Tag: Ginger

Weekend Finds 5:3:14: Cinco De Mayo Edition

May 3, 2014February 10, 2017

I’ll be working on Monday night, but this edition of weekend finds is for those of you that will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo! I plan on celebrating with my roommates over the weekend, though there certainly won’t be any margarita cupcakes or jello shots (because, seriously?). You can celebrate this weekend, too, if lots of margaritas are more your style…

1. Rhubarb Margaritas

Weekend Finds: Cinco de Mayo Edition // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler — Try these rhubarb margaritas with homemade rhubarb simple syrup!

Yes, more rhubarb. I had a hard time deciding if this weekend finds would be rhubarb themed or Cinco de Mayo themed, and lucky for me, this find fits both. This time, the rhubarbh is combined with tequila, so it’s about as great as it could ever be. I would DIY some rhubarb simple syrup for this recipe instead of trekking out to your nearest Ikea…

2. Tacos Galore

If you know you’re going to make tacos (and really, why wouldn’t you?), check out this slideshow from Bon Appetit to help you decide what exactly to fill them with. I think making a few of these fillings is a perfect way of giving folks some options.

3. Corn Tortillas

If you haven’t made your own tortillas before, I definitely recommend it. The softness and freshness cannot be beat by anything in a little ziploc bag you buy at the store. Try this recipe from Happy Yolks on Food52. It only calls for 3 ingredients, one of which is water, and you don’t even need a tortilla press.

4. Guacamole with Spring Peas

I love that this guacamole recipe brings fresh peas into the mix, letting us celebrate springtime a little bit too. The ginger sounds nice too, like it would make for a very refreshing snack. Bring on the Juanita’s. And don’t forget this guac saving trick.

5. Crunchy Black Bean Tacos

These black been tacos look delicious, and I love the way you fry up the tortillas to get them nice and crunchy. Imagine these bad boys all piled on a plate, piping hot and ready to enjoy with some Coronas. Yum.

6. Fish Tacos

If you are going to make more traditional tacos, this recipe for fish tacos will always be one of my absolute favorites.

7. Mango Michelada

If margaritas aren’t quite your style and you’d prefer something a little more laid back, try this mango michelada. I bet you could simplify it even farther by replacing the mango purée with mango juice, too.

Shanghai Stir-Fried Rice Cakes

March 12, 2014February 9, 2017

There’s this dumpling house near my mom’s old apartment in Bellevue called Din Tai Fung. It’s a chain, but it’s ok because the dumplings are awesome. We always entrusted our ordering to my little sister, who is the guru of Asian cuisine, and she always ordered the best dishes. If you go, I highly recommend the juicy pork dumplings that are filled with pork and a hot broth, the shrimp and pork shao mai, and some variation of the Shanghai rice cake. These rice cakes are small, oval cakes that I assume are made out of ground rice. They’re delicate and chewy at the same time, and they take on the flavor of whatever sauce they’re cooked in.

Recently I went to Fubonn Supermarket, an Asian market in southeast Portland. I love roaming the aisles of international markets, being astounded by some of the things you can find, and excited when you happen upon an ingredient that you love but have never been able to find before.

You can imagine my delight when I happened upon a bag of dried rice cakes, and they were roughly $2 for a pound. So… that’s a thing. I immediately grabbed a bag, and it sat on our shelf for a few days while I tried to figure out what to do with them. (Then they sat on the shelf a couple days longer when I forgot to start soaking them the night before we wanted to make them, so we had to whip up something else for dinner instead.)

I believe you can also get frozen and fresh rice cakes, but with my dried ones, I soaked them overnight before I made them. But they were easy to use, and delicious, and I recommend getting your hands on some as soon as you can to start experimenting! I stir fried mine with some bok choy and shiitakes, and it was delicious.

Shanghai Stir-Fried Rice Cakes

Ingredients

3 Tbl canola oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
8 oz rice cakes, soaked overnight if dried, thawed if frozen
2 heads baby bok choy, rinsed
8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced into 1/3-inch strips
1/4 cup soy sauce
1-3 tsp Sriracha
1-3 tsp brown sugar

Ingredients

More optional additions: bean sprouts, napa cabbage, other mushrooms, fish sauce, pork, beef, shrimp.

In a large wok or nonstick pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic, and sauté until fragrant and starting to brown, about one minute. Add the rice cakes, bok choy, and mushrooms and cook until the bok choy is wilted. If your rice cakes aren’t quite soft enough (remember though, you want them to be a little chewy), add about 1/4 cup water to the pan and cover for a few minutes to steam a bit. Once the mushrooms are cooked through and the bok choy is wilted, add the soy sauce, sriracha, and brown sugar to taste. Start with less sriracha and brown sugar, and taste a lot! I found that I wanted a larger amount of brown sugar because of the saltiness of the soy sauce, and Jonah wanted more Sriracha (obviously). Cook, stirring, until all the rice cakes and vegetables are thoroughly coated and the liquid of the soy sauce has cooked off. Enjoy with teriyaki salmon or Korean short ribs (like we did).

Gingered Rhubarb Crisp

May 24, 2012February 2, 2017

You know what has started? Our neighborhood farmer’s market! I couldn’t be more excited. Jonah and I walked over for the first time and bought some sweet little carrots and some of the most beautiful rhubarb I had ever seen in my life. Seriously.

Now, for those who know me, you are award I have an obsession with rhubarb. If you don’t know me, well…now you know that much more. Strawberry rhubarb is my dad’s favorite kind of pie, and he and I spent one summer searching for the perfect recipe. We made probably a pie every other week. And we found what is, in my opinion, the best recipe. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to give you the filling recipe, but if I do it will be later. I’ve already given you the pie dough recipe.

This recipe, however, is one that my older sister discovered a few summers ago. It’s perfect for a) not having any strawberries, but having lots of rhubarb and b) wanting rhubarb dessert but not having enough time to make a pie. That shit’s time consuming. It’s so delicious: the ginger really brings out the tartness of the rhubarb, and I love the nuts in the topping. I halved the recipe because we all know what happens when there’s extra dessert lying around (hint: it ends up in my belly).

Gingered Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients

Rhubarb Filling

Vegetable oil spray or butter wrapper (see instructions)
3 pounds rhubarb, cut into ½-inch chunks
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger

Crumble Topping

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup old-fashioned oats
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup chopped walnuts
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or plain Greek yogurt for serving (I wish we’d had Greek yogurt… sounds so good).

Instructions

Rhubarb Filling

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray an 8- by 8-inch baking pan lightly with the vegetable oil spray and set aside. If you don’t have vegetable oil spray, take the wrapper from the butter you use in the recipe and just rub the pan with that. Jonah and I keep a stash of butter wrappers in our fridge for this exact reason.

Stir the rest of the filling ingredients (rhubarb, flour, sugar, and 1/2 tsp ground ginger) in a mixing bowl until the fruit is nicely coated with the flour. Spread the rhubarb evenly in the pan and bake it in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.

Crumble Topping

While the fruit is baking, make the crisp topping (you can use the same bowl you used for the fruit – I’m all for fewer dishes): Mix all the topping ingredients except the butter together in the bowl. Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are evenly moistened. With the melted butter. That’s right.

Take the pan of rhubarb out of the oven and spread the topping in an even layer over the fruit. It’s probably a good idea to put the pan on a baking sheet (maybe even lined with foil) to catch any drips. Or just do it in a bigger pan. That’s up to you I guess. Anyway, bake it for another 30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or Greek yogurt.

Flip-flopping Brown Sugar Cookies

February 22, 2012February 2, 2017

The other night, it was late, and Jonah and I decided on a whim to make some cookies. We figured we’d just make something we’d already made before, so we got out the recipe for the nutmeg maple butter cookies because they were so good. After we started creaming the butter and sugar for half the recipe (we didn’t want that many cookies) we realized “OH NO these cookies are supposed to refrigerate for 2 hours!” At this point it was already about 10:30 and we were not up for that. So we pulled up another recipe that I’d been looking at: Brown Sugar Cookies from Joy the Baker. So what were once nutmeg maple butter cookies became brown sugar cookies, with 1/2 cup of brown sugar replaced by granulated sugar. Jonah said we should call them flip-flopping cookies (he also inserted the name of a certain GOP candidate, but I’m not about to start getting political on my blog). Oh well. You can’t win them all. The cookies were still good. Not amazing, but a good solid cookie. The little bits of ground ginger and cinnamon add a nice touch. I’m going to give you the correct recipe instead of our version.

Brown Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Instructions

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. While that’s happening, combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger – in another bowl, mix thoroughly, and set aside. When the butter and sugar are nice and creamy, add the egg and vanilla and mix them in well. Now add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix on a low speed until it’s well combined. Now the recipe says to cover and refrigerate for half an hour. We didn’t do that. Maybe we should have. Whatever.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (while you’re “refrigerating your dough”… ha). Grease your cookie sheet or line with parchment paper, and drop the cookie dough by the Tablespoon onto the sheet. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until they’re just starting to brown around the edges. Take them out of the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes on the hot cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.