My nephew offered to pick up a bag of all purpose flour for me on his recent trip to Costco. I wasn’t sure if I should say yes, since I haven’t been doing as much baking as usual, lately. At least, that’s what I THOUGHT.
And then I realized that I’ve baked or used flour to make the following this month: ‘pizzaman’ steamed buns, a loaf of traditional white bread, Irish soda farls, banana-raisin oat muffins and a nectarine pie.
Oh well. Guess I should say yes. 🙂
Pizzaman are pizza filling stuffed Chinese style buns found in Japanese conbini (convenience stores). The dough was made based on this recipe from Youtube though I had to increase the amount of water I used to 120 ml rather than 100 ml. The filling was spicy Italian sausage filling removed from the casing and cooked off, cooled and then combined with jarred pasta sauce and grated mozzarella cheese.
I had to do a bit of fiddling with the amount of pasta sauce I added as it was too wet to start with and my pleating needs work but otherwise, this recipe was a winner.
TEST POST
Quick supper of Chinese sausage fried rice – two cooked and thinly sliced Chinese sausage, diced red and orange peppers, peas, white part of a green onion, two Thai red chilis with seeds left in, scrambled egg, 2 cups of cold leftover sushi rice seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce and toasted sesame oil and garnished with thinly sliced green onion tops.
For a recipe/technique, check out Uncle Nigel on Youtube. He’s a hoot.
I’ve been cutting back on my grocery shopping trips so when I had a craving for potstickers/gyoza, rather than going out and buying a couple of packages of the ready made wrappers, I finally buckled down and decided to make them from scratch using this recipe.
The ingredients are simple: flour and salt and boiling water. And time … to let the dough hydrate and to roll them out.
Pleating also takes some time and, of course, practice.
After all that, I’m quite pleased with the results for a first try and WILL be making them again.
Recently, this dish has been popping up all over my Facebook food groups. It is similar to shakshuka but with Asian flavours. I used the recipe here. The only change I made was to add 1/4 tsp ground ginger to the tomato mixture while simmering.
Tomato and Egg Stir Fry, garnished with green onions
Partially cooked scrambled egg is reserved to be added to the tomato mixture once the tomatoes have softened enough. If using diced, fresh tomatoes, that will take 5-10 minutes but if using canned, diced tomatoes and juice, as I did, it may only take 3-5 minutes or so. If you want a ‘saucier’ tomato mixture, add some more water to your saucepan/wok and warm through.
Serve the tomato and egg mixture over hot rice of your choice. I had some leftover sushi rice so that’s what I used.
Review: Fast and delicious. Try it yourself.
PS: I really do NOT like this new formatting style.
Last post today … I promise. I was on a roll.
I get my ideas/recipes from ‘only the best’ people.
Like this beef chow fun (beef and rice noodles) which came from the blog, “The Frugal Hausfrau”. I followed the recipe exactly and didn’t have to make any substitutions because I HAD all the ingredients. (So proud of my pantry.)
The wide rice noodles (the red package) took 5 minutes to cook. Then I drained, ice shocked and drained them well and set them aside just before assembly.
I blanched the bean sprouts by placing them into a stand drainer and pouring the boiling water from cooking the noodles over them. They were still crunchy after being added to the beef and sauce along with the noodles and tossing together just long enough to coat the noodles and warm everything through.
REVIEW: An amazing dish. Easy to make and cook with some judicious planning/prepping. Make it. You won’t be disappointed.
Cooking for one means you ALWAYS have odds and end of leftovers from recipes you’ve made to deal with. Often they’re perishable and I hate to throw things away because they’ve spoiled. In this case, it was bean sprouts from making Pad Thai. And white button mushrooms.
So I made mushroom egg foo young.
Mushroom Egg Foo Young – makes 4 omelettes, serves 2
Omelettes
1 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
1/2 lb white mushrooms, thickly sliced
4 large eggs
1/2 lb bean sprouts, rinsed and drained well
1-2 green onions, tops only, thinly sliced
1-2 handfuls shredded coleslaw mix
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
Sauce/Gravy
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine or mirin
dash or two white pepper
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sesame oil
Making the omelettes
Preheat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add about half the vegetable oil and the white mushrooms, saute without stirring until golden brown on one side, flip and saute for another minute or two until that side is also golden brown. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and let cool slightly.
Return the saute pan to the heat.
In a large bowl, add the eggs, beat well. Add the salt and pepper, bean sprouts, green onions, coleslaw mix and cooled mushrooms. Mix well.
With a ladle, add about 1/4 of the egg/vegetable mixture to the saute pan. Try to give the mixture a roughly round shape. Cook for several minutes until the base is set and golden brown, flip and continue cooking until the second side is set and golden brown as well. Repeat with the remaining egg/vegetable mixture using additional vegetable oil if needed.
Making the sauce
In a small bowl, combine about 1/4 cup of the chicken stock with the cornstarch. Whisk well so there are no lumps.
Combine the remaining stock, soy sauce, rice wine, pepper and sesame oil in a small saucepan. Bring just to the boil over medium heat.
Whisk the cornstarch mixture again and slowly whisk into the stock mixture. Cook while whisking until the mixture comes to a boil. Allow to boil for one minute and then remove the saucepan from the heat.
Serve the omelettes alongside a serving of steamed rice, drizzling some of the sauce over both.
I still have a backlog of recipes/posts to share but got very excited about today’s bake so it jumped the queue. I’ve got several recipes for steamed buns (Chinese bao or Korean jjinppang) in my recipe archives but I went to my favourite YouTube channel, TabiEats, for a small batch of buns, especially as I was able to use up a container of leftover runza filling (shredded corned beef, sauteed red cabbage and shredded cheddar cheese) for them.
It’s also a very fast recipe … no yeast proofing, a few minutes to knead, 30 min bulk proof, shaping and a final 20 minutes to final proof. Steaming took only 15 minutes and my buns were ready to eat. I didn’t bother with the squid ink variation so I added a total of 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the dough in the kneading step.
Before proofing and after steaming
I had about 360 gm of dough so I divided it into six equal portions. There was a lot of filling (about 300 gm) but I shaped into tight balls and used it to fill the buns. There was a high filling (a bit under-seasoned) to bun ratio which was a plus.
REVIEW: Highly recommended recipe. There’s nothing I’d do differently.
For the last few months, I’ve backlogged a number of new recipes I’ve tried and old recipes I’ve repeated with slight changes which I’m posting below. The theme to anchor these dishes … lean ground beef was used for each recipe.
Cabbage Roll Soup – This is a new one. Shredded coleslaw mix was used as the base for this delicious soup. The recipe used elements from several recipes I found on line with substitutions designed to use things I had in my pantry and/or that I liked.
Cabbage Roll Soup – serves 8
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 lb/227 gm lean ground beef (or pork or ground turkey)
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced *
1 large carrot, chopped (1 1/4 cups)
2 1/2 cups coleslaw mix
1 cloves garlic, grated or finely mince
4 cups beef broth
1 cup tomato/spaghetti sauce
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup pureed tomatoes
~1 tbsp packed light brown sugar (to taste to cut back on acidity of the tomatoes)
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dried paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano or 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh
1 bay leaf
4-6 tbsp raw long-grain white rice
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
water, as needed
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
* Used 3 tbsp sauteed diced onion from freezer
Heat vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
Add ground beef, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring and breaking up beef occasionally, until browned. Transfer beef to a plate lined with paper towels while reserving 2 tbsp of the rendered fat in pan, set beef aside.
Add onion and carrots to pan and saute 1 minute, then add coleslaw and saute 2 minutes, then add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
Pour in beef broth, tomato sauce, tomatoes, brown sugar, Worcestershire, paprika, oregano, thyme and bay leaves. Return beef to soup mixture.
Season soup with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a light boil, then add rice, cover pot and reduce heat and simmer until rice is cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes.
Stir in up to 1 cup water or more beef broth to thin as desired (it will thicken as it rests and become almost like a stew), then stir in lemon juice and parsley.
Serve hot.
Mapo Tofu – Szechuan style ground beef, tofu and broccoli dish, served over long grain rice. I’ve made variations of this dish in the past.
Soboro Don – Japanese rice bowl topped with seasoned ground beef and peas. Recipe adapted from this one.
Beef and Bean Burritos – Seasoned ground beef with home made black bean refried beans. Top as desired.
I’ve been out of potatoes for about a week so when I thought about starch sides to pair with one of the several proteins in my freezer, pasta/noodles, quinoa and rice were among my options. I also wanted to use up the last few stalks of asparagus in my fridge. I finally decided on a Chinese classic … fried rice. Mainly because I had a pound of inexpensive white button mushrooms to pair with a scant half pound of large cooked, peeled and de-veined shrimp in my freezer.
I combined the elements of a couple of recipes I found on-line, mainly using one which featured mushrooms. The egg was added to extend the protein content.
RECIPE EDITED TO FIX GLARING TYPOS:
Asparagus, Mushroom and Shrimp Fried Rice Bowl
Asparagus, Mushroom and Shrimp Fried Rice – serves 3
~1/3 lb/177 gm peeled and de-veined cooked shrimp
1 1/2 cups cooked long-grain rice (or medium-grain)
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4-1 lb/340-454 gm white button mushrooms
1/4 teaspoon dried red-pepper flakes
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
4-6 green onions including green tops, sliced thinly
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup mixed vegetable (diced carrot, frozen peas, sliced asparagus)**
1/4 cup water, or as needed
1 egg, optional
1 tsp Asian sesame oil, for garnish
1-2 green onion tops, sliced thinly, for garnish
** equal parts diced carrot and sliced asparagus (3 stalks) used
Cook the long or medium grain rice the day before you plan on making this dish and refrigerate overnight.
In a large nonstick frying pan or wok, heat 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are tender and golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Turn down the heat to medium and in the same frying pan, heat another tbsp of vegetable oil. Add the red-pepper flakes, grated ginger, and green onions and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Raise the heat back to medium-high and add the mixed vegetables, stirring to char the vegetables for a minute or so. Add the water, cover, and let cook/steam about 5 minutes, to par cook the vegetables.
Push the vegetables to one side, and, if needed add a bit more oil to the pan in the empty spot. Add the rice to the area where you cleared the pan. Break up any rice clumps a bit and then sprinkle the salt and soy sauce over the rice. Stir to coat the rice evenly.
Add the mushrooms and cooked shrimp to the pan, stirring through until everything’s warm, another few minutes.
If adding an egg to the fried rice, again push the rice etc to one side leaving an empty area on one side. Break the egg into the space and let cook for a minute to set the white, then break up the egg yolk gently. Lift and turn the fried rice on top of the partially cooked egg. The heat from the rice will continue cooking the egg. Mix the egg through the rice.
Divide the fried rice among the serving bowls, making sure everyone gets an equal amount of the shrimp, and drizzle a bit of the sesame soil over the top.
Sprinkle green onion over the top for a garnish.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 