Soft Ginger Cookies

These cookies are the reason I keep a jar of molassas in our cupboard. These may very well be my favorite cookies: not too sweet, soft, chewy, fragrant - YUM!

I like to substitute orange juice for the 1 tbsp water; it amps up the ginger flavor.
From Allrecipes.com, courtesy of Amy Sacha


INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Green Onion Cakes

Cakes is not the right descriptor. When I think cake, I think sweet, dense, dessert. Pancake doesn't work either. This isn't soft and spongy and flavorless. Bread makes you think thick and soft. No, these are savory panfried circles of goodness. My mom makes a quick version of these with tortillas. These are more time consuming, but oh, they're so good! Especially when they're just off the pan, and you pull off hot flaky pieces and try not to burn your fingers. Who knew the simple flavors of salt and green onion and sesame oil could unite to create such happiness on your tongue? Be careful though... it's really hard to stop eating these.

This dipping sauce is good, and it would taste great on potstickers and dumplings as well. The green onion cakes are just fine without the sauce as well.


From Martin Yan's Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook
I've been on the lookout for a good uncomplicated Chinese cookbook, with the fresh flavors I like as a Californian. I bought this book used off Amazon after trying this recipe, and I haven't had a single dud from the other recipes I've tried.

Green Onion Cakes

Makes 12

These unleavened fried breads are thin and flat, crisp outside, moist and chewy inside, and bursting with onion flavor. I like to serve them the traditional way, as street vendors in Beijing do: sliced into wedges and eaten out of hand, plain or with a spicy chili-garlic dipping sauce.

3-1/3 cups flour
1-1/4 cups boiling water

Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauc
2 teaspoons chopped green onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili sauce

1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
or cooking oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 cup chopped green onions
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Cooking oil

Getting Ready

Place flour in a bowl. Add boiling water, stirring with chopsticks or a fork until dough is evenly moistened. On a lightly floured board, knead dough until smooth and satiny, about 5 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Combine dipping sauce ingredients in a bowl.

On a lightly floured board, roll dough into a cylinder; cut into 12 equal portions.

Make each cake:
Roll a portion of dough into an 8-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick; keep remaining dough covered to prevent drying. Brush with a thin film of shortening. Sprinkle with a small portion of sesame oil, green onions, salt, and pepper. Roll dough into a cylinder and coil dough into a round patty; tuck end of dough underneath. Roll again to make an 8-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.

Cooking

Place a wide frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add 2 tablespoons cooking oil, swirling to coat sides. Add 1 cake and cook, turning once, until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining cakes, adding more cooking oil as needed.

Cut cakes into wedges. Serve hot with dipping sauce.

A running list of the things I want to learn how to cook

• Shanghai Buns - soup in a bun!
  
• Potstickers from scratch
  
• Fried Lo Bo Gao (Turnip/Daikon Cakes)
• Lemon Chicken
• Cream of Corn Fish (a favorite of my grandmother's and mine at Sam Woo's)
• Chinese Sponge Cake (like the one Nai Nai used to make)
• Man To: those soft white buns that Nai Nai would have steaming over the stove
• Red in Snow cabbbage and pork noodle soup
  
• Honey Walnut Prawns (our all-time favorite Chinese restaurant standby)
• Saw Bing: the flat sesame studded pancakes that we stuffed with Pork Sung and Chinese Cruellers
• Taiwanese Shaved Ice
• Watermelon Tapioca soup
• Clay pot casseroles, the ones that always have napa cabbage stuffed in the bottom in wonderful broth
• chiffon cake: you know those fabulous light soft and silky cakes you can get wrapped in wax paper at Chinese bakeries? Yup. This is them. This is it. This they are. Whatever.
  

Fun with the Rice Cooker

So one of reasons rice cookers are so cool is because they can do more than just cook rice. I've seen my mom and grandmother steam egg, fish, bread, cake, make porridge - all with the press of one button! It is, if you will, the Asian slow-cooker. Anyhow, this is one of my favorite quick dinners (if Chinese food can be called quick). The chicken and shittake and sausage marry well, and the sauce seeps into the rice as it steams. For the chinese sausage, I like the brand that comes with the dark red and gold label. I pick the long skinny ones without visible globs of fat. I'm afraid I still haven't gotten over my distaste for eating solid fat.

This makes quite a bit, so Adam and I have frozen portions of this in the freezer pretty successfuly. When you thaw a portion and then heat it on a nonstick pan so the rice gets nice and crunchy (my sister and I were always big fans of crunchy), it's wonderful.

I like to accompany this with some sort of green veggie - like broccoli or bok choy lightly steamed and then sauteed with oyster sauce, a dash of chili garlic sauce, and some chicken broth.


From culinate.com, courtesy of Christina Eng

Chicken with Chinese Sausage, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Rice
From the Christina Eng collection
Serves 6 to 8

Introduction
Although my mother used a rice cooker for this dish — as I do now — it can also be made in a large pot on the stovetop. When the rice comes to a slight boil, add the chicken mixture, turn down the heat and cover. Cook until the rice is fluffy and the water has been absorbed.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. rice wine
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
1 Tbsp. garlic salt
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
~
Pinch of white pepper
1 chicken (a 3-pound bird, chopped into bite-sized pieces) or 5½ lbs. boneless chicken meat
2 slices ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
3 Chinese sausages, sliced diagonally into bite-sized pieces
6 large dried shiitake mushrooms, re-hydrated, drained, and sliced
3 cups medium- or long-grain rice
~
Pinch of salt

Steps

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, oyster sauce, rice wine, sugar, soy sauce, garlic salt, sesame oil, and white pepper.

Add the chicken, tossing to coat. Marinate at least 15 minutes.

Heat a wok or deep-frying pan over high heat. Add the ginger slices and garlic cloves and stir-fry briefly to season the wok. Remove.
Stir-fry the chicken, sausage, and mushrooms briefly; the mixture should be just partially cooked. Set aside.

Rinse the rice and place in a rice cooker. Add about 6 cups of water, or as indicated by the electric cooker. Season the rice with a pinch of salt.

When the rice comes to a slight boil, add the chicken mixture into the cooker. Continue to cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until rice is done.

Notes

For the Chinese sausage, I like to use the Kam Yen Jan brand. It comes in vacuum-packed 16-ounce packages; it’s available at Asian markets and, occasionally, at supermarkets, shelved alongside the tofu.

This content is from the Christina Eng collection.
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