Garlic | Wok With Me, Baby

Posts Tagged ‘garlic’

Made in Jiānádà: Suzhou Porky Mooncakes

August 31, 2012 by MaryAnne

Hello. I’ve been away for a while, haven’t I?

It’s been a very hot, busy summer, much of it nowhere near a kitchen to call my own.

We were in Morocco for a month, which was lovely in spite of the fact that it was 46 degrees in the shade AND Ramadan for most of the time we were there. Whoops.

Anyway. I’ve been back in Shanghai for nearly three weeks now and have yet to dust off the oven and check to see if it even still works. Poor thing. I’ve made chili and tacos and a ton of wok tortillas, but those aren’t new things so I can’t exactly re-write posts for them just for the sake of it.

This one… this is one I made back in Canada just before I left, but never posted.

Why?

Because I royally screwed it up. Kind of. I made Suzhou pork hockey pucks.

You know, the Canadian interpretation. Like, say, chop suey or bison fried rice.

Apparently my skillful light touch and intuitive cooking skills don’t apply to pastry.

I love Suzhou mooncakes. In China, however, it isn’t worth the energy to actually make them at home because they are so good, so fresh and so cheap here.

For the past two mornings, on my long, hot trek out to the Entry-Exit Bureau in deepest, darkest Pudong to renew my residence permit, I’ve stopped at a tiny stand at the bottom of our street to buy a little brown bag containing exactly two mooncakes, still hot and flakey and filled with lovely, juicy, umami seasoned ground pork, fresh from the oven. 6 kuai (under a buck) for a very solid breakfast.

I was too busy eating them to take pictures, but below is one I took a few weeks ago when I was actually in Suzhou. See the little red stamp on the ones below? They stamp their mooncakes, yes. Much more low key than all the fiddly crimping and dough-engraving that goes on with the classical lotus paste and duck egg filled Cantonese style ones that are exchanged (and then re-gifted and re-gifted, like fruitcake) during the mid-autumn festival (coming very soon). (more…)

Category Baked Things, Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Uncategorized | Tags: Autumn,Canada,Chinese,garlic,oven,Pork,Toaster Oven | 5 Comments
Made in Jiānádà: Homestyle porky Eggplant (家常茄子)

July 11, 2012 by MaryAnne

Eggplant (茄子 or qiézi) was one of the first words I learned in Mandarin back in early 2009, partly because we ordered it so often that it inevitably had to stick in my head, and partly because it sounded like a hybrid between cheese and chaise (as in longue). Kind of like ch’yay’zuh.

Except not really.

If you are anything like me, your tones will be so inconceivably wrong that you could say it every day for three years and still only get it right half the time.

And I do get practice saying it. We eat spiced deep fried eggplant slices, stewed umami eggplant fingers with sizzling red and green peppers, dry fried green beans with long melty lengths of lightly spiced eggplant with just a hint of pork crumble. At home, I’ve baked it and fried it and breaded it.

When I lived in Turkey, I lived on it.

And the thing is, until a decade ago, I thought I hated eggplant. I loathed it, in fact. It was on the list of things I told people I didn’t like, alongside all sorts of fungus and organ meats.

What I failed to realize, however, was that 1. I just hated those big spongy bitter eggplants normally sold in Canada and 2. I hate big spongy chunks of poorly prepared eggplant.

Those little tiny thin Asian and Turkish purple-black eggplants, properly sauteed or baked slowly and drizzled in olive oil? Those I like.

This recipe is astonishingly easy to pull together and really quite tasty, even for those who think they hate eggplant. It’s not at all spongy and it’s not at all bitter. It tastes even better, reheated over a propane camp stove three days later, eaten plain with a spoon in little unbreakable bowls in the wilds of Vancouver Island.

This is, as the name says, simple homestyle eggplant (家常茄子 – jiācháng qiézi). This is comfort food. (more…)

Category Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Canada,Chinese,eggplant,garlic,OMFG Yum,Pork,wok | 6 Comments
Made in Jiānádà: Pork and Green Beans, China-Style

July 8, 2012 by MaryAnne

I’m not actually anywhere near my kitchen right now. In fact, I’m out in the wilds of Vancouver Island with my family, camping outside the gates of the Island Music Fest. My laptop is being powered by one of my dad’s spare car batteries and I’m stealing wifi from one of the sound stages. Music is drifting across the Grassy Knoll. No, not that grassy knoll. The other one.

This recipe is one I made last week, before we drove up island to the Comox Valley for a week. Our culinary excursions here have consisted of reheating things we had made earlier on the tiny propane burner in the tiny little camper.

For the record, eggplant with minced pork (to be posted when we get back) reheats fabulously.

This is a whole other deal, though working within the porky paradigm. This is one we have eaten many times in Shanghai, though I have to limit my intake as Doug’s less of a green bean fan than I am. If I could, I’d live on spicy minced pork with green beans (and eggplant!).

It’s very easy to make and the prep can be done in instalments. Do a little bit, walk away, come back later and do more. Assemble and cook when you’re ready.

It goes well as a side dish or as a main dish with rice. We actually chopped up the leftovers into little pieces and used it to fill fresh Vietnamese rice rolls (you know, the discs that you soak briefly in warm water to soften), along with fresh cilantro, vinegared onions, scallions and a squeeze of fresh lime. Gorgeous. There are no photos of this because we ate EVERYTHING.

They call these dry fried string beans in English in the recipe (technically it’s dry stirred- gān biān 干煸 - whatever that means) but they’re actually fried in oil, which isn’t exactly parched.

Go figure.

I kind of want to call out a square dance with this one, but with a hearty sìjì dòu instead of a do-si-do.

Ladies and gents, I give you pork ‘n beans. Kind of. (more…)

Category Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Canada,garlic,green beans,OMFG Yum,Pork,wok | 5 Comments
Made in Jiānádà: Lanzhou Lāmiàn (broth!)

June 30, 2012 by MaryAnne

This is part 2 in my noodle series. Part 1 (the hand pulled noodles) is here.

This is quite possibly the best broth in the whole universe. Except, perhaps, for a fine Tom Yam with all the bark and twigs still nestled at the bottom of the bowl. This one has its own mighty collection of bark and twigs, and plays the role of hearty autumn and winter to Thailand’s fierce summer in the Cartesian dialectic of soup broths.

This is a broth that will make you pick up the bowl and sip away at the broth until it’s gone, leaving only a few stray chili seeds at the bottom, long after the noodles and greens have been spooned/chopsticked away. The rich beefy scent, umami’d up to the hilt with soy, garlic, star anise and cinnamon, needs to be brought up close to your nostrils as you sip. The chilies and garlic will sternly resolve any colds you may have stubbornly residing in your system.

Keep a few Tupperware containers of this stuff in your freezer for a cold, rainy day, then note how your mood significantly lifts after you heat up a bowl of it. Seriously. This stuff is mood altering, up there with crack and bath salts. (more…)

Category Made in Jianada, Soupy Stewy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Beef,Canada,Chinese,garlic,OMFG Yum,soup,spicy | 7 Comments
Made in Jiānádà: Garlic Shoots and Smoky Bacon

June 28, 2012 by MaryAnne

Welcome to Part 2 in my series of as yet undetermined length on cooking Chinese food in Canada! Part 1 is here.

We’re still on safe, neutral territory here- no bear paw, no jellyfish, no shark fin soup in my drafts folder, thank you very much. I’m sticking with the things I eat regularly in Shanghai (aside from those guanxi-heavy banquets for work) and I have, by nature, really simple tastes. Veggies will predominate, as they ought to. (more…)

Category Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Uncategorized | Tags: bacon,Canada,garlic,Hunan,OMFG Yum,wok | 2 Comments
Made in Jiānádà: Garlicky Chinese cucumber salad

June 20, 2012 by MaryAnne

Er, hello.

It’s been a while. You may remember me as the person who used Xinjiang noodle dough to make pretty much everything.

I’ve been, one might say, busy.

I got a new job about two months ago. I can’t remember if I mentioned it. Academic director of a new start up school. Or, as I’d hoped to have on my business card, Queen of the Fire Spiders. Did I mention that the company that is in charge of this whole project is named Fire Spider? Yes. Hot, roaring, powerful and drops from the sky out of nowhere. Can’t get more auspicious than that. (more…)

Category Made in Jianada, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Canada,Chinese,garlic,salad,Simple,spicy,Vegan | 15 Comments
Lavash crackers qui rit (and crockpot hummus)

May 21, 2012 by MaryAnne

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: chickpeas,crock pot,Flatbread,garlic,Middle Eastern,Toaster Oven | 11 Comments
Adventures With Sauerkraut in Shanghai

March 5, 2012 by MaryAnne

You know what we have a lot of in Shanghai in mid-winter (aside from rain, rain, zero visibility, unheated buildings and, er, rain)? Cabbages. We have a lot of cabbages. All sorts of cabbages.

Aside from the usual assortment of sturdy greens, turnips, radishes, leeks and potatoes (both sweet and regular), our sidewalk veggie vendors have stacks of huge cabbages filling up their tiny little shops.

Until now, I had pretty much just stuck to using the elegant, pale savoy-esque cabbage in our soups, where it melts down to nearly nothing and doesn’t make the house smell like death. You can stuff most of a cabbage the size of a small baby into a crock pot full of chicken soup and a few hours later no one will ever know it was there. It’s that subtle. It’s like a Brassicaceae ninja.

After a few months of covert cabbage action, I decided I wanted to do something with a little more flair, a little more (dare I say it, for such a flatus-friendly vegetable?) oomph.

I decided to go on a fermentation bender. I decided to make sauerkraut. After all, the possibilities are endless with a reliable choucroute stash!

Reuben sandwiches, possibly improvised with Hunan smoked beef and some toaster oven focaccia!

Faux’rogies, the bastardized Polish/Ukrainian staple, made with Xinjiang noodle dough and stuffed with wok paneer, mashed potatoes, minced sauerkraut!

Sauteed sauerkraut with bacon and onions on the side of absolutely everything!

This enthusiasm is the reason why my lovely crock pot has been out of commission for about two weeks now, stuffed as it is with a vast quantity of sliced cabbage, fermenting in its own brine. (more…)

Category Improbable Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Cabbage,frying,garlic,OMFG Yum,pierogies,wok | 11 Comments
The Lazy Laowai’s Guide to Toaster Oven Focaccia

March 4, 2012 by MaryAnne

As you’ve probably noticed by now, I have a thing for unleavened bread, especially unleavened bread made in the wok using a highly unlikely Uyghur noodle dough recipe. I’ve turned that into chapatis, tortillas, pierogies, spaghetti, medieval dumplings and ravioli. I keep a ball of it in the fridge at all times, just as others might keep, say, a tube of Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough or a jar of Velveeta.

Now, although I still have my softball sized lump of Uyghur dough in the fridge (made lovelier by using the leftover whey from last week’s foray into cheese making), I wanted to celebrate the fact that neither I nor Doug is working this weekend. You have no idea how rare an occurrence this is. Usually I’m away, and sometimes if I’m not, he is.

This weekend, we are both at home and we’re honouring this by barely leaving the house, drinking a ton of coffee, watching Ancient Aliens (Mayan Prophesy! The Greys! Giorgio and his enormous hair!) and generally being immobile sloths. I made tacos for lunch yesterday (noodle dough tortillas!) and we ordered pizza for dinner.

And that pizza got me thinking.

Pizza here, the edible kind, doesn’t come cheap. I think we paid about 120rmb for ours from a place in Taikang Lu, from a joint that has access to proper jalepenos, ricotta, artichoke hearts, salami and all. I think that’s approximately the monthly salary of a goat herder in Yunnan.

I thought, hm, I wonder if I could make pizza? I mean, if not in my wok with Uyghur noodle dough, then maybe in our oversized counter-top toaster oven? (more…)

Category Baked Things, Improbable Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Flatbread,garlic,OMFG Yum,Toaster Oven,Yeast Bread | 8 Comments
Xinjiang Noodle Dough Enchiladas. Really.

February 27, 2012 by MaryAnne

With my crock pot full of fermenting cabbage this month, I’ve had to start re-thinking my usual culinary fall-back techniques of, well, throwing everything in the fridge into the crock pot and hoping for the best. Since I went a bit overboard on tacos and spaghetti bolognese last week, I thought I’d veer out into a whole new direction.

Enchiladas!

Now, when we were parked down in Oaxaca about three years ago, en route to wherever our money ran out, I ate a lot of enchiladas. I even ate zucchini blossom enchiladas on the Day of the Dead. I’ve had mole enchiladas of all hues, and have delved into both the roja and the verde. I’ve also had some lovely, bastardized, gringa’fied ones since- even some surprisingly good ones here in Shanghai.

I haven’t, however, made enchiladas in Shanghai. I have no idea why, as I’m pretty much the Queen of Tacos and Quesadillas in this household (mainly because Doug can’t exactly be crowned Queen).

However, with the crock pot being used elsewhere and my desire to delve into unexplored realms at a reasonable high, I started researching chicken enchiladas. (more…)

Category Baked Things, Improbable Things, Milky Cheesy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: Chicken,garlic,Mexican,OMFG Yum,Toaster Oven,tortilla,wok | 17 Comments

Older Entries