Pan-fried Multigrain Calzones with Pork, Eggs and Vegetable Filling

Ok, I know these are not the real authentic calzones you are expecting.  They are more like extra extra extra large pan-fried Asian dumplings.  People make them into these beautiful half moon shape dumplings with pretty wrinkles seal the edges.

Every family has its own unique traditional way to make them.  And probably everyone considers the best ones are made in their grandma’s kitchen.

I make them at home all the time too.  But this time I substituted regular with freshly ground multigrain flour to make a better healthier version. 

Like a lot of people, I too, used to hold this biased opinion against multigrain food; thinking they are all rough and tough and taste like cardboard.  However, after I start to make my own multigrain food at home, I realize how wrong I was before.   Multigrain food can be tasty and healthy at the same time!

Ingredients for pork, eggs and vegetable filling:

400 g ground pork
3 to 4 large eggs
500 g frozen Shepherd’s purse (sold in Asian grocery stores; can be substituted with frozen spinach)
2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1/4 to 1/3 low sodium soy sauce
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/4 cup chicken stock/ water
salt to taste

For multigrain calzones:

200 g multigrain flour
50 g gluten flour
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup water (give or take a couple tablespoons depending on multigrain flour mixture)
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (for pan frying)

 

Directions:

I usually buy different high fiber whole grains from Sprouts and Wholefoods market and mix everything together in a big jar later.  Top choices are but not limited to kidney beans, split green peas, yellow peas, barley, oats, wheat berries, lentils, wheat bran, flax seeds, and so on.

Add 2 cups multigrain mixture to a Vitamix blender dry container.

Grind on high speeds for 20 to 30 seconds.

Add 200g multigrain flour and gluten flour to a large bowl.

Add water, salt and oil.  Combine everything together in the bowl and knead into a smooth ball of dough.

I use ground oat for dusting.  And of course, ground oat is made by vitamix too.

Cover with plastic wrap.  Let it rest for 10 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare pork filling.

I usually buy large piece of pork shoulder and grind them into ground pork, and then divide and freeze ground pork for later use.  It takes longer than buying ground pork from grocery but the taste and flavor is so much better.

Add rice cooking wine, soy sauce, ground ginger, ground white peppercorn, oyster sauce, sesame oil and corn starch.

Whisk clock-wise with a pair of chopsticks.

While whisking, add a tablespoon chicken stock/ water.  Whisk until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

Defrosted shepherd’s purse

 It might be considered weed here in America.  However, shepherd’s purse is sold like any other vegetables.  It is really a seasonal delicacy only found in early spring time.  Asian people love it for its sweet, delicate, refreshing earthy flavors. 

Make scrambled eggs with a wok.  Add to the pork mixture along with chopped shepherd’s purse.

Mix until well combined.  Season with salt to taste.  

Equally divide multigrain dough into 12 pieces. 

I grind oat flour with Vitamix too.  And use it to dust the wooden board and the dough.

With a small rolling pin, flat out each piece as thin as possible.

Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of pork filling.

Wrap it up.

Repeat the process until all is done.

Preheat a double sided electric griddle skillet.  Add a couple teaspoons vegetable oil and then 4 to 5 pieces of calzones.  Bake for 3 to 5 minutes.

You will know they are ready when the tops are golden brown.

Pipping hot off the skillet, yum!

Mini Goledn Egg Dumplings with Pork Filling

Febrary 4th is the date for traditional Chinese New Year in 2019.  On this day, most Chinese families get together from all over the places to celebrate the beginning of a new year.  It is kind of like Thanksgiving in America, but longer and more festival. 

On the last evening of lunar year, it is also a tradition to make serve a marvelous feast which could take up to weeks’ preparation.  

Now since we are living in the United States, we still celebrate Chinese New Year, just on a smaller scale.  I still make some traditional Chinese food on this day.  Egg dumplings are one of them.

Egg dumplings are a must for New Year’s feast.  The beautiful golden color resembles gold and more money incoming in the New Year.  The shape of flower means good luck and blessing in the New Year too. 

Ingredients:

180 g ground pork
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 to 2 teaspoons rice cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock/ water
5 large eggs
salt to taste
vegetable oil for cooking

Directions :

Add ground pork to a medium bowl, along with ground ginger, rice cooking wine, oyster sauce, soy sauce, ground white pepper, and salt.  Whisk clock-wise with a pair of chopsticks.

While whisking, add a tablespoon chicken stock/ water.  Whisk until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

Add a pinch of salt to the eggs and beat them until smooth.

I use a cast iron pancake puff pan to make egg dumplings.  It is super efficient because I can make 7 of them at a time. 

Heat the pan over medium low heat.  Spray with oil.  Add a couple teaspoons of beaten eggs to each hole.  Swirl around a little bit.

Add teaspoon ground pork filling to each of them.

Fold them over.

Once egg dumplings can hold their half moon shape, remove from pan. 

Repeat the process until all done.

Assemble all egg dumplings in a plate like a big flower. 

Add to a steamer.  Steam dumplings over high heat for about 6 minutes.   The steaming time may vary with dumplings’ sizes and shapes.

They can be served hot or cold.  Aren’t they pretty?

The rest of our New Year feast also includes boiled free range chicken with dipping sauces.

med bass with ginger and oyster sauce

Purple daikon salad

Cucumber salad

Spinach and tofu salad

Steamed sweet rice with nuts and red beans paste

Smoked Asian Style Pork Sausages

中文菜谱: 熏猪肉肠

Summer has finally left Texas.  I have been enjoying the cool and dry weather lately, have you?

And of course, good weather means BBQ in the backyard!

This time I smoked some Asian style sausages.  They turned out great; golden brown and crunchy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside.  The reason it is called Asian style is that seasonings used here are all Asian seasonings.  And the ground pork would be whisked/ beaten along with seasonings and corn starch until meat mixture is elastic and glutinous.

Ingredients:

1 pack of pork shoulder; weighs about 4 to 5 lbs
1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice cooking wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 to 4 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup corn starch
3 to 4 tablespoons ground white pepper
4 to 5 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock / water
sausage casing

Directions:  

Rinse the pork shoulder under running water.  If the pieces are too big, cut them into thinner strips.

Use a meat grinder to finely grind all the pork shoulder.

Add ground pork to a stand mixer bowl, along with rice cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, ground ginger, corn starch, sesame oil and salt.

Attach the flat beater to the stand mixer.

Whisk/ beat the pork at speed two.

When the ground pork mixture is well blended, slowly add chicken stock/ water.  Be sure all the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

It is becoming more and more elastic and shiny.

When the pork mixture becomes very glutinous, elastic and kind of feels like meat jelly, it is ready.

Cover with lid and chill the pork mixture in fridge overnight.

Attach the sausage stuffer to meat grinder.  

 Slip a piece of rinsed sausage casing to the stuffing tube.  Seal the end with a knot.

Stuff the casing with pork mixture. 

 Preheat the smoker to 250F/ 121C.  Load the smoking box with oak chips.

Add sausages.  

The waiting is really long and hard…

Two hours later, the sausages are half way cooked.  But the links are too close to each other.  So I remove them from hooks and lay them flat on a rack.

About another two hours later.  The sausages are done!

Aren’t they a beauty?  O(∩_∩)O~

The sausages are full of flavors and beautiful golden brown colors.  Score! O(∩_∩)O~

Pan-fried Dumplings with Pork and Zucchini

中文菜谱: 鲜肉西葫芦煎饺

Zucchini became an important vegetable when we were still living in a small town in Michigan.  We were far away from Asian grocery stores.  So I shop at the local farmer market a lot to get fresh produce and sometimes grass fed steaks, which, by the way, were super tasty and amazing. 

Leafy greens thrived in early summer.  When July came, most vegetable booths begin to sell local zucchinis, peppers, potatoes and corns. 

That was when I bought so many zucchinis and learned to develop different ways to cook them.  Besides stir fried zucchini, my favorite way is to dry them first a little, chop them up and then put into dumplings.

Chinese dumplings are like Italian pasta.  The ingredient and flavor combinations are endless.  Any ordinary ingredient like zucchini could be used in dumpling fillings and shine like a flavor star. 

Ingredients:

1 lb pork shoulder
5 to 6 zucchinis
1 pack of dumpling wraps (sold in frozen food section in most Asian grocery stores)
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1 to 2 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/4  teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4  to 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1/4  teaspoon ground ginger
1 stalks of green onions, chopped
Chicken broth/ water  
salt to taste
cooking oil
white sesame seeds
water/ egg wash (for dumpling wrapping)


Directions:

Thinly slice the zucchinis.  Use a food dehydrator to partially dry the zucchinis slices just until they are dry to touch and the edges begin to wrinkle. 

If you don’t have a food dehydrator available, air dry and sundry methods are both ok too.

Grind the pork shoulder with a meat grinder.  If you don’t have a meat grinder, remember to ask for help to do so in the store, or you can also buy the ground pork.

Add ground pork to a medium bowl, along with ground white pepper, oyster sauce, rice cooking wine, ground ginger, and corn starch.  Whisk with a pair of chopsticks or a wooden spoon.  Gradually add chicken stock/water while whisking.  The more and harder you whisk, the tender and more elastic the ground pork filling will be. 

Use a food processor to finely chop the zucchini slices. 

Add to the ground pork mixture.

Add salt to taste.  Mix with a pair of chopsticks until well combined.

Brush the dumpling wrapper’s edge with a little water or egg wash. 

Add a couple tablespoons’ pork filling to its center.

Wrap it up.

Repeat the process until all the dumplings are finished.

Heat a small cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil, and then about 10 dumplings.  Use more oil and a larger pan if you want to cook more than 10 dumplings at a time. 

Pan-fry the dumplings for a couple minutes. 

Add 1/3 cup of water.  Cover with lid immediately after adding water to the pan.

When all the water evaporates, reduce the heat to medium low.  Sprinkle with remaining chopped green onions and white sesame seeds on top.

The bottoms of dumplings are golden brown.

Remove from heat and serve them hot immediately.

There two of my personal dipping sauces for pan-fried dumplings.  One is a combination of chili oil sauce + soy sauce + balsamic vinegar.  The other is sriracha sauce hot chili sauce.

The crunchy golden bottoms of the dumplings are the best part! 

Zucchini’s flavor really stands out in the dumplings.  The fillings taste juicy, tender and with a significant sweetness from zucchinis.  Yum!

Stir-fried Fava Beans with Ground Pork and Pickled Vegetable

中文菜谱: 碎米芽菜肉末炒蚕豆

Fresh fava beans are such a culinary delicacy.  The fresh beans come with light green color and a mild grassy, earthy and refreshing scent and taste.  When cooked, they become a bit sweet and starchy. 

For those who have never had fava beans before, they are very similar to what young lima beans taste like.  The skin on the outside is a little bit firmer than lima beans.  And they are both very tasty!

I cook with fresh fava beans a lot.  The best season for them is late summer.  And they are usually available in Asian grocery markets.  If you live in Houston like I do, Central Market is another good place to shop for fresh fava beans too.

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh fava beans
200  to 300 g ground pork
1/2  package of Sichuan pickled vegetable, finely chopped (1/2 package weighs about 50 g.  It is sold in most Asian grocery stores)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup of chicken broth/ water
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 slice of ginger root, minced
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 to 6 dry red chili peppers, diced
vegetable oil for cooking
salt to taste

Fresh young fava beans are usually sold in pods so that they stay fresh and the beans don’t get bruised. 

Pick the ones with big fat “belly”.

Peel fava beans from their pods.

Directions:

Heat a cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil, along with minced garlic, ginger, diced peppers and ground pork.  Stir fry over high heat for several minutes until the ground pork begin to turn slightly golden brown.

Add chopped Sichuan pickled vegetable. Sautee for a minute or two. 

Add fava beans and sautee everything together for another couple minutes.

Add chicken broth/water, along with rice cooking wine, oyster suace, low sodium soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt.  Cover with lid and reduce the heat to simmer for 7 to 8 minutes.

Turn the heat back to high and cook until the broth evaporate. 

Sautee over high heat for another couple minutes. 

Remove from heat and serve hot immediately.