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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Dan Dan Mian (Dan Dan Noodles)

To showcase the versatility of Mizkan condiments and sauces, I am sharing with you a very popular Chinese noodle recipe called Dan Dan Mian. As I mentioned in my previous post about building an all-purpose Asian pantry, you can use Mizkan sauces and condiments for a variety of Asian cooking, for example: Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and other Asian cooking without losing the authentic taste and flavor of the dish. I will show you how exactly with this Dan Dan Mian recipe.

Dan Dan Mian (???) originated from Sichuan, China, and it has since become popular all over the world. Sichuan, also spelled as Szechuan, is the birthplace of many dishes you already love: kung pao chicken, mapo tofu, hot and sour soup and so much more. Sichuan cooking is prized for its intense flavors of combining numbing (“ma”) and spicy (“la”) flavors into scrumptious, addictive, and absolutely incendiary great dishes that you just can’t stop eating. Dan Dan Mian is one of it.

Dan Dan Mian

I have tried many versions of Dan Dan Mian, but the ones I had tried in Sichuan a few years ago left lasting impressions. Unlike the usual watered down versions served outside of Sichuan, Dan Dan Mian in Sichuan is an epitome of Sichuan cooking—fiery with the tingly nuance as you chow down the dry noodle dish in an extremely flavorful, nutty, aromatic, and slightly sharp tasting sauce. It was absolutely delicious and I was instantly hooked.

Traditionally, the sauce of Dan Dan Mian is made of Chinese black vinegar, Chinese sesame sauce, soy sauce, MSG plus red chili oil and Sichuan peppercorn. Many people shun away from buying new bottles and sauces just to make a dish, and this is particularly true when it comes to Asian cooking. You don’t have to do that anymore with Mizkan condiments and sauces. Asian cooking uses very similar basic sauces and Mizkan is your all-purpose sauces to stock up. I used Mizkan Ponzu in lieu of Chinese black vinegar. Mizkan Goma Shabu Sauce to replace sesame sauce. In addition of soy sauce, I use Mizkan Oigatsuo Tsuyu Soup Base (Green Label with No MSG) to bring out the umami flavor in the dish as the Tsuyu sauce is made with real Bonito (fish) flavoring. And the end result was absolutely pleasing and delightful, and the taste was close to the Dian Dian Mian I had in Sichuan years ago. And the best thing about this Dan Dan Mian recipe is that you don’t even have to cook, other than the ground meat. It’s so easy and hassle free!

Dan Dan Mian

So there you have it, now you can use Mizkan Japanese condiments to make Chinese dishes without extra money spent on new sauces, while getting amazing results in terms of flavor and authenticity. Of course, you can still use Mizkan for your Japanese cooking. For recipe ideas, please check out all my Japanese recipes made with Mizkan. Stay tuned as I will teach you how to use these sauces again next month. Happy cooking!

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Pork and KimChi Noodle Stir Fry

Favorite Pork and Noodle Stir Fry with KimChi. These are loaded with flavor and so delicious. on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

It was last month that we photographed an assignment that involved way too many quinoa recipes. How many exactly? Let’s just say that we were blinded by quinoa grains and couldn’t stomach another bite of anything whole grain. It was an assignment that could have benefited our personal health, unlike some chocolate and cocktail shoots we’ve been working on lately. But after the 8th recipe test and shot, we were hankering to go back to shooting and eating chocolate.

Don’t get us wrong cause we adore our healthy grains and lunches, but there’s times when the body need to hold-off on the fiber and chew on something a little more……dangerous.

Favorite Pork and Noodle Stir Fry with KimChi. These are loaded with flavor and so delicious. on WhiteOnRiceCouple.comSomething bold. Something really flavorful with a kick of heat that jump-starts our fiber filled … brains. Adding to that dangerous dish, a little bit of ferment and delicious stink of kimchi would do the trick. Oh kimchi, the ubiquitous and famous Korean spicy fermented cabbage. It’s a side dish that has its lovers and haters. For us, we love it so much that we make it homemade. Homemade? Yes, but that’s another post.

So, let’s reminisce back to that fiber-filled quinoa shoot day. As lunch time was approaching, the whole team agreed that we were craving something crazy bold and loaded with flavor. With only about 30 minutes available for a break, we whipped out some packages of ramen noodles that we always have on hand for emergency soup fixes at the studio and boiled those for our bed of noodles. Boiled, without the seasoning packet, of course.

Next, we had some leftover ground pork and a bottle of homemade kimchi in the studio fridge. It all stared to make sense as we stared at the table full of quinoa recipes. Pork and noodle stir fry was the only way to go and get our sanity back. And within 30 minutes, we had a huge…..we mean…HUGE…pan of the most yummy stir fried pork and kimchi noodles that one could cook in 10 minutes.

Raise your hand if you like pork, if you enjoy noodles and if you love kimchi. If you’ve say yes to all three, then this noodle dish is for you. You’ll love it! And as for all the rest of the quinoa dishes that we made? They all got donated to our hungry UPS, Fed-Ex and US Postal Service delivery guys. They deserved it!

enjoy,

diane and todd

Favorite Pork and Noodle Stir Fry with KimChi. These are loaded with flavor and so delicious. on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Yield: Serves 4

Total Time: 30 min

For this recipe, the noodles we used were from packaged ramen. You can use any Asian noodle that you like, but the package ramen noodles worked great and cooked al-dente. But remember to discard the seasoning packets.

1/2 pound (or about 2 ramen packages) dried Asian noodles, cooked al dente2 tablespoons oil1 pound ground pork1/2 medium onion, finely diced3 cloves garlic, minced1/4 cup water2 Tablespoons fish sauce2 teaspoons sugar2 cups kim chi1/2 cup green onions, plus additional for garnishCook noodles to package instructions. Rinse, drain and set aside.Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, and then stir in the pork, onions, and garlic. Cook until the pork is browned and cooked though, 5-8 minutes.Reduce heat to medium. Stir in the water, fish sauce, and sugar. Stir in the noodles and cook until the noodles are heated through, 1-2 minutes.Fold in kim chi and green onions, cook for an additional minute to warm kim chi. Plate, garnish with additional green onions and serve warm.

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Ricotta Hotcakes Recipe: Stories & Video from Australia Trip

Australia Food & Wine Stories on WhiteOnRiceCouple.comWe thought we were just going to eat our way through Australia when the amazing folks at Tourism Australia, Air New Zealand and Go Mighty, offered us an experience to die for. There were many questions that floated in our bewildered heads as to why were were invited to visit the food and wine regions of Australia. First of all, we didn’t know that there was  Australia’s incredible local food culture and second, what did we do to deserve the invite?  For what-ever reasons why we were some of the lucky ones, we certainly didn’t want to disappoint. So, we literally, ate and drank every 2-3 hours  because we wouldn’t want our gracious hosts to be disappointed. We’re respectful that way. Ha! ha! and yum.

Visiting Australia was beyond just a food and wine experience, it was a lesson in humility, understanding more about how we are so truly connected as a world community and pursing what you truly love.

These lesson didn’t come from what was on the plate that was shared with us, nor did it lie in the glasses of wine that we drank. But rather, it was lessons from the people that made this food, who made it by hand and who made it with such devotion. And it wasn’t just about making food, but pursing each ingredients, each process and the philosophy of why food is so important to these farmers, wine-makers, craftsman, chefs and purveyors.

Is this exaggerating to say that our freaking minds were blown with inspirations? You decide. But what we can truly say is that our brains went……boom!

Ricotta Hot Cakes Recipe on WhiteOnRiceCouple.comIt was the stories of these local folks that made us realize how much we, in America and a world away, have so much in common. Listening to why they did what they did and why they loved their food craft so much was like listening to a family member speak. Regardless of where we grew up and how far apart we are, all our food inspirations and passions parallel along the same universe: we all love food for how it connects us and we will pursue it with utmost abandon.

We shared images and stories of our eating adventures on Go Mighty. We hope to share more stories later on our blog here because the list of wonderful food people is endless. So much to share, and never enough time to jot it all down.

In the meantime, we’ve made a video story about the Barossa Valley for you to get a glimpse of one of the food stories there, and head on over to Go Mighty for the rest of our Australian stories!

Throughout our stay, Tourism Australia connected us to what makes Australia so unique, the people. These local folks really are representative to the spirit, love and energy of what makes Australian food culture so amazing. One of the first special accommodations they set us up with was at Abbosford Country house in the Barossa Valley, South Austrlia.

This ricotta pancake recipe is inspired by our incredible morning breakfasts during our stay in the Barossa Valley at Abbotsford Country House. Julian and Jane Maul left their busy corporate lives to pursue their dream of running a small country house and accommodations. They cooked for us in their kitchen, made morning coffee for us and took care of us like we were members of their own family. Their hospitality was one example of how warm, welcoming and nurturing the Australian people are.

Here’s a video sharing the story of Abbotsford Country house and their love of the Barossa Valley, their home.


This video and Julian’s words are a reminder of pursing what you love and not being afraid to try, regardless of failure.

It’s this resonating theme that keeps our communities focused, inspired and driven. And how about you and your plans for 2014? Take some chances, why don’t ‘cha. Write down your goals and just give it a try. Just do it.

Biggest thanks to everyone in Australia who fed us with your food and shared bits of your life with us. We’re thankful for you.

hugs,

diane and todd

Australia Food & Wine Stories on WhiteOnRiceCouple.comNot only did we discover so much about Australian food culture, we learned new words….

Australia Food & Wine Stories on WhiteOnRiceCouple.comBrekkie for breakfast, sunnies for sunglasses, peckish for hungry….

Australia Food & Wine Stories on WhiteOnRiceCouple.compunt for placing a bet, bush telly for campfire ….. and do any of know of any more?

Australia Food & Wine Stories on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Yield: Serves about 4

Total Time: 20 min

Adapted from Nigella Lawson and inspired from our morning breakfasts with Jane and Julian of Abbotsford Country House in Barossa Valley, South Australia.

2/3 cup (100g) flour2 tablespoons (30g) sugar1 teaspoon baking powderpinch of salt1 cup (250g) whole milk ricotta cheese1/2 cup (125ml) milk1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract2 large eggs (separated)zest from one large lemonbutter or clean tasting oil for cooking pancakesjam of choice or fresh berries partially crushedCombine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together for 20 seconds by hand to thoroughly combine. Set aside.In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, milk, vanilla extract, egg yolks, and lemon zest and mix well. Stir in the flour mixture. Beat the egg whites until they are a fine foam (this is quick work even by hand), and then fold the egg whites into the batter.Heat the butter or oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto the skillet and cook each side for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Serve with jam or fresh berries.

If the ricotta is firmer, briefly stir it smooth before mixing with the other wet ingredients to help minimize clumps.

We'll often use two spatulas coming in from opposite directions for the first side's pancake flip in order to keep it from sliding around the pan and to make it easier to get one spatula fully under the pancake.


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Cream Cheese Chocolate Layer/Lapis Cake For Chinese New Year

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Chocolate, Berry and Cream Cheese Danish

Chocolate, Berry & Cream Cheese Danish on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com
Rarely do I ever watch television. Call me a tv-hermit, but between the newspaper, the internet and twitter, I seem to be caught up with everything that I need to know.

Then there was the straight 12 hours I sat on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles that forced me to either sleep (which wasn’t all that easy) or stare at the blank tv screen in front of me. I felt helpless, sleepless and restless. Reading wasn’t so much of an option because I have a tendency to get air-sick when I read.

So my only choice was to watch a movie or watch tv and watch lots of it.  I chose the television route because it seems more entertaining for me to keep scrolling through the different channels rather than focus on a single 2-3 hour movie.

Chocolate, Berry & Cream Cheese Danish on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Channel surfing was a good thing because I ended up (surprise!) watching about 4 hours of Food Network. Is this a good thing to admit? Watching 4 straight hours of Food Network? This was way more Food Network than I have watched in the last 3 years combined. Wow, I hit a milestone and a record.

During those 4 hours I watched one of Ree’s holiday shows (Hi Ree!), Giada, Trish, Ina, Guy, more Ina, more Trish, more Giada and way too much Guy.

But I have to say, I was superbly entertained because some of what I saw was truly remarkable. Like Trish’s take on thanksgiving where she made a dry-looking turkey casserole instead of serving the whole bird. Why?

And another remarkable television moment was seeing Guy eat way too many sandwiches, burgers and fries with the same expression and remarks—“wow! Incredible!”. Has he ever had a bad meal in his life? Probably. But we’d never see that in the final cut.

And then there was the delicate little Giada. I didn’t think I could take more than an hour of Giada cause she has such perfect teeth…. all the time… even when she’s zesting her lemons.

Chocolate, Berry & Cream Cheese Danish on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Anyways, I was thoroughly inspired by Giada and many of her dishes. As simple as they appear, she made them elegant yet approachable, something I admire in recipe developers and cooks. Being able to take a seemingly complicated or time consuming looking dish and making it easy to the home cook is a skill. And talent.

On hour 2.5 of Food Network, I saw Giada make these chocolate and cheese danishes. By the end of the show I was inspired and even more so, I was CRAVING one of these with a cup of coffee. Trust me, after the 7th straight hour on the plane, I would have loved to eat anything warm, fresh and baked. All I had to choose from were Doritos and hard cookies out of a bag.

A few days after we landed, I made an attempt to re-create what inspired me so: these chocolate and cheese danishes. But I made them a little different, with Thanksgiving in mind and needing to feed an army, I made these danishes on a sheet pan.

It was so much easier to feed a Thanksgiving crowd with this version of the danishes. It’s basically making one huge sheet pan Danish, then cutting them into individual servings. That way, all the cheese, chocolate and fresh berries can cook together nicely in one beautiful big puff pastry crust.

This chocolate, berry and cream cheese Danish was such a hit at our Thanksgiving gathering, I might just make another batch (or two) for Christmas. It’s that easy and delicious. And best of all, everyone enjoyed it down to the last finger lick of chocolate and berries.

Enjoy!

diane

Yield: Serves 8-10

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

one - 17 ounce package frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed1- 8oz package of cream cheese, softened1 egg yolk2 Tablespoons brown sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/8 teaspoon kosher or sea salt½ - ¾ cup chocolate chips, depending on how much chocolate you likeone - 6 ounce package of fresh berries (if using strawberries, slice the strawberries)1 egg, beaten for brushing the puff pastryPre-heat oven to 400 degrees F and make sure to have the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a 15x10 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.In a medium bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, egg yolk, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt until smooth.Carefully place one full sheet of the thawed and soft puff pastry dough on the parchment paper. Gently spread the cream cheese mixture on the puff pastry sheet within one inch of the puff pastry edge. Then evenly sprinkle chocolate chips and berries over the cream cheese mixture.Lay the remaining sheet of puff pastry over the cheese/chocolate/berry mixture.  Gently press the edges of the top puff pastry on to the bottom puff pastry to seal the whole pastry.With a sharp knife, gently cut 2-3 small slits in the top pastry sheet to allow steam to escape during baking. Brush the whole pastry with the beaten egg.Bake pastry for about 40-45 minutes or until the pasty if puffy, golden and cooked on the bottom.

If using juicy berries such as raspberries, blackberries or strawberries or frozen berries, moisture will be released causing the bottom pastry to become soft. To avoid a soft bottom pastry, you can roll out the bottom pastry and pre-bake it for about 10-15 minutes so it’s slightly cooked. But make sure to roll it out a bit before baking because the puff pastry will shrink.


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Where to eat in Mae Hong Son 2014

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Mae Hong Son, a tiny town seemingly forgotten in Thailand’s northwesternmost corner, doesn’t have a reputation as a culinary destination. And honestly, most visitors would be disappointed by the town’s more apparent restaurant options. But if pointed in the right direction, there’s some quite interesting stuff to eat there.

I’ve been writing about the food in this town for a while now, yet quite a few of the restaurants and vendors I’ve mentioned in previous years have shut down or gone down in quality. So I thought it high time to do an updated summary of the city’s better places to get local food.

Northern Thai

Although most people in Mae Hong Son are Shan/Thai Yai, there’s a handful of places to get northern Thai-style food.

My personal fave is Lung Roen. It’s little more than wall-less, street-side shack, but the older family here do good laap and sides, in particular a really excellent — rich, fatty, eggy — aep (grilled banana leaf packets of meat and herbs) and a tasty tam som oh, a “salad” of pounded pomelo.

New to me, although it’s been around for a while, is Laap Pang Lor. Expect tiny dishes of cumin-heavy, rich northern-style laap:

DSC_3829-Edit

and great sides — the bamboo salad shown above was crunchy, spicy and savoury.

Another decent option for northern Thai is Laap Chiang Mai. The laap here tends to be heavy on the blood and light on the spice, but the various soups and sides, in particular the nam phrik taa daeng (a northern Thai-style “dip” of dried chili and fish), are pretty good. It’s also just about the only place in town to get relatively good local food come evening.

For khao soi, the northern Thai curry noodle soup, by far the best bowl is town is at Chom Mai Restaurant. The chicken version here is rich and spicy, with, unusually, a hint of tomato. They also serve a few OK Shan-style dishes.

And it’s not an acknowledged part of the northern Thai genre, but kai op faang, chicken “roasted” in rice hay is available — and delicious — at Chaay Thung, about 13km outside of town.

Thai Yai/Shan

The Shan (also known as Thai Yai or simply Tai) are an ethnic group related to the Thai, but who predominately live across the border in Myanmar. Much of their food has been influenced by Burmese-style cooking, and Mae Hong Son is the best place (in many cases, the only place) in Thailand to try these unique dishes.

Quite possibly the most ubiquitous Shan dish of all is khao sen, thin rice noodles in a light, tomatoey broth. Places that serve this dish also often serve khang pong, deep-fried fritters made from green papaya, shallots of banana blossom, and khao kan jin, rice kneaded with pork meat and blood. Khao sen is available at Mae Hong Son’s morning market, as well as all the places mentioned here; in particular, Paa Khon does an excellent bowl of khao sen, fortified with crunchy banana stalk (not to mention an amazing banana blossom khang pong):

DSC_3017-Edit

and Paa Jaang does excellent khao kan jin — both raw and steamed (pictured at the top of this post).

For Shan-style dishes with rice, the best choice is Mae Sri Bua. Her kaeng hang lay, a Shan curry of pork belly:

DSC_3986-Edit

has an awesome balance of salty, sweet and sour that reminds me of American-style barbecue sauce — if American barbecue sauce tasted about 100x better. The dishes available change on a day-to-day basis, but she usually always has jin lung, the Shan-style herbal meatballs, and oop kai, a Shan-style chicken curry.

And they’re take-away only, but amazing Shan-style sweets — honestly, some of the best traditional sweets in the country, as far as I’m concerned — such as alawaa:

_DSC4127

can be got at Paa Nii.

Chinese/Yunnanese

Ban Rak Thai, about 50km northwest of Mae Hong Son, was founded by KMT fighters who originally fled China in 1947. They took their cuisine with them, and today the village is home to a handful of restaurants serving Yunnanese-style Chinese food. The longest-standing, and my favourite is Gee Lee Restaurant. They do a dish called muu phan pii (thousand year-old pork), which takes the form of thin slices of braised pork belly over a pile of spicy pickled greens:

DSC_0857-Edit

I recently took chefs Andy Ricker and David Thompson here, and the latter was so taken with the dish that he took a kilogram of the pickled greens back to Bangkok!


View Thai Eats in a larger map


View Thai Eats in a larger map


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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Refreshing and Light Sesame Cucumber Carrot Salad

Low Carb & Healthy Sesame Cucumber Salad Recipe on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

It’s this time of year that everyone around us seems to be sharing lists of resolutions and aspirations of what their vision of 2014 could be. For us? We’ll just say that instead of listing-out resolutions, we started off New Years Day with a big batch of yummy fried chicken and some extra sips of proseco. That’s how we roll, as of late, by enjoying things that make us happy, even if it includes delicious moments of crispy chicken skin and a drink. Or Two.

But that’s not to say that we’ve totally jumped off the wrong end of 2014. Though we’ll have our moments of splurge, there’s still that joy of cooking fresh vegetables while their at their peak. Regardless of how decadent our meals are, there’s always a fresh green salad, some raw snacking veggies or a platter of fresh herbs to accompany our meal. It’s these bites of fresh greens that really highlight our meals.

Yes, the fried chicken was great, but so was this refreshing cucumber salad. This is one of our go-to salads. It’s one of those salads that we threw together one day and has now become a favorite. Doesn’t that often happen to you too? when you’re just whipping something together real-quick in the kitchen and suddenly it’s quickly becomes one of your favorites. Well, this 15 minute cucumber salad is just-it and it’s the perfect accompaniment to any entree or even on it’s own as a light snack.

So aside form the fried chicken, we really did start off the new year on a fresh”er” and healthy-”er” dish. And best of all? this salad is light, crisp, refreshing and satisfying that you don’t even have to think about calorie-counting.

And how was your New Year? Hope it was grand and safe. Hope you’re all rested, refreshed and ready for the big ’14. Enjoy this year as much as you can, because before you know it, it’ll be 2015!

Happy New Year everyone!

Low Carb & Healthy Sesame Cucumber Salad Recipe on WhiteOnRiceCouple.com
Yield: Serves about 4

Total Time: 30 min

Our favorite cucumbers are the crisp, seedless kind like persian or japanese cucumbers. These cucumbers have such a tender outside skin and crispy texture that they just make the perfect snacking cucumber. And when it comes to salads, these cucumbers can't be beat.

1 pound (455g) cucumbers, sliced thin1 large carrot, julienned1 tablespoon grape seed oil (or other clean tasting oil)2 tablespoons rice vinegar1 teaspoon sesame seed oil2 teaspoons sugar2 teaspoons soy sauce1 tablespoon toasted sesame seedsCombine the cucumbers and carrots in a bowl. Set aside.In another bowl, whisk together the grape seed oil, rice vinegar, sesame seed oil, sugar, and soy sauce.  Taste for seasoning and adjust to individual preference.Toss the cucumbers and carrots with the dressing. Fold in the sesame seeds. Chill for 20 minutes or up to overnight and then serve.

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Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁)

This Kung Pao Chicken recipe was originally posted on Nov 18, 2007. Updated with new photos.

(Popular and All-Time Favorite Chinese recipesBroccoli Beef, Sweet and Sour Pork, Egg Drop Soup, Chow Mein, Cashew Chicken, Fried Rice, Orange Chicken, Mongolian Beef, and more.)

Today, I am sharing with you a popular Chinese recipe that is well-loved by many in the United States and all over the world—the famous Chinese Kung Pao Chicken (????).

Kung Pao is a cooking technique originated from the Sichuan province of China; the authentic Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken (????) or Gong Bao Ji Ding calls for the staple Sichuan peppercorn for the numbing flavor, however, the version popular outside of Sichuan has since been adapted to many regional variations. For examples: in Malaysia, Kung Pao chicken is served without peanuts, but sometimes cashew nuts are used; in Thailand, fish sauce and sweet soy sauce are used to flavor a similar dish. However, the Kung Pao chicken we get in 90% of so-called Chinese restaurants in the United States is the heavily Americanized version that appears gooey, greasy, and sweet. You will also find all kinds of vegetables in the dish such as carrots, water chestnuts, celery, zucchini, and even broccoli.

Kung Pao Chicken (????)

I tried to keep my Kung Pao Chicken recipe as authentic as possible, but feel free to tone down the quantity of dried chilies as you wish. I wanted to share the secret ingredient of Kung Pao chicken, which is vinegar in the sauce. It gives that subtle yet characteristic touch to complete the Kung Pao flavor.
If you like this Kung Pao Chicken recipe and Chinese recipes, you might also like the following recipes on Rasa Malaysia:

CHINESE RECIPES: POPULAR & ALL-TIME FAVORITES

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Rumaki - Mad Men-Era Chinese Cooking

To celebrate the book's first birthday, I wanted to revive a recipe that was cut from the final manuscript because of lack of space. (I've been doing that a lot lately. Recently I taught a Sichuan class at The Brooklyn Kitchen that had a recipe for Bon Bon Chicken, a great recipe that also had to be cut. Ah nostalgia!) So, onward to rumaki, because everyone needs a good party appetizer up their sleeves during the holiday season. 

Just what is rumaki? And what is its link to Chinese-American food?

Rumaki may be an unfamiliar appetizer these days, but it sported quite a hip reputation in the middle of last century. It first appears on the menus of tiki restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the 1940s. Trader Vic’s founder Victor Bergeron claimed it had Chinese origins, by way of Hawaii, but in actuality it was likely his own creation inspired by angels on horseback, an English pub snack of bacon-wrapped oysters.

The name’s origin is also fuzzy, but possibly a take on harumaki, Japanese for pork spring roll. Whether or not the Trader created rumaki, he no doubt deserves credit for popularizing this appetizer - skewers of chicken liver and water chestnuts wrapped in crispy bacon - with the dining public. It became such a hit as a pupu platter staple that even Chinese restaurants started serving it as an appetizer.

In the baby boomer era, rumaki became a fixture on the hor d’oeuvre platter of the suburban cocktail-swilling set. The dish’s entry into the mainstream is even captured in an episode of Mad Men, as Betty Draper serves rumaki to guests at her internationally-themed dinner party, though she does call it Japanese.


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Singaporean Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe

Singaporean Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe - Viet World Kitchen window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init( { apiKey: 'a279adbe87e2b3c505e777af99a5260d', xfbml: true } );};( function() { var e = document.createElement( 'script' ); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById( 'fb-root' ).appendChild( e );} )();Viet World Kitchen Newest Post Dumplings Asian TofuRecipe IndexEventsFav SitesAbout MePermission+Credit Welcome! Join me to explore, create, and contribute to the culinary traditions of Asia.

Andrea Nguyen
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January 07, 2014Singaporean Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe

Singaporean-sriracha-bott

Last year was the first time that I saw locally grown red Fresno chiles at our farmers's market. I bought a bunch and kept them in the vegetable bin, saying to myself that I’d make chile sauce with them. The chiles lingered for a month(chiles keep very well) until after Thanksgiving, when the #Srirachapocalyspe chile sauce shortage inspired me to make homemade Sriracha chile sauce

Instead of my usual homemade Thai Sriracha recipe, I tried one from Singapore. The reason is that I was curious about the Chinese imprint on a Southeast Asian-style chile sauce. That, at heart, is what drives many Singaporean dishes. I selected a recipe by Christopher Tan and Amy Van, the folks who authored the Chinese Heritage Cooking, the source of my old school rendition of sweet and sour pork

Their recipe intrigued me because instead of palm sugar, they used Chinese rock sugar (sold at Chinese and Vietnamese markets in plastic bags or boxes). I think you can try subbing organic cane sugar and a touch of honey. And for the vinegar, it was unseasoned rice vinegar. Both of those ingredients are mellowing in nature and I wanted to see what they produced in a hot sauce. On the other hand, there were 10 cloves of garlic. Yowza. 

Locally grown Fresno chiles

Rock Sugar

The only caveat is that because of the cool temps in my home (about 65F), I let the chile and garlic mixture sit for 3 weeks on my counter to mellow out. The recipe, developed for Singapore’s equatorial climate, required a fermentation was about five days.

My locally grown Fresno chiles were really hot so I finessed the flavor with extra regular sugar. They were also very firm and dryish – not juicy and fleshy, so I strained the solids twice, adding extra water to remove more fiery goodness. I backed up my yield to the one in the recipe so I could get close to their flavor.

It took weeks to ferment – and maybe you could put it in a cold oven with the light on for a few days to hasten the process, but the finished Singaporean chile sauce had a bright heat and delicate sweetness. It raises the hairs in my nostrils whenever I taste it from a spoon or tip of a chopstick. The garlic wasn’t overpowering at all. It was a strangely elegant hot sauce.

Blend, mash/strain, and the result

The original recipe was titled “All-Purpose Chilli Sauce” but it’s very similar to the familiar Sriracha sauce, hence I’m tweaking the name here. Use a digital scale for precision.

How to use this sauce? I’ve been using this Singaporean Sriracha sauce as I would regular Sriracha. Chris and Amy suggest it as a table condiment, or dressing for noodles, and heating up sauces and fried rice. You get the point.

RECIPE

Singaporean Sriracha Sauce

Yields: 1 1/3 cups (330 ml)

Ingredients:

12 ounces (350 g) Fresno chile or other moderately-hot red chiles20 red Thai chiles10 cloves garlic.8 oz (25 g) granulated sugar1 tablespoon fine sea salt1/4 cup water, plus more as needed1 ounce (30 g) yellow rock sugar6 tablespoons (90 ml) unseasoned rice vinegar

Method:

Wash and dry both kinds of chiles well, then dry thoroughly. Discard the stem but keep little green part that looks like a star. Coarsely chop, then put into a food processor. Add garlic. Process to a rough chopped texture. Add the sugar and salt, then pulse to combine.Transfer to a clean, glass jar. Cover with a piece of wax paper or loosely cover with plastic wrap. Set aside at room temperature for 4 to 5 days. Each day, stir with a clean spoon. The mixture should bubble slightly as it ferments. (After I kept mine for 3 weeks, the sweet heat mellowed nicely. The stuff didn’t spoil so you could keep for longer than 5 days.)Pour the fermented chile mixture into a saucepan. Add the water, rock sugar, and vinegar. Bring to simmer, and maintain that gentle cooking for 5 to 6 minutes. Off heat, taste and adjust the flavor with sugar, salt and vinegar – to get a hot, salty, and slightly sour flavor. Let cool completely.Puree in a blender until smoothie-like. Strain through a mesh strainer, pressing on the solids. You should have about 1 1/3 cups. Stir in a little water and restrain, if needed. Store in a jar or bottle in the refrigerator.

Related posts:

Hot Takeaways from the Rooster Sriracha Shortage (my spicy news analysis)Thai Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe

 

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Comments Singaporean Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe

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Last year was the first time that I saw locally grown red Fresno chiles at our farmers's market. I bought a bunch and kept them in the vegetable bin, saying to myself that I’d make chile sauce with them. The chiles lingered for a month(chiles keep very well) until after Thanksgiving, when the #Srirachapocalyspe chile sauce shortage inspired me to make homemade Sriracha chile sauce

Instead of my usual homemade Thai Sriracha recipe, I tried one from Singapore. The reason is that I was curious about the Chinese imprint on a Southeast Asian-style chile sauce. That, at heart, is what drives many Singaporean dishes. I selected a recipe by Christopher Tan and Amy Van, the folks who authored the Chinese Heritage Cooking, the source of my old school rendition of sweet and sour pork

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Pepper-Lemon Chicken Karaage: Wheat, gluten and soy-free

Cut up the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. You can take off the skin if you like, though it does make the chicken crispier. You can also use breast meat insteadd.

Combine the chicken stock, lemon juice, and grated lemon zest in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and mix well. Taste - it should be fairly salty but not overwhelmingly so. Add a bit more salt if needed.

Put the chicken pieces in the bowl. Let marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes - an hour is ideal. If marinating for more than an hour (say, overnight), do not put salt in the marinade.

When you're ready to fry the chicken, take it out of the marinade and pat it dry. If you didn't add salt to the marinade, salt the chicken now and rub it in. Leave for a few minutes, and pat dry again. Grind a ton of black pepper on the chicken (it can stand a lot) .

Heat the oil; if using a temperature-controlled fryer or a thermometer, aim for 160°C / 355°F, a fairly low temperature. Toss enough potato or cornstarch into the marinated chicken so that each piece is completely coated. Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time at 160°C / 320°F until cooked through. The chicken will still be quite pale.

Take the chicken out of the oil, and drain off while you raise the temperature of the oil to 180°C / 355°F. When the oil is hot, re-add the chicken pieces and cook until a light golden brown - about 30 seconds to a minute. It won't get as dark in color as the soy-sauce marinated version. Don't overcook or the chicken will dry out.

Drain well on a rack, or old newspaper lined on top with paper towels.

Serve with lemon wedges, and even more pepper if you like.

If you use chicken stock cubes or granules, it already has salt in it so be sure to taste your marinade before adding any more.

If you do use chicken stock cubes, don't marinate it for more than an hour or so (because of the salt).

The best version of this is to marinate the chicken in unsalted chicken stock with lemon juice and zest overnight in the refrigerator. Add the salt later, as per the directions. The chicken will be very flavorful and juicy.

Potato starch, or katakuriko, is standard for karaage in Japan. It creates a wonderfully light, crispy, greaseless surface. It's not that easy to get a hold of in many places though (look in a Japanese grocery store), so cornstarch(cornflour in the UK) is an acceptable substitute. If you must avoid gluten for medical reasons, be sure to use a cornstarch that is guaranteed to be gluten-free.

The lemon juice acts in a way like the sake in the original recipe, in that it eliminates some of the gaminess of the chicken. Adjust the amount to taste; I like to squeeze on more when I eat the karaage.

If you use white meat instead of dark, cook it for a bit less time or the chicken will dry out.

You can marinate a pound or more (or around 500g) of cut up chicken in this marinade. To marinate more, just increase the amount of marinade.

Try using yuzu juice and peel instead of the lemon if you can get them, and sprinkle with sansho pepper or shichimi tohgarashi (seven-ingredient chili pepper) instead of black pepper.

(metadata for this recipe:) Author: Makiko ItohPublished: January 14, 2014

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What it was like to run a popular sushi restaurant in New York City, with memories

sushisay-counter-natsukashi.jpg Two itamae (chefs) prepping before the store opens, circa 2001.

[If you have been following this blog or my Facebook page, you may know that I haven’t been doing too well. I was going to write yet another moan-y thing about my radiation therapy and stuff, but instead, I thought I’d end the year by posting this, an edited and expanded version of something I wrote a little while ago. I hope you have fun reading it, especially if you have ever run a restaurant, or lived in New York. Ah New York, I still miss you. Anyway - here’s to a much better 2014!]

I never ran a restaurant myself, so most of my knowledge on this matter is second hand. My mother ran a very successful restaurant in midtown Manhattan called Tsukiji Sushisay. In addition my stepfather was the accountant for several Japanese restaurants in NYC. I did however work the front desk for a few months, and helped out over the years with things like translating legal documents, making brochures, or creating their website. I translated the menu to English, and even taught basic ‘sushi-counter customer-service English’ to many of the chefs. “I’m sorry, we don’t have spicy tuna.” is one phrase I remember teaching them.

I also want to note, that I feel OK writing this because the restaurant closed its doors in 2002, and various statutes of limitations or whatever have run out. ^^;

I think running any successful restaurant in a highly competitive place like New York City is extremely tough. It can be exhilarating, and a lot of fun, but it is very, very stressful. When my mother retired at age 60, she was totally worn out. She suffered from high blood pressure and migranes constantly for the last couple of years. Still, she says it was the most fun period of her life. And, the restaurant was hugely successful. It only seated 92, but it did 2 to 3 seatings at lunch and 3 to 4 at dinner, on a regular basis. On truly crazy nights it could even do 5.

So here are some things that a sushi restaurant goes though. Some are general restaurant things, others are specific to running a sushi restaurant.

The biggest issue with staff in a restaurant is: visa issues, and training. My mom’s restaurant made every effort to do it all on the up and up, but in some restaurants that was not the case for sure. An INS raid was always an exciting occurrence. (Right up there with a Dept of Health inspection. Incidentally, the restaurant got perfect scores on that count several times.)

There were 3 types of staff in a sushi restaurant: kitchen staff and busboys; chefs (the itamae); and waitstaff + front of house. As with most NY restaurants, kitchen staff was mostly Hispanic (in this restaurant’s case mostly Dominican). That part was actually the easiest since the work itself did not need a whole lot of training, and if someone dropped out the ‘boss’ of the kitchen staff could always arrange for someone else to come the next day. Plus they all had valid work visas - no one with a non-valid visa was even considered.

Waitstaff/front of house was somewhere in between - they weren’t hired unless they had valid visas, but if someone quit there was no ‘waitstaff network’ like with the kitchen guys. Just about all Japanese restaurants run continuous classifieds in local Japanese papers for this reason. Fortunately, the restaurant had a great head waiter who was there for almost the whole time the restaurant was in operation, plus a couple of stalwart veterans. About 2/3rds of the waitstaff at any given time were Japanese or could speak Japanese. The front desk could all speak Japanese (and English too of course) - since more than 1/2 the customers were Japanese that was pretty important.

(This is how I got to work there for a few months actually…someone suddenly quit, my mom couldn’t find a replacement, and she begged me to work at the front desk for a while. I was sort of in-between things so I did it. It was a great experience…but it taught me to never, ever think about opening my own restaurant unless I had a huge amount of backing and preparation. ^_^)

The most difficult part was the chefs. As I explained here: Sushi: What is it like to train to be a master sushi chef? it takes many years to become a sushi chef that can be entrusted with a really, really busy station. So that meant the itamae had to come from Japan in most cases, since they had to have the skills to just jump in and start working. That meant constant visa issues - the restaurant had an immigration lawyer on retainer (besides a regular law firm for other stuff). The INS did not really consider ‘chef’ to be a unique trained job, so it was always a tossup whether someone would get approved for a work visa or not. In some cases, if the application was made for a ‘manager’ or ‘sales person’ it would go through easier. IMHO this is just a bias for white collar jobs…I mean, a sales guy doesn’t need 3 to 10 years of intensive training. But I digress.

There were a few cases of local hires (who were hired as kitchen staff) getting trained to become chefs, but most of them dropped out because it was too tough. A couple did get halfway trained…and then went to work somewhere else. One guy did stick to it though, and he’s still working for the company at another restaurant in Japan. One Chinese guy was very promising…but it turned out he was lying about his visa status and had faked papers, so he disappeared when that was discovered.

This was fairly easy. There are several wholesalers in NY that kind of control the Japanese food and seafood supplies. As long as you paid your bills regularly, they loved you. Since the restaurant was very successful and properly run (you’d be surprised at how many restaurants are in the red because the owners/management skim off profits, or don’t know basic bookkeeping, or get ripped off by unscrupulous employees etc…) that was never an issue.

Sometimes, some seller off the street so to speak would come with something they wanted the restaurant to try. One time for instance someone came with a big box of matsutake mushrooms grown in Portland, OR. But most supplies came from the big wholesalers like JFC, Yama Seafood, etc.

Periodically a whole tuna would come in, and all the chefs would help with breaking it down. That was quite a sight. I wish I’d taken pictures.

Also, since the restaurant was very successful, it was able to make deals on things, like a very nice sake direct from the brewery, that was exclusive to them in the U.S. at a pretty good price. I wonder if any of the customers realized they were getting sake that would cost like 2x that anywhere else, even in Japan…

One of the biggest headaches in the day to day running was the smooth functioning of equipment, especially the air conditioning or heating (partly due to the problems caused by the building renovations). If the air conditioning failed in midsummer in NY…well you can imagine the complaints from the customers. Air conditioning maintenance was a monthly thing.

And garbage pickup..that was an interesting thing too. I don’t know about now, but at the time a food business had to pay a private contractor for garbage pickup. And, well the head of the company my mother hired (a lovely but slightly scarred man) was like, connected to certain families. But anyway…just another interesting aspect.

One time, my mom was visiting me for a week in December after I moved to Switzerland. She got a call in the middle of the night our time - the sprinkler system had broken due to one of those New York cold snaps (it was related to the construction work….see below) and the restaurant had gotten flooded. The chairs, the carpet, etc were all ruined. She had to fly home ASAP. The restaurant was back in business in less than a week though.

The building was sold to new owners a few years into the lease, and they didn’t want a canopy outside the restaurant entrance…so there was a big brouhaha over that. They also wanted to close up the entrance to the restaurant from the lobby. The biggest issue was when they started major renovations of the building, all around the restaurant. The dust and noise were a huge headache for several years. The moral of this story is: when leasing a restaurant space, have a very good lawyer look it over carefully, to deal with all contingencies.

A restaurant can’t survive of course unless there are customers. The restaurant had a lot of loyal regulars. Restaurants love regulars, and treat them with care. One timers don’t get treated badly, but if there’s a choice between Customer A who has been coming to the restaurant for years every week vs. Customer B who’s there for the first time….guess who gets priority.

There are three things that you can do as a customer to really annoy a fine-dining restaurant, besides the obvious things like be rude to the waitstaff or not leave a tip.

Be late or forget to cancel your reservation. This is by far the biggest annoyance. You do that repeatedly, you are likely to be blacklisted by a popular restaurant. We actually did that to one very prominent and wealthy person. He threatened to badmouth the restaurant to all his important friends, and my mother was like ‘go ahead, make my day’. (She is a typical small Japanese lady by the way, all 152 cm of her.) After a few weeks he called her up to apologize and ask to be let back in.Overstay your time, especially if you see people waiting in line to be seated. I know that you want to linger after a meal - and you have the right to - but please try to be considerate of other customers too. The aim of a restaurant is to try to please all their customers as equally as they can. (And regulars generally do not do this - some even seemed to get the feeling they were part of the family, and would ask if they should hurry up and stuff. They didn’t have to do that of course.)Ask to be re-seated just because you see empty tables/seats - and be offended if you are refused. If the restaurant is successful, it’s likely that those tables are booked up and in 15 minutes they’ll be filled. Taking reservations is an exercise in logistics - you have to figure out who can be seated where, and how long they will take, and so forth. You’re doing this while looking at the seating chart all the time. So when customers ask to be reseated it can really mess things up - especially when a party of 2 asks to go to a 4-seat table.

My mom’s restaurant was part of a chain really - the parent company still operates about 30 sushi restaurants in Japan (but no more overseas…the owner got freaked out by 9/11, since he was in NY that day, and decided to not operate overseas anymore.) So the restaurant’s finances were all aboveboard and everything. This was not the case for some of my stepfather’s clients. In one case, a pretty successful Japanese restaurant’s profits were basically all going up the owner’s nose, and for the upkeep of his girlfriend (he had a wife and kids, naturally). Or another of his clients almost went out of business because the owner/chef despised invoices so much, he’d like make little bundles out of them and put them in a box. (My stepfather called them “invoice-nigiri” because they were like little rice balls. ^_^) Luckily for that guy my stepfather saved him in time and he later sold his restaurant and retired happily.

To get along well in the NY restaurant scene you do need to do some schmoozing with other restauranteurs and chefs and critics and the like. I think this is where my mother had a leg up on other Japanese restaurants - she spoke pretty good English, and had (still has) this wonderful bubbly personality that just draws people to her. So she was able to do the schmooze with various famous chefs and restauranteurs that are still very prominent in the NY restaurant scene. If you asked them they may still remember her. I know at least one of them asked her to come work for him.

The schmooze is important for making customers feel happy too. The restaurant had a very happy atmosphere. My mother, when she was on her game (and not grumpy due to migranes and fatigue) was really a sparkling hostess. The head waiter guy was always good, as were the veteran waitresses. The chefs, although their English levels varied a lot, were trained to always be polite and pleasant (although some managed it better than others). I think it made the customers just feel good to be in such a place.

Celebrities showed up all the time of course — this is pretty normal for a popular NY restaurant. That was fun, but not as big a deal as you might expect. There are some pretty crazy stories involving very rich people or celebrities….but I don’t know if it’s good taste to talk about those so I’ll leave it at that. Anyway, celebrities do add to the decor, if you know what I mean.

A restaurant opened on the other side of the road from my mom’s restaurant. They had a much nicer space - bigger, and it was on the corner (my mom’s restaurant was in between avenues). It was a caviar and seafood restaurant or something. The decor inside looked beautiful. But, it was almost always empty. The guy who ran the place (the manager or owner, I was not sure which) used to wander over to my mom’s restaurant when they were in full swing at lunchtime and the customer line was spilling out to the street, and gaze into the window mournfully. Once day he finally came in to ask her how they were so successful while his place was empty.

I don’t remember what she said…but it’s a whole lot of things as I’ve tried to describe, plus a bit of luck and magic.

As I noted at the beginning, the restaurant closed its doors in 2002. It wasn’t because the restaurant had started to fail - far from it, they were packed almost until the end - and although the lease for the premises was up for renewal they could have done so easily. The fundamental reason unfortunately was that the owners got seriously freaked out by 9/11. Coincidentally, the company president and 2 of the top executives had been in New York on 9/11. That was the image they carried with them of New York back home, and they basically lost interest in maintaining the New York branch. Another reason was that my mother desperately wanted to retire. She was totally exhausted, knew it was affecting her on the job, and just wanted to rest. (Soon after retiring she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which may have been triggered by the stress she went through, and had to have several hospital stays and surgeries because of it.)

I found an old Chowhound thread about the closing of the restaurant, which is full of erroneous ‘information’ about the reasons for the closing. I’m also aware that the restaurant that took over the premises lied to people about it being the ‘same management’ (including to Michelin inspectors). Eh.

The great head waiter that I described in the text was called Tanabe-san. He was an avid marathon runner, and ran the New York Marathon every year. Despite being a health fanatic, he died of cancer a couple of years after the restaurant closed, at the ege of 48.

Finally, about the two itamae (chefs) pictured in the photo above: The one on the left, Mera-san, is still working for the same company at their Kyoto restaurant; the head chef there is another former New York store alumnus called Ito-san (no relation).

And the one on the right, Koyama-san, took over his family’s sushi restaurant in Ibaragi prefecture after his father, also an itamae, retired. Unfortunately Koyama-san’s restaurant and town were damaged by the March 11, 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. The interior of the store was almost totally destroyed, although the building remained standing. The bigger damage they suffered though was the inability to use any local fish due to the radiation leakage from the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. He was always able to deal with things with humor, and it was no different after the earthquake. He said he hastily grabbed the two most expensive bottles of sake on his shelves. He breathed a big sigh of relief - then all the the shelves, and everything on them - sake, dinnerware, everything - came crashing down around him. The way he told it was so funny, even though he’d just lost so much. He’s still in business despite everything, and keeps plugging along.

I figure that anyone reading this who recognizes the names of those itamae, especially Koyama-san who was the head chef in the last years of the restaurant, knows where it was, and that’s enough. ^_^


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