Category Archives: Asian Recipes

Them Bones, Them Bones

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When I was a little girl, I remember many a dinner that featured a platter of little nuggets of Chinese pork spareribs.

No matter if they were coated in salty, pungent black bean sauce or sweet hoisin sauce, my Dad would root around with a serving spoon until he found the exact piece he was looking for.

As a kid, I would watch him digging around, and would wonder why he took so long to do this.

Only as an adult did I realize what he was actually doing.

He wasn’t looking for the meatiest sparerib, but the scrawniest — the one with barely any tender flesh on it. My late-Dad, who was born to first-generation, working-class Chinese immigrants, was used to scrimping, sacrificing, and making do with less. After all, when he was saving money to buy our family’s first and only house in San Francisco, he voluntarily took on the extra duties of cleaning and sweeping the stairs and hallways of the apartment building we lived in then in exchange for a cut in rent from the landlord.

That frugality carried over into his eating, too. When the Lazy-Susan stopped in front of him at a Chinese restaurant, he’d do that thing with the spoon for quite a few seconds, until he found the piece of chicken or duck or pork that was mostly all bone. He left the meatier pieces behind for my Mom, my two brothers, and I.

He’d use his fingers to gnaw on those bony pieces, savoring every last little bit of meat and succulent sauce. When the bone finally was discarded on his plate, it was clean as can be.

My Dad never wasted anything, that’s for sure. But he also knew a good thing when he tasted it. Those bony pieces of meat had some of the best flavor around. Good cooks know that cooking meat on the bone not only helps it cook faster but keeps it juicier, too. Bones also amp up the flavor of meat. That’s why they make such great stocks, why dogs love to chew on them, and why we all love to pick the tender bits off of hefty prime rib bones on holidays.

When I saw Tuty’s recipe for “Roasted Spareribs a la Scent of Spice” on her Scent of Spice blog, I couldn’t help but think of my Dad.

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Cheater’s Baos

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Would you scoff if I told you those fluffy, steamed Asian buns above were made with Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough?

Yup, the stuff in the tube.

Believe it.

When my buddy, Andrea Nguyen wrote her first cookbook, “Into the Vietnamese Kitchen” (Ten Speed Press) in 2006, there was many a recipe that caught my eye. But none made my jaw drop like this one for “Shortcut Plain Steamed Buns.”

Years ago, Andrea learned this trick from her Chinese-American friend, Victor Fong, who, of course, learned it from his mother.

Crack open a tube of biscuit dough, then separate the rounds of dough. Pat each one into a flattened circle.  Then, fold each circle in half  to create half-moon shapes.

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Cooking Up A Spring Feast in Sonoma

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Drinking and eating, and not much heavy-lifting beyond that.

It’s so easy — too easy — to succumb to complete veg-out mode in Sonoma, what with its abundance of wineries and restaurants that beckon so invitingly.

But if you want to get a teeny bit more active by actually working for your food, Ramekins is the place to go.

This combo culinary school and inn is just an easy stroll from the main square. A bevy of cooking classes, about half of them hands-on, are offered at $55 to  $100 per person.

Ramekins is revamping its patio to install a pizza oven, too. In the coming months, look for a variety of grilling, bread-baking and pizza-making classes to be offered to take advantage of that sunny space.

Up on the second floor, there are six well-appointed guest rooms, done up in a luxe French farmhouse decor, priced at about $250 per night, depending upon the season. Stay overnight, and you can roll out of bed, enjoy a spread of homemade scones and coffeecake for breakfast, then walk downstairs to get cooking. How easy is that?

So easy, as I soon learned when I was invited as a guest to try a cooking class earlier this month.

Charles Vollmar, a longtime culinary instructor who owns Epicurean Exchange, was there to teach us all about “Spring Soups and Stews” in this hands-on class. Since there were only seven of us signed up for this class, we were each able to do a variety of tasks under very personalized instruction from Vollmar and a Ramekins assistant.

The demonstration classes are taught in a 36-seat theater equipped with a full kitchen and television monitors. Because our class was hands-on, though, we had the run of the second kitchen — an expansive restaurant-size kitchen with professional-grade equipment.

After donning aprons, we broke up into teams to cook one of four dishes: “Spring Asparagus Soup with Coconut Curry,” “Chicken and Barley Soup with Asparagus and English Peas,” “Spring Vegetable Ragout with Chanterelles and Fava Beans,” and “Spring Lamb and Artichoke Tagine.” Yours truly was in charge of the lamb.

Vollmar demonstrated how to turn a baby artichoke, then made sure we each had a chance to try it. With a paring knife, we removed the tough outer leaves, trimming the stalk, cutting the head in half, and removing the hairy choke and uncovering the tender heart. Although I’ve turned artichoke hearts before, I don’t think I’ve ever done such a pile of ’em. But then again, lucky me had them as one of the main ingredients in my dish. And oh, we were doubling the recipe, too.

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Spotlight on Scallops

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Did you know that a scallop is the only bivalve that swims?

Indeed, its flesh is almost entirely one tender muscle, which is why it’s such a favorite to eat.

To find out more interesting info on scallops, including how to choose the best ones, pick up a copy of the March issue of Coastal Living magazine for my story all about scallops.

You’ll also find my recipe for “Curry-Citrus Cauliflower Soup with Seared Scallops and Crispy Shallots,” as well as another for “Scallop Skillet with Bacon, Edamame, Basil, and Creamy Grits” by contributor, David Bonom.

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Betelnut — An Oldie But Goodie That Tantalizes and Surprises

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Chef Alex Ong tells an amusing story about just how much he missed Chinese food when he was living in Florida, working for the Ritz-Carlton, way back when.

On his rare days off then, he and his wife would hop into the car to drive to the only Chinese restaurant in sight — Panda Express.

“There was no other Chinese food around,” Ong says in almost disbelief. “I told my wife, ‘We gotta get out of here!’ ”

Fortunately for all of us, the Malaysia-born Ong did get out of there and ended up here — at the venerable Betelnut in San Francisco, a short drive from the Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square. At the popular restaurant, which was turning out Asian street food before that turned into a mega new trend, Ong has been in the kitchen 10 of its 14 years.

Sure, you’ll find the likes of everyone’s favorite minced chicken lettuce cups, Shanghai soup dumplings, fried cauliflower with curry leaves, and green papaya-shrimp salad.

But Ong and his chef de cuisine, Michael Siegel, like to push the envelope, too. Their more daring takes on street food are not always an easy sell to their upper-crust Union Street clientele. If you go, though, you should definitely seek them out.

One of Siegel’s favorite dishes of late is his grilled venison with maitake mushrooms and butternut squash. I had a chance to enjoy this dish of tender, juicy meat when Ong and Siegel invited me to come in with my buddy,  local cookbook author, Andrea Nguyen. The servers often tell hesitant customers that if they order the venison and don’t like it, they won’t have to pay for it. So far, none has been inclined to send back this amazing dish.

Each night, the restaurant also makes a dish that’s not on the official menu: Beggar’s Chicken. Few restaurants dare to offer this classic dish because of all the work involved. A soy-marinated whole chicken is stuffed with mushrooms, pork belly and Chinese sausages, then the whole thing is first wrapped in lotus leaves, then inside a mass of soft, gray clay. It cooks in the oven for one and a half hours, then rests for an equal amount of time.

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