Recipes from my previous posts

I'm not sure why I didn't include these to begin with but will try to do better in the future. Here are the recipes I used for the yummies I posted earlier.

Black and White Cookies
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Frosting:
4 cups Confectioners sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 ounce bitter or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 2 baking sheets, set aside.
In a large bowl combine the sugar and butter, mix until fluffy. Add the eggs, milk, and extracts. Mix until smooth.
In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add slowly to the egg mixture. Stir well to combine.
Using a large soup spoon, drop spoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on the prepared cooking sheets. Bake about 20-25 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Place on cooling racks to completely cool.
To make the frosting: Place the Confectioners sugar in a large bowl. Gradually add the boiling water a little bit at a time until the mixture is thick and spreadable. Remove half of the mixture and place in bowl over simmering water. When the mixture is warm, add the chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat. Brush the cookies with the white frosting on one half the chocolate on the other.


Cinnamon Raisin Bread (from Baking Bits)
1 package dry active yeast
2 1/4 cups warm water (about 105 degrees)
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
6-7 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Cup raisins
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water and 1 Tbsp. of the sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir in the remaining 1 3/4 cups warm water, 2 Tbsp. sugar, salt, butter and 3 1/2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in the raisins and enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn to coat all over, then cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until double in size (30-60 minutes).
Mix together 1/4 sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in half. Roll each half into a 9X18" rectangle. Brush each with 1 Tbsp.. water then sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Roll dough from the short side and pinch seams shut (to keep the sugar mixture from leaking out). Place into prepared pans and brush the tops with the melted butter. Cover and let rise about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When dough finishes rising, bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the pan and place on baking rack to cool.



Mapo Tofu (modified from Land of Plenty cookbook)
1 pound firm tofu
4 green onions
1/2 canola oil
6 ounces ground beef or pork
2 1/2 Tbsp. Szechuan chili bean paste*
2 tsp. ground szechuan chiles (if you want to add more heat)
1 Cup chicken stock
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. soy sauce
4 Tbsp. corn starch mixed with 6 Tbsp, cold water
1/2 tsp. ground roasted szechuan peppercorns **

Cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes and steep in very hot (lightly salted) water for about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Slice the green onions at a steep angle into 'horse ear" slices. Set aside.
Heat your wok or large saute pan (I use a saute pan) over high heat and the ground beef or pork. Stir fry until brown.
Turn the heat to medium, add the chili bean paste and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add ground chiles (if using) and stir fry for another 20-30 seconds. Pour in the chicken stock and tofu. Mix it gently so you don't break up the tofu. Combine sugar and soy sauce, add to pan. Stir gently to combine. Let simmer about 5 minutes.
Add the green onions. Gently stir in. Add the cornstarch a little at a time until the sauce thickens and clings to the tofu.
Pour into a large bowl, sprinkle with the szechuan peppercorns and serve.

* Use a bean paste that lists long beans or fava beans as the first ingredient. If you like your food insanely hot, you can use a bean paste that lists chiles as the first ingredient, but don't say I didn't warn ya. Read my post on Mapo Tofu in case you need a reminder.

** Szechuan peppercorns are not as much hot as they are numbing and add a distinct flavor to the dish. If you don't have a good Chinese market in your area, search the internet for places that sell them online. To use them, you'll want to take the required amount and place in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Roll them around just until they become fragrant. Remove from the heat and place them in a mortar and grind them up.




Pan Fried Dumplings (modified from Land of Plenty cookbook)
Dumpling wrappers: 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup boiling water Filling: 1-inch piece of ginger
1 green onion, white part only
1/3 lb. ground pork
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp. rice wine (or sake)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
6-8 twists of black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Crush the ginger and green onion and soak in 1/4 cup cold water for about 5 minutes. Drain water into a cup and set aside. Discard ginger and green onion.
Place the pork in a bowl. Add the ginger scented water and mix well until it absorbs. Gradually add the chicken stock and mix well to help it absorb. The mixture will be very loose and moist. Add the rice wine, salt, sugar, pepper and sesame oil. Mix well.

Wrappers: Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl, making a well in the center. Add the boiling water and mix quickly with a pair of chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth dough, about 5 minutes.
Break the dough into two or three pieces. Roll each one into a log about one inch thick. Cut teaspoon size pieces and set them aside (keep them covered so they don't dry out). Repeat with remaining dough.
Take each piece and flatten it. Roll it out into a circle about 2 inches in diameter. Place a generous teaspoonful of the filling into the center of the wrapper. Fold it gently in half and, starting at one end, press and seal the two sides together, making about 6 pleats as you go along. Set aside in a lightly floured surface until all the dumplings are assembled.

To cook the dumplings: Heat a heavy skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Pour enough oil in the bottom to coat the surface. When the oil is hot, arrange as many dumplings as you can in the skillet, leaving about 1/2 inch between each one. Sprinkle a little water over the dumplings, cover and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Remove the lid, drizzle them dumplings with a little oil, place the lid back on the skillet and cook an additional 2-3 minutes until the bottoms are nicely browned and crispy. To serve, remove them with a spatula and place on their sides on a plate. Serve with a little soy sauce for dipping.

Tofu is good? Why yes, yes it is!

Last night we made Mapo Tofu. If you had told me ten years ago that I'd be craving this dish, I'd tell you that you were crazy. But that isn't the only thing I've discovered that I like. Biscuit Boy and I have introduced each other to foods we'd never tried before. I introduced him to foods from my family's NY roots, bagles, egg on roll, bialy's...... My family lived in NY until I was a teenager when we moved to TN, so I had years of eating southern foods before I met Biscuit Boy who is a true Southerner. Born and raise in TN. Although there wasn't much in the Southern Food realm that he could introduce me to, he did make me sushi on our third date. When he told me that 's what he was making, the first thought ran through my head was, "What ever you do, don't gag." I had never tried sushi before, nor had the desire to. Raw fish? Ick! Well......wasn't I surprised when I tentatively bit into the tuna and rice! I didn't gag, in fact I think I made some sort of nummy sound. Needless to say, we ate all the sushi he prepared. A short time after that date, we took my nephew out with us for sushi. He was 11 or 12 at the time and has always been willing to try anything you put in front of him. We gave him a piece of Eel sushi which quickly disappeared. He earned the name Eel Boy night. It's still his favorite kind of sushi.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the Mapo Tofu. We used our ever-faithful "Land of Plenty" cookbook for this dish. And like the pan-fried dumplings, it took a few tried before we perfected it. Each time we used a different chili bean paste. According to the cookbook's author, chili bean paste made with fava beans is what she prefers. We went to a local Chinese market and studied the jars of bean paste. None listed fava beans so we randomly chose one that had soybeans listed as the first ingredient. We used it in the first Mapo tofu we made and while it was good, we still wondered what it would taste like if we found a paste made with favas.

On a second visit to the market, we again could not find the elusive fava beans listed on any of the labels. Instead we chose a bean paste that listed chilis as the first ingredient. Why I never thought about the heat factor, is beyond me. I should have tasted that stuff before I used it. If I had, I would have known not to add any more chilis into the mapo tofu. To say the final product was hot would be an understatement. It was blistering! I don't think my mouth could have burned more if I licked a lava flow. I couldn't even finish my bowl.

So it was back to the market. Did I mention that there is a (Manchurian) chinese restaurant in the same shopping center as the market? It was always a good excuse to go eat there whenever we go to that market. More on that in a future entry..... On our third trip to the market, we noticed several jars of bean paste listed Broad beans as the first ingredient. We thought we'd give it a try. And had I done my homework beforehand, I would have realized that fava beans and broad beans are the same thing. Bingo! We had the chili bean paste we were seeking.

This bean paste has a nice cumulative heat that doesn't smack you in the face like the last one did. And when added to the dish, along with the Szechuan peppercorns, produced a great bowl of mapo tofu. Numbing, hot (but not too hot) and full of flavor. We fought over who got to take the leftovers for lunch the next day (I won.)