Coaching Cooking

Wontons are a staple in my house. I make a big batch of them then I fry some, boil some for soup and freeze the rest for quick dinners and snacks later (and they never last for more than a month). This time, I made a huge batch of the filling and decided to make some other interesting dishes.

Here’s a quick recipe for the filling:

Wonton Meat Filling

Ingredients:
1 lb. of ground pork
1 lb. of ground beef (avoid the super-low ground beef because there’s less flavor and the texture is hard)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 small can of sliced water chestnuts, finely-diced
4-6 tablespoons of soy sauce (season to taste)
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
3-4 dashes of sriracha chili sauce
3 pinches of salt

Directions:
Place the pork and beef in a food processor and add the remaining ingredients. Secure the lid carefully and pulse until the meat and other ingredients form a smooth filling. Use immediately or refridgerate for later use. This filling can also be frozen in a freezer-safe container. I also suggest putting the container in a large plastic bag, sealed tightly, to avoid freezer burn.

See this recipe for the wontons. The noodle soup is a quick creation involving packaged ramen-type noodles. You can use regular ramen or rice stick (my new favorite). See the recipe below. The last recipe is a stuffed pepper with black bean sauce. This is a dish that I love to eat at dim sum restaurants, but I think it can also serve as a tasty dinner.

Jenny’s Quick Noodle Soup with Meatballs

Ingredients:
2 packages of instant rice-stick soup (or two packages of ramen)
4 cups of water
1 cup of meat filling (see recipe above for Wonton Meat Filling)
2 green onions, chopped in a medium dice

Directions:
Put the 4 cups of water into a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, place a small, non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Shape the meat filling into small meatballs (about 1/2 inch in diameter). Pan-fry the meatballs for about 3-4 minutes. While the meatballs cook, bring the water to a boil and add the soup package contents from the two noodle packages. Add the meatballs and cook for about 7-10 minutes until the meatballs are cooked thoroughly (test one meatball by cutting it in half). Add the noodles and cook according to the package directions. Sprinkle green onions on top of the soup before serving. Enjoy!

Rather than inundate you with ONE more recipe…see my next post for Stuffed Peppers with Black Bean Sauce (and some tasty pics).

Another dish from my childhood…my mom made this dish at least twice a month. She would prepare the fish and chop green onion, cilantro and ginger. Then she would place the fish on a plate and steam it or cook it in the microwave. I was craving this dish yesterday and I was also in the midst of completing fun household chores (the ones where, if you don’t do them, you end up wearing that one semi-ugly t-shirt at the bottom of the drawer with those purple pants that you hate, but you just can’t bear to throw away…).

Back to the fish, I had green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and a few ingredients I purchased at the local market. Add steamed rice and some colorful chopsticks plus a sauteed green vegetable and I had a simple meal to comfort me.

Steamed Fish Chinese-style

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. of fish (try red snapper or sea bass or halibut)
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peel removed and sliced into thin rounds
3 green onions
5-6 sprigs of cilantro
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
salt to taste

Directions:
Clean the fish (if needed…remove the scales and bones). Place the fish in a shallow bowl and cover with ginger slices, green onion and cilantro sprigs. Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil and vegetable oil in a small bowl and pour over the fish. Season with salt and cover the shallow bowl with plastic wrap (leaving a small opening for the steam). Microwave for 2.5 minutes at 70% power. Check to see if the fish is cooked by slicing a small piece from the middle of the fish. If it looks raw, continue to cook at 70% power for a few more minutes. Serve immediately with steamed rice. Plate the fish on top of a serving of rice and spoon some of the sauce over the fish before serving. Enjoy!

Part of the reason why I didn’t post at all this week is because I have a new job as a special education teacher. The classroom that I took over on Monday has students with moderate to severe disabilities and many of the students are autistic. Since I love to cook and I love to share food with people, I decided that it would be great to celebrate our last day of the week by making cookies.

Bless my boss for putting a giant tub of cookie dough in the fridge. Our classroom has a kitchen plus a regular classroom. We gathered in the kitchen during 6th period and made cookies. I decided that the easiest way for the students to participate would be for each student to roll a bit of cookie dough between their palms and then to place this ball of dough in a muffin tin.

Muffin tins make great catch-all baking pans. It gives cookies a uniform shape plus you can spray the muffin tin with a little cooking spray and the cookies are easy to remove. In my case, we didn’t have any cooking spray so we just loosened each cookie and pried them out. They came out a bit crumbly, but, hey, they tasted delicious anyway.

Get out those muffin tins because they’re great for baking cookies when you want the kids to help and they make some great, round cookies. Oh sugar…

One of the best aspects of AB’s new job is meeting the wonderful people that he works with and sharing food with them. On Friday we had a barbeque where AB’s boss made an excellent tandoori chicken. And yesterday Lorry, a French intern who’s currently working with AB’s company, came shopping with us to the Milk Pail and Whole Foods. Then he graciously offered to make his version of pasta carbonara that was so cool to watch and so delicious to eat. So, I must share his version. We had such a great dinner with wine and salad and with this wonderful pasta. Thanks, Lorry! I will definitely make this recipe again.

Lorry’s Pasta Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 package of spaghetti
3-4 egg yolks (see instructions below)
1 medium onion, chopped into 1/2 inch slices
5 slices of bacon, sliced into 1/2 thick pieces
1 container of pre-shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 container, 8 oz. of ricotta cheese (16 oz. size)

Directions:

Slice the onions and bacon and cook them in a nonstick pan over medium-low heat. Cook this mixture for about 10 minutes until the onions are translucent and the bacon is cooked through, but not crispy. Fill a large pot with water and boil. Add a few teaspoons of salt then add the pasta and cook according to the package directions.

In the meantime, crack the eggs in half carefully and reserve the egg yolks in their shells by placing them back in the cardboard container until they are needed.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Make sure the burner is on low or turned off so the pasta doesn’t overcook. Then add the ricotta and parmesan cheeses and mix thoroughly. Add the bacon and onions and mix again. Keep the lid on the pasta so it doesn’t cool down too much. Serve the pasta in wide, low bowls and give each person a raw egg to mix into their pasta. The raw egg will give the pasta a terrific creaminess (and don’t be afraid to eat it because the hot pasta will cook the egg…or you can use pasteurized eggs).

Bon Appetit!

I made the white chop chicken today because I have craved it for days. Here are a few notes:

Wash the chicken carefully and make sure the skin is smooth (remove any bits of feather…my chicken was kosher so it still had remnants of the feathers stuck to its skin).

The chicken should cook in about an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. If you cut the chicken in half and find that it is still quite pink, you can return it to the hot water for about 10-15 minutes. Be careful with the cooking time. Too much cooking time will result in a dry, overcooked chicken. I made that mistake this time and the chicken was dry in some parts.

Be sure to dry the skin well after removing the chicken from the hot water. Basting the chicken skin with salad oil or canola oil results in a juicier chicken.

Finally, try the green-onion sauce. It is simple and tangy and goes great with white, steamed rice.

The house would smell of it for hours before it was ready. I only need to smell green onion, chicken blended with soy and oil to know that my mom is making steamed chicken. We would eat it with stir-fried bok choy and steamed rice and a green onion-salt sauce on the side. To me, there’s nothing simpler and better than a steamed chicken dinner. It represents one of the best Chinese meals and it represents comfort and family…Dad would go for the largest, juiciest pieces and I would dip the chicken in the green onion sauce again and again.

The recipe below is for white chop chicken and it is adapted from a great Chinese cookbook by Rhoda Yee entitled “Chinese Village Cookbook.” My family is also from the Cantonese region of China so the dishes in this cookbook are culinary memories. Enjoy!

White Chop Chicken

Ingredients:

1 3-lb fryer chicken
1 teaspoon of salt
3 green onions, sliced thinly
water (see recipe for amount)
1/4 salad oil

Sauces:
1/4 cup of oyster sauce (found in Asian supermarkets)
1/4 cup of hoisin sauce (found in Asian supermarkets)
Green onion sauce (see recipe following directions)

Directions:

Wash the chicken and pat dry. Place the chicken in a pot that fits perfectly with at least one inch clearance at the top. Place the chicken in the pot and cover it with water entirely. Remove the chicken and reserve on a plate. Add the salt and 1/3 of the green onion. Bring the water to a boil. Lower the chicken into the boiling water carefully (you can use tongs and one hand to steady the chicken). Cover the pot with its lid and remove the pot from the heat. Let the chicken steep in the hot water for one hour. Then drain the water and pat the chicken dry. Place the chicken on a large cutting board (preferably one used for cutting meat with large draining areas so the juices don’t run onto the counter).

Use a brush to cover the chicken with the salad oil. Use the remaining salad oil to make the green onion sauce. If you like, sprinkle extra salt on the chicken. Let the chicken cool then chop into small pieces.

Serve the chicken with steamed rice, hoisin and oyster sauces. The leftovers from this chicken also make a great addition to Chinese chicken salad.

Green Onion Sauce

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of salad oil (leftover from the chicken recipe plus extra to make the full amount)
2 green onions, thinly sliced (from the chicken recipe)
2 teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon of rice wine (mirin or chinese rice wine)

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Dip the white chop chicken into this sauce and serve with steamed rice.

Last night’s polenta is about to become today’s star appetizer. The polenta from last night tasted so bland that I found myself eating too many roasted carrots and scarfing down the rib-eye (not that I need encouragement to do that!).

Pan-fried Polenta Squares with Mushroom-Shallot Sauce

Ingredients:

Boring polenta (or store-bought polenta cut into small wedges or circles)
4 tablespoons of flour
2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of fresh mushrooms (buy a mix of brown mushrooms plus a few expensive ones like porcini, crimini, oyster)
1 large shallot, sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of wine (this is also up to you…I would try any wine that you have on hand as long as it is not too sweet)
2 tablespoons of minced parsley

Directions:

Cut the polenta into 3-inch square pieces. Roll each piece in flour. Heat a nonstick pan and add the vegetable oil. Pan-fry the polenta pieces until they are crisp and brown at the edges. Place them on a paper towel-lined plate and reserve for later. **Note**: the polenta square can be made in advance and reheated in the oven at 350 degrees for about 7-10 minutes.

Wash the mushrooms (**Tip**: you can also brush the mushrooms with a damp paper towel to remove dirt although washing them in cold water does not affect the cooking process). Cut the mushrooms into medium-size slices (about 1/3-inch thick). Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Heat a small, nonstick saute pan on medium-low heat and add the butter. After the butter melts, add the shallots and garlic and saute for a few minutes until the shallots are soft and translucent. Then add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. Add the 1/4 cup of wine after the mushrooms are browned. Reduce the mushroom-wine mixture by half, simmering for about 7-10 minutes on medium-high heat.

Serve the polenta pieces hot from the oven and pour the mushroom-wine sauce over the polenta just before serving. Sprinkle the dish with parsley. Enjoy!

Now that I’m on spring break, I can road-test some cookbook recipes that have lured me in with their pretty pictures and their tantalizing ingredients.

Williams-Sonoma has a cookbook series that focuses on different U.S. cities. I had to buy the San Francisco cookbook (it’s all about the local love). And the following recipes beckoned…

The weather is still a bit crisp during the day and I love nothing more on those days than a good steak and a creamy, delicious starch.

Rib-eye Steaks with Rosemary-Gorgonzola butter

Creamy Polenta with Teleme Cheese

Cooking notes:

The rib-eyes were fantastic. I usually buy great steaks from Whole Foods. They always have so much flavor and I don’t have to sweat the fear that they come from a run-of-the-mill factory farm. Boneless rib-eyes are easy to cook. I used a grill pan on my stovetop and cooked the steaks for 4 minutes on each side (at medium heat). Then I finished cooking the steaks in the oven (set at 400 degrees) for about 5 more minutes for medium-rare. The trick is to grill the steaks and to turn them once to sear the meat on each side and then once more before putting the steaks in the oven.

The polenta is another story. I love creamy polenta and the Williams-Sonoma recipe includes polenta, minced onion and Teleme cheese. Unfortunately, this recipe is bland, bland, bland!! I have a bunch left in the fridge so I will attempt to correct the blahness by adding some roasted garlic and cutting the leftover polenta into squares and pan-frying the pieces.

So, sometimes you just have to try something out and risk the results…the steaks were excellent and we capped off the evening with some vanilla ice cream-brownie sandwiches.

Last weekend, I decided to road-test the hashbrowns recipe from Elise.com:

Here are the results:

Start with fresh potatoes (or fresh from your fridge!):

Use the shredding disc for your Cuisinart if you have one. It’s so much faster, plus the potatoes shred evenly (just cut potatoes into small pieces to feed through the food tube):

Follow Elise’s recipe and voila, perfect hashbrowns:

**Important Note**: I don’t own a potato ricer, recommended by Elise, but I can definitely say that this tool would make a difference. I used paper towels to squeeze out much of the water but the hashbrowns were still on the gluey side (although we were starving so they still tasted delicious).

Yesterday marked the day that I craved and the day that I made the B.L.O.T.: bacon, lettuce, onion and toasted bread (okay, and mayo, but B.L.O.M.T. doesn’t sound as tasty or interesting). Hey, I was out of tomatoes, but I love onions so I added that to the mix.

Jenny’s B.L.O.T.

Ingredients:

4-6 slices of bacon
3-4 paper towels
2 slices of bread (I prefer Milton’s multigrain or white)
2 thin slices of white onion
3-4 medium pieces of butter lettuce
1 generous spoonful of mayonnaise

Directions:

Place the bacon slices on a large plate on top of two paper towels. Cover the bacon with the third paper towel (to minimize spatter in the microwave). Cook the bacon slices in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes until the meaty parts of the bacon are cooked and brown. Continue cooking the bacon for at least 2 more minutes until the bacon is cooked through. The edges may still look a bit raw, but this next step should fix that.

Place the bacon slices in a toaster oven (use the tray with rack insert) and set the toaster oven on the highest toast setting. The bacon should come out crispy and well-cooked.

Set the cooked bacon aside. Toast the bread slices. While the bread is toasting, slice the onion on a cutting board. Place the toast slices on the cutting board and spread both toast pieces with the mayo. Add the onions on top of that and then the lettuce pieces. Add the bacon slices on top and cut the sandwich in half.

I like to eat B.L.O.T. with a beverage made from half Sprite (or Diet Sprite) and orange juice plus pickles and your favorite chip (Kettle Chips makes delectable chips in flavors like Honey Dijon, Thai and Buffalo Blue Cheese).

Enjoy the B.L.O.T.!!

One breakfast dish that my dad insists on when we’re dining out is hashbrowns. And these hashbrowns have to be crispy throughout and soft underneath this crispy perfection. I still haven’t had time to try out the hashbrowns recipe, but my hope is that this weekend I will finally have a chance to use the russets that have been crashing in my fridge since last month.

One tip that I have noticed in many of the recipes includes cooking the shredded potatoes right away. Potatoes that are left exposed to air too long often turn into a great Halloween experiment (black, purple, gray and a bit mushy). I’ve noticed that putting them in a bowl of cold, ice water helps to stave off the monstrous look. Or you could just cook them right after you grate the potatoes.

Here are a few recipes to get started:

These hash browns by Elise look picture perfect!

Another simple recipe that just might hit the spot!

For those of you who loved diced potatoes, here’s one from Sara Moulton of Food Network fame.

A microwave version kicked up with a little cheese and tomatoes by Mr. Breakfast.

My mom came up with this brilliant idea for wontons. She adds about a cup of panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs to the wonton mixture. This keeps the meat from becoming too dry when you fry the wontons. I tried her version a few weeks ago and it was delicious! The wonton was perfectly crisp and the meat stayed tender and juicy. Try this one for yourself; you won’t be disappointed!

Anne brought so many unusual fruits to our brunch this past Saturday. She brought kiwi berries, kumquats, mango and pineapple. I’ve never cooked with kumquats before, but I thought I’d try preserving many of them so I could use them in a future recipe.

I just love the way these kumquats look against my blue bowl:

First, I sliced the kumquats thinly:

Then, I mixed them with 1 cup and 3 tablespoons of fine sugar and 2 cups of water in a small saucepan and simmered for about 10 minutes:

Now they live in the fridge until I can find a good recipe that incorporates kumquats. Stay tuned…

Here’s a picture of a great avocado that AB and I bought in Hawaii, on the Big Island, during our honeymoon:

It was the size of a canteloupe and it tasted perfectly of ripe, glorious avocado flavor. We proceeded to eat mass quantities of guacamole. I wish I’d had time to make an omelet with shredded Monterey Jack, sauteed onion and chopped avocado.

Avocados are delicate and difficult to keep for long periods of time. Here are a few tips about testing for ripeness and storing avocados.

Ripe avocados: Avocados are ripe when the flesh gives just slightly under pressure. Don’t wait to long to eat ripe avocados! Sometimes avocados feel very soft to the touch and that usually means the avocado has developed brown spots in its flesh. Ripe avocados look yellowish green and they do not taste overripe (overripe avocados have a dull, rotten taste). I usually buy avocados hard and ripen them slowly in a bowl for a few days.

Storing avocados: My suggestion is to use the avocado as soon as it is ripe. You can keep avocados overnight by covering the avocado flesh with lemon juice and wrapping tightly in plastic wrap (so it doesn’t brown when it’s exposed to air).

For more tips, see helpful information about buying and preparing avocados here and here.

Farley at Wine Outlook, mentioned a salad with avocado that she loves to cook. This salad reminds me of that classic avocado salad dressing, green goddess. To my surprise, the original green goddess dressing does not include avocados. Here’s a great recipe for the original green goddess. My suggestion is to add chopped avocado to this mix for a creamier, more delicious salad. Here’s a Paula Deen recipe from Food Network’s website for an avocado salad dressing with Worchestershire sauce.

Next time I will include my recipe for an Avocado Omelet with Monterey Jack and sauteed onions and mushrooms. Bon appetit!

Last week, I posted a recipe for wontons. Here’s a quick visual of the three-step process that yields the fancy-shaped wontons (they sort of look like meaty nurses’ bonnets…which, I’m guessing, is probably not the most delectable description..okay, they also look cute…there, delectable description accomplished).

So, first you place a small amount of the wonton filling (about a teaspoonful) in the center of the wonton wrapper. Then, as the top picture shows, fold the wonton wrapper in half to form a triangle.

Then, referring to the second wonton in the picture, dab a bit of beaten egg glue on one of the bottom corners. Grasp the two bottom corners with your thumbs and pointer fingers and pull the corners together folding one on top of the other.

This next step is a bit more complicated, but it gets easier as you practice. Pull the remaining two corners of the wonton up so the filling sinks into the middle. So the filling goes from an outie to an innie (in a culinary, totally non-bodily way!).

Ta-da!