Skin-On Asian Chicken Thighs & Escarole (Or Spinach)

I want to tell you about a secret club...

I'm not supposed to. I've been sworn to secrecy. But I can tell you. I know you won't say anything. Anyway, I have to tell you about the secret club because I feel that if I don't write it here, I won't remember, years from now. And this is something I don't want to forget.

The club is called "The Sunset Girls". There are only two members, Lucy and I. It is very exclusive. And we discriminate, against anyone who isn't us, apparently.

See, Lucy loves a sunset. In the country, one part of our deck looks out across the Shawangunks Mountains. Every night, the big glorious sun, in winter and summer, good times and bad, loses its heat, its fire, and falls behind those mountains like clockwork and sprays streams of pink, blue and violet light into nearby clouds. The clouds look like cotton candy, the whole sky a fairground, with moving, spinning mauve and purple ferris wheels and rose-colored streamers flapping through the breeze.

So, every late afternoon about the same time when we are in the country, Lucy stops me from whatever I'm doing and makes me stand with her on the deck, with her in my arms, wrapped in a soft blanket, and watch the sun breathe its last few breaths before it slides behind a peak for the next 10 hours.

She stays until the very last minute, until the last ray has crested.

And we talk about the sky and what we see in the clouds and the colors we like best. And how we like being "The Sunset Girls". And last time, as I held her in the chilly almost-night, she told me that it was only for us, that we couldn't share this with anyone else. That only we loved the sunset the most of anyone in the whole world.

And that made me feel good. "The Sunset Girls" is our thing, together.


And then, when we can't take the cold air no longer, when even the big blanket wrapped around us cannot keep us warm, we run inside and paint the sky on paper. And for some reason, whatever she draws is always more beautiful than the sky we have just watched. If that is even possible to imagine. But it is.

And then, we eat. And there is talk of the summer ahead and laying in the grass on blankets and watching the stars, naming the constellations and imagining the bigness of the world. This makes her happy.

Last week our post-sunset meal was a very simple chicken dish, one I can throw together quickly. I'd like to share it with you. It's simple, because I was much too interested in the sky to be focused on a long kitchen marathon.

And both of The Sunset Girls liked it.

xo YM
____________________________________________________________________________________


I usually do this dish with escarole, a nice weighty leaf, but sunset night I only had spinach and that was also very nice. You can just about sub in any green and make it work. Just try not to over cook the greens. Plop them down right on the simmering chicken at the very last minute and let them get all mixed up in the sauce, but just until they wilt. This should take about 30 seconds or so. Then take them out with a slotted spoon.

The other important note for this dish is that you want to buy skin-on chicken thighs. Chicken thighs are cheap and you can feed a lot of people if you buy a big tray of them at Costco, but sometimes, unfortunately, they are sold skinned. This means that you cannot get a good, crusty sear on the outside and your dish will end up looking kind of brown and unattractive when you serve it. You need the skin to crisp up to really make this dish work.

Skin-On Asian Chicken Thighs with Spinach (Or Escarole)

Ingredients

Chicken thighs (figure two thighs for each adult. I cooked six this time)
Salt and pepper
Fish sauce 2 tablespoons
Light soy sauce 2 tablespoons
Sesame oil 1 tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
Garlic, 3 cloves, finely chopped
1 Big lemon, cut in halves or quarters, squeezed into marinade and rinds left to sit in marinade (reserve a wedge or two for garnish)
1 good size bunch of cilantro, finely chopped (reserve a bit of it, finely chopped, for garnish)
Wine, a splash or two (oh, make it two)
Butter, a nice big knob
Chicken broth or water, 3/4 - 1 cup as needed, while cooking
Spinach or Escarole or another green you like, a bunch will feed a family of 4 - 6
Jasmine rice (optional)

Preparation

Wash chicken thighs and pat dry with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. Put the thighs in a medium-size bowl and add fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, lemon and a nice handful of chopped cilantro. Be generous. Cilantro is never a bad thing. I've given you measurements, but feel free to improvise. For instance, I like just a little ginger, but feel free to add more if you want a more dominating flavor.


Get the chicken all soaked up in the marinade and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. If you are going to serve with jasmine rice, you should make that now.

When you are ready to cook, heat a cast iron or regular fry pan on high until it's nice and hot, add olive oil, let that heat up for about a minute. Shake off the extra marinade from the thighs (but save the marinade for later use) and one at a time, put them in the hot pan, skin side down. You are trying to get a nice sear on the skin, so let them just sit there in the oil and fry. Try to resist picking it up to look at it, or flipping it around the pan with your fork.

Once, the skin is golden, flip the thighs over. Turn the heat down a little to a medium-ish flame. Scrape up some of the bits of meat stuck to the pan, they are very flavorful. Add the marinade liquid, wine, a knob of butter, chicken broth (or water). You may need to add more broth/water as the chicken cooks. The broth should come up to the middle of the chicken, without covering the meat. Don't let the bottom of the pan get all dry. Keep a nice steady supply of liquid just under the chicken. Season with a little salt and pepper if needed, but be careful soy sauce is pretty salty and you may not need it. Taste it first.

Cover the chicken. Cook for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on flame.

When the chicken is nearly down, grab a handful of your greens and throw them in the pan. Some will stay on top of the chicken, some will fall into the pan drippings, it's all good. Cover the pan again and let the greens steam for 30 seconds to a minute.

Uncover the pan, remove greens to a separate plate with tongs. Taste everything for seasoning. Then, plate chicken thighs, rice if you serving it. Place greens on top of rice, letting juices seep in. Serve with a drizzle of pan juices over the meat and garnish with lemon wedges and finely chopped Cilantro.

Continue Reading...

Chinese New Year: The Best Egg Rolls EVER

So, here's my week:

Monday

Made Valentines Day treats with Lucy's pre-k class. We made chocolate covered strawberries, which we then, quite redundantly, decorated with more chocolate.

This was a simple cooking challenge compared to "The Great Chocolate Kumquat Fried Wonton Experiment of 2010", of the week before, where the frozen chocolate kumquat cream that we were going to wrap in wontons and fry in oil never actually froze, even after three days in the classroom's rat trap of a freezer compartment. So I had 20 four year olds trying to wrap melting, liquified Kumquat-flavored chocolate into wonton wrappers, which is, like, impossible.

And basically they got their clothes covered in chocolate and tried to eat the chocolate off of their shirt sleeves. I caught this one kid licking himself up to his elbow.


That cooking week could also be be called "Don't Rely on Public School Appliances When Trying to Cook Something in the Classroom Because, well, They Often Suck."


So, the chocolate-covered strawberries...Well, all I can say is, you turn your back for one minute and a table full of kids are sucking chocolate out of the pastry bags. It was like watching an alley full of tiny crack addicts. They did a nice job, but they did it whacked out on sugar, so I'm not sure it counts.







Next time, we mercifully go back to savory foods...

Tuesday

Cooked Vegetable Dumplings in Edie's class for Chinese New Year. Well, they weren't Vegetable Dumplings because I put pork in my vegetable dumplings. These were Vegetarian and as such, not nearly as tasty in my opinion. This did not seem to be a problem for the kids who seemed to love making the dumplings, rolling out the dough, filling, crimping, but felt that actually eating the dumplings was like eating feet. One kid ate them. And Tonio, the gymnastics teacher, he ate 10.







Wednesday

Snow Day. Big blizzard. Wet snow, good for snow forts and snow ball fights. Not good for sneaking off to Toys R Us to buy presents for Lucy's birthday - she's nearly 5 - I am the mother of a nearly 5 year old. God, give me a drink.

Anyway, snow day was fun. We had a snow ball fight, made a snow sculpture, bought Valentines at Duane Reade and we read the book, Charlotte's Web. And then, we watched the movie and Lucy and I sobbed and had to hold onto each other when Charlotte dies and Wilbur vows to take care of her children, all 514 of them. And then, we had to read the last half of the book over again. And then, we sobbed again. She begged me to promise I would never cry again, but I'm too big a wimp to keep that promise.

Wednesday Night

Realized I hadn't taken a proper shower since the weekend and am promptly grossed out by myself.

I remember we are going to Australia on Sunday. For two weeks.

I also remember, as reality crashes around me, that we have invited 11 of Lucy's best friends to come with us as our guests on Saturday to "Pinkalicious: The Musical". This requires a very specific Pinkalicious cupcake, goody bags, pizza, gallons of juice and oh I don't know, gifts for my daughter who is counting the hours until this important milestone event. The big 5. My girl is gonna be 5.

Then, there's an in-school Birthday celebration on Friday that requires a sweet treat that will not disappoint, but cannot upstage the Pinkalicious cupcake on Saturday, because all the girls who who are at the class party on Friday will also be at the Pinkalicious party on Saturday. It's the same reason you can't wear your Golden Globes dress at the Oscars. Got that.

And there's, you know, three meals a day, snacks, a book proposal I'm writing that needs to be finished soon and requires my attention and unencumbered head, this blog, the magazine editors waiting for my pitches, I owe someone an invoice for Pete's sake so I can be paid, there's at least 3 friends I haven't called in like weeks who probably think I hate them, there's hugs and kisses and moments of undivided attention that need to be doled out, and there's that shower. I need that shower.

Did I mention we are traveling to the other side of the planet? Like in a few days?...oh yeah, right.

Okay, so I'm not complaining. I'm not fitting chemo treatments in between appointments with a funeral director. I'm happy, but I don't have much time this week to savor that with an iced tea and a pedicure, although I really should get a pedicure before going to Australia where it's summer and I'll be in flip flops everyday. Sigh. I'll rest on the 20 hour plane trip with David and the kids...uh, well, guess not.

xo YM
__________________________________________________________________________________

So, if you didn't get enough of the the Pork Dumplings from my last post and you are looking to lengthen your Chinese New Year celebration, I suggest you make these crunchy, delicious egg rolls. I got the recipe from Jaden Hair at Steamy Kitchen. They are her mom's famous egg rolls and because of that I didn't alter the recipe a bit. Never mess with a mom. I will say this - these are hands down the BEST egg rolls I've ever had in my life, home-made or from a restaurant. Just make them.

Jaden does a great job showing the step by step of wrapping the egg rolls, if you need a tutorial or a brush-up. I made them on the spur of the moment after dark in our NYC apartment and the light was too dim to get the shots of the rolling. I had to hide these two little beauties away so I could shoot them the next day. It wasn't easy. I dare you to eat just one.


Jaden's Mom’s Famous Chinese Crispy Egg Rolls

Ingredients

The Filling

1 1/4 pounds ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 head of small cabbage (about 10 ounces)
3 carrots
8 fresh shitake mushrooms (or dried Chinese mushrooms soaked overnight), stems discarded
1 tablespoon high-heat cooking oil
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

The Egg Rolls

50 Spring Roll/Egg Roll Wrappers, defrosted unopened at room temperature for 45 minutes or in refrigerator overnight (about 2 packages)

Cornstarch slurry: 1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed with 1/4 cup of cool water

Oil, for frying

Preparation

Make the Filling

Marinate the ground pork with the soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and sesame oil for at least 10 minutes at room temperature.

In the meantime, shred the cabbage and the carrots using your food processor or by hand. Slice the mushrooms into very thin strips.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until hot. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the garlic, ginger and fry until fragrant, 15-30 seconds. Add the pork and stir fry until no longer pink. Add the cabbage, carrots and the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil Chinese black vinegar, salt and black pepper. Continue to stir fry for another minute. Remove the filling to a baking sheet and spread out to cool. Prop up one end of the baking sheet so that it tilts and will allow all the moisture to drain to one end. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Wrap

Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to rid of extra oil or juice. Now, you're ready to wrap. Go to Steamy Kitchen for the wrapping tutorial, if you want it.

Keep the rolled egg rolls in neat, single layer and covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. If you want to stack the egg rolls, make sure you have layer of parchment paper in between the layers to prevent sticking.

Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.

Fry

To fry the egg rolls, fill a wok or pot with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350F or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown within 10 seconds. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4-6 at a time, turning occassionaly until golden brown about 1 1/2 minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.

To fry frozen egg rolls, do not defrost the egg rolls – just add them to the oil frozen, frying 4-6 at a time. Add an additional 1 1/2 minutes to the frying time since they are frozen.

I could tell you to make a dipping sauce but you won't need it, you'll eat them as they come out of the wok. I threw a little chopped cilantro over them, but that was just over kill. Enjoy!

Continue Reading...

Chinese New Year: "Sexy" Pork Dumplings

This morning we were getting ready for school and I asked Lucy if she would like to wear her "rainbow shoes" and she looked at them, and as if she was not saying something completely preposterous, said, "Yes, those...They're sexy."

Um, okay...what? Hey, you're not even five years old. You don't even know sexy. Hey, people who are 20 don't know sexy. Sexy is a lifetime, baby. Sexy is really red Victoria Secrets lingerie that makes you look like a really big maraschino cherry, four inch heels that give you corns, bikini waxes that do nothing but make you have scratch yourself at inappropriate times, and thongs that rub the inside of your ass cheeks until a rash forms. Puh-leese. You, my child, do not know sexy.

It seems that Lucy's new BFF in school, a lovely, yet inappropriately sophisticated child, has taught my daughter about "the sexy". Lucy now uses it to describe various clothing items. Those pants are not sexy. I want a sexy shirt. Your hair is sexy, Mama...okay, that one is fine.

Truth is,The BFF and Lucy really love each and call each other sister and hug each other whenever the opportunity allows. When I leave the ice skating rink after watching the kids skate and Lucy is sad, it is the BFF who wraps her arms around Lucy and comforts her as I walk away. That's the lovely side of the friendship. The BFF also likes to kiss the boys and be "sexy". Lord help me.


The BFF has also created opportunities that we have used to help Lucy, like when the girl has on two separate occasions vowed to withhold her friendship if Lucy didn't do what she wanted. The first time, Lucy caved, unhappily. So, we talked her through it. The next time, she held her ground and found out the BFF would still be her friend even if she held her ground. Wow. That was a great lesson for her to have learned in pre-k.

Took me nearly 40 years. That's my girl.


So, we have no desire to do anything but encourage Lucy to decide who she wants to be friends with, who she loves, as long as she looks out for herself. So this is a good friendship. Except for the sexy thing. That needs to end, like yesterday, before Lucy starts asking for crotchless panties and inquiring about bootie calls.

It's all starting. The way she talks to me about her day. How she tells me about the argument she had with this girl and what she did and how she feels. God, how do I have a teenager already? She goes to school and her life is an episode of Days of Our Lives. She is such a big girl.

And friendships are complicated.

xo YM

_______________________________________________________________________________

But she is not too big for dumplings! Chinese New Year is coming up after all and Lucy and the BFF both love pork dumplings. We made these in Lucy's class with pork, shrimp and tofu fillings and we'll make vegetarian ones in Edie's class this week because her school is very politically correct about their food choices. I hate that, of course, but what are ya gonna do?

I only give you the pork filling here because, well, pork rocks and everything else pales in comparison. Don't buy the dough. It's easy to make and the kids will enjoy making it with you. It is very forgiving, so extra kneading won't bother it a bit.


"Sexy" Pork Dumplings
Adapted from recipes from Epicurious and Use Real Butter

Ingredients

Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour (you'll also need more for dusting your board)
Tap water

Pork Filling
1 (2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
3/4 lb ground pork (from shoulder; not lean)

Dipping Sauce
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
A few drops of sesame oil
Minced ginger (optional)
Minced scallion green (optional)

Preparation

Make the Pork Filling

Halve ginger, then finely chop 1 half and cut remaining half into very thin matchsticks (less than 1/8 inch thick).Combine 5 tablespoons soy sauce with ginger matchsticks in a small bowl.Reserve 2 tablespoons scallions for garnish, then finely chop remainder and put in a bowl along with pork, finely chopped ginger, and remaining 3 tablespoons soy sauce. Gently knead with your hands in bowl until just combined. Chill, covered, 10 minutes.

Make The Dough

The dough is easy. You can make it ahead or after you make the filling. It is two cups of flour to a half cup of water. Put flour in a bowl, add water slowly and mix everything together until it starts to ball together into a sticky clump. (This happens more quickly if you pulse it a few times in a food processor, but I went old school)


Transfer the mound onto a board or counter dusted with flour. Knead the dough, as if you were making pizza dough or bread, until it becomes firm and silky to the touch.

Then, you can set it aside in the refrigerator wrapped in cellophane or freeze the dough. I've done both and the dough is perfect. If you feel the dough is hardening quickly, you can put a damp dishtowel over whatever portions of dough you haven't starting working with yet.


But if you want to fill the dough immediately, slice the dough into four separate pieces and roll each slice into a dough into a cylinder, like a long knock wurst (1 1/4 inches). Then, slice discs off the cylinder.

Each disk will be a dumpling. Press the disk down with the palm of your hand so that it flattens into a fat little circle. This will make it easier to roll out with a rolling pin.

Next, take your rolling pin. Think of the disk as a clock, 12 at the top, 6 at the bottom. Start in the middle of the disk roll out to the edge to 12. Turn your rolling pin. Go back to the middle and roll out to 3. Turn, go back to the middle and roll out to 6, keep going until you have a think circle. The more circular it is, the easier time you'll have filling it.


As you can see, some of ours are perfect circles, others are just mushed together. Once you have the disks you are going to fill them with your pork filling.



Fill & Fold the Dumplings

There are a couple standard ways to fold the dumplings. My favorite way is a little less fussy than the conventional and little hands can do it quite easily. It also looks just like it came out of a Chinese restaurant, which is satisfying for the kids.

I could explain how I do it, but take a look at this YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NdskgjZMgM It shows everything you need. You'll notice these people who are having a dumpling-making party (great party concept) really know how to roll out dough and fold dumplings. They are rolling out the dumplings the Chinese way. The clock method I gave you is apparently a French way. I especially like the chillin' music that accompanies. It makes me want to sleep. But in a good way.

Cook the Dumplings

Gently drop all dumplings into a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling water, stir a little to prevent them sticking to the bottom, and cook 6 minutes. (Dumplings will float to top while cooking.) Transfer dumplings with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and sprinkle with reserved scallions and a little chopped cilantro. Serve with dipping sauce.

Make Ginger Dipping Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. You can make this ahead or on the fly as your dumplings are cooking. It's all pretty easy.

Continue Reading...

Shrimp Rolls & Cilantro Dipping Sauce

I made this dish last night after dragging two tired, screeching children around the Upper West Side looking for rice paper so I could make a cold shrimp roll with cucumber, mango and cilantro. I had a hankering and I thought the kids would love it. As you know, we are BIG on the shrimp around here.

It's weird when you go into an Asian grocery and you have to explain what you use to make a shrimp roll. I mean, shouldn't they be explaining it to me? But it turns out, half the people who work in Asian groceries on the Upper West Side are Hispanic and only speak Spanish. And I'll be damned but I couldn't remember how to say rice paper in Spanish.

This all amounts to me screaming "papel de arroz!" over the din of my wailing, unhappy children and about 10 different guys shrugging their bewildered shoulders and saying, "Yo no se!"

So, I changed plans. I shelved the cucumber and the mango and pulled some egg roll wrappers out of the freezer. I went from healthy and fresh, to fried and fatty and awesome in like two seconds flat.


David loved them and ate every one in his near vicinity, including the ones I saved out for his lunch the next day. The girls turned their nose up at them as if I had offered them some kind of liver terrine. Liver terrine with poop on top.

Weirdly, I think they felt the egg roll presentation tainted the shrimp they love so dearly and so, they turned their adorable little noses up at even those. Then, to really rub salt in the wound, they jumped up and down on the couch as if to make it quite clear that they were boycotting dinner and wanted me to know that I had failed to give their little bodies' sustenance. Then, they just pretended I didn't exist.

I got the message.

But you should not listen to my crazy children and make these lovely, crispy rolls with the dipping sauce, which is salty and pungent and gives the rolls just a little kick in the pants. And Lord help, me we all need a good kick in the pants once in awhile.

FYI, I ate the remaining dipping sauce over cellophane noodles at like 11pm while watching the last season of "Madmen" (I'm only on episode 4, so don't tell me) and it was pretty satisfying.

I do believe these rolls would be great cold right out of the fridge the next morning with my ice cold tea, but they didn't stay around long enough for me to find out.

xo YM
____________________________________________________________________________________


Shrimp Rolls

Ingredients

12 egg roll wrappers
¼ cup vegetable oil (for frying)
1 pound of medium cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined & cut into small pieces. (Not minced. I like a little chunk)
4 green onions, finely chopped (some of the green is fine. It'll add flavor and a nice color)
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated (Go easy on the ginger. Too much will overpower the delicate shrimp)
1 good-sized wad of fresh cilantro, minced (Be generous. Cilantro is a good thing)
Juice of half a lime (I only had a lemon and that worked just fine)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
A 1/4 cup of Panko bread crumbs (this sounds weird, but I didn't have cornstarch and this bound up the shrimp nicely and provided a subtle texture inside the roll)

Preparation

Cook shrimp in boiling salted water. About three minutes or until shrimp just turn pink. Don't overcook. Or if you bought cooked shrimp, feel good that you saved yourself some time.

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix together with your hands.

Dip the egg roll wrapper in the warm water under the tap, just until it feels pliable and easy to work with. Lay wrapper on your work surface and place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of shrimp filling in the middle of the wrapper. Roll in edges and tuck over sides to make your egg roll. I think this is intuitive. You know what an egg roll looks like, you can probably figure out the best way to wrap it. If not, I'm sure YouTube has 3,000 videos of people properly wrapping egg rolls.

Cover egg rolls with a damp towel until you are ready to fry. Heat oil in a wok (or pan) until oil shimmers.

Working in batches, fry egg rolls until they are golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes on each side. They cook quickly so keep an eye out. I think it's a no-brainer to say that I stop short at letting the kids help with the frying. Boiling oil in a wok and children makes me nervous.

Remove rolls with tongs. Let drain on paper towels before serving

Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

5 tablespoons fish sauce
Juice of a half a lemon (or lime)
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
A splash of sesame oil
A small pinch of salt
A hit of cilantro, finely chopped

Preparation

Combine in a small bowl and serve on a platter next to the rolls, cut on the diagonal and piled on top of one another, with a flourish of cilantro leaves.

Continue Reading...

Am I as Obsessive as Christopher Kimball? (Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps)

Oh, this man.

David is in Australia again and I am my usual basket case. If you've been reading for a few months, you already know what happened the last time David went to Australia without us.

Well, he's gone again for the week and I'm back to checking the rooms to make sure the ironing board in the closet that looks like it could be a serial killer is actually an ironing board. (This kind of thoroughness takes time and energy) I also have to check the door to make sure it's locked 30 times before I go to bed (kid you not) and I'm pretty busy fantasizing that every little noise in the night is actually a ghost, and that any minute the bed will shoot straight up to the ceiling and whirl around and around, and the cupboard doors will start opening and shutting by themselves.

I've also been watching the cats a lot lately because I hear that if they act squirrely it's because there is something poltergeisty in the house. They are my barometer. If they look calm, I'm calm. If they chase a piece of fuzz across the floor, I'm calling 911.

So, this post will be short because all this looking out for things that could hurt us is exhausting. I am much too busy worrying that the airline mechanics haven't had a proper nights sleep and they will screw up the mechanical inspection of my husband's plane. I check CNN on my phone all day to make sure there haven't been any plane crashes. Even as I write this I feel that even joking about it could send a negative vibe into the air and change the course of the future, so let's stop talking about plane crashes now, okay?...The plane will be fine.

Good plane. High flying plane. Plane of sturdy, well-maintained parts and excellent staying-in-the-air power. Breathe, Kim. Breathe


But there's more...Once this trip, I even had this elaborate fantasy trying to imagine how the girls and I would ever be able to live without David should he survive a plane crash, but come out of it with amnesia and not recognize us and by the end of the fantasy, after we had worked through our deep sadness, I had figured out like 20 different ways I would work selflessly, toiling like Mother Theresa to help him remember our faces and reclaim his life. Seriously, this all played out in my head.

See? Busy, busy.

So, I'm going to leave you the meal David requested for his last meal before he left for Australia. And even now, I hate calling it the "last meal" because well, bad vibes and all (and that made me remember that I haven't even had time to write you my theories about terrorist attacks and what could definitely happen with that), so I'm calling it, "The Get-Your-Butt-Home-in-One-Piece Thai Pork Lettuce Cups". That covers it all, doesn't it?

Now, these are from the most recent issue of "Cook's Illustrated" and I love them and so, I'm giving you their complete recipe here because they, too, are obsessive compulsive and since I did not try this recipe with 24 different cuts of pork, who am I to challenge Christopher Kimball on his own brand of crazy? Although his sounds ways more fun than mine.

I will concede that I made a few changes only because I made this on the fly and we live in Harlem and finding a head of bibb lettuce in Harlem is impossible. I used a beautiful leafy red lettuce and did the best I could. It all went down the same.

Leftovers & Next Day Lunch

Also, I suggest grinding up extra pork loin and keeping it uncooked for the next day and making extra rice. That way you can make pork fried rice for lunch. Splash a little fish sauce on the pork and mix a little shredded ginger in there with your hands. Throw some chopped onions and garlic in the wok when the oil is glistening hot. Add the pork breaking it into little pieces as you go. Get it nearly cooked through and add leftover cooked rice. Mix it all in together and scramble an egg scrambled in there. Salt, pepper, a handful of cilantro. Awesome Chinese lunch.

Another thing, about Cook's Illustrated - I suggest not buying the magazine and buying the online subscription. It is hard to remember which magazine in your den has the perfect pot roast recipe and holding onto old magazines is a space-swallower. But their website is great. It's $30-ish a year but you can search for recipes, product reviews and cooking methods as you need them. It's really a terrific site.

Here's the recipe. David loved these so much, he took what was left with him on the plane. Enjoy!


Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps (Or "The Get-Your-Butt-Home-in-One-Piece Thai Pork Lettuce Cups"

Serve 6 as an appetizer or 4 as a main course. Published September 1, 2009. From Cook's Illustrated.

From Cook's Illustrated: We prefer natural pork in this recipe. If using enhanced pork, skip the marinating in step 2 and reduce the amount of fish sauce to 2 tablespoons, adding it all in step 5. Don’t skip the toasted rice; it’s integral to the texture and flavor of the dish. Any style of white rice can be used. Toasted rice powder (kao kua) can also be found in many Asian markets. This dish can be served with sticky rice and steamed vegetables as an entrée. To save time, prepare the other ingredients while the pork is in the freezer.

INGREDIENTS

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound), trimmed of silver skin and fat, cut into 1-inch chunks (see note)
2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon white rice (see note)
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 medium shallots , peeled and sliced into thin rings (about 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons juice from 2 limes
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 head Bibb lettuce , washed and dried, leaves separated and left whole

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place pork chunks on large plate in single layer. Freeze meat until firm and starting to harden around edges but still pliable, 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Place half of meat in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, 5 to six 1-second pulses. Transfer ground meat to medium bowl and repeat with remaining chunks. Stir 1 tablespoon fish sauce into ground meat and marinate, refrigerated, 15 minutes.

3. Heat rice in small skillet over medium-high heat; cook, stirring constantly, until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool 5 minutes. Grind rice with spice grinder, mini food processor, or mortar and pestle until it resembles fine meal, 10 to 30 seconds (you should have about 1 tablespoon rice powder).

4. Bring broth to simmer in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook, stirring frequently, until about half of pork is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon rice powder over pork; continue to cook, stirring constantly, until remaining pork is no longer pink, 1 to 1½ minutes longer. Transfer pork to large bowl; let cool 10 minutes.

5. Add remaining 1½ tablespoons fish sauce, remaining 2 teaspoons rice powder, shallots, lime juice, sugar, red pepper flakes, mint, and cilantro to pork; toss to combine. Serve with lettuce leaves.

(Photo: I didn't take this picture and have no idea who did, otherwise I would've credited it. My wraps were horsed down before I could snap a picture. Sorry, total slacker this week.)

Continue Reading...

Mrs. Jang's Home-Style Fried Eggs from Kylie Kwong...and Red Cook.net

This is not me, of course, but this is exactly what I look like cooking Chinese food in my kitchen

I've been unfaithful, dear readers, I’ve been making Chinese food behind your back.

That's right, I’ve made about 8 or so different Chinese meals now and have yet to share any of them with you. Why? Because I'm secretly honing my craft.

Kian, from across the hall, has been schooling me - sometimes we whip up a little Chinese food at lunch or share plates at dinner. He's stood at the wok giving me instruction for many hours these last few weeks and tasted my stir fries and my white cooked chicken and my crispy skin chicken and my fried rice and given me helpful tips and many kind, supportive words and now, I feel worthy enough to pass on a few nuggets I've learned and some of my exploits behind the wok.

But if you want to really make some Chinese Home-Cooking, I urge you to go to Kian's new blog, Red Cook where he just posted his "Chinese Starter Kit". The starter kit has the basic ingredients you'll need to cook a bunch of simple and scrumptious Chinese meals. These are the things you must have in your pantry and you'll use them over and over.

Okay, even if you think you might not be ready to fire up the old wok, check out Red Cook anyway and give Kian some love. He's new to the blogosphere and he's good people and I have such nice readers I know you guys will hit it off.

Anyway, here's 10 things I've learned about home-cooked Chinese food from Kian so far:

1. It ain’t nothing like what you get at a run of the mill Chinese restaurant or take out joint, so be prepared that the food you cook will be WORLDS better.
   
2. Be prepared to get a lot of compliments from guests who find your food amazing and exotic and have no idea that what you made for them was freakishly simple and took very little time.
3. There is often a lot of cutting of vegetables involved, which is nice when your guests can leisurely help you prep, while you chat about the day and start in on a bottle of wine.
   
4. It will also tickle the fancy of children just waiting for the chance to wield a knife in a properly supervised environment.
5. This cooking will generally involve dirtying one pan - the wok, which means less clean up after the meal (who doesn’t like that?)
6. Chinese food can be prepped ahead (all that cutting of vegetables and such), stowed in bowls and zip lock bags and thrown into the wok at the last minute which makes it great for busy families and quick week night meals.
7. The big wok of boiling oil can be a little intimidating at first, especially when small children are rushing around under foot or someone needs to breastfeed, but since the actual cooking time is so short, you can send the little ones to a responsible adult for a few minutes and get the meal cooked without sending anyone to the burn unit.
   
8. Your kids will be able to use "daikon" in a sentence at their next pre-school interview.
   
9. The most intimidating thing about Chinese cooking the first time is getting used to the new sauces, herbs and ingredients, if you're unfamiliar with them - but once you use the basics once or twice and learn a few general rules (like you don't usually use ginger with vegetable dishes or that you don't use soy sauce in many stir fries) then, it's all down hill from there.
   
10. Home cooked Chinese food is clean, simple and uses fresh ingredients – you’ll feel good after you eat it, not like when you down a carton of Happy Garden’s shrimp fried rice and need to take to your bed for the next few hours to work off that familiar "ill" feeling.

The thing to do is learn several techniques (Kian is very big into showcasing different techniques on his blog) like, red cooking, white cooking, stir frying, etc. Once you've done a recipe or two from Kian's blog or here, you'll have it. Then, you can add different veg, meat and change things up. What I like best about cooking Chinese is that it really plays well with a good cook's sense of improvisation.

So, have fun with this. Learn the basics and then, start free-wheeling it at the wok.

For now, I give you Kylie Kwong's famous fried egg recipe,"Mrs. Jang's Home-Style Fried Eggs". Kwong is a Chinese chef living in Australia and now with some confidence, I've started working my way through her book ""Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories" which was a present from my father-in-law and his wife, who are fans of hers and are also very adventurous eaters.

This dish makes the common egg very uncommon and is a delightful brunch dish.

Mrs. Jang's Home-Style Fried Eggs (with some adaptations from Kian and myself)

This dish serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a meal.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 6 large free-range eggs
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce (you can buy this at most Asian markets)
• small pinch ground white pepper
• 2 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
• 1-2 red bird's eye chillies, finely sliced

---

Heat oil in a hot wok until the surface seems to shimmer slightly. The key here is to get the oil VERY HOT.

Get out your oyster sauce. Finely slice the spring onions and the chilies.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl, then pour into the hot oil. The eggs will puff up into a big pillow in the oil (invite guests to the kitchen to watch - it's quite fun). You want the eggs to crisp up on the bottom but you also want the top to cook without having to flip it over, so using a ladle or large spoon, continue ladling hot oil from the bottom of the pan over the top of the egg. This will cook the top and bottom evenly.

Keep doing this for 3 -4 minutes. You'll be able to tell when it's ready because the outside will start to brown and crisp and the inside will still be moist and just a little runny. You don't want to over fry it and have the inside feel like cake.

Gently remove eggs from wok with a spatula and drain off any excess oil on paper towels before plating. Drizzle eggs with the dark, rich oyster sauce and garnish with splashes of those green onions and beautiful red chilies. Salt and pepper to taste. You can serve this as a brunch dish with rice or for a more western bent, a salad.

The possibilities are endless.

xxxooo YM

Continue Reading...

The Children Ate Fish Heads

The other day in the market, Lucy stood up in the shopping cart in front of the fish counter, pointed to the Red Snapper and demanded that we only buy “fish with eyes”. Then, she noticed that raw Snapper has pink scales, and since we are in our princess stage and everything pink is a good thing – the whole “fish with eyes” thing was galvinized.

My daughter wants her dead and lifeless food staring up at her while she devours it. Pre-schoolers are scrappy little buggers.

None of this is my doing, by the way. It’s Kian and Warren’s fault - the guys who live across the hall. Kian is Chinese and cooks homestyle Chinese food…and let me tell you, I’ve eaten in a lot of Chinese restaurants and I’ve never had Chinese food as good as his. He is an extraordinary cook. (I have a lot of things to say about Warren, too. But he requires his own post. His story involves duck eggs and horse urine and a passionate desire to make me eat the most disgusting delicacies he can find in China town. Thanks for that, Warren.)

My generous friend and amazing cook, Kian

So Kian and Warren had a dinner and invited us and our friends who also live in the building, Rachel, Jaffer and their 2 year old, Hidaya, who we adore and is like our third kid. We poured some wine and hung out while the kids (Hidaya looking sweet and clean and being all well-behaved, and my two in stained painting t-shirts, underpants and ransacking cupboards) ran wild through the apartment, looking for priceless antiques to up end and Wedgewood candle sticks to shatter, while Kian chopped fresh cilantro, diakon and bamboo shoots in the kitchen, ladling braising liquid over his fish head and setting veg in and out of the fire for short periods of cooking in the wok.

Kian set out cold plates (much to Edie’s delight, who much prefers cold to hot dishes) - Pickled cabbage and daikon, Cucumber salad with Garlic and Chili and Sweet and Sour Watermelon Radish Salad. Edie kept reaching for things across the table and sticking them in her mouth – eating up the cucumber, spitting out the daikon. Her favorite was the Watermelon Radishes.
She spent the night chewing on these spicy, pink candy-colored wedges. She adored them.

Edie's favorite - Watermelon Radishes
(in our favorite color, princess pink)

Then came the hot plates. One by one, so we could ruminate slowly over each of them. First plate - the heat of Kung Pao Chicken, nuggets of chicken steeped in hot chilies, was David and Rachel’s favorite. The kids avoided this one and good thing because one accidental nibble on one of those sassy red chilies and we’d have to call the Fire Department and have the children hosed down.

Next, the more subtle Steamed Tofu with Mushroom and Bamboo Shoot. I loved this dish because it has this dark, slippery broth, soft mushrooms that float over the tongue and tofu so gentle that it nearly melts in the mouth. A sensual experience.

Lucy enjoyed drinking the broth from the Chinese spoons, which reminds me...Lucy was a rapt and enthusiastic dinner companion because of one very important reason – chopsticks. What an incredible invention. I could keep Lucy busy picking up radishes and noodles at a dinner table for hours! Fantastic!

Next came the fish head. Lucy had never been served a head, with it’s eyes blankly staring up at us, so I was worried she might feel some empathy for the creature. I could just imagine her staging a protest and screaming, “Don’t hurt the fishy!” just as people were diving in. But she didn’t have one sentimental opinion about the fish – she LOVED it and kept diving into the carcass with her chopsticks and fingers and pulling out nuggets of juicy fish meat from the cheek.

“I like fish with eyes Mommy!” she told me, sloppily plopping a big piece in her mouth with both chopsticks and fingers.

And that's how the whole fish thing began. Now, we are ONLY allowed to eat fish that has eyes. The people working the fish counter think we've lost our minds.

There were two more plates after that - a steaming plate of Stir Fried Bok Choy. Simply done, very comforting and fresh but without all the unnecessary theatrics and a Stir Fried Rice with Dried Shrimp and Asparagus that still haunts me to this day. It was the cleanest, most delightful fried rice I ever had and a reminder to me that what gets served in a lot of Chinese restaurants (especially the take out joints) is not authentic, made with less than fresh ingredients, over-sauced, unnecessarily heavy and flavorless and not at all emblematic of real Chinese cuisine.

Dried Shrimp
(looks like a bowl full of insects now, but once hydrated are pretty tasty)

And then there was the impromtu Chinese cooking lesson. David and the kids mingled and drank wine (David, not the kids) and cleaned the last bits off their plates as I stationed myself right next to Kian at the stove, asking him questions while he chopped unfamiliar vegetables and poured in liquids from bottles with lots of Chinese writing on them.

He explained each step as he went along and I realized that these dishes were quite simple to prepare. They entailed quite a bit of prep and chopping up front, but the cook time was quick, so if you needed to, you could prep and chop early in the day and just cook the food 5 minutes before you want to eat. This makes homestyle Chinese cooking perfect for busy families – great, healthy, fun food with minimal time in the kitchen. Love it.

So, after David leaned in and whispered, “You have to become an expert in Chinese cooking,” I’ve decided to spend some time staring over Kian’s shoulder and learning some of his simple, completely satisfying Chinese dishes. I'll throw them in, here and there, with my Western recipes. And, of course, I'll share the stories with you as I stumble through the steps.

And then we’ll get out the chopsticks and let the little ones have some fun at the table…And maybe eat a few vegetables in the process!

xxxooo YM

Continue Reading...