Tag: garlic

3-2-1 Stir Fry

Posted on by Claire

3-2-1 stir fry

So you’ve probably heard that pound cake was thus named because it was once made from a pound of butter, a pound of flour, and a pound of sugar? Similarly, Cantonese 3-2-1 sauce is a recipe in a name. Only, unlike pound cake, this is a recipe I use regularly. Three parts soy sauce, two parts oyster sauce, and one part sesame oil yield this amazing basic sauce, full of umami and perfect for stir fries. I’ve mentioned my obsession with umami on here before, right? Officially recognized as one of our basic tastes (the others being sweet, sour, salty, and bitter) just 27 years ago, it’s that rich hearty flavor that makes steak, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese so addictive.

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Red Lentil Dal

Posted on by Claire

red lentil dal

Back when I still ate meat regularly, my dad insisted on taking me to a highly recommended South Indian restaurant with an entirely vegetarian menu. I was skeptical that these dishes could live up to my favorite North Indian chicken and lamb dishes, but soon all thoughts of meat had left my mind as I eagerly dove into a veritable feast of curries, chutneys, raitas, masala dosa, and a mango lassi to top it all off. And the dals! These mysteriously delicious lentils, so different from what I was used to. Cooked until falling apart and heavily fragrant with spices. Here is my take on a red lentil dal (or masoor dal), in homage to one of my first realizations that vegetarian food could be just as tasty as its meaty counterpart.

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Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables in Black Bean Sauce

Posted on by Claire

stir-fried pork and vegetables in black bean sauce

Stir-frying is a really useful technique; it’s simple, fast, and yields delicious results. I especially love it for fresh vegetables where the high heat draws out their natural sweetness while keeping them nice and crisp. This type of preparation is my favorite for brussels sprouts which I think get a bad reputation due to often being overcooked. I like my brussels sprouts only slightly softened, still retaining a crisp nearly raw interior. Chinese long beans (which are very similar to green beans but a bit better suited to stir-frying as they stay crisper) are a great match here, while ground pork marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, and Chinese five-spice helps to round out the flavors.

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Roasted Chickpea Fajitas

Posted on by Claire

roasted chickpea fajitas

I’ve long loved roasting vegetables, but it’s only recently that I discovered how tasty roasted chickpeas can be. By coating them in spices and roasting, you can easily turn these healthy beans into your new favorite snack. Here, chickpeas are flavored with chili powder and cumin to form the perfect base for vegetarian fajitas. In case you can’t tell from my photo, my favorite part of fajitas is loading them down with toppings. I piled cilantro, lime wedges, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and diced avocado on mine, but these would even be good without extra toppings. I haven’t tried roasting beans other than chickpeas yet, but I can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be equally delicious using black or pinto beans.

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Tuscan Three Bean Soup

Posted on by Claire

tuscan three bean soup

One of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned about cooking is to be adaptable. Being able to read a recipe and then adjust it to the ingredients you have on hand and to your taste preferences will help you enjoy cooking more and yield some amazingly delicious results in the kitchen (even if there are a few disasters now and again). Take this soup, for instance. When I set out to cook it, it was intended as a chickpea soup. While I’m normally quite good about gathering all my ingredients before starting to cook (another valuable lesson), I somehow didn’t realize until halfway through cooking this that I didn’t have enough chickpeas.

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Balsamic Barbecue Chicken

Posted on by Claire

balsamic barbecue chicken

There’s something immensely satisfying about making a lot of adaptations to a recipe and having it turn out exactly as you’d hoped. That was definitely the case with this balsamic barbecue chicken where I took inspiration from my char siu recipe and decided to take a similar approach by using half the sauce to marinate and the other half to baste and serve with the completed dish. This chicken is amazingly flavorful with a good tartness and sweetness to the sauce, and, as I’d hoped, the marinating time helped the chicken to absorb extra flavor and stay moist. The end result would be tasty served alongside roasted vegetables, on a bed of greens, in a sandwich, or on a pizza.

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West African Peanut Soup

Posted on by Claire

african peanut soup

Despite my love of bacon, I’ve recently found myself cooking a surprising amount of unintentionally vegan food. Meat is sadly quite pricey (especially if you’re like me and have qualms about eating factory-farmed meat with hormones and antibiotics), so I’m turning more and more to filling meals using fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans, and lentils. And I’m surprised at the great flavors I can develop using these ingredients. Take, for example, this West African peanut soup. Mostly basic ingredients, but somehow combining peanut butter and tomato paste with aromatics and curry powder yields a nearly irresistible soup. Vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike rave about this soup.

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Curried Carrot Soup

Posted on by Claire

curried carrot soup

I cook so many complex recipes that sometimes it’s nice to put together a simple dish. A dish with less than ten ingredients (even including the basics like olive oil, salt, and pepper!). This curried carrot soup builds on the natural sweetness of carrots, enhanced by oven roasting. The trick to the best flavor here is letting the carrots caramelize in the onion while caramelizing onions on the stove top. Using fresh curry powder is crucial (and freshly-ground homemade curry powder is ideal).

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Pea and Prosciutto Salad

Posted on by Claire

pea and prosciutto salad

So I have this problem. If I get hungry and don’t rush to fill my stomach, I start to get grumpy. Very grumpy. Woe be unto those in the near vicinity grumpy. Unfortunately, I also often work late, and with my tendency to make cooking dinner a multiple hour affair, this means that I have far more grumpy evenings than I would like. Since I can only snack on mixed nuts (my usual remedy) for so long, one night I found myself tossing together this quick pea and prosciutto salad to get myself through cooking dinner. The combination of the peas’ crisp fresh flavor with the richness of the prosciutto turned out so delicious that I knew immediately I’d be making it again.

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Chinese Broccoli with Five-Spice Sauce

Posted on by Claire

chinese broccoli

Although I’m pretty sure this dish isn’t authentic (due to the inclusion of butter), it tastes exactly like what I’ve eaten at dim sum restaurants before and is really simple (and fast) to make. The sauce, given a kick from garlic, ginger, and five-spice, is a great match to Chinese broccoli, but should work wonderfully on other vegetables as well. It’s not often that I find something that only takes about 10 minutes to make and still tastes delicious, so I know I’ll be coming back to this recipe.

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