Cooking Daikon Cake with My Mom

My weekend back home in Hawaii was quick and my schedule was tight, but I begged my Mom to take time to show me how to make one of my favorite dim sum dishes called loh bak gou, or daikon cakes. These are the white, creamy gelatin like slices filled with bits of mushrooms and sausages. At the restaurants, they’ll usually serve them up pan-fried, with the crispy edge.

But when my Mom made loh bak gou at home, she would steam it and we would eat it piping hot from the pan, with all that fresh flavors.

The main ingredient of the loh bak gou is the daikon, which is the Japanese word for the white Asian radish (which kind of looks like a large white turnip). Most English speakers might recognize the Japanese word daikon even though this Asian white radish is popular in China, Korea and lots of other Asian cultures, too.

My Mom was very particular about what type of daikon to use. I never realized there were different varieties, but apparently each variety is popular with each culture. For example, the Japanese daikon is typically long and slender, like a big root. The Korean daikon is stubby and typically has shades of light green, like a mint blush. The Chinese version is stubby like the Korean, but pure white with no green coloring. My Mom said this variety often found in Chinatown is the best to use because they cook up without a bitter taste as the other varieties, which she says are best for soups.

It’s probably a good idea to get all the ingredients for this dish from Chinatown. (See full recipe below.) This is a real authentic Chinese recipe calling for certain ingredients you’ll only find in Chinatown, including the dried shrimp and the Chinese-style bacon, called lap yuk. The lap yuk is what my Mom used in the video below (where she makes her first special guest appearance in my cooking videos), but when we were small, she’d use lap cheong, the Chinese sausages, which I think a lot of restaurants use today.

The loh bak gou is pretty easy to make, but watching my Mom I could see a lot of the measurements are based on how things look, whether it needed more rice flour or more water, it all depends. In the end, it turned out like how I remembered. Now I can make it for myself at home, and you can too! Enjoy!

Dinner Fast: Farro Risotto with Rapini Video

Risotto is always a quick dish to make for dinner because it takes about 20-25 minutes to cook the rice, and then you have this creamy goodness for a meal. But this time I mix it up by using farro instead of the traditional Arborio rice.

I discovered farro, an Italian grain, last year and love the healthy aspect of it because it’s a whole grain. Then I started seeing it on restaurant menus, mostly in soups or salads, but once as a risotto. So that’s how I came up with this simple farro risotto and rapini dish. This dish is healthy (well, except for the cheese and butter) and it’s all vegetarian. (Full recipe is below.) Enjoy!

Demo on Making Coffee Chocolate Truffles

Just in time for Valentines, here's my video on making chocolate truffles. You know that I like making chocolates, mostly around the holidays when the weather is cooler, so here's a demo on making chocolate truffles (sometimes called bon bons).

What I like about chocolate truffles is that you can infuse it with all kind of flavors. And in this demo I infuse it with coffee beans to give it that nice coffee flavor (which I love to taste but not drink, oddly enough). Again, I chatted so much with the details on the instructions that I had to split the video into two parts to fit the YouTube time limit. So be sure to watch both videos.

By the way, this is my first video in my new kitchen. Look how shiny it looks. I feel like I'm in a studio kitchen! :) Also, I'm using a new video camera so I'm adjusting to the wide angle and getting used to positioning the camera. So sorry if some shots aren't the best. I'll get better as I get more comfortable with the camera. But in the meantime, watch this and then make some chocolates yourself. Enjoy!

Simple Jook Demo

When I think of Thanksgiving leftovers, I automatically go to turkey jook. Pretty much every Chinese mom will be gathering the leftover turkey bones and meat and dumping them into a big pot of rice and water to create a bowl of jook. (OK, probably several bowls.)

I have friends who would go and order jook at restaurants. It's a very popular breakfast dish. But I rarely order jook because I can make a nice bowl by myself. Some people think it's so much work, but I made this video to pretty much shatter that myth. Sure, it takes some time to make jook because it's one of those slow-cooked one pot dishes. It takes between 1 hour to 1.5 hours to make a small pot of jook, but the actual technique is super easy.

In this video, I'm using leftover roasted duck that I had for dinner one night from Chinatown. I used the hard-to-eat meat/bones for jook because the slow cooking helps the hard to get to meat fall off the bones. The recipe is pretty much easy to get from the video, but you can also follow a previous jook post I did awhile back. But whatever you do, save those turkey bones for your morning after jook! Enjoy!

Chicken Broccoli Stir-Fry Demo and Recipe

Many of you probably heard of beef broccoli, a popular dish at Chinese restaurants. My family ordered it often when we went out for dinner on the weekends. But I don’t eat red meat that often as an adult, so instead I make this recipe with chicken.

This is such a basic recipe that I figured it’ll be a good feature for my “Dinner Fast” series because you can pretty much get this all done in less than 30 minutes. When you watch my video, you’ll see how easy it is. Enjoy!

Chicken Broccoli Stir-Fry

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. chicken breast, cubed
2 cups broccoli florets (from one head of broccoli)
5 to 6 crimini mushrooms, stem removed and chopped
1 t ground white pepper
1 T soy sauce, light
1 T sesame oil
1 T Xiao Hsing rice wine or cooking sherry
1 T oyster sauce
1 T minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt for seasoning
1 T cornstarch
2-3 T canola oil

Marinate the chicken by mixing it with the white pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and Xiao Hsing rice wine. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

In a wok or large skillet, heat 1 to 2 tablespoon of oil over high heat and then add chicken (don’t pour in the marinade with the chicken). Brown the chicken pieces, about 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from wok and set aside.

Rinse out wok or wipe away any residue chicken pieces, then warm 2 to 3 tablespoon of oil. Add ginger and mushrooms and sweat the mushrooms for about 2 minutes (you can add a pinch of salt to help in the sweating process). When the mushrooms look almost cooked, then throw in the broccoli and stir-fry for a minute. You might want to add a pinch of salt to season the broccoli. To cook the broccoli faster, add about a 1/4 cup of chicken broth and then cover to cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove cover and then add chicken back to wok, and blend everything together.

Mix cornstarch with a little bit of water to create a slurry, then add the slurry a little at a time to the wok to create a gravy. Add as much as you like, making sure the heat is high to help cook the cornstarch faster. If it looks clumpy, thin it out with some water or chicken broth. Remove wok from heat and add oyster sauce, blending well. Plate with steamed rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Pair with a glass of Riesling.

TIP: Have the cornstarch slurry ready before you add the chicken back into the wok, because once you add the chicken everything will move pretty fast so you want to be ready. If you take too long, then the chicken will lose some of the brown sear you created earlier because it’s mixing with the moisture from the vegetables.

THE ORIGINAL BEEF BROCCOLI: If you want to make the original inspiration for this recipe, beef broccoli, that’s no problem. Just substitute the chicken with the beef. But instead of cooking the beef first, cook the vegetables and when the vegetables are almost done, then add the beef in the middle of the wok (push the vegetables to the side). You do this because beef doesn’t have to cook as long as chicken, and some people like their beef a little on the pink side.

First-time Potstickers Demo and Recipe

This Sunday is Chinese New Year (go tigers!) so I thought I’d post a video of a Chinese dish. Potstickers are one of my favorite things to order at restaurants but I’ve never made them at home. My mom never made them either; she only taught me how to make won tons. But we loved eating potstickers, which we call “wor teep” in Cantonese.

Potstickers aren’t necessarily a traditional new year dish, but some families do like to serve them because they look like money and the Chinese love to think about money for the new year – and the kids love em too (potstickers that is, although kids love money I guess).

I’ve seen chefs demonstrating how to make potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese) and it always looked so easy. So here’s my video, when I make potstickers for the very first time. Check it out to see how they turn out on my very first try. And then make some for your family this lunar new year. Enjoy! (BTW, I apologize for sounding so dead in the first few minutes of the video. And I don't know what's happening in that frozen image of the video clip below! Damn you YouTube!)



Pork-Leek Potstickers

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground pork
1 large leek, rinsed and diced (about 2-3 cups)
1/2 cup water chestnuts, finely diced
2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and finely diced
3 T soy sauce
1 T Xiao Hsing rice wine or cooking sherry (optional)
Salt and pepper
1 package potsticker wrappers (50 count)

Combine and blend well all the ingredients (except the wrappers) to make the filling. Then fold your potstickers by placing a wrapper in one hand and using a spoon to scoop about a tablespoon of filling into the wrapper.

Create an egg wash with one egg and a bit of water. Use the egg wash to help seal your potsticker by dabbing the egg wash on the edge of the wrapper.

After you placed the filling and egg wash, fold over to create a half moon. Then crimp your potsticker from the middle, pinching three times along one side then doing the same from the middle on the other side. (The pinching is like your folding a bit of the edge over each other. This helps shape your potsticker more like a half moon.) Make sure you have a flat bottom.

In a non-stick saucepan with cover, warm about 2 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Place your potstickers to brown the bottom for about 2-3 minutes, depending on the heat of your stovetop. Don’t move your potstickers. Pour about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of water and immediately cover pan because the oil will splatter.

Cook covered for 8 to 10 minutes. To make sure your potstickers are done, cut one open to check. If the water dries out before your potstickers are cooked, add a bit more water. If the potstickers are done but you still have a lot of water, pour the water out.

When your potstickers are cooked and water is nearly evaporated, cook for another minute uncovered to allow the potstickers to get crispy on the bottom again. But watch to make sure you don’t blacken your potstickers.

Freeze any potstickers you don’t cook. When you take them out from the freezer, you may need to cook them a couple of minutes longer.

Plate your potstickers and serve with a dipping sauce like red rice wine vinegar.

Makes 50 potstickers.

TIP: When buying potsticker wrappers, it’ll be in the refrigerated section of the Asian grocery store or Asian food aisle of the market. The wrappers are round and are labeled either potstickers or gyoza. You can also use leftover potsticker wrappers to make ravioli.

View more videos:
Spam, the Sequel: Fried Rice
Dinner Fast: Black Bean Clams
Making Won Tons

Spam, The Sequel: Fried Rice Recipe

Of my videos demonstrating some of my easy recipes, the one that ranks among the most viewed is my spam musubi video. I’m pretty sure it’s because people like searching for the word Spam. (47,163 views and counting on YouTube.)

So I decided to cook with Spam again, this time making fried rice, which can be a really quick and easy dinner to make. Fried rice is great because you can pretty much create your rice dish with whatever ingredients you have in the refrigerator or your pantry. Of course, you’ll need to have some pre-cooked rice, preferably leftover rice that’s been in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Just to make this Spam rice even more crazy, I added crushed pineapples just to give it a Hawaiian twist. Check out my video to see how simple it is to make fried rice and use the recipe below so you can give it a try. Enjoy!

Spam Fried Rice with Pineapples

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients
3/4 can of Spam, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3-4 cups of cooked rice (long grain, leftover)
8 oz. frozen peas and carrots, defrosted
3 eggs, scrambled
1 small can of crushed pineapples (drained and squeezed of juice)
1/4 cup green onions, finely chopped
2-3 T soy sauce
2-3 T Xiao Hsing rice cooking wine (or sherry wine)
1 t ground white pepper
salt, if needed
Canola oil

In a non-stick wok or large skillet, warm some oil over high heat and add the eggs. Season with a pinch of salt and scramble as you cook and then remove and set aside.

In the same wok, add the Spam chunks to brown for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from wok.

Heat some oil again and add the peas and carrots, then add the rice, making sure everything gets blended. Season your rice with white pepper, soy sauce and Xiao Hsing wine, making sure everything blends together. Then add the Spam and scrambled eggs, followed by the crushed pineapples and green onions. Since most of the items are cooked, you just want to stir-fry everything to blend well and then taste to see if you need to season it with more salt. If it tastes to your liking, plate it up and you’re ready to eat.

Makes 5 to 6 servings.

Pair with pot of hot oolong tea.

TIP: When making fried rice, it’s important to control the moisture level of the ingredients in your wok. That’s why you cook the ingredients in parts and stages to make sure it gets the chance to fully cooked and not get crowded in the wok. Be sure you squeeze out as much of the juice from the pineapples so you don’t add more liquid to the fried rice.

SPAM OR BUST?: OK, so I use Spam as the main protein but you can easily substitute it for ham or even Chinese sausage known as lap cheong.

Dinner Fast: Black Bean Clams Recipe

I thought I should get back to the roots of my blog, which is to come up with quick-and-easy recipes that single people can make because 1) they don’t have the time because they’re too busy trying to mate, or 2) they want something special because single people deserve to eat well, too.

So in these “Dinner Fast” videos, I’m showing some simple recipes that are super fast to make. And nothing’s faster than seafood, and here I make one of the classic Chinese dishes of black bean clams stir-fry. It’s so easy, especially if you use the black bean sauce from the jar. (Or you can go ferment your own black beans and then pound them with garlic to make your own sauce. I’m not.)

In case you don’t believe this recipe is easy, just count how many times I say “quick and easy” in the video. :P

Below is the actual recipe for you to follow after you see my quick-and-easy demo. Enjoy!

Black Bean Clams

Copyright 2009 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. manila clams (about 12-15), scrubbed
1 T black bean sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t red chili flakes
1 T cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken broth or water
2 T canola or vegetable oil
cilantro for garnish

In large wok or skillet, heat oil over high heat, then add garlic and black bean sauce and cook for about 30 seconds. Add clams and let them cook covered for about two minutes. Check to make sure the wok hasn’t dried out. Add either chicken broth or water (about a quarter cup) and cook until the clams start to open up (another 3 to 5 minutes).

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with a bit of water to create a slurry. Add the cornstarch mixture to the hot wok to thicken the broth. (Add a little of the cornstarch at a time to get the consistency that you want in the gravy.) Finish off by adding the chili flakes to taste.

Place in bowl and garnish with a twig of cilantro. Serve with steamed rice.

Makes one serving. Pair with sake.

TIP: Pick up your clams in the seafood section of your supermarket after work and make your dish fresh. But if you’re not cooking your clams right away, place the clams in a brown paper bag (moisten the bottom with some water) and refrigerate.

BLACK BEAN SAUCE: This sauce is so popular that it’s pretty easy to find in most Asian stores or in the Asian foods aisle of most stores. Lee Kum Kee is the brand found in most stores, just refrigerate after opening. Because this is salty from the fermented black beans, I usually don’t add salt to the dishes that I make using this sauce.

Other recipes you might like:
Black Bean Clams Pasta
Mapo Tofu demo
Making Won Tons

In the Kitchen: Chicken Curry Recipe

Here’s another cooking demo for you, and this one is all about curry. I know, you’re thinking, Single Guy, why make curry in hot weather? It’s that age-old Asian belief that in hot weather, you should get your body hot as well and that maintains the equilibrium. Plus, I live in the part of the Bay Area where you still see people wearing scarves at night around this time.

Curry is also one of my favorite things to make because it’s pretty easy, at least the way I make it.

My apologies if this video seems a bit choppy, but I have a tendency to chatter on. And this time I decided I didn’t want to post another two-parter video. So to keep within the YouTube limit, I had to edit down the video to 10 minutes. Hopefully you’ll still get the gist of the demo. If not, I have the full recipe for you below. Enjoy!

Chicken Curry
Copyright 2009 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients
3 boneless and skinless chicken thighs (about ½ lb.)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1 t white pepper
2 T curry powder
1 t ground cumin
2 carrots, chopped
2-3 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 ½ cup chicken broth (or 1 can Swanson’s chicken broth)
1 cup water
1 cup coconut cream (or coconut milk)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T cornstarch
Salt to taste

In a small bowl, marinate the chicken with the white pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside.

In a large saucepan or pot, warm the oil over medium high heat and add the chicken to brown on both sides. (About 1 to 2 minutes on each side.) Then toss in garlic and onion and cook until onions soften (about 3 to 5 minutes).

Add chicken broth and water. Cover and bring to a medium simmer.

In a small saucepan, warm the curry powder and ground cumin. Then throw everything in with the chicken. Add carrots and cook for about 10 minutes, then add potatoes and cook until all the vegetables are almost tender (about 15-20 minutes, the length depends on how chunky you cut your vegetables).

Just when the vegetables are almost done, add the sugar snap peas and coconut cream. In small bowl create a cornstarch slurry by mixing the cornstarch with a bit of water. Slowly add this to your curry (you might want to bring up the heat so the curry is near boiling) until thickened to the consistency you like. Taste the curry and add salt as needed for taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Makes 6 servings. Pair with a glass of Riesling.

TIP: There’s a variety of curry powder. I personally like this brand called S&B Oriental Curry Powder that you can find at most Safeway stores. The can has a yellow and red label. The curry itself is a yellow curry and on a milder side. If you want spicier curry, try something from the Asian or Indian grocery stores.

WATCH THE HEAT: When adding the vegetables, you’re going to bring down the temperature of your curry pot so you may need to adjust the heat to bring the pot back to a nice simmer, and then you can lower if needed.

Other cooking demos:
Making Mapo Tofu
Making Won Tons
Making Paella in Two Parts