Chinese Donuts and Pancakes for a New Year's Brunch

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The Silver Fox and I are having guests for brunch on Saturday. In keeping with my plan to serve Chinese food for the duration of the Spring Festival, I've put together a menu that I think our guests will enjoy. I'll be serving congee, noodles, shrimp omelets, dumplings, and creamed bok choy as well as Chinese donuts and pancakes. The recipes for these dishes have been featured on One Perfect Bite in the past, but I came across new recipes for the donuts and pancakes that I wanted to try and share with you. They are easy to make and I think your family and friends will enjoy them. Here is how they both are made.

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.

Long-Life Noodles for Chinese New Year

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Chinese New Year - Spring Festival - is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The year 4715 - the year of the rooster - begins on the 28th of January. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in rooster years are observant, hardworking, resourceful, courageous, and talented. While they are confident to the point of irritation, they have a great sense of humor and are popular with those who know them. It goes without saying, they enjoy being the center of attention. I suspect they also love to eat. Food is an important part of the New Year celebration and certain foods are included for their symbolic value. Noodles are served for longevity, oranges for wealth and prosperity and a whole fish for abundance and togetherness. Today's recipe is for long-life noodles like the ones stick-stick men sold from pots that hung from shoulder poles. The noodles are served at the very beginning or at the very end of the meal. Be aware that bad luck or a shortened life is the fate of those who break or cut them into more manageable lengths. It's a pretty safe bet that those born in this lunar cycle, the Roosters, manage to keep their noodles in one very long piece. I've draped a noodle across the kitchen cabinet to give you an idea of their length. The noodles can be sauced in many ways, but I've chosen a really simple recipe to share with you tonight. I know you'll enjoy them, and if you have children or grandchildren at the table, they'll have a blast slurping the longest worms ever. Here is how they are made. Remember, the longer the noodle, the longer your life.

With Three You Get Eggroll or If You're Lucky Homemade Nian Gao

Gong Hey Fat Choy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Happy New Year. The year of the rooster begins today, and for the next 15 days those who celebrate Chinese New Year will join with family and friends to enjoy the "lucky" foods that are associated with the holiday.

Nian gao, or year cake, is a popular dessert served during Chinese New Year. It has a history of at least a thousand years. It is considered good luck to eat the cake because the Chinese pronunciation of its name is a homonym for another word that means higher year. The cake has come to symbolize improving one's status in the coming year. It is also known as a rice cake. The cake is a sticky sweet snack that was first made as an offering to the kitchen god. It was hoped his lips would stick together as he ate it, preventing him from reporting family transgressions to the Jade Emperor. The cake is made from glutinous rice flour, Chinese brown sugar and flavored with almond extract before it is steamed. It is decorated with sesame seeds and dried red dates while it is still warm, but it must sit for at least a day to firm up for slicing.

A Kitchen Keeper Original - Gougères

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These light and tender morsels are in danger of extinction. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help keep this recipe relevant and make sure that these silky, egg rich pastries remain on our tables for years to come. Please understand, I have nothing against salsa or chips and dips and pesto. I've been known to down a beer or two and confess that beer nuts are not safe in my presence. There are, however, times when I want something a bit more classic, something with culinary chops and a history that commends its presence on my table. The French gougères has much to recommend it. These savory cheese puffs are made with the same pate a choux dough that is used to prepare cream puffs and eclairs, but the addition of cheese or other savories make them a wonderful appetizer or hors d'oeuvres to serve with wine or champagne. They are very easy to make and I also  serve them with more pedestrian meals of soup or stew. I must warn you that they are additive and the puffs should come with a "once bitten" warning attached to them. I've just finished making a gazillion of these to share with friends tomorrow. I know they will love them and I suspect you will too. These are best served directly from the oven, but I understand that that is not always possible, so I have a few tips to share with you. The dough can be refrigerated for a day before it is formed and baked. Once baked, the puffs can be frozen until needed. Frozen puffs should be thawed and reheated in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes before serving. If you plan to bake them ahead of time, make a slit in the bottom of each puff and turn them upside down to let moisture escape.  I make it a point to reheat the gougères before serving them. Five minutes in a 350 degree oven does the trick. While I prefer to use Gruyere cheese, cheddar or blue cheese can be substituted and, if you wish, a filling can be piped into the puffs. I bake my trays of gougère on the lowest rack of the oven and I only bake one tray at a time. It may be my imagination, but I think the puffs get better lift that way. I really hope you will give this recipe a try. I like to share my addictions with others. Here's how these simple cheese puffs are made.

Christmas Musings

Bob's Christmas pudding has started to jiggle and while that bubbles to new heights of deliciousness, I've got my feet up and have been watching the antics of a robin who has come home too soon. I enjoy the morning quiet and this time alone. I've been thinking about Christmas celebrations, old and new, and a couple of memories surfaced and left me with a smile. You might enjoy them, too.

When our children were young, we attended what many consider a mission parish. It was a faith community established to serve newly landed immigrants from Haiti and Korea. Tucked among them were some establishment families seeking cultural diversity for their children. The congregation was small, so those of us who could were asked to teach and serve the community in ways we never imagined. That's how I came to write a the greatest Christmas pageant ever. I tend towards the dramatic and in "my" pageant there was a moment when the church went dark and the tape recorded cry of a newborn could be heard. As the baby began to cry, borrowed flood lights, focused only on the manger, came on and washed it a sea of light as a deep, sonorous voice boomed, "This is my beloved son." It was a lovely moment, but right after those words were spoken our tiny Mary stood up, grabbed her crotch and ran down the aisle squealing, "I gotta pee". With that, the pageant joined the ranks of memories my children have never let me forget.

Going hand in hand with the search for cultural diversity, was a determination to make Christmas a less secular affair. The recollection of the pageant brought memories of our Baby Jesus Cake into play. Starting at a young age, the children had a party for the baby Jesus, complete with a cake on Christmas Eve. Heavily based on the Three Kings Cake served in other countries, our cake held a hidden clove that was meant to represent the gifts of the Magi. Here's the part were religion gets a little tangled with magical thinking and for that I ask your forbearance. Our cake contained a magical clove that would bring good luck to the person who found it. We still honor that tradition. Some years I'd make  a pound cake, others it might be angel food. To my great shame, there were years when time, which has always been my enemy, trumped intent and the birthday cake came from a mix into which a clove was stuck. This year, I have two cupcakes, one for Bob and one for me. Only one of them contains the clove. It's grossly unfair, but unless he picks his quickly,  I can anticipate a year of good fortune because I know which one holds the clove. I've been blessed to see the tradition of the cake continued in the Christmas celebrations of my adult children. My grandsons now search for that illusive clove on Christmas Eve. Memory is a lovely place to visit. I hope you and those you love have a wonderful holiday, one that's complete with recollections of your Christmases past. Merry Christmas to you all. "God bless us everyone."

A Holiday Kitchen Keeper - Norwegian Christmas Bread

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I made 12 loaves of this bread today using a recipe "remembered" from my childhood. The bread is plainer than most of the Norwegian Christmas breads I've seen on other blogs, but it is a favorite for a reason. I first had it in the kitchen of a neighbor when I was about four years old. Long time readers of my blog know that I grew up in a duplex complex surrounded by wonderful cooks. This bread was made by Mrs. P, and while her background was Swedish, she claimed all of Scandinavia as her own. This bread was a favorite of hers, and, truth be told, it was known to appear on her table at times other than Christmas. While her bread contained the requisite candied peels and cardamom, she never used the glacéd cherries usually found in Scandinavian Christmas loaves. She had heated discussions with Hannie, a German neighbor and her arch baking rival, who insisted they should be used in Christmas breads. They'd go back and forth as to the merits of glacéd cherries, but Mrs P insisted you'd never find them in Finnish or Norwegian farm kitchens. She may have had a point. She candied her own lemon and lime peel, but cherries in the quantity needed for holiday baking were hard to come by. I never dared ask how lemons and limes made it to remote areas of Scandinavia and that was probably just as well. When it comes to vintage recipes some things must be accepted on faith. While memory may have clouded my judgment, I like the bread well enough to share it with my friends. That includes you. Here's how the bread is made.

Mid-Week Musings

In my freshman year of high school, I was standing in line when a teacher motioned for me to come her way. I'd been queued with friends and had just repeated a story I'd been told. She'd overheard what I'd said and asked why I thought the story was mine to tell. While I hemmed and hawed and insisted what I'd shared was true, she reiterated that, true or not, the story was not mine to tell. Her words stayed with me and over the years there've been occasions when I've had to stop and ask myself if the story I'm about to share is actually mine to tell.

When you travel with a group you hear lots of stories. Some are told by lonely people seeking affirmation. Others are told when tongues are loosed by too much wine. These are the stories that must be rewoven before they can be told. And sometimes, as they are reworked you realize that there isn't much to tell. Many stories were shared on our long coach rides in Costa Rica, but, on examination, they belong to others and are not mine to tell. I can, however, share with you impressions, two in particular, that were garnered on our trip.

A bit of backstory is necessary here. In 1948, Costa Rica abolished all branches of its military and diverted the money used to support a standing army to education. As a result, the country has a literacy rate of 98%, but its educated citizens no longer want to do the hard physical work its coffee, sugar and banana plantations require. Migrant workers, approximately 1,000,000 of them from neighboring Nicaragua, are brought into the country to handle the planting and harvest of export crops. It is hard, back breaking work and men, women and children all participate. On coffee plantations they are paid by the canasta, which looks much like a small laundry basket. Because the canasta is tied around the waist, it's not uncommon to see mothers with small children in the fields. A full canasta weighs about 25 pounds and each basket is worth about $2.00. Costa Rica takes care of its citizens, but, despite protestations, life in the migrant camps is rough. We spent the better part of a day on a coffee plantation following the beans from their planting to a coffee cup. Our tour ended as workers were coming in from the fields. My final observation was that of an obviously weary, nursing mother carrying a baby in a makeshift sling along with a toddler at her side. She probably made $2.00 that day.

On a more upbeat note, we were able to meet the wife and the young daughter of our tour guide. Family size in Costa Rica has dramatically decreased over the past 40 years and homes with 1 or 2 children are now the norm. Children, while doted on, are not spoiled and these small families are closely knit. Diego's family met us for lunch halfway through the tour. He travels a lot and when he got off the bus his daughter hurled herself at him and darn near knocked him off his feet. They had a private lunch and when it was time to leave she did something that I've seen only once before in our travels. There was, of course, the big kiss and hug, but she then made the sign of the cross on his body rather than her on. No tears, just a blessing for safe travel. Her spirit is as beautiful as the country in which she lives, but only parts of her story are mine to tell.