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It’s a miracle this meal ever got made.
The night I made this meal followed a 24-hour period in which I got a flat, tried to fix it, couldn’t, tried to put on the spare, couldn’t, learned that my rims are too cool for school and for most regular tire tools, had my car towed, called my insurance company several times, and paid an ungodly amount of money for a whole new set of tires. I also had my busiest day at work yet.
So what I wanted to do was order pizza, have too many beers, and feel sorry for myself. I was trying not to feel like my trip to the grocery store to obtain the ingredients for tonight’s meal had somehow caused my flat tire. After all, it was the first time I’d bought curry paste, and my first flat since high school. There must be a cosmic connection.
But I’m just too smart for that, so I cooked this meal anyway. (Actually, I’m pretty sure the red curry paste caused the flat, but it was worth it.)
If I were to do this again, I would cook the chicken the Julia way. The Cook’s Illustrated way is very specific and probably very good, but I’m more comfortable with the traditional saute method and I find it more forgiving. The recipe adaptation below reflects this change, but if you’re curious, Cook’s Illustrated sautees the chicken skin-side-down for about 6 minutes, flips it, adds 3/4 cup chicken broth,and covers for 15 minutes. It then has you remove the chicken, pour the broth into a container, and cook the chicken another 8 or so minutes, skin down. The chicken was, admittedly, very moist and flavorful, but I burned the skin before the chicken was done, so I’ll stick to what I know.
I’ll also warn you: the sauce smells weird while it’s cooking. It’s something about the strong flavors, the sugar, and the acid, but it doesn’t smell appetizing until it’s reduced quite a bit. It smells… funny. But then it cooks down and things start to mellow, and it turns into this complex, fresh, and utterly unique sauce. Just trust the process and wait for it to smell good.
I’m glad I didn’t order pizza.
Chicken with Spicy Thai Sauce
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (you need a subscription to access this recipe)
Serves 2
Note: This is excellent with cilantro-lime rice, coming soon!
You will need:
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3 tbsp. lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 c. light brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. red curry paste
3/4 c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro
Heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high until the oil shimmers. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet, skin-side-down, and cook about 5 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally. Flip chicken and cover pan. Cook, shaking occasionally, about 15 minutes. Check for doneness (Thighs should be about 165 degrees in the thickest part, if you actually take your chicken’s temperature. I don’t, and will someday get salmonella, but you should.) and remove chicken from pan. Keep warm either in oven or by tenting with foil.
Add 2 tbsp. lime juice, sugar, garlic, fish sauce, and red curry paste to the hot pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until a spoon dragged through the sauce leaves a thick trail. Add the chicken broth and reduce to about 1/2 c. Remove from heat and stir in remaining lime juice and cilantro.
Pour sauce around chicken and serve immediately.
“Do you want to rethink that necklace?”
My 16-year-old self looks down. I’m wearing heeled boots, jeans with some sort of design on the back pockets, a form-fitting top, a bracelet on each hand, shiny, dangling earrings, and the requisite too much eye makeup. And some sort of baubly necklace.
This was not the first time my mother gently (ha) encouraged me to tone it down. Like all young women, I became overexcited at the prospect of dressing up, growing up, being paid attention to. I fit in with my friends well, most of whom wore similar amounts of too much. We all felt that if one necklace was good, three was better.
Something similar happens to me with roasted vegetables. If a potato tossed in salt + pepper + olive oil and then roasted in a pan produces that sought-for exterior crispness and interior tender savoriness, then adding extra herbs, spices, and oils to the mix can only lead to improved taste!
And then my boyfriend brings home a Japanese sweet potato. This potato, long and thin with thick purple skin and surprisingly white flesh, begged me not to abuse it. I briefly considered drowning him in some sort of honey-miso-chile glaze, or mashing him with ginger.
“Do you want to rethink that?” the sweet potato scolded me. Curiosity about what this mysterious vegetable tasted like before he’d been accessorized into submission won out. I sliced him into wedges (skin on, always), tossed him with salt + pepper + olive oil, and roasted him for about 20 minutes at 450. He tasted wonderful—like a better version of his orange cousin—and I’ll never again try to make him any other way again.
Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes
Serves 2
Note: This technique works for pretty much any root vegetable— sweet potato, regular potato, new potato, turnip, carrot, etc. It also produces great results for asparagus, broccoli, and tomatoes. For non-root vegetables, just adjust the cooking time and keep an eye on them.
You will need:
1 1/2 lb. Japanese sweet potato (or 1/2-1 lb. other vegetable)
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425. Wash sweet potato well, and cut into 1 1/2” wedges. On a baking sheet, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 15-25 minutes, checking for tenderness with a fork. (I’ve found roasting times vary greatly depending on the density of the vegetable and whether I’m also cooking something on the stove.)
These potatoes make a great side to pork tonkatsu or roasted chicken.
A few months ago, I was invited to document the preparation of Vietnamese-style spring rolls in a family friend’s home. The friend is a friend of my mom’s, Candy, whose aunt was visiting from Germany. Candy’s aunt, Misuk, and her mother Chanji are both Korean, so this was truly a multilingual experience, made all the more fun since Handsome speaks German quite well. He and Misuk were able to gossip about the rest of us, and no one was the wiser!
This wonderful, generous, hilarious confirmed something for me: mothers and daughters are the same everywhere. I love my mother. She is a strong, funny, exciting, gracious social butterfly. She’s made me the woman I am today. And she is a mother, and I am a daughter. This means she gets to tell me things like, “Yeah, you need to lose five pounds to wear those pants, honey,” when I try on a suit for her. She also gets to pick me up from the airport right after finals week, take me to lunch, and immediately comment that I am too thin, look pale, and am I sick? In short, she gets to criticize me in the most mom-like way possible, irritate me to her heart’s content, and yet still endear herself to me. After all, who else can I trust to tell me that I do honestly need to rethink those pants? Certainly not Handsome. I shudder to think what the state of our relationship would be if I asked for his honest opinion of my pants and he said anything other than, “You look beautiful.” Which is why I have a mom. Love you, Mom.
Making dinner with Candy, Misuk, and Chanji gave me the opportunity to share multiple giggles and sidelong glances with my own mother and my sister as the women stepped on each other’s toes and bickered. I felt the exasperation when Candy rolled her eyes and commented on the limited number of hands she possesses. I heard the irritation when the plates on the table, filled with meticulously julienned vegetables, needed to be placed just so. The small kitchen was full with plates of vegetables, pots of boiling water, glasses of wine and tea, various ingredients, and cooks, and at times it was overwhelming and confusing. But there was the sense that, although these three women are not frequently in a kitchen together, they had a routine and a way of being around each other that was entirely comfortable. So, I also felt the pride, love, and sense of family as these three women came together to make a meal for the rest of us. There’s nothing like mothers and daughters (and, in this case, aunts and nieces) to make you feel the love in a room.
Because I would be in my hometown with Handsome, Candy and her family generously offered her house and their services to cook us a meal they have enjoyed together several times. When Mom emailed me to ask if Handsome and I would be available for a homemade Korean dinner, I was skeptical. I don’t know much about Korean cuisine, and was leery of trying it. New, ethnic foods can be scary, especially if one is not naturally an adventurous eater. Still, I can’t call myself a foodie if I’m not willing to be adventurous, so I went with an open mind.
I spent the time taking notes and photos, documenting everything that was done. (For those of you who get anxious about trying new foods, being part of the process is helpful for me.) Misuk motioned me over several times to take photos of specific ingredients, like the sweet chili paste, a sauce I’d never had before.
She had spicy chili paste (sambal) as well, and we talked about how we use it in our kitchens. She seemed impressed that I was so familiar with the ingredients, and I was delighted to learn new ways to use the sauces in my pantry already. Sambal, if you don’t already know, is a sauce made from red chilis. There are several varieties of sambal available, but the one you will see most commonly is sambal oelek, which is what you should use. You may be able to find it in the Asian section of a well-stocked grocery store, or definitely in an Asian specialty store. It’s like ketchup in that it keeps in the fridge forever.
Before I get too in-depth about the rolls themselves, the sauces Misuk made deserve some attention, if only because I plan to use them every time I make dumplings, stir-fry, tempura, or pretty much anything else. I don’t like scrambled eggs, but I think these sauces would make a spicy substitute for salsa on scrambled eggs, if you’re so inclined.
Spicy Chili Sauce
Note: these measurements are approximate. Misuk eyeballed the amounts, tasted, and adjusted the ingredients to suit her taste, which is always the best way to concoct a sauce.
You will need:
2 tbsp. spicy chili paste (sambal)
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. vinegar (she used regular distilled vinegar, but rice vinegar would also be acceptable)
1 tsp. fish sauce
Mix together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients. This sauce is spicy.
Sweet Chili and Sesame Sauce
You will need:
1/2 c. sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
Mix both ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust as desired.
The sweet chili sauce was quite sweet, with just a little spice behind it. Misuk informed me that the brand of sweet chili sauce we used this evening packed more heat than what she is used to using, so your sweet chili and sesame sauce may be less spicy. If you would like some spice, feel free to add a teaspoon of sambal and adjust the heat from there.
Now for the spring rolls themselves. These are fairly straightforward, but do require quite a bit of preparation. I’m not going to put measurements with the ingredients, because what you need will really depend on how full you stuff your spring roll, how many people you are serving, and your own personal preference. You can omit anything you like. This sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but that does not mean it isn’t still very easy! Lots of steps, but very few of them are complicated.
Vietnamese-Style Spring Rolls with Bulgogi
You will need:
Bulgogi
thinly-sliced beef tenderloin
soy sauce
sugar
sesame oil
pepper
Fillings
carrots, julienned
cucumber, julienned
avocado, sliced thinly
scrambled egg, sliced thinly
imitation crab, separated into thin strands
shitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1 package Chinese rice noodles
Rice paper spring roll wrappers
Hot water
To prepare the bulgogi, which is a Korean beef dish, slice the beef tenderloin into small, thin strips. Place beef strips in a bowl. Combine soy saice, sugar, pepper, and sesame oil (adjust measurements to your taste; I do not have the measurements for the marinade, but it seems pretty straightforward) and pour over beef. Toss to coat and marinate at least one hour.
When finished marinating, fry the beef in batches in a skillet on medium-high heat until it is cooked through. Drain on a paper towel.
For the vegetables, julienne or slice thinly, into match-stick size pieces.
For the mushrooms, slice thinly and sauté in a skillet until soft. Transfer to a plate.
For the eggs, beat the eggs in a bowl. Pour egg mixture into a skillet and cook, generally without moving, a few minutes. Flip the egg and make sure both sides are done. Remove egg from skillet and slice into thin strips.
For the rice noodles, prepare according to package directions. Drain the noodles when finished, and allow to come to room temperature so guests can handle them.
All ingredients can be served at room temperature, or slightly chilled.
To prepare the spring rolls, bring a pot of water to boil. Pour the hot water into a shallow, heat-safe pan, such as a tart pan.
Place on rice paper wrapper (which will be stiff) into the hot water. Let sit for 2-3 minutes until the wrapper is soft. Remove the wrapper from the water and put on a plate.
In the center of the wrapper, place desired ingredients, such as rice noodles, bulgogi, carrot, cucumber, egg, avocado, and mushrooms. Top with a little sauce (one of the two sauces described above).
When ready to wrap, fold the top of the wrapper toward you, over the bundle of fillings.
Fold in each side.
Roll the spring roll toward you until it is full enclosed.
This is a time-consuming meal if you wanted to make it for eight people and have the spring rolls ready in advance. It was a lot of fun, though, to let all the guests make their own spring rolls and customize them to their own tastes. Some preferred to put the sauce on the outside of the wrapper, some liked to dip the roll in sauce, some liked smaller or larger rolls. It was a fun, eat-with-your-hands dinner party.
Something I did not get the recipe for, but wish I had, was the recipe for the amazing chicken dumplings Misuk and Chanji serves us as an appetizer. I think the dough was homemade, and the filling was subtle but still had a lot of flavor. Much milder than the pork dumplings Handsome and I make, though. (Misuk, if you read this, please tell me how you made the chicken dumplings!) I do have Misuk’s recipe for her sauce, though, which is (again) a much simpler version of what I already do.
Sauce for Dumplings
You will need:
1 tsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
dash black pepper
Mix all ingredients. Taste and adjust as desired.
Thanks to Candy, Chanji, and Misuk for the use of their home, and for encouraging me to post these recipes and photos. You are all extraordinary women, and it was a pleasure to meet you!
As soon as I started this blog, I knew that this was one of the recipes I had to post as soon as possible. It’s imperfect in this incarnation because it is without photos (which will hopefully be remedied soon), but this is such a favorite recipe of mine.
Handsome and I make these dumplings once every couple of months. It’s a chance for us to laugh, make a bit of a mess, use every pot in the house, watch a movie, and connect with each other. We are totally focused on this activity; there is not a lot of room for worry when you’re sealing about a hundred tiny little dumplings. And the finished, pre-cooked product is so satisfying to look at. Plates and plates of sealed cream-colored pillows of deliciousness.
It isn’t just the food, or the laughing, or the movie. It’s the whole evening. On dumpling night, Handsome and I work together to make a meal. We tease each other. We compliment each other. We fall in love all over again. And then we get to eat dumplings for daaaaaaaays because we have so many leftovers.
So that’s a lot of weight for dumpling night to carry at my house, and I can’t promise that these dumplings will lead you to love or happiness. I can promise, though, that they will satisfy you and make you happy. They are so worth the effort.
Disclaimer: There are lots and lots of authentic, wonderful recipes for Chinese dumplings in the world with far different, and far fewer, ingredients. I make no claims to the authenticity of this recipe. For example, a lot of recipes use cabbage, not mushrooms. Or bean sprouts. I like mushrooms.
Another disclaimer: This recipe takes a long time. A really long time. Working with raw pork. It’s best to do this while watching a movie or as the prelude to a party– invite some buds over, have some beers, and wrap dumplings! Then you cook them and eat them, and everyone forgets about the forced labor.
A final disclaimer: I don’t make my own gyoza skins. I buy them. I would love to make my own skins. So far, though, every time I make these dumplings I am daunted by how long I know that filling and wrapping them will take, and it just feels like a lot of work. Someday, I will make my own wrappers and let you know how it works.
You will need:
1 pound ground pork
2-4 cloves garlic, minced (add more garlic if you like it. I do.)
2 packages mushrooms, any kind, chopped finely
4-6 scallions, chopped finely
1 tbsp. minced ginger
2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
2-3 tbsp. rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp. black vinegar
1-2 tsp. sesame oil
2-3 tsp. sambal
Salt
Pepper
2 packages gyoza skins (appx. 50 skins each)
If your gyoza skins are frozen, thaw them.
Combine all ingredients except the skins in a bowl. For the soy sauce, rice vinegar, black vinegar, sesame oil, sambal, salt, and pepper, add these to taste. I have given measurements, but use more or less depending on your preference. (I happen to like lots of seasoning.) Make sure all of the ingredients are mixed well.
To prepare the dumplings, take the gyoza skin/ dumpling wrapper in your hand. Dip the tip of your finger in water and wet the edge of the wrapper. Place a small teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half, pinch the top well, and pleat the sides of the wrapper until the wrapper is sealed. Use Real Butter has a great tutorial (and a different recipe) for how to seal dumplings, complete with a photo illustration. As your plate of folded and sealed dumplings increases, allow yourself to bask in the glow of a job well done.
Take breaks once in a while to refrigerate the filling if you feel you need to. It is raw pork, after all.
There are several different ways to cook these dumplings. To steam them, bring a pot of water to a boil, place a bamboo steamer basket in the pot, and line it with lettuce leaves. Place the dumplings on the lettuce leaves (which keep them from sticking to the bamboo), cover the basket, and leave until they are done. (Check for doneness.)
To pan-fry them (to make potstickers, in other words), place the dumplings bottom-down in a nonstick skillet on med-high heat. When the bottoms are brown, quickly pour water into the skillet and cover. Cook until the water is gone and the dumplings have dried out a little. (Again, see the Use Real Butter post. It’s excellent.)
I have also had tasty success baking the dumplings. Preheat the oven to ~375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drizzle it with a little vegetable oil. Place the dumplings on the pan, bottoms down, and bake for about 10-15 minutes. The bottoms will be crisp and brown, the tops dry but still pale, and the centers hot when they are done. It sounds a little weird, but it’s actually quite tasty.
My favorite way to have these, and the most unhealthy, is to deep-fry them. Heat vegetable oil in a pot on the stove. When the oil is hot, drop some dumplings in and fry them (it helps with the spattering to fry them with the pan covered, and also helps keep the oil hot) until they are golden brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
Serve with the Chinese Dipping Sauce or with your favorite sauce and a side of stir-fried veggies.
***These also freeze wonderfully. To freeze, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the dumplings, bottoms down and not touching, on the cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until the skins are frozen well. Place all dumplings then in a sealed, freezer-safe container. Keeps for a long time. All preparation methods can be done with the dumplings still frozen and unthawed. In fact, thawing them makes the dough sticky and doesn’t work very well.
Being a longtime reader of food blogs, and after much urging from my boyfriend (here known as Handsome), I have apparently started a food blog. I make no claims of authenticity, extraordinariness, finesse, or even competence. I’m a tiny girl in a tiny kitchen with a tiny budget. Nevertheless, here we are. Handsome seems to think I can cook, and I certainly enjoy the process (and frequently the results), so let’s get started!
Handsome and I are both lovers of this dipping sauce, which we use for homemade Chinese dumplings, poured over sautéed veggies, over rice, or with tempura anything. The measurements are inexact, so please tailor this sauce to your own liking. I personally like it a little spicy, and as my tolerance for sesame oil increases, so does sesame oil’s presence in this sauce.
Ingredients:
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c., or a little less, rice vinegar
1 clove minced garlic (any more and it gets pretty overpowering)
1/2 tsp sambal, to start. More if you like the heat
1/4 tsp minced ginger
1 chopped scallion
Dash sesame oil
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over med-low heat until warm. Serve with the lusciousness described above, or with whatever tickles your fancy. For a thicker sauce, bring the ingredients to a bubble and allow sauce to reduce. This makes a pretty small amount of dipping sauce, but Handsome and I are two small people so we don’t need much. You can always make more and adjust the seasoning to your liking. It keeps in the fridge for up to a week in my experience, and time in the fridge just gives all those flavors time to combine. Feel free to omit whatever ingredients don’t work for you; I’ve tried any combination of the ingredients above. The soy-vinegar base is what makes the sauce for me, though.
I have also added black vinegar and mirin to this sauce in the past, with excellent results.
