Gung Hay Fat Choi

Moving away from home, living in areas with less than 2% Asian representation, and starting my own family have all inspired me to carry on certain cultural traditions (or at least try to).  One of these traditions involves making dumplings to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Dumplings are believed to signify wealth and prosperity in that each morsel is made to resemble a pouch of money.  My sister has written about my father’s infamous dumplings, which he learned to make from his grandmother.  See how every “money bag” is perfectly shaped and practically identical?  

http://www.greenishthumb.net/2010/02/growing-buying-cooking-napa-cabbage.html

The dumplings that I make, while fairly decent tasting, are not nearly as good-looking or delicious as my father’s.  There is just something about his technique and his filling that is difficult to replicate.  In any case, I have observed his method over the years, asked for tutorials, and have come up with a process that allows us carry on the tradition as best we can. 

The dough is “simply” flour and cold water.  The quotation marks are used because I have made many a batch where the dumpling wrappers turn out tough and/or gummy.  Each time I make them, I pray that they’ll be at least edible.  Fortunately, the kitchen gods have been good to us for the last several years. 

The filling that I make changes each time based on what I have in the pantry.  I’ve found that the vegetarian ham that can be purchased in most Asian grocery stores (even the ones found in NC) does really well and, when whirled in the food processor, even slightly mimics the raw meat (whether it be fish, pork, or beef) texture of my father’s filling.  Sort of.  I’ve also put in Chinese chives, shitake and/or wood ear mushrooms, shredded scrambled eggs, edamame, lily flowers…the possible variations are endless.  I typically bind the ingredients together with some soy sauce and sesame oil. 

Hmm, as I’m finally getting around to writing this entry months after Chinese New Year, I’m feeling like I shouldn’t necessarily wait another year to make another batch!      

I Don't Hate Okra

Once in a while I crave bhindi masala and will forego my usual saag paneer or malai kofta at an Indian restaurant.  But, I have never bought nor cooked okra myself until this interesting and somewhat intimidating vegetable (in its potential slime factor) showed up in my CSA bag over the summer.  What to do?  Well, if developing a taste for sweet tea doesn’t make me that much closer to being a Southerner after living in NC for 6 years, then fryin’ up some okra should!  I found some inspiration from allrecipes.com and fried up a batch.  Y-U-M.  The cornmeal breading was perfectly seasoned with whatever I grabbed from the spice cabinet.  I think I ended up adding Lawry’s seasoning salt, garlic salt, and lemon pepper.  It smelled like popcorn while cooking and, in fact, I popped these puppies in my mouth like said popcorn!  As did my husband (who steers clear of bhindi when I get it) and daughter.  Just as good, if not better, than the fried okra I’ve ordered in those Southern restaurants where it’s often the only vegetarian item on the menu.   

   

Zucchini-fest!

Another great (or not so great) thing about the CSA, depending on how you look at it--zucchini, zucchini, zucchini.  This versatile veggie has been included in almost every week’s assortment.  Luckily, I like zucchini.  Still, I had to come up with some creative ways to eat these suckers up.  Here are a few dishes I've tried this season:

Zucchini and Tofu Quesadilla, with Tomatillo (also from CSA!) Salsa

Zucchini Patties, stacked Napolean style with ricotta and tomatos from you guessed it!

Zucchini and Tomato Tart (any idea where the tomatos and corn came from?)

Zucchini Chocolate Cake (note to self: cake should be sweet. please don't skimp on the sugar next time )

Sweet Zucchini Bread from the Joy of Cooking (6 loaves worth so far, chocolate chips = nice touch!)

More than a garnish...

One of the great aspects about this whole CSA thing is that I’m getting the opportunity to cook veggies that I have never even considered dealing with.  When have I ever bought red cabbage (which I have tended to view as more of a garnish for a restaurant salad bar than anything substantially edible!)?  Boy, was I wrong.  Upon consultation with the Joy of Cooking, I ended up making “braised red cabbage.”  The shredded cabbage was perfectly tender but succulent at the same time, and I wanted the delicate, sweet-sour flavor to never end.  And look at the gorgeous hue!  We ate this as a side with some sauteed potatos and onions (both also from the CSA bounty), and marinated, lightly seared tofu. 

CSA: Week 1!

After months of eager anticipation, I finally picked up my first share of organic veggies from Yellow Wolf Farm. 

This is my first time buying into a weekly share.  While I do have some nit-picky criticisms about the experience as a whole, there is so much to love about it--eating seasonally, supporting a local farm, super fresh meals, and, as I've quickly found, being creative with what we get!  Here's what I made with this first week's bounty (cabbage, more specifically):

This light, yet hearty, and way tasty dish, White Beans & Cabbage, is actually pictured on the cover of one of my new favorite cookbooks, Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Every Day" (a recent gift from my sister).

Stay tuned for more meals inspired by Community Supported Agriculture!

Barley-Lentil Soup for the Soul

After giving birth to my daughter several years ago, my good friend Paula visited us in the hospital and came armed with delicious goodies.  After 30 hours of labor with no drugs, I was certainly ready for some nourishment, hospital iceberg salads and jello notwithstanding.  Indeed, Paula brought a healthy and insanely comforting meal--homemade soup, homemade multigrain bread, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (to boost lactation!).  Paula passed along her soup recipe a while back, and I finally tried making a batch of my own.  The flavors are subtly tasty, the veggies cook down to the perfect softness, the lentils provide a punch of protein, and the barley brings a nice chewiness to round things out.  Of course, my favorite part in making this dish (and sharing it with my now two year old!) was the nice, warm feeling I got while having it again, which went far beyond the actual taste of the soup.       

Recipe from Epicurious: www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/231578

Dusty Summer Rolls

A recent meal was largely motivated by three key ingredients:

(1)   Spring roll sheets.  I don’t know what motivated me to buy these (gulp) several years ago at least.  They have been literally collecting dust and I finally got fed up with moving it around to reach other things on the shelf. 

(2)   Sprouts!  My sister gave me a sprouting kit a while back.  This sprouter is awesome!  Click on the link to see the detailed process involved.  Sprouts are like one of the healthiest foods ever and it’s easy and fun to see the nutrients well, sprout, before your very eyes.

(3)   Homemade plum sauce.  Said sister is an incredible gardener (and amazing cook) and has recently begun canning to take advantage of her seasonal bounty.  I have coveted her pepper jelly and am not ashamed to admit to hording it from my family and licking the jars clean.  This plum sauce needed to accompany just the right Asian-inspired dish…     

Additional ingredients: lettuce (chose a butter lettuce salad mix), red bell pepper, cucumber, Morningstar Farms “chicken” strips (one of my favorite faux meat products), basil.  I also had some shredded “crab” in the freezer.  This was something that my mother bought for me at an Asian food store.  I haven’t found anything similar around these here parts in the Southeastern US, but this could probably be easily found in most Asian stores in bigger cities.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any vermicelli rice noodles on hand. 

I also whipped up some peanut sauce—something that I’ve just recently learned is super easy to make: peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, and maybe a splash of water.     

I decided to wing it, but I wish I had looked into the whole process of making summer rolls a little more because my first shot at making them was a bit of mess!  First, here's the process I used to make the sheets pliable.  I saw this on the Food Network's Chopped a while back and thought I'd just go for it! 



So far so good...

And here's where I realized that making summer rolls are a lot harder than it seems!  Practically all of my rolls fell apart, and they were not anything close to the tight bundles of goodness that I envisioned! 

Incredibly tasty though, especially with the sweet/tart plum sauce and creamy umami-y peanut sauce!

Since I only used 1/2 of the sheets, they are back to collecting dust in my cabinet.  When I give these another shot, I think I'll try immersing them for a shorter period of time, as described here by "Tangled Branches" in Wendy's Garden-to-Table Challenge described here.