Wonton Soup with Pork and Bamboo Shoot Filling

中文菜谱：

鲜肉春笋馄饨

Wonton soup is a very popular breakfast choice in our house.  It is fast to maker, and it is also nutritious and satisfying.  We have the tradition to eat something hot like wonton soup, noodle soup or porridge for the first and the most important meal of the day. 

The great thing about having hot wonton soup in the morning is that the soup is appetizing and also warms you up both inside and out. 

You are always rushing in the morning? No problem.  The trick is to prepare ahead wontons ahead of time.  Make a large batch when possible, freeze them and store in an air-tight Ziploc bag for up to a month.  All is left to do in the morning is boiling water and gathering seasonings. 

Ingredients：

1lb ground pork
1 package of frozen bamboo shoots (weighs 1 lb.  The fresh version would be better if available)
1 package of wonton wrappers
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
chicken stock/ water (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
salt to taste
egg wash/ water (for wonton wrappers)

Directions：

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

Thaw the bamboo shoots, drain well and finely chop with a food processor. 

Add chopped bamboo shoots to the ground pork mixture, whisk until well combined.

Season with salt

Wonton wrappers are usually sold frozen.  Remember to completely thaw them ahead of time before using.

Brush the edges with egg wash or water. 

Add a couple teaspoons of pork filling to one corner.

Roll towards the other end.

Pull both long ends and stack them together.

Repeat the process until all the wonton wrappers are done.

Cook a large pot of water over high heat until it boils.  Add wontons.  Cook over high heat.  Soon the water would boil again.  Add 1/2 cup cold water to the pot.  When the water boils again and the wontons float, it is the time you can tell they are cooked through.

Meanwhile, add seasonings for the soup to the serving bowls.  I use mini dried shrimps, seaweed, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, minced garlic, chili pepper oil sauce, chopped cilantro, chopped green onion, and chopped pickled vegetables.

Add wontons along with a ladle or two of hot broth to the serving bowls.

Stir gently with chop sticks or a spoon.

Bon Appetite!

Grilled Asparagus Wrapped in Bacon

中文菜谱：

烤培根芦笋卷

If you love to shop at local farmers’ markets like I do, you would agree with me that asparagus is a messenger for spring.  It is earliest vegetable coming out of the ground.

 When I was living back in Michigan, winter was really cold and long.  We had to wait until May when it finally warmed up.  And asparagus is always the first seasonal vegetable appearing at farmers’ markets, followed by strawberries in June. 

Asparagus can be cooked in so many ways that I can never get tired of it.  One of my favorite ways is to grill with bacon.  Oh, yes, bacon makes everything so much better! O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

1 bunch asparagus
1 package of bacon (1 lb)
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

Directions：

Try to pick the asparagus that is short and thick with tender and juicy texture.

Remove the tough bottom by bending each asparagus near its bottom until it snaps. Discard the tough bottom parts.    

Wrap each asparagus with one slice of bacon.  Secure both ends with bamboo toothpicks. 

I also wrap the bacon slices around some enokitake mushrooms and garlic chives. 

Preheat grill to 400F/ 204C

Quickly brush the griddle with some oil.  Add bacon-wrapped vegetables.

Excessive dripping fat from bacons may cause the grill to flare up.  Keep a close eye on the grill.  Flip them frequently if necessary to prevent burning or over cooking. 

Sprinkle salt and black pepper on top while grilling.

Bacon turns amazingly golden brown.  The vegetables are ready.

You can also bake asparagus in the oven with bacon.  But I think grilling is a better way because it adds extra smoky flavors that cannot be produced in a regular oven.

Braised smoked Pig Tails in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱：香浓软糯的烟熏猪尾

Tails are another one of my favorite parts from a hog.  They don’t look like much.  But the texture and taste are both awesome.  They are similar to ox tails, but smaller, sometimes leaner, and usually sold with skin on. 

They can be cooked in soup, braised, or deep fried.  Different cooking method would bring out different flavors.  After trying most cooking ways I can think of, smoking-and-then-braising becomes my new favorite way to cook them.

nlike what I used to buy from market back in China, the tails sold in America grocery market are much shorter, thicker and fattier.  Hours of smoking process can help to get rid of excessive pork fat.

Ingredients：

2 packages of pig tails (weighs around 3 to 4 pounds)
1 large piece of ginger root, smashed
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1/4 to 1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/2  to 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons rock cane sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns
3 to 4 star anises
3 to 4 pieces of dried ginger
2 to 3 cloves
 a handful dried chili peppers
salt to taste
water for cleaning and cooking

Directions：

Preheat smoker to 250F/121C

Cleaning pig tails under running water.  Pat dry with kitchen paper towel.  Smoke them in smoker for 3 to 4 hours. 

The exterior becomes dry, crunchy and crispy.  Most excessive fat has dripped away in smoking process.

I smoke some pork belly along with tails.  Look how pretty they are

Add smoked tails to a cast iron pot, along with water, spices and seasonings.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Reduce heat to simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 

Turn the heat back to high, add salt to taste, and cook until most liquid evaporates.

Serve immediately

Tails are amazing part from hogs.  They are mostly bones and skins, not much meat attaching to them.  After long hours’ simmering and braising in soy sauce and spices, the lean meat part is soft and moist; and the skin part is soft and slightly chewy and al dente. 

Bon Appetite!

2018 Chinese New Year Eve & Tofu Ball with Pork and Mushroom Fillings

中文版菜谱：

2018年夜饭 & 猪肉糯米酿油豆腐

02/16/2018 is Chinese New Year Day.  Family members get together on New Year’s Eve and have a big family feast together.  It is very much like Thanksgiving Day for American people.  It is all about celebrating, appreciation, families and love. 

Fish in spicy beer sauce

Steamed pork belly and taro

Steamed Chicken feet with oyster sauce

Tofu balls with pork and mushrooms fillings

Smoked pig tails

Pickled daikon

Stir-fried pea tips with garlic

Sweet rice cake with nuts and red bean paste filling

Can you believe it is tofu?  O(∩_∩)O~          

Yes, it is definitely tofu.  Chinese people invented tofu more than a thousand years ago.  We have been cooking and eating tofu in numerous different ways ever since.  Sometimes you know what you eat is tofu, but sometimes you don’t even know if you are eating tofu. 

Ingredients：

2 packages of fried tofu balls ( a total of 16)
100g ground pork
6 to 8 pieces dried wood ear mushroom
a handful of  dried shitake or regular mushroom
1 cup sweet rice
 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
salt to taste
water for soaking and cooking

Directions：

Soak sweet rice for at least 4 hours.  Drain well.

Soak mushrooms with water for at least 2 hours.  Rinse well under running water.  Add to processor, and finely chop them.

Add ground pork, chopped mushrooms, and sweet rice, along with all the seasonings to a large bowl.  Mix well with a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks.

With a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut a small opening on each tofu balls, and then scoop out inner tofu as much as possible.

Fill the tofu balls with pork sweet rice mixture.

Add all tofu balls to a medium pot, add water.  Season the water with salt.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Cover with lid; reduce the heat to simmer for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Turn the heat back to high.  Cook until all the liquid evaporates. 

Serve hot

It tastes like across meat balls and sweet rice cake balls.  Dried mushrooms and pork add ton of flavors to it.  I love it not just because it tastes good, also because I grew up eating it.  (￣▽￣)”

Braised Pork Feet and Chicken Hocks in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱：

红烧猪蹄鸡脚杆

Braised pork/ chicken/ beef in soy sauce are very traditional way to slow cook food in China.  Although the specific details vary from the south to the north; families to families, the essential ingredients remain the same.  Meat, soy sauce, rice cooking wine and ginger are a must for this dish. 

I learnt how to cook it by watching my grandma in the kitchen, starting with passing along soy sauce, washing ginger and building wood fire.  After a while, I could help with seasoning the meat and occasional stirring during simmer process.  I learnt from all these tiny things and daily chores that cooking can be so amazing and magical. 

The common ingredients to be braised are pork belly or other parts of pork, chicken, fish, shrimps and beef.  Technically most meat can be cooked this way.  I just personally prefer pork and chicken.

The chicken bones I use here are not really “bones”.  It is chicken hocks, the ankle part connecting chicken feet and drumsticks.  Not many Asian grocery stores sell it.  Whether and when you can buy it pretty much depends on your luck that day. (￣▽￣)”

Ingredients：

1 package of cut pork feet (about 2 to 3 pounds)
1 package of chicken bones
1 large piece of ginger root, cleaned and smashed
3 to 4 dried chili peppers，cut into pieces
1 small piece of cinnamon bark
3 to 4 star anies
1 to 2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 to 6 cloves
1 black cardamom，smashed
4 to 5 dried ginger
2 to 3 bay leaves
4 to 5 tablespoons rice cooking wine
salt to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
water for cooking

Directions：

Clean pork feet and chicken bones and rinse well under running water.

Add dried chili peppers, star anises, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black cardamom, dried ginger and bay leaves to a piece of coffee filter paper.

Tie it up to be a spice bag

Fill a large pot with cold water.  Add cut pork feet.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Continue cooking over high heat for 7 to 8 minutes.  Drain well and rinse with hot water.

Heat a cast iron soup pot over high heat.  Add 2 to 3 quarts of water, blanched pork feet, spice bag and rice cooking wine.

Cook until the water boils.

Cover with lid.  Reduce the heat to simmer about 90 minutes.

At the same time, blanch chicken bones in boiling water for 2 minutes.

After 90 minutes, tough tissues on pork feet gradually become tender.

Add chicken bones to cook together for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt; cook together for another 5 minutes.  Tune up the heat to medium high.

Gently stir pork feet and chicken from time to time using a wood spoon.

When most the liquid in the pot has evaporated, remove from heat and serve immediately with pot. 

Anyone who hasn’t tried braised pork/chicken feet might consider it is bizarre and strange.  You have to try them yourself to know how amazing they taste.  After long hours’ braising, tough tissues and meat become soft and tender, but with a very special gelatin-like texture which makes to top of my favorite list.

I also stir fry some green vegetables to make it a delicious and nutritious meal.