Feb 28: Daring Baker's Chocolate Valentino

It's Daring Baker Time!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Many thanks to Wendy at wmpesblog (Arizona) and Dharm at Dad - Baker and Chef (Malaysia).

The Challenge Backstory:
Chocolate has many associations – godliness, health-giving, mood altering, and addicting. Bless the ancient Mayans and Aztecs for developing the cocoa bean into the delicious luxurious chocolate drink that the Spanish explorers brought back to Spain. How the Spanish kept chocolate a secret for 100 years is a mystery that perhaps can only be explained by the lack of the internet!

It is no wonder that February, the month for honoring love on St. Valentine’s Day, is best represented first by the heart and then by chocolate or better yet a chocolate heart. The potency and power of chocolate can only be rivaled by vanilla, and then they make a wonderful combination!

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

Challenge Requirments:
1. Use the following recipe
2. Serve with your own homemade Ice Cream – You can choose any flavour you want

Challenge Advice:
- Use your favorite chocolate – the finished cake will taste exactly like the chocolate you use. Be creative with your chocolate, if you like a sweeter cake use milk chocolate or a combination of the semisweet and milk chocolate. If you like bittersweet chocolate use that and add sweetness by mixing the semi sweet with bittersweet. If you are daring, try white chocolate. (Dharm used all bittersweet and Wendy used a half bitter/half semi sweet chocolate).
- A higher cocoa percentage increases the bitterness of the chocolate.

Equipment -
Optional to use a heart shaped pan. For a real Valentino, bake it in a heart shaped pan or cut it out into a heart shape. You may use any shape pan that gives you an area of 50” - 6x8 or 7x7. An 8” spring form pan works with great results as do smaller pans or ramekins.
-An instant read thermometer highly recommended.

Note on recipe - the recipe consists of 3 simple ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the same way of French baguette.
-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.
-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.
-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.
-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

One thing I learned is to prepare the pan before making the batter.
Grease the pan, line the bottom with parchment and grease that too.


Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

Wow! A very simple recipe with no skinning hazelnuts! Three ingredients! Wooo!


1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.


2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

Can we just eat this as is?


3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

Stiff peaks - the peaks on the egg whites remain straight when the beater is removed.


5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

Baked for 25 minutes... Temperature was 165F


10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.


Now onto the ice cream.
For the ice cream, I wanted to move away from berries or fruit flavored ice cream.
I remembered a candied nut recipe I received from a former boss with cinnamon and salt. I felt the cinnamon and salt would complement the chocolate.

Also, the recipe can be made in the microwave rather quickly. Another bonus!

Cinnamon Candied Nuts
11/2 C nut halves (pecans and/or walnuts)
1/4 C water
1/2 C sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/2 t Golden Syrup (My addition and optional)
1 T Butter (another of my additions to the recipe)

Place nuts on a flat dish and cook on high 2-3 minutes.
Place sugar, water, cinnamon, and salt in a 1 qt. heat proof measure.
Cook mixture for 5 1/2 -- 6 minutes bringing to a soft ball stage (236 degrees).
Add vanilla and nuts and stir until nuts are well coated.
Turn out on wax paper and separate as nuts cool

I, also, added a little Golden Syrup to prevent premature crystalization.


I have a 1,200 W microwave. They sugar mixture was heated for a minute and stirred. After which, heating was done in 30 second increments until viscous like syrup.


Pecan halves added to the sugar syrup and stirred.


Layed out onto a sheet of parchment paper.


When cooled, chopped into large pieces for the ice cream.


I've always wanted to make ice cream, but I don't have an ice cream maker. I'm actually okay with that. I enjoy the challenge of doing something from scratch.

Vanilla Ice Cream using a Custard Base
1.5 C Milk (I used Lactose Free Low Fat milk)
1.5 C Heavy Cream
4 Egg yolks
3/4 C Sugar
1 t Vanilla Extract

Another "simple" recipe with few ingredients.


1/4 C Sugar was beated into the yolks. The milk was heated/scalded to 180F.
A little hot milk was used to temper the yolk mixture. Eventually, the mixture is combined with the rest of the milk and heated.


The mixture is at the proper consistency when it can coat the back of a spoon. Note a streak is made, but the mixture didn't fill in the streak.


Add the Vanilla and whisk in.


Strain, allow to cool a little. The mixture was placed into a ziplock for the freezing step.


Since I didn't have an ice cream maker, I used a zip loc, ice and rock salt.


The ice and salt mixture was placed over the liquid ice cream mixture.
You know the container is cold when your moist fingers stick to the outside of the container.

The mixture is allowed to solidify, but should be kneaded every few minutes.


After the mixture was frozen, I used a hand mix to break up any large ice crystals.


The nuts were added and mixed into the ice cream... The mixture was placed into the freezer to harden.


The Finished Challenge
I wasn't sure how to cut the heart shaped cakes, so I round ring to cut out each serving.

Served with Candied nuts and ice cream.



A side shot showing the curls of ice cream. Nice!

Feb 24: Gumbo for Mardi Gras

Today is Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) where it's the day before Lent. Well... I'm not religious. However, I do enjoy the food and the celebration in New Orleans.

Another dish that's representative of southern Louisiana is Gumbo. Gumbo is essentially a roux based stew. However, that is an understatement to the complex flavors that a properly cooked roux imparts to the dish.

Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

1 C Onion, chopped
1/2 C Celery, chopped
1/2 C Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Clove Garlic, minced
3/4 lb Okra, cut into rounds
5 T Butter
5T Flour
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 t Tarragon
1/2 t Cayenne
1/4 t Thyme
1/2 t Cajun Seasoning
1/2 lb Smoked Sausage, cut into rounds
1 Chicken Breast, cooked and shredded
1/2 t Shrimp, shelled and deveined, sprinkled with Cajun seasoning
6 C Stock (I made a ham stock)

The trinity - Onion, bell pepper, celery... plus garlic, butter and flour.


The herbs and seasoning


The meat - sausage, cooked chicken and shrimp.


1. Cook the roux...melt the butter in a heavy pot before adding the flour. Cook over medium about 15 minutes. The flour mixture will darken. The darker the color the nuttier the flavor. Ideally, you want the roux dark... I mean dark like chocolate. I stopped when it was caramel colored. I chickened out... lol.


2. Add the celery, bell pepper, onion and garlic. Cook 10 minutes to sweat the vegs.


3. Add the okra. Okra is an interesting veg. When cut, there's a slimy ooze that comes out of the pod. However, when cooked the slime dissipates into the liquid. Add 7 C of stock.
Simmer about 1 hour or more with the lid off.


4. After an hour, add the meat and cook for another 15 minutews=


The Final Dish
Gumbo topped with rice and green onion.
Overall a good result. The ham broth provided a lot of flavor.


Ham Broth (A way to use the extra ham hock from last week)
1 C Onion, chopped
1/2 C Celery, chopped
1/2 C Carrot, chopped
2 Ham Hocks
8 Cups water
3 Buillion cubes, Chicken

Sweat the mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot.)
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 3 hours.
I acutally used the oven set at 175F and cooked overnight.

Feb 22: Sunday Dinner - Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a rice dish that's synonymous with New Orleans. According to Wikipedia, the origins is based upon paella... makes sense to me.

Jambalaya - based upon what I have locally.
1 C Onion, chopped
1/2 C Celery, chopped
1/2 C Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Bay leaf
1/2 t Thyme
1/4 t Basil
1/4 t Cayenne Pepper
7 oz Smoked Sausage, cut into rounds
7 oz Ham, cubed
1/2 lb Shrimp, peeled and deveined
14 oz Diced Tomato, I used Italian style.
1 1/2 C Rice (I used converted rice which is very popular in New Orleans)
2 C Stock (I added the shrimp shells to further flavor the stock)

The aromatics - bell pepper, garlic, celery, onion, thyme, bay, basil and cayenne.


Sausage, ham and peeled shrimp sprinkled with Cajun seasoning.


1. Saute the onion, bell pepper, garlic and celery in a little oil (about 5 minutes) to soften the veg.
Add the sausage and ham, plus the dried herb... Cook about 5 to 10 minutes.


2. Add the canned tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes so the flavors meld.


3. Add the rice and the stock.


3a. Added Stock. The stock was 2 cups of chicken bouillon and the shell from the shrimp. Brought to a boil and simmered for 5. Taken off the heat and allowed to steep. Strain before using.


4. The rice was cooked on medium for 2o minutes... After which the shrimp was added to the rice and allowed to steam for 10 minutes before mixing in.


The Finished Dish
Served on a platter and garnished with green onions.

Feb 22: Sunday Morning Beignet

Beignets (pronounced bein-yay... NOT "big-nets" as use Yankees would say. lol). In New Orleans, beignets are square pillows of deep fried dough, covered with powdered sugar...

When I relocated to New Orleans, the company had a list of relocation experts who were real estate agents. The relocation/real estate agent was kind enough to show me around the different portions of the metropolitan area. Their goal was to up the sale by encouraging me to buy. lol.

One of the first places she brought me was Cafe Du Monde. Cafe Du Monde is famous for it's beignets and cafe au lait (coffee and milk). The coffee is unique with the addition of chicory. Chicory was originally used as an extender, but also adds a little bitterness to coffee.

Okay... This is an easy no-fuss version of beignets. A group of us from work experimented with making beignets from refrigerated biscuits and found the results to be acceptable.

1. Refrigator biscuits. Shown are the small size, but Grands work even better.


2. Deep Fry 350F about 2 minutes per side.


3. Ready to eat... Coffee and Beignets covered with powdered sugar.


4. Yum!

Feb 21: BBQ Shrimp

Shrimp is very common in New Orleans being a Gulf state. I don't know how this dish came to be known as barbecued shrimp since there is no grilling or smoking.

I've tried different version of the dish. Some restaurants cooked shrimp in a Worcestershire sauce braise while other restaurants used lemon, garlic and a butter sauce. However, the Worcestershire flavored version is the most common.

Barbecue Shrimp
1/2 lb Shrimp, shell-on, deveined.
1/2 Onion, Chopped
4 T Butter
1/4 t Thyme
1/2 t Ground Black Pepper
2 Clove Garlic, grated
1/4 C Italian Dressing
2T Worcestershire Sauce

1. Shrimp sprinkled with Cajun seasoning and set aside.


The other ingredients....


Saute the onions, garlic and herbs in 2T butter until soft.


Add the shrimp and the liquids (Italian dressing and Worcestershire sauce)... Cook about 10 - 15 minutes.


Add the remaining 2T of butter a little at a time to form a sauce.


The finished dish... usually served with French bread to sop up the sauce.


The flavor was good. I should have added lemon to the dish, even better the next day after the flavors soaked into the shrimp.

Feb 19: Hot Sausage

I remember one of my first lunches with my coworkers. We went to a local poor boy joint where I ordered a hot sausage sandwich. My expectation was a hot link sandwich, but as I learned from my stay in NOLA. New Orleans has a unique cuisine different from the rest of the South.

The sandwich came with a flavorful spicy pork sausage patty.
This is my attempt to recreate the sausage.

Hot Sausage
1 lb Ground Pork
1 t Cajun Seasoning
1/2 t Garlic Powder
1/2 t Onion Powder
1/2 t Cayenne
1/2 t Chili Flakes
1/2 t Thyme

The secret ingredient? One of my favorite seasoned salts.


The rest of the ingredients...


Mixed in a ziploc bag... I'm too good to get my hands.
Refrigerate overnight so he flavors meld.


Next day... two 4 ounce patties.
Mashed using plates.


Cooked in the GFG for 7 minutes.


Ah... nicely browned.


For my sandwich, dressed with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato. With all the filling it was a 3" high sandwich.


The sausage was a little dense, but surprisingly spicy with only 1/2 t cayenne and 1/2 t chile flakes. The flavor was good, but seemed lacking from what I remember.


Notes for next time...
Try a coarser grind with a higher fat content.
Form the patty gentler.
For more flavor, use fresh garlic and onion.

Feb 18: Pralines

Pralines are a very popular candy in the South, especially in New Orleans. Pralines (pronounced Pra-leens) looks like a round patty with pecans. The consistency is soft and creamy with a little grittiness from sugar crystals.

I've taken a recipe from "From Woodstoves to Microwaves... Cooking with Entergy." Entergy is the local power company and the cook book was sold through my employers with the proceeds going to local charities.

The original recipes is made on the stove top, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time making the candy so I'm trying the recipe in the microwave. Also, I made a half recipe.

Microwave Pralines
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Cream
1 T Butter
1/2 C Pecan Halves

Note: The recipe called for breakfast cream. I'm not sure what that is so I used heavy cream.


Heat the sugar and cream for 3 minutes in a microwave. I have a 1,200 W microwave.
I can tell by the thick caramel consistency that I went a little too far in the microwave. However, I kept on.


Added the butter and stirred in the pecans. Microwaved for about 30 seconds.


Darn... the syrup is crystallizing.
I quickly scooped out the mixture to make rounds... However, the pralines crystallized instead of being soft and creamy.


The flavor is is like a buttery toffee. I need to work on the consistency.
Total time to make the candy was 5 minutes.

Notes for next time when using the microwave oven.
1. Add a little corn syrup. The syrup should reduce the odds of crystallization.
2. Heat only for 2 minutes... maybe 2 1/2 minutes.

The stove top recipe.
Pralines
1 C Brown Sugar
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Breakfast Cream
2 T Butter
1 C Pecan halves

1. Boil the sugars and cream to 228F while stirring occasionally.
2. Add the butter and pecans. Cook to 236F.
3. Cool... Beat until slightly thickened but still glossy.
4. Drop onto wax paper or parchment paper... allow to cool completely.

BTW... Pecans is pronounced as P-Cons, not P-Cans. A coworker told us Yankees that "P-cons are for eating and P-cans are used by truckers."

Feb 16: Red Beans and Rice

In New Orleans, it must be Monday if you're eating Red beans and rice. For some reason, Monday was washday. A meal had to be made with minimal effort and minimal supervision which turned out to be a pot of red beans. The beans also incorporated the leftover meats from Sunday dinner.

Over the years, the red beans has become a creamy, ham-flavored dish.

Here's a slow cooker version of red beans...

Red Beans - Slow Cooker

1 lb Red Beans, soaked overnight
1 Onion
1 Bell Pepper
2 Stalk Bell Pepper
2 Bay Leaves
1 Ham Hock
6 ounces Ham Steak
4 C Water (I used 2 C stock and 2 C water)

Initially, started with 1/2 bell pepper, ham hock, onion, celery and bay leaves.


A the last second, I wanted to up the ham factor. Also, I went ahead and just added the rest of the bell pepper.

Turn on low and cook for 8 to 9 hours.


After cooking, the onion, bell pepper and celery was discarded. The ham was chopped and any worthy meat was picked off the ham hock and chopped.

Before serving add the ham back into the beans.... slightly mash some of the beans to increase the creaminess.

The final dish...
Red beans and rice.
Typically served with smoked sausage.


Overall a good dish. I prefer a stronger ham flavor so I should have added more ham or ham hock and less bell pepper.

Feb 15: Mardi Gras Season

Ten days before Fat Tuesday, the party is getting started. Parades, parties, debauchery... all in the name of getting "it" out of your system before Lent.

Some of the throws I collected during Mardis Gras, in years past. I had to do a lot of flashing for them... lol. No, just caught them during the parades.


I had the good fortune to live in New Orleans for a few years. Living in New Orleans was quite an exciting experience, a city with a long history stemming back to the early 1700's and earlier if you include the local native American tribes.

New Orleans is a city of many culinary influences - native American, French Acadians (Cajuns), Spanish, African, Caribbean, Italian, Cuban and now Vietnamese.

I remember cooking shows with Justin Wilson, Paul Prudomme and Emeril Lagasse with there emphasis on the trinity.

Pictured below is the "trinity" of local Cajun and Creole cookery - 2 parts Onion, 1 part Celery and 1 part bell pepper. Playing a supporting role are green onions, garlic and tomatoes.


Over the next few days, I hope to cooks some of the dishes I remember from my stay in New Orleans.

Feb 12: Blue Cheese Burgers Again!

Now that a majority of the CNY festivities have concluded for this year. I was craving a good burger so I wanted to go back and try making the blue cheese burger again.

My previous try (burgers for the Superbowl) I used two patties to sandwich the blue cheese. However, the good stuff leaked from the patties. This time... S suggested using one patty to envelope the blue cheese.

1. 6 ounces of 15% Fat ground beef. I used a plate to flatten to about 6 inches in diameter. Seasoned both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder.


2. Placed 1 T (Tablespoon) of blue cheese in the center and brought up the sides to seal the top.


3. Tightly wrap with plastic to ensure a tight seal...Shape the patty to about a 4" diameter patty, 1" thick.


4. Grilled about 10 minutes on the GFG (George Foreman Grill).
Success! No leakage. Patty cut in half for a closer look. :)


Nice and gooey on the inside.


5. Grilled some onions on the GFG.


Topped with a little extra blue cheese... dressed with mayo, mustard, grilled onions, tomato slices and shredded lettuce. :)


A quick shot of the cut burger... too hungry to compose the shot.


Ah... very nice and creamy center. Burger a little dense from my mashing technique to make the burger. I'll have to use a lighter hand the next time.

Feb 09: The Fifth Taste?

When I was in elementary school, we learned that tongue had four taste receptors - sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Well... that was the olden days. Now, there is a belief that we have a fifth taste receptor - Umami.

Uma-what? Umami! Umami is a Japanese term that refers to a flavor that's savory, not just salty, but meaty too. These taste buds respond to glutamates. That's one reason that MSG is a popular seasoning... MSG represents umami.

From Wiki, foods that contain glutamates: soy sauce, fish sauce, kombu, mushrooms, anchioves, parmasean.

There's a Chinese New Year dish, which I haven't had in 20 to 25 years, but I still remember the strong flavors and the crunch of water chestnuts. I think it was the umami of the dish that made this dish stand out.

Here's my attempt at make the dish - Lettuce cups with dried oyster filling.

Oysters (hao si) is a symoblic food since hao sounds like "good" or "good fortune". Lettuce is symbolic of "prosperity".

Lettuce Cups with Dried Oysters
1/3 C (about 5) large dried oysters, soaked a few hours to overnight to rehydrate
1/4 C Water Chestnut, minced
1/2 lb Ground Pork
1/4 C Carrot, minced (for color)
1/4 C Shiitake Mushroom, rehydrated and minced
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1/2 t Ginger, grated
1 Green Onion, chopped
1/4 C Stock
1 T Oyster Sauce
2 t Soy Sauce, Regular
2 t Soy Sauce, Dark

Picture of the rehydrated oyster.


Soaking the oysters made for easier mincing.


The rest of the ingredients.


1. In a hot wok or saute pan, add about 1 T oil and slightly fry the garlic and ginger (30 seconds) add the pork to start cooking... About 1 minute add the oysters.


2. I became impatient and added the rest of the ingredients and seasoning.
Stir to break up the ground pork. Add the broth and cook for about 10 minutes.
The dish did not look as dark as I remembered so I dug around my pantry and found some dark soy sauce.


The finished dish - minced meat and lettuce cups.


Scoop some of the filling into a lettuce cup and fold to eat like a lettuce taco. :-)


The dish turned out very close to what I remember.
Looking at the ingredients, this dish is laden with umami flavors - dried oyster, dried mushrooms and soy sauce (two kinds), oyster sauce and possibly the garlic.

Notes:
Add more water chestnut for more crunch.
Add more oysters or use less ground pork... in order to have a stronger oyster flavor.
Not sure If I really need the ginger or carrots.

Feb 08: Chili Prawns?

If you've every watched Iron Chef, then you'll be familiar with Chef Chen Kenichi. His signature dish is Chili Prawns. The judges describe the dish as extraordinary - spicy, sweet and garlicky. One of the few dishes from the show that I would want to try.

Also, a local restaurant makes "sweet chili prawns". I don't know if it's similar to chili prawns, but it's a delicious dish too.

Here's my improvised attempt to make a chili prawns dish.

Chili Prawns (Take One)

~Mix and let marinade about 15 minutes before cooking.
1/2 Shrimp, shelled and deveined (used 51/60 shrimp)
2 T Corn Starch
1 T Wine
2 t Soy Sauce
Dash of garlic powder.



~ Sauce Ingredients
1/4 C Chicken Stock (or water)
2 T Ketchup
1 t Chili Sauce
1/2 t Sugar
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1 Clove Garlic, Minced
1 T Vinegar


1. Heat the wok (or a saute pan) until hot!
Use about 1 to 2 T oil and add shrimp in a single layer... Cook about 1 minute.


2. Flip shrimp and add the garlic and green onion.
After another minute add the sauce ingredients and cook until boiling.
Use vinegar to taste.

Note: It is typical to cook the shrimp about 80%, remove from the wok to cook the sauce. When the sauce is boiling, the shrimp is added back to finish cooking.... about another minutes or two. I chose not to do that since I didn't want wash more dishes.


The finished dish... The shrimp had enough cornstarch where I didn't need to add more to thicken the sauce.


The dish turned out nicely.

With a hot pan, the dish was cooked in about 7 to 10 minutes... Maybe a little quicker if I had my act together.

Dish notes:
Spicy - I thought this dish would be a bit mild, but surprisingly had a little heat. 1 tsp of chili sauce is a nice level.
Garlic - needs more.
Sugar/Sweetness - needs more... maybe 1 tsp.
Shrimp - Almost overcooked... tender, but on the cusp of being rubbery. Will have to "twice cook" the shrimp as mentioned in my note above.
Sesame oil - add a few drops for next trial.
Sour - Needs just a touch more acidity.
Corn starch - can get by with 1 T instead of 2 T

Feb 07: Braised Pork

Walking through the market and spied a pork shoulder with the skin on. Bone-in and with skin! I couldn't pass it up. The bone and outer layer just adds lots of flavor to a dish, especially a braise.

Today's braise contains....
2 to 3 T Fermented Black Beans, soaked and rinsed
1 Shallot, sliced
1 T Ginger, sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, smashed
2 T Oyster Sauce
2 T Soy Sauce
3 C Chicken Stock

The pork was marinaded 24 hours with soy sauce (3T) and fresh garlic (crushed).


Lightly brown the pork in a heavy pot (about 5 minutes)... add the rest of the ingredients (less the stock) to saute with the meat (another 5 minutes). Finally, add the stock and bring to a simmer... Cook for 2 to 3 hours.


With an hour left, add potatoes. Typically, taro would be used.


After 3 1/2 hours, the dish is ready. The pork is falling off the bones which makes it easy to shred and defat. The flavor of the black beans permeates the meat and potatoes.

Feb 05: Steamed Fish

Chinese New Years is winding down, but there are few more items that have symbolic meaning.

Fish symbolically represents abundance. Typically, a whole fish is served. However, fish is not just a new year food. It's an anytime kind of dish.

I chose to use a fillet and the cooking method - steaming.
IMHO steaming is a great way to cook fish without making the house smell strongly of fish. Based upon personal observation, fish seems to get fishy when overcooked or fried. Steaming seems to keep the fish hydrated so the odor is less pronounced. I don't know if that's 100% true. It's just based upon observation.

Steamed Fish
1 Fish, fillet or whole
A little salt, garlic powder, a couple drops of soy sauce....
Ginger... a few slices. According to mom, ginger is always added to fish.
A little green onion





For a steamer, I improvised a rack to fit my wok. When the water's boiling... place the dish on the rack. I used a Pyrex pie dish as my steaming dish.


Steam 10 minutes... Garnish with more soy sauce, cilantro and sliced green onions.


The final touch... heat 2 T of oil in a skillet. The oil should shimmer.
Slowly drizzle the oil over the fish.

I believe this step stems from the "old" country where the popular fish was carp which was low in fat. The oil adds a little richness and some additional flavor.

The final dish is light - not too fish, not too heavy, flavorful but not overpowering.


Wow! I turned around and it looked like I had a couple eager taste testers. :-)

Feb 03: Eating Clouds

I still have some pork filling from yesterday's shu mai recipe.

The filling is pretty much a universal filling and can be used for other wrapped noodle dishes.

Won ton is just that dish. In Cantonese, Wun Tun means "cloud swallow" or "eating clouds". Won tons in soup looks like fluffy clouds, at least that's the allusion.

The shu mai and won ton skins are the same. The shu mai wrappers are round while won ton wrappers are square, as shown below.


Making won tons is straight-forward.
As depicted from left to right...
1. Place about 1 tsp of filling in the center. Use some egg white to coat the bottom edge.
2. Fold in half, squeezing out the air before sealing.
3. Egg white one corner. Fold corners up until the corners meet.
4. The completed won ton.


A group of completed soup won tons.


Won tons can be deep fried too. For deep fried won tons, use only 1/2 tsp of filling. Too much filling, the outside will burn before the filling is completely cooked. Deep fry 350F unil golden.

Experimenting with different folds... half fold, won ton fold and a micro mini-eggroll fold.


For the soup won tons use any veggies you have, I brought
3 C Broth to a boil
1 Water Chestnut, sliced
1 Green Onion, minced
1 Shiitake Mushroom, julienned
Baby Corn
Nappa Cabbage
Bok Choi
Bamboo Shoots
Pea Pods
BBQ Pork


Boil the won tons about 5 minutes. They'll start floating when they're done.
Add to the soup before serving.


Fried Won Ton


Finished won ton soup... Garnish with green onion, cilantro...
Add white pepper, sesame seed oil and soy sauce to your liking.

Feb 02: Water Chestnuts

Found some fresh water chestnuts at the local Asian market. Water chestnut is a corm that stores sugars and starches for the water chestnut plant. The centers are crunchy and sweet which can be eaten raw or cooked.

Preparation is straight forward.
Trim the top and bottom.
Peel the skin off the sides.... Now it's ready to slice and dice.
The flavor of a raw piece was sweet. The texture was reminiscent of a crisp apple.


With fresh water chestnuts, I decided to make a pork dumpling - shu mai.

A shu mai is pretty much a pork meat ball wrapped with a thin won ton wrapper and steamed.

I've never made shu mai so I wanted to give it a shot.
This recipe is a work in progress.

Shu Mai - Pork Dumpling
1 pound Ground Pork
3 Water Chestnut, minced (about 1/4 C)
1/2 tsp Ginger, Grated
2 Green Onions, chopped
2 T Bamboo Shoots, finely chopped
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Dried Mushroom, reconstituted and chopped
1/2 tsp White Pepper
3 T Soy Sauce
2 T Oyster Sauce
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1T Corn Starch - used to give the ground meat a smooth texture

Combine and thoroughly mix all of the ingredients.


I found round wrappers in the market.
Place 1 T of filling into the center.
Fold the edges up and use your fingers to maintain a cylindrical shape. Use the thumb from your opposite hand to tamp the filling down (to remove air bubbles too).


Shu mai arranged on a steamer which was sprayed with Pam.
I'm not sure which is the best way to steam... open face up or open face down so I tried both.


My improvised steamer using an old pie tin with holes added to form the base.


Cover and steam for 10 to 15 minutes.


Served with a quick soy sauce vinaigrette... soy sauce, vinegar, sesame seed oil and chili sauce. Rough quantities,
1 T Soy Sauce
2 T Vinegar
1/4 tsp sesame seed oil
chili sauce to taste.
A little chopped green onion


The shu mai was okay... The filling is best made ahead of time so the flavors can meld. Also, could use more ginger, green onion and garlic. I should look up some shu mai recipes for a point of reference.

Finally, the best way to steam is open face down. When the wrapper touched the steamer, the shu mai tended to stick to the steamer.

Feb 01: Burgers for the Bowl

Today is the Superbowl!

Besides the football game, the attraction is the commericals. The high dollar commericals run about $3 Million per 30 second TV ad. With that much money, past advertisers have come up with very ingenious and entertaining commericals.

In terms of food, the Superbowl has become a big snacking day. Chips, dip (especially 7 layer dips), wings and picnic style foods. Food that can be eaten without utensils, especially a knife.

My bit for today is mini-hamburgers, also known as, sliders.

Part 1 - Ground Beef Tasting
Before I made the burgers, I wanted to see if there was a difference between ground beef fat %. Many home economist state that buying the least expensive ground beef (higher fat %) is the best way to go. When you cook the ground beef, the fat will cook out. If you drain the fat, you end up with the same stuff.

For the taste test, lean ground beef (15% Fat) and extra lean (7% Fat) were purchased. "Regular" ground beef (25%-30% Fat) was sold out.

Price per pound
Lean: $1.99 (sale price, not sure of the actual price)
Extra Lean: $4.29

Two patties were made each 75 grams (2.6 ounces).
15% fat patty on the left. 7% fat patty on the right.
Visually, the 15% patty is lighter in color and contains more bits of fat.


Plugged in my brand new George Foreman grill I received for Christmas! :)
Twice the cooking area as my old GFG.


Cooked 5 minutes. 15% fat on the left.


After cooking, the drip pan contained more fat on side with the 15% burger patty.


The results - The 15% burger seems porous and crumbly. The 7% burger has a dense texture.
Both patties were bland with no strong beefy flavor.

Weight after cooking:
15% = 45 g (1.5 ounces)
7% = 46 g (1.6 ounces)
Obviously, 15% ground beef drained fat and juice while the 7% drained mainly juice.


Part 2 - Mini-hamburger with blue cheese
Four 2 ounces patties were pressed to about 3 inches in diameter.
1 Tablespoon of blue cheese placed in the center.


The patties were topped with the second patty, pressed together and rounded off.


Grilled in the GFG for 5 minutes.
Ack! Blue cheese is leaking out!


To correct for the leakage, add extra on top. More of the good stuff!


For the bun, I used soft dinner rolls. I'm not into thick heavy buns.


The finished burger - lettuce, tomatoes, mayo and mustard.