Brown Sugar-Glazed Bacon, Potatoes and Eggs: Easy gluten-free breakfasts for a crowd
January 20, 2020
Slivers of pork stir-fried with two kinds of dried mushrooms, cabbage and a mix of green and gold strands, wrapped in paper thin pancakes with a glossy, rich sweet and savory sauce... One of our favorite Chinese dishes mu shu, moo shu or moo shoo pork 木須肉 is made simple in Grace Young's The Breath of a Wok, down to the translucent pancakes of Peking duck fame, which are surprisingly easy to make using only two ingredients!
Each month, the 3000+ members of the Wok Wednesdays Facebook group cook two new dishes from the award-winning cookbook The Breath of a Wok. We share our photos, thoughts and suggestions for great camaraderie and a chance to win some fabulous cooking prizes. Without this group, I would never have discovered that I actually like tofu, nor would I have sought out a hand-hammered pow wok to recreate a favorite childhood dish using traditional cookware. I would have never had the confidence to make har gow 蝦餃, those beautiful and delicious shrimp dumplings wrapped in translucent rice flour, that grace the carts pushed around Cantonese dim sum 點心 restaurants. These little bites really do "dot or touch the heart," although "order as your heart desires" may be a more accurate translation for these small, à la carte dishes.
Each month, the 3000+ members of the Wok Wednesdays Facebook group cook two new dishes from the award-winning cookbook The Breath of a Wok. We share our photos, thoughts and suggestions for great camaraderie and a chance to win some fabulous cooking prizes. Without this group, I would never have discovered that I actually like tofu, nor would I have sought out a hand-hammered pow wok to recreate a favorite childhood dish using traditional cookware. I would have never had the confidence to make har gow 蝦餃, those beautiful and delicious shrimp dumplings wrapped in translucent rice flour, that grace the carts pushed around Cantonese dim sum 點心 restaurants. These little bites really do "dot or touch the heart," although "order as your heart desires" may be a more accurate translation for these small, à la carte dishes.
Classically made with golden slivers of day lily buds, matchsticks of sliced pork, crunchy wood ear mushrooms, winter mushrooms, cucumber, ginger, garlic, scallions, soy sauce and rice wine, mu shu pork is a Northern Chinese dish, thought to have originated in Shandong. The name of the dish 木須肉 literally means "wood whiskers meat (pork)," which may relate to the thin strips of wood ear fungus 木耳 (Mù'ěr) in the dish. Some people believe the name may also be 木犀肉 in reference to the yellow and white flowers of the Sweet Omanthus, which is used to make tea or wine rather than in cooking, as the scrambled eggs commonly found in this dish are thought to resemble these blossoms.
Beef and broccoli is a classic Chinese restaurant dish that is so much better when made at home! The secrets to a great beef and broccoli dish is both a perfectly balanced sauce and techniques to make sure the broccoli is sufficiently cooked without overcooking the slices of beef. Inspired by the wok evangelist Grace Young's delicious recipe, I sought an even simpler, greener method to achieve the outstanding flavors and textures of this dish.
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| Beef and Broccoli modified from Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge. |
Homemade beef and broccoli used to be hit or miss for me. I marinated the meat in soy sauce, rice wine, garlic and black pepper, but the slices came out tougher than I liked until I learned the secret of including a bit of cornstarch in the marinade. And unless the broccoli was finely cut, there would be pieces that still had the raw, slightly bitter taste. I have also had many disappointing restaurant versions of the dish, with huge, coarsely cut, raw rather than crisp, broccoli.
In contrast, I had learned from my mother a great way to cook all sorts of vegetables in a 12-inch stainless skillet with a lid. This involved heating oil and adding sliced garlic. Then any type of cut up vegetable would be tossed in and stir-fried until the outside turned a bright shade of green and the vegetable released its subtle fragrance. For spinach, that was all that was needed aside from seasoning with salt and pepper. For other vegetables that required longer cooking times such as carrots, broccoli and even cabbage, she would sprinkle on some salt, splash a bit of water on the inside of the lid and cover the pan for 2-3 minutes to allow the vegetables to steam in their own fluids. It was amazing how flavorful and delicious vegetables cooked this way tasted and looked, with their intensified color. The raw edge or bite was gone, but they retained their body and crispness.
When I discovered Grace Young's recipe for Beef and Broccoli, in Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge, a number of light bulbs went off for me. Although the recipe ended up being a bit too salty (to my taste) for the 3/4 lb of beef, the sauce had a rich, complexity that elevated this popular dish to new heights. In addition to unami-laden soy and oyster sauces, she adds a bit of the funky flavors of Chinese dried, fermented black beans (click here for brand info) with a hint of mellow sweetness from onions. I knew instantly that I would never again be happy with restaurant versions.
Watch this American Test Kitchen video to see how easy it is to make this beef and broccoli recipe in either a wok or a skillet!
In contrast, I had learned from my mother a great way to cook all sorts of vegetables in a 12-inch stainless skillet with a lid. This involved heating oil and adding sliced garlic. Then any type of cut up vegetable would be tossed in and stir-fried until the outside turned a bright shade of green and the vegetable released its subtle fragrance. For spinach, that was all that was needed aside from seasoning with salt and pepper. For other vegetables that required longer cooking times such as carrots, broccoli and even cabbage, she would sprinkle on some salt, splash a bit of water on the inside of the lid and cover the pan for 2-3 minutes to allow the vegetables to steam in their own fluids. It was amazing how flavorful and delicious vegetables cooked this way tasted and looked, with their intensified color. The raw edge or bite was gone, but they retained their body and crispness.
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| Beef and Broccoli modified from Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge. |
When I discovered Grace Young's recipe for Beef and Broccoli, in Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge, a number of light bulbs went off for me. Although the recipe ended up being a bit too salty (to my taste) for the 3/4 lb of beef, the sauce had a rich, complexity that elevated this popular dish to new heights. In addition to unami-laden soy and oyster sauces, she adds a bit of the funky flavors of Chinese dried, fermented black beans (click here for brand info) with a hint of mellow sweetness from onions. I knew instantly that I would never again be happy with restaurant versions.
Watch this American Test Kitchen video to see how easy it is to make this beef and broccoli recipe in either a wok or a skillet!
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| The recipe makes just the right amount of a light, savory sauce to soak up with rice. |
Grace achieves the marriage of perfectly cooked broccoli with tender steak by blanching the broccoli in advance. While this results in a delicious dish, I try to avoid blanching vegetables for a number of reasons. You have to bring a large pot of water to boil so the water is not cooled too much upon addition of vegetables. This takes a lot of time and energy as water has a high heat capacity. Water soluble vitamins are leached out and discarded. And you have to expend energy on ice-making for the ice water bath to prevent overcooking. Plus there are extra pots, strainer scoops and bowls to be washed. While blanching is efficient in the restaurant workflow, it adds quite a bit to the time, energy and cookware used to make a single dish.
Shortcut Szechuan-style Dry-fried Green Beans: vegan-friendly, popular with teens and adults alike
January 04, 2020
Dry-fried Szechuan green beans has become my go-to vegetable side for dinner parties, potlucks and family gatherings. The flavor and texture of the beans are amazing, and the dish gets even better after resting at room temperature! It is so frequently requested that I developed shortcuts to achieve the same great results, doubling or tripling the recipe as the finished beans have a way of disappearing each time my teenager walks past!
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| Szechuan dry-fried green beans - meatless |
One of my favorite Szechuan/Sichuan restaurant dishes is dry-fried green beans tossed with a small amount of ground pork in an aromatic, salty-sweet-sour sauce. So I was thrilled when I discovered the recipe for Virginia Yee's dry-fried Sichuan string beans in Grace Young's The Breath of a Wok. One of the key ingredients is Chinese black vinegar, from the province of Chinkiang or Zhenjiang, a dark rice-based vinegar with a slightly fruity, slightly salty aroma.
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| Szechuan dry-fried green beans with ground pork |
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| Szechuan dry-fried green beans made with ground beef master meat mix |
Beginning with Thanksgiving, and extending through the winter holidays, this is a special time to gather together for many cultures around the world. However, it can also be stressful hosting and cooking for a larger number of people than usual. These time tested tips and recipes originate from my experiences hosting a 3-day Thanksgiving for over 30 people multiple times since 2002. I hope that other members of our family can add to these notes as the next generation in our family starts to enter the rotation...
Please post comments below or photos to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter
https://www.love2chow.com/2019/12/holiday-cooking-guide-for-feeding-crowd.html?m=1
Turkey, ham, goose, root vegetables, green beans, stuffing, gravy, leftovers, desserts. Not to mention breakfast and other meals for guests staying overnight. What a bewildering array of cooking activities to keep track of!
This year I became an "empty-nester" and started the Love2Chow blog to share my interests, recipes and experiences. It was my turn again to host a 70-year tradition in my husband's family of siblings and cousins getting together to feast and play games. The following blog posts summarize key steps for advance preparation, pulling it together for the main event, efficient use of leftovers for several post-event dishes, and breakfast for a crowd.
This year I became an "empty-nester" and started the Love2Chow blog to share my interests, recipes and experiences. It was my turn again to host a 70-year tradition in my husband's family of siblings and cousins getting together to feast and play games. The following blog posts summarize key steps for advance preparation, pulling it together for the main event, efficient use of leftovers for several post-event dishes, and breakfast for a crowd.
Post 1. Recipe for Mama's Chinese-Spiced Turkey
Before making a huge turkey for a big crowd, it can be helpful to try roasting a smaller preview turkey. Looking back through my Thanksgiving notebook, I realized that I have tried many techniques through the years for maintaining a tender breast while allowing the dark meat to fully cook. There is nothing worse than seeing red juices after slicing into your beautifully browned turkey. As described in the post, I think I finally figured it out. The technique is simple and has worked for a 13 pound turkey, a 22 pound turkey and an 8 pound goose so far.
My mother used to slow cook a much smaller 10-12 pound turkey for our family, following the method of Adele Davis in Let's Cook It Right. My previous turkeys used a modified version of that method. Using a probe, I found that the first 30 minutes at 350°F rapidly elevates the surface of the turkey to safe temperatures, and like sous vide, the bird can be held at its final temperature, turning up the oven to brown the skin for 1 h before serving. Although the roasting temperature is similar as that used for smoking meats, there are a lot of opinions concerning whether or not this style of cooking is safe. It does result in a fully cooked turkey with moist tender meat, with adequate time to render the fat from the skin so that it becomes wonderfully crispy during the final hour of roasting at 350°F.
However, slow roasting ties up the oven for extended periods of time. Moreover, modern turkey processing often involves injecting saline or broth into the meat, potentially introducing bacteria deeper than the surface. For these reasons, I experimented with methods to accelerate thigh/back cooking and keep breast temperatures lower while roasting in a 325°-350°F oven. This year, I discovered a surprisingly easy technique.
Click this link for:
•My family recipe for roast turkey dry-brined in a toasted salt, black peppercorn and szechuan peppercorn blend.
•My recipe for a smooth, silky pan gravy. By separating fat from juices and deglazed browned bits, you can calculate the minimum amount of fat and flour needed to properly thicken the gravy.
•The method for keeping breast temperatures lower than thigh during roasting, and temperature graphs from the 13 pound turkey.
•Making and storing turkey stock for future gravies or soups.
See Post 5 below for the Wild Rice Stuffing Recipe
Post 2. Oven-efficient make-ahead side dish preparations
One or two days before Thanksgiving is the perfect time to prepare for side dishes that are either reheated or finished shortly before serving. Cookies and desserts are also ideally made in advance, and many of these can be frozen for longer storage. Each of these dishes also works well as potluck dishes due to their make-ahead nature.
Click here for directions and links to recipes for:
•Brown Butter Bourbon Spice Cookies - a tender pillowy cookie balancing soothing caramel and vanilla notes with sweet, warm spices.
•Maple-Cinnamon glazed butternut squash - great on its own, or blended with roasted brussels sprouts, pecans and dried cranberries for a colorful warm or cold salad.
•Cider baked mashed sweet potatoes - a simple and satisfying Jeffersonian dish in which the sweet potatoes are cooked and mashed in apple cider.
•Blistered green beans to scale up the popular dry-fried Szechuan green beans - black vinegar, sesame oil and a unique sweet-salty pickled vegetable make these very popular. See the full recipe and updated method at this link. Expect a good number of beans to disappear early from snitching fingers...
•Remember to cook rice the day before if making rice stuffing!
See Post 5 below for the Wild Rice Stuffing Recipe.
Post 3. Pulling it all together after the Turkey is done (and maximizing efficient future yield from leftovers)
It can be hectic once the turkey comes out of the oven to get everything ready to serve. This post gives a step by step guide for getting the other casseroles reheated, finishing the stuffing, preserving the crispiness of perfectly roasted skin, making gravy (while someone else carves the turkey), and creating two batches of rich turkey stock to serve as the base for many future dishes.
Click here for:
•The temperature chart for the 22 pound turkey cooked using the technique of Post 1, and the supplementary breast cooked in a convection microwave (in convection oven mode).
•Sequence of events to reheat casseroles, carve turkey, make gravy and finish rice stuffing. See Post 1 above for the gravy recipe and Post 5 below for the Wild Rice Stuffing Recipe.
•Procedure to make Grade A and Grade B turkey stock, which begins with carving the turkey.
•Day after Turkey Noodle Soup
•Mennonite Turkey and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes
•Turkey Pot Pie
•Turkey Enchiladas
•Why you should keep all the drippings fat separated from the juices in the freezer for future dips, breakfasts and pastry crusts.
Post 4. Two ingredient split pea soup using the leftover ham bone
The Friday after Thanksgiving, our family traditionally supplements the leftovers with a spiral-sliced Honey Baked ham. Any time you encounter a bone-in ham, make sure to grab the bone and pop it into the freezer. This particular Thanksgiving, I used the bone to make two dishes, a pre-Christmas version of the split pea soup with spinach and carrots, keeping 4 ounces of meat aside to make my rice stuffing for a Christmas goose.
Click here for the ham bone soup recipe
Post 5. Wild Rice stuffing with dry-cured ham, winter mushrooms and peas
This dressing is inspired by classic Chinese ingredients such as the famous Jinhua ham 金华火腿 (which I have never tasted, but understand is similar to Smithfield hams), green peas and the rich, earthy flavor and texture of rehydrated dried winter mushrooms (shiitakes). The dressing complements perfectly the spices on the roast turkey. This year I added roasted hazelnuts to high acclaim at Thanksgiving and pecans/cranberries for the Christmas goose.
Click here for the recipe, and a variation used with my first Christmas goose! The free range goose was tasty, and we used leftovers to make tasty barbecue chicken goose pizzas. However, the recipe still needs some work as the skin was not as crispy as I had hoped.
Post 6. Baked Challah French Toast with stone fruit jams
When you need to feed a crowd at breakfast time, this french toast casserole is not only extremely easy, but also looks impressive and tastes divine. The slices are warm and custardy on the bottom with crispy edges on top and go great with a variety of fresh berries.
Click here for the french toast recipe.
Post 7. Gluten-free breakfasts for a crowd: bacon, potatoes, coddled eggs and egg casseroles.
While there are a lot of gluten-free or low-carb breakfast casseroles starring eggs, varying amounts of milk products and often bacon or sausage, one of my favorite flavors is salsa with eggs. Click here for how-to guides for cooking brown sugar-glazed bacon and breakfast potatoes on a sheet pan, and baking cheesy coddled eggs with salsa in a muffin tin at the same time!
DO YOU HAVE SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISHES OR TRADITIONS TO SHARE?
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Challah French toast is an elegant, delicious and carefree breakfast to prepare for overnight guests. A light spread of apricot or peach jam perfectly complements the rich vanilla custard that plumps up each slice, and it is easy to dress up with powdered sugar and blackberries. Baked in sheet pans, this dish can even be assembled the night before.
The sheet pan French toast recipe uses thick slices of challah bread as a starting point. This rich bread is springy, eggy and slightly sweet on the inside with a beautifully glossy tan outside. It has a buttery mouthfeel not unlike brioche, but is made without dairy products using eggs, flour, water, sugar, yeast and salt. The elongated loaves of braided bread is easy to slice, and adds a rich texture and appearance to the egg-milk-vanilla custard.
The slices of bread are spread with a thin layer of a orangey fruit jam -- we have tried it with apricot and peach jams and with orange marmalade. All three are excellent. I use the delicious challah from Loafers Bread, a small Pittsburgh area bakery and cafe that grows their own wheat on the family farm and mills it fresh in the back of the shop. That freshness really comes across in the most amazing whole grain and white flour breads, scones, rolls and muffins. The housemade granola, sandwiches, salads and soups are also delicious.
I usually forget to add the turbinado sugar, as the dish looks and smells so good when I take it out of the oven, and believe it is not really necessary. On the other hand, it is worth the small effort to include freshly grated orange zest. A shake of powdered sugar and some handfuls of fresh blackberries or blueberries really rounds out a delectable and impressive breakfast!
Reminiscent of a good rich bread pudding dessert, a few slices of French toast is like eating dessert for breakfast. French toast can even be made into fancy grilled breakfast sandwiches, but is often messy and time consuming to cook on the stove. That is why this recipe from Molly Gilbert's Sheet Pan Suppers cookbook is so fantastic! This book also has some great one pan dishes combining salmon with bright vegetables, or fish cooked on little potato galette rafts.
Although a few of the recipes are not terribly creative, simply using the sheet pan as a baking sheet, there are enough gems in here to justifying buying two sheet pans. They stack nicely, and are useful for oven roasting tomatoes or root vegetables or honey glazed bacon for a crowd. Be sure to get the matching racks that set inside. They work great for cooling cookies and serve admirably to eliminate paper towel waste in draining deep fried items, allowing them to crisp up beautifully.
Although a few of the recipes are not terribly creative, simply using the sheet pan as a baking sheet, there are enough gems in here to justifying buying two sheet pans. They stack nicely, and are useful for oven roasting tomatoes or root vegetables or honey glazed bacon for a crowd. Be sure to get the matching racks that set inside. They work great for cooling cookies and serve admirably to eliminate paper towel waste in draining deep fried items, allowing them to crisp up beautifully.
The sheet pan French toast recipe uses thick slices of challah bread as a starting point. This rich bread is springy, eggy and slightly sweet on the inside with a beautifully glossy tan outside. It has a buttery mouthfeel not unlike brioche, but is made without dairy products using eggs, flour, water, sugar, yeast and salt. The elongated loaves of braided bread is easy to slice, and adds a rich texture and appearance to the egg-milk-vanilla custard.
Click here for gluten-free or low-carb sheet pan breakfast tips.
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