There is nothing quite like biting into hot, golden-brown burnished buns filled with succulent, salty and mildly sweet chunks of Chinese barbecue pork. A perfect marriage of Western-influenced yeasty milk bread and traditional Cantonese roast pork, we seek out this inexpensive, hand-held meal whenever we visit a Chinatown -- whether in LA, Boston, Vancouver, San Francisco, New York or D.C. Imagine our delight when we first tried making these at home and they came out beautiful and totally delicious! Over the years, we have compared several dough recipes and developed a pork-zucchini version for a more balanced hand-held meal.
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| Our first batch of homemade Chinese bbq pork buns in 2018 |
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| It all starts with homemade char siu pork |
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| Char siu pork in milk bread buns |
Perhaps nothing is as emblematic of a perfect East-West fusion as the Chinese Bakery. Traditional Chinese homes did not have ovens, which utilize a great deal of fuel. As a result, people would go to the bakery to pick up roasted meats. Alongside the whole roasted ducks and chickens are the red-tinted slabs of Chinese barbecued pork, or char siu 叉燒, which literally means fork-roasted. The sauce permeates and roasts into the meat, leaving a finger-friendly, dry surface and tender, flavorful interior. Char siu can be enjoyed straight from the broiler or grill, and it forms the starting ingredient for a wide variety of delicious dishes. It is often enjoyed as a hand-held snack enveloped in a white, fluffy steamed bun -- a filling staple of push cart dim sum tea parlors called char siu bao 叉燒包.
Eight Treasures Sticky Rice Bundt Cake: Ringing in the Lunar New Year with Ba Bao Fan 八寶飯
February 10, 2022
We celebrated the first weekend in the Year of the Tiger with a dumpling wrapping party -- the first since the pandemic. It was great fun to get together with friends and family again. After enjoying all-you-can-eat pork-cabbage dumplings, gluten-free crystal dumplings, and various potluck sides, the evening was capped with this spectacular (and surprisingly easy) Instant Pot riff on a festive Chinese treat. Ba Bao Fan 八寶飯 literally translates to Eight Treasures Rice.
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| Instant Pot Bundt Pan Ba Bao Fan - a traditionally flavored, sweet sticky rice cake |
Thanks to the pandemic, I had plenty of time for online cooking courses in the MasterClass series. These in turn gave me the confidence to try making a recipe for spring rolls that I had clipped and carried around with me for over 4 decades. Although I did not much care for the shrimp-snow pea filling because the soy sauce masked the delicate flavors of the main ingredients, I found myself making spring rolls over and over again, basing my seasonings on Grace Young's vegetable spring roll recipe in The Breath of a Wok. What I did learn from that old recipe was how simple it was to make spring roll wrappers. Can't get to the Asian Market for wrappers? No problem if you have flour, water and a pastry brush!
Among my more ambitious cooking endeavors was this beautiful, rich mushroom-topped celebration rice cake, based on a vegan recipe I found online by Yotam Ottolenghi. I had trouble finding some of the ingredients, so I adapted the recipe inspired by childhood memories of Ba Bao Fan 八寶飯. I also wanted to save time by figuring out how to make it using a Bundt pan that fit perfectly in my 6 quart Instant Pot. It was stunning to both eye and tongue!
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| A riff on Ba Bao Fan with 8 savory treasures, modified from Ottolenghi's Celebration Sticky Rice Cake |
Interestingly, I learned that "Bundt" itself was a word invented by Dave Dalquist by adding a "t" to part of the German word bundkuchen. Although Google translate suggests it might mean anything from a Federation of Cakes to just a bunch of cakes, the Norway House website states that bundkuchen means "a cake for a gathering." So perfect for a lunar New Year celebration... albeit by Zoom for 2021
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| Pork-cabbage and red cabbage-carrot filled dumplings waiting to be cooked |
So when it came time to plan the finale for our 2022 Dumpling Club party to ring in the Year of the Tiger (now that everyone is vaccinated and boosted), I decided to try making a more traditional, sweet Ba Bao Fan 八寶飯 in a Bundt pan for extra pizzazz.
When the weather turns cool, nothing is more satisfying than a nice bowl of chili. And a chili bar certainly makes for stress-free entertaining, accommodating vegan, carnivore and everyone in between! These four chili recipes -- chipotle black bean chili, white bean chicken chili, chipotle red and white chili with sausage, and a hearty vegetarian chili -- have become our go-to recipes over the decades They are simple, wholesome, delicious and adaptable.
2 1/2 cups dried kidney beans, soaked overnight in 2-3" of water to cover
Three of the four chili recipes below utilize canned beans as a shortcut. The fourth was the very first chili we tried making, and perhaps the most popular. With an Instant Pot, the whole world of interesting beans becomes available. We enjoy heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo, and have made most of the quick chilis also using dried beans. During the summer, feel free to add in any fresh peppers that you find!
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| A riff on Chipotle Black Bean Chili with fresh garden fennel fronds and pickled peppers |
Toppings for chili are limited only by your imagination. Some of our favorites include:
•shredded cheese (sharp cheddar, jack, crumbled cojita)
•scallions
•cilantro
•avocado
•lime juice
•cooked chopped bacon
•chopped red or yellow onion
•Sriracha sauce
•Cholula sauce
•Sarasota Heat hot sauce
•Texas Pete hot sauce
•tortilla chips
•plain Greek yogurt or sour cream (optional: mix in a tsp of lime juice or ranch seasoning to taste)
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| Chipotle Red and White Chili with sausage and toppings |
Vegetable Chili (Vegan except for optional toppings)
The chopped vegetables in this chili make for such hearty bites that no one ever notices that it is vegetarian, and it usually disappears first. If no one has dietary restrictions, we usually do not label it. More recently, we have noticed that if we do label it to accommodate our vegan friends, then some people do not let themselves have the chance to enjoy it. What a strange phenomenon.
Dried kidney beans are the base for this chili, but I recently made it with a blend of pinto beans and kidney beans to a nice visual effect. The array of vegetables was inspired by the Vegetarian Chili in Chili Madness by Jane Butel, but I use a different method of thickening the chili and a different set of seasonings.
Shortcut to the printable Love2Chow recipe.
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| Vegetable Chili using dried kidney and pinto beans |
Love2Chow Vegetable Chili
2 1/2 cups dried kidney beans, soaked overnight in 2-3" of water to cover
2 Tbs olive oil
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs Penzey's Chili 9000
2 Tbs Penzey's Medium Hot Chili Powder
2 tsp salt (adjust down if using chili powder with salt in it)
Optional, crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Up to 1 small can tomato paste
1 1/2 green or yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
Toppings (see above, or step 4 for suggestions)
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| Soaking half a pound each of dried red kidney and pinto beans |
1. In the morning, add more water to beans if necessary to keep them submerged. Test for softness. Drain and rinse when just tender, or they will start to fall apart during cooking. Transfer to a large, heavy saucepan with water to cover. Bring to boil over high head, then lower heat and continue boiling the beans, partially covered, until tender, about 1 h. Watch the water level carefully and add to keep beans in liquid.
OR add unsoaked beans to Instant Pot with 1 inch of water to cover. Cook at high pressure for 30 min in an Instant Pot, let sit for 20 min for natural release. (Cook 20 min if soaked overnight).
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| Mise on place for Vegetable Chili |
2. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onions and garlic until translucent. Add celery, carrots, tomatoes, lemon juice, and all the spices. Cook, covered, until the vegetables are nearly tender, about 10-15 min. Add the bell peppers and cook another 10 min.
3. Add the beans and the water in which they cooked. Stir thoroughly and simmer for 30 min over low heat, adding tablespoons of either tomato paste or water as necessary to achieve desired texture, stirring to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pot.
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| This batch of Vegetable Chili was a bit soupier due to use of Instant Pot. Next time will use less water in Instant Pot, or reserve the cooking water and not add it all to the chili. |
4. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with tortilla chips, chopped red onion, chopped scallions, avodaco slices, and lime to keep it vegan; add shredded cheddar and jack cheeses, plain yogurt spiked with lime juice or ranch seasoning for vegetarians. Add crumbled bacon or cooked sausage for the carnivores.
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| Vegetarian chili using red kidney and yellow-eyed beans from Rancho Gordo. |
The next three chili recipes were modified from Superfast Suppers by Cooking Light magazine, which was published in 2002. I almost always substitute fresh garlic or onions, and it is pretty easy to use dried beans if you have time. See Love2Chow tips, below.
Chipotle Red & White Bean Chili Omit sausage for vegan.
This is one of my favorite quick chili recipes. It looks pretty, tastes great, and is simple to make. While it calls for crumbled sweet Italian sausage, I have also made it as a vegetarian chili. I had some fresh poblano chiles, cubanelle chiles and carrots from a friend's garden, which I added in with the the bell peppers, and served it with optional sausage on the side for toppings.
Shortcut to the printable recipe.
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| Chipotle Red & White Bean Chili with sausage |
Chipotle Red & White Bean Chili. Serves 4, total time 20 min.
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 pound pork sausage (sweet Italian)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1-2 Tbs. Penzey's Bold Taco seasoning or 1 Tbs each Bold Taco (has salt) and Penzey's 9000 (no salt)
1 (14.5 oz) can Mexican style diced tomatoes, drained
1 (8 oz) can no-salt added tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can no salt added red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (19 oz) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, chopped, plus 2 tsp adobe sauce from can
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Toppings (see above, or step 4 for suggestions)
1. Cook onion, sausage and peppers, Drain and return to pan.
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| Sauteeing orange pepper and poblano chiles (instead of green) for this batch. |
2. Add seasoning, tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney beans, cannellini beans, and chipotle peppers
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| Our favorite seasonings for this chili |
3. Bring to boil, cover and simmer at least 5 min.
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| Chipotle Red & White Chili right after mixing in beans |
4. Serve with fresh cilantro, and optional corn bread, avocado, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
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| Chipotle Red & White Chili with toppings |
White Bean Chicken Chili
This is my husband's favorite chili to make and eat. Part of the beans are pureed to thicken this delightful creamy chili.
Shortcut to the printable recipe
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| White Bean Chicken Chili |
White Bean Chicken Chili.
1 tsp olive oil
1 red onion (~150 g), chopped (~ 1 cup)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 (15.5 oz) cans cannellini beans - do NOT drain
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup of no salt added chicken broth
1.5 tsp Penzey's Arizona Dreaming seasoning (or other salt-free Mexican seasoning)
1 cup (4 oz w) shredded pepper jack cheese
~1/4 tsp salt, to taste
1. Saute onion and garlic in hot oil in Dutch oven until translucent.
2. Mash one can of beans with a fork. Add both mashed and unmashed beans with their water and the next three ingredients to the pot. Bring to a booil and simmer 15-20 min.
3. Add cheese, stirring constantly, until melted. Salt to taste.
4. Serve with chopped fresh cilantro, chopped green onions, plain yogurt, salsa, or crushed tortilla chips.
Chipotle Black Bean Chili (Vegan except for optional toppings)
This is my husband's favorite chili to make and eat. Part of the beans are pureed to thicken this delightful creamy chili.
Shortcut to the printable recipe.
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| Chipotle Black Bean Chili |
Chipotle Black Bean Chili (makes 6 2-cup servings).
2 tsp olive oil
10 oz (w) chopped onion
3 Tbs minced garlic
3 Tbs chili powder (Penzey's medium hot chili powder is salt-free)
2 canned chipotle chiles, minced, plus 1-2 Tbs. adobo sauce
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt or more to taste
4 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (or 2 cups dried, precooked)
4 (14.5 oz) cans no salt added diced tomatoes with juice
1 (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chiles with juice
Toppings (See below)
Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender about 2 min. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 min, stirring occasionally.
OR transfer sauteed onion and garlic to slow cooker, add remaining ingredients and slow cook for at least an hour. It can be kept warm and served out of the slow cooker.
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| A double recipe of black bean chili in slow cooker |
Serve with toppings of choice (shredded cheddar, cilantro, scallions, onions, bacon bits, tortilla chips, hot sauce)
Freeze leftovers in 1 or 2 cup portions. As mentioned in Superfast Suppers, this can be used as a hamburger topper, or be incorporated into enchilada casseroles, turkey chili mac, chili pie with zucchini and corn under corn bread mix.
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| A triple recipe of Chipotle Black Bean Chili with toppings bar |
🐾 For each 15 oz can of beans, I usually get about 1.3-1.5 cups of drained beans. Since dry beans swell about 3x, substitute 1/2 cup of dry for each 15 oz can. Or just make a bit of extra and measure out the beans after they are cooked.
🐾 Freeze cubed leftover chicken or turkey in 1 cup portions, to be pulled out when you feel like chicken chili.
🍃 When you open a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, be sure to freeze the extra peppers in an ice cube tray, with the sauce spooned on top. They usually thaw pretty quickly for chopping, or puree the whole thing and freeze tablespoons that can be added directly to the chili.
DID YOU TRY ANY OF THESE RECIPES? What is your favorite homemade chili?
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Long before I discovered the secrets to making dan dan noodles, lo mein or drunken noodles, I had clipped a recipe for Spicy Szechuan Noodles from a local neighborhood newspaper. This simple, but flexible and pleasing dish has been a family favorite since 2002. The kids call it Peanut Butter Noodles and it is fantastic served simply or with optional toppings. As it tastes equally good hot or at room temperature, a big bowl of these noodles disappears rapidly on the potluck or buffet table.
As my children were growing up, there have been a few one-pot dishes that stand out as favorites -- both for flavor and ease of preparation. The first are these scrumptious noodles coated with a light, peanut butter-sesame oil sauce, using ingredients readily found in our grocery store. The recipe for Spicy Szechuan Noodles by Chef Kelly was clipped from the North Journal Star in 2002, and modified for ease of preparation and to accommodate both a child that loves and a child that feared spicy foods.
Over the years, this dish has been a favorite with classmates and neighbors alike. Due to its make ahead nature, it frequently graced potluck tables at school picnics and neighborhood gatherings. Whether made as a double or triple batch, it always disappeared rapidly.
We have enjoyed this dish using a variety of noodles. It it fantastic with semolina or whole wheat spaghetti as well as dried Chinese noodles by Quon Yick Noodle in California, or fresh lo mein noodles. I have even made it using 1 and a half spaghetti squashes (roasted for 35-40 min in a 350°F convection oven).
While the original recipe included shredded chicken and toasted cashews, I have also served it with thin strips of ham and julienned cucumber or carrots. As time went on, we found ourselves eating the saucy noodles simply with some scallions on top.
We use bottled Szechuan sauce by Kame or Dynasty, which are carried in the Asian section of our local grocery store. However, I have included the original recipe at the bottom of this post should you wish to make your own chili sauce.
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When my son became a teenager, he started making the dish when he got home from school. He noted that since he liked things extra saucy, he was deliberately sloppy with the measurements to add a bit more of everything. It was glorious to come home from a long day of work to find dinner waiting for me and my husband. Even my daughter, who has now grown to enjoy moderately spicy foods, told me that she liked my son's version better.
So he became the Peanut Butter noodle chef. I recently realized that we have not enjoyed these noodles much since he graduated high school. Instead, we occasionally enjoyed coming home to Tortellini with Smoked Salmon in a butter-cream-dill sauce, my daughter's favorite dish.
This week, I asked my husband to make the base noodle recipe, while I prepared toppings of shredded carrot, spicy stinky tofu and some miso-maple-glazed Chinese eggplant on the side for a vegan meal.
Love2Chow Peanut Butter Noodles (Spicy Szechuan Noodles) Serves 4.
Ingredients
8-10 oz dry spaghetti or Quon Yick noodles
Sauce
3 Tbs smooth peanut butter (Optional. See Note)
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs vinegar
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs sherry or rice wine
1 Tbs water
*1 Tbs Szechuan Sauce (or make your own)
1 tsp sugar
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 scallions, chopped
2 Tbs chopped cilantro (optional)
Optional toppings
6 oz (w) cooked chicken or ham, shredded or sliced
Cucumber, peeled and sliced into thin sticks
Shredded carrot
Wilted spinach
Thin slices of dry tofu or spicy tofu
Toasted sesame seeds, white or black
Black pepper or toasted Szechuan peppercorns to taste
1. Boil water and cook noodles per package directions
2. In a large bowl, mix the sauce ingredients from peanut butter to sugar until smooth. Stir in remaining sauce ingredients.
(If you are cooking for someone that is sensitive to spicy or strong flavors, hold off on adding the ingredients with asterisks.)
3. Drain hot noodles and immediately stir into the sauce.
(Remove the serving for the person that dislikes spicy foods, and then stir in the asterisked ingredients).
4. You can either serve the toppings on the side, or mix them right in.
Note: If you dislike peanut butter, the rest of the sauce ingredients are also delicious without it. The more traditional Chinese dish that this is based on uses Chinese sesame paste. You can use any combination of peanut butter, sesame paste or tahini, as long as the total is around 3-4 Tbs. Adjust thickness of sauce with water if necessary.
🐾 Note: If you dislike peanut butter, the rest of the sauce ingredients are also delicious without it. The traditional Chinese dish that this is based on uses Chinese sesame paste instead of peanut butter. You can use any combination of peanut butter, sesame paste or tahini, although we find including some peanut butter improves the texture. Adjust sauce thickness with water, if necessary.
DID YOU TRY THIS RECIPE?
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Tag @love2chowblog and hashtag it #love2chow
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All Rights Reserved. Contact admin@love2chow.com for permissions.
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Crisp and smooth on the outside, spring rolls have always been one of my favorite dim sum. Whether in the form of Chinese 春捲 chun juan or Filipino lumpia, these elongated elegant packets are truly addictive. But for decades, I was afraid to try making them at home. No longer. Now that I have discovered how easy it is to make spring roll wrappers, all barriers have been removed. These homemade spring rolls are delicious whether they are deep-fried, air-fried or not fried at all!
Happy Chinese New Year 新年快樂! This Spring Festival 春節, which celebrates the arrival of the new lunar year, will be celebrated with fresh, homemade spring rolls for the first time, thanks in part to culinary explorations during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
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| A wok-fried vegetarian spring roll with homemade wrapper. Filling recipe from The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young: the Sept. 2020 Wok Wednesday recipe of the month. |
Although there are other elongated, wrapped appetizers that may be confused with spring rolls, once you have bitten into the light, shatteringly crisp wrapper surrounding a flavor-packed julienned filling there is no going back. Spring roll is the literal translation of 春捲 chūn juǎn, the Chinese name for these delectable finger foods. Among my earliest memories of visiting the Los Angeles Chinatown is walking around to the side door of the Hong Kong restaurant, which served dim sum on weekends, to get a tray of take out spring rolls. These dainty, crisp and evenly browned packets did not feel greasy to the touch and were filled with finely julienned fragments of pork, black winter mushrooms and bamboo shoots.
The spring rolls of which I speak are not the same as egg rolls. Spring rolls and lumpia have a crispy, dainty appearance, and a crackling noise is required when you bite into these smooth cylinders. The addition of egg in the wrapper results in the slightly chewier, textured surface of egg rolls, and these are often wrapped fatter that the sleek spring roll. Both of these flour-based wrappers act to lovingly cradle a cooked filling that typically contains a mixture of vegetables and, optionally, pork or shrimp, although the Filipino filling is mostly ground pork and beef. There is also a type of Vietnamese rolled appetizer (gỏi cuốn, literally "salad rolls") that is often called a fresh spring roll or a summer roll. These are great for the summer because they are made using translucent rice paper wrappers briefly rehydrated in water, and typically contain lots of fresh, uncooked herbs for a cooling sensation.
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| Left: Spring rolls from Spicies in Cambridge, MA; Upper right: Huge egg roll from the Moonlight Express food truck in the Pittsburgh Strip District. Lower right: Homemade summer rolls or goi cuon. |
Recipes from Seventeen magazine and Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen.
I loved spring rolls so much that I clipped a recipe from the April 1976 issue of Seventeen. This magazine had a section called "Now You're Cooking" that featured delicious and approachable recipes from all over the world. But it would take another 44 years, and a global coronavirus pandemic, before I worked up the courage to try making my own spring roll wrappers from scratch.In addition to the Seventeen recipe, I have included at the bottom of this post a lumpia recipe from a fellow Banning High student that I have kept with me for decades in remembrance of the most amazing multicultural classroom potluck parties. In 2020, I found myself consulting some online resources, and discovered that it was much easier than I had thought to make homemade spring roll wrappers.
The batter is quickly brushed on a moderately low pan. When the wrapper changes color and starts to curl from the edge of the pan, the lifting edge can be used to pull the entire pancake off of the non-stick pan. I did later try this in my wok, which is generally non-stick, but found that parts of the pancake cooked too quickly as the wok does not provide uniform heat across its bottom.
Here is a movie from the first time I made these, showing how the appearance changes as it cooks and the edges curl from the pan.
I used the bbq pork-based spring roll filling recipe from Grace Young's Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen cookbook, omitting the ingredients I did not have as we were under lockdown.
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| Deep fried spring rolls with Chinese bbq pork and pickled chive blossoms. Filling recipe from Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young, homemade wrapper recipe from Seventeen. June 2020. |
As the weather warms up, there is nothing more satisfying than grilling burgers to be served with a variety of grilled, pickled or fresh vegetables. Years ago, I started making a cheese and bacon stuffed burger, which became the only burger my kids liked to eat. Efforts to create vegetarian burgers typically resulted in tasty, but fragile patties that squished out from between the buns. Inspired by Green Burgers by Martin Nordin and the minimalistbaker.com website, yet lacking ingredients due to the pandemic lockdown, I created a delicious bbq veggie burger -- hardy enough to grill alongside my traditional stuffed hamburgers.
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| Beef burger stuffed with bacon and white cheddar |
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| Veggie walnut-brown rice-pea burger, topped with mushroom crisps, greens and flowering chives |
Jump to the Stuffed Beef Burger Recipe.
Jump to the Walnut-Rice-Pea Burger Recipe.Jump to gallery of Favorite Restaurant BurgersJump to Exploring Vegetarian Burgers
Easy Burgers for Home or Camping
What can be more classic than a burger with lettuce, tomato and onion? Yet, hamburgers were not a major part of my childhood. Even on the rare trips to McDonald's, my parents favored Filet-O-Fish® sandwiches paired with the iconic thin-cut tallow french fries that, sadly, no longer exist. It was not until a beach camping trip on Hammocks Beach State Park with friends that I learned how to make my first burger. The ground beef was simply seasoned with a pack of Lipton's Onion Soup and Dip mix, and placed on the grill with cheddar cheese melted on top. Sublime... with the ocean breeze, white sandy dunes and soothing rhythm of the waves.
Bacon-Cheese Stuffed Beef Burgers
Years later, when my son was 10 and my daughter was 5, I started making a cheese and bacon stuffed burger, which became the only burger my kids liked to eat. I got the general idea from a Williams-Sonoma recipe card for Burgers Stuffed with Blue Cheese and Bacon, which involved fussy onion caramelization, excess salt and proprietary seasonings, all of which I omitted.
The procedure involves forming balls out of the meat. Like making a clay pinch-pot, push into the ball with your thumbs and pinch out the sides to make a cavity large enough to hold the bacon and cheese. Pull the edges together and pinch closed around the filling.
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