le sauce

fried banana blossoms

Banana blossoms. Yes, just like you're thinking, the flower from the banana plant. No, no hint of banana flavour, although I've never tried them fresh. I've had them fried, as you see above, several times because my mom is known to make them, yet I've never thought to share this delicious ingredient on this blog, because I thought it was too hard to come by. But my mom assures me that they're easy to find in Asian grocery stores, cleaned and frozen fresh. She fries them in a little oil, with some curry leaves, and they develop a mild nutty flavour that's quite unique--although I see some online sources compare them to the flavour of artichokes.  

Whenever I've had them, fried banana blossoms were served alongside several curries and other dishes. But because they're kind of crunchy and a little salty, I want to make them to eat alone over plain rice, they way I like to eat toasted seaweed sometimes. Same idea, different flavour, a new obsession in the making for me, I can tell already.

 

sweet and sticky five-spice broccoli

this looks like a boring meal, i know, even if you like brocolli like i do. 

it just looks like brocolli and rice, and what's so special about that, right? but you know what's so perfect about this recipe?

the sauce...and how it soaks into the broccoli florets so that when you bite into them, it's a little like biting into a piece of bread drenched in good oil, except it's this healthy, dark green, delicious broccoli on steamy rice. 

 

fresh broccoli is just hitting the farmer's markets now i think, or in a week or two. but it's available year-round, of course. i started tinkering with this recipe months ago when someone talked about these sticky, dark soy sauce and five-spice chicken wings they had made. they sounded amazing and i wanted to make something similar--maybe with mushrooms or tofu. but all i had on hand was broccoli. it turned out so well that i've never bothered to try it with anything else in all the times i've made it since. it was good in those colder months back then, and better with the fresher broccoli coming up now.

oh, and it also cooks in about 10 minutes, start to finish. definitely a weeknight-worthy dinner. but i never make it because it's quick, just because that dark, sticky soy sauce and five-spice combination really is that good.

 

 

sweet and sticky five-spice broccoli

2 lbs broccoli, large florets cut into medium bite-sized pieces, stems sliced thinly on a bias
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 tbs rice wine
2 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1 red bird chili, deseeded and deveined, sliced thinly
1 tsp tapioca starch (or corn starch) mixed into 1/4 c water
2 tbs peanut or vegetable oil
salt

add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil five-spice powder and red chili to the tapioca starch mixture. stir the sauce well and set aside.

heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. add the oil and allow it to heat, then add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds. add all of the broccoli and a light sprinkling of salt and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, until the broccoli starts to turn a bright green. add the rice wine and cooking for a minute, stirring, until it's evaporated. add a little water, less than 1/4 cup, cover the broccoli with a lid and allow it to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. then uncover and push the broccoli to the sides of the wok or pan, creating a hot spot for the sauce. stir the sauce mixture and add it to that spot in the wok and allow it to cook and thicken slightly, stirring, for 15-20 seconds. then mix the broccoli into it, stir and cook for another minute, until the sauce coats the broccoli well. serve over fresh, hot rice.

serves 4. 

spicy sauteed carrots and banana peppers

(photographed by james piper) 

well look who it is. february! back again, cold, bleak and reeking of pink candy hearts. instead of wishing away the next four weeks i've decided to embrace at least the part about it being the month of love. i'm not suddenly going to start celebrating valentine's day (or digress into the reasons i don't) but on this blog, i am going to make this the month that i celebrate the people i love. my family and friends are great cooks and i love everything they serve me. i've picked some signature dishes of theirs and asked if i could share those recipes here. for the most part, i'll even be making the recipes alongside them, which is (crazy, hectic! and) fun. 

james has also agreed to participate and he's even shooting some of the pictures for me while i get my hands dirty cooking with my mom, dad and aunt. one of his recipes is up first!

 

(photographed by james piper) 

this is one of probably only three carrot recipes that you'll ever see on my blog. i have nothing against carrots, but i never think of making them the star of anything i'm cooking. to me, they have their place in soups or stews but never crave them, i never snack on them, i never have them on hand. i like the carrot curry that my mom makes, and that was about it, until james worked his magic on them. with no more than garlic and banana peppers, he made them something that i devour every time they're in front of me, and ask for on a regular basis. 

the carrots are cooked till their sweetness comes through; the garlic and banana peppers are all the flavour needed at that point--and the heat of banana peppers is a lovely match. that's the common thread between this dish and my mom's curried carrots--heat. carrots love spice. if you've never experienced that--you must!

(photographed by james piper) 

spicy sauteed carrots and banana peppers  

2lbs carrots, peeled (if necessary), trimmed and sliced thinly on a bias
3 hot banana peppers, trimmed and sliced on a bias
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt, plus 1/4 tsp
1/4 tsp pepper

heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. add garlic and sautee, stirring, for 30 seconds. add carrots and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. add the banana peppers and the remaining 1/4 tsp of salt and stir. cook for 8-10 more minutes until the carrots are softened and fully cooked. serve with rice as a main course or as a vegetable side.

makes 4 large servings (or a side for 6-8).

fried rice noodles in black bean sauce

 

when i was in university, there was a chinese food truck that sat on elm st., around the corner from the main hall, and at the time it didn't seem scary to get lunch from there several times a week. in retrospect...sketchy? yes. delicious? YES. it was from this truck that i had my first taste of rice noodles in black bean sauce. i hated it.

all of it. the black bean sauce was far too subtle for either what i was expecting or what i was used to. and the noodles were unlike the rice noodles i'd had before (the thin, al dente sticks found in south asian cuisine), they were sort of gummy and slippery. have i enticed you to try this recipe yet? i know--but stay with me.

i was intrigued enough by my lunch partners' common appreciation for this dish to try it a few more times. what was i missing? once i got past my expectations and stopped comparing it to other things, i finally tasted the appeal. it was actually the subtleties that were so great. by my second serving, i was enjoying the totally distinct flavour of this black bean sauce, rich in its own way without being overwhelming (the way you might expect something fermented to be) and the broad, plain noodles were the that perfect thing to cling to the thick sauce and let its quiet taste shine. i became hooked, ordering those noodles every chance i got, both from that truck and at restaurants. black bean spareribs (the tiny pork short ribs) became my favourite dish at dim sum. 

 

but it would still be years before i figured out how to recreate the flavour at home. jarred black bean sauce is tasty but it's not the flavour found in those restaurant meals. that flavour comes from the fermented black beans themselves. they are much easier to find in your chinese grocery store than sichuan pepper, which i've also started adding to many stir frys. they add a luciousness to sauces that i have a hard time describing. i hope you will try them and see for yourself why they are wonderful, as well as discover the difference between store-bought black bean sauce and this very simple homemade version.

   

fried rice noodles in black bean sauce

2 lbs (about 900 g) fresh rice noodles (if yours are in sheets, cut them into 1/2-inch ribbons)
1 bunch baby bok choy (or pak choy, or other asian green), stems sliced and separated from leaves
2 cups sliced, fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded (or crimini mushrooms)
1/2 medium red onion, sliced 
1 tbs corn starch (or tapioca starch), dissolved in 1 cup water
2 tbs fermented black beans, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp sichuan pepper, ground or crushed 
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs chinese cooking wine
1/4 tsp salt, plus 1/4 tsp
3 tbs peanut or vegetable oil

in a large bowl, briefly immerse rice noodles in hot water, separating noodles with your fingers. remove noodles from water and shake off as much water as possible. lay noodles on a clean dishcloth and spread them out to dry.

meanwhile, add the dissolved cornstarch to a bowl, and add the black beans, sichuan pepper, garlic, soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and 1/4 tsp salt. mix well and set aside. 

heat a wok or a large skillet over medium-high heat. allow it to get hot before adding 2 tbs of oil. let the oil heat up before adding the noodles. (if the wok and then the oil are allowed to heat well, the noodles are less apt to stick.) add the noodles and fry, stirring constantly but making sure they fry against the oiled surface too. after a couple of minutes they will become softer and slightly shiny; you can also taste one to check for done-ness. at this point, remove them from the wok and set aside in a bowl. 

add the remaining tbs of oil to the wok and allow it to heat. add the onions and stir-fry for 2 minutes. add the bok choy stems and mushrooms and fry for another 2 minutes. then add the leaves and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp of salt. stir to combine well. with your utensil, make a hole in the centre of the wok or pan, pushing the vegetables to the sides. stir the cornstarch mixture and add to the centre. allow it to cook against the heat of the pan for a minute (stirring if you have a well of liquid in the wok). then mix the sauce and vegetables together, add the noodles back to the wok and stir thoroughly so the sauce coats everything evenly. serve hot.

serves 4.

a random bite of simon's wok and lily bulbs

 

of course the vegetarian chinese restaurants in toronto appeal to me, but not just for the obvious reasons. most of them are just good, whether or not you care for mock shrimp that tastes and (somewhat eerily) looks like shrimp. one of my new favourites is simon's wok on gerrard east, and the best thing there is their stuffed bean curd which, although a little greasy, is crunchy and light, filled with sweet shredded vegetables. pictured above, clockwise from the top, is the stuffed bean curd, lily bulbs (which i'll get to in a minute) with snow peas and cashews, "chicken" and "saltfish" fried rice, and black bean "fish", "squid" and, yep, "shrimp".

the first time i went to simon's wok, my friend took an order of the lily bulbs home for her mother, it being a favourite of hers. intrigued and encouraged by the endorsement of my friend's mom, i placed an order myself this past weekend. the verdict? a definite maybe. i don't know... the white slices had the texture of blanched garlic and a mild, sweet white onion flavour--sort of weak on both those fronts. they didn't seem to impart flavour to the rest of the dish, although i really didn't have any complaints about the stir-fry overall. my mom loved it, however. it's been my experience that food loved by moms, while perhaps weird at first, are realy some superfood that i just haven't acquired a taste for yet (bitter gourd, anyone?), so i'm gonna give the lily bulbs another try soon. guess i have no choice but to head back to simon's wok soon then. oh well.

a random bite of green chili fried rice

when james and first viewed the house we now live in, on a thursday evening last spring, we just weren't sure. the house was lovely --"we're never going to get it anyway" we said matter-of-factly after being outbid on numerous beauties already. but the real hesitation was how far east this house was relative to the neighborhoods we thought we'd live in. we never wanted to live in this 'hood. what was there to do? what did it have to offer? we started to walk to the subway, past a hakka (chinese/indian) restaurant called "the danforth dragon" that we both noticed on the way over. of course it grabbed our attention, we're big fans of the hakka legend, "frederick's", in scarborough. "let's eat here, and if it's good, we'll make an offer on the house," james said. i don't know if he was really kidding--it seemed as good a reason as any other to go through the effort of what might be another hopeless attempt. 

we ordered danforth dragon's vegetarian dinner for two with chili paneer, pakoras and we didn't care what else because those were two of our faves. but what really blew me away was the rice of all things. chili fried rice? it was almost a bad idea--there was no reprieve at all, we could't turn to the rice for a break from the chilies in everything else. almost a bad idea, except it tasted so good and well, if you don't believe me yet, i'll say it again, green chilies are just tasty so the rice was gone in no time. and we bought the house on the monday.

 

this is was my first attempt at making a similar version in the kitchen of that house. easy as previous versions i've shared. just oil added to a hot wok and allowed to heat up well, into that sliced green chilies and scallions, and after a minute, some day old rice. then a sprinkling of tamari once the rice is fried. i ate this as i do any fried rice, in a deep bowl with chopsticks (very un-hakka-like). i suggest serving this with very cold beer...if you dare to drink anything at all that will swirl the heat from the chilies around in your mouth! 

a random bite of black bean stir-fry and sesame scrambled eggs

i always HAD to have black bean spare ribs whenever i went to dim sum (in my pre-vegetarian times, of course), yet it's taken me years to actually start cooking with fermented black beans at home. the flavour is so much truer than what you get from bottled black bean sauce, both stronger and uncluttered by all of the other seasonings in the pre-made sauce. over the past couple of months, i've been using black beans in my stir-fries and i've finally been able to recreate the flavour that i remember so well from dim sum. the next step is to recreate my favourite black bean fried rice noodles at home, this time without resorting to a bottle. hopefully i'll be sharing that recipe with you in the near future. for now i'm still playing around and throwing those little black beans into the pan whenever possible. 

this is a dinner that came together so quickly last week, that i made it between coming home from work and rushing out again to meet friends on the other side of the city by 7.30. veggies into the hot wok briefly, then 3 or 4 sauce ingredients, including chopped, fermented black beans mixed in a bowl and cooked with the fried veggies for 3-4 minutes. to make the meal more substantial, i scrambled some eggs splashed with sesame oil in the same wok. the (white) rice took more time to make than the rest of the meal so i was happy. until i ran for the subway with a really full stomach. tip: never do that.

"chicken" and peppers in tomato white wine sauce

this week i'm focusing on fabulous faux meats. wait! don't go! by now you too must have tried a veggie-burger that you actually liked. or maybe gone to a vegan chinese restaurant and had oddly realistic mock beef with black bean sauce. i think for every 5 mediocre or plain bland/bad soy, tempeh or gluten mock meat product found in large grocery stores (in urban areas), there is at least one pretty awesome one now. they are NOT all created equal. i think tofurkey sausages are truly delicious but i don't like any of the other brands i've tried. and now there are these "chicken" breasts made by "it's all good" and now president's choice has a similar meatless chicken breast product. so if you're not a meat-eater or trying to scale back your consumption, try one of the newer mock meat products and you might be pleasantly surprised.

i don't eat mock meat that often because i try to avoid processed foods and processed, these are. but there are a few recipes i make time and again that really call for them. a vegetable substitute (say, a portobello mushroom) doesn't create the same result. i use tofurkey sausages to make a meatless version of sausage and peppers, and i tweaked that by using chicken breasts and adding a white wine sauce and was really happy with the outcome. this is a great cold-weather dish that i come back a couple of times each winter.

i love you, white rice: pt. 2

as you may know from an earlier post, i am fond of brown rice. and i will argue with you that it's just as good as white rice in most ways and for most uses. but there are a few occasions where i think white rice, and in particular jasmine rice, is superior. one of those occasions is a pretty trashy one. years ago after leaving a club, on our way home, friends and i stopped into a perfect little chinese restaurant in the early morning hours as was our (and many others') custom. the place was full of scarborough teens, twenty-somethings and the odd table of chinese adults eating plates of hot,tasty and sometimes unauthentic chinese food. we'd order black bean short ribs and chinese broccoli, but one friend would also always order sweet and sour pork and have a bowl of that and plain white rice to start. i would never have bothered to order that from a place that served such delicious "real" chinese food, but i followed her lead and have loved that combo ever since. jasmine rice, sweet and sour pork (mock pork these days) and sriracha sauce is still something i have appreciated ever since. but only with white rice. the flavour and dense texture of properly cooked fresh jasmine rice and the sweet, crispy and chewy red pork are a great match. as with the seaweed + rice combo, perhaps because there are only two star players, white jasmine's texture and taste stand out as superior to brown.

and when life gives you stale rice, you make fried rice. my mother doesn't see the point in making fried rice with brown rice but i sometimes make brown fried rice and it's good. (she will make fried rice with par-boiled rice. gross! not enough starch to make the flavours stick, in my opinion, but she doesn't seem to notice.) but yet another friend turned me on to this simple breakfast of garlic fried rice and egg, and here again, white rice is an important factor. it couldn't be easier to make. finely chop up 2-3 gloves of garlic, add to hot oil in a hot wok and stir-fry for 20 seconds. add 2 cups of day-old white rice and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. add (or don't add, both ways are tasty) a tablespoon of tamari or good soy sauce, fry until all of the rice is broken up, coated and hot. i like to have a couple of tiny clumps of rice in my fried rice so i'm not obsessive about breaking up every mound. serve into bowls with a fried egg on top, yolk down so that when it breaks it flows right onto the rice, with a little sriracha sauce. spicy, salty, very garlicy, umami goodness on a cold saturday morning.

soft, spicy tofu & pea shoots

this is my favourite way to eat tofu. i love silken tofu above all other textures, and lord help me, i heart chilies a LOT. this recipe combines my loves in one very comforting dish. i've whipped this up on nights where i was almost too lazy to cook at all (it takes minutes to make), but when i was so ambitious as to make some stir-fried vegetable as well, i found that this went best with quickly cooked pea shoots, because... 

well, pea shoots are awesome. no, no, it's more than that. when i eat this tofu dish with rice i use chopsticks, and when i want to add some greens to a mouthful of these two, it needs to be something pliable enough that it doesn't completely mash the delicate squares of tofu. the greens AND the pea shoot stalks are soft enough when cooked to make the perfect partner for this tofu. and bonus: they cook super-quick too.