger
One finely chopped green or spring onion

Mix all ingredients thoroughly together with a spoon. Don't overwork the meat mixture or it will become tough. The vegetables and water should make the meat "soft" for the dumplings. Let the mixture sit for an hour to marry the flavors, then fill and pleat the wrappers in the form you like best.

Sesame Miso Donabe

The weather is quickly warming up for Southern California but it's been difficult to stop making this sesame miso donabe! IT'S SO GOOD. We started making it when COVID-19 shut the entire world down and we ordered a CSA box to help some local farms who had lost their restaurant contracts stay afloat. The leafy greens were perfect in donabe.

That box was $25, which is a steal for how fresh the vegetables are! When I buy greens from the market, they usually last about a week. One of those Bloomsdale spinach bundles lasted THREE WEEKS before I got to it and it wasn't rotting at all!

This donabe (or you can make it in a regular pot) is totally adaptable with whatever vegetables or thin-sliced meat you have on hand (or seafood). Most of the time when I've made this, it's been totally vegetarian because it was the easiest, and we wanted to use as much of the CSA vegetables as possible. The most important thing is the soup base.

Sesame Miso Donabe
Adapted from Just One Cookbook
Serves 4

3 Tbsp white sesame seeds
6 cups water
1 Tbsp Hon-dashi
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 dried shitake mushrooms
3-4 Tbsp miso paste

Vegetable suggestions:
Spinach
Bok choy
Tokyo turnips
Daikon
Green onions
Assorted mushrooms
Tofu, fish (cut into 1" chunks), shrimp, any shabu shabu meats

Toast the white sesame seeds in a small pan over low heat (no oil or anything required). Make sure it doesn't burn! Grind with a mortar and pestle, not too fine.

Boil the water with the Hon-dashi, garlic and dried mushrooms. Add the tofu and hard vegetables (daikon, carrots, turnips, etc), simmer for 5 minutes. Add leafy greens and quicker cooking vegetables (green onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc), simmer for two minutes.

At this point you can serve hot with ponzu sauce as an option. If you have any seafood/meats, add them now and simmer for three minutes, then serve. The seafood/meats will continue to cook in the hot broth.

Baked Curried Cauliflower

I made this dish last night because I had a head of cauliflower sitting in the fridge and I needed a vegetable to go with dinner. My mind was blown. This ended up being the star of the meal, not the healthy-version orange chicken or the mapo tofu. It doesn't look like much ... but could not stop eating it. Mind blown. Go make it and I would suggest doubling the recipe because it is THAT good.

You could also just double the sauce of the recipe and add chicken, I'm thinking. It would be a great meal, and the curry sauce would be phenomenal chicken. I'm thinking some skinless, bone-in chicken thighs would work fantastically, maybe some of the chopped up ones that 99 Ranch sells. Brown it well and then add it to the sauce with the cauliflower ... just thinking about it is getting me excited!

Baked Curried Cauliflower
adopted from Christine's Recipes

1 large head cauliflower
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
2 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water

Preheat oven to 395degrees. Put on a large water to boil. Wash cauliflower and cut into florets. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl.

Boil cauliflower in water for 3 minutes, then drain well. Heat a large pan over medium heat and melt butter. Once melted, add turmeric and curry and saute it until fragrant, which only takes a few seconds. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Continue to dimer until it reduces by 2/3, which takes about 5 minutes. Add cream and stir well to mix.

Add cauliflower back to pot and toss to coat well with sauce. Cook further for 5 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook until the sauce is nice and thick. Pour everything into an oven-proof dish and bake for 8 minutes. Serve with rice to soak up all that delicious sauce!

** The original recipe also calls for coconut milk, which I didn't have so I omitted it.

A Craving for Steamed Fish

I know I had promised to update more with the last post, but things have just been so crazy lately. My dad had a birthday, and my brother, and my co-worker ... there was Book Club ... a trip to San Francisco and Monterey ... and budgets. Budgets are the bane of my existence, the one and only time at work where I'm actually crazy busy from the moment I walk in until the moment I leave. Excel spreadsheets in size 7 font are opened and my eyesight diminishes from day to day. I think I talked about this last year too.

I made the above dinner one night when I was really really craving steamed fish, Asian style. I was just going to go to 99 Ranch, have them fish one out for me (haha, get it?!), whack it until it died and then bring it home right away to steam up ... then realized that maybe Boyfriend and his Italian-ness wouldn't eat fish with the head on and he'd get grossed out. But don't Italians eat branzino?? What was I thinking. Basically out of that fear, I made the three other dishes to go with it, just in case. As it turned out, I didn't have to worry because he scarfed as much fish as he could. And poured soy sauce on his rice (from the bottle, not like, using the soy ginger onion sauce with the fish - that would have been acceptable) ... I have such a long way to go in teaching him not to do that.

Steamed Whole Fish with Ginger and Scallions
adapted from Epicurious

3-lb whole black bass or black tilapia

1/2 tsp salt

1 bunch scallions, white and pale green parts cut into very thin 2-inch strips and greens reserved separately

1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into very thin matchsticks

3 Tbsp light soy sauce

1/4 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Put baking dish in roasting pan.

Clean fish by removing the guts (the fishmongers at 99 Ranch will clean and scale if for you, but only if you ask them to). Using sharp kitchen shears, cut off the top fin and side fins. Rinse fish and pat dry, then rub inside and out with salt. Transfer to baking dish and sprinkle with scallion strips (white and pale green) and ginger.

Stir together soy sauce and sugar until sugar is dissolved, then pour over fish. Add enough boiling-hot water to roasting pan to reach halfway up side of baking dish. This is the same concept as doing a water bath when baking cheesecake. Oil a large sheet of heavy-duty foil, then tent foil (oiled side down) over fish and tightly seal around roasting pan. Carefully transfer roasting pan to oven and bake until fish is just cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. While fish bakes, cut enough scallion greens diagonally into very thin slices to measure 1/2 cup.

Just before serving, remove foil from fish and transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with the cut scallion greens. Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes instantly. Pour oil around side of wok, then tilt wok to swirl oil, coating side, and heat until smoking. Remove from heat and immediately pour oil over scallion greens and fish. Make sure you stand back to avoid being splashed the hot oil, and it will hiss like crazy! Don't be scared. (I didn't do this last part because I had too many things going on, but I've done it before and its delicious.)

Chili Beef Stir-Fry with Scallions and Snow Peas

adapted from The Cooking Channel

2 Tbsp chili-garlic sauce

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp mirin or sherry

1 tsp honey

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 tsp cornstarch

3/4 lb flank steak, trimmed and frozen briefly

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 scallions, ends trimmed and thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp grated ginger

12 ounces snow peas

Whisk the chili-garlic sauce, soy sauce, mirin, honey, sesame oil, and cornstarch together in a small bowl and set aside. While half frozen, cut the beef lengthwise along the grain into 3 or 4 (2-inch) wide pieces. Slice each piece of beef across the grain into paper thin pieces, about 1/8-inch thick. Doing this half frozen will give you the thinnest cuts. Pat the beef dry and season well with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over high heat just until smoking. Add the beef and cook, stirring rarely, until well browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside.

Return the skillet to the stove over medium-low heat. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil, 2/3 of the scallions, the garlic, and the ginger, and cook until just fragrant and starting to color, about 30 seconds. Stir in the snow peas, and cook, stirring occasionally, until bright green, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the chili-garlic sauce mixture, then remove the pan from the heat, and add the beef and accumulated juices. Toss to coat and sprinkle with remaining scallions.

Chinese New Year - Year of The Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year! I say that even though more than just the Chinese celebrated yesterday as the start of the Year of the Dragon. I suppose the politically correct thing to say would be Happy Lunar New Year. And apparently it is supposed to be a very prosperous year as well. People are already planning and gunning for babies to be born this year. No babies for me, please.

We gathered at my parent's house (mah and bah) for New year Eve dinner. My mom likes to do hotpot. I've totally gotten Boyfriend turned on to hotpot, but he dislikes it at my parent's house. My mom makes stock from sctrach using prok bones (good) and there is a huge variety of items to cook (also good) but she likes to pre-cook a lot of the items beforehand (bad). So when you go to the table, in addition to everything shown above, the hotpot pot is already full of different kinds of fish balls, pork balls, shrimp balls, tempura, napa cabbage, firm tofu, fried tofu, fish cake, etc. This way, not much meat can be eaten until we kind of clear out the pot first. I tell her every year to just let us cook at the table, but she can't let the pre-cooking go.

In addition to the hotpot, we also do some traditional things. Like play mahjong! My dad has been playing since he was a kid and taught my mom after they got married. And man, my mom is an addict. She has a computer mahjong game and she plays every night. Most of the time, my dad can still destroy her (and all of us) pretty easily. He also talks mad hilarious shit during the games and is so good that most of the time he can see what's on the table and watch your moves to kind of determine exactly what tile(s) you need to win - you know, so he can withhold it. This year though, I did really really well. Brother maintains that I "don't really know how to play and I'm just lucky" but I think he just underestimates me over and over. I won $60; my mom ended up going on a crazy winning streak in the end and won like $100.

And of coure there are red envelopes. Married couples are supposed to give them to children, or basically anyone unmarried. My friend Vanessa gave me one because she is older than me (by one day!) but I don't think I have to hand any out until I get hitched. My mom tells us that she had an aunt that was never married, so she was still collecting red envelopes into her fifties. Man, that's living the life. When I was younger, some of my friends would literally collect hundreds of dollars - some almost a thousand every New Year.

Added to all the money exchange, there are reasons for eating this thing or that thing on the table. I'll try to explain them as much as I can.

Fortune Veggies (bottom right hand corner) - Back in the olden days, women used to carry some jades that are shaped like those bean sprouts with the large yellow head/bean at the top. Eating this every lunar new year will ensure that all your endeavors (eg businesses, relationships, work, etc) will go smoothly and in your favor.
Mustard Greens (bottom right hand corner, above the Fortune Veggies) - When left whole, mustard greens are shaped like a certain kind of jade. They symbolize fortune (in Chinese, they are called fa, which means fortune) and will bring a prosperous year.
Fried Whole Fish (not shown) - Fish symbolizes that you will have food and enough to eat for the entire year.
Steamed Rice (not shown) - Make a pot of steamed rice and everyone has to eat some. However, you are never supposed to finish the rice. This symbolizes that you have enough food to carry you over into the next year, and that you're not depleting everything you have.
Dumplings - Whether handmade (we had pork and leek this year made by Lynn) or store bought, dumplings are shaped like coin purses or gold ingots. To me, they are kind of shaped like traditional chinese hats. Anyways, they also represent fortune for the new year.
Sticky Rice Cakes (nian gao) - In Chinese, it translates into "year" and "tall", which means that they are also eaten for good luck and for kids to grow. We didn't have them this year.

Traditionally, you are supposed to pray at midnight or go to the temple, and then sleep at your mother's house. It is the one night of the year where a mother is supposed to have all her children under one roof, especially when they go off and get married, etc. However, a 5:3-am wake-up time ensured that I was NOT going to be staying up until midnight. The family prayed a little after 8pm and I went home. It was a good night!

Chuc mung nam moi!
Gung hay fat choy!
Xin nian quai lu!
Happy Lunar New Year!

Mo-Chica

Yay good news! Burgess claims the laptop has been fixed AND he was able to retrieve all my files on it. I have yet to receive the laptop in my hands (hopefully today or tomorrow) but I have high hopes that everything is indeed there. He made a comment about the virus hiding all my folders - what kind of stupid virus is that?? Oh are viruses supposed to be inconvenient and make the victim panic? Then I guess it worked.

After hearing about Mo-Chica for a long time, I managed to convince Boyfriend last week to take me. Ever since we bought his car last month, he has promised to take me out to dinner. One month later, and no dinner - what the hell. And he said that this one didn't count! He better have something up his sleeve because the window of opportunity in which this dinner still has meaning is dwindling ...

At first glance of the address and street location on Yelp, Boyfriend was convinced that we were heading into the ghetto. Yes, the first time I visited USC in college, I was quite terrified for my life as we were in Watts, but the area has cleaned up a lot since then. When he was in college, he worked at the USC mail distribution center close to the Mercado court, and he said it was somewhere no one wanted to stick around after dark. But that was so long ago! Get into your new car and drive us to dinner, please. If it looks sketchy or like we'll get shot, we don't have to get out of the car.

Luckily, the area was all cleaned and safe, though the street was quite deserted. Upon walking into the Mercado, we expected more of a food court but was surprised to see that it was sit-down and had waiter service. We glanced through the menu a but, but I already knew what I wanted - the only item that did not list its calorie count. We presumed it was because the calorie count was higher than 650, which is the highest number on the board ... our waitress confirmed this hypothesis was correct. There goes the diet. I have included the calorie counts below for your entertainment pleasure.

some kind of corn nut

maracuya - passion fruit juice (140cal) and Inca Kola

ceviche del dia (270cal)

seco de cordero - lamb shank, canario beans, salsa criolla, cilantoro beer sauce (510cal)

oxtail risotto - braised oxtail, berley huancaina risotto (probably 2000cal)

The meats were fall-off-the-bone soft and tender, and the sauces were great. However, no matter how hard we try, we can never really really like risotto. I've had some really good ones, but most of the time they're just very heavy. Maybe next time I can request the oxtail over white rice - the sauce with plain carbs would be delicious and homey/comforting! Home cooking at it's best. Speaking of home cooking. this is the following conversation I had with my family this weekend after dim sum, after I tried to give them some of MY homecooking in the form of frozen Book Club wontons:

Mom: Eleana (or the Chinese equivalent thereof), I ate your wontons. They're no good.
Dad/Brother: Hahahahaha
Me: What do you mean? The ones I wrapped?
Mom: Yes. No good. The meat is too hard. You need the meat to be softer. Did you add egg?
Me: Yessss.
Mom: Did you add water?
Me: Yessss.
Mom: Did you add cornstarch?
Me: Umm no.
Mom: See? You should have added cornstarch. Where did you get this dumb recipe from?
Me: From Grandma. Dad's mom. When I went back to Taiwan.
Mom: You must have messed up then.
Dad/Brother: Hahahahaha
Me: I did what Grandma told me to do!
Mom: Whatever. I'm just trying to help you make wontons that aren't bad, with hard meat.

So ungrateful. So Asian critical. I love it - it's comedy. Most of it time, it's my mom being all crazy to one person and the other two people laughing in the background. But not too loud, otherwise she'll get annoyed and turn her wrath upon the laughers and all of a sudden, we gots three victims instead of just one.

Mo-Chica
3655 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Book Club - Momofuku Pork Buns

Ahh Momofuku Noodle/Ssäm/Ko. I generally don't believe in bastardized/fusion/Americanized Asian foods. Not that Momofuku is any of these things, but they have a certain more-expensive-high-end side compared to the cheap eats that I grew up with and love from the San Gabriel Valley. I mean, my parents think Din Tai Fung is kind of pricey, for heaven's sake. And it's only $8 for 10 xiao long bao (juicy pork dumplings). When I went to Taiwan in June, my Third Uncle took me to a random roadside stand with six stools that made dumplings that were WAY better than Din Tai Fung. And they were like $1.50 for 10 of them! Crazy ... I suppose if you grew up in Hong Kong or Taiwan, you'd think the Chinese food in America is way expensive. But I digress.

I first visited Momofuku Noodle Bar in September 2009 with Jennifer. Neither of us really knew how popular a place it was, but I think my cousin Maggie wanted us to bring her back some ramen? We waited an hour and then ordered these buns and bowls of ramen. The slow-poached egg in the ramen was the best egg I've ever eaten in my life, although the ramen itself was a bit salty. Too much pig parts, I suppose (shoulder, belly, broth). But these buns were SO good ... fatty, melty and fluffy. Even Jennifer, who doesn't like pork, proclaimed she could eat more of these. That's saying a lot.

Quick Pickles

3 Kirby or Japanese cucumbers
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Slice cucumbers into 1/4" thick rounds. Toss with sugar/salt and let marinade for 15 minutes. Taste the pickles; if they are too salty or sweet, rinse off the seasoning and season again according to taste. May keep in refrigreator for up to 4 hours.

Pork Belly Buns

1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 lb pork belly, as thick as you can get it
Quick Pickles
Chopped green onions
Steam buns, found in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores or you can make your own from David Chang's recipe

Mix together the salt and sugar in a small bowl. Remove the skin on the pork belly, if there is any. The Asian grocery store gave it to me skin on, but it can be sliced right off with a sharp knife. Slather the sugar/salt misture all over the pork belly and put it in a container that will fit the pork belly snugly. Refrigerate at least six hours or overnight.

The next day, the pork will be very juicy in the container. Preheat oven to 250 F. Drain the liquid. Transfer pork belly to a baking vessel that will hold it snugly. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and slow roast the pork belly for three hours. After three hours, remove the foil, baste the belly with the rendered fat and crank the temperature up to 425 F. Roast for another 20-30 minutes, until the top of the pork belly is a deep, rich brown. The meat should be pillow-y soft to the touch, but not falling apart. Remove pork belly to a plate to cool slightly.

Drain all the fat/juices into a measuring cup. After an hour or so, skim off the fat that has floated to the surface. You may keep it for making pancakes, potatoes, or other David Chang recipes. The brown juices at the bottom are delicious pork juices. You may freeze them for another use, basically whenever you want something to taste nice and porky/smoky. Wrap pork belly in several layers of aluminum foil and chill thoroughly. If it is not fully chilled, it will not cut into nice slices.

To assemble, let pork belly come to room temperature. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Warm up the pork belly slices by letting them sear in the pan a minute or two on each side, until they become tender and soft. Steam buns on stove or in microwave. Open bun and squirt hoisin sauce on one side, lay a slice of pork belly down on the other. Sprinkle some green onion on the hoisin sauce and lay on a few slices of quick pickle. Close bun and enjoy.

Book Club - Homemade Wontons

Book club! A group of us girls get together once every few months with the excuse of reading a book (which we do by the way, there are very strict rules in book club) but we basically spend a lot of time eating. And playing with puppies. We read a variety of books, from The Last Song to Native Speaker to Ender's Game. This time it was my turn to host. I chose the book "Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother" so we could read about practicing piano for 12 hours a day and then use each other in a counseling session about our own crazy moms. It was very therapeutic.

It was also the first real party I hosted in my apartment since moving in almost exactly one year ago. I've had people over, but those were just one off visits with one or two people at a time, and not actual events. Needless to say, I pulled out all the stops for book club brunch.

homemade wontons

Momofuku pork belly buns

roasted curry cauliflower and broccoli

arctic surf clams with ginger, green onion, chili oil

salted caramel madeleines

red velvet cake with berries

Grandma ChouDown's Wontons
as many as you want to wrap

2 lbs twice ground pork front shoulder*
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 Tbps minced fresh ginger
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
3 packages wonton wrappers, room temperature**
Chopped green onion

Place pork in a large bowl and crack in egg. Using your hand, squeeze meat together with egg until well blended. Slowly drizzle in water, while continuing to mash with your hand. Add in ginger, white pepper and salt. Take four wooden chopsticks and stir everything together in a clockwise motion until everything is well combined. The hand blending is very important, as it really tenderizes the meat and makes them soft in the wontons. Making Grandma ChouDown's wontons are not for the faint of heart!

Lay out a wonton wrapper and put one teaspoon of meat in the center. Fold as many wontons as possible and place them one by one on a baking sheet as you go along. They may be cooked fresh or frozen on the baking sheets. After two hours, pop the wontons off and keep them in the freezer in large Ziploc bags. They can be dropped straight into boiling water from the freezer - good for quick meals.***

Bring a large pot of water to a hard boil. Swirl the water clockwise with a ladle, then drop in the wontons. Swirling keeps the wontons from sticking to each other as they plop in. Cook for 2-3 minutes; the wontons are done when they float to the surface of the water. Serve one of these ways. The great thing about this is that everyone can have the wontons the way they prefer it.

(1) Place at the bottom of a bowl a bit of ground white pepper, chicken boullion powder, soy sauce, sesame oil and shredded dried seaweed. Ladle in wontons and about 1 cup of cooking water or chicken broth (omit chicken boullion if using chicken broth); mix well. Top with green onion and serve.

(2) Place at the bottom of a bowl a bit of soy sauce, sesame oil and lots of chili oil ("la yau"). Drain wontons briefly and ladle into bowl; mix well. Top with green onion and serve.

* I asked for "front shoulder meat" in Chinese at the Asian grocery store and the butcher got me "cushion meat" from the display case. I think that's the translation? They will run the pork through the grinder twice if you ask them to.
** Make sure the wonton wrappers are at room temperature. I like Hong Kong brand, which is in pink packaging. Do not buy dumpling or potsticker wrappers, which are thicker.
*** You can fold your wontons into any shape you want. I'm sure there are plenty of Google videos. Some people just like to scrumch the tops. I make mine in "nurses hat" shapes because that's what my Grandma taught me. They look so cute all lined up like that.

Recipes for other dishes to be posted this week!

And We're Off!

For the last three and a half years, I've diligently followed and admired some very talented and creative members of the foodblogging world. Deep down inside, I hoped that my friends and family will be able to read my own food blog someday. Today is the day! Food is a huge part of every culture. The act of cooking and eating is the foundation for bridging several generations, bringing everyone together to the table for a moment in this busy, fast-paced world.

The first recipe I ever post is a classic dish at many Chinese eateries, tomato egg. I remember my mom having me dice three tomatoes and beat six eggs so she could make this dish for dinner when I was in junior high. Strangely, it seemed to take forever to cut those tomatoes - was it because I had poor knife skills, or because everything seemed daunting at that age? She would also get mad if the tomatoes were not chopped evenly or small enough. This dish is great for a quick snack, or as part of a larger meal with several other dishes.

Tomato Egg
Serves 1

1/2 tsp oil
1 small roma tomato, diced
2-3 eggs (depending on your appetite)

Heat oil over medium heat and add tomatoes. Cook until soft with a pinch of each of salt and sugar. While the tomatoes cook, beat eggs with a large pinch of salt.

Once tomatoes soften, turn heat to high and pour in the eggs. Stir just until eggs are set, or to your desired consistency. The eggs will continue cooking once you take them off the heat, so be careful not to overcook. Dry eggs are rubbery and kind of gross. Eat immediately, with toast or with steamed rice.

There are many variations for tomato egg, so feel free to add diced garlic, green onion, soy sauce, etc to enhance the flavor.