I have to admit that this is the only Mongolian dish that I make and other than Mongolian grill, I don’t know much about the cuisine. Eventually, I’ll cook my way through more Mongolian food, I’m sure. I like the sauce of this beef dish because it has a subtle sweetness to it that differs from other Chinese beef dishes.
I happened to have extra potatoes and leeks on hand so I thought I’d try making this soup for the first time. I’ve noticed that many recipes involve sauteeing the leeks first. But I decided to trust Julia Child’s recipe which also happened to be the simplest soup I have ever made. Potato and leek soup has a very simple flavour and unlike the overly thickened soups that you get in restaurants, Julia Child’s version is very light and smooth.
Thai green curry is spicier than the red and yellow curries. (See my Thai Red Curry post.) I know this green curry doesn’t look very appetizing – in fact, I served it as “swamp sludge” at a Halloween party once 😉 – but it’s my personal favourite thai dish. Sometimes I make this vegetarian and it’s the only vegetarian dish that doesn’t leave me craving meat. I ate the eggplant and bamboo shoot green curry dish at a local Thai and Cambodian restaurant every day for about a month before I finally stopped being lazy and figured out how to make it myself. Thai curries are incredibly easy to make at home and, like a Chinese stir fry, you can use any combination of meat and vegetables you happen to have on hand. These freeze well too.
I used to get anxious about baking cookies because it was a guaranteed Fail for years. But I finally got the hang of it by pushing my way through more than a dozen different peanut butter cookie recipes over a short period of time. Here’s a link to my tips for baking cookies. After I recovered from baking peanut butter cookies, I took on a mission to find my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I love cookies that are chewy in the middle with crunchy edges. I tried 13 different recipes before I declared 2 of them the best.
Both of the recipes that I’ve posted below will give you beautifully chewy and crunchy chocolate chip cookies. If you like your cookies crunchy, the second recipe makes excellent crunchy cookies if you make them smaller or add an extra minute or two to the baking time. The first recipe is the one I use when I want to make a large batch quickly and easily. The second recipe is unique in that it uses browned butter. I prefer the flavour of the first recipe but I prefer the texture of the second recipe. Also note that cookies from the second recipe taste better on the second day compared to cookies made from the first recipe. Both make excellent cookies but the second recipe requires a bit more time and work. Also, the second recipe doesn’t make as many cookies as the first one.
Steamed spareribs is a dim sum dish, but it also makes a great meal when served with rice. It is very easy to make at home. Dim sum refers to various types of small dishes that are served with tea during the meal, yum cha (“drinking tea time”), which starts early in the morning and ends between noon and 3 pm, depending on the restaurant. (Check out the other dim sum recipes that I have posted in the Asian – Dim Sum category.)
This recipe uses Chinese fermented black beans (douchi) which have a sharp smell and a unique salty flavour that is also slightly bitter. They are used to make black bean sauce (which can be purchased in stores) that is used in some Chinese noodle dishes, chicken stir fries, bitter melon dishes, and steamed pork spareribs, to name a few.
I watched the mens’ hockey game for the gold (Winter Olympics, Vancouver, 2010) at a friend’s house. It was the gold medal that helped Canada set the new world record for most gold medals at the Winter Olympics. I made this baked cheesy spinach and artichoke dip and served it with thin slices of toasted baguette. I used my new brie baker for this.
Curry fish balls are a Very popular street food in Hong Kong that are usually served on wooden skewers. This is a mild, yellow curry. At dim sum, you can get curried squid or baby octopus.
Dim sum refers to various types of small dishes that are served with tea during the meal, yum cha (“drinking tea time”), which starts early in the morning and ends between noon and 3 pm, depending on the restaurant. (Check out the other dim sum recipes that I have posted in the Asian – Dim Sum category.)
I love Pho Tai – Vietnamese rare beef and noodles in soup. But I’m too often disappointed by the unauthentic, MSG and chicken broth, cheap imitations that most restaurants serve. So I finally decided to try making it myself. I can’t even describe how excited I was when I tried the Pho recipe from the cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. I could tell from the smell of the broth, even before I tasted it, that I had found the perfect recipe. This is an authentic, delicious, and easy to make broth that is so good, that I’ll never be compelled to order Pho from a restaurant again. If you have leftover daikon radish, see here for a list of other recipes.
Potato pancakes (also called potato latkes) can be made bite sized for hors d’oeuvres or medium to large for appetizers. I like topping these with caviar for hors d’oeuvres or with smoked salmon for appetizers, served with sour cream and garnished with chives.
Ed used to order chicken parmigiana in restaurants all the time. He hasn’t ordered it since I started making it at home a few years ago. If you want a healthier version, coat the chicken breasts with just one layer of bread crumbs and simply bake the breaded chicken in the oven first. Be sure not to overcook it. Then add the sauce and cheese and throw it back into the oven until the cheese melts.
I love eating eggs for dinner and Chinese people have several simple egg dishes that are served with rice alongside other dishes for dinner.
Picture below from top moving clockwise: tomato eggs, shrimp and garlic shoots stir fry, hot and sour soup, mongolian beef. See the Asian category for the rest of the recipes.
Udon noodles: This was my first time making any sort of pasta from scratch and it was surprisingly easy. Since Japanese udon noodles are supposed to be thick (4 – 8 mm) and chewy, no machinery was required to make this. I plan to eventually buy the pasta making attachments for my stand mixer, so one day I’ll make italian pasta from scratch too.
Udon broth: My favourite way to eat udon noodles is in Japanese broth. However, I am often disappointed with the unauthentic broth variations served at most restaurants and I don’t like using powdered soup mixes because of the MSG, excess sodium and preservatives. So I was Very excited to see an authentic dashi recipe on the Rasa Malaysia food blog provided by a Japanese guest writer. Dashi is a type of Japanese stock that is usually seafood based, using ingredients such as shaved bonito (a type of fish) flakes and kombu (kelp). Unlike chicken or beef stocks, dashi takes only minutes to make. It is a basic soup recipe to which you can add whatever ingredients you like (see variation suggestions in the recipe below).
Cooking with Alison 