Lion's Head Meatballs for Chinese New Year

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The Silver Fox and I use the 15 days of Spring Festival to enjoy some of our favorite Chinese dishes. Over the years, I've collected a huge number of recipes for Asian food, particularly Chinese. These meatballs are a personal favorite of mine, and I always make them during the holiday, as much for their symbolism as their wonderful flavor. There is discussion, sometimes contentious, about the origins of this dish. I favor Shanghai, but the beautiful city of Yangzhou is also a contender. Children love this dish and it's whimsy. For some, the four large meatballs represent the cardinal points of north, south, east and west. For others, they represent the blessings of felicity, prosperity, longevity and happiness. The meatballs are braised with a mild Asian cabbage in a delicious brown sauce. The finished meatballs, festooned with shreds of cabbage, do resemble a lion's head. When there are no children at the table, I opt for smaller meatballs. There are hundreds of recipes for Lion's Head; this version is based on one developed by Jacki Passmore. If you do not eat pork, or abstain from meat, you might like to try this recipe using a product called Gimmee Lean. In Shanghai these meatballs are served as an appetizer. They're also great for church suppers and other potlucks.

Pork Tenderloin with Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you enjoy food with an Asian flair, you are in for a treat. This simple yet delicious dish is perfect for a summer night. It is light, in taste and calories, not terribly expensive to make, and you can have it on the table in about 30 minutes. I do have one caution to share with you. You will want to avoid overcooking the bok choy. I think you will find it helpful to separate the stalks into piles of white and green. The crunchy portion of the stalks will need to simmer for two or three minutes, but the green and leafy portions need only a dunk and should cook just until they are wilted. I like to cook the rice I serve with this dish before I actually begin to cook the pork. That way I can get the pork to the table while the bok choy is still crisp and its leaves are a vibrant green. I do hope you'll give this Asian inspired dish a try. It's hard to fault a dish that is so easy to make. It is one of my favorite weeknight meals and I think your family will enjoy it as much as mine does. Here is how it is made.

Frugal Foodie Friday - Asian-Style Braised Chicken with Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you enjoy food with an Asian flair, you are in for a treat. This week's Frugal Friday feature is for a simple, soy braised chicken that is light, absolutely delicious and as easy on the pocketbook as it is the waistline. The dish can be made with bone-in or boneless legs or thighs. If you use boneless chicken thighs, cooking time can be cut from 25 to 10 minutes and the dish can be on the table in near record time. You will want to avoid overcooking the bok choy. I think you will find it helpful to separate the stalks into piles of white and green. The crunchy portion of the stalks will need to simmer for two or three minutes, but the green and leafy portions need only a dunk and should cook just until they are wilted. I like to cook the rice I serve with this dish before I actually begin to cook the chicken. That way I can get the chicken to the table while the bok choy is still crisp and its leaves are a vibrant green. Do try this chicken. It is hard to argue with a dish that is cheap, easy and delicious. It is one of my favorite weeknight meals and I think your family will enjoy it as much as mine does. Here is how the chicken is made.

Leftover Turkey? Try Asian-Style Turkey Noodle Soup

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you make a traditional holiday meal, chances are you'll have leftovers and need a plan for handling the remains of the day. I've been working on a group of recipes that I hope will help you put those leftovers to good use. The first of them is  a new version of turkey soup that was developed by Dabney Gough for Fine Cooking magazine. Now I don't want to gush or be overly effusive. We are, after all, dealing with leftovers, but this Asian-inspired soup is a wonderful way to use them. It is delicious, low in fat and very easy to make. I've made the soup twice since I found the recipe. Once with turkey, once with a rotisserie chicken and the recipe works well with either type of poultry. Glass noodles are made from mung bean starch and they become translucent, like cellophane, when they are cooked. If you are not able to buy them in your local supermarket, rice vermicelli can be substituted.  If you enjoy a steaming bowl of Hawaiian Long Rice, you will love this soup. It is hearty enough for lunch or a light supper and it is perfect way to use up some of that leftover turkey. Here's how the soup is made.

Asian-Style Turkey Noodle Soup...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Dabney Gough and Fine Cooking magazine

Ingredients:
4 ounces thin uncooked glass noodles or rice vermicelli
4 cups lower-salt chicken or turkey broth
3 large cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 2-inch-long piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced, slices mashed
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce; more for serving
1 medium head bok choy (about 8 oz.), sliced 1/4-inch thick crosswise (about 3 cups)
2 cups coarsely shredded cooked turkey or chicken
2 scallions, both white and green parts, thinly sliced

Directions:
1) Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot tap water; let soak while preparing other ingredients.
2) Bring broth, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan set over medium-high heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove and discard garlic and ginger.
3) Add glass noodles or vermicelli to broth and cook until nearly transparent, about 4 minutes. Using tongs, distribute noodles among 4 bowls.
4) Add bok choy to broth and cook, uncovered, just until the white parts start to become tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove bok choy and distribute among bowls.
5) Add turkey to broth and simmer just until heated through, about 30 seconds. Distribute turkey and broth among bowls. Top with scallions. Pass soy sauce at table if desired. Yield: 4 servings.

One Year Ago Today: Pumpkin Cheese Cake with Marshmallow-Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust

Two Years Ago Today: Tuscan Cheese Cake - Torta di Ricotta

Three Years Ago Today: Chinese Almond Cookies

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Black Beans and Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite... Mark Bittman is one of my food heroes.I love the clarity of his writing and the no-nonsense approach he takes to food. I miss his weekly column in the New York Times and he is one of the few food writers whose recipes I keep in a shoebox in my pantry. The box is probably overkill, but I don't really trusts computers, despite the fact I made my living with working with them. As a matter of fact, I have recurring nightmares in which agitated systems programmers converge on a computer room with manuals in hand and my personal computer lies in an intensive care unit trying to fight off a fatal virus which has made it through every firewall known to mankind. It's enough to send chills up and down my spine. So, I bookmark, backup and keep paper copies of certain things, among them Mr. Bittman's recipes. I've been working Chinese black beans and wanted to share his shrimp and black bean stir-fry with you.It is fast and easy and really, really tasty. Bok Choy is now available in supermarkets and the black beans can be found in any Asian grocery store. I do hope you'll give this recipe a try. If you have all the ingredients ready to go before you start to cook, you'll find this really easy to do. My only caution is not to overcook the dish. The stems of the bok choy should retain some crunch and the shrimp should be pink but still tender. If you like a slightly thicker sauce for your stir-fry, you'll want to make a light slurry of cornstarch and water and add it just before serving the shrimp. Here's the recipe.

Stir-Fried Shrimp With Black Beans and Bok Choy...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Mark Bittman

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons fermented black beans, sold in Asian markets
2 tablespoons dry sherry or white wine
1-1/2 pounds uncooked shrimp, in the 20 to 30 per pound size range, peeled
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar, divided use
2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided use
1 clove garlic, sliced, and 1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil, divided use
1 pound bok choy or other cabbage, trimmed, washed and dried
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil, divided use
1 tablespoon peeled and minced or grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup chicken stock or white wine
1/4 cup minced scallions

Directions:
1) Soak black beans in sherry, wine or water.
2) In large bowl, marinate shrimp in 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, sliced garlic, salt and 1 teaspoon sesame oil.
3) Separate bok choy leaves from stems; chop stems into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces, and roughly chop leaves.
4) Preheat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil and raise heat to high. When it begins to smoke, add minced garlic and, immediately thereafter, shrimp and its marinade. Cook shrimp for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon it out of wok or skillet.
5) Put remaining peanut oil in wok or skillet and, when it smokes, add ginger, followed immediately by bok choy stems. Cook, stirring, until bok choy is lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes, then add leaves. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then add 3/4 cup water, stock or white wine and let it bubble away for a minute.
6) Return shrimp to wok or skillet and stir; add black beans and their liquid, scallions, and remaining sugar and soy sauce. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Turn off heat, drizzle remaining sesame oil on top, and serve. Yield:3 to 4 servings.

One Year Ago Today: Spring Mushroom Soup with Aromatic Vegetables

Two Years Ago Today: Po Cha

Three Years Ago Today: Lemon and Almond Tart

Stir-Fried Tofu with Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...As you know, Harumi Kurihara was featured this week by a group of us who are working our way through the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game Changers in Food. Yesterday, I posted her recipe for Sauteed Scallops in Miso Sauce and today I want to share another of her creations with you. This one has a bit of history hidden in the ingredient list. Many of you know that I worked for a Japanese multinational company before my retirement. The company regularly brought young men from Japan to intern at facilities in the United States. On occasions so rare they could be counted on the fingers of one hand, a young woman would be included in their number. More than a few of the women spent some time in my group while they adjusted to their new environment. They were bright as new copper pennies, personable and very anxious to please, but the girls especially were given to bouts of weekend homesickness that cooking seemed to help. Their apartments were not really set up to cook Japanese food but they improvised and found ways to prepare their favorite dishes using a microwave and the single burner their closet kitchens afforded them. I first had this dish in one of those tiny kitchens where the microwave "stir-fried" the bok choy and sprouts. I am convinced that Japanese women are born knowing how to cook, even in less than ideal circumstances. There is an economy in their movements that matches their spare use of ingredients and they have the ability to transform quite ordinary ingredients into something truly special. In this recipe, the toasted and pulverized sesame seeds and that odd sounding bullion cube are the umami that make this dish work. I was delighted when I found a formal recipe for easy stir-fry. I love its spare and elegant simplicity, but I also love the way it tastes. It is mildly flavored and were it not for the pulverized sesame seeds, it would be bland. There is no fire here. This is a dish to be prepared when the palate needs soothing. I do hope you'll give it a try. You'll find everything you need to make it in your neighborhood grocery store. Here's the recipe.

Stir-Fried Tofu with Bok Choy...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Harumi Kurihara

Ingredients:
3/4 pound firm tofu, drained
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon Asian(dark) sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 head of bok choy (about 3/4 pound), leaves and stalks sliced crosswise 1 inch thick
4 cups bean sprouts (9 ounces)
1 teaspoon crushed or grated chicken bouillon cube
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1) Wrap tofu in paper towels and drain in a strainer set over a bowl for 30 minutes. In a skillet, toast sesame seeds over moderate heat until fragrant, 1 minute. Let cool, then grind to a coarse powder.
2) In a large skillet, heat sesame oil. Add drained tofu, breaking it up into chunks with a spoon, and stir-fry over moderately high heat until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer tofu to a plate.
3) In same skillet, heat vegetable oil. Add bok choy and stir-fry over moderately high heat until tender, 5 minutes. Add bean sprouts and stir-fry until heated through. Stir in tofu and season with crushed bouillon cube, salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with sesame seeds. Yield: 4 servings.

One Year Ago Today: Coffeecake Retrospective for National Coffeecake Day

Two Years Ago Today: Cheesy Orzo Pilaf

Hanoi Noodle Soup with Chicken, Baby Tatsoi and Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a wonderful soup for lunch or a light supper. I make it often because it comes together quickly and the ingredients I need to make it are readily available. While I live in a small city, the presence of a university assures there are ethnic markets for Asian, Indian and Hispanic ingredients. As a matter of fact, it's easier to buy those ingredients here, than it was when I lived on the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel. Today's soup is a cross between Hawaiian Chicken Long Rice and Vietnamese pho, and if you enjoy either of those dishes, you'll love this soup. It starts with a good chicken broth that's given a flavor boost with the addition of aromatic vegetables and herbs. The broth is used to poach chicken and an assortment of Asian vegetables until they are tender but still retain their crunch. The vegetables used here are the leaves and stems of bok choy, or Chinese cabbage, and a vegetable called tatsoi, which is a member of the mustard family that has spinach-like leaves that have some tang. The tatsoi can be omitted if you are unable to find it. While the vegetables steam away, the rice noodles are soaked and briefly cooked. If you are unable to find fresh rice noodles, use the dry version and cook them according to package instructions. The soup is built in layers in bowls that are chock full of noodles and vegetables swimming in broth. This is good stuff and it is guaranteed to warm winter weary souls. You will want to add salt and pepper to the broth before ladling it into bowls, and, if you do not want to pass hot sauce at the table, add it, or pepper flakes, at this point as well. I hope you will try this soup. Not only is it delicious, it is also quite low in calories and I think you'll love the freshness of the vegetables that are used to make it. Here's the recipe.

Hanoi Noodle Soup with Chicken, Baby Tatsoi and Bok Choy...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite adapted from Saveur Magazine

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
1/2 cup fresh cilantro (leaves), divided use
1/2 cup fresh mint (leaves), divided use
2 bone-in chicken breasts
1-1/2 pounds baby bok choy, chopped crosswise in 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 pound bahn pho (1/2-inch wide Vietnamese rice noodles)
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
4 ounces baby tatsoi (baby)
Optional: Tuong Ot Toi (Vietnamese hot sauce), Sriracha or hot pepper flakes


Directions:
1) In a medium stockpot, bring chicken stock to a simmer over medium heat. Add ginger, garlic, 1/4 cup each of the cilantro and mint leaves, and chicken. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook chicken. Remove chicken and allow to cool. Tear each breast into about 6 pieces, discard bones. Strain broth and return to pot over low heat.
2) Meanwhile, soak noodles in hot water until softened, about 5 to 10 minutes. Cook noodles in boiling water until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse well with cold water.
3) Add bok choy to broth and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
4) Divide noodles among six bowls. Add chicken pieces, scallions, remaining 1/4 cup each mint and cilantro, and tatsoi. Pour hot broth and bok choy over top. Serve with Tuong Ot Toi or Sriracha. Yield: 6 servings.









One year Ago Today: Hot Fudge Sauce












Two Years Ago Today: Stilton and Apple Soup

Creamed Shanghai Bok Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This, arguably, is the ultimate in miniature vegetables. Our local Asian market has started stocking a diminutive form of Shanghai bok choy. I'm thrilled. Bob and I became huge fans of the vegetable in China. Bok choy has crunchy stems and crinkled, spinach-like leaves. It appeared almost daily on the breakfast buffets in tourist hotels where it was steamed until crisp-tender and then napped with a light cream sauce. It appeared later in the day as a stir fry, topped with a garlic sauce that could be hot or not, depending on location or the cook's whim. Bok choy is a mild flavored form of cabbage that brings a lovely crispness to any dish to which it's added. I noted as we moved from one area to another that the color of the bok choy appeared to change. It wasn't my imagination. I learned that there are actually two types of the vegetable. We had been eating miniature forms of bok choy. The Canton variety had small yellow flowers and was lighter in color and sweeter in taste than its Shanghai counterpart. The Shanghai variety had a green hue and larger leaves, but, strangely enough, was the smaller of the two. I fell in love with both of the miniature versions because less chopping would be necessary with meal preparation. Once home, I began a search for recipes that would produce dishes similar to what we had been eating. This recipe for creamed bok choy makes a dish that is similar to the one we had for breakfast. I think you'll enjoy it.

Creamed Bok Choy...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, inspired by Gloria Miller

Ingredients:
1 pound baby bok choy (Shanghai or Canton)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced smoked ham (optional)
Pepper to taste

Directions:
1) Trim ends from bok choy and cut stems into 2-inch pieces if necessary.
2) Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add oil. When it begins to shimmer and bok choy and stir fry for for 2 minutes. Add salt and stock. Bring to a boil. Cover pan and cook over medium heat until softened, about 4 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, dissolve cornstarch in milk. When bok choy is softened, reduce heat and slowly stir milk mixture into pan. Do not allow milk mixture to boil. Cover pan and simmer for 3 minutes longer, stirring once or twice.
4) If using ham, sprinkle it on bok choy. Add pepper to taste. Serve hot. Yield: 4-6 servings.