One of the most popular Chinese-American dishes, General Tso's chicken with its spicy, sweet-tart umami-laden bites is in many ways emblematic of the American experience. Five years ago I started an empty-nester blog, so my adult kids could easily find beloved recipes when inspired into the future, working in chow-friendly hikes and travel tips along the way. After I had crossed the globe perfecting my son's favorite dish, my daughter initiated an annual Veguary challenge. While General Tso's tofu seemed a natural variation, it took a few years to develop a technique to create perfectly textured bites that maximize flavor and satisfaction. A multicultural fusion come back around, just in time for America's birthday. Happy 4th of July!
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| Love2Chow General Tso's Tofu |
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The initial version of General Tso's chicken, 左宗棠雞 (Zuǒ zōng táng jī) in Chinese was invented in Taiwan by a 20th century refugee chef, who had fled the totalitarian government born out of his province before the "bamboo curtain" fell. The bold, spicy and sour flavors characteristic of Hunan food was fused to an American love for boneless, sugar-glazed fried chicken nuggets by Chinese-American immigrant chefs in New York City, and General Tso's chicken was born.
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| Love2Chow General Tso's Chicken |
Adapting new ingredients and local tastes, while preserving elements of remembered traditions form an important part of the American immigration story.
From Meso-American tamales that might have substituted corn husks for bamboo leaves after the first humans crossed the land bridge, to the infinite variation of flatbreads and dumplings enveloping regional fillings, some similarities might be due to convergent evolution of independently developed food ideas, but more often than not reflect peaceful cultural exchanges over the millenia. No one can deny the impact of American plants -- chocolate, vanilla, chilies, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, squash -- on global cuisines. While food origins become murky as introduced foods and ideas become part of national and cultural identities, we are all enriched by these culinary linkages.
This is the quintessential American experience: the opportunity and freedom to not just tolerate, but actively share cultural traditions and create something better in the tapestry of life.
Happy Fourth of July!
Click here for Love2Chow General Tso's Chicken recipe.
Click here for Love2Chow General Tso's cauliflower recipe.
Flavors and Textures
While it was straightforward to create the desired tangy-sweet sauce with a bit of heat, for each phase of my General Tso's exploration, the difficult part was getting the texture just right. This was true for General Tso's Chicken, General Tso's Cauliflower, and General Tso's Tofu.
Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook offered the perfectly textured chicken, but I found that both versions of her sauce lacked brightness. After my daughter's first Veguary challenge (which we failed pretty quickly by forgetting that oyster sauce was not vegetarian -- we got better the second year), I thought it would be straightforward to substitute fried cauliflower or tofu for the fried chicken chunks. But this was not the case.
Inspired by Gobi (cauliflower) Manchurian, a beloved Indo-Chinese fusion dish, I was able to develop a highly satisfying vegan General Tso's cauliflower with a texture and flavor that rivaled the original.
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| Love2Chow General Tso's Cauliflower |
But the tofu version eluded me.
There are some comfort foods that are so easy and adaptable that you find yourself making them over and over again, each time a little differently. Korean Japchae, with its chewy-slippery, bronzed sweet potato noodles has become one of my favorite, quick dinners. It joins the ranks of a handful of adaptable recipes that allow me to reinvigorate leftover odds and ends into satisfying, highly enjoyed dishes. And Japchae is great served either hot or at room temperature, making it perfect for potlucks and picnics.
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| Japchae with fried tofu strips, carrots, red onion, cremini mushrooms, orange bell pepper, spinach, sesame seeds, garlic, scallions |
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| Japchae with zucchini and carrot sticks, wok-roasted eggplant, fresh purple, thai and sweet basil |
A fantastic spring dish featuring those colorful bunches of red and white radishes with vibrant greens on top! An easy, quick and satisfying vegetarian meal with bright flavors and colors. The crisp zestiness of raw radish and sumac contrast beautifully with the soft, buttery notes of browned radish and silky greens. A few crunchy almonds and sweet bits of raisin add to the culinary bliss.
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| Radish 3-ways with hazelnut brown butter couscous |
Back in the heart of the pandemic, I had some extra time to try new recipes and fell in love with the Brown Butter Couscous with Spring Vegetables on the Food52 site, by Emily C. It was a brightly colored, extremely flavorful and easily customized dish that I found myself wanting to make every time I saw a beautiful bunch of radish greens.
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| Brown Butter Couscous with Spring Vegetables |
Because it was the greens that really caught my eye, telling me the radish roots were fresh, I was loathe to throw them away. Having learned how delicious beet greens can be, I added chopped radish greens to the spinach.
With time, I started to skip the other spring vegetables, and once I tried using za'atar instead of just plain sumac. Za'atar is fantastic sprinkled on all sorts of things, from toasted pita to roasted cauliflower to marinated chicken kababs. Of course, the first time I tried that, the thyme in the za'atar burned, so I had to modify the recipe further.
This dish has bright bold flavors and colors, with acid from the lovely red sumac and lemon juice and sharp, crisp bites of raw radish contrasting beautifully with the soft rich, burnished melt-in-your-mouth wedges of radish wedges browned in butter. A few crunchy almonds, sweet bits of raisin, and optional bursts of feta cheese add to the culinary bliss.
It's been a bit over a year since the finishing strip of moulding was applied across the top of the original range hood in our remodeled kitchen. And we could not be happier with the function of all of the elements. The highlights for me are the 48" Wolf Rangetop with its centerpiece Wok Burner, a Magic Corner II spice rack and a Create Good Sinks ledge workstation. My husband is equally delighted with his Rev-a-Shelf KitchenAid cabinet lift and 30" Wolf Wall Oven. The kitchen is definitely the center of life in our home, and we designed this kitchen around cooking with friends.
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| A functional, but not quite complete kitchen renovation. The EnergieKer floor tile is non-slip even when wet. |
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| Before - the original cabinetry and appliances |
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| Dining area |
Six years ago in June, I bought a beautiful hand-hammered carbon steel wok that completely changed my life. Over the prior year, I had been cooking my way through Grace Young's Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge with the support of a Facebook group called Wok Wednesdays. But truth be told, I was a wok skeptic until I actually tried using one, aided by her tips on technique. I now reach for one of my woks for almost every meal I make, whether Asian or not. And I have been paying attention to and researching what factors make a stove better or worse for stir-frying in a wok. It all boils down to geometry, power and distance. My kitchen remodel is centered around wok cooking and I can hardly wait for it to all be done!
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| Outdoor wokking on a propane powered Volcano Grill. For more on Szechuan green beans, click here. |
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| Chinese-Jamaican Stir-fried Beef and Carrots in Calypso sauce from Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge |
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| Spring rolls with homemade wrappers deep-fried in the wok. Click here for recipes. |
Long before I discovered the secrets to making dan dan noodles, lo mein or drunken noodles, I had clipped a recipe for Spicy Szechuan Noodles from a local neighborhood newspaper. This simple, but flexible and pleasing dish has been a family favorite since 2002. The kids call it Peanut Butter Noodles and it is fantastic served simply or with optional toppings. As it tastes equally good hot or at room temperature, a big bowl of these noodles disappears rapidly on the potluck or buffet table.
As my children were growing up, there have been a few one-pot dishes that stand out as favorites -- both for flavor and ease of preparation. The first are these scrumptious noodles coated with a light, peanut butter-sesame oil sauce, using ingredients readily found in our grocery store. The recipe for Spicy Szechuan Noodles by Chef Kelly was clipped from the North Journal Star in 2002, and modified for ease of preparation and to accommodate both a child that loves and a child that feared spicy foods.
Over the years, this dish has been a favorite with classmates and neighbors alike. Due to its make ahead nature, it frequently graced potluck tables at school picnics and neighborhood gatherings. Whether made as a double or triple batch, it always disappeared rapidly.
We have enjoyed this dish using a variety of noodles. It it fantastic with semolina or whole wheat spaghetti as well as dried Chinese noodles by Quon Yick Noodle in California, or fresh lo mein noodles. I have even made it using 1 and a half spaghetti squashes (roasted for 35-40 min in a 350°F convection oven).
While the original recipe included shredded chicken and toasted cashews, I have also served it with thin strips of ham and julienned cucumber or carrots. As time went on, we found ourselves eating the saucy noodles simply with some scallions on top.
We use bottled Szechuan sauce by Kame or Dynasty, which are carried in the Asian section of our local grocery store. However, I have included the original recipe at the bottom of this post should you wish to make your own chili sauce.
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When my son became a teenager, he started making the dish when he got home from school. He noted that since he liked things extra saucy, he was deliberately sloppy with the measurements to add a bit more of everything. It was glorious to come home from a long day of work to find dinner waiting for me and my husband. Even my daughter, who has now grown to enjoy moderately spicy foods, told me that she liked my son's version better.
So he became the Peanut Butter noodle chef. I recently realized that we have not enjoyed these noodles much since he graduated high school. Instead, we occasionally enjoyed coming home to Tortellini with Smoked Salmon in a butter-cream-dill sauce, my daughter's favorite dish.
This week, I asked my husband to make the base noodle recipe, while I prepared toppings of shredded carrot, spicy stinky tofu and some miso-maple-glazed Chinese eggplant on the side for a vegan meal.
Love2Chow Peanut Butter Noodles (Spicy Szechuan Noodles) Serves 4.
Ingredients
8-10 oz dry spaghetti or Quon Yick noodles
Sauce
3 Tbs smooth peanut butter (Optional. See Note)
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs vinegar
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs sherry or rice wine
1 Tbs water
*1 Tbs Szechuan Sauce (or make your own)
1 tsp sugar
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 scallions, chopped
2 Tbs chopped cilantro (optional)
Optional toppings
6 oz (w) cooked chicken or ham, shredded or sliced
Cucumber, peeled and sliced into thin sticks
Shredded carrot
Wilted spinach
Thin slices of dry tofu or spicy tofu
Toasted sesame seeds, white or black
Black pepper or toasted Szechuan peppercorns to taste
1. Boil water and cook noodles per package directions
2. In a large bowl, mix the sauce ingredients from peanut butter to sugar until smooth. Stir in remaining sauce ingredients.
(If you are cooking for someone that is sensitive to spicy or strong flavors, hold off on adding the ingredients with asterisks.)
3. Drain hot noodles and immediately stir into the sauce.
(Remove the serving for the person that dislikes spicy foods, and then stir in the asterisked ingredients).
4. You can either serve the toppings on the side, or mix them right in.
Note: If you dislike peanut butter, the rest of the sauce ingredients are also delicious without it. The more traditional Chinese dish that this is based on uses Chinese sesame paste. You can use any combination of peanut butter, sesame paste or tahini, as long as the total is around 3-4 Tbs. Adjust thickness of sauce with water if necessary.
🐾 Note: If you dislike peanut butter, the rest of the sauce ingredients are also delicious without it. The traditional Chinese dish that this is based on uses Chinese sesame paste instead of peanut butter. You can use any combination of peanut butter, sesame paste or tahini, although we find including some peanut butter improves the texture. Adjust sauce thickness with water, if necessary.
DID YOU TRY THIS RECIPE?
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If you love the taste and texture of sushi rice, sticky, vinegary and slightly salty-sweet, you will love these easy vegan maki rolls. While you are frying the sweet potato tempura, it is easy to add in stretched tempura shrimp for a pescatarian delight. Like the famed California roll, these Japanese-American adaptations have no raw fish at all, and are fun to make, serve and eat!
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| Shrimp tempura or portobello mushroom maki rolls with wasabi and homemade sriracha mayo. |
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| Vegan futomaki rolls with sweet potato tempura, carrots, portabello mushrooms and sesame spinach |
Crisp and smooth on the outside, spring rolls have always been one of my favorite dim sum. Whether in the form of Chinese 春捲 chun juan or Filipino lumpia, these elongated elegant packets are truly addictive. But for decades, I was afraid to try making them at home. No longer. Now that I have discovered how easy it is to make spring roll wrappers, all barriers have been removed. These homemade spring rolls are delicious whether they are deep-fried, air-fried or not fried at all!
Happy Chinese New Year 新年快樂! This Spring Festival 春節, which celebrates the arrival of the new lunar year, will be celebrated with fresh, homemade spring rolls for the first time, thanks in part to culinary explorations during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
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| A wok-fried vegetarian spring roll with homemade wrapper. Filling recipe from The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young: the Sept. 2020 Wok Wednesday recipe of the month. |
Although there are other elongated, wrapped appetizers that may be confused with spring rolls, once you have bitten into the light, shatteringly crisp wrapper surrounding a flavor-packed julienned filling there is no going back. Spring roll is the literal translation of 春捲 chūn juǎn, the Chinese name for these delectable finger foods. Among my earliest memories of visiting the Los Angeles Chinatown is walking around to the side door of the Hong Kong restaurant, which served dim sum on weekends, to get a tray of take out spring rolls. These dainty, crisp and evenly browned packets did not feel greasy to the touch and were filled with finely julienned fragments of pork, black winter mushrooms and bamboo shoots.
The spring rolls of which I speak are not the same as egg rolls. Spring rolls and lumpia have a crispy, dainty appearance, and a crackling noise is required when you bite into these smooth cylinders. The addition of egg in the wrapper results in the slightly chewier, textured surface of egg rolls, and these are often wrapped fatter that the sleek spring roll. Both of these flour-based wrappers act to lovingly cradle a cooked filling that typically contains a mixture of vegetables and, optionally, pork or shrimp, although the Filipino filling is mostly ground pork and beef. There is also a type of Vietnamese rolled appetizer (gỏi cuốn, literally "salad rolls") that is often called a fresh spring roll or a summer roll. These are great for the summer because they are made using translucent rice paper wrappers briefly rehydrated in water, and typically contain lots of fresh, uncooked herbs for a cooling sensation.
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| Left: Spring rolls from Spicies in Cambridge, MA; Upper right: Huge egg roll from the Moonlight Express food truck in the Pittsburgh Strip District. Lower right: Homemade summer rolls or goi cuon. |
Recipes from Seventeen magazine and Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen.
I loved spring rolls so much that I clipped a recipe from the April 1976 issue of Seventeen. This magazine had a section called "Now You're Cooking" that featured delicious and approachable recipes from all over the world. But it would take another 44 years, and a global coronavirus pandemic, before I worked up the courage to try making my own spring roll wrappers from scratch.In addition to the Seventeen recipe, I have included at the bottom of this post a lumpia recipe from a fellow Banning High student that I have kept with me for decades in remembrance of the most amazing multicultural classroom potluck parties. In 2020, I found myself consulting some online resources, and discovered that it was much easier than I had thought to make homemade spring roll wrappers.
The batter is quickly brushed on a moderately low pan. When the wrapper changes color and starts to curl from the edge of the pan, the lifting edge can be used to pull the entire pancake off of the non-stick pan. I did later try this in my wok, which is generally non-stick, but found that parts of the pancake cooked too quickly as the wok does not provide uniform heat across its bottom.
Here is a movie from the first time I made these, showing how the appearance changes as it cooks and the edges curl from the pan.
I used the bbq pork-based spring roll filling recipe from Grace Young's Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen cookbook, omitting the ingredients I did not have as we were under lockdown.
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| Deep fried spring rolls with Chinese bbq pork and pickled chive blossoms. Filling recipe from Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young, homemade wrapper recipe from Seventeen. June 2020. |
One positive outcome from the coronavirus pandemic is that it allowed me to discover Gordon Ramsay and his zest for maximizing flavor and yield. Interestingly, my favorite recipe from taking two MasterClasses with this uncompromisingly meat-eating chef is the Charred Cauliflower Steak with Olive Pistou and Mushrooms. After making this vegetarian entrée 4x over the past 6 months, I have modified the seasoning blend and toppings to suit our tastes. The flavors are complex, smoky, tart and bright. Who knew the shy, but versatile, cauliflower could be brought to such heights?
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| The Love2Chow Smoky-Sumac Cauliflower Steak with Szechuan Green Beans |
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| Gordon Ramsay's Cauliflower Steak with Olive Pistou, Mushrooms & Chive Blossoms, with cauliflower leaves added into the topping, served over Dan Barber's Cauliflower Purée and a drizzle of harissa-spiced pan juices |
Basil Eggplant is the dish that changed my entire view of this purple fruit, also known as aubergine or brinjal. Eggplant has become one of my family's favorite dishes to enjoy in restaurants and to cook at home. Over the years, I have developed the easiest, most forgiving method for cooking chunks of eggplant until they are browned and softened, while retaining brilliant purple highlights. I call it wok-roasting. Wok-roasted eggplant can be gobbled up on its own, or serve as an easy starting point for a multitude of international dishes.
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| Wok-roasted Basil Eggplant |
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| Basil Eggplant with Szechuan-spiced ground pork |
Jump to the Love2Chow recipe.
A year ago, I launched this blog with my General Tso's chicken recipe. It was a 10 year project, crossing the globe to re-create the best aspects of my son's favorite dish. A Chinese-American invention, originating in NY via Taiwan, General Tso's chicken fuses Hunan flavors with an American love for sauce-glazed fried nuggets. This vegan version of General Tso's was inspired by my daughter, who came home from college and challenged us to add more plant-based days to our diet. Achieving the perfect texture, flavor and color to rival my most requested recipe involved a bit of experimentation. But it was worth it. General Tso's cauliflower is a winner!
On Independence Day a year ago, the Love2Chow blog began with these words "One of the most popular Chinese-American dishes, General Tso's chicken with its spicy, sweet-tart umami-laden bites is in many ways emblematic of the American experience." It somehow seems fitting to celebrate its 1 year birthday with a revised version. General Tso's cauliflower is just as satisfying as the spicy, sweet-tart original, but with added dimensions of texture -- crisp caramelizing edges melting into a creamy-soft interior.
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| Love2Chow General Tso's Cauliflower |
On Independence Day a year ago, the Love2Chow blog began with these words "One of the most popular Chinese-American dishes, General Tso's chicken with its spicy, sweet-tart umami-laden bites is in many ways emblematic of the American experience." It somehow seems fitting to celebrate its 1 year birthday with a revised version. General Tso's cauliflower is just as satisfying as the spicy, sweet-tart original, but with added dimensions of texture -- crisp caramelizing edges melting into a creamy-soft interior.
For the General Tso's Chicken recipe, click here.
For General Tso's Tofu recipe (vegan), click here.
General Tso's chicken is composed of three major elements: the nuggets, the aromatics and the sauce.
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| The Love2Chow version of General Tso's Chicken |
As with the original recipe, developing the ideal texture for the nuggets took the most time. The result exceeded our expectations. While similar in appearance to the chicken version, General Tso's Cauliflower offers sharper contrasts in texture and flavor. Indeed, we can't decide which version we like better!
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| General Tso's Cauliflower sees the light of day... |
Nearly three years ago, I went on a culinary pilgrimage to see Grace Young demo one of her recipes in Brooklyn. We met up at Aux Epices, an amazing Malaysian-French bistro run by Chef Mei Chau. Among the highlights was this delectable salmon perched on a plinth of rice surrounded by a rich deep yellow sauce. Now, Mei Chau has graciously shared the recipe for this signature dish in a fantastic Zoom cooking lession, co-hosted by Grace Young and the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA).
Eating Malaysian is like having all of your favorite Asian cuisines rolled up into one. Whether it is Indian curries, Chinese vegetables or noodles, or hot Indonesian sambals that you desire, you can have all that and more with additional influences from the Middle East and several European countries including Portugal (source of the egg custard tarts enjoyed in Hong Kong).
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| Malaysian-Style Turmeric Salmon at Aux Epices restaurant in the NY Chinatown |
A few years ago, I discovered Malaysian food at a tiny slip of a restaurant, full of happy sounds as diners enjoyed each other’s company in the presence of rich, complex and tantalizing flavors. Aux Epices, the name of the restaurant, literally means "of the spices." Chef Mei Chau is Chinese-Malaysian in heritage, and she originally moved to America to pursue art training. Together with her photographer husband Marc Kaczmarek, she created a warm and inviting Malaysian-French bistro, where she works a rich palette of color, smells and taste inspired by the fresh ingredients from Chinatown markets outside her door.
My husband, a friend and I were on a pilgrimage to learn more about Chinese cooking. As part of the Facebook group Wok Wednesdays, we were learning how to cook using the most versatile, yet humbly inexpensive, cookware invented over the past 2000 years. Guided by the stir-fry guru and wok evangelist, Grace Young, we were learning how to make countless, delicious, better-than-restaurant-quality dishes at home. To justify the long drive to New York City, we would attend a special exhibit at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) entitled Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America in addition to the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) exhibits in Brooklyn on Chinese restaurants and the Wok in America. MOFAD was sponsoring a stir-fry demo for Chinese Trinidadian Shrimp with Rum, and we could not pass up the chance to meet Grace in person!
Chef Mei had contributed several Malaysian seafood dishes to Grace's most recent book, Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge. So we decided to meet up with Wok Wednesday friends for lunch at Aux Epices. Where else can you get delicious Asian food plus French tarts for dessert?
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| Other dishes we enjoyed at Aux Epices. Chinese Broccoli stir-fried with fresh garlic and soy sauce drizzle; Rendang Lamb with roasted coconut, blue ginger, curry spices; Kuala Lumpur-style Seafood Laksa with shrimp, mussels, salmon, calamari, tofu, eggplant, bean sprouts and Udon noodles in a yellow coconut curry broth; French Pear Tart. Not shown: Green Mango Jicama salad, Malacca Laksa in red curry sauce, French apple tart. ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... |
Eating Malaysian is like having all of your favorite Asian cuisines rolled up into one. Whether it is Indian curries, Chinese vegetables or noodles, or hot Indonesian sambals that you desire, you can have all that and more with additional influences from the Middle East and several European countries including Portugal (source of the egg custard tarts enjoyed in Hong Kong).
Like all businesses in Manhattan's Chinatown, Aux Epices has been struggling since January 2020 due to coronavirus fears. MOCA, which has itself not yet recovered from a devastating fire affecting archived materials that collectively tell the story of more than 150 years of Chinese immigration in the US, is hosting a variety of digital exhibits and Zoom based activities. As part of the new MOCA Cooks series, Chef Mei graciously shared her signature Turmeric Salmon recipe. This engaging session touched upon Malaysian methods for preserving foods, a cook-along with lots of practical tips, Mei's work feeding elderly residents and essential workers, and Grace's mini-documentary interviews that comprise the Coronavirus Chinatown Stories project.
The flavors, colors and textures in this dish are truly amazing. After a rocky audiovisual start, Chef Mei shared her tips for making this dish so clearly that my husband (who bakes, but does not normally cook), was able to create a truly wonderful birthday dinner for me!
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| Malaysian-Style Turmeric Salmon with Crispy Skin. |
It is easy to make your own char siu 叉燒 or Chinese barbecue pork. It's fabulous fresh from the oven or grill, served simply with rice and a green vegetable. And leftovers serve as a great starting point for a variety of delicious and flexible dishes. In the early days of the pandemic lockdown, when grocery store shelves were running empty, I managed to get a whole pork shoulder, cut in half, from Goodness Grows Farms. I used one of these 5-pound halves to create 6 delicious Asian dishes (so far), stretching the meat budget and keeping my family happy.
While I am willing to take extra steps if it noticeably affects the outcome of the dish, caramelizing vegetable toppings for pizza, for example, I am all for simplicity. That is one great feature to Grace's recipe -- the ingredients in the marinade are all measured as 2 Tablespoons, except the sesame oil, which is 2 teaspoons. This means it is easy to remember, and there are fewer measuring spoons to wash afterwards. Since I skip the sugar rub step in the beginning, I use 2 Tbs for the sugar, same as all of the other sauce ingredients except the sesame oil and white pepper. I have also found that this marinade amount can easily support double the amount of meat, perfect for a 4-5 pound shoulder, plus generate enough sauce to serve with it.
If you live in a big city with a Chinatown such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York or Boston, it was relatively easy to get char siu 叉燒 pork or a whole roasted chicken or tea-smoked duck. But even there, with the COVID-19 related shutdowns, it is unclear how many of these small businesses will survive. Fortunately, you can make your own char siu pork using this easy recipe from Grace Young to re-create the complex, succulent charred flavor of Chinese bbq pork at home.
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| Four dishes from one batch of Chinese barbecue pork. Jump to the descriptions. |
While I am willing to take extra steps if it noticeably affects the outcome of the dish, caramelizing vegetable toppings for pizza, for example, I am all for simplicity. That is one great feature to Grace's recipe -- the ingredients in the marinade are all measured as 2 Tablespoons, except the sesame oil, which is 2 teaspoons. This means it is easy to remember, and there are fewer measuring spoons to wash afterwards. Since I skip the sugar rub step in the beginning, I use 2 Tbs for the sugar, same as all of the other sauce ingredients except the sesame oil and white pepper. I have also found that this marinade amount can easily support double the amount of meat, perfect for a 4-5 pound shoulder, plus generate enough sauce to serve with it.
It has been stated that America is not so much as a melting pot of cultures, but rather a stew pot, where ingredients meld together to create a greater whole, but individual characteristics remain. From the very earliest days of our nation, our culinary traditions have been enriched by the melding of African and Caribbean influences with European and Native American cooking. Southern cuisine was not the only beneficiary of this rich African-American heritage, but also the pepper pot stew popular in Philadelphia, rumored to have sustained the Revolutionary Army at Valley Forge. This wonderful cultural exchange continues to this day, and some of my favorite stir-fries from the Chinese diaspora feature African-Caribbean spices and flavors. Yet the invaluable contribution made by African-American cooks to our culture and enjoyment of life has remained in the background, often invisible, instead of receiving the widespread recognition and honor that it deserves. 
African-American Cookbooks to Explore
A recent Eat Your Books post features six gorgeous contemporary cookbooks written by African-American authors. Among these are Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin, which won the 2020 James Beard award for Best American Cookbook.
In her previous book, The Jemima Code, Toni Tipton-Martin highlighted numerous historical books by African-American authors, as reviewed in this post. Among them is a self-published cookbook by Malinda Russell, which is the earliest known African-American cookbook to be published. This historical book is available digitally for free, as part of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan.
Malinda Russell's book starts off with an introduction to her history (her grandmother was a freed slave), and why she is writing a cookbook in Paw Paw, Michigan -- far from her home in Tennessee. These few pages along are well worth reading, even if you have no desire to recreate old recipes. As a testament to her strength, you can see how many careers she has pursued, raising her handicapped son on her own after her husband died young. She has had all her savings robbed at least twice, picking herself up each time with indomitable strength.
In 1864, Russell left her boarding house and pastry shop businesses in Cold Springs TN to seek safety during the Civil War. "Hearing that Michigan was the Garden of the West, I resolved to make that my home...until peace is restored," writing the cookbook in hopes of raising enough money to get back to Tennessee. "I have made Cooking my employment for the last twenty years, in the first families of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. I know my Receipts to be good, as they have always given satisfaction... and as I am now advanced in years, with no other means of support than my own labor; I have put out this book with the intention of benefiting the public as well as myself."
As might be expected from a pastry chef, her cookbook starts off with all manner of cakes. There are also fascinating glimpses into pickled peaches, and multiple preparations of meat and milk that allow them to be stored well, presumably at room temperature. The book ends with recipes for personal care items that might have been used in place of toothpaste, shampoo and hair dye.
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