Grill-out...Veg-Style

The best things to grill are things that aren't supposed to be grilled at all. Anyone can grill meat, but we set ourselves apart by grilling things like pizza. I know what you're thinking: Won't it fall through the grate? The answer is amazingly 'no.'


The crust was cooked first, both sides. Then, sauce and toppings were added, white sauce (left) and red sauce (right). Both have Gorgonzola cheese, artichokes, and green onions. The white pizza had tomatoes and zucchini. The red pizza had green olives and arugula. The cheese goes under the toppings, to assure that it will melt properly. The result is a blistery, bubbly grilled pizza.


Compliments of a man-genius, it was like what pizza tastes like in Heaven.
-吴碧芙

Lookie Cookie

This afternoon we finally frosted the Christmas cookies. We made a few very pretty snowflakes.


We have a cute vintage bird cutter, which I made into cockatiels.


Some had more fun than others...


-吴碧芙

Kitchen Witch

Perhaps in some ways uglier than my mom's kitchen witch, the one I sniped on ebay finally arrived. I hung her up over the sink. Since then, my cooking has been going well. This weekend I made veggie chili that 文大男 said was absolutely amazing. I added the secret ingredient: Lard (just kidding).


My mom's had little felt feet and a dark blue dress. Her face was grey with a long nose. The new-fashioned ones have cute names like Tiddly Tabitha and pretty faces, with kitchen gadgets hot glued to their dresses. I was deathly afraid of witches as a kid, but not of the kitchen witch, although I thought it was kind of weird to hang it over the sink like that.

-吴碧芙

Cue the Halleluia Chorus

This time I tried hand mixing, turned the oven up about 10 degrees, used a bigger scoop, and made sure my pan was cool. Mine look different because I also added blended oatmeal, but they spread and baked evenly, at least on one of my pans. The other pan yielded the less spread, dark bottomed cookies, even though they were better than Trials 1 and 2.


Although I'd like to try again, I think I better take a cookie detox first.

For those who wondered if "Big Cow" might be insulting: It was between that and Da Niao (Big Bird). I'm assured by my distinguished colleague that Da Niu is a real name--the Chinese equivalent of Aloisius, in that, yes, it's a name, but old, rare, and kind of weird.

-MsLin

Secret Cookies

I went to DBF for a personal lesson in cookie making. From the softness of the butter to the size of the cookie scoop, I tried to notice things that he did differently from me. Not much that seemed relevant was different. I observed every moment, and noted, in my mind, what he did. He didn't do the hokey pokey, burn incense, or pray to the cookie gods. Yet, the result was way better than mine. Compare:


So, I may have to face the music on this one: cookies are not something that I can make really well. Yes, I made a new batch when I got home tonight. I even mixed it by hand, but it doesn't look like his dough, so I'm already sure it won't be as good.

Today, after much suspense, I successfully sniped a kitchen witch on Ebay. As the time ticked down to 30 sec, I placed my bid and won. It is ugly like my mom's, and it has a green dress. I'm hoping that this will solve my cookie problems.

We also gave DBF a Chinese name: 文大牛, which means Big Cow (Da Niu) Wen. :)

-MsLin

If at first you don't succeed...

DBF has the best cookie recipe. He's made some for me, and they are the perfect amount of chewy, with a flavor of store-bought ready-to-bake dough cookies, without the store-bought preservative flavor. So, I asked for the recipe, including the secret ingredient, which he has developed. He emailed me the recipe, and I tried to make it yesterday. They turned out horribly (left cookie). After 8 min., I saw that the edges were crispy and the middles were raw. The end result was a cookie with a gooey center and lacy dark edges. They were inedible. He's out-of-town, so I called to ask what I could've done wrong. After some conversation and internet inquiries for "cookie problems," we finally arrived at the truth of the matter, which was that he had typed "1 tsp. soda," but the actual ingredient is "1 tsp. baking powder."


I tried the right recipe this morning. They didn't turn out like his, but a vast improvement (right cookie). And now we know what happens if you use baking soda instead of baking powder. I feel like I should get a girl scout badge for this little experiment.

-MsLin

Bring on the Spice

Since moving, I haven't been impressed with the selection of Chinese food in SD. SD "spicy" is Asian "mild" at best. I just missed some things, especially Chinese hot pot. On Saturday, we checked out the secret Chinese store, where we found lots of goodies, including "real deal" chili oil, frozen lotus baozi, sachima, tofu skin balls, and spicy hot pot mix.

After a veggie stop at a regular grocery store, we were ready to cook. A little gas burner, enameled iron pot, water, spice mix, and veggies made this Chinese fondue. Between coughs and with our eyes watering, we commented on how wonderful it was...and how spicy. Compare to the Chinese Hot Pot in a previous entry.


The really BIG find was prickly ash or numbing pepper. At the secret Chinese store, I decided to ask the owner because we hadn't found it by just wondering around. She didn't speak Chinese, but she took me all over the store and showed me black and white peppercorns, frozen Thai peppers, and finally (what looked like) numbing pepper in a bag. I added some to the hot pot, and it was definitely the right thing. (click images for larger views)


-吴碧芙

Fire Dragon Fruit

My parents are on tour. Coming back from Texas, they took a turn over to my place, bringing me a "fruit truck." The most wonderful and exotic fruits, which they remembered I liked from when they visited me in China. I have lots of pomelos now. I have a yali pear and fragrant pears.

One of the most exciting was the fire dragon fruit. In China the meat was white with little black seeds, but the taste is the same. Last Easter, I tried to use the bright skin to dye Easter eggs, but they turned out light grey and ugly.


I was squealing as I cut open one of them for breakfast this morning. The birds probably thought I was crazy, but that wouldn't be anything new for them.

-吴碧芙

在 南大口塔 有 柚子!! (South Dakota has pomelos!!)

红色的 柚子!! (Red pomelos!!) I went to HyVee to get some Election Day food (read: beer...just kidding). I usually check for pomelos, not really expecting, but hoping, to see some. Today I saw some! I wanted to buy out the store, but I just bought two.


For those who are pomelo newbies: The first time I had a pomelo in China, I was visiting a colleague who had some students visiting her. They handed me a section of pomelo, and I ate it as it was. I pleasantly said how good it was, when in fact, I thought it was terribly tough and like eating leather. The problem was that I didn't open the white "skin" that covers each section. On the picture, you can see one portion which is pink and shiny, while the other portion is white and veiny. You want to eat sections from which the white veiny part has been peeled off. With my colleague and students, I was relieved when I watched someone else eat a section, peeling off the skin. I started eating a few sections at every meal, and pomelos became my favorite fruit. I thought it would be quite some time before I could eat one again, but SD went beyond my expectations.

-吴碧芙

Di San Xian Three Fresh Earth Vegetables

One of the dishes we love at the Banyan Tree restaurant is called Di San Xian (literally "Earth Three Fresh"). The three fresh Earth vegetables are potatoes, eggplant, and green peppers. My distinguished colleagues went to the restaurant earlier this semester to have a "cooking class" to write down some of our favorite recipes.


Di San Xian is one of my most favorite Chinese dishes, and I didn't try it until I came to China. When I made it at home, I didn't have all of the ingredients. The basic seasoning is from fresh ginger, garlic, salt, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil. I almost forgot about the cooking oil, lots and lots of cooking oil. It's good as a treat. My pic looks quite similar to the restaurant, although without corn starch, the flavor soaked into the vegetables instead of making a sauce.

-吴佩芙

Zongzi Party: Part Two

In the evening, when the zongzi were finished, the students brought about eight or nine rice cookers and pots, all filled with soup, to the student cafeteria. In the afternoon, my student had asked me what kind of soup I liked. I said that if there was meat in the soup, of course, I probably didn't want to eat it, especially if it was pork or chicken. I suggested fish, but she said the smell of fish soup would not be very good. I agree with that, but if there must be something dead in the soup, fish is the most tolerable. So eventually there was a solution to make one pot of vegetarian soup.


About five of my students were there, so they talked to me and wanted to tell me the story of Duan Wu Jie. It was the first time my student had ever made vegetarian soup, and the first time many of them had every tasted vegetarian soup. They seemed surprised that it worked and had a good flavor.


The three vegetarian zongzi that were tied together were found, after a brief period of frantic worry. I had only put rice and split mung beans inside, but they were good.

-吴佩芙

Zhongzi Party: Part One

My students in the Law School organized a party to make zongzi (English: "rice packets") for the Dragon Boat Festival, and they invited me to join them for making zongzi in the afternoon and to eat them, along with soup, in the evening.

I've made zongzi before with Dan's parents two years ago in SF, and I was quite touched by the story of the holiday. It is said that a poet, who was loyal to the ancient Chu state, was banished for opposing an alliance between Chu and the state of Qin. After 28 years, Qin took over the Chu capital. Because he had been against the alliance, and because he loved his country, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the river. The local people, who loved him, threw zongzi into the river, so that the fish would eat the food, instead of his body. The dragon boat races are said to originate from the idea that the people went out in boats in order to retrieve the body.


I'm amazed at how these parties happen. There is always too much food or too many extra ingredients, or some ingenious substitutions. Today we had too much filling for the amount of leaves we had. We ran out of stems needed to tie the zongzi together, so we ended up using regular string. We were set up under the awning outside the student cafeteria. The students had arranged for one of the cafeteria booths to cook them when we finished making them.


One of the boys was the expert, and he showed me how to make the triangle zongzi. When the leaves would rip, or tying them seemed impossible, the girls passed the zongzi to him to fix or tie. Because different provinces and different families make different types and shapes, we ended up with many creative shapes and sizes. Mine were the smallest ones.

The three I made were vegetarian. My student looped them together with string, so we would know which ones they were because I don't want meat, and nobody will want my meatless ones.

-吴佩芙

Jiaozi Party

Some of us didn't go away for May Holiday. We found other things to do, like baoing jiaozi and grading at the Bread Diary. The best and most impressive was the jiaozi with carrot vegetarian filling. Although the first attempt at making jiaozi took 3 1/2 hours for my distinguished colleague, myself, and my Chinese tutor, they turned out awesome. The carrot filling took the longest, as we had to grate carrots, boil the grated carrots, squeeze all of the water we possibly could out of them, and then further chop them.



We learned three different shapes: triangle, round, and frilly. After shaping them, we boiled them, and, to everyone's surprise, none of them split open, and they were delicious.


Watch out, I'll be making jiaozi when I get home, but hopefully I will get much faster.

-吴佩芙

The Peanut Butter Solution

...was a movie about a boy who was cursed and all of his hair fell out. A witch gave him a recipe for a concoction that would make his hair grow again. It worked a little too well, and his hair grew fast and never stopped. So they started making paint brushes out of his hair, which were magic.

I still had the scotcharoo craving, and I still had the resistance to shopping for ingredients. So I used what I had and loosely followed a recipe in my macrobiotics cookbook. The result was marshmallow-free, and not too crazy sweet. They are:
1/3 c. pure maple syrup
1/6 c. natural peanut butter
Heated on the stove, over med. heat, until smooth and bubbly.
2 c. Go Lean cereal
Mixed into the syrup mixture and pressed into a small bowl.
1/4 c. choc. chips
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
Melted in the microwave and spread on top.

I guess this will cover the craving because I don't have any other way to get scotcharoos. I'm just proud that the recipe worked, and it tasted pretty good. I finally used up my choc. chips too.

-MsLin