Bread Success (Pretty Much!)!

I impulsively bought a block of wet compressed yeast from Rainbow Grocery yesterday and had to do something with it.This is my first western-style bread, using Mark Bittman/Jim Lahey's no-knead dutch oven recipe (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=1).

Although the recipe calls for instant yeast, the internet tells me 0.6 oz of wet yeast is equivalent to 2.25 tsp of instant. The block I bought was 0.5 lb, roughly 8 ounces, so I said what the hell, I'll chip a small piece from the corner off and see how it goes. The recipe requires so little work and just a lot of time waiting around for stuff to grow. It was pretty successful, although my dough seemed a bit more amorphous than it should, and the bread didn't rise as much as I'd hoped (see photo). The inside is still very light and airy, the crust is crackling and beautiful, and the taste is divine- salty, and yeasty; I'd say better than most of the loaves sold in bakeries (gasp!). In the future I will play around with different amounts of the compressed yeast and different room temperatures to see if I can achieve a more normal looking dough and higher rise.

P.S. delicious with mimolette cheese at 10pm

Thousand-year old egg, anyone?

I have one mission in life: to convince everyone I know that Chinese food does NOT consist of sweet and sour pork, orange chicken, or a medley of meat and veggies immersed in a sea of corn-starch thickened goop. I guess I can sort of understand the appeal of Americanized Chinese food, sort of like how you sometimes crave MickeyD's egg mcmuffins even though you know its not so good. Of course bringing thousand year-old egg into the picture doesn't help.

We had a proper Chinese/Taiwanese meal, legitimized by three Taiwanese guests fresh off the plane plus too-legit-to-quit pork belly A-chen and my half-claim-to-Taiwanese self. That makes for 4.5 of us right? We started off with pickled radishes, thousand year old egg and tofu, and green onion pancakes. I don't think many people are aware of Chinese cold dishes but they are a norm in any Chinese household. A made her famed hong shau rou, a recipe she snatched from her pops. The pork tender, the sauce addictingly sweet and all in all "salty as fuck" (as Allison likes to put it)-- it is delicious on top of rice. The rice, should be noted, is incredibly important--short grain and a tad sticky-- as the sauce should cling to the rice (like white on rice). I say this because I messed up the rice and bad rice is not acceptable nor salvageable!

Also on the menu included a vegetarian dish of bean curd, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and green peas; sauteed Taiwanese spinach with garlic and ginger; shrimp sauteed in a shitload of olive oil and butter; a cold noodle dressed in sesame oil, black vinegar, soy sauce and hot chili garlic sauce topped with canned tuna/salmon/sardines (really, we had a choice of all three and it was surprisingly good); and lastly, E contributed a Korean-Chinese dish, Kimchi fried rice. I'm missing some pictures but I was too eager to eat...sorry!

Pickled Radishes

Pi dan dou fu (thousand year old egg and tofu topped with scallions, soy sauce paste, rice vinegar and sesame oil)

Cong You Bing (scallion pancake)

Hong Shau Rou pork belly (the cut normally used for bacon) braised in soy sauce, shaoxing wine, and spiced with whole star anise

Sauteed Taiwanese Spinach

Kimchi Fried Rice (with tofu) Sorry for the myspace-like picture

Veggie Pot Pie 2008

Ever since our coming-to-manhood trip to Europe, porkbelly and I have shared a pre-New Years Eve tradition of recreating a great dish that our host/friend Joris made for us one hazy night. JB joined us this year for Joris' Veggie Pot Pie '08. It was yummy, even though I made the poor executive decision to sub fillo dough for puff pastry (Whole Foods only had bougie puff pastry from La Boulange for a disgusting price! Damn you, Whole Foods! -- oh yea, blog about that place coming soon).

Anyways, this is great stoner comfort food to keep you warm and full during the holidays. Anything you have on hand vis-a-vis vegetables, cheese, and spices will work. Just make sure you have cream cheese and puff pastry (note: the Pepperidge Farm version will only set you back like $3). I scribbled down the recipe the second time I stayed with our dear host Joris, but it is packed away somewhere in my unpacked moving boxes, so we do what we can...

Ingredients:

• one block cream cheese
• any other cheeses (we used cheddar, feta, parmesean)
  
• one zucchini
• one cup mushrooms, sliced or wedges
  
• 2 medium roma tomatoes, sliced
  
• 3 garlic cloves
  
• 1 bell pepper (did you know that in Holland they call it "paprika"?)
• one box frozen puff pastry
• sriracha sauc
• 1 egg
• a tablespoon of crushed nuts (cashews work well)
• dash of basil and oregano
  

Recipe:

• Defrost puff pastry and pre-heat oven to whatever time the puff pastry box demands.
  
• Stir-fry the vegetables (minus tomatoes) in oil and sriracha sauce.
• Flatten a couple sheets of puff pastry with a rolling pin or your hands
  
• Lay out the puff pastry on the bottom of a casserole dish or Dutch oven. Let the edges hang over the side, they will eventually fold over to make a top
  
• Throw an egg on it and spread it around
• Throw some of veggies on it
  
• Spread cream cheese throughout, add other cheeses to taste
• Add rest of veggies
• Add crushed nuts for crunch
  
• Slice tomatoes and add on top
• Sprinkle basil, oregano, salt and pepper
• Add grated parmesan cheese
  
• Pull the puff pastry edges over to cover
• Bake until the pastry puffs and starts to brown
• Cool a bit, then dig in!
  
  
  

Previous year's crispy puff pastry version

This year's fillo dough no-no

It's not the most photogenic dish, but a wonderful food memory to relive every year nonetheless. You know you love me. XoXo, Gossip Girl

Cheap-Ass Lunches in Taiwan

One of the best things about Asia is the abundance of restaurants and vendors serving tasty, cheap-ass food. These places are especially good to hit up for lunch because they serve the food quickly and earnestly, wasting no time on social pleasantries or the rattling-off of daily specials. Usually, each vendor specializes in dishes focusing around a main ingredient (i.e. beef noodle soup, roasted duck, etc). If only more restaurants with the same business plan existed for us here in the US.

From the wet market:

Ba wan: kind of like a savory mochi filled with ground pork, ginger, mushrooms, and topped with gravy

From a noodle soup place:
Beef noodle soup with tendon. The noodles were handmade and thus had marvelous toothfeel, the Taiwanese word for which is "kiu."


From a pork restaurant:


Top to bottom: homemade Chinese sausage (xiang chang); stewed ground pork (kou rou); pork chop and rice with pickled greens (pai gu fan)


From a duck vendor:

Top to bottom: duck soup with Chinese herbs; sauteed duck intestines with bean sprouts and scallion

MmmIndian

Allison and I decided to take on Indian food as our first weekly dinner night. After some deliberation, we settled on Bhatura (a soft, fluffy, fried type of bread), hot chana dal with potatoes, and a mixed vegetable curry. Our dear friend Derrick made some sort of basmati rice concoction that he was very embarrassed of but ain't no shame--Allison fried it, added a little (a lot) of salt, and it was good to go! The hot chana dal was packed with heat and tang, just like ol A herself, and my mixed veggie curry was super flavorful (I accidentally, I mean purposely, forgot to add water in the end but richer=better?). The recipe has a lot of little steps, but its worth it!

Bhatura and a basmati rice mix


Mixed Vegetable Curry


Hot chana dal with potatoes

Bhatura (from Madhur Jaffrey)
1 cup all purpose white flour (we used white whole wheat)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1-1.5 TB plain yogurt
Vegetable oil for brushing the dough and for frying

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.
2. Add egg and mix, slowly adding yogurt.
3. Begin kneading, adding yogurt until dough is soft. Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
4. Form into a ball, brush with oil, cover with damp cloth, and keep in warm place for 3 hours.
5. With moistened hands, knead dough again.
6. Put oil in skillet, wok, or karhai, heat over medium flame. Allow oil time to get smoking hot.
7. Divide dough into 8 balls and flatten them. Flour rolling surface and roll balls into 4.5 inch rounds.
8. Drop rounds into oil. As they begin to sizzle, press down on them gently with the back of a slotted spoon. It will puff up. Turn them over and let other side brown lightly. The whole process should take about a minute.

Hot chana dal with potatoes (from Madhur Jaffrey)
1/2 cup chana dal, cleaned and washed
1 tsp salt
4 TB vegetable oil
1/4 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp whole cumin seeds
10 fenugreek seeds
2 fresh green chilis (we used serrano)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 slice fresh ginger, grated
4 boiled new potatoes, diced to 1/2 in. cubes
1/8 tsp freshly round pepper
3 TB tamarind paste

1. Boil dal with 3 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt. Cover, lower heat, and simmer gently for 1 hour. Drain and set aside.
2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium high flame. When the oil is hot, add mustard cumin, and fenugreek seeds. In a few seconds, as soon as the seeds darken and pop, add green chilis. Turn over once, then add chopped onion and greated ginger. Stir and fry the onions for 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add boiled dal and boiled potatoes, salt, pepper, tamarind paste. Mix and cook over medium flame for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Mixed Vegetable Curry (http://www.sailusfood.com/)
2 cups onions
1 cup cauliflower
1 cup carrots
3/4 cup french beans
1 cup potatoes
3/4 cup green peas
1 cup tomatoes
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
3 green chillis slit length wise
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera,jeelakara)
3 cloves
4 green cardamoms
2″ cinnamon stick
1 tsp red chilli pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
1/2 tsp cumin pwd
1/4 tsp garam masala pwd
2 tbsp brown onion paste (fry 2 sliced onions till brown and make a paste of it)
2 tbsp curd (yogurt)
3 tbsp tomato paste
salt
vegetable oil
coriander leaves for garnishing

For cashewnut paste:
2 tbsp cashewnuts
1 tbsp melon seeds
1 tsp poppy seeds

Soak the cashewnuts, melon seeds and poppy seeds in water for 20 minutes and make a smooth paste. Keep aside.

1. Chop the veggies. Parboil the vegetables except onions and tomatoes adding some salt.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a cooking vessel and add the par-boiled veggies and fry for 3-4 minutes. Keep aside.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a vessel. Add the whole garam masala (spices) and jeera. Let it splutter. Add chopped onions and slit green chillis and fry till transparent.
4. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till oil seperates.
5. Add red chilli pwd, coriander pwd, cumin pwd, and salt. Mix well.
6. Add the chopped tomatotes and fry till oil seperates. You need to stir fry the paste really well.
7. Add the parboiled veggies and mix well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, .i.e the veggies need to be well coated in this onion-tomato masala.
8. Add the tomato paste and mix well.
9. Add brown onion paste and curds and mix well.
10. Add the cashewnut paste and mix well.Cook covered for 2-3 minutes.
11. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and mix well and cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. Add garam masala pwd and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

I was on an Indian kick and wanted to use up the fresh coriander I bought, so I made some of this to go with my left overs.