I used a combination of asian mushrooms (fresh and dried) to make a hearty Chinese gravy that is quick and easy to make. I served it over a plate of steamed soft tofu. You could also serve this mushroom gravy over steamed broccoli or a plate of stir fried Chinese vegetables.
Photo below: This dish would have been more visually appealing if I had used fresh shimeji (aka beech) mushrooms, but they weren’t in season at the time.
I had a variety of fresh herbs left over from making herbed focaccia, so I bought a small log of goat cheese, covered it with herbs, and enjoyed it warm with grilled vegetables. Crumble it and use it in recipes the way you would with plain goat cheese. When entertaining, this makes an elegant spread for crackers and it makes a great addition to any cheese platter. Read the rest of this entry »
If you love the taste of fresh Italian parsley or if you have a ton of it in your herb garden, try making a parsley salad. It can be eaten as a side salad or it can be used as a garnish. I suggest only using young parsley as parsley leaves toughen as they mature.
This is served cold and can be eaten as an appetizer or part of the main course.
I made this several times using different concentrations of alcohol. I tried shaoxing cooking wine, shaoxing cooking wine with 14% alcohol, and whiskey (40% alcohol). In my opinion, the 14% shaoxing cooking wine was the best choice (strong enough to come through in the meat and not too strong like the whiskey was). I’ve also found that it’s important to make the chicken noticeably salty (without overdoing it) to compliment the bitterness of the alcohol.
[I just found a recipe for Chinese drunken chicken served hot in a broth that uses mirin. I can’t wait to try it. I have a feeling it will taste even better than cold drunken chicken.]
Note that I prefer my chicken to be JUST cooked through so I’ve adjusted the cooking time in the recipe (to 12 minutes) for those of you who prefer your chicken a bit more well done than this.
Early this year, Ed started taking an interest in cooking, and I love it 🙂 He’s made cupcakes (recipe here) and brownies (recipe here) and more recently, beer butt chicken. I liked the beer butt chicken so much that I asked him to show me how he made it, so that I could post it on my food blog. The skin is beautifully crispy, the beer keeps the meat moist, and it’s really easy to make.
Rice vermicelli soup bowls are very easy and quick to make. They’re perfect for cold days. [I made it this summer because I caught a cold and wanted something hot and comforting that didn’t require any effort. This was exactly what I needed, despite the blazing sun and humidity outside. But seriously… who catches a cold in the middle of a heat stroke? It’s embarrassing haha]
To make this, you only need one pot and you can use any combination of meats and vegetables that you like. Most people marinate the meat like they would for any other Chinese dish (ie. with soy sauce), but I prefer to keep it Very simple. I use a little bit of salt because I like to keep the colour of the soup as clear as possible and because the pickled cabbage adds enough flavour.
Gambas al ajillo, or shrimp with garlic, is a Spanish tapas (ie. appetizer). I first tried it in a popular local restaurant years ago. It’s garlicky and spicy, and so simple to make at home. The first time Ed tried it, he liked it so much that I made it for him two days in a row. I’ve re-created the dish that’s served at Chez Piggy, Kingston, ON, but I doubt it’s very authentic. At the restaurant, they serve this sizzling on a hot plate but I use my small cast iron pan instead.
On a side note, I find Chez Piggy to be extremely over rated and over priced. I never go on my own accord. This is one of the few things that I like on their menu but they tend to overcook the shrimp and they charge $11 for 6 shrimp. It only cost me $2 to make this at home. (I got a bag of President’s Choice frozen large shrimp for just $5 on sale.)
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I tried several different cashew chicken recipes in search of my favourite and came up with this one. The best part about this recipe is that you don’t have to marinate the meat because the sauce is flavourful enough. I like the simplicity of using sugar snap peas or snow peas. Many people prefer to use a combination of peppers for the colour, so use any vegetables that you like.
I am in love with avocados. When it comes to guacamole, I prefer the texture of roughly mashed avocados, so I use an S-shaped potato masher. A fork works well too; or you could use a large mortar and pestle like Chef Bobby Flay. For a slight variation, serve this as an “avocado salsa” by Not mashing the avocado pieces and cutting the roma tomatoes into slightly larger pieces (or halve cherry tomatoes instead). Guacamole is pictured above.
Beef and broccoli comes to mind for many North Americans when they think of Chinese food. I have nothing against this dish, but my mom never made it when I was growing up. You’ll never see me order it from a restaurant, either. But since it’s so popular (and broccoli was on sale), I thought I’d make it because stir frying meat and vegetables is still in the spirit of Chinese cuisine.
This is one of my (and Ed’s) favourite vinaigrette recipes. It’s very versatile. We love it on salad and for dipping bread served with shavings of parmesan cheese. Giada even suggests tossing it with pasta, so I used it to make a pasta salad recently. If you put it in a pretty glass container, it makes a great gift (it’ll look prettier if you throw a whole sprig or two of rosemary into the bottle). I’ve included this in gift baskets for various occasions before.
I needed to make a quick and easy snack for a weeknight because I was having some girls over for a clothing exchange party. I was already making hummus, deep fried ravioli and fudge brownies and decided that I was missing cheese. Instead of doing the standard cheese platter, I thought I’d try making a cheese ball, because I already had most of the ingredients that I needed. It’s a nice, flavourful cheese spread.
Cooking with Alison 