Xiao Long Bao - Chinese Soup Dumplings

A few days back I geared up to make Xiaolongbao, a Shanghainese dumpling filled with delicious soup and meat. I decided to make the skins from scratch so it took me an entire afternoon to form these. They came out very tasty but the amount of work that it took has led me to the conclusion that one should always go out for dim sum :-)

This is a recipe for an all chicken dumpling inspired from the ones at Din Tai Fung.

The prep time for the filling and dipping sauce is 10 mins. However pleating them can take a while specially if you are new at it. Cook time is very  little, I needed to steam these (covered) for only 5 mins on high heat and they were done! You can easily make about 75 dumplings about 1" in diameter with this recipe. 

Dough

I pretty much followed this recipe for the dough. I should point out that the first batch I made, I followed the directions exactly but the dough came out too soft, the texture was soggy and all the soup seeped out after steaming it. For the second batch I added some salt and used an extra 1/2 cup of flour to make the dough a tad bit stiffer and I thought that tasted much better.

These measurements worked better for me.
Flour 2 cups
Salt 1/2 tsp
Hot water 1/2 cup
Cold water  2 Tbs

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add the boiling water and mix it in well.
Add the cold water and knead on a floured surface for about 3-4 mins.
The dough should feel pliable but stiff.
You can use store bought wonton wrappers and save yourself a lot of time.

Broth

Chicken wings 1 1/2 lbs
Water 3 cups
Mushroom stalks 2-3
Ginger slices 6-7
Peppercorns 1/2 tsp
Sichuanese chili 1 - optional
Unflavored gelatin 2 Tbs

Combine all the ingredients together in a large pot and boil for 1-2 hours on medium heat.
Strain the broth to separate the chicken and to remove the bit and chunks.
While the broth is still hot sprinkle 2 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin on the top and mix well.
Allow 5 mins for the gelatin to dissolve completely.
Stir once again and pour into an 8" by 13" baking dish. refrigerate until set about 2-3 hours.
Cut into small chunks.

Dipping Sauce

Black vinegar 1/4 cup
Ginger strips 2 Tbs
Soy sauce 1 Tbs - optional (I like it without the soy sauce)

Combine everything in a dipping bowl.

Filling

Minced chicken meat 1 lbs
Green onions 3 Tbs (chopped fine)
Crimini mushrooms 3 Tbs (chopped fine)
Garlic 1 Tbs (minced)
White vinegar 1 tsp
Soy sauce 1 Tbs
Pepper 1/4 tsp
Chili flakes 1/8 tsp - optional
Salt

Combine everything in a large bowl and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Pleating

Here is a little video I made that might be helpful. This is my first time making these, I think I did a fairly good job. So proud!

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Homemade Pasta and Mussels

Meet my fabulous sis and her wonderful hubby.

Their visit to Pike Place Market.

They make it look easy and fun.



Voila!



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Minty Mango Salsa with Crystallized Ginger

A delicious quick and easy salsa great with fish tacos!

(makes about 2 cups)
(prep time 15 mins)
Ingredients

Mango 1 large (cut into chunks, choose a sweet ripe mango) - you can also use fresh pineapple

Mint leaves 5-6 (cut into thin strips)

Red pepper 2-3 Tbs (chopped fine)

Red onions 1 Tbs (chopped fine)
Green onions 2 Tbs (chopped fine)

Cilantro 1 Tbs (cut into strips) - optional

Jalapeno 1/2 Tbs (minced) - optional

Fresh ginger 1/2 tsp (minced)

Crystallized ginger 1 tsp (minced) *Raw foodists raw crystallized ginger recipe 

Juice of 1 fresh Lime

Salt

Mix everything together.

Allow to refrigerate for a few hours for all the flavors to combine.

Enjoy :-)


Following is not my creation but a great sounding recipe I found on the net.
Posting it here for the sake of completion.
Original source:  http://goneraw.com/account/show/evergreen

Raw Crystallized Ginger

Submitted by evergreen
Servings: 1 cup

Ingredients:
1 cup Medjool dates, about 12 pitted
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 organic lemon, zest only
.33 cup date sugar, can be made by dehydrating and grinding dates
 
Preparation:
1. process dates and ginger till smooth.
2. pulse in lemon zest and about 1/4 cup sugar till stiffened.
3. roll into 1”log.
4. wrap in food wrap sprinkled with additional sugar and place in fridge till firm.
5. slice into desired pieces and coat with more sugar.

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Class today

Just came back from another fabulous class.
I so love doing this and the best part is meeting all the great people!
Thank you Katy for helping me out today :-) I hope you get to go on many more cooking trips!
Juliana... you have such great energy and I wish you all the luck in finding the right gal for your friend :-)
Great meeting Devin and Elaine....  and in case you were curious "Asalam-o-alikum" is how you would say hello in Urdu :-)
Thank you all for coming today and making this day special :-) I hope you learned a lot and happy cooking!

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Vanilla Biscotti

Love Biscotti! A twice baked cookie just meant for dunking in ice cold milk, coffee, cocoa and teas. Since I've never made this before I thought it would be best to start with a basic vanilla no frills version before trying out other more exotic flavors and also because it's 1am and I have to do with what I got in my pantry.
I used this recipe as a guide. I didn't have all the ingredients and I cut the original recipe in half. It took me much longer to dry them out but they turned out great. Can't wait to mess around with more flavors!

How I did it

Flour 1 1/4 cup
Baking powder 1 tsp
Sugar 1/2 cup
Butter 1/2 cup (soft at room temp)
Eggs 2 large (room temp)
Vanilla 1 tsp

Pre-heat oven to 350.
Lightly grease a cookie tray.
Whisk together butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the egg one at a time and continue to whisk until foamy.
Add vanilla and slowly fold in the flour (combined with the baking powder) 2 tablespoon at a time.
You will have a thick sticky dough.
Shape the dough in the form of a flat loaf.
Place the loaf on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool for 15 min on a wire rack and then cut into slices. I cut my slices 1" thick and the in original recipe it's 1/2" that's why it took me longer to dry them out.
Lower temperature of  oven to 300, place the slices sideways on the cookie sheet and bake for another 25 mins. Turn sides and bake for another 25 mins.

Ta da!
Allow to cool and store in air tight jars.

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Wiener Schnitzel

I had the most amazing lunch just now!
Very basic ingredients, so surprisingly easy to make... and out of this world delicious!
"Wiener Schnitzel" originally comes from Austria and has many variants around the world. It's basically very thin slices of veal drenched in flour, egg, crumbs and fried. I had this with deli bought Sauerkraut, potatoes and some infused butter!

(serves 2)

(cook time for the veal 4 mins - potatoes are 20 mins extra)

Ingredients

I used veal for this but I read on several sites that pork chops, beef or chicken breast meat can also be used. Whatever sort of protein you use, its important that the slices be 1/4" thick. You can ask your butcher to prepare the meat for you or you can place the meat between 2 sheets of wax paper and use a mallet to pound the meat until desired thickness is reached.

Veal slices 1/2 lbs about 6 slices (I got "veal scallopini" so it was already very thin)

Salt 1/3 tsp

Coarse black pepper 1/3 tsp

Flour 1 cup

Eggs 2 large (beaten lightly)
Bread crumbs 1 cup
Fresh lemon slices

Fresh dill

Oil for frying

Make sure you have everything set before starting.

Use a wide frying pan filled 1/3 with oil.

You should have 3 dipping trays for the flour, egg and bread crumbs.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the veal slices. Use very little, you want to taste the veal!

Press each slice in flour and then shake off the extra.

Dip it in egg and then gently roll it around in bread crumbs.

One important thing that I read on several sites was not to press the bread crumbs too hard into the meat. The crust should form a loose shell around the veal once cooked.

Slide this into hot oil and cook for 1 1/2 min per side on medium high heat. That's all it takes!

Squeeze some lemon juice on top before eating.

Side Potatoes

Small potatoes 4

Garlic 1/2 tsp (minced)

Coarse sea salt 1/4 tsp
Pepper 1/4 tsp

Butter 1 Tbs

Oil 1 Tbs

I don't peel the potatoes, cut them in quarters and boil them in salted water.
Allow to cool down a bit.

Heat some butter and oil in a pan and sear the potatoes on all sides until brown and crispy.

Add the garlic in the last 10 seconds of cooking.

Toss with salt and pepper.

Compound Butter

Unsalted butter 2 Tbs (soft at room temp)

Lemon zest 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice few drops

Fresh dill 1 tsp

Pepper pinch
Salt pinch

Combine the above ingredients together.

Place the butter back in the fridge until set. I used a candy liner as a mold.

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Egg Ravioli

This was something fun and interesting I made for my guy this morning.
The picture is not the best quality A. It's gray outside B. My camera ran out of batteries before I could take more shots.

(serves 1-2)
(cook time 10 mins)

What and how

Eggs 3 large

Chili powder 1/4 tsp

Salt

Whisk the above together in a large bowl and set aside.

Now we'll make the cheese stuffing.

I used:

Goat cheese 3 Tbs (you can use ricotta or cream cheese if you wanted)
Yellow pepper 1 Tbs (thin slices)
Sun Dried tomatoes 1 Tbs (minced fine)
Beef sausage 3 Tbs (cooked)
Potatoes 3 Tbs (diced really small and cooked on a skillet with some salt, pepper and butter)
Pepper 1/4 tsp

Salt just a pinch (1/8 tsp)

Heat a frying pan and add a few drops of cooking oil (I used canola)

Spread about 2 Tbs of the egg mixture in a small circular disk, use the back of your spoon, about 3 inches in diameter.

Drop a spoonful of the mixture length wise in the center and while the egg is still soft, flip one side over so the edges can seal.

Continue until the egg  and the mixture runs out. I could make about 9 little raviolis, that's 3 per egg.

I think It would be great if you spread some shredded fontina cheese over the top and put these under the broiler for a few seconds just to melt the cheese! I'll do that next time.

Enjoy!

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Astronaut Ice Cream Anyone?

MmmMMmmm
:-)

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Maash ki Daal

My uber fabulous sister makes the best ever maash ki daal!
I am sure anyone who has had it will agree with me :-)
I love eating insane amounts of this at insane hours!

And even though she has shared the recipe with me countless times I will never ever cook it for myself cuz I love it SO much when she makes it for me :-)

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Class Pics

I have been so lazy busy lately.
These pics from my last class are long overdue.
Many many thanks to Alli for all of her help, be sure to check out her amazing food blog!

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Chocolate Truffles

I made some dark chocolate truffles for my sweetie a few days back. Some how I had leftover ganache in my fridge, usually I would just take a spoon to it, but this time around I thought I'd be classy and make some candy instead.

(makes 8 pieces)

(prep time 30 mins + additional time for cooling, shaping and dipping)

Chocolate Ganache

First you will need to make the chocolate ganache, and then you will need to let it set in the fridge overnight.

Heavy cream 1/2 cup (use 36%)

Your favorite dark chocolate 5 oz (chopped up into small bits)

Butter 1 Tbs

Flavors like brandy, or any other liqueur  1 Tbs (optional) 

Milk chocolate 4 oz (to be used later for dipping the truffles in)

You will also need a small piece of Styrofoam (explained later)

Method

Keep the chocolate bits in a large bowl and set aside.

In a heavy based pot bring the cream to a gentle simmer over medium high heat.

Pour half of the cream onto the bits of chocolate and mix well.

Then pour the rest of the cream, mix and combine very well.

Stir in the butter and flavours.

The chocolate should have completely melted and you should have a chocolaty smooth and shiny mixture in front of you that's difficult not to lick!

Let this mixture sit in the fridge for 6 hours or over night.

The next day you will be able to scoop it out with a spoon, and you should be able to shape them. They are very delicate and melt quickly in your palms so you need to work quickly and gently.

Dust some cocoa powder on your hands, this prevents the ganache from sticking to your hands too much, scoop out a tablespoon worth of ganache in your hands, carefully roll it into a small ball and place it back in the fridge. This is your basic truffle, you can roll this in cocoa powder, ground nuts, coconut flakes etc and you are set.

However I wanted it to have a hard outer shell similar to the truffles that you get from fancy chocolate stores.

That means you need to dip it in tempered chocolate.

You can make tempered chocolate from scratch but I cheat a bit and melt a regular chocolate bar on a double boiler and let it sit till it cools down completely and reaches room temp. The chocolate stays melted for a long time at room temperature. I used about 4 oz of milk chocolate for this.

I also like to freeze the ganache for 45 mins before dipping it in the chocolate.

Half way through freezing time take the ganache out and re-shape it into round balls, and stick a toothpick in it. Re-shaping it gives it a rounder shape (no flat bottoms), the toothpick makes it easier to dip them in chocolate and later you can stick it in some Styrofoam till the chocolate fully hardens, again this prevents flat bottoms.

Now all you gotta do is dip the truffles in melted chocolate and let it rest in the fridge until the chocolate hardens. Place them in candy liners and ta da you're done! I drizzled some melted white chocolate on top, made a little gift box and gave these to my honey :-)

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Caramel Candy

I love it when it snows but I can't believe how awful it got on the streets yesterday! Hope everybody made it home safely last night.
Since most of us are stuck indoors, why not make a batch of homemade caramel candy? I think they make great gifts!

This was surprisingly very easy to make and came out perfectly soft and chewy. I found the instructions here and simply halved the amount of ingredients. This was a really good post about the the whole procedure, great pictures as well! I have listed the method here for convenience.

(makes over 1 lbs of candy)
(cook time 20-30 mins + extra time for cutting and wrapping)
Ingredients

Unsalted butter 1/2 cup
Light corn syrup 1/2 cup
Sweetened condensed milk 1/2 of a 14 oz can
Brown sugar 1 cup and 2 Tbs
Vanilla 1/2 tsp

Method

Note: This is easier if you have a candy thermometer. I don't have have one, so I would test for the right temperature by dropping a small amount of caramel into an ice cold glass of water. I checked after every 5-8 mins. And when the caramel gathered at the bottom of the glass formed a firm ball in my fingers, I knew it was done.

Melt butter in a heavy base pan and add sugar to it.

Cook until sugar is dissolved over medium high heat... about a minute

Add corn syrup and condensed milk, stir and combine well.

Continue to cook over med high heat and stir often.

Cook until caramel reaches the firm ball stage. It took me a little over 20 minutes.

Add the vanilla or any other flavors at this point.

Pour this carefully in a buttered dish.

Allow to cool over night.

Sprinkle with sea-salt if you'd like, cut into desired shape and wrap.

I used kitchen shears to cut these, that explains the weird cut lines along the caramel :-)

I don't know if you can tell, but my caramel had tiny dark brown specks in it. That happened because I didn't stir the caramel often enough during cooking and it got dark at the bottom. So stir stir stir and then stir some more.

Another point that I would like is make is on the wrapping material, I tried both cellophane and wax paper. The cellophane obviously has a lot of options in pattern, colors etc but they are a pain to twist and don't hold the shape. Wax paper does a better job and the candies look more homemade.

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Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Update:

I recently made this batch (see pics below) without the chocolate coating and without shaping them. I just drop 2 Tbsp worth of the dough on a cookie sheet and baked them for 20 mins.

 

I think they look fantastic this way - partially beacuse I have a better camera now :-) What's not to love about these, very quick and easy and always a crowd pleaser.

 

 

Original post starts here.

 

These are perfection! Nice and chewy in the inside.

I browsed through several recipes and came up with this version.

So cute in chinese takeout boxes, don't you think they make perfect little food gifts?

You won't believe how easy it is to make them.

 

(makes about 18-20 cookies)
(prep time 10 mins)
(bake time 20-25 mins)
Ingredients

Sweetened coconut flakes 14 oz
Dried coconut flakes (unsweetened) 1/3 cup (lightly toasted)
Condensed milk 2/3 cup
All purpose flour 1/4 cup + 1 Tbs
Large egg whites 3
Nice pinch of salt
Dark chocolate bits 1/3 cup

Method

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and rubber some butter over it. Keep aside.
Mix all of the coconut, flour, condensed milk and salt together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl whip the egg whites till they become frothy and form stiff peaks. Takes about 1-2 mins with a hand held mixer.
Fold in the egg whites into the coconut mixture.
Scoop out 2 Tbs worth of the dense and sticky coconut mixture and shape it gently using two spoons.
Place the cookies 1" apart from each other and bake in the oven for 15-20 mins.
After baking for 20 mins I realised that the top of the cookie wasn't toasty enough.
I didn't want to bake them longer and risk over cooking them, so I placed the cookies under the broiler for a a minute or two to get the tops all goldeny brown. You want to keep an eye on the cookies while you are doing this. They can burn quite quickly. It also helps if you rotate the cookie sheet to make sure all the cookies are equally browned.

Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and peel them off the wax paper, allow to cool completely.
A lot of recipes that I went through made a chocolate ganache for dipping these in, but the ganache remains soft and its hard to keep the cookies together in a box without the ganache rubbing off and making a mess.
So for the second batch of cookies that I made, I just melted some regular dark chocolate and dipped the cookies in that. The chocolate hardened after a bit and I was left with perfect little coconut macaroons.
:-)
Note to myself: Next cookie to try "Macaron"!

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Class pics :-)

Nicole! you did a wonderful job helping mt out yesterday, thanks a bunch :-)
Another class, another day of meeting great people.
Thank you Carolyn for sending me the pics.

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Nargisi Koftay

A royal delicacy!

Ingredients

Finely ground lamb 1 lbs
Hard boiled eggs 4 large
Red onions 1 cup (sliced fine)
Tomatoes 1 cup (chopped fine)
Yogurt 1/3 cup
Green chilies 2-3 med (chopped fine)
Garlic 1 Tbs (minced)
Ginger 1 Tbs (minced)
Black pepper 1 tsp
Cayenne pepper 1 tsp
Coriander 1 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala 1/2 tsp
Salt
Oil for cooking 4-5 Tbs

Spices for the meatballs:
Pepper 1/2 tsp
Red chili flakes 1/2 tsp
Garlic 1 tsp (minced)
Cumin seeds 1/3 tsp
Egg yolk 1
Bread crumbs 1 1/2 tsp
Salt

Method

Heat some oil in a pot.
Add the onions and fry until dark brown.
Add the chilies, garlic and ginger and stir for about 30 secs till the garlic becomes fragrant.
Add the tomatoes, mix well and simmer on med high heat for 4-5 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked and are soft.
Add the yogurt and blend with a blender to make a smooth gravy.
Add all the spices and keep aside.
Meanwhile, mix all the spices listed under "Spices for the meatballs" in the ground meat.
Wrap the meat around the eggs (the eggs need to be room temp).
In a separate frying pan, heat about 2-3 Tbs of oil and quickly sears the sides of the meatballs to a light brown color. Don't worry about cooking the meat, the meatballs with cook fully in the sauce.
Gently add the browned meatballs into the gravy and cook for 15 mins on med high heat or until the meat is cooked through. Stir once half way.

Great with naan.

:-)

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