Food blogging has really taken off in the last few years, as have almost all things internet related. If you’re spending so much time on capturing great photos of the food you make, why not [...] More » |
Ever since I got married, I started cooking all this American food. I mean, I grew up on Chinese food, stir-fries and rice every day, so pies ain’t exactly on my usual repertoire. Plus I’m Canadian. You know, we eat poutine and Montreal Smoked Meat and Beavertails and maple syrup and whatnot. Sometimes I worry that I’m becoming co-opted by my country’s powerful neighbor, my husband’s country, and that I am losing my national identity. Just the other day, one of my Chinese oral English students came up to me and said, “You don’t sound Canadian; your accent is so American!” Er…uh…um…I don’t sound American, Americans just sound Canadian! So there!
Few things say American like cherry pie. Well, ‘cept maybe apple pie. But cherry pie is definitely high up there on the list of American symbols. At least, so I’ve been told. I don’t really care what it’s a symbol of – as long as the filling is sweet and tart and luscious, and the crust is flaky and buttery and addictive. And oh…this pie delivers on both counts. It is cherry season, folks, and a pie is the perfect vehicle for loads of those sweet succulent berries.
I have to tell you, I don’t like using cornstarch to thicken pie filling. I had to in this case because it was the only thing I had, but if I’d had any, I would have used instant tapioca, pulverized in a food processor, and you might want to as well. Other than that, this recipe is really simple and good. The crust, especially, is incredibly buttery and flaky. So buttery that it’s difficult to work with, and the edges of my pie practically fell off rather than got trimmed off (that’s why the edges are so “rustic” and uneven). You may have to put the dough in the fridge for a few minutes while rolling it out to ensure it doesn’t get too soft. I definitely had to chill the dough before cutting the strips for the lattice so they wouldn’t fall apart as I wove them.
Enjoy cherry season, and cherry pie, friends. And not that I would know anything about holidays south of the border, but methinks this might be a good pie to bring to a certain holiday coming up on the fourth of July? Or Canada Day on July 1st. Eh?
Classic Cherry Pie
Adapted from Epicurious
The lemon juice in this recipe gives sweet cherries a nice tartness and complexity. If using tart cherries, reduce amount of lemon juice to one teaspoon.
Flaky Piecrust
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
5 tbsp ice water (or more)
Filling
5 cups pitted cherries (2lbs unpitted)
¾ cup sugar (use 1 cup if using tart cherries), plus extra for sprinkling
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp cornstarch or instant tapioca
3 tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp almond extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 tbsp milk
1. Prepare the crust. Whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter cubes and rub in with your fingertips until the biggest pieces are about pea-sized (or use a pastry cutter to do the same thing). Add a tablespoonful of ice water at a time, stirring the mixture with a fork. Dough should stick together if pressed. Gather the dough together to form two balls. Flatten them into discs and place in the refrigerator to chill for ½ hour.
2. Preheat oven to 425 F. For the filling, mix together the cornstarch/tapioca, sugar and salt. Stir into cherries along with lemon juice and extracts.
3. Assemble the pie. Roll out one of the dough discs into a 12-inch circle. Lay into the bottom of a pie plate and press gently into corners. Trim edges, leaving an overhang of ½ inch. Roll out the other disk into a 12-inch circle and cut into strips. Pour filling into pie shell and dot with butter. Place strips of dough over filling to form lattice, lifting up alternating strips to form a weave. Trim strips of dough to a ½ inch overhang as well. Fold up remaining dough on the edges, and crimp or flute the pie edge to seal. Brush the lattice with milk (but not the edges of the pie or they will brown too much).
4. Place in oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the heat to 375 F and bake for another hour, until crust is browned and filling is bubbling and thickened. If the pie is browning too quickly, place aluminum foil loosely over pie as it bakes.
5. When pie is done, let cool completely before serving.
 Print Post
Chris and I had the good fortune of traveling to Taiwan between semesters, and we have been eating our way across Taiwan for the past 11 days. Don’t be too jealous; I brought lots of goodies, in the form of photos, for you to drool over.
Taiwanese people LOVE food. The variety of local delicacies available at every town was really astounding. Some of them were a little exotic for our tastes (dried minnows, anyone?), though all were fascinating.
Some of the best places to sample Taiwanese cuisine was at the night markets that we frequented in almost every town. The ideal place to fill up on a variety of xiao chi (“small eats”, or little snacks), the Taiwanese street market is a food lover’s dream. I think it is a truth generally acknowledged that the best food in the world is developed in the crucible of the world’s street markets. Sipping a huge cup of fresh watermelon juice in one hand (for the measly sum of $0.30 USD) and nibbling on a hot grilled Taiwanese sausage in the other…I was in my element. The best thing is, in the Taiwanese street market, everything is made right in the open on grills and portable stoves, so all you have to do is stroll, look, point, and eat.
Taiwanese Sausage
A sweet pork sausage with your choice of dressing is grilled, making the skin crispy and the inside juicy, tender and scorching hot.
Sweet Silky Tofu (Dou Hua)
Yes, tofu as a dessert. Why not? It’s silky, custardy, and delicious – tofu as dessert is the most natural thing! This soft smooth tofu is ladled into a bowl and drowned in a rock sugar soup, and topped with your choice of peanuts, almond agar, tapioca, and other goodies. On a hot night, I seriously craved this, with some crushed ice on top.
Flour-Rice Noodle Soup
This famous food stand at the Ximending district in Taipei specializes in one thing – a thick vinegary soup filled with mian xian (“thread” noodles), pieces of pig intestines, bamboo shoots and other goodies. It may sound and look disgusting, but it’s surprisingly good, especially with some cilantro and hot sauce on top.
Taiwanese Sandwich (Gua Bao)
Chinese people love fatty pork. In fact, at the Taipei National Palace Museum, one of the prize exhibits was a piece of red jade carved to look like a piece of fatty pork (the other prize exhibit was a piece of green and white jade carved to look like a Chinese cabbage). If you haven’t yet found a place in your heart (and stomach) for fatty pork, you have got to try a Taiwanese gua bao. Braised, tender fatty pork is sandwiched in a steamed bun with sweet ‘n’ sour pickled vegetables, crushed peanuts, a sweet sauce, and cilantro. What’s not to like? We got this one at Shin Yeh, an excellent restaurant in Taipei specializing in Taiwanese cuisine.
Fish Balls (Yu Wan) and Pork Floss Rice
We got this amazingly fresh fish ball soup in Kaohsiung near the harbor. We noticed a busy crowd of what looked to be local workers devouring bowls of these with relish, and we had to give it a try. Our hostess deftly made the fish balls (well, more like fish rolls) by hand and tossed them into the soup. Piping hot, the fish balls had a springy texture and super fresh fillings of oysters and fresh flaky white fish.
These fish balls, with a small bowl of pork floss and fatty pork-topped rice filled us near to bursting. I have to say, I’m not usually a fan of fish balls, but I’ll have a bowl of these any day.
White Wasabi
I always thought wasabi was green. According to the lady who produces this white wasabi and sells it in her shop, however, freshly grated wasabi is white, and only turns green after other stuff (ie. food coloring) gets added to it. I couldn’t resist buying a jar, and it’s definitely got more flavor and slightly less hotness than the typical S&B tube wasabi I’m used to. We got this while visiting AliShan (Ali Mountain), where wasabi root cultivation is a local specialty.
Here are some more dishes we tried but didn’t get a chance to photograph:
Oyster Pancake (O-ah-jian): Perhaps Taiwan’s most famous snack, the oyster pancake is a concoction of a sticky glutinous batter fried with egg, oysters, and lettuce. It’s served with a slightly sweet red sauce.
Stinky Tofu: Sorry, stinky tofu lovers, but I just can’t get into it. Stinky tofu smells like an open sewer, and I just can’t get past the smell. I ate some, and I’m still here, but I’m not sure I ever need to eat it again.
Mochi: Don’t bother buying the prepackaged boxed ones – they’re full of preservatives and not very good. But definitely try the fresh hand-made ones available at almost every street corner. These glutinous rice balls stuffed with peanuts, sesame seeds, red bean paste, and other goodies are one of the most popular snacks in Taiwan.
Hello, dear reader, I know it has been a long time. Chris and I have been in Taiwan for the past 11 days, and we were too busy stuffing our faces full of delicious Taiwanese street food to post. Those pictures will be coming up soon, but in the meantime, here’s a quick and easy meal that’s perfect for summer.
This yummy pork burger from Elise Bauer’s SimplyRecipes.com is like a large Swedish meatball, flattened into a patty. It’s a delicious alternative to beef burgers this summer, especially if you’re cutting down on eating red meat. It’s hard to compare it to a beef burger – let’s just say it stands on its own, and it’s mouthwatering in its own way.
Pork burgers are a lifesaver for us here in Xiamen, China, as beef is not only difficult to find, but very expensive as well (we live on an island). So it’s great to be able to buy a pound of ground pork, mix it with an onion and a couple other easy ingredients, and voila! A quick and easy escape into Western cuisine. Top the burger with some mustard, arugula and basil, and you’ve got an aromatic feast at your fingertips.
Danish Pork Burgers
From SimplyRecipes
1 pound ground pork
1 medium onion, diced
16 saltine crackers, crushed
1/3 cup whole milk
2 eggs
salt and pepper
cooking oil
In a large bowl, place the crushed saltines, milk, and eggs. Stir to mix, and let sit for a few seconds so the crackers absorb the milk. Add the pork, onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to mix, using your hands to really mash it all together.
Divide the pork into 8 portions and pat them into roughly shaped patties. Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry a few patties at a time, turning once, until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 8 minutes total.
Serve in burger buns with your choice of condiments and veggies – we added aromatic greens like arugula and basil for a bright punch of flavor.
Any leftover uncooked patties can be stored in the freezer, sandwiched between layers of parchment paper.
I grew up eating my mom’s Chinese cooking, but strangely enough have never really explored cooking other Asian cuisines. Sure, I’m familiar with EATING it – in college I lived off discount take-out sushi (discount sushi? Gross, I know, but I loved it), bibimbap, green curry, oyako-don, and other college-priced Asian fare that you can find pretty much everywhere on the streets of Toronto. But cooking non-Chinese Asian food? Meh – I never had much interest. Throwing together a stir-fry was so much easier. Lately though, I’ve become slightly obsessed with Japanese food. With a much anticipated trip to Japan coming up, I’ve been reading up like crazy on ingredients to make mochi, matcha-flavored desserts, proper zaru soba, and more.
Well, I promised more Asian recipes, and here I am delivering on the promise! Chicken katsu is a variation of the Japanese tonkatsu, breaded pork covered with panko bread crumbs and deep-fried, and served with sauce. It’s a family-friendly dish that doesn’t have to be unhealthy – just bake it in the oven instead of deep-frying to cut down on the oil and fat.
The ideal is to use boneless chicken thighs – they are much juicier and more flavorful, in my opinion, than chicken breasts. But I was unable to find boneless thighs at my local supermarket, and being the lazy person I am, I just used boneless chicken breasts. Just don’t overcook them and they won’t be too dry.
For the tonkatsu sauce, I used a mixture of ketchup, dark soy sauce, sugar, and Worchestershire sauce. It tasted pretty good, even if it wasn’t exactly like tonkatsu sauce that you get at a Japanese restaurant.
This was a quick and easy meal – after the breading part, I just stuck the chicken in the toaster oven and let the timer take care of the rest. I served the chicken katsu with some potato salad (just the way my mom makes it) and simply sautéed sugar snap peas.
Chicken Katsu (baked)
Serves 2
Chicken
2 boneless chicken breasts
¼ cup flour
1 large egg, beaten
¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
Sauce
¼ cup ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 F.
Pat the breasts dry with a paper towel. Season on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour. Then put into a bowl with the beaten egg and turn to coat with egg. Place the panko breadcrumbs on a plate, then coat the chicken with the breadcrumbs, patting to help adhere.
Place the breaded chicken onto a pan and bake for 20 minutes until cooked through (if poked with a sharp knife, juices should run clear, not bloody). If you want the top to brown more, turn on the broiler for the last minute. Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the sauce.
When chicken is ready, let rest for 1 minute, then cut into slices. Drizzle with sauce and serve.
As many of you know, Chris (the hubby) and I are spending this year in China. We live on an island off the coast of Fujian province, a beautiful small city named Xiamen with palm trees, beaches, and (usually, when not an El Nino year) beautiful sunny weather. It’s one of the nicest cities in China to live in, and we’ve gotten quite used to life here.
Some things, however, you just never get used to. Take the goat guy, for instance. This fella drives around with a minivan packed with five female goats, all with their udders udderly full of milk. Near our house, he’ll stop under the highway overpass and wait for customers to show up. People will tell him how much they want, and then he’ll milk the goats right then and there! I call that fresh! Then he’ll either fill up a little plastic container they’ve brought, or a little plastic baggie with the warm, fresh from the udder, goat’s milk. Oh yeah baby.
The goat guy’s actually come up in the world lately. Last year he only had two goats, and he drove them around on one of the those motorcycle truck thingys (kind of a three wheeled truck). This year he has FIVE. Yep.
We were wondering whether we should try the fresh raw goat’s milk. I’m a bit concerned that it’s not pasteurized, but I guess I could pasteurize it myself, and make feta from it or something. What do you think? Goat cheese? Goat butter (heh heh from udder to budder)?
Have you ever used raw goat’s milk? And would you try it?
|
About Us
We are a Canamerican (Canadian-American) couple living in China. Join us on our culinary adventures both in the kitchen and in the fascinating country where we live.
 Browse a few photos from our latest [...] More » |
