Asian Lettuce Wraps

This dish - whatever recipe you use - is too satisfying and too easy to not be in your repertoire.

I used an online adaption of PF Chang's formula. It was very good, but I'll probably try a different recipe next time. Ketchup in the sauce, really?

This is great for summer, and you certainly don't need the wok.

Herbal Marinade for Steak

This marinade came from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home and is very different from the marinades I usually break out for beef. There's no acid - no citrus, no vinegar.

It's a great change-it-up treatment for steaks. The marinade smells amazing when you prepare it, with all the garlic and fresh herbs, and the meat takes on a wonderfully herby flavor.

I'm thinking this might be good on chicken as well, although I haven't tried it.

Thai Chicken Tacos

I've come out of my cooking dormancy in a big way. I'll have made more than four new things this week alone! However, of all of them, this recipe clearly took first prize. It came from Better Home and Garden, June 2011.

The recipe said to marinate the chicken for only an hour, but as anybody who knows anything about marinating knows, that is not long enough. I put it in the marinade for about six hours.

For the slaw, I managed to get to Publix just as they were clearing out the wilted produce, so I went with a pre-chopped slaw mix for the lettuce and carrots and then picked up the green onions, cilantro and radishes separately. I left out the peanuts.

This dish was incredible! Richard says it is his new favorite. The flavor of the chicken completely awed me. I have never done any cooking with sriracha or fish sauce before now, but they definitely won a spot on the staple list. The slaw played very nicely with the chicken. The one minor thing I might consider changing is the tortilla. The corn flavor was almost too much. I might like to see how flour tortillas work.

My biggest dilemma was what to serve on the side. I don't know how one would classify this dish...Thai-Mex? Cali-Thai? Not sure. I ended up breading and frying some zucchini-very tasty.

Christmas Party Fare

Every year, I try to put on a Christmas party--not so much for other people as for myself.  I'm only half-kidding about that.  While I most certainly do enjoy having friends over for the holidays, I really do love putting out a table full of delicious eats.

Because I cannot boast a formal dining room, I decided long ago that rather than having only two or three people over at a time for a dinner I would invite more people for drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

The menu this year was as follows:
Heavyset Cheeseball
Cocktail Shrimp
Olives
Sausage Balls (see my earlier post)
Spinach and Goat Cheese Tartlets
Bruschetta (my own make-shift recipe)
Christmas Stollen (purchased)
and a bowlful of Hershey's Kisses

I also served red wine (Espiritu de Chile 2006 Carmenere), and a Chardonnay (2006 Meridian), and the usual array of soft drinks.

I typically try to do this sort of menu with a mixture of homemade and purchased items to make things a little easier on myself.  This was especially necessary this year since I decided to give my Christmas tins as party favors this year. (See next post).

The heavyset cheeseball proved a crowd favorite.  Everyone was initially awed by the presentation, and then loved the flavor.  The recipe seemed a little light on flavor so I added a good bit more dill and a smidgeon of garlic powder.  It was just right.  For the green garnish, I simply used the extra dill.

I've posted before on the sausage balls, and they were yet again a big hit.

My personal favorite was the tartlets.  In this, I may be biased by my steadfast opinion that there is nothing that cannot be improved by goat cheese.  I also made these for a party earlier this year.  They really are incredibly easy to make.  I do recommend using the pre-made phyllo cups.  They are a huge time-saver.  I also use only one teaspoon of lemon zest instead of two.  The first time I made these, I followed the recipe and they were too lemony.

For the bruschetta, I forgot the basil.  In my defense, I had been running around like a mad woman getting ingredients and doing Christmas shopping.  I realized as I began chopping the tomatoes that I had forgotten the basil, and made a decision to go without it.  I did tomatoes, shallots and garlic with salt and pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Turned out great.  I do highly recommend getting the bakery to slice a baguette for the bruschetta.  I've noticed many places selling pre-made and packaged bruschetta chips/slices, but nothing beats freshly toasted bread.

Everyone gets bombarded with sweets this time of year, so I chose to keep the dessert simple.  Christmas stollen and Hershey's Kisses fit the bill and looked great on the table.

Now to the more artsy side of my Christmas party.  I couldn't find votive holders I liked at a price I could swallow, so I improvised.  I have a collection of ribbon remnants from previous Christmases, so I had an epiphany.  I bought two plain votive holders at $1 each, wrapped a piece of holly and ivy ribbon around them and voila!  Festive candles!

Originally, I had planned to use paper plates and cups for the party, but I decided against it.  I get to drag out my Noritake so rarely, and this would be so few dishes that I had to go for it.  I'm happy I did.  It really added to the ambience.  I also decided against plastic cups.  I did have to buy some goblets but I got them for practically nothing at Ross and I can always use them.  I also bought a pair of foil red serving plates to add a little extra color to the table.

Overall, it was a very nice evening.  Great company and great food.

The Unfortunately Named Sausage Balls

Most recipes for sausage balls are virtually identical, but I've been using Paula Dean's recipe lately.  Nothing special about the recipe, but the proportions are correct.

I use mild sausage and then add hot sauce to taste.  I prefer this to just buying "hot" sausage.  As with most recipes, I prefer to use an aged sharp cheddar like Cabot.   It holds its flavor much better than the alternatives.

These are very, very simple and quick to make.  If you're wanting to make them ahead of time, they do pretty well in the reheating process.  However, I would recommend that if you bake them and then refrigerate/freeze them, you leave them slightly undercooked.  This keeps it from getting too tough during reheating.  Pre-baking them seems a little unnecessary though.  They bake up in 10-15 minutes flat.

They aren't the most appetizing-looking things, but they are always a huge hit.  People love them.

Salmon En Papillote

I've been wanting to try this technique for some time, and then one night this week the stars aligned and everything worked out for me to do it.  Salmon was on sale and I had plenty of parchment paper, vermouth and vegetables on hand.

Originally, I was going to use this recipe from Alton Brown, but I couldn't find leeks (strange).  So, not knowing how much that would throw off the flavor palette I decided to go rogue.  I used zucchini, lemons, salt, pepper, a little garlic, shallots and vermouth with the salmon.  From start to finish the whole process took about fifteen minutes.  I stacked the zucchini on the bottom, then the shallots and garlic, followed by the salmon (seasoned with s&p) and finally the lemons and vermouth.   Wrapped it all up in the heart-shaped parchment paper and popped it in the nuker for four minutes.

For so little effort and time, the result was stupendous.  The zucchini was actually my favorite part.  Sitting on the bottom made it absorb all the flavors.  Good beyond words.

The fact that the zucchini absorbed so much flavor, made me reconsider my stacking technique for next time.  I placed the salmon skin-side down on the veggies.  Next time, I will probably do skin side up, so the fish can get more flavor.  The salmon had a great deal of the lemon flavor but much of the vermouth/shallots/garlic flavors sank to the bottom away from the fillet.

One other thing I love about this technique is that it makes clean-up so easy.  Just toss the parchment paper when done eating.  No pots. No pans. No fish stuck to a pan.  And the plates just needed a minimal quick scrub to get the juices off.

Sweet & Sour Pork with Fried Rice

Matt's enthusiasm for my continuing attempts at cooking Chinese food knows no bounds. He went grocery shopping yesterday - without me asking - and picked out flank steak and pork loin since he knew I needed those specific cuts of meat for Dunlop recipes I want to try. Then, in consultation with me via AIM (I was still at work), he found my recipe book and went through it looking for recipes that could be made without a trip to the Asian market - I am, sadly, still lacking some basic Asian pantry items like chili bean paste. And so the decision to make Sweet & Sour Pork for dinner was made before I had even left the office.

A note on the recipe linked in the post title - that's the best I could find online, although it is somewhat confusing since the ingredient list can't decide if it's in English measurements or metric.

Anyway, the recipe. The trimmed-of-fat pork pieces sit in a simple marinade of rice wine and salt for half an hour, before being mixed with a batter consisting only of eggs and cornstarch. This batter is fairly close to tempura - has a certain fluffiness when it hits the oil. Anyway, I got even smarter this time with the frying and used a small pot instead of my stock pot to fry in. My stock pot has a good 9-10 inch diameter, while this little guy is only 6-7 inches across. That translates to being able to fry successfully (i.e. have enough depth of oil) without going through an entire container of the stuff. I am kicking myself for not thinking of this earlier. I'm not spending the big bucks to get peanut oil, which is a joy to fry in but costs over twice as much as canola. However, whatever oil you use, you only get one use out of it before you chuck it (unless you're frying similar items a few nights in a row - in which case it's fine to strain and reuse). SO....long story short, my oil goes farther if I use a smaller pot.

A unique feature of this recipe is that it calls for the pork pieces to be fried twice: once at a lower temperature (about 300 degrees) then again at a higher temp (about 375). I was astonished at how the second frying made the difference in texture. Before and after pictures also tell the story: the one above is after the first frying, the one below is after the second.

While frying and double-frying the pork in one pot, I had fried rice going in the wok. I've been making a lot of plain white rice to accompany this or that Chinese dish, and there is always some left over. Day-old rice is no fun to eat, but it is ideal for fried rice - and in fact, day-old rice is the secret to fried rice. Perfect! My first attempt at fried rice, months ago, was so-so, so I went online and loosely followed the technique outlined on this helpful website. This time, I was making a very simple fried rice - with just garlic, scallions, and egg - so I skipped all the instructions for cooking and adding meat, etc.

First, I heated a few tablespoons of canola oil and about a tablespoon of sesame oil in the wok over medium-high heat. When hot, in went about 4 cloves worth of minced garlic. A few minutes of sauteing, then in went some finely chopped scallions. When those were just cooked, I added all of my leftover rice, stirred briefly, and poured some light soy around the edges of the wok. Some sea salt and pepper also were added. When the rice was thoroughly mixed and looking a little on the dry side, I pushed the rice to the sides of the wok, turned the heat way down, added a tiny bit more oil to the now-clear center of the wok and added a couple eggs - not beaten - but just barely stirred, enough to break the yolks. As instructed, I waited until the broken yolks were starting to set before mixing the whole thing together, rice and egg. This technique gave me the perfect bits of egg throughout that I was looking for, but had miserably failed at when I first tried fried rice without directions. Amazing how a little technique goes a long way! Anyway, more stirring - some tasting - a little more soy - and voila. This was way too easy. It could easily be done in a regular saute pan, too - just remove the rice to a different bowl when you first add the egg, and then add it back in when the egg starts to set.

Once the fried rice was removed to a serving bowl, and the pork pieces done with their second trip into the hot oil (hooray for multitasking, as I was doing this all at once), it was time to assemble the sauce in the wok. I even had some homemade chicken stock in the fridge to use. 5 minutes, max, and the sauce was thick and lustrous.

What a meal. The sweet-sour pork was, just like the Gong Bao, heads and tails above take-out Chinese. I don't know where that saccharin-sweet, candy-red sauce that usually accompanies sweet-sour in take-out orders comes from, but it sure isn't authentic. I wasn't sure if I was more proud of the pork or the fried rice, which was delicious in its simplicity and which I now see I can vary to infinity depending on what's in the fridge. The fried rice could easily be a meal on its own with a little protein added. The sweet-sour recipe would work just as well on chicken. Overall, a smashing success.

And my man was happy.

Note: I have included the "Super Easy Recipes" tag on this post because the fried rice is super easy. The sweet-sour pork is, of course, more intensive.

Plum Torte

I first had plum torte in a German restaurant in Norfolk, Virginia, about a two years ago.  I couldn't believe how delicious it was and I set out on a quest to find a recipe for it.  My quest had lapsed after I made it from a recipe last summer and didn't care for it.    The crust was made from a kneaded wheat dough which became very tough during baking.  Not sure if the wheat dough is more traditional or not, but I like this new recipe a thousand times better.

Unlike many of the recipes I've been using lately, this one came from a physical cookbook, The New Elegant but Easy Cookbook. However, I did find a link to it online, Original Plum Torte.  It really may be one of the easiest desserts I've ever made.  Literally, the most difficult part is slicing the plums--that's how easy it is.  The recipe recommends simply halving the plums, but I think it looks prettier when they are sliced and arranged.  I used both purple and red plums to give it some depth.  The 10-inch spring form pan I used made it a little thinner than I would have preferred; I'll use a smaller pan next time.

This would be a great dessert for any time of year and any time something needs to be made quickly.  I like it cold, but it would be very nice warm too.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Simple Joys of Cinnamon Buns

I've come to a very important conclusion: There is nothing quite like waking up to a cake stand full of homemade cinnamon buns.  Sure, Pillsbury would look much the same, but the care and love put into making these delicious artery-clogging buns from scratch multiplies the joy exponentially.  I admit I thoroughly enjoy the sensation of my kitchen looking like a professional bakery.  It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and fulfillment to know that I made the effort and now they are there for me or Richard to enjoy at leisure.  

I hope someone knows what I mean by all this blabbering.

Going into this project, I did wonder if the extra effort would yield a result sufficiently superior to Pillsbury's exploding cylinder of dough to make it worth the effort.  It proved unquestionably superior.

The recipe was straightforward.  I did run into a bit of hitch with the yeast.  Somehow I got it into my head that it called for active dry yeast when it in fact called for instant dry.  Now of course, yeast will work as yeast no matter what, one must simply prepare it differently.  Unfortunately, there isn't much liquid in this recipe to reduce proportionate to the amount of liquid used to proof the yeast, so I resorted to using more flour, which certainly had a mild impact on flavor.

Other than that slight and completely self-inflicted problem, I had no difficulty with the recipe.  I did all the kneading by hand since I don't own a swoopty-doo stand mixer, but I like kneading dough so it didn't bother me.

The only thing I might do differently next time is invest in a quality cinnamon.  I have my handy dandy McCormick shaker, but a greater depth of cinnamon flavor would have been nice.

Richard genuinely enjoyed them.  I even got the coveted "I'm-not-really-a-big-fan-of-cinnamon-buns-but-these-are-delicious" comment.

Spicy Cucumber Salad - Fuchsia Dunlop

This recipe comes from Fuchsia's Sichuan cookbook, and is both absurdly simple and utterly delicious.

First, peel a few cucumbers and then cut them into quarters lengthwise, and remove the seeds and pulp. Then cut the pieces into batons - pieces that are roughly 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch by 2-3 inches long. Sprinkle the pieces with salt and set aside for at least an hour to draw out as much of the water as possible. Then squeeze the pieces in a few paper towels to again draw out as much water as possible.

Heat the wok! Add a few tablespoons of peanut oil, and just a little bit of Sichuan peppercorns, and 4-5 dried red chilis, snipped in half with seeds removed. When the oil is fragrant with the spices (20-30 seconds - stir and watch so the spices don't burn), add the cucumber and stir until coated with the hot oil, just about 10-15 seconds. Remove from the heat. Add about a tablespoon of sesame oil, and stir thoroughly before transferring to a serving platter. Dish gets better as it sits and cools off, and can be made entirely in advance and served cold.

This is fantastic, so easy and it disappeared quickly!

Chicken Fajita Marinade

My favorite marinade for chicken fajitas is super simple:

For 3-4 chicken breasts:

• juice of 4 limes (fresh-squeezed, of course!)
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano (I put this through my mortar and pestle to try to release the oils as much as possible before adding it)
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

I usually throw the thawed chicken and marinade in a big ziploc, which seems to guarantee that the chicken and the goodness are right up next to each other much better than if it was all in a bowl. I got the formula from this gem of a cookbook, and it always goes fast. An overnight sit in the marinade is, in my opinion, essential. But then, I haven't run across a marinade that achieves peak flavor in just a few hours.

Cheater Pots de Creme

I got this recipe from Pioneer Woman - that Oklahoma ranch wife who has managed to captivate the internets. Her shtick can get kind of old and her recipes are, as she says, a reflection of what she's cooking and not exactly gourmet. That said, however, this recipe is fantastic.

Real pots de creme is usually some kind of cooked custard. This is not that. You throw a few ingredients into your blender, let it go for a few minutes, pour into pretty glasses, chill. It's insanely easy. And way too delicious considering it takes next to no effort to prepare.

The end result is creamy and rich, but without the hassle of cooking custard. The most important thing is having the ingredients at the right temperature. Letting the eggs sit on the counter for a few minutes to get the chill off and having the coffee as hot as possible (I usually throw it in a small skillet so it's boiling when I add it to the blender) makes sure you don't have flecks of solid chocolate in your finished product, but just a smooth delicious solid pudding.

I've already made this four or five times. I tried substituting white chocolate chips one time but those didn't set. Not sure why.