Zha Jiang Mian with Handmade noodles

Zha Jiang Mian (炸酱面，"Mian" means "Noodle" in Mandarin) is a very popular northern Chinese noodle dish with a mixture of ground pork stir-fried with fermented soybean paste(炸酱). There are different types of soybean paste. In Beijing, we normally used sweet bean sauce (甜面酱). It's also similar to Jajangmyeon in Korean, which is a variation of Zha Jiang Mian.

I am not a fan of fatty pork, so I used ground turkey instead. The ultimate secret to this dish, however, is my mom's homemade noodles, as shown in the pictures below. I would never have dreamed of eating a bowl of this until my mom was here. The noodles are absolutely the most al dente noodles I have in a long while and this is what I call: the ultimate comfort food.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 cup sweet bean sauce(甜面酱)
• 3 - 4 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1/2 -1 cup chicken stock
• 2 cucumbers, shredded into thin strips.
• handmade noodles (unbleached wheat flour and water)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a deep pan on medium high. Add garlic and stir fry until slightly brown. Add the ground turkey and stir fry till the meat are cooked. 
2. Mix sweet bean sauce, dark soy sauce, chicken stock in a mixing bowl and stir into the turkey. Cook and simmer for 5 minutes. 
3. Cook noodles in a pot of water. Drain well.
4. Serve the meat sauce over noodles and mix with shredded cucumbers.

Irish Lamb Shank Stew with Potato Mash

There are people who either hate lamb or love lamb for its gaminess. I am the former, so when I cook lamb, I have to make sure the strong and peculiar lamb-y taste is toned down by the cooking method or the herbs used. The only lamb I would eat was when it's cooked with tons of cumin. I have never tried cooking any other ways until stumbled a recipe on The Good Mood Food Blog. 

The weather started to become wintry cold and dry here in New York a couple of weeks ago and I decided it'd be a perfect time to make this Irish lamb stew for the season. Also in Chinese medicine, lamb is the type of "hot" food by nature and nourishes the body best when eating on a cold winter day. 

It's fall-off-the-bone good and my mom wouldn't even tell it from beef!

For the lamb stew:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 4 lamb shanks
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 onion and 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery, finely sliced
• 350ml of dry red wine
• A few sprigs of thyme, tied in a bunch with kitchen twine
• 650ml of beef stock
• A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
2. In a large casserole dish, heat the canola oil and add the lamb shanks and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.
3. Sautee the onions and shallots for two to three minutes until soft but not browned. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and fry for another couple of minutes. Pop in the thyme and stir through.
4. Add the red wine and bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.
5. Place in the browned lamb shanks and pour over the stock. Bring to a steady simmer, then cover and place in the oven at 300oF for three hours, turning them half way through the cooking time, until the meat is extremely tender and almost falls off the bone. Toward the end of the cooking time, taste and season
6. Take few ladles of the juices and place them in a small saucepan. Reduce by half as gravy. 

For the potato mash

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup half and half
• extra unsweetened almond milk
• A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. Add the peeled and diced potato to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.
2. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter, half and half, and almond milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. Add in more almond milk to your desired consistency.
3. Add in the spring onion, steamed cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and stir through with a spoon until evenly combined.

Serve the lamb shanks with potato mash and drizzle with gravy.

Baby Bok Choi with Shitake Mushroom

Eating vegetables is a habit, like practicing yoga - once you get into it, you are hooked. In my house, we eat all kinds of fresh organic/local vegetables. It's always very easy to make especially because I don't believe in overdressing a vegetable dish. Let the seasonings support the main ingredients and bring out the best of the simplicity. 

Ingredients:

• 6-7 cups of baby bok choi, separate the leaves and cut into same size bite pieces.
• 2 cups of sliced shitake mushroom
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 2 pieces of thinly sliced 1" x 2" ginger
• 2 tablespoons of finely diced scallion
• a big splash of low sodium chicken stock
• kosher sea salt and ground black pepper
• about 1/3 teaspoon of turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoon of dark rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of fried minced garlic (you can find those from Asian supermarket), or 1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the baby bok choi. Let them stay for 2-3 minutes and then shock in cold water to prevent them from overcooking. Drain well and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat canola oil in a large deep pan on medium high heat. Saute ginger and scallion until fragrant. Add mushroom. Saute for 30 seconds. Add chicken stock and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the mushroom softens. Add 1/3 teaspoon of salt and 1/3 teaspoon of sugar. Add drained bok choi into the mushroom mixture. Cook for 30 seconds. Add another 3/4 teaspoon of salt (or adjust to taste) and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Cook for another 20 seconds. Add fried minced garlic (or fresh garlic) and1 teaspoon of dark rice vinegar. Mix well. Turn off the heat. Serve immediately.

Curried Chicken Salad

It's the old deli classic that I make often at home. It has a complex and yet clean tasting and makes a perfect light lunch meal as a wrap or salad. This Ina's recipe yields the most juicy chicken that can be used in any chicken salad dish. 

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on
• Olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup chutney (recommended: Major Grey's)
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 cup medium-diced celery (2 large stalks)
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and dice the chicken into large bite-size pieces.
3. For the dressing, combine the mayonnaise, wine, chutney, curry powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Mix well.
4. Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions, and raisins, and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews and serve at room temperature.

Red Cabbage Salad

I sometimes like to nibble on the raw vegetables when I cut them, even on the kinds that I typically don't eat raw, like red cabbage. I had thought it'd be bitter and hard. But it's actually crunchy and sweet, nothing like the regular cabbage which doesn't have the purple hue. A week later, I bought another head of red cabbage and did an experiment on a raw red cabbage salad. I wonder why it took my so long to stop sauteing this delicious vegetable!

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 head red cabbage, cored and shredded
• 1/2 Red onion, or Spanish Onion, shredded
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup champagne vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, honey, sea salt, and black pepper. Pour dressing over cabbage and onion, and toss to coat. Serve immediately or chill before serving.

Over-easy Asian Cucumber Salad

Asian cucumbers are much smaller than American ones. They are also more crunchy, crispier and juicier. Like English cucumber, they are seedless and their skins are paper thin you don't need to peel off anything. Persian cucumbers are the closest variety I can find in Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. But English cucumbers tend to have a tighter tissue than Asian/Persian cucumbers so they don't work well in this particular salad, because the key to this salad is to smash the cucumbers with the back of a wide knife instead of cutting them straight. It allows the cucumber tissues to get loosen up so that the sauce penetrates into the everywhere of the cucumber. 

If you are like me that likes Asian flavors, this delicious salad fits both the most picky palate and waistline.

Servings:2

Ingredients:

• 7 Persian cucumbers, smashed and cut into big chunks
• 5 teaspoons Liquid Amino (or light soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon dark rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

Directions:

1. Mix well all the ingredients except for the cucumbers. Combine with the cucumber chunks. Serve immediately or chill in the fridge before serving.