February 25, 2023

It has been a while since I last posted. With Z growing up so fast before my very eyes, I haven’t had much time to post a new recipe. In between work and home duties, I’ve been testing out recipes whenever I have time. Last month, we celebrated Z’s first Lunar New Year in Massachusetts as a family. We took her for a stroll through Chinatown in Boston, watched some lion dances from afar, and ate some “lucky” foods. Foods are considered lucky if the name of the food sounds like a lucky word in Chinese. Fish for example sounds like prosperous in Chinese. Thus, we often eat fish during the spring festival. Lunar New Year was one of my favorite holidays growing up. I love everything about the holiday – from the red and gold décor all the way to the endless treats. For years, I’ve been celebrating by making my mom’s tang yuan two ways, a sweet version and a savory version. Each version has its distinct flavors. Every time I take a bite out of a tang yuan, I am transported back to my childhood enjoying these soup circles with my mom. Another family dish I’ve been longing to recreate is my family’s version of ginger scallion steamed fish. This year, Z had her first experience trying our family’s ginger scallion steamed whole fish, a dish my dad and mom have been making for decades. My parents would tag team the preparation of the fish at home and my brothers and I benefited from having a fresh steamed fish every weekend. I didn’t realize how much I missed these home cooked meals until my parents moved in with us temporarily when Z was born. Suddenly, all the foods I loved growing up started showing up in our weekly dinner rotation. Out of all the dishes my dad makes, my favorite will always be his ginger scallion steamed fish. Even Kev, who tends to avoid seafood because of the fishy flavor (as Kev describes it), looks forward to my dad’s ginger scallion steamed fish every week. The magic in the dish lies in the simple sauce my dad prepares to go with the fish. The ingredients are simple. Dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, ginger, scallions, oyster sauce, and peanut oil. The ingredients never change. The ratios do change depending on whether my dad or mom cooks the fish. The way my parents cook fish (and pretty much any other dish) makes it very difficult to capture the exact ratio of ingredients. It is always a sprinkle of this, a dash of that, a drizzle of this, a toss of that. My parents are just used to eyeballing everything they cook. The same goes for the way they cook the ginger scallion steamed fish. When we go to the local Asian market, I watch intently as my dad buys fish. He would browse through the fish tanks before pointing to the exact fish he wants from the tank. It’s usually a fish or two just over a pound in weight. The fishmonger would use a large net to scoop a fresh tilapia out of the tank and show the fish to him. A slight nod of the head indicates the fish has met his needs. I would watch as the fishmonger scrape all the scales off the tilapia. The cleaned fish is rinsed off with a hose and swiftly packed into a plastic bag. The packaged fish is then dropped on a scale, weighed, and priced with a sticker to indicate the final selling price. My dad would always instruct me that fresh is best when it comes to buying fish. Always go for a live fish scooped from a tank. The moment we bring the fish home, my mom gets to work to rinse the fish inside and out. She would make sure the fish is cleared of debris and remaining scales and then pats it dry with a couple sheets of paper towels. The cleaned and prepped fish is then tucked into the refrigerator to be cooked and enjoyed the same night. Weekly ginger scallion steamed fish in our house is as popular as pizza. We never go too long without eating one. It took my parents moving in to stay with us throughout this year for me to rediscover the food memories of this long-lost part of my childhood. For Lunar New Year this year, I decided to team up with my mom to make and photograph our family favorite ginger scallion steamed fish. Watching my dad and mom’s precision with handling the fish for weeks helped me internalize these steps. I look forward to passing this recipe and other family food traditions down to Z.

September 5, 2022

Having a baby in the house sure does make time fly right by. As I’m typing up this post, I still can’t believe September is already here. One moment Z is a tiny baby and the next she has grown into a tiny human. Yes, she’s still relatively tiny, but she’s definitely longer and heavier than she was just a month ago. It has become increasingly more difficult to hold Z for long periods of time. Looking back on the past month, Z already had two milestones. One was turning three months old. The other was reaching one hundred days. Reaching one hundred days is a big deal in our family and thus we had to celebrate in a special way. Everyone knows how much I love pizza. It’s often my go-to party food. So, why not bake up a colorful pie to celebrate Z’s one hundred days? My latest creation is a colorful pizza comprised of an assortment of diced meats and veggies. I named this latest creation celebration pizza because of all the wonderful colors spread out evenly across the pie. The pizza looks almost like artwork once it comes together – colorful like confetti, perfectly round, and beautiful in every way. Aside from looks, the pizza also tastes really good. The foundation for a delectable pizza begins with the dough. For a truly good pizza, the dough must be prepped in advance. I usually like to prepare pizza dough the night before, but if I’m crunched on time, I like to give the pizza at least two hours to rise in a warm place and swap out active dry yeast for instant yeast. Leaving the pizza dough to rise in a warm spot allows the yeast to work its magic and the dough to develop all the lovely bubbles which in turn yields a fluffy, chewy pizza. Unlike traditional pizza, this version doesn’t have a sauce. I know pizza purists would argue pizza has to have sauce for it to be called pizza, but I promise this version still tastes very good without tomato sauce. Quartered tomatoes replace the typical tomato puree I would often use as a base for the pizza sauce. Parm rounds out the cheese component of the pizza. The celebration part of the pizza comes in the form of diced ham (browned on a skillet ahead of time), cooked and chopped bacon, diced red pepper, quartered rainbow cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced scallions (for topping before cooking in the oven and for topping at the end), tons of freshly grated parm, and multiple grinds of freshly cracked black pepper. All of these ingredients are gently tossed evenly over the stretched-out pizza dough and popped into an oven preheated with a pizza stone. I set a timer for ten minutes and walk away to let the oven work its magic. In ten minutes flat, I have a steaming hot pizza ready to go. I also cooked up some corn on the cob directly in the oven to serve alongside the celebration pizza as a side. The corn is topped with some sriracha mayo, thinly sliced scallions, freshly chopped cilantro, and a gentle shake of smoked paprika. The rest of the meal is rounded out with some lemon iced tea. This simple meal for Z’s one-hundred-day celebration is finally ready. My parents took turns snapping pictures with Z while I finished up the decorations for her special day. Z was decked out in her all-pink outfit complete with a pink headband. We had to take photos quickly in between her awake windows. Otherwise, when she gets tired, she becomes fussy. Luckily for us, we were able to capture quite a few photos of her when she was smiling. After our quick photo session, Z let us know she was tired by yawning a couple times. We quickly placed her gently to sleep in her bassinet and enjoyed the celebration pizza, loaded corn, and lemon iced tea for lunch.

February 21, 2022

This post is a bit late, but Happy Lunar New Year! 2022 is the year of the tiger and all I keep thinking about lately is steamed buns and bubble tea. More specifically, I’m craving fluffy steamed buns filled with meat and veggies served alongside a brown sugar milk-based bubble tea à la Tiger Sugar. Is there a better time of year than the year of the tiger to enjoy bubble tea with tiger stripes? Since we live too far away from a Tiger Sugar shop, I’ve been attempting to make my own version at home. I watched a ton of YouTube videos online on how the brown sugar bubble tea are made in a variety of tea shops and then experimented with making my own version at home. Bubble tea and steamed buns are one of my favorite food combinations. To celebrate, I steamed up two different types of steamed buns – one filled with mushroom and veggies and another packed with Asian style BBQ chicken. Kev and I both love steamed buns immensely. Kev’s favorite is the BBQ pork steamed buns he would eat at tea houses throughout Hong Kong where he grew up. I took a slightly different approach and made him some BBQ chicken steamed buns instead. I swapped in chicken thighs for the usual pork filling to yield an ultra-tender filling. For my preferred version, I made a vegetarian filling featuring chopped shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. This veggie version is super simple to make and requires just a few ingredients to prepare. Kev and I both grew up eating steamed buns on opposite sides of the world. Kev, who grew up in Hong Kong, has had his fair share of authentic steamed buns in restaurants throughout Hong Kong. I grew up in New York and have also had my fair share of truly delicious steamed buns. My favorite versions, aside from the classic BBQ pork steamed buns, is definitely the veggie buns. The ones I remember eating growing up were packed with a variety of veggies and aromatics ranging from bok choy to chives. I like to fold in shiitake mushrooms whenever I can to add a deeper, more intense umami flavor to any dish I make. The steamed buns are the perfect addition to the Lunar New Year menu alongside my mom’s turnip cakes, sweet and savory tang yuan, and pork and cabbage dumplings. This year, we added my version of BBQ chicken steamed buns and mushroom bok choy steamed buns to the menu as well. When making steamed buns, I started by making the dough. A trick I figured out over the years is to use a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour to help the buns achieve the fluffy yet firm texture. If I use just cake flour, the buns will be too soft and not form properly once steamed. If I use just all-purpose flour, the buns will tend to be hard and just slightly chewy once steamed. The combination of the two flours though yields buns with a fluffy texture yet holds a beautiful shape when folded (or pleated) together. Since we eat with our eyes as much as our mouths, having beautiful looking buns results in a much more enjoyable eating experience. Kev and I ended up having a super low key Lunar New Year this year. We both had to work, so we just celebrated by having video calls with our family. We spent a day Zooming with Kev’s family in Hong Kong and another day FaceTiming with my family in New York. Aside from a variety of steamed buns, we also enjoyed some crumbled Asian beef tacos (not exactly a traditional dish for Lunar New Year), spicy, sweet, and savory veggie noodles, and tons of my mom’s sweet tang yuan. Hopefully, by next year, we will be able to gather with our families in person and enjoy all of our favorite dishes for Lunar New Year as a family.

January 23, 2022

Lunar New Year is around the corner again. This year, we are approaching the year of the tiger. Kev and I are especially excited for this upcoming year. In our family, Lunar New Year is the one holiday each year my entire family looks forward to with joy even more than any other holiday throughout the year. Each person in my family prepares for Lunar New Year in his or her own way. My dad would plan out the feast we would all gather to enjoy throughout the holidays. My mom would come up with a solid game plan for deep cleaning and decorating the house. My brothers would plan all the ways they would spend their red envelopes throughout our childhood. I would eagerly await all the amazing food we would enjoy in the days to come. Some of my favorite foods to enjoy during Lunar New Year definitely include my mom’s sweet and savory tang yuan. It’s a super easy dish my mom would whip up on a whim as a way to celebrate all major occasions and milestones. Whether it was graduation, landing a new job, or accomplishing personal or professional goals, mom’s celebratory tang yuan would find its way to the table. Dad, on the other hand, often opted for whole cooked foods. We’ve been lucky to enjoy whole cooked chickens, whole steamed fishes, whole prepared lobsters, and whole roasted pigs throughout our childhood. Of all the foods my dad prepares, his whole steamed fish reigns supreme. He always seems to pick out the perfect fish in which he steams to absolute perfection with a simple ginger-scallion soy sauce. (I’m working on learning how to perfect his steamed fish recipe to share in a future post.) For Kev and I, we usually look forward to enjoying some good dumplings. Kev would always vote for soup dumplings. I usually prefer a simple pork and cabbage or mushroom and chicken variety. While we will definitely feature these family favorite dishes throughout our Lunar New Year celebrations, we also needed to share another family favorite dish, my mom’s turnip cakes (with a slight spin). I say my mom’s turnip cakes loosely since I did make some slight alterations when refining her recipe. Turnip cakes (also known as radish cakes or Lo Bak Go) is usually served as a staple during dim sum. Whenever my family and I go for dim sum, we almost always order turnip cakes off of the dim sum menu. My favorite turnip cakes are often crispy all around the edges, and packed with a variety of fillings. Turnip cakes are traditionally served around the new year as a way to welcome the new year with luck. I had initially planned to make turnip cakes with mom during the Christmas holidays, but since she was not able to visit in person, I made turnip cakes with her over FaceTime. Cooking with my mom is usually a challenge because she doesn’t use exact measurements – everything is made by eyeballing. She would just suggest for me to adjust measurements as I go, or check the viscosity/texture of whatever I’m making. Making turnip cakes with my mom was no different. I had to take care to jot down notes as I was cooking to make sure I noted the right ratio of ingredients. Once you get the technique down for making the turnip cakes, they are actually pretty easy to make. Traditional turnip cakes are usually filled with just lap cheung and dried baby shrimp and topped with scallions. I decided to take it up a notch by packing in even more flavors. I generously added minced garlic and chopped reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms as a way to further enhance the flavors in the turnip cakes. When all the ingredients are added together into the turnip cakes, you have a medley of complementary flavors in each and every bite. The fillings for the turnip cakes are cooked first to release all the flavors. A blend of rice flour and water creates the binder for the turnip cakes. I used a medium-sized daikon radish, grated most of it, and diced about a third of it. The grated and diced radish makes for a good balance of textures within the turnip cakes. Everything is combined together, poured into a springform cake pan and steamed until cooked through. The turnip cake is then cooled, cut into rectangular slices, and fried to golden perfection. Usually, the turnip cake is chilled for several hours to overnight before frying and serving, but I couldn’t resist and ended up frying up some turnip cakes after only allowing the steamed turnip cake to chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. When frying up the turnip cakes, I fried them just a bit longer to allow for the turnip cakes to be on the crispier side (just the way Kev prefers them). These turnip cakes made for the perfect start to the Lunar New Year celebrations.

October 10, 2021

Fall weather has arrived. I can feel the crisp, cool weather all around me as I stroll through the streets. I have even begun dusting off my fall sweaters and preparing to wear them throughout the season. Fall time is the best time to enjoy cozy, warm foods and spiced drinks. One of my favorite foods to make pretty much year-round, but especially during the fall time is dumplings. My usual go-to dumplings are my pork and cabbage dumplings. They are a family (and friend) favorite in our household. Dumplings are one of those food items where both Kev and I ate tons of growing up. Kev grew up in Hong Kong, so his experience with dumplings differs quite a bit from my own experience. Kev’s favorite dumplings of all time will forever be soup dumplings. He would order soup dumplings whenever and wherever the opportunity arises. For me, I prefer traditional pork dumplings served both fried and steamed. My experience with dumplings was heavily influenced by the variety of dumplings I ate growing up in New York City. I would hop onto the train and take it straight into Chinatown just so I can enjoy some steaming hot dumplings from any one of the restaurants throughout Chinatown. Even on days where I chose not to head straight to Chinatown for dumplings, I usually could access equally good dumplings in the Brooklyn neighborhood where I grew up. My family loved dumplings. They would order them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner whenever the opportunity arises. The popular options served in the restaurants I grew up eating at were usually pork, vegetable, or crab. While I enjoy all three, my favorite is still pork dumplings. These plump juicy gems are always a welcome addition to the dining table. Lately though, I’ve been making a version of dumplings featuring a blend of mushrooms, ground chicken, and aromatics. The composition of a truly good dumpling is a thin wrapper (although I do prefer a thicker wrapper at times) and a juicy filling. Pairing ground meat with a watery vegetable usually does the trick. You get the juiciness of the dumplings from the combination of the ground pork and watery cabbage. Those features are what make pork and cabbage dumplings so good. Since ground chicken is a leaner meat, pairing the ground chicken with a juicy mushroom achieves the same juicy effect. My mushroom of choice is of course dried shiitake mushrooms. The dried variety has a stronger punch of flavor and pairs perfectly with the ground chicken once the mushrooms are reconstituted in some water. The rest of the filling for the dumplings are rounded out with the Asian trifecta of ginger, garlic, and scallion, and a variety of sauces and seasonings to pack in a flavorful punch. My favorite way to cook the dumplings is to fry and steam them in a large pan. I start out with a layer of cooking oil, transfer in the dumplings one by one, let them crisp up at the bottom, add water to steam the dumplings, let the water evaporate, and let the dumplings fry a little bit longer before serving them up. The dipping sauce for the dumplings is always a blend of vinegar and soy sauce with optional garnishes added to brighten up the dipping sauce. These dumplings are so good, we just cannot get enough of them in our household. Even though soup dumplings and traditional pork dumplings still hold the first rank in Kev’s heart, he is slowly beginning to make room in his heart for these mushroom and chicken dumplings. The balance of flavors and textures within these dumplings is what makes them truly delicious.

September 12, 2021

The arrival of September means the start of football season. We’ve been waiting anxiously for the start of football season after Michigan’s performance last year. So far, the first couple of games have resulted in wins. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the remainder of the season as we face other opponents in our conference. In between watching football games, Kev and I have been doing some pre-fall cleaning in our home. We have some major changes coming up in the near future and needed to prioritize cleaning our home. It always seems a lot easier to accumulate stuff than to toss stuff out. I have to confess I have such a hard time tossing out (and donating) old clothes. During these busier days ahead, I’ve been turning to a dish I make a lot of on busy days, congee. Mushroom congee slow cooked and served with carrot scallion pancakes to be exact. Congee is something both Kev and I ate a lot of growing up even though we both grew up on opposite sides of the world. Kev grew up eating the variations of congee offered in the many shops available throughout Hong Kong. I grew up eating many versions of congee made by my family and influenced by the shops available throughout New York City. My grandparents and parents made congee almost weekly for me throughout my childhood and teenage years. Our household favorite version of congee is usually thousand-year egg and salted pork congee topped with roasted peanuts. It is one of the more popular versions of congee sold at shops throughout New York City’s Chinatown. This version of congee is very nostalgic for me and often reminds me of the childhood memories I had of my grandparents. These days, I often turn to simpler versions of congee as a way to save time. One of my go-to versions of congee is a variation of congee using dong gu (a.k.a. dried shiitake mushroom). I love cooking with dried shiitake mushrooms because of the deep, savory flavor imparted by the dried mushrooms into dishes. All I need to do is to toss in a handful of reconstituted dried whole mushrooms into a pot of congee and let it cook low and slow until ready to serve. With the addition of the dried mushrooms and some kosher salt, I get a delicious, savory pot of congee. Depending on my mood, I may or may not top my congee with even more toppings such as hard-boiled eggs, shredded chicken, diced char siu, chopped cilantro, sliced scallions, and a drizzle of my grandfather’s favorite oil and sauces – sesame oil, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. He swears by the trio of oil and sauces when serving up congee since they add depth and intensity of flavor to any bowl of congee. If I’m short on time, I usually just toss the ingredients into a slow cooker and let the slow cooker do all of the work for the congee overnight for an easy (set it and forget it) version of congee. On weekends, when I have more time to cook, I tend to cook the congee low and slow over a stovetop. This method does require more care as I need to stir the congee over the stovetop occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot. There is no other comfort food in our household like a bowl of warm congee topped with my grandfather’s trio of oil and sauces to help warm the soul. Making this dish always brings back heartwarming memories of the endless variations of congees my family used to make for me growing up. My family usually serves up congee with a heavy helping of you tiao, a type of Chinese fried dough usually in the form of sticks. We would dip the you tiao into our bowls of congee and eat the congee soaked you tiao for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I prefer serving some form of savory pancakes with my congee. My latest addiction to serve with congee is carrot scallion pancakes. These savory pancakes make for a super easy, savory, crispy, and addicting side to serve with a warming bowl of congee.

August 30, 2021

Summer time is also the perfect time to make a variety of refreshing salads. One of my more recent favorite salads was very loosely inspired by a salad I had last month at Ladybird in New York City. I had returned back to New York to visit family and ended up heading to the city to have lunch with my little brother at Ladybird, a vegan restaurant I have been eyeing from afar for quite some time now. We enjoyed a variety of vegan tapas from baos to mac & cheese. Out of all the items I had on the menu, the summer salad was my absolute favorite dish. All of the seasonal ingredients came together into a remarkably simple, yet super refreshing and tasty salad. I couldn’t quite forget the flavors I tasted within the salad and made a mental note to try to recreate it when I got back to Ohio. When I made the refreshing summer salad at home, I did deviate from the version I had at Ladybird quite a bit. My version featured a refreshing blend of diced cucumber, peach, nectarine, orange, and strawberries tossed with a squeeze of lemon juice. Crushed pistachios, caraway seeds, and thinly sliced mint leaves are added at the very end to give the refreshing summer salad some crunch and fragrance. My variation of the refreshing summer salad made for the perfect accompaniment to heavier main dishes. I served it alongside roasted meats, grilled bread, and chicken salad. I love the versatility of the salad and would swap in other seasonal fruits I had on hand when making it. The summer salad does take some time to prep, but I promise the end result is so worth the extra effort of prepping the ingredients. I’ve become so addicted to this summer salad, I found myself coming back to it time and time again over the last month. Even after returning from our summer travels, I am still thinking of the summer salad. Kevin loves to enjoy this summer salad alongside heavier summer dishes. This way, he can feel better about eating a more balanced meal. I’m okay with just enjoying this summer salad with some grilled bread as a light lunch or snack.