From My Collection-1960's Brocade Coat

I think this dates to the 60's, though it could be a bit earlier given the quality of the closures and rick rack. The velvet trim is starting to disintegrate in spots, but it does feel like cotton velvet. At some point, it was taken-in (poorly) but I can feel through the lining they left enough of the original fabric that it could likely be restored-I'm just not sure it is worth it. The lining was also put back in place sloppily, and the closures stitched back on in a manner that is beyond slap-dash. My guess is that someone gave it to a daughter or granddaughter and the changes were made by someone inexperienced-perhaps for a quick costume. Still, for the grand sum of .99 cents at Goodwill, I thought it worth bringing home and packing away.

You also get a glimpse of the "Hollywood Regency" corner at the stair landing. Those are Danny's selections (the kid has a thing for gilt wall sconces).

 It is a very pretty coat, but the velvet is turning to powder, and after enough wears it would be threadbare. I could remove it, but I'd rather pack it away as a curiosity than wear it. It isn't really a good shape for me anyway. This is a good example of something I wouldn't sell unless I made certain the buyer really understood the fabric issues. It would be hard to grasp looking at it online. After handling the coat just enough for photos, my nails were filled with black powdery tufts from the trim. Perhaps I should have photographed that. I can't know what conditions it was stored under, but hopefully I'll be able to do a bit better and keep the deterioration from getting worse. That's the worst part about collecting vintage-knowing that sometimes all you can do is slow the inevitable. I won't even talk about trying to preserve 60's vinyl pieces (I have a sad tale of some white go-go boots I'll save for another day).

 The lining is in decent condition save for the hack-job it got being taken-in. There's a bit of age spotting, but nothing serious.

The lesson? Don't give your vintage pieces to the inexperienced learning to sew. And don't keep things in a hot ,un-ventilated attic.

Sweet and Sour Tofu

At the last library sale, I picked up a copy of Kosher Cookery, Classics and Contemporary by, Frances R. AvRutic. I only glanced at it quickly when making the purchase, but upon returning home I began marking off the dishes I couldn't wait to try. Last evening's dinner featured three, and they were all fantastic.

I wasn't sure how my family would react to a tofu dish that mimicked Polynesian chicken I remembered from the 60's. Mr. ETB reacted by asking where the Pu Pu Platter was, but we'll forgive him that as he probably just misses the Kowloon. Danny, who isn't fond of pineapple ate happily enough, though he did push the pineapple chunks to the side of the plate. Fair enough.

Cornstarch, and pineapple juice rarely make appearances in my cooking, much less together, but I have to admit, this was a really lovely dinner served over rice. I can see making it again, but probably not regularly-I don't want to start spoiling them or anything-before you know it, they'll expect a Pu Pu Platter.

I added baby corn and water chestnuts because i had them, and it seemed to round out that retro feel I was getting from the pineapple. I made a few other changes as well, and will note them in the directions.

1 lb. Firm Tofu (I used extra firm)
6 tablespoons oil, divided (I used slightly less)
1 large green pepper sliced into 2 inch long strips
1 large carrots, sliced thinly (I used three)
1 large onion, finely diced (I used a red onion and sliced it thin)

For the sauce:

1 tin (20 ounces) pineapple chunks in unsweetened juice (reserve juice)
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup molasses or honey (I used Golden Syrup)
1/4 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup cornstarch dissolved completely in 1/3 cup water
3/4-1 teaspoon dried ginger to taste]

I did quite a bit of this recipe ahead and then simply re-warmed the tofu and vegetables before adding the sauce and cooking it together. Tofu can be fried up to a day ahead, and it certainly goes faster to have all your vegetables cut and ready to dump in a wok just before dinner. Keep in mind, you can even purchase already fried cakes of tofu if you're pressed for time.

Press the tofu free of water between dishtowels and a weight. A jar filled with water will work. You'll need to change the towels several times, but it is worth it when you go to fry the tofu. The recipe has you slice the tofu into slabs, but gives the option of cutting cubes, which is what I did. Fry about half of them at a time. You'll need half the oil for this. I used corn oil as I like it for this type of cookery, but go with what you prefer.

Once the tofu has been fried, remove it from the pan and add a bit more oil. I did not need another 3 tablespoons, but your wok may be less seasoned, etc. so keep it handy in the event you do.

Heat the pan and cook the carrots, onion, green pepper, and any other vegetables you choose in the pan until just softened, but still rather crisp. At that point, you can either proceed, or combine it with the tofu and chill it until you are ready to make dinner.

Drain the tin of pineapple and reserve the liquid. Toss the pineapple in with the tofu and vegetables. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce, whisking well to make sure everything is dissolved. Re-heat the vegetables and tofu in the pan slightly, and add the sauce. Over medium high heat, cook, stirring (A wooden spoon will prevent the tofu breaking as easily as a metal spatula) until it thickens. Serve hot over fluffy white rice.

You'll probably want a few dashes of hot sauce on this, but maybe that's just me.

Lumpia-Gourmet Magazine June 1972

These are not what I typically think of as, "Lumpia." At least they aren't what my friend Miriam used to make. Hers were fried. I'm pretty sure she bought the wrappers frozen as well. Still, in 1972 the western understanding of Philippine cookery might have been limited by what was served in larger cities. Traditional or not, they were eaten to the last.

A few thoughts:

I would make these smaller. What I ended up with were not unlike the size of a burrito. No one here seemed to mind, but really, they would have rolled better smaller.

I made fake ham for the filling, and skipped the seafood altogether. I have no idea if Danny is allergic to shellfish, but he's allergic to practically everything else, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with eppi pens tonight. Mr. ETB who has eaten his share of ham over the years, said I made a convincing substitute from the baked tofu. Smoked salt, corn oil, honey, cloves and cider vinegar did the trick. Tofu is kind of miraculous in the way it absorbs whatever flavour you soak it in. So that worked, I'm pleased.

The pancakes for this recipe are difficult to make. I consider myself pretty skilled with a crepe, but these were really temperamental. Cook them longer than you think you need to, and they will release from the sides. You should also whisk everything together before pouring. It didn't say to in the recipe, and it seems counter-intuitive after beating egg whites and folding yolks, but really, if you don't whisk it, you will be frying puffs of egg whites. It took a few tries, but eventually I figured it out.

This issue has an entire section devoted to aspics. 1972. God I miss the early 70's. There are few things I enjoy more than a tomato aspic. Unfortunately, no one in this household will touch it. *Sniffle*. Anyone want to come over and have a tomato aspic on iceberg lettuce with stilton? I'm suddenly possessed of a desire to learn bridge.

Because this is a vintage recipe, and possibly of interest to people that like this sort of thing, I'll post the recipe as it appeared in my copy of Gourmet in June 1972.

Make the pancakes: In a bowl beat 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks. Fold in 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten. Dissolve 1/2 cup cornstarch (cornflour) in 1 cup of water until smooth. Add this to the egg mixture. (My note, whisk it together at this point). Heat a 6 inch crepe pan (don't be a moron like me and use a large pan) and brush it with olive oil. Pour in 2 tablespoons of batter and tilt and rotate pan to cover the bottom evenly with batter. Cook the pancake until it is firm and slide it onto a plate without turning it. Continue in this manner until all batter is used.

Make the filling:
In a skillet saute 1/2 onion, thinly sliced and 1 clove garlic, minced in 2 tablespoons olive oil until the vegetables are soft. Add 1/4 pound cooked pork, diced, 1/2 cup cooked chick peas, 1/4 cup peeled and diced raw shrimps, and 2 tablespoons chopped ham. Cook the mixture stirring for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup julienne strips of raw green bean, 1 raw carrots cut into 1 inch long julienne strips, and 4 ounces of water chestnuts, thinly sliced. Simmer the mixture, covered stirring once or twice for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup shredded cabbage and simmer covered for 5 minutes more or until vegetables are tender. Add 1 teaspoon salt or to taste (If using tinned chickpeas, omit salt).

Arrange a lettuce leaf on each pancake. Put 1 tablespoon of the filling on each leaf. Fold in 2 sides of pancake, and roll them up.

Make the sauce:
In a small saucepan combine 1/2 cup beef broth, 1/4 cup soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water. Simmer the sauce 1 minute. Pour into a small bowl, sprinkle it with 1/2 a chopped garlic clove, and serve it with the pancakes. Makes about 18 lumpia.

Homemade Spring Roll Wrappers

I've made my own dumpling dough, scallion pancakes, steamed bun...but never tried spring rolls. That had to change. I was surprised how difficult it was to find a recipe for the wrappers that sounded reasonable (you know, like it would actually work) but I found the recipe I ended up using at Penniless Parenting-and I trust her. If you aren't already reading her blog, you should be, unless of course you are one of those people that likes to toss money away. You aren't the sort of people that like tossing money away-are you? I didn't think so-I keep pretty nice company over here at this little blog.

Anyway-the egg rolls came up beautifully, the boys devoured them, and I have eight more uncooked ones waiting in the freezer for the next time I'm struck by a desire to deep fry things. Yeah, you're going to need the kettle for this-but come on, there's vegetables in it. Use good oil and you can almost (well not really) claim this as health food (OK not at all).

The recipe for the dough may be found HERE (yes, I'm forcing you to click over there because the tutorial is excellent). The filling I used is as follows:

1/2 head small cabbage, finely shredded
1 red bell pepper, finely sliced in matchsticks
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 carrots, finely chopped in matchsticks
1 tablespoon dehydrated onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon dehydrated garlic granules
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 heaping teaspoon 5 spice powder
A splash of soy sauce
A small splash of sesame oil
Extra oil for the pan


Heat a large pan or wok and cook everything until softened. Cool before using to fill wrappers. I made mine ahead and kept them lightly covered in the fridge until i was ready to fry several hours later-this worked just fine. To freeze the extras, I packed them in pastic containers between layers of wax paper.


I also served a stir fry of carrots, peppers, green beans, onion, garlic, water chestnuts, and tofu over rice. The tofu can be fried well ahead (even a couple days) and keeps well tightly wrapped in the fridge. I find that making this sort of thing in stages is much easier than trying to slap dinner on the table come six PM. There's plenty of stir-fry for leftovers tomorrow, and I have frozen egg rolls waiting to go. The only reason my life isn't a pathetic mess is good time management skills-really, I don't have brains, looks or money, but organisation? Oh yeah, I have that one down.

Steamed Buns

The recipe for the buns may be found HERE. I improvised a filling of stem ginger, garlic, onions, carrots, cabbage and sesame oil. I tossed in a bit of five spice and let it all cook down slowly. I did make sure to let the filling chill well before filling the buns, so they don't start to steam as they rise. not having a wok with a lid, I made these in a pot with a metal steamer-it worked fine. The buns are a bit sticky, so I lined with parchment instead of the recommended wax paper.

Mine rose, feather-light. I swear, I've never seen or felt anything like it.

These were easy to do, though be warned if you have any dry, cracked skin on your hands-kneading flour with a dusting of baking powder really, really hurts. Bad. Otherwise, these were a breeze to make.

Hy-Vee Chinese Honey Cod

Another recipe card from Hy-Vee. I didn't cook mine on the grill, but rather baked them in foil packets at 500 degrees f. for 15 minutes, with five standing. Perfect. I served them over noodles, and stir-fried vegetables.

You Will Need:

6 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 lbs. cod fillets

Combine everything except cod and pour into a baking dish. Turn once to coat, and cover. Set in fridge for at least half an hour (I did two).

Place fish in foil packets and place on a baking sheet in a very hot (500 degree F.) oven. Bake 15 minutes, for thick fillets, 12 for thinner ones. Remove baking sheet from oven and let fish stand in unopened packets for five minutes. Open carefully (watch the steam) and serve over noodles, rice, or whatever you like.

Fresh Green Beans, Part Two

This was the last of them. There's enough leftover for Mr. ETB's lunch tomorrow.

You Will Need:

Green Beans, French cut (I used about a quart)
2 large carrots, matchsticked
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, matchsticked
1 bunch scallions, chopped
8 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 tablespoons cooking oil
1 heaping tablespoon 5 spice powder
3 tablespoons hoisan sauce
A generous squirt of hot sauce
1 block extra firm tofu, fried (see instructions below)

Combine everything in a plastic ziplock bag and place in a bowl (really, you don't want to chance it, having the fridge reek in sesame oil is a pain). Give it a turn every so often, but let it sit for at least an hour. Overnight is good too. I like planning ahead. The only vegetables I don't like using in a prolonged storage like this are cabbage and mushrooms as they tend to throw off quite a bit of water. Otherwise, feel free to use what you like. Keep in mind, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots will absorb the brown colour and look drab, but if that isn't an issue for you (and really, if it IS an issue for you...well I don't know, you're probably related to my mother)go ahead and toss them in. You can give this treatment to just about any vegetable you have. Maybe not eggplant.

Prepare the tofu ahead:

Get a stack of cotton towels handy-you'll need them. Press the block of tofu gently, but firmly between a towel. Grab another towel and repeat. Slice tofu into four slabs. Press between towels. Repeat with a fresh towel. You'll pretty much follow this routine until the towel is no longer wet when you exert pressure on the tofu. Proceed to cut into cubes (and blot off any additional moisture). Heat a small amount of oil in a heavy pan (I use my cast iron pan rather than the wok, but use what you have). Once oil is hot, add the tofu in batches, turning with a fork until deeply golden on all sides of each cube. Remove to a rack over a baking sheet. Proceed with next batch. When all are done and cool, set on a plate and place in the fridge until needed. Tightly wrapped, it will keep for a couple of days.

Heat a large wok or pan and dump in your bag of vegetables. Cook until nearly done (I cook them a bit softer than desirable because I'm cooking for a young child, but if the grown-ups at your house can manage crisp vegetables, I think green beans are nicer still vibrant. If you think it needs more oil at this point, go ahead and add it.

In the last few minutes, add the cooked tofu, just to give it a coating of sauce.

Serve hot over rice or noodles (I served it over Jasmine rice).

Small Batch Plum Sauce

It isn't quite plum season, but I wanted plum sauce and I'd run out of last year's canned batch. What to do? Improvise. This recipe will make a scant pint.

You Will Need:

2-3 large fresh plums (red, black, whatever)
12 whole prunes, chopped, pits removed (duh)
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vinegar (cider, white wine, whatever you like)

Toss it all in a pot and cook the daylights out of it over moderately high heat until thick. You'll need to keep stirring so it won't stick, but the whole thing takes about twenty minutes, so it isn't a huge chunk of your time.

Ginger/Blood Orange Pepper Steak

I had half a pound of round steak in the freezer waiting for inspiration to strike. It never really did. I looked around on-line, and in cookbooks and once again cobbled something together. Mr. ETB was the only one who ate it, and he enjoyed it. I'll take him at his word.

I served this over homemade noodles because I was turning leftover salmon patties into a sort of glorified Salmon ala King, (except it was in a creamy saffron sauce, rather than a tin of cream of mushroom soup) and had noodles. I do think this would be just dandy over rice.

You can use less stem ginger than I did, and adjust the vegetable to whatever you have. Broccoli would be delicious. It would also make sense to use more meat if making this for more than one person to eat over two meals. A pound of beef would be acceptable, conversely, this could easily be stretched with the inclusion of more vegetables. Do as you like.

You Will Need:

3/4 cup orange juice ( I used blood oranges)
1 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tbsp. finely chopped stem ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
A sprinkle of red pepper flakes
1/2-1 lb. round steak, sliced very thin in strips (this is easier if meat is still slightly frozen)
1 tbsp. sesame oil
3 tbsp. cooking oil ( I used corn)
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 cup sliced red bell pepper
1 cup cooked fresh soybeans
1 cup sliced shallots
1 cup sliced celery
1 tbsp. honey
1 teaspoon cornstarch
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

An hour before cooking, prepare marinade by mixing orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and red pepper together. Add beef and combine well. cover and chill 1 hour.

In a large wok or pan, heat the oils over medium/high heat and cook the beef (reserve marinade) until it browns-about four minutes. remove to a plate. Add the vegetables and cook until softened to your taste. Mix the marinade with honey and cornstarch until smooth. Add to vegetables and turn heat to high. Cook about a minute until thickened. Reduce heat and return the beef to the pan. Cook a few minutes longer until done. Serve hot over noodles or rice. Toss with toasted sesame seeds.

Stir-Fry With Soybeans, Tofu, and Kale

Oh, I know-it sounds terrible. It was actually a nice combination, but I can see where it might be a bit on the odd side to a non-vegetarian. The advantage was that most of this was prepared the night before and set in the fridge until today. I literally used whatever I had-which turned out to be half a bag of frozen soybeans, wilted kale and some celery that had seen better days.

The tofu needs at least eight hours to soak before baking (and that takes an hour) so plan ahead. It keeps well, tightly wrapped in cling film, so it can be made a day or so in advance.

You Will Need:

For the tofu:

1 block extra firm tofu, pressed dry of as much water as possible between dishtowels. Slice into 4 slabs.

In a baking dish, combine 6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons minced stem ginger
3 cloves of minced garlic

Lay the slabs on top, turn once and cover with plastic. Turn again in four hours and let sit for a total of at least eight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place pan in oven and bake tofu for 30 minutes. Turn, bake another 30 minutes and continue baking until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the colour is dark and crispy. Remove to a plate, chill, and wrap tightly when cool. Cut into dice and use half for stir fry, and the other half as you like (see potsticker recipe below for ideas).

For the stir fry:

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1 cup sliced shallots
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups shredded kale
2 cups cooked soybeans
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 stalks celery, finely sliced
4 carrots, thinly sliced on diagonal
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 tablespoons hoisan sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce 2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 teaspoons five spice powder

Cook everything in a hot wok/pan until softened to your taste. Serve hot, over rice.

Vegetarian Pot Stickers

Sure, these are time consuming, but the recipe makes quite a bit, and now I have thirty pot stickers in the freezer for future use. There's no point making only a few, besides, I always end up with too much filling. If you're really determined to do a small batch, the recipe for the dough will work in half-but really, if you're going to roll out dough, you might as well make it worth the effort.

For The Filling:

1 cup frozen soybeans, boiled and drained
1 package pot noodles cooked, drained and tossed lightly with oil (save the seasoning packet for later)
1 carrot, finely diced
3 stalks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup kale, finely sliced in shreds
1/2 cup baked tofu cut into very tiny dice
1/2 seasoning packet from noodles
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2-3 tablespoons cooking oil

Cook everything except noodles and spice packet in a large pan in oil until quite soft. Toss in noodles, adding more oil if needed to prevent sticking and toss with the seasoning packet. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Prepare Dough:

2 cups warm water (you may need more)
4 cups AP flour

Place flour in a large bowl and add water slowly, mixing with your hand as you go. The dough should be pliable without being sticky. Knead lightly, then cover with a damp dishtowel and let rest twenty minutes.


Divide dough into 8 parts. Roll each part into a long strand and then cut into balls (about ten per part, but that's going to vary depending how big you want the dumplings). Roll out as thin as possible, leaving the centre of the dumpling slightly thicker.

Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre, bring up the sides and pinch closed. Then, crimp together and set on a tray that has been lined with waxed paper and a generous coating of oil. I mean, generous. Spray isn't going to cut it here.

When you are finished, grease another piece of paper and lay it over the top. Chill the tray until you are ready to cook. If freezing, do a few at a time on a greased paper lined plate in the freezer. Transfer to freezer bags when firm, using the waxed paper as a divider between layers. Repeat until bag is filled. Lay flat in freezer.

To Cook:

Steaming:

line your steamer with cabbage leaves (Napa, regular old cabbage, even lettuce will do in a pinch) and oil it (they call 'em "potstickers" 'ya know?) well. Place the potstickers into the steamer over boiling water and cover. Cook until the dumplings are translucent-about five minutes. Remove and let drain/dry while you heat the oil.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wok/pan and stir fry the dumplings until they are slightly browned, but still chewy textured (you don't want to deep fry them-well, perhaps you do, but I don't). Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

For dipping sauce you can use plum sauce if you have it (we finally finished the last of my homemade plum sauce-boo hoo. I made two very nice sauces tonight with the following:

Brown sauce:

4 tablespoons hoisan sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dried shallots
Splash water
Splash soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Five Spice powder

Mix well and let onions re-hydrate before serving

Red Sauce:

Juice of a lime
4 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons garlic chili sauce
]1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup water

Mix well

Pot Stickers/Dumplings

Has it really been a week since I posted? Gee whiz. Well hey, I'll make it up to you, look, I brought dumplings!

Using what I had (which ain't much because I haven't been able to drag my butt out to go grocery shopping) these came together well. Amazing what you can do with some carrots and cabbage.

The dough is easy enough to work with, but I won't lie and say shaping is easy-it takes some practise. The first few will look misshapen, but you'll get the hang of it quickly enough. You will. I have confidence in you.

For the filling:

2 carrots, finely diced
1 leek, thinly sliced up to the light green part
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage
1 package ramen noodles, cooked and drained.
1/4 seasoning packet from ramen noodles.
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil

In a large pan cook the carrots, leeks, ginger, cabbage, and garlic in the cooking oil until soft. Add the ramen, spice packet and sesame oil. Toss well. set aside to cool while you make dough.

For the dough:

2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup warm water (you may need more).

Place flour in a bowl and add water slowly until you have a dough that can be kneaded but is not sticky. Knead until smooth and then cover with plastic wrap and let rest fifteen minutes.

Roll into a long rope and cut into twenty pieces (about). Roll each into a ball and then flatten into a disk. Roll out one disk as thin as possible, fill with a small amount of filling and then draw up the sides and pinch closed. Curve the ends in and then go back to the top and crimp in pleat fashion a few times. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and spray with cooking oil (these suckers will stick). Cover lightly and chill until needed.

To Cook:

Set in steamer (I sprayed mine with oil first) and cook a few minutes until soft. Remove from steam and heat a small bit of oil in a frying pan(about 2 tablespoons). Fry lightly until slightly browned but still pliable. Serve with plum sauce.

Five Spice Chicken

Pretty impressive cooking for a vegetarian, eh?

Once in a while I treat Mr. Eat The Blog to a roast chicken. I had bookmarked this recipe last fall, and just got around to it tonight. I did not try any, but it was well received. I'm glad he liked it because it was a large chicken and he'll be eating it all week.

The recipe may be found HERE.

One note, it smoked up my kitchen a bit but at least it smelled good from the five spice powder.

Two Pepper Stir-Fry

I went ahead and made this in case Danny didn't go for the sesame tofu-he ended up devouring both, which now firmly places us in the realm of Americans that eat Asian food and order ten different dishes to share. Noodles, rice-what the heck, starch is good. I'm being sarcastic-I've never understood that convention people have, and I'm always slightly embarrassed when I'm with people that do it. Wait...no...must step off soapbox...feeling lecture coming on...must fight temptation to preach...

Yeah, OK. So this is more food than we needed, but at least I didn't fire up the deep fat and make a Pu-Pu platter to go with it.

You Will Need:

2 green bell peppers, sliced
2 red bell peppers, sliced,
1 large onion, sliced in spears
1/2 teaspoon granulated dry garlic
1 tin bamboo shoots, drained
Marinade:
1 tablespoon garlic black bean sauce
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup cooking oil
A generous shake of dried red pepper flakes

Rice for serving

Make the marinade and place in a plastic bag with the vegetables-let sit several hours. Stir fry quickly and serve hot over rice.

Udon Noodles With Tofu, Ginger, Lemon and Sesame

The only changes I made to the recipe were substituting Udon noodles for the Soba, and using a squirt of hot sauce instead of the cayenne-otherwise I followed Jaden's recipe which was adapted from Heidi's, which was adapted from some fancy joint in San Francisco that I'll never get to. Then, I told two friends, and they told two friends and pretty soon we were all washing our hair in honey and beer...and cooking tofu. (Yeah, you need to be over forty to get that one.) I did use regular old extra-firm tofu because I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm just happy I can find tofu at all.

Go HERE for the recipe, and while you're there, check out her formula for making perfect rice. It works-perfectly. Really, that technique has changed my life.

Did I mention how quick and easy this was to prepare? Fast. Easy. Really, really good.

Stir Fry Idea

It dawned on me that the Asian basil kind of has an anisette taste anyway, so I went ahead and cut up a fennel bulb to stir fry along with the bok choy and carrots. It was a good call. I served this with rice and some dumplings I made and froze in July (I steamed and lightly pan fried them and they came up great).

Quail Eggs

These were available at the Vietnamese market (a rather nice one, at that) for a bit over a dollar. Don't try this at Whole Foods.

I'm going to poach them and then batter and deep fry them-just because.

Scallion Pancakes

The dumplings in the foreground will be posted in detail at another time. Tonight, I want to talk pancakes-scallion ones.

I've never seen these anywhere but Boston, and honestly, in the ten years I spent there I probably ate them three or four times. My husband really likes them, but I found them kind of doughy and unpleasant. I now realise this was due to them cooling as we waited for delivery. Oh, when these came out of the hot fat it was clear we'd been missing out on something terrific.

The recipe may be found here.

You're going to want a dipping sauce to go with them if you aren't lucky enough to have a pint of my homemade plum sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 green onion, finely sliced
pinch of sugar

Mix well and let flavours absorb for an hour or so in the fridge before serving.

Plum Sauce

So who's bringing the dumplings?

You know that plum sauce that comes in a jar in Asian markets? This isn't it-this tastes like plums. Four pounds of plums. The recipe makes four pints. I can't wait to try making this with prune plums.

Now go get me some dumplings. I'm making a second batch of sauce tonight.

You Will Need:
(From the Ball Blue Book)

4 pounds plums (I mixed black and red to get a good colour and sweet/tart balance)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons chopped green chili peppers
A 1/4 x 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup cider vinegar (I splurged and bought good vinegar)

Wash plums and drain. Pit and chop the plums. In a large pot, combine everything EXCEPT the plums. bring to a boil and then add plums. Lower heat and simmer until thick and syrup-like. Mine took about an hour on medium heat. Ladle hot sauce in hot jars, remove air bubbles, wipe jars clean and adjust caps and bands. Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in canner before removing. Cool without touching on towels for 24 hours. Test for seals and wash jars before storing.

Clean Out The Bins Marinade Pt. 2

And the completed dinner from yesterday's post, cooking courtesy of "Mr. Eat The Blog." Here's what he did:

Drain extra firm tofu and squeeze out excess water between towels. Cut into 1 inch thick slices. Heat oil in frying pan and deep fry the slices about 1 minute each side. Drain. In a large pan or wok, dump the vegetables and entire baggie contents into pan and stir fry. In last five minutes, add the tofu. Serve hot over rice.

Yes, the photo is overexposed.