Happy Year of the Ox!

A few weeks ago, Henry and I made a million potstickers.



With the help of a food processor, it’s not hard to make the filling for a million potstickers fairly quickly.



What’s hard is rolling out each. individual. wrapper. (me.) And then wrapping each potsticker. (Henry.)





Here’s the story of the million potstickers.

We started with this excellent recipe from Jen Yu of userealbutter.com (highly recommended blog – more of her recipes to come). We made approximately a double batch of filling and a double batch of wrappers.



The wrappers lasted us through about half of the filling. Half! I don’t think we were rolling them very thick or anything. Seemed quite thin to me. So anyway, then we made another single batch of the dough. (I’m not sure why that seemed like a sensible idea to me, given that a double batch only got us HALFway through the filling.) When those ran out we gave up, threw everything in the fridge, and collapsed. The next day we bought pre-made wrappers and finished off most of the filling. (The bit of filling that was left at that point got pitched into the garbage and good riddance.) Result of this experiment: we couldn’t taste the difference between the homemade and the storebought wrappers. Buy them!



But truly, even with the homemade wrappers, these potstickers were a lot of fun to make, and delicious to eat! The recipe for a tasty dipping sauce is also included below. Henry and I ate these potstickers at 4 or 5 meals over the course of 4 days, and we also served them as an appetizer when his co-clerks came over for dinner. So yummy! I’m craving them now!



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Potstickers, adapted from Chinese Dumplings and Potstickers on userealbutter.com.
(This is the doubled version of the recipe, which made a million (aka about 100) potstickers)

Filling:
2 lbs ground pork
8 cabbage leaves (I’m sure napa cabbage is best, we just had normal old cabbage)
6 green onions
12 shitake mushrooms
¼ cup ginger, minced
4 eggs
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup cornstarch
about a palmful of salt (to taste)
fresh ground pepper

Instructions:
Use a food processor to chop the following ingredients, separately: cabbage, green onions, mushrooms, and ginger. Put these chopped ingredients in a large bowl, add ground pork, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, salt, and eggs. Use spoons or your hands to mix everything together until all is uniformly distributed.

(After you’ve wrapped a couple of potstickers, cook them up and taste. You may want to add more salt or soy sauce. If the filling is not sticking together well, add more egg.)

Dipping sauce:
1 green onion
2 cloves garlic
a small chunk of ginger
soy sauce
sesame oil
garlic chili sauce or chili oil (optional)

Instructions:
Finely chop the green onion, garlic, and ginger. In a small dish, combine with soy sauce, plus a splash of sesame oil. This just gets better over time, as the flavors mix. For a little kick, add a bit of chili sauce/oil.

Wrappers, how to wrap, and how to pan-fry:
See recipe and instructions on userealbutter.com. The recipe/instructions are way down at the end of the post, but then you’ll want to scroll back up to see pictures of how to roll and wrap the potstickers. For this part, the only adjustment we suggest is that you BUY 100 PRE-MADE WRAPPERS. But if you decide to make them at home, follow the userealbutter recipe, except quadruple it and mix a few pinches of salt in with the flour before you start adding water. We have only tried dough Method 2, and that worked great.

Other important notes:
After wrapping, be sure to dredge the bottom of the potsticker in flour. Otherwise, even if it doesn’t seem sticky now, it will become sticky later and you will have a hard time getting it off the plate and into the pan (especially if you store the plate in the fridge for any length of time). Also, don’t let the sides of the potstickers touch each other while uncooked, unless you also flour the sides.

We continued eating potstickers over several days, as I mentioned, and we just kept the uncooked ones in the fridge for those days. If you’re going to store them longer, freeze on the plate (well floured and carefully separated!) and then dump into a bag to store in the freezer.

(Thanks for the pictures, Henry!)

Food Photos...Recipes to Come

Wow, I can't believe how long its been since my last post! But unfortunately there isn't much time to share many recipes but I did at the very least want to post some photos of the yummy food that I've been cooking here in San Diego. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get my act together and start posting a bit more regularly. Enjoy!


Here's something I cooked with my mom. It's boiled plantains with a yummy coconut tapioca sauce. I really need to figure out this recipe and write it down for everyone. Super easy and super tasty!


And here's the turkey Bobby made for our early Thanksgiving feast. It's an organic free range turkey simply cooked with just some salt and pepper and butter and it was PERFECT!

And next to the turkey, these were the star of that dinner party. Bobby's broccoli and sweet potato casserole. Seriously divine. I had everyone tricked into thinking that I made them. =)

I'm hoping to get a lot more cooking once I get settled into work and life. Hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to hear about all of your cooking adventures!

Berry Pudding Cake

Over the summer my mom sent me this recipe from Cooking Light, and I’ve made it a couple of times since then -- it’s really good! I especially like the leftovers after a day in the fridge, when they're a little bit soggy. Mmm :)

I'm not sure why it's called a *pudding* cake, because the batter cooks up like normal cake. Maybe because the berries keep it so moist.



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Berry Pudding Cake, from Cooking Light magazine

About 2 cups each fresh blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, rinsed
1/4 cup plus 1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350

Toss berries with 1/4 cup of sugar. If the berries are pretty sweet to begin with, you can use less sugar. Spread the berries in an ungreased 9x13 pan.

In a bowl whisk eggs, oil, orange peel, vanilla and 1 cup sugar. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt until just combined. Pour batter evenly over berry mixture and gently spread to just cover the berries

Bake cake at 350 for 28-35 minutes, until just slightly browned. The top should spring back when touched. Let cool ten minutes, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold.

Michael Phelps Diet: Saturday Night Live

Did you guys watch Michael Phelps host SNL this Saturday? While he wasn't the funniest person ever, this little bit about the MP Diet was HILARIOUS! Enjoy!



And...on a more important note...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELLY!!!!!

Carrot Ginger Soup - MmMm Good

So along with my seasonal hankering for all things pumpkin (as I know Mel concurs), the fall also brings with it my soup filled days in an attempt to not succumb to the hypothermia in my ridiculously drafty apartment and to not to pack on the pounds and go into reclusive hibernation. Last year, I became completely OB-SESSED with a carrot ginger soup made by Whole Foods in their special refridgerated section. Imagine my delight when I gleefully found it back on the shelves after a long, hot summer. As I jauntily skipped (in my mind, really it was more of a brisk walk), making my way to the cashier purchasing not one, but two plastic pints of the delectible concoction. After all, it always sold out quickly. What if I came back the following week or two and found the shelves bare? It wasn't until I got home and poured myself a bowl that I saw and tasted something anew. No longer were there delicious chunks of carrots. No longer was there a sweetness coupled with the salty. Alas, could my 70 calories, 2 g fat/serving have been a complete and utter lie? Perhaps I dreamt of the gingery bite that accompanied every hearty slurp. This "new" batch, although the label remained the same listing all of the familiar ingredients, fell short of satisfactory to say the least. Such was my horror that a friend of mine who lives in Chelsea and is also a huge fan of the Whole Foods CGS emailed me saying that her batch from her nearby Whole Foods had befallen the same fate. Thus began my journey to find a CGS of my very own making.

One of the things that I loved about the Whole Foods CGS was the low calorie, fat content and delicious, filling texture. I began to search high and low, scouring the internet for hours, ok, well, maybe minutes, thinking of the exact combination of flavors to achieve the near perfection of the 2007 Whole Foods CGS. Somehow I lucked out and found this:

Curried Carrot Ginger Soup

1 lb carrots, peeled and diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 T minced garlic
2 c low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 t salt
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 1/2 t yellow curry powder
6 oz lite silken tofu

In a medium sized pot, bring the carrots, onion, garlic, broth, and ginger to a boil. Lower heat and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes. Add the curry powder and salt and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool slightly. Add the tofu and puree (I cracked out the immersion blender for the first time, and it scared the be-jeeeeesus out of me) to desired thickness.

Makes 3-4 servings.

That's all she wrote. Next time I will add a little cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick, and while I do love curry and understand that not everyone shares this flavor, I'm sure you could try it without (as the Whole Foods recipe never contained curry), though the taste is incredibly mild in this recipe.

I didn't have my camera to post pictures, but just imagie a very orange chunky soupy puree. Yum-o!

All I can say is, butternut squash, you better BRING IT! You've got some hefty competition.

Tuna Fish Sandwiches

So right before Justin went on deployment, he and I along with his dad and another crew delivered his dad's sailboat from Seattle to San Diego. It was a very long and rocky 10 day passage but we did fit in some fresh tuna fishing off the coast of Oregon and I thought I'd share some photos and the "recipe" for these delicious tuna fish sandwiches.

Tuna Fish Sandwiches

First, you should catch some fish. We caught some albacore tuna here.


Once you catch the fish, tie them onto a line attached to the sailboat until they bleed out a bit before filleting the fish.

Then, fillet the fish. And an interesting thing to note here is that Justin is filleting the tuna as the boat is flying along at 8-10 knots while the waves are pretty huge.


Next, season the tuna fillets with olive oil, salt and pepper before throwing them onto the grill and cook to desired doneness. Since this is albacore tuna, we cooked them medium to medium well.

Then serve the tuna fillets with some toasted whole grain bread, good mayonnaise, swiss cheese, and tomato slices. Then viola! A fantastic tuna sandwich that went from the ocean to table within an hour.

And your view? The pacific ocean with an occasional humpback whale breaching in the background. =)

Strawberry Muffins

So sorry that I've been MIA for so long. I've been cooking and taking photos but have utterly failed at posting. Oi oi oi. Well here is my attempt to get back into the game before I leave for Australia on Tuesday. (by the way...you crazy kids who have been traveling really need to post photos!)

Now that I'm back in San Diego I've been hanging out with my nephews a lot. I went over to their house a few days ago to bake some blueberry muffins. (Cooking with kids is SO FUN!) My sister in law insisted that she had some fresh blueberries. Unfortunately they were all moldy when we pulled them out of the fridge. But since I'm not one to accept defeat, we substituted some fresh strawberries instead and made strawberry muffins. Well...they turned out beautiful and the muffin cake itself was DELICIOUS. But the strawberries given the recipe I had were just too tart for the muffin. So, my nephews and I are determined to give it another try later but for now, here are some photos for you to enjoy.



By the way, the recipe we used is one that I'm testing for America's Test Kitchen. I love calling myself a "recipe tester." =) And here is the original recipe we were supposed to use for the blueberry muffins

Best Blueberry Muffins
from America's Test Kitchen
Makes 12

Turbinado sugar is commonly sold as Sugar In The Raw. Demerara, sanding sugar, or other coarse grain sugar can be substituted.

2 cups (about 10 ounces) fresh blueberries, picked over
1 1/8 cups (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon zest from 1 lemon
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 teaspoons turbinado sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a standard muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and cool, 10 to 15 minutes. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.

2. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar, zest, and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogenous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining fresh uncooked berries into flour mixture until just moistened (batter will be very lumpy). Do not overmix.

3. Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide half of batter equally among muffin cups (cups should be about third filled). Place teaspoon of cooked berry mixture on top of batter. Scoop remaining batter on top of berry filling. (Batter should fill muffin cups almost to the top). Using butter knife, gently swirl berry filling into muffin batter. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of muffins.

4. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

**ADDENDUM**

So I just made these blueberry muffins tonight again with my nephews again. Unfortunately, they really didn't live up to the expectations and I'm going to have to withdraw my suggestion to make these muffins. Accordingly, I also gave a pretty negative review of the recipe to America's Test Kitchen. The second time round, the overall muffin was still way too tart and it just didn't rise like I would expect a bakery style muffin too. Additionally, there wasn't an ultra crispy top to the blueberry muffin, as expected. So...I'll be on a search for a better muffin but until then, I'll try the recipe that Karen suggested from Eggs on Sunday.