Unbirthday

Today may or may not be my birthday.

I haven’t decided yet.

I’m not generally known to be the most gracious about these things, but at the moment I’m not in my usual habit of finding the mossiest rock to crawl under and hide for the day.  I may even leave my cell phone on and the landline plugged in.  Progress.

My usual loathing of birthdays isn’t some vainglorious mourning of the passing of youth, an emo-esque reflection of the inevitable decay of age, or any such self-indulgent dribble (I save THAT for this blog).  Believe it or not, I don’t like attention.  Particularly unwarranted.  It was my mother that did all the work, so generally if accolades are to be handed out I think she should be getting the lionesses share of them.  Does this mean she gets a card from me on my birthday?  Hell no.  I don’t do cards.

Also this wasn’t some sort of spontaneous revelation at a ridiculously petty age (like say, 19) that I had gotten “old”.  I dreaded the birthday parties of my childhood equally, even though I wasn’t necessarily in possession of the tools to identify the “why”.

My “why” is somewhat clearer, and so is the realization that there’s a certain amount of “suck it up, princess” that goes a long way in these matters.

So, in true birthday fashion, I’m taking liberties today because it’s convenient to do so.  There’s no full-on new recipe being shared today, but rather a simple premise, and a callback to an earlier post.

My friend Tony had mentioned going to a potluck dinner and taking along…wait for it… ganache covered Rice Krispie treats!  Have you ever?!  I hadn’t.  Although I haven’t yet made them, it hardly seems a stretch of the imagination that they’ll be nothing short of orgasmic and coma-inducing.

If you don’t know how to make Rice Krispie treats (*tsk tsk tsk*), the first thing you want to do is go out and buy a box of the cereal, and a bag of marshmallows, and then follow the recipe that’s on the cereal box.

Now, I recommend you go here and scroll down for the ganache recipe.  

A few options are before you at this point.

You could:

a)    place cut squares of krispie treats on a cooling rack and drizzle them lightly with the ganache.

b)   Dip one end of squares into the ganache for more coverage

c)    Before cutting the squares, pour the ganache over the top, creating an ‘icing’ layer (not sure how well this one would stick, but I just like having three options)

As I said, I haven’t made these yet, but I do plan on making them for a few friends who are coming over on the weekend.  There was no point in making up a batch and having them just hanging out for a few days.  They are to be my treat on the weekend, not my guilt through the week.

I haven’t decided on the Drizzle, Dip, or Dump option, yet, but there will be photos to follow, so you'll find out which path was taken.

Just as my Mom is deserving of the credit for my birthday, it’s fair to say that Tony is to credit for introducing me to these.  So, Happy Unbirthday to the three of us!

All Hail the Queen!

The first book of hers I owned.  Life changing.

They say pasta originated in China and was brought back to Italy by Marco Polo’s expeditions.  Can you imagine if that restless Venetian had chosen to go west instead?  What would he have brought back?  Boiled mutton from England?  Hardly inspirational.

What did result from the introduction of pasta to the Italians can only be described as history-changing.  Hearty plates of high-piled noodles, infused with the aromas of garlic, peppers, cheeses, and of course, tomatoes.

Unfortunately later restless souls “discovered” the New World, settled here, and some centuries later saw fit to bastardize those holy pasta traditions.  (Seriously: noodles in a can?  Oy!)

As a child I would often wake early.  I would grab my box of Lego, and plonk myself in front of the TV, waiting for the morning cartoons to kick in.  I would find myself watching “Biba’s Italian Kitchen”, and even though I didn’t understand many of the ingredients, I just knew I wanted to be in that kitchen.

Biba Caggiano became the Italian mother I never had, and a role model for this then-budding foodie.  She upped the game completely.  Suddenly I knew there was a world beyond canned tomato-based spaghetti sauces.  Italian food meant so much more than pizza.  I know how trite that sounds, but for the limited ingredients available to our small town at that time, Biba’s show was like the arrival of a fantastic new Messiah. 

Except for when she cooked with rabbit.  Never could wrap my brain around that.  Poor Thumper.

So, today’s post is a shameless plug for all things Biba.  I’m certain I’ll be writing about one of her recipes on here in the future, but for now I think it’s only fair to just endorse the whole shebang.

I will however give a quick nod to one recipe which seemed completely unlikely, and yet turned out to be one of the most incredible things my kitchen has ever turned out.  Risotto with scallops, porcini mushrooms and saffron (pgs 103-104 in the above pictured bible...I mean book).  Did you think of putting those together?  I hadn’t.

Biba’s food is food to impress.  Yet, despite the intricacy of some of the recipes, it always comes through as unpretentious.  Italian soul-food, as it were.

I don’t know that Marco Polo would’ve had any inkling as to just how incredible the legacy of pasta would become to his own people.  With chefs and cooks like Biba, though, even though they are creating what are now time-honoured dishes within their culture, they come across as whole new worlds.  I don’t mean new worlds as in WRONG worlds, as in a certain contemporary who claims to be reintroducing Italian foods, yet cranks out heresy in the form of “hot dog salad”.  I kid you not…

Be real.

Be well fed.

Be satisfied.

Be Biba.

Chapters

Amazon US

(no, I don't get a kickback from recommending these)

Or if you happen to be in Sacramento, go to the source!

A dumpling by any other name...

I’m usually the first to admit that things are just better deep-fried.  Is it a healthy option?  Uuuuuhhh… no.  But it IS a damned tasty one.

Meat.  Wrapped in pastry.  Deep-fried.  Served with sauce.  Of course I’m referring to the gem of the Asian dim-sum repertoire: won-tons.

I can usually ply myself with a plate of these suckers until I collapse with repletion, a trail of sweet and sour sauce oozing down my shirt, with little more than the sound of my arteries hardening as a soundtrack.

I chose to run in a slightly more responsible direction with it this time, though.  Oh, they’re still deep-fried, alright!  But rather than the “weight” of meat as the filling, I embraced a lighter, nutritious, and (dare I say?) ethical option.

I used Yves Veggie Ground Round but you could just bulk up on the mushroom content, or even break up some firm tofu into bitty chunks (up the soy sauce and other seasonings as desired if using tofu).  Ooooor, yeah, you could use ground beef, or pork, or a mix of the two.  However, I’ve gone through the trouble of titling these VEGETARIAN, so I think it would behoove us all to stick with the veggie options, non?  Oui.

Vegetarian Won-tons

1 package wonton wrappers

340g package Yves Veggie Ground Round (or equivalent in tofu)

6-8 shitake mushrooms (finely chopped)

2 green onions (finely chopped)

1 medium carrot (finely grated)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 inch cube ginger (finely grated)

A pinch Chinese 5 spice powder (optional)

About 1 tsp ground black pepper

1 egg (optional)

1-2 Tbsp Soy sauce

1 egg (optional) see below*

Oil for frying 

 

Combine the Ground Round with your chopped and minced veggies, tossing in the black pepper as well as the 5 spice powder if you’re using it. 

Sprinkle soy sauce to taste over the veggies and mix well.

If using egg, crack it in and mix thoroughly.

Refrigerate mix for at least an hour, but it may be made up several hours in advance.

Now comes the fun part (keep in mind “fun” sometimes means “tedious”).  Have a small bowl of water on hand, as well as a baking sheet or large plate lightly dusted with flour.

Working one wonton wrapper at a time, place about 1Tbsp filling onto the center of the wrapper.  Moisten two edges towards one corner (as eloquently displayed by the cutting-edge graphics in the diagram below) of the wrapper, and fold the far corner over the filling, and press along the moistened edge.  

Next, moisten the three points and fold slightly over themselves.  Place folded wonton on floured baking sheet or plate, and repeat a squillion times, or at least until you run out of wrappers and/or filling.

Heat oil in deep-sided pot until bubbles rise easily around a chopstick pressed to the bottom (350-375°).  Drop the won-tons in a few at a time, so as not to crowd the oil.  Fry until golden (a minute or two), flipping and bronzing the other side, as well.

Remove to a bowl lined with absorbent towel, and place in a warm oven while you fry up the rest.

Serve with a dipping sauce of your own choosing.  Sweet and sour, Thai sweet chili, etc.  Surprisingly, French dressing is kinda kick-ass as a dip, too!  In this instance I had shitake-miso gravy, as well as the sauce from the bok choy and oyster sauce I served it with.

Technically, you aren’t obligated to fry these.  I just had a craving for crispiness, and you, dear reader, got caught in the crossfire.  You could pan-fry them, gyoza-style.  Drop them into boiling broth with some green onion slivers for a won-ton soup.  Maybe you just felt like making them, but don’t feel like eating them: freeze uncooked won-ton on floured baking sheet.  When solid, drop into a freezer bag or other airtight container, and save for when the craving does arise.  …and it will…  oooohhhh, but it will…

*Egg can be used for several reasons, and in several different ways here.  It can be a great binding agent for the other ingredients, making the mix easier to work with, as well as holding the filling together while cooking.  In the past I’ve also pre-cooked the egg (as a thin omelette), chopped into shreds and added to the mix.  It has more of a presence this way, but of course, does nothing to hold it together.

I didn’t actually use any egg in this particular recipe, as I was aiming to make a vegan version.  I thought I was successful until I read the ingredients on the wonton wrappers.  Yup.  Egg.

A post without a post

Allo all,

Technically, I'm already overdue for a post for this week.  To be honest, I have nothing to report.  I managed to tweak my neck and shoulder somehow, and as a result haven't been cranking anything of interest out of the kitchen.  Never mind the fact that sitting and typing for any extended period of time is a pale shade of hellish misery.

Rather than insult you with half-assed tales of "How to Make Dinner from Cheese and Crackers", or "Mr. Noodles.  Friend or Foe?" I'll just concede defeat for now, and join you again next week.

Here're a couple things which I hope to be attacking soon, though:

1) Vegetarian won-tons
2) A collaboration with a local chef, tweaking the aromatics of dishes to create new "fusion" concoctions.

A brilliant long weekend to all! XX