It was a dark and nutty night....

Another big storm is headed our way today. Already a tens of thousands of people are without power on the Rusty Island and mainland. Yesterday, power flickered on and off all day here, threatening us with a blackout but I called it’s bluff and we remained juiced up. I don’t think I ought to push it. It’s a bit odd that we haven’t lost our power in this old house during these past wind storms when everyone we know has been dining by candlelight. Especially since we often lose electricity if a bird flies too close to our power lines.

Yesterday we had a glimmer of sun and even a 7-lane highway rainbow fill the sky. And you know what they say, ‘Make candy when the sun shines.’

I’ve been wanting to make peanut brittle. It’s a tradition for this time of year for me. Unfortunately, it’s been way too humid to be making it. Usually you want humidity to be under 60% to make a good hard candy. We’ve been hovering around 100% for the last several weeks. The extra moisture in the air can be reabsorbed by the cooling candy and leave you with a soggy brittle.

Yesterday, the humidity reading reached the low 70s and I figured that that’s probably as low as it’s going to get. I pulled out my candy thermometer and made a batch of spicy peanut brittle. The power sputtered a few times but it didn’t seem to affect the final product.

The spice came from a ¼ teaspoon of red chili pepper flakes I added. It’s got a nice afterglow to it. I think I’m going to have to make a feistier version and a molasses brittle with local hazelnuts. I’ll keep you posted.

I was also going to do some baking but with the power hiccupping back and forth I decided against it. Instead, DH and I headed over to Westwood Lake to take advantage of the relatively dry weather. The 6km trail around the lake has a nice mix of hills and few wooden bridges and boardwalks and as is picturesque as it gets.

We often use the trail for running. Well, DH goes for a run. I go for a run/brisk walk/skip/puddle jump. I figure as long as I clock in an average of 50 or so minutes for each 6km lap, I’m doing ok.

The wind was bellowing across the forest. The lake was huge with whitecaps and the trails were strewn with windfall. The rain came and twirled about. It certainly made for a dramatic jaunt. I love being in the forest when it rains. At least, when I’m not carrying a heavy backpack and I have a hot shower and cup of tea waiting for me at home.

We had invited our friends, Karin and Dave, over for dinner. In exchange for dinner, Dave fixed our dining room light and was DH’s PS2 date for the evening while Karin and I had a knitting session. We also had our usual last minute drop-in guest. With 5 mouths to feed and a questionable power supply, I opted for another quick and easy stir-fry noodles dish. This time I did noodles in a Thai peanut sauce. I had some leftover Chinese BBQ pork, a ton of local veggies and Japanese buckwheat noodles. I spent 10 minutes of playing human food processor to turn the veggies into a pile of slaw. My veggies consisted of chayote, cabbage, carrots, onions, mushrooms, bean sprouts and red pepper. Simply stir fry those and the BBQ pork, as in the Singapore chow mai recipe. While that was going, I boiled up some water for the buckwheat noodles. The noodles took only a few minutes to cook up. As soon as they were done, I dumped in with the stir-fried veggies. The sauce was my Thai It Up sauce with a dollop of organic peanut butter. A sprinkle of peanuts and it was done.

The sauce was a balanced melding of the rich peanut butter, countered with the sour, savory, spicy kick of the Thai It Up sauce. The buckwheat noodles have a nutty taste that echoes the nutty sauce. It was simple bowl of comfort food with a twist.

Along with the noodles, I put out a jar of homemade spicy pickled carrots that I had canned in the summer. The carrots were locally grown baby Dutch carrots. I can’t remember which farm I got them from but they’re super sweet and don’t get very big. They’re great for canning because you don’t need to peel or cut them. Simply wash them really well and they’re good to go.

We finished off our meal with tea, homemade fruit crisp made with locally grown Jonagold, Northern Spy and Belle du Boskoop apples, Anjou pears and cranberries and some of that spicy peanut brittle. A sweet and nutty ending to a sweet and nutty day!

Happy Eating!

Jen

Noodle swapping & fart bombs

One of DH’s favorite dishes is Singapore chow may, a curried rice noodle dish, and was jonesing for some on Monday night. Problem was that I didn’t have any thin rice thread. I had thick rice sticks. I had fresh udon noodles. I had dried buckwheat noodles. I had shrimp noodles. I had egg noodles. I even had an imperishable square of ichiban in my cupboards. We are a duet of noodleheads in this house. But I didn’t have any thin rice thread and I had no energy to run to the store.

So I reached for the mung beans noodles, the noodle of a thousand names. Here are some of it’s other aliases: bean threads - cellophane noodles - mung bean threads - translucent noodles - shining noodles - slippery noodles - powdered silk noodles - silver noodles - Chinese vermicelli - transparent noodles - glass noodles - crystal noodles - jelly noodles - transparent vermicelli - green bean thread noodles - invisible noodles - pekyasan - sai fun (Cantonese ) - bai fun (Cantonese) - soo hoon (Cantonese) - su un (Indonesian) - pancit sotanghon (Tagalog) - woon sen (Thai) - bun tao (Vietnamese) - tanghoon (Malaysia).

Mung bean noodles are great fun. They’re soft , almost gelatinous in texture and on their own pretty flavourless. But they absorb flavour really well and cook up in no time. Simple soak them in hot water for 10-15 minutes until their soft and transparent. They don’t need much more cooking after that.

This is basically a stir-fry dish so have everything prepped and ready to go. We had some friends pass through at dinner time so this recipe is for 4. For regular Singapore chow mai simply use thin rice threads/noodles instead of the mung bean noodles.

Fast & Dirty Singapore Chow Mai

1/2 small cabbage- shredded. You can use asian or regular cabbages

2 carrots – sliced thin

2 stalks of celery – sliced thin

1 onion – sliced thin

2 green onions- sliced thin

1 red pepper –sliced thin

2 cups mushrooms – I used fresh shitake. You can use regular white button mushrooms or a combination

2 coins of ginger – peeled and chopped fine

4 ounces BBQ pork – sliced thin

1-2 tablespoons curry powder

Chinese cooking wine

Vegetable oil

3 bundles of mung bean noodles

1- Soak noodles in hot water. Put aside. Once softened, cut with scissors.

2- Heat up a couple glugs of oil in a hot wok

3- Drop in BBQ pork, ginger and green onion.

4- Drop in vegetables in this order: onion & mushrooms, carrots, celery, pepper, cabbage. Stir fry for a minute between vegetables before adding the next.

5- Drain noodles and drop into wok. Stir until mixed.

6- Sprinkle in curry powder and mix until incorporated

It only really took about 10 minutes of playing human food processor for the prep and another 10 minutes for the actual cooking. In less than half an hour we all sat down for a simple meal and some great company.

Most of the veggies came from local sources. Call up your nearby veggie farm. Many still have winter veggies to sell you. A little birdie told me that Nanoose Edibles has Jerusalem artichokes right now.

BTW, the noodles stay soft even when they’re cold so leftovers are fine eaten straight out of the fridge. They could even be used as filling for curried version of a thai spring roll or on it’s own as a noodle salad. You could even do a raw veggie salad version of this by simply cooking only the noodles with curry and a bit of finely chopped ginger and adding to some slaw.

Yesterday, I got done with work early (before 1pm) and decided to drag DH down to the Old City Quarter to run a few errands. I fed DH but I don’t usually eat lunch until 3ish and I figured I’d wait until we got back. Of course 2 errands split and grew multiple heads and became several errands. Once we got those done, it was dark and I pretty much gave up on lunch and was fantasizing about all the things I could make for dinner. Then DH got thirsty and wanted to go for a beer run and I was too weak from hunger to protest. At the North Gate beer and wine we found Howe Sound Brewery beer from Squamish! We had lived there for a few years and much of those memories are soaked in Howe Sound Brewery beer. Feeling nostalgic, we picked up a IPA and a brown ale and a few other local treats. They come in these cool brown bottles with a seal spring stopper which can be reused for a million different things. They’re great bottles for homemade infused vinegars and oils.

Back home, with my belly rumbling harmonies to the wind’s blustery dirge, I got started on some dinner. I decided on a chorizo and corn risotto with some pan-fried brussels sprouts. I love Brussels sprouts and luckily, so does DH. I got these from a friend’s garden in exchange for some chard and kale from mine. There’s local Brussels sprouts out there to be had.

When people tell me that they hate these mini-cabbages, I tell them to blame it on their mom or the school cafeteria cook. The problem is that Brussels sprouts release sulphur compounds when overcooked. The brussels sprouts of most childhoods are grey, overboiled little fart bombs. I dodged that bullet. My mom never made Brussels sprouts and luckily, the first time I had Brussels sprouts, it was made by someone who didn’t treat vegetables like heathens during the Spanish Inquisition.

My favorite way to cook Brussels sprouts is to cut them in half and pan fry them in a glug of olive oil over med heat, cut side down. Once they are browned, pour in a glug of water and cover with a tight lid for a minute to flash steam them. Sprinkle salt, pepper and a splash of good balsamic vinegar.

For the risotto, I used a half a chorizo sausage from Quist farms, some local corn that I froze and a pile of grated Little Qualicum raclette cheese and Hilary’s St. Denis cheese.

It’s pretty much the same recipe as my previous risotto. I simply traded the butternut squash for corn and used local cheeses instead.

The savory sausage was countered by the summer sweet corn and it was all wrapped up in the cheese infused creamy rice. The Brussels sprouts were sweet and nutty with a bite of greenness. A great combination of textures and flavours. Luckily, the risotto was piping hot and so I was forced to pace myself or else I would have gobbled up the whole pan. Definitely a keeper.

The sun is actually breaking through here. The humidity is down a bit than the usual 100%. I may have a chance to make some holiday nut brittle today. Yippee!!!

Happy Eating!

Jen

A weekend of birthdays and an unexpected Santa

I had originally planned a quiet knitting and cooking weekend with a friend, capped off with a get-together on Sunday evening. A mellow weekend filled with pots of hot tea and coccooning. However, the universe had other plans.

On Friday afternoon I got a call from DH who was in Vancouver to join him there. His plans had changed and he had to stay there longer. Sometimes you get that internal kick to go down the rabbit hole and you know something is going to happen, something extraordinary or at least something memorable.

It was my sister’s birthday anyways and so figured I could give her her birthday present in person instead of mailing it to her late. (How did I get knee-deep into December and not notice it?) I had made a series of creamy white merino-cashmere scarves in different lace patterns. A bit more intricate than your typical scarf to bring a touch of charm and interest to an outfit, they were made for our mild winters. I brought a few for her to choose from.

I, like most knitters, have a stash of scarves and toques for gifts. Often they’re made with patterns that I’ve designed just to see how they play out in different yarns. Sometimes they’re extended swatches to figure out my gauge. Other times they’re just practice mileage for me to work out new techniques. Many are simply the manifestation of excess kinetic energy channeled through my needles. In the end of the year, I send most of them over to a local shelter for those needing a bit of extra warmth and keep a small stash to give away myself.

Within an hour of receiving DH’s call, I was standing in line for the ferry. I love taking the ferry. It’s a great place to people watch. Riding on the water, watching one shore shrink as another appears is a great way to pass the time. It’s often the few times I get to sit down and do nothing but knit or read for an hour and half. I have met people from all over the world and have shared some wonderful conversations. Sometimes I have found myself in a hub of an impromptu knitting circle. I’ll just be working away alone in my corner and when I come up for air, I’ll realize that I’m surrounded by sister and fellow knitters, crocheters and cross-stitchers.

I grabbed a window seat and began working on my MIL’s sweater as other passengers jockeyed for seats. A fellow with two huge bulging suitcases sat down a few seats from me with a big sigh. With rumpled hair, an equally rumpled look in his eye, and wearing an inside-out t-shirt I thought to myself, 'I’m not going to get much knitting done.'

He opened up his suitcases, pulled out stacks of old, leather bound books and piled them in the seat between us. A few moments later, he leaned over and asked, “Excuse me, would you like an old book?”

As the ferry crossed the Georgia Strait, this Biblio-Santa gave away old books from centuries passed to anyone walking by and waxed poetic about the forgotten art of lithographs, steel engravings and old world bookmaking techniques. Supposedly he had a collection of 70,000 books and was simply tired of having them all. Many responded to his generosity with suspicion, others with cautious curiosity and awe and some with delight. I had a front row seat to watch this theatre of munificence. It was wonderful to see children excited about books, showing their parents the treasures to be found between the leather wings of an old book. It was a bit sad to see many adults approach with bystander curiosity but put up their defenses as soon as they were offered a free book, noses tuned only to mistrust.

Many grateful bibliophiles walked away with armfuls of books, magazines and other printed gifts, faces bathed in joy and awe. Many others left that ferry ride with at least an interesting story to tell.

I was gifted with a number of old books, including a complete collection of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a collection of Bryon and a wonderful old magazine:

Thank you Biblio-Santa for sharing your treasures with us. I hope you get some sleep.

My stay in Vancouver was one never-ending meal. The highlight was dimsum at Sun Siu Wah on Main street with my sisters, DH, and his sister and BIL. I Heart Sun Siu Wah. It’s my favorite Chinese restaurant and they have the best dan taht (egg tarts). These are two bite marvels with a beautifully light but buttery pastry shell and a just barely set flan. The haw gow (shrimp dumplings) are full of nothing but shrimp and the dumpling wrapper is thin and tender. One dish I didn’t see was lo bok gao (turnip cake). It’s the homeliest looking cake you’ve ever seen but it’s so tasty. It’s a steamed rice flour based cake filled with daikon radish, dried shrimp, bbq pork and other tasty bits. It’s cut into squares and pan-fried. Considering how crazy and hectic everyone’s life is these days, it’s a blessing to be able to get anyone out for a cup of coffee, let alone a whole meal.

Later that evening we joined family and friends to help celebrate my cousin’s birthday at Yaletown Brewery. Thank goodness I brought along those extra scarves. Happy Birthday Anita and Pat!!!!

We returned home Sunday afternoon. After a reviving cup of tea, I gussied myself up and headed over the my dear friends, Barbara and Lorne, for what turned out to be a multi-birthday party. I brought my Christmas cake to add to the already full buffet table. There was cheese, sausages and some of the finest smoked fish I’ve had in ages, all local of course. Barb had made a yummy spicy butternut squash soup that helped melt away any residual chills I had in my bones. The birthday celebration was topped off with five birthday cakes and live music. It was a lively and spirited celebration! Happy Birthday to you all!!!

Back home that night, I sat down with a glass of Cedar Creek chardonnay (a gift from my ma), my DH at my side, and wound down the weekend with some knitting. I actually managed to get some progress on my MIL’s sweater:
I love how the rich the colours are and they certainly brighten any dreary cold day. Considering how wet and windy today is, I’m hoping to get more done today. Hopefully, the universe hasn't scheduled me in for anything ;)

Enjoy!

Jen

Noodling around

In answer to Anon.'s question about cleaning chantrelles: I can't take all the credit for how spiffy and clean those mushrooms look. My friends who gifted me with them did a bit of cleaning before handing them over. I find a mushroom brush and any cleaning brush with stiff tooth brush is all you need. Chantrelles get waterlogged very easily so a dry approach is the best bet. If they are really dirty, a quick splash under running cold water should be all you need. Part of the solution is in the picking itself. Pick chantrelles that are already clean. I'm still seeing them out there on grocery shelves. Get them while you can!

Yesterday was a Novocain infused haze after an emergency dentist visit. Thanks to everyone at Dover View dental for making my ordeal as pleasant as possible. Dentist’s offices have really come a long way. They had a TV imbedded into the ceiling like my old dentist in Vancouver which was pretty much what sold me. Pretty cool except that when I first was lowered to start the session, there was some horribly, traumatic hospital soap opera scene that didn’t help much to calm me. They also had a pretty sweet LCD computer screen in front of the chair that flashed a slide show of postcard perfect scenes including some gorgeous shots of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, my new mountain crush. They even brought up my x-ray on it so I could check it out. I hope my maxillary molars never have to get yanked because those roots look pretty gnarly.

DH got washed up across the border and back home the night before. He insisted on driving me to the dentist and I’m glad he did. I got two shots of Novocain and that left me tired and wanting to simply curl up and hide from the world. Well, part of that was because I was doing a really drooly Jean Chrétien and just didn’t want to face the world ;)

Needless to say, I wasn’t in the mood of doing much except for knitting and zoning out with my DH. Knitting in itself was a bit of adventure. I’m coming close to the homestretch with my kimono-shrug-wrap and would be done expect for all the frogging I had to do thanks to my inability to count. Oh well.

Dinner was a chicken & roasted veggies in black bean sauce and pan-fried udon noodles. A pretty simply, peasant meal. Thank goodness I had the vat of roasted veggies to draw from. It certainly made things a whole lot easier. The chicken and all the the vegetables are all locally grown. Here’s the fast-& dirty recipe for that meal (recipe for 2)

½ chicken breast – in 2cm cubes (can substitute with firm tofu)

1-2 cups cabbage shredded – I used red but you can use any cabbage from green to any of the asian cabbages

2 cups roasted veggies

1-2 tsp grated ginger

1 tablespoon fermented black bean sauce – you can make your own, I just used stuff out of a jar

1 package udon noodles

½ cup liquid for deglazing – water or stock

peanut or veg. oil

In frying pan (I’m using a Teflon), add a teaspoon of oil, coat the bottom of the pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the noodles, arranging them in a single layer. You want as much of the noodle in contact with the bottom of the pan. Let cook for 3-4 mins. Do not move it around. You want the noodles to get crunchy and brown. Once they’re done you can just take the pan off the heat and put aside.

In a wok, heat up 1 tsp oil over medium-high heat. Place chicken in a single layer, uncrowded onto the bottom of the pan. Again, don’t be messing with it, you want it to brown. Let cook for 2-3 mins before turning the chicken pieces until their nice and golden brown and then turn over and brown the other side. Once cooked, removed to a bowl and keep covered.

Add a touch more oil if needed, return wok to heat and add ginger. Stir fry for a few seconds and then add the cabbage. Stir-fry for a minute, then add the roasted veggies and the chicken back in and cook for another 2-3 mins. Move the chicken & veggies to a side of the wok and dump in the black bean sauce. Let the sauce heat up for a minute before mixing with the veggies. This allows the sauce to cook and caramelize a bit and that helps bring out the fermented black bean yumminess. Deglazed with liquid and thicken with a cornstarch slurry if you want.

I like the serve the noodles and the veggies beside each other so that pan-fried noodles maintain their crunchiness. Even in a doped-up state, I made this in less than 20 mins.


Tah-dah...

Even though I could only chew and taste on one side of my mouth, it was so good. DH loved it. He loves anything in black bean sauce. I could serve cardboard in black bean sauce and he’d probably eat it.

This is a total yin-yang dish. The sweetness of the roasted veggies helped balance the saltiness of the fermented black beans. You had the different crunch factors of the cabbage and the pan-fried noodles play up nicely against the soft texture of the roasted vegetables and the meaty chicken. And of course, the darkly-sauced veggies and chicken visually play up nicely against the white udon noodles.

Now, if you wanted to, you could make a double batch of this and have some for a soup version of this dish the next day. When I say soup I mean nothing more than heating up a couple of cups of chicken stock, dumping in the leftovers and simmering for a few minutes. That's my idea of fast food ;)

Enjoy!

Jen

Crap Wrapped in Lettuce

Darren has requested a recipe for lettuce wraps. So here it is, plus some variations.

This recipe is great for novice cooks and is very versatile. It falls in the aforementioned chinese cooking system of 'chop up crap, throw crap into hot wok, season with more crap, eat crap.'

Basic Lettuce Wrap Recipe:

Ingredients:
Meat crap - I usually use ground pork. You can use any ground meat. A pound is enough for 4 servings. You can also use leftover meat like chicken, BBQ pork, duck, salmon, meatloaf, shrimp, roasted squirrel. If you use pre-cooked meat just add it at the end to just warm through.

You can also use tofu or tempeh. For tofu, use firm or extra firm. If using firm tofu, just sandwich the tofu block between two large plates with a can of whatever on top to squeeze out excess water. Crumble or chop into a small dice.

Vegetation crap: Whatever as long as it's not watery like a tomato. The usual veg crap for this are carrots, celery, onion. You can also use water chestnut (fresh not canned. Canned water chestnut is it's own punishment), jicama, fennel, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. I'd stick with crunchy veggies that cook up fast. You can also use up leftover veggies here too. I like gai lan, sugar peas, mushroom (shitake is very good) and spinach. Again, if using already cooked veggies, add at end to just warm through.

Don't go overboard. This is one of those times that you should K.I.S.S.

Other crap: I like adding nuts, just a handful of walnuts, pine nuts or even pumpkin seeds add a neat extra dimension to the dish. Toast the nuts before adding. Just throw them into a dry pan at medium heat. Once they start getting some colour & you can smell the nuttiness, they're done.

Seasoning crap: Ginger, garlic, shallots, szechuan peppercorns, soy sauce, fish sauce, curry powder, ancho or chipotle chili powder, 5-spice, 7-spice, ground cumin and corriander, sesame seed oil, black bean sauce. Again K.I.S.S

Oil: Use peanut oil or veggie oil (canola, safflower, corn etc). Save your olive oil for another time.

Condiment crap: Hoisin sauce is the traditional favorite. Plum sauce or duck sauce is also pretty good. You can also serve with a chili-fish sauce (just mix a glop of sambal oelek and fish sauce together) and some wedges of lime. If you're using curry powder or powdered cumin and corriander, you might want to opt for some yogurt sauce (1/2 cup yogurt, some chopped cilantro/parsley, 1 minced garlic clove and squeeze of lime/lemon, salt & pepper to taste) or a chutney. If you're using ancho or chipolte powder, some salsa or sour cream will work well.

Instructions:
There are 2 main factors to a good basic lettuce wrap filling. One is that everything is cooked up fast so have everything chopped and right beside you at the stove. Secondly, the filling can't be a sloppy, wet mess. Unless you like wearing your dinner.

1- Chop veggies into small dice (1/4 inch cubes). Mince ginger & garlic if using.
2- If using raw ground meat, season with a good healthy pinch of salt.
-If using leftover meat, either dice or shred the meat.
3-Heat up a couple glugs of oil in pot/wok/pan at medium-high heat.
4- Add ginger & garlic to oil. Don't let it brown.
5- Add ground meat. Spread it out over the bottom of the pan.
6-Let it brown. This means "DO NOT TOUCH". For about 3-4 mins. Let the meat get some colour before you start farting around there with your spatula.
7- Once the meat is cooked, add the veggies. Cook for a minute.
8- Add other crap (nuts, seasoning stuff). Start off with a couple spoonfuls. Taste it before adding more. If you're using any of the spices like curry or black bean sauce, push some of the mixture to one side of the pan, let the moisture evaporate a bit and toss your seasoning onto the dry pan bottom to let it get a bit toasty. Be careful not to burn it. Toasting will help bring out the flavours and aroma of the seasonings. Mix in with the rest of the crap.
9-Taste it. If it needs more seasoning crap then add some. If not, then don't mess with it.
10- Serve with iceberg lettuce leaves and condiment crap.

Lettuce tips:
1-Use iceberg lettuce. Do not deviate, the other lettuces won't have the strength to hold the filling and you'll end up with filling on your lap.
2- Remove the core from the lettuce with a small paring knife. Just cut around the core with the knife pointed towards the centre so you end up with a cone shaped lettuce stump.
3-Slowly peel one leaf at a time. Cut off any thick stalks.
4- Wash the leaves and dry them as best you can without ripping. Stack them onto a plate and keep in fridge with a damp towel over them until needed.
5- You will end up a bunch of inner leaves that won't work. Save those for another use like an iceberg salad with blue cheese dressing and walnuts for lunch tomorrow. Or shred them and toss them into a bowl of congee.

Leftover Lettuce Wrap filling ideas:

You might as well make more than you need. So double or triple the recipe. For the most part, the filling can be frozen and used later.

The filling also makes a great base for fried rice or chow mein. It is as simple as reheating the crap in a wok and tossing in some cooked rice or noodles.
It can also be thown into a congee.

You can throw it into a bowl of noodles and soup.

Throw a bowl of leftover filling into a hot pan with a bowl of stock or water. Add a couple handfuls of spinach. Take pot off of heat and add a slurry (1 tbsp of corn starch and cold water mixed). Put back onto heat, bring back to boil for the slurry to thicken the sauce. Add more seasoning (soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce) if needed. Serve over sauteed asian greens or snap peas if you have them. Serve with rice.

If you have curried filling, just reheat it with a bit of stock or water. Add some more curry powder or ginger if needed. Toss in some coconut milk and serve over rice.

You can also serve the filling with naan or tortillas.

Chili powder seasoned filling is a perfect foundation for a quick burrito/taco. It is also the beginnings of a fast, easy stew/soup. For stew, just reheat a bowl of the filling and add a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste. Cook for a few minutes over medium heat. You're looking to caramelize the tomato paste, not burn it. Stir continuously. Toss in a can a diced tomatoes and bring to boil then let simmer for 15 mins. Add more seasoning if needed.

For soup, skip the tomato paste and add a cup of stock along with the diced tomatoes.

Now I'm hungry.

Later my lovelies.

Gung Hay Fat Dog!

Happy New Year of the Bitch!

Let's get this party started.

So, I had myself a nice little Chinese New Year dinner this past weekend. For the first time in who knows how long, I actually made Chinese food for it. I was considering doing a Moroccan Chinese New Year. Since Chinese food has taken over the globe I always feel it's only ironically fitting to serve the cuisine of other cultures on this most festive of Chinese holidays.

Check out "Chinese Restaurants", a 13 part documentary by Cheuk Kwan about the Chinese food diaspora if you ever have a chance. There's a freaking Chinese restaurant where ever you are, from Trinidad to the most remote northern corner of Norway. For a hilarious look behind the scenes, check out cinematographer Kwoi Gin's Rice Bowl Diaries. It is proof that the line, 'Well, I'm making a movie.' is a great way to pick up chicks no matter what country you're in.

However, I've been hankering for some beef in black bean sauce and since most of the Chinese restaurants in this rusty town is known more for their neon red sweet & sour sauce on deep fried anything, I figured I'd do Chinese this year for the lunar new year.

I actually followed some of the food traditions. I even put out a traditional plate of sweets , aka the Tray of Togetherness, for our guests to munch on as I finished dinner. White Rabbit candies are a traditional sweet, aren't they?

Anyways, here's the menu:
-Beef & lychee in black bean sauce
-Lettuce wrap with pork and walnut & szechuan peppercorns
-Potstickers
-Pan-fried Lo Bak Go (Chinese turnip cakes. Tastes so much better than it sounds)
-Braised Chinese mushrooms (shitake, straw, enoki, black fungus, white fungus) and bean curd
-Ginger Prawn Chow Mein
-Asian fruit salad (star fruit, pomelo, mandarin orange, chinese apple pear, lychee) with lime-honey dressing
-Lychee chocolate truffles

I probably made more Chinese food for this feast than for all of last year put together. I must have been cooking from genetic memory since I can't remember making half these dishes before and I would risk losing my Chinese certification if I used recipes. Who uses recipes for Chinese cooking anyways? It's pretty much just chop up your crap, throw in your crap into a hot wok, season it with some more crap and toss your crap onto a plate and serve!

Anyways, happy year of the bitch.

Eat, Drink and Be Chinese!