Mapo tofu ramen is a hybrid dish that has become a big part of Japan’s ramen culture.
Read More
What are some of your favorite quick meals to make when you're under the weather?
Read MoreLove egg drop soup? For the second video in the new Appetite for China Cooking Videos series, I decided to update this post with a fun visual guide on making egg drop soup with tomatoes. Let me know what you think!
I first made tomato egg drop soup in 2008 while living in Beijing during the Summer Olympics. At the time, I was in desperate need of something light and healthy for lunch to go with a salad, to counteract all the fried food I had been eating at the Olympic venues. And what could be more healthy and comforting at the same time than tomatoes and eggs in homemade chicken broth? Over the years I've tweaked the recipe bit by bit and come up with this revised version.
There are few ingredients in this soup, so it's important that the chicken stock (or vegetable stock) be homemade. (You can use either Chinese or Western homemade stock.) If you must use store-bought, try to find organic stock or broth that does not have too many preservatives in the label.
Read MoreI was born in July, dead-smack in the middle of summer, and frequently use it as an excuse for absolutely hating cold weather. "But you're from Boston," my friends would remark, "You should be used to the cold."
Well, it's the one part of me that never got New England-ified (that and total disinterest in the Red Sox.) Despite spending most of my life in cold northern climates, I somehow never got used to frigid weather. In winter, I'm usually much more bundled up than anyone around me. In the summer, even during heat waves, I'm the girl who takes a cardigan everywhere, just in case there's air-conditioning on overdrive somewhere in the city. I take hot showers as soon as it dips below 80 degrees.
The only thing comforting about the colder seasons is the food. Or more specifically, big bubbling pots of soup.
Recently I made a big pot of orange-scented lentil soup out of Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. I've made lentil soup hundreds of times in various forms, but have never thought to put orange peels to add a nice citrus aroma. I had to add a bit more orange peel and coriander than the recipe suggested to get the light citrus scent, but it was a nice change from the lentil soup I usually make.
Read MoreIsn't this soup festive-looking? I first made red lentil and okra soup in the winter of 2009 after buying some gorgeous okra pods from a farmer's market. I sautéed them with onions and added both to the bubbling pot of soup close to the end of cooking. Not only is the soup hearty and filling, it's also colorful enough to beat the cold weather blues.
As a Chinese-born, New England-bred gal, I first tried okra at the ripe old age of 21. I was aprehensive, having heard okra derided as a bitter, gooey freak-of-a-vegetable (mosty by non-Southerners). Then I tried the Creole okra gumbo and fried okra at the magnificent Magnolia's in Cambridge, MA. What were these okra-haters thinking? These things are addictive!
(I came to the conclusion that the people who despise okra are the same who despise bitter melon. A microscopic bit of bitterness never killed anyone; it just makes the flavor spectrum more interesting.)
Granted, okra isn't just used in Southern Creole-inspired food. Indian, Middle Eastern, Caribbbean, and North African cuisines also incorporate okra in plenty of thick stews. As much as I like fried okra, gumbo and bhindi masala are hearty dishes that make the best use of okra's snappy texture and slightly bitter flavor.
Read MoreWhat a crazy two weeks. Here in the Northeast, many areas are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy. and now we've been hit with a Nor'easter. Right now it's snowing and raining at the same time, which makes me want to just stay inside and make something extra-comforting, like chicken noodle soup.
I first experimented with making Sichuan-style chicken noodle soup 3 years ago. And it's no less of a favorite comfort food dish now.
Rather than the American version flavored with bay leaf and thyme, I decided to make a Sichuan-style broth with star anise, cinnamon, tangerine peel, and Sichuan pepper. (There will be a mild tingle from the peppercorn, to jazz things up.) The best part: you can shred leftover roast chicken, itself a cost-saver, and add it to the soup at the last minute. The simmering anise and cinnamon will make your kitchen smell wondering. And slurping the steamy chicken noodle soup will get you through these chilly wintry days.
Instead of using dashi, the soup gets its flavor from the natural brininess of the clams and their juices, which, combined with sake, form the base.
Read MoreIt's hard to get too much of summer corn. Every time I visit a farmer's market here in the city, there is always a crowd of people gathered around the corn bins selecting their perfect ears, even if it's late in the day and the sellers are packing up their trucks and vans. Even if I've had corn 3 or 4 times earlier in the week, all those overflowing bins become a huge magnet. Corn is one of the reasons I finally bought a virtually indestructible Lands End tote bag, since my other totes weren't cutting it anymore for hauling heavy grocery loads home via subway.
So what can you do with all this sweet corn other than roasting it whole, creaming it, sprinkling kernels on salads and pastas, and making corn bread? How about a Chinese soup?
If you're like me and kind of adore Chinese chicken and corn soup (homemade or take-out version), you'll probably also love this light soup made with corn, cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots. The cob goes right into the pot to flavor the vegetable or chicken broth, and the rest of the ingredients take 10 minutes or less to cook through.
Read MoreAs much as I love to cook, I never have time to plan weekday lunches. After a frazzled morning at the desk, trying to get just one more bit of work done, I am ravenous by 1 or 2pm. My lame attempts at breakfast (usually Wheatables and fruit gummies) do not suffice.
I storm out of the building in a mad search for anything edible on the street. Unfortunately, other than mediocre $10 sandwiches and faux-Mexican, there is nothing except Safeway and Whole Foods. So I go for supermarket soup. Soup is filling. Soup is warming. Soup is cheap (well, not at Whole Foods). But sooner or later, you get sick of Chunky Chicken Noodle and Spicy Southwestern Bean. I still craved a piping hot bowl of broth-and-protein in the early afternoon, but needed a change.
This week I decided to add a Chinese take-out touch to chicken noodle soup. And make a big batch on Sunday night. While I still like the hot and sour soup I posted two year ago, this one is much, much more filling. And if you are low on Asian pantry staples like canned bamboo shoots and lily buds, you can still make this. I went to the market and bought chicken breast, mushrooms, and scallions, et voilà.
Read MoreWonton noodle soup is one of the few dishes I set very high standards for, almost to the point of obsession. Because of cravings for an ideal bowl of wonton noodle soup (and seeing my relatives), I have paid way too much for same day plane tickets to Hong Kong. When I get wontons that are all or mostly pork, I feel cheated. And I rarely visit wonton noodle stands outside of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, for fear of getting inferior versions.
Yes, it's rather compulsive behavior. But the behavior applies to any sort of a purist, whether the love is sushi, borscht, cocktails, or xiaolongbao. We all have certain foods we put on a pedestal.
If you can't get to Hong Kong, the next best cure for wonton lust is recreating the darn thing at home. After tinkering in the kitchen for over a year and a half, I have updated an older post on this very topic. For me, an ideal wonton noodle soup must include the following: fragrant broth consisting of pork and seafood umami flavor, springy al dente egg noodles, and wontons containing at least 50% shrimp.
Here are the details, if you would like to recreate my ideal Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup at home.
Read MoreIn these last few days before The Election, I have been trying to ease my political anxiety through food. When I catch up on my Google Reader and NYTimes in the morning, I find myself reaching out for snack. A chocolate bar to gnaw on, a cookie to hold on to, a tub of ice cream to drown oneself in. I don't think this is healthy. It's resembling how many women try to ease first date jitters or calm oneself after a devastating break-up.
I have also been cooking nonstop. More often than not, my Firefox tabs extend 10 or 15 long, a window into both my news and food addictions and my ADD: Food Blog Search, NPR, Tastespotting, NPR, Epicurious, NPR, my own blog, NPR, Twitpic of Obama-lanterns, NPR. A few times I had so many recipes open that I forgot which dish I just bought ingredients for.
And like most people using cooking as anxiety distraction, I have taken a step back from experimentations to attend to my comfort food needs, mainly soups, noodle soups, and cookies. Not that comfort food is 100% successful at getting my mind off things. Last night I got so distracted by an article on swing state exit polls that I burnt a batch of the banana chocolate chunk cookies. Then as I was analyzing the Times' latest Electoral Map I managed to burn another batch.
Read More