Posts Tagged ‘crock pot’

  1. Killing My Crock Pot Softly With Yeast Breads

    September 26, 2012 by MaryAnne

    It's remarkably hefty, that bread.

     

    I’m not, I admit, one of those pretty food writers. I’m not talking about me and my bad hair and naked face and un-manicured nails, mind you- I’m talking about my food styling abilities, or lack thereof.

     

    I’m also not good at pretending that things turned out okay.  Like that time I made those Suzhou hockey pucks. Or the biryani that was a bit, well, stodgier than anticipated.  Or the crackers that weren’t quite as crackery as hoped. As long as it’s on the high end of edible, I’ll post it, looks be damned.

     

    Look, irregularly lumpy scones!

     

    Which is why I’m writing about my Great Crockpot Bread Experiment.

    Which, well, didn’t go quite as planned. (more…)

    Category Baked Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 4 Comments

  2. Lavash crackers qui rit (and crockpot hummus)

    May 21, 2012 by MaryAnne

    IMG_1213

    Oh. Hello. You might remember me from such diverse posts as Xinjiang Noodle Dough Tacos and Xinjiang Noodle Dough Pierogies.  I’ve been slightly out of commission recently, what with suddenly having 5 jobs and all.

    I must say, it sure is a lot easier to cook when 1. you’re actually at home (I’ve been either in Hangzhou or down in Xinzhuang and Qibao in deepest, darkest South Shanghai for much of the past month) and 2. not up to your ears in new and scary work projects with terrifying deadlines.

    For the past few weeks, we’ve been living on crock pot soup, take away pizza, and neighbourhood Hunan restaurant yummies.  My drafts folder here doubled in size, full of links and titles but no actual finished product. No time.  Also, no energy.

    Today, for the first day in yonks, I didn’t have to go somewhere immediately to do something workish (that would be scheduled for this afternoon). I cleaned the flat, drank 2 pots of coffee, and made lavash crackers and hummus. By hand. Which is still cramped. (more…)

    Category Baked Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,, | 11 Comments

  3. Awesome Slow-Cooker Spicy Shredded Beef Tacos

    January 2, 2012 by MaryAnne

    Dinner of champions. You know you want one.

    I’ve been meaning to do a taco post for ages. It’s one of our dinner staples here these days. I’ve made beef tacos that were browned in the wok, then marinated in the jus from the de-glazing, sliced thinly and sauteed in garlic, onion and chilies. I’ve also done pulled pork ones and ground beef ones. All have been awesome and utterly Sino-friendly.

    About 3 years ago, we spent some time in Mexico before moving to Shanghai. It was there that I discovered the glories of piping hot soft tacos with spicy shredded beef and fresh salsa. These were tiny little flour tortillas the size of your palm, not the hard shells and certainly not those gargantuan wraps that you find in the supermarkets. They weren’t drowned in sour cream or fake cheddar. They were very simple and very good.

    Each little tortilla we found at street stalls had a dollop of something meaty (or beany) on it- maybe sauteed chorizo or shredded chicken or grilled beef or pork or some crispy body part hacked up into bite sized pieces- and was served with a few fresh salsas (verde, roja, fresca), cilantro, lime, maybe some onion. I was partial to the salsa verde but you can’t get fresh tomatillos here. They were magnificent.

    What we do here is very similar, or at least as similar as you can get when living in China.

    For the tortilla, I tend to use my Xinjiang noodle dough (3 cups flour, 1 cup water, 2 teaspoons salt, mix, knead, rest, roll-out) and roll it out very, very thinly. You could also try this one or this one. The thinness lets it puff up like a chapati in the wok and gives it a soft airiness that is delicious and chewy.

    I make my own salsa fresca with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, onion and chilies, marinated a few hours with lime juice (when limes are available) and a bit of crunchy kosher salt. If you can’t get fresh limes, then lemons will do, as will Chinese rice wine vinegar.

    Those are the basics.

    Today I want to show you how to make spicy shredded beef in the crock pot to go in the tacos. The recipe said it’d take 10 hours but mine was done in barely 5 hours. Go figure. (more…)

    Category Improbable Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 10 Comments

  4. Chicken Soup Cure for Sino Black Lung

    November 30, 2011 by MaryAnne

    Add a squeeze of lime and maybe a little cilantro, if you fancy. They both work wonders.

    This was originally going to be my ode to caldo xochitl, the soup I first had in a tiny little cafe in San Cristobal de las Casas about 3 years ago. I should note that thereafter, I had it again in a few dozen more cafes in Mexico and then again in Nicaragua. It revolutionized the concept of chicken noodle soup for me.

    Some versions of it had vermicelli in them, others had pieces of leftover boiled potato. Some were spicier, with wrinkly chipotle peppers to be found floating lopsidedly in the broth. Some were very delicately flavoured. Some had shredded chicken while others sliced it. Some were vegetarian, focusing on starchy squares of orange and yellow gourds. The thing that remained constant was that you added fresh, raw ingredients at the end: minced chilies, pieces of avocado, freshly squeezed lime juice, salsa fresca, vinegared onion, cilantro. It made for a wonderful contrast.

    We have been making this at home here in Shanghai since we arrived- it’s super fast to throw together after a long day in the educational salt mines and it’s great for using up leftovers: a bit of spud here, some chicken there, a quarter of an onion, a fistful of cilantro, etc.

    Unfortunately, that’s not what this post turned into. (more…)

    Category Soupy Stewy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 6 Comments

  5. The Hundred Beans Campaign: Red Chili For China

    November 10, 2011 by MaryAnne

    After a few hours on high then a few hours on low, we reached a delicious dining compromise

    Shanghai’s frigid and grim season has landed with a cold, heavy thump. Last night in bed, my hands went kind of numb as I tried to read a book under my two thick duvets, with just my head and fingers poking out. Right now, I can hear the wind howling outside the flat, a rather dreadful feature of living on the 16th floor.

    If you go up to the windows, you can feel a layer of cold air puffing through the cracks and thin panes. The wind is making it all rattle disconcertingly. Shanghai isn’t actually all that cold, at least not compared with, say, Beijing or Harbin, but it is in complete and utter denial about its lack of tropical winter balminess. Buildings are not particularly insulated and there is no central heating to speak of.

    Kevin the Panda shudders at the thought of going out into the chilly overcast morning

    (more…)

    Category Improbable Things, Soupy Stewy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 3 Comments

  6. Spicy 卡罗来纳州 Style Crock-Pot Pulled Pork

    October 26, 2011 by MaryAnne

    Lunch of champions: I ate mine with a blorp of home made yogurt. It was stunning.

    I should preface this one by noting that I’m sick today. Part cold, part sore throat, part achy dopiness. Which is why I kind of screwed up some key parts of this recipe.

    If you look below at the recipe, you’ll see it calls for 5lbs of pork shoulder.

    On Monday afternoon, when I bought and initially prepared the piece of pork, I didn’t look at the size or weight or cut. I just bought a reasonably sized piece, fit for a household where one person doesn’t really eat meat (me) and the other doesn’t really like pork (Doug). However, I really like the pulled pork sandwich at Boxing Cat Brewery (about 80rmb) and thought it would be worth attempting at home. (more…)

    Category Improbable Things, Soupy Stewy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,, | 9 Comments

  7. شىنجاڭ‎ Uyghur Irish Stew

    October 16, 2011 by MaryAnne

    This was dinner: pumpkin soup, Irish stew, savoury buttermilk scones

    Now this one…this one’s going to be a search engine disaster in the making. It may also be the one that gets me pushed over the proverbial edge of the Great Firewall. Sorry.

    This stew is technically a basic Irish stew, though lacking in lamb and Guinness. I did, however, have some leathery supermarket Chinese beef and a bottle of  Sinkiang stout from the far, far west of China, from what’s known on maps as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (or شىنجاڭ ئۇيغۇر ئاپتونوم رايونى or Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom Rayoni or 新疆维吾尔自治区).  I made the stew yesterday, along with the spicy roasted pumpkin soup. It was a lovely autumnal dinner. (more…)

    Category Soupy Stewy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,, | 11 Comments

  8. All My Stuff: What I Have In My Chinese Kitchen

    September 17, 2011 by MaryAnne

    You can guess what these are.

    Sometimes I think I’m the world’s worst expat. I live in China now (and before that, in Turkey and South Africa among other places) and yet I still insist on craving and cooking things that are utterly unChinese. If I was a decent human being, I’d immerse myself in Chinese cooking and teach myself how to wrangle tofu skins and beef tendon and jellyfish.

    However, when I venture outside the flat, I get enough of that. At home, I want bread and dairy and egg noodles and stews involving Guinness and potatoes. I want chocolate cake. I want peanut butter cookies. I want garam masala and biryani. When I cook, I prefer to make comfort foods. In restaurants, I’ll try just about anything.  This blog, as you may have gathered by now, is all about what I make at home. You will not see any chicken feet or bullfrog hotpot here.  (more…)

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    Category Improbable Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 12 Comments