Pork-filled Chinese dumplings
Brett Chiquet

Living in Houston, there’s a great variety of different cultural eateries on every corner. We live almost across the street from this AMAZING dumpling place (http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/%20reviews/rsv0646.asp), and their dumplings and green onion pancakes are to die for! Normally I wouldn’t even bother attempt to make my own when I can walk across the street, but a co-worker of mine brings dumplings to a lot of our lab pot lucks and before she moved, I decided I should learn some basics from her. The basic filling recipe, purse-making and cooking method ideas came from her. She recommended I start by finding fresh pre-rolled dumpling dough at my nearest Asian supermarket. I checked at a couple of my local non-Asian supermarkets (not wanting to drive over to the Asian part of Houston) and figured it would be less-lazy of me to make my own, so after a quick google-search for Chinese dumpling recipes, I think I found something that would work (http://userealbutter.com/2007/10/04/chinese-dumplings-and-potstickers-recipe/). *Note: this links to another blog that has a great description of the entire process. However, being someone who finds it hard to follow recipes, I had to add my own touches. Michael has been craving fresh-peach pies from House of Pies (amazing diner in Houston, and the one near our place was where the first portable computer was sketched http://en.wikipedia.org/%20wiki/Compaq). Chinese dumplings don’t typically go with peach pie, but Michael’s from Georgia, where they like their pork BBQ and peaches, so I thought I’d attempt an Asian pork BBQ dumpling to go along with the peach pie that I picked up from the restaurant. Let the fun begin!

Asian Pork BBQ Dumpling filling:
1 fresh peach, finely minced
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 T sugar
1 lb. ground pork
4 green onions (greens and whites), finely minced
½ package of mushrooms
¼ cup ginger, finely minced
1 t ground white pepper
1 clove garlic, finely minced


Dough:
2 cups of flour
½ cup warm water
Pinch of salt (because all dough needs a little salt)


Dipping Sauce:
Freshly minced ginger
Freshly minced jalapeno
Soy sauce
White vinegar
Sesame oil


To prepare the filling:
Combine first four ingredients, let sit in bowl while mincing the other ingredients. After all ingredients are prepped, mix in large bowl and refrigerate until dough is ready.

To prepare the dough:
In bread machine (because I can), add ingredients and set to “Dough” setting.

To make the dumplings:
Pinch off about a 1-inch round ball of dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a circle. Place in the palm of your non-dominant hand. Add 1 Tbsp of filling to center of palm and fold into purse. Okay, so check out Jennifer Yu’s blog (http://userealbutter.com/2007/10/04/chinese-dumplings-and-potstickers-recipe/) for pictures and instructions. I mostly followed them J Just make sure you get a good seal on them, otherwise you’re in for soup!

To cook the dumplings:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the dumplings. Gently stir so they don’t stick. Once they start to boil, add 1 cup of cold water. Once they start to boil, add another cup of cold water. Once they start to boil, remove from boiling water. I wanted mine to have a pan-fried bottom, so I transferred them to a warm, buttered sauté pan until they were golden brown on the bottom.

Dipping sauce:
One of the best things about the Dumpling King is the Do-It-Yourself dipping sauce. So, each eater can combine the 5 ingredients into their own concoction.

Afterword:

Okay, so everything was delicious! I couldn’t get the dough just right, and pastry was a little thicker than ideal, and I only ended up making ~12 dumplings (that were pretty large). But the important thing is that none of the pouches burst open! The remaining filling I made into little meatballs, which I served over bow-tie pasta (limited resources in my pantry that week) with a quick sauce of ginger, soy sauce, carrots and the rest of the mushrooms. I also made some green onion pancakes (regular pancake mix, followed directions, added remaining green onions). Not too bad. Desert was the regular peach pie from House of Pies. It wasn’t quite fresh peach season, so had to settle on that. It was still good. I’ve since had the fresh peach pie and it really is delicious.
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Bebe and Pop-pop
Sarah Ferstel
Bebe and me, 1983

On July 27th, my grandfather, "Pop-pop", called to let us know that my grandmother, Shirley 'Bebe' Hutt had passed away. Bebe is the pepper to Pop-pop's salt, and I don't think any of us were quite ready for her to go. I won't dwell on the details of her death or my family's grief. Instead, I'd like to use this space to reminisce about the food that I ate at my grandparents' homes in New York and New Jersey.

I know that Bebe cooked many meals in her lifetime, but I actually don't have too many memories of her particular recipes. Off the top of my head, I can only recall the pot roast and her stuffed artichokes. Her kitchen in Long Beach, NY, was tiny and not conducive to more than one cook. So, I never really helped her in the kitchen much. Later in the week, I'll share my grandmother's Ginger Snap pot roast recipe, but for now I'll just give y'all a peek into my family's kitchen and dining room. Here's a brief list of my childhood favorites.

1) Jello pudding pops - loved by Bill Cosby and the Hutt grandchildren. I'm sure most of my clothing had stains from these fast-melting treats. They no longer make these *cries and cries,* but click here for a recipe of the homemade version.

2) Tree top (?) apple juice in the small cans with the sticker pull tab - the perfect amount of apple juice for this former juice fiend.

3) Olives, pickles, and anything else related to those two food groups. My grandparents' supply of these is second only to the Olive bar at Whole Foods. How many young kids do you know who love kosher dill pickles and kalamata olives? I've only met a few and they're all related to me.

4) Bagels and lox - I'm not a fan of lox and I get a lot of flak for this in my family, but I'll eat a whole, gigantic NY bagel with gobs of cream cheese to prove that I'm serious about breakfast.

5) Coffee - Regular is available at all hours of the day in varying degrees of freshness and temperature.

6) Candy - Ah, the constant availability of M&M's, Dove chocolate, and York peppermint patties drove my mother nuts. Bebe and Pop-pop always have a little bowl of at least one of these candies out. As a kid, I was very adept at taking from these bowls when my mother wasn't looking. In fact, all the Hutt grandchildren have reached an advanced skill level for surreptitiously eating small amounts of candy when our mothers aren't looking. Sorry, Stefan and Mikey - the gig is up.

7) Those little boxes of General Mills, or Kellogg's, cereal that come in a variety pack. I lived for those as a kid. LIVED FOR THEM!!!!

8) Brie (and Jarlsburg, and Cheddar, and on and on) - Pop-pop has discovered in the last few years, or maybe earlier, that brie on bagels is pretty freaking fantastic.

*Side story: I once showed Pop-pop that the best way to soften brie from the fridge is to microwave a plate (just the plate) and then place the brie on the warmed plate for a few minutes on the counter. It's a gentle way to warm the brie without actually nuking it (God forbid!). Pop-pop was very impressed and I got lots of kudos the rest of the morning!

9) Salmon patties with Spanish olives. I can't remember if Pop-pop ever made these at the Long Beach house, but he made them for me when he and Bebe lived down here in Louisiana for a few months when I was 13-14 years old. My love for these is natural (please see #3).

10) Beer - Pop-pop would poor a little of his Heineken into a juice cup for me when I was a kid (my mother just learned of this - I guess she thought it was apple juice). Since Bebe was drinking her White Zin from a juice cup too, I felt pretty grown up while I sipped my 2 ounces of beer.

I'm sure my cousins (Angelica, Arielle, Sasha, Stefan, and Michael) have many of their own particular memories, but these are the ones that are most prevalent in my mind right now.

I think everyone should add your favorite grand-parent related food memories in the comments section!
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Get along lil doggie
Shelly
When it comes down to it, you can group recipes into a very few amount of categories. There are the recipes that you keep telling yourself that you're going to try. There are recipes that you look at and think that you would never take the time to make or would never want to eat. There are the recipes that you've tried once or twice and remember fondly. . . and there are the recipes that you absolutely can not live without. This is one of those recipes that I absolutely can not live without. . . not because it blew my mind the first time that I made it. . . just because it's good. It's real food, the kind of food that my mom would have made when I was growing up - if she had cooked more, and if my dad would have been willing to eat stew.

The recipe actually comes from a cookbook that my elementary school compiled when I was in third grade, courtesy of Mrs. Norma Nix. (Her son was a year above me and a real jerk - which did not keep Maria from having a huge crush on him in high school.) I never got around to making it, though, until a few years ago. . . when I was going through this phase of romanticising life on the prairie and wishing that I had been a pioneer. . . spending long days outside and evenings in a flannel nightgown by the fire. . . with a garden out back, a cold cellar, and thirteen children running around barefoot and dirty with the puppy dogs in the back yard.

Chuck Wagon Stew
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 c. flour
2 lb. cubed beef
2 Tbsp. shortening
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. chili powder
1 bay leaf
2 tomatoes, peeled and quartered
1 (10.5 oz.) can beef broth
6 small potatoes
6 small carrots
6 small onions
3 or 4 stalks celery (I never use this because celery is gross)
1 c. frozen peas (And I have never once remembered to buy peas, so this always gets omitted too)

Combine sugar and flour. Coat beef and brown in shortening. Add seasonings, tomatoes, and broth to meat. Cover and simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Stir in vegetables, omitting the peas. Cover and cook about 30 minutes. Add peas. Cover and cook about 15 minutes.

Aside from the time that it takes to cook, this is a really EASY recipe - translation, you don't have to chop the veggies which equals awesome in my book. Ha. I'm such a lazy cook.
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Plus Stacie, makes four!
Sarah Ferstel
Stacie and I, NYE 2007

Well, the collection of contributors to this blog is clearly incomplete without my dear friend Stacie who is one of my favorite baketresses. Stacie makes awesome cupcakes, cookies, Oreo truffle thingies, and, well, non-desserts as well. This past week she invited me over for turkey burgers with Gruyere cheese, sweet potato fries, and a tomato salad that was simple and delicious. We finished off the meal with espresso cupcakes - yum!

At dinner, I told Stacie that I had offered to make cupcakes as a wedding cake for my friend Kate's wedding. My biggest obstacle, so far, has been the frosting and Stacie offered to teach me her buttercream icing recipe. Once I get a hang of it, I'll post the recipe (with pictures) here.

So, welcome Stacie and get posting!


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Pineapples and Chocolate
Shelly
Any good food blog should begin with a favorite recipe from your grandmother!



Of course, this wasn't my original intention. Originally, I was going to go on about the time that Sarah and I made pain au chocolat and filled up an entire 1000+ square foot apartment with smoke just because we used the wrong pan.



*Here's a helpful hint. . . be sure to use the right dish for the job. It could make the difference between a happy chocolate filled evening and a smokey chocolate filled evening.*



But, since I couldn't find that recipe in my trusty recipe box (Believe me, you don't want to see what the inside of this looks like.), I decided that I should ramble a bit about my grandma. That's really where the love of food begins, if you think about it. . . or at least where it began for me. I have so many fond memories of sitting around her house in the morning drinking coffee milk and eating Little Debbie snacks for breakfast - both treats that had no place in my mom and dad's house. As an adult, I've spent a good deal of time in antique shops and thrift stores rejoicing when I find a recipe box just like my mom-mom's. . . or that goofy Corning Ware with blue flowers because that's what she has stacked in her cabinets. I'm not even going to go into how expensive those stinking melamine Texas Ware mixing bowls are. It's funny because no matter how many retro pieces of kitchenware I buy, my food never does come out tasting like hers. That being said, as I was going through the recipe box looking for that pain au chocolat recipe, I came across my mom-mom's Pineapple Cake Filling recipe. It's a shame that no one bothers to make good cakes anymore. This has always been one of my favorites and is apparently something that's fairly universal among the older crowd. One of my good friends at the library, Mary, went on and on about how good her Pineapple Cake Filling recipe was one day, and I started to laugh when she was telling me the recipe. It's this exact one that my grandma makes. That being said, if your grandparents are still around, you probably have this one tucked in your recipe box too. . . but, for those of you that have lost the recipe or were never fortunate enough to have it. . . you're in luck. I'm going to copy mom-mom's recipe card word for word, so you don't miss anything!



This is for a 3 layer cake & top. I don't use icing.

Pineapple Cake Filling



1 large can crushed pineapple

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick butter

1 1/2 tbl. cornstarch, disolved in 1/4 cup water, cook until mixture starts to boil & thicken. Cool before using. If you have too much, you just eat the rest. It's good.



She also included the recipe for Coconut Filling even though she knows that I hate coconut. Nice, yeah? So, you get an extra recipe just because. . .



Coconut Filling for 1 Cake



3/4 cup sugar

1 tbl. corn starch . level spoon

1 cup can milk

1 egg yoke cook until thicken add 1 teaspoon flavor & coconut. I don't measure the coconut. Add what you like.



And that's that. To be fair, my grandma's not really a poor speller. . . Did I mention that she was cajun and that French is her first language? And she's pretty old and senile. . . ha ha ha. . . but I love her.
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Benvenuto, Shelly!
Sarah Ferstel

Bossy Italian flatmates who taught me about basil and tanning.

In order to complete my food blog trifecta (and so begin world domination!), I have invited my friend, Shelly, to join our little corner of the culinary universe. Shelly, who is not in that picture above, is another dear friend from college and she is a fantastic cook. She is also a patient friend as evidenced by our numerous attempts to cook together. These get-togethers usually involve Shelly politely, if not sternly, shooing me away while she tries to make something terrifically edible. I'm usually just there to prance around the kitchen and pretend like I know what I'm doing.

One of our most successful, but exhausting, cooking binges involved tackling multiple recipes from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking." If you do not own this book, then you are missing out. Marcella has written one of those fantastic cookbooks that you actually enjoy reading from cover to cover. For those of you not initiated into cookbook reading, this may sound odd, but it's actually a very good way to learn about cooking (duh!) and food.

I don't remember all the recipes we prepared that night, but I do remember making Marcella's stuffed mushrooms. I LOVE MUSHROOMS! Sorry, I had to get that out in the open. I hated mushrooms as a child (remember, I was a picky brat), but now my love for mushrooms has grown to such an extent that my (future) children will have to work hard to win that part of my heart. Sometimes, I just put raw mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper and eat them like a salad. Hmmm, I wonder if I have any mushrooms in my fridge now? Concentrate, Sarah.

Baked Stuffed Mushroom Caps (the words in italics are me)

6 servings (but I can, and have, eaten them all by myself)

Ingredients:

  • A packet of dried porcini mushrooms (about one ounce) - I've noticed that stores don't have a standard place to shelve these. I've found them in produce, with the 'ethnic' (i.e. Italian) food, or with the spices.
  • 1/4 heaping cup crumb (the fresh, soft, crustless part of bread)
  • 1/4 cup of milk (Use whole milk. Buy the little single servings if you don't want leftovers.)
  • 1 pound of fresh, stuffing (large) mushrooms ♥
  • 1/4 pound pancetta (This is a type of distinctive tasting Italian bacon that I've never added when making this. I'm one of those Jewbies who tries, but does not always succeed in, avoiding the oink.)
  • 4 flat anchovy fillets (Again, I've never added these only because I don't like anchovies, but feel free crack a can open if you wish.)
  • 4 fresh basil leaves, torn by hand into small pieces (Okay, newbie cooks, here's a good moment to point out something that many of us oldbies have already discovered. Fresh basil is 100 million times better, and different, than dried. Yeah, it's expensive, but skip the packaged b.s. and buy the dumb plant. Seriously, I have a million potted basil plants and you need no gardening skills to keep them alive. Also, it may seem weird that Marcella instructs you to 'tear' the leaves, but trust me, and two bossy Italians - see pic at top of post - who told me personally, this is the best way to release the basil's flavor.)
  • A small garlic clove, chopped fine
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons (fresh) parsley chopped fine
  • 1/8 tsp. dried marjoram, or 1/4 tsp. chopped fresh
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup dried, bread crumbs
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions verbatim from the book:

  1. Put dried mushrooms in 2 cups lukewarm water and let them soak for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Put the soft crumb and milk together in a small bowl of deep dish and set aside to soak.
  3. Wash the fresh mushrooms rapidly under cold running water, and pat them thoroughly dry with paper towels, taking care not to bruise them. Gently detach the stems without breaking the caps.
  4. Line a wire strainer with a paper towel and place it over a small saucepan. Lift the porcini from their soak, but do not discard the liquid. Pour the liquid into the strainer, filtering it through the paper towel into the saucepan. Rinse the reconstituted porcini in several changes of cold water, making sure no grit remains attached to them. Add them to the saucepan and cook, uncovered, over lively heat until all the liquid has boiled away.
  5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  6. Chop the cooked reconstituted porcini, the fresh mushroom stems, the pancetta, and anchovy fillets all very fine. It can be done by hand or in a food processor.
  7. Put all the above chopped ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the basil leaves and chopped garlic. take the milk-soaked crumb into your hand, squeeze it gently until lit stops dripping, and add it to the bowl. Break the egg into the bowl. Add the parsley, marjoram, salt, and several grindings of pepper, and thoroughly mix all the ingredients in the bowl with a fork until they are combined into a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
  8. Stuff the mushroom caps with the mixture from the bowl. Put enough stuffing into each cap to make a rounded mound. Sprinkle the mounds with bread crumbs.
  9. Choose a baking dish that will accommodate all the mushroom caps side by side in a single layer. Smear the bottom and sides of the dish with a little of the olive oil. Put the mushrooms in the dish, stuffed sides facing up. Crisscross the mushrooms with a thin stream of olive oil, lightly daubing the stuffing.
  10. Place the dish in the uppermost level of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the mounds of stuffing have formed a light crust. After removing from the oven, allow them to settle for several minutes before serving.

Buon appetito!

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Welcome, Brett!
Sarah Ferstel














Oh, dear readers!

Today, I welcome my buddy and former roomie, Brett Chiquet, as a contributor to this glorious blog. Brett and I met in college and briefly shared a small bungalow (that's Natchitoches speak for hovel).

The house was truly ridiculous. First, the refrigerator it came with didn't really work. So, we had the landlord remove it, and we replaced it with our 2 dorm fridges. Really, we did that. Also, the only A/C window unit was in my room, but the heating unit was in Brett's. In the winter, I slept in my sleeping bag under the covers. But rent was $200/month for each of us, and we had our (platonic) love to keep us warm.

It wasn't all bad. The landlord let us paint our rooms (I went for Kermit green, Brett went for a more subdued hue of beige), and I even painted a sky with clouds on the ceiling in the hallway. There was also a tire swing on the oak tree in the front yard. It was a sweet little shack.

Of all our great times in that house, two of the best involved food.

For my 21st birthday, Brett and I made a Kahlua infused cake. I was mildly disappointed when the cashier at Albertson's didn't ask to see my ID when we went to purchase the Kahlua (ah, Louisiana). The cake was ridiculously good, if you like pudding and Kahlua. I don't remember the recipe except that once it was baked, we poked holes in it and poured the Kahlua into the holes. The flavor was - intense.

For our housewarming party (is that right, Brett?), we threw together a pasta dish that I still make to this day. The following recipe is off the top of my head, and, because this is a simple dish that is made in one pan and one pot, you can add/drop ingredients as you see fit.


Sun-dried tomato Alfredo crawfish pasta Extravaganza!

Ingredients:

  • 1 package (1 lb) frozen crawfish tails (of course, you can substitute fresh crawfish). Defrost before beginning. Please buy Louisiana crawfish and support our local economy. Chinese crawfish make baby Moses cry in his etoufee.
  • 1 jar of Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo sauce
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced depending on how you like it
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced or in slices
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced or in slices
  • any other veggies/spices you'd like to add
  • extra virgin olive oil (EVOO for those of you too lazy to say 8 syllables)
  • 1 package of spaghetti or linguine
  • Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning
Supplies:

  • Big pot
  • Big pan
  • Big serving dish/bowl
  • Wooden spoon

Before we begin, you should all be aware that I'm not giving precise cooking instructions here. Hopefully, you're already pretty comfortable in the kitchen.

Instructions:

In a big pot of boiling water*, cook the pasta until al dente (which means something like "to the tooth" in Italian, but, for our purposes, means the pasta is still chewy); if the box says 'cook for 7-8 minutes', then cook for 7, etc. When the pasta is done, strain the water and toss the pasta in the serving bowl with a little olive oil to keep if from getting sticky.

*Putting olive oil in the water pot is useless according to Marcella Hazan, the Italian goddess of cooking.

In a big pan, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on med-high heat (adjust as you see fit) and toss in the onions until transparenty golden, or about 5 minutes. Stir.

Add bell peppers to pan and cook until tender. Stir.

Now toss in the garlic and defrosted crawfish tails and cook until the crawfish are hot (this means you need to taste while cooking). Stir.

Hey! Did you take the pasta off the stove? You didn't? Gross, give that mess to the dog and start again.

Continuing with the recipe - Okay, crack open that jar of sauce and dump it in the pan. Stir until it's all warm and ready for consumption. Add Tony's to taste.

Pour contents of pan onto pasta in giant bowl. Stir and enjoy!

OR plate plain pasta separately and spoon saucy crawfish-y goodness onto individual servings.

OR add pasta to pan and stir the whole thing all together and then serve.


Bon appetit!

If you make this, please let us know in the comments how it turned out.

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