Spicy mix of black pepper and hua jiao

I decided to explore how different types of peppers stimulate the senses. So I tried a black pepper with hua jiao. One stimulates the mouth with an explosive feel, while the other gives a numbing sensation that lingers. I used them in a vegetable dish with a sweet base. In this dish, also picked a nice mix of vegetables that goes well with tofu: Thai eggplant (crunchy), mushroom (a taste absorbent), carrot (sweet), purple onion (tangy).


Recipe: Tofu and mixed vegetables with black pepper and hua jiao pepper (for 2-3)


Ingredients:
- 1/2 pack tofu, cut to 1/2" cubes
- 2 Thai eggplant, cut into 6 pieces each
- 4 mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 1 small carrot, cut to 1/4" pieces
- 1/8 of a small purple onion, cut to 1/4" pieces
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon (TB) hoisin sauce
- 1 TB light soy sauce
- 2 TB meat stock
- 1/2 teaspoon (tp) black pepper
- 1/4 tp hua jiao pepper
- 2 TB herbal grilling oil


Procedure:
Heat grilling oil in a pan with hua jiao pepper, garlic and onion until sizzling. Spread mushroom pieces on pan and let cook on med-high heat until they start to give out water. Add carrot and cook for a few minutes. Then add Thai eggplant and cook for another few minutes. Add tofu pieces and mix. At med-high heat, the tofu and vegetables should remain moist, but the bottom of the pan should not be covered with water. When the moisture is about to dry out, mix soy sauce, hoisin sauce, black pepper, and meat stock. Add to pan and mix well. Serve right away.

The result of this dish is exciting. The black pepper gives a strong aroma as the forerunner of this spicy dish. Once in the month, the black pepper stimulates everywhere it touches. Then, few moments later, the mouth starts to notice its numbness. That's the hua jiao pepper which had made a subtle entrance.

Collard greens chipotle rolls

Having tried to do rolls a few times with various wrappers, such as corn husk, rice paper, and wide leaved vegetables, I started having a feeling that collard greens, with it sturdy thick leaves might be a good wrapper material. So I tried that out. Like cabbage, collard greens needs lots of cooking, which means that it would probably do well being boiled (like making tamales). The leaves of collard greens have very thick sturdy stem of high fiber. So I take a knife to shred off the excessive thickness of the stem on the back of each leaf without damaging the leaf's surface on the top side. This makes a much softer large surface that is highly foldable. In this experiment, I try using collard greens to make rolls cooked in a rich stock, like a tamale. Since collard greens would tear when boiled too hard, it'd better be baked in ample liquid rather than in a soup pot on the stove top.


Recipe: Collard green chipotle rolls (6 rolls for 5 persons)


Ingredients:
- 6 collard green leaves with the stem shredded at the back of each leaf
For the meat paste:
- 6 oz ground beef 90% lean
- 6 oz red bean, soaked and cooked until very soft
- 1.5 cup liquid from cooking red bean
- 1 teaspoon (tp) onion powder
- 1/2 tp cumin powder
- dash of cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tp sugar
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1/4 tp pepper
- 2 tablespoon (TB) ketchup
For the vegetables:
- 1 TB mixed flakes of rosemary, savory, thyme, basil
- 4 mushrooms, sliced to 1/4" thick
- 1 medium carrot, cut to 1/4" strips
- 1/2 medium onion, cut to 1/4" strips
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 TB chipotle or chili oil
For the sauce:
- 2 cup of chicken, turkey or pork stock
- 3 TB unsalted tomato sauce
- 2 TB chipotle with adobe
- 1 tp cornstarch (for thickening the sauce at serving time)


Procedure:
1. To prepare the meat paste: Mush the red bean in its cooking liquid until it forms a coarse paste. Make sure to break all the beans into crumbs. Use hand to knead and break down big crumbs and mush in with the liquid. Small crumbs less than 1/8" big are ok. Add in the ground beef and all seasonings. Mix well and stir the mixture in one direction until the mixture has developed some elasticity. Set aside.
2. To prepare the vegetables: Fry all the cut vegetables in chipotle oil until soft.
3. To prepare the roll: Spread the meat paste on the top of each leaf, occupying an area of about 1/3 the width of the leaf and 1/3 the length, with a thickness of 1/4". Spread a thin layer of cooked vegetables on the paste. Roll the leaf from the green end towards the stem end, folding in both the left and right sides. It is not necessary to fold in the stem end. When placing in a baking pan, let the side with the stem end face down.

4. To prepare the sauce, heat the chipotle and tomato sauce in stock until boiling. Add sauce into baking pan to at least cover up to 2/3 of each roll.
5. To cook the rolls: Bake covered with foil in oven at 375F for 1 hour. Then rotate the rolls so that the top sides face down and are soaked in liquid. The top side of the leaves may get a little dry and easy to break, so be careful when rotating. Bake for another hour at 350F, after which the liquid should have reduced to cover only 1/3 the height of the rolls. Gently rotate the rolls again to keep all sides moist with liquid.

6. Take out rolls and set on serving plate. Thicken the sauce with 1 teaspoon cornstarch in a sauce pan and pour onto rolls. Serve hot.

The filling of beef and red bean paste becomes so smooth and succulent after baking in the chipotle stock, while the stock takes up the flavor of the beef and thickens into a rich gravy. Very tasty!

A variety of drunken chicken

The first time I made drunken chicken, I used extra-dry sake and soaked for 24 hours. As it turned out, the chicken was just a little too drunk. So in the second attempt, I decided to try a variety of marinates and soak for a shorter time. 


Recipe: Three flavors of drunken chicken (7 drumsticks)

Ingredients:

- 7 chicken drumsticks, bone removed but skin kept

- 1 teaspoon (tp) salt

- 1 tp garlic powder

Shaoxing wine marinate:

- - half the juice from steaming the chicken

- 1/2 tp salt

- about 1/2 cup Shaoxing cooking wine to cover 2 drumsticks

White wine marinate:

- half the juice from steaming the chicken

- 1/2 tp salt

- about 1/2 cup white wine to cover 2 drumsticks

Marbella marinate:

- 1 tp dried oregano flakes

- 2 tp parsley flakes

- 1 bay leaf

- 1/2 tp coarse kosher salt

- 1/4 tp ground black pepper

- 1/2 tp garlic powder

- 1 pitted prunes, chopped

- 1/2 tp capers nonpareilles with juice

- 4 spanish green olives, pitted and chopped

- 1.5 TP brown sugar

- about 1/4 cup white wine to cover 3 drumsticks

- 2 tp red wine vinegar

- 1 TB olive oil

Procedure:

1. Wrap de-boned drumsticks in aluminum foil and seal. Lay wrapped chicken flat in a metal steaming dish with the folded edges on top, so as to keep most of the chicken juice while steaming (some will still be lost during cooking). Allow to steam on high heat for 35 minutes. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Unwrap drumsticks and save the chicken juice. Place the steamed drumsticks in the ice water. Do so carefully to prevent the skin from breaking. Let soak for 5 minutes.

2. Prepare marinates by mixing all the ingredients. Partition the drumsticks into 3 batches. Keep each batch separately in a small plastic sandwich bag. Add one type of marinate to each bag, making sure that the marinate covers all the chicken in the bag. Squeeze out air bubbles in the bags and zeal. Keep in fridge for about 12 hours.

After 12 hours, the drumsticks soaked in Shaoxing wine and those in white wine had already taken up distinctive flavors, with a noticeably but mild hint of alcohol. So I rinsed them in cold water, and then stored them dry in containers. The Shaoxing cooking wine gave the chicken flavor than the white wine alone. The chicken in the Marbella marinate needed an extra day of soaking, after which it picked up the sweet and sour taste along with a hint of white wine. I liked both the Shaoxing and the Marbella because of their rich complexity. White wine alone does not provide enough complexity for this dish.

Drunken chicken with sake

I'm heard of drunken chicken (醉鸡) for a while. Being spoiled by a wine culture, I am a little less than willing to try it for fear of any disappointment with the wine. For I've learnt that the quality of wine can make a real difference in the taste of the food. Considering that drunken chicken is a cold dish prepared by letting the cooked chicken soak in the wine overnight, the quality of the wine in this dish matters even more than in hot dishes. However, one day, I couldn't resist the thought of it anymore. So I simply went to the market and picked up a high quality dry sake, and then went on to wiki to check out the description of this dish. Then proceeded the experiment.

Recipe: Drunken chicken with sake (make 6 drumsticks)

Ingredients:
- 6 chicken drumsticks, bone removed but skin kept
- 1/2 tablespoon (TB) salt
- 1 teaspoon (tp) garlic powder
- 3/4 bottle (75ml) dry or extra dry sake
For gravy:
- 1/4 cup juice from steaming the drumsticks
- 1/4 tp (or to taste) hoisin sauce, for the sweetness
- 1/4 tp (or to taste) light soy sauce, for the saltiness
- 1/4 tp dark soy sauce, for the color and aroma
- 1 tp sesame oil, for the aroma and mouth feel

Procedure:
- Wrap de-boned drumsticks in aluminum foil. Lay flat in a metal dish and let steam on high heat for 35 minutes. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Unwrap drumsticks and save the juice from steaming. Keep juice in air-tight container and chill in fridge. Place the steamed drumsticks in the ice water. Do so carefully to prevent the skin from breaking. Let soak for 5 minutes.
- Mix 3/4 bottle of sake with 2 tp salt and stir until salt completely dissolve. The liquid should taste rather salty but not burning. Use a container or plastic bag just big enough to contain all the chicken. Pour in the sake, and make sure all the meat is fully immersed. Let chill in the fridge overnight. Turn chicken once after 5 hours to ensure that all sides are covered in liquid. The chicken meat hardens in alcohol, for this reason, drumstick is preferred over breast meat.
- 30 minutes before serving time, prepare the gravy by heating the chicken juice (in jelly form after chilling) with the list of sauces. When the gravy ingredients are fully incorporated, let cool at room temperature to form a gel. Cut chicken. Then pour thickened gravy onto the meat and serve.

The mouth feel of the chicken is really good! However, after soaking in sake for over 24 hours, the chicken has taken up a little too much of the taste of the sake (with 14% alcohol). Next time I'd try to half the soaking time, and possibly try using a white wine too. Sake tastes more like beer while white wine is more acidic. We'll see how it goes next time.

Choy sum and sweet minced beef

In my continuous effort to explore yu choy, or choy sum, I decided to try using the stems and the leaves of this vegetable separately. The stems is very crispy and may withstand more heat than the leaves. So I cooked it with other ingredients.

Recipe: Choy sum and sweet minced beef (for 2-3)


Ingredients:
- stems of 1 lb of choy sum, sliced to 1/4" thick pieces
- 8 oz minced beef
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon (TB) sweet flour sauce
- about 2 TB water


Procedure:
- Brown beef in a sauce pan with garlic on med-high heat. Drain of excess fat. Add sweet flour sauce to the bottom of the pan and fry slowly until it melts, than mix in the beef. When the beef and the sauce are well mixed, add in the choy sum stems. Mix well and allow to cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Do not overcook, because the choy sum stems wilts rather quickly on heat. Add 1-2 TB water to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Serve hot.

Yu choy salad

Winter is the season of yu choy (or choy sum). Where I live, when romaine and red lettuces are selling at over $2 per head, Yu choy costs only $0.68 a pound, fresh and juicy. So it's hard to resist picking up some whenever I go to the market. But yu choy is very sensitive to heat---it melts and shrinks completely in less than no time. After several vain attempts to preserve its freshness during cooking, one day it suddenly dawned on me that I should perhaps give up my dogmatism and try eating it raw. So I simply washed the vegetable carefully in water, spread some Shacha sauce, and munched it off. Then, all of a sudden, it felt like the fullness of life in this vegetable sprang up in my mouth. Since this discovery, I have come to the conclusion that this vegetable will be the theme of my salad plate for winter. Yu choy has a very mild flavor. The leaves taste almost like one of those baby salad greens. The stems are more juicy and crispy.

When I went to the market one day, I saw a big advertisement that say yu choy on sale, with the huge words: 油菜. It's then that I realized that yu choy means you cai. "You cai" really refers to a dish, not a type of vegetables.

A pineapple meat dish

Among sweet-and-sour dishes, there are many combinations of ingredients. One refreshing combination that my household likes greatly is that of pineapple and meat. The meat can be anything from ready-to-use items like sausage, ham, to leftover cooked meat. It's preferred that the meat is rather salty. The pineapple provides the sweetness and the fruit juice to the dish. It should be the last item to be added, else the pineapple will break down with too much heat. Ketchup is also an essential ingredient not only to enhance the flavor of the dish, but also to provide a soft gluey texture. Other than meat and pineapple, one or two more vegetables can be added, to give a more interesting color, texture and flavor. Vegetables that would go well in this dish are those that are juicy but won't turn watery on heat, can be eaten raw but not leafy, such as celery, bell pepper. The ratio of meat to vegetables to pineapple is roughly 1:1:1 by volume. I also like to use a flavored oil to give the dish a touch of herbs and spices.


Recipe: Sweet and sour dish of pineapple, ham and celery (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 4 oz ham, cut to 1/2" cubes
- 3/4 cup pineapples, cut to 3/4" cubes
- 1/2 cup celery, cut to 1/2" cubes
- 1 tablespoon (TB) chipotle bread dip oil
- 2 teaspoons (tp) parsley flakes
- 2 TB ketchup


Procedure:
1. Place ham cubes in a small pan with enough water to cover them. Boil for 3-5 minutes to remove the salt and to soften. Drain water.
2. Heat chipotle bread dip oil in a sauce pan. Add ham and celery to fry for a few minutes until it has developed a freshened green color. Mix in pineapples and parsley flakes. Add 2 TB ketchup and stir for 2-3 minutes until the ingredients are incorporated with the ketchup. Serve right away.

Another flavorful variation is to add apple and the stems of some fast-cooking greens, such as choy sum.

Turkish poached egg!

Food from central and west Asia fascinates me for their use of spices and herbs. I simply love the fineness of flavor and aroma characteristic of that region. I found a Turkish egg recipe called Cilbir from a lady called Burcu (I really love her food blog!) That recipe seemed so simple that I decided to try it out someday with homemade yogurt. After the experiment, I concluded that the dish is indeed simple. But the taste is so lovely and so perfect, it's unbelievable. So I decided to jot it down for my memory.

Recipe: Turkish poached egg, from Burcu (for 1)

Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon (TB) homemade yogurt
- dash of garlic powder
- about 1/2 teaspoon butter
- dash of mint flakes, finely mushed
- dash of paprika
- water
- 1 TB vinegar

Procedure:
1. To poach the egg, prepare a sauce pan of water. Bring to boil and add 1 TB vinegar. Then turn it down to stop the boiling, but keep the water hot and steaming. Break an egg in a small bowl. Do not break the yoke. Glide the egg carefully into the water. The egg will sink to the bottom. Do not allow it to stick. The water temperature is just right if there are small bubbles at the bottom. Allow to stay in this temperature for about 3-4 minutes, moving the egg ever so gently every now and then. After 3-4 minutes, the egg white will become a soft solid while the yolk is still liquid. Take out the egg.
2. Mix 2 TB yogurt with garlic powder. Pour onto the egg. Then sprinkle mint and paprika on top. Melt butter and pour onto the egg. Serve right away with low-salt wheat crackers.

Spicy yogurt chicken tender

I decided to practice more of yogurt chicken, in hope of achieving better result. So I tried to broil chicken tender again. This time I tried chicken tender cutlets of 1/2" thick. I marinated it for a whole day. The results was good. Unlike what I'd read, the meat had not turned mushy after many hours of marination. Maybe I'm just too easily satisfied. :)


Recipe: Spiced yogurt chicken tender (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 8 oz chicken tender cutlet, 4 pieces
- 1 tablespoon (TB) non-fat yogurt
- 1 teaspoon (tp) turmeric powder
- 2 tp onion powder
- dash of salt
- dash of lemon peel, dill and cumin powder
- chili powder to taste


Procedure:
Mix all spices and herbs with yogurt in a bowl that can contain the chicken cutlets. Add the cutlets and mix well. Make sure all surfaces of the cutlets are coated with marinate. Let the mixture sit overnight in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap. At cooking time, place chicken cutlet on a rack with drip pan. Do not wipe away any marinate that sticks on the chicken. Place the whole pan on the uppermost rack in the oven, closest to the heating element at the top. Let Broil at 450F for 10 minutes. Flip and broil the other side for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.

Fun with apples

Having acquired a few pounds of apples for just 99 cents, I spent the weekend exploring apples while my husband busily working outside to keep us from being buried under 2 feet of snow. I started out making apple cider vinegar. Then, with the leftover pulp, I made an apple sauce, which added a delightful juicy taste to the veal chop at our dinner table in this cold and chilly day. Here is my outcome of the apple cider vinegar experiment.


Recipe: Apple cider vinegar (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- 4 medium fresh apples


Procedure:
Sterilize a blender, a glass jar with lid, a measuring cup, spoons, a strainer and a piece of clean cheese cloth in boiling water for at least 15 minutes. Let cool. Wash and peel apples. Remove any small bruises or brown spots. Cut to very small pieces. Then use the blender to chop and liquify. Pour liquified apple and pulp into the strainer lined with cheese cloth. Strain and squeeze out all juice into the measuring cup. Save juice in the sterilized glass jar, cover jar loosely with lid, but do not tighten. Let sit at room temperature (around 70F) away from light for 1-2 months. Use pulp for apple sauce.

4 months later, the liquid in the jar has developed a distinctive smell of alcohol. I tasted it. It's still very sweet, with just a mild taste of acid.

Observations:
The apple juice is kept at a room temperature of 70-75F, away from sunlight. During the first week, the apple juice shows rapid changes: the fine particles in the juice starts to settle into a thin light-colored layer at the bottom, and the juice acquires a lighter color. In the 2nd and 3rd week, the color of the juice continues to lighten. A layer of gray scum floats to the top, while sediment continues to settle at the bottom. The juice starts to break down into a thick curd suspending in a clear liquid. From the 4th week onward, changes are not noticeable. After the 5th week, the liquid is decanted and the curd is drained. The liquid is mildly acidic and mildly sweet, retaining much of the flavor of apple juice.



Recipe: Unsweetened apple sauce (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- pulp from making apple cider vinegar, about 3/4 cup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon (tp) cinnamon
- 1/4 tp nutmeg


Procedure:
Mix pulp with water, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes with continuous stirring. When the pulp heats up, it will give out a strongly sour aroma, distinctive of apple. After that has evaporated, a deepen, richer aroma starts to develop that integrates with cinnamon and nutmeg as the pulp steams and bubbles occasionally. Turn heat of when the pulp thickens. Let cool. It will thicken some more. Use within a few days.

Chinese chive omelette

Unlike the small chive that is typically used as an herb, the Chinese chive is eaten as a vegetable. I'm among those who like its strong flavor. This love for it gives me the motivation to find different ways to combine it with other types of ingredients. Here is one experiment, in which the Chinese chive is combined with spring onion to make an omelette. The spring onion is used in this dish only to offer a sharp crispy feel. Since both greens do not have that much water in them, frying them in an omelette is a quick job.


Recipe: Chinese chive omelette (for 2)


Ingredients
- 1.5 cup Chinese chive, finely chopped
- 1 stem of spring onion, finely chopped
- 1 to 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon (TB) rice flour
- 1 TB water


Procedure:
Place Chinese chive and spring onion in a bowl. dissolve rice flour in water and mix with eggs. Add to the greens. Mix thoroughly to make sure the greens are moist with the liquid. Coat a flat frying pan with a very thin layer of oil and set on high heat. Add the egg mixture and spread the greens uniformly over the pan. Lower heat to medium. When the bottom side of the mixture starts to harden, very gently detach it from pan. Flip to cook the top side. Shake to prevent sticking. Serve hot.

I love the aroma of the Chinese chive with egg when the omelette is sizzling on the pan!

Variety veal saute

Veal is unlike beef in that it's more elastic. It's more like pork in color, but much more tender. So when cooking veal, I simply do not have to do much tenderizing. In my opinion, it's most tender when baked breaded. But I'd like to try out how it goes in other ways of cooking too. So one day, I decided to saute veal in four different types of sauces: satay sauce (peanut based, mildly sweet and spicy), douchi sauce (fermented soy, salty), pesto sauce (basil and garlic, salty), and tian mian sauce (sweet). It was a really simple dish that offers a good variety of tastes!


Recipe: Variety veal saute with Thai eggplant (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 1/3 lb veal chop, cut to small slices of 2" long, wiped dried
- 2 teaspoons (tp) satay sauce
- 2 tp douchi (garlic black bean) sauce
- 2 tp pesto sauce
- 2 tp tian mian (sweet flour) sauce
- 1 tablespoon oil or less
- 2 small green Thai eggplant, each cut into 8 wedges


Procedure:
Partition veal slices into 4 parts. Mix each part thoroughly with one of the four sauces. Coat a flat frying pan thinly with oil on medium heat. Place slices marinated with each sauce at one quarter of the pan, and saute the meat within that quarter. Be careful not to mix slices from different sauces. When the veal is done, take out of pan and set in serving plate. Add the Thai eggplant wedges to saute lightly and serve with the veal. Serve hot.

Our second roasted turkey

Before Christmas, my husband received a $20 Butterball gift voucher from his workplace as a Christmas gift. He was looking forward to a roast turkey after the new year. Prices of turkeys and hams generally go up after the festivals. So I went to the local grocery store to exchange the voucher for a 15-lb frozen turkey. A bird in the freezer is always better than 2 in the grocery store. After we'd rested from the feasting of the festivals, I tried out roasting turkey again. This time, I've learnt to bake it uncovered, using foil only to fence the pan, so as to contain the spitting of the turkey fat. For safety's sake, I always cook huge chunks of meat at least 30 minutes longer than the recommended time. The skin looked a little dry, but the meat turned out really tasty! It was such a big bird that we had much to save for later use.

The charm of Mapo Tofu

I never truly understand why such a simple dish as the Mapo Tofu can captivate some people's heart so deeply, much like the ratatouille in the movie Ratatouille. I'm sure there are thousands of recipes of this dish out in the web, here is my homey version that is a little spicy. And the special ingredient that creates the charm is the Hua Jiao pepper.

Recipe: Mapo tofu (for 2)


Ingredients:
- 2-3 oz lean pork (either cut to bite size or minced)
- 1 pack of soft tofu, cut to 2" pieces
- 2 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 1 teaspoon (tp) light soy sauce
- 1/4 tp sugar
- 2 TB cooking rice wine
- 1/2 tp small dried shrimps
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 5 thin slices of ginger (about 2 tp)
- 1 spring onion, chopped
- 1/2 tp cornstarch
- 1 TB sesame oil
- 1 tp hua jiao pepper corn
- 1 tp pepper flakes
- 1 tp hua jiao pepper powder (optional)
- 2 TB Szechwan chili paste (we like the Dynasty brand)


Procedure:
Marinate pork in 1 TB oil, light soy sauce, sugar, and cooking rice wine for 15 minutes. If bite-sized pork pieces are used, add cornstarch and mix well (to create a tender coating when fried). Let sit for 5 minutes. Heat non-stick frying pan on med-high with 1 TB oil. Add chopped garlic, ginger, hua jiao pepper corn and pepper flakes to pan. Spread evenly. When sizzling starts, add pork and stir-fry until almost cooked. Add Sichuan pepper paste and tofu pieces. Add a little water and let cook with lid on for a few minutes. Sprinkle hua jiao pepper powder, chopped spring onion and sesame oil. Serve hot.

Oxtail soup for a cosy home

This is one of those cold weekdays that one would rather snuggle up in bed and forget about waking up. When I saw my husband off this morning, he felt so down having to go to work. There and then, I was reminded that he was working hard so that I could enjoy the life we had together. So I told him how much I appreciated his labor, and assured him that home would be awaiting his return with good rest and good food. Surely enough, he came back once work was over, and we had a comfy evening dining and unwinding. This is one of my favorite soup recipes for cold days like this. It's a soup rich in meat flavor, but light to the stomach. It's mostly vegetables.


Recipe: Oxtail vegetable soup


Ingredients for stock:
- 2-3 lb oxtail with bone
- 1 big onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups red wine
- water


Procedure:
Broil oxtail in oven until browned. Brown onion and garlic in juice of oxtail. Place browned oxtail, garlic and onion in slow cooker. Add red wine and bay leaf. Top with water to cover all ingredients. Use high setting to let boil. Then turn down to low setting and let cook for 8 hours. Let cool overnight. Since oxtail has bone and tendon, the stock will be jelly like. Skim off fat. Meat should come loose from bone easily. (When I save stock for future use, I keep it in small airtight jars without skimming off the fat. When the stock is cooled, the fat forms a hard cover on top to give extra insulation.)


Ingredients for soup (3-4 servings):
- 8 oz meat from oxtail, de-boned and trimmed of fat
- 4-6 cups oxtail stock. 
- 1 tp red wine vinegar
- dash of marjoram and basil
- mixed vegetables such as:
  1 small onion

  3-4 tomatoes

  2-3 leaves of cabbage
  1 leaf of red cabbage

  2 stock celery

  1 small zucchini
  2 carrots
  1 small eggplant

Procedure:
1. Chop all vegetables to about the same size around 1" long. (Optionally) brown them in oil in this order: onion, cabbages, celery, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes. Note: I don't brown eggplant.
2. Heat up stock. Add vinegar, onion, tomatoes and cabbages. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add carrots. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add all other vegetables, herbs and meat. Get soup to boil for 5 minutes. Then transfer to slow cooker on low setting to keep warm until serve. For fresh-tasting vegetables, do not keep warm for longer than 1 hour. If soup is not used at once, let it cool and reheat before serving.

Persian yogurt spinach

Persian food is fantastic, whether it's a simple or a complex dish. It was at a friend's home that I ate her homemade Persian yogurt spinach. I simply could not forget about it ever since. So I tried making it myself. It's such a simple dish, you'd think everyone could make it. But I did make a few awful mistakes such as: keeping too much liquid from the spinach, overcooking the spinach, and (the worst being) adding the yogurt to the hot spinach! Finally I've got it right, and it's so very lovely, tasty, filling, everything...

Recipe: Persian yogurt spinach (for 1)

Ingredients:
- 10 oz pre-washed spinach from package
- 1/4 cup whole milk yogurt (or to taste, up to half the volume of the cooked spinach)
- 1 tablespoon (TB) garlic powder (or to taste)

Procedure:
1. Heat the spinach in a pot on medium heat, with at most 1 TB water at the bottom (if spinach needs to be washed before cooking, then drain all water before use). Spinach tends to shrink rapidly when heated. When the spinach at the bottom of the pot has shrunk, stir and mix in the uncooked leaves. Allow all the leaves to be cooked without overcooking (taking about 5 minutes).
2. Once the leaves are cooked, drain most of the liquid without squeezing the spinach. Allow the spinach to cool. Drain again when the spinach has cooled to room temperature.
3. After the spinach has cooled, mix yogurt, garlic powder and spinach. Serve right away or after chilling.

It's so very tasty! I feel that spinach really needs a whole milk yogurt to smoothen out its own sharp flavor. The garlic powder adds so much richness to the taste of the dish.

Homemade yogurt refined

Since my first attempt on doing homemade yogurt, I've got into a habit of making one bottle per week. With practice, the outcome has improved gradually. I think that many of the traditional cooking methods allow for much more flexibility to change than the precision-based scientific method. I took my Iranian friend's yogurt making technique, refined on the ingredients, temperatures and duration. What I've got is a very smooth and thick yogurt. In general, the milder the temperature and the longer the incubation time, the finer yogurt is yielded. After several attempts, I finally discovered how the temperature of incubation directly affects the texture of the yogurt. With a lukewarm temperature, the yogurt has a smoother liquid feel, while a high temperature (one that almost scalds the hand) gives a semi-solid tofu-like curd that is commonly available in the American grocery stores.


Recipe: Homemade yogurt (12 fl oz)


Ingredients:
- 6 fl oz of evaporated milk (mixing half whole and half skim)
- 6 fl oz water
- 16 oz glass bottle
- 1 teaspoon yogurt with active culture (starter)


Procedure
1. Sterilize one glass bottle, and one spoon by boiling in water for 15 minutes.
2. Scald 6 fl oz evaporated milk with equal amount of water in a small pot. Scald on high heat is fine. But it's important to watch and stir continuously. Once the milk start boiling, turn heat down to medium or low and allow to boil for a minute or two. Then pour milk into sterilized bottle and cover container. 
3. Allow the milk to cool to a temperature that is warm and comfortable to the hand. Use the sterilized spoon to scoop in the starter yogurt and stir to mix completely with milk. Replace and tighten bottle lid, and set bottle in a water bath that is just a little warmer than then milk. The water level of the bath should be just above the level of the milk in the bottle. Be careful though not to allow water to get into the bottle. The water should be just a little warmer than the milk bottle, and comfortable to touch. The water bath can be the pot of water previously used to sterilize the bottle. Try keeping the water bath's temperature within this comfortable range of warmth for 24-26 hours. This may require periodic reheating of the water on the stove. Whenever reheating is needed, remove bottle from the water bath first. Stir water in the bath until the desire temperature has been reached uniformly before putting the bottle back in. To keep the water bath warm overnight, cover the pot (with bottle in it) with lid. Wrap pot  top, bottom and all around, with a few kitchen towels. Because the water temperature is only lukewarm, it can keep warm easily overnight. Reheat to desired temperature the next morning. 
4. Wipe bottle dry and keep in fridge when incubation has yielded a yogurt of the desired texture. 


My Persian friends told me some of their ways of using yogurt. I tried it with garlic and paprika powders. It's so good!

Trying out baked black bean cake

I wanted to try a black bean cake without meat this time. So I started with some black beans and all precooked ingredients, and see how it goes. Since this time all the ingredients are already fully cooked, I have much less concern about undercooking. What I get is a bean cake with crispy crust and soft moist fillings. Using mixed spices, herbs and a thick ham stock, I get very rich flavors.

Recipe: Baked black bean cakes (make 6)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of fully cooked black beans, soaked overnight in 1.5 cup of liquid from cooking
- 1/2 cup ham stock (salty)
- 2 tablespoons (TB) flakes of rosemary, savory, basil, marjoram, thyme
- 1 teaspoon (tp) garlic powder
- 1 tp onion powder
- 1 tp black pepper
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 TB oil
- 1/3 cup fine bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup wheat bran

Procedure:
1. Re-boil cooked black beans in its own cooking liquid until the beans are very soft and the liquid is thick. Use a spoon to mush all the beans in the liquid to form a thick smooth paste.
2. Mix in the herb flakes, garlic and onion powders, and black pepper. Add the herbs and powders in small batches. For each batch, stir the mixture until the spices are uniformly incorporated.
3. Add in the chopped onion and oil. Mix until uniform.
4. Add bread crumbs and mix. Since the bread crumbs absorb water, add some ham stock whenever the bean mixture becomes too dry (showing sign of cracking).
5. After all the ingredients are well mixed, add ham stock to moisten the mixture into a smooth thick batter-like texture. To test for good thickness, a spoon can scoop out easily a lump of the size of a tennis ball. When the spoon is inverted, the lump will fall off very very slowly.
6. Prepare a medium plate with wheat bran. With a spoon, scoop out a ball of mixture (about 2" diameter). Allow the ball to drop onto the wheat bran. Sprinkle wheat bran on the top and the sides of the ball. Flatten each ball to 3/4"-thick round disc shapes. Place in baking pan. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. When the top of the cakes show cracks, flip the cakes and continue baking for another 10 minutes. Take out of oven and allow to cool to room temperature. The cakes will harden slightly when cooled.