Summer Soba Noodles

Green tea soba with seasonal vegetables and shredded nori.

Alas, summer is here.  I wouldn't have guessed it, and neither would you if you had seen me recently walking around town with a light sweater, sleeveless-down vest and a scarf on—oh, and an umbrella to boot.  It wasn't until I got into the elevator when my neighbor greeted me and reminded me that summer has arrived, and then it began to dawn on me.

Peppy and eager, even through the thick of rain and gray clouds—ahh, but summer is here—to share my summer lovin' soba noodle dish with my family and friends, I bought some green tea soba noodles (photos above) and the typical buckwheat noodles (photos below) to add some fun for the kids. 

Soba Noodles with tofu strips

You can add your choice of vegetables and protein to make it your own perfect summer dish.  Alas, the sun is shining—for summer is here. 

いただきます! 

Itadakimasu!

Summer Soba Noodles

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

•  400 grams soba noodles
•  1/2 red pepper, raw and sliced finely
•  1/2 orange pepper, raw and julienned
•  2 zucchini, raw and julienned entire length (think zoodles!)
• 200 grams tofu strips
• 2 scallions, finely sliced

Homemade tsuyu sauce

• 1/2 cup kaeshi
• 3/4 cup dashi

PREPARATION

Rinse and wash well your pepper, zucchini, and scallions.

Cut your pepper in half and rinse out the seeds.  Use a mandoline with just the blade (no teeth), slice finely your pepper.  Place it in a bowl and set it aside.

Peel alternating slices of the zucchini skin off to give it some texture and color.  Run it along a mandoline using the blade with the fine teeth blade lengthwise until you reach the seeds, then turn it and repeat.  Discard the seeds. Place it in a bowl and set it aside.

Slice your scallion.  Place it in a bowl and set it aside.

Sauce: Mix the two parts together and set it aside.

INSTRUCTIONS

Fill a large pot of water and bring it to boil.

Add the soba noodles following the instructions on the back of the package for cooking time.

Drain your noodles in a colander.  Transfer it back into the pot with running cold water.  Press the noodles down with your hand if they start coming up over the pot.  Use your hands to separate the noodles and aid the rinsing process to wash away the starch.  Drain the noodles again.  Begin to separate and place them in the four serving bowls.

Add a handful of zoodles, peppers, and tofu strips.  

Mix in your sauce and top it off with some scallion and sesame seeds.

NOTE

Tsuyu sauce can be found in most Asian stores.  It is usually sold concentrated.  Dilute it with water, just enough to keep its flavor but not so much that it tastes watered down.



 

Vegetarian Homemade Dashi

Steeped Kombu

Dashi is the base of many Japanese dishes.  Found in many noodle soup bases and dips; one of my favorite Japanese noodle dish is zaru soba, the cold buckwheat noodles dipped into tsuyu sauce—such a hot-weather treat.  I've learned to make my own dashi over the years recalling how my mum did it when I was a kid.  Mostly, I remember eating the kombu (dried kelp) after it was pulled out of the stock and laid aside.  Maybe it was intended for the trash bin but it always ended up in my stomach.  I've always loved the taste of the sea and maybe that's where it began...in the kitchen.

Kombu Dashi Stock

This is a great vegetarian stock.  It is a light broth that is rich in glutamates, thus producing more umami (pleasant savory taste) flavors.  If you buy the packaged dashi which sells in powdered or granule form, and also packaged like tea sachets, they usually contain MSG.   So if you are allergic to MSG or just wince at the acronyms, you can whip it up at home naturally in large stock and freeze it for future use.   Just so you know MSG is synthesized to replicate the naturally occurring glutamates in kombu, so it's a synthesized flavor enhancer. 

 Kombu, dried bonito flakes, dried shiitake mushrooms, and small dried fish are other elements to making dashi.  The kombu used alone is the most basic dashi and a great vegetarian option.  Stay tuned for the next post on how to make katsuobushi dashi which is a fish-based dashi.

Homemade Dashi
 

INGREDIENTS//Yields approx. 1 liter

•  1 piece kombu (about 12 inches long)
•  1/2 liter water

PREPARATION

In a medium size glass mixing bowl, steep your kombu in the water and put it in the fridge overnight.  You can cut it down to fit your bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS

Take your bowl of steeped kombu and transfer it into a medium size pot along with the water.

On medium heat, simmer the kombu until boiling point.

Quickly fish out the kombu (set it aside for a second stock) and turn down the heat.

Turn off the heat and let it cool down.

Refigerate the stock in a tightly sealed container for use up to four days to a week. 

NOTE

The kombu can be used again (right away) after the first stock to make a second stock referred to as niban dashi.  The first stock is called ichiban dashi.




 

Roasted Baby Artichoke With Parmesan

Roasted Baby Artichoke With Parmesan

INGREDIENTS//Serves 2

• 6 fresh baby artichokes
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 30g grated parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare a bowl of water and lemon juice on the side enough to hold the baby artichokes. 

Cut off the spiky top bit of the baby artichoke and part of the stem.  Make sure to remove bottom and outer leaves and to leave a bit at the base.  The best thing about the baby artichoke is that you can eat everything inside—yes, even the choke as opposed to the ones in large artichokes. 

Cut each artichoke in half lengthwise and toss in the water lemon juice mixture.  This keeps the color of the artichoke from turning brown quickly. 

Drain the baby artichokes and put them in a steamer for about 15 minutes.  This gets them soft and tender.   Stab a fork in to do a quick check.

Take them out and place the steamed baby artichokes in a bowl, adding the olive oil, crushed garlic, some salt, pepper and lemon juice. 

Toss it all together and then place them on a baking sheet cut side up . 

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the baby artichokes and pop them in the oven at 210°C for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Thisgives them that slight crispness.

Five Veggie Soup

Walking home one day with another mother after picking up my kids from school, thoughts of dinner started to arise.  When I asked her what she was making, she told me: something very simple, vegetable soup.  I am a big fan of vegetable soups and a big fan of simplicty so I asked her how she made hers, and it's true, it is so simple and so healthy that the most complicated part was to remember the list of the five veggies.  After that, you just throw it all in a pot and toss in a bay leaf if you want.  Great thing is that you've got five different veggies in it and you can add more or less of one or another to achieve a slightly different variation in its taste, texture, and color; my kids think they are getting a different soup when they see that it's green.

FIVE VEGGIE SOUP

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

• 3 zucchinis, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 potatoes, medium size and chopped
• 1 bay leaf (optional)
• Salt (adjusted to taste)
• 3.5 cups water
INSTRUCTIONS

In a large pot, add 3.5 cups of water (or about 1 litre for a thinner soup consistency) and the potatoes. 

Bring it to a boil and then add the rest of the ingredients.

Cover the pot and simmer on low-medium heat until the vegetables soften. 

Let it cool and then pour it into a blender to liquify. 

If you need to re-heat the soup pour it back into the pot and re-heat on low heat.

NOTE

I added more carrots this particular time so the soup is more orange in color. 
To adjust the consistency of your soup, you can first add all the vegetables into the blender, and liquify it by gradually adding the amount of liquid left in your pot until you achieve the consistency you like.

 

Kohlrabi Nori Omelette

It's been so rainy, dreary, and cold in Paris.  Thankfully these vibrant veggies vitalize my mind and body.  Can you spot the kohlrabi?  It's the round, stout bulb with the longs stems protruding out of it.

I tasted kohlrabi only a few years ago at a German friend's home.  We got home from a very hot and exhausting day at the park with the kids full of dirt, hunger and thirst.  She quickly dropped all her things, washed her hands and grabbed an odd-looking vegetable from her countertop that I had seen in markets before but never knew what to do with them, nor did I know what it was called.  She simply used a sharp knife to cut away it's thick skin and then sliced a piece, sprinkled some salt on it and handed it over to me to eat.  Wow, it was juicy and crisp!

Kohlrabi can be eaten raw or cooked.  This was supposed to be a fritter dish that flopped "in the making of".  It turned out to be more of an omelette instead.  It's a mistake but a good one to be discovered!

Kolhrabi Nori Omelette

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small kohlrabi, matchstick slices
• 1/2 cup shredded nori
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon panko
• pinch of salt
• pinch of white pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium size mixing bowl, add your kohlrabi, egg, panko bread crumbs and the nori. 

Sprinkle a touch of salt and white pepper and whisk to combine all ingredients.

Pour mixture into a skillet and cook until the egg turns golden brown. 

Slide it onto a plate and serve. 

NOTE

I cut mine up into squares so that they were little bite size pieces.  They are great as kids snacks and appetizers.

Watercress Salad and Cilantro Dressing

A colorful diet is a healthful diet.  Orignally I was looking for jicama to add to this salad.  It was supposed to be a jicama watercress salad with mango slices except that I couldn't find it nearby.  My brain still thinks we are in San Diego but being back in Paris, this meant I'd have to find a specialty Mexican store (not near me).  Popular in Mexican cuisine, jicama has also spread to find itself cultivated in Asia.  Ding!  So off I went to my local Asian stores in search of jicama.  Well, I didn't quite find the jicama, nor was there a ripe mango ready for me, but I did wind up with a bunch of fresh nèfles (very similar to the loquats of Asia).  

Upon arriving at home I was greeted by Lady Jo and was handed a basket of organic veggies.  She was on duty call at her local organic co-op and got dibs on the veggies left behind.  Now, just so you know, I fully support the "No Veggies Left Behind" act and accepted the vegetables gracefully.  I eyed the big beetroot—for that would feed me for at least a week—and whipped out my mandoline to get working on it.  So this is how a dish begins to transforms itself, jicama replaced by beet root and mangos by nèfles.  Ooh, what else can I use on my mandoline since I have it out— ahhh...yes, carrots... then a little bit of this, and a little bit of that...

Watercress Salad and Cilantro Dressing

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4-6

• 1 bunch watercress
• 2 carrots, julienned
• 1 medium beetroot, julienned
• 1 cup loquats (neflè), cut into bite-size pieces; mango is also a good substitution.
• Handful of sunflower seeds and linseeds (flaxseeds)

Dressing

• 1 bunch coriander (cilantro)
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1/2 inch of ginger, fresh and grated
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Thai chili, cut a piece according to your spice level
• 1 1/2 tablespoon tamari sauce (or soy sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon honey (optional)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon vegetable or canonla oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse the watercress and put it in your salad spinner.

Prepare a medium size bowl.  Separate and discard the stalks from the leaves, keeping just the thin, top bit of the stalks attached to the leaves.

With your mandoline, prepared your carrots and beetroot and set them aside.

Cut your fruit into bite size pieces.

Prepare your dressing by combing all the ingredients into a food processor.

Process until smooth.

In a salad bowl, add your watercress and pour in the dressing.

Toss together so that the watercress is drenched in the dressing, and then add in the rest of the ingredients.

Sprinkle some sunflower seeds and linseeds (flaxseeds) over your salad before serving.


 

Ratatouille Quesadilla

I just got back from San Diego, where I was paying a visit to meet my newborn niece, Sabine.  Unbiased of course, she is gorgeous.  Her nickname is "Bean" because that's what came out of her older sister's mouth when she was all of one year old trying to pronounce "Sabine".   Ever since she started out as a 'lil bean in her mama's belly, she's been referred to as "Bean".

Bean has that baby smell that I quickly got addicted to.  Every early morning, 6 a.m. to be precise, I would wake up and head to the kitchen: to find her, hold her, press my nose against her head and then inhale her baby scent.  If you are wondering why the kitchen, it's because my brother-in-law has started his day and mine (bless his heart) with a whole other scent, the coffee drop—Japanese style drip.  He has his tools in order: grinder, scale, and drip filter,

This is how my mornings played out until I got over my jet lag: rise and shine at 6 a.m. soon became rise and snooze til 9 a.m.  Although I still had Bean's baby scent to look forward to, gone was the aroma of the other bean —the coffee bean.  My brother-in-law was long gone and off to work.

Besides sniffing Bean's head and drinking coffee from the drip, I did eat a lot of Mexican food.  Afterall, San Diego is just next door.  I thought I knew it all from my days milling about at Mexican family soccer games in some Brooklyn park, where I could eat freshly made tortillas and salsa off their portable, makeshift grills right out of the backs and trunks of their cars, and buy Tecate beers straight from their coolers, all for two dollars.  Apparently not.
 

I discovered an ingredient called hominy that I'll have to search for in Paris.  Once I find it, I'm keen on making a fish based or vegetarian based pozole which I'll share with you in the future.  As for now, I have French Provençale ratatouille leftovers that I've converted into a Mexican quesadilla dish.  Olé!

Ratatouille Quesadilla

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

•  1 x 400 gram tin of red kidney beans or other bean of preference
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 150 grams of emmental cheese
• 2 cups ratatouille or any vegetable filling
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 2 large flour tortillas
• Dallop of sour cream or crème fraîche

INSTRUCTIONS

Add some cooking oil in a pan and cook the shallots over medium heat until they have softened. 

Add the tin of beans and stir.

Throw in your spices: cumin, chili powder.   Stir it up a bit.

Then transfer it to a small mixing bowl and mash it up with a fork or a masher.

Since I had ratatouille left over, you can choose any combination of vegetables; just cook it beforehand.   My kids love this with spinach, so I simply steam the spinach.

Lay out your tortilla and spread half of it with the bean mash, and the other half with your vegetable filling of choice.  Be careful not to add too much filling otherwise it will fall out.  Try to keep it thinly spread.  Sprinkle some coriander over the cheese.

Grab two to three handfuls of cheese and spread over the beans.

Place it on a large cooking pan over medium heat and cook until the bottom of the tortilla warms up and starts to speckle up golden brown.

Using a spatula, fold the quesadilla in half.  Press down on the quesadilla with the back side of the spatula and cook until the whole side is golden brown and then flip and repeat.

Transfer to a cutting board and cut them into wedges.

Serve along witha dallop of sour cream or crème fraîche (depending on which country you live in) and garnish with coriandre.


 

Steamed Pandan Cake

So this is what I've done with the pandan extract from last week's post, I have steamed a cake that has come out nice, spongy, and green with a taste of pandan.  Coconut is a popular match to this particular pandan flavor, so sprinkle some dried, shredded coconut over it— toasted or not— and have yourself a tea break.

.

Steamed Pandan Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 100 grams brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil, unrefined (virgin)
• 1/2 cup almond milk (non-sweetened)
• 3 tablespoon pandan extract (home made)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 200 grams flour

INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium size mixing bowl, combine your eggs, brown sugar, and coconut oil.  Mix together.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Add the pandan extract in the almond milk, and keep mixing until everything is combined smoothly.

Sift the flour and then fold it into the mixture.

Pour the batter into individual cupcake molds, ramakans, or whatever mold you like that fits in your steamer basket and cover.   Place in a pot filled with an inch or two of boiling water making sure the bottom layer of the bamboo steamer basket doesn't touch the water.   Steam for 12 minutes or until you can slide a knife through the center to see if it comes out clean so that you know it's cooked through.

Let it cool.   Generously sprinkle some grated cococnut over it and serve.

Pandan Extract

Growing up, we used to take road trips with my family over the weekend.  We always drove through the city early Saturday mornings making a pit stop in Chinatown before heading onto one of the bridges or through the tunnels out of the city.  Our breakfast ritual was congee at a hole in the wall joint on Madison Street, then we would load up at the Chinese bakery on freshly made cha siu bao (BBQ pork buns) and swiss rolls for the ride—boy, I loved those spongy cakes rolled up with the light, whipped cream filling.

Those swiss rolls usually came in a yellow sponge cake or a green sponge cake option.  The pandan extract is what makes it green and what gives it its peculiar earthy and nutty taste.  It's often said that it's the " vanilla bean' of South East Asia, commonly used in pastries for not only coloring but for its aroma as well.  Pandan leaves are used in cooking too so that one can grill, fry, and steam their pandan wrapped fish and meats. 

You can buy pandan extract at the Asian stores but they usually contain some artificial coloring.  I like to go the natural route as much as possible...

...and after having one too many boxes of industrial packaged swiss rolls from our local Asian markets (thankful at least that there is the pandan option) over the past year, I decided to see if I could conjure up a piece of my childhood memory by squeezing out some fresh, green pandan extract to experiment in my next homemade adventure.

Pandan Extract

INGREDIENTS//Yields 1/3 cup extract (approx. 7 tablespoons)

• 9 Pandan leaves
• 1/2 cup water

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse your pandan leaves in a big bowl.  Be sure to get out all the dirt and sand.

Using your kitchen shears, cut up your pandan leaves into 1/2 inch pieces.

Put it all in the blender, add some water.  Pulse,  stopping occasionally to swipe down the sides.  Repeat this process until you get a dark green, saturated liquid,  making sure all the leaves are finely pulverized.

Pour the pulverized pandan and its liquid into a strainer, and with the backside of a spoon press down on the leaves to extract the liquid.

Pour the liquid into a small glass jar and seal tightly.  This can be stored in the fridge up to a week.

Chickpea Sweet Corn Veggie Power Patty

When it comes to serving a veggie patty chez moi, I have to dress it up for my husband.  He's been raised a true carnivore and he's ambivalent towards words like "veggie patty".  It's not that he doesn't like his veggies, he does; he just doesn't need them to be meat replacements.  So no interpretations needed for a burger at ours.  I just serve him the whole veggie plate experience.  There's sustenance to these power patties and they go great on a salad and keep you nourished for hours.  

Veggie patties are wonderful since you can mix any veggies you want in it along with any spices, beans, grains, or tofu, and usually some breadcrumbs and nuts.  I played around and grounded whole oats to use as my binder.  This replaced the breadcrumbs.  This recipe is just one of many that you can conjure up in your own magic mixing bowl. 

Chickpea Sweet Corn Carrot Veggie Patty

BAKE TIME

Total bake time is 20 minutes at 200° C (390° F). 
10 minutes per side.

INGREDIENTS//yields 12 medium size patties or 16 small patties

• 3 cups chickpeas (2 x 400 gram tinned chickpeas)
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 3 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cups sweet corn (15 oz tin or 425 ml tin)
• 1 carrot, grated (optional)
• 50 grams of almonds, finely chopped
• 1/2 bunch of fresh flat parsley, finely chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 100 grams of roasted kasha (buckwheat) groats, blended into crumbs
• 50 grams whole oats, blended into flour
• 200 grams feta cheese (optional)
• Salt (adjust according to taste)

PREPARATION

Blend your whole oats and almonds separately and put it in aside.
In a food processor, finely chop your parsley and shallot.  Lay it aside in small bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small size pan, heat up some cooking oil, and cook the grated carrots until softened.  Then set it aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl add the chickpeas and mash by hand using a masher making sure no whole pieces are left.  Mash until soft but with some coarse texture left in it.

Mix in your spices: cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic.

Add the sweet corn and the cooled cooked carrots.  Combine together.

Add the blended oats.

Crumble the feta cheese and add it into the mix (optional).

Stir in the almonds, shallots, and the parsley.

Add salt according to taste.

Scoop the mixture with wet hands to form your patties.

Using a basting brush, slightly brush the sides of the patty with olive oil.

Pre-heat your oven and line your baking tray with parchment paper.

Coat your patty lightly in the blended roasted kasha and place on the baking tray.

Put it in the oven and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes.

NOTE

I did have some dried herb called ache de montagne on hand so I crumpled some up for seasoning.  It happened to be one of those seasonal herbs added into an organic basket from the local farmers.  I did some research and it's called lovage in English.  It has an unsubtle taste, much like celery. 

 

Tzaziki

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 English cucumber (long green ones), deseeded and grated (preferably organic so you can keep the skin on)
• 150 grams of Greek yogurt
• 1/4 clove garlic, crushed and minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 tablesoon lemon juice
•  1 tablespoon chives, diced
•  Salt (according to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS

If you are using an organic cucumber there is no need to peel it.  However, with a conventional cucumber I usually peel the skin off.  Halve the cucumber lengthwise.  Take a teaspoon and scrape out the seeds. 

Grate the cucumber using the large hole of a box grater.

Salt the deseeded and grated cucumber and let sit for 15 minutes so that the water comes out of it. 

Mix the garlic, olive oil and lemon juice into the yogurt.  Stir well. 

Squeeze the excess water out of the cucumbers using your hand or a cheesecloth and then add the cucumbers into the yogurt mix.

Add the chives and salt to taste.
 

Tarte aux Épinards

This is one of my first, self-impressed French dishes I have ever made.  I learned it from ma belle-mère—yep, my mother-in-law— that's how we address our mother-in-laws in France.  It can be so ironic for many, but I got lucky; I truly do have a belle-mère. 

The kids call her "Mamie Jacotte", an affectionate term rather than the literal translation, "grand-mère";  Jacotte is shortened from Jacqueline.  She's not only a fantastic belle-mère and grand-mère, but a wonderful cook.  I have picked up many of her tips and recipes in cooking and this is just one of many. 

Ma belle-mère makes simple and intricate dishes.  I usually opt for the former recipes.

Tarte aux Épinards

• 1 puff pastry
• 500 grams spinach, frozen or 700 grams of spinach, fresh
• 1 clove garlic, minced and sauté
• 4 eggs
• 4 heaping tablespoons crème fraîche
• 100 grams of emmental cheese
• a pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper according to taste

INSTRUCTIONS//serves 4-6

Take your tart or quiche pan (around 10 inches in diameter, 1-1/2 to 2 inches deep or 25 cm in diameter, 4 cm deep) and roll out the puff pastry and place it into the pan.  Press the pastry into the sides of the pan. 

Use a fork to poke some holes into the bottom of the puff pastry to release any trapped air and to keep it from puffing up when baking. 

Once your oven is pre-heated at 190° C (375°F), place it in the oven to bake for around 10 minutes or until the puff pastry changes color to a golden brown.   This step is called blind baking; It partially cooks the pastry dough to prevent a soggy crust.  Check often during the duration of this time so that if you catch your pastry puffing up, just slide it out of the oven, take a fork to poke more holes and press the pastry back down into place, and place back into the oven.  Some people use ceramic beans or dried beans to keep the pastry from puffing up. 

Take it out of the oven and place the spinach filling inside.

Spinach Filling:

If you are using frozen spinach, cook it down on low heat until it thaws.  Drain out the excess liquid.  If you are using fresh spinach, begin with the the next step.

Sauté your garlic in a pan with a half tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. 

Then add your spinach and toss it around with the garlic.  Sauté for a couple of minutes and add some salt.  With fresh spinach, sauté and then cover the pan with a lid to let cook for 5-10 minutes or until wilted.  It should be a nice, saturated green.  With a pair of tongs, take out the cooked spinach and place it in a bowl and leave it aside to cool down.  Push down with the pair of tongs or a fork to get rid of excess liquid.

In a medium size mixing bowl, beat in 4 whole eggs.

Add your heaping dallops of crème fraîche and mix.

Stir in the emmental cheese.

Then a pinch of nutmeg, some salt and pepper according to taste.

Mix the spinach in with the egg, crème fraîche, cheese batter.  Stir until the spinach is evenly mixed in.

Pour this mixture into your blind baked puff pastry and place it in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 190° C (375° F).
 

NOTE

I have used both fresh and frozen spinach for this recipe.  It just depends on what I have in my fridge.  In France, I buy the frozen spinanch with their stems (épinards en branche).  If I use fresh spinach I trim the thicker part of the stems and keep an inch or two below the leaf.  You can also use 125 grams of yogurt to replace the crème fraîche. 

Les Chouquettes

Les chouquettes

I came home from the playground one day and put this on my list of things to make. I was intrigued and inspired by an acquaintance deemed a Papa Poule—an attentive, protective, and doting father— who had his child's doll and scooter in one hand, and a bag of his fresh, homemade chouquettes in the other.

I gathered my ingredients and was hit with an obstacle: I couldn't find sucre en grains or sucre perlé in any of the supermarkets nearby.  Obsessed as I can become, I ran to every grocery store and bakery in the area in search of these sugary, white pearls.  Returning home, ruffled by defeat, and saving this battle for another day in another arrondisement, I recounted my story in quest for these sugary, white pearls to Denis and Sandrine, our building's concierge and my neighbor.  Denis also happens to be a wonderful, certified baker and he gave me a few tips on how to make the chouquettes. He said he would pop by to check on how it was all coming along once I had found all my ingredients.  

Hours later, there was a knock on my door.  I swung the door wide open to find a bag of the sugary, white pearls dangling in front of me with Sandrine behind it.  Elle est trop chou!—She is such a darling!  She happened to be in the 2e and passed by G. Detou, the well-known bakery and cooking ingredients store, and picked me up a kilo of sucre perlé. 

Feeling like I just won the lottery, I ran down to tell Denis that I had a kilo of my sugary, white pearls.  Denis brought over his baker's toolbox, got right in the kitchen, and showed me how it's done.  Il est chou!—He's a darling!

Water, butter, and salt

Take the pot off the heat, add your flour, and with a spatula, vigorously beat it in until you get a dough paste balling up.

Mix one egg in at a time

Fill piping bag and squeeze silver dollar size dough drops.

Shake off the excess pearl sugar.

190° Celcius for 20 minutes

Melt it down

Place the pot back on the heat and keep stirring until the paste of ball unsticks to the sides of the pot.  Shake the pot around so that the ball of dough paste rolls around in the pot unsticking itself from the sides of the pot.

Achieve a glossy dough paste

Pour on the pearl sugar and shake the baking try up and over bringing it down the row.

Ready for the oven.

Et voilà...golden chouquettes.  Lightly crispy on the outside.  Airy and moist on the inside.

Denis' Homemade Chouquettes

INGREDIENTS//Yields 80

•  500 ml of water
•  200 grams butter, unsalted
•  4 grams salt
•  300 grams flour (T45)
•  500 grams egg
•  300 grams pearl sugar (a.k.a. hail sugar and nib sugar)

INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium size pot, add your water, butter, and salt.  Bring it to a boil.

Take the pot off the heat, add your flour, and with a spatula, vigorously beat it in until you get a dough paste balling up.

Place the pot back on the heat and keep stirring until the paste of ball unsticks to the sides of the pot.  Shake the pot around so that the ball of dough paste rolls around in the pot unsticking itself from the sides of the pot.

Transfer the dough into a large inox mixing bowl.  Gradually beat in one egg at a time, and keep stirring until you get a glossy consistency.  If you scoop a bit of dough up with your clean finger, the dough should pull and fall back into place.

Pour pearl sugar along the top row of your choux pastry. Shake the tray up and down to toss the pearl sugar around so that it moves its way down to coat the choux pastry.

Denis used a 15mm tip for the pastry/piping bag.  Fill it half way with the dough, and squeeze out small rounds on a baking tray lined with parchment paper leaving an inch apart between them. 

Bake in oven at 190° Celcius (approx. 375° F) for twenty minutes.

NOTE

Using a piping bag looks easier than it is.  I kept getting pointy tips on the top of my choux/puff pastry.  Denis told me it was because I was lifting the piping bag after squeezing out the dough too quickly.  To get the choux/puff pastry nice and round at the top: squeeze out the dough, keep the tip in the dough, make an escargot figure, and then sweep off to the side.  This should give your choux a nice and rounded top.

I also ran across this article on French wheat flour explaining flour types.  I used T45 for this recipe which is regarded as a pastry flour.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Fortunately, I don't have celiac disease, and I am not gluten intolerant, or anything of that sort; but I do like to experiment with different kinds of nutritional therapy and ingredients.  I choose a varied and moderate regimen when it comes to food, and since it seems impossible for my family to avoid glutttonous, glutinous treats, on occasion I try to make snack time gluten-free and homemade.  Le goûter in France takes place right around 4:30 p.m., when pre-school and primary school lets out, a.k.a. snack time and the witching hour—we all know what a pack of hungry wolves look like.   Usually you'll see the parents waiting around for their kids with a pack of biscuits, a fresh pain au chocolat straight from the bakery, or other viennoiserie in hand.   Traditionally, it would be a tartine: a slice of bread topped with confiture and butter or a piece of chocolate.  Oldies are goodies for sure—just the other day I saw a bakery offering mini brioches stuffed with a chocolate bar.  Trust me, I was tempted to reenact a childhood experience I missed out on.  It's on my radar for the next time.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS//Yields 18

•  3/4 cup gluten-free all purpose flour (my mix: 1/2 cup rice & millet flour, 1/4 cup oat flour)
•  1 teaspoon baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1/2 cup packed brown sugar (2/3 cup if you prefer sweeter)
•  113 grams butter, softened (1/2 cup or 1 stick)
•  1 egg
•  1 1/2 cups oats
•  1/3 cup raisins (optional)
•  1/2 cup nuts, roughly chopped (optional- hazelnuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts)

INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium size mixing bowl combine the first six ingredients.

Add the softened butter and combine it with the ingredients.

Stir in the egg and mix until creamy.

Gradually stir in your oats: alternate between your oats, raisins, and nuts.

Pre-heat over to 190° Celcius (375° F).

Roll your dough into two inch balls.  Place it on your baking sheet leaving about two to three inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges have turned golden brown. 

Let it cool a little before removing from baking sheet.   Then let it cool down completely.

NOTE

Do not overbake your cookies otherwise they will be crunchy.  These cookies come out thin.  The dough spreads out in the oven.  Mine turn out crispy along the edges, sticky and chewy throughout the cookie. 

Spring Watercress Soup

Welcome spring, oh how I've been waiting for you to arrive.  I'm craving spring greens like watercress but somehow the salad route is not the way I want to go.  It's still pretty gray and cold these days in Paris so I think a warm detox soup is in order.  Watercress is apparently a powerhouse veggie, high in many nutirents especially vitamin K and vitamin A—good for the bones and the eyes, and a versatile vegetable that can be steamed, eaten raw as a salad, and liquidized into soup.

Watercress Soup (Soupe au Cresson)
 

INGREDIENTS//Serves 6

• 40 grams butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 potatoes (small to medium), rough chop
• 1.5 litres of vegetable stock
• 2 bunches watercress, rough chop


INSTRUCTIONS

In a large saucepan, heat up your butter and then toss in the onion, shallot, and garlic.  Sauté for about a minute or two.

Add the potatoes and sauté them all together until translucent.

Add 1.5 liters of vegetable broth to the ingredients, cover, and bring it to a boil.  Then lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft.

Rinse the watercress clean.  Tear off about a half inch of the ends and rough chop the rest.

Add the watercress.  Cook for a few minutes or until the watercress has wilted.

Allow the soup to cool.  Using a hand blender, mix until smooth. 

Rewarm over low heat before serving.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil or a dallop of crème fraîche with some toasted pine nuts.

NOTE

I never ate so much butter until I arrived in France.  It's just superior to the American one.  Simple as that.  No competition.  I use butter to sauté my alliums and potatoes in this recipe but you can choose your oil of preference.

 

Céleri Rave Crab Salad

Céleri Rave, Celery Root, Celeriac

There's a great quote by Diana Vreeland,  something along the lines about "accentuating a model's flaws".   There is superficial beauty but then there is all that other beauty:  that one offbeat mole, a freckle-filled face, scars, and lines between your eyebrows, on top of your forehead, and around the eyes from lifetime narratives.  

I guess that's what happened when I saw the celeriac—even its name sounds ill-favored (but not ill-flavored)—with all its warty exterior and bumpy bulges, it piqued my interest enough to wonder what was inside of it and what it tasted like. 

The celeriac is a root vegetable and is commonly served in France as a céleri rémoulade— sounds fancy, n'est-ce pas?  It's basically grated celery root mixed in with lemon juice to keep its color white, and mixed in with some mayonnaise.   The taste of it brought back memories of the Waldorf salad that I actually ate at the Waldorf Astoria back in the day.   Maybe the fancy name?  More likely, the celery based taste.  So I had to toss in the apple, the crab meat and the walnuts, making it a slight upgrade to the basic céleri rémoulade.  If you like the Waldorf salad, you'll enjoy this one.

Céleri Rave Crab Salad

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4-6

• 500 grams of céleri rave, grated
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger, fresh and grated
• 2/3 cup homemade mayonnaise or store bought mayo
• 170 grams crab meat, shredded (6 ounce tin), or 1/2 cup
• 1 red apple or granny smith depending on your taste, grated
• 70 grams walnuts, crushed
• 1 bunch dill
• 1 scallion


INSTRUCTIONS

Peel and rinse your céleri rave.

Cut into large chunks and grate your céleri rave using the large hole side of a grater box.

In a mixing bowl with the céleri rave, add the lemon juice.

Grate your carrots with the large hole side of a grater box.

Combine with the celery root, and add paprika and fresh ginger.

Mix in the mayonnaise.

Grate your apple with the large hole of the grater box, and add it to the combined ingredients.

Chop up your scallions and dill, crush your walnuts, and add them to the salad.  Stir in well and and then season with salt and pepper according to taste.

 

Homemade Mayo

INGREDIENTS//Yields 2/3 cup

• 1 egg, yellow
• 1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup of oil, neutral
• 2 tablespoons vinegar, apple cider or white wine vinegar
• Pinch of salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small mixing bowl, add your egg yellow and whisk.  

Then whisk in the mustard.

When a creamy texture starts to form, gradually add in some oil (up to half) and continue to whisk at the same time.  The mayo will start to thicken.

When half the oil is used, add in a tablespoon of the vinegar and continue to whisk together.  The mayo will loosen up.

Then gradually add in the remaining oil, whisking, and finishing off the second tablespoon of vinegar, whisking it continuosly.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE

Since the homemade mayo is so easy to make, I haven't bothered trying the store bought mayo for this recipe. 

 

Velouté de Panais

I love being reintroduced to a vegetable.  I must admit, I put parsnip on the back burner for a while.  I just got tired of roasting them or mixing them up with potatoes that I just plain 'ole forgot about 'em—out of sight, out of mind.   Most recently, I came across this delicious soup and I had to share because it's so simple to make and it's simply nutritious.  Via Brussels,  this recipe has landed on the right table.  Remember Lady Jo from the ginger biscuit recipe?  Well, this one is from another Jo (-hanna) and it's all in the family.

Velouté de Panais (Parsnip Soup)

INGREDIENTS//Serves 4

• 2 large parsnips or 4 medium size parsnips, chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 litre vegetable stock ( 1 vegetable stock cube)

INSTRUCTIONS

Wash and peel your parnsips. 

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onions for a couple of minutes before tossing in the parsnips.  The onions should be translucent and the parsnips should turn golden brown.

Add a litre of water to the parnsip and onion mix and add a vegetable stock cube.

Bring it to a boil over medium heat and then lower heat to simmer until the parsnips are tender.

Let it cool slightly.  With a slotted spoon scoop out the parsnips and the onions, and put it in the blender adding half the vegetable broth.  Purée until smooth and keep adding some vegetable broth that's left over and blend together until you get the soup consistency that you like.  The more broth you add, the thinner your soup will be.
 

NOTE

I was wondering what the soup would taste like without adding a vegetable stock cube.  So in my second batch of soup I omitted it.  The flavor of the parsnip is robust, sweet like a carrot but with a consistency of butternut squash.  It's like drinking a warm sweet nectar—too sweet for me.  The vegetable stock brought out the savoriness of the soup which was the perfect balance.
 

Spinach Wonton Ravioli

Viktor, my six year old son, and I filled and folded 35 spinach wonton raviolis.  He's quite the meticulous one; thus, the model perfect raviolis.  It was a cold and gray afternoon, and we were cozy at home busy adding more raviolis to our lot and looking forward to dinner.

It snowed while Viktor and I were setting up to photograph these wonton raviolis.  We were so engrossed with how to steady the reflector while he would be assisting in the "snowfall scene" of the Parmigiano Reggiano that we didn't even notice the real snowfall scene happening right outside.  It was already late in the afternoon and we were racing against the light of day.   He was busy grating away at the cheese and I was looking through the view finder trying to capture the moment.  Through the view finder all I could see were these white, fluffy flakes of cheese falling upon the wonton raviolis and thinking to myself, this looks like a beautiful snow flurry scene and how nice it would be if it happened just once before spring comes upon us. 

Interrupted by a phone call from "Papa" asking if it was snowing by us because we get all kinds of different weather in different parts of this city at the same time—lo and behold, large, fluffy snowflakes tumbling down right under our nose, and not the Parmigiano Reggiano ones, but the real ones!  We dropped everything, and ran to get our boots, coats, mittens, bonnets and scraves—the whole bundle—so that we could play under the snowfall.

Spinach Wonton Ravioli

INGREDIENTS//yields 35 raviolis

• 500 grams spinach, fresh (cooks down to approx. 250 grams)
• 250 grams ricotta cheese
• 3 heaping tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• 1 egg, divided (yellow and white)
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper, according to taste
• 1 pack wonton wrappers

INSTRUCTIONS

Take a large pot and fill it with roughly 3 inches of water.   Bring the water to a boil.  Add your fresh spinach and some salt and close the cover to steam your spinach.   It should take about 5 minutes.  Once it is a saturated, dark and wilty green, take it off the stove and let it cool on the side.

Place your egg yellow, ricotta cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a medium size mixing bowl.  Mix by hand.

Take your cooled down spinach and squeeze out as much excess water possible.   Place it on a cutting board and chop finely.

Add the spinach to the mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix it together.

You can also transfer the spinach to a food processor and process with the rest of the ingredients until smooth if you don't want to mix by hand.

Lay out your wonton wrapper and place 1/2 tablespoon of the spinach filling in the center of the wrapper.

Brush some egg white along the edges of the wonton wrapper and take one corner of the wrapper and fold over to meet the other corner.  Gently press down from the center towards the edges to press out any air and to seal the wonton ravioli. 

Dust a baking sheet with some flour and line up your raviolis.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.   Add some raviolis making sure not to overcrowd them in the pot.  Boil for 3 minutes and take them out with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a plate.

Grate some Parmigiano Reggiano and drizzle some olive oil over the spinach wonton raviolis and serve immediately. 

NOTE

The wonton skins are delicate and they cook quickly.   They will burst if you let them cook too long.
My mother in law gave me a great tip...I freeze a whole untreated lemon so that I have it on hand for use.
I grate a bit of this frozen lemon over my raviolis along with the grated cheese and olive oil for a fresh twist. 
 

Glass Noodle Salad

I recall visting Thai friends on lazy, sweltering afternoons in their homes and finding their extended family members under the influence of indolent heat, sprawled out on timeworn floors of the veranda supported by equally timeworn stilts peacefully resting in the shade.  It made me want to do the same and I was welcome to lay out my sarong and find a spot.  A comfortable position would soon be found; I was happy to have escaped the sun rays, dust billows from back country roads, and scooter vibrations relishing the shade and tranquility until a platter of fresh herbs and vegetables would arrive with some nam phrik, a chili shrimp paste based sauce, to dip into.  Slowly, the family members would wake; sounds of squeaks and creaks from the wooden planks and shuffling would stir as they gathered around the platter to share this afternoon snack.  As I bit into this fresh, crisp combination of raw herb and vegetable dipped into nam phrik on this hot and lazy, sultry day my senses had been awakened.

While eating my way through Thailand in the early 90's, my palate received an education in appreciation of fresh herbs and raw vegetables.   A habit I picked up is adding fresh herbs (herbs! herbs! herbs!) to almost everything.  I love that it simply livens any plate up with subtlety and adds bursts of flavor to it.   In this glass noodle dish, be very generous with your herbs. 

Glass Noodle Salad

INGREDIENTS//serves 8-10

• 500 grams cellophane noodles (a.k.a vermicelli bean thread, glass, and mung bean noodles)
• 7 whole carrots, raw and julienned
• 250 grams snowpeas, raw and julienned
• 2 celery branches (optional), raw and julienned
• 1-2 bunches of fresh coriander
• Bunch of fresh mint

Dressing

• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
• A thumb's length of lemongrass (optional), slit lengthwise and bruised slightly
• 2 tablespoons or 50 grams palm sugar or regular sugar
• 1/2 cup sushi vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablesoons soy sauce or tamari sauce (gluten-free)
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha
• 4 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 whole lime
• 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce or Vietnamnese vegetarian fish sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

Bring a big pot of water to boil and then turn it off.  

Soak the noodles in the boiled water for 5-7 minutes.  Drain.  Then run under cool water and drain again.  The noodles will look white and translucent.  Transfer it to a large mixing bowl.

Add some sesame oil to the noodles to keep them from sticking. 

Using a pair of kitchen shears, cut through the noodles to shorten their length.  Leave on the side and begin to prepare the vegetables. 

Combine all your prepared raw vegetables in a medium mixing bowl and set it aside.

Rinse and dry your coriander and mint.  Tear the coriander leaves and the mint leaves off their stems or simply use your kitchen shears and trim the herbs into a bowl. 

Combine your noodles and vegetables.  Add the dressing. 

Toss together, add the herbs, and toss again.

This is a great dish to prepare in advance.  I find the longer the noodles and vegetables sit in the dressing, the more flavor it soaks up.

DRESSING

In a measuring cup add the shallot, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and palm sugar. 

Pour in the sushi vinegar, add the tamari (or soy sauce), the Sriracha, sesame oil and the juice of the whole limes.   Stir until all the ingredients are mixed in together.  (If you don't mind bits and pieces of the shallot, garlic and ginger—this is the way I do it by hand.  Otherwise, throw everything into a blender although you will have pulp from the ginger so you'll have to pass it through a strainer).

If you use lemongrass, let the dressing stand (the longer the better—for at least an hour) until the flavor of the lemongrass infuses into the dressing.  Then discard the lemongrass and mix the dressing in with the noodles in the mixing bowl.  Add the vegetables and herbs and toss until everything is coated with the dressing.

NOTE

You can switch your vegetables up between carrots, beansprouts, snow peas, celery and whatever other vegetable you imagine to go along with it.  My favorite combo is with carrots and snowpeas.  You can also top it off with some tofu, shrimp or morsels of chicken.
 

Homemade Scones. An Afternoon with an Englishman...

John's Scones

I had the pleasure of being invited over for afternoon tea at a true Englishman's home.  Since I knew what was in the making, I asked John if I could come over earlier to photograph behind the scenes. 

Curdled Milk. To curdle milk, add lemon juice and the vanilla extract to the milk. Mix it together and set it aside to curdle for 15 minutes or longer.

Ingredients.

Sift the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, salt, baking powder and rub in the butter. Make a well in the middle of the dough and add the curdled milk, and stir it up with a spatula.

Knead the dough until it is soft and dry, and not sticking to your fingers.

Using a 5 cm round cutter to stamp out rounds from the dough. There should be a "whoosh" sound when you plunge your cutter into the pile of dough.

Using a pastry brush, slightly brush over the scone rounds with the egg wash.
Place them into the oven for 20-30 minutes at 170° C (about 335° F°).

Clotted cream and jam.

Homemade scones

Tea time with scones.

"...And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it...And all from my cup of tea." — An excerpt from Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust.

We all have those moments, don't we?  For John, it’s hot milk, which evokes memories of cold winter mornings getting ready for school and porridge for breakfast.

I wonder though, the next time when I am invited over by an English person for tea on a rainy afternoon if it will trigger a “scone” moment.

John's Scones

PREPARATION

Curdle your milk first and set aside while preparing the dough.

INGREDIENTS//yields 10

• 400 grams all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 sachet baking powder
• 80 grams butter, softened
• 250 grams raisins
• 250 ml (8.4 oz) milk
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg

INSTRUCTIONS

To curdle milk,  add lemon juice and the vanilla extract to the milk.   Mix it together and set it aside to curdle for 15 minutes or longer.

Sift the flour in a large mixing bowl.  Add the sugar, salt, baking powder and rub in the butter.   Make a well in the middle of the dough and add the curdled milk, and stir it up with a spatula.

Stir in the raisins.

Gather the dough and place on a floured flat surface.  Knead the dough and keep adding some flour while kneading until you have a soft dry dough that's not sticking to your fingers.

Take a 5 centimeter round cutter and stamp out rounds from the dough.  There should be a "whoosh" sound when you plunge your cutter into the pile of dough.  

Place it on a baking sheet.  Continue to knead together the rest of the dough stamping out the rest of the dough in rounds.

In a small bowl,  crack an egg and whisk it for your egg wash. 

Using a pastry brush, slightly brush over the scone rounds with the egg wash.

Place them into the oven for 20-30 minutes at 170° C (about 335° F°).

Check to see if they have risen and if they are golden brown before taking them out.

Place it aside to cool.

Serve with clotted cream and a little jam.

Scenes from Chinese New Year...bring on the Prosperity Toss Salad.

I have my own version of the Joy Luck Club going on in Paris.  The scenes are centered around food and drinks rather than playing mahjong, and we have a cast of Parisian born kids in place of ABC's—American born Chinese .  We sure do eat, drink, clink, and talk a lot.   Ali is a member of the "club" and she is the hostess with the mostess.  We rang in the new year with a traditional Singaporean dish, the Prosperity Toss Salad.  That's where her orgins lie, though she's a SoCal girl at heart.  We've created our own tradition for celebrating CNY which is a hodgepodge of favorite dishes made by each one of us.  Suddenly we have a long table abound with food from various cultural influences.   For starters of course, we had to start off with some oysters.  It's difficult to escape France's fresh shucked wintery oysters.

Prepping for the Prosperity Toss Salad, YúShēng (魚生)

The Singaporean Prosperity Toss Salad or YúShēng (魚生)  is made up of several ingredients with meaning.  As a tradition, certain foods had to be served as they were symbolic based upon pronunciation or appearance of these foods.  Yú Shēng is literally translated as "raw fish".  The chinese character for fish (魚), pronounced yú sounds the same for the Chinese word "abundance" (餘), and shēng (生) which means raw and life also sounds the same as the character meaning to rise (升).  This all equates to wishing one abundance, vigour, prosperity, and long life.

Prosperity Toss Salad, YúShēng (魚生). 

Everyone gathers together to toss, toss, toss...the higher you toss, the more fortunate you may be.

Shout out "lo hei, lo hei" while tossing.  May your luck and fortune keep rising.

Then stuff yourself silly with everything else around you...

Laksa on the Stove

A Bowl of Laksa

Jiao Zi

Pomelo Salad

Sapodilla Fruit

Litchis, Mangoes, and Starfruit

Growing up, we used to get pulled out of school for the day to celebrate Chinese New Year.   Lion dances, dragon dances, banging drums, clanging cymbals, crashing gongs, and firecrackers at the feet, hanging above or behind you filled the streets.  My sister and I would giggle watching the crowd of people milling about in Chinatown trying to catch a glimpse of all this with hands to their ears whilst jerking suddenly as a firecracker has just gone off in front of their next step.   This was way more exciting than sitting in the classroom for the day.  Everything on this day is colorful, exciting, and lively.  Happy to hear that it is an official holiday in NYC as of this year! 

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy Chinese New Year of the Monkey!

Ali's Prosperity Toss Salad

INGREDIENTS//serves 6

• 300 grams salmon, sushi grade raw
•  1/2 pomelo, peeled and seperated into small segments
• 2 cups carrot, julienned
• 2 cups white radish, julienned
• 2 cups cucumber, julienned
• 1 cup jelly fish (optional—for the squeamish ones)
• 2 stalks spring onions, chopped
• 5 wonton wrap skins, deep fried
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, crushed

Sauce

•  6 tablespoons Chinese plum sauce
•  2 tablespoons sesame oil
•  1 lime, juiced
•  3-4 tablespoons hot water

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel and julienne all your vegetables with a mandoline or a julienne peeler: carrots, white radish, cucumbers.
Arrange them on a large platter next to another.

Slice the salmon into thin slices and arrange them on the platter wtih the vegetables.

Chop your spring onions and sprinkle over the ingredients on the platter.

Prepare your crispy wonton peels.   Cut your wonton wrap skins in 1/4 inch strips.  

In a pan, heat enough oil to cover the wonton strips.   Once hot, add the wonton strips in and fry until golden brown and crispy. 

As you take them out of the pan, place them on a paper towel so that the excess oil is absorbed.  Once it's cooled down, add it to the salad.

Prepare your sauce by mixing all the ingredients together.  Add water tablespoon by tablespoon to dilute the sauce and mix well so that it spreads easily over the salad.

Once the salad is assembled, gather everyone around it with a pair of chopsticks.

Sprinkle the crushed peanuts and the sesame seeds over the salad, finally pouring the sauce all over the top of the salad.

Everyone digs in and tosses.  Don't forget to shout out "lo hei, lo hei"!