Seafood and Chive Dumplings

Dumplings are perfect little packages of bite-sized food and totally easy to make. We decided to make a seafood version after being inspired by a new show called Easy Chinese (horrible name, but good recipes!) on the Cooking Channel. I liked how this dumpling did not use pork, which tends to be much fattier and instead utilizes fish as the primary protein.

Seafood and Chive Dumplings

From Easy Chinese, Cooking Channel

Ingredients

6 ounces fresh skinless striped bass or other firm white fish, finely chopped

6 ounces shelled and deveined shrimp, finely chopped

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Pinch minced seeded red chile, optional

Pinch sea salt

Pinch ground white pepper

6 Chinese chives or flowering garlic chives or 3 scallions, finely sliced

4 dried Chinese (shiitake) mushrooms, soaked in hot water and finely diced

36 square wonton wrappers

2 large carrots, thinly sliced on a sharp bias

Directions

1. Mix the bass, shrimp, cornstarch, ginger, Shaoshing wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, red chile, salt, white pepper, chives and mushrooms in a medium bowl until well combined.

2. Place a teaspoonful of the seafood filling into the center of each. Rub the outer edges of the wrapper with water using your finger and then place the wonton into your hand. 

3. Fold the wrapper into a triangle, pressing the edges together to seal in the filling, and then create 6 to 8 pleats along the sealed edges using your thumb and index fingers, pinching well to adhere. Repeat with the remaining filling and wrappers. 

4. Lay the carrot slices in a bamboo steamer and place a dumpling on top of each.

5. Fill a wok or large skillet with 1 inch water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Place the lid on the bamboo steamer and lower it into the wok. Steam the dumplings until the fish is cooked through and the dumpling wrappers are translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.

Enjoy!

Dining In: NYC 2011 - Flushing Food Tour

Since the Triangle area often feels like an ethnic food desert to us, the only requirement for our recent trip to NYC was Asian/Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese food and a lot of it! Our friends, J&R, are huge fans of Flushing, NY and since this was where my family used to frequent during our Jersey days, I couldn't agree more. 

The NYTimes recently put together an interactive feature on the Flushing dining scene, which includes several places from our food tour. You can find the feature here. 

First up, Nan Shiang Dumpling House. This place is a treasure trove for soup dumpling and Taiwanese breakfast lovers. We loved it so much we ate here 3 times over the course of our week-long trip. 

Salted Soy Milk

Scallion Pancakes

so buttery, flaky, and crispy

Crab Soup Dumplings

definitely one of my favorite foods ever

Second place on our food tour was White Bear, an unassuming little food spot, that served killer handmade wontons with red oil sauce (number 6). They were so amazing. With limited seating, you might as well buy a box and eat them on the sidewalk, which is what we did. (A small price to pay for great food). 

Third food locale can be found at the Golden Shopping Mall, which contains one of the locations for Xi'an Famous Foods. However, inside there were up to 4 different food vendors from hand-pulled noodles to lamb noodle soups. If we hadn't been so stuffed, I would have tried it all. This location has a definite night-market feel so if you are really picky about ambience, you may consider another Xi'an location. (We even watched a lady feed her Pekingese noodles with chopsticks while we ate our noodles).

A1. Liang Pi "Cold Skin Noodles"

spicy kick and great noodle texture

B2. Spicy Cumin Lamb Burger

not a huge fan of cumin, but good texture of meat and bread

Hand-pulled Lamb Cumin Noodles 

 nuclear spicy level, but super tasty

This concludes part 1 of the NYC Food Tour, which given the sheer amount of food we ate, I've divided into 3 parts to be posted this week. Thanks for reading and hope you get to try these amazing places the next time you're in NYC. 

Have a great Monday! 

Dining In: Washington, DC - Kushi

Dinner in DC was at Kushi. This is an izakaya-style Japanese restaurant, which I've never tried before. Imagine Japanese tapas with beer or sake = Izakaya cuisine. Everything was made right before our eyes from the frying, grilling, and basting. 

Delicious yellowtail. The first of our sashimi indulgences on this trip. 

Tender grilled pork belly. YUM. 

Grilled whole fish. Juicy, sweet, and super fresh. 

I can see how this would be a fabulous happy hour into dinner option as you eat and drink over several hours. All of these little dishes pack good punches of flavor and texture. The Husband loves Japanese cuisine and with its simplicity of presentation and refined flavors I can see why. We were able to get a corner end of the bar, which made chatting, watching, and eating all the more fun.

Have a great Wednesday! More east coast trip great eats to come. 

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs 糖醋排骨

Continuing on with the nostalgic recipes from my mother's archives, this one is one of my favorites. If you can imagine candy in meat form, this would be it. With combinations of sweet, salty, and a tinge of sour, this dish has been one of the most often requested dishes throughout my college, grad, and post-grad years.

One of my favorite parts of this recipe is that it is SO easy to remember the proportions. My mother used to recite this recipe in Chinese in a sing-song voice and it has been imprinted in my mind forever. I hope one day my kids will have the recipe stuck in their heads forever too so they can enjoy this delicious treat.

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs 糖醋排骨

Ingredients
1.5-2 lbs of pork ribs or baby back ribs (cut lengthwise into approx. 1 inch strips by your butcher)
1 tbsp cooking wine
2 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp sugar
10 tbsp + water

* Notice how the proportions are consecutive (1, 2, 3, 4), which means if you make more or less meat just use a larger or smaller spoon to measure out the ingredients.

Directions
1. Cut the long strips of ribs into bite sized pieces by cutting between each of the rib bones.

2. Boil a stockpot of water and blanch the pork ribs to clean and remove impurities just until the pork has turned gray. Strain and set aside.

3. In the stockpot, combine cooking wine, vinegar, sugar, and water. Turn pork ribs into the stockpot and turn on high heat.

4. This is the part that requires continued attention: As the soy sauce mixture cooks with the ribs, you must keep an eye on this because the sugar will caramelize quickly. You'll want to continue to stir and coat the ribs with the sauce that will be bubbling quickly.

5.  Once you are sure the pork is cooked, you can remove a piece and test the texture. If the meat is a little too tough, add more water as the longer the pork cooks in the mixture it will become more tender. If you are needing more salt, sugar, or vinegar flavor feel free to add more at this step.

6. When you are happy with the texture of the pork, allow the sauce to thicken to your desired consistency. It should resemble a sweet, burgundy glaze over the ribs.

7. Serve with hot white rice and enjoy!

Be ready to see these ribs disappear quickly from the plate. Might as well overestimate the number of servings just in case.

Hoping to dive into some more recipes this weekend (fingers crossed). Have a great one! 

Hot and Sour Noodles 酸辣麵

Asian noodles have a special place in my heart. Be it flat noodles with creamy sauce or thin rice noodles cooked with shiitake mushrooms and veggies. This recipe was recently shared with me by my mother and to top it all off we made homemade asian noodles, which were super al dente.

These noodles are what I would call a toss-it-all-together kind of noodle dish such as cold noodles with peanut sauce, dan dan mein, or ja jiang mein. Essentially these noodles are comprised of 3 components: al dente noodles, toppings, and a sauce. Once the toppings and sauce are placed on the noodles, you simply stir stir stir and voila delicious noodles in a jiffy.

Hot and Sour Noodles

Ingredients
Homemade noodles
250 grams of bread flour
250 grams of all purpose flour
230 grams of water
*Mix ingredients by hand or in stand mixer until a dough ball forms and gluten is activated (translation: there is a bounce back in the dough = chewy noodles). Let dough ball rest covered for 15 minutes. Flatten and cut, see this for details.

Toppings
1/2 lb ground pork
2 tbsp garlic or more
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cucumber, cored, peeled and julienned
2-3 tsp sugar or 3 small pieces of rock sugar

Noodle Sauce
2 teaspoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon chili oil
2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 sesame oil
1 tbsp cilantro

Directions
1. Saute garlic until fragrant, but do not burn. Add ground pork and saute.

2. Add soy sauce and rock sugar. If sauce is too salty, add some water. Cook ground pork completely. Set aside.

3. Boil salted water and cook noodles to al dente texture.

4. In a separate sauce pan, add all noodle sauce ingredients and a few tablespoons of previously prepared ground pork. If necessary, add salt and sugar to taste. Add remaining pork for desired meat-to-noodle ratio.

5. Add cooked noodles into the noodle sauce ingredients and toss with cucumbers. Serve with cilantro and additional minced garlic for garnishes.

This is one incredibly satisfying and delicious noodle dish that is easily prepared in advance for any meal. Of course you don't need to make homemade noodles, but I definitely have a bias towards freshly made noodles for these toss-it-all-together noodle dishes. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Soba Noodles in Japanese Broth

Have you ever looked at the NYTimes Recipes for Health pages and thought, "I should probably eat something like that for dinner." I had one of those moments a few months ago and had the foresight to jot down this recipe before I lost it in my long list of things I want to make. This is likely going to be the simplest dinner that I will make this week. It was so simple I even had time to make Momofuku Shrimp Spring Rolls, which were also a hit.

Soba Noodles in Broth with Sweet Potato, Cabbage, and Oyster Mushrooms
Serves four as a main dish, six as a starter.

Ingredients
6 cups kombu dashi, chicken stock or vegetable stock 
6 ounces Japanese soba noodles, cooked and tossed with 1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes (about 3/4 pound), peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick (cut in half lengthwise first if fat)
2 cups shredded cabbage
10-12 oyster mushrooms, rinsed
2 tablespoons minced chives
Salt to taste

Directions
1. Bring the stock to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt if desired. Add the sweet potatoes and cabbage, and simmer 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

2. If the noodles have been refrigerated, warm them by placing them in a strainer and dipping the strainer into the simmering broth. Then distribute the noodles among four to six soup bowls. Add the spinach to the stock. Cover, and turn off the heat. Leave for three minutes. Ladle the soup into the bowls, taking care to distribute the vegetables evenly. Sprinkle the chives over each serving, and serve.

For something that is healthy, it was quite delicious and easy to make. I will definitely be making this one again during the cold winter months when only a bowl of hot soup can warm you up. 

Have a great Monday everyone! 

Week in Austin, TX

Just got back from PR and after an ordeal of losing my luggage for a few days, I'm back and resting. The Fam is here and we're cooking up a storm of traditional Taiwanese dishes - more on that in future posts.

In the meantime, I wanted to share our recent (or not so recent since it was 3 weeks ago!) trip to Austin, TX - home of The Husband and our favorite city in good ole' Tejas. 

Late night trip to Taco C: A tribute to one of my graduate school class's old haunts on Greenville Ave after some cervezas.

The In-Laws treated us to a 7 lb lobster at Ho Ho (great name...) Restaurant. Imagine mouthfuls of lobster with every bite. Heaven. 

Bananarchy: "There's money in the banana stand!" Frozen chocolate-covered bananas layered with crunchy confections.

   

      

Smitty's Market BBQ. We still prefer Saltlick BBQ. 

Food Trailers: Odd Duck and Gourdoughs. Yes, the last 2 pictures are of doughnuts...

Torchy's Tacos: Fried Avocado and Trailer Park. (Never forget to make it "Trashy"). 

Austin has become a crazy food truck mecca since we left college. Hopefully, the Durham food truck scene will also continue to grow in the next few years. I'll definitely be tracking that evolution while we're here. 

Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy your local food scene! 

Dining In: Durham, NC - East Coast Chinese Food Express

Anyone who knows us in Durham will have definitely heard of the chinese place inside the Krogers (no, not next to the Kroger, inside of it). This is our go-to Asian food place when we are too lazy to drive to Cary or Raleigh. With prices that can't be beat and fairly spot on flavors - why not have some chinese takeout? 

I was highly skeptical on my first visit since this place is seriously inside the Kroger grocery store next to the Coinstar and the feminine hygiene products. But, those who have been brave enough to order from here have not been disappointed. 

They have various items written only in Chinese, which I have my parents decipher each time that they visit. Otherwise, you can point at the random pictures or English names of dishes that most commonly grace the menus of chinese take out places. The husband wife duo have been here for 11 years, which must mean something. 

Salt and pepper pork ribs. 

Sichuan Chicken and Eggplant. 

Hong Kong Style Wonton Soup.

**Edit

The Husband was sad that there was no happy statement so here goes: 

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend. Thank you for all our service men and women who have fought to keep us safe and free. 

No posts for a while as we'll be in AUSTIN!