In the Raw -- Cool Mint Soup

Back when we were having a heat wave, I went to a local produce/gourmet store and looked for something cool to make. A bunch of mint caught my eye and I decided a cold mint and something soup would be the refresher I needed. I also picked up some cucumbers and zucchini and figured I would figure out exactly how to create my cool soup as I went along.

The line at Farmer Joe's was moving slowly so I started talking to the man behind me in line. The contents of his cart would make any vegan nutritionist proud. Turns out my linemate was Chef Reggie, a "fresh food evangelist," caterer, teacher and chef specializing in raw foods. We chatted for awhile and he encouraged me to keep the heat turned off and make it a raw soup.

I like the idea but wondered what to replace the stock with. His suggestions were orange juice or fresh coconut water. Good ideas, but not the flavors I was trying for.

Once I got home, I concocted this soup. It was cool and refreshing with the snap of mint and a bit of bite from my veggie "stock." You need to start it a bit in advance and make it a day or two before serving for the flavors to meld properly.

Cool Mint Soup
Serves 2-4

Vegetable "Stock"

1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley leaves
1 chopped clove of garlic
1/3 cup of coarsely chopped carrots

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Add 4 cups of tap water. Cover and allow to steep until vegetable flavors are infused from four hours to overnight. (The longer you allow it to infuse, the more pronounced the onion flavor will be. I steeped mine overnight.) Drain, reserving liquid for soup and saving solids for other use if desired.

Soup

1/3 to 1/2 cup of mint leaves (depending on strength of mint and how "minty fresh" you'd like your soup)
1 large cucumber, peeled
1 large zucchini
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Finely chop mint leaves by hand or in a food processor. Finely grate or chop cucumber and zucchini by hand or food processor. Add vegetables and mint to "stock." Add tomato if using. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir well.

Cover soup and store in fridge 24 hours before serving.* Options include serving with a dollop of yogurt and a scattering of chopped almonds. (Or you could stir yogurt into the soup to make it a mellower, mint, creamy cool soup.)

*I tasted my soup right away and found the flavors were all distinct and it was not as satisfying as I had hoped. I stored it in the fridge and tried it again a few days later and was blown away how great it tasted. Twenty-four hours is my approximation of how look it takes this alchemy to take place. You may want to sample your soup periodically to find when your batch reaches this magic moment.

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Based on my experience with Weight Watchers, I think this soup, without the optional serving suggestions, would be a zero point soup.

Dine Around Town Is Back

If you missed it in January, Dine Around Town San Francisco is back from June 1 to June 15. Check this site to find a participating restaurant. Score a three-course lunch for $21.95 or dinner for $31.95 from some of SF's finest.

How Hot Is It?

The San Francisco Bay area is HOT HOT HOT. Temperatures in our "naturally air conditioned" setting are in the 90s. The further you are from the Bay, the hotter (in the 100s) it gets.

Now, I know other places regularly get this hot or hotter, but we really don't and sometimes, well sometimes, it seems like it makes us cranky.

Here's a link to some cooling, cold or chill (no cook) recipes on Blog Appetit. If you have some of your own you'd like to share, please add them to the comments below.

Try my adaptation of Chocolate and Zucchini's zucchini appetizer here.
My ever popular Vietnamese spring or summer rolls are here.
My nice cold New York Style Chocolate Egg Cream drink is here.
Look through this for my sorbet recipes including herbal tea, tangerine and lychee.

One solution to beating the heat is to grill. If you do, try my grilled salad.

Stay cool.

In Memory's Kitchen

Note: The following is adapted from an article I wrote for the Temple Beth Abraham newsletter.

It is amazing how often we don’t write or pass down the stories of our personal heritage. Records of our own family histories, traditions and food ways are in danger of being lost.

For example, my son recently interviewed his grandmother about what she did on the home front during WWII. Grandpa’s exploits in the Army were well known by the family, but Grandma’s participation in the Manhattan Project came as a surprise to him.

My grandfather, Poppa, was a magical story teller. He made his adventures of escaping from Russia and making a living during the Roaring Twenties come alive. Certainly my sisters and I knew his stories as well as we knew the plot of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It was a shock to realize my own children couldn’t hear the echoes of his presence in my life in their memories and recall these stories, despite my very carefully telling each of them about Poppa when they were young. I was grateful for the school assignment that prompted my teen-aged son’s questioning and a chance to tell him once again about our past.

But it is in the kitchen that many of us now wish we had taken the time to ask questions, jot down some notes or even just pay attention to what was going on. Most of our grandmothers cooked without written recipes what they had learned from their mothers or mothers-in-law, dishes of their homelands tempered by local availability, the fashions of their time, religious observances and economic situations as much as family likes and dislikes. For many it seems that somehow that cycle was broken in our generation or our mothers and these dishes remain memories too elusive to taste again.

To be honest, Anna, my mother’s mother, was not one of those cooks whose cooking would elicit Proust-like reveries. But Grandma had her specialties. My sisters and I, all accomplished cooks, still are trying to figure out what made Anna’s stuffed cabbage, cheese blintzes and a few of her other dishes that were the constants of our childhood so tasty.

My grandmother passed away before I realized I was running out of time to record her recipes, but I was lucky, I inherited the recipe cards of another Jewish grandma, my husband’s Aunt Lee. Aunt Lee was married to my mother-in-law’s older brother, so she seemed to bridge a generational gap for me. She was knowledgeable about food, having worked in her father-in-law’s fish store, and was deservedly well-known for her cooking. She also seemed to write everything down. She passed away a few days short of her 90th birthday.

Here is a recipe for her chopped herring she gave me a few years before she died. It is an old-fashioned recipe and I wondered if it would still have any appeal. I served it at a Jewish holiday dinner and was amazed how much praise and attention it received, especially from those who had grown up in East Coast or Midwest Jewish households. The herring, they said, tasted just like something their own grandmother had made.

Aunt Lee’s Chopped Herring Salad
Serves 4 as a first course or 8 as an appetizer

1 12-ounce jar of herring in wine sauce (Sometimes called marinated or pickled herring. Do not substitute herring in cream sauce.)
6 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
2 medium-sized, tart apples such as Granny Smith, peeled and cored
2 small onions, peeled
2-3 tablespoons vinegar or to taste
1-2 tablespoons sugar or to taste
3 tablespoons of unseasoned bread crumbs or matzo meal, more or less, as needed

Drain herring, reserving liquid.
Chop herring in to very small pieces, being careful not to reduce to a pulp. Set aside.
Chop eggs in to very small pieces being careful not to reduce to a paste. Set aside.
Chop or grate apples and onions. Set aside.
Combine herring, eggs, apples and onions in a bowl. Mix well. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved herring liquid. Add the lesser amounts of vinegar and sugar. Taste and adjust, adding more herring liquid, vinegar and sugar as needed.
Stir in the bread or matzo crumbs, adding more if needed to bind the salad. Serve on top of lettuce as a first course or with crackers or matzo as an appetizer or snack.

Variation: Using a food processor, process all ingredients to a smooth paste before adding reserved liquid, vinegar, sugar and bread crumbs. Serve as a spread rather than a salad.

Celebrate Hominy on Cinco de Mayo

I can tell by the arrival of beer-themed piñatas in my supermarket that Cinco de Mayo is upon us. I am a big fan of our local Cinco de Mayo street festivals here in Oakland and elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay area. I am also a fan of U.S. style (Tex-Mex) and regional Mexican food.

Since I made fajitas the other day, I was going to post about that in honor of the outnumbered Mexicans fighting back the French troops in the Battle of Puebla on the fifth of May in 1862, but fajitas, somehow, seemed too American.

(By the way – try my “margarita” marinade for chicken fajitas – a healthy slug of tequila and equal amount of lemon or lime juice, vegetable oil equal to the total amount of tequila plus juice and a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper and minced garlic.)

I settled on Beef Posole. Posole (sometimes spelled pozole) was known in pre-Columbian times. It is made from dried hominy, which is dried corn treated with lime (the mineral not the juice) or other alkali substance to remove the germ and hard outer hull of kernel. The process also makes the substance’s amino acids more available. Hominy grits, popular in the south, are also made from this treated grain.

Most posole recipes I’ve seen call for pork. Many are fussy and seem kind of daunting. This one, adapted from the back of the label from a bag of Los Chileros de Nueva Mexico’s White Corn Posole was easy to make, incredibly tasty and soul warming. Its flavor will depend somewhat on the kind of chiles used. I used guajillo chilies, which give the dish a reddish color and some real bite, which nicely offsets the richness of the meat and the cornmeal tang of the hominy. You could try dried chipotle chiles which would give you a smoky flavor or a milder chile. Of course you can use any other posole in the recipe. It is widely available as a bulk good in Mexican-American markets.

Beef Posole
Serves 8

12 ounces of dried posole
1 teaspoon salt
2 pounds of cubed, trimmed beef (chuck steak or roast works well)
6-8 guajillo chile pods
3 cloves of garlic, minced
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Garnishes (chopped cilantro, thinly sliced radishes, chopped onion, chopped avocado, lime juice)

Put posole in a glass or stainless steel pot or container. Add water to cover. Soak overnight. Drain. In a large pot, cover posole with water and then add salt. Bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for two hours. Add meat, chiles, garlic, oregano and cumin. Cover, simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or more until meat and posole are tender.
Serve in bowls with garnishes as desired.

Info for those of us who are weight watchers: This recipe has no added oil. My estimate for 1 serving is about 9 points. Skip the tortillas and just have a salad for an incredibly satisfying and filling meal.

China: Sweet and Sour

Sweet and sour describes my attitude towards China right now as well as the sauce for a Cantonese style dish I learned to make from Chef Jing at the National Vocational School in Shanghai. (Click here to read more about this experience and for my recipe for Ma Po Tofu.)

Sweet, of course, describes the many, many positive experiences I had in China. The people, the places and the sights were incredible. Many of these good experiences were food related. In Shanghai there was a wonderful vegetarian restaurant, the name of which translated to Godly. One walked into it from the bustling shopping street through the busy takeout counter and into a seating area that could only be described as a sanctuary for the senses and with food to match. Another special meal was experiencing the tasting menu at a famed restaurant in the Bund. In Xi An it was discovering the Moslem quarter and its lamb and mutton based cuisine. In Beijing it was exploring tea houses, Chinese home cooking and Beijing duck. Everywhere there were snack streets and night markets to sample. And every morning the hotel breakfast buffets brought a world of Asian food to our plates and palates. A morning bowl of rice congee (jook) or gruel topped with everything from fish flakes to peanuts became my breakfast staple.

The sour, well that’s a bit harder to digest. There is the complicated political situation and the world wide concern about the Olympics. There was the pollution, the traffic and other concerns. Of course, sour plays a component in Chinese cooking as well. A Chinese meal is balanced with many tastes playing against each other, including the sour. Often the sour is a simple pickled vegetable. Other times it might be a component of the sauce for a more elaborate dish. And of course it is balanced out by the sweet. Perhaps life isn’t a bowl of cherries but a dish of sweet and sour sauce.

Sweet and Sour Fish
Serves 4 or 6 as part of a multi-course Chinese-style meal

At the cooking school in Shanghai, this was made with cubes of pork (see variations below). I thought the fish would be lighter and it worked very well. You could also try chunks of chicken or perhaps firm tofu. The version below is based on my experience at the cooking school and recipes I brought back from China. The main difference is that the directions below result in the protein (fish in this case) being less dense with a puffier, eggier crust. In Shanghai we were instructed to dredge chunks of pork into cornstarch and then compact them until they resembled oversized marbles instead of the approach below.

The ketchup in the recipe is totally authentic, much to my surprise. I haven’t done the research so I don’t know if sweet and sour pork began life in this country (perhaps as an adaption of a traditional dish or a unique one based on Western food availability) and migrated there or a traditional one that was adapted as Western ingredients made their way to China. (The whole concept of ketchup began life as Asian fish sauce to begin with, but that’s another post.)

Note: I used a combination of regular white distilled vinegar and Chinese black rice vinegar (I used one third black rice vinegar), which gave the dish a nice taste and toned tone the bright red sweet and sour color (as does the soy sauce). You could also try apple cider vinegar instead of the Chinese black rice vinegar or just using all white distilled vinegar. Avoid the Japanese rice vinegars; they are too mild to give the zing we associate with sweet and sour sauce.

Sauce
41/2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons vinegar (see note above)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon salt

Fish
1 ½ pounds thickish filets of rock cod, cod, halibut, pretty much any non-oily white fish
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons of cornstarch
Canola or other vegetable oil for deep frying

Stir Fry
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (about a heaping tablespoon)
2 green onions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced (about 2 tablespoons)
2 medium bell peppers (I used one green and one red), cut into 1” or so pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
8 ounces of pineapple cut in 1” cubes, (fresh or drained canned)

Make the sauce first in either the wok or another pan.
Combine all the sauce ingredients in the pot. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is well combined. Taste and correct the seasoning, adding more vinegar, ketchup and/or salt until you have the preferred balance of sweet vs. sour. Set aside off the heat. (If you have used the wok for the sauce, thoroughly clean and dry it before frying fish.)

Prepare fish. Rinse and pat fish dry. Sprinkle fish with salt. Cut into approximately 1 ½ inch cubes or chunks. In a large enough bowl to hold all the fish cubes, combine eggs and cornstarch until well mixed. Add the fish cubes and toss to coat thoroughly.

Heat oil for deep frying in the wok or another deep, large pan, such as a chicken fryer or sauté pan. Heat oil until is medium to very hot (about 375 degrees F). (To see if the oil is ready, drop a bit of batter if it immediately sizzles and begins to brown, the oil is ready.) Add a few fish cubes at a time, frying until golden brown and cooked through and removing to drain on a plate. Continue until all the fish cubes are fried. Set aside.

Properly dispose of the oil, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the wok or pan. Strain out any left over fried bits with a slotted spoon or skimmer. Heat oil until very hot. Add the garlic and stir fry, being careful not to burn it. Add the scallions and the pepper cubes and stir fry until the pepper pieces begin to soften. Add in reserved sauce and bring to a boil. Slowly drizzle in the cornstarch mixture, stirring until it is well combined and the sauce is thickened. It should still be liquid, but not runny or thick and should coat the back of the spoon. Stir in pineapple chunks and the pork. Mix to evenly distribute sauce.
Serve with rice.

Variations:

Spicy, Sweet and Sour

You could certainly add some crushed red pepper flakes or chilies to the stir fry if you wanted to make an untraditional, spicy, sweet and sour dish. Or add some ground Sichuan brown peppercorns to the sauce.

Chef Jing’s Cantonese-Style Sweet and Sour Pork

To make a version similar to the one I made at the cooking school, make the sauce by mixing in a bowl 4 tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons vinegar and 2 tablespoons sugar. Add pineapple, set aside. Use pork cut into 1 inch or so long rectangles. Dredge in cornstarch and compress by squeezing each piece in your hand until it resembles a small, hard-packed meatball. If the cornstarch has been absorbed or come off the pork ball, roll it in cornstarch again. (Chef Jing explained that this compression helps keep the pork from drying out and getting hard when it is fried.) Fry in oil as directed above until cooked through. Drain all but about 2 tablespoons oil from the wok. Heat the oil (omit the garlic, green onions and peppers). Add the ketchup mixture, stir until it begins to liquefy and add just a teaspoon of the cornstarch mixture at the time, stirring in it until you get the consistency of the sauce you want. Add in the pork cubes, stir to coat in the sauce.

About the photo: A just prepared wokful of Chef Jing's Cantonese-Style Sweet and Sour Pork at the National Vocational School, Shanghai.

Some Food Photos

I am always taking food photos, even if I don't have a post in mind, just to have a photo "just in case." I liked these so much I couldn't wait to for an excuse to use them.

Five Things (Well a Lot More Than Five) That You Probably Don't Know About Me Plus My Egg Cream Recipe

Sylvie of the wonderful Soul Fusion Kitchen (which I will add to my blog roll next time I update) tagged me for my very first MEME -- Five Things About Me.

So here's some things about me that might help explain me, Blog Appetit or both. Since I tend to digress and over explain, I suspect it will end up being 500 things about me.

1. I'm an ex-New Yorker with a not-so-secret weakness for black and white cookies, pastrami sandwiches, subways (and public transit systems of any kind), ethnic enclaves and egg creams (see below). I like the Chrysler Building more than the Empire State, like to ride the Staten Island Ferry, and enjoy wandering around the Upper East Side and the Lower West Side. The Strand bookstore ("18 miles of books") is my idea of heaven as is Kitchen Arts and Letters. My two current favorite museums (besides the Metropolitan) are the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the NYC Transit Museum (in Brooklyn). I nominate Brooklyn for my second favorite borough (county -- New York has 5) and not just because I was born there! My last "name brand" meal in NYC was at the Spice Market in the meat-packing district, which was wonderful, but I still miss the $1.80 duck lo mein (and big enough to share) I used to get at Wo Hop's when I went to New York University a gizillion years ago. My tourist tip is to buy the day or multi day pass for the transit system. Good on buses and subways, it saves you money and aggravation.

2. While I always wanted to be a writer of some sort, my secret desire was to write the books for Broadway musicals. The book is the "story" part, not the music or lyrics. I have no musical talent, so I guess my ambition was at least partly realistic. At other points in my life I wanted to be a university professor (of history, big surprise there), a marketing vice president, a newspaper publisher and an urban affairs and planning newspaper columnist. I have been a reporter, editor, copyeditor, public relations specialist, marketing communicator, and a few other things. The closest thing I came to writing plays was in second grade. I wrote a stirring one act play on the industrialization of shoe manufacturing in New England. (I think it was second grade, but that seems more like fourth grade sophistication to me). No copies survive. My fantasy jobs now musical book writer (who knows, Broadway musicals could make a comeback), magazine editor and talk show host.

3. I tried to learn tap dancing as an adult. It was not pretty, but it has made me a better critic of tap performances on screen and stage. I prefer Fred Astaire over Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers over Ann Miller, and still mourn the untimely passing of Gregory Hines. When Fred passed away I put on my tap shoes and lugged out my portable dance floor (which doubled as a carpet protector under my desk chair.) When I was dating my now husband, I took it as a favorable sign that Fred and Mr. Blog Appetit shared the same birthday (May 10). I guess it is no surprise to you that I'm an old-movie fiend, that Turner Classic Movies is my favorite cable channel and my top old movie faves (for now, they change regularly) are Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe and Reckless with Jean Harlow and with Rosalind Russell, another screen fave. From screwball comedies to musicals to film noirs, I pretty much like anything that is decently written, well acted and gives a good sense of the time and place.

4. Besides New York, I've also lived in Baltimore, MD, Irvington, NJ (just outside Newark), Palo Alto, CA, San Francisco, CA and now Oakland, CA. My husband grew up in Chicago so I pick up the midwest perspective from him. I still like my pizza with a nicely blistered thin crust, which I eat by picking up the slice and folding it over. Eating deep dish Chicago pizza with a knife and fork just isn't the same.

5. The most recent best thing I ever ate was a roast mutton soup in Xi An, China. It cost about $2. The night before I had a meal that was almost as good in Shanghai. It cost $125.

The Perfect (At Least to Me) Egg Cream

There are still a few soda fountains and candy shops that make this around NYC. The last time I had one it was in the East Village and it was served in a paper cup, which made me feel that you can' t go home again. Think of an egg cream as kind of like the Frapuccino of Old New York.

Large, clear glass
Good chocolate syrup (the traditional is Foxes U-Bet, but I'm not a stickler on this, it should just have a good chocolate taste), more or less to your taste. I like my chocolate strong!
Milk (whole, non-fat, I don't care)
Seltzer Water (sometimes called soda water, but not club soda if you can avoid it -- club soda adds salt which affects the purity of this holy drink. No sparkling mineral waters, either. Use the plain type without any flavorings.)
A long, metal spoon

Add an appropriate to you slug of chocolate syrup to the bottom of a tall class. Pour in about an inch or so of cold milk. Top with seltzer (be careful, it will foam and threaten to go over the top, so pour slowly and add more when the foam subsides if needed.)

Use the long spoon to carefully stir. This will result in a milk chocolate colored drink topped with white foam. Some people prefer to stir twice, once after adding the milk and again after the seltzer is added. This results in an all-brown drink which would leave me aghast, but it is your choice. Some people claim pouring the seltzer down the back side of the bowl of the spoon will reduce the foaming. Since I like the visual of the foam and I'm picky enough about the process to begin with I'll let you decide if you'd like to include this in your egg cream choregraphy. Also I assume you've realized there is no egg and no cream in the drink. Stories abound about why.

Serve with a straw. And maybe a black and white cookie.

Variations: Make it a Reform Egg Cream Instead of an Orthodox one by subbing out other syrups. A vanilla egg cream tastes like a marshmallow. One of the best I ever had back in my New York days was at David's Pot Bellied Stove on Christopher Street. They made it for me with mocha (coffee mixed into chocolate syrup). I think they are gone now, but McNulty's is still there across the street. That's the place I first got into teas, but I digress.

As part of the rules of this MEME I'm supposed to tag five others. I will do so later. Watch this space.

Thanks again, Sylvie!

Bonus Info: My sons used to be very proud of me because I could drive a stick shift.

A Cooking Lesson in China (and a Ma Po Tofu Recipe)

One of the many highlights of my recent trip to China was a cooking lesson that was arranged for the small group I was traveling with. It was held at the Shanghai National Vocational School, which trains local residents for work in commercial kitchens.

We had spent the morning exploring some of Shanghai’s many markets – some quaint and outdoor (such as the Antiquities Market), others in modern multi-level buildings featuring fabrics (and custom tailoring), knock-off purses and strands upon strands of the most amazing fresh water pearls.

We were hungry not just for lunch (which we would end up having to make for ourselves) but for a connection to a China that wasn’t just created or preserved for tourists. The National Vocational School would prove ideal on both accounts.

Our visit there began with being ushered into a conference room and being outfitted with chef’s jackets and paper toques. We found out that we were just as much of a sight to the school’s staff and students as they were to us. Curious students and staff kept peeking in and taking photos of us. We later found out that we were the first English-speaking group that had ever arranged a class such as this.

This was not a slick, demonstration kitchen. This was a real, working commercial kitchen with what I swear was fire-breathing woks. We would each be making three dishes that day – Ma Po Tofu (or spicy tofu with ground pork), Sweet and Sour Pork (which I thought was something they thought we’d like) and Beijing Dumplings (kind of like a boiled pot sticker.) Most of the prep work was already done for us. Ms. Chen, the school administrator, and Chef Jing would demonstrate a dish with our translator, FunFun, interpreting, explaining, questioning and trying to figure out quantities for us. (That's FunFun on the left with Ms. Chen.)

Then it was our turn. We each bellied up to an enormous wok set over a ring of fire. The woks were so hot that minced garlic left unattended would be burnt black and acrid in seconds. I asked for a potholder and was handed a folded up, thin dish towel. The floor was slick with grease. This was not cooking for the timid.

We plunged in. Soon the clanging of our thick metal scoop-shaped ladles was ringing through the kitchen, adding to the roar of the industrial strength exhaust fans. As we swished oil, plopped in ingredients and stir-fried in our woks, the school’s staff would hover over us, adding a little more of this or gesturing for us to add that, right now. If we didn’t move fast enough, an impatient Chef Jing would take over and with a few deft moves finish a dish. Ms. Chen would come around and look at our finished dishes, nod approvingly and loving ladle on a more than a little oil on top, making each glisten and me wonder exactly how much weight I would be gaining this trip. (That's Chef Jing in the vocational school kitchen.)

After we had finished making each dish, we would troop into the dining room where we would pick up our chopsticks and consume what we had just produced. I couldn’t get enough of it all, and I don’t mean just the food.

There were no recipe handouts. I tried to take notes and get an idea of quantities (exactly how much was one ladle full of oil), but knew I’d have to make these dishes at home to be able to really describe to others how to create them. But that’s okay; there is no way I could ever perfectly reproduce that day. I’m missing some crucial ingredients – Chef Jing’s practiced moves, Ms. Chen’s ladlefuls of oil, and FunFun’s valiant attempts to explain it all.

(I will be posting the other recipes we made that day as I adapt them. To view them as well as other posts on Blog Appetit Goes to China, please click here.)

Ma Po Tofu (Pockmarked or Old Grandmother’s Spicy Tofu)
Serves 1-2 or 3-4 as part of a multi-dish meal

I like my Ma Po on the spicy side, so feel free to use a bit less of the “hot” stuff. The dish has a wonderful play between spicy and the sweet and sour. Other versions I’ve seen leave out the sugar, the vinegar or both. They may be Shanghai adaptations to the classic Sichuan recipe. (Shanghai cuisine is said to be sweeter than elsewhere in China.)

8 ounces medium or regular tofu, rinsed, cut into ½” cubes (see notes)
1/3 cup of vegetable oil such as peanut, canola, grapeseed or corn (able to withstand high heat cooking) or enough to coat the wok evenly.
6 ounces chopped or minced pork or dark-meat chicken (see notes)
1 tablespoon each fresh minced ginger, chopped garlic and chopped green onion (scallion), plus additional chopped green onion for garnish (optional)
1 tablespoon of chili bean paste (At home I used the kind with fermented black soy beans, but any kind will work), or more or less to taste. (see notes)
½ cup of water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of (unseasoned) rice vinegar (I used Chinese black rice vinegar, you can use plain rice vinegar or cider vinegar if that is not available.)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of cornstarch stirred into 1 teaspoon of water
½ teaspoon ground brown Sichuan pepper

Heat a few inches of water in a wok and bring to boil. Slip in the tofu cubes and boil for about a minute or until the cubes have become to soften and look creamier in texture. They should still retain their shape, however.

Remove and drain tofu. Pour water out of wok. Dry well and heat. When the wok is hot, add oil to coat, swirling pan around to make sure it is well covered. Add ginger, garlic and green onion, stir frying until light brown and the aromas are released. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Add the minced meat and stir fry for about one minute. Add the chili bean paste, stir fry for a few seconds, then add the water and the bean curd cubes. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, being careful not to break the tofu cubes. Add the salt, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Stir to combine then add in the cornstarch mixture, stirring carefully to mix thoroughly without breaking up the tofu until the sauce has thickened. Remove to serving dish. Sprinkle with ground Sichuan pepper and garnish with chopped green onions.

Notes:
The recipe at the school used ground pork. I’ve replaced it here with minced, boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I minced the chicken with a cleaver. You could certainly grind it in a food processor or buy ground chicken or turkey, just be sure you are not using white meat poultry. You could also use ground pork. One recipe I have from China uses minced beef. I imagine a vegetarian ground meat substitute might also work.

If you can’t find medium or regular tofu, use firm (not extra firm) and boil it a little more until it is soft and creamy looking.

If chili bean paste is not available, you could use 1 tablespoon of fermented black beans (which look dried and are sold in a plastic bag and are not in a sauce) and 1 teaspoon or so of crushed red hot chili pepper flakes.


(The photo above shows the dish made during the cooking lesson. My version is a little less soupy.)

Purim Tonight!

Purim, the feast of Esther, begins at sundown tonight. Want some info on the holiday and how to celebrate it? Check this out. Want to know what to eat? Read some adapted excerpts from an article I wrote for the Temple Beth Abraham Omer below.

The Foods of Purim: The Whole Megillah (FYI -- the Megillah is used to mean the whole story in Jewish "slang" and refers to the Book of Esther which is where the story is told.)

The most popular foods of Purim are probably hamanstachen (the link above has a recipe), the Ashkenazi cookie symbolizing Haman’s tri-cornered hat and the other pastries associated with the evil vizier. But that’s not the whole “megillah;” there are many foods that add to a Purim celebration.

Some say the meal should be vegetarian or dairy or at least include beans since Esther is said to have eschewed meat for legumes during her time in Ashaheurus’ court. Others include fish or dishes with chicken, lamb, and other meats. Based on these diverse customs, here are some ideas for your own Purim feast:

Serve kreplach. This meat-stuffed noodle is traditional for Purim because of its shape reminiscent of Haman’s ear and/or hat. Or try a modern twist – tortellini, it has the right shape and is readily available.

Try serving a dish that is not what it seems to be. Dressing up and disguise are part of Purim, so try vegetarian chopped liver or spaghetti squash instead of pasta and/or vegetarian “meatballs.”

Go sweet and sour. Sweet and sour foods suit the nature of the holiday, reminding us of the bitterness of Haman’s actions and the redemption that followed. Try sweet and sour meatballs or sweet and sour lentils.

Bake challah in triangular loaves to represent Haman’s ears. Use some of it to make French toast, known as Queen Esther’s Toast or Purim Fritters, once a popular way to celebrate Purim.

Drink up. Rabbis have said that one should drink on Purim until one can’t distinguish the difference between “blessed is Mordecai” and “cursed is Haman.” Go with the flow. Splash some vodka or tequila into your chicken marinade. Add wine to your beef or fish recipes. Want to give it a try? My Limoncello Tuna recipe here.

See my previous write up of Purim here.

Want to get recipes for the dishes mentioned above? Check out Temple Beth Abraham's cookbook From Everyday to Holiday. It is available for $25 including U.S. postage from the TBA office. Call 510.832.0936 to order.
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About the photo: A quick snap of Temple Beth Abraham's Purim Celebration featuring the Purim Rock 'n Roll Band.

China -- A Sense of Place

I didn’t take a slow boat to China, it was a non-stop jet, and when I landed I found that many of my preconceived notions about what I’d find and what China would be like were just as outdated as that old steamboat.

It was altogether an amazing experience, especially for someone who grew up in an age when China was a forbidden and forbidding destination. Every so often I’d have to stop and just blurt out “I’m in China. I’m really in China.”

Sometimes that would happen when I was experiencing places I had only read about – the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors museum, the Forbidden City. Sometimes it was when I was surprised by sites and scenes I hadn’t known about or hadn’t know what to expect such as the old neighborhoods along the canals in Suzhou; the Muslim district in Xi An; the night market, the Lama Monastery, Prince Gong’s garden and the old neighborhoods in Beijing. It was the sight of seniors everywhere practicing tai chi and folk dance in the morning, taking their birds in their cages for an airing in the afternoon, working out in open air gyms in Beijing, and overflowing the long corridor of the Temple of Heaven performing for their friends and passersby.

Sometimes it was when the cities I visited could have been major cosmopolitan capitals almost anywhere with skyscrapers, trendy high-end shops, Starbucks and Mercedes. (There were also KFCs, McDonald’s and occasional Subway fast food restaurants.) I have to admit, at those times I said "I'm in China" almost in disbelief.

But just when China (I was mostly in very urbanized China) began to seem just like it could be anywhere, something would happen or I would catch a glimpse of something and, bam, my sense of where I was in the world would be switched on by observances small and large.

A few times it was by babies toddling around swathed in thick quilted jackets and pants with the back of the pants slit for easy access. Other times it was by street food stands with smoky charcoal braziers offering the familiar, the identifiable and the I-can’t-believe-they-eat that, all cooked and served on skewers to munch on while you strolled with friends. Sometimes it was a bicycle or motor scooter loaded down with people or goods or the occasional stray vendor with a scale in his hand peddling piles of fruit or vegetables from bamboo trays suspended from a pole across his back. Or a line of rickshaws parked for the night in a shadowy street that evoked a movie set from the 1930s. Or the huge plastic thermoses of hot water with cork bungs that every worker everywhere I went seemed to keep handy to refill their tea mug.

There was so much more that I saw, experienced (and, of course, ate), and while China enriched, entranced, entertained and enlightened me it also left me wondering. Recent news reports have complicated my feelings, but have not dimmed my enthusiasm for the people, places and activities I encountered during my visit.

Please watch for my reports on my trip to China here in Blog Appetit. Some will be food oriented, with recipes on occasion. Others might be about what moved me or made me think or react. I look forward to sharing my adventure with you.

About the photo: A snack street in Shanghai

Something's Fishy and I'm Home ...

... and full of stories, photos, experiences and, of course, Chinese food.

I hope to download the 1,500 plus photos I took in the two weeks I was away this weekend. (It could take all weekend, that's a 4GB card and half a 2gb one, too! The pix with this post actually comes from my trip to Vietnam in 2005.)

Watch this blog for assorted write ups, recipe adaptations and more (I'll probably start with my Shanghai cooking school experience and recipes for what we cooked there.) More to come.

Xi Xi for your patience while I recover from jet lag, catch up in the office and brew myself some more green tea.

To keep you cooking until I post my new recipes here's one I have used and honed throughout the years, inspired by one written by the late Barbara Tropp in her classic The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking.

Fish Steamed with Ginger, Garlic and Black Beans
Serves 4

1 Tbs Chinese rice wine OR dry sherry
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese or Japanese sesame oil
1 Tbs minced fresh garlic
¼ tsp dried hot red pepper flakes OR a half of one small hot chili, seeded and minced
4 fish steaks, about 1 - 1.5 pounds total, cut about ¾” thick – try salmon or halibut, any stray bones or scales removed
1 Tbs salted Chinese black beans (sometimes called fermented black beans)
2 Tbs fine shreds of ginger peeled
½ of a large red bell pepper, cut into thin matchstick pieces or shreds
¼ cup chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a small bowl combine wine, oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Set aside.

Rip off 8 long strips of aluminum foil and double them up with shiny side facing up. In the middle of each put a fish steak. Stir the wine and soy sauce mixture and dribble one fourth of the wine and soy mixture over each fish portion. Scatter each steak with one fourth of the black beans, ginger shreds, red bell peppers and green onions.

Fold the foil around each piece of fish to make a sealed packet, crimping the ends so no liquid can escape. Place the packets on a baking tray and cook in the oven until the fish is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Serve hot, room temperature or cold. Remember if not serving right away that the fish will keep cooking in the foil packets.

China Bound

I'm on the road to China -- or more precisely Shanghai, Xi An and Beijing.
I'll update from the road if I can, but promise lots of goodies when I return.

Red Hot Ice for Valentine's Day

Everyone associates Valentine's Day treats and desserts with chocolate. I know I do. But if you would like to find a way to celebrate with your sweetheart that's also heart healthy, try this non-fat, bright red, low-calorie sorbet. (You can make this even if you don't have an ice cream maker. See directions below.)

Red Hot Ice

Makes about 8 1/2 cup servings

4 cups brewed herbal tea -- use any flavor that brews up bright red, I used a hibiscus tea similar to Celestial Seasoning's Red Zinger.

2 tbsp fresh lime or lemon juice (if using a fruit flavored tea)

Honey or agave nectar

Mint, choppped (optional)

While the tea is hot, stir in lemon or lime juice (if using) and sweetener to taste. Add a bit more sweetener than you normally would since the finished sorbet's coldness will dull its sweeteness. Chill well.

Pour cold mixture into ice cream machine and process until done, about 20 minutes. There is a chance that your sorbet will still be a bit soupy. If so, put the sorbert into a wide plastic or metal container or pan, cover and freeze. Remove from the freezer every half hour or so and rake the frozen ice with a fork to break the ice up, stir and replace until frozen to desired consistency. If you don't have an ice cream maker, do this from the start to make the sorbet. When ready to serve, allow to soften a bit at room temperature before scooping. If the ice is too hard or you are in a hurry, place the ice in food processor and whirl for a few seconds until desired consistency is reached. Sprinkle with chopped mint before serving.

Really need some chocolate on your Valentine's Day dessert? Try drizzling a little gourmet chocolate sauce or melted dark chocolate on top.

Every Valentine Needs Charles (Chocolates) In Charge

Click on over to Sugar Savvy to read my Valentine to Charles Chocolates' Valentine's Day assortment. To put it simply this is some of the best chocolate candy I've ever eaten as well as some of the prettiest. It's almost like it's candy AND bling in one!

Check it out.

Lots of Links on the Side(bar)

A relatively new feature on my side bar (towards the bottom, I'll wait while you scroll down to check it out) is the Foodie Blog Roll.

It is a way for dedicated food bloggers to link to one another and spread the joy. I hope you will take a few minutes and explore some of the food blogs that participate in the blog roll.

This Just In

I'm back from Las Vegas. My husband and I are reps for several manufacturers and it was great to see the numbers of buyers that attended our industry's semi-annual market in Lost Wages. At one point in one (very large) showroom I looked up and I literally could not see the floor for the buyers. Let's hope it bodes well for the economy.

While in Vegas, Mr. Blog Appetit and I played blackjack for about a half hour on $20 total, which I thought was pretty amazing. We ate in one of the worst restaurants I've ever eaten at anywhere (a Southern comfort spot in Harrah's where even the chicken soup was inedible), saw a show (comedian Rita Rudner) at Harrah's which is why we were eating there to begin with. (By the way, she was very entertaining, but on the way home I watched a video of her in the airport where she was doing choice bits from her act. My new tip for freebies in Vegas -- watch all the comedians on the airport videos.) , had way too much steak and lots of seafood. Vegas will get it's own write up soon.

What have I been cooking? Well, this past week I've been under the weather and a scrambled egg and microwaved water has been about it. The week before that I was in Vegas. Before that, however, do I have dishes to dish -- from goulash to doro wat. And a new piece of kitchen equipment to rhapsodize about (A Rhapsody in Blue). Watch this space.

On the Road to China. I'm off in less than two weeks to China, including a cooking class in Shanghai, a meal in a local home near Beijing and more. I usually don't post while I'm on the road, but I will be taking pictures and notes, so more on China when I return in March.

How Sweet it Was -- Local See's Candies Store Closes Unexpectedly. It was one of the last "neighborhood" style stores I knew of around here, the rest are in malls. One of the oldest stores in the See's chain, it had a quaint art deco charm. The signage and candy maybe gone and the for lease sign up, but I bet the place still smells of chocolate. The community staged on uprising when the store's closing was proposed four years ago and the location was kept open. This time there was no warning, just a sign in the window one morning. Also, I noticed the See's in my mall of choice has moved to a more out-of-the way, smaller location. I guess even See's Candies needs to tighten its belt in this business climate despite being owned by Berkshire-Hathaway. Memo to Warren Buffett -- Save My See's! (For more on See's Candies including links to my reviews and calorie counts, click here.)

Lunar New Year at the Grocery Store

Las Vegas Bound

I'm off to do my "day job" at my semi-annual trade show in Las Vegas.
Watch this space for a write up of all the tasty doings I somehow always manage to do after work is through.

I'm in a Magazine!

A few months ago a reader left me a comment to get in touch. She enjoyed my blog and wondered if I would like to write for a British food magazine. The result is in this month's issue of Olive Magazine, a food magazine published by the BBC.

Olive is available in the U.S., and it is one of my favorite reads, especially for its food travel articles. You can read more about my affection for British food magazines here. You can find Olive in the magazine sections of some larger chain and independent book stores.

The above is a photograph of the pdf I was sent. I participated in a series called "Eat Like a Local" and contributed the write up of my memories of cioppino, the recipe and and photos of the dish and San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. (My son took the photo of me buying the crab.) My article appears on page 111 of the January 2008 issue. (The January issue should still be available here in the States, although the website now features the February issue.)

It was a learning experience having to convert recipe measurements to metric and required some retesting to make sure everything would turn out okay. There were just a few minor word and recipe changes, for example the quantity of the chopped fennel fronds. I had specified 1 tsp. Olive's version advised readers to reserve the all fronds from the fennel and use them without giving a measurement. I'm hoping fennel is sold with very little frond attached in Great Britain!

It was also a learning experience to develop the recipe, writing and photos and send them off and not have final control over them. Everything had to be clear without being in the context of a personal blog. I had some severe word limitations, even for the recipe, and worked hard to make it all work within that context.

Many bloggers have that day dream of someone reading their posts and offering them a chance to write for a wider audience. Mine came true thanks to Olive Magazine.

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Olive does not have a link to my recipe, however my Provencal Fish Soup offers some of the same tastes.