I was out of town last week and happily had many delicious restaurant meals. The downside, though, was that by the end of the week I was feeling a tad gross from all of the rich food. While I did try to exhibit some restraint when ordering, it was really difficult to say no to a chocolate pithivier. So I didn’t. This scenario (un)fortunately repeated itself several times throughout the week, bringing me back to my original point: too much rich food.

So, like Dan, I embarked on my own week of healthy cooking. I haven’t gone so far as to have a vegetarian week because the meat lover who is my husband would have been cranky beyond belief. But the key word for the week has been “lite.”

Crab cakes with mango salsa has been my fallback “lite” recipe for years. For some reason, I can’t eat a naked crab cake. Tartar sauce or aioli is usually my dressing of choice, but mango salsa provides a light, bright, complementary flavor without the guilt of delicious, creamy tartar sauce. Paired with a side salad, it makes an easy weeknight meal.

I generally buy my crab cakes at Whole Foods but if you’d rather make your own, the recipe for their crab cakes can be found here.

Crab Cakes with Mango Salsa
– serves 2 -

1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 jalapeno, diced (seeds and membranes removed if you don’t want any heat)
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
pinch or two of salt

2 crab cakes, for serving
1-2 Tbs canola or other neutral oil, enough to film the bottom of your pan

1. Combine all of the salsa ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and adjust the seasoning, to taste. The salsa can be made up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated in a non-reactive, airtight container.

2. After assembling the salsa, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the crab cakes and pan fry until both sides are golden brown and the crab cakes are heated through, flipping once.

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A) Farro is an ancient grain that has been eaten in Italy for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.

B) People disagree on what to call it. To some it is known as emmer, others say it’s a kind of spelt, and then there’s another group that insists farro is its own unique species of wheat.

C) There’s an Italian institute for “underutilized species” that has compiled everything you’d ever want to know about farro in a short paper (that’s right, get your geek on).

Here’s how I learned to cook farro: soak it overnight (like you would for dried beans), then simmer it for 7-10 minutes, finally drain it and then let it steam. The result was a fluffy, slightly nutty grain with a gentle toothsomeness that is familiar yet unique.

I prepared this first batch of farro as a warm salad and the recipe that follows is similar to an Italian-style fried rice – it’s quite versatile and very satisfying.

Preparing the farro:

6-8 hours prior to the meal:
1) Rinse 1½ cups of farro in a couple of changes of water until little residue remains.
2) Soak farro in 3-4 cups of room temperature water for 6-8 hours.

At meal-time:
3) Drain farro from soaking water.
4) Simmer farro in 3-4 cups of lightly salted water for 7-10 minutes, until just al dente.
5) Remove from heat, drain farro and then return to pot. Farro should be covered and left to steam for another 5-7 minutes,

Warm Farro Salad
- serves 2-3 as a main course, 4-5 as a side -

3 cups farro prepared as outlined above
4 strips of bacon – thick cut is best
1 large leek, chopped, rinsed and dried
2 small carrots, chopped
4-6 ounces of button mushrooms, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 TBS of chopped fresh herbs – I used oregano
2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil

Cut bacon into small pieces and cook in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and set aside. Remove skillet from heat and pour off all but 1 TBS of bacon fat. Return pan to heat and add leek, cooking until translucent (4-5 min). Add carrots and cook for 3 more minutes until just tender. Add mushrooms and cook until softened, another 2-3 min. Make a well in center of skillet, add 1 tsp of oil and fry garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add farro and toss to combine with all ingredients in skillet and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and add remaining olive oil, tossing to coat. Serve in bowls and garnish with herbs and bacon bits.

Suggested variations:
1) Can easily be made vegetarian (vegan, actually) by omitting the bacon and beginning by adding 1 TBS of olive oil to skillet instead of bacon fat. Garnish with toasted pine nuts for crunch and protein.
2) Easily accommodates any complementary group of veggies such as sundried tomatoes and spinach or roasted red peppers and onions.

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No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Bean and Kale Soup.

This inspiration led to a discussion of leafy green vegetables and hearty whole grains. But discussion didn’t lead to much action, at first. We have a good routine in our kitchen, and we can manage a week of fairly healthy, enjoyable dinners with pretty minimal effort. Routine doesn’t include a ton of weeknight culinary adventures though. We talked a big game, but other than brown rice, whole grains were nowhere to be found, and kale, chard, and even the less-novel spinach, never made an appearance.

The solution? Vegetarian Week 2010

Curry Prep

To really dig into the grains and veggies we claimed to want to try, we had to force the issue. A week-long commitment to meatless meals required us to put a little more thought into recipes and menu-planning up front than usual. Thankfully, there are some good resources out there for the carnivore who’s veg-curious. I started with our under-utlized copy of Rebecca Wood’s The Splendid Grain and 101 Cookbooks.

After a Korean BBQ-induced meat fugue on Saturday night, we started the week with palak daal, a great lentil dish. Then we had kasha paprikas from The Splendid Grain with a quick black bean soup and a salad, followed by a mushroom and spinach pasta. By far, the best meal yet was the cashew curry dish below, from 101 Cookbooks.

Two observations about vegetarian cooking:

• You have to like beans. A lot. Black beans. Lentils. Tofu. Somehow or another, you need to get some protein in your meals, and beans are pretty central to the non-meat protein world.
• You have to like cutting vegetables. A lot. Chop this. Dice that. Mince this. It’s a mise en place marathon.

But we’ve been really enjoying it, and learning a lot about grains and veggies that we can incorporate into our normal omnivorous lifestyle. If you’ve got a suggestion for a good veggie recipe, let us know in the comments.

Cashew Curry

Cashew Curry
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 1/2 c. coconut milk
3 tablespoons curry powder*
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 c. water
7 ounces extra firm tofu (half a standard package), cut into small cubes*
1 1/4 c. green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
2 c. cauliflower (about half a head), cut into tiny florets
1/2 cup cashews*
a handful of cilantro, loosely chopped

1. In a dry skillet, toast the cashews over medium-high heat. Keep the pan moving so that the cashews don’t scorch. Toast until the cashews start to brown and there’s a nice aroma, about 3 minutes. Set the cashews aside off the heat.

2. Bring half the coconut milk to a simmer in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the curry powder.

3. Add the onions and garlic and cook for a minute.

4. Add the remaining coconut milk, water, and tofu. Cook for 5 minutes.

5. Stir in the cauliflower and green beans, lower the heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.*

6. Remove from the heat and stir in the toasted cashews.

Serve over [brown] rice, topped with chopped cilantro.

*Notes: A couple things I changed from the original recipe.

1. I used pre-made curry powder. I don’t doubt the flavor would be better if I toasted and ground the spices myself, as the original recipe suggests. And if you want to, more power to you. But don’t let that be what stops you from making this recipe.
2. In the original recipe, tofu is optional. I don’t think this would be substantial enough for a main dish without it.
3. The cashews were my favorite part. You could probably go up to 3/4 cup, or garnished with some crushed cashews, and make it better, without it being over the top.
4. In the original recipe, the veggies only cook for a minute or two, just to take the raw crunch off. We had this dish with a salad, so there were already plenty of raw vegetables involved. You don’t want to cook the veggies until they dissolve, but I think the extra time improves the texture and gives the curry flavor a little more time to get into the cauliflower.

But the recipe is pretty forgiving, so you can adapt to your taste.

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So how can you consume seafood nowadays without feeling like a total jerk? A few years ago we learned about the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Pocket Guides, which helps consumers choose responsible seafood options when dining and shopping. It was nice and succinct but unfortunately, easily misplaced. So, we were excited to learn that the Aquarium now has a free iPhone App, which provides you with searchable and more up-to-date information.

But before recommending this app to you, we first wanted to field test it at the San Francisco Fish Company. Located in the San Francisco Ferry Building, they advertise themselves as a sustainable fish market. Thom has been there in the past and found the guys behind the counter to be friendly, knowledgeable, and chatty. Unfortunately, those guys had the day off when we showed up with the Seafood Watch App. When asked, “Has this ahi tuna been caught in an environmentally friendly fashion?” the fishmonger behind the counter stared at us for a while before replying, “I don’t even know what that means.” Okay… so much for that idea. I guess this experience serves as just one example of how difficult it can be to know exactly where your fish comes from and how it’s been caught — even when you’re someplace where they pride themselves on their sustainable options. In any seafood situation, your best option is choose to be an informed consumer and luckily we had our iPhone App, which confirmed that this tuna fit the bill.

So, with this choice piece of sustainably harvested fish we chose to cook up one of our new favorite dishes: Maple Glazed Tuna with Pear Potato Salad. It’s a simple dish to prepare with a delicious combination of savory and sweet flavor.

Maple Glazed Tuna with Pear Potato Salad
- Adapted from Epicurious.com -

Serves 4
30-45 minutes prep and cook time total

Maple Glazed Tuna

Ingredients:
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. maple syrup (use the good stuff – avoid imitation maple-flavored syrups)
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 c. olive oil
4 6-ounce tuna fillets
Salt & fresh ground black pepper

Preparation:
1) Whisk together the mustard, maple syrup, lime juice, salt & pepper, and 1 T. of the olive oil.
2) Marinate the tuna in the mustard/maple syrup mix for 30 minutes or so.
3) Sear the tuna on a grill or in a skillet over high heat for 30 seconds on each side (oil the grill or skillet first).
4) Place on top of pear potato salad.

Pear Potato Salad

Ingredients:
1/4 c. olive oil
1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into quarters or ½ inch pieces
2 Bosc pears, cored, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 red onion
1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced, depending on how garlicky you like your dishes
1/4 c. sliced, toasted almonds
1 1/2 t. curry powder
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
4 c. baby spinach

Preparation:
1) Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the potatoes and sauté until golden (about 12 minutes). Thom likes to add a pat of butter to keep the potatoes from sticking to the pan.
2) Add the pears, onion, garlic, almonds, and curry powder and sauté for 5 minutes.
3) Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
4) Toss the spinach with lemon juice and a little olive oil.
5) Place a few spoonfuls of the potato mix on top of the spinach.

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“I’m still here, El Guapo,” shouted the mustachioed bandit to his distraught jéfe, as they caught sight of the rest of their outlaw gang fleeing in panic, away from the tiny Mexican village defended hysterically by the Three Amigos (and a band of Three Amigos look-alikes).

Never mind that after he said that he promptly got shot.

The point I’m trying to make is that, despite being an outlaw, he was a faithful sidekick. A Robin to his Batman. A Watson to his Sherlock. An Iceman to his Maverick. He gave him a sweater for his birthday, for God’s sake.

The type of friend who’s always there for you. In the kitchen, when all seems lost, when it seems there’s nothing to eat, I imagine a tiny voice coming from the vegetable drawer (no, I’m not insane): “We’re still here, La Guapa” (because, of course, I’m female and very good looking).

Tomatoes, onions and garlic. The Three Amigos of so many dishes – including those from the Italian part of my family and the Mexican part of my husband’s. A true marriage of the old and new worlds. It’s amazing how different these three ingredients can taste, even when you don’t do much different to them. Think: pasta sauce, salsa, bruschetta.

This recipe is the latest incarnation of the Trinity. During a recent visit to my in-laws, I got a front row seat to the alchemy that is one of my favorite Mexican breakfasts: huevos ahogados. I was very excited to find out that it’s a really simple dish to make and would be perfect for feeding a crowd for brunch.

Serve with refried black beans and warm corn tortillas.

Huevos Ahogados

- serves 5-6 -

1 chile poblano
8 tomatoes (plum or regular – juicy tomatoes are good)
½ onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cubes Knorr chicken bullion cubes (or equivalent to make 4 cups broth)
Water
¼ c. vegetable oil
Eggs (as many as you need to feed your crew, up to about 10-12)

In a dry sauté pan over a high flame, roast the tomatoes, onion and garlic until skin is blistering and brown. On another gas burner flame, blacken the chile poblano, turning with tongs until blistery and black.

When the chile is roasted, put in a plastic bag to sweat for 10 minutes. When tomatoes, onion and garlic are done, cut tomatoes into quarters and put tomatoes, onion and garlic in the blender, along with the 2 cubes of chicken bullion and a splash of water. Blend until you get a sauce.

Take the poblano chile out of the plastic bag and peel off the blackened, blistered skin. Then cut open to remove the stem and all the seeds. Cut into strips (called “rajas”).

In a dutch oven, heat the ¼ cup vegetable oil on high (don’t use olive oil, flavor won’t be right). When the oil is hot, put in the rajas and fry for a minute to flavor the oil. Then add the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil. If it looks too thick (should be consistency of a typical salsa, or thinnish tomato sauce), add a little more water. Cook for 5 minutes.

With the sauce at a boil, carefully crack eggs into the sauce. When the whites start to turn opaque, using a spoon, “bathe” each egg with some of the sauce, to help cook the top and then cover the pot with a lid. Cook eggs until desired consistency – soft or hard boiled.

You can make the sauce a day ahead of time and then heat it up when you are ready to poach the eggs.

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Rourke was out of town for a few days, so I was on my own for dinner. Left to my own devices, I generally do one of two things:

• Experiment. Sometimes this has led to tasty things, and sometimes this has led to awful things that immediately needed to be thrown out.
• Scavenge. It is amazing what you will put together when you are too lazy to cook or go out for food. Cheese and crackers + can of tuna + a few carrots = a somewhat balanced meal?

The thing that I end up cooking often, though, is fried rice. Easy, quick, and a good way to throw together odds and ends that you might have in the fridge. For me, you need just a few basic ingredients for fried rice: leftover rice, eggs, scallions, white pepper, salt, and sugar. That’s it.

You might notice that there isn’t any soy sauce in that list. Cantonese fried rice doesn’t need soy sauce. You could maybe drizzle a small amount on if you really want to. But the stuff that you buy in a lot of the open kitchen, chinese take out spots where the fried rice is brown from soy sauce? Not it.

A few tips when making fried rice:

• The most important thing is that you use chilled, leftover rice. Freshly cooked rice has too much moisture and will result in a mushy, gluey mess.
• If you are adding meat or vegetables, you need to cook everything separately. This is done so that each individual ingredient retains its own flavor rather than tasting like everything else in the pan. You would cook in order of most delicate flavor to heaviest flavor. For example, eggs, then vegetables, then meat.

In the above photo, I had some lap cheong, which is chinese sausage, in the fridge so I added that to my fried rice. Here in the Bay Area, Wycen Foods makes excellent lap cheong.

Fried Rice
- serves 1 –

canola oil
1 cup of leftover rice
2 large eggs
2 scallions, sliced into rounds
kosher salt
granulated white sugar
ground white pepper
pre-cooked lap cheong, diced (optional)

1. Heat a medium non-stick skillet with approx 1 Tbs of canola oil over medium high heat.

2. When hot, crack the eggs directly in the pan. When the whites start to set, use your spatula to scramble the eggs. When the eggs are about 85% cooked, remove to a plate and season with a pinch or so of salt. The eggs end up looking more marbled than scrambled. If you prefer, you could scramble the eggs in a separate bowl before cooking in the skillet.

3. Add the scallions to the pan (add a touch of oil if pan is too dry) and stir fry until fragrant, usually about 30 seconds. Remove scallions to the plate that is holding the eggs.

4. Add the rice and lap cheong to the pan.* Add a few pinches of salt, sugar, and some ground white pepper and mix into the rice. Spread the rice across the bottom of the skillet and cover. There is no need to add water to the pan. As the rice heats up, there will be just enough steam to cook it perfectly. Cook until the rice and the lap cheong are heated through, usually about a minute or two.

5. Remove the lid and add the eggs and scallions to the rice and mix. Cover again until the the eggs and scallions are also heated through, usually about 30 seconds or so. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve.

* Since the lap cheong was already cooked, I just needed to heat it up, so it made sense to add it at the same time as the rice. If you wanted to add shrimp, chicken, or any other meat that wasn’t already cooked, however, you would cook the meat after the scallions had been removed from the pan. Once the meat was cooked, you would remove the meat from the pan before adding the rice, and then add the meat back to the rice at the same time that you added the eggs and scallions.

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Then disaster struck. I cut up the carrots. Then I cut up the potatoes. Everything was going fine. Then I opened the meat, purchased only two days prior from a grocery store that will remain nameless. The meat was rotten. Not “a little gamey” or “on the maybe side.” It was funkier than George Clinton.

We considered ordering delivery, but cooking was a point of pride for me. And I’m stubborn. And the potatoes and carrots were already cut up and waiting. So I made chicken stew. Sub out rotten beef for chicken thigh meat from the freezer. Replace the cabernet with white wine (in that case, 2006 Tres Sabores sauvignon blanc). Tweak the seasoning for chicken instead of beef. It was perfect. Not only did I cook a romantic dinner, I did it in MacGyver style. We’ve made it numerous times since then, tweaking here and there every time, but starting with this basic recipe.

Chicken Stew

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thigh.
1 lb. red potatoes, quartered
3 large carrots, cut into 1 1/2″ to 2″ pieces
1 medium onion, chopped coarsely
1 C pearl onions (frozen is fine)
1 C frozen peas
1 C white wine
1 C chicken stock
1/2 C dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried tarragon
1/2 lb mushrooms, cut in thick slices
olive oil
salt
pepper
flour

egg noodles or other pasta for serving

1. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

2. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides. Remove the chicken and set aside.

3. Lower the heat to medium and add the chopped onion and carrots to the pot. Cook for five minutes, until the carrots just start to soften. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute.

4. Add the tarragon and rosemary, then pour in the white wine, stirring to pick up anything that is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add in the chicken stock and mustard, stir, and bring everything up to a simmer.

5. Add the potatoes and put the chicken back in the pot. Cover and simmer over medium heat for about 40 minutes.

6. When there are about 10 minutes left in the cooking time, heat a tsp. of olive oil in a small skillet, and saute the mushrooms until they start to give off all of their moisture, about 5-10 minutes, depending on the mushrooms.

7. After the 40 minutes is up, remove the chicken from the stew with a pair of tongs. Lower the heat to medium-low, and add the mushrooms, the pearl onions, and the peas to the pot. Cover and cook 10 minutes.

8. While the stew is simmering, chop or shred the chicken thighs into bite-size pieces.

9. Return the chicken to the pot, stir, and serve over egg noodles or rice.

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I’m cursed by a total inability to cook the “magical fruit” from scratch. Every time I try, I end up with rock-hard nubbins that would be better as pebbles on the bottom of a fish tank than dinner.

Fortunately, there is a wide selection of the canned variety at the store.

While I like bacon as much as the next girl, I don’t miss meat ONE BIT when eating this bean gratin: creamy beans in a savory sauce, topped with crunchy bread crumbs and salty cheese. You have got to try it – healthy, hearty, cheap and easy. Hard to beat.

How did this delectable bean dish enter my life? I ordered a similar bean gratin at Nopa one night, years ago. Since then, it’s become one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant, even as it changes to incorporate seasonal ingredients. I wanted to try replicating it at home but I was nervous about making the right sauce. Then a friend of mine mentioned a dish she had at Ubuntu and a recipe for the dish in the New York Times… and although that dish is more of a soup, the flavors seemed right, so I adapted it to make this bean gratin. The results = good.

I chose butter beans — big, creamy beans — for the recipe. Apparently they are in the lima bean family, but they are pale yellow and much larger and softer. Lima beans originated in Lima, Peru. Who knew, though I guess it should have been obvious.

The butter beans I bought at the grocery store (in a can!) were from Italy (wait, I thought they were Peruvian!). A true staple of the cooking of so many cultures, beans have traveled all over the world, so they seem to “come” from everywhere. In a past life, I did some PR work related to beans and nutrition and learned a bit about beans’ history and culinary trends. (I know it’s a “commercial” site, but the papers on the “professional” pages are really informational and pretty interesting.)

In total, this recipe took me about a half an hour to prepare from start to finish. Serve with a green salad for a quick weekday meal.

Giant Butter Bean & Feta Gratin
- serves 6 -

olive oil
1 large carrot, diced
1 large rib celery, diced
1 large leek, white and green parts only, diced
1/3 of a head of garlic, minced
1t red chili flakes
1T fresh rosemary, minced
1 28-oz. can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes,* drained and chopped + about 2-3T of the tomato juice
2 14-oz. cans butter beans
2T fresh parsley, chopped
salt & pepper
feta cheese
dry bread crumbs

Saute carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, chili flakes, rosemary and a pinch of salt and pepper in a few tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven until vegetables are just starting to soften. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, beans and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mixture should have a little liquid, like the beans are in a tomato sauce — not a soup. Add more tomato juice if needed, or simmer to reduce the liquid.

Fill individual ceramic or clay dishes (that you can put in the oven) with about 3/4-1 cup of the bean mixture (whatever fits). Sprinkle generously with crumbled feta cheese and about a teaspoon of dry bread crumbs. Drizzle with olive oil to moisten the bread crumbs. Broil about 8-10 minutes or until the topping is slightly browned.

* San Marzano are meaty plum tomatoes.

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Hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day!

Whenever I think of Valentine’s Day and food, I inevitably think of ragu. The thought process goes something like this (bear with me, here): Valentine’s Day -> a day when I’m pampered -> Rourke cooks for me -> Rourke likes pasta -> the first pasta dish Rourke ever made for me was ragu.

Is that a frightening peek into my psyche or what?

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever met a ragu I didn’t like. Meat, tomatoes, aromatics, and spices. What’s not to like? The mere thought of it conjures images of a matriarch, lovingly stirring a large pot of the gently simmering ragu with a wooden spoon. She’s in a large, eat-in-kitchen with a long wooden table, perhaps a small child and a pet adorably getting under foot. Except in my house it is my husband who is slaving, and I am both laughing and crying with incredulity at the HUGE mess he’s made: carrot peels randomly strewn across the kitchen counter and behind the toaster oven (how?!?), bits of diced onion on the floor, splotches of sauce all over the stove. Oh yeah, and my kitchen is about 7 feet long by 3 feet wide.

The recipe for this ragu comes from the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast: Pasta cookbook. The inclusion of it in the book is a bit of head-scratcher, though. The book claims that all of its recipes are ready to serve in 30 minutes, yet the recipe calls for simmering the sauce for 1 hour. Wha? The first time Rourke made the recipe it was a weeknight and he hadn’t read through the instructions before making it (his bad). I don’t think we ate until almost 10pm that night. Either way, it’s a great, easy recipe and I’m glad we have it. Just make sure you plan accordingly.

Rigatoni with Pork Ragu
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma’s Food Made Fast: Pasta
- serves 4 -

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 tsp. ground fennel seed
1 lb. ground pork*
1 cup dry red wine
32 oz. (4 cups) canned whole plum tomatoes, chopped, with juice
1/4 cup tomato paste
kosher salt
1 tsp. oregano (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1 tsp. red chili flakes (optional)
1 tbsp. red wine or balsamic vinegar (optional)

Rigatoni and grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

1. In a heavy pot over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the ground fennel seed, oregano, chili flakes,and garlic (if using) and saute until garlic and spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the pork and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat colors slightly, about 4 minutes.

4. Stir in the wine and cool until most of the alcohol has evaporated, 1-2 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, 1/2 tsp salt, and vinegar (if using). Stir well to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened and the flavors have melded, about 1 hour. If the sauce seems to be drying out, add a few tbsp of water.

6. When ready, taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese over cooked rigatoni.

* You can also use 1/2 beef, 1/2 pork if that’s your thing. We like it that way, too.

Ingredients listed as optional are additions that we’ve made to the original recipe.

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The steamed, BBQ pork-filled bun, cha siu bao, is like the gateway drug of dim sum. They’re easy to find, inexpensive, and even the worst of them are satisfying in their own way. If you didn’t grow up in an Asian household, there’s a good chance it was the first dim sum you ever had, other than a greasy take-out eggroll. Like I said, they’re the gateway drug. Before I had ever ventured into xiao long bao, har gau, or even the fairly mundane shiu mai, and before I ever dreamed of owning a bamboo steamer of my own, I was hooked on cha siu bao. I see them in the windows of Chinese bakeries and can’t help but go in. When we go for dim sum, it’s the one thing that everyone (except the vegetarians) seems to agree on.

‘Cha siu‘ or ‘char siu‘ refers to the method of preparing the BBQ meat, typically pork. ‘Bao‘ means “bun”. And it turns out that, if you’re comfortable making a very simple yeast dough, they’re easy to make.

To celebrate Chinese New Year with the Perfectly Edible gang, we made pork buns two ways. First, the traditional, stuffed steamed bun — the little pillow of crack-like BBQ pork addressed above. Then, using the second half of a batch of cha siu, we made the clamshell-style pork buns popularized by David Chang of Momofuku in New York. Now, Chang didn’t invent the clamshell pork bun, as he and everyone else will rush to tell you, but it’s undeniable that he is the reason for the global food-crush on them at the moment. And he makes a damn fine pork bun, so credit where it’s due.

Although Chang includes a recipe for the Steamed Bun dough in his book, Momofuku (page 81), I used the recipe for Basic Yeast Dough in Andrea Nguyen’s Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More (page 92) for both styles of bun, and it came out perfectly. I also substituted 1 package of active dry yeast for the instant yeast Nguyen calls for, without any trouble.

Basic Yeast Dough
- makes 16 medium sized buns -

1 envelope active dry yeast
3/4 C lukewarm water
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
12 1/2 oz. (2 1/2 C) all-purpose flour*

1. Put the yeast in a small bowl with the lukewarm water to soften for 1 minute. Whisk in the oil.

2. Combine the sugar, baking powder, and flour in the bowl of your food processor, and pulse two or three times to combine. Turn the processor on, and pour in the yeast-water-oil mixture in a slow, steady stream. Continue mixing for about 20 seconds, until the dough starts to come together and form a ball. Run the machine for another 45 to 60 seconds. The dough should be in a large ball now.

3. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm, draft free place to rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled.

Note: While you’re waiting for the dough to rise is a perfect time to assemble your filling, if you haven’t already.

Char Siu Pork Bun Filling
Flavoring sauce:
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch of white pepper
1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
2 tsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. water

Filling:
2 tsp. canola oil
2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 lb. char siu pork, diced (storebought, or made with the fantastic recipe on pg. 224 of Asian Dumplings)
1 Tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water.

1. Mix all ingredients in the flavor sauce except the sugar together. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

2. Heat the 2 tsp. of canola oil for the filling in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the pork, stir, and add the flavoring sauce. Cook for about two minutes, until pork is heated through.

3. Add the rice wine to the dissolved cornstarch. Add the mixture to the skillet with the hot pork and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. The cornstarch will thicken the sauce and the whole mixture will start to stick together.

4. Remove from the heat and cool completely before using.

Assemble the Pork Buns

1. Divide the Basic Yeast Dough into two even portions. Cover one half in plastic wrap while you work with the other to prevent it from drying out.

2. Roll the dough into a 12″ log, then cut it into 8 even pieces.

3. Roll each piece of dough into a ball, then flatten with your hands to about 1/4 inch thck.

4. Using a wooden-dowel style rolling pin (or a large cooking chopstick, or a plain wooden dowel about 3/8″), roll each of the flattened disks of dough out to about 3 1/4″ in diameter, leaving a 1″ belly in the middle, so that the middle is thicker than the edges. This creates an even thickness on the top and the bottom when you fill the bun. For a more detailed explanation, see Nguyen’s explanation in the LA Times: How to roll out dough for bao.

5. Cut parchment paper into 3″ squares, 1 for each bun.

6. Place a rolled-out piece of dough in one hand, cupping it slightly. Scoop about 4 tsp. of the filling onto the dough, pressing gently, and keeping 1/2″ to 3/4″ clear all the way around. Use your thumb from the hand holding the bun to press the filling down while pinching the top of the bun closed with the other hand. It may take a few tries to get it right, but it’s not difficult at all. There’s a great explanation on page 52 of Asian Dumplings

7. Place each finished bun on a parchment square, pleated side up, on a baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or kitchen towel while making the remainder of the buns. Let the tray sit in a warm dry place for 30 minutes for the dough to rise again.

8. Put the buns in a steamer with at least 1 inch between each bun, and between the buns and the sides of the steamer. Cook for 15 minutes. When done, the dough will look dry. Remove from steamer and cook on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Clamshell Pork Buns

Make the same Basic Yeast Dough recipe above and divide into 16 even pieces. Roll each piece out to 1/4″ thick — there is no need to leave the “belly” in the middle of the dough. Brush one half of each disk with canola oil, fold it in half, and place on a 3″ square of parchment. Put each of the buns on a tray, cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel, and set aside to rise for half an hour. After half an hour, steam the buns as above for 6-8 minutes. They don’t take as long as the filled buns.

Serve the clamshell buns with sliced BBQ pork, hoisin, sriracha, scallions, cucumbers, kimchee, or whatever else sounds good.

*On her blog, Asian Dumpling Tips, Nguyen recently posted a comparison of using different flours for the bao dough, to see which gives the purest white: How to Make Steamed Chinese Bao White?. Definitely worth checking out. We used Gold Medal AP flour, and everything came out great. Normally, I have King Arthur AP or Whole Foods AP, which is manufactuered by Giusto’s, both of which may have too high a gluten content for good steamed bao dough.

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