Spicy Szechuan Green Beans

Ingredients:
1 dish of green bean, tip trimmed
¼ pound ground beef
Minced garlic, ginger, shallot (2-3 table spoon total)
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
Chinese dried shrimp (soaked)

Seasoning:

Cooking oil
Xiao-shing wine
Dark soy sauce
Ground black pepper
Sugar
Sesame oil

Preparation:

Deep fry green beans on high heat until slightly golden colour, drain and set aside.

Add oil to wok and heat wok over high heat. Sauté garlic, ginger, shallot, jalapeno pepper and Chinese dried shrimp.

Add ground beef and sauté until brown.

Add green beans.

Add Xiao-shing wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, and ground black pepper, stir fry until mixed.

Add sesame oil to taste.

Cooking for a Crowd Meme.

Actually it's been a long time since I cooked.
I am still not settled in my new job, new place.
The first House I rented turned out to be quite a Disaster.
Nosy Neighbour! Actually a Shrew.
She even hears the sound of my flush and complained, 3rd day into the house.
She don't like guests either.
And she is very 100 happy.
The last tenant left because she used to dial 100 too often.
Calls up the police for every damn thing, and girls cannot visit my Pad.

I can't stay in a such a place...
I have decided to move into a new place, and I will move on 30th.
I have stalled my shopping till then, and my kitchen is not yet fully Functional.
So my dinners have been quite random!
Leave alone time for Bachelor Cooking.

This is the first time I ever Ignored Bachelor Cooking so long.
And add to it the fact that I have moved to a new location.
I still have lots to do to tweak my new blog.
I have to reload all the photographs...
So Till then, I thought I shall update here.

A few more days and I shall be doing a lot of new postings.
My parents are coming and many Manipuri goodies are on its way.
We shall have many authentic Manipuri dishes too...

In the Meanwhile, why not play a Meme?
The Cooking for a Crowd Meme
When was the last time you had cooked for a crowd?

The rule of the meme.
1) Write when was the last time you cooked for a Crowd. The exact date is not required.
Just describe the adventure of cooking for so many people, what you cooked.
How it turned out to be?

2) Tag on the meme to 5 other Food Bloggers.

Enjoy!

Hey but when was it that I cooked for a crowd?
I love having guests at my home and the more the merrier.
And I can cook Alone, I don't mind as long as you don't come in my way!
But you can peel the potatoes (But don't CUT! I have my own measurements)
Peel the Onions, and the Garlic..
Oh you may crush the Ginger and Garlic.
Even the Spices..
Oh I love fresh ground Spices and Freshly crushed Ginger-garlic for my Recipes, specially when I am cooking for guests..

The one adventurous "cooking for a crowd" was when I was in Kolkata.
I had asked some friends to come over.
About 10 of them?


And, I was late. From work!
Just as I came back from shopping the fish and meat and started in the kitchen, people started rushing in.
It was 9 already!

But it was the most memorable dinner, the new year Bar-B-Qs not withstanding!

I was suppose to be tired, but cooking has this magic.. It sure has, and can be a great destresser..

I was sweating in the Kolkata Heat, and I cooked...

My friend kept pouring the scotch... I like my drinks when I am doing big dinners.
I cooked a Pork Dish, a Chicken Dish, Peas and Fish Roe (fish eggs) and a fish Curry, Like I always do.

It usually is a nightmare for vegetarians, unless it is a vegeterian lunch!!
Now that was a memorable Dinner. Somewhere in 2005....
My friends still remember my dinners...
And how pleased I get when people enjoy the same!

I usually don't eat much after such cooking sessions..
I Just watch!!

May I tag

-(Kalyn)
-SaffronHut
-Nandita
-Mandira
-Shaheen
- Revathi

And all my readers, you may consider yourself tagged if you have had adventures cooking for a crowd. I will follow up this Post with tips to cook for a crowd, or rather what I do to simplify cooking a lot of preoparations quickly.
Of course I will link back to all the posts on Cooking for a Crowd.

It's Blueberry Time Again!

Strawberries have pretty much wound down for the season but fortunately that means it's time for blueberries. It's a little bit early in the season around here, but our local blueberry farm was teeming with ripe berries on many of their bushes. The big fat ones were less abundant, but they had plenty of the smaller variety. Last year we picked about 16 pounds in two trips. This year we took DH along and he had a 5 gallon bucket. Apparently he felt he needed to try and fill this 5 gallon bucket - by the time I convinced him that we had enough, we were up to 23 pounds of blueberries!

Needless to say, it's been blueberry week at our house. So far we have made a couple of favorites from last year - Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake and Blueberry Ice Cream. This time the blueberry ice cream was even more luscious since I was able to use local eggs and rich cream from a local dairy farm - yum.

We've also tried two new recipes...one for a blueberry banana muffin that I'll share later and one for this fabulous Blueberry Galette. While searching for a recipe, I discovered that there are many incarnations of a galette, some using a puff pastry crust, some using a yeasted dough, but to me, a galette has always been basically a free-form pie. I have always been attracted to the rustic look of a galette - it just seemed much less intimidating and fussy than a more structured pie.

Blueberry Galette

I didn't look too long to find a recipe over at I Shot the Chef, but in my internet travels I did notice that more than one recipe called for cornmeal in the crust. I wasn't sure if I'd be pleased with the texture of the cornmeal but I wanted to try it.

The crust went together very easily - just a few pulses of all your ingredients in the food processor and then the addition of the cream and ice water until the dough begins to come together and you're done. The dough gets a 2 hour chill (or can be done the day before) before getting rolled out into a 12-inch circle. The dough was quite easy to work with and was not overly sticky.

Next, a mixture of blueberries and sugar is piled in the middle of the dough, leaving a 2-3 inch border. The blueberries get topped with bits of butter and then the dough is folded up around them - very, very simple to do. A quick brushing of cream and sprinkling of sugar and it's ready to hit the oven.

The crust ended up being delicious - flaky and slightly sweet, with just a little extra texture from the cornmeal without feeling unpleasantly grainy as I feared might be the case. The sprinkling of sugar also gives an added crunch as well as nice sparkle. The filling only oozed a tiny bit in one spot where the crust must have been rolled a bit too thin and was not at all runny when we cut the galette to serve - unlike many of the berry pies I've tried in the past. We topped the galette off with a bit of homemade whipped cream using luscious, rich cream from a local dairy as an added treat.

This is my first time making a galette, but I can assure you it won't be my last. Very simple and unfussy, yet it looks elegant and tastes delicious. What's not to like?

Garlic Scapes

Happy July 4th! Looks like this week got away from me, but today is pretty quiet, so I'll sneak in a quick post.

Until this year, I had never heard of garlic scapes and then suddenly they were everywhere - a post over on the CLBB and a lot of pictures on Food Gawker. I even saw them at my local farmer's market, but skipped them over since I really didn't know what to do with them. Finally I saw a recipe for Garlic Scape Pesto and decided that I had to try them.

For those of you not familiar with scapes, according to the Really Garlicky Company:

Hardneck garlic developes an impressive flowering stalk, called a scape, which can grow from 24 to 48 inches in height. At the top is the "seed" pod, more properly called the umbel, which contains the flowers and bulbils. The umbel pod is covered in by the spathe, which often has a pronounced beak. Some garlic varieties give improved yields if the scape is cut before umbel development. The scapes on Rocamboles form beautiful circular curls. These are prized by floral arrangers in some countries, especially Japan.

After buying them, I was quite sure which part of the scape to use - all of it or just the portion below the pod. After reading on the internet, I decided to use only the portion below the pod, but I have since seen a few photos showing cooks using the entire scape. Using the whole scape might make more sense if you were leaving the scape intact for effect rather than cutting them up for something like pesto. I also thought my pods were quite a bit larger than most of those I had seen pictured and wasn't sure if this might create and undesirable texture or flavor.

Garlic Scape Pesto

I tried a bit of scape before tossing it into the food processor to make the pesto and I was surprised with how garlicky it was after most of what I ready described scapes as being much milder than a regular garlic clove. They are definitely milder - had a I used a similar amount of garlic in this pesto, it would have been overpowering - but they had more bite than I was expecting.

This recipe is a pretty basic pesto but it does not use as much basil as my go-to basil pesto and it includes a bit of chardonnay which added a nice zing to the pesto. In place of the lemon olive oil, I used extra-virgin olive oil and a bit of lemon zest. We'll be using this pesto on paninis this weekend.

I imagine that scapes are probably out of season by now, but the next time I happen to spot them at the farmer's market, I'll grab a few and try them as is - in a saute or on a pizza - rather than chopping them to bits in something like a pesto. It's always fun to try something new!

Still chilly where you are?

Warm up with this excellent soup!

I realize that some of you in the southern climes have already transitioned into summer, but here in Central PA, May can still bring some pretty chilly weather. Even if it's a bit warmer where you are this soup is brothy and light, not heavy like stew.

This noodle bowl is from Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats and really does cook up in 30 minutes or less, something that I usually have a hard time doing with many of her recipes. Not only is it easy, but it is packed with flavor, making you feel as if you are eating at a good Asian restaurant.

Spicy Shrimp and Bok Choy Noodle Bowl

Once you are finished chopping the bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, garlic and scallions, the rest of the recipe goes very quickly and is ready in a snap. The first time I made this it was very good, but I thought it could use a bit more broth. I have played around with the proportions a bit but haven't quite hit the perfect balance. I think that all it really needs is a bit more broth (1 or 2 cups more?) along with a proportionate amount of garlic and ginger to make sure that the flavors are not overly diluted.

I definitely recommend using shiitakes - they account for a large part of the flavor of this soup - something like a regular button mushroom wouldn't be nearly as good. I used baby bok choy the first time - 3 small heads - and it was very good (though regular bok choy works well too) and would make that substitution any time I'm able to find the baby variety.

With protein (shrimp), starch (noodles) vegetables (bok choy and scallions) and even fungi (shiitakes), this soup makes a pretty complete meal in one. Just one note on the noodles - I tried it with chinese-style wheat noodles which worked out very nicely. I wanted to try it with soba noodles but could not find any and tried whole wheat spaghetti noodles instead. The whole wheat noodles seemed to get a bit mushier than the chinese noodles did, so I don't think I'd try that again.

Fast, easy and delicious!

Green Dumplings

8 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds bok choy or Shanghai bok choy
1/2 cake firm tofu
2 egg whites
4 scallions, minced
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 dozen wonton wrappers

Preparation:
Steam or microwave bok choy until wilted. Let cool, then drain and chop finely. Press out any excess liquid.

In a food processor, puree tofu with the egg whites. Add to bok choy. Add scallions.

Combine remaining ingredients, except for wonton wrappers.

Add to bok choy mixture, mixing well. Place about two teaspoons of filling in the centre of each wonton wrapper. Draw dough up and pinch together at three points to form a triangle, leaving middle of filling exposed.

Arrange on a heatproof plate or steamer tray and steam over boiling water until cooked through, about 4 minutes.

Best when served with chinese green tea.

Crab Rangoon

10 servings

Ingredients:
1 quart oil for frying
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons green onion, chopped
1 (6 ounce) can crab meat, drained
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 (14 ounce) package small won ton wrappers

Preparation:
Heat oil for frying in deep-fryer or large, heavy saucepan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onion, and saute for 2 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine crab, cream cheese, soy sauce and sauteed onion & garlic. Drop mixture by 3/4 teaspoon into the center of a won ton wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half to make a triangle. Seal the wrapper around the mixture by wetting your finger with cold water and pressing the ends together.

In batches, fry the dumplings in the prepared oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels