Comforting Chicken Wor Wonton Soup

 When I was just a little toddler, viewing the streets of New York through my small baby eyes, I remember my mother feeding me lots and lots of shrimp and wonton soup. These two foods were my staple, and being the little half-Japanese kid that I was, I would constantly ask for "Ebi!" "Ebi" (meaning "shrimp" in Japanese). I gorged those sea creatures down like no tomorrow. Wonton soup also always has held a soft spot in my heart. After a tired day at work today, feeling a little weary, with my feet hurting a little, I determined to make Wor Wonton Soup. I gathered ingredients from the local Chinese store, a pack of square wonton wrappers, baby bok choi, snow peas, carrots, chicken breast and chicken broth I bought from a grocery store, and headed home.

 One of the things I love about making wonton soup is the aroma of flavors that greet you every step of the way. I enjoy thinly slicing the green onions (though they made me cry a little), mincing up cloves of garlic and inhaling that sudden, pervasive, garlicky smell in the air, and chopping up pungent yet addicting chunks of ginger root. After mixing the minced chicken and aromatic ingredients together in a small bowl, I begin by taking up a square wonton wrapper, feeling it's cool and floury surface with my fingers, its thin and supple, yet firm texture, and yellowy-ness.

I wet my fingers and put a layer of water around the edges of the wonton wrapper. Using a little teaspoon, I gingerly pick up just a little mound of meat mixture, and place it in the middle. I fold the wonton in half, sealing the edges and turn it so it is facing the other direction. I fold it in half again, but while doing so, pinch the edges of the wonton together in a cute tortellini-like shape. Then, I make like 50 more wontons. It's actually quite fun when done with others!

Surprisingly, the broth for wonton soup is simply chicken broth. I bought 4 lbs of chicken broth from Kroger, but any kind of chicken broth will do. Homemade is even better tasting. After making the wontons and washing the baby bok choi, snap peas, and diagnally and thinly sliced carrots, I bring the chicken broth to a boil, drop the wontons in and let them cook for a couple of minutes. A delicate steam greets your face as the light flavor of chicken broth marries the flavors of wonton noodle and the wonton filling. It's almost like rebirth. It feels miraculous, delicious, hot, steamy, and so comforting. I bite down into the tender wonton noodle and it gives way to a mouth-watering, meaty yet fragrant core, slurping up the soup and vegetables as I go. It's really relaxing. It's like coming home again, over and over :).

Comforting Chicken Wor Wonton Soup
adapted from a recipe on Allrecipes.com by Marbalet
*enough for a big pot of soup, halve the ingredients if you want a smaller portion

Ingredients:

For the wontons:

• 2 chicken breasts 
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced (or more if you like!)
• 2-3 green onions, chopped finely
• square, thin wonton wrappers (make sure they are defrosted before you start!)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar

For the soup:

• baby bok choi
• 2-3 carrots
• sugar peas
• 4 lbs chicken broth
• green onion for garnish

Method:

• Mince chicken breast meat until very fine. Mince all wonton filling vegetables very fine, and mix all filling ingredients, including soy sauce and sugar, all together.
• Place a small bowl of water in front of you for dipping your finger in. Pick up a wonton wrapper, place in your palm and wet all edges with water from your finger. Place 1/2 teaspoon filling mixture in the middle of the wrapper. 
• Fold wrapper in half, sealing all edges. Turn wonton wrapper so that the edges you just sealed are facing toward you. Fold in half again, and while folding, twist wonton so that you overlap the top corners of each side of wonton. Watch this helfpul video I found on Youtube and you will get it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWIVfA9uteY
• Put them all on a plate, get a friend or reluctant husband to help you ;)
• Put all chicken broth in a pot and heat till boiling. Drop wontons in and let them cook for 2 minutes or so. Put all the bok choi, carrots, and snow peas in and let it all cook for another five minutes of medium high heat. 

Enjoy!

Kaori

Delicious Homemade Mabo Tofu! Made with No MSG!

You have to admit it. Mabo Tofu, in all of it's meaty, savory, tasty, umami-ness is just what you crave for dinner. A delicious combination of ground pork, soft tofu, scallions, minced ginger, garlic, and bean-based sauces, it is a perfect meal for a protein boost. And it's addicting.

My husband is allergic to MSG(monosodium glutamate), so I wanted to find a way I could make Mabo/Mapo Tofu without buying one of those easy packages of sauce. What I found through another online recipe and my own experiments, is a fresh Mabo Tofu that beats an easy sauce packet any day!

Delicious Homemade No-MSG Mabo Tofu

adapted from the Appetite for China blog

Ingredients for sauce: 

• 1 tablespoon fermented black bean sauce (this can be find in Chinese stores)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon miso paste (no MSG miso paste)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon Japanese/Korean/Chinese cooking wine (make sure it contains no MSG)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes (like the kind you put on pizza)

Other ingredients:

• 1 package soft tofu, diced into 1 inch cubes (but doesn't have to be exact)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 scallions (just the white part, save the green part for garnish), thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger, minced (I added a little more ginger, because I just love it. But don't overdo it)
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 4 mushrooms (optional)

*I left out cornstarch and it tasted just fine!

Method:

• In a separate bowl, combine and mix the sauce ingredients and set aside
• Chop up and mince all vegetables
• Heat up a pan to pretty hot, I put it at level 8 (if that makes sense), and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Add in the ground pork and fry in hot pan for 4 minutes or until cooked, splitting up the meat while cooking
• Reduce to medium high heat and add all the vegis, stir fry them for a couple of minutes
• Add in the chopped tofu
• Mix in the sauce and cook for another 7 minutes uncovered, let the tofu soak in the sauce 

Serve over white or brown rice, with a garnish of thinly sliced scallions (green part)

Most Importantly, Enjoy!! :)

Cooking Class Confessions: Macarons from France

Hi everyone! It has been too long since my last update. In these past couple of months, I have been helping out at a delightful cooking school in Clintonville, Ohio, The Seasoned Farmhouse. During my assistance, I learned the ins and outs of instructing a cooking class. I saw how much work went into it, from buying ingredients, preparing them, preparing recipes, and cleaning, but I also saw how much enjoyment can be had in the process of teaching others the joy of cooking! I've assisted with French Bistro classes, Middle Eastern cooking classes, and Italian pasta cooking classes. These experiences made me realize how much I would enjoy being a cooking instructor as well.

MACARON LOVE

 Following this inspiration, I have designed and led several cooking classes, my first being an Italian pasta cooking class (pictures to be posted soon) and my second, a french macaron baking class. The French Macaron isn't an easy cookie to master. These small and seemingly innocent cookies actually take a lot of attention to detail, precision, and time.

Our Melange of Sweet Shapes

A typical batch takes at least around 4 hours from start to finish. If you saw my very first blog post below, it contains the recipe for the French Macaron which I learned from a class I took in Paris :). For now, I wanted to document the macaron cooking class, and what I learned from doing it.

Some of our participants got very creative

Voila! Heart Macaron

Demonstrating how to pipe a macaron

Beautiful Mika and her Rose Flavored Macaron

Rose Flavored Macaron, filled with white chocolate and Rose Water

Grace and her piping skills

Green Tea Matcha Macaron

I intend to continue with the cooking and baking classes :). I will update soon with photos from the Italian Pasta class!

Yummy Yummy Beef Stew! SUPER EASY

Ever crave a warm, hearty soup on a cold day? Well that exact scenario is what prompted my husband and I to invent Yummy Yummy Beef Stew! Loaded with hearty beef chunks that melt in your mouth, onions, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes and squash, this soup is basically a garden vegetable soup with beef in it, meaning that it is also pretty healthy! It filled me up the last two days I was substituting at a high school, and made me happy and satisfied...and, it was very easy to make. So, I want to share it with you!

Yummy Yummy Beef Stew:
serves 10, recipe can be halved if you want a smaller quantity.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chuck roast beef, cut into 2 inch cubes (or however you like)
• 2 small yellow squashes 
• 4 carrots, peeled 
• 2  28 oz cans diced tomatoes (I like to use 1 can diced and 1 can stewed tomatoes)
• 3 small onions
• 3-4 dried bay leaves
• 1 bell pepper
• 4 cups water (add more later if you like your stew more soupy)

Steps:

1. Cut up all ingredients. Open the two cans diced tomatoes and put into a pot, as well as all the cut-up beef (if it's frozen, just put the whole chunk in, and then after it defrosts you can take it out and cut it into small pieces). Cook on stove at medium-high heat for 1 hour. Using a dutch oven is best, but any kind of pot will work. 

2. Cut up all vegetables into bite-size pieces, and add to the pot with the dried bay leaves after the tomatoes and beef have cooked for 1 hour. Cook at low-medium heat for another 1.5-2 hours or so (the longer you cook it, the more tender it gets). If you're using a crock-pot, just throw all these ingredients in together and cook for 5-6 hours. 

3. Remove bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and Enjoy! Serve with a fresh pot of rice, crusty bread, or noodles. 

Best wishes in the kitchen!

Kaori

Cute Pie Decorations!

I recently discovered that Pie crust cutters are the best invention ever to decorate and dress up simple pies! I can't be going back to not using pie cutters, and I won't be :P. I bought pie crust cutters on Amazon.com for $5. Here is the link to the ones I bought. They took about one and a half weeks to get here, but got here just in time for Thanksgiving! You can also use them for fruit pies and basically any kind of pie! Have fun!

Pie crust cutters!

pumpkin pie!

Cherry pie before baking :)

Cherry pie!

Homemade matcha green tea cake with matcha cream cheese frosting

This matcha cake is SO good! I would make it again in a heartbeat! It was very easy, thanks to another blogging site called Oishii Treats, "Oishii" meaning delicious in Japanese (My mother is Japanese :) ). Click on this link. All I did was put it in a round cake pan instead of using cupcake tins, and decorated with a little bit of milk chocolate ganache and some cute sprinkles (which I bought from Walmart :P). So there you go! YUM.

Gluten-free Bakery: Yummy Vanilla and Chocolate Almond Flour Muffins

I put a little too much batter in these, and didn't have any muffin liners, but if you make sure to follow recipe below and you will be fine!

Gluten-free is getting more popular now, since eating a gluten-free, or reduced gluten diet has helped people lose weight, eat healthier, and go for beneficial grains, vegetables, and fruit instead of wheat. Lately, I've been getting very into the idea of going gluten-free, and replacing wheat products and gluten with products made from nuts, fruit, or other grains such as rice, amaranth and quinoa. The only problem for me is that I can't leave out desserts from my diet. I just can't. I need that sweetness at the end of the day, or during hump day of the week, to carry me through. Luckily, there is a way to eat baked sweets but still be healthy. Thus, I will be exploring and trying out different gluten-free desserts as well as breads :).

Gluten-Free Flours:

• Almond Flour- can be bought at nearest Indian grocery for pretty inexpensive prices
• Coconut Flour- I think the brand Bob's Red Mill sells this at a pretty cheap price and you can find it at grocery stores that sell more specialty flours than just your basic flour.
• Xanthan gum- gives dough elasticity. This can also be bought at grocery stores that sell more specialty flours than just your basic flour, or online
• Tapioca Flour (same as above). 
• Costco, I have heard, has big bags of Gluten-free flour available from time to time

I have really enjoyed the blog Comfy Belly. It has a ton of low-fat, gluten-free recipes! And I love the simplicity of the recipes. The recipe I'm about to display is adapted from Comfy Belly's brownie recipe :).

Vanilla Chocolate Gluten-Free Muffins

Ingredients:

Vanilla cake:

• 1.5 cups blanched finely ground almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tblspns honey or other sweetener
• 1/3 cup butter or coconut oil (at room temperature or slightly melted)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• muffin liners

Chocolate cake:

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tblspoons honey
• 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil (at room temperature or slightly melted)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tblspn milk
• 1 egg 
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350. 

2. Blend vanilla cake ingredients ingredients together with mixer on medium for 2 minutes or until well blended and pour up to 3/4 way into muffin pans with muffin liners.

3. Blend chocolate cake ingredients together with mixer on medium for 2 minutes or until well blended.

4.  Fill last 1/4 of each muffin tin with the chocolate mixture. You can just take a spoon and plop some chocolate cake mixture on top of the vanilla cake mixture. 

And next time...I shall post about how to make gluten-free bread!! :) So stay tuned!