Flashback Friday - Rice Salad with Chinese Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 30, 2014.

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Have you ever read a food magazine and felt the urge to cook one of the recipes RIGHT NOW? As in, drop the magazine and run to the kitchen immediately? I had that feeling when I spotted the recipe for savory granola in the April 2014 issue of Bon Appetit. I had just turned the oven off 10 minutes earlier after removing a tray of roasted broccoli and knew I wouldn't have to wait for the thing to pre-heat (it takes forever, which can be a real buzz-kill during a cooking frenzy). We had most of the ingredients--old fashioned oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, fennel, seeds--and I substituted for a couple others (pumpkin seeds in place of sunflower seeds, skipped the pistachios entirely). I mixed up the ingredients pronto and banged them into the hot oven.

Now you must recall that I had just roasted broccoli. At 450°F. So the oven was a wee bit hotter than it needed to be, hence the charred appearance of my salad topping (some of the black bits are black sesame seeds though). No matter, even slightly burnt, the granola was AMAZING. It took all of my willpower not to shove handfuls of it into my face hole. The combination of nuts + fennel seeds is delicious and I wish I had thought of it myself.

Rather than eating all of it right then and there (it makes about 3 cups), I decided to use it as a component in the dinner I was preparing--cold rice salad with Chinese sausage and a peanut butter vinaigrette. Oh, and roasted broccoli.

I wanted the salad to have a peanut sauce flavor, but not a standard sweet peanut sauce. Instead, I made it ultra vinegary, using both rice wine and Chinese black vinegar (also called Chinkiang vinegar). Chinese black vinegar is, as Isaac Mizrahi is fond of saying, EVERYTHING, Darlings. It's mellow, malty, and woodsy, with a burnt caramel aspect. If you're a vinegar fan (and I know not everyone is...weirdos), then you have to try it. I then added a bit of agave syrup, soy, and sambal oelek for heat. (We use Huy Fong brand, the company that makes the ever popular "rooster sauce" sriracha. Oelek is different in that it's just crushed chiles in vinegar and salt, no garlic or sugar.) It was perfect on plain steamed rice garnished with Chinese sausage and scallions.

I tossed the broccoli into the salad after the sauce was added, because I didn't want the broccoli to have soggy florets. And then I sprinkled a bit of the granola on each serving.

So. Good. I need to make this again very soon.

Rice Salad with Roasted Broccoli

Roasted broccoli:
3 broccoli crowns
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt

Peanut sauce:
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave syrup
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
5 tablespoons unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek
1/4 teaspoon salt

To assemble salad:
3 cups cooked, room-temperature rice (Jasmine is nice, or basmati)
3 Chinese pork sausages, sliced into coins, lightly fried, and drained on paper towels
1/2 cup julienned carrots
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Savory granola (optional, but delicious)

To make broccoli: Preheat oven to 450°F.

Remove thick stem from each broccoli crown. Break the floret into small pieces. Cut the stem into lengthwise slices. Toss both florets and stems with olive oil and salt and arrange in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning broccoli halfway, until tender and browning in spots. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make peanut sauce: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well. Taste for seasoning--it should be vinegary, lightly salty, and lightly spicy. Add more salt and sambal if you wish.

To assemble salad: Using a fork, stir rice into prepared peanut sauce until well-coated. Add the sausages, carrots, and scallions and toss to combine.

Serve at room temperature with a helping of broccoli and a sprinkle of the savory granola.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Rice Salad with Chinese Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 30, 2014.

-----------------------------------------

Have you ever read a food magazine and felt the urge to cook one of the recipes RIGHT NOW? As in, drop the magazine and run to the kitchen immediately? I had that feeling when I spotted the recipe for savory granola in the April 2014 issue of Bon Appetit. I had just turned the oven off 10 minutes earlier after removing a tray of roasted broccoli and knew I wouldn't have to wait for the thing to pre-heat (it takes forever, which can be a real buzz-kill during a cooking frenzy). We had most of the ingredients--old fashioned oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, fennel, seeds--and I substituted for a couple others (pumpkin seeds in place of sunflower seeds, skipped the pistachios entirely). I mixed up the ingredients pronto and banged them into the hot oven.

Now you must recall that I had just roasted broccoli. At 450°F. So the oven was a wee bit hotter than it needed to be, hence the charred appearance of my salad topping (some of the black bits are black sesame seeds though). No matter, even slightly burnt, the granola was AMAZING. It took all of my willpower not to shove handfuls of it into my face hole. The combination of nuts + fennel seeds is delicious and I wish I had thought of it myself.

Rather than eating all of it right then and there (it makes about 3 cups), I decided to use it as a component in the dinner I was preparing--cold rice salad with Chinese sausage and a peanut butter vinaigrette. Oh, and roasted broccoli.

I wanted the salad to have a peanut sauce flavor, but not a standard sweet peanut sauce. Instead, I made it ultra vinegary, using both rice wine and Chinese black vinegar (also called Chinkiang vinegar). Chinese black vinegar is, as Isaac Mizrahi is fond of saying, EVERYTHING, Darlings. It's mellow, malty, and woodsy, with a burnt caramel aspect. If you're a vinegar fan (and I know not everyone is...weirdos), then you have to try it. I then added a bit of agave syrup, soy, and sambal oelek for heat. (We use Huy Fong brand, the company that makes the ever popular "rooster sauce" sriracha. Oelek is different in that it's just crushed chiles in vinegar and salt, no garlic or sugar.) It was perfect on plain steamed rice garnished with Chinese sausage and scallions.

I tossed the broccoli into the salad after the sauce was added, because I didn't want the broccoli to have soggy florets. And then I sprinkled a bit of the granola on each serving.

So. Good. I need to make this again very soon.

Rice Salad with Roasted Broccoli

Roasted broccoli:
3 broccoli crowns
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt

Peanut sauce:
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave syrup
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
5 tablespoons unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek
1/4 teaspoon salt

To assemble salad:
3 cups cooked, room-temperature rice (Jasmine is nice, or basmati)
3 Chinese pork sausages, sliced into coins, lightly fried, and drained on paper towels
1/2 cup julienned carrots
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Savory granola (optional, but delicious)

To make broccoli: Preheat oven to 450°F.

Remove thick stem from each broccoli crown. Break the floret into small pieces. Cut the stem into lengthwise slices. Toss both florets and stems with olive oil and salt and arrange in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning broccoli halfway, until tender and browning in spots. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make peanut sauce: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well. Taste for seasoning--it should be vinegary, lightly salty, and lightly spicy. Add more salt and sambal if you wish.

To assemble salad: Using a fork, stir rice into prepared peanut sauce until well-coated. Add the sausages, carrots, and scallions and toss to combine.

Serve at room temperature with a helping of broccoli and a sprinkle of the savory granola.

Posted on Minxeats.com.


Posted on Minxeats.com.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Most broccoli cheese soups I've had are as thick as paste and is about as tasty. The broccoli is often mushy and flatulent, well past the point of overcooked. And forget canned versions; I find them abominable.

Homemade soup, on the other hand, can be quite delicious. And no, you don't need a crock pot (not for anything in my book). Broccoli cheese soup is actually quite quick, especially if you don't roast the broccoli first. But why not? Roasting adds another layer of flavor, and it can be done while you're prepping the other veg.

There's also no need for a gloppy texture. Just don't use so much flour!

This soup is somewhat lean in that I didn't use whole milk or half and half, as some recipes call for. Much of the broth's flavor comes from bottled dry hard cider (but a light beer will also work) and chicken stock. It's roux-thickened, so there's not really any need for tons of dairy. And it doesn't need more than a cup and a half of cheese--it's not fondue, after all.

I think this soup is perfect on a cold winter day, especially like the snowy one we just had. In fact, this was dinner that very day, accompanied by hot buttered toast. It would also work well using a small head of cauliflower in place of the broccoli. Even a pound of button mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in butter, would make a good substitute for the broccoli-averse.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

2 heads broccoli
Olive oil
Salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 medium carrot, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup dry hard cider
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups 2% milk
4 shakes Worcestershire sauce
Freshly ground nutmeg (1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon, or to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper (as much as you like)
Tabasco sauce
6 ounces shredded sharp white cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Trim broccoli stems. Cut into small florets. Peel the stems and cut into chunks. Arrange in one layer on a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and a big pinch of salt. Roast for 20 minutes, or until florets start to char a bit on the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

In a soup pot or dutch oven, melt the butter and stir in the flour until a paste forms. Add the carrot, pepper, and onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes, until veg start to soften and everything smells good. Pour in the cider, stock, and milk and bring to a simmer. Season with the Worcestershire, nutmeg, pepper, a few shakes of hot sauce. Add the broccoli and simmer over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, until the broccoli is tender. Stir in the cheese until melted. Season with salt to taste.

Serves 4-6



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Ekiben

Ekiben has been on the lips and Instagram accounts of Baltimoreans ever since it opened its doors in Fells Point last March. Before the brick and mortar shop opened, owners Nikhil Yesupriya, Ephrem Abebe, and Steve Chu sold their pan-Asian wares at the Fells Point Farmers' Market. I love the fact that the three partners are from completely different ethnic backgrounds (South Indian, Ethiopian, Taiwanese), and that they met at UMBC. That's what college is for, right? Not only to get an education, but also to branch out from one's potentially insular upbringing and see the world. In the case of Yesupriya, Abebe, and Chu, it was the world of food. While the dishes they serve at Ekiben (itself a Japanese word referring to a specific style of bento box served at railway stations) have a strong Taiwanese bent, the partners season their dishes with flavors from each of their heritages.

The must-try dish is the tempura fried broccoli, topped with shallots and fresh herbs and seasoned with rice vinegar. For $2 more, non-vegetarians can get thinly sliced Chinese sausage, too.

Back when Harborplace first opened, there was a stall selling deep-fried, batter-coated vegetables. I tried to avoid the broccoli, because invariably the florets were soggy with uncooked batter. That is not the case at Ekiben, where every bite is encased in a thin and crisp coating. The combination of flavors and textures in this dish is terrific.

We also did two of the buns that are available every day - the Neighborhood Bird and the Tofu Brah. The former includes a Taiwanese curry fried chicken thigh of vast proportions topped with spicy sambal mayo, pickles, and fresh herbs. The latter is tofu in spicy peanut sauce, topped with seasonal slaw, and fresh herbs. All their sandwiches are mammoth, served on steamed buns that are positively cloud-like in appearance and texture. They are well-suited for a sturdy filling like the chicken thigh, but not substantial enough for the sloppy tofu and its mountain of toppings. Make sure to equip yourself with lots of napkins if you're going to tackle the tofu sandwich, and lean over your plate (cardboard takeout container) so if you do have a spill, you won't waste it on the floor.

Though a tad difficult to eat, the tofu sandwich was delicious. Next time, we'll try it over rice. Also next time, we'll get the Original bun, which features Thai chicken meatballs in a coconut black peppercorn sauce. We hear the catfish is tasty, too, as is everything else on the menu.

Why couldn't Ekiben have been around when I lived in Fells Point, just three blocks away?

Ekiben
1622 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-558-1914
ekibenbaltimore.com



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Authentic Italian Pasta Chips

For too many years, snack foods promised more than they could deliver. The bag might say, "spicy salsa flavor" or "rich caramel goodness," but they would usually end up being a giant salt bomb or sugar bomb with little actual flavor. Recently, however, a growing number of entrepreneurs have been putting some real effort into creating snack foods with unique flavors that taste exactly like what they're supposed to taste like. One such product is Authentic Italian Pasta Chips.

Made with Durum wheat semolina flour like real pasta, these thin, square crackers look like dried out pieces of ravioli dough. But don't worry, it doesn't taste like dried pasta. The crackers are light and crisp. Pasta Chips come in six flavors all classically Italian in origin: Mediterranean Sea Salt, Garlic Olive Oil, Spicy Tomato Herb, Marinara, Alfredo, Spinach-Broccoli-Kale and Sea Salt. Okay, the last one might be a little New American, but they're all quite tasty.

If you're looking for a good dipping  chip, I would recommend the mildly flavored Mediterranean Sea Salt, Garlic Olive Oil, or Spinach-Broccoli-Kale and Sea Salt. Since they taste exactly like the flavors they purport to be, you can match each one to the flavor of dip you have so they will compliment each other. The other flavors are best eaten on their own. Although I didn't think the Marinara tasted much like marinara sauce, it does have a really addictive flavor, like a low salt version of Doritos (I mean that in a good way). Spicy Tomato Herb actually reminded me more of a tomato-based pasta sauce and was really delicious. Parmesan and Romano cheese are the primary flavors of the Alfredo chips with a hint of parsley in the background.

All six flavors of Authentic Italian Pasta Chips are well worth trying, and since they are made with non-GMO ingredients, you can feel good about eating them.    

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Asian BBQ Chicken

It doesn't seem (to me) that I cook chicken very often. I'm not sure why, since its probably my favorite meat. Maybe it's just boring, I don't know. But I got it in my head that not only did I need to make chicken, but it needed to be basted in a thick bbq-style sauce with Asian flavors. I had this picture in my head of a beautiful brown chicken leg, glistening with sauce. Just like in that photo above. Isn't it gorgeous?

Most chicken recipes direct cooks to make sure the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. While that's fine for chicken breasts, I really prefer dark meat to be cooked to closer to 180°F. Dark meat is more moist, and at the lower temperature it still seems vaguely raw to me. It's fairly hard to overcook (unless you burn it), so I tend to leave the chicken on the heat for a bit longer than usual. Your mileage may vary, of course. If you like your dark meat less-cooked than I do, then by all means, cook it to 165°F.

If you're a regular Minxeats reader, you might have noticed that Mr Minx and I are absolutely in love with the rich, slightly-burnt, caramelly flavor and aroma of Chinese black vinegar. It's one ingredient that needs to be purchased in an Asian grocery, so if you don't want to make the trip, then use balsamic vinegar instead. It won't be exactly the same, but it will still taste good.

Asian BBQ Chicken

For sauce:
1 cup onion, chopped
Oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon black vinegar
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1-2 teaspoons sambal oelek or sriracha
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

For chicken:
2 tablespoons black vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken leg quarters, or 4 legs and 4 thighs
1 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 green onions, chopped

To make sauce: Saute onion in a bit of oil until translucent. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or so. Add the soy, hoisin, brown sugar, vinegars, ginger, and sambal. Bring to a boil. Once boiled, remove from heat and puree mixture with a stick blender. Stir in toasted sesame oil.

To make chicken: Combine black vinegar, soy, and garlic in a large zip-top plastic bag. Prick the chicken all over with the tip of a knife and add to the bag. Press out the air, seal the bag, and shake to coat the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Add the oil to a large oven-safe skillet or casserole and heat over high heat. Add the butter, and once melted, add the chicken, skin side-down, and any juices from the marinade bag. Cook 3-4 minutes, until chicken is browned on skin side, then turn the chicken pieces skin side-up. Place pan in preheated oven and cook for 8 minutes. Remove pan from oven and brush tops of chicken with some of the bbq sauce. Return to oven for another 8 minutes. At that time, reapply the bbq sauce and return to oven. Roast for 30-40 minutes, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165°F (or 180°F, if you're like me and want slightly drier meat). Apply another coating of sauce and sprinkle with green onions before serving.

Serves 4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Veggie Pancakes with Asian Flavors

A while back, I found myself with a bunch of vegetables--a fennel bulb, a bag of broccoli slaw, sugar snap peas, lots of green onions, roasted tomatoes--and not a lot of ideas. Well, there were ideas, but nothing particularly cohesive. Because we had eaten a bunch of meat recently, I wanted to make a primarily vegetarian meal. But what to do with that motley crew of produce? The tomatoes were really throwing me off, so I decided they could wait for another meal. The rest I would use in vegetable fritters.

There was also a bunch of Thai basil in our container garden. The plant was going a bit wild and needed serious trimming, so basil became part of the meal plan. And as I had just opened a new jar of pad kapao sauce, some of that would go in, too. I really love that stuff. It's spicy, aromatic, basil-y, and garlick-y, and it's good on just about everything. Mix it with mayonnaise and put it on a turkey burger. Put it in the turkey burger, too. Mix it with softened cream cheese and spread it on a bagel. Yes, for breakfast. (Hey, "everything" bagels have garlic and onion on them, so why not?) Mix it with softened butter and stuff it under the skin of a chicken before roasting. Put a tablespoon of it in plain tomato soup to eat with that grilled cheese sandwich. Pad kapao sauce is my sriracha. I've gotten my brother hooked on it, too, and the last time we hit an Asian supermarket together, we each bought several jars.

Eventually, I ditched the fritter idea and went with okonomiyaki-style pancakes. Okonomiyaki uses dashi, which isn't vegetarian, but you can certainly substitute some veg stock or just plain water in the batter. Me, I like the vague fishy flavor of the dashi.

Okonomiyaki are commonly served with Kewpie mayonnaise and unsweetened pickled ginger. Instead, I added some of my favorite chilli basil paste to a little Duke's mayo.

Veggie Pancake with Asian Flavors

For pancakes:
1 cup water
2 teaspoons dashi powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon Maesri Thai chilli paste with basil leaves(pad kapao)
1 bunch scallions, chopped
3-4 cups mixed raw vegetables (I used sliced sugar snap peas, fennel, okra (because we had only 3 pods), and broccoli slaw mix)
1/4 cup roughly chopped Thai basil

For sauce:
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Maesri Thai basil and chilli sauce

Put the dashi powder and water in a microwave safe bowl. Heat long enough to warm the water and dissolve the dashi, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Let cool.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the cooled dashi to the flour mixture, stirring to make a batter. Add the eggs and chilli sauce. Cover and refrigerate batter for at least an hour and up to three hours.

After the batter has rested, add the scallions, vegetables, and basil to the batter; it will be very thick.

Add a tablespoon of canola oil to an 12" nonstick frying pan and heat until it shimmers. Make 3 approximately 5" pancakes with the vegetable batter. Cook until bottoms are golden brown. Flip with a spatula and cook other side until brown. Remove pancakes to a paper towel-lined plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat until all batter is used.

Make a sauce with the mayo and chilli sauce. Serve with the pancakes.

Makes 9 pancakes.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Rice Salad with Chinese Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

Have you ever read a food magazine and felt the urge to cook one of the recipes RIGHT NOW? As in, drop the magazine and run to the kitchen immediately? I had that feeling when I spotted the recipe for savory granola in the April 2014 issue of Bon Appetit. I had just turned the oven off 10 minutes earlier after removing a tray of roasted broccoli and knew I wouldn't have to wait for the thing to pre-heat (it takes forever, which can be a real buzz-kill during a cooking frenzy). We had most of the ingredients--old fashioned oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, fennel, seeds--and I substituted for a couple others (pumpkin seeds in place of sunflower seeds, skipped the pistachios entirely). I mixed up the ingredients pronto and banged them into the hot oven.

Now you must recall that I had just roasted broccoli. At 450°F. So the oven was a wee bit hotter than it needed to be, hence the charred appearance of my salad topping (some of the black bits are black sesame seeds though). No matter, even slightly burnt, the granola was AMAZING. It took all of my willpower not to shove handfuls of it into my face hole. The combination of nuts + fennel seeds is delicious and I wish I had thought of it myself.

Rather than eating all of it right then and there (it makes about 3 cups), I decided to use it as a component in the dinner I was preparing--cold rice salad with Chinese sausage and a peanut butter vinaigrette. Oh, and roasted broccoli.

I wanted the salad to have a peanut sauce flavor, but not a standard sweet peanut sauce. Instead, I made it ultra vinegary, using both rice wine and Chinese black vinegar (also called Chinkiang vinegar). Chinese black vinegar is, as Isaac Mizrahi is fond of saying, EVERYTHING, Darlings. It's mellow, malty, and woodsy, with a burnt caramel aspect. If you're a vinegar fan (and I know not everyone is...weirdos), then you have to try it. I then added a bit of agave syrup, soy, and sambal oelek for heat. (We use Huy Fong brand, the company that makes the ever popular "rooster sauce" sriracha. Oelek is different in that it's just crushed chiles in vinegar and salt, no garlic or sugar.) It was perfect on plain steamed rice garnished with Chinese sausage and scallions.

I tossed the broccoli into the salad after the sauce was added, because I didn't want the broccoli to have soggy florets. And then I sprinkled a bit of the granola on each serving.

So. Good. I need to make this again very soon.

Rice Salad with Roasted Broccoli

Roasted broccoli:
3 broccoli crowns
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt

Peanut sauce:
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave syrup
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
5 tablespoons unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek
1/4 teaspoon salt

To assemble salad:
3 cups cooked, room-temperature rice (Jasmine is nice, or basmati)
3 Chinese pork sausages, sliced into coins, lightly fried, and drained on paper towels
1/2 cup julienned carrots
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Savory granola (optional, but delicious)

To make broccoli: Preheat oven to 450°F.

Remove thick stem from each broccoli crown. Break the floret into small pieces. Cut the stem into lengthwise slices. Toss both florets and stems with olive oil and salt and arrange in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning broccoli halfway, until tender and browning in spots. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make peanut sauce: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well. Taste for seasoning--it should be vinegary, lightly salty, and lightly spicy. Add more salt and sambal if you wish.

To assemble salad: Using a fork, stir rice into prepared peanut sauce until well-coated. Add the sausages, carrots, and scallions and toss to combine.

Serve at room temperature with a helping of broccoli and a sprinkle of the savory granola.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dim Sum at Asian Court

Dim sum is one of our favorite restaurant meals. Like Spanish tapas, dim sum is basically a series of small dishes to be enjoyed with a beverage, in this case, hot tea.

We try to do dim sum every few months or so but don't actually get to Ellicott City as often as we'd like. It's a pretty filling occasion, so it probably behooves us that we don't gorge ourselves on dumplings too often.

Over the years, we've come up with a list of favorite dishes that we *must* eat. On our  most recent trip to Asian Court, long our favorite dim sum destination, we were lucky enough to get most of them within minutes of being seated. The servers wheeled their carts directly to our table before we were even properly situated and had requested tea, which is much better than having to wait for food.

The photos below are largely of our must-haves. This includes Chinese broccoli, cheung fun (steamed rice sheets filled with shrimp and topped with a sweet soy), salt and pepper shrimp, and soy sauce noodles (steamed and fried to a nice chew). I'm partial to the shark fin dumplings, which likely don't include shark fin, but do include a nice melange of meat and seafood. The hom sui gok, a chewy fried football-shaped glob of sticky rice dough stuffed with pork, are another favorite of mine. Mr Minx likes anything dumpling-shaped, so we make sure to order as many varieties of those as roll by. I find the siu mai (open faced dumplings) at Asian Court to be some of the best around. They're bigger than average, and their porky stuffing has a nice chunky texture.

Chinese broccoli

Cheung fun with shrimp

I'm the only one who eats the cheung fun (unless our friend LaRaine joins us). Apparently the soft and slippery texture of the rice crepe is an acquired taste.

Left front - shark fin dumplings, Right front - shrimp balls
Rear - siu mai

Front - steamed dumplings, Middle - har gow (shrimp dumplings),
Rear - soy sauce noodles

Spicy pork stir fry

We had never seen this dish before at dim sum, a stir fry of pork with scallions and snow peas. It was quite good, almost Grace Garden-caliber, and very spicy.

Lo mai gai (sticky rice in lotus) and hom sui gok (fried glutinous rice dumplings)

Salt & pepper shrimp - yes, you eat *everything* - shell too.

If you're a fan of Chinese food, particularly dumplings, you may enjoy dim sum. There aren't many places in the Baltimore area that serve dim sum. Zhongshan in Baltimore City does, and Asian Court in Ellicott City, but that's about it. There are plenty of places in Montgomery County, but we don't feel the need to drive so far when we have a restaurant that we really enjoy sorta kinda almost under our noses.

Asian Court
9180 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042
http://www.asiancourt.net/





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Roasted Broccoli

We had some broccoli in the fridge that needed to be cooked before it went bad, and I wanted to do something other than the usual blanch and quick sauté. I remembered reading a recipe for broccoli "cooked forever" somewhere on the Internets--I know, it sounds disgusting, but it's supposed to taste terrific. Possibly as good as my grandmother's green beans, cooked for hours, which turned out sweet and mellow and buttery. I used to eat them by the bowlful for dinner.

I see you--yes you--over there, sneering. You just go on ahead and continue eating your under-cooked beans that make squeaking sounds when you chew. Not particularly tasty, are they? Just...squeaky.

Harrumph.

Back to broccoli. I'm just going to have to take the recipe creator's word that long-cooking the stuff makes for deliciousness. When I found the recipe, I saw that it required 1 cup of olive oil. Sorry, but I'd rather spend that $5 on something less-wasteful (I am, after all, one of the 99%).

Instead, I decided to oven-roast my broccoli. The Amateur Gourmet raved over Ina Garten's recipe, so I did a similar riff, tossing the broccoli florets with salt, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a fat clove of sliced garlic, and a pinch of red pepper flakes before popping it into a 425F oven for about 25 minutes. (On a foil-lined baking sheet. I did not just throw the broccoli into the oven like that.) When the broccoli was done, I topped it with a squeeze of lemon juice and a handful of grated Parm.

The result: perfectly tender-crisp vegetables with nice caramelized bits, and a house that reeked of roasted garlic (not necessarily a bad thing). It was pretty terrific, and I'm betting that cauliflower would be just as good, if not better.

Once the weather gets cooler, I see myself roasting vegetables in this manner more often.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pasta Primavera

I love going to H-Mart, but sometimes I go a little crazy in the produce department. Last week, we ended up with bok choy, Brussels sprouts, artichokes, sugar snap peas, Asian eggplant, and two bunches of Chinese broccoli, but had no real plan on how to use these goodies before they went bad.

We had some leftover roast chicken in the fridge that I needed to use, so I figured a pasta dish might be the way to go. Of course the mere mention of pasta always turns Mr Minx on, so I couldn't change my mind. In the end, I decided that an Asian-style peanut sauce might work well on pasta with some of the veg. Kinda like a pasta primavera, only not at all Spring-like.

Pasta with Peanut Sauce

1 bunch Chinese broccoli
2 6" long Asian eggplants
1 tablespoon brown sugar
soy sauce
canola oil
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Korean red pepper flakes (or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 carrot, julienned
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded
1 lb pasta of your choice

Slice broccoli stems into long diagonals; roughly chop the greens. Blanch stems and greens separately in boiling salted water until the stems are tender but still crunchy (about 3 minutes) and the greens are bright green. Cool broccoli down in a large bowl of ice water. When cooled, drain thoroughly, squeezing water out of greens. Set aside.

Cut off stem end of eggplants and slice into long diagonals about 1/2 inch thick. Heat a large sauté pan over high heat and add a bit of cooking oil. When pan is very hot, toss in eggplant and cook for 4-6 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add brown sugar and stir to coat. Dribble in a few teaspoons of soy, turn the heat to medium, and cover pan. Cook an additional 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more soy if the eggplant seems dry or is sticking to the pan, until the vegetable is soft and brown. Move from pan to a bowl and set aside.

Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain off all but a few tablespoons of water and leave in pasta pot.

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce. In the large pan used for the eggplant, sauté sliced onion over medium-high heat with a bit of oil and a pinch of salt until wilted and just beginning to brown. Add chicken stock. With a fork, stir in peanut butter until well incorporated, then add honey, hoisin, vinegar, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium-low and taste for seasoning; add soy sauce if needed. Stir in sesame oil, then add carrots, cooked broccoli stems and greens, eggplant, and chicken, tossing well to coat. Cook for a minute or two to warm the chicken through.

Add sauce and vegetables to pasta in pot and stir well to coat.

Serves 4-6

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Meatless Monday - Rotini with Broccoli

We planted our garden early in May and within a few weeks our basil situation was out of control. Four kinds of basil were growing like wildfire - not a bad thing - and Mr Minx was forced to whip up a quick batch of pesto with the spicy globe variety. We used some as a burger topping, and the leftovers on pasta, along with about half a cup of leftover heavy cream (leftover from sometime at the end of April - does the stuff ever go bad?), and the dregs of a container of shredded Parmesan cheese.

We also had some broccoli crowns in the fridge, so I blanched them and tossed them into the sauce, which went over "rainbow" rotini. (Surely an orange, green, and cream colored rainbow could only have existed in the 1970s.)

With a judicious amount of salt and a bit more shredded Parmesan added at the end, it was a filling and delicious meal, full of vegetable goodness.

What's your favorite way to eat broccoli?

Leftover Soup

The problem with going to H Mart is that we tend to get carried away with buying fresh produce. Three kinds of mushrooms, Chinese broccoli, bok choy, okra, two bunches of cilantro, two bunches of scallions, a daikon, a knob of celery root, two chayotes, and asparagus is a lot for two people to eat in a short period of time. One of the problems with H Mart is that the produce seems gorgeous, but it goes bad relatively quickly. In two days, the asparagus was not only squishy on the tips, but also moldy on the bottom. The broccoli  leaves turned yellow almost instantly, the okra got slimy, and the daikon went limp.

So what to do with broccoli stems, limp daikon, and lots of mushrooms? Plus some roast chicken that my MIL didn't want and leftover 8-treasure sticky-rice-stuffed duck from our latest excursion to Grace Garden?

Why, make soup, of course.

Mr Minx, aka the Soup Meister, is quite adept at throwing disparate ingredients together with some stock and coming up with a tasty soup. This was no exception. The duck and its stuffing made the soup taste long-cooked, with definite and heavy Asian influences. The broccoli and daikon were cooked a relatively short period of time so both retained a bit of crunch. Overall, a hearty dinner, full of flavors and textures, and great for a chilly, rainy, day.

Dinner at Asian Court

Although Asian Court is now our go-to dim sum joint, we had never been there for dinner. That changed on Sunday, when we enjoyed a bit of a feast from the "authentic cuisine" part of the menu.

We tried the whole fish with soy bean paste, ordered "medium spicy." The fish turned out to be tilapia, which lent a bit too much of its metallic/raw sewage flavor to the dish. The sauce, which wasn't really spicy at all, was quite nice, and would work better with a fish with a more neutral taste.

We also had the Peking duck done right, with tender meat sliced into slender ribbons and super crispy, fat-free skin (it was so crisp, it was actually sharp). Jesse Wong's Hong Kong had the best, but now that it's gone, Asian Court gets the title.

We usually get Chinese broccoli, but this time tried the Yu choi sauteed with garlic. Yu choi is a delicate-tasting member of the Brassica family, and this version was juicy and crisp.

The chef's special "E-noodle" (yi mein) with seafood consisted of chewy wheat-flour noodles stir fried with shrimp, scallop, squid, and bits of crab stick. They had a nice mild flavor and provided a soft textural contrast to the other items we ordered.

Finally, we ordered duck tongues with chive flowers. I had read about duck tongues recently and was very curious about them. Each tongue has a little bone inside of slightly fatty meat. Pop 'em in your mouth, work out the bone, spit it out (well, don't actually "spit" it out in a restaurant). Tasted like duck, but with a moister, chewier texture. The chive "flowers" were actually chopped Chinese chives. They packed a nice green onion flavor, but were much milder than expected.

We were quite happy with everything we ordered at Asian Court, so now we know that not only is the dim sum good, but also the dinner selections. The staff is ridiculously friendly and accommodating, and the decor is pleasant. While it gets crowded for dim sum, the restaurant wasn't half-full at dinnertime, which is a shame. It's worth the trip to Ellicott City.

Asian Court
9180 Baltimore National Pike (Rt 40)
Ellicott City, MD 21042
410.461.8388

Barefoot Broccoli

We had a big bunch of broccoli in the fridge and while contemplating what to do with it, I remembered reading a post about "the best broccoli of your life" on the Amateur Gourmet. In it, Adam waxes rhapsodic about a recipe from Ina Garten's cookbook, Back to Basics, involving lemon and Parmesan and a trip through the oven.

"I can't imagine it will be the 'best' broccoli of my life," I thought to myself. After all, not much beats perfectly steamed broccoli topped with butter. Except maybe gai lan (Chinese broccoli) with oyster sauce. But then I thought, "what the hell? I'll try it."

So I cut up the broccoli and tossed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mr Minx sliced up a few cloves of garlic for me (so the smell won't taint my hands which have a bit of knitting to accomplish in the next few months. Nothing worse than a garlic-scented baby blanket.) and in the oven it went.

After a few minutes, the smell of the garlic permeated the house with its...garlicness. Twenty-five minutes later, I pulled it from the oven, seasoned it with more olive oil, grated on the zest of one lemon, added the juice of half, and a handful of Parmesan. And we ate it.

It was good - the lemon/garlic/cheese combo made the dish. But was it the best I've ever had? Nope. It was too crunchy for my taste, and made for some indigestion later on. I don't think adding the basil and pine nuts that the original recipe calls for would have improved it any. I did think it would be a nice treatment for cauliflower, minus the lemon and plus the pine nuts. And maybe Brussels sprouts, too. And asparagus.

Will I try it again? Maybe - it was easy enough. Or I might just steam my broccoli and add butter. Mmmm.