Month: February 2015

Creamed Corn Chicken

Posted on by Ruth

creamstylechickenThis is one of those simple, homey dishes that is a snap to put together when you don’t have much time to cook / feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. While the taste is best if you can marinate the chicken ahead of time, you’ll still get good results if you do it even just 1/2 an hour before cooking. Serve with plenty of rice and some variety of Asian veggies, and you’ve got yourself a Hong Kong cafe-style meal.

Creamed Corn Chicken

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 slices ginger
  • 1 can cream style corn
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 T oil
  • Salt, to taste
  • Sugar, to taste
  • White pepper, to taste
  • 1 egg, beaten

Marinade Ingredients

  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 t sugar
  • 1 1/2 t shaoxing wine
  • Dash of white pepper
  • Dash of garlic powder
  • 1 t cornstarch

Method

  1. At least an hour before cooking (or overnight), combine chicken pieces with marinade ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.
  2. Heat oil in medium sized pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, stirring frequently, and season with salt, sugar, and white pepper.
  3. When ginger and garlic become aromatic (~2-3 minutes), add chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all sides are browned and chicken is nearly cooked through (~4-5 minutes).
  4. Add cream style corn and soy sauce. Lower heat to medium low, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat. While stirring constantly in one direction, add beaten egg. Adjust seasonings to taste. Remove ginger slices. Serve over rice.

Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Goh)

Posted on by Ruth

turnipcakeTurnip cake (lo bak goh) is one of my favorite dim sum items. I love the crispy exterior, soft middle, and medley of savory Chinese tidbits — Chinese sausage, mushrooms, and shrimp. Lo Bak Goh is also a traditional Chinese New Year dish, so in honor of the upcoming holiday I thought I’d share this recipe. It’s surprisingly easy to make, and when you do it yourself you can adjust the amount of “goodies” inside to suit your preferences (i.e. more mushrooms, more sausage…I added some dried scallops this last time to make it even more decadent). You can also easily double or triple this recipe, though I recommend cooking up each cake separately to make the ingredients easier to combine.

turnipcake-ingredientsA few tips: there are some weird ingredients, but all should be available at your local Asian market. When choosing daikon, look for short, heavy ones. When cooking the turnip in step 4, your turnip may give off a lot of liquid. If your mixture looks really soupy, hold back some of the liquid when combining with the flour mixture (you probably want about 1/2 – 3/4 c total – just enough to create a very thick batter). You can always add some liquid back in. Or if your daikon seems dry, add a tablespoon of stock or water to help everything come together. Finally, though extremely delicious, cooking turnip cake tends to let off…pungent odors. So you may want to leave ample time to air your place out if you’re planning to make this for company. 🙂

Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Goh)

Makes one 8-inch pan | Adapted from Christine’s Recipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 Chinese white turnip (daikon) – about 2 lbs.
  • 170 gm rice flour
  • 4 Tbsp wheat starch
  • 1-2 links Chinese sausage (lap cheung)
  • Handful of Chinese dried shrimp, soaked
  • 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped
  • 2 scallions, minced
  • 3/4 c chicken broth
  • 1 T vegetable oil
  • Pinch of white pepper
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  1. Blanch Chinese sausage boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes for cleaning and easy chopping. Drain well and finely dice. Peel the turnip and grate into thick strips (I used the large holes of a box grater). Rinse and coarsely chop dried shrimp.
  2. In a big bowl, mix the rice flour with wheat starch well.
  3. Sauté Chinese sausage over medium heat. Toss in dried shrimp and mushrooms, and continue to sauté until aromatic, 1-2 minutes. Set aside.
  4. In the same pan, add a tablespoon of oil and sauté minced scallions. Add grated turnips. Season with white pepper and salt to taste. Pour in chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and cook until tender and translucent (~5-10 minutes). Remove from heat.
  5. Add rice flour and wheat starch to the daikon mixture and quickly combine into a thick batter. Add sausage, shrimp, and mushroom mixture and mix well.
  6. Pour the mixture into a greased 8-inch pan. Steam over high heat, covered, about 45 to 60 minutes. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. To test for doneness, insert a chopstick into the middle. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked through. Let cool.
  7. Cut into pieces and fry both sides until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanying with chili sauce or with soy or oyster sauce.

Favorite Fluffy Pancakes

Posted on by Ruth

pancakesI have always been a breakfast person. I could eat eggs any time of the day; and toast and jam is one of my go-to snacks. But for a long time, I didn’t care much for pancakes, usually finding them too sweet and dense.

But for some reason, last year I decided it was time to find a pancake recipe I liked. My criteria: they had to be fluffy and simple.

This recipe is both those things, and has now become part of our recipe repertoire at home. There are only 5 ingredients, there’s no buttermilk involved, and you don’t have to let the batter sit before using. Most times we’ll whip these up on the weekend, but these pancakes also show up occasionally for dinner. Usually I like them plain with maple syrup, but we added bacon once and can’t say I wouldn’t do that again.

Favorite Fluffy Pancakes

Makes ~6 large / 12 small pancakes | Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

  • 3 large free-range eggs
  • 115 g plain flour
  • 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
  • 140 ml (scant 2/3 c) milk
  • 1 pinch salt

Method

  1. Separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another.
  2. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use.
  3. Heat a good non-stick pan on medium heat and add a bit of butter or cooking spray. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. If desired, sprinkle your chosen flavoring (blueberries, bacon, bananas…whatever you like!) on to the uncooked side before loosening with a spatula and flipping the pancake over. Continue frying until both sides are golden. Continue with remaining batter, regreasing pan before each pancake.

Oliver & Bonacini’s Mushroom Soup

Posted on by Ruth

mushroomsoupLast week, David and I enjoyed dinner at Canoe to celebrate our first anniversary (yay!). It was a lovely meal, from the 54-foot high view to the attentive service. One of the highlights for both of us was the mushroom soup, which we ordered as an appetizer. It was earthy, incredibly mushroom-y, and — best of all for lactose-intolerant me — dairy free (except for a small garnish of creme fraiche). I am a sucker for anything with mushrooms (I haven’t met a mushroom I didn’t like; we even successfully grew some oyster mushrooms this summer) and was eager to replicate this soup at home. Fortunately, the Toronto Star helped me out by having this recipe in its archives. We tried it today and have declared it part of our soup cycle.

This recipe is fast (less than 45 minutes!), healthy, vegetarian (can easily be made vegan if you omit the yogurt/cream garnish), and most importantly — delicious.

Oliver & Bonacini’s Mushroom Soup

Serves 4 | Original Source

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
  • 1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped yellow onions (about 1 small)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Chopped leaves from 1 sprig thyme
  • 6 cups (1.5L) diced assorted mushrooms (such as shiitake, oyster and king oyster — I used cremini, oyster and reconstituted dried shiitakes and used the soaking liquid as part of the water)
  • Kosher salt + freshly ground pepper
  • 4 cups (1L) water
  • 1 bay leaf

Optional garnishes:

  • Truffle oil
  • Chopped chives / parsley / cilantro
  • Trimmed enoki mushrooms
  • Plain yogurt / sour cream / creme fraiche

Method

  1. In large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium. Add onions, garlic and thyme. Cook, stirring, 6 minutes, to soften, reducing heat if onions start to brown. Add mushrooms in 4 batches, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper and stirring constantly. (This allows each batch to cook down slowly.) Add water and bay leaf. Raise heat to high; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Discard bay leaf. For coarse soup, purée using hand-held immersion blender. For creamy soup, purée in blender.
  3. Return to pot over medium heat. Taste; adjust salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately, or refrigerate overnight to let flavours develop.
  4. If desired, top each serving with a drizzle of truffle oil, sprinkling of chives, several enokis and a dollop of yogurt.

Makes 4 servings (about 4 cups/1L).