Making Chinese Dumplings

This is a homemade demo of my mother-in-law and wife making dough for Chinese dumplings. You can make any kind of stuffing you want for the dumplings. In this video, the stuffing consists of ground pork, chives, 5 spice powder, salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a special ingredient - water that has been steeped with Sichuan peppercorns.

Arancine - Rice balls

I couldn't believe how easy this was to make. Actually, I was reading an article in Saveur magazine on Sicilian foods, and Arancine was a popular appetizer. Arancine is a deep fried rice ball stuffed with meat. In their recipe, the stuffing was a hearty beef stew with carrots and onions. The rice was made with saffron. The key to this, I think, was the batter.

I wanted to make something special last Friday, and I knew I had some leftover rice and leftover stir fry, so I decided on this. The rice I had was regular white rice. The stuffing was actually a stir fry with bell peppers, eggs, and SPAM. You can use whatever stuffing that pleases you. I recommend that the rice you choose should be steamed or boiled rice; don't use fried rice.

Ingredients

Fresh or leftover rice (if fresh, let cool to handle)
Stuffing
1 egg
1/4 cup
water
1 tbsp flour
bread crumbs
oil

Method

1. Whisk egg, flour and water in a small bowl. Put bread crumbs into another bowl and set aside.

2. Wet hands before working with rice. Take a scoop of rice into your palm and work it into a disk, about 3 inches in diameter. Take a small spoonful of stuffing and place it in the center of the disk. Bring the sides of the rice disk to the top and form it into a ball by cupping your hands. Work on it until the ball is firm.

3. Coat the rice ball with the batter, and roll the ball in the bread crumbs. Place on a plate, and repeat with the rest of the rice and stuffing. Put the plate of rice balls in the frige to let it firm up before frying, about 20 min.

4. Heat a sauce pan with oil, about 2 inches deep, to 350F. Working in batches, fry the balls until the surface is golden brown. Drain and serve hot.

Enjoy

Power of 2

I found this really easy no egg cookie recipe. Originally, it was for lemon cookies, but I substituted with limes, which turned out really good. It only uses 5 ingredients, which makes it really easy to remember. Sort of like my vanilla ice cream base. Anyway, here it is,

Lime (or Lemon) Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks butter

2 cups powder sugar

Juice of 2 limes or lemons

Zest of 1 lime or lemon

2 cups flour

Method

Preheat oven at 350F.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and powder sugar on low setting. Add juice and zest. Add flour 1 cup at a time. Mix until dough comes together. Turn out onto a square of plastic wrap and form into a log. Wrap and place in refrigerator for an hour to cool.

Slice thin cookies about 1/4 inch thick and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave 1/2 inch space between cookies. Bake 8 min. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Blue Scones

Here's an easy recipe that'll take you 25 minutes!

Blueberry Scones

Ingredients

2 cups flour
3 Tbsp sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top (optional: use raw/turbinado sugar instead for sprinkling)
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
6 Tbsp cold butter, cubed
1 tsp lemon zest
1 pint fresh blueberries
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 400F. Sift together first four ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a fork such that the butter are pea sized. Stir in blueberries and zest.

Lightly whisk cream and eggs in a measuring cup. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add cream and egg mixture. Using a fork, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the dough comes together. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly (not crushing berries) a few times to mix well.

Pat dough into a 6 inch square that is 1 1/4 inch thick. Cut the square into 4 3-inch squares. Cut each square diagonally to yield 8 triangles. Transfer triangles to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush tops with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20-22 minutes until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

As Seen On TV...or as tasted

A couple of days ago, I was watching "America's Worst Cooks" on the Food Channel, and Anne Burrell's team was making her version of Chicken Cacciatore with squash. Just thinking about it made me want to make it for dinner. Plus, we were expecting close to 8" of snow Tuesday night, so it would be a great dinner to have for the cold weather.

This is a recipe from Saveur Magazine. It's called a Hunter's dish, because this dish was often made before a big hunt so that the hunter would be full of energy. The hunter's wife always made this dish, and so is named after her.

Pollo alla Cacciatora.
Serves 4

Ingredients

8 pieces of chicken (thighs and drums)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-oz can of peeled, whole tomatoes, chopped and juice reserved

1.5 cup white whine

1 tsp Italian dry herbs

1 bay leaf

1 cup Italian parsely, finely chopped, 1 tbsp reserved for garnish

0.5-1 cup chicken stock

Olive oil

Salt/Pepper to taste

Method

In a deep pan on medium high heat, saute onions until golden (~5-8 minutes). Add garlic and saute (3-4 minutes). Push the onions to one side and add the chicken and brown (4 min each side). Add wine and cook until liquid is gone (8-10 min).

Add tomatoes and juice, dried herbs, parsely, bay leaf and season to taste. As the tomato liquid reduces, add chicken stock to keep the pan moist. Simmer for 45 min uncovered.

Garnish with parsley. Serve with white rice or steamed potatoes.