Midnight Bao Quest

OMG SOOOO GOOOD!
I had a HUGE urge to make bao tonight.  I've never done it before and I don't have a steamer, but the show must go on and I MUST eat bao!  I found a great online recipe for bao dough and made an ad-lib pork/cabbage filling.  I'm pretty happy with the taste of the filling.  I'll have to recreate it in the future and write down my filling recipe.  I have a bad habit of winging it w/ cooking, I don't write my measurements down.  I mostly go by taste and whatever I have at home, i.e. if I don't have lemon juice I'll use vinegar...

Here's the dough recipe from www.myrecipes.com:

• 1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 14 2/3 ounces)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

For the filling I used:
(Sorry there are no measurements for these... I just starting throwing stuff in a bowl)

• 1 pound of ground pork
• shredded/finely chopped cabbage (same volume ratio of cabbage-to-pork)
• finely chopped garlic and ginger
• salt, black pepper, white pepper, soy sauce
• olive oil (I would have added sesame oil, but I ran out)

I pretty much followed the instructions on the link for the dough and then mixed my filling ingredients while the dough rises.  I made 24 smaller bao's from this recipe.  Because I don't have a large steamer I had to look for an alternative way to cook these.  I found this great video where they fried then steamed the buns in a saucepan.  PERFECT! 


The frying/steaming process basically calls for you to heat up canola oil in a large saucepan then place the uncooked bao's in the pan.  Fry them until the bottom is golden brown then pour in a cup of water and cover with a lid.  Cook/steam them until you hear sizzling, remove the lid and let the excess water cook off.  The finished fried/steamed bao looks like the picture above.  Nice a crispy on the bottom and fluffy on top!  Best of both worlds!  But you need to take care and not burn the bao with frying them for too long.  I burned my first batch!

I made 24 bao's, froze half and cooked half.  I'm fully satisfied and going back to work now. :)
Bao Quest completed!  I might have to do a step by step post about this in the future.  Bao is definitely on the menu now.  It wasn't that hard and being able to freeze them makes it easy to prep for a few days worth of meals.

Yogurt Sauce - A Healthy Dressing

Yogurt sauce is a light and healthy alternative to Ranch dressing.  It still has that tangy cool flavoring without all the fat and calories.  I feel it's like a Mediterranean BBQ sauce in that there's so many ways to make it.  Every family has their own recipe and special ingredients.  I learned this while helping my Turkish friend prepare dinner.  Thanks Mehmet!

There are many variations to this sauce, but this is the one I've grown to like.
1 pint of plain yogurt
6 or 7 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoon of dill (fresh is best but dried will do)
1 teaspoon of salt


I've found the best way to peel garlic is to SMASH it with the flat side of your knife.  Place the knife's flat side over a clove of garlic and firmly press down.  Make sure you have a secure hold of the handle when doing this.  After the clove has been smashed, actually crushed is a better term... the peel will simply fall off.  No fuss no muss.  I believe this is a popular Chinese/Asian method, I saw my mom and grandma doing it growing up.  Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook is a great advocate of this method as well :P

I've seen those garlic peelers in the supermarket, but I've never tried them.  I don't like to clutter my kitchen with gadgets that only have a singular purpose.  Pretty soon you're swimming in silicone knick-knack and can't find your peeler.


Place yogurt, garlic, dill & salt in mixing bowl and mix!  I would recommend using good quality, thick yogurt.  A pint of this mix will last us about a week.  It's great in any garden salad or spooned over chicken or salmon.  You can also use it as a dipping sauce for veggie sticks.  It will stay good for the duration of the yogurt's date.  If it gets watery because the yogurt has settled, simply pour out the water and give it a good mix.


The yogurt sauce all mixed up.  I usually pour it back into it's original container for refrigeration/storage.


A typical lunch... Banh mi sandwich with greek salad & yogurt sauce.  The salad has cucumber and tomatoes from the garden as well as avocado and olives from the store.  The banh mi is from my favorite Vietnamese deli in Seattle called Seattle Deli.  I burned the sandwich because I was too busy taking picture for this blog to pay attention to the toaster oven!  Oops.

Edible Weed ~ Hydrocotyle bonariensis

This is Hydrocotyle bonariensis.  Although it's considered a weed in many southern states, it's actually  native to that area!  I found some in my uncle's garden in Texas and thought it was Rau Ma (Centella asiatica or Gotu Kola).  Long story short I dug up a few rhizomes and planted it in my garden in Seattle.  I used to drink Rau Ma juice as a kid and have seen the juice offered in a few Vietnamese deli's and restaurants here.  But I really wanted to grow my own.


Although this isn't Rau Ma, it smells exactly like it when crushed.  Hence my miss identification.  I've actually only seen the plant once, when I was 5 or 6...  The scent never left my memory.  It's much like smelling freshly crushed Pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius), you never forget such a sweet and unique scent.   


The rhizome cutting I took from Texas grew very quickly and I was able to harvest some leaves today for juicing.  I had my doubts that this was the "right" plant but I juiced/ate it anyways... stupidly of me!  DO NOT EAT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU'RE 100% SURE IT'S EDIBLE!  Luckily for me this was...

The leaves I juiced was very close to what I remember, only it had a slightly bitter aftertaste which is not inherent in the Centella asiatica leaves.  Also the fragrance from fresh Rau Ma juice would enveloping your nostrils, but this juice only had a hint of that intensity.  From those two facts I knew I had the wrong plant... of course by now I had already drank 1/4 cup worth (about 6 crushed leaves) and had forced my husband to drink as much... Oops!  No... no tingly feeling yet... no nausea, headaches or impulses to vomit... my throat is not itching.  "Goooooooood!" I thought.  Hubby had the poison control number handy. 

I sat down and did a hardy search to I.D. the plant.  It wasn't hard, I found it within a few minutes.  I also have some plant classification experience.  I should have done this BEFORE ingesting the plant!  Instead of being Centella asiatica it is Hydrocotyle bonariensis and it's also edible.  From doing the search I found an interesting article about edible weeds:
Weeds as a future source of human consumption. 


Hydrocotyle bonariensis pureed and strained.
Both Centella asiatica and Hydrocotyle bonariensis have beneficial medicinal purposes.  But as a medicinal herb it has many different properties, some of which may adversely effect your particular condition... please read up on any supplements before you take it.


Sure it looks pretty now... Hydrocotyle bonariensis juice.  Strained Pureed leaves mixed with water and a spoonful of sugar for taste.  I wouldn't recommend it... slightly bitter and it might kill you if you I.D. the wrong plant! (LOL I laugh because I'm not dead)  But now I am on a search for the real Centella asiatica plant.  Saw some seeds on Ebay... I think this post needs a Part Deux!

I just wanted to make a quick note about collecting plants from the wild... unless you're qualified AND permitted to do so please don't do it.  Also please take special care if you're foraging for edibles, be sure you know what you're eating and what's on your food.  Many plants in urban settings are contaminated, especially aquatic plants like water-cress (and the one I've harvested).  These aquatic plants are like sponges that soak up any chemicals, poisons and parasites around it.  Not to mention plants that live below the waist might have been urinated on.  I collected my sample from my uncle's garden, to be more precise his vegetable patch.  I also took the sample home and grew a new batch of foliage from it... I didn't eat the sample directly.  I made a huge mistake in ingesting the plant before I was 100% sure of what it was!  That was really stupid, please don't do what I did!  Here's a great Universal Edibility Test for those of you who are interested.

Blueberry Cobbler of YUM!

Cobbler is one of my favorite desserts.  I've never made a cobbler, but I REALLY REALLY love eating them!  As luck would have it there was a sale on blueberries at the market and I decided to make one for dinner.  Not bad at all for my first cobber.  It's SO GOOD!  The only drawback is that I might eat the whole thing tonight... must... have... will power...

Here is the recipe:
I didn't have any fresh OJ, so I made some from concentrate (I know blasphemous) and I also added a tablespoon of lemon juice to balance out the sweet.  All in all I really liked it, next time I might make more topping or something a little crumblier.

Tea Eggs

I remember my grandmother making Tea Eggs for me as a child.  I don't think it was associated with any occasion, more like comfort food on cool/cold days.  It doesn't get very cold in Vietnam, but when the monsoon season hits the weather is miserable.  It's nice to stay indoors and eat a warm bowl of tea eggs.  This is a quick and healthy snack, also very easy to make.  If you can boil water you can make this.
The quail eggs are from my mother ^_^  She had 2 quails, but unfortunately one was eaten by a raccoon.  Vicious creatures!

Ingredients:
6 cups of water
4-5 tea bags (black tea)
4-5 eggs (more if you use quail eggs)
3/4 cups of brown sugar (less or more depending on taste)

Hard boil the eggs, peel and set them aside for the tea.  Boil 6 cups of water, then add tea bags and peeled eggs. Set the temp to low and steep for about 30min or longer if you like darker/stronger tea. Fish out the spent tea bags and add sugar.  Ta Da!  You're done!


To serve ladle a healthy portion of the sweet tea and an egg into a small bowl.  You can also use quail eggs for a more intense yolk flavor.

There's an alternative recipe without the broth and more spices, a popular method with the Mainlanders.  I've never made it, but the crackle/marbling effect on the egg is beautiful.

The crackle effect is done by soft boiling the eggs, cracking the shell and immersing it in the steeping tea.  Usually in this method you do not drink the tea/broth.

Chè đậu trắng

Chè đậu trắng (White Bean Dessert)
One of my favorite desserts... well actually ALL desserts are my favorite desserts! This is a very simple dish that can be made in a single pot. I'm kind of lazy at writing down recipes and I'm horrible at following them as well. I tend to "eye" things and use finger measurements. I think it's my mom's doing. I remember when she taught me how to cook rice she said "put rice in the pot til it reaches your first knuckle and pour water in until it reaches your second." I recently lost the plastic cup that goes with my rice cooker and I've been following my mom's instructions... seems to be working fine.


There are different preferences to this dessert... wet or dry. It should be the consistency of a porridge or stiff oatmeal. I like it stiff so if you like it runny add more water to my recipe. The ONLY ingredients are: sticky (sweet) rice, black-eyed peas, sugar and coconut milk (thick white kind).

Che Dau Trang
1/2 cup of Black eyed peas (soak overnight)
1 cup of Sticky (Sweet) rice
1 can of Coconut milk
1/2 cup of sugar
4 cups of water (feel free to add more)


Wash rice, mix beans, rice, sugar and water together and cook on stovetop. Bring to boil then turn down to medium heat. Just watch the pot and make sure it doesn't burn, add water if necessary. It's done when it's consistency of porridge or oatmeal... you can also take a nibble to see if the rice and beans are soft. You can also add sugar if it's not sweet enough or add water if it's too stiff.

Serve warm or chilled in a bowl, topped with coconut milk. Nom Nom!

Homesick Comfort Food

I felt a bit homesick yesterday and made some Gon Lou noodles... it's what grandma or mom used to make for me. Gon Lou is Cantonese or "dry mixing" or "dry stirring" a very popular way of preparing noodles. It's similar to ramen or Pho but with egg noodles and without the broth. A simple dish to prepare and easy to eat, you won't burn your mouth on the soup. Hence it's a dish served to a lot of children. :)

This is about a 5min meal.
Boil water, toss in noodles, let boil for 2-3 mins (I like them slightly Al-Dente)
While noodle is still boiling, toss veggies for about 1 min. I like to flash cook the veggies so they won't overcook. This way they retain their color, crunch and nutrients. My faves to use are Gai-Lan, Bak Choy, Napa Cabbage or Broccoli.
Drain noodles and veggies, toss in sesame oil and Hoisin sauce (or soy sauce)... shred in some chicken or tofu and eat! I always have boiled chicken in the fridge for a quick meal.

I imagine this as the Chinese pizza... you can't go wrong. Put in your favorite veggie and meat or non-meat product. The noodle is like the pizza dough and the ingredients are like the toppings! ^_^

More info on Lo Mein (mixed noodles)