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 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.
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.
I caught 4 fish ice fishing at the 2010 Winterlude Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They were all brook trout weighing between 1/2 to 1 lb each. I steamed the largest fish whole (link to recipe here), pan fried the smallest one until the skin was crispy, and baked the last two small fish in parchment. Baking fish en papillote steams the fish in its own juices along with vegetables in a parchment paper envelope. This is also called fish al cartoccio. The best part about this cooking method is the easy clean up. It’s quick, easy, and very healthy. The fish comes out very moist and sometimes I use this method just to cook my vegetables alone. This is great for entertaining too.
Hot and sour soup originated in Szechuan, a region in China. It’s one of my sister’s favourite foods and unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to find a restaurant that serves a truly authentic (and delicious) hot and sour soup. Luckily, it’s very easy to make at home. My family loves it when I make this soup and they can’t get enough of it. 🙂 You could easily make this a vegetarian or vegan soup by omitting the pork and egg, and by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
Thai red curry is spicier than yellow curry but milder than the green (link to my green curry recipe here). These are incredibly easy to make and like Chinese stir fries, you can pretty much throw in any meat and/or vegetables that you happen to have around. I like to make these with chicken and at least 2 types of differently coloured vegetables. Personally, my favourite thing to put into a thai red curry is fresh Japanese enoki mushrooms. This curry is great when made to be vegetarian/vegan too.
In Chinese cooking, white fish are often steamed whole (in restaurants and in peoples’ homes). Steaming fish until it’s Just cooked is incredibly easy, healthy, and gives you a Very moist fish. It’s my favourite way to eat fish. By the way, the cheeks are the best part of the fish so you should definitely try it if you haven’t already.
Note that the fish in the picture below is missing its head. Normally the fish is steamed whole, but when I caught this fish ice fishing at the Winterlude Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, the people running the event gutted the fish and removed the head.
Ed loves twice baked potatoes. Back when I had more time on my hands, I often made these with mini potatoes for parties or pot lucks. It took a lot of work but people really loved them. They were so cute and so easy to eat. Recently, I made miniature twice baked potatoes (photo below) for a miniature bbq lunch.
Cooking with Alison 