Pennsic Recipe 6 - Sauted rice cake with Chinese sausage

Re: recipe - sauted rice cake with Chinese sausage.

1 package of Chinese sausage
1 package of rice cake.
1 head of escarole (I needed greens, this is what I could get)
2 or 3 small onions
1 package of dried shrimp
a couple cloves of garlic

scrambled eggs with green onions. (I just put in as many as I had left)

1. Soak the shrimp in hot water.
2. Soak the rice cake in hot water.
3. Wash the escarole thoroughly and cut into 1" to 2" square pieces.
4. chop the onions into strips.
5. mince the garlic
6. slice up the Chinese sausage along the bias.
7. Heat up pan and saute sausage until translucent.
8. Pour sausage into another container.
9. While you are waiting for the sausage to cook mince the shrimp.
10.saute onions and garlic.
11.Add escarole, saute until wilted.
12.pour on top of sausage
13.saute the rice cake.
14.add all the other ingredients.
15.mix together. Add some oyster sauce.
16.let simmer until rice cake done.
17. serve hot.

Pennsic Recipes 5 - pressed duck over rice

Re: recipe - pressed duck over rice - second week

1 smoked duck

1 bag of mixed grains
1/2 a bag of dried red dates
a handful of dried shitake mushrooms (I substituted fresh portabellos)
2 small onions
1 scallion
fried shallots

The night before.
Rinse grains thoroughly, and let soak overnight.

The next day
1. soak mushrooms and dates in hot water.
2. cut up onions and scallions.
3. chop up duck into manageable pieces
4. Saute onions and scallions with a handful of fried shallots.
5. Once you have sweated the onions add the dates and mushrooms. remove from
pan.
6. Heat up some more oil and a handful of fried shallots. Saute drained grains
until pungent.
7. Add onions, dates, and mushrooms, stir together.
8. Add water or broth, until the rice is covered. Place the duck on top of the
grains. Cover pan.
9. Let simmer until the grain is cooked. Serve hot.

Pennsic Recipes 4 - steamed pork buns

Recipe - steamed roast pork buns - second week

The filling.
If you're smart you will buy 1 to 2lbs of roast pork in Chinatown and use that.
If you're like me or at Pennsic where that isn't feasible here's how I made the
roast pork.

2lbs of pork loin. If the skinny on is available at the store use that one.
Otherwise get the fat one and have the store quarter it lengthwise or do it
yourself.

Day 1. Then marinate it in Lee Kum Lee Char Siu sauce and ketchup. One to one
ratio. Then add 4 or 5 cloves of crush garlic. I just flatten them with the
flat of my cleaver so I don't have to chop it. Add enough rice wine to make the
sauce runny. Then I marinated the meat overnight in my cooler. I think this is
why I didn't manage to kill anyone. My cooler was cold and there is just so
much salt and alcohol in the sauce that it helps keep down the bacteria.

Day 2. Grill the pork. First I seared the outside. The Lee Kum Kee sauce is
basically honey and sugar. It should form a crunchy coating nicely. Charcoal
fire preferred unless you like trying to scrape carmelized sugar off your grill.
I then lowered the temperature and let it cook at a low heat. Basting with the
remaining sauce to get a nice crunchy crust. I only had one burner of the grill
on. And the meat was on the opposite grill. Then I closed the grill and
wandered around camp cleaning up and just hanging out. Probably about 1/2 an
hour to an hour? really not sure. I turned off the grill before I went to the
HH commons and just let it sit there in the retained heat. After commons I
tossed the cooled meat into ziplock baggies and placed it in the cooler. Mendee
and I stuck a couple of slices off the end. It was yummy. If you want to know
how to do this in a regular oven. I have no clue. I don't make this at home, I
go to Chinatown and buy roast pork. You're probably just bake it like any other
roast... Helpful aren't I?

Oh yeah... the BBQ sauce from the night Jackie made roast pork. 1:1:1 ratio of
Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce, Black Bean with Garlic Sauce, and Ketchup with
enough Shiaoxing rice wine to make it runny and happy. This is also the sauce I
usually use to marinate baby back ribs that I show up with at demos and other
random events. Jackie did the mixing and the cooking, so you'll have to ask her
how she cooked hers.

In case you are wondering about the ketchup. These sauces especially the garlic
and black bean sauce are very very very salty. I use the ketchup to cut the
salt. You can imagine how salty these things are that I can use ketchup to cut
the salt! The ketchup also makes the sauce not as thick and overpowering. It's
also easier to use as a marinade. It also adds a nice tartness. IMHO.

Day 3 - The buns

Dough.

Before you start. Start soaking 2 handfuls of dried shitake mushrooms in hot water.

I started with 5 cups of flour and a cup of water and a package of yeast, usually and a spoonful of sugar. But we had egg mixture leftover from the french toast from breakfast. I don't recommend the egg. It totally changes the texture of the dough.

Knead together flour, and water and yeast mixture. Make a firm elastic dough. Something like pizza dough. This takes a while. Once done kneading, place in a bowl in a warm, humid place to rise (this would be anywhere at Pennsic this year :) I used the Silverhorde dining pavilion as it was especially hot and muggy. I was actually afraid I might kill the yeast. Leave it for an hour or 2 until the dough doubles in size.

Back to the filling. while the dough is rising...

roast pork

onions

shitake mushrooms

oyster sauce

hoisin sauce (I forgot to add it)

enough olive oil to saute the ingredients.

1. Dice into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces an equal amount of onion as you have pork by volume.

2. Dice the shitake mushrooms.

3. Dice up the roast pork.

4. In a large pan heat up enough olive oil to LIGHTLY coat the bottom of the pan.

5. Once the oil is hot, toss in the onion and lightly saute to sweat the onions.

6. Once the onions are translucent and sizzling happily, toss in the mushrooms and meat.

7. Mix to together oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and water, with a teaspoon of cornstarch in a separate cup. You don't need a lot, just enough to coat and filling and make nice gravy.

8. Pour liquid into the pan and let simmer until the gravy has thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.

9. Filling MUST BE COOL before stuffing the buns, otherwise you will KILL the yeast!!

Back to the dough.

1. When the dough has risen to 2x its original size. Punch it down. Add about a cup of flour and knead it into the dough.

2. Let dough rest for another 15 to 30 minutes until the dough doubles in size again.

3. Cut off a manageable chunk of dough. Knead, roll, stretch lightly, until you have a snake about 1" to 1.5" in diameter.

4. Cut about 1" pieces of dough. Don't forget to rotate 90 degrees after every cut.

5. Roll out dough into about 4" circles about 1/8 to 1/4" thick.

6. Place a table spoon of filling in the circle.

7. Crimp edges together so they form little pouches or bao.

8. Set aside. Keep going. Allow the buns to rise and get poofy.

9. Start boiling water under the steamers.

10. Line bottom of steamers with either wet cloth or large napa cabbage leaves.

11. Place buns in steamers racks. Make sure to leave room for buns to rise.

12. Steam buns for 8 minutes.

13. Remove from heat. Take buns from steamer. Put more buns in steamer. Keep steaming until all buns have finished cooking.

14. I made steamed bread from the leftover dough. Just cut the dough pieces bigger. These should cook for 8 minutes as well.

Yes slow food.

But it was worth it!

Pennsic Recipes 3. hot pot soup morphs into garbage soup the next day

Re: recipe - hot pot soup morphs into garbage soup the next day - first week

The next day I brought the soup up to a boil and skimmed off a couple of bowls
worth of ick.

Sorry Brad and Mendee, I didn't not realize you wanted to eat blood scum.

Dropped in good sized chunk of ginger. I chopped up all the cooked leftover
meat from the night before and and threw that in pot as well.

Once it started boiling I threw in a bag of dried reconstituted shitake
mushrooms cut into quarters, as well as the remaining napa cabbage and the king
mushroom leftover from the day before. Then a bag of sliced korean style rice
cakes. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I had sliced king mushroom as part of the
hot pot. I julienned them for the garbage soup.

Once it started boiling again. I dropped in tablespoons full of the meat
mixture. They were supposed to be meat balls but I didn't add bread crumbs for
a better binder. Nor did I mix it well enough with my hands, so the meat could
be it's own binder.

I took Mendee's 1lb of ground meat? Beef?
mixed it with eggs I can't remember how many, whatever I had leftover.
minced onions
minced scallions
and soy sauce and rice wine and pepper.
There may have been other stuff in the meatballs.

I washed and cleaned 2lbs of yu choy.

I let everything simmer to be happy.

Just before serving I dumped in the baby yu choy. Stirred it around and brought
it to a boil again. This way the greens stayed nice and crisp.

Garbage soup done. I also set out some condiments so people could season to
taste. I used oyster sauce and sesame oil for mine.

Fortunately, most of it got eaten, so we did not end up with the scary pot of
eternal soup. :) Although I suppose if you keep taking out more than half the
pot at a sitting and adding more fresh ingredients and keep it simmering, you
could manage not to kill your friends and family... I'm NOT trying it! :)

Anyway, this is my way of making sure I got plenty of greens and eating healthy
at Pennsic. Not to mention discovering that more and more people were expected
for dinner that night or at least were going to be showing up late at night
and might want a midnight snack before unpacking! How does one stretch 1 lb of
meat to feed about 10 people? Keep adding aromatic fillers to the meat. MORE
ONIONS! Throw more mushrooms in the soup! It's chewy, people will think they
are eating meat! Throw in more noodle type food!

Pennsic Recipes 2. hot pot/shabu-shabu/chinese style fondue

Re: recipe - hot pot/shabu-shabu/chinese style fondue - first week

The most important thing is to start with a good broth.

Usually for Chinese style you start with a pork broth. I either use leg or
clavicle bones, whatever is in the store.

At Pennsic, all I could get was beef bones. So I used cut up beef soup bones as
well as boxed beef broth, since I really really didn't want to be simmering hot
broth all day in 90+ degree heat and stupid humidity. I did however cook the
broth for at least 2 hours. And I went with a low salt low fat broth! You add
enough salt with the dipping sauces.

Japanese style uses soup from bonito flakes.

I've also had it with chicken broth. It's really up to you. Vegetable broth
also good. The most important thing is that you start with a tasty broth and
not just salty water.

You can also use chicken or beef boullion. I don't bc I think it's more salt
and chemical flavorings than actual meat. If I start from scratch I still don't
add salt to broth.

I added daikon radish to simmer with the soup after I skimmed it and just let it
simmer.

Once you are ready to serve.

Fill about 1/2 shallow pot with the broth and chunks of radish. They sell shabu
pots both propane and electric. I borrowed Jackie's table top coleman grill.
Not the most ideal setup, but you settle for what you can get at Pennsic and
consider yourself lucky to have something works even half as well! Bring this
back to a simmer. And don't forget that the pot you are using has a lid! hee!

While waiting for it to simmer, lay out the meat and veggies and condiments.

2lbs pork
2lbs beef
2lbs chicken
1 pack of assorted fish balls

1 pack of fish balls stuffed with pork (these seem like the favorites) stuffed
eyeballs anyone? :) Fujian style fish balls.

2lbs of WASHED and picked over baby Shanghai bok choy. The stuff Pao used in
his steamed dish was regular bok choy. You can tell the difference bc his stems
were snow white and the leaves a dark green. Shanghai bok choy has light green
steams and the leaves are a paler green than the regular bok choy. It's a
matter of personal preference and market availability.

2lbs of WASHED and picked over baby yu choy. It looks a little like Chinese
broccoli, but more leafy. I think it's some kind of mustard green.

Napa cabbage in about 2inch wide strips. Basically, I peeled off enough leaves
so I would use up the remainder for dumplings latter in the week.

Usually, my dad will have sushi quality fish filets cut into about 2 inches
square and raw shrimp (usually the $5.99 or $6.99/lb size in Chinatown, but
probably way more expensive now). Since I didn't want to poison my guests. I
left out the seafood. You can also do clams and other shellfish. Again I
recommend this in a more controlled setting, unless you are throwing them in
live.

Bean vermicelli soaked in cold water or rice cakes. These are usually tossed in
at the end to soak up the yummy broth. Or some other type of noodle. I didn't
do this since I was counting on using the soup the next day for dinner. And
even though I didn't refridgerate the soup. I did start simmering it most of
the following day once the temperature started rising to kill off any bacteria.

Condiments.
1 raw egg per guest.
Chinese BBQ Sa tea sauce - Chinese style fish sauce.
soy sauce
sesame oil
chili sauce - I used a Vietnamese garlic and chili sauce this time.
hoisin
oyster
vinegar etc etc
Basically i was using this as a chance for people to taste and experiment with
various Asian style condiments.
Large shabu shabu restaurants offer a condiment bar with even more choices. And
some will offer shredded ginger, scallions, and minced garlic. But that's just
too much work for me! :) As well as chopped chili peppers.

The style of hot pot I grew up with.
You crack and scramble an egg into your bowl and then season it with condiments.
I prefer a couple of spoonfuls of Satea sauce, some soy and sesame oil all
scrambled together. The raw egg in the dipping sauce cooks when the hot meat is
placed in the bowl, cooling the meat/veggie enough to eat. Mendee added lots of
chili sauce to hers, which people seemed to enjoy a lot. I'm not that brave :)

I give people the option of egg or no egg depending on how they feel about
salmonella. Basically eat at your own risk.

Usually people sit around the pot of boiling water and dip in their food item
until cooked to taste and then eat it. It's a fun, social form of meals.

At the end, soup is ladled into your personal bowl of remaining dipping sauce
mixed around and drunk like soup.

FYI, this is usually a winter meal, bc you are sitting in front of a heat
source.

But I thought it would make a fun Pennsic meal. And the soup at the end is
really yummy from all the meat and other stuff that's been cooked with it.

Safety precautions.

NO horsing around the hot pot. It might tip over and pour boiling water on
people. I won't do this when there are small children around, unless their
parents serve hot pot at home, so they know the rules.

Make sure you dip the tips of your chopsticks into the simmering pot for a few
seconds after handling raw meat with them!!! Especially important at Pennsic!

Basically make sure all your guests are old enough so that if they do themselves
injury through stupidity you can scream and upbraid them as you haul them off to
the chirugeon/emergency room.

Pennsic Recipes 1. Pork and chive dumplings

pork and chive dumplings (first week)


dough
3 cups flour
enough water to form dough. I usually start with a cup and work up from there.
You are looking for a dry elastic dough, bagel/pretzel/pizza dough consistency.
after kneading until the dough is smooth, let it rest.

filling
1lb pork
1lb shrimp (I omitted this at pennsic)
2 handsful of dried shitake mushrooms (my hands are small)
a pack of dried 5 spice tofu (I omitted this at pennsic)
a pack of bean vermicelli (I omitted this at Pennsic)
1 pack of dried shrimp (a handful?)
1 bunch of garlic chives
1 bunch of scallions
1 chunk of ginger about 1 to 2 inches square
napa cabbage 2 stacks of leaves about 2 inches high. this depends on how big
your cabbage head is.

soy sauce
shaoxing wine
sesame oil
pepper

1. Before you start the dough. Soak the dried shrimp, bean vermicelli and
mushrooms in hot water to reconstitute.

2. Start the dough. Mix together the flour and cold water until it sticks
together. Knead the dough adding more flour or water until you get a dry
elastic dough kind of like bagel/pizza/pretzel dough. The gluten must be
activated! This takes a while.

3. Set aside dough and let it rest.

4. Mince napa cabbage place in bowl and sprinkle with salt. Mix well and let
sit. You are trying extract the water from the napa cabbage.

5. Chop garlic chives about 1/8 inch.
6. Mince all the other ingredients and place in bowl.
7. squeeze the nappa cabbage between your hands to press out the liquid. Toss
in bowl. Repeat until no cabbage left. Reserve liquid.

8. Add condiments to taste. I usually use a about 1" on the soy sauce bottle.
1 to 2 inches on the rice wine. and a couple of squirts of the sesame oil.

9. Mix all the ingredients together. look at the filling if you think it's too
dried add some of the cabbage juice and mix again. This is especially important
if you are using the fresh shrimp. It's drier than the veggies and pork so the
filling will need to be moistened.

10. back to the dough. take a managable chunk of the dough and knead. Stretch/
roll out the dough until you get a rope/cable about an inch in diameter. cut
out about 1/2inch to 3/4 inch pieces. Make one cut rotate snake 90 degrees and
make 2nd cut. This keeps the dough round.

11. Dust both cut ends and flatten the lump with your hand. make sure the cut
end is facing up. this makes rolling out circles easier.

12. Roll out the dough into roughly 3 inch circles.

(I usually cheat at home, I use a pasta machine and a cookie cutter. hand
rolled does taste better though)

13. Put a rounded teaspoon of filling into the center of the circle. Fold
dough in half. Pinch the top of the semi circle closed. crimp the other 2
sides. pretty doesn't really matter. the most important thing is to seal the
dumplings shut.

14. while you are making the dumplings. Fill a stock pot about 1/2 full with
water and let boil.

15. when you get a good sized batch of dumplings. toss them in the pot. stir
gently once or twice so they don't stick to the bottom. Let the water come to a
boil. add cold water to the pot. Repeat 2 more times. It takes 3 boilings
usually to boil dumplings. If your pot is too small (as it was at Pennsic).
Let the dumplings boil until they float on the water. Then I let it boil for
about 3-5 more minutes (paranoid, who me?). Serve hot.

16. Dipping sauce.

I use soy sauce. Zhengjiang vinegar (black vinegar), sesame oil, and shredded
ginger and scallions usually. You can also have chili sauce on the side. it's
up to you.

17. dumplings also freeze well. at home I stick the entire plate of raw
dumplings in the freezer and let them freeze. then I pop them off the plate and
dump them into a ziplock baggie and toss the whole thing back in the freezer.
Frozen dumplings require 4 boilings.

18. you can also pan fry them.