Lessons Learned From Sumplings Round Two

1. If you've posted the recipe before, have a look at the post because you probably made notes about what you would change. I was making the Satay sauce out of the Epicure Asian Kitchen cookbook and thought to myself, "You know, this makes a lot of sauce, I should only do a half recipe next time." So, guess what I said the first time I posted about it. Yep. *Sigh*.

2. Steam one tray at a time. The eating and the refilling of the tray are about the time it takes for the one in the wok to finish cooking. Don't put in two trays at once because it leaves you to just sit and fiddle with your chopsticks.

3. When you have to take a tray out of the wok, watch out for the steam. I have tender fingertips now because of that damn steam. If you refill the wok with water the steam goes down for a minute and that's the best time, it's certainly long enough to exchange trays. This as sort of the anti-FGF moment for me because, of course, I figured it out on the last tray.

We made three kinds of fillings: Pork/Beef and Vegetable, Spicy Crab, and Spinach with Shrimp. We also had three different sauces: Satay, Asian Sweet & Spicy (from the cruet), and Sesame Orange Dipping Sauce (see below).

1/2 c mayo
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T frozen OJ concentrate
2 t VE Oriental Stir-fry Seasoning
1 t sesame oil
1 t soy sauce
1/2 t sesame seeds

Whisk first six and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Or, if you're me: whisk everything together, throw it in an empty Epicure jar and put it in the fridge until you need it.

When The World Hands You Ramen Noodles...

...make this instead.

2/3 c peanut sauce
2 T hoisin
1 t toasted sesame oil
2 packages Ramen
340 g cubed teriyaki flavoured tofu
1 med red onion, sliced
2 c broccoli florets
1 c baby corncobs, halved crossways
1 c sliced red bell pepper
1 c snow peas
1/2 c chopped green onion
1/4 coarsely chopped fresh basil or cilantro
1/4 c chopped peanuts for garnish

Mix the first three ingredients and set it aside. (Instead of using a "store bought" peanut sauce, I used the Satay sauce from the Asian Kitchen cookbook.)

Boil some water and pour it over the noodles in a bowl. Let them sit in the water for about a minute (seriously, no more than a minute or they get too mushy, I will probably use shanghai noodles next time). Drain them off and clip once or twice so they're not crazy long anymore.

Cut all of the vegetables in advance and then start. Saute the tofu in a little oil until they start to brown on the sides, pull it out and reserve. Saute the onions very briefly in a smidge of oil and then add 1/4 c water to the wok. Stir them for about 2 minutes or until they start to become tender. Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry for about 4 minutes (that's what the recipe says to do, in reality, I would start with the snow peas and peppers for a couple of minutes and then add the broccoli and baby corn for the last couple of minutes. And I think significantly longer than four minutes but I really keep things moving in the pan). Add the green onion and stir fry another couple of minutes.

Add the reserved sauce and then the noodles and toss to coat. Return the tofu to the pan, stir to coat and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

If you haven't guessed, this has a really strong peanut taste to it so don't say I didn't warn you.

Soy-Braised Beef

I'm having serious difficulties with Blogger's image upload function so bear with me. I took this photo with my cell phone because I absolutely love this crockpot. This is a faux wood-paneled lovely from the church kitchen. If you are having difficulty in reading it, it's the "Canadianna [sic] Crockery Cooker by... (drumroll please) K-mart"!. I thought I would put up a recipe that has probably never been made in this gem.

3 lb cross rib or blade roast
4 each carrots and green onions
2 whole star anise or 6 whole cloves
2 pieces dried tangerine peel or peel from 1 tangerine, mandarin or clementine (or, if you're doing this in a crockpot, use grated orange rind)
1 tsp peppercorns
1 piece (2") cinnamon stick, broken
1 piece (1 1/2") ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c dark soy sauce
2 T rice wine or dry sherry
1 t sugar
28 oz can tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped
1 T Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar

Cut beef and carrots into 2" chunks. Thinly slice whites of onions and chop greens into 1/2" lengths. Set aside seperately.

Cut cheesecloth into 7" square and tie up star anise, tangerine peel, peppercorns, cinnamon and ginger.

In shallow Dutch oven, combine all (except onion greens and vinegar) with 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender (about 1 1/2 hours). Discard the spice bag, stir in the vinegar and onion greens and simmer till the onions are wilted, about 5 minutes.

For crockpot: combine all but vinegar and onion greens in the crock with 1/4 c water(note the reduction of the water, please, you will regret adding a cup of water unnecessarily to a crockpot). Add the spice bag and cook covered for 5-6 hours on low. Whisk together 1 T cornstarch with 1/4 c water and whisk into slow cooker. Increase heat to high and cook covered for about 10 minutes before adding onion greens, orange rind and vinegar.

The best part of this recipe was getting to use my star anise. It feeds something like 6-8 people but freezes wicked well because there's no starch in it really. It was really good over steamed rice.

Steamed Sumplings

I meant to type dumplings but I liked this better. I started the day planning a stir fry using tofu that I had marinated in homemade Teriyaki sauce. I was going to steam some dumplings as an appetizer. I got bored in the afternoon and put together some Yakitori Sauce for the stir fry, figuring that I could save a little bit of it to dip the dumplings in. After that I made some Indonesian Satay Sauce because I still felt like cooking.

A quick run to the store and I had put together a pork/vegetable filling and a crabmeat filling for the little guys. Meag and I stood at the kitchen counter and stuffed wonton wrappers in between dumpling breaks. Maybe not the most traditional meal in the world, standing at the kitchen counter with a wokful of boiling water between us, getting cornstarch all over the place (both of us wearing black, to boot), and eating a bamboo tray at a time so that we could refill them but it was good.

I would definitely make the Satay sauce again but I would probably just make a 1/2 recipe as this made WAY too much for just the two of us. The Yakatori sauce was the big hit and went really well with the crab. Steamed dumplings were on my 100 list so this was cool.