Posted on March 30, 2009 by tangstein
These peanuts make a wonderful accompaniment for cocktail hour and a great snack any time! I’ve tweaked a recipe for pecans to use more common Chinese ingredients, peanuts and five spice powder. But I’ve left in the butter – not very Chinese, but it really helps glue the spices to the nuts, and everything’s better [...]
Filed under: cold dishes | Tagged: cold dishes, five-spice, peanuts | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 27, 2009 by tangstein
Spring has definitley sprung in SoCal – I think we may actually get a few days of it before summer hits – and with it spring brings some fantastic English peas. We’ve been putting them in risotto, making stirfried rice with them, and just enjoying them steamed. Here is a simple stirfry version if you can [...]
Filed under: braise, vegetables | Tagged: braise, peas, vegetables | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 25, 2009 by tangstein
This 60 Minutes clip is worth 1,000,000 words – need anyone say more?
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4867014n
Apparently Michelle Obama has taken Alice Waters’ advice to heart – three cheers for the new White House Vegetable Garden! But really, Mrs. Obama, why not beets?!?
Filed under: videos | Tagged: Alice Waters, Obama, organic, White House garden | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 23, 2009 by tangstein
Must be spring: asparagus is flooding the farmers’ market in SoCal, so I hope things are warming up in the rest of the country, too! Here’s a twist on asparagus served with hollandaise – it’s certainly lower in fat than that classic sauce and adds some protein to a vegetarian meal. Just remember cooking the [...]
Filed under: eggs & tofu, vegetables | Tagged: asparagus, eggs | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 20, 2009 by tangstein
It’s really time to get back to posting some recipes, but humor me one day more – I found this to be an interesting exercise (and being in the middle of not one, but two piles of real estate paperwork, I simply haven’t had time to play in the kitchen!) I recently blogged about the [...]
Filed under: articles, nutrition | Tagged: articles, health | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 16, 2009 by tangstein
Just about everyone has a cooking “Bible” – at my mother’s house, it’s the old Betty Crocker cookbook she got for her wedding. I have coveted that cookbook since moving out on my own 20+ years ago! When I moved into my own apartment, my father bought me a “new and improved” Betty Crocker cookbook, [...]
Filed under: articles, nutrition | Tagged: articles | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 13, 2009 by tangstein
I have not come across too many uses for basil in Chinese cooking, but occasionally you can find a dish on a Chinese menu that is made with something called “nine-layer pagoda,” (jiuceng ta) which is, according to the Evergreen Seeds site, also known as Thai basil. Thai basil has a stronger flavor and a [...]
Filed under: clams, fish and shellfish | Tagged: clams, shellfish | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 11, 2009 by tangstein
There’s a fun bit of history on Cashew Chicken in the New York Times: “Missouri Chinese” explores how this dish has become part of an American city’s heritage. It reminded me of driving cross-country from Vermont to Colorado with my father – I was on my way to my first job out of college, and he was [...]
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Posted on March 9, 2009 by tangstein
I finally got around to watching The Future of Food this weekend. By now this movie has become one of the cornerstones of the local/organic/sustainable movement, often quoted and referred to and listed as a resource by such writers as Michael Pollan among others. But somehow it had sat at the foot of my Netflix [...]
Filed under: movies | Tagged: movie | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 6, 2009 by tangstein
This post is neither here nor there, perhaps having nothing to do with Chinese food, but I just had to write about a new fruit the kids and I have discovered – cherimoyas!
After receiving a free sample, we have been buying delicious ones at the farmers’ market from Thys’ Ranch, one of my favorite vendors [...]
Filed under: fruit | Tagged: cherimoya, fruit | Leave a Comment »