Torn Chicken and Cabbage Salad

I was looking for something to go with a seared scallop recipe that I found on Epicurious. I browsed through a few of my cookbooks and found the ideal salad in Savoring Soups & Salads. That find was the Torn Chicken and Cabbage Salad (Goi Ga from Vietnam). The book describes it as a Vietnamese coleslaw.

The salad was beautiful and we both really enjoyed the flavors of the veggies mixed with the lime juice, mint and fish sauce. It was a nice twist on cole slaw.. you get the crunch of the veggies with a bit of a spicy bite add in courtesy of the peppers.

 

Torn Chicken and Cabbage Salad (adapted from Savoring Soups & Salads)

1 red Serrano chile, seeded and minced
2 clove garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 whole boneless skinless chicken breast
4 cups finely shredded green cabbage
1/2 large carrot peeled and finely shredded
1/2 cup finely slivered fresh mint
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons chopped unsalted roasted peanuts (optional)

1. To make the dressing, in a bowl, combine the chile, garlic, sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. Stir together until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
2. Place the chicken in a saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook until opaque throughout, about 12-15 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate, let cool. With your fingers, tear the meat along the grain into long, thin shreds and place in a large bowl. 
3. Add the cabbage, carrot, mint, cilantro, and dressing and toss to gently mix well.
4. Arrange salad on platter and optionally sprinkle with peanuts and serve. 

TWD Flashback: Orange Berry Muffins

I have 9+ months of Tuesdays with Dorie recipes to catch up on. Phew. Its going to be a lot of work, but I am sure that my husband won’t mind all that baking.

My first catch up recipe is the one from January 29, 2008  and was chosen by Michelle of Sugar & Spice. Her recipe selection was the orange berry muffins from page 3 of Baking:From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The recipe is available on Michelle’s blog.

I opted to make these muffins in a smaller sized muffin tin, mostly so we wouldn’t be overwhelmed by monstrous muffins. These muffins were extremely quick and easy to make and they had that citrus touch that my husband adores. Next time I make them  I will put in a little more than a cup of blueberries as I though the muffins could have used more.

Scallops with Asian Lime-Chile Sauce

I have over 400 recipes bookmarked in my recipe box on Epicurious.com. In an effort to de-clutter my life, I flipped through all my old Gourmet and Bon Apetit magazines and any recipes that I was interested in, I went and flagged on Epicurious and threw the magazine into the recylcing bin.

One of those recipes was Scallops with Asian Lime-Chile Sauce. The recipe calls for medium sea scallops seared on bamboo skewers. All that my local market had was small sea scallops so I opted to sautee them without skewers. My take on the recipe was still really tasty. My husband told me that he wished that I had bought more scallops. I am going to keep my eyes open for larger scallops so that I can try to stay more true to the original recipe.

 These scallops were included in a couple of menus on Epicurious. I look at these menus for inspiration for side dishes. I made the Pickled Cucumber and Radish from the Light in the East menu.  We really enjoyed these pickles and they were super easy.

I also made ginger garlic scallion basmati rice as a side dish. This rice came out really good. I chopped up a few garlic cloves and an equivalent amount of fresh ginger. I then heated up oil in a skillet and fried up some cumin seeds for a few seconds and then threw in the garlic and ginger and cooked them up until slightly golden brown. Next I stirred in 2 cups of rice and some salt and pepper. I added chicken broth, sweet peas and cooked until the rice was done. I tossed in chopped green onions before serving. 

I also served a torn chicken and cabbage salad which I will post about later. But, for now, here’s the scalop recipe.

Scallops with Asian Lime-Chile Sauce (adapted from Epicurious.com recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 small garlic clove, chopped
• 1 small fresh hot chile (2 1/2 inches long, preferably red), chopped, including seeds
• 2 1/4 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 lb. sea scallops, tough muscle removed from side of each if necessary
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Prep

Puree garlic, chile, and sugar to a fine paste. Add vinegar, fish sauce, water, and lime juice and mix until combined.

Pat scallops dry. Then brush both sides with oil (2 teaspoons total). Season scallops with salt and pepper.

Brush a 12-inch nonstick skillet with remaining teaspoon oil and heat over high heat until hot but not smoking. Sear scallops, turning over once, until just cooked through, about 6 minutes total.

Serve scallops with sauce spooned over.

Cooks’ note:

• Sauce may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Sunday Salon: Rainy September Day

Its been a weekend of non-stop rain… it started on Friday but hasn’t let up yet. I woke up at the break of dawn (so much for sleeping in on a Sunday!).  I cooked a yummy Sunday breakfast of veggie & cheddar scrambled eggs and orange blueberry muffins. 

 

Later in the morning, I read a chapter of A Carnivore’s Inquiry: A Novel by Sabina Murray. I am only a few chapters into this one and I am not quite sure what I think of it yet. I am curious to see where the story will go. The book is narrated by Katherine, a 23 year old woman who has just moved back to New York from Italy and starts a relationship with Boris, an older Russian novelist. Her thoughts frequently drift onto the subject of cannibalism as it relates to various pieces of art and history that she encounters.

 

Then, I did a few things for work.  Not so much fun. But, I finished… so now I have that monkey off of my back and am free to return to more enjoyable exploits.

I am hoping to finish reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I have about 80 pages left. I am reading this for a book club and for the Book Awards II Challenge. This book has won several awards including the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. I am really enjoying American Gods. I have read one of Gaiman’s short story collections but this is the first time that I’ve read one of his novels. I like the way that he mixes humor into the story.

 

I am currently baking custard for making creme brulees so that should give me about 45 minutes of reading time.  That is of course, assuming the sweet smell of custard doesn’t distract me too much.

Eats: Strawberry Fair

Strawberry Fair Restaurant
14 Pond St.
Norwell, MA 02061
781-878-7878

Website: http://www.thestrawberryfair.com/

The Strawberry Fair is located near Queen Anne’s Corner in Norwell, just over the Hingham line. It’s in a renovated antique farmhouse that is currently tucked amongst car dealerships, a Chilis, and other not very antique places. The interior decor is cottagey, quirky, cluttered-country, with most of the tables and chairs being different styles (some of the tables are actually antique sewing machines) and knick-knacks all over the place… most with a strawberry theme.

Strawberry Fair serves up Saturday and Sunday brunch. Their brunch menu has New England influences with dishes such as Corn Bread French Toast and the Brown-Eyed Susan (Eggs Benedict made with homemade brown bread).  Many of the dishes are served with baked beans, toasted cornbread and strawberry jam. The food is pure comfort food and so good!

I ordered the corned beef hash with poached eggs, hash browns, and toasted corn bread. This corned beef hash is NOT the stuff out of a can.  I really appreciate a good corned beef hash and Strawberry Fair’s version gets my stamp of approval. It definitely gives me my corned beef fix.

My other half got one of the selections off of the specials list– Creme Brulee French Toast. The french toast was a thick slab of bread with a carmelized sugar layer on top.  It was served with fruit salad. My husband loved the french toast. It was very much like bread pudding, one of his favorites. Many people at other tables asked what he had ordered and then ordered the same. Way to start a trend…

I’ve also had lunch at Strawberry Fair and they have a nice selection of homemade soups and sandwiches along with some hot entrees. They also server dinner but I haven’t tried it yet. Someday…

RATED: 4 out of 5 mangoes!

Booking Through Thursday: Unusual Reads

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is:

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

I really enjoy reading unusual books.  I vastly prefer reading something bizarre and different over a same-old same-old cliche novel that I feel like I’ve read a billion times before.

Some books that were “ground-breaking” for me when I first read them were:

• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi — My first graphic novel… I’ve read a handful more since then
• Blindness by Jose Saramago — completely different writing style than I was used to.. total stream of consciousness… but I loved it and he is now one of my favorite authors.
• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino — again, very different than anything I had ever read at the time. It totally turns fiction on its ear. Calvino is now another one of my favorite authors.
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami — another tale of how I developed a new favorite author! I’ve read several more of his books since then and have his book Kafka on the Shore coming up very soon on my to read list.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Many of the “unusual” books I read fall into a genre that some call slipstream. This has led me to seek out other books that fit into this genre, and for the most part I have been pleased with the books that I have discovered.

What about you?

Cookie Carnival: Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies

September was my first time participating in Cookie Carnival. Cookie Carnival is a monthly event where a bunch of people make the same cookie recipe and share their results and experiences. For September, the cookie selection was Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies and was suggested by Mari.  The recipe is from Martha Stewart’s website.

 

I have never been a die-hard grapefruit fan. Some of my friends in college tried to make me curb my cursing habit by making me take a drink of grapefruit juice everytime I swore. Sadly, taking a sip of grapefruit juice only made me swear more. Since then I have learned to appreciate the taste of grapefruit more. I don’t mind it mixed in with other juices, but wouldn’t be likely to drink it on its own.  With this recipe, I figured the evilness of grapefruit would be squelched by the goodness of cookie.  And I was right!

The cookie dough was fairly easy to make with the most time consuming part for me being zesting the grapefruit. My zester got a workout that day.  My husband said he loved the “citrus-y smell taking over the kitchen.”

I found the filling too soft to work with immediately so I refrigerated it for 30 minutes or so before assembling the sandwich cookies.  And here’s the finished product… My cookies were a little thicker than Martha’s so mine ended up looking like miniature whoopee pies. The taste was good and the sugar balanced the sourness of the grapefruit resulting in a cookie with a delicate grapefruit/citrus flavor. No puckery faces here!

 

Pink Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies

You can bake the cookies and make the filling a day ahead.

Ingredients for cookies

Makes 15 sandwich cookies.

    * Grated zest of 1 Ruby Red grapefruit, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed juice

    * 1 cup sugar

    * 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

    * 3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising)

    * 1 teaspoon baking powder

    * 1/2 teaspoon salt

    * 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

    * 2 large egg yolks

    * Pink Grapefruit Cream Filling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, combine zest with 1 tablespoon sugar; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and remaining sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add egg yolks, and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in reserved zest-sugar mixture. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the juice, and beat to combine.

3. Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

 

4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out disk to 1/8 inch thick using a lightly floured rolling pin. Using a lightly floured 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place about 1 inch apart on prepared sheet. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes. Transfer parchment paper and cookies to rack to cool completely.

   

5. Using an offset spatula, spread 1 tablespoon filling onto flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping flat sides down. Once filled, cookies can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Ingredients for filling

Makes enough to fill 15 sandwich cookies.

    * 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

    * 2 cups confectioners’ sugar

    * 1 tablespoon honey

    * 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Ruby Red grapefruit juice

Directions

   1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in honey. Add juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until filling holds together and is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and set aside until ready to use.

Reads: Run

Run: A Novel by Ann Patchett

rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

 

 

In Run, Ann Patchett evokes 24 hours in a snowy, wintry Boston.

When they were finally pushing out of the warm foyer of the Kennedy School and into the great cold world of the night, it was snowing.  Not the heavy, wet flakes that come down like silver dollars and melt a minute later, and not the very dry tiny snow that blows around and never really settles on anything. This was a hard, steady fall of a medium-sized flake that meant business. To tilt your head back and look straight up into a streetlight was to have some comprehension of infinity.

Patchett explores the family dynamics of the Doyle family whose patriarch, Bernard, is the former mayor of Boston. Bernard has been raising his son Sullivan and his two adopted African-American sons, Tip and Teddy, alone for the past 10 years since his wife died. The boys are all grown up and in one eventful night their world is turned upside-down. I won’t delve too much into the plot for fear of revealing spoilers. The story touches on race, family, and class. It feels like a book that could lead to some good book club discussions. We’ll see how my book club for this book goes next week.

I didn’t find “Run” to be as strong a novel as “Bel Canto” or even “The Magician’s Assistant” was, but I still enjoyed reading it. Patchett’s writing is beautiful. Some of the plot points seemed a bit too contrived, but I found myself reading the book rather quickly and unable to put it down at times. I wavered between giving this a 3.5 out of 5 and a 4 out of 5 rating.

View all my reviews.

Eats: Little Q HotPot

 Little Q Hotpot
1585 Hancock St.
Quincy, MA 02169
617-773-5888

website: http://www.littlequsa.com/Web/Home.htm

We love us some Little Q Hotpot!  Little Q is a popular chain restaurant in China and the Quincy location is its first (and currently only) American outpost. They are located in an otherwise dead Quincy Fair shopping center in Quincy Center. The shopping center is slowly dying due to the fact that the city of Quincy plans to tear it down to build a road. Hopefully, Little Q will be able to find a new home in Quincy. I would hate to lose it.

We’ve been to Little Q a few times now. On this visit, it was the busiest we’d ever seen it. The area outside their entrance was crowded with folks waiting for tables. We were able to be seated immediately since we were willing to sit at an isolated counter area tucked off to the side of the restaurant.  We didn’t mind, we just wanted to eat!   Plus, the counter is against a window that overlooks the rest of the Asian food court area, which includes a couple of other dining options, including Taste of Taiwan. I was tempted to try Taste of Taiwan soon, based on some of the dishes that I saw people get from there.

But, back to Little Q…

The table tops and dishes at Little Q are all made out of the same plastic, easy to wipe down material. The dishes/cups and napkins are all printed with the smiling face of a cartoon goat–who I suppose is the mascot of Little Q.  The decor is definitelycasual and cafeteria-esque.

The staff at Little Q are all very friendly and helpful, so don’t be afraid that you’ll be lost if you have never had hot pot before.  They readily help you chose from their selection of broths and then chose other items that you want to cook in the broth. These include various veggies, meats, seafood, and noodles.

After ordering the server brings us some complimentary pickled radishes and peanuts. These are both very tasty and addictive snacks. I really want to try making the pickled Daikon radish at home.

Shortly there after she brings us our pots of broth, inserts them into the holes in the counter and turns on the cooktops. We ordered the seafood broth. It comes out with green onions, ginger and various spices floating in it. The broth is very fragrant and flavorful and the flavor gets enhanced with each new piece of meat or veggie that you put in. I love the way the fried tofu and bok choy pick up the flavors of the broth.

 

This visit we ordered several items to go in our soup: Baby Bok Choy, fried tofu, white mushrooms, chicken breast, white fish and shrimp. The chicken breast comes out thinly sliced and arranged in rolls.  All of their items are always super fresh.

 

Then we just put our ingredients in the broth and let them cook. Part of the trick of eating at a Mongolian hot pot place is the timing for how long the items need to cook in the broth. The different items take varying amounts of time. The thinly sliced chicken cooks up in just seconds. Little Q often has this information printed on the place mats at each table setting. Although for some reason, this past weekend, the placemats had Greek tourist spots printed on it. Hmm!

Their seafood fried rice is also very good. It contains scallops, white fish, shrimps, and squid. Little Q’s scallion pancakes are also phenomenal, but we didn’t order them this past time since we didn’t want to get too much food.

We got mango (can’t resist it) ice cream for dessert, which is a great refreshing way to end the meal.

I give Little Q Hotpot 4.5 out of 5 mangoes.

Dimply Plum Cake

 

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking selection was the Dimply Plum Cake. The recipe was selected by Michelle at Bake-En.  In her recipe for this breakfast cake, Dorie calls for the use of small plums, orange zest, and cardamom, but she makes several suggestions for substitutions for those 3 ingredients.

 

 I used black plums, grapefruit zest, and cardamom (I love, love, love cardamom!).  The recipe calls for the plums to be cut in half and placed skin side down in the cake batter. That is exactly what I did. Next time, if I use full sized plums again I will probably cut them into smaller pieces because with the size they were, they didn’t get *quite* soft enough as they baked.

 The cake consistency was a bit uneven. Some parts of the tops and edges got quite brown, but some interior bits under the plums in the center of the cake were a bit gooey. I will blame the super-sized plum halves!  Yeah, that’s it.

I served up squares of the final product with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.  My husband really enjoyed the flavor of the cake and told me to “make it again, next time with no plums. I don’t like plums in my cake.”  Ooookaaay.  I liked the cake as well and kind of agreed with him about the plums. They were tricky to eat. Next time, I will use different fruit and/or smaller pieces.

If you want to try making this cake yourself, the recipe is in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.   Michelle will likely also post it on her blog at Bake-En. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200+ other bakers had to say!

My husband and I are both super excited about next week’s recipe– Creme Brulee (page 393) which was selected by Mari.