I made this for my family recently and they thought that it tasted even better than the restaurant’s dish. My mom kept raving about how good it was and how even she can’t replicate that Chinese restaurant “flavour” (known as “wok hay”). My brother even suspected that I had used MSG! 🙂 Just to be clear, I never use monosodium glutamate (MSG), because it is a neurotoxin and, clearly, you don’t need it to make great tasting food.
I love love love eating duck tongues, and I have no problem consuming an entire box in one sitting, despite the fact that they are pricey and high in calories. I also happen to be in love with this sauce. Duck tongues can be deep fried, braised, or stir fried. My favourite way to cook duck tongues is to stir fry them.
For those of you who have never tried a duck tongue, most of the tongue is edible. A thin piece of soft bone (I love eating the soft bone) runs up the middle of the tongue and connects to an inedible bone in the middle of the back end of the tongue. The flesh surrounding the bone is neither meaty nor tough like cow’s tongue. Rather, it is soft and slightly chewy, and rich and fatty without being greasy or oily. It’s the texture that makes these so popular. They are relatively neutral in taste, so flavourful sauces are often used.
Despite my age, I still get a little excited whenever I treat myself to a popsicle. Fudgesicles used to be my favourite frozen snack, but years ago, I turned my back on them when I started giving up unnaturally flavoured, processed foods. So imagine how happy I was when I found recipes for homemade fudgesicles. I love that I can now make adult fudgesicles that have a dark chocolate flavour without fructose or corn syrup. I tested two highly rated recipes and have posted my favourite below. I’ll never crave a processed fudgesicle again. 🙂
I am conscious about being environmentally friendly, and I always feel guilty about the number of disposable freezer bags that I use. You see, most of the time I’m cooking for one, so I make large batches of food, divide them into one or two serving portions, and freeze them. I try to use tupperware containers as often as I can but they disappear with Ed and my sister, Krystal, for months at a time (I deliver most of the frozen meals to them). I have already purchased many tupperware containers and I simply don’t have the storage space for more. Also, freezer bags don’t take up as much space, and freezer space is a hot commodity in my apartment. So I was very excited to discover AnyLock’s reusable food storage bags and sealers (Slide ‘n Store). They work better than disposable ziploc bags while reducing waste! Furthermore, AnyLock’s sealing rods are the best bag closing/sealing product I have ever seen or used. I’ve shared my detailed review of these products below. Note that this review is based only on my personal opinions and experience with the product.
I am pleased to announce that the new domain for Cooking with Alison is:
This food blog was started on January 15, 2010. (It was called Cooking with Ali, then. A few months later, the name was changed to Cooking with Alison, but the domain remained https://cookingwithali.wordpress.com.) I had been an admirer of other peoples’ food blogs for years and decided to start my own so that I would have my recipes documented and stored in a safe and easily searchable place. I didn’t think that anyone would ever follow it. In the beginning, I called or emailed Ed every time my food blog had a hit, to share my excitement and disbelief and to make sure that it wasn’t him. 🙂 I have now had this food blog for 1 year and 9 months, and I have surprised even myself with how dedicated I’ve been to maintaining it. I have already shared 313 posts and I plan to continue with this momentum. So I thought that it was time that Cooking with Alison had its own domain. Thank you to everyone for visiting Cooking with Alison. Hopefully the shorter domain will make my food blog easier to remember and share with others.
Steamed tofu stuffed/topped with shrimp is a healthy dish that is very easy to make. Alternatively, you could top your tofu with marinated minced pork (with mushrooms and/or red chili peppers, etc.). If you are using pork for this dish, you can follow the method in the recipe below or you can steam the tofu and cook the pork separately in a pan. Then simply top your hot tofu with the cooked pork mixture and serve.
Tiramisu is a very popular Italian, coffee flavoured, layered dessert made with lady fingers and a creamy filling. I’ve always made it a point to try tiramisu from various restaurants, banquet halls, and bakeries – I even tested a few simple tiramisu recipes – but I never found one that blew me away, so I couldn’t understand why this dessert was so popular… until now. I now know that the simpler tiramisu recipes just don’t cut it, and you really need to use the best quality mascarpone that you can get your hands on. I realize that mascarpone cheese is a pricey ingredient, but if you spend just a few more dollars, it will make a world of difference to this dessert.
For my mother’s past birthday, I made a tiramisu cake. Everyone loved it, even Ed and his family who don’t normally care for tiramisu. My dad, who isn’t a fan of dessert in general, enthusiastically asked for a large second helping. He kept saying, “I don’t like dessert, but I Need to eat more of this.” Yes, the word he used was, “need”. 🙂 I loved it so much that I briefly contemplated not sharing the rest of it with Ed and his family (and that is Not like me)!
First off, I should inform you that this pork souvlaki recipe is not authentically Greek. It has soy sauce in it, but once the meat is cooked, you can’t tell that it was flavoured with soy sauce. I’ve tried more authentic pork souvlaki recipes in the past, but this is our favourite. It’s easy to make and the meat can be marinated ahead of time for entertaining. It is best cooked on a charcoal BBQ, but any grill or cast iron pan will work.
When it comes to tzatziki, I am extremely picky. Tzatziki (yogurt cucumber dip/sauce) varies in consistency depending on the brand or restaurant, but in my opinion, the thicker the better. My favourite store bought brand of tzatziki is Skotidakis and this can be found at some Costco locations.
Saganaki is a popular Greek cheese appetizer that is set on fire table side. A lot of people complain that this dish is too salty, but this website provides excellent information on the different types of cheese (with varying levels of saltiness) that you could use for this dish. I tried the kefalograviera and the graviera cheese and I much preferred the graviera. This site also provides great step by step photo instructions. If you don’t have a saganaki (the name of the pan that is used), you could use a small cast iron pan like I did. Please don’t judge the recipe by how my saganaki turned out. 🙂 My pan wasn’t hot enough or seasoned enough when I put the cheese down, so it stuck to the bottom of the pan. It didn’t look great but the outside was deliciously crispy.
Unlike custardy or bread puddings, Chinese mango pudding (mango bo deen) is more like a fruity and creamy jello. It is a popular dim sum (tea time) dessert that is best served cold with evaporated milk. I believe it originated in Hong Kong. It is one of my favourite Chinese desserts. It is very easy to make and it is the perfect light and cool finish to a heavy or spicy meal. I especially love having it in the summer time. I was inspired to make it when my sister and I were served a very disappointing mango bo deen at an expensive and high class Chinese restaurant. My sister, who doesn’t like mango puddings, said that my mango bo deen was good… for a mango bo deen. 😉 Update: I recently made these again using mango nectar instead of 100% mango juice, and everyone agreed that it was the best mango pudding they had ever had.
When eating in Chinese restaurants, my family often orders deep fried squid or deep fried octopus tentacles. We love the simplicity of the salty, peppery, and spicy coating. The tentacles (squid or octopus) are my favourite part, because they tend to be the crispiest and I love the chewy, almost crunchy, texture. You can easily make this at home. In fact, you can easily make it better than the restaurants. A few days after I made this dish for my sister, she ordered it from one of our favourite restaurants and she thought that my dish was better and crispier. If you feel intimidated by the tentacles or by working with fresh squid, you could use calamari rings instead.
Two of my good friends got married on September 10, 2011 at Sucrerie de la Montagne in Quebec, Canada. On a side note, Chef Anthony Bourdain went to this very sugar shack for his television show, No Reservations. My friends had an intimate wedding and invited their friends and family to bring cakes for dessert. So I took this opportunity to make my first wedding cake. It was a one-tier, two-layer chocolate cake with strawberry raspberry jam and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. It was covered with marshmallow fondant and topped with fresh, fall coloured flowers. I was very happy with how it turned out and people loved the way that it tasted. My cake decorating skills have come a LONG way since my Michael’s cake decorating course. 🙂 This cake was surprisingly easy to make. See below for the recipes and a few tips.
Cooking with Alison 