Pumpkin Pasties with Ground Beef, Onions, and Sage

In honor of National Pi Day and the imminent opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, I couldn't pass up the chance to make proper Harry Potter-inspired Pumpkin Pasties with Ground Beef, Onions, and Sage. I made Pumpkin Fillo Pasties last fall for my Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party using fresh diced pumpkin, but since pumpkin is no longer in season, had to resort to canned pumpkin for this recipe. The mashed filling ended up making the pie soggy after a while, so it's best to eat these right away if you want to be able to hold them in your hands. They still tasted good when I reheated them in the toaster oven hours later, but needed to be plated.

I made the pumpkin pasties about 6 inches long, a good meal-sized pasty, about the size of the Cornish pasties I used to eat when I lived in London. The mashed pumpkin filling made this version sweeter than when I used fresh diced pumpkin, but make no mistake, these pasties are meant to be savory. Pack them for a picnic or for a ride on the Hogwarts Express.

Pho-mplings (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup-Spiced Dumplings)

You guys! Why did this not occur to me sooner? A couple of years ago, I had the bright idea of making Pho Burgers, by grinding the spices I used for making Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup) and adding them to ground beef. You'd figure that after making Pho Burgers with Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup Spices and Banh Mi Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup-Spiced Sandwiches), it would have dawned on me that I could use the spiced meat to make dumplings too...

But it wasn't until last fall when I stumbled upon this Gothamist article about Phumplings in Brooklyn that the pho-spiced dumplings started to take shape. Phumplings are larger and filled with soup, closer to xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings). A bit too much work for lazy old me. Not that I probably won't try that at some point.

Instead, I decided to make regular dumplings with pho spices. I had a rather lean cut of beef, but if you use fattier ground beef, you can get juicier dumplings. I used the same proportion of spices and aromatics as my Pho Burgers -- pureed onion, garlic, and ginger with ground cinnamon, cloves, and star anise spices. Then topped the dumplings with green onions (actually, chives from the garden) and basil, small squirts of Hoisin Sauce and Sriracha, and squeezed a bit of lime. With all the components in place, it was like eating pho in one bite.

Italian Shrimp Scampi Low Carb Zucchini "Noodles"

I'm not sure what sparked my craving for shrimp scampi, but I couldn't get the buttery, lemony shrimp pasta dish out of my mind. I've been trying to eat healthier though, so figured I could experiment with some zucchini noodles. Now, if you have a Zoodle Slicer or a Veggetti or whatever, this would go a lot faster, but I found julienning the zucchini worked just fine. It was actually quite therapeutic to slice and slice the zucchini until I had a colander full of thin strips.

Of course, you can use regular spaghetti noodles with this recipe if you wish, but I thought the buttery, lemony zucchini noodles and shrimp totally hit the spot.

Chinese Kung Pao Shrimp

A few days after making Chinese Kung Pao Chicken, I got a craving again for the spicy, slightly sour taste of the dish. And while kung pao chicken is my preference, it takes a little longer to cook than shrimp. Plus, I had frozen shrimp on hand so any recipe that avoids having to leave the house wins hands down. But since it was late at night when I originally made the recipe, the photos weren't the best. I made it again several months later, but this time my celery supply was a bit low, so I added in a zucchini. I have to say, if you love zucchini as much as I do, it worked really well in a kung pao stir-fry.

While I love the crispness of a deep-fry, in this case, lightly coating the shrimp in cornstarch before pan-frying gave it a nice crunch. Toss in the vegetables, chilies, sauce, and toasted peanuts and the dish comes together in minutes. The key to the flavor is Chinese black vinegar and rice wine, which are much milder than their Western counterparts, but if you need to substitute with what you have on hand, taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.

Thai-Style Pumpkin Carrot Coconut Curry Soup

Tony of SinoSoul gave me two pumpkins from his garden and I knew just what to do with them. (Actually, they're much closer-looking on the outside to butternut squash, but redder on the inside like pumpkins. And since I already titled the pictures and this post as pumpkin, so they will remain!) I couldn't wait for colder temperatures so that I could indulge in some creamy soups. Not that I couldn't do so at any other time, except that if I wanted to use fresh squash, those were only available in the fall and winter.

While pumpkin is already slighty sweet, the addition of a few carrots and coconut milk also boosted the natural sweetness of this soup. I simmered the vegetables in chicken broth to soak in the flavor and then pureed it all. Then I added a few spoonfuls of Thai red curry paste and fish sauce for some savoriness and complexity. You can easily substitute with vegetable broth and just salt for seasoning if you wanted to make this vegetarian. Save some coconut milk for swirly designs at the end if you wish.

Thai-Style Pumpkin Carrot Coconut Curry Soup, a lightened up and reinvented version of this cold weather favorite.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Hatch Green Chilies

While I love the basic Grilled Cheese Sandwich, especially with a bowl of Cream of Tomato Soup, sometimes it's nice to kick things up a notch. Like a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Hatch Green Chilies. Perhaps served with Thai-Style Pumpkin Carrot Coconut Curry Soup?

Chinese Deep-Fried Pork Ribs with Honey Vinegar Sauce

After eating the deep-fried honey garlic pork ribs at King Hua Restaurant - Alhambra, I wanted to try recreating it at home. Lightly batter and fry if you wish, but I decided to just deep fry until the pork got crispy instead. The ribs were then tossed with honey, vinegar, and soy sauce. I was out of garlic and dusted the ribs with sesame seeds instead.

The key is to adjust the honey and vinegar portions to your liking until you get the right balance of sweet and sour. Simple recipe, but packed with flavor.

Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Pork Belly, Tofu, and Eggs)

After making Vegetarian Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Tofu and Eggs), it was obvious that I needed to make a proper version with pork belly. Oh did I like this version so much better! The unctuousness of the pork belly was absorbed by the tofu and perfectly complemented the bitter melon.

I cheated and simply added sliced pork belly to my vegetarian goya champuru leftovers, but I think my method of pan-frying the meat first to get a slight char also made it more flavorful. Feel free to substitute bacon for the pork belly if you wish.

Singaporean Chilli Crabs

I already had my menu set to make Chinese Deep-Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt and Vegetarian Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Tofu and Eggs) before my dad left town. But, when I went to the grocery store and saw crab on sale for $4.99 a pound, I had to include the addition of Singaporean Chilli Crabs.

In preparation for my trip later this year, I bookmarked a bunch of Singaporean dishes to try including the famous chilli crab. A chili pepper, tomato, brown sugar, shrimp paste, eggy sauce? Sounds right up my alley. I had two fist-sized hybrid red jalapenos that I had frozen from my tour of the Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha factory that I was saving for a special dish. This was it! Red jalapenos aren't really spicy for me, so added with the other ingredients and the butter from two crabs and the overall dish should just have a nice kick.

While I did save the shell for photos, if you're making it at home, I'd omit and save the sauce for the pieces of crab you'll actually eat. My brother and his wife and I savored each claw and leg. I fried up some Banh Phong Tom (Vietnamese Shrimp Chips), which were perfect for scooping up the extra sauce. But, steamed rolls, rice, or even Mi Xao Toi Bo (Vietnamese Noodles with Garlic Butter) Maggi Seasoning Sauce would go great with this dish as well.

Will the Singaporean Chilli Crab I eat in Singapore this summer taste as good? I kinda doubt it? If you've eaten the real thing and make my version, you'll have to let me know which comes out the winner!

Chinese Deep-Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt

With how frequently I've dined at Hong Kong cafes through the years, and how often I order Chinese Deep-Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt (*Hint. Almost every time.), I don't know why it took me so long to get around to making them at home. If you like my Chinese Deep-Fried Pork Chops with Spicy Salt recipe, this is even easier.

I simply salted the wings, then lightly coated them in just enough flour so they'll be crispy when fried, and like the pork chops, tossed them with a mixture of sliced chili peppers, scallions, garlic, and Chinese 5-spice powder. The first time I made the wings, I didn't have the fresh aromatics on hand and used dried chili peppers. They were still good, but I wanted them look like in the Hong Kong cafes for the photos.

The second time I made them, my dad was in town and heading out the door to go to my youngest uncle's house. He said they looked so appetizing that he couldn't resist and sat down to eat several wings. Then he mentioned later that evening to my uncles that I made really delicious wings. Which, if you know how picky my dad is about food, is high praise indeed. I saved a few wings for lil' sis, who couldn't stop complimenting them while they were reheating in the toaster oven, while she was eating them, and again afterward.

Considering my dad is notoriously critical, I figured I'd make the wings again for him a few months ago before he returned to Oregon. For non-spicy eaters, you can omit the chile peppers if you wish, like I did for the niece and nephew. The just-a-touch of Chinese 5-spice powder sprinkled at the end is what elevates these chicken wings up a notch.

Vegetarian Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Tofu and Eggs)

Ever since my Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup) recipe, when I found out that some Vietnamese eat bitter melon at the start of the year to signify that the "kho qua" (hardship over in Vietnamese), I've thought it was a quirky little tradition. And while my family calls bitter melon "o qua" so we don't dwell on bitterness, I figured this recipe would come in handy at the start of this year.

Last summer when I was experimenting with ways to make bitter melon less bitter, I searched for additional recipes and stumbled upon Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Pork Belly, Tofu, and Eggs). Normally, this dish is made with pork belly, but I wanted a healthy side dish. I was making Chinese Deep-Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt, since my dad liked them so much the first time, and I figured I'd make them again before he left to go back to Oregon.

I sliced and parboiled the bitter melon to reduce the bitterness. Then it was a simple stir-fry of eggs and tofu, before tossing in the bitter melon last since it was already half-cooked. Just soy sauce was my only seasoning.

Homemade Dandelion Wine

Ever since I read "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury long ago, I've been intrigued by the novelty of making wine out of dandelions. Would it taste like summer? Like liquid sunshine? I had forgotten about it until I dined at Creekside Grille - Wilson Creek Winery - Temecula. While reading about the beginnings of the winery, the brochure mentioned that Rosie Wilson, the family matriarch, used to make dandelion and rhubarb wine when they lived in Minnesota. I asked her if she still made dandelion wine. She chuckled and said, "No."

Intrigued nonetheless, after I got back, I Googled for some recipes. Many of which called for a gallon of dandelion petals. A gallon! I don't know where to go for a gallon of dandelions. So I went into the backyard (not the front, which was at the mercy of stray dogs doing their business on my lawn) and gathered a handful of dandelion petals. I plucked the yellow petals, being careful to pick out the green parts. Saved them into a little container in the freezer. Instead of pulling weeds, I cultivated the dandelions that grew in my yard. A flower here and there, maybe a half dozen plucked on a lucky day. For six months, I kept saving and saving until I had a quart of dandelion petals.

After steeping the petals, adding lemon juice and peels, yeast, sugar, and chardonnay, I had the beginnings of dandelion wine. A few weeks of fermentation later, the wine was poured into bottles and left in the back of the pantry to age. Every few months, I'd periodically rack the wine -- pouring it into a fresh bottle and leaving the yeasty residue behind. At six months fermentation I tasted a bit. Nope. At nine months, I uncorked it for my annual holiday party and it tasted slightly grassy, slightly sweet, very reminiscent of the bottle of dandelion wine from Hidden Legend Winery in Victor, Montana that I ordered as a taste comparison. Tasted again at the 10 month mark, chilled in the fridge, and the dandelion wine was even sweeter, pretty close to a moscato, which is my favorite wine.

Making dandelion wine wasn't difficult at all. It just required a lot of patience.

Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice

On days when I'm too lazy to cook much, but I want something comforting, I often turn to a quick rice bowl for dinner. I almost always have ground pork in the freezer for just such instances. Whenever I go to the Asian grocery store, I buy a pound of ground pork, and if I don't have any plans to cook with it immediately, just stick it in the freezer. Ground pork is a staple in my kitchen since I frequently use it for dumplings, egg rolls, stir-fries, noodles, or as a main dish like this Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice.

Though the preparation is quick and easy, the taste is similar to a braised pork dish because of the caramelized slightly sweet soy sauce flavors. I added just a touch of Chinese 5-spice powder to add some nuance. Instead of just ground pork, you could also use finely diced pork belly or shoulder.

Taiwanese minced pork rice is often serve with a hard-boiled egg and some mustard greens, but I made due with a fried egg for a quick dinner.

Easiest Moist Turkey Crispy Skin Recipe - Salt Rub and Baking Powder Turkey

This year, with both siblings out of town, I only had eight guests so I decided to splurge and bought a freshly slaughtered turkey from Chinese American Live Poultry - Rosemead, where my family buys fresh chickens for Hainanese chicken rice. The shop ordered 350 turkeys this year, which came in the Monday before Thanksgiving. By the time I made it to the store on Tuesday afternoon, nearly half the turkeys had been processed and sold. I grabbed the last one of the day. A 20-lber for $50! The most I've ever spent on a turkey so it better be good!

I've made my usual Salt Rub and Butter Turkey every Thanksgiving since 2007. (Well, with the exception of Thanksgiving 2008 when I ordered from the Chinese barbecue place, only for the family to be up in arms because my homemade turkey is much better. I haven't repeated that mistake.) Sometimes I add spices into the turkey salt rub, but otherwise I stick with what's tried and true.

Then this Thanksgiving, while skimming this Serious Eats post about brining, there was mention of adding baking powder to the salt rub for crispier skin. Can my already awesome turkey get even better?!

Lagman (Uzbek Lamb Noodle Soup)

My first encounter with Lagman (Uzbek Lamb Noodle Soup) was at the now defunct Uzbekistan - Los Angeles. At the time, I dismissed it as a basic beef stew with similar Chinese noodles. Seven years later, after having explored other Central Asian cuisines, I hope I've become less cavalier of other cuisines in general, but of Central Asian cuisines in particular.

I try to place new cuisines into what's familiar, and would describe Uzbek and other Central Asian foods as a cross between Chinese Islamic and Middle Eastern cuisines. Which, if you think of the former, is already a confluence of two different cuisines.

If lagman seems familiar, that's because the word is derived from lamian (Chinese hand-pulled noodles). The Uzbek version is thicker, similar to Japanese udon, but much more tender. I stumbled upon a package of Shanghai home-style noodles at the grocery store, which looked so very homemade that I couldn't resist buying it so I could experiment. If you can't find Chinese hand-pulled noodles, then I'd suggest substituting with udon or even fettuccine.

Now, as for the lamb or beef stew portion of the soup, I knew there was an undefinable something that made Uzbek lagman stand apart. A little Googling and I found a lagman recipe from Bois de Jasmin that mentioned kala jeera (Indian black cumin). I debated whether to be lazy and substitute with regular cumin, but hauled myself off to Bhanu Indian Grocery & Cuisine - San Gabriel and luckily found a package in stock. One whiff of the smoky aroma and I knew it was worth the trip. No, regular cumin is not remotely similar to black cumin. I would omit it if you can't find any, but if you can, oh, does it add that something.

I find lamb to be quite gamey, unless it's rack of or thinly sliced for hot pot. So I used a combination of the latter with some venison my dad had shot. Regular beef is perfectly fine to use in this soup as well. The lagman I had at Varzoba Kafejnica - Riga - Latvia was described on the menu as a tomato soup, of which I had plenty from my garden. You can cut the vegetables into a thick julienne or dice them as I have. And lastly, as these are fresh noodles, don't add the noodle to the soup. Rather, boil the noodles separately, and spoon the stew over the soup.

I looked through my photos of the lagman I ate at Varzoba Kafejnica and was struck by the artful plating of the bright blue bowl atop a blue plate. Rummaged through my kitchen cabinets for something similar and I have to say the plating made my Uzbek lagman look so much more tempting, don't you think?

Mi Xao Toi Bo (Vietnamese Noodles with Garlic Butter) Maggi Seasoning Sauce

Shortly after getting back home, I was still thinking of the simple, but oh so good garlic noodles that I ate at Swamp - San Francisco. Years ago, when I first heard about Crustacean's garlic noodles, I quizzed my friend DP who had eaten there and asked her what she thought was in the dish. Garlic and butter were a given. The saltiness, could it be Maggi Seasoning Sauce, the not-so-secret favorite for Vietnamese kitchens? She said possibly, but it was creamy too, and suggested Parmesan cheese.

Since Crustacean is so expensive, I tried making a version at home and thought the garlic butter noodles were rather ho hum. But paired with Vietnamese Cajun seafood like I had at Swamp, or any other seafood dish with sauce, and the simple garlic butter noodles really shine through.

Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua (Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions)

In my experiment to Make Bitter Melon Less Bitter, the last recipe I made was Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions. Most of the steps were the same as Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup), except I used cilantro and scallions in place of the vermicelli noodles and tree ear fungus. I also added a few stalks of lemongrass to the broth.

The cilantro, scallions, and lemongrass gave the Hmong bitter melon soup a fresher, "greener" flavor, if you will. I love finding variations for familiar dishes and discovered this version in "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America" by Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang. The dish is called Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua in Hmong.

The original recipe seemed pretty bland (only 1/2 tsp for six bitter melons), had no fish sauce (which I think the Hmong in Vietnam would have used), and suggested MSG (which I don't add to my cooking). So obviously, I made adjustments and scaled down the recipe. Still, this version was a lovely variation to add to my collection of bitter melon recipes.

Chinese Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Ground Pork and Black Bean Sauce

While experimenting with several ways to reduce the bitterness of bitter melon, reader Gabriel Ocasio suggested on my Wandering Chopsticks Facebook page to salt the bitter melon and then stir-fry it with black bean sauce. So that's what I did.

Perhaps I've been going about this all wrong? Instead of making bitter melon the star of a dish, if I just treated it as any other squash and stir-fried it with meat and sauce, the bitterness wouldn't be so prominent? Because this recipe was my favorite of the four bitter melon recipes I cooked that day. The salting reduced the bitterness so there was just a slight tinge, which was balanced by the sweetness of the smidgen of sugar and the saltiness of the black bean sauce.

O/Kho Qua Xao Trung (Vietnamese Bitter Melon Egg Stir-Fry)

Since I was on a quest to find ways to reduce the bitterness of bitter melon, I remembered that my ba noi (Vietnamese paternal grandmother) had taught me to do just that long ago. At the time though, I didn't realize it was to reduce the bitterness, I just figured it was another step in cooking as she instructed me the kitchen. Afterward, she taught me to stir-fry the bitter melon with eggs.

For this version, I added the fish sauce to the eggs first, like I do with my Scrambled Egg Omelet recipe since the flavor would be retained more in the eggs than in the bitter melon. The bitter melon was still crunchy, only slightly bitter, a perfect foil to the soft, saltiness of the scrambled eggs.

Hawaiian Spicy Tuna Poke

I wanted to stick to a pretty typical Hawaiian poke for the sashimi-grade tuna that I picked up from Yama Seafood - San Gabriel. So it was the usual seasonings of soy sauce and sesame oil, with the addition of chili sambal and Sriracha to kick it up a notch.

I looove spicy tuna, and while cheaper cuts are often used in the rolls, I can't stress enough that you should really splurge on sashimi-grade tuna for poke. Freshness makes a big difference, especially when you're eating raw fish.