Ginger Ice Cream

The month of July has flown by.  There were so many 90-plus degree days that it was difficult to enjoy the outdoors.  During one of those many hot days, I made ginger ice cream, using this recipe from the November 1998 issue of Epicurious Magazine.

Ginger Ice Cream

Yield: Makes about 1 quart 4 large egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup coarsely grated peeled fresh gingerroot 2 tablespoons water 2 cups half-and-half 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup crystallized ginger* *available at some supermarkets and specialty foods shops. In a large bowl lightly whisk yolks. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook sugar, fresh gingerroot, and water over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add half-and-half and bring to a simmer. Add hot half-and-half mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170°F. (Do not let boil.) Pour custard through a sieve into cleaned bowl and stir in cream and vanilla. Cool custard. Chill custard, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day. Finely chop crystallized ginger. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker, adding crystallized ginger three fourths of way through freezing process. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden. Ice cream may be made 1 week ahead.

The ice cream was delicious.  It was a little spicy for our littlest guy, but our oldest daughter loved it.  Boy, I will miss having her around when she goes off to college in less than three weeks.

The amazingly versatile tofu noodles

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with a colleague at Lao Beijing in Chicago's Chinatown.  In case you are not aware, celebrity chef Tony Hu owns a bunch of restaurants and they are also quite good.  Lao Beijing has some terrific vegetarian choices that we sampled that day.

We ordered the vegetarian buns as soon as we sat down, because those take 25 minutes to steam.  Then we ordered sauteed Chinese squash (絲瓜) and tofu noodles sauteed with vegetables.  Unfortunately they did not have Chinese squash and we switched to deep fried eggplant instead.  The eggplant turned out to be surprisingly good, crunchy and flavorful thanks to a spicy chili sauce.  I had never had tofu noodles before and came away amazed by this versatile food item.

Tofu noodles is, obviously, made from tofu, and is therefore low carb.  It is a little chewier than the rice noodle, and tastes light like a rice noodle.  Being a tofu product, it picks up the flavors from the sauce or soup it is cooked in.  Our tofu noodle dish was lightly flavored and full of fresh vegetables.

I looked up the product afterwards and found that it comes in all kinds of shapes, and while low carb and low calorie, has a nice 10% calcium content.  I love expanding my repertoire of food all the time, and am glad to have found this little treasure.

Every day cod and green beans

In Chinese cooking, we refer to homemade meals as "simple every day meals" (家常便飯). At my house, our every day dishes (家常菜) consists mostly of stir fry dishes.  Thanks to our trusted Zojirushi rice cooker, I usually put the rice on timer, and then make the stir fry as soon as I get home.  Sometimes to save time, I would chop the vegetables and slice the meat in the morning.  And occasionally when I am very short on time or if I am out for the evening for work or community events, I would make the stir fry ahead of time and have one of the children re-heat the food at dinner time.  My youngest child is my usual side-kick for re-heating these days.

In addition to a rice cooker with timer, my other organizational aid is simply a list on the fridge which has the menu for the week all planned out (based on whatever groceries I bought on sale from Peapod that week).  Here is a picture of this week's menu.  Note that on Sunday I hadn't thought through to Saturday yet.  :)

And a closer look:

These days I have a non-vegetarian and a vegetarian choice for each day because my oldest child is completely vegetarian and I am semi-vegetarian.

So yesterday was one of these "every day meal days", which was great, because Monday's roast pork turned out to be a bigger production that a week day meal should be. (More about that on another post.)  Here is the recipe, quick and simple.  Make sure there is plenty of hot white rice to go with it. Jasmine rice from Thailand works best.

Every Day Cod and Green Beans

1 pound cod fillets, cut into bit sized pieces, about 1 inch by 0.5 inch each
1 pound green beans, trim the top and bottom of each stalk and cut into pieces 1.5-2 inches long
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 tablespoon cold water

Put cut green beans in a skillet.  Cover with cold water.  Then cover the skillet and heat the water to a boil.  Turn the heat down and simmer for 1-2 minutes, or under the green beans are just tender.  Do not overcook.  Drain the green beans in a colander and set aside.

Heat up the oil and quickly stir fry the chopped garlic until just brown.  Add the cod fillets, stir fry until the cod just turns from translucent to opaque (again try not to overcook.)  In the mean time, make the gravy by mixing the soy sauce, sugar, starch, and cold water.  It should be just a very light brown roux.*

Add the green beans to the cooked cod.  Add the roux and mix together quickly.  The sauce should just thicken a little with the heat to a glistening golden color.

Plate and enjoy with the cooked rice.

*This light brown sauce, my friends, is the essence of Cantonese cooking.  Play around with the proportions until you find a mix that suits your taste.  After almost 35 years of making this roux (獻汁)，I go by look and smell, so the proportions listed above are approximate.

Red kidney bean curry

My oldest daughter is a vegetarian and very health-conscious.  She's one of these folks who diligently reads ingredient labels and avoid all bad stuff such as high fructose corn syrup.  That's great for a college-bound kid, except that she doesn't cook.

So I am always trying to come up with new ideas for vegetarian meals so that she doesn't eat yogurt or bread with cheese all the time. This morning I made a red kidney bean curry, inspired by last Sunday's church dinner, at which my wonderful friend Jill made chicken curry, yellow dal, and brown basmati rice for 125 people. Rajma is a north Indian comfort food.  I tried to replicate the traditional taste using what I had on hand. Alas I did not have fresh ginger and had to use ground ginger, but it still came out pretty well.  Here is the recipe:

Red Kidney Bean Curry (Rajma)

1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (or chopped fresh ginger, about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-15.5 oz can of red kidney beans (light or dark)
1-6 oz can of tomato paste
2 cups water

Using a medium-sized saucepan, saute the chopped onion and garlic (and fresh ginger if using fresh ginger) in the olive oil.  Add ground spices, then the canned beans, then the tomato paste and water.  Bring to a boil and turn to low heat.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Watch the heat because the bottom of the pan would burn with the tomato paste if the liquid is allow to burn up too quickly.

Sour dough bread

I have been on blogging hiatus for quite some time, mostly because of being busy, but also feeling unmotivated to write.  The past couple of weeks I have been inspired by friends urging me to blog and share the entries, other friends' blogs, and attending a statewide writers' conference with my third child (roughly in that order).

So I am restart this blog and my other blog too Grace Notes in Chicago and am trying to post daily as much as I can.

Here is an easy sour dough bread recipe from King Arthur Floor, as a kick-start to this blog.  Thanks to my friend Theresa, I have been the proud owner of a sour dough starter for a few months and have been diligently feeding and maintaining the starter, as well as enjoying the taste of fresh baked sour dough bread every couple of weeks.  This is an easy recipe because it "cheats" by using yeast, which yields a softer dough and a quicker rise.  Enjoy!

You can view the recipe from King Arthur's site, or read on:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Directions:

1) Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.

2) Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

3) Gently divide the dough in half; it'll deflate somewhat.

4) Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves; or, for longer loaves, two 10" to 11" logs. Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

5) Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

6) Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

7) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.